Bonaventure

CONCERNING ST. BONAVENTURE, CARDINAL OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH, BISHOP OF ALBANO, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH, OF THE ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS,

AT LYONS IN GAUL.

IN THE YEAR 1274.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Bonaventure, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, bishop of Albano and Doctor of the Church, of the Order of St. Francis, at Lyons in Gaul (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. The Saint's name, cult, relics, age, year and day of death.

Lyons, a city of Gaul far most celebrated, most rich with the sacred remains both of illustrious Martyrs and of other Saints, and therefore in these our Acts so often described and praised, was illustrious also by this title, Lyons despoiled of the sacred deposit in 1562. that it had the most holy Doctor of the Church, Bonaventure, deposited with it for almost three centuries, until in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-two (others note 1561) by men of Belial, organs of Satan, who spread over their madness the specious name of the reformed faith, those sacred relics (only the head being withdrawn from the barbarity, which was kept separately) were burned with fire in public, the ashes being cast into the flowing Rhône, as the Commentary on the affairs of the monastery of St. Bonaventure in Raynaud has, in the Indiculus, page 202; or into the Saône, as Possevino wrote, an eyewitness of the monstrous tragedy, in his Apparatus, under the word Bonaventura; certainly not into the Danube, which Peter Rodolphus wrongly wrote, to be dealt with more at length below. However it was, this is certain, that from that time the people of Lyons have been deprived of those venerable pledges of the Saint renowned among the few, whose deeds we here undertake to illustrate, the beginning being drawn from his name, in which there is variety of writers sufficiently wonderful.

[2] The opinion of Raynaud does not displease, thus beginning his eulogy: St. Bonaventure, surnamed from the happy prediction of St. Francis concerning him (unless we prefer to say, from the happy recovery through his intercession), had borne the name of John at the sacred font, as the old codices teach, in which Galesinius testifies that he is named John. (He could have adduced older ones.) And perhaps, according to the custom of many in joining names, he was called Peter John, or John Peter. For the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, who came nearer to the age of the holy man, write that his true name was Peter de Bonaventura. But Gerson and Trithemius were mistaken, when they said that his proper name was Eustathius, from whose authority that nomenclature crept into certain tracts of this sacred Doctor, published separately: they would have said more aptly that he was named Eutychius: for thus, by the Greeks expressing in their own idiom the appellation Bonaventura commonly known, he is found named in the ecumenical council of Lyons. But enough of the name. His surname was Fidanza: his country Bagnorea in Tuscany; for there he was born, of his father John and his mother Ritella, five years before the death of St. Francis; as below more fully in its place.

[3] how late he was raised and canonized; How admirable was the life of this Seraphic Doctor, and how sublime the excellence of his doctrine, how notable his labors for the Church, especially in the ecumenical council gathered, Pope Gregory X being present, undertaken for reducing the Greeks, how precious finally his death in the sight of the Lord; so unwonted seemed to many the delay of the heavenly honors, owed to so great a man by so many titles; inasmuch as after two hundred and more years they were first decreed to him by Sixtus IV, supreme Pontiff, in the year 1482, after the customary laborious and accurate disquisitions, and also a numerous oration delivered by Octavian de Martinis of Sinuessa, doctor of both laws, before the aforesaid Pontiff and the assembly of Cardinals, which at last was followed by the solemn canonization on the eighteenth of the Kalends of May, long after the translation of the sacred body had been made, which had happened a hundred and sixty years after his death, namely in the year 1434, on the fourteenth day of March, which is even today recalled in the Order with an anniversary celebration. These things it seemed good to premise in few words, lest it seem strange to anyone that the memory of so illustrious a Saint is announced in so few, and those the more recent, Martyrologies; to say nothing of the fact that by divers writers, as if of set purpose, divers days were selected, some marking the thirteenth, some the fourteenth, some finally the fifteenth of July; which controversy we shall settle toward the end of this paragraph.

