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The Role of the Holy Land for the Early Followers of Joachim of Fiore
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
That Jerusalem, especially the heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation, plays an important role in the writings of the famous apocalyptical thinker Joachim of Fiore is to be expected. What has not been looked at before is the elaborate role ascribed to the Holy Land and Jerusalem by Joachim’s immediate followers. The thesis of this paper is that the early followers of Joachim justified their very existence in terms of a distinctive apocalyptical role for the Holy Land.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 36: The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History , 2000 , pp. 181 - 191
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2000
References
1 The Florensian Vita of Joachim of Fiore was edited by Grundmann, Herbert, ‘Zur Biographie Joachims von Fiore und Rainers von Ponza’, in his Ausgewälte Aufsätze, Teil 2: Joachim von Fiore, MGH, Schriften, 25/ii (Stuttgart, 1977), pp. 255–360 Google Scholar; the entire article is reprinted from DA, 16 (1960), pp. 437-546. This main source for the founding of Fiore survived through the efforts of Cornelius Pelusius, Prior of S. Giovanni in Fiore in the late 1500S. Pelusius copied this Vita among other writings and his manuscript is the only copy of the Vita that is known to have survived. Known as the Tutini manuscript because it was once owned by the antiquary Camillo Tutini, this sixteenth-century document is in the Brancacciana collection in Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS, I.F.2, with the Vita b. Joachimi ahhatis on fols 274r-278r.
2 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, pp. 295-6.
3 In particular see Stephen Wessley, ‘Female imagery: a clue to the role of Joachim’s Order of Fiore’, in Kirshner, J. and Wemple, S. F., eds, Women of the Medieval World: Essays in Honor of John H. Mundy (Oxford, 1985), pp. 161–78 Google Scholar; idem, Joachim of Fiore and Monastic Reform (New York, 1990).
4 Archival materials related to donations and the like belong to another category. Later possible Florensian sources, labelled Pseudo-Joachim today, have often been interpolated and taken over by Franciscans and adapted to Franciscan needs.
5 Wessley, Joachim of Fiore, pp. 83-6.
6 Grandmami, ‘Zur Biographie’, pp. 352, 351, 349. Joachim himself emphasised that he had received the spirit of understanding, not prophecy.
7 In the Concordia Joachim refers to this vision: Abbot Joachim of Fiore: ‘Liber de concordia noni ac veteris testamenti’, ed. Daniel, E. R., Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 73 (Philadelphia, PA, 1983), pp. 145–6 Google Scholar [hereafter Abbot Joachim of Fiore: ‘Liber de Concordia’]. The imagery Joachim used in recalling this event is from Ezek. 17.22-3.
8 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 342, ‘rediturus perambulare prius omnem terram, in qua videri Deus et cum hominibus conversari dignatus est.’
9 Ibid., ‘in quibus aliquos vel morum vel fidei non deprehenderet et curaret errores.’
10 Ibid.; Benedicti regula, ed. R. Hanslik, Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, 75 (Vienna, 1977), p. 20, ‘De quorum omnium riorum miserrima conuersatione melius est silere quam loqui. His ergo omissis ad coenouitarum fortissimum genus disponendum adiuuante domino ueniamus.’
11 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, pp. 342-3, ‘Intellexit homo divina preventus gratia, quod iam terram illam Deus a conspectu suo in ira et indignatione repulerat et correctionis eius tempus instabat.’
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid., p. 346, ‘“Ut credatis, quod dico, hoc vobis sit signum: ecce in proximo capietur Hyerusalem a Sarracenis.” Non discesserat autem homo Dei, nam per muitos dies steterat ibi cum domino papa Lucio, et ecce nuncius venit, qui diceret, quod Hyerusalem capta esset a Sarracenis.’ The fall of Jerusalem did not occur during Lucius’ pontificate. The fact that the anonymous conflated Joachim’s important meeting with Lucius and this fulfilment of the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem can be seen as evidence of the key role the fall of Jerusalem had in the stages of Joachim’s career.
14 See the letters in Abbot Joachim of Fiore: ‘Liber de concordia’, pp. 3-4.
15 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, pp. 351-2.
