Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages, The: A Study in Joachimism 0268178518, 9780268178512

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nfluence of Prophecy in the JLafer MiJJJle Age§ A Studyin Joachimism

by Marjorie Reeves

THE INFLUENCE OF PROPHECY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

THE INFLUENCE OF PROPHECY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES A Study in Joachimism

MARJORIE REEVES

U N IVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS Notre Dame

Copyright © Oxford University Press 1969 First published by Oxford University Press 1969 University of Notre Dame Press Edition 1993 Published by arrangement with Marjorie E. Reeves l h

in the United States of America

Reprinted in 2011

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reeves, Marjorie. e influence of prophecy in the later Middle Ages : a study in Joachimism / Marjorie Reeves. p. cm. Originally published: Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1969. Includes biographical references and index. ISBN 13: 978-0-268-17851-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 10: 978-0-268-01170-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Joachim, of Fiore, ca. 1132-1202. 2. History (eology)—History of doctrines—Middle Ages, 600-1500. 3. Bible—Prophecies. 4. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—History—Middle Ages, 600-1500. I. Title. BR115.H5R4 1993 231.7'45'0902—dc20 93-24809 CIP

∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

TO l\1Y MOTHER

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

I

N THE LAST thirty years or so, interest in 'that fascinating and singular figure', Joachim of Fiore, and, more generally, in medieval apocalypticism, has developed to a remarkable degree. This has been in part due, perhaps, to our increasing perception of psychological factors in the study of historical causes. It is, above all, in the human imagination that expectations of the future work most powerfully, and the history of the images and visions in which both hopes and fears concerning a final climactic age of history have been cast can no longer be ignored or brushed aside as 'lunatic fringe'. Seminal books such as Norman Cohn's Pursuit of the Millennium, first published in 1957, put us on the track and modern anthropological studies have shown how, when societies or groups are under pressure of great change, the imagination feeds again on crisis images from the past. Joachim of Fiore was not a millenarian in the strict sense of the word, but the ever-expanding research of recent years is showing how powerful and pervasive an influence his theology of history has exercised, far beyond the later Middle ages, through the Renaissance and Reformation period, even down to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Centro Internazionale di Studi Gioachimiti, estab­ lished in the Abbot Joachim's chosen monastic location, San Giovanni in Fiore, has drawn together an international group of scholars whose periodic meetings have proved a remarkable stimulus to Joachimist studies. I am grateful to the University of Notre Dame Press for under­ taking to republish this book and wish to thank the editor and staff for their willing cooperation. In the course of revising it I have become increasingly aware of the debt I owe to the members of what one might venture to call 'the Joachite club'. First, I must recall the memory of two early collaborators, Morton Bloomfield and Beatrice Hirsch-Reich. Secondly, I must express my gratitude to more recent collaborators, Harold Lee, Warwick Gould and, presently, Martha Fleming and Jean Vereecken. A whole bevy of distinguished scholars agreed willingly to contribute to a recent volume on Renaissance prophecy. I owe a great personal debt to

Vlll

Preface to the New Edition

the scholarship as well as to the friendly criticism of Randolph Daniel, Bernard McGinn, Robert Lerner, David Burr, Roberto Rusconi, and Cesare Vasoli. Many others have sent me a rich collection of writings over the broad field of prophecy and millenarianism. The generous exchange of knowledge and ideas between scholars is at least one cause for optimism in the international scene today. Marjorie Reeves, St. Anne's College, Oxford. March, 1993.

PREFACE BEINGS in general can no more ignore their future than they can lose their past. Thus a theme common to all periods of history is that of attitudes towards the future. Such attitudes are determined by what one may term the contemporary rules of predictability. These in turn derive from assumptions about the determining factors of human living. From expectations of hope or of fear spring motives for decision and action. A study of prediction, therefore, has something significant to contribute to the understanding of an age. Today much decision is based on a type of prediction which is being evolved under sets of rules deriving from scientific method. Just how adequate an approach to the future this supplies remains to be seen. In this book I have attempted a study of attitudes to the future based on an entirely different set of assumptions. The medieval concept of prophecy presupposed a divine providence working out its will in history, a set of given clues as to that meaning implanted in history, and a gift of illumination to chosen men called to discern those clues and from them to prophesy to their generation. These assumptions governed the rules of predictability. Such an approach to the future was in part deterministic, but never mechanistic. Divine providence, it was believed, used human agencies and prophecy was often a call to men to involve themselves in the working out of God's purposes in history. The two determined points of the future were the appearance of Antichrist and the Last Day of Judgement. These apart, there was scope for the play of human imagination on the future forms of society and their fate. Men were called to involve themselves in a poetic dream rather than a scientifically controlled future. This style of thought became widespread in the later Middle Ages after receiving a tremendous impetus from the prophetic message of Joachim of Fiore. His doctrine of the three status imparted a rhythm and expectation to the course of history which appealed powerfully to the imagination. This current of thought does not slacken as one moves into the Renaissance period. Although obviously different ways of looking at the future were forming in the sixteenth century, they existed side by side with the old assumptions in the minds of