[4] whence also the rarer memory in the Martyrologies. And first indeed a few Usuardine codices, cited in our newest edition, which made mention of him, keep the day thirteenth, namely the Strozzian and the Grevenian, in the first of which it is related in this manner: At Lyons, the deposition of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal bishop of Albano, of the Order of Minors, which words were copied by Maurolyco on the same thirteenth day. A little fuller is Greven's eulogy: At Lyons of Gaul, the deposition of St. Bonaventure, bishop of Albano, presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of the Order of Minors: who by his life, genius, and writings (while in these he so studies the illumination of the intellect that he refers the whole to the religiosity and piety of the affections) greatly illustrated the Christian religion, and not undeservedly obtained the name of Seraphic. His feast is kept on the second Sunday of the month of July. And this indeed truly, for until the times of Sixtus V the festivity of St. Bonaventure was not affixed to a certain day of the month of July, as I think is admitted, whatever the Vinea of St. Francis may throw at us, in the Life of St. Bonaventure, folio 194, that Pope Julius II determined that day of the fourteenth of July, which that it is not true, you will understand more clearly from the very diploma of Sixtus V at number 15, where you will find many things added to the solemnity of the Saint's cult, and among others that the same Pontiff Sixtus exhorts the people of Bagnorea to abstain on that day from servile works; but bestows on all the faithful of Christ various Indulgences, which can be seen in the aforesaid decretal, not a little amplified by his successors.

[5] For the fourteenth of July I find no Usuardine codex except one Danish, put together for the use of the Fathers Minor, The errors of a recent Gallic Legendist, to which the announcement is subscribed in the margin on that day by a recent hand, doubtless after the determination of Sixtus V. Felicius refers the Saint on either day, but the fourteenth with a brief eulogy, in which it seemed good to Galesinius to call him Eustathius Bonaventure, whose remaining phrase it is not needful to copy, since it contains nothing beyond the common. Of the writers who rightly assert that the Saint died on the fifteenth, discourse will recur a little below. Here in passing I would have it noted, that a recent Gallic Legendist erred, when he roundly asserts that the canonization of the Saint was made by Sixtus IV in the year 1482, in the paschal week, on the Saturday falling on the twenty-ninth of April: for the diploma itself convicts this of manifest falsity, since it expressly marks the eighteenth of the Kalends of May (as the instrument itself demonstrates below) which is the fourteenth of April, and which concurs not with the Saturday but with the Sunday "in Albis," Easter itself falling on the seventh of April. But what he adds, that the very feast of the Canonization is celebrated by the Franciscan Fathers with an annual solemnity on the twenty-ninth of April, I do not see where he found it; for our Acts are wrongly alleged in the margin. But let us pursue the things pertaining to the cult.

[6] Time is not to be spent in describing eulogies; in all hands is Arthur's Martyrology, in which so long a series of writers is woven, and of Saussay in the Gallic Martyrology:

that it well-nigh begets loathing in the reader. From Saussay I had decided to borrow some things, but he even at the beginning studiously goes astray, when he thus begins: The glorious passing of St. Eustathius, surnamed Bonaventure, whom others more truly testify to have been most constantly called John from his father's name; but Bonaventura the Greeks rendered by a like word, through Eutychius, as has just now been observed. No more do those things approach the truth which he subjoins, that almost a boy he was enrolled in the Order of the Friars Minor of blessed Francis, unless you wish some vow of the mother to be wrongly understood for the reception of the religious habit, which all writers unanimously hand down that he put on first in the twenty-second year of his age. Of this kind also is what follows, that the Greeks came with their Emperor to the council of Lyons. The rest I do not run through, nor do I think the encomia of St. Bonaventure are to be sought from elsewhere than from the oration of Octavian already praised, and from the very diplomas of the supreme Pontiffs, to be subjoined below in their place: nor do I think the most celebrated and most received cult today in the whole Church of the most holy Doctor is to be proved from elsewhere.

[7] But that I cannot omit which the same Raynaud, praised also above, aptly put together in another's words on page 203 in these words: a more apt eulogy in Raynaud. I would gladly compose for him the same eulogy which St. Ephrem composed for Basil the Great: for it falls upon him very fitly, if you only paint in the name of Bonaventure: Bonaventure truly is the stepping-place of virtues, the book of praises, the life of miracles; who, walking in the flesh, went in the spirit, and, leading a common life with others on earth, by heavenly contemplation: the beryl-plectrum of the mystic lyre, delighting the region of the holy angels: the sure lamb of the mother of life, illustrating the field and garden of the Holy Spirit, exulting with desire and love, and plucking a flower from the deepest root of the most precious cross: the manger of sacred dogmas, the tongue of words, the reward of right and useful thoughts, plunging himself into the deep of the Scriptures, and thence drawing forth the illustrious pearl, the adorned cluster of the divine vine, uttering from heaven the divine sweetness, the beautiful parchment of divine wisdom, which received from heaven the divine impressions of the elements; the best field of the supreme kingdom, which brings forth to God the fruits of justice, a hill adorned with the various flowers of the mystic rose-garden, whose odor breathes and is fragrant even to heaven itself, who cries pleasing songs in the Lord, and receives crowns in heaven. Thus far Ephrem in Raynaud.

