404 Joachim, abbot of Fiore
by the KHARIJITESand the Ibadis, to be a sixth pillar of
ISLAM. All Muslims were obliged to wage the greater spiri-
tual jihad in the sense of striving against SINand sinful
inclinations within themselves aiming to perfect their
spiritual life. The lesser jihad includes missionary activity
for Islam and armed conflict with evil. For some Muslims
this included the creation of Muslim states governed by
Muslim law, the Shariah, where possible.
See alsoJUST WAR.
Further reading:Majid Khadduri, War and Peace in
the Law of Islam1955; E. Tyan, “Djiha ̄d,” Encyclopedia of
Islam2.538–540.
Joachim, abbot of Fiore(ca. 1133–1201/02) Italian
prophet, mystic
Joachim was born the son of a notary between 1130 and
1135 at Celico near Cosenza in Calabria. He worked for a
time as a notary for the Norman government then in Cal-
abria and SICILY. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
he decided to enter the monastic life. He returned to
Sicily and Calabria and entered the CISTERCIANabbey of
Sambucina in 1159. At the Cistercian monastery of
Corazzo, Joachim was ordained a priest in 1168 and
elected abbot in 1177/8.
Preferring a solitary life of meditation and writing, in
about 1185 Joachim retired to the BENEDICTINE
monastery of Casamari, where he began to write his com-
mentary on the Book of Revelation. In 1191 he left the
Cistercian order and moved to San Giovanni in Fiore, in
Calabria, where he founded a hermitage. A group of his
followers there eventually organized into the order of San
Giovanni in Fiore (Florensians). It was a strict, reformed
branch of the Cistercians. It was approved in 1196 by the
pope, and its members were known as the Florensians.
He died on March 30, 1201/2, in Fiore.
WRITINGS AND INFLUENCEIn his later years, Joachim increasingly believed that he
possessed unusual illumination about Christian Scripture
and doctrine and that he was subject to special revelation
and able to interpret all kinds of portents. Encouraged by
Pope INNOCENTIII, Joachim recorded his interpretations
and visions and submitted them to the PAPACYfor consid-
eration and approval shortly before his death in 1201/02.
Although Joachim probably had no intention of dissemi-
nating heretical doctrines, some of the ideas drawn from
his theological and ecstatic writings influenced later het-
erodox thinkers, who were to cause problems for the
church authorities and society for the next 200 years. He
was condemned for his views on the Trinity at the Fourth
Lateran Council.
THOUGHT AND LATER INFLUENCEJoachim’s thought was founded on his concept of the
Trinity and its implications for the understanding of
human history. In his Book of Figuresand in several other
works, Joachim divided history into two dispensations, or
eras, to be followed by a third. The first was the dispensa-
tion of the Old Testament, or former covenant, which
culminated in the first coming of Christ. A second age
was a second dispensation, or new covenant, of the
Christian church. This would culminate in a second com-
ing of Christ. Joachim believed he was living near the end
of the second age and only two generations remained
before a second advent of Christ. According to this view,
then, history was divided into three periods, the ages of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The third age, which
was supposed to arrive about 1260, was the age of the
Spirit or an age of love, liberty, and freedom in which the
principal institution in the world would be MONASTICISM
and the corrupt, visible, hierarchical structure of the
Catholic Church would be superseded by a spiritual
church.
The teachings of Joachim in particular were con-
demned in 1256 by Pope Alexander IV (r. 1254–61).
However, the ideas of Joachim, especially on the concept
of a golden age of the Spirit and the threefold division of
history, remained influential in Western thought from theMongol Invasions, 13th Century
See alsoAPOCALYPSE AND APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE;
BIBLE;OLIVI,PETERJOHN;SALLMBENE DEADAM;SPIRITUAL
FRANCISCANS;UBERTINO DACASALE.
Further reading: Bernard McGinn, The Calabrian
Abbot: Joachim of Fiore in the History of Western Thought
(New York: Macmillan, 1985); Marjorie Reeves, The Influ-
ence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in
Joachimism, rev. ed. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1993); Stephen Wessley, Joachim of
Fiore and Monastic Reform(New York: Lang, 1990).Joan, Pope, legend oflegendary woman pope
This legend, whose first traces appeared around 1255,
was believed throughout the later Middle Ages, and its
memory persists even now. Apart from a romantic aspect,
it explored a fundamental taboo of the church, the rejec-
tion of women priests. It also posed a troubling and
threatening question: what happens when a supreme and
divinely sanctioned power was usurped by a person
deemed inappropriate.
This legend became extremely popular during the
reigns of certain unpopular popes. It further played a
role in controversies from the 13th century about the
status of the Roman Church and its magisteriumor
teaching authority. At the time of the Great SCHISM
about 1400, this tale of Pope Joan was treated as a
proper legal case, fact, or precedent and was used to jus-
tify declaring a papal election null and void. Later, the
Hussite movement and then the 16th century Reforma-
tion found in her story a striking example of a corrupt
Roman Church.