the Camisards and Olivi

[warren lewis]

Honored colleagues: I have edited for publication the Lectura super Apocalypsim of Peter John Olivi, OFM (1248-1298), the most important reissue of the thought of Joachim of Fiore. I am trying to determine whether the French Prophets may have been influenced by Olivi’s apocalyptic thought. The Huguenots (including Pierre Jurieu) were acquainted with Olivi, but what about the Camisards. Since Olivi was from Serignan, and died in Narbonne, and his book was translated in 1298 into Occitan, it seems likely that some Camisards might have been aware of his teaching. Even though Olivi was a Franciscan, he was as opposed to the Conventual Franciscan Order as were the Camisards. It was Olivi in his Apocalypse commentary who taught European Christians to think of the Church of Rome as the Whore of Babylon, and to see the pope as a heretic in league with the antichrist. Thank you for your replies! wwl

[Lionel Laborie]

Olivi’s influence on the Camisards cannot be ruled out, but a distinction should be made between the Camisards’ apocalypticism and the French Prophets’ millenarianism. The reason for this is that the French Prophets were essentially an English movement developping from the arrival of Camisards’ in England. As such, it was a hybrid movement with strong Behmenist influences mediated for the most part by the Philadelphians and Quakers. I have never come across references to Olivi in the French Prophets’ archives. However, their main source of inspiration is clearly the Montanists.

[Auteur]

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