From the "pastor angelicus" to the "rex magnus" : messianism and prophecy during the Iberian expansion in America

Abstract

This paper argues for the secularization of religious prophecies in the early modern period and their re-reading in political terms. Through the case study of the Apocalypsis Nova, a prophetical and theological text written in Latin in the early 16th century, and its later wide circulation, this paper describes different "reading formations" (as it is formulated by Tony Bennett) around it and links them to the changes in the political theology of Iberian monarchies during their global expansion in America. These changes incited greater attention to the Apocalypsis Nova's messianic motifs of the "Emperor of the Last days" while evidence of the interest in its original messianic protagonist, the "Angelic pope", gradually disappeared.