JOACHIMIST INFLUENCES ON THE IDEA OF A LAST WORLD EMPEROR

JOACHIMIST INFLUENCES ON THE IDEA OF A LAST WORLD EMPERORAuthor(s): Marjorie ReevesSource: Traditio, Vol. 17 (1961), pp. 323-370Published by: Fordham UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27830430 .

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JOACHIMIST INFLUENCES ON THE IDEA OF A LAST WORLD EMPEROR

By Marjorie Reeves

The question of the dramatis personae in the last great act of history was

a subject of perennial interest in the Middle Ages.1 Parts, both good and bad, had to be cast and it is not surprising that national hopes and rivalries fre

quently crept into the various attempts to assign these tremendous cosmic

roles. Although both the pessimistic expectation of a mounting crescendo of

evil2 and the hope of a millennium had existed in Christian thought since its

beginning, it was the Joachimist structure of history which most clearly

brought together the final crisis of evil and the final blessedness in a last

great act which was yet within history, separated from eternity by the Second

Advent. The concept of an age of blessedness had three strands in it: first, the idea of the millennium, derived from the Apocalypse (20.1-3), in which

Satan is bound for a thousand years; secondly, the concept of a Sabbath Age,

symbolized in the Seventh Day of Creation when God rested from His labors;

thirdly, the Trinitarian interpretation of history, finally worked out by Joa

chim, in which history was expected to culminate in the Third Age of the

Holy Spirit. The first two ideas did not necessarily lead to the expectation of a last age of blessedness within time: the millennium was frequently inter

preted as covering the whole period between the First and Second Advents, or again, as constituting a rule of Christ and His Saints beyond history; the Sabbath Age could be seen as a Sabbath beyond the Second Advent and Last

1 Among many works dealing with this subject the following are of most value: J. von

D?llinger, 'Der Weissagungsglaube und das Prophetentum in der christlichen Zeit,' His

torisches Taschenbuch6 1 (1871) 259-370; F. von Bezold, 'Zur deutschen Kaisersage,' Sb.

Akad. Munich 14 (1884) 560-606; R. Schr?der, Die deutsche Kaisersage (Heidelberg 1891); H. von Grauert, 'Zur deutschen Kaisersage,' Historisches Jahrbuch 13 (1892) 100-143;

W. Bousset, Der Antichrist in der ?berlieferung des Judentums, des neuen Testaments und

alten Kirche (G?ttingen 1895); F. Kampers, Kaiserprophetien und Kaisersagen im Mittelalter

(Munich 1895), also published as Die Deutsche Kaiseridee in Proph?tie und Sage (Munich

1896); J. Rohr, 'Die Proph?tie im letzten Jahrhundert vor der Reformation als Geschichts

quelle und Geschichtsfaktor, ' Historisches Jahrbuch 19 (1898) 29-56; E. Sackur, Pseudo

methodius, Adso und die Tiburtinische Sibylle (Halle 1898); A. Rosenkrantz, 'Prophetische

Kaisererwartungen im ausgehende Mittelalter/ Preussische Jahrb?cher 119 (1905) 508-24; H. Preuss, Die Vorstellungen vom Antichrist im sp?teren Mittelalter bei Luther und in der

konfessionellen Polemik (Leipzig 1906); W. Peuckert, Die Grosse Wende (Hamburg 1948); R. Folz, Le souvenir et la l?gende de Charlemagne (Paris 1950); . Cohn, The Pursuit of the

Millennium (London 1957). * The pessimistic expectation was based on such Biblical passages as Matth. 24.



324 TRADITIO

Judgment and therefore also beyond history. It was only when these two

concepts became linked with the Trinitarian view of history that they clearly

symbolized a crowning age of history, set in the future and therefore not yet attained, whilst unmistakably within the time process, preceding the wind

ing-up of history in the Second Advent and Last Judgment. The full force

of Joachim's concept of the Third Age was rarely grasped, appearing usually in a much-debased form, but the program of Last Things, as worked out by Joachites of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, profoundly influenced

the form which these expectations took in the later Middle Ages and, indeed,

right down to the end of the sixteenth century. In a certain sense the pessimistic and optimistic notes had become mingled

in that one of the most popular programs, derived from the Sibylline prophecy of Byzantium, envisaged the triumph of a Last World Emperor in an age of

material peace and prosperity which, however, sees no diminution of sin and

therefore collapses before the onslaught of Antichrist.3 Even Joachim himself

compromised with the pessimistic view to the extent of allowing that the

Third Age would end in deterioration and the tribulation of Gog and Magog. Thus he avoided the dangerous implications of an age of absolute perfection within history, distinguishing the Seventh Day of history clearly from the

Eighth Day of eternity. The essence of the Joachimist view lies in the belief

that the greatest persecution of the Church ? the Antichristus pessimus ?

must precede the Third Age, whereas Gog and Magog represent only a final

flick of the Dragon's tail.4 Thus the chief criterion of latent Joachimist in

fluence in the later Middle Ages is the extent to which the final age of gold

represents a state of blessedness after the crucial battle with the forces of evil

has been won, rather than a purely human state of material prosperity, which

precedes Antichrist and breaks up at the onslaught of the powers of darkness.

This usually means that the age of bliss is placed after the defeat of Anti

christ, but some prophetic writers combine Joachimism with the older trad?

3 Sackur, op. cit.; Folz, op. cit.; Kampers, Die Deutsche Kaiseridee 5-44. The most widely

disseminated texts embodying this tradition are the Tiburtine Sibyl (4th century), the

tract of Pseudo-Methodius (7th century) and Adso, De ortu et tempore Antichrisli (10th

century). These have been edited and studied by Sackur. The Last Emperor will rule the

earth in peace and tranquillity. Men will be eating, drinking and making merry, as in

Noah's days, when suddenly the gates of the north will open and the people shut up by Alexander will pour in. The Emperor will go to Jerusalem, and when Antichrist appears he will place his crown upon the Gross on Golgotha and render up his rule and his soul

to God, leaving the final destruction of the forces of evil to the divine intervention of Christ

from on high. I hope elsewhere to deal more fully with the relation of Joachimism to the

earlier tradition. 4 See M. Reeves and B. Hirsch-Reich, 'The Seven Seals in the Writings of Joachim of

Fiore,' Recherches de Th?ologie ancienne et m?di?vale 21 (1954) 222-3, 228-29, 245-7.



THE IDEA OF A LAST WORLD EMPEROR 325

tion in a program which runs thus: victorious battle with one manifestation of Antichrist, age of spiritual blessedness, final Antichrist, Second Advent, Last Judgment. The crucial Joachimist point, however, is still present

? a renovatio on a spiritual level after the most testing battle with evil, yet still within history.

The chief roles in this final drama were allotted to Antichrist, an Angelic Pope and a World Emperor. Antichrist developed into a complex phenomenon which could include a terrible tyrant (the seventh head of the Dragon in the

Apocalypse), a mystic Antichrist, who was to be either a heresiarch or a

pseudo-Pope, and an open Antichrist, usually interpreted as the infidel. This article will not be greatly concerned with the false and angelic popes but with the secular pair of opposites: the evil tyrant and the last world emperor.

I.

Prophetic programs offered great scope for racial rivalries. In the struggle with the Hohenstaufen, Italian Joachites were most eager to assign the evil role to Frederick II and his brood. One of the main themes of the earliest

pseudo-Joachimist writings can be summed up in words from the most im

portant of these, the Super Hieremiam: ' Alemanorum imp?rium semper extitit

nostris durum, dirum et mirum.'5 Frederick II is the leo saevus de aquilone, the regulus de radice colubri, the Leviathan, the terrible aquila, the sixth or

seventh head of the Dragon.6 When the Franciscan Salimbene recounts a

conversation at Hy?res among the Joachites gathered round Hugh de Digne, the focus of attention is the question of Frederick IPs role in history.7 When

5 Super Hieremiam (Venice 1516) fol. 46r.

? Ibid. fol. llv. 14r, 15v, 18v, 45v-46v, 58v, 62r; 'Vaticinium Sibillae Erithreae' (ed. O.

Holder-Egger), Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft f?r ?ltere deutsche Geschichtskunde 15 (1889)

165-8, 176-7; Neues Archiv 30 (1904) 332-4; 'De oneribus,' Neues Archiv 33 (1907) 144-5,

150-3, 156-73, 181-5; also 109, 114; De oneribus (with additional unpublished passages) in British Museum, MS Royal 8.F.XVI, fol. 41'; Super Esaiam (Venice 1517) fol. 10v, 13v,

15r, 19r-v, 27r, 29v, 35r, 37r-v, 39v-40v, 42v, 46v-47v, 59r-v; Oraculum Cyrilli ed. P. Piur,

Vom Mittelalter zur Reformation II 4 (Berlin 1912) Appendix 308-9. Frederick II appears as the seventh head of the dragon in some versions of the Praemissiones, a pseudo-Joachimist

figure collection which usually precedes the Super Esaiam ; see the earliest MSS, Vat. lat.

4959, fol. 2V; Ross. 552, fol. 3V; also British Museum, Additional 11439, fol. 101v. 7 Apart from the famous prophecies of the two new orders, the main theme of Salimbene's

citations from Joachim (chiefly from the pseudo-Joachimist writings) is the role of the evil

emperor which he believes to be fulfilled in Frederick II (MGH Scriptores 32.31, 201, 240-53,

347, 349, 359-60, 446, 494-5). At Hy?res, where 'multi notarli et iudices atque medici et

alii litterati' gathered in the chamber of Hugh de Digne, the question raised by a sceptical Dominican was 'Volo quod probes michi per Ysaiam sicut docet Ioachym abbas quod vita

Friderici imperatorie in LXX annis debeat terminan ... et quod non possit interfici nisi a

Deo. ' For proof Hugh cites the pseudo-Joachimist De oneribus and the prophecies of Merlin.



326 TRADITIO

he died, the Joachites could not believe that the Hohenstaufen had done their

worst, and when the last of his brood had been crushed, there arose a prophetic oracle on a future Frederick III, who would fulfill the destiny for evil left

incomplete by the second Frederick.8

By this time a German counterblast to Italian propaganda had appeared in the shape of prophecies proclaiming the glorious destiny of the German

eagle as the final imp?rium.9 On the extinction of the Hohenstaufen, this, too, took shape in the expectation of a Third Frederick, who would subdue the Papacy and dominate the world. The prophecy, which begins by 'foretelling' the end of Manfred, first appeared under the name of the Abbot

Joachim in 1268:10

8 Probably the earliest, though concealed, reference to a revived Frederick II or Fred

erick III occurs in the pseudo-Joachimist Vaticinium Sibillae Erithreae (ed. cit. 15.168): 'Oculos eius morte claudet abscondita, supervivetque; sonabit et in populis "Vivit non vi

vitV According to Holder-Egger, this work was written between 1252 and 1254 (ibid.

149). See Salimbene's reference to this prophecy: c... quod multi crediderint eum non esse

mortuum, cum vere mortuus esset, et ex hoc impletum fuit Sybille vaticinium que dicit:

Sonabit et in populis: "Vivit et non vivit" et premittit quod mors eius esset abscondita'

(ed. cit. 347). The earliest specific references to the Third Frederick seem to be in the De

oneribus: 'De radice, inquit, colubri previi sc. Frederici egredietur regulus alius, sc. Fre

dericus cuius semen F. tercius, iuxta Rainerium, superbos populos absorbebit' (ed. cit.

173); '... unus egrediens quern Rainerius tercium autumat Fredericum, sine manibus con

teretur, Erithrea dicente: Erit mors abscondita...' (ibid. 182). It seems clear from these

and other passages in the De oneribus that it was closely associated with the Vaticinium

Sibillae Erithreae and that the prophecy of Frederick III was disseminated in an otherwise

unknown prophecy under the name of Rainerius. Popular discussions on the significance of Federick II and of a future Hohenstaufen are reflected in Thomas of Pavia's Distinc

tions, written just before 1260 (Arch?vum Franciscanum historicum 16 [1923] 27-8). Thomas

has clearly seen a version of Joachim's dragon figure in which the sixth head, named

Frederick II, is joined at the neck to the seventh, labelled Antichrist. Cf. MSS Vat. lat. 4959, fol. 2V and Ross. 552, fol. 3V, where this is so.

9 Under the year 1248, Albert of Stade (MGH Script. 16.371) mentions the abominable

Swabian sect of Frater Arnold, a Dominican whose heresy seems to have consisted in the

expectation that the Emperor would forcibly reform the depraved Church in this sixth age of tribulation and bring in the seventh of renovatio. His views were put forward in a tract

De correctione Ecclesiae (ed. E. Winkelmann, Berlin 1865), written in the period 1248-50.

The idea of the Emperor as the chief agent of the renovatio was fostered by Frederick ITs

propaganda; see, for example, J. Huillard-Breholles, Historia diplomatica Friderici secundi

5.2 (Paris 1859) 1131; 6.2 (1861) 707; E. Winkelmann, Acta Imperil inedita saeculi XIII

et XIV 2 (Innsbruck 1885) 50. 10 '

Continuatio, ' Chronica Minor Auctore Minorita Erphordiensi, MGH Script. 24.207.

Cf. infra at nn. 55, 128.The original Fredericus orient?lis was probably Frederick, Landgrave of Thuringia, a grandson of Frederick II. On the association of this prophecy with Car

dinal John of Porto, see M. Bloomfield and M. Reeves, 'The Penetration of Joachism

into Northern Europe,' Speculum 29 (1954) 790. Another pro-imperial verse which had

considerable currency at this time, beginning ' Gallorum levitas,

' expresses the prophetic




Regnabit Menfridus bastardus a flatu mezani usque ad finem regni. Contra quem veniet rex ultramontanus, leo Francie, propter audaciam et severitatem qui debellabit eum et auferet dyadema de capite suo. Tune s?rget filius aquile et in volatu suo debilitabitur leo, et 21 die post con flictum filius aquile incidet in os leonis et post hec leo modice tempore regnabit. Orietur enim ramus de radice regni Fridericus nomine orient?lis

qui debellabit leonem et ad nichilum rediget ita ut memoria sua non sit

amplius super terram. Cuius potencie brachia extendentur usque ad finem mundi. Ipse enim imperane imperabit et sub eo summus pontifex capietur. Post hec Theutonici et Hyspani confederabuntur et regnum Francie r?digent in nichilum.

In Alexander von Roes' De translatione Impera (c. 1281)11 the prophecy of the Third Frederick as the worst tyrant appears in definitive form. For a long time, he says, there has been circulating in Germany a prophecy which

runs:12

De huius Frederici germine radix peccatrix erumpet Frederico nomine

qui clerum in Germania et etiam ipsam Rom?nam ecclesiam valde humiliabit et tribulabit vehementer.

It will be observed that these two prophecies of the good and bad Fred

ericks have two common characteristics: both use the symbol of the new

branch springing from the root, although the one derives from the tree of

Jesse and the other from the evil tree of Antiochus Epiphanes;13 both allot

to the Third Frederick the role of chastising the Church. We shall find this

concept of good and wicked chastiser-kings fully developed later. Alexander,

however, places the prophecy of the tyrant side by side with another:

Dicunt preterea, aliud ibidem esse vulgare propheticum quod de Kar

lingis, i.e. de stirpe r?gis Karoli et de domo regum Francie, imper?tor suscitabitur Karol? nomine, qui erit princeps et monarchia totius Europe et reformabit ecclesiam et imp?rium sed post ilium nunquam alius im

perabit.

Here the good ruler wears a new countenance. Thus it is in Alexander von

Roes* work that we encounter for the first time the Third Frederick and the

hope thus: 'Papa cito moritur, Caesar regnabit ubique' (ed. O. Holder-Egger in Neues

Archiv 33 [1907] 125-6, from MS Vat. lat. 3822). It is quoted in the following chronicles:

B. Cotton, Historia Anglicana (Rolls Series 1859) 239; Walter of Coventry, Memoriale

(Rolls Series 1872) I 26; Appendix to Peter de Langtoft, Chronicle (Rolls Series 1868) II

450; Annales Monastici (Rolls Series 1869) IV 514; Corpus Chronicorum Bononiensium,

RIS2 18 (1906) I 17. Infra, nn. 128, 166, for later references to this verse.

11 H. Grundmann, Alexander von Roes, De Translatione Imperil und Jordanus von Os

nabr?ck, De Prerogativa Romani Imperil (Leipzig 1930) 2. 12 Ibid. 30. Infra, at . 58 for later quotations of these prophecies from Alexander von

Roes. 18 See Is. 11.1 and 1 Mach. 1.10. The radix peccatrix was first applied to the Hohenstaufen

in the Super Esaiam fol. 19p, 27r.



328 TRADITIO

Second Charlemagne, placed in the dramatic juxtaposition in which we shall

meet them many times.

II.

In Joachimist thought France had so far played a minor role ? usually that of Egypt, the broken reed14 ? but the idea of a Second Charlemagne had a long previous history, going back ultimately to the Sibylline prophecy of a last great Byzantine emperor. In this tradition, as we have seen, the Em

peror's reign will be an age of material plenty and peace, but it will be tran

sitory, for he will be unable to stand against the final onslaught of Antichrist.15 As already suggested, in Joachimist thought this old pessimistic trend was

largely overcome by the belief in the Third Age which was to be the con

summation of history after Antichrist. Thus when the Joachites incorporated the Second Charlemagne concept into their program, they placed his advent

after the mysterious tyrant Frederick III, who represented an aspect of Anti

christ, and associated him with the Angelic Pope, a figure evolved as the embodiment of the Third Age.16 The ancient tradition of a last world emperor became a still more powerful symbol of hope when placed in the Joachimist context.