[8] His surviving relics, The sacred relics of St. Bonaventure we have said were already sacrilegiously profaned, burned, and scattered by our iconoclasts, yet so, I use the words of Possevino, that the head or skull was preserved, by the work of a pious religious of the same Order, whom the heretics also afflicted with wonderful torments, that he might bring forth the treasures of that church, that is, the sacred vessels, which he constantly kept silent about: which same things are related also by others, so that consequently no other relics of the Saint are exposed to veneration throughout the Catholic world, except those which before that year 1562 had been torn from the sacred body after the year 1434, in which was made the elevation and translation to the new temple. Rightly therefore Wadding noted from Rodolphus at the year 1274, number 22, that before the aforesaid sacrilege, Francis Samson, Minister General, then when the canonization was being made, a chief cultivator of St. Bonaventure, carried into Italy his arm, which today also is seen in the cathedral church of Bagnorea. But he subjoins, that by Charles, king of the Franks, one of the jaws was taken out, which today is honored at Paris, or rather at Fontainebleau: but who that Charles was, he has left us to divine. At Venice, so he proceeds from the same Rodolphus, a middling bone of his body is held in veneration, as Michael Linder, a German engraver, testifies, who was present with the King when he drew out the relics. He who knows that Linder, will know from what Charles the aforesaid relics were received: I should believe it to have been the Eighth of that name, inasmuch as in his times the exaltation of them had been made. But now let us dispatch the rest.

[9] whom we hold to have been born in the year 1221, Concerning the Saint's age it is wonderful that a controversy can remain, after the matter has been so often discussed; and this the more to be wondered at, that a recent Belgian Legendist of the Order, in the same work, has handed down things so opposite, that on the fourteenth of March he asserts that St. Bonaventure died on the thirteenth of July, in the year 1274, in the fifty-third year of his age: but at the fourteenth of July he records the death on the fifteenth of July, in the fifty-first year of his age. Lest here we wander too far in refuting each point, I see the constant opinion of all writers, that the Saint was born in the year 1221; five years before the happy departure of the Seraphic Father Francis: nor less constant is the consent of all the same, that he ended his life in the midst of the labors which he had undertaken in the council of Lyons, and this before the end of that synod itself, since, it still enduring, he was borne to burial with a most solemn funeral. And there is no doubt at all that that synod was held and concluded in the year 1274; what therefore remains to be debated concerning the year of his death, or how it could occur to Bzovius and so many others, cited by Wadding, to defer the Saint's death to the year 1275? But now, since we are about presently to demonstrate that the aforesaid death is altogether to be inwoven with the fifteenth of the month of July, it plainly follows that St. Bonaventure, if he was born in the year 1221 before the fifteenth of July, lived fifty-three full years, and thus died in the fifty-fourth year of his age; if he came into the light later in that year 1221, that he did not complete those years, but that the fifty-third year was still running. A little otherwise Wadding reckons the account of his whole life at the year 1243, number 2, but neither has he a surer basis than that which has been laid down by us.

[10] An equal diversity of writers occurs concerning the day on which the Saint truly met his fate. that he died on the 15th of July 1275; Several does Wadding recite with the Chronicles and Breviary of the Order, Octavian, Maurolyco, and others, distinctly noting the thirteenth of July. Ribadeneira and other more recent ones, following the Roman Calendar, cannot but mark this fourteenth, on which he is worshipped today. But better others with Rudolphus and Galesinius press more closely upon the history of the council of Lyons: for he writes, who was present at all things, and wove the history of the council itself, in these plain words in Wadding at the year 1274, page 392: In the same year (1274) and month (July), on the Lord's Day, the fifteenth of the same, at the morning hour, died Brother Bonaventure of clear memory, bishop of Albano … who was buried on the very Lord's Day, in the place of the Friars Minor at Lyons. Indeed I do not see how, and by whom, the day about which the question is could be expressed more clearly and more certainly, which others mark by the Ides of the same month, which themselves also fall altogether on the fifteenth day. Again, if the matter is recalled to a sure computation; since in that year 1274 the Dominical letter was G, and the same the initial of the month, according to the canon "Gratia Christicolæ," etc., it is evidently clear that the first day of July was the Lord's Day, and consequently the Ides themselves, that is the fifteenth. If therefore, on the testimony of the historian of the Council, St. Bonaventure died on the Lord's Day, he died most certainly on the fifteenth day, which he himself also expressly states.

