Peter John Olivi Explained

Peter John Olivi, also Pierre de Jean Olivi or Petrus Joannis Olivi (1248 – 14 March 1298), was a French Franciscan theologian and philosopher who, although he died professing the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, remained a controversial figure in the arguments surrounding poverty at the beginning of the 14th century. In large part, this was due to his view that the Franciscan vow of poverty also entailed usus pauper (i.e., 'poor' or 'restricted' use of goods). While contemporary Franciscans generally agreed that usus pauper was important to the Franciscan way of life, they disagreed that it was part of their vow of poverty. His support of the rigorous view of ecclesiastical poverty played a part in the ideology of the groups coming to be known as the Spiritual Franciscans or Fraticelli.

Biography

Born at Sérignan, Diocese of Béziers, 1247/48, at twelve he entered the Friars Minor at Béziers, studied at Montpellier, and later attended the University at Paris. He was present there in 1268, when Bonaventure gave his Collationes de septem donis Spiritus sancti, and was probably still there in 1273 for Bonaventure's Collationes in Hexaemeron.[1] Returning to his native province, he taught in different places, and was probably in Narbonne around 1277–79. During the preparation of Nicholas III's Bull Exiit qui seminat, in the summer of 1279, Olivi accompanied his provincial minister to Italy, but was not himself part of the commission that worked on the Bull. He was asked to express briefly his opinion with regard to Franciscan poverty, but composed much longer questions on the evangelical perfection. Upon his return to Languedoc, he was accepted as lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Montpellier, but later turned to Scripture Studies. He produced a number of biblical commentaries: Genesis, Isaiah, Job, Matthew, John, Romans, and Revelation, among others.[2] One opponent (described as "brother Ar.", to be identified with Arnaud Gaillard, then a formed bachelor back from Paris) voiced his opposition to Olivi's views on the Franciscan vow of poverty, which prompted him to write a Treatise on poor use (De usu paupere).[3] The controversy between the two young theologians raged on many different issues,[4] which attracted the attention of the General Chapter of Strasbourg in 1282. Only Olivi's fate is recorded, but both were probably suspended from teaching. His doctrine was examined by seven Franciscan theologians at Paris, who first drew up a list of errors (Littera septem sigillorum) and then substantiated it by a roll (rotulus)[5] of citations from Olivi's writings. Olivi defended himself in several responses (1283–85), and finally the General Chapter of Montpellier (1287) decided in his favor. The new general superior, Matthew of Aquasparta, sent him as lector in theology to the convent of Santa Croce in Florence. Next, Matthew's successor, Raymond Gaufredi, sent Olivi back to Montpellier as lector in theology. At the General Chapter of Paris in 1292, Olivi again gave explanations, which were apparently satisfactory. He spent his last years in the convent of Narbonne lecturing and writing his masterwork on the Apocalypse of John, revising his commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, corresponding, and acting as pastor to a community of "Spiritual" Franciscans and devout laypersons. He died surrounded by his friends, who familiarly called him "Saint Peter," after an earnest profession of his Catholic Faith (published by Wadding ad a. 1297, n. 33) on 14 March 1298.

Characteristic teaching

A glance at Olivi’s literary output indicates—considering his relatively short life of fifty years, full-time teaching duties, and lost years when he lived under the cloud that “Friar Ar.” cast over him—that he was remarkably productive.  A near contemporary stated, not quite accurately, that he had written commentaries on every book in the Bible: he never fulfilled his plan to comment on the prophecy of Daniel or the epistles to the Corinthians.

Olivi commented on the Lombard’s Sentences—much of Book III and IV, and all of Book II in which he demonstrated himself to be an unsurpassed proponent of human free will. He was also a prominent critic of Averroës. His indirect, fragmentary commentary on Lombard Book I, De Deo Cognoscendo, is published as an appendix to the commentary on the Lombard's Sentences Book II (pp. 525–554). His argument there carries Anselm’s ontological argument to its fullness by affirming the superlative perfection (summe infinitum) of all of God’s attributes in a way analogous to, and reflective of, Olivi’s “superabundant hermeneutics” of the Apocalypse (See Lewis, Olivi’s Revelation, “Olivi’s Superabundant Hermeneutics”).

Olivi’s thinking and large body of writing on “evangelical poverty” has been much discussed, and made of him the leader of the so-called “Spiritual Franciscans,” oft maligned by the 14th-century papacy and others more interested in wealth than in the spirituality of Gospel self-control. He was a consistent believer in, and practitioner of, the holy life as taught by Jesus, lived by the Apostles, and restored to the church by Francis of Assisi, without, however, indulging in the personal extremism that characterized certain skeletal figures. Olivi’s work on contracts demonstrates his ability to think outside the realm of religion, and his balanced and reasonable attitude towards the appropriate use of money. Olivi was interested in practical matters as well as philosophy. His work On Sale, Purchase, Usury and Restitution, or more simply On Contracts (as in the latest edition by S. Piron, 2012), contains a subtle discussion of the pricing of risks and probabilities in connection with valuing compensation due for compulsory requisitioning of property.[6] This work has earned for Olivi a place in the history of the development of thinking about the right use of capital.