Two fourteenth-century Joachites whose writings enjoyed a wide vogue were mainly responsible for developing a prophetic political program heavily biased in favor of France. A Franciscan, Joannes de Rupescissa (Jean de Roquetaillade), born apparently near Aurillac, was producing various

14 See, for example, Super Hieremiam fol. 7V-8V, 43v, 60r; Super Esaiam fol. 6V, 10r, 16v

44r-45v, 59r; De oneribus, ed. cit. 140-1, 174-6. The symbol is derived from Is. 36.6. 16

Supra, n. 3. 16 Joachim's caution prevented him from specifying the institutions of the Third Age

too closely. He clearly believed, however, that the contemplative Church would be led

by a spiritually regenerated Pope, whom he saw symbolized in Joseph: Liber Concordie

(Venice 1519) fol. 89r. See also Expositio in Apocalypsim (Venice 1527) fol. 120r. The pro cess by which among the Joachites this idea crystallized into the Angelic Pope, the symbol of the Third Age, can hardly be traced. Roger Bacon appears to be the first who, in 1267,

clearly pointed to an expected Pope who would purge and reunite the Church: Opus tertium,

(Rolls Series) 86. No doubt the concept was worked out among the Spiritual Franciscans, for it is in a group of writings dating from the early fourteenth century and emanating from

Spiritual Franciscan circles that the figure of the Angelic Pope, indeed of a series of Angelic Popes, first clearly emerges. On these, the Vaticinia de summis pontificibus, the Liber de

Flore and related works, see H. Grundmann, ' Die Papstprophetien des Mittelalters,

'

Archiv f?r Kulturgeschichte 19 (1928) 77-138; 'Liber de Flore,' Historisches Jahrbuch 49

(1929) 33-91. On the whole subject of the Angelic Pope, see F. Baethgen, Der Engelpapst Schriften der K?nigsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft 10.2; Halle 1933).




prophetic writings between 1340 and 1360.17 In his eyes Antichrist was

multiple, but the most menacing form of evil would spring from the cursed seed of Frederick II. After the climax of tribulation an Angelic Pope

? the

reparator orbis ? would appear to usher in the Third Age of the world. To

gether with a King of France who would be elected, contrary to custom, as

Emperor of the Romans, the Pope would exterminate Antichrist, reform the Church and bring the entire world under submission. The rule of this Emperor would constitute a millennium of peace only to be ended by a last flicker of evil in Gog and Magog, immediately preceding the Second Advent and Last

Judgment.18

Whether Telesphorus of Cosenza was really a hermit of Calabria or no, he was certainly Francophile in his prophecies, put together apparently in 1386.19 He followed Rupescissa in the main outline of a program which can be summed up in the Exordium to his work:20

Incipit libellus fratris Thelofori presbyteri ac heremite secundum auc toritates prescriptorum prophetarum et verarum cronicarum de causis, statu, cognitione ac fine instantis scismatis et tribulationum futurarum,

maxime tempore futuri r?gis aquilonis vocantis se Fredericum imperatorem III usque ad tempora futuri pape vocati angelici pastoris et Karoli regis Francie, futuri imperatoris post Fredericum III supradictum.

Writing at this date it was natural that Telesphorus should see the crisis of evil concentrated in a Great Schism, but its chief agents are a German

tyrant as well as a pseudo-pope. The Antipapa Germanus will crown the

tyrant Frederick III, who will bitterly afflict the Church for its sins and

imprison the French king. Finally, however, the true Angelic Pope will be revealed and crowned by an angel, while the French king will be miraculously released by God and crowned as emperor by the Pope, thus depriving the

17 The most complete and authoritative study of his life and writings is J. Bignami Odier, ?tudes sur Jean de Roquetaillade (Johannes de Rupescissa) (Paris 1952).

18 Ibid. 116-7, 125, summarizing the Liber seeretum eventuum (1349), and 164-6, 170-2,

summarizing the Vade mecum in tribulatione (1356). Rupescissa adopts the subtle com

bination of traditional pessimism and optimism, which, as we have seen, characterizes

Joachim's view, cf. supra, 324. The rapid dissemination of the Francophile prophecies is illustrated by a prophecy said to have been made 'per uno Frate minore nel 1368,' in which the Angelic Pope, the 'Reparatore del mondo,' was to arise after 1378 and, together with

Re di Francia, imperadore di Roma,'reform the world, see Diario d'Anonimo fiorentino dall' anno 1358 al 1389, ed. A Gherardi in Documenti di Storia Italiana 6 (Florence 1876) 390.

19 The most complete study of the author and the various redactions and MSS of his work has been made by E. Donckel, 'Die Prophezeiung des Telesforus,' Arch?vum Fran ciscanum historicum 26 (1933) 29-104.

20 ed. Venice 1516 fol. 8V; Donckel, op. cit. 81-2, from Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS lat. 3184, fol. 106 .



330 TRADITIO

German electors of their right. Together Emperor and Pope will destroy the forces of evil, reform the Church, recover Jerusalem, convert the Infidel and the Jew, unite the Greek and Latin Churches and inaugurate an age of

peace, joy and tranquillity throughout the world. The winding-up of history follows the lines of Rupescissa.21 Here, then, is the ancient myth of the last

World Emperor incorporated into a Joachimist program and such was the

prophetic future most widely known in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the Vatican library there is a collection of prophecies

? MS Reg. lat. 580 ? which was finished in 1387 and includes what must, therefore, be one of the earliest manuscripts of Telesphorus' libellas. The illustrations pick out especially the four angelic popes and the last emperor, including one of the crowning of the 'Second Charlemagne.' This is followed immediately (fol. 523) by a separate prophecy which was destined to become one of the

most widely disseminated oracles of the next two centuries and which will be referred to throughout this article as 'the Second Charlemagne prophecy':

Karolus filius Karoli ex natione illustrissimi Lilii habens frontem Ion" gam, supercilia alta, oculos longos, nasum aquilinum, circa sue etatis

annum XIII coronabitur et in anno XIIII magnum exercitum congregabit omnesque tirampnos sui regni destruet. Nam ut sponsa cum sponso sic

erit justicia sociata cum eo; usque ad XXIIII annum suum deducet bella,

subiugans Anglicos, Hyspanos, Aragon?s, Burgales, Lungobardos, Yta

licos; Romam cum Florentia destruet et igne comburet; duplicem coronam

obtinebit, postmodum mare transiens cum exercitu magno intrabit Gre

ciam. Et Rex Grecorum nominabitur. Caldeos, Thucenos, Ysparos,

Barbaros, Palestinos, Giorgianos subiugabit, faciens edictum ut quicunque Crucifixum non adoraverit morte moriatur et non erit qui possit ei re

sistere, quia divinum brachium semper cum ipso erit et fere dominium universe terre possidebit. His factis sanctus sanctorum vocabitur, veniens

ad sanctam Jerusalem et accedens ad montem Oliveti, orans ad Patrem

deponensque coronam de capite, Deo gratias agens cum magno terremotu,

signis et mirabilibus, emittet spiritum suum anno regni XXXI. Hic co ronatus erit ab Angelico pastore et primus Imperator post Federicum tercium post presens scisma et tribulationes et persecutiones pseudo

prophetarum et dicti Federici.

81 Like Rupescissa, Telesphorus makes a synthesis of the older tradition and the Joa"

chimist expectation. His scheme is complex, since the various manifestations of evil seem

to split up the Third Age thus: (a) the tribulation of Schism, Anti-Pope and German

Tyrant; (b) the Age of beatitude under the Angelic Popes and the French Emperor, when

Satan is imprisoned; (c) the loosing of Satan in the great Antichrist, when the Emperor

gives up the ghost; (d) Antichrist destroyed by the Archangel Michael, Satan bound again,

the age of beatitude returns, when the Jews are converted; (e) Satan loosed for the final

persecution of Gog and Magog; (f) the forces of evil finally beaten by Michael and the angelic

hosts, Satan locked in the abyss forever, the final age of ref?rm and beatitude under the

Pope until the Last Judgment.




The prophecy is not explicitly ascribed to Telesphorus in this manuscript,

yet in a Venetian manuscript written in 146722 it also occurs in exactly the same position, following directly after Telesphorus' libellus, and it clearly has close affinities to his prophecies, its last sentence expressing in summary form the whole Telesphorean future. This text, in fact, remains persistently associated with the name of Telesphorus.

Yet it seems doubtful if he actually wrote it. M. Chaume discovered and

published another version, which he has shown to have been transcribed

between 27 October 1381 and 29 June 1382 in the C?te d'Or, and to have

been composed in honor of Charles VI between 16 September and 4 November

1380.23 The text is a slightly fuller version of that given above, with few

significant variations until the end, where it stops short before the last sen

tence. But this omission makes all the difference. Without this last sentence

the prophecy is little more than a revival of the old Byzantine myth of the Last Emperor, as it had long since been applied to Caro lus redwivus. The

physical description, though peculiar to itself, is probably based on the Ti

burtine Sibyl;24 the program of conquest follows the same tradition, although

geographically brought up to date. The conclusion, it is true, has not the

deep gloom of the old tradition, in which human history ends when the Last

Emperor resigns his crown on Golgotha and goes down before the forces of

Antichrist; here, the Second Charlemagne is favored of God and lays down his imp?rium in a cloud of glory and sanctity

? on Olivet, be it noted, not

Golgotha ? but there is no indication that he has wrestled with Antichrist

in any form or that he has a real place in the eschatology of Last Things. The additional sentence in the Vatican and Venetian manuscripts is awkwardly tacked on, but it clearly gives a new slant to the prophecy: by placing the Second Charlemagne after the pseudo-prophets and the Third Frederick

(manifestations of Antichrist) and crowning him by the Angelic Pope (re presenting the Third Status of Joachim), the author of the addition contrives

22 Bibi. Marc. MS lat. Cl. .177 (formerly cod. 44 chart.), fol. 35v. This was written by a monk, Andreas of St. Cyprian, in 1469. J. Valentinelli, Bibliotheca Manuscripta ad

S. Marci Venetiarum (Venice 1868) II 215, thought this prophecy was the incipit of the Tractatus de Antichristo of John of Paris, which follows it without a break. This was almost

certainly the manuscript used by the 1516 editor of Telesphorus' libellus, infra at n. 180. For the association of this prophecy with Telesphorus in the sixteenth century, infra, n. 163.

28 M. Chaume, 'Une proph?tie relative ? Charles VI,' Revue du Moyen Age latin 3 (1947) 27-42.

24 For an analysis of the sources of the Second Charlemagne prophecy, see Chaume, op. cit. 37-42. A physical description occurs in the Interpretatio sibyllinorum librorum, PL 110.1181-6 and in Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon, MGH Script. 22.146-7. See also Folz,

op. cit. (note 1 supra) 138-9.



332 TRADITIO

to place this triumph of human history within an eschatological framework and

to make it the embodiment of an expectation which is Joachimist in origin, if not in form. Assuming that the French version of M. Chaume is the original one,25 it seems most likely that the text was seized upon by Telesphorus or

one of his followers and disseminated, with the additional last sentence, in

the company of his own prophecies. From the number of quarters in which it turns up, it would seem that this

Second Charlemagne text enjoyed the greatest vogue of any in the fifteenth

and sixteenth centuries. We shall meet it with variations in its beginning,

according to its application in differing political situations, and in its ending,

according to its association or otherwise with the Telesphorean program but always the Last Emperor bears the same physical features and carries

out roughly the same program. In the same Venetian manuscript, for instance, as that in which occurs the text given above, there appears (fol. 49v) a much

extended version under the heading Prophezia Karoli Regis Francorum.m

Here there is no Joachimist last sentence, but the pius pastor with whom the

Emperor is associated may be a vestige of the Angelic Pope. In a Paris

manuscript,27 the prophecy follows the Visiones fratris Joannes de Rupescissa but, again, does not contain the last sentence. On the other hand, Ms Vat. lat.

3816, a fifteenth-century manuscript which contains the libellus of Telesphorus,

gives the Telesphorean conclusion to this prophecy (fol. 62v-63r), as does MS

Chigiano A. VII 220, fol. 50v, with a beautiful illustration of a king in a mitre

crown surmounted by a cross, holding a sceptre in his left hand and raising his

right in blessing. The prophecy is also found in MSS Vat. lat. 4872, fol. 167v

168v, Clm. 313, fol. 40; Rouen 1355, fol. 87v, 97^ ; Bibl. Estense, M. 5. 27

fol. 42v, and, in an English translation, Brit. Mus. Additional 24663, fol. 10v.28

u This seems most likely, but in one detail the version in the Vatican and Venetian MS S

is more correct: it gives the age of Charles VI at his coronation correctly as 13, not 14.

M. Chaume uses the erroneous age of 14 in his argument to show that the prophecy was

written before Charles' coronation on 4 November 1380. He may be right, in which case

the Italian version has been corrected; or, on the other hand, the original may have been

13, wrongly transcribed as 14, in which case the prophecy need not have been written as

early as Chaume supposes. 26 A note to the prophecy adds: 'Haec prophetia superius transcripta fuit ex exemplari

antiquissimo, quod havitum fuit a domino Iohanne Marcello de Sancto Vitali de verbo ad

verbum, sicut ibidem erat, non obstante inconcina latinitate que in ea est. A. D. MCCCCXV

quinto martii.' The text has been edited by A. Graf, Roma nella memoria e nelle immagina

zioni del medio evo (Turin 1883) II 489 . 37. It is the only version in which the physical

features have been altered. In its extensions also it stands apart from other texts.

? Bibl. Nat. MS lat. 3598 fol. 45.




III.

It was inevitable that the period of the Schism and the Councils should

produce once more a Teutonic counterblast to French claims. The prophecies of Gamaleon, reputed to be a relation of Pope Boniface IX, were apparently circulating c. 1409.29 His first vision of a boy, adorned with the seven planets and holding four swords, brings prognostications of wars and tribulations.30

Then he sees an armed man clothed in red and crowned with a ruby whom the boy proclaims as 'magnus ille rex de campo Liliorum ex Meridie.'31 He

is the tyrant who seizes the Imperial title from the German race and brings desolation and destruction on the Church and the peoples. But in the Rhine

land there will arise a prince whom the Germans will elect as Caesar. He will call a Council at Aachen and there the Patriarch of Mainz will be crowned as Pope. Then the German Emperor will destroy the French Emperor and

prevail over all peoples, exterminating the Jews and reducing the clergy to

Apostolic poverty. Rome will be remembered no more as the seat of the

Apostles, for the Patriarchiate of Mainz will be the centre of the Church: 'Germania nunc pie et Christiane vivet et honoribus adaugebitur.'32 Here

national hopes are clearly allied to the expectation of a spiritual renovatio. In the same period the prophecies of St. Bridget were also circulating.

During her life-time a collection of her revelations had been made in seven

books, the Liber coelestis revelationum. Later, the Liber magnus had been extracted from these, and c. 1433 J. Tortsch of Leipzig had compiled the brief Onus mundi from all the revelations.33 St. Bridget's conception of the pro phetic future is not easy to extract, but it seems likely that she believed in a

coming Age of the Spirit, Joachim's Third Status.34 This was to be preceded

28 The prophecy, applied to Charles V, begins: 'But fyrst Charles the sonne of Philip of the most Illustrious Lilie having a longe forehead high Browes great eyes...' It occurs

in a sixteenth-century collection of prophecies in prose and verse which includes Rupescis sa's De fine mundi.

29 The chief sources for this prophecy are the long extracts given by W. Lazius, Frag mentum vaticina cuiusdam ... Methodii ... (Vienna 1547) fol. 34v and J. Wolf, Lectionum memorabilium et reconditarum centenarii XVI (Laving 1600) I 720-1. Wolf gives as his source a sermon preached in Hamburg by Johann W?nschelburg in 1409. A version in the vernacular is given by A. Reifferscheid, Neun Texte zur Geschichte der religi?sen Aufkl?rung in Deutschland (Greifswald 1905) Document 9. See also Kampers, op. cit. (note 1 supra) 126.

30 Wolf, op. cit. 720.

31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 721. 33 On the various collections of St. Bridget's prophecies see J. J?rgensen, St. Bridget of

Sweden, tr. I. Lund (London 1954) I 300ff. 34 This is the view taken by J?rgensen, op. cit. II 78, 223, though it is difficult to find

precise proof of this in the Revelations.



334 TRADITIO

by a terrible chastisement of Christ's judgment, the executor of which is

variously described as Dux venturus35 Arator36 and Venator37 In the authentic revelations St. Bridget seems uncertain whether the Chastiser will be Christian, heretic or pagan, but he is clearly an involuntary agent of God's judgment an evil instrument of divine purpose. In the popular oracles, however, which

begin to circulate under Bridget's name during the fifteenth century, the role of the chastiser of the Church is developed further. One, beginning

' Sub

aquila grandi, '38

gives a stark picture of the German race trampling down the

Church, whilst another prophesies the destruction of Rome.39 Another popu lar Brigittine oracle, however, reverses the role of chastiser: by a daring transformation of the Rex impudicus facie prophesied in the Book of Daniel into the Rex pudicus facie*0 the wicked tyrant becomes the godly chastiser.

36 Onus mundi (ed. undated, no place, no pagination ) cap. 8, 'De Duce venturo qui erit

future tribulationis executor. '

38 Ibid. c. 9. 37 Liber celestis Imperatoris ad Reges (ed. undated, no place, no pag.) c. 18. 38 See J. Liechtenberger, Prognosticatio (Strasbourg 1488; no pag. 1, 3: 'Unde Brigida

in Libro Revelationum: Sub aquila grandi que ignem fovebit in pectore conculcabitur

ecclesia et vastabitur. Nam potens est deus alemanos altos provocare contra ecclesiam

qui magis de humana potentia quam dei confidunt. Iusto iuditio hostilibus incursibus

conculabitur nav?cula p?tri et clerus turbabitur. Et necesse est ut petrus succinctus effugiat ne squalorem publice servitutis incurrat. Et sic videat ipsa ecclesia occidentalis ne sit sibi

baculus harundinis ponata (sic) gallicana in qua confidit cui siquis innititur perfor?t manus

eius. Datur intelligi quod Alemani scorpioniste confederationem inibunt cum rege Francie

sub quo ecclesia crucem lamentationis humeris propriis probabit.' See also Mirabilis Uber

(Paris 1522) fol. , and for another version, Lazius, op. cit. fol. 44r. The author of this

text, whether Bridget or another, is almost certainly quoting pseudo-Joachimist works

in the following phrases: 'que ignem fovebit in pectore': Vat. Sibillae Erithreae 168 (supra, n. 6 for full reference); 'necesse est ut petrus succinctus effugiat': Super Hieremiam fol. 3T;

'ne sit sibi baculus harundinis ponata gallicana in qua confidit cui siquis innititur perfor?t manus eius': ibid. fol. 7V.

38 Cited by W. Aytinger, Tractatus de revelatione beati Methodi (Basel 1498, no pag.) c. 2.

A prophecy attributed to Bridget, beginning desolata civitas,' is associated with the

libellus of Telesphorus in MSS Vat. lat. 3816, fol. 62r and Venice, Bibl. Marc. lat. Cl. III.

