Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between Cardinal Hugo/Gregory IX and Joachim of Fiore and the Florensian Order. It first explores the influence of Joachite thought, particularly concerning the Apocalypse, on the Curia and the wider world of the early thirteenth century. It then examines the part played by Joachim's great confidant, Rainier of Ponza, and Joseph of Fiore, who was closely tied to the Curia, in developing the thought of Hugo/Gregory concerning the part of new religious movements in a new eschatological stage of history. It closes with a thorough examination of the symbolism of the canonization letter of Dominic where the Cistercians and the Florensians together, as the white Quadriga, signify the coming of the Last Age.

Keywords: Joachim of Fiore, Dominicans, Franciscans, Apocalypse, Antichrist

The Pope and … who?

Pope Gregory IX, formerly Cardinal Hugo of Ostia, was known to hold in great esteem the Calabrian abbot Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202) and the Florensian order, which Joachim founded. Gregory's first modern biographer, Joseph Felten, writes of his role in the history of the mendicant orders and his multidimensional contest with his antagonist Frederick II of Hohenstaufen as the two main characteristics of Gregory's pontificate. In both thematic strands, Joachim of Fiore and his legacy were crucial, and without him, his thought and its reception, the history of the rise of the Franciscans and Dominicans and the antagonism between imperial court and Curia in the first half of the thirteenth century would have concluded differently. Throughout his career as cardinal and later as pope, Hugo or Gregory favoured the Florensian order. In a famous letter of the year 1234, he even placed the Florensians on a par with Cistercians, Dominicans, and Franciscans. At first sight this might come as a surprise, given the widespread and long lasting influence that both the Cistercians and the mendicant orders were to enjoy across the centuries, while Joachim's order appears to have faded within his own lifetime, even though his thought and work was to have a lasting impact on the history of medieval, early modern and modern thought. Apart from its founder, almost no members of the medieval Florensian order are known by name and none were in any way particularly prominent either spiritually or intellectually.