H

UMAN

X

Preface

rulers, churchmen, and scholars. Only reluctantly in the seventeenth century was prophecy as an attitude towards the future acknowledged to be outmoded. I am happy at last to be able to acknowledge a long-standing debt of gratitude to Westfield College, London, where, as the holder of a research studentship, I first embarked on this subject more than thirty years ago. That I did so at all was due to the encouragement of Miss Gwyer, my Principal as an undergraduate at St. Hugh's College, Oxford. Over the years since then I have accumulated many debts to scholars. Until her death I was constantly drawing on the scholarship and insight of Dr. Beatrice Hirsch-Reich. The pioneer in modern Joachimist studies, Professor Dr. Herbert Grundmann, Prasident of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, not only provided foundations for this book but generous help at various stages, particularly with regard to manuscripts. Other manuscript queries have been answered for me with unfailing willingness by Dr. Marie Therese d'Alverny and Dr. Jeanne Bignami-Odier. Collaboration with Professor Morton Bloomfield of Harvard marked the beginning of a continuing discourse on Joachimist problems in which I have been indebted to him both for his critical judgements and his vast knowledge of the sources. In Oxford, Miss Beryl Smalley has put me on the track of important exegetical material and Dr. Richard Hunt has watched for Joachimist references which might turn up in Bodley. Acknowledgements to other scholars who have generously supplied references will be found in footnotes. In its latest stage Professor Ernest Jacob kindly read and criticized the first part of this book, while Professor Richard Southern gave most generously of his time and thought to the improvement of the first two parts. For the sabbatical leave which enabled me to complete the book I must thank the Trustees of the Leverhulme Foundation and the Principal and Fellows of St. Anne's College, Oxford. For willing and accurate help over much tiresome typing I must thank my sister, Kathleen Reeves. At the proof-reading stage I have been saved ( om many foolish slips by the close scrutiny of my sister, Joan Sheppard. Finally, I owe a lasting debt of gratitude to my friend Alexandra Fairbairn, who has lived with this book for so long. M.E.R. Oxford May I968

CONTE~TS

"lOTF ON RFFERENCFS

,\ND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

ACK'\JOWI ,Fl )GE\IEl'\TS

XIII XIII

xv

ABBRE\ L\TIONS PART O'.\E, Tl IF REPCTATIO'.\

OF Tl IE -\BBOT

JOAC:HL\1 PART TWO. '-!E\V SPIRITL'AL PA.RT TllRFF.

-\NTICHRIST

'v!El\ AND LAST WORLD

293

EMPEROR PART FOUR. ANGELIC

POPE AND REiV(HATTO

HL\\/JJ

393

APPENDICES

509

SE] ,Fer

HIBi ,JOGR\PHY

SEJ .ECT HIBi JOGR-\PHY INDEX OF ,\IANUSCRIPTS GENERAi,

INDEX

I

543

II

549

NOTE ON REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES SELECT Bibliography I is the original bibliography. All works given in this are cited throughout by the abbreviations in square brackets. The alphabetical List of Abbreviations preceding the text refers by numbers to the entries in the Bibliography. All other works arc cited in full the first time. Subsequent citations are given as 'op. cit.' if the full reference is within about the last ten references, or as 'op. cit. (ref. page and note)' if it is further back. Quotations in the text have their own abbreviated references given at the end of the quotation, except where they are immediately preceded by a footnote which itself gives an exact reference for the quotation. Select Bibliography II attempts to give the main publications relevant to the text from 1969 to 1992. In square brackets some brief annotations are given. Where these are followed by cf plus page references, these refer to the text, indicating that the cited work corrects, disagrees with or adds to the text of the book. In quoting from early printed editions I have at times modernized punctuation and use of capital letters to make reading easier. In the spelling of personal names I have not attempted to achieve any uniformity of style, but used the most convenient forms.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must acknowledge the use of material from articles written by myself in the following journals:

Recherchesde Theologieancienneet medievale,xxv (1958), pp. 111-4r. lvlediaevaland RenaissanceStudies, v (1961), pp. 163-81. Traditio, xvii (1961), pp. 323-70.

