JOACHIM DE FLORIS, Italian mystic theologian: b. Celico, near Cosenza, Calabria, about 1145; d. Monte Nero 20 March 1202. Of noble birth he was brought up at the court of Duke Roger of Apulia and in his youth visited the holy places of the East. Soon after his return he resolved to alter his manner of life and entered the Cistercian order at Casa man. In 1177 we find mention of him as abbot of the monastery of Corazzo. He visited Pope Lucius III at Verdi in 1183, and Urban HI at Verona two years later. He soon became dis satisfied with the lax discipline of the monastery and retired to the solitudes of Pietralata, where with some followers he founded the abbey of San Giovanni in Fiore, on Monte Nero. He was befriended by the Pope and emperor and branch houses were established. He is best known however as the author of prophetic and polemical works, although in the 13th and suc ceeding centuries many such works were put out under his name. Only those enumerated in his will can be deemed absolutely authentic. These are 'Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testa menti) (first printed at Venice 1519) ; 'Ex positio Apocalypsis) (Venice 1527); 'Psalter ium decem Chordarum' (Venice 1527) and various "libellin against the adversaries of the Christian name and faith. He divides the his
tory of mankind into three periods, which in the 'Expositio> he calls the Age of Law, or of the Father, the Age of the Gospel, or of the Son, and the Age of the Spirit, which will witness the consummation of all things. His ideas soon spread in Italy and France, and many interpola tions were made in his works. Some of the opinions attributed to him were condemned at the Lateran Council of 1215. In 1255 others similarly attributed to him were censured by Pope Alexander IV, but the orthodoxy of Joachim was affirmed. Consult 'Acta Sane torum' (Antwerp 1643-86); Roussetat, Xavier,