[11] In vain here would you now ask, why then the annual festivity of the Saint, when it was recalled to a certain day by Sixtus V, which before was celebrated on the second Sunday of July by the prescript of Sixtus IV, was not affixed to that true day of his death, which was then impeded by no other Office? Since it is most rare that the feasts of Saints, which are transferred, are anticipated, which happens well-nigh in St. Dominic alone; who, on account of the solemnity of the most Blessed Virgin occurring on the fifth of August, on which day he died, was drawn back to the fourth of the same month. This the more can even be urged, because thence arose that disturbance, that two Saints were driven from their proper days; for on account of the double feast of St. Bonaventure on the fourteenth of July, the Office of St. Henry the Emperor had to be deferred to the following, or the fifteenth day, whom it is agreed, at least somewhere, was worshipped on the fourteenth of July, although we have already shown above that he truly died on the thirteenth of July. In vain, I say, would you now ask these things, seeing that the opinions were then so varying concerning the determined day of St. Bonaventure's death; but these being now thus established, since the universal cult of St. Bonaventure in the Church was more ancient than that of St. Henry, a change could not easily be introduced without grave inconvenience. But of these enough has been said; a little more pleasing will be the series of St. Bonaventure's deeds, presently to follow, distributed into their years, which I find sufficiently neglected, the chief writers being well-nigh solely intent on collecting the praises of his doctrine and virtues. And of the virtues indeed enough many things will be suggested below; have here in a few words the eulogies of his doctrine.

§ II. The judgments of various writers concerning the doctrine of St. Bonaventure.

[12] Extravagant eulogies being omitted, Not a little do some more recent encomiasts wander, when, by no means content with the judgments of the supreme Pontiffs Sixtus IV and V and of other approved writers concerning the Saint's doctrine, they will have nothing written by him which was not drawn from the most sacred wounds of Christ the Savior, as if in the Saints nothing mediocre, nothing human, were found, but all things miraculous, prodigious, portentous; which, as we suffer to be adorned by preachers, so we should wish to be altogether absent from historical sincerity. I have marveled above the rest at that said Belgian writer, author of a certain vernacular Franciscan Legend, to which he gave the title Vinea of St. Francis, of which I shall treat more at length in the last paragraph of this commentary. He often cries out that St. Bonaventure always studied under the tree of the Cross, committed nothing to writing which was not thence revealed, or which he did not suck from the sacred wounds of Christ, so much so that on folio 187 verso, column 2, he does not hesitate to invent, that at Rome, in the august assembly of the supreme Pontiff and Cardinals, Bonaventure was seen by St. Thomas, before he should give his opinion on the matters proposed, immersed up to his girdle or girding-cord in those sacred wounds, whence he might draw out all his doctrine in full draughts. In the same place he says, that St. Thomas, as often as he came to St. Bonaventure, so often saw him, through a chink of the cell door, so illumined by the rays sent in from the wounds of that crucifix, that all things to be written thence in a manner flowed down into his pen; and other things of that kind, which I consider as piously imagined rather than brought to sincere truth.

[13] let the encomia of Sixtus IV and V suffice; And indeed even the testimonies of the supreme Pontiffs Sixtus IV and V concerning the writings and judgments of St. Bonaventure, to be recounted below in their diplomas, seem by no means doubtful that they are to be received in an accommodated sense, lest otherwise we should understand the several sayings and assertions of the Saint himself to be canonized (that I may use a known word) and equated to the very sacred divine oracles, which I think has come into no one's mind hitherto, at least a sensible one. That some weight of the highest authority accrued from his being reckoned among the eminent and chief Doctors of the Church, such as we acknowledge Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine,

Gregory, and others, I do not indeed deny, whatever the heretics may gainsay; but those immense over-castings of panegyrics no one will take ill, I think, if I do not here judge them to be adopted. Some eulogies of the best writers, especially of Gerson, Galesinius collected, to be referred to in his place, but scatteredly and with texts here and there truncated, which Henry Sedulius rendered a little more entire, in his Seraphic history, illustrating the chief Saints of the Order, and among them, in the fifth place after St. Francis, our Bonaventure; from whom I shall pluck those things which may suffice for the true estimation of the holy Doctor and of his doctrine.

