Peter John Olivi (1248 - March 14 1298) was a Franciscan theologian who, although he died professing the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, became a controversial figure in the arguments surrounding poverty at the beginning of the fourteenth century. In large part, this was due to his view that the Franciscan vow of poverty also entailed usus pauper (i.e., 'poor' or 'restricted' use of goods); while contemporary Franciscans generally agreed that usus pauper was important to the Franciscan way of life, they disagreed that it was part of their vow of poverty. His writings were condemned as heretical in 1299, and his tomb desecrated by members of his order in 1318. His support of the extreme view of ecclesiastical poverty played a part in the ideology of the groups coming to be known as the Spiritual Franciscans or Fraticelli.

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