I was wondering what alternatives are used on documents from the same general era (17th-`9th century?) to the common phrase "In the year of our Lord." It is so grand sounding; does it mean the author(s) are referencing God Almighty, just how it's done, or something more sinister like they would be put to death if they don't?
Particularly with Article 7 of the US Constitution, its got me wondering the mindset of the US forefathers. Any Euro catholic/christian religious influenced country's documents would be most appreciated.
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While I can not help you with input on alternative phrases: The phrase "in the year of our Lord" is simply the English translation of the latin phrase "anno domini", which has been widely used since the middle ages after becoming the common standard in the Frankish empire after 800.
You might know the common demoninations "AD" and "BC" for timeframes after and before the (actually nonexistant) year 0. But while BC is English for "Before Christ", AD is actually - you guessed it - Anno Domini.
So no. No delusions of grandeur or sinister thoughts but simply the common way do demoninate years.
/u/Kartoffelplotz is correct, the phrase is simply what "A.D." means.
I don't know too much about older variants, but there are a few modern variants. Many people dislike affiliating our division of time with Jesus and the Christian faith, with the BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini), so they propose alternative terminology. This includes:
BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era). Often used in academic publications within the world of the ancient Southern Levant.
Using negative numbers for BC. Such as -1400 to mean 1400 BC.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, there do appear to be a few other terms used for the AD era.
Kepler referred to it in 1615 as "vulgaris aerae", and the English translation of that phrase appeared in another of Kepler's works in 1635 as "vulgar era". It has also been referred to as "Christian era" (Robert Sifter 1652), Common Era (1708), and Current Era (2011).