!? Rudolph Gekner (1675 ?)

 (Image: real name Rudolph Gwalther c. 1605)

STATUS:  NOT A CATHOLIC PROPHECY-POSSIBLE HOAX

A Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff prophecy or a commentary by a certain 'Rudolph Gekner' is floating around the Internet and has been mistaken to be a Catholic prophecy, but no other history is provided about the individual. However, after conducting some research I found out that 'Gekner' is not his real name. In fact, it is Rudolph Gwalther (1519-1586) and he was a Protestant pastor during the Reformation who preached in Zurich.

Here is how I discovered this information.

Apparently, the first English version of the 'Gekner' prophecy was published in 1855 by a Protestant, anti-papal minister named John Cummings in his work: 'The end: or, The proximate signs of the close of this dispensation'. He declares the author is named 'Rodolpho Gaultier' and that he found the prophecy in a work entitled 'De Fluctibus da Misticae Navis' dated 1675 in the 'Augustinian Library of Rome'. The must be the Angelica Library: the biggest part of its collection contains works dating from the Reformation and Counter-Reformation period, which means it contains considerable amount of works by Protestant 'Reformers'.   No doubt it was these works John Cummings was interested in.

The next clue: the prophecy by 'Rodolpho Gaultier' quoted by Cummings next appears in Italian in the book 'The Future Destinies of States and Nations' published in Turin (1864), in which the name 'Rodolphi Gekner' is given, but that it is ALSO pronounced 'Gelthier' or 'Gollier'. The author of this book lets slip in a footnote that he had a copy of John Cumming's work, which confirms that this book was his source and that 'Gaultier' or 'Gelthier' is the real spelling, and NOT 'Gekner'.

After making a few searches I found that according to the "Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothéque Sainte-Geneviève" there was indeed a 'Rodolphe Gaultibus' in this time period, and that this was the Latin academic form of his name, Rudolph 'Gaullier', and was also known as 'Walter' and / or 'Walther'.

The final piece of the puzzle fit when I discovered this was none other than Rudolph Gwalther (1519-1586), who was known under various spellings of his name: “Rudolphus Gualtherus”, “Rudolph Gualther”, “Rudolph Gualter”, “Rudolph Gwalther”, “Rudolph Walther”, etc. In the Renaissance period, academics sometimes suffered the problem of having their name spelled a variety of inventive ways.

“Gekner” is not among them and obviously was a purposely constructed misspelling made by the Italian author of the “Future Destinies of State and Nations” to hide the fact that this prophecy was quoted by a Protestant Reformer who was the son-in-law of Zwingli and who became a leader of the Zurich church and defender of the Zurich form of Protestantism.   

This is not the first time we find sneaky tactics in that book: the author of “Future Destines” also took a sermon by a Protestant bishop named George Brown, changed some details of the sermon, then altered the name to 'George Varens' so the fake prophecy's true origin couldn't be traced. Thankfully, the Internet now makes it easier to track down documents, so the trick has been exposed. (Click here to see more on the 'George Varens' fake prophecy.)

Did Rudolph Gwalther even write a prophecy?  I have not been able to track down any listing for the book his prophecy is suppossed to have turned up in.  So proof  if John Cumming had a reliabale source is difficult to find.

Therefore, there is evidence 'Gekner' is a fake name given to a prophecy to hide the fact it was used and quoted by Protestants, and as we cannot trace the origins of the prophecy itself beyond what is said of it in 1855,  therefore it could be fake, or, a Catholic one quoted out of context or even added to by Protestants.   

Why would Protestants be interested in the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff? The prophecy attributed to 'Gekner' focuses on the loss of the papal states and the imprisonment of the pope, who will be replaced by a 'pastor' who would reform Rome – perhaps this was a Protestant hope in that the prediction heralded the end of the Papacy itself and the rise of a 'reformed' pastor beholding to the 'true' religion of the Protestants championed by a Protestant king from the north!

Unfortunately, an unsuspecting 'missionary priest' who did not check his sources very well published the 'Gekner' prophecy in his work 'The Christian Trumpet' (1878), for he had acquired some of his information from the Italian book 'The Future Destinies'.  This has since then spread by other Catholic authors.

As the origin of the 'Gekner' Prophecy has now been shown to be highly suspect as a source, it has not been included here in the Timeline. 

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