ABSTRACT
The link between church renewal and ideas about Antichrist was already noted by Bernard McGinn, while Giles Constable has likewise underlined the contribution of apocalypticism to the reforming movements of the twelfth century. The language invoked by reformers is therefore taken with a liberal pinch of salt – along with any apocalyptic concerns expressed therein. The evidence surveyed hitherto, patchy though it at times may be, indicates that the reforming initiatives of the years were often accompanied by a degree of apocalypticism. The chapter focuses on how the language of reform – with its distinctive eschatological undertones – was employed in the late tenth- and early eleventh-century Italy. The immediate context for late tenth- and early eleventh-century Italian reform is offered by the efforts of Otto III to assert his authority within the peninsula. Ottonian rulers were normally restrained in their treatment of rebels and Otto broke strikingly with convention.