177, fol. 16r, and also in the Venetian printed edition of 1516, fol. 5V. 40 See Dan. 8.23. The essential core of this oracle is as follows: 'Exsurget tune Rex

pudicus facie qui regnabit ubique sub quo Ecclesiae collapsae status reformabitur et clerici

plurimum molestabuntur ... ultimo Franci?? Rex succumbet et Rex pudicus facie regnabit

ubique et ingredietur nidos veterum Aquilarum et imp?rium solus obtinebit ab Oriente ad

Occidentem.' This is quoted or referred to in the following: Tractatus de Turcis, written

in 1474, printed at Nuremberg 1481, fol. 18, 22v; Liechtenberger, op. cit. 1.1, 3; 2.3, 17;

Aytinger, op. cit. c. 2; Maister Alofresant, Alle alten Prophecien von Keyserlichen Maiestat

(Strasbourg, no date) fol. 9r (in German); P. Gengenbach, Der Nollhart (Basel 1517, no

pag.); Mirabilis liber, fol. xiir; Lazius, op. cit. fol. 44r; Propheiia de santa Brigida (Venice

1525, no pag.) (in Italian verse). Liechtenberger and Alofresant also associate St. Francis

with this prophecy.




He will not only chastise but also reform the Church; he will rule everywhere and he will be a German. A third of these Brigittine oracles concerns the

Lily (i.e. France), ending with the peaceful union of the Lily and the Eagle and the submission of the former to the latter.41 These pseudo-Brigittine

prophecies, which quickly establish themselves in the general prophetic currency, on the whole favor the German side of the contest; they also sup

port the Joachimist expectation. Thus a late fifteenth-century tract uses

the Brigittine oracles in this context:42

... Et per ipsum regem magnificabitur regnum Christianorum super omnia regna mundi. ... Quintum, commendabile est conversio infidelium per novam praedicationem evangelii. ... Sextum, commendabile quod per eundem regem cum conversione infidelium erit ecclesie innovatio. Hec

materia ad longum tractatur in revelationibus s?nete birgitte in quibus tractatur de novis praedicatoribus evangelii et conversione infidelium et nove sponse electione, ad que omnia prefatus rex diligentissime coopera bitur... Septimum commendabile est pax et concordia super terram qualis antea non fuit.

Here, to the traditional program of the Last World Emperor, the Brigittine

prophecies add the Joachimist renovatio.

With Gamaleon and Bridget there often appears an unknown Frater Rein

hard, whose prophecy, probably dating from the early fifteenth century, is

preserved in several later collections.43 In one such extract there is a strong echo of Joachim's method in concords worked out between the last age of the

Old Testament and the coming crisis of the New Dispensation:44

Ista futura tribulatio assimilatur praeteritae tribulationi, quae fuit

tempore Machabaeorum, quia omnia in figuris contingebant illis ad nos

trani correptionem. Sicut ergo per regem Antiochum templum in Hieru

salem fuit profanatum et sacerdotium turbatum, deinde iterum templum

restitutum, ac populus Dei liberatus, sic a simili per dictum tyrannum

41 The central core of this runs: 'Nam de bono gallo antiquum propheticum invenietur ita:

Aquilae grandi sociabitur lilium et movebitur ab occidente in orientem contra Leonem,

Leo carebit auxilio et decipietur a lilio. Fragrabit lilium in Alemania, unde laus sua ultima

volabit sub Aquila.' See Liechtenberger, op. cit. 2.17; Mirabilis liber, fol. xxviii; A. Tor

quatus, Prognosticon (Antwerp 1544) fol. 9V (quoting the last phrase only). 42 Tractatiis de Turcis, fol. 22v. See Aytinger, op. cit. c. 3: '... Qui rex Romanorum ...re

formabit ecclesiam ... terram infidelium sibi subiiciet, novos praedicatores evangelii eliget et novam reformationem ecclesie faciet. Et de illis reperitur in revelationibus s?nete Brigite et Hildegardis.

'

43 See the extract quoted 'de revelationibus fratris Reynhardi lolhardi'by Liechten

berger, op. cit. 2. 3, 5, 13, 26; Aytinger, op. cit. c. 7; Alofresant, op. ciL fol. 9; Lazius, op. cit.

fol. 45r (cf. Liechtenberger 2.3); Wolf, op. cit. I 748. Alofesant calls him 'br?der Rainhards

des Nolhards '

and he can probably be identified with Gengenbach's Der Nollhart (infra at . 127). Wolf dates his prophecy 1413.

44 Wolf, op. cit. I 748; cf. Liber concordie fol. 56 , 127 .



336 TRADITIO

Ecclesia et clerus ob sua et populi peccata turbabitur. Qui quidem ty rannus nequam Papam intrudet in Ecclesiam, cuius tandem status una cum Christiana rep?blica per quendam bonum principem reformabitur, sectaque Mahumetica destruetur.

Here again the wicked tyrant and the reformer-prince are juxtaposed. The obvious focal point for Teutonic expectation in the first half of the

fifteenth century was the Emperor Sigismund. There are hints of an enhanced stature accorded to him by prophecy in the titles lux mundi, secundus David and Charlemagne, given to him by contemporaries.45 A prophecy of Hildegard was also applied to him.46 But the connection of Sigismund with prophetic expectation is most clearly brought out in the Reformation Kaiser Sigmunds, a vernacular tract produced c. 1439.47 This was based on a Latin program of reform prepared for the Council of Basle, but the German tract became the vehicle of social and political aspirations which were focused on a pro phetic future. There is a strong overtone of Joachimist prophecy in a Latin oracle spoken by the Biblical Esther concerning a sacer pusillus who will arise tempore terno et novo: 'dominabitur a mare usque ad mare, pes suus calcabit turbines ... plebs exultet, gaudet iusticia.'48 At the end the vision of the future is summed up in a prophecy put into the mouth of the Emperor Sigismund, recently dead.49 He foretells the coming of a priest-king and describes the rule of spiritual blessedness and social righteousness that he will inaugurate. The fact that the priest-king is named as Frederick of Lant naw (either the author of the tract or the prophet for whom it was written),50 did not prevent this program for a German renovatio from achieving wide circulation during the following century.51

44 A. Altmann, Eberhart Windeckes Denkw?rdigkeiten zur Geschichte des Zeitalters Kaiser

Sigmunds (Berlin 1893) 1; Theodoricus de Monasterio, Panegyricus in Concilio Constantiensi dictus in G. Walch, Monumenta Medii Aevi (G?ttingen 1757) I 2, 96; D. Schilling, Schwei zerchronik (Lucerne 1862) 42.

46 Altmann, op. cit. 350.

47 ed. W. Boehm, Friedrich Reiser's Reformation des Kaisers Sigmund (Leipzig 1876); K. Beer, Die Reformation Kaiser Sigmunds (Stuttgart 1933).

48 Boehm, op. cit. 238. Cf. Lib. Concord, fol. 69v: 'Futurus est enim ut ordo unus con

valescat in terra similis ioseph et salomonis ... et dominabitur a mari usque ad mare et a ilumine usque ad t?rminos orbis terrarum. The common quotation from Ps. 72.8 could be coincidence but the words 'tempore terno et novo' suggest that the author is thinking in Joachimist terms, while the figure of Esther symbolized to Joachim the Third Age, cf.

Lib. concord, fol. 119ff., especially 122v, where the sublimation of the papacy is foretold in the exaltation of Mordecai.

48 Boehm, op. cit. 242-50; Beer, op. cit. 138-43.

60 Beer, op. cit. 72.

61 Bezold, op. cit. (note 1 supra) 591-2.




IV.

The name Frederick, indeed, was still a potent word with which to conjure, for the legend of a resurrected Frederick or Third Frederick had been kept alive during the preceding two centuries by folk tradition and fanatical claim

ants.62 Always he appears with the enhanced stature of one who in the program of Last Things is either the chastiser or renovator of Christendom. In the

mid-fifteenth century the mysterious title of Frederick III was at last em

bodied in flesh and blood. Thomas Ebendorfer, winding up his Cronica Regum Romanorum at this time, allowed his thoughts to move into the future.

What kind of portent will this Frederick prove to be ? the embodiment of

good or evil ? Ebendorfer, taking care to distinguish his history sine fiction^ from this doubtful stuff, quotes a current prophecy which is clearly a version

of the pro-Hohenstaufen oracle given above,65 but brought up-to-date po

litically:

Veniet aquila, cuius volatu debellabitur leo et veniet pullus aquile et nidificabit in domo leonis, cuius fructus alimento paterno carebit. Et illic eligetur unus, cui honor r?gis non exhibetur. Tandem conspirabunt principes Alemanie et magnates terre Bohemie opprimentur et leopardus devorabit eos. Et exurget radix de radice aquile nomine Fredericus

orient?lis, hic regnans regnabit, imperane imperabit et extendet ramos

M See Cohn, op. cit. (note 1 supra) 107ff.; G. Schultheiss, Die deutsche Volkssage vom

Fortleben und der Wiederkehr Kaiser Friedrichs II (Historisehe Studien 94; Berlin 1911)

1-133. Among those who wrote of these beliefs in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,

see especially J. Rothe, D?ringische Chronik, ed. R. von Liliencron, Th?ringische Geschichts

quellen III (Jena 1859) 426, 466; John of Winterthur, Chronik, in MGH, Script, rer. Germ.

N.S. 3.280; Theodoric Engelhus, Chronicon, ed. G. Leibniz, Scriptores rerum Brunsvicien

sium ... (Hanover 1707-11) II 1115; Oswald der Schreiber, ed. Zarncke, Abh. Ges. Wissensch.

Leipzig 7 (1879) 1004ff.; Peter von Zittau, Chronicon, ed. J. Loserth, Fontes Rerum Austria

carum 8.424ff.; Die Detmar Chronik von L?beck, in Chroniken der deutschen St?dte, 19 (1884)

333, 367; Ottokar, Oesterreichische Reimchronik, in MGH Deutsche Chroniken 5.1.423ff.

In Cologne people believed that at his coronation Sigismund received the new name of

Frederick (Bezold, op. cit. 584). M ed. A. Pibram, in Mittheilungen des Instituts f?r oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung,

Erg?nzungsband 3 (Innsbruck 1890) 38-222. 44 Ibid. 143. Ebendorfer introduces the prophecy thus: 'Unum tarnen in calce huius

hystorie, quam sine fictione didici et sine invidia communicare ac exarare disposui, addicere

(sic) volui, quod quidam timoratus michi in partibus Reni ab antiquissimo libro se professus

est excerpsisse <et> sua manu scriptum obtulit, eciam presentibus annectere pro memo

riali in hac forma: 44

Supra, at . 10. Another version of this prophecy in its original form, beginning ' Regna

bit Manfredus,' is quoted by the fifteenth-century German historian Theodoricus Paulus

in his Speculum histor?ale, ed. W. Focke (Halle 1892) 78. Infra, at n. 128ff. for further

references to this text.



338 TRADITIO

usque ad ultimos fines terre, tempore illius summus capietur pontifex et elerus dilapidabitur.8*

But he also knows the legend of Frederick III as the embodiment of evil, disseminated through the 'figmenta Theolophori heremite, ... qui de tercio

Frederico evomuit sine fundamento.'57 This leads him to turn to Alexander von Roes, from whom he quotes, without acknowledgment, the passages cited above on Frederick as the radix peccatrix and on the future Carolingian

emperor.58 He is not prepared to let the French win hands down, but feels

impelled to add ? albeit with somewhat of a sneer ? the Second Charle

magne prophecy as quoted above.59 He gives it in the Telesphorean form, with the correct coronation age and the complete Joachimist last sentence.

This means, of course, that Frederick III appears in the role of villain-pre cursor to the last World Emperor and that, therefore, his advent in the flesh

might well sharpen the expectations of the Carolingians. Thus there are

three figures on the prophetic horizon at this time: a good Frederick, a bad

Frederick and a good Charles. Be it noted, however, that they all have one

thing in common: their role as chastiser of Rome and the clergy. Ebendorf er

finds the future entirely problematic. He hopes great things from Frederick

III, whom he addresses thus: 'Assurge ergo Deo amabilis imper?tor ... ut

revivescat spes imperii et tua serenior appareat gloria.'60 But clearly he is uncertain how this Frederick will shape.

On the other side of the picture we get an amusing side-light from Aeneas

Sylvius Piccolomini on the Italian attitude to Frederick III.61 As he ap proached Rome for his coronation in 1453, Aeneas tells us, some tried to

persuade Nicholas V that he was that future intolerable scourge of the clergy who, according to the oracles, would punish Rome and do mighty deeds. Nicholas was in two minds: 'hinctimet, inde cupit; hinc dominatum amittere

formidat, inde coronandi Caesaris gloriam expetit. ' To this may be added a

se Ebendorfer, op. cit. 143.

57 Ibid. 58

Supra, at , 12. The same passage from Alexander von Roes is quoted in MS Cod. Vindob. 3402 in fifteenth-century notes added to the Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum Ratisponense, see MGH Script. 24.285 n. 2. F. Lot,

* Origine et signification du mot "caro

lingien,"' Revue historique 46 (1891) 69, cites another example of this quotation from a

Bavarian chronicle. ? Ebendorfer, op. cit. 149.

?0 Ibid. 61 Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Historia rerum Friderici III imperatoris, ed. J. Schilter

in Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (Strasbourg 1687) 45. MS Vat. lat. 3816 contains a

collection of prophecies made in 1448 by an Italian who saw the Third Frederick as the manifestation of evil (fol. 59v-62v) and expected the Second Charlemagne (fol. 63r) and

Angelic Pope (fol. 64v).




post-prandial conversation between Pope and Emperor reported by the

Abbot Trithemius:62

... fertur Papa dixisse ad Caesarem: Multa de te, gloriosissime fili, prae nuntiata sunt mala, quae sis facturus Ecclesiae, si fidem adhibere prae dictionibus huiusmodi debeamus. Cui Imperator respondit: Mea intcntio pro Ecclesia Dei bona et recta est; si Deus aliud de me aut per me ordinare voluerit, in ipsius potestate est, qui solus omnia novit, potest et disponit secundum suam rectissimam voluntatem.

Even Frederick himself could not evade his ordained role: only time could

tell if he were in truth the Third Frederick of prophecy. As a candidate for a part in the drama of Last Things it is difficult to think

of any historical character more disappointing than the Emperor Frederick III.

Two contemporary poets appear to believe in his prophetic role,63 but a tract, written from a German viewpoint well on in his reign, reflects the confusion

into which he had thrown prophetic expectation. The Tractatus de Turcis,6*

composed in 1474, was a compilation of prophecies made by some Dominicans

to strengthen men's hearts against the menace of the Turks. It is based on the famous pseudo-Methodian prophecy of the ultimate defeat of the

infidel65 and includes among its prophets Joachim, Cyril, Hildegarde, Merlin, the Sibyl and St. Bridget. The pseudo-Joachimist commentary on the Ora

culum Cyrilli is cited on the affliction of the Church for her many sins by the

Turk,66 but none of the current oracles on the agents of the renovatio are

M J. Trithemius, Chronicon Hirsaugiense (St. Gall 1690) II 423. The author continues:

'Et notandum quod multi spiritum sibi Prophetiae temeraria praesumptione usurpantes multa de Friderico Imperatore III mala praedixerunt esse futura, quod videlicet esset

futurus Ecclesiae Romanae persecutor, Romanorum Pontificum, Praelatorum Ecclesiae

Universalis inimicus et destructor, Cleri et pauperum oppressor, tyrannus impius, crudelis,

maleficus, infidelis et fidei Christianae hostis, desertor et osor, quae omnia, frivola, ficta,

falsa et mentita fuerunt. Constat enim omnibus qui noverunt eum, quod cunctis diebus

regni sui simul et Imperil per annos 53 in fide Christi semper princeps fuit Catholicus et

Christianissimus, nunquam Ecclesiae molestus, nunquam tyrannus, nunquam crudelis ...

Manifestum est ergo praedictiones de ilio malas omnes extitisse mendaces.' 63 Rudolf Montigel, ed. R. von Liliencron, Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen

vom 13. bis 16. Jahrh. (Leipzig 1866) II 26 ; Hermann von Sachsenheim, Die Moerin, ed.

E. Martin, Bibliothek des historischen Vereins in Stuttgart 137 (T?bingen 1878) 209-10. 64 The main title reads : '

Incipit Tractatus de Turcis prout ad presens ecclesia sancta ab

eis affligitur collectus diligenti discussione scripturarum a quibusdam fratribus praedicato rum ordinis.

'

M See Sackur, op. cit. ( . 1 supra) 53f. ??

Tractatus, fol. 6 . To prove that Rome must be destroyed the authors cite 'quedam

dicta Merlini et quedam alia dicta cuiusdam discipuli abbatis Joachim que eciam in quadam

antiqua biblia r?gis Aragonum reperiuntur, que expressissime videntur loqui de quadam de

vastatone Ytalie fienda per Turcos et hec prophecie communiter habentur in Ytalia in

plerisque civitatibus' (fol. 4V).



340 TRADITIO

utilized. This is not because the Dominican authors are afraid to use pro

phecies associated with a name of such doubtful repute as Joachim's:67

Nam constat ipsum spiritum habuisse propheticum presertim in ilia postilla super Jeremiam in qua inter cetera de duobus ordinibus in fine seculi futuris, fratrum scilicet predicatorum et minorum locutus est.

Unde secundum beatum Thomam, licet in quibusdam erraverit, quia tarnen correction! ecclesie se submisit et excellentissimum ingenium ha

bebat, adeo eius dicta merito admittuntur.

