Peter Olivi

Peter John Olivi, in his native French Pierre Jean Olivi and also Pierre Déjean, (1248 - March 14, 1298) was a Franciscan theologian who, although he died professing the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, became 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 extreme view of ecclesiastical poverty played a part in the ideology of the groups coming to be known as the Spiritual Franciscans or Fraticelli.

Biography

A Franciscan and theological author, born at Sérignan, Diocese of Béziers, 1247-8. At twelve he entered the Friars Minor at Béziers, and later studied at Paris, but never obtained the baccalaureate. Returning to his native province, he soon distinguished himself by his strict observance of the rule and his theological knowledge.

When Nicholas III prepared his Bull "Exiit Qui Seminat" (1279), Olivi, then at Rome, was asked to express his opinion with regard to Franciscan poverty (usus pauper). Unfortunately there was then in the convents of Provence a controversy about the stricter or laxer observance of the rule. Olivi soon became the principal spokesman of the rigorists, and met with strong opposition on the part of the community. At the General Chapter of Strasburg in 1282 he was accused of heresy, and henceforward almost every general chapter concerned itself with him. His doctrine was examined by seven friars, graduates of the Sorbonne University of Paris (see Anal. Franc., III, 374-75), and censured in thirty-four propositions, whereupon his writings were confiscated in 1283.

Olivi cleverly defended himself in several responses (1283–85), and finally the General Chapter of Montpellier (1287) decided in his favour. The new general superior, Matthew of Aquasparta, sent him as lector in theology to the convent of Santa Croce in Florence, whence Matthew's successor, Raymond Gaufredi, sent him as lector to Montpellier. 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 and died, surrounded by his friends, after an earnest profession of his Catholic Faith (published by Wadding ad a. 1297, n. 33) on 14 March 1298.

Olivi's 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.[1]

Legacy and controversy

Peace was not obtained by his death. His friends, friars and seculars, showed an exaggerated veneration for their leader, and honoured 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 burnt 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, without mentioning the author; these points referred to the moment Christ's body was transfixed by the lance, the manner in which the soul is united to the body and the baptism of infants. In 1318 the friars of his order went so far as to destroy Olivi's tomb, a desecration, and 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 "Postilla in Apocalypsim" and marked out sixty sentences, chiefly joachimistical extravagances (see Joachim of Flora. For text see Baluzius-Mansi, "Miscellanea", II, Lucca, 1761, 258-70; cf. also Denifle, "Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis", II, i, Paris, 1891, 238-9) . It was only in 1326 that those sentences were really condemned by John XXII, when the fact that Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian used Olivi's writings in his famous Appeal of Sachsenhausen in 1324 had again drawn attention to the author.

Father Ehrle considers (Archiv, III, 440) that Olivi was not the impious heretic he is painted in some writings of the Middle Ages, and states (ibid., 448) that the denunciation of his theological doctrine was rather a tactical measure of the adversaries of the severe principles of poverty and reform professed by Olivi. For the rest, Olivi follows in many points the doctrine of St. Bonaventure.

Writings

The numerous works of Olivi, now edited for the most, can be divided into five classes:

1. Speculative Works

2. Exegetical Works

3. Works on observance of the Rule of Saint Francis and evangelical perfection

4. Apologetical works

5. Devotional works

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ J. Franklin, The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 265-267.

External links