Mgr Andrew Wadsworth, provost of the Oratorians in Washington, summarizes Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser on the 7 ages of the church. They are supposed to be prefigured by the 7 churches of Asia Minor at the start of the Apocalpyse. I suppose that if he is right, this blog ought really to be re-named Exsardi. Mrg Wadsworth doesn’t draw out the links with Apoc. 1-3, go the original to find out more.
If you don’t have time for the talk, here is the summary:
The Seven Ages of the Church…
According to the writings of the
Venerable Bartholemew Holzhauser
(1613-1658)
Germany
1. Status Seminativus
AD 30-70
*Apostles*
from Christ and the Apostles
until Pope Linus and the Emperor Nero
2. Status Irrigativus
AD 70-330
*Martyrs*
10 Persecutions of the Church
3. Status Illuminativus
AD 330-800
*Doctors*
from Pope Sylvester to Leo III
4. Status Pacificus
AD 800-1500
*Christendom*
from Pope Leo III to Leo X
5. Status Afflictionis et Purgativus
1517-?
*Heresy/Decline*
from Leo X to a strong ruler/strong monarch/holy pope
6. Status Consolationis
?
*Triumph*
from the holy pope until the Antichrist
7. Status Desolationis
?
*Antichrist/End*
from the Antichrist to the End of the World
Laodicea 
May 1, 2016 at 12:39 am
” I suppose that if he is right, this blog ought really to be re-named Exsardi.”
Why?
May 1, 2016 at 12:45 am
To clarify: You mean that things will get better before they get worse (before the end)?
May 1, 2016 at 3:17 pm
Yes, on his view we would be in the 5th age of the Church, typified by the Church of Sardis.
May 9, 2016 at 10:48 pm
Would it really be true to say the Apostles had left their first zeal in 70 AD or that Christendom had the name of being alive but was dead?
May 10, 2016 at 2:44 pm
The verdict on Ephesus in basically good; 40 years would have been enough for some diminution of fervour. ‘The name of being alive but being dead’ is said of Sardis i.e. the present period (on this schema).
May 10, 2016 at 8:15 pm
So then in the period of triumph the Church will have ‘little strength’? What do you think is the heresy of the Nicolaites and what is the synagogue of satan?
May 10, 2016 at 8:34 pm
‘The little strength’ may be a reference to the beginning of that period – it leads on to an open door which no man can shut, which suggests great progress. Presumably the s. of s. is just rabbinic Judaism insofar as it is organised hostility to Christ. In that case the age of Philadelphia would be marked by the conversion of many Jews, whereas Smyrna was just marked by their persecutions of the Church. People seem to agree that Nicolaitism is some kind of sexual heresy. e.g. salvation through the fostering of concupiscence.
However, I shall have to read the Ven. B. H. and see what he thinks.
July 7, 2017 at 1:23 am
We are definitely in the 5th age / the church of Sardis.
Read this commentary on Apocalypse to confirm, pgs. 89-96.
http://docdro.id/HQylzFf
Also, read the commentary on the church of Laodicea to see how we are not in that state.
August 11, 2019 at 4:04 pm
Here it is on-line, in Latin
https://archive.org/details/venerabilisserv00holzgoog/page/n38
August 11, 2019 at 4:47 pm
He thinks that the Jews here are schismatics and heretics, who say they are Christians and are not. This fits better with the idea that the Jews as a body will welcome the antichrist, as the Fathers say.
‘”Behold, I have given before thee a door opened, which no man can shut”, that is, the clear and open sense of Sacred Scripture, which none of the heretics can overturn, for in the 6th age, a great general council from the whole earth will be celebrated, in which by a unique grace of God, and the power of the great monarch, and the authority of the supreme pontiff, and the unity of devout rulers, every heresy and atheism will be outlawed and destroyed from the earth, and the true sense of Holy Scripture will be declared against all the sects of the heretics, and set forth for belief, and it will be accepted, as God opens the gate of His grace” (p. 72).
He thinks that the little strength does refer especially to the start of the 6th age, because of the horribleness of the 5th.
It’s interesting that he felt inspired until the start of chapter 15, whereupon he no longer felt inspired and so stopped the commentary.
August 11, 2019 at 5:06 pm
The commentary is even more intricate than the original post suggests. He thinks that the 7 churches also correspond to the seven days of creation, the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit and the 7 ages of the world from Adam. These 7 ages of the world are the same as St Augustine’s 6 ages, except that he adds an extra one, from Abraham to Moses (not from Abraham to David).
August 11, 2019 at 5:22 pm
E.g. (for the 5th age) ‘With this state of the church agrees the fifth age of the world, which lasted from the death of Solomon until the Babylonian captivity inclusively, and just as in that age by the counsel of Jeroboam Israel fell into idolatry, leaving only Judah and Benjamin in the true worship of God, so in the fifth age of the Church, a most powerful part of the Latin church has fallen from the true faith and left only a slight number of good Catholics. [..] Finally, to this fifth age corresponds the fifth day of the creation of the world, when God said that the waters should produce every kind of creeping thing, and the birds of the heaven, which two things signify the greatest liberty, for what is freer than fish in the water and birds in the air? For so in the fifth age, metaphorically the earth and seas are full of creeping things and birds. Men are wretched and carnal, now that freedom of conscience and religion have been granted in the recent treaty, and they creep after their pleasures and desires, and each one does and believes what he wants […] In that wretched state of the Church, divine and human precepts grow weak and feeble; the sacred canons are reckoned as nothing; ecclesiastical discipline is no more kept in the clergy than political discipline in the people. Whence we are like reptiles on the earth and in the sea.”
August 12, 2019 at 6:48 pm
If we put it together with the prophecy of La Salette, it would seem that the coming age of Philadelphia will not last long:
“Twenty-five years of plentiful harvests will make them forget that the sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this earth.”
December 21, 2020 at 9:36 am
[…] Bartholomew Holzhauser, beato della Chiesa Cattolica vissuto nel 1600, divise la storia della Chiesa Cattolica e del mondo in sette grandi età. […]
January 12, 2021 at 8:55 am
[…] Bartolomeu Holzhauser, binecuvântat de Biserica Catolică care a trăit în 1600 , a împărțit istoria Bisericii Catolice și a lumii în șapte mari epoci . […]
January 12, 2021 at 1:35 pm
[…] Bartolomeu Holzhauser, binecuvântat de Biserica Catolică care a trăit în 1600 , a împărțit istoria Bisericii Catolice și a lumii în șapte mari epoci . […]
January 12, 2021 at 1:39 pm
[…] Bartolomeu Holzhauser, binecuvântat de Biserica Catolică care a trăit în 1600 , a împărțit istoria Bisericii Catolice și a lumii în șapte mari epoci . […]
January 15, 2021 at 7:00 am
[…] Catolică care a trăit în 1600 , a împărțit istoria Bisericii Catolice și a lumii în șapte mari epoci .Dacă binecuvântatul ar avea dreptate, lumea s-ar regăsi în prezent la sfârșitul celei de-a […]
February 20, 2021 at 1:38 pm
[…] Bartholomew Holzhauser, beato della Chiesa Cattolica vissuto nel 1600, divise la storia della Chiesa Cattolica e del mondo in sette grandi età. […]
March 25, 2021 at 9:08 am
[…] Bartolomeu Holzhauser, binecuvântat de Biserica Catolică care a trăit în 1600 , a împărțit istoria Bisericii Catolice și a lumii în șapte mari epoci . […]
March 23, 2022 at 1:40 am
[…] with God evolves throughout their lives; and most relevant to us now, 3.) the different “ages” of the Church (from 33 AD to modern […]