ABBREV Li\ TIONS The number before each item is that of the reference in the Bibliography.

31 AF iv Sr AFHxxvi 77 APP XXV 83 AK xix r8 ALKG 24 Amp!. Coll. 40 Auna/es 91 Antonianum 32 Apologetica 39 Arbor 98 Arbores 17 AS 104 ASCL xii IOI

XX

ASI 71 ASTxxvi

54 Aus den Tagm 65 Bihliografia

47 Gioachinis/1/o e Fra11cescanesi1110

Heterodoxes Hist. Jnquis. 63 History of tbe Popes 84 HJxlix 59 Joachim v. Floris 75 Kaisersage 43 Leet. mem. 61 Leetura 73 Le Passage r Lib. Cone. 9 Lib. contra Lombardum 16 Libellus 68 Lib. Fig. I 8 II 76 MAHiiv 62 22

23 Mansi

33 Manuel 96 /11ARS 11 48 ConcordiaAiundi 95 m 86 DA xvi 25 1HGHS 69 Das kommendeReich 92 Alise. Franc. xxxvii, xxxix 85 DDJxiv 99 xii 12 De Onerihus roo xh i 21 Direct. Jnquis. 19 Miscellanea DTC = Dictionnaire de t!teologie 26 :HOPH catlzolique 27 Muratori 44 EcclesiaSpiritua!is 90 NA xv, xxx, xxxiii EHR = English HistoricalReTiem 58NF 6 Enchir. 36 Onus Ecclesiae 14 Oraculum Cyrilli 51 Eretici 2 Expos. 46 Piers Plomman 42 Expositio 28 PL 35 Prognosticatio 34 Fragmentum 60 FranciscanPoverty 3 Psalt. 53 Fraticelli 29QFIAB 52 Gioaeehino 4 Quat. Evang. 103 RinascimentoXIII 55 GioaeehinoI 56 GioaechinoII 45 Roquetaillade 66 Gioaeehino 30RS 49 Gioacehinoda Fiore 74 RSR xxxviii 20

Bouquet

Abbreviations

XVI

94RTAM xxi 89 xxiv 38 Salimbene 41 Scriptores 7 Septem Sigil!is 67 SF 13 Sibyl Eritlzrea 70 SibyllinischeTexte 93 Sophia iii 97 XIX 80 XXlll 79 Speculumxxix 102

Studi francesi I

57 Studien

64AStudies

Super Esaiam 15 Super Hier. 78 Traditio XIII 37 Vade Mecum 15 Vaticinia 64 Visionarios 5 Vita S. Benedicti 50 Vom Mittelalter ZB 87 ZKG v 88 Vil 82 xlviii 72 I, Ii, !iii I I

PART ONE

THE REPUTATION OF THE ABBOT JOACHIM

I. Joachim and his Contemporaries I I. Joachim's View of History III. The Condemnation of

1215

3 16 28

IV. The Early Dissemination of Joachimist Ideas

37

V. Joachimism in the :\!lid-Thirteenth Century

45

VI. The Scandal of the Eternal Evangel VI I. Joachim's Popular Reputation VIII.

59 71

The Diffusion of Joachimist Works in the Later Middle Ages

76

IX. Joachim's Double Reputation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

96

X. Orthodox or Heterodox?

126

I JOACHIM

AND

HIS

CONTEMPORARIES

o Ac HIM of Fiore has seldom been viewed with indifference. In his lifetime (c. 1 13 5 to 1202) 1 he made a strong impact both upon those who sought him out and those before whom he presented himself. He was favoured by four popes, yet denounced by the Cistercian Order as a runaway. After his death the thing everyone knew about him was that he was a prophet-true or false. His sanctity guarded his personal reputation when his views on the Trinity were condemned in 1215, yet after the 'horrible scandal' of the Eternal Evangelin 1255 the Commission of Anagni set up by the Pope to examine his works condemned the whole 'fundamentum doctrine' of Joachim. St. Bonaventura dismissed him as ignorant and simplex, and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote off his prophecies as 'conjectures', some true, some false; yet Dante placed him in the Paradiso, where he made Bonaventura himself acclaim him as 'di spirito profetico dotato'. He found a place in the Acta Sanctorum as beatus, yet equally he appeared in the Catalogus Haereticorum of Guido of Perpignan and Bernard of Luxemburg. In the sixteenth century he was claimed in such works as Henriquez's Fasciculus Sanctorum Ordinis Cisterciensis, but also by Mathias Flacius Illyricus in his Catalogus Testium Veritatis and by other Protestants collecting medieval ammunition. In the early seventeenth century the learned still argued hotly about his reputation. The argument continues even today. It is possible to catch something of the excitement and interest

