Alchemist and Spiritual Franciscan Jean de Roquetaillade
(AKA John of Rupescissa) died sometime in 1366. His Handbook in Tribulation predicted that a pair of Antichrists would
emerge in the east and west in 1365 and 70, punishing the world for the sins of
the Church in preparation for an earthly Millennium.
The dualism in John’s prediction could have reflected tensions
in the Church between Rome and France. For
most of the 14th century
the papacy was under the control of a succession of French popes, and had been removed
from the Vatican to Avignon. Indeed, in 1378 – not so long after the time John
predicted for two Antichrists – the Papal Schism began, in which competing popes
claimed legitimacy from both cities. (The schism finally ended in 1417 with the
permanent return of the papacy to Rome.) John himself lived at Avignon from 1349, after going there
to plead his case before Pope Clement VI after a period of imprisonment for the
strenuousness of his attacks against Church abuses. It was there that he did
most of his writing, including the Handbook
in Tribulation.
John’s work in alchemy led him to the first distillation of a
pure solute of ethanol, which he termed aqua vitae or quinta essential, and
touted as a panacea.
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