Christians began keeping the season of Advent from the sixth century, first for six weeks, then for four. However, it took a long time for the season to be given a secure place in the life of the church. In fact it wasn’t until three hundred years later that liturgical books contained the liturgies for Advent. Not only has the length of the season changed but also the focus of these weeks of the year. In Rome it was seen as a period of preparation for the first coming of Christ, though this did not exclude the eschatological theme of the second coming (the eschaton) of Christ. In the Middle Ages however this second coming was associated with the Last Judgement. This would be a time of terror for the whole human race. One has only to visit the little church of St Peter & St Paul, Chaldon, in the south of the diocese, to begin to understand how our mediaeval brothers and sisters pictured this. There you can see starkly depicted the punishmen...