J

Note: All references given in abbreviated form will be found fully set out in the Select Bibliography. 1 The date given for Joachim's birth is based on the evidence of the interview which Adam of Persigny had with him. Adam described Joachim thus; 'videbatur autem fere sexagenarius'. This interview is usually dated I 195/6 but if, as is possible, it took place as late as 1198, the approximate date of Joachim's birth would be brought nearer the date of 1145 given in the biography written by Jacobus Graecus (cf. infra, p. 112). For recent discussions of this problem see Grundmann, NF, pp. 35-7; Russo, Gioacchino,p. 9; Crocco, Gioacchino, p. 18. For the surviving materials on the life of Joachim sec Baraut, AST xxvi, and Grundmann, DA xvi. The latter supplies the most up-to-date reconstruction of all the known facts of Joachim's life.

The Reputation of the Abbot Joachim

4

which Joachim aroused among contemporaries from the records of a series of interviews in which he met them. Apart from these, the facts concerning his life are scanty. He appears suddenly out of the fastnesses of Calabria, makes a dramatic pronouncement, and disappears again. The first of these interviews took place at Veroli in II84 when Pope Lucius III was in residence there. Joachim was at that time Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Curazzo, but he had been residing at the sister house of Casamari since r 182/3, and it was Luke of Cosenza, whom he first met at Casamari, who recorded the conversation between Pope and Abbot. 1 In his memoir of Joachim, Luke stresses at the outset that he was endowed by God with sapientia and intelligentia. 2 He goes on immediately: 'tune, coram Domino Papa et Consistorio eius, cepit revelare intelligentiam Scripturarum, et utriusque Testamenti concordiam: a quo et licentiam scribendi obtinuit, et scribere coepit' (AS, p. 93). Thus in Luke's mind this visit to the Pope was clearly connected with Joachim's gift of spiritual intelligence and with the particular method 'given' to him of expounding the Scriptures through the concords of Old and New Testaments. At the interview Joachim sought and obtained permission to embark on his life's task of drawing forth this spiritual intelligence through his expositions of Scripture. Luke's brief reference ties in convincingly with a fuller record of the interview at Veroli which has come to light in MS. 322 oftheBibliotecaAntoniana at Padua. Here, in a thirteenth-century manuscript containing otherwise none but genuine works of Joachim, is a short tract entitled Expositio Prophetiae Anonymae Romae repertae anno n84 (f. r49v). This is written in the first person and purports to be Joachim's exposition of a prophecy found in Rome among the papers of Cardinal Mathias of Angers. It is specifically stated that this exposition was made in the presence of Lucius III at Veroli and it seems likely that Joachim was invited to do so in order to test the nature of his spiritual gift. The whole tract has been dismissed as apocryphal by Mgr. Tondelli, 3 but, apart from the fact that its presence in the Antonian manuscript creates a strong presumption in favour of genuineness, it bears the authentic marks of Joachim's thought and style. 4 It is an early expression of Joachim's mind and, 2 3 Tondelli, Lib. Fig. I, p. 119. ' AS, p. 93. Ibid. Its genuineness is maintained by Grundmann, NF, p. 46. The text of the prophecy which Joachim set out to interpret begins 'Excitabatur Roma contra Romanum'. Apart from some omitted lines it is identical with a prophecy published by Holder-Egger under the title Sibilla Samia (NA xv. 177). Holder-Egger thought it belonged to the

