Joachim of Fiore

Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135–1202) was a Cistercian abbot and mystic whose tripartite scheme of history—the Age of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—became a central, contested reference point in the theological and political conflicts of the early fourteenth century. In Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Joachim's prophecies are invoked by characters across the spectrum of orthodoxy and heresy, making him a figure whose authority is claimed by both the defenders of the church and its most radical enemies, and whose legacy exposes the fragile boundary between visionary reform and apocalyptic violence.

Prophetic Framework and the Three Ages

Joachim's core doctrine divided history into three overlapping ages corresponding to the three persons of the Trinity: the Age of the Father, under the Old Testament law; the Age of the Son, under the New Testament grace; and the coming Age of the Holy Spirit, a new era of spiritual freedom and direct contemplation. This scheme, which Joachim expounded in works such as the Liber Concordiae and the Expositio in Apocalypsim, promised a radical renewal of the church and the world. In the novel, the Franciscan Spiritual Ubertino of Casale, who had studied Joachim's writings, declares that the sixth era of human history has arrived, when two Antichrists will appear—the mystic Antichrist and the Antichrist proper—and that the Angelic Pope must come to inaugurate the final age. Ubertino's fervent belief in Joachim's timetable shapes his entire worldview, leading him to interpret the corruption of the Avignon papacy and the persecution of the Spirituals as sure signs that the end is near.

Contested Authority: Orthodoxy and Heresy

Joachim's prophecies were not the exclusive property of the orthodox. The heretical leader Fra Dolcino, who led the Apostolic Brethren in a violent rebellion in northern Italy, also drew on Joachim's scheme to justify his own apocalyptic mission. Dolcino proclaimed that the third age of corruption was ending and that all clergy, monks, and friars had to be exterminated to prepare for the reign of the Holy Spirit. The abbot of the unnamed abbey, Abo, explicitly links the Spiritual Franciscans to the Dolcinians through their shared reverence for Joachim, warning William of Baskerville that the line between legitimate reform and bloody insurrection is dangerously thin. William himself, in his conversation with Ubertino, acknowledges that the Angelic Pope was also preached by Fra Dolcino, a remark that provokes Ubertino's fury. The same prophetic texts that inspired the Spirituals' yearning for a purified church also fueled the millenarian violence that the church sought to crush.

The Franciscan Connection and the Perugia Chapter

The Franciscan order, particularly its Spiritual wing, had embraced Joachim's ideas since the mid-thirteenth century. Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, a Franciscan, had repeated Joachim's predictions and made a deep impression on the Minorites. The chapter of Perugia in 1322, which proclaimed the poverty of Christ as a matter of faith, was seen by many as a fulfillment of Joachim's prophecy that a new spiritual age would dawn. In the novel, the debate over the poverty of Christ—the central issue of the meeting between the imperial and papal legations—is haunted by Joachim's ghost. The Franciscans who defend evangelical poverty are accused by their opponents of harboring the same dangerous millenarianism that had led the Dolcinians to massacre and arson. Joachim's name thus becomes a weapon in the theological and political struggle, used to tar the Franciscan position with the brush of heresy.

Narrative Role and Thematic Significance

Joachim of Fiore functions in The Name of the Rose as a figure of interpretive instability. His prophecies are cited by characters who are themselves caught between orthodoxy and heresy, between hope for renewal and despair at corruption. Ubertino, who has spent his life fighting for the Spiritual cause, is himself suspected of heresy and forced to flee; Fra Dolcino, who claimed Joachim's authority, ended his life torn by red-hot pincers and burned at the stake. The novel suggests that the same prophetic texts can be read as calls to penitence or as warrants for violence, and that the difference depends less on the text itself than on the reader's position within the structures of power. Joachim's legacy, like the forbidden book of Aristotle's Poetics that Jorge of Burgos tries to destroy, is a dangerous knowledge that cannot be contained by any single interpretation. The abbey's library, which houses Joachim's works alongside those of his heretical interpreters, becomes a microcosm of this unresolved conflict—a place where the past speaks in many voices, and where the attempt to silence one voice only amplifies another.