The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

I. A Colorful Medieval Figure

ARNOLD OF VILLANOVA, or Arnaldus of Bachuone (c. 1235-c.1313), is well known to history as a brilliant scholastic physician, adept in alchemy and astrology, but less known as a lay theologian, reformer, adviser and ambassador of kings and popes, He was one of the most colorful figures of the Middle Ages. Little is known of his early, life, but Spain appears to have been the land of his birth. Of humble, origin, he grew up in poverty. He probably took his medical training in Italy and Spain. Villanova was also versed in Hebrew and Arabic. His early history is obscure, but we find him, in 1285, called as a famous physician to treat Peter III, king of Aragon. He then practiced at Montpellier and taught medicine at the university. He traveled extensively over Europe. ¹ PFF1 743.2

1. A MEDICAL PIONEER IN EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

As a physician Villanova was a genuine pioneer of experimental science. Although he followed the traditional medical theories of Galen and the Arabs, he was always ready to abandon theory for empirical methods based on keen observation of actual cases He had a touch of the modern spirit in spite of the admixture of medieval quackery which he partly believed in and partly used to satisfy his patients. ² He discredited magical spells, but he fought magic with countermagic; and he wrote on alchemy and astrology, out of which modern chemistry and astronomy were to emerge only after centuries of slow progress. Many of his medical works exhibit an extraordinary amount of common sense and scientific approach, such as his study of the causes of disease. He wrote on diet and hygiene. In De Esu Carnium (On the Eating of Meats) he contended against the critics of the vegetarian diet used by the Carthusian order, showing that meat is not necessary and often harmful. In his De Regimine Sanatatis (On the Rule of Health) he recommended washing the mouth after every meal, and bathing newborn infants daily. He gave special attention in this work to hydrotherapy-cold baths, vapor baths, showers, and the like. Some of his ideas were revolutionary and centuries ahead of his time. ³ PFF1 744.1

2. LAY THEOLOGIAN AND REFORMER

It was not, t however, Villanova’s medical methods or his astrology but his theology which in his later years incurred the enmity of the ecclesiastics. He was only a layman, but he was fond of polemics, and felt called upon to reform the Catholic Church of his day, especially the religious orders. He fought for the spirit against the letter. However, his speculations on prophecy furnished the occasion for his conflict with the theologians. In 1299 or 1300 he was sent to Paris as the ambassador of James II of Aragon, with a mission to the king of France. While there he got into trouble with the Parisian Dominicans over his theological treatises predicting the coming of Antichrist about 1378 (?). Arnold was arrested, released on bail, tried, convicted, and forced to recant, and his treatise was condemned. He protested the sentence on the ground that he was the ambassador of a king. PFF1 744.2

Arnold sought the intervention of Pope Boniface VIII. The pope was diplomatic, and furthermore, he was a sick man. He upheld the sentence but released the famous doctor, whom he then appointed as his physician in ordinary. Arnold held this post till 1302, and during the years from 1302 to 1311 he occupied high positions in the service of popes and kings, treating their ailments and serving on political missions. His feud with the Dominicans continued, but his influence in high places saved him. ⁴ PFF1 745.1

The ecclesiastics suspected him of heresy, not only for his prophetic interpretation, but also for his attacks upon their polluted lives and principles, for he denounced “the worldliness of the clergy with as much energy and eloquence as any Waldensian.” ⁵ PFF1 745.2

In 1309 he is said to have appealed to Pope Clement V at Avignon to heal the schism among the Franciscans in behalf of the stricter “Spirituals”—who held to the “evangelical poverty” of Francis’ original rule and were persecuted by the order at large. At this time he is supposed to have predicted the advent of Antichrist in the first forty years of the century just begun, and the end of the world within the hundred years, ⁶ although this chronology disagrees with his writings on the subject. Either he changed his mind between 1301 and 1309, or this account is erroneous. PFF1 745.3

Picture 1: ESCHATOLOGICAL WRITING OF ARNOLD OF VILLNOVA
Opening page of manuscript copy of Villaniva’s expositio super Apocalypsim (upper left), introduction Librum De Semine scripturarum, early Villanova attempt to apply year day principle to 2300 days (upper right), adjacent pages from Villanova’s Tractatus De Tempore advantus antiChristt, likewise stating that the 2300 days are years (lower left and right).
Page 745

Finally he took refuge with Frederick III of Sicily, whom he urged to reform his court, and who actually accepted his advice. His enemies wished to have him burned at the stake, but he always had friends among powerful rulers. Not until 1316, a few years after his death, did the Inquisition, at Tarragona, condemn thirteen of his theological writings as heretical. About 1311 or 1313 Pope Clement V fell seriously ill. Suspending the French condemnation of 1309, Clement sought Villanova’s medical skill. But the latter died on the voyage to Genoa, on his way to the bedside of the pontiff, probably by drowning. ⁷ PFF1 747.1

Villanova was a prolific writer. Haureaulists seventy-eight printed and forty-five unpublished or lost writings—some of which are doubtless spurious. ⁸ Collections of his works were printed at Lyons in 1504 and 1520, and at Basel in 15$5. Many of his writings have never been published, and are still available only in manuscript form. PFF1 747.2

3. JOACHIMITE AND EXPOUNDER OF PROPHECY

Villanova was a zealous Joachimite on some points. He was a pioneer expounder of the prophetic numbers of Daniel. He continued on, as noted, past Joachim’s initial contribution and the intermediate step taken in De Semine, to apply the year-day principle definitely to the 2300 days as well as the 1290 and the 1335 afterward. PFF1 747.3