An evident mistake of the Scribe for Joachim. In another Place, by a different Error, we find the Abbot called Joachrin. See p. xxvi.
[Ibid.]
In his book of þe seedis of profetis, &c.
Whether one Book or more be here referred to seems doubtful. The Editor is disposed to think that three different Works are intended;—the first, Of the Seedis of Profetis; the second, Of the Seyingis of Popes; and the third, Of the Chargis of Profetis. In another Place (p. xxvi) we find Joachim quoted “in his Book of the Deedis of Profetis;” and (p. xxix) “Joachim in the Book of the Seedis of Prophetis.” Again (p. xxx) “the Bookis” of Joachim are spoken of in the plural Number, and “the Book Of the Charge of Prophetis” is quoted, as distinct from the rest.
It is probable that the Book of the Seedis of Profetis, and the Book of the Deedis of Profetis, may be the same; the Word Deedis or Seedis being one or other of them a Mistake of the Transcriber. If the Word Seedis be correct, the Title of the Work was probably De seminibus prophetarum; unless we take Seedis, as derived from the Verb to say, for dicta; for which there seems no Authority, especially as we find Seyingis used to express dicta, in the very Passage before us. From the other Reading, the Title of the Book would be De gestis prophetarum. The Book Of the Seyingis of Popes may, perhaps, be meant for the Liber de Flore of the Abbot Joachim, which the Author of his Life[52] tells us was also called De summis pontificibus.
It is quite obvious, however, that if these Books contained the Doctrine for which they are quoted by Wycliffe, (viz. that the Year 1400 was to be the Date of the Revelation of Antichrist,) they could not have been genuine Productions of the Abbot Joachim. The Opinion of Joachim was, that the Year 1256 would be the Era of the total Extinction of the Christian Church, and that the Triumph of Antichrist was then to commence, and to continue for three Years and a half, counting from the Middle of the Year 1256, to the End of the year 1260. As in the Lines:—
Hoc Cistercienni Joachim prædixit in anno
Quo Saladinus sanctum sibi subdidit Urbem,
Cum fuerint anni completi mille ducenti,