Their difficulty lay, it would seem, in their reluctance to admit the ex

pectation of a French Second Charlemagne as victor over the Turk and their

inability to see Frederick III in this role. Some, indeed, saw him as the symbol of evil; others, following popular Sibylline oracles ('dicta etiam sibille solum habentur in libris vulgaribus et non latinis vei autenticis'), believed he would be the savior of Christendom; but our authors are certain he is neither, for actual embodiment in the flesh had reduced the huge symbol of the Frederiem tertius to ordinary human stature.68 The extermination of the Turk would not be accomplished by the present Emperor, nor would the future Christian

King whom they expect be like him. So, turning away from current tradi

tion, they look for a savior of Christendom 'de exiguis Christianorum regibus' and put forward a tentative candidate in Mathias Corvinus of Hungary. It is possible, indeed, that the purpose of the tract should be related to

Mathias' candidature as King of the Romans, but the authors are doubtful if this is he for whom they look.69 The one certain thing is that the apotheosis of history will be brought in by a great Christian king: 'Et per ipsum regem magnificabitur regnum Christianorum super omnia regna mundi. '70 The whole

?7 Ibid. fol. 7*. 68 Ibid. fol. 20v-21v: '... Secundo quod de imperio Romanorum erit idem rex non quo

ad sanguinis notabilitatem aut rei publice gubernacionem prout ipse presens fridericus tercius gubernacula imperii tenens existit. Tertio, quod de exiguis et non de maioribus

Ghristianorum regibus idem rex futurus regnabit ... Hec part?cula sic declaratur quia futura victoria obtinenda in exterminium turcorum non fiet per presentem imperatorem fridericum tercium sed per aliquem de exiguis Christianorum regibus The case for Frederick is then examined, including his probity, but is dismissed: 'Ex quibus concluditur

quod licet in imperatore videatur probitas vite, hoc est tarnen quo ad priv?tam suam per sonam. Quantum vero existit communis persona quo ad regimen et tuitionem ecclesie, ibi plurimum asseritur defectuosus utpote qui nec proprias oves ab incursibus infidelium

d?fendit, qui tarnen totius ecclesie advocatus existit et hoc patuit in depopulatione karinthie et carniole provinciis

9 Ibid. fol. 21v-22r '... licet de rege hunorum sive ungarorum alique scripture faciant

mentionem, in dubium tarnen vertitur an de presenti vel alio aliquo futuro tales scripture fuissent locute ... Unde per presentem regem ungarorum plures estimant terminar! presen tem afflictionem. Sed hec omnia manent in divina dispositione.

'

70 Ibid. fol. 22v. Supra, at . 42 for the continuation of this passage.




tract reflects belief in the Joachimist future together with disillusionment

concerning the Third Frederick. The death of the Emperor Frederick III

seemed indeed to be the death of the Third Frederick, whose epitaph is best

supplied by Stefano Infessura in his Diario della Citt? di Roma : * A.D. 1493.

Mortuus est Imperator Fredericus et cum eo perierunt Prophetiae.'71

V.

Before this date, however, a new star was already rising in the firmament, as appears in the famous Prognosticatio of Johann Liechtenberger, first pub lished in 1488.72 This attained great popularity: it was printed in countless

editions, translated into German, French, Dutch, Italian, and English, applied to various sequences of events and reproduced unacknowledged in two French

publications, the Mirabilis liber and La Proph?tie merveilleuse de madame

sa?nete Brigid?.73 Its author came to rank as a prophet with Methodius,

Hildegard, Joachim, and Bridget. Liechtenberger addresses his prophetic words in three parts, to the Pope, the Emperor, and the Laity. Part Two

contains the clearest indication of his pattern for the future. He has gathered his material from every kind of source, notably the genuine Joachim (the Liber concordie), the pseudo-Joachim (chiefly the Super Hieremiam, the Ora

culum Cyrilli and the Vaticinium Sibillae Erithreae), Telesphorus, Reinhard, and St. Bridget.74 Clearly he is much influenced by the contemporary vogue of the pseudo-Methodius and believes that the final tribulation of Church and

71 S. Infessura, Diario della Citt? di Roma, in Muratori, RIS 3.2.1250. 72

Supra, . 38. On Liechtenberger, see D. Kurze, 'Prophecy and History/ Journal of

the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21 (1958) 63-85. 73 Mirabilis liber fol. viiir-xxx\ in Latin, with no author named; La Proph?tie merveilleuse

de madame sa?nete Brigid? (Lyon 1545), a French translation attributing authorship to

St. Bridget. 74

Liechtenberger's quotations from Joachimist works are as follows: Lib. concord.: pt. 2,

cap. 36: not a direct quotation but probably a reference to 89r or 122v. ? Super Hieremiam:

pt. 1.2: abbreviation of fol. 3r-v; pt. 2.3: phrases from fol. 3V, 7V, in the quotation from

Bridget, cf. supra, n. 38; pt. 2.6: one phrase from fol. 3V; the rest of the quotation is un

identified (but similar to a passage in Lib. Cone. fol. 98r); pt. 2.7: adaptation with revised

dates from the Preface. ? Liber Cyrilli and Vaticinium Sibillae Erithreae, as quoted in

the libellus of Telesphorus: pt. 2.13, 14: quotations from fol. llr, 15rv, 20v; pt. 2.35: general

reference to fol. 10v-15r. ? Liber multarum tribulationum: pt. 2.3, 5: quotation from an

unpublished work, see MS Reggio, fol. 1V-2V.?Liber Lamentationem Jheremie: pt. 2.15:

this quotation cannot be found in the printed editions of the Super Hieremiam and, since

it appears to be a genuine quotation from a Joachimist work, must be presumed to derive

from a lost one under this title. ? For passages from Reinhard, supra, n. 43; for prophecies

ascribed to Bridget, supra, nn. 38, 40, 41. ? Liechtenberger's 'quotations' are often adap

tations or, so it seems, compositions of his own containing a few identifiable phrases.



342 TRADITIO

Christian people is imminent.75 In accordance with this tradition he expects the Imperial savior to vanquish the Turk,76 but after this point, like the

authors of the Tractatus de Tur?is, his expectation takes on a shape which is

Joachimist rather than Methodian, for attention is focussed, not on the coming of Antichrist to end the Emperor's reign, but on the nova reformatio which will be inaugurated by the overthrow of the Turk.77

When he turns to the agents of the renovatio, he has two difficulties to overcome. In the first place, his catholic taste in prophecies involves him in the use of two conflicting traditions ? the anti- and pro-German. In the

anti-German tradition, as we have seen, the wicked German tyrant persecutes the Church and makes schism while the renovatio is in the hands of the Angelic

Popes, with the later addition of the Second Charlemagne. In the pro-German tradition the great Aquila both chastises the Church and renews it, ushering in the age of beatitude. Liechtenberger combines the two roles in one Em

peror-Chastiser, but since he quotes a number of the anti-German oracles without mitigating their force,78 it is not always clear if this role is good or

76 Ibid. 1.2, 3; 2.2, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19, 35; 3.1-8. 7? Ibid. 2.21, 22, 25, 26. He also holds the traditional belief that 'cessante enim sacro

Imperio, necesse est saeculum consummari' (2.7). 77

See, for instance, the following passages: Liechtenberger 2.13 (quoting the Liber Cyrilli): 'In quo tempore tribulatio magna erit et resurget novus ordo et novus restauratio in ec

clesia et multi pseudo-pontifices erunt ante reformationem ...'; 2.35: 'Unde quidam servus

nomine theophilus (i.e. Telesphorus) pro presbitero in libro prophetarum ... in quo libro

spiritualiter continentur omnia que futura sunt de regimine ecclesie et qualiter debeat

renovari, sicut deus longo tempore revelavit servo suo Joachim abbati et sanctoCirillo...'; 3.14: 'Depost stabit ... ecclesiastica persona in bona pace et sceptrum discordie auferetur

ab eis eritque nova reformatio, nova lex, novum regnum.' 78 Ibid. 2.4 (entitled cap. Decimum): 'Unde Sibilla Chumaea prophetico spiritu loquitur

in vaticinio suo: Post haec, i.e. post modicum temporis, egredietur Aquila de Germaniae

rupibus multis associata Griffonibus, qui irruens in ortum crismatis sedentem in sede pas toris (source unknown, see infra, n. 94); 2.9: plebs misera ... quia regulus novus

surrexit in te, non gubern?tor sed desolator fidelium, non consolator sed depredator spiri tualium, non protector sed depressor orphanorum et viduarum in tota alta Alemania.

Novus destructor ... radix peccati a Scorpionistis esurget peior Antiocho (supra, nn. 6,

8, 13, for the thirteenth-century sources from which the regulus and the radix peccati derive); 2.13: 'Unde Sibilla Erithrea: ... Post hec veniet altera Aquila que ignem fovebit in gremio sponse Christi et erunt tres adulteri, unusque legittimus qui alios vorabit (supra, n. 6, for the thirteenth-century source); 2.35: 'Continetur insuper in eodem libro Chilli quod

antequam ecclesia renovetur deus permittit vacante papatu oriri maxima scismata inter

imperatorem alemanum, qui de sua confisus potentia intendet ordinare ac constituere papam et romanos ac ytalos qui resistere conabuntur aquile grandi, que aquila furore incensa non

solum alemanos sed et de omni genere gentes pessimas quas poterit associabit ad suum

exercitum et armata manu intrabit romam (based on the libellus of Telesphorus, fol.

llr-20v). This passage is followed by a picture with the caption: 'Hie Imperator ingreditur




bad. The contradiction is resolved for him, however, in the Brigittine oracle

of the rex pudicus facie who will lead the German nation in its terrible mission

and yet is the good agent of God.79 The second problem is where to find a

suitable candidate for this part, one in whom the prophecies of the Lily and

the Eagle may be reconciled. Liechtenberger rules out Frederick III,80 and

the care he takes to dismiss the candidature of Mathias of Hungary suggests that he may have been deliberately writing a counterblast to the suggestion in the Tractatus de Turcis.81 Although often obscured by the contradictory

prophecies quoted, the real point of the Prognosticatio seems to lie in its

salutation of Maximilian I as the rex pudicus facie and his family as that in

which all the prophecies will be fulfilled.82 For, prophetically speaking, Max

imilian was in a strong position, since his marriage with Mary of Burgundy made it possible for the first time to resolve the prophetic dilemma and unite

in one the oracles of both the Lily and Eagle. It is a Burgundi?n World

Emperor that Liechtenberger expects to arise as a Second Charlemagne in

the land where the first once had his capital. His hint as to who this will

be is quite plain.83

Romam cum sevitia et eius timore fugiunt Romani clerici et laici ad petras et silvas et multi

detruncabuntur. '

79 Ibid. 1.3: 'Unde Brigida in libro Revelationum: Sub aquila grandi que ignem fovebit

in pectore conculcabitur ecclesia et vastabitur. Nam potens est deus alemanos altos provo care contra ecclesiam qui magis de humana potentia quam dei confidunt...' (supra, . 38

for the continuation of this passage); 2.3: 'Unde Franciscus et Brigida canunt: S?rget rex

pudicus facie. Multi dicunt hunc regem esse Fridericum tercium. Ego volo quod sit Ma

ximilianus quia sub eo conculcabitur ecclesia, clerusque turbabitur ubique ...demum gallus succumbit et pudicus facie regnabit ubique.'

80 Supra, n. 79.

81 Liechtenberger 2.21: 'Tu solus clipeum crucis Christ adversus thurcos erexisti ... Sed

post te exurget maior te, flagellum longiturniter percutiens canes infidelissimos ... ipseque reformabit ecclesiam Pragensem et s?nete Zophie templum Constantino (sic). Scandetque ad ardua inter catholicos sed non de sanguine Mathie sed de rupibus alemanie orietur et

exiet rex sincerissimus. ' See also 2.20.

82 Supra, n. 79. See also Liechtenberger 2.4 (entitled cap. Decimum): Maximiliane,

isti duo eunuchi sunt infideles subditi tui, qui fraudis et malicie venenum gestantes contra

pudicam faciem tuam, ut fid?les tuos et te interiiciant'; cap. 5: 'Unde in libro multarum

tribulationum Joachim dicitur ad ruinam Ihericho ... reges multi contra Israhelitas Ale

manos advenicnt sed expugnabuntur propter Maximilianum quia sublime clipeum elevabit

expectando auxilium non solum ab hominibus sed a domino et resurget volando ad ardua. '

Liechtenberger seems to associate Reinhard in particular with the prophecies of Maximilian

(which would suggest a later date for him than that assigned by J. Wolf, supra, n. 43), but it is difficult to tell when Liechtenberger is quoting and when adapting Reinhard's

oracles. See especially 2.26: ' ... Sub monarcha Maximiliano vei primogenito Acharlingis

(sic) purum ac nitidum felicitatis tempus accidet.' 88 Ibid. 2.16. Cf. infra, at . 95.



344 TRADITIO

Et dicitur in libro regum Francorum quod de Karlingis, i.e. de stirpe r?gis Karoli Franci suscitabitur Imperator in novissimis nomine P. qui erit princeps et monarcha tocius Europe, reformabit ecclesias et clerum

et post ilium nullus amplius imperabit.

Thus for the first time Philip, the son of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian comes into the prophecies.

At the moment of writing, Liechtenberger feels himself to be on the verge of the great crisis of history. Adapting the words of the pseudo-Joachimist

Super Hieremiam, he writes:84 'Nam ab anno MCCCCLXXXVIII ad

MCCCCXCIX mihi suspecta sunt tempora et momenta/ His confidence in

the future lies in his belief that the consummation of history will be achieved

through the union of German and French aspirations. Quoting a Brigittine

prophecy he sums up the political shape of the future thus:85

Nam de bono gallo antiquum propheticunr invenitur ita: Aquile grand1 sociabitur lilium et movebitur ab occidente in orientem contra Leonem, Leo carebit auxilio et decipietur a lilio. Fragrabit lilium in Alemania unde laus sua ultima volabit sub Aquila.

In the midst of these political expectations the figures of the Angelic Popes are somewhat perfunctorily introduced. It is interesting that the one passage which Liechtenberger cites from the genuine Liber concordie is one of the few

in which Joachim himself foreshadows a last great Pope.86 He also draws on the later pseudo-Joachimist tradition of a series of Angelic Popes,87 but

leaves unclarified their relation to the Emperor-reformer.88 It seems plain that, though he draws on such a wide range of prophecies, his main interest

is in the political future of the German Imperium. In the expectation which now became focused on Maximilian and his son

Philip two strands are joined. There is, in the first place, the pseudo-Methodian

prophecy. Here, as already pointed out, there is no Joachimist Third Age: the Roman Empire must finally succumb before Antichrist, but before this,

84 Ibid. 2.7, adapting the Super Hieremiam, Preface. 85 Ibid. 2.17. Cf. supra, n. 41. 86 Ibid. 2.36: 'Depost esurget quidam vir solitarius magna sanctitate perspicuus sicut

Joachim in libro concordie dicit: Vir magna sanctitate in Romana sede sublimatus ut apos

tolica per ilium faciet deus tanta miracula quod omnis homo reverebitur illum nec quisquam audebit contraire suis constitutionibus This is not a direct quotation but would seem

to be a reference to Liber concordie fol. 89 . 87

Liechtenberger 2.37: ' Subsequenter confestim deus suscitabit alios tres viros sanc

tissimos unum post alium, in virtutibus et miraculis consimiles, qui facta et dicta antecessoris

confirmant. Sub quorum regimine status ecclesie recrescet. Et hi appellabuntur pastores

angelici.' On the Angelic Popes, supra, n. 16. 88 The only specific statement is 2.35: 'Tandem extirpatis et eradicatis vepribus et spinis

malorum hominum [by the German eagle] veniet vir sanctus, pacabit ipsam aquilam cum

ecclesia. '




the last King of the Romans will triumph completely over the infidel. It is not surprising, therefore, to find fifteenth-century people seeking hope and

consolation from this source by editing the Pseudo-Methodius several times

in the last quarter of the century.89 Maximilian, around whom prophetic expectation had gathered since his youth,90 is the natural focal point. In

1495 Sebastian Brandt prefaced his De origine et conversatione bonorum Regum et laude civitatis Hierosolymae cum exhortatione eiusdem recuperande91 with a frontispiece of Maximilian, King of the Romans, outside Jerusalem and

ended his epilogue thus:

Perge igitur rex s?nete cito: te f imen acerbum Thurcorum voluit maximus esse deus.

Qui stabile efficiat regnum tibi: sceptra beando Sub pede dum teneas s?cula cuneta. Vale.

A German poem of Brandt's also summons Maximilian to his high destiny,92 and in 1498 he published an edition of the Revelations of Methodius, edited

and expounded by W. Aytinger,93 with a preface of his own expressing the

same appeal to Maximilian. Here the second, the Joachimist, strand also

appears, for, besides the victory over the infidel, both Brandt's preface and

Aytinger's following tract on the Apocalypse stress the renovation of the

Church. Brandt strikes an unmistakeably optimistic note: although it is not

permitted to calculate the time of the End,

dubitare tarnen utique non debemus: antea non esse venturum finem

nisi prius fructificante ecclesia, universus a mari usque ad marem im

pleatur orbis et gentium prius ut apostolus ait intret plenitudo. Nemo

igitur doctus negare ausit gloriosum hunc ecclesie catholice triumphum ...

Maturet deus optimus maximus hanc sanctissimi sui nominis credentium

plenitudinem, presertim invictissimi Christianissimique regis nostri Ma ximilian! ductu et auspitio felicissimo, cuius regnum et imp?rium vitamque et fortunam divina adaugeat tueaturque dementia.

89 Besides the editions mentioned here, it was published at Cologne in 1475 and Memmin

gen in 1497. 90 The name Constantine, with its Pseudo-Methodian implication of Last Emperor, was

given to him; see H. Ulmann, Kaiser Maximilian I (Stuttgart 1884) I 205. On popular

expectations centering around Maximilian, see also E. Gothein, Politische und religi?se

Volksbewegungen vor der Reformation (Breslau 1878) 97. On the expectations of a huma

nist, see J. Knepper, Jakob Wimpfeling (Freiburg im Breisgau 1902) 156-7. 91 Published at Basel, 1495, no pagination. 92 R. von Liliencron, op. cit. (note 63 supra) II 307-8. The exhortation to Maximilian

is repeated in another poem as late as 1518, ibid. Ill 215. 98

Supra, n. 39. Aytinger's work had already been published at Augsburg in 1496. Brandt

published a second edition in 1515. For another collection of prophecies belonging to the

same period, see H. Haupt, 'Ein Oberrheinischer Revolution?r aus dem Zeitalter Kaiser

Maximilians 1/ Westdeutsche Zeitschrift f?r Geschichte und Kunst, Erg?nzungsheft 8 (Trier

1893) 196-7.



