The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Doctrines Draw Roman Doctors’ Censures

When Olivi’s Commentary on the Apocalypse was referred, as mentioned, to a commission of Roman doctors of theology in 1318, they returned to John XXII their censure of sixty articles drawn from his work, on the basis of which the Commentary was condemned and suppressed as blasphemous and heretical. It is well that Olivi was dead, or he would doubtless have fared as did the four Minorite monks who were “reduced to ashes” one year later for sharing the same views. Here are some of the views concerning the Roman church which drew the censure of the commission. PFF1 768.1

1. CALLS ROMAN CHURCH BABYLON

Condemning Olivi’s position, as cited in his own words, regarding “the judgment of the great Harlot and the seven-headed Beast,” and his declaration of “the solemn marriage of the Lamb with His Bride, to take place after the destruction of the great Harlot”—as pointing to “the time of the rejection and ruin of Babylon, of the reformation of the church, and the restoration of her Christ in His primeval beauty.”—“Censure III” of the Roman doctors declares it heretical on three significant counts: 1. It calls the Roman church, which is the universal church, the great Harlot. 2. It pretends that it is to be damned. 3, It teaches about a new marriage of the Lamb with His bride; whereas this union is now daily taking place, and will be completed in heaven. ¹⁴ PFF1 768.2

Olivi’s statement, “When Babylon, the Harlot, with the Beast which bears her, reaches her summit, then will her night become darkest,” calls forth the commission’s “Censure IV,” with this elaborated statement: PFF1 768.3

“This article contains two heresies; First, so far as it relates to this, that when Babylon the harlot and the beast bearing her shall be at their highest, then will be her darkest night; because, as will appear more plainly later from his own words, in that whole treatise, by Babylon he under stands the Roman Church and the universal Church obedient to her, which we designate as the Catholic Church; which is not Babylon, the city of the devil, but the city of God, not a harlot but a virgin, not carried by the devil but by Christ, not gloomy or pertaining to the night, but lighted up by faith and established in the day of grace.” ¹⁵ PFF1 768.4

The place referred to as “later” is probably the passage condemned in “Censure XLVI,” where Olivi speaks of the second angel of Revelation 14, who announces the fall of Babylon, the “carnal church” which persecutes “spiritual men.” PFF1 769.1

“The carnal church is for this reason called Babylon here and farther on, in the 17th and the 18th chapter, and not only there but also in the 19th chapter she is called a great harlot.... The spirit of the righteous ones of this time is in difficulty beyond measure and oppressed by the supremacy and the predominance and the innumerable multitude of the carnal church, whom they must serve whether they wish or not; further, because publicly and most shamelessly she is untrue to her bride groom Christ, as will be dealt with more fully farther on. Whence also here it is added ‘who has made all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication,’ because ... the carnal church has inebriated herself and all nations subject to her and corrupted them with her filthy carnalities and simoniacal greed and earthly glory of this world. And ... she burns in wrath against spiritual men and against the forces and inpourings of the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁶ PFF1 769.2

2. COMPARES CARNAL ROMAN CHURCH TO SYNAGOGUE

Olivi speaks of the enemies of the Franciscans “at the time when his [Francis’] rule is to be ... attacked and condemned by the church of the carnal and proud ones, just as Christ was condemned by the wicked synagogue of the Jews. For this must precede the temporal removal of the church, just as that pre ceded the removal of the synagogue.” ¹⁷ PFF1 769.3

The doctors reply, in “Censure XXIII,” that the Roman church, which Olivi blasphemously qualifies as being carnal and haughty, is not capable of imitating the Synagogue which condemned Jesus Christ. PFF1 769.4

3. FALSE PROPHETS WILL CLAIM SUCCESSION FROM ANTIQ UITY

Olivi draws fire because of his somewhat sarcastic picture of the pseudo prophets among the orders whom he expects as the two horns of the second beast, and because of his making the image to the beast a pseudo pope. PFF1 769.5

