Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/29

 THE PSEUDO-JOACHIM.— HIS GENUINE WRITINGS. 13 were freely interpreted as referring to the carnal worldliness which pervaded all orders in the Church ; all are reprobate, none are elect ; Rome is the Whore of Babylon, and the papal curia the most venal and extortionate of all courts ; the Roman Church is the barren fig-tree, accursed by Christ, which shall be abandoned to the nations to be stripped. It would be difficult to exaggerate the bitterness of antagonism displayed in these writings, even to the point of recognizing the empire as the instrument of God which is to overthrow the pride of the Church. These outspoken utterances of rebellion excited no little interest, especially within the Order itself. Adam de Marisco, the leading Franciscan of England, sends to his friend Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, some extracts from these works which have been brought to him from Italy. He speaks of Joachim as one justly credited with divine insight into prophetic mysteries; he asks to have the fragments returned to him after copying, and meanwhile commends to the bishop's consideration the impending judgments of Providence which are invited by the abounding wickedness of the time.* Of Joachim's genuine writings the one which, perhaps, at- tracted the most attention in his own day was a tract on the nature of the Trinity, attacking the definition of Peter Lombard, and asserting that it attributed a Quaternity to God. The subtle- ties of theology were dangerous, and in place of proving the Mas- ter of Sentences a heretic, Joachim himself narrowly escaped. Thirteen years after his death, the great Council of Lateran, in 1215, thought his speculation sufficiently important to condemn it as erroneous in an elaborate refutation, which was carried into the canon law, and Innocent III. preached a sermon on the sub- ject to the assembled fathers. Fortunately Joachim, in 1200, had expressly submitted all his writings to the judgment of the Holy See and had declared that he held the same faith as that of Rome. The council, therefore, refrained from condemning him personally xxiii., xxx. — Ejusd. super Hieremiam c. i., ii., iii., etc. — Saliuibene p. 107. — Mon- umenta Franciscana p. 147 (M. R. Series). The author of the Commentary on Jeremiah had probably been disciplined for freedom of speech in the pulpit, for (cap. i.) he denounces as bestial a license to preach which restricts the liberty of the spirit, and only permits the preacher to dispute on carnal vices.
 * Pseudo-Joachim de Oneribus Ecclesiae c. iii., xv., xvi., xvii., xx. -, xxi., xxii.,