ABSTRACT
The links between papacy-inspired attempts to reform the church and currents of prophecy or millenarian expectation, are fairly obscure during the middle ages (c. 7001450 CE) and early modern era (c. 1450-1750 CE). There is little doubt that prophecies of different sorts appealed to all classes of men and women, and churchmen were certainly not exempt from the fever of expectation that the end of the world, and the Day of Judgment, were imminent. Princes and emperors seem to have made greater political capital out these prophecies than the papacy, and it seems likely that the popes were wary of prophets claiming a divine inspiration and authority which rivaled their own, and the church’s, monopoly of salvation. It is possible, however, to marshal the scattered evidence to pinpoint certain moments in history when popes may have appealed to prophecy, or were prophetically inspired, during their reforming activities.