“When, however, the apostate beast from the land of the monastics will ascend on high with two horns of the pseudo-monks and pseudo-prophets falsely similar to the true horns of the Lamb, then will the temptation of the mystic Antichrist be strongest. For there will rise then false Christs and false prophets who will cause the cupidity and carnality or carnal glory of the worldly beast [from the sea] to be worshiped by all. PFF1 770.1

“And they will give for this purpose great signs: first, indeed, [signs] of their own ecclesiastical authority to which will seem to be opposed disobedience and obstinacy and schismatic rebellion] second, of the universal knowledge of all their masters and doctors and of the whole multitude, or of the opinion of all, to which will seem to be opposed [anything] stupid and foolish and heretical third, they will give signs of reasons and of scriptures falsely twisted, and even the signs of a sort of superficial and ancient and multiform religion established through long succession from antiquity; so that with these signs they will seem to cause the fire of the Lord’s wrath to fall upon their opponents, arid on the contrary they will seem to cause a fire as it were of holy and even apostolic zeal to descend from heaven upon their disciples. PFF1 770.2

“They will even decree that those who will not obey be anathematized and cast out of the synagogue, and if it is necessary, be handed over to the secular arm of the first beast. They will even appoint that an image to the first beast, that is, a pseudo pope, elevated by the king of the first beast, be worshiped, that is, that he be believed more than Christ and His gospel, and that he be honored in an adulatory way as God of this world. ¹⁸ PFF1 770.3

“Censure XLIV” dismisses this false pope as blasphemous, denies any “mystic” Antichrist preceding the real one, and regards the “first,” “second,” and “third” remarks as uncomplimentary insinuations against the church. PFF1 770.4

4. PSEUDO POPE MAY BE ANTICHRIST

It is no wonder that the churchmen condemned Olivi’s views of Revelation 13. He goes further on the subject of the false pope. Although he does not vouch for it, he says that certain ones believe, from many things written by Joachim (he evidently, means pseudo Joachim) and from a supposed secret opinion expressed by St. Francis, that Frederick II would so live again in one of his descendants that he would rule the empire and France, and would establish the pseudo pope. The resulting upset of the church would be the earthquake at the opening of the sixth seal. This would partly fulfill the falling away of 2 Thessalonians 2, inasmuch as almost everyone would abandon obedience to the true pope and follow the false one, who will not only be heretical but be schismatically introduced in an irregular election. ¹⁹ PFF1 770.5

Later he cites an opinion which takes the pseudo pope a step further: PFF1 771.1

“And certain ones think that not only the mystic Antichrist but also the true and great one will be the pseudo-pope, head of the false prophets, and that through the advice and cooperation of him and his false prophets the empire will be acquired by that king through whom he will be established in his false papacy. But that king who will establish him will make him, beyond this, to be worshiped as God.” ²⁰ PFF1 771.2

5. CALLS ROME SEAT OF BEAST

Commenting on the fifth vial of Revelation 16, Olivi mentions the four horses of the first four seals as the first four periods of the church, after which “the Roman church has raised her seat above all the churches of the East.” In the fifth period, he says, signified by Daniel’s four beasts and the war upon the saints, “the seat of the beast and of all her followers has magnified itself and has prevailed by its multitude and by its power, until she has abolished the seat of Jesus Christ, while she claims to honor it by a vain conformity of name and place,” The forthrightness of his strictures is really remarkable. PFF1 771.3

The commission’s rejoinder, as “Censure XLVIII” concludes the excerpts as follows: PFF1 771.4

“This article reveals four heresies. 1. In that it makes the seat of the Beast to prevail over the seat of Jesus Christ, that is to say, the Catholic or Roman church, which, having become the seat of the Beast, would cease to be the church of Jesus Christ. 2. In that it says that her government will be darkened, for although many of its conductors are in deep darkness, her reign however is always luminous, always venerable, and will never be overthrown....” ²¹ PFF1 771.5