346 TRADITIO

The Church must first be punished by the German Emperor and, in delineating his role as chastiser and destroyer of Rome, Aytinger draws on the pseudo Joachimist works, the Brigittine oracles, the Sibyls, Reinhard and the latest

prophet, Liechtenberger.94 Finally the King of the Romans assumes the dual

role of Methodian recoverer of Jerusalem and Joachimist reformer of the

Church. The contrast between the pessimistic and optimistic traditions is

strikingly illustrated in the endings of the Pseudo-Methodian tract, which is

placed first, and Aytinger's, which follows it: in the first, after the overthrow

of the Turk and the recovery of Jerusalem, Christendom will be overwhelmed

by Gog and Magog and Antichrist, while the King of the Romans expires on Olivet; in the second, Aytinger focuses attention on the renovatio and the

great peace which passes into the eternal peace. Here he repeats Liechten

berger's prophecy placing the double task on Maximilian's son:95

Quia legitur in Legenda Karoli magni r?gis Francie quod de stirpe eius suscitabitur quidam in novissimis temporibus nomine P. qui erit princeps et monarcha totius Europe, qui terram promissionis recuperabit et ec

clesiam atque clerum reformabit. Post illum nullus amplius imperabit...

Qui rex Romanorum, de quo dicit Methodius, reformabit ecclesiam et clerum dispersum liberabit de suis necessitatibus, renegatos christianos

castiget, terram infidelium sibi subiiciet, novos predicatores evangelii eliget et novam reformationem ecclesie faciet. Et de illis reperitur in revelationibus s?nete Brigite et Hildegardis. Item per eundem magnifi cabitur cum auxilio Christi regnum Romanorum super omnia regna mundi.

Ultimo universalem pacem in mundo et maximam faciet ut per presentem

pacem mereamur pervenire ad eternam.

94 References are to his Tractatus super Methodium, which follows the Methodian prophecy. He knows the Abbot Joachim chiefly from a reputed prophecy of the failure of Frederick

Fs crusade (ce. 1 and 4). Two quotations in c. 2 from Joachimist works are taken from

Liechtenberger, op. cit. 2.15, 35, cf. supra, . 74; one passage (c. 5) appears to be quoted

directly from the Super Hieremiam, but in fact is only loosely based on c. 49, fol. 60v-61r.

Other passages from the Sibyls, Bridget and Reinhard appear to be taken mainly from

Liechtenberger. In c. 2, Aytinger quotes a prophecy beginning 'Egredietur aquila de Ale

manie rupibus multis associata griffonibus, ' which Liechtenberger (2.4, quoted supra, n. 78)

cites under the authorship of the Cumaean Sibyl but which I have been unable to trace

further back. Aytinger prefaces it by another Sibylline prophecy beginning 'Postquam I.

octavus et F. tertius delati fuerint et A. sextus nascetur...' This is obviously written after

the election of Alexander VI and is therefore not the work of Liechtenberger, but possibly of Aytinger himself. It becomes amalgamated with the following prophecy and the two

are cited as one prophecy from the Sibylla Erithrea in a vernacular prophecy of 1522 (infra, n. 127): by B. Purstinger, Onus Ecclesiae (no place, 1531) c. 41; by Lazius, op. cit. fol. 43 ;

by T. Graminaeus Ruraemondanus, Mysticus Aquilo (Cologne 1576) 154 (as from the

Cumaean Sibyl). 95

Op. cit. c. 5. In the 1515 edition Brandt substituted for the nomine P. of this prophecy nomine Petrus.




The hope that a great king would appear to fulfill these two functions also

inspired the pen of an Italian who served no special candidate. In the pon tificate of Sixtus IV a Dominican, Joannes Nannius of Viterbo, wrote a Trac

tates de futuris Christianorum triumphis in Saracenis or Glosa super Apo

calypsim de statu ecclesiae ab anno MCCCCLXXXI usque ad finem mundi.96

He addressed his work to the Pope, the Kings of France and Spain and the

Senate of Genoa. His paramount belief was that at the last the Pope and a

future prince, working in perfect harmony, would bring in the final state of

beatitude in the Church.97 This triumph would involve the destruction of

all Saracens and the union of the Churches. The writer insisted that this age of felicity was the temporal rule of Christ preceding the Last Judgment, that is, the millennium of history in which Satan was bound, not the eternal

felicity beyond history.98 Its agents would be men; Satan would be bound by a great prince symbolized in the Angel of the Apocalypse descending from

the sky, that is, in his interpretation, the Church.99 When the peace had been

established there would be a patriarch, a king and a guardian angel ruling in each of twelve divisions of the world.100 Even the language of the last

chapter of the Apocalypse was claimed for this state of temporal beatitude : 4 Vidi novum celum, i.e. novum statum ecclesiae et terram novam sive novum

statum laieorum.'101 Although he only quoted Joachim once, Joannes Nan

9? Published at Louvain, undated, unpaginated. The current expectation that this savior

would be a French king was utilized by Pius II when seeking to persuade Louis to lead a

crusade: 'nam pugnare cum Turcis et vincere et Terram Sanctam recuperare Francorum

regum proprium est' (cited by Chaume, op. cit. . 23 supra, 36). 97

Commentary on Apoc. 18 and 19. 88 To the objection that Christ said, 'My Kingdom is not of this world/ he replies: 'Ad

hoc firmissime tenentes respondemus quod nedum in futuro seculo sed etiam in presenti

Christus solus habet monarchi?m iuridicam ... Christi monarchia est temporalis etiam in

hoc seculo .... Nedum celestis sed etiam terrestris. Atque ita Agnus cum populo latino ...

pugnabit temporaliter cum bestia et saracenis et Agnus vincet illos .... O quanto erit gloria

latinorum (Commentary on Apoc. 17). To the view that ch. 19 describes events at the

Last Judgment, he replies: 'Ad hos firmiter respondemus quod hoc capitulum non potest

de alio statu ad litteram intelligi quam de temporali monarchia ecclesie, primo, quia totus

iste liber ad litteram est de statibus ecclesie militanti? in terra, non triumphantis in celo.

Ergo de militia temporali intelligitur; secundo, quia post monarchi?m iudicii ultimi religa

bitur diabolus in sempiternum ... sed post hanc victoriam diabolus religabitur solum per

mille annos ?t postea solvetur et seducet gentes ... Ergo intelligitur de monarchia que

erit ante iudicium '

(Commentary on Apoc. 19). 99

Commentary on Apoc. 18, 19, 20. The verse Apoc. 20.1, 'Vidi alium angelum descen

dentem de celo' etc. was interpreted by Joachim in terms of the ushering in of the Third

Status (Expos, fol. 210r-211v). 100

Commentary on Apoc. 21. 101 Ibid.



348 TRADITIO

nius' final stage of history was the Joachimist Third Age.102 The tract ends on this note.

VI.

In 1485 the magic name of Charles returned to the French monarchy. It is not surprising that the mantle of the double role fell on Charles VIII

and, indeed, his fantastic ambitions may well have been nourished on pro

phecy.103 Much was expected of him. The poet Andr? de la Vigne dreamed

that Christianity, in the form of a woman, implored Charles to rescue her

from the infidel.104 Michael Tarchianota Marullus, of Constantinople, in his

Epigrammata et hymni105 exhorted Charles to take up his appointed role. Jean Michel, his doctor, had a prophetic vision which he presented to Charles as a treatise, De la nouvelle r?formation du si?cle et de la r?cup?ration de J? rusalem ? lui destin?e.106 Finally, Guilloche, a poet of Bordeaux, dug up the

very Second Charlemagne prophecy once written for Charles VI and expanded it in vernacular verse.107

It was extraordinarily apt, for Charles VIII was actually crowned in his

fourteenth year, and the early part of his career could already be made to, conform fairly well to the prophetic program:

Charles huitiesme de ce nom

Filz de tr?s noble naci?n

101 He actually uses this phrase: 'sequitur ergo tercius status in reformatione ecclesie*

(Commentary on Apoc. 21). Joachim is cited in the commentary on ch. 17 in an unidenti

fiable quotation also used by Aytinger, supra, n. 94. 101 For the prophetic background to Charles VIIFs expedition, see C. de Cherrier, Histoire

de Chartes Vili (Paris 1868) I 394; H. Delaborde, L'exp?dition de Charles Vili en Italie

(Paris 1888) 314; H. Hauser, Les sources de l'histoire de France: XVIe si?cle 1 (Paris 1906)

107-8, 243-5, 264. 104

Yergier d'Honneur, cited in Marquis de la Grange, La proph?cie du Roy Charles Vili

de Ma?tre Guilloche Bourdelois (Paris 1869) xxvi; de Cherrier, op. cit. I 394. 105 Published at Strasbourg in 1509, no pag. The poem is addressed Ad Carolum Regem

Franci??. 108 ed. J. de la Pilorgerie, Campagne et Bulletins de la Grande Arm?e d'Italie command?e

par Charles VIII (Nantes-Paris 1866) 431-3. The title continues: 'et qu'il sera de tous les

roys de terre le souverain et dominateur sur tous les dominions et unique monarche du

monde.' The climax of his triumph is described in these eschatological terms: 'Et tu seras

tr?s plein de felicit?, roy des roys et seigneur des seigneurs et prince des princes de la terre

et non pas tout seulement seras nomm? Charles roy de France mais le fervent et integer rime reformateur ... juste et misericors du monde .. l'expectation des gens, le d?sir de tous...

'

107 Printed in full by de Cherrier, op. cit. I 487-90; de la Grange, op. cit. 1-9, with a com

mentary 10-50; Chaume, op. cit. (n. 23 supra) 32-3. Guilloche appears to have used the

original French version, for the coronation age is given as 14 and the Telesphorean ending is lacking, cf. supra, at nn. 22-25.




Et tr?s illustres fleurs de lis, En soy aura haultes sourcis

Semblablement aura long front, Les yeulx longuetz comme seront, Le nez agu ...108

Thus the young king assumes the prophetic features, the frons longa, su

percilia alta, oculi longi, nasus aquilinus of the Second Charlemagne.

.Sera couronn?

L'an quatorze, quant il sera n?

L'an dixehuitiesme, autre foys, Aucuns des grans princes fran?oys Hors du royaume s'en yront Et contre luy se leveront

Mais tout ce rien ne lui vauidra Car victoire contr' eulx aura.109

Thus the poet expands the promise made in the original text: Omnesque tyrannos sui regni destruet, and with some grounds for regarding this as ful

filled, he turns to the future with confidence:

L'an trente troys, celles parties, Il fera de si grant batailles Qu'il subiuguera les Ytailles, Espaigneulz et Aragonnoys,

Lombards, aussi bien Yrlandoys, Et d'autres gens subiuguera; Et puis apr?s conquestera Vaillamment la cit? de Romme Et obtiendra double couronne; Nomm? sera roy des Rommains, Oultre le vouloir des Germains, C'est assavoir des Alemans; Et puis apr?s incessammens

Par feu et par sang destruyra Un autre cit? qui sera Nomin?e la Cit? de pechi?.110

Here a note identifies this city as Florence. From this point the poem proceeds with the whole program of the Second Charlemagne text. He will conquer Greece and be acclaimed King of the Greeks; he will conquer the Turk and all barbarians; all Christian kings will submit to him. He will issue the edict of death against all who refuse to honour the Cross and no man will be able to resist him.

108 Chaume, op. cit. 32. *?? Ibid. 110 Ibid. 33.



350 TRADITIO

Il poss?dera en sa vie

La tr?s haultaine seigneurie De ceste terre universelle.111

His career ends at the climax of the original text ? without the additional

Telesphorean ending:

En Jh?rusalem entrera, Et mont Olivet montera, Priant Dieu le p?re et le filz Et le benoist sainct Esperis, D?positant ces troys couronnes,

A Dieu rendra son Esperit; Lors seront signes merveilleux, La terre mouvant en tous lieulx, Du r?gne dudit roy francoys, L'an qui sera cinquante troys.112

How far Charles VIII was influenced by this prophetic program it is im

possible to say with any certainty. Laur?ault de Foucemagne, writing on

his Italian expedition in the eighteenth century, concluded that a vital element

throughout was the Crusading motive and recalled the prayers and processions Charles offered for victory against the infidel.113 Charles' program suggests the dual prophetic role most clearly: as Joachimist chastiser and reformer of

the Church he must conquer Florence and Rome; as Methodian savior he must lead the Crusade. The inclusion of Florence in his program immediately recalls the Second Charlemagne prophecy,114 and it is perhaps permissible to seek here a clue to Charles' unusual and unexpected route south through

Italy.115 We may get an echo of his belief in the prophecies from the Diaria de Bello Carolino of A. Benedictus:

4 et quedam vaticinia de se ipso augurar!

confidentius professus est, ' after which follows what is obviously a summary

of the Second Charlemagne prophecy.116 We may also note Guicciardini's

111 Ibid. 34. i" Ibid. 118 Cited in Marquis de la Grange, op. cit. xxiv. It is reported that when Charles saw

the mystery play of David and Goliath, he interpreted it as his fight with the Turk. 114 So far as I am aware, Florence was not coupled with Rome as the chief objects of the

destruction carried out by the chastiser-king until the Second Charlemagne prophecy. 116 i.e. his crossing of the Appennines and advance down the west side, instead of either

going by sea from Genoa, as many French invaders of Naples had done, or following the Via Emilia into the Romagna, as the Papal-Neapolitan army expected him to do.

116 Venice 1496. See Bk. I (beginning). The quotation continues: ' Ita ut eius auspiciis

Hisp?nia, Germania et Italia perdomita facile Graecia, Asia, Syria, ac Egyptus ilium tan

quam deum veneraretur: et adepta Hierosolyma deposita humi (sic) corona sepulchrum Christi veneraretur, victor triumphans suprema die in coelum raperetur.

' Notice the

triumphant apotheosis in place of the Methodian collapse.




report that, to flatter Charles, reference was made to 'quello gloriosissimo Carlo, il cui nome voi ottenete.'117 Whilst the question of Charles' own state of mind remains uncertain, there

is no doubt at all that contemporaries were expecting a crisis of history which would see the fulfillment of prophecies. In a number of sources we meet references to the prophecies circulating at this moment under the name of St. Cathaldus and the awe-inspiring circumstances in which this oracle was discovered at Tarento and sent to King Ferdinand to warn him of approaching calamities.118 Tizio's Historia Senensium told of presages, phantoms and

astrological conjunctions of dreadful import.119 There was a prophet crying woe in Rome in 1491,120 while a Benedictine monk of Vallombrosa, Angelo Fondi, hailed Charles as the final Emperor and exhorted Florence and the

Papacy to believe the prophecies and support him.121 Above all, as evidence of the prevailing mood, we have the phenomenon of Savonarola.122 By a

117 F. Guicciardini, La Storia d'Italia, ed. A. Gherardi (Florence 1919) I 22-3. us

?prophetia S. Gataldi ... reperta A.D. 1492 in ecclesia tarentina vivente adhuc et

regnante Ferdinando alphonsi primi filio, nuper autem ... in lucem edita per fratres S. Ma rie montis oliveti, a quibus inventa fuit in Sicilia in biblioteca regis alphonsi secundi

On the finding of the oracle, see Infessura, op. cit. ( . 71 supra) 1240; Alexander ab Alexan

dro, Genialium diariorum libri sex (Paris 1539) fol. 67 -68 ; B. Moroni, ... Cataldiados ...

libri sex (Naples 1614) 173ff. ; Cronica di Napoli di Notar Giacomo, ed. P. Garzilli (Naples 1845) 173. The text, or part of it, appears in S. Tizio, Historia Senensium (cited Delaborde, op. cit. [ . 103 supra] 317); Mirabilis liber (Paris 1522) fol. ; P. Galatinus (Columna), De ecclesia destitu?a, lib. 8 c. 1, cited by Moroni, who says that he himself saw the prophecy in Naples and that a certain brother found it in Galatinus' work in the library of the Ara caeli Church in Rome. It also occurs in a MS in the Bodleian Library, Laud MS Misc. 588.

119 Cited Delaborde, op. cit (n. 103 supra). 317. See also Guicciardini, op. cit. I 52. 120

Infessura, op. cit. 1236. There are echoes of Joachimism in his account of this prophet: ' ... reducebat ad concordiam Testamentum Vetus et Novum et dicebat multa bona et subtilia verba: ... [after great tribulations in Rome, Florence, etc.] tertio anno 1493 Clericus

absque temporali domin?t ione reperietur, eritque tune Angel icus Pastor qui solum vit am animarum et spiritualia curabit.

'

121 Cited Hauser, op. cit. ( . 103 supra) 264. 122 The question of the real relation between Savonarola's thought and Joachimist expec

tation still awaits thorough investigation. It is, of course, well known that he himself, although citing Joachim, expressly dissociated himself from the Abbot, but this does not

prove that the real sources of his expectation were not Joachimist. Opposite views on this question have been taken in some of the more recent lives (e. g. J. Schnitzer, Savonarola

[Munich 1924] and R. Ridolfi, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola [Rome 1952]), but there has been too much parti-pris in the discussion. D. Weinstein's short paper 'Savonarola and the Millennarian Tradition,

' Church History 27 (1958) 3-17, points the way to a more detailed

analysis of the elements in Savonarola's thought, but, in my view, the question cannot be

dealt with unless first the development of Joachimist thought is closely studied. In this

perspective the debt of Savonarola to Joachim becomes more positive: it is not only that Savonarola's final conception of a New Age after the fight with Antichrist 'was close to



352 TRADITIO

curious coincidence a Hebrew writer of the time also places Charles VIII in a Messianic context, believing that, with the arrival of the King of France in Naples, the Messianic era had begun.123

At first the pattern of Charles' career in Italy seemed to fit the prophecies wonderfully. The rapid conquest of Florence and Rome, the presence of Maximilian and Ferdinand to play the role of wicked kings, the appearance of Savonarola as the herald of the Papa angelicus

? all fitted miraculously into place. But the wicked rulers played their parts too effectively for the

prophets and Charles was back home again before the Joachimist future had well advanced.

VII.

