Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/147

 Rh earth, and (then) shall be the resurrection of the dead." (Bousset, 247). Lactantius quotes another Sibyl saying: "A trumpet shall send forth from heaven a sound of much wailing" (ib. 248). The conversion of the Jews and Saracens, a constant figure in the Letter, is clearly taken from a fairly developed form of the Antichrist legend (v. Bousset, p. 214, ff.). In the Letter the conversion has no meaning whatever, for that is intended as a warning to the people to beware of a catastrophe which is to overtake all without distinction of race or creed; but by tracing the incident to its source we see the true meaning of the reference.

To sum up. The legend of Antichrist, starting from one centre and from one spiritual medium, gathers strength and volume before it reaches Europe, when it is quickly taken up by the imaginative portion of the population. After a time it is thoroughly assimilated. The idea of the End of Days, which may or may not have previously existed among the European nations, obtains a definite shape under its influence. Other circumstances drive these newly-acquired conceptions into the background. Unfulfilled prophecies, expectations which have turned out vain, contribute to the partial obscuring of the legend in its original and complex form. Under other circumstances one part of it, however, is revived under a somewhat altered shape. The limitless dark future is replaced by immediate fixed dates. Instead of the end of the whole world, a partial impending destruction is described. Credulity is revived, spiritual forces are again at work, astrology joins hands with mysticism and apocalyptic visions, and thus secures a new lease of life for the old set of hopes and fears. The legend is circulated under changed names, adapted to new situations. Another political and religious change brings the old legend to life again, and gives it another interpretation, as happened to the Antichrist legend at the time of the Reformation. The intermediate form is then merged again into the older