V. Contends for 2300 Year-Days

1. STILL FIGHTING IN 1305

Included in the same manuscript as his two preceding expositions is another work written in 1305, ^{61Finke, op cit., p. CXXVII.} Antidotum Contra Venenum Effusum per Fratrem Martin um de Atheca (Antidote Against the Poison Poured Out by Brother Martin of Atheca). In chapter 3 he finds eleven mistakes. The third, he says, is “the argument which he uses to disprove the exposition of the numbers of Daniel written by me in my treatises,” namely, that in the 2300 days and the 1290 days “the Holy Spirit takes a day for a year.” ^{62Arnold of Villanova, Antidotum (Cod. Vat. Lat. 3824), fol. 245 r, col. 2, line 26 to fol. 245 v, col. 1, line 5.}PFF1 761.1

2. DECLARES INDEPENDENCE OF THE GLOSSA

He ridicules as “worthy of a cowherd” the argument of Martin, that the “common glosses” interpret those as ordinary days, for there can be more than one interpretation. Daniel himself, he contends, says that “many shall pass through it and knowledge shall be manifold” (Daniel 12:4), and the common gloss says that what is applied to Antiochus in type is also applicable to the Antichrist at the end. ^{63Ibid., fol. 245 v, col. 1, lines 5-21.} His opponent’s fourth error, he continues, is saying “that none of the doctors have explained [the Scriptures] as I explain them.” In defense he cites “Bede, in his book of numbers, and Joachim, in his book De Semine Scripturarum,” who are not at variance with him, and names some excellent writers among “the moderns” who “accept this exposition as Catholic,” or orthodox. ^{64Ibid., fol. 245 v, col. 2, line 25 to fol. 246 r, col. 1, line 17.}PFF1 761.2

Villanova could never convince the Inquisition that his writings were Catholic. His theology was denounced by the Inquisition after his death. Nevertheless, his teachings exerted a great influence on the Spirituals, and were passed on to later writers. His works in the library of Cardinal Cusa are testimony to the influence of his year-day application to the 2300 days on Cusa’s more widely known interpretation of that prophetic period. His was another of those insistent and persuasive voices ringing out in the early gray light of dawn before the sunrise of reviving prophetic exposition after the dense night of the Dark Ages.PFF1 761.3