[14] and what things from various writers, He himself takes his beginning from Hartmann Schedel, the Nuremberg historian, adducing in the sixth age of the world a compendium of the Life of St. Bonaventure, which I do not see to be of such worth that the things he has are not better explained by others. Neither shall I use the testimony of St. Francis, which he himself copied from the preacher Pelbart of Temesvár, as if he, inspired by the Holy Spirit, prophesied concerning Bonaventure himself, that he would be a great man in the Church of God, and that through him his religion would grow with great sanctity: for neither have I hitherto found these things, as I shall say in the following paragraph, so undoubted that they cannot be called into controversy. More pleasing are the words of Sedulius himself to the benevolent reader: He is called, says he, the Seraphic Doctor; because he is of the Seraphic Order, and also because he wished to be kindled, and to glow with divine fire, and thenceforth to inflame others. He studied not for ears or for fame, but for composing his morals and his life; it was decreed for him first to burn, and to be fire, that he might come nearer to God, and be more conformed to him who is fire, not only to shine. But as light accompanies fire, so he was also a lamp shining in the house of God. He is praised for this name: that whatever he could grasp by the light of the intellect, he applied to the fire and love of divine charity.

[15] There follows in Sedulius himself Alexander of Hales, the first master of St. Bonaventure in the higher disciplines, Sedulius collected: whose praise, pertaining rather to morals than to doctrine, so little regards this matter, that the more it ought not to be passed over, especially since it is so often produced in other instruments, to be referred to below, even by St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, whose place Sedulius there cites in these words: St. Bonaventure, as in the lights of the sciences, and especially in the holy Scriptures, seemed of wonderful capacity; so also in the grace of devotion he took continual increase: seeing that, reducing all truth which he perceived by the intellect to the form of prayer and divine praise, he continually ruminated it with affection. And toward that information of both powers, namely of the intellect and of the will, aim chiefly whatever things celebrate concerning the Saint, both the often-mentioned oration of Octavian of Sinuessa, and the diplomas of the supreme Pontiffs Sixtus IV and V, and finally the Life of Peter Galesinius, more than once, as I said above, alleging Gerson, the most famous Chancellor of the University of Paris, whose words are first recited from the book On the Examination of Doctrines, in the same Sedulius:

[16] If it be asked of me, says he, who among the other Doctors seems more suitable; I answer without prejudice, especially of John Gerson, that the Lord Bonaventure: because in speaking he is solid and sure, pious and just and devout. Besides, he recedes from curiosity as much as he can, not mingling extraneous positions, or secular doctrines, dialectical or physical, overshadowed with theological terms, after the manner of many: but while he studies the illumination of the intellect, he refers the whole to the piety and religiosity of the affections. Whence it has come to pass, that by undevout scholastics, of whom, alas! the greater is the number, he has been less frequented; whereas nevertheless no doctrine is more sublime, none more divine, none more wholesome and sweet for theologians; of whom is truly said that of Christ concerning John, he was a burning and shining lamp. Again, where the same Gerson examines the books to be read, he numbers St. Bonaventure his chief one, for he, his words are, singularly among all the Catholic Doctors, saving the peace of all, seems suitable and most sure for illuminating the intellect and inflaming the affection.

[17] I add a third testimony from Gerson's letter on the praises of the doctrine of St. Bonaventure, in the same Sedulius: the highest admirer of St. Bonaventure; I am come to send fire on the earth, said Christ, and what will I but that it burn? In the right hand of God namely is the fiery law, whose word is vehemently fired, whose eyes are as a flame of fire; whose herald John was called, a burning lamp like Elias. Considering these things, our Eustachius, the Lord Bonaventure, willed to be a burning Doctor: knowing that to shine is little, and often vain, often noxious; because knowledge puffs up, and makes a demon; for what is a demon interpreted, but "knowing"? but without charity. He obtained therefore, according to the praise of his life and likewise of his doctrine, himself the name Bonaventure, that he might be named by antonomasia the Seraphic Doctor. Let there be other Doctors who are called Cherubic; Bonaventure by a most true name is at once Seraphic and Cherubic; because he inflames the affection, and instructs the intellect; he leads back and unites to God by an excitative love, while many others draw apart and scatter the intellect. And these things sufficiently show how greatly the doctrine of St. Bonaventure was esteemed by Gerson.

