Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/471

 JOAN

407

JOAN

approved by Celestine III in 1196. In 1200 Joachim publicly submitted all his writings to the examina- tion of Innocent III, but died before any judgment was passed. It was held to be in answer to his prayers that he died on Holy Saturday, "the Satur- day on which Sitivit is sung, attaining the true Sab- bath, even as the hart panteth after the fountains of waters". The holiness of his life is unquestionable; miracles were said to have been wrouglit at his tomb, and, though never officially beatified, he is still ven- erated as a bcntus on 29 May.

Dante voiced the general opinion of his age in declaring .Joachim one "endowed with prophetic spirit". But he himself always disclaimed the title of prophet. The interpretation of Scrijjtural proph- ecy, with reference to the history and the future of the Church, is the main theme of his tliree chief works: "Liber Concordiae Novi ac Veteris Testa- menti", "Expositio in Apocalipsim ", and "Psal- teriura Decern Cordarum ". The mystical basis of his teaching is the doctrine of the "Eternal Gospel", founded on a strained interpretation of the text in the ApocaljTJse (xiv, 6). There are three states of the world, corresponding to the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. In the first age the Father ruled, representing power and inspiring fear, to which the Old -Testament dispensation corresponds; then the wisdom hidden through the ages was revealed in the Son, and we have the Catholic Church of the New Testament; a third period will come, the Kingdom of the Holy Spirit, a new dispensation of universal love, which will proceetl from the Gospel of Christ, but transcend the letter of it, and in which there will be no need for disciplinary institutions. Joachim held that the second perioil was drawing to a close, and that the third epoch (already in part anticipated by St. Benedict) would actually begin after some great cataclysm which he tentatively calculated would be- fall in 1260. After this Latins and Greeks would be united in the new spiritual kingdom, freed alike from the fetters of the letter; the Jews would be converted, and the "Eternal Gospel" abide until the end of the world.

Although certain doctrines of Joachim concerning the Blessed Trinity were condemned liy tlie I.ateran Council in 1215, his main teaehinn does not scctu to have excited suspicion until the miiUlle of the cen- tury. Many works had meanwhile come into being which were WTongly attributed to Joachim. Among these the "De Oneribus Prophetarum", the "Expo- sitio Sybilte et Merlini", and the commentaries on Jeremias and Isaias are the most famous. The sect of the "Joachists" or " Joachimists" arose among the "spiritual" party among the Franciscans, many of whom saw Antichrist already in the world in the per- son of Frederick II, nor was their faith shaken by his death in 12.50. One of their numlier, Fra (iherardo of Borgo San Donnino, wrote a treatise entitled " Intro- duotorium in Evangelium jEternum", of which the contents are now known only from the extracts made by the commission of three cardinals who examined it in 1255. From these it is clear that the Joachists went far beyond what the abbot himself had taught. They held that, about the year 1200, the spirit of life had gone out of the two Testaments, and that Joa- chim's three books themselves constituted this " Eter- nal Gospel", which was not simply to transcend, but to supersede, the Gospel of Christ. The Catliolic priesthood and the whole teaching of the New Testa- ment was to be rendered void in a few years.

This work was solemnly condemned by Alexander IV, in 1256, and the condemnation involved the teach- ing of Joachim himself. His central doctrine was con- futed by St. Thomas in the Summa Theologica (I-II, Q. cvi, a. 4), and its Franciscan exponents were sternly repressed by St. Bonaventure. Another blow was given to the movement when the fatal year 1260 came,

and nothing happened. " After Frederick II died who was Emperor", writes Fra Salimbene of Parma, "and the year 1260 passed, I entirely laid aside this doc- trine, and I am dispo.sed henceforth to believe notliing save what I see." It was revived in a modified form by the later leader of the spiritual Franciscans, Pier Gio- vanni Olivi (d. 1297), and his follower, Ubertino da Casale, who left the order in 1 .3 1 7. We hear a last echo of these theories in the letters of Blessed Giovanni dalle Celle and the prophecies of Telesphorus of Co- senza during the Great Schism, but they were no longer taken seriously.