After the death of Charles VIII of France the advantage in this duel of

prophecies swung back heavily in favor of the German house.124 The Hapsburg Charles carried the magic name, while his Burgundi?n lineage enabled him to pose as the champion of both traditions. In a late fifteenth-century hand at the back of a manuscript now in Cambridge,125 the Second Charlemagne prophecy is written out under the heading Prophetia abbatis Joachimi A.D. 1180. It begins : '

Carolus philippi filius ex natione illustra lilii. '

Thus it marks the second stage in the appropriation of this Prophecy by the Bur

gundian-Hapsburg house: from the nomine P.m we have moved to Carolus

philippi filius. Round the period of the Imperial election of 1519 the prophecies gathered

thickly. In 1517 a curious little German pamphlet was produced by Pam

philius Gengenbach, a Swiss poet, in which prophetic pronouncements were

gathered together from a hermit named Nollhart, from Bridget and the Sibyls, Methodius, Joachim, and Reinhard.127 The chief point of its rhymed German

the Joachimites' idea of a World Sabbath* (Weinstein, op. cit. 10), but that the very figures he uses, the Chiesa renovata and Papa angelicas, derive from Joachim's ideas, as modified and popularized in the intervening centuries.

123 S. Krauss, 'Le Roi de France, Charles Vili, et les esp?rances messianiques/ Revue des ?tudes juives 51 (1906) 87-95.

124 Giovanni Baptista Spagnuoli or Mantuanus continued, however, to celebrate in verse

the expected French savior, see Fastorum libri duodecim (Lyons 1516) 5: 'De sancto angelo Carmelita' and 'Exhortatio ad insubres,' which is a eulogy of Louis XII.

125 Univ. Libr. MS Kk. 6.16, fol. 185\ 128

Supra at nn. 83, 95. 127 P. Gengenbach, Ditz sind die prophetien sancti Methodii und Nollhardi (Basel 1517).

In a pamphlet of similar type, Von ainem Waldbr?der wie er underricht gibt Babst Kaiser

K?nig und allen st?nden (no place 1522), the Pope, the King of France, the Kaiser and

others question the Waldbr?der, Bridget and the Sibyl on the future, with the same out come: that the future Imperium belongs to the German Kaiser. There are echoes of Liech




verses seems to lie in the fact that the prophets are interviewed by the Kaiser

and the King of France and that the latter is rejected as a candidate for world

empire. The marriage of French and German traditions appears in the pam

phlet of Master Alofresant of Rhodes, Alle alten Prophecien von Keyserliche Maiestat, published at Munich and Strassburg in 1519. Here the galaxy of

prophetic witnesses is impressive: the Sibyls and Cyril, Hildegarde and Bridget, Joannes de Rupescissa, Gamaleon, Reinhard and Liechtenberger, are all made

to pronounce their oracles in favor of Charles. On the one side, Charles' Bur

gundi?n inheritance is stressed, for the historical background sketched is

that of the descendants of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and the

prophecies of the Lily are made to focus on his fourth direct male descendant.

On the other hand, to match French prognostications, the Hohenstaufen

prophecies are revived, notably the one which first pointed to a glorious Third

Frederick. We have already found this used, in a revised form, by Thomas Ebendorf er in the fifteenth century; now, in a newly revised form with the tell-tale name omitted, it is applied to Charles V:128

Volabit Aquila cuius volatu debellatur Leo, qui regnabit Ierosolymae Septem annis. Tandem conspirabunt principes Almaniae et magnates

Bohemiae opprimentur. Et Leopardus devorabit eum. Tune surget Rex

de radice Aquilae Orientalis et veniet pullus Aquilae et nidificabit in domo Leonis et fructu alimentoque paterno carebit. Et eligetur Rex cui honor r?gis non exhibetur. Hie regnabit ac imperans imperabit, extendetque ramos suos usque ad ?ltimos fines terrae. Tempore illius

summus capietur pontifex. Et clerus dilapidabitur, nam d?prav?t fidem.

Heu pessima vita cleri.

It is clear that the Second Charlemagne text was circulating in favor of

Charles V at this time. In 1505 it was found in an 'old book' in Italy;129 later it appeared at Louvain.130 A German vernacular version, beginning 'Karolus ein sun Philippi,' was now current.131 In 1519 Sanuto, the Venetian

tenberger here, and the prophecy 'Postquam I. octavus' discussed supra, n. 94, is given

by the Sibyl in a vernacular version. 128 fol. 9V. Alofresant says that this was taken in 1498 from an ancient book by Maternus

Hatten of Spire. For earlier versions of this prophecy, supra, at nn. 10, 55. Wolf, op. cit.

( . 29 supra) I 722, quoted it from Alofresant, and in 1630 Cornelius Crull, probably quoting from Wolf, applied it to the Elector Frederick of the Palatinate, see J. Praetorius, Alec

tryomantia seu divinatio magica (Frankfurt-Leipzig 1680) 70-1. Alofresant also uses the

other thirteenth-century pro-Imperial verse, Gallorum levitas, cf. supra, . 10. 129 A pamphlet published in 1532, Erzelung der Kunigreich in Hispanien ... Mer ein alte

Prophecey Kay. Carl betreffend, introduces the prophecy at the end thus: 'Dise Prophecey ist gefunden worden in Italien, in der Stadt Verona in einem fast alten buch/ See also

Lazius, op. cit. ( . 29 supra) fol. 46r, giving the date 1505, and B. Purstinger, op. cit. ( . 134

infra) c. 48. 180

Lazius, op. cit. ( . 29 supra) fol. 56*. 181

Supra, . 129.



354 TRADITIO

ambassador, sent back to Venice from England an entirely independent English version of the Second Charlemagne prophecy.132 It is interesting to observe

here how the original French-Joachimist context has been lost in the opening and closing sentences: 'Charles the son of Philip, of the illustrious Caesarean

race' ?thus an Imperial origin has been substituted for the descent from

the Lily. The last sentence, in the Telesphorean version, had set the Emperor in relation to the two other Joachimist symbols of the Third Frederick and

the Angelic Pope. Since then, however, the Third Frederick had appeared without displaying any hint of superhuman stature. In Sanuto's version, as also in the German vernacular one then current, the last, Telesphorean sentence survives but both symbols have lost their pregnant meaning: 'He

will, with signs and miracles, breathe his last in the 35th year of his reign, and be crowned by the angel, being the first crowned Emperor since Fred erick III.'133

The Second Charlemagne prophecy was known to Berthold Purstinger, the reforming bishop of Chiemsee, who wrote his Onus Ecclesiae in 1519.134 This work affords an interesting example of a thoroughgoing Joachimist

scheme of history into which the old tradition of the World Emperor is fitted. The framework is that of the three status and seven ages as constructed by Joachim and his Franciscan disciple, Ubertino da Casale.135 The sixth age of the Church, 'in quo nunc sumus,'136 is given for reform, beginning with

St. Francis and St. Dominic and lasting until the great Antichrist. It is

typified in the Church of Philadelphia in the Apocalypse and will see schism

and persecution by tyrant and pseudo-pope. Here Purstinger does not hesi

132 Calendar of State Papers: Venice II, 1509-1527 (London 1867) No. 1301, p. 566. Bezold,

op. cit. (note 1 supra) 600, cites another MS example of what appears to be the Second

Charlemagne prophecy at Munich, with the following note appended in a sixteenth-century hand: 'Hec prophecia compilata est per me fratrem Johannem Peregrinum de Bononia

monasterii S. Antonii de Veneciis ex quodam antiquissimo libro quem apud me habeo qui liber antiquitus scriptus fuit. a. M.CCCC.XIII per quendam Blasium Mathei .... Et ista

est prophecia nona abbatis Joachim tercio r?gis (sic) cap. XIIIo. '

133 Cf. the German vernacular version in the pamphlet cited supra, n. 129: 'und mit

wunderparlichen zaichen seinen geist aufgeben im f?nff und dreissigsten jar seines Reichs

und wirt dasselbst gekr?nt werden von dem Engel, und wirt werden der erst gekr?nt Keiser

nach Keyser Friderich dem dritten.' 134 Published anonymously 1524, and under his name 1531, no place, no pagination. 135 In c. 2, 'De novis Prophetiis ac modernis revelationibus,' he cites not only Joachim

but several Joachites as well; his analysis of the seven states of the Church is taken from

Ubertino da Casale (c. 5); he constantly cites Joachim, Ubertino and Telesphorus and his

-final program is explicitly Joachimist in its affirmation of the three status and its identifica

tion of the third status with the Seventh Age of history, after the maximus Antichristus

but before the Last Judgment (cc. 61, 66, 67, 70). 13? Ibid. c. 2.




tate to use the anti-german Joachimist oracles.137 He is, indeed, gloomy about the prospect before the German nation but pins his hope for its renewal on Charles V, and here he quotes the Second Charlemagne prophecy which, he says, has been circulating since 1505.138 But to this reforming bishop the

chief instruments of the renovatio which will end the sixth age will be Angelic Popes, not emperors. They will lead the Church through the tribulation of the great Antichrist and bring in the seventh age or third status of the world, when Satan will be bound. In this Sabbath of tranquillity, to endure until the Last Judgment, the world will be ruled jointly by a new pontiff and a new king.139 Thus, while accepting the prophecy of Charles V, Purstinger does not put it in the context of the final age of blessedness, which lies further ahead.

It seems that prophecy even penetrated the Imperial electoral chamber in

1519. Some of the speakers in the debate attached great significance to the

issue of this election, declaring that the salvation of Europe hung on it, that

he who could sustain this office must be of heroic mold and vast strength, and that he must be comparable to an Alexander.140 The magic name of

Charlemagne was invoked, but, it was insisted, the imp?rium belonged to the

Germans.141 The Bishop of Trier remembered a prophet of Maximilian's

election who swore he would be the last German Emperor, but the Elector

of Brandenburg had a better prophecy for these times;142

Fata etiam his temporibus promittunt Germanicum Imperatorem qui majores magnitudine potentiae superaturus sit. Et addunt alteram lau

dem multo gratiorem: futurum ut bonitate et dementia praeter caeteros

reges excellat, nec alium nisi Carolum vaticinor. Quare opto Deus Im

perium ipsi committat eumque gubernet ad salutem orbis terrarum.

This may well be an echo of the Second Charlemagne prophecy, while the

same heightened expectation seems to inspire the tones in which the new

Emperor was hailed in the Libertas Germaniae of H. Gebviler.143 Thus on

187 Ibid. ce. 16, 38, 39, 41. 188 Ibid. c. 48. 188 Ibid. ce. 60, 61, 66, 69. 140 G. Sabinus, De electione Caroli V historia (Helmstadt 1666) 24, 39. 141 R. Folz, op. cit. ( . 1 supra) 561. 142 Sabinus, op. cit. 25. 148 H. Gebviler, Libertas Germaniae ... (Strasbourg 1519, no pag.), at the end: 'Quem

[i.e. Charles V] toto Christiano orbe pacato, et Romane ecclesie monstroso statu in melius

reformato, ferocissima immanium Turcorum gentem oppressurum, ac Christiane religionis

suavissimo iugo facile subditurum dubitamus minime ... Cui proculdubio Caroli magni

vestigiis innixuro, totus orbis olim acclamabit: Carolo Augusto a Deo coronato, magno

et pacifico Imperatori vita, victoria. '

See also the following contemporary pamphlets:

Franz von Sickingen, Eyn Sendbrieff... (Wurtemberg 1521), hailing Charles as, without



356 TRADITIO

Charles V's career the prophetic expectation of both traditions ? the Lily and the Eagle

? became focused.144

The Prognosticon of Torquatus the astrologer,145 ostensibly addressed to

Mathias of Hungary in 1480 and probably written c. 1492, seemed to be

finding its obvious fulfillment in the events of Charles V's reign; for what

could men perceive in the turmoils of Germany under Luther but the rise

of the pseudo-prophets, the final schism and the appearance of the arch

heresiarch prophesied by Torquatus?146 A copy of the 1544 edition in the British Museum is studded with marginal notes applying his forecasts to

sixteenth-century events. Solyman the Turk, the Battle of Pavia, the Sack of Rome, all fit into the pattern and these 'fulfillments' would lead men

forward in expectation of those hopes against which 'nondum impletum' would still be written. Torquatus had prophesied the renewal of the Church and the triumph of the Empire: the Turk would be conquered and converted, and then would be accomplished that union of interests which had been ex

pressed in the Brigittine prophecy: 'Gallorum laus sub aquila volabit.'147 The MS note 'nondum impletum renovatio in Ecclesia' sums up the hope with which such prophecies were read.

The Sack of Rome in 1527 by the armies of Charles V was a major pro phetic event. It fulfilled so dramatically the prophecies of the chastiser-king who should destroy Rome that it was difficult not to see it in this context.

doubt, the great champion against Antichrist; G. Sauromanus, Hisp?ni?? consolatio (? Lou vain 1520) fol. 10v-14v; Hypothesis sive argumenta spectaculorum ...(Antwerp 1520) fol. 9r:

Iam nova lux terris oritur, Pax alma redibit

Et positis armis aurea soecla fluent.

Carolus Europae Rector Lybiamque Asiamque Asseret imperio victor ubique suo.

Nunc implebuntur prudentum oracula vatum

Grex unus terris, Pastor et unus erit.

Commenting on this literature, Folz, op. cit. 561, says: 'Sur ce plan ... l'?lection du petit fils de Maximilien ne fut pas que le triomphe de la technique financi?re des Fugger, mais, dans une large mesure, celui du Charles allemand.

'

144 The Reformation Sigmunds, with references to Charles V, was published anew in 1520, 1521, and 1522. In 1519, in two editions at Augsburg and Landshut, the German legends were disseminated in the Volksbuch vom Kaiser Friedrich (ed. M. Haupt, Zeitschrift f?r Deutsches Altertum 5 [1845] 250-68). In 1521 Hermannus a Nuevare addressed his Vita et gesta Karoli Magni to Charles V, ending his preface:

4 Tu vero huius viri sanctimoniam

imitatus, iure ?ptimo Karolus Maximus appellaberis. '

145 Published at Antwerp in 1544 but dated as early as c. 1492, see D. Kurze, art. cit. ( . 72 supra) 68.

146 Fol. 7V: 'Veniet a septentrione heresiarcha magnus subvertendo populos contra vota Roinanae sedis, cum magnorum principum Septentrionalium-auxilio ... Et apparebunt tune

hypocriti multi ... Et erit confusio magna et persecutio in dei ecclesia maxima.' 147 Ibid. fol. 9V. Cf. supra, n. 41.




The double tradition of the good and bad chastisers, of course, allowed it to

be interpreted in two opposite senses. The various Italian prophets who cried

Woe ! Woe ! in the streets during the months prior to the Sack, announcing the imminent punishment of the Church for her sins, had prepared the minds

of Pope and ecclesiastics to see in these terrible events a manifestation of

Antichrist.148 The rise of the great heresiarch Luther with his 'locusts' from

the bottomless pit, the schism in the Church, the Sack of Rome ? all were

part of the long-expected crisis of Antichrist, and the German Emperor and

nation were traditionally part of this. Yet the detraction of Rome and the

just chastisement of the Church also belonged to the roles of the Second

Charlemagne and the Brigittine rex p?dicas facie. Thus the Catholic German

interpretation of these events separated the forces of Antichrist, represented

by the Protestants and Turks, from the work of chastisement and renewal

which belonged to the Last Emperor: the Sack of Rome tended to confirm

Charles in this role,149 For the argument here it is significant that both Italian

and German interpreters of this crisis believed that renovado would shortly follow tribulation.150

A few years later there was again a revival of prophetic propaganda in

favor of Charles V. It was in 1532 that Berthold Purstinger published his

Onus Ecclesiae. At the same time the Second Charlemagne prophecy appeared once more at the end of a German history of Spain.151 In this year Charles

conducted an expedition against the infidel in North Africa and to some this

seemed an occasion of prophetic import. When the De Bello contra Barbaros

of Benedetto Accolti the Elder was printed in 1532, the publishers thought the times to be crucial and appended various oracles, one of which brings

together in a strange medley the Book of Daniel and the classical age of gold, the Joachimist Angelic Pope and the divine Caesar.152 It catches the mood of

148 Wolf, op. cit. II 295; L. Guicciardini, Il Sacco di Roma (Paris 1664) 174; G. Pecci,

Memorie storico-critiche della Citt? di Siena (Siena 1755) III 248; Pecci, Notizie storico

critiche sulla vita di Bartolomeo da Petrojo chiamato Brandano (Lucca 1763) 20; D. Bernino,

Historia di tutte l'heresie IV (Rome 1709) 368, 375; O. Raynaldus, Annales ecclesiastici

13 (Lucca 1755) 1, 10; L. Pastor, History of the Popes (tr. R. Kerr) 9 (London 1910) 379-81. 149

Lazius, op. cit. fol. 35r, 44v, 45v, 46v. 150 Guicciardini, op. cit. 174; Lazius, op. cit. fol. 35r. 151

Supra, n. 129. 152 De bello contra Barbaros (Venice 1532), appendix: 'Appolinei Vatis Oraculum: ...Foelix

igitur ac nimium foelix cui s?ptima fulserit aetas, annus scilicet 1530. Sed mage beatus

qui superaverit Annum 1535. Siquidem tune sacrosancta ecclesia reformabitur et aetas

aurea passim per multos vigebit annos sub quodam pont?fice beatissimo et Divo Caesar?

clementissimo, et antequam talis reformatio fiet interim maior pars hominum morietur

fame, gladio, peste, ac timendum erit quod vix media aut tertia pars hominum totius orbis

supervivet tune temporis. '

It is curious that in 1564 a younger Benedetto Accolti was in

volved in a plot to remove Pope Pius IV in order to bring in 'quale pont?fice che ordinaria

mente dal populo Romano ? chiamato pont?fice angelico' (Pastor, op. cit. 16.383-9).



358 TRADITIO

those who believed themselves to be standing on th? threshold of the greatest evil and the highest beatitude in history: 1535 is to be the key year. Again, Joannes Carion, winding up his chronicle of empires in 1532, also passes over

from Charles' expedition into prophetic speculation. He remembers a Greek

promise of restoration to Constantinople eighty years after its fall; Liechten

berger's prophecies come to mind and those of the Abbot Joachim, St. Bridget and others. The heavens declare their portents and the prophets are all of

one mind in expecting the great emperor.153 So Carion, too, believes himself

to be ending his history on the eve of the renovado.