[18] of Sabellico and Bosio, The things which Sedulius there adduces from Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellico, prove only this, that Pope Clement IV deferred greatly to his genius, doctrine, and let us add, sanctity of morals, of which esteem he could give no clearer proof, than when, the see of York in England being vacant, but the election devolved to the Pontifical right, St. Bonaventure found no one worthier to set over that church; concerning which nomination and its time it must be treated in the following. Moreover the testimonies of Thomas Bosio in the book On the Signs of the Church, regard not so much the Seraphic doctrine of the Saint, as his illustrious deeds and miracles, and that especially, that he was the author of instituting congregations or sodalities among lay men, who might assemble for pious works, recite certain prayers daily, and have their own prefects to be chosen by a perpetual tenor of succession, of which the beginning was at Rome the most celebrated archconfraternity, which is commonly called of the Gonfalon. But what he adds, that in the province of Lyons the Saint's aid is wont to be especially invoked by those women who are with child, we have said pertains to miracles, of which Octavian speaks abundantly, so that consequently there remains only the eulogy of the abbot Trithemius concerning his doctrine of this kind:

[19] likewise of Trithemius, Eustachius, who is also Bonaventure, born of Bagnorea, general Minister of the Order of Friars Minor, and afterward Bishop of Albano and Cardinal of the sacrosanct Roman Church, once auditor and disciple of Alexander of Hales, a man most erudite in the divine Scriptures, and nobly learned in secular philosophy, subtle in genius, and clear in eloquence, in life and conversation devout, and most holy. Whose genius, gift of nature, and purity of life his teacher Alexander contemplating, was wont to say: In brother Bonaventure Adam seems not to have sinned. He wrote many and profound and most devout little works, in which, bringing forth ardent words, he kindles the affection of the reader in the love of Christ no less than he illumines the intellect with holy doctrines. For he easily excels all the Doctors of his time in the usefulness of his works, if you attend to the spirit of divine love and Christian devotion speaking in him. He is profound, not verbose; subtle, not curious; eloquent, not vain; bringing forth flaming, not puffing words: whence also he is more surely read, more usefully frequented, more sweetly and more fruitfully retained. Many bring forth doctrine, many preach devotion; few by writing books have taught both; but Bonaventure surpassed both the many and the few; while his doctrine instructs devotion, his devotion doctrine. If therefore you wish to be both learned and devout, be intent upon his little works.

[20] Then Trithemius subjoins a catalogue of the works of St. Bonaventure, enumerating his works. which indeed had come to his knowledge, to which he adds a few other things pertaining well-nigh to the end of his life, for the crown of the eulogy, in this erring from the truth, that he will have the Saint buried in the cathedral church of Lyons, whom it is agreed was deposited among his own. The judgment of Sixtus of Siena I do not copy, because he, enumerating only some books, gives no opinion of his whole doctrine, except in the part where he asserts that his three-and-twenty sermons are most full of tropological senses, most flaming sentences, and the abstruse arcana of scholastic and mystic theology. The matter at last Sedulius completes by weaving a far ampler list of the works of St. Bonaventure, in that order in which, by the command of Sixtus V, they were distributed and published in seven larger volumes in the year 1588, which here to enumerate one by one or to discuss, is not of our institute; let them be seen in the place indicated, either in the Bibliographers, or in the very published volumes. What in the last place is brought forward from Henry Willot by Sedulius, that you will understand more fully from the instruments of the Life: we, these things being thus premised, gird ourselves to ordering as best we can the Chronological series of his deeds.

§ III. The chronology of the Saint's deeds up to the undertaking of the general ministry of the whole Order.

What we above insinuated in a word, that it seemed strange to very many that the canonization of St. Bonaventure was deferred for two and more centuries, A right history of the Life failing, this we too have marveled at, nor do we the less wonder, that no single one from so illustrious an Order has been found, who would embrace the deeds, virtues, and honors of a man most eminent in sanctity and doctrine by a historical method, connecting each illustrious deed with the order of times by at least some reckoning, so that a Life worthy of so great a Doctor might be at hand, whereas in Surius and in almost all the Legends nothing well-nigh is found, except that single oration of Octavian of Sinuessa, which we have said was delivered before Sixtus IV, and that everywhere mutilated, those things namely being cut away, which were thought not sufficiently to regard the history; for what Wadding says, to be dealt with a little more at length below, that the Life of the Saint was written by several authors, in what manner this can be aptly enough understood, we altogether do not perceive. But here are not to be anticipated the things which in the sixth paragraph, or the last of this Commentary, will be more opportunely explained; this alone we now aim at, from whatever monuments left to us concerning St. Bonaventure, to digest his chief deeds into some chronological order, so that it may come to pass that, as if at one glance, the reckoning of his Acts may appear, by which anyone may, by an easy method, put together a Legend or Life to the historical norm.

