"In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over, and the stars of the sky fell on to the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it; the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken in their places. Then all the earthly rulers, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, took to the mountains to hide in caves and among the rocks. They said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. For the Great Day of his anger has come, and who can survive it?"          -Revelation 6: 12-15    The sixth seal of Revelation, according to our astronomical calculations, would have opened in 778 AD as the Vernal Equinox aligned with Epsilon Piscium. Epsilon Piscium: 778 AD In that year Charlemagne, the new protector and defender of the church in the west, led a disastrous incursion into Spain against the Muslims, which not only failed in its original intent, but also had its entire rear guard decimated as they retreated back across the Pyranees in a massacre that left not a single man alive. This battle inspired the Song of Roland, one of the greatest of the medieval epics.    But more importantly, the end of the eighth century saw the beginning of the nadir of Christian civilization with the onset of the dark ages of medieval Europe. The trickles which began at this time swelled into a flood which could not be stemmed, with the coming of the Vikings.    As these pagans, with horned helmets, swords, and long boats attacked unexpectedly from out of the mists of the early morning dawn, civilization and centralized government under the kings was thrown into disarray. Chaos and social disintegration paved the way for feudalism, with its powerful, local lords who could more immediately respond to the attacks of these ferocious fighters.    "Everywhere the Northmen sought out monasteries and churches, not so much through malice against the Christian clergy as because they had learned that there was always rich plunder to be found under the sign of the cross and that the monks and clergy had become too accustomed to the protections offered them by religious veneration to have taken the necessary precautions for defense. Great numbers of the monasteries were completely destroyed- a serious blow to learning, since they were the chief centers of education. The fear these rapacious pirates inspired is echoed eloquently in the prayer, introduced into the litany, 'From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us.'"    "About the middle of the ninth century, the activities of the Northmen entered a new phase. No longer were they content to make annual expeditions in search of movable plunder. Instead they began to settle at strategic points along the coast and to carry on their depredations at closer range."          A Survey of European Civilization, Pt. 1    The 'Great Day of his anger' had indeed come, at the opening of the Sixth Seal. Next week: The Seventh Seal

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