4

Joachim and his Contemporaries

5

as such, is particularly illuminating. We see him when he is just beginning to move away from the conventional career of an able monk caught in the treadmill of administering a Cistercian house. His mind is venturing out into new paths of thought and meditation upon the total meaning of history and the mysterious activity of the Trinity, interpenetrating all ages. These meditations will soon drive him out of the Cistercian Order to move further up the mountain of contemplation and ultimately to found his own order of S. Giovanni in Fiore. But in II84 he is still establishing his basic method and authority. He lays his plan before the Pope: he will elucidate the meaning of history by pondering the great concords of the two Testaments. His method is demonstrated on the spot by his exposition of the prophecy, the text of which is given in our tract. It is an enigmatic oracle foretelling woes, especially on Rome. Joachim begins, not with an explanation of the oracle at all, but with an exposition of the seven persecutions suffered by the Hebrews in the Old Dispensation, matched by the seven persecutions of the Church in the New. 1 Here at once we meet the first of Joachim's basic patterns of history, the one, indeed, with which he starts his Liber Concordie. Its inspiration is the Book with Seven Seals,2 and the theme of double sevens runs like a ground bass through Joachim's many variations of pattern. 3 This is the pattern of twos, in which same mid-thirteenth-century pseudo-Joachimist group of writings as the oracle of Sibyl Erithrea. If this were so, obviously the case for the genuine character of the whole piece would fall to the ground. But Holder-Egger, significantly, could not find in it any allusions to thirteenth-century history. It is, indeed, the kind of oracle which could be applied to many periods and there seems no reason why it should not ha,·c been a twelfth-century production belonging to the group of Sibylline oracles just then coming into vogue. 1 MS. Ant. 322, f. 150": 'Fuit autem contra israel prima persecutio egyptiorum. Secunda madianitarum. Tercia aliarum nationum. Quarta assiriorum. Quinta chaldorum. Sexta medorum et persarum. Grecorum sub antiocho subsecuta est septima. . . . Prior ergo ecclesie persecutio fuit iudeorum. Secunda paganorum. Arrianorum tercia. Hee est Gothica. Wandalica. Alemanica. Lombarda .... Porro quarta persecutio sarracenorum loco assiriorum successit .... A tempore ergo Zacharie papa cuius diebus larga pace conquievit ytalia verba hacc cepere complcri.' After this Joachim turns to the exposition of the oracle as the fifth persecution and onwards. These concords of persecutions correspond exactly to similar sequences in Joachim's works; see the summaries in Reeves, Hirsch-Reich, RTAM xxi. 216-22. Many details in the Paduan manuscript also correspond to Joachim's expositions, e.g. on Pope Zacharias cf. Lib. Cone., f. 41', and Lib. Fig. II, Pl. X, where precisely the same words occur. Shortly afterwards the Paduan exposition quotes one of Joachim's favourite texts: 'Litera enim occidit, spiritus autem vivificat'; see infra, p. 17 n. 3. 2 Apocalypse 5: T. 3 Reeves, Hirsh-Reich, RT AM xxi. 216-22.

6

The Reputation of the Abbot Joachim

the whole of history is seen as two great parallel streams rolling on towards their respective consummations in the First and Second Advents. 1 There is, as yet, no hint of any Trinitarian pattern in history: the tribulation of Antichrist closes the New Dispensation with no suggestion of an apotheosis of history in the Age of the Spirit, except in one significant detail, namely, the conversion of the Jews before the End. 2 Joachim has little of interest to say on the text of the oracle itself, and clearly the most significant point of this little exposition is that he pushes aside the prophecy and deals in trenchant terms with his own interpretation of history. We see Joachim, then, in this first interview, already known as one who interprets prophecy, whose exposition of history in terms of concords between the two Dispensations is approved by the Pope, and who is commissioned by His Holiness to start writing his two great works, the Liber Concordieand the Expositio in Apocalypsim.3 From Robert of Auxerre, one of the earliest chroniclers to write about Joachim, we learn that he also visited Pope Urban III at Verona in I 186. But no reliable details of this visit are known. 4 The second interview was the famous one of the winter of 1190/1 in which Richard Creur de Lion met Joachim in Messina. The cultural connections between England and Sicily at this time have been stressed by Miss Jamison 5 and we may speculate as to whether 1 On Joachim's patterns of 'twos' and 'threes', infra, p. 19. Also Reeves, MARS ii. 74-7. 2 On Joachim's attitude towards the Jews see B. Hirsch-Reich, 'Judentum im Mittelalter', Miscellanea Mediaevalia, iv. 228-63. The final conversion of the Jews was a common medieval theme but one of peculiar significance to Joachim. It is significant that, according to the material preserved at Fiore, when Joachim called together three close disciples to tell them of his Eastertide vision, he spoke solely of imminent tribulation, not at all ofrenovatio, see AS, p. 106; Baraut, ASTxxvi. 216, and infra, p. 23 n. 1. 3 The fact of the commission by Lucius III is attested by Joachim's Testamentary Letter (infra, p. 28) and the letter of Pope Clement III, both printed at the beginning of the Lib. Cone. The material for the life of Joachim edited by Baraut specifically mentions the interview at Vcroli (AST xxvi. 215-16). Curiously enough, however, this ancient Vita connects the permission given by Pope Lucius with the Psalterium rather than the other works. The story given here differs considerably from Luke of Cosenza's and arouses suspicion in some details. Luke is a prime witness and therefore I have followed his account. 4 All recent writers accept Joachim's visit to Verona as authentic and some authorization by Urban III is implied by Joachim's Testamentary Letter and by Clement Ill's letter, but it should be noted that for the story that Joachim went to Verona to meet Urban the oldest authority is Robert of Auxerre, writing before 1212 (MGHS xxvi. 248-9). 5 E. Jamison, (i) 'The Sicilian-Norman Kingdom in the Mind of Anglo-Norman Contemporaries', Proceedings of the British Academy (London, 1938), pp. 237-85;

