The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in Joachimism

Joachim of Fiore proclaimed a philosophy of history which exercised a powerful influence in succeeding centuries. This book traces the influence of his prophecies concerning a "Third Age of the Spirit" to come, as later expressed in the themes of "New Spiritual Men", "Last World Emperor", "Angelic Pope", and "Renovatio Mundi". It shows that these ideas were not only the mainspring of various heterodox groups, but also engaged the attention of certain church leaders, university scholars, Renaissance thinkers, Protestant theologians, and political rulers down to the seventeenth century.