ETERNAL GOSPEL. - Expression from Rev. 14:6, by which Joachim of Fiore meant the spiritual interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was to mark the third age of the world, that of the Holy Spirit. But the Franciscan Joachimites, particularly Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, regarded as the E. G. the three principal works of Joachim, Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti, Expositio Apocalypsis, Psalterium decem Chordarum, which were supposed to supersede the Gospel of Christ, fallen into decay from 1200 onward. To this end Gerard published in Paris in 1254 the Introductorius in Evangelium aeternum, which provoked the ire of the secular professors of the Sorbonne, led by William of St. Amour, who denounced it to the Holy See. The Introductorius was condemned to the flames by Pope Alexander IV in 1255; John of Parma, General of the Friars Minor, believed too favorably disposed toward the Spiritual Joachimites, was deposed from office and was succeeded by St. Bonaventure; Gerard, obstinate in his error, was thrown into prison, where he died in 1276.

The generalate of St. Bonaventure held the factions in check; but these raised their heads again toward the end of the 13th century, with Peter John Olivi, Ubertino of Casale and Angelo of Clareno, leaders of the faction of the zealots in the Franciscan Order, which ended in the heretical deviations of the Fraticelli, condemned by John XXII.

The E. G., in recent times, has had Dantean reflections; because G. Papini, following Cassel, Filomusi-Guelfi and others, maintained that Dante's «Veltro» (Greyhound) foreshadows the Joachimite third economy of the Holy Spirit, discovering in it a kind of cryptogram of the E. G.: Vangel. e. T. e. R. O. Following him, Merezhkovsky too regards the Veltro as a cipher of the E. G.

Wrongly, however, both Papini and Merezhkovsky appeal to the Book of Figures, attributed to Joachim of Fiore and recently published by L. Tondelli, where the symbol of the Holy Spirit is not given by the dog, as they erroneously believe, but by the traditional one of the dove.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: Sources: H. Denifle, Das Evangelium aeternum und Kommission von Anagni, in Archiv f. Literatur u. Kirchengesch., 1 (1885), pp. 40-142; Chronica di Salimbene de Adam, whose most complete edition is that of O. Holder-Egger, in MGH. Scriptores, XXXII, Berlin 1913. Studies: X. Rousselot, Histoire de l'Evangile éternel, Paris 1867; E. Rénan, Joachim de Flore et l'Evangile éternel, in Nouvelles études d'histoire religieuse, Paris 1884, pp. 217-222, and in Revue des deux mondes, 1886, iv, pp. 94-142; F. Tocco, L'eresia nel medioevo, Florence 1884; id., L'E. e., in Arch. storico it., 4th series, 17 (1886), pp. 243-61, and in Studi francescani, Naples 1900, pp. 191-222; G. Bondani, Gioacchino e francescanesimo nel Dugento, Assisi 1924. For the Dantean reflections: P. Cassel, Il Veltro, Der Richter und Dichter Dante, Berlin 1890; L. Filomusi-Guelfi, Nuovi studi danteschi, Città di Castello 1911, pp. 41-49; G. Papini, Dante vivo, Florence 1933, pp. 367-90; id., Storia della letteratura italiana, ibid. 1937, p. 208; D. Merezhkovsky, Dante, Bologna 1938, pp. 394-93.

Francesco Russo

@incollection{ec5_evangelo_eterno, author = {Russo, Francesco}, title = {Evangelo Eterno}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {891--893}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/evangelo-eterno} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Eternal Gospel

About this entry