Thank you very much, Stefano, for your kind introduction.

I would also like to express my thanks to the directors of the International Consortium

for Research in the Humanities for granting me the opportunity to present this lecture

here today.

This lecture, as you can see, ladies and gentlemen, is not bearing the title of Prophecy and Propaganda,

Eschatology, Apocalypticism and Millenarianism in the Struggle between Regnum and Sae Docium,

which is the working title of my doctoral thesis, but, as you can see, the love of many

will grow cold.

Eschatology and the Membra Antichristi in the letters of Pope Gregory VII.

When I was asked to give this lecture, I was not yet aware on which aspect of my thesis

I will address today.

When I finally decided to give the presentation on the above topic, the posters and flyers

have already been printed.

I therefore ask you kindly to excuse the possible slight confusion.

I also have to admit that this is my first presentation in English, so please be merciful.

Some Kiliastic apocalyptic expectations seem to have been overcome after Augustine.

Also apocalyptic expectations about the imminent end of the world around the years 1033 or

respectively 1065 did not exercise much influence over the vast majority of the Christian population

of Europe.

In spite of all this, the interpretation of difficult times as signs of the coming of

Antichrist continued to appear during the 11th century.

These interpretations were not at all unusual during the period that will concern us today.

They did not necessarily proceed from a historical perspective, that is, by identifying certain

people or events with Antichrist and the coming of his time.

The Augustinian interpretation of history as a struggle between the Civitas Dei and

the Civitas Diabolis or Civitas Terena somehow provided the basis for all interpretations

of events perceived as related to eschatology and often the Civitas Diabolis is identified

with the precursors Antichristi, the precursors of Antichrist, without targeting any specific

historical person.

Especially in the second half of the 11th century during the ecclesiastical reform and

the church controversy, polemic literature on both sides identified their actual opponents

and their supporters as the Antichrist and his hordes.

Thus, in a rejection letter after the Council of Borms in January 1076, the bishop's lawyer

to Henry IV and the king himself described Gregory, the brother Hildebrand, as the diabolical

counterpart of Christ in reference to the ninth paragraph of the Papal Bulle in Domini

Domini, that is the papal election decree of 1059.

And even Gregory VII himself describes Henry IV and especially Clement III or Gibbeth of

Ravenna as Membrum Antichristi.

These two letters already received a great deal of attention in past research, having

been largely cited and discussed.

I'm not going to elaborate on them, but focus on other less known epistles of Pope Gregory

VII instead.

Gregory born as Hildebrando di Suana in Savannah, now in southern Tuscany, probably of humble

birth, received education in the monastery of San Gregorio Magno on the Aventine Hill

and at the school of the Lateran.

Throughout his whole life, he saw himself as a monk.

This identity and experience lent his theology a degree of existential depth.

On the other hand, the future Pope Gregory VII cultivated a certain closeness to Cluniac

monasticism, whose monks in particular fostered eschatological ideas and traditions.

These most likely exercised a decisive influence on his personal convictions about eschatology