Joachim and lzis Contemporaries

7

Richard had arrived already determined to see this famous abbot. Roger Howden tells us that the King, hearing much by common fame of Joachim, Abbot of Curazzo, who was said to possess the spirit of prophecy, sent for him and willingly listened to the prophet's ,vise words. For Joachim was learned in the Scriptures and had written an exposition of St. John's visions. 1 Joachim was now the much-discussed abbot endowed with the spirit of prophecy, but this was firmly linked with the study of the Scriptures and especially of the Apocalypse. So the Abbot stood in the midst of the eager group of English courtiers 2 'tam clericis quam laicis' and expounded the vision of St. John concerning the Dragon with seven heads: 'Reges septem sunt, quinque ceciderunt, ct unus est, et unus nondum venit.' The five heads that had fallen Joachim interpreted as Herodes, Nero, Constantius, iVIaunzet,Afe!semutus. Then, pronouncing Saladin to be the 'one that is', Joachim prophesied his downfall, and, turning to the King, said: 'Haec omnia reservavit Domin us et per te fieri permittet, Qyi dabit tibi de inimiciis tuis victoriam ... ' Of the 'one not yet come', Joachim declared his belief that this was Antichrist, and that he was already fifteen years old but not yet come to power. \Vhile everyone expressed admiration at these prognostications, the King asked Joachim where Antichrist was born and ,vhere he was to reign. Joachim answered that Antichrist was already born in urbe Romana and that he ,vould obtain the apostolic see, whereat the King replied: 'Si Antichristus in Roma natus est et ibi sedem apostolicam possidebit, scio quod ipse est ille Clemens qui modo papa est.' ('Haec autem dicebat quia papam ilium odio habebat', remarks the chronicler.) Joachim's apparently unorthodox view of Antichrist then prompted the King to put forward the standard version of Antichrist's career: 'Putabam quod Antichristus nasceretur in Babylonia, etc.' Soon the whole assembly was absorbed in a heated discussion and refutation of Joachim's views: 'plures tamen et fere omnes viri ecclesiastici in scripturis Divinis plurimum eruditi nitebantur pro bare in contrarium.' It was a continuing debate: 'ta men adhuc sub judice est', wrote Howden in his first or 'Benedict' version of this interview, and, when he revised it a few years later, he took the (ii) 'Alliance of England and Sicily in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vi (1943), pp. 20--32 1 Roger Howden, Cronica, RS, iii. 75. 2 This account is taken from the two Yersions: 'Benedict of Peterborough', Gesta Henrici II et Ricardi I, RS, ii. r 51-5; Roger Howden, Cronica, RS, iii. 75-9.