16 Ibid., pp. 350 (‘Ad hec loachim, quem unctio docuerat universa sciens, quod esset futurum de presenti negotio’), 351 (‘Post tres annos, ut compleretur sermo Domini factus ad Ezechielem sub misterio veterum de prophetatione novorum’).
17 Ibid.
18 Russo, Francesco, Gioacchino da Fiore e le fondazioni florensi in Calabria (Naples, 1958), p. 15.Google Scholar
19 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 343, ‘ut in patria sua signa conversionis et transmigrationis faceret vasa’.
20 Ibid., ‘simul intelligens, quod Spiritus Sanctus in Calabria uberes et evidentes gratie sue fructus eatenus non fecisset et miserendi ei tempus instaret, ut terra diu sterilis fecundaretur verbo, rigaretur et exemplo et frugum incrementa referret, estate media movit inde et transiit in Calabriam.’
21 Wessley, Joachim of Fiore, pp. 12-13.
22 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 348, ‘in Flore - locus in ilumine sic vocatus, qui vere inter montes et colles situs est - arctaverunt, ut novus in Nazaret fructus Sancti Spiritus nuntiaretur, quoadusque Dominus in omnem terram ex hoc salutem maximam operaretur.’
23 Wessley, ‘Female imagery’.
24 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 348.
25 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 349.
26 Ibid.
27 Joachim of Fiore: ‘Enchiridion super Apocalypsim’, ed. E. Burger (Toronto, 1986), pp. 47-8, ‘Sed quia tempus adhuc parumper distat, ut ille intellectus qui perfecte erit in Spiritu assignari queat, magisque nobis incumbit assignare ea quae in statu secundo completa sunt, respondentia operibus testimonii prioris, sicut in opere Concordiae quantum Deus donavit, ostendimus, operae pretium credidi ea ipsa quae consonare veteribus simplici assertione monstravimus, pro eo scilicet quod historiae quas ecclesiasticas dicimus, minus authenticae judicantur, ex libro Apocalypsis qui tantae est auctoritatis ostendere, ut tanto securius illi operi fidem accomodare possimus, quanto concordiam rerum et temporum quae in eo praestante Domino claruisse cognoscitur, nequáquam sensus hominis adinvenit et protulit sed is qui in utroque testimonio loquitur Spiritus edidit prophetiae.
Denique et ego cum librum hunc lectitare coepissem, et adhuc concordiarum sacramenta nescirem, quo illuc impetu a primo ductus sim nescio, Deus scit. Unde scio quod nequaquam bistoriarum peritia ad concordiae notitiam perductus sum, sed sola praeteritorum operum, hoc est, testimonii veteris comparatione pulsatus, credens discordare non posse in corpore quod in capite concors inveni, nee otiosum fore in reliquis Sanctis quod in patriarchis et apostolis concordare perpendi, dedi operam in hoc ipso, ut quantum Deus mihi concederet testimoniorum concordiam compilarem, sed an scrupulosis mentibus satisfecerim nescio.’
28 See McGinn, B., Visions of the End (New York, 1979), p. 315 Google Scholar n.33, where this observation is made in reference to Joachim’s early work, Expositio de prophetia ignota.
29 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 346, ‘in quo sibi veteris et novi testamenti fuerat Concordia revelata’.
30 Ibid., pp. 350, 351.
31 De septem sigillis, ed. in M. W. Bloomfield and H. Lee, ‘The Pierpont-Morgan manuscript of De septem sigillis’, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, 38 (1971), p. 147; Il Libro delle figure dell’ abate Gioachino da Fiore, 2, ed. L. Tondelli, M. Reeves, and B. Hirsch-Reich (Turin, 1953), pi. X. See Bernard McGinn, The Calabrian Abbot (New York and London, 1985), p. 36, for an overall assessment of this Liber.
32 Marjorie Reeves and Beatrice Hirsch-Reich, The ‘Figurae’ of Joachim of Fiore (Oxford, 1972), p. 190.
33 Joachim of Fiore, Expositio in Apocalypsim (Venice, 1527; repr. Frankfurt a. M., 1964), fol. 15r-v, ‘In tertio quoque sabbato reedificandum est templum Dei; reedificanda est civitas de lapidibus novis; et hoc a filiis transmigrationis moderne, sicut quondam templum illud et civitas a filiis transmigrationis lude … et nunc in exordio tertii sabbati in quo oportet quam cito destrui Babylonem novam et reedificari novam Iherusalem de lapidibus vivis a filiis transmigrationis nove, qui non obliviscuntur Iherusalem, magna erit letitia diligentibus deum.’
