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The Late Medieval Pope Prophecies: The Genus nequam Group. Edited by Martha H. Fleming. [Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Volume 204.] (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Arizona State University. 1999. Pp. xi, 207; 15 pls. $25.00.)
The Late Medieval Pope Prophecies focuses on nine manuscripts of the so-called Genus nequam group, the earliest of the post eventum fourteenth-century Vaticinia de summis pontificibus that ostensibly prophesied the fortunes of the Church from the papacy of Nicholas III (1277-1280), through the brief pontificate of the much-admired Celestine V (1294) and the longer pontificate of the much-hated Boniface VIII (1294-1303), and into the rule of Benedict XI (1303-1304). Here edited for the first time, these texts are identified by the first words, "Genus nequam," of the first prophecy. They culminated in the "prophetic future," with the expectation of a final "angelic pope" to appear in the last days, reform the Church, and prepare it for the onslaught...