apostolic succession 51he lived in convents at Fiesole, Foligno, NAPLES, and
ROME, finally in the convent of Saint Mark at FLORENCE
as prior in 1438. He received other posts at the same
time, such as vicar general of the observants in TUSCANY,
then vicar general of reformed convents. At Saint Mark’s,
Antoninus ably directed the friars, supervised the build-
ing of a library ordered by Cosimo de’ MEDICI, regulated
confraternities, preached, and served as a well-respected
confessor and spiritual director.
Pope EUGENIUSIV appointed him to the see of Flo-
rence on the death of Archbishop Bartolomeo Zabarella
in January 1446. A clerical synod in April and pastoral
visits to 149 parishes between August 1446 and April
1447 advised him of the poor material and moral state of
the diocese. He immediately set to work reorganizing the
mismanaged temporal possessions and properties of the
Florentine church. In a more spiritual vein, he under-
took to reform the clergy, stressing training, qualified
appointments, and acceptable moral standards. He was
ardent in his clear and instructive preaching to the laity
and promoted a campaign to correct moral failings, espe-
cially USURYor lending money at interest, gambling, and
marriage practices.
A skillful and practiced writer, Antoninus produced
extensive pastoral works for confessors and the education
of children. He also wrote a complex work on the rules of
legal exchange practice or usury and a historical chroni-
cle. He died on May 2, 1459, and was canonized in 1523.
In 1959 he was named as the principal patron saint of
Florence.
Further reading:Peter Francis Howard, Beyond the
Written Word: Preaching and Theology in the Florence of
Archbishop Antoninus, 1427–1459 (Florence: Leo S.
Olschki, 1995).
Apocalypse and apocalyptic literature The Apoca-
lypse prophetically deals with the end of the world and
the transition to and qualities of the next. Apocalyptic lit-
erature consists of a very diverse group of texts composed
throughout the Middle Ages and based on the prophetic
books from the Bible, especially in terms of a commen-
tary on John’s Apocalypse, as well as on the apocalypses
of Daniel and the gospel of Matthew. In the Middle Ages,
it was related to a journey through the domains of the
afterlife, such as in Dante ALIGHIERI’s Divine Comedy.
In some popular apocalyptical traditions, the final
time of peace was entrusted to the guidance of an elite of
the perfected. Also prophesied was a full gathering of all
people into the church, with the laity resuming their spiri-
tual role, previously overshadowed and taken from them
by the church. In this radical view of the postapocalyptic
church, the laity were elevated to a new level of impor-
tance. These ideas produced mass revival and nationalistic
movements tied to the most important dates expected as
the beginning of the end. Among these movements were
the Children’s Crusade in 1212, the Alleluia processions of
1233, the Pastoureauxor popular crusades in 1251, and the
FLAGELLANTSin 1260. These were the years considered to
merit particular attention in calculating the date of the end
of the world. They also represented the so-called age of the
spirit, for the church and for the world. The most influen-
tial writers in continuing and elaborating ideas about the
apocalypse were HILDEGARDof Bingen, RUPERTof Deutz,
Richard of Saint-Victor (d. 1173), ANGELAof Foligno, Mar-
garet PORETE, and especially JOACHIM OFFIORE.
See alsoANTICHRIST;MILLENARIANISM.
Further reading:Richard K. Emmerson and Bernard
McGinn, eds., The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages(Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992); The Encyclopedia of
Apocalypticism,Vol. 1, The Origins of Apocalypticism in
Judaism and Christianity,ed. John J. Collins; Vol. 2, Apoca-
lypticism in Western History and Culture, ed. Bernard
McGinn (New York: Continuum, 1998); Bernard McGinn,
Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1979).Apocrypha and the apocryphal New Testament
Biblical Apocrypha are writings associated with the Old
and the New Testament but not accepted into the canoni-
cal tradition of either Jews or Christians. Christians
admitted several Jewish books that had been rejected by
the compilers of the Torah. They excluded others, such
as, certain collections of the Acts of the Apostles and
Gospels, originally accepted by the earliest Judeo-Christian
communities. The New Testament Apocrypha are often
of Gnostic origin. JEROMEscoffed at the “delirious mate-
rial of the apocrypha.” In a decree, Pope Gelasius I
(r. 492–496) named 28 books that were forbidden, but
this did not prevent educated circles from circulating
them in the Middle Ages. The Parisian master Peter
Comestor (d. 1178/79) in about 1160 made great use of
them in a widely accepted manual of biblical history. The
books he used were narratives. They included those on
the infancies of the Blessed Virgin and of Jesus; on Jesus’
Passion; on the acts of the apostles Paul, Peter, Andrew,
John, and Thomas; collections of epistles; and apoca-
lypses prophesying the end of the world and visions of
the afterlife. Once the stories on the infancy of Christ and
the Virgin Mary were translated into Latin and then the
vernacular languages, they inspired the countless exam-
ples of Christian iconography that grace museums,
churches, and manuscripts.
Further reading:R. W. Charles, The Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament(Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1913); M. R. James, The Apocryphal New
Testament(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924).apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the
concept that the ministry of the Christian Church
through its priests and bishops is derived from the