Martin du Bellay supplies the only evidence as to the actual effect of pro

phecy on politics at this time. In 1536 he noticed 'un grand et merveilleux

cours de proph?ties et prognostications que toutes promettoient ? l'empereur heureux et grand succ?s et accroissement de fortune.'154 He observed the

effects of these rumours: how Charles was convinced, 'et quand plus il adiustoit

de foy, de tant plus en faisoit l'on semer et publier de nouvelles'; how the

Marquis of Saluzzo changed sides hastily, showing pity for his French friends

'qui perdroient leurs biens, parce qu'on ne pouvoit aller contre les oracles de

Dieu dont les proph?tes estoient d?nonciateurs'; how Frenchmen were terrified

but Francis I stoutly opposed these superstitions and pursued his designs

undismayed.

As late as 1547 a learned man could still believe in Charles' prophetic destiny.

Wolfgang Lazius was a Doctor of Vienna and historian to Ferdinand I. He

had written four books on Viennese history, twelve on the Roman Empire, two on the genealogy of the House of Austria;155 finally, he makes an excursion

into the future, gathering together in his Fragmentum vadcinii cuiusdam

MethodU156 a compilation of oracles and prophecies from every possible source

in honor of the Emperor. There was at this time a consonance between event

and prophecy which was most convincing. The Joachimist program, following the Abbot, expected the final crisis of wickedness to be twofold: the infidel

153 J. Carlo, Chronica (Lat. ed. Halle 1537) fol. 301v. The first edition was published in

1532. He cites from the Super Hieremiam a text beginning 'Veniet Aquila grandis quae vincet omnes.

' This is not traceable as a direct quotation in the printed edition, but must

be derived from fol. 58vff., a passage which is anti-German in sense. He quotes also from

a Neapolitan astrologer, Laurentius Miniatensis, and a hundred-year-old prophecy from

Magdeburg: 'Ex sanguine Caroli Caesarig et regum Galliae imper?tor orietur Carolus dictus

dominus in tota Europa, per quem et ecclesiae collapsus status reformabitur et vetus imperii

gloria restituetur. '

154 Martin du Bellay, M?moires (Paris 1569 )V fol. 142^; VI fol. 167'. For the case of the

Marquis of Saluzzo, see also M. de Montaigne, Essais, Livre I, ch. 11, 'Des Prognostications/ and P. Mass?, De l'Imposture et Tromperie des Diables, Devins... (Paris 1579) fol. 165v-170r.

166 A. Mire, Bibliotheca ecclesiastica (Antwerp 1639-49), sub. nom. 166 Vienna 1547, no pagination.




and the heretic, the beast from the sea and the beast from the land.157 The menace of the infidel was obvious and now the prophecies of schism and

pseudo-prophets seemed to be clearly fulfilled in Lutheranism. To establish the coming of the great heresiarch, Lazius produces a formidable crowd of

witnesses, quoting in full Torquatus' supposedly prophetic description of

Luther: 'Veniet a septentrione heresiarcha magnus subvertendo populos contra vota Romanae sedis ...158 Obviously Luther was to be identified with

the pseudo-Papa Germanicus of Telesphorus' program, but the difficulty of

using this pro-French source was that it made the German Aquila the chief

instrument of evil. Lazius adapts Telesphorus skilfully, laying emphasis on

the pseudo-popes, identifying the wicked king vaguely as a certain Frederick

and suppressing references to the Eagle, as here:159

et exurgent ab eo tempore multi Antichristi praecipue sub Friderico

Rege, sub quo multi Papae qui universum orbem turbabunt et Germaniae terram in errores collocabunt.

His intention is presently made clear from a marginal note suggesting that

this Frederick is Duke Frederick of Saxony, the patron of Luther.160

Leaving the agents of wickedness, Lazius turns to his real purpose, that of

proving that by his double lineage Charles V is heir to all the good prophecies. On the one hand he is descended from the Lily,161 and in appropriating the

Second Charlemagne prophecy, Lazius is able to claim:

... et Caesaris nostri Caroli praeter nomen et stirpem (quam a Carolo

magno et Pipino, nobili ac vetusta Francorum sive Franci?? Regum Lili fera primum omnium prosapia, tarn quod ad paternum gens Habspurgen.

quam maternum Burgundi?? trahit) affabre omnia corporis etiam linia menta depingunt.

He has met the text of our Second Charlemagne prophecy in various sour

ces,162 and relates it to the whole Telesphorean program, in which Carolus

157 Expos, fol. 8*, 162 -168 , 190*: Super Hieremiam, fol. 20*, 45*; Telesphorus, op. cit.

fol. 15'-*, 29*. 168

Lazius, op. cit. ( . 29 supra) fol. 49*, cf. supray . 146. 159 Ibid. fol. 35r.

160 Ibid. fol. 36*: ' Itemque Papae Germanici heresiarchae ac cuiusdam Regis Friderici

factionum haeresiumque [Telesphorus] mentionem addit.' [marginal note:] 'Forte Saxoniae

ducem sic insinuavit propheta. '

He also interprets a prophecy of Reinhard as referring

to the Schmalkaldic League (fol. 45r). 1,1 Ibid. fol. 36r. See also fol. 33*: 'Porro Caesares nostros processisse de Burgundi??

et Habspurgensi stirpibus, quarum utraque a Carolo Magno et veteribus Franci?? Regibus

defluxit, inconfesso est et a nobis in commenta ri is rerum Austriacarum ostensum. '

Lazius

also quotes a passage beginning 'In veteri Caroli magni historia,' which must derive from

the same source as Liechtenbergcr's prophecy, 'Et dicitur in libro regum Francorum* (cf.

supra, at n. 83). See also fol. 35r, 47r. 162 Ibid. fol. 36r (ascribed to Telesphorus of Cosenza); fol. 46r (found at Verona and also

quoted by the Bishop of Chiemsee); fol. 57r (found at Verona and Louvain).



360 TRADITIO

rex de lilia Franci?? is elected and crowned by the Papa angelicus and called to conquer and reform the world.163 On the other hand, the one-time Hohen staufen prophecy, 'Veniet aquila grandis quae vincet omnes,'164 and many other oracles of the Eagle are pressed into service: 'Hoc nomine Carolus noster ab omnibus vatibus nuncupatur videlicet Aquila grandis.'165 He takes his oracles from many sources: from Pilsen in Bohemia comes one of the

thirteenth-century verses, 'Gallorum levitas';166 from Magdeburg a prophecy * Dominabitur in tota Europa

' and from Saxony another;167 from the monastery

of Plass in Bohemia, a prophecy of Rupescissa.168 The galaxy of prophets is

overwhelming: Rabanus, Methodius and the Sibyls, Cathaldus, Cyril and

Merlin, Joachim, Rupescissa and Telesphorus, Gamaleon, Bridget and St. Vincent Ferrer, Reinhart, Liechtenberger, Torquatus, Carion and Paracelsus ? all are made to speak with one voice in honor of this last great ruler.169 Once again, the role of the chastiser of the Church forms an important point of interpretation. Lazius separates it into two: in its wickedness, as we have

188 Ibid. fol. 35r-36r. Lazius quotes long extracts which appear in the printed edition of Telesphorus' libellus, fol. 20f-25v. From this he passes straight to the beginning of the Second Charlemagne text 'Carolus autem coronatus ab isto angelico Papa, spinosa et

lignea corona, filius Caroli magni erit, serenissimi lilii Francorum, habebit longam frontem' etc. This differs from the usual opening (supra 292), which is that given by Lazius on fol.

46r, yet, as we have seen, the Second Charlemagne prophecy is not to be found in the regular text of Telesphorus' work, cf. supra, 293. Did he find this unusual version in a manuscript of the libellus*! Lazius insists with great emphasis that this prophecy exactly fits Charles V

(fol. 46r). 184 Ibid. fol. 44v. Like Carion, Lazius ascribes this prophecy to Joachim at the end of

the Super Hieremiam, but the only passage from which it could be derived cites the anti German Erithraean Sibyl text. Cf. supra, n. 153.

185 Ibid. fol. 44v. Among other eagle prophecies, Lazius cites an oracle from Pilsen, Bohemia (fol. 38v); a prophecy which he ascribes to the Erithraean Sibyl but which must have been composed at the end of the fifteenth century: 'Egredietur Aquila postquam I. octavus et F. tertius ... et A. sextus ... Post haec egredietur Aquila de Almaniae rupibus

multis societ? Gryphonibus ...' (fol. 43r, cf. supra, nn. 78, 94); prophecies from Reinhard of the grandis aquila and of two eagles, interpreted as Maximilian and Charles V (fol. 45r-v, cf. supra, n. 43); a prophecy from Cyril:

* Imperio grandis Aquila, rige pennis, ocyus exper

giscere...' (fol. 45v), for the original of which (beginning 'Imperio grandis aquila, nigra pennas') see Oraculum Cyrilli (n. 6 supra) 308 and Telesphorus' libellus fol. 16r. This last

prophecy is quoted correctly by Purstinger, op. cit. ( . 134 supra) c. 38. 166

Lazius, fol. 46v, cf. supra, n. 10. This is also included in his anthology by Wolf, op. cit. ( . 29 supra) I 722.

187 Lazius, fol. 46v-47r.

188 Ibid. fol. 51v. 189

Among the more obscure prophets cited are: St. Sigebold (fol. 28rff.), St. Carsianus (fol. 36v), Turkish prophecies (foi. 48r-v), Laurentius Miniatensis (fol. 49v), P. Cataneus

(fol. 49v) in a prophecy ending: 'Tune fiet unum ovile et unus pastor et unus dominus qui mundum omnem suo imperio obtinebit et aurea etas deciarabitur'.




just seen, it devolves on Frederick of Saxony, but for the Emperor he builds

up a typically Germanic role of chastiser-reformer. He proves that the Rex

aquilonis of Jeremiah 50 is a liberator, not an oppressor;170 he shows that the

Emperor is the Rex pudicus facie, not the Rex impudicus facie?11 he quotes

prophecies indicating the Emperor's specific duty to reduce the Church to

apostolic poverty.172 The truth of these prophecies has already been demon strated in the Sack of Rome, and Lazius looks to the Emperor to carry through the chastisement that is part of reform.

Thus to Wolfgang Lazius in 1547 the hope of the world stands in Charles V.

The events of his life prove it: he has overcome and imprisoned the Lily, he has brought down Rome and Florence, he has gone over the seas to Africa

against the infidel and he has contended with the heresiarch. True, the Lily had escaped, the Sack of Rome had unfortunate repercussions, the infidel

remained unbeaten, and the heretic increased, but the program was only

half-completed. That the future was in the hands of the Emperor this German

collector of prophecies did not doubt. In his conception of the renovatio

the Angelic Pope remains a shadowy figure and, though he quotes the usual

descriptions from Rupescissa and Telesphorus, at least once he adds: 'Quae etsi ad Pontificem etiam quendam possint accomodari, tarnen de Carolo

nostro etiam intelligenda docent caetera vaticinia.'173 For the reformation

of the Church his faith is in the Emperor and the Council of Trent, not the

Papacy. The prophecies support him: 'quae satis ostendunt omnem nostram

spem post Deum immortalem in Carolum sanctum imperatorem nostrum et

sacrosanctum Tridentinum Concilium ponendam esse.'174 In 1547 he believes

the consummation of history and the end of prophecy to be very near: 'infra

tempus 1548 annorum totum saeculum congregabitur in unum ovile ... et

fiet unum ovile et unus pastor.'175 A Protestant answer to such an interpretation as Lazius' can be seen in the

claim that Frederick of Saxony fulfilled the role of the good Third Frederick.

Thus Luther himself wrote in 1521:176

Celebris est in terris istis me puero saepe cantata prophetia, Esse redi mendum sepulchrum dominicum per Fridricum imperatorem. Et, ut

i7? Ibid. fol. 52r. 171 Ibid. fol. 44v. Citing the Brigittine text 'Exsurget tune Rex pudicus facie,' he caps

it thus : ' per Regem pudicum facie Carolum Caesarem nostrum citra omne dubium figuravit.

'

See also fol. 54v. 172 Ibid. fol. 34T, 36', 37^. 178 Ibid. fol. 45'. 174 Ibid. fol. 32*. 175 Ibid. fol. 37'. See also n. 169. 178 M. Luther, De abrogando, missa privata... sententia, in Werke: Kritische Gesammtausgabe

8 (Weimar 1889) 475-6; (in German) Vom Miszbrauch der Messe, 561-2.



362 TRADITIO

mos est prophetiarum, quae pro obscuritate ante implentur, quam in

telliguntur, cum longe in aliud spectant, quam vulgo sonant, videtur mihi et ista in hoc Fridrico nostro impleta. Quid enim sepulchrum domini rectius intelligas quam divinam scripturam, in qua veritas Christi per Papistas occisa sepulta iacuit, custodientibus militibus, id est, mendi cantium ordinibus et pravitatis haereticae inquisitoribus, ne discipulo rum quisquam earn raperet? Nam sepulchrum illud corporale, quod Saraceni tenent, non magis est curae Deo, quam boves illi esse curae Paulus dicit. Negari autem non potest, apud vos sub Fridrico isto scrip turae vivam veritatem refloruisse.

This idea that Frederick of Saxony had fulfilled the ancient prophecy of the Third Frederick by freeing the 'Holy Sepulchre' of the Scriptures was later picked up by J. Wolf in his great Protestant anthology.177 He also asserted that prophecy could have been fulfilled by the election of Frederick of Saxony as Emperor, but for his refusal in favor of Charles V. The Re formation Sigmunds, which was circulating at this time, also provided Pro testant ammunition in the claim that the priest-king Frederick, whose coming was foretold in it, was really Frederick of Saxony.178 A curious line of Catholic defence against Protestant prophetic claims appeared later in the century in Theodorus Graminaeus' Mysticus Aquila, sive Declaratio uaticinii Ieremie

Prophetae: Ab Aquilone pandetur malum super omnes habitatores terrae.179 The author, as a German, addressed his work to the Emperor Maximilian II, yet the whole burden of his argument was that the role of the northern peoples was to bring tribulation on the Church. To this end he used the pseudo Joachimist works extensively, especially the Super Hieremiam and the libellus of Telesphorus. Naturally he brought home the charges of schism and heresy against the Lutherans, but to establish their guilt he was prepared to jettison the pro-German Oracles altogether, with their promise of a German Last

World Emperor.

VIII.

A French counter-attack, though hampered by the unprophetic names of the French kings, was not wholly lacking. In 1516 an Augustinian hermit published in Venice an edition of the prophecies of Telesphorus.180 The manu

177 Wolf, op. cit. II 114. Luther's words are again cited (through Wolf) in an oration

by Cornelius Crull in 1630, quoted by Praetorius, op. cit. ( . 128 supra) 70. 178

Wolf, op. cit. I 809; Grauert, op. cit. ( . 1 supra) 135; Rosenkrantz, op. cit. ( . 1 supra) 514.

179 Published Cologne 1576. 180 For the background to this publication, see M. Reeves, 'Joachimist Expectations

in the Order of Augustinian Hermits,' Recherches de Th?ologie ancienne et m?di?vale 25 (1958) 128-135.




script which he almost certainly used contained the text of the Second Charle

magne prophecy immediately following Telesphorus' main work.181 The editor omitted this text, no doubt because of the name, but so long as the incriminating name could be suppressed,182 the fortunes of the French monarchy could be built up most convincingly from these prophecies. Thus the program for the

future, as adapted from Telesphorus by this sixteenth-century Joachite, is both an interesting commentary on contemporary politics and a remarkable demonstration of the continued strength of prophetic expectation. The

expected schism will be brought about by the last German Emperor who will cause three pseudo-popes to be elected, a Greek, an Italian and a German, omnium pessimum.183 This Rex aquilonis will stir up wars in the whole world,

allying with the Turk, invading France and Italy, reducing the clergy to

poverty and sacking Rome.184 In a great conflict in agro Brixiano he will

capture and imprison the French king, but God will miraculously intervene to release him.185 Meanwhile the true Papa angelicas will be revealed and crowned by an angel186 and he will then crown the French king as Emperor, depriving the German electors of their right.187 In a great alliance the kings of England and France, with the Venetians, will fight against the Germans and the Turks. Their united fleet, captained by a Venetian who will serve the Angelic Pope in all things, will win a great naval victory, utterly destroying the Turkish fleet.188 A General Council will be summoned and then the three allies (including the king of England who is vir strenuissimas, strong and and robust as Samson) will lead a great land and sea force, recapturing Jeru salem and conquering the infidel.189 Meantime the Rex aquilonis and the

pseudo-Pope have both died and now the Emperor and the Angelic Pope together can reform the Church. In Venice a holy patriarch will so transform the Venetians 'ut non inveniantur ita boni inter omnes nationes Christia nos. '190

Finally, under the French Emperor (generosus rex de posteritate pi pini)in and four successive Angelic Popes, there will be a period of peace and

rejoicing {summa tranquilinas) until the appearance of the great Antichrist, when the Emperor will render up his soul to God on tire Mount of Olives,

leaving the Papacy alone to survive the fearful onslaught and lead the world

181 Supra, at . 22.

182 The editor also omitted the name 'Karolus' from the incipit, cf. Paris, Bibi. Nat.

MS lat. 3184, quoted by Donckel, op. cit. ( . 19 supra) 81-2, with that of the Venetian

edition of 1516, fol. 8*. 188 1516 edition, fol. 5r, from a fifteenth-century prologue to Telesphorus' work by Fr.

Rusticianus. For the various layers in the 1516 edition, see the reference supra, n. 180. 184 Ibid. fol. 5'. 186 Ibid. fol. 18', 21*. 186 Ibid. fol. 15*, 21'. 187 Ibid. fol. 5% 20*. 188 Ibid. fol. 16*, 22'-23'. 189 Ibid. fol. 22*-24r. For the role of the English king the prophecies of Merlin are cited. 190 Ibid. fol. 22'. *? Ibid. fol. 25*.



364 TRADITIO

into the final Sabbath of history.192 It will be observed here how skilfully the editor combines the old pessimistic tradition with the Joachimist, making the Emperor go down before Antichrist, yet carrying the triumph of the Church forward into the Sabbath Age beyond Antichrist, but still within history.

