The Ultimate Goal of History
Joachim recognized fully that, during the age of the Son—that is, the period of the feudal church—the pope is the legitimate head and rightful ruler of the church. All her rites and ceremonies are of definite value and are in their proper place, and he himself observed all his obligations toward the papal church with greatest care. However, at the same time he pro claimed a new era to be at hand—a new church would emerge out of the chaos of the prevailing time, which would usher in the age of the Holy Spirit. This would be the church- of the Spirit—a true evangelical church, in which sacraments and rites would not any longer be needed. A new man would be developed, the homo spiritualis, who would live according to the pattern of Christ, a life of humility and poverty. His sole aim will be the imitatio Christi." He envisaged that this new form of society would emerge from a reform of the monastic movement, and thought that the ideal state of man in the coming age of the Spirit would be in the monastic libertas.' In this new social order, or in this new state, the highest principles of Christian ethics would be realized. Compromises, which were still permissible during the age of the Son, would not be condoned any longer. The principles laid down by Jesus in the sermon on the mount would be the sole basis of this new society, and they would have to be followed by the spirituales virisine glossa (by the spiritual man without any comment).10
This age of the Spirit is the ultimate goal of all history. It would be the perfect self-revelation of God on the earth in His body, that is, in His church. Joachim thereby completely changed the ideas of Augustine about the church, and made void the assertion of finality, which was one of the strongest claims of the medieval church. According to Augustine there existed the sinful state, followed by redemption through Christ and acceptance into the church, the unam sanctam, and then the judgment. Now, the church as she existed in Joachim's time was, according to Joachim, no longer the last word of God on earth, therefore no longer the unam sanctam. But she would be superseded by a new church, the church of the Spirit. This was an epochal idea, filled with tremendous implications. It did not mean a reform of the papal church, but the slowly dying away and over coming of the papal church by the church of the Spirit.11
Undermined Medieval Dominance of Church
By making the pure evangelical ethic of the sermon on the mount the measuring rod of a true spirituality, Joachim gave his contempo raries the possibility of realizing the degradation of the papal church and of visualizing the chasm which separated her from the commandments and the Spirit of Jesus. By predicting; the beginning of the church of the Spirit during the coming generation, he created the possibility that a religious group springing up during this period might consider itself as the fulfillment of this prophecy and the bringer of this church of the Spirit. What Joachim did really, was to forge the weapons, consciously or unconsciously, for a future warfare against the papal church.
Joachim, having thus established a completely new theo-philosophical system, at the same time gave history a more prominent place in the thinking of men, especially in connection with the prophecies. Historical personalities and historical events thence become of importance, and from now on find a place in the interpretation of the figures and symbols of the Apocalypse. This is a radical turning away from the Tichonius tradition, and led to the. establishment of the historical method of interpretation.
Joachim not only divided history into the three great ages but also subdivided each age into seven periods. Here follows one of his schemes. It should be noted how clearly he refers to specific personalities, an undertaking never ventured systematically by preceding interpreters.
FIRST AGE
Pre-Christian leaders
Period 1. Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Caleb.
Period 2. Samuel, David.
Period 3. Elijah, Elisha.
Period 4. Isaiah, Hezekiah.
Period 5. Ezekiel, Daniel, Captivityin Babel.
Period 6.Zerubbabel.
Period 7. Year of Jubilee.
SECOND AGE
Christian kingsand leaders
Christ, Peter, Paul, John.
Constantine, Sylvester.
Justinian, Benedict.
Gregory, Zacharias, Pepin, Charlemagne.
Henry VI.
Bernard of Clairvaux.
the DUX.
THIRD AGE
Anti-Christian leaders
Herod, Nero.
Constantius, Arius.
Chosroes, Mohammed.
The new Baby lon.
Saladin.
6th & 7th kings of the Apocalypse.
The Antichrist.12
Not only did Joachim recognize that events of history are of great importance in understanding the prophetic symbols, but he also believed that the time element revealed should receive due consideration.
He was the first, as far as we know, who applied the year-day principle to the I26o-day period. Heretofore for twelve centuries the seventy weeks had been recognized generally as weeks of years. During the first thousand years of the Christian Era no further application of this principle was made by Christian writers, except occasional hints that the "ten days" of Revelation 2:10 might refer to ten years of persecution, and that the three and a half days of Revelation n might indicate the rule of Antichrist for three and a half years.
Now, however, Joachim made a new application of this principle. As we have mentioned before, his grand scheme was to divide history into three great ages based on the concept of the Holy Trinity. The duration of the second age, the one in which he was living, was to be determined on the basis of the mystical numbers revealed in the Apocalypse, the most significant of which was the 1260 days. Here is what he wrote:
"The generations of the church, under the space of 30 years, are to be taken each under its unit of thirty; so that just as Matthew includes the time of the first state under the space of 42 generations, so there is no doubt that the time of the second ends in the same number of generations, especially since this is shown to be signified in the number of days during which Elijah was hidden from the face of Ahab, and during which the woman clothed with the sun, who signifies the church, remained hidden in the wilderness from the face of the serpent, a day without doubt being accepted for a year and a thousand two hundred and sixty days for the same number of years." 13
Truly, Joachim had broken new ground and opened the way for a new approach to prophetic interpretation. Circumstances shortly after his time seemed to justify his idea of a coming new age, and his followers and pseudo- followers made abundant use of the means he had placed in their hands.
8 Joachim, Concordia, fol. 21 v; see also Grundmann, Studien, p. 106.
9 Buonaiuti, Gioacchino da Fiore, Introduction, p. xi, translated in La Piana, Joachim of Flora: A critical study, in Speculum, vol. 7, no. 2 (April, 1932), pp. 259, 260.
10 E. Benz, Kategorien der Geschichtsdeutung, p. 35.
11. lbid., p. 88.
12 A. Dempf, op. cit., p. 276.
13 Joachim, Concordia, fol. 12 v. (Italics supplied.) The italicised phrase reads, in the original, "accepto haud dubium die pro anno."
