Il profeta Elia e l’Anticristo nell’apocalittica boema tra XIV e XV secolo

Abstract

The socio-religious connotations attributed to apocalyptic prophets were very important to the constitution and development of the Hussite reform movement. Prophecies and their original interpretations were employed to clarify and legitimize the process of transformation society was undergoing. The figure of ‘another Elias’, a prophet announcing the coming of the Antichrist and warning people against him, was essential to a reform movement based in part on apocalyptic ideology. This was indeed the case with Hussitism in the Kingdom of Bohemia during the first half of the fifteenth century. The pre-Hussite reformer Mathew of Janov associated the figure of a prophet with the preacher Milicius of Kroměříž. Later, this same role was attributed to Jan Hus. Following the earlier tradition of medieval authors, Bohemian reformers interpreted the role of the prophet as one of sentry and guardian of the Church who was endowed with an understanding of Scripture. In this respect Wyclife’s treatises should be viewed as a source of inspiration for Mathew of Janov’s texts. The perception of Milicius as prophet – formulated by Mathew – could also have been inspired by strategies described in treatises on the discernment of spirits by Henry of Friemar and Henry of Langenstein.