Two dates to note for March 14:
In 1298, "Spiritual Franciscan" Peter John Olivi died. Olivi's commentary on the Book of Revelation identified the Roman Church with the Babylon of Scripture, forecasting the Antichrist for the period 1300-1340. Nearly 20 years after his death, Olivi's work was condemned and burned, and his tomb was desecrated by a group of friars in 1318.
In 1697, Lodowicke Muggleton died. In the tumult of the English Civil War, and after years of seeing visions, Muggleton claimed along with his cousin (both of whom worked as tailors) to be the two "witnesses" from the Book of Revelation. Muggleton wrote two commentaries on Revelation for his growing group of followers, the Muggletonians. But in 1676 Muggleton was convicted of blasphemy. He was pilloried, his works burned, and in his late 80s he was released from Newgate Prison in a state of compromised health, dying early the next year. Apocalyptic speculations had run so high throughout the English Civil War that in the Restoration period, Second Coming prophecies were actually made illegal.
