in church history, the disciples of Joachim a Cistercian monk, who was an abbot of Flora in Calabria, and a great pretender to inspiration.

The Joachimites were particularly fond of certain tenaries: The Father, they said, operated from the beginning till the coming of the Son; the Son, from that time to theirs, which was the year 1260; and from that time the Holy Spirit was to operate in his turn. They also divided every thing relating to men, to doctrine, and the manner of living, into three classes, according to the three persons in the Trinity: The first ternary was that of men, of whom the first class was that of married men, which had lasted during the whole period of the Father; the second was that of clerks, which had lasted during the time of the Son; and the last was that of the monks, in which there was to be an uncommon effusion of grace by the Holy Spirit: The second ternary was that of doctrine, viz. the Old Testament, the New, and the everlasting Gospel; the first they ascribed to the Father, the second to the Son, and the third to the Holy Spirit: A third ternary consisted in the manner of living; viz. under the Father, men lived according to the flesh; under the Son, they lived according to the flesh and the spirit; and under the Holy Ghost, they were to live according to the spirit only.