Apocalyptics in the later Middle Ages: Joachim of Fiore and Peter John Olivi

What is it about?

The question of Franciscan Spiritual Peter John Olivi's († 1298) doctrinal debt to Cistercian abbot Joachim of Fiore († 1202) has long been debated and is still historiographically open. The article reconsiders it by investigating the meaning attributed by the two authors to the key-notion of new Babylon, understood as the subject that in the coming end times gives present form to the Babylon preannounced by John's Apocalypse. Joachim changes his doctrine over time. In 1184 he identifies the new Babylon with the Empire, whose imminent disintegration he announces. After the fall of Jerusalem (1187), the most formidable and looming enemy becomes for him Islam, and the equation Empire = new Babylon is effectively abandoned. In his Expositio in Apocalypsim, concluded on the eve of his death, he deals only with apocalyptic Babylon as synonymous with corruption and spiritual death. The denunciation is on the moral and anti-hierarchical level; in fact, to regret the imminent end of Babylon will be corrupt prelates and monks.

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Why is it important?

It is important to evaluate the difference about significance and use of the key-concept of Babylon by the two most important medieval authors of Commentaries on John's Apocalypse

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