Divini vatis Abbatis Joachim. Liber Concordia- nnvi ac veteris Testa/nenti (Venice, 1519); Expositio magni '}";>^,hrt'v St.lintis Joachim in Apocalipsim: Eiusdem Psalleriutu /'.,,,,, < ,u-.'\,ri/in opus prope divinum (Venice, 1527); Reuteh. ' ' /--

ligiosen Aufklarung im Mittelalter, II (Bcilui, ... 1 j,

L'Eresia nel Medio Evo (Florence, 1884); De.mi i.i,. Iht., Evan- gelium ceternum und die Commission zu Anagni iii Archiv ftir Litteratur- und Kirchen-Geschichte, I (Berlin. 1885); Holder- Egger, Cronica Fratris Salimbene de Adatn Ordinis Minorum (Hanover, 1905-08) ; Wicksteed, The Everlasting Gospel in The Inquirer (London, 1909); Fournier, Etudes sur Joachim de Flore et ses doctrines (Paris, 1909). The only contemporary account is the sketch, Virtutum B. Joachimi synopsis, by Lucas of Cosenz.\, his secretary: but the fuller Vita by J.\co- Bus GR.ECUS Syllan.eus, written in 1612, is professedly drawn from an ancient manuscript then preser\'ed at Fiore. Both are printed by the BoUandists, Acta SS., May. VII.

Edmund G. Gabdner.

Joan, PoPESs. — The fable about a female pope, who afterwards bore the name of Johanna (Joan), is first noticed in the middle of the thirteenth century. The first who appears to have had cognizance of it was the Dominican chronicler Jean de Mailly (Archiv der Gesellschaft fiir altere deutsche Geschichte, xii, 17 sq., 469 sq.) from whom another Dominican, Etienne de Bourbon (d. 1261), adopted the tale into his work on the "Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost" (Qu^ tif-Echard, "Scriptores Ordinis Prsdicatorum ", I, Paris, 1719). In this account the alleged popess is placed about the year 1100, and no name is yet as- signed her. The story runs that a very talented woman, dressed as a man, became notary to the Curia, then cardinal and finally pope; that one day this person went out on horseback, and on this occa- sion gave birth to a son; that she was then bound to the tail of a horse, dragged round the city, stoned to death l)y the mob, and was buried at the place where she died; and that an inscription was put up there as follows: " Petre pater patrum papissw prodito partuni ". In her reign, the story adds, the Ember days were in- troduced, called therefore the "fasts of the popess ". A different version appears in the third recension of the chronicle of Martin of Tro|ip;iu (Martiuus Po- lonus) possibly inserted by the author himself and not by a subsequent transcriber. Through tliis very po|iu- lar work the tale became best known in t he following form: After Leo IV (847-55) the Englishman John of Mainz (Johannes Anglicus, natione Moguntimis) occupied the papal chair two years, seven months and four days. He was, it is alleged, a woman. When a girl, she was taken to Athens in male clothes by her lover, and there made such progress in learning that no one was her equal. She came to Rome, where she taught science, and thereby attracted the attention of learned men. She enjoyed the greatest respect on account of her conduct and erudition, and was finally chosen as pope, but, becoming pregnant by one of her trusted attendants, she gave birth to a child during a procession from St. Peter's to the Lateran, somewhere lietween the Colosseum and St. Clem- ent's. There she died almost immediately, and it is said she was buried at the same place. In their pro- cessions the popes always avoid this road; many believe that they do this out of abhorrence of that calamity (Mon. Germ. Hist. Scr., xxii, 379-475).

Here occurs for the first time the name of Jolianna (Joan) as that of the alleged popess. Martin of Troppau had lived at the Curia as papal chaplain and