It is perhaps significant that a French translation of the Telesphorean

prophecies was published under the title of the Livre merveilleux at Lyons in 1565 during the reign of Charles IX, the only French king of this name in the sixteenth century.193 Furthermore, in 1570, J. Baptista Nazurus of Brescia was once more putting forward the Telesphorean program and quoting again the Second Charlemagne prophecy.194 We also know of the existence of a

Latin manuscript of Telesphorus' libellus and a sixteenth-century translation made from it, belonging to Messire Fran?ois de Ghevriers, gentilhomme Lyon nois.19S Possibly Benoist Rigaud, the publisher of the Livre merveilleux, used this manuscript. He had already published in 1545 La Proph?tie Merveilleuse de madame sainct Brigid? et iusques ? presente trouv?e veritable depuis lan

Mil. CCCC. LXXXIIII iusques ? cette presente ann?e Mil. CCCCCXLV. This is actually a complete, unacknowledged translation of the Prognosticatio of Liechtenberger, and closely related to the Latin version in the Mirabilis liber.19* In 1603 Rigaud published Les Pl?iades of Chavigny, to which we

shall be turning shortly. Thus there are some indications of a group of people in Lyons interested in the French applications of the prophecies.

The most considerable French anthology of prophecies in the sixteenth

century was the Mirabilis liber, published anonymously in 1530. Its purpose,

according to the preface, was to prove that all prophecies pointed towards the Angelic Pope and the last great emperor of the French monarchy.197 The

191 Ibid. fol. 27r-33v 198 The full title runs: 'Livre Merveilleux Contenant en Bref La Fleur et Substance de

Plusieurs traittez tant des Proph?ties et revelations, qu'anciennes Croniques, faisant men

tion de tous les faictz de l'?glise universelle, commes des schismes, discords et tribulations

advenir en l'?glise de Rome, et d'un temps auquel on oster? et tollira aux gens d'Eglise et Clerg? leurs biens temporeiz, tellement qu'on ne leur laissera que leur vivre et habit

necessaire. Item aussi est faicte mention des souverains Evesques et Papes qui apr?s

r?gneront et gouvernont l'Eglise. Et speciallement d'un Pape qui sera appelle Pasteur An

g?lique. Et d'un Roy de France nomm? Charles sainct homme. '

This title is derived from, but not a translation of, the original incipit. Whereas the Venetian editor in 1516 deleted

the name 'Karolus' from the title (supra, n. 182), this edition restores it. 194 I have not seen this work. It is cited at length by Wolf, op. cit. II 884-97. For the

Second Charlemagne text, beginning 'Exurget Rex Lilii qui frontem habebit longam...,' see p. 893. Bezold, op. cit. ( . 1 supra) 600, says that this prophecy was actually applied to

Charles IX. 195 A. De Landine, Manuscrits de la Biblioth?que de Lyon (Paris-Lyon 1812) I 181; L'ama

teur d'autographes, ed. E. Charavay, 10 (1872) 63-5. 198 Supra at . 73; infra at . 197.

197 See the author's preface on the title-page: 'Ex his prophetiis et revelationibus intimis

ocellis perlustratis facile cognosci poterit pontificem maximum vite sanctitate preful




oracles, collected from all periods, represent various stages in the evolution

of the Joachimist program.198 The Vaticinici de summis pontificibus, ascribed

to Joachim, is reproduced entire,199 though without the illustrations; Joachim,

Rupescissa, Telesphorus, Catharine of Siena, St. Vincent Ferrer, and Bridget are among those cited; the Prognosticatio of Liechtenberger, reproduced without acknowledgment, and the Revelationes of Savonarola represent the

latest prophets.200 Many of the oracles have been collected from manuscripts in the libraries of French religious houses and the whole forms a curious hotch

potch of traditions. The pre-Joachimist Methodian view of the last World

Emperor, who goes down before Antichrist, is represented,201 whilst, on the

other hand, the early fourteenth-century Joachimist prophecies of the Angelic

Popes are used, allied to material from Telesphorus on the Rex de posteritate

Pipini who will be co-agent with the Angelic Popes in the renovatio.202 Ru

pescissa and Telesphorus are, of course, most apt, but it is interesting to

observe that Liechtenberger1 s Prognosticatio can easily be pressed into service

for the rival house, since it contains, in the one hand, much from the anti

German Joachimist tradition and, on the other, prophecies of the Lily ascribed

gen tem: brevi ex religiossissimo Franeorum regno futurum qui de o ?ptimo m?ximo duce

ace m inter Christicolas omnes componere statusque hominum ... iniuria fortasse temporum deformatos diligentissime reformare curabit: terras palestinorum ... Grecorum, Turcorum

et alias quam plurimas expediet: omnesque a Christiana fide abhorrentes veritatis lumine

illustrabit. '

Fol. lv contains a dedication to the French king and seven proofs from prophecy of the great future foretold for him.

m The earlier prophecies represent the pre-Joachimist or pseudo-Methodian tradition:

fol. iir, 'Liber Bemecholi Episcopi'; fol. iiiir, 'Prophetia Sibylle'; fol. vii*, 'Proph?tie Sancti Severi.

*

im Mirabilis liber fol. xlviii1*. For a critical study of this and allied texts, see the refer

ences given supra, n. 16. 100 Ibid. fol. xxxvii, 'De abbate Joachim viro singular!' (passage quoted from St. An

toninus, Pars historialis [Nuremberg 1484] II fol. ccxxi*); fol. xxxiiiir, passage from Teles

phorus (but differing from the printed version), with the added note: 'Hanc prophetiam anti

quitus scriptam reperies in clarissimo Gallorum regno apud Parrhisios in divi Victoris libra

ria ... et in libro abbatis Joachim'; fol. xxxviii*, 'De beata Katherina desenis' (passage from

St. Antoninus, op. cit. III fol. ccxviiiv-ccxxiir); fol. xxxixr, 'Ex pronosticiis beati Vincenti!

in antiquo veterbii reperto,' a text not found in the printed revelations of St. Vincent;

followed by 'De Sancto Vincentio' (passage from St. Antoninus, op. cit. III fol, clxxxiii*); fol. lxvii1", Revelationes of Joannes de Rupescissa; fol. viiir-xxxv, Prognosticate of Liechten

berger, including, of course, many references to St. Bridget; fol. xlv-lxv, Revelationes of

Savonarola. Other prophets cited are St. Hildegarde and St. Elizabeth (fol. xxxv1"), Johannes

de Vatiguerro (fol. xxxv-xxxvi) and a certain 'Frater Bonavem.' (fol. lxvi1")- The second

part of the book is in French. The whole needs further analysis of content and sources. 101

Supra, n. 198. 102 A section headed De angelico pastore et eius bonitate' (fol. xxxiiiir) is clearly

from Telesphorus* work, although it is fuller than the corresponding passage in the printed edition (fol. 25r-*).



366 TRADITIO

to Bridget. The Second Charlemagne prophecy is given without name or

initial letter from a source not yet traced: 'ex libro catalogi seu cataldi fine undecimi capitis de Italia.'203 The book names no names, lays down no dates, and ventures on no applications of prophecy. It is, however, plainly an

anthology in support of the French claim to the last World Emperor. The French monarchy supplied no effective candidate for this role until

the advent of Henry of Navarre. In 1592 this was hailed by a pamphlet with the significant title Carolus Magnus redivivus. The author took a safe his torical line of comparison between the two but hinted at a future of prophetic greatness opening up before Henry.204 Prophecy soon followed. In Paris a

group gathered round the famous Nostradamus who sought the future from oracle and star. One of the group, the Sire de Chavigny, tells us that Nostra damus was the first to apply the Joachimist prophecies to Henry IV. In Les Pl?iades, which he dedicated to Henry in 1603,205 Chavigny embodied these expectations. There are seven Pl?iades and the first of these is none

other than a French translation of our Second Charlemagne text, written for Charles VI, applied in turn to Charles VIII and the Emperor Charles V, and now applied to Henry IV. Chavigny, who cites it from the same source as

the Mirabilis liber,20* knows that it was once applied to Charles VIII, but

by omitting name or initial he is able to prove satisfactorily that it really designates Henry IV. Neither the villainous Third Frederick nor the Angelic Pope have survived in this version, but the last World Emperor, with the same physical features and the same career, remains. The following Pl?iades set forth the well-known prophetic future: great wars and tribulations, the

203 Fol. xlr. This passage is not to be found in the Prophetia Sancti Cataldi (supra, n. 118), nor does it agree with the passage quoted by Lazius, op. cit. fol. 38r-v, although there are

affinities. It consists of one long paragraph containing a reference to the Lily Prince ('tune nascetur inter lilia princeps pulcherrimus cui nomen novum inter reges erit'), and the Second

Charlemagne prophecy in a separate paragraph beginning, 'Surget rex ex natione illustris

simi lilii habens frontem longam' etc. 204 J. G. Stuckius, Carolus Magnus Redivivus, hoc est Caroli Magni Germanorum, Gallo

rum, Italorum et Austrium Gentium Monarchae potentissimi cum Henrico Gallorum et Na varrorum Rege florentissimo comparatio (Zurich 1592). Note the prefatory verse by H. Wol

phius: 'Carolus ecce tibi redivivus: pellege: dices/Henricus nunc est, Carolus ante fuit/ 205 Sire de Chavigny, Les Pl?iades, Ou en Vexplication des antiques Proph?ties conf?r?es

avec les Oracles du c?l?bre et c?l?br? Nostradamus est traict?e du renouvellement des si?cles,

changement des Empires et avancement du nom Chrestien. Avec les prouesses, victoires et

couronnes promises ? nostre magnanime Prince, Henri IV Roy de France et de Navarre (Lyons

1603). 206 Ibid. 1. He describes it as

' une vaticination de S. Gathaldi iadis Evesque de Trente retir?e

d'un livre initul? Des calamitez de Italie.' His version begins 'Un Roy sortira de l'ex

traction et tige du lis tres-illustre, avant le front eslev?, les sourcils hauts, les yeux longuets, le nez aquilin' etc. Cf. supra, n. 203.




overthrow of thrones and the multiplication of heresies, 'mais apres cela

viendra un regne meilleur et une saison plus douce.'207 Thus the Joachimist

hope of renewal emerges once more, but this is a Protestant's age of gold, for 'il n'y a rien plus doux ? l'homme ... que de vivre ? libert?... telle que

preschent par tout les nouveaux Evangelistes du iourd'hui.>m

IX.

By way of epilogue, two seventeenth-century references to the Last World

Emperor may be cited ? one Catholic and one Protestant. Berthold Holz

hauser (1613-1658)209 wrote an Interpretado in Apocalypsim in which he worked

out a pattern of history within the framework of the seven ages of the Church.

He believed that the fifth state of the Church ? status afflictionis ? had begun

with Leo X and Charles V and would run 'usque ad Pontificem Sanctum et

Monarcham fortem qui venturus est nostro saeculo et vocabitur auxilium

Dei, hic est restituens universa.'210 These would inaugurate the sixth state ? status consolationis ? which was especially typified in the Angel to the

Church of Philadelphia.211 In this age all nations would return to the unity of the orthodox Catholic faith, all heretics would be crushed, 'et florebit

maxime status clericalis et sacerdotium. '

This state is prefigured in the

Sixth Day of Creation when Man was created and all things subjected to him, and also in the Sixth Age of the Old Testament when the Jews returned from

captivity to restore Jerusalem and the Temple. In the sixth state of the

Church the sixth spiritual gift ?

spiritus sapientiae ? will be poured out

on all men: there will be an Open door' to the sensus clarus et apertus Sanctae

Scrip tur ae which no heretic may close, and a multiplicity of sciences will

flourish.212 'Erit Ecclesia Catholica sublimis et gloriosa et magnificabitur a

mari usque ad mare et non erit controversia aut quaestio amplius quae sit vera Ecclesia.'213

207 Ibid. 53. The Joachimist renovatio mundi appears also in the title: renouvellement des si?cles, cf. supra, n. 205.

808 Ibid. 96, commenting on an oracle of Laurent Miniati, which is translated as follows:

'L'?ge meilleur qui bien tost suivra cestuy-ci, retranchera beaucoup de choses de nostre

religion, dures par trop et aspres ? supporter: et corrigera toutes sortes d'abus et les pompes sacr?es. Et donnera un Roy clement et b?nin, qui avec toute ?quit? et droiture gouvernera le monde. Cestuy regira vertueusement les peuples et soubsmettra ? son empire la gent rebelle et fi?re. Et dominera sur tout l'univers.

' Lazius, op. cit. 49v, also quotes a prophecy

of Laurentius Miniatensis, cf. supra, . 169. 209 See the article in Wetzer und Welter, Kirchenlexicon 6 (1889) 183-196. 210

Interpretatio in Apocalypsim (Vienna 1850) 53. 211 Ibid. 69-70. 212 Ibid. 11. 218 Ibid. 75.



368 TRADITIO

Holzhauser paints this vision against a black background of present woes, of wars and calamities, of violence done to monarchs, of the Catholic Church beaten down by pestilential heretics.214 Yet even now the triumphs of the

Society of Jesus and the spreading of the Catholic faith to Asia and the Amer

icas inaugurate the new reign.215 The agents to bring it in are the old pair ? the Angelic Pope and the World Emperor

? but it is clear that for Holz

hauser the chief figure is the Monarcha fortis. He will destroy all republics, break the Turkish Empire, reign over east and west alike and give peace and

justice to the entire world.216 This will be the millennium of Satan bound. So powerful in his mind is the spiritual role of this Monarch that, whereas

Joachim had seen in the various Angels of the Apocalypse new religious orders to inaugurate the Age of the Holy Ghost,217 Holzhauser instantly sees

the Emperor typified both in the '[vidi] angelum fortem descendentem de

coelo amictum nube et iris in capite eius,'218 and in the one 'super nubem

sedentem similem filio hominis, habentem in capite suo coronam auream.'219 He finds the great Pope symbolized in other of the angels, and the status sa

cerdotalis in the Angel with the Eternal Evangel,220 but it is the symbolism of those representing the great Monarch that he works out in most detail :

angelum fortem, strong in battle; descendentem de coelo, born in the bosom of

the Church; amictum nube, humble in all things; iris in capite eius, bringing the peace of God to the whole world; fades eius sicut sol, the splendor, sanctity and glory of Empire and highest wisdom which adorn him; pedes tanquam columnae ignis, the breadth and power of his Empire sustaining the Catholic

Church ; in manu sua libellum apertum, the future General Council over which he will preside and which will declare the clear sense of the Scriptures.221

The close relationship of this spiritual status to the Joachimist Third State

will be apparent. Holzhauser, however, demonstrates strikingly the tendency which we have traced throughout this article to seek a reconciliation between

the older, pessimistic tradition and the idea of the renovatio. He accepts therefore the orthodox view that history must go downhill to Antichrist by

placing after his great sixth age a seventh ? status desolationis ? beginning

214 Ibid. 69, 185. 216 Ibid. 185-6. It may be noted that certain Jesuits also saw the prophecies of the re

novatio fulfilled in the spread of the Gospel to the Indies and Americas; this will be dealt

with by M. Reeves in a forthcoming article in Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies. 216

Holzhauser, op. cit. 70, 186. 217 Cf. Expos, fol. 88v, 89v, 175v-176v. For the further development of these Joachimist

prophecies of new orders symbolized in the Angels of the Apocalypse, see M. Reeves, ar

ticles cited in nn. 180 and 215. 218

Holzhauser, op. cit. 185-6, cf. Apoc. 10.1. 219 Ibid. 264-5, Apoc. 14.14. 220 Ibid. 256, 261, 265. 221 Ibid. 185-8.




with the birth of Antichrist and enduring until the Second Advent.222 Here

he departs sharply from Joachim's great conception of the Sabbath Age of

history, and, indeed, we have no indication that he knew the works of the

Abbot directly. His idea of the renovatio probably came to him through such writers as Berthold Purstinger. Yet the terms in which he describes

the sixth age,

... consistit haec felicitas in copiosissimo grege fidelium: confluent enim in tempore ilio omnes gentes et populi et nationes ad ovile unum et in trabunt per januam unam quae est sola et vera fides catholica et ortho

doxa. Et erit unus Pastor et unum ovile, 223

give a vision of a spiritual consummation of history to which the last coming of Antichrist seems quite external and irrelevant. Holzhauser's faith in the

renovatio places him with the Joachites.

In the mid-seventeenth ceniury a Protestant theologian, David Pareus of

Amsterdam also wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse. Wishing to em

phasize the future destruction of Rome, he seized on the Second Charlemagne text from an old manuscript 'found in the house of Salezianus and lately sent to me.'224 Thus the Second Charlemagne ends his career by becoming

merely the divine instrument for the destruction of Rome. If the final form

of the prophecy, as it appears in an English translation of Pareus' work pub lished in 1644, is compared with the original, it will be seen how faithfully the circumstantial details ? especially the physical features ? have been

preserved and how completely the pregnant phrases of the Joachimist hope have been lost:

There shall arise a King out of the Nation of the most illustrious Lilie, having a long forehead, high brows, great eyes, an Eagle's Nose: He shall

gather a greate Army, and destroy all the Tyrants of his kingdome: and

slay all that flye and hide themselves in Mountaines and Caves from his face. For righteousnesse shall be joyned unto him, as the Bridegroome to the Bride: with them he shall wage warre even unto the fourtieth yeere, bringing into subjection the Ilanders, Spaniards and Italians: Rome and Florence he shall destroy and burne with fire, so as Salt may bee sowed on that Land. The greatest Clergymen who have invaded Peters Seat he shall put to death: and in that same yeere obtaine a double Crowne.

At last going over Sea with a greate army, he shall enter Greece, and be named King of the Greeks. The Turks and Barbarians hee shall subdue, making an Edict: that everyone shall die the death that worshippeth not the Crucified one. And no one shall be found able to resist him: because

222 Ibid. 78, 200. 223 Ibid. 72. 224 D. Pareus, Commentary upon the Divine Revelation, ir. E. Arnold (Amsterdam 1644)

440,



TRADITIO

an holy arme from the Lord shall allwayes be with him. And he shall possesse the Dominion of the Earth. These things being done, he shall be called the rest of holy Christians. Thus far the Prophecie.

St Anne's College,

Oxford

Additional Note. The Editors of Traditio have called to my attention the existence of a

group of fourteenth-century prophecies and visions concerning the emperor, in an unnum

bered Cistercian MS of the Marston Collection in Yale University Library which is briefly described by Dom Jean Leclercq, 'Textes et manuscrits cisterciens dans les biblioth?ques des ?tats-Unis'in the present volume, 166-169. I hope to analyze these texts at a later time.



JOACHIMIST INFLUENCES ON THE IDEA OF A LAST WORLD EMPEROR

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