In his eschatological vision of church history, Joachim of Fiore developed the traditional Augustinian pattern of the end times by introducing a millenaristic «third age» of the Holy Spirit, in which a new order of «spiritual men» will be able to understand the mysteries of Scripture with greater ease. The prophecies of the Calabrian Abbot were eagerly received by mendicant circles, who recognized in theses texts the providential role of their own orders. The most faithful follower of Joachim in this regard was Peter of John Olivi, the beacon of the Franciscan Spiritual movement. His Joachimism, however, did not insist on a special age of the Holy Spirit, but on the persecutions of true Christians across church history and on the imminent destruction of the «carnal Church», i.e. the enemies of the spiritual Franciscans, in the last period to come.