Olivi’s rethinking of the meaning of the Bible on it own terms, apart from Aristotelian categories, in some cases led to a refreshing reliance on the simple meaning of the text, and in other cases to an unparalleled theological inventiveness. Olivi was unique in the 13th century, for example, in his realization of the Jewish quality of the Apocalypse (cf. Lewis, Olivi’s Revelation, “Olivi and the Jews”). He identified the “144,000 Friends of the Lamb” (Rev 7:4-8,14:1-5) as a Jewish, militant wing of the Church of the Endtime. Fascinated by Jewish music, Olivi, described the two wings of the Apocalyptic army, Jew and Gentile, as playing their harps and singing a twofold song in unison, the Song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev 15:3). Olivi foresaw a reunion of Jew and Gentile in the one People of God at the End as it had been at the Beginning. Quite the reverse of the Churchmen and Royals who in 1306, scarcely eight years after Olivi’s death, led France and Olivi’s neighbors into yet another spasm of European anti-semitism.  

Legacy and controversy

Controversy continued after his death. His friends, friars and laity alike, venerated their leader, and even honored his tomb as that of a saint; on the other hand, the General Chapter of Lyon in 1299, ordered his writings to be collected and burned as heretical. The General Council of Vienne in 1312 established in the Decretal Fidei catholicæ fundamento (Bull. Franc., V, 86) the Catholic doctrine against three points of Olivi's teaching, howbeit without mentioning the author. These points referred to the moment when Christ's body on the cross was transfixed by the lance, the manner in which the soul is united to the body, and the baptism of infants. In 1318, anti-Olivi Friars went so far as to destroy Olivi's tomb, a desecration, and it is presumed they threw his body in the Rôhne River. In the next year, two further steps were taken against him: His writings were absolutely forbidden by the General Chapter of Marseilles, and a special commission of theologians examined Olivi's Lectura super Apocalypsim and marked sixty sentences as heretical, chiefly citations of Joachim of Flora (see Joachim of Flora. For text, see Baluzius-Mansi, "Miscellanea", II, Lucca, 1761, 258–70; cf. also Henry Denifle, "Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis", II, i, Paris, 1891, 238–9). In 1326, those sentences were condemned by Pope John XXII when the use of them by Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian in his Appeal of Sachsenhausen (1324) came to the attention to the Pope.[7] Though Olivi was never officially condemned as a heretic, his name was included as a banned author in several editions of the Index of Prohibited Books.[8] Franz Ehrle considers (Archiv, III, 440) that Olivi was not the impious heretic that he was painted to be in some writings of his opponents, and states (ibid., 448) that the denunciation of his theological doctrine was rather a tactical measure of the adversaries of the rigorous principles of poverty and reform professed by Olivi. It is clear that Olivi follows in many points the doctrine of St. Bonaventure, but equally clear that in his Lectura super Apocalypsim he was a thoroughgoing follower of Joachim, which, for some, was enough to mark him as a heretic.

Writings

The numerous works of Olivi, many of them now critically edited, can be divided into six classes:

1. Philosophic works

2. Exegetical and Hermeneutical works

3. Theological works

4. Works on Observance of the Rule of Saint Francis and Evangelical Perfection

5. Apologetical works and letters

6. Devotional works

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. The Formation of Olivi's Intellectual Project. Piron. Sylvain. 2003. Oliviana.
  2. The Date of Olivi's Commentary on Matthew. Burr. David. 1976. Collectanea Franciscana.
  3. Book: Burr, David. Olivi and Franciscan Poverty The Origins of the Usus Pauper Controversy.. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1989.
  4. Book: Burr, David. The Persecution of Peter Olivi. registration. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 1976. 9780871696656 .
  5. Piron. Sylvain. 2006. Censures et condamnation de Pierre de Jean Olivi : enquête dans les marges du Vatican. . 118-2 . 2 . 313 . 10.3406/mefr.2006.9421 .
  6. J. Franklin, The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 265-267.
  7. Book: Piron , Sylvain . Bonagrazia de Bergame, auteur des Allegationes sur les articles extraits par Jean XXII de la Lectura super Apocalipsim d'Olivi. Revirescunt chartae, codices, documenta, textus. Miscelleana investigationum medioevalium in honorem Caesaris Cenci OFM collecta. Edizioni Antonianum. 2002. 2. Rome. 1065–1087.
  8. Book: Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Alexander VII. Ex Typographia Reuerendae Camerae Apostolicae. 1664. Rome. 128.

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