8

The Reputation of the Abbot Joachim

opportunity to insert more material on Antichrist. Thus Joachim's thoughts could spark off a continuing discussion about the central problems of history: the seven tyrannies of the Dragon, the scourge of the Saracens, the advent of Antichrist. The authenticity of the two accounts of this encounter at Messina has been much questioned.1 Doubts were aroused partly by the discrepancies between the two, but, since Lady Stenton has demonstrated that Roger Howden accompanied Richard on his crusade and that he was himself the author of both versions of the discussion, these may reasonably be said to have been cleared a,Yay.2 A more fundamental criticism is that the account puts into Joachim's mouth views that were not his. Thus F. Russo has argued that the whole episode is a fabrication by Joachim's enemies, since the statement that Antichrist iam natus est in civitate romana et in sede aposto!ica sublimabitur 'etalmente contrario allo spirito di Gioacchino'. 3 Here we plunge at once into the controversy which has always bedevilled discussion of Joachim's position: were his views really heretical, or was he entangled in dangerous statements by the machinations of those who opposed him, particularly in the Cistercian Order? From the thirteenth century to the present day there have been historians who seem to be more concerned to establish either his orthodoxy or heresy than to discover what he really thought. The proper way to proceed is surely to ask quite simply whether the interpretation expounded at Messina finds corroboration in the Expositio in Apocalypsim, the work which Roger Howden specifically mentions, and which was indubitably Joachim's own work. There the Dragon's heads are named exactly as at Messina, except that the fifth is designated as the Emperor Henry IV. This concentrates attention on the rare name Melsemutus assigned to the fifth head at Messina. Russo claims that this does not occur in Joachim's genuine works, 4 but this statement is not true: twice over in the Expositio Joachim speaks of Meselmutus or the 'Mauri qui vulgo dicuntur Meselmuti', assigning these persecutors to the time of the Dragon's fifth head. 5 Clearly there is a discrepancy here in the naming of the fifth head, but we 1 Notably, among recent writers, by Buonaiuti, Gioacchino da Fiore, pp. 156-68; Russo, Misc. Franc. xii. 329-31. 2 D. Stenton, 'Roger ofHoveden and Benedict', EHR !xviii (1953), pp. 574-82. See also R. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), p. 40 n. 8. 3 Russo, Misc. Franc. xii, p. 329 (quoting Howden, loc. cit., p. 78). 5 Expos., ff. rr6v, 134v. • Russo, Joe. cit., p. 331.

Joachim and his Contemporaries

9

need not be disturbed by variation in the identity of the seven heads, since variation was a common habit with Joachim and his remark in the Expositio that he had picked up rumours of Meselmutus and his people from eyewitnesses of their persecutions gives this detail in the Messina story an authentic ring-indeed, this may have been the occasion when he heard of them. The final proof on this point concerning Meselmutus lies in the fact that the figure of the Dragon in the Liber Figurarwn gives Meselmotlms as the fifth head. 1 For those convinced of the genuineness of the Liber Figurarum this is a strong argument for the authenticity of the Messina interview. It is true that the coincidence has been used in the opposite sense by Russo to suggest that the Messina episode is demonstrably false because based on a later spurious work, but this argument falls to the ground once it has been demonstrated that the 'Benedict' version of the encounter must have been written within a year or two at most of the time of the intervie,v. 2 Turning now to Joachim's rather surprising statement that Antichrist was already born in Rome, this seems to have misled some modern historians as much as King Richard, but a careful reading of the Expositio-and other genuine works-makes the point quite clear. For the Church, Joachim constantly uses the term Jerusalem, and this is juxtaposed to Rome, which always means the secular realm, more specifically, the Roman lmperium. 3 In his patterns of concords Rome equals Babylon, a point which is strikingly made in the Babylon/Rome pair of figures in the Liber Figurarum. 4 Thus when Joachim says that Antichrist is born in Rome he is only translating the recognized legend into his own terms. As for the prophecy that Antichrist would usurp the seat of St. Peter, Joachim certainly expected a pseudo-pope as one of the manifestations of Antichrist, without implying in the least that the Roman Church was to become identified with a carnal church of Babylon. 5 We may thus accept Roger Howden's double account as a record Lib. Pig. II, PI. XIV. Among recent supporters of the authenticity of the English story arc Jamison, loc. cit. (i), pp. 263 seq.; J. de Ghellinck, L'Essor de la litterature latine au XII' siecle (Brussels, Paris, 1946), i. 200; Grundmann, NF, pp. 48 seq. and DA xvi. 499-500. 3 For detailed references see Reeves, Hirsch-Reich, Studies, ad indicern. 4 Lib. Fig. II, Pis. XVI, XVII. 5 Expos., If. r66v-r68', expounding Apocalypse 13: rr: 'Et vidi aliam bestiam ascendentem de terra'. See especially f. r68': 'Ita bestia que ascendet de terra habitura sit quendam maprn:n prelatum, quc sit similis Symonis Magi, et quasi univcrsalis pontifex in toto orbc terrarum.' I