[22] And that we may begin the web from the first nails, as they say, from the more recent orators the Saint's nativity and infancy at Bagnorea in Tuscany are clothed by some with such circumstances that they do not at once persuade in each detail; those especially in which the preachers rather sported with Pelbart of Temesvár, than that we should judge them to have followed the true history of the deed. That he was born at Bagnorea, and named John from his father's name, this at least seems certain and ascertained:

whence the surname of Bonaventure in some manner accrued, is not so manifest. That while still a boy he was most grievously sick, and, by the vow of his solicitous mother offered to St. Francis, recovered health, this indeed the Saint himself testifies in the preface to the Life of the holy Propitiator in these words: Who, by his invocation and merits, in my boyish age (as I hold by recent memory) was snatched from the jaws of death, if I should keep silent the heralding of his praise, I fear to be charged with crime, as ungrateful. Weigh, I beseech, each word: he confesses himself snatched from the jaws of death, by the invocation and merits of St. Francis, or, as will appear below from other words of his own, by his mother's vow made to the same Saint; but whether vows can be directed to Saints still living, and healings obtained by the invocation and merits of such, in the true sense of the Catholic Church, I desire to be taught.

[23] various circumstances are not related safely enough, Add moreover that Bl. Bonaventure expressly asserts that this was done in his boyish age, as he held by recent memory. And who could rightly confound boyish age with infancy? And who would say that a man remembers by recent memory a benefit received in infancy? But it is admitted that St. Francis put off mortality in the year 1226, when St. Bonaventure had scarcely reached his fifth year, being born in the year 1221; let the encomiasts, not accurate enough, therefore see, whether it can safely be asserted, that the pious mother of St. Bonaventure had recourse to St. Francis, still surviving, by whom, living, the infant was healed, and from the happy event named Bonaventure, concerning whom he prophesied various things, both to the splendor of his Seraphic Order, and to the advantage of the whole Church to be achieved, which from panegyrics of that kind passed even into the more sacred monuments. These things, to say it most mildly, I do not find supported by monuments so certain or ancient, that without any examination, as undoubted, they are at once to be embraced. Let them believe, as far as I am concerned, to whom it has so seemed, but let them not take it ill, if, according to our norm, we weigh the Lives of the Saints, separating false from true, doubtful from certain, saving always the better judgment.

[24] adorned by Marcus of Lisbon. But indeed he who, first of all, that I know, in the sixteenth century brought that matter forward, Marcus of Lisbon, then so spoke that he sufficiently showed that these things were not found by him in ancient monuments, but were wont to be circulated by the traditions of his Brethren, doubtless from some more fervent preachers, to whose palate naked truth was not wont to be so savory, then especially, when they more strenuously bend to extolling their own Saints. Marcus therefore having narrated, as he had received from the Pisan, a simpler cause of the surname Bonaventure given to the Saint; others, says he, adduce another reason of that name, and goes on to weave the history, which that Pelbart of Temesvár, in Sedulius page 291, adorned in this manner: In boyhood he was sick even unto death, for whose health his anxious mother applied the diligence of physicians: who, frustrated of the hope of health, implored the suffrages of St. Francis, devoting him to his religion, if she should receive him well, and, as it is reported, the pious mother led him to blessed Father Francis, then living, and reverently and humbly, and most devoutly supplicated that by his prayer he would restore this son to her sound. But blessed father Francis, when he had sighed tearfully to God, behold suddenly the boy leaped up sound. At which miracle the holy Father, suddenly infused with the Holy Spirit, exclaimed, O! good fortune (Bona ventura)! thence he obtained this name of Bonaventure.

