Liber Secretorum Eventuum By Johannes de Rupescissa (review)

436 BOOK REVIEWS troversy of the 1 320's. He finishes with a consideration ofthe impact of Olivi's condemnation on Franciscan exegesis. Olivi'sPeaceableKingdom is awork ofthorough and intelligent scholarship. It is an important contribution to the study both of Peter Olivi and ofmedieval apocalyptic thought. Thomas Turley Santa Clara University Liber Secretorum Eventuum. By Johannes de Rupescissa. Introduction by Robert E. Lerner. Edited and translated (French) by Christine MorerodFattebert . [Spicilegium Friburgense. Textes pour servir à l'histoire de la vie chrétienne, Vol. 36.] (Fribourg, Suisse: Editions Universitaires. 1994. Pp. 326.) As one who first discussed Johannes de Rupescissa with Jeanne BignamiOdier in 1950, this reviewer must give a warm welcome to the first critical edition of one of his main works. Moreover, it is, indeed, a worthy tribute to Mdme. Bignami-Odier's pioneer work on Rupescissa. The Liber Secretorum Eventuum (abbreviated as LSE) has been edited and translated into French by Christine Morerod-Fattebert. Robert Lerner supplies a substantial historical introduction. With his usual thoroughness Lerner first surveys, with full references, the fruits ofresearch on Rupescissa's life and writings since Bignami-Odier's study. Much of this research is his own. For instance, Lerner points to an unpublished treatise by the Inquisitor, Nicholas Eymeric, as likely evidence for dating one of Rupescissa's early "revelations" to 1337 (pp. 24-25). Lerner calls Rupescissa "one of the most extraordinary and influential medieval eschatological prophets" (p. 13)· His life was certainly extraordinary since, though imprisoned almost continuously from 1344 to ca. 1364, he produced a large volume of prophetic writings, which circulated widely and were very influential. The most curious circumstance ofhis life was the fact that, incarcerated at Avignon from 1349 "at the hub of the Christian ecclesiastical world" (p. 14), he was freely given facilities and materials for writing and was consulted by many leading ecclesiastics who could not keep away from the imprisoned prophet. The LSE, the second of his writings, was composed, by ecclesiastical command , immediately after his arrival at Avignon and was completed on November 11, 1349. Intended primarily as an account of his visionary revelations (or "intellections"), it prophesies a future programme which Lerner summarizes in three periods, the first up to 1 366 marked by the rise of the "great Antichrist," the second from 1366 to 1370 when Antichrist will reign openly, BOOK REVIEWS 437 and the third, the millennium ofpeace after 1 370 which will last for a thousand years. Lerner places Rupescissa firmly in the tradition of Joachimist expectation as interpreted within the Franciscan Order. But this politically oriented prophet goes further than his predecessors in the precision of detail he lays out in his programme. The great Antichrist is Louis of Trinacria, King of Sicily. Here Lerner investigates thoroughly the reasons for this strange choice, including the legend accounting for the unusual name, Louis, for a Hohenstaufen descendant and the numerical equivalents of its letters which can be made to add up to 666! (p. 56). Whilst giving a useful summary of Rupescissa's long and complex programme, Lerner remarks that there is no substitute for reading the LSE itself. Whilst extending Joachim's third status into a full millennium, Rupescissa does follow the abbot in expecting a final deterioration and a last Antichrist before the winding up of the saeculum. The central problem which the Church faced in coming to terms with die Joachites was the nature of their inspiration. Joachim had repudiated the title of prophet and claimed only that the key to his exegetical method in interpreting the Scriptures was the intellectus (or intelligentia) spiritualis which he had received. But therein lay the rub. As Lerner points out (p. 42) there was a "strong inner tension" in Joachim's thought between the traditional interpretation of Scripture and the "new" (even superior) understanding which flowed from the intellectus spiritualis associated with St. John. In fact, Lerner underestimates this tension when he implies that, in Joachim's view, "John" would supersede "Peter." ForJoachim it was essential that the "Church of St. Peter" should endure till the end of time; yet he could hardly avoid the implication that the intellectus spiritualis which he claimed for himself (and generally...