2

Tlze Reputation of the Abbot Joachim

IO

of a genuine encounter. Nevertheless, there is a divergence between the two versions which must be noted. According to the 'Benedict' account, Howden committed himself to a prophecy of victory to King Richard over the Saracen; this \HS modified in the later 'Howden' version to a vague pronouncement that the time for the recovery of Jerusalem was 'not yet'. No doubt this alteration was due to the limited success of the crusade. In any case, the prophecy was made briefly in passing, and Joachim's real attention was concentrated on the exposition of the Apocalypse and the programme of Things to Come. He was concerned with exegesis rather than with literal prophecy. It is noteworthy that at this period he was still more occupied with the tribulations to be endured in the near future than with the Age of the Spirit to come afterwards, but the context of the conversation must have suggested the trials of Christians and their stern conflicts rather than the Sabbath of quietness to follow. This was certainly the focus of interest for crusaders, and, as we have seen, Richard and his companions drank in the Abbot's exposition eagerly, applied his words with alacrity to Pope Clement III, and went off at once into a debate on the where and when of Antichrist. Joachim's interpretations of history were too lofty and subtle for common understanding, but they were certainly not irrelevant to his contemporaries. This episode shows him in the midst of the European political scene, the sought-after prophet caught up in one of its major preoccupations-the menace of the Saracen and the crusade of the faithful against the infidel. We have noticed that Joachim had been collecting information on the situation of Christians in Spain and Mauretania; we know from a reference in the E:xpositio1 that he was again in Messina in 1195, questioning a man who had escaped from Alexandria, for he reported with a thrill of horror his rumour: 'dixit se audisse a quodam magno Sarraceno misisse Patharenos Legatos suos ad illos, postulantes ab eis communionem et pacem.' Contemporary happenings form part of the material on which Joachim's mind fed. His meditations upon the inner concords of the two Testaments were not concerned with a dead history but with a continuing drama usque ad presens.2 Contemporary events illumined the concords of Scripture; the study of the Testaments gave the clue to the vast events on the threshhold of which Joachim believed he stood. ' Expos., f. 134'. Expos., f. 9v, where the phrase recurs more than once.

2

Joachim and his Contemporaries

I I

The next encounter shows him vividly as the prophet denouncing contemporary political wrongs hy the light of Biblical prophecy. Professor Grundmann has recently published a fragmentary Vita Joachimi Abbatis which he has established as the work of an anonymous disciple. This contains a striking account of a whirlwind descent made by Joachim on the Emperor Henry VI when the latter came to south Italy in n91 to claim the kingdom. 1 Joachim denounces the deeds of the jeroces barbarorumanimi but declares that in these events are fulfilled, by concord, the doom pronounced by Ezekiel upon Tyre (the kingdom of Tancred): 'For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people' (Ezek. 26: 7). And thus it was, 'sub misterio veterum de prophetatione novorum': the Emperor Henry VI, like Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, took the new Tyre and devastated it. There can be no doubt as to the fierceness with which Joachim proclaimed the future, for-to his retreating back-Henry's marshal remarked: 'Q!ianta mala latent sub cuculla illa !' Henry accepted the role of Nebuchadrezzar, however, and later honoured the Abbot, his foundation, and his family. We know from the privileges received, as well as some biographical episodes, that Joachim was later on good terms with the Imperial authority, especially the Empress Constance. z Yet in his interpretation of contemporary history there c-an be little doubt that the Roman Imperium was the New Babylon. 3 In all these interviews we see Joachim impinging dramatically on the contemporary scene in his interpretations of events by means of 1 For an account of how this material was preserved, infra, p. I 12. The text has been edited by Baraut, AST xxvi. 220-5; Grundmann, DA xvi. 535-9. Papebroch (AS, p. 108) takes some of this material from the Cronologia of Jacobus Graecus. 2 A famous interview with the Empress Constance is recounted by Luke of Cosenza (AS, p. 94): 'Sexta feria in Parasceve sedebam cum eo in claustro Sancti Spiritus de Panormo et ecce vocatus ad Palatium fuit ad Imperatricem Constantiam, quae illi confiteri volebat. Ivit et invenit earn intra ecclesiam in sella consueta sedentem; iussus (autem) sedere, in sellula pro ipso posita scdit; sed cum Imperatrix aperuit ei propositum confitendi, earn qua debuit auctoritate fraenavit, et respondit dicens Quia ego nunc locum Christi, tu vero poenitentis Magdalenae tencs, dcscen