[25] From Pelbart Wadding adopted that whole history at the year 1221, But for the rest he is supposed to have been born in 1221, number 45, but on the faith of that one alone; who that he sported in the Italian words "Buona ventura," I am vehemently deceived, if fair estimators of things do not see with me, since meanwhile such an origin would lead us to this, that we should be compelled to confess that he was the first to whom that nomenclature clung, which that it is far from the truth, the praised Wadding most certainly proves in the same place, whose words are these: They are deceived indeed who suspect that the name Bonaventure was given to this holy man first of all. For the histories of others make mention of men of this name. This was the name of that man of Siena, familiar to Francis, and favorable to the Minors, who, as we shall relate below, built them a dwelling. So also was called the deacon Cardinal of St. Angelo, created by Innocent III in the year 1212, discharging many legations under Honorius III, and designated bishop of Porto by Gregory IX. Similarly named were several others, prior to this our Bonaventure. A peremptory example Mabillon suggests, volume 3, Analecta, page 501, where you will find a certain Bonaventure, minister of the same Order in Provence in the year 1233, to whom John, archbishop of Arles, directs his diploma. What need therefore, I beseech, of so many circuits, that the origin of the name Bonaventure be found? Moreover his life, subjoins Wadding, virtues, and deeds we shall begin from his entrance into the Order of Minors: And we with him will reckon the computations of times.

[26] The beginning of his life being therefore fixed at the year 1221, what was done by the Saint in his adolescence Having entered the Order in 1243; has not been handed down to memory: there are those who would assert that, as he was an elegant painter of letters, he wrote books, which he sold, that he might already then succor the want of the brethren. The writers agree well enough in assigning the age of about two-and-twenty years, when he wished to be enrolled in the Order of St. Francis, and thus in the year 1243: but neither is this altogether ascertained, nor is it known to what monastery he betook himself. Some are content to indicate, that he was numbered to the nourishing Roman province, having testified at his very entrance that he was bound by his mother's vow, as you have more fully below in Octavian's oration, number 5. That he was well cultivated in religious institutions, his subsequent most upright life taught; but to me indeed it is not probable enough, what Marcus records, from whom perhaps Wadding took it at the said year 1243, number 10, while he thus narrates: The book therefore, which he called the Quiver, at his very entrance into religion, he wove together from the works of the holy Doctors Gregory the Pope, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Isidore, Anselm, Bernard, Cassiodorus, and many others. The deed I would not deny: but how stupendous it is, that an adolescent recruit already then applied himself to unrolling the volumes of those holy Fathers, no one, I being silent, fails to understand: so that here we are compelled to confess that the writers used a pious amplification, who in their Saint, as I lately hinted, contemplated all things prodigious.

[27] That we may pursue the series of deeds, those things being passed over which at the said year 1243 Wadding more fully recounts, that he began his studies under Alexander of Hales in 1244, we lead the Saint, the novitiate being finished, to his studies at Paris in the year 1244, about to give there such specimens of genius as will in a short time raise him to so great a summit of doctrine as we exhibited in the preceding paragraph. But who at that age in those severer disciplines, and how stupendous a progress he made, first under Alexander of Hales, if indeed he then still taught, or could teach, then under John de la Rochelle, Octavian, Galesinius, to be produced below, and others abundantly explain: for us here only the reckoning of years is to be continued. The death of Alexander of Hales, with the more common opinion, Rodolphus fixes at the year 1245, on the twelfth of the Kalends of September, or the twenty-first of August, whence it follows that not for a whole two years perhaps, nor even a whole year, was St. Bonaventure his auditor or could have been, which Wadding tries more laboriously to explain, against the hallucinations, as he thinks, of various persons in this matter, where he treats of the theological chair at Paris obtained by the Saint, after John de la Rochelle, in the year 1253. His words, conducing to the order of things, I shall describe, when I shall have cursorily indicated that it is difficult enough to reckon St. Thomas Aquinas among the disciples of Doctor Alexander of Hales, since the most received opinion of both Orders admits him to be younger than St. Bonaventure by a whole three years, inasmuch as born in the year 1224: concerning which matter see Echard in the Library of the Order of Preachers, volume 1, page 276; who on the following page refers to us other things to be solved, well-nigh insoluble from the most received opinion of the Franciscan writers. Let us hear Wadding.

[28] adorned with the doctor's laurel in 1253, Wadding's words pertaining hither I take from his volume 2, page 55. Thus he there has it: To the governing of the master's chair this year gave place John de la Rochelle, a man erudite in the divine Scriptures, as Trithemius has it, and magnificently learned in Aristotelian philosophy … He giving place, this care, by the consent of all, and with rejoicing minds, was conferred on Bonaventure Fidanza, then to such a degree shining forth not only with the splendor of sanctity, but of