Note 48 — Chapter I · THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
Reading edition
Wadding, ann. 1282, No. 2; ann. 1283, No. 1; ann. 1285, No. 5; ann. 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 disciples to prevent the impending profanation of exhumation.