PIERRE JEAN OLIVI. 45 held as hostages in Catalonia, who had asked him to visit them, show that he was held in high esteem, that he desired to curb the fanatic zeal of the more advanced Spirituals, and that he could not restrain himself from apocalyptic speculation. On his deathbed, in 1298, he uttered a confession of faith in which he professed abso- lute submission to the Roman Church and to Boniface as its head. He also submitted all his works to the Holy See, and made a declaration of principles as to the matters in dispute within the Order, which contained nothing that Bonaventura would not have signed, or Nicholas III. would have impugned as contrary to the bull Exiit, although it sharply rebuked the money -getting prac- tices and relaxation of the Order. * He was honorably buried at Narbonne, and then the contro- versy over his memory became more lively than ever, rendering it almost impossible to determine his responsibility for the opinions , which were ascribed to him by both friends and foes. That his bones became the object of assiduous cult, in spite of repeated prohibitions, that innumerable miracles were worked at his tomb, that crowds of pilgrims flocked to it, that his feast-day became one of the great solemnities of the year, and that he was regarded as one of the most efficient saints in the calendar, only shows the popular estimate of his virtues and the zeal of those who regarded
- Wadding, ann. 1282, No. 2 ; ann. 1283, No. 1 ; arm. 1285, No. 5 ; arm. 1290,
No. 11 ; ann. 1292, No. 13 ; ann. 1297, No. 33-4.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1283.— Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. pp. 294-5).— Franz Ehrle, Archiv, 1886, pp. 383, 389 ; 1887, pp. 417-27,429,433,438, 534.— Raym. de Fronciacho (Archiv, 1887, p. 15). Olivi's death is commonly assigned to 1297, but the Transitus Sancti Patris, which was one of the books most in vogue among his disciples, states that it occurred on Friday, March 14, 1297 (Bernard. Guidon. Practica P. v.); Friday fell on March 14 in 1298, and the common habit of commencing the year with Easter explains the substitution of 1297 for 1298. His bones are generally said to have been dug up and burned a few months after interment, by order of the general, Giovanni di Murro (Tocco, op. cit. p. 503). Wadding, indeed, asserts that they were twice exhumed (ann. 1297, No. 36). Eymerich mentions a tradition that they were carried to Avignon and thrown by night into the Rhone (Eymerici Direct. Inquis. p. 313). The cult of which they were the object shows that this could not have been the case, and Bernard Gui, the best possible authority, in commenting on the Transitus states that they were abstracted in 1318 and hidden no one knows where— doubtless by dis- ciples to prevent the impending profanation of exhumation.
