ABSTRACT
In De temporum ratione, Bede explains that each aetas saeculi is to follow a regular pattern; every world age has a bright beginning, a zenith and a troubled decline in much the same way as each day must have a morning, noon and evening. Bede succinctly sums up the pattern that the previous five world ages had followed, stating: ‘while each began with some element of joy, they ended in many shadows of trouble and constriction’.1 The phrase ‘end-time sequence’ offers a convenient way to refer to the predetermined pattern of events that will usher in the day of judgement at the end of the sixth world age (although it should be noted at the outset of this analysis that the term was never actually used by Bede himself). Bede’s vision of the framework for eschatological time was made up of the following key elements: the conversion of the Jews, the return of Enoch and Elijah, the time of Antichrist’s persecution and a test of patience for the saints (for a diagram of the complete sequence see Appendix I.5). Additionally, Bede’s writings contain some interesting statements about signs and portents (such as earthquakes, comets, storms and droughts); these had strong eschatological connotations for Bede, but they were not assigned a specific place within the endtime sequence. Once the sequence had run its course, the day of judgement was expected to initiate the world’s transition from its present form to an everlasting kingdom of heavenly reward for the righteous (the eighth aetas saeculi).
