Joachimites

Joachimites were a millenarian group that arose from the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. They based their ideas on the works of Joachim of Flora (or Joachim of Fiore, both names are used at points). However they went further than he ever did in rejection of the Church of their own age.

Inspiration of Joachim

Joachim's works seem to divide history in three ages. The first age was of the Father. The age of the Father was the age of the Old Covenant. The second age was of the Son and therefore the world of Christianity. The third and final age would be that of the Holy Spirit. In this new age an "Eternal Gospel" would be revealed "fulfilling" and replacing the organized church. After that society would be realigned on an egalitarian and utopian monastic base. The first age is said to have been of forty two generations. The second age would also be of 42 generations. Joachim seemed to suggest the Christian era would end in 1260 with the coming of the Anti-Christ. After that his utopian age would arrive.

Initially this did not cause condemnation, efforts recently have even been made toward his canonization, as what was meant was disputed. Several readers seem to have felt his utopian age would literally be heaven or it would in least be the age after the Second Coming. This idea came from it being after the Anti-Christ and tribulations. To state the Church would be unnecessary then was acceptable.

Controversy

In 1215 some of his ideas were condemned in the Fourth Council of the Lateran. Further his admirers came to believe the beginning of this New Age would be ushered in by the coming of a virtuous Pope from the Franciscan order. They considered Celestine V to be this Pope. His resignation, and subsequent death in the dungeons of the next Pope, was considered a sign of the coming of the Anti-Christ. As they deemed the Popes to now be the Anti-Christ, and the Church to be the Whore of Babylon, this led to a profound break with Catholicism. Around this time, or somewhat before, they further decided Joachim's own writings were the Eternal Gospel or the road to it. The Catholic Church tended to react harshly to being considered the servants of evil so the group was harshly put down.

As for themselves the movements moving toward a more this-worldly approach caused some influence. It was one of the first movements to heavily be geared toward the future as being made perfectible through human action. This action was largely to lead toward a great supernatural event, but had a great deal of real world notions of progress. This was also generally unacceptable at this time as new revelations were deemed a threat or heresy.

Influences

The Joachimites believed this new age would be egalitarian and essentially monastic. Later offshoots of Joachimites thought went a good deal further. The Brethren of the Free Spirit or the Ranters are often believed to have accepted elements of Joachimite thought. The Brethren of the Free Spirit's view of history has a noticeable resemblance. However they declared a new age to have already occurred, or occurring, whereas the Joachimites tended to place it in a future after the Catholic Church withered away. English confusion of the Beghards with practices of "Free Spirit" type groups is sometimes said to have been the origin of the old British legal term "bugger."

Another sect inspired by his theories was the Dulcinian heresy.

Others indicate parallels between the Joachimites and later millenarian forms of Christianity. It is fairly common for millenarian or messianic Christian movements to link themselves to leading to a new age of the Holy Spirit. Groups as diverse as the Shakers, Mita Congregation, and the Holy Spirit Movement indicated a new age of the Holy Spirit was in some sense dawning. Others relate the Joachimites idea to any group that believes in the "New Age."

There are less direct ideological linkages to the Protestant Reformation and less historically confirmed ones to Marxism. The Joachimites, and not Joachim himself, condemned the Church after Celestine V as being "The Whore of Babylon." Other rhetoric they used would be mirrored by a few of the early leaders of the Reformation. Although the Joachimites idea of being a new revelation which supersedes Christianity would not be adopted by any significant figure in the Reformation. Their idea that the structure of the Church would collapse to lead toward a leaderless egalitarian communal state is seen by some as an indirect influence, or in least precursor, to Marx's idea of perfect communist democracy arising from the dictatorship of the proletariat.

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040316055006/http://www1.appstate.edu/~davisct/psybibs/Boston/Davis_Apocalypse.htm Apocalypticism article]
* [http://www2.kenyon.edu/Projects/Margin/joachim.htm Joachimites]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/joachim.html PBS article]
* [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&safe=active&q=cache:tNu6khiG0hQJ:www.uq.edu.au/access_history/one-one/joachim.pdf+%22joachim+of+fiore%22 Scholarly essay by Toby Affleck]