Document Type:
Article
Author/editor:
Romolo Cegna
 
Standard: Cegna, Romolo [Romolo Cegna]
Title:
L'Opus arduum valde: da Gioacchino a Guglielmo predicatore evangelico

Standard:

Periodical:
Annali di scienze religiose
Document Type:
N.S. 5
Date of Publication:
2012
Pages:
199-220
Subjects:
Apocalyptic - Middle Ages
Bible. New Testament. Apocalypse - Interpretations
Opus arduum valde (1389/90)

Summary/Notes:

The Opus arduum valde is a commentary to the Revelation written by a minor friar, named William, between 1389 and 1390. It reached us incomplete in fourteenth century Bohemian and Polish manuscripts. It's based on the trinitarian and christocentric eschatology of Peter of Tarantasio's Expositio in Apocalypsim. The author observes, in the contemporary times that he calls "last part of the last times", the actions operated by the present and regnant Antichrist, whose destruction is anyway imminent and will be operated by the "evangelical preachers" through spiritual only weapons. The Antichrist is not identified with the moral evil in general, but he is embodied in every important political and religious character who operates against the evangelical law, first of all the pope. All the Church's evils come from the papal heresies, and above all the contempt of the altissima paupertas, that all priests should practice as the ultimate evangelical virtue. The eschatological perspective leads to forecast the future times of peace for the elect, and about them it is said: (P 53v) Regnabunt veritate evangelica aperta in omni nacione, que est super terram, non potestate terrena.