The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Bruno-Assumes Back-to-the-Bible Attitude

BRUNO OF SEGNI (c. 1049-1123), bishop of Segni (sometimes called Bruno of Asti), was born of noble parentage at Solero, in Piedmont. He received his preliminary education in a Benedictine monastery, completing his studies at Bologna, and was made canon of Sienna. He was then called to Rome, where he became a counselor to four popes. He was a personal friend of Gregory VII and a stanch defender of the claims of the Papacy against the emperor, in the dispute over the investiture. At the Synod of Rome (1079) he induced Berengar of Tours to retract. In 1080 he became bishop of Segni, and in 1095 accompanied Urban II to the council at Clermont, where the first crusade was proclaimed. ⁴¹ PFF1 559.2

In 1102 Bruno entered the famous Monte Cassino monas tery as a monk, and became its abbot in 1107. But after he had severely reprimanded Pope Paschal for his leniency toward Henry V, in permitting the latter the right of conferring ring and crosier upon bishops and abbots, he was asked to resign from his abbacy and return to his bishopric at Segni. PFF1 559.3

Bruno, however, was not only a politician but a Bible expositor as well. He considered occupation with the Bible and Bible explanation as the center of all theology. He was a declared enemy of all dialectics, and denounced philosophers and heretics in the same breath. ⁴² Besides other commentaries on different books of the Bible, he wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse, which reveals considerable originality in detail, although it does not deviate much from the generally accepted exegesis of the time. Bruno knew that he was merely beginning again the work on the Apocalypse “post multos alios” (after many others) ⁴³ PFF1 560.1

Bruno knows Haymo and accepts him as basic, and uses Bede for corrections and additions. He is, however, so original that his sources are often scarcely recognizable. ⁴⁴ More than that, he made a different structural analysis of the book. He divides the Apocalypse, according to the seven main visions, into seven books. Six of them comprise the fate of Christ’s church, from the resurrection to the return of Christ. And the seventh describes the “sabbatismus populo Dei” (rest of the people of God). ⁴⁵ Note these divisions: PFF1 560.2

1:1-3:22 the seven churches.
4:1-8:1 the seven seals.
8:2 -11:18 the seven trumpets and the two witnesses.
11:19-14:13 the woman and the beast.
14:14-19:10 the seven vials and the Harlot Babylon.
19:11-21:8 Christ and the judgment.
21:9-22:21 the New Jerusalem. PFF1 560.3

Some details are worthy of note. PFF1 560.4

1. SCOPE OF THE SEVEN SEALS

After explaining the first five seals as pertaining to the gradually worsening situation in the church, he sees in the sixth seal the last tribulation, caused by Antichrist, during which many will fall away from Christ, like figs in a storm. And then Christ will appear suddenly, and mankind will see Him face to face. ⁴⁶ PFF1 561.1

2. TWO WITNESSES ARE THE TWO TESTAMENTS

On the Two Witnesses of Revelation 2, Bruno has his own explanation. He says, of course, that literally they are to be taken as Enoch and Elias, but in a spiritual sense they represent the doctors of the church who are strengthened by the two Testaments, which are called the witnesses of the Lord. To these doctors the Lord gives the ministry of prophesying, that they might preach 1260 days, for so many days the Lord Himself preached, and they will preach nothing else but those things which Christ preached during His earthly ministry. They will be clothed in sackcloth in order to kindle the spirit of penitence. They are two olive trees, which never lack the act of mercy. Their fire is the fire of charity, and people touched and devoured by such, a fire will turn from enemies into friends. He adds, however, that this fire can also be understood as the vengeance of the divine curse. ⁴⁷ This explanation of the Two Witnesses emphasizes his back-to-the-Bible attitude. PFF1 561.2

3. WOMAN SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURES

On Revelation 12 he remarks that the woman is the church, clad in beauty and splendor like the sun, whereas the moon, deficient and transitory, refers to the world which is under her feet. The male child symbolizes the sons of the church. There is no feminine weakness in them, but firmness and strength. Such will overcome vice and evil spirits, and will teach the people of God by a strong and unsurpassable rule. During the period of the woman’s flight into a solitary place, who will sustain her if not the sacred volumes of the Scriptures? Read Isaiah, he says, and you will find food; read the other prophets, and you will find pastures. The earth that is helping the woman refers to the kindness of Christ. ⁴⁸ PFF1 561.3

These are surely refreshing words from the pen of a counselor to popes in the spiritual haze of the eleventh century. They show the deep influence which the Apocalypse has exercised upon all circles during the ages, even at this time. It was by no means a book taken seriously only by outsiders and cranks, but it had a definite part in the main line of religious thinking, and has influenced many in the highest stations of life who directed the affairs of men. On Revelation 13, Bruno follows Haymo. PFF1 562.1

4. BRUNO AFFIRMS YEAR-DAY PRINCIPLES

Bruno also proves the right of interpreting a year for a day from Ezekiel 4:6, which he mentions in connection with the slaying of the Two Witnesses and their lying in the streets for three and a half days. ⁴⁹ PFF1 562.2