34 In his own writings Joachim of Fiore identified with the prophet Ezekiel. Joachim wrote in his Concordia that he saw the same things that Ezekiel had seen in his famous vision. In his letter Universis Christi fidelibus, in issuing his warnings to the faithful Joachim asserted that he followed the example of Ezekiel whom the Lord commanded to write at the time of the Babylonian exile. This letter is edited by Jeanne Bignami-Odier, ‘Notes sur deux manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Vatican des traités inédits de Joachim de Flore’, Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, 54 (1937), pp. 220-3 (p. 220 for the example of Ezekiel). While this letter is now considered genuine, Bignami-Odier listed it as apocryphal and thought it might have been the preface to the Pseudo-Joachim Commentary on Ezekiel. (A manuscript which contains the Universis Christi fidelibus as well as Joachim’s Expositio in Apocalypsim that has been overlooked by Joachim scholars is New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, MS 305, fols 286V-287V and 1r-286r respectively.) One major point that the historians Delno West and Sandra Zimdars-Swartz assert in their book Joachim of Fiore: A Study in Spiritual Perception and History (Bloomington, IN, 1983) is that the whole of Joachim’s corpus is organized around the image of the wheels of Ezekiel.
35 Pseudo-Joachim, Super Ezechielem, Rome, Carmelite Archive, MS III, varia 1, fol. 170r. For a listing of the contents of this manuscript see Kurt-Victor Selge, ‘Un codice quattrocentesco dell’Archivio Generale dei Carmelitani, contenente opere di Arnaldo da Villanova, Gioacchino da Fiore e Guglielmo da Parigi’, Carmelus, 36 (1989), pp. 166-76, and idem, ‘Ancora a proposito del codice III, Varia 1 dell’Archivio Generale dei Carmelitani’, Carmelus, 37 (1990), pp. 170-2. For the manuscript’s background see Robert Lerner, The prophetic manuscripts of the “Renaissance Magus” Pierleone of Spoleto’, in G. L. Potestà, ed., Il profetismo gioachimita tra Quattrocento e Cinquecento (Genoa, 1991), pp. 99-104. For this sequence of popes see also Tondelli, Reeves, and Hirsch-Reich, Il Libro delle figure dell’ abate Gioachino da Fiore, pl. I.
36 This material will be presented in detail in a future article.
37 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, p. 349, ‘quatinus semen sanctum, quod nuper contra naturam montium estate fuerat seminatum moraretur et postea fructum multum afferret estate.’
38 Ibid., p. 352.
39 Pseudo-Joachim, Super Hieremiam (Venice, 1516), Prefatio, 2; BAV, MS Barb. lat. 634, fol. 1r; MS Vat. lat. 4860, fol. 207r; Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS XIV. C. 18, fol. iv. In a forthcoming publication I will discuss some of the changes and wider implications in this particular section of the text. See also Wessley, Joachim of Fiore, ch. 5, and Robert Moynihan, ‘The development of the “Pseudo Joachim” commentary “Super Hieremiam”: new manuscript evidence’, Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, moyen âge - temps modernes, 98 (1986), pp. 109-42.
40 Tractatus super quatuor Evangelia di Gioacchino da Fiore, ed. E. Buonaiuti (Rome, 1930), p. 186.
41 Grundmann, ‘Zur Biographie’, pp. 348, 357.
42 McGinn, Bernard, ‘Apocalyptic traditions and spiritual identity in thirteenth-century religious life’, in Rozanne Elder, E., ed., The Roots of Modern Christian Tradition (Kalamazoo, MI, 1984), p. 5.Google Scholar
43 Bloomfield, Morton, ‘Recent scholarship on Joachim of Fiore and his influence’, in Williams, A., ed., Prophecy and Milienarianism (Harlow, 1980), p. 25 Google Scholar. In addition to Herbert Grundmann’s noted work, much of it collected in Joachim von Fiore, the work of Francesco Russo, Gioacchino da Fiore e le fondazioni florensi in Calabria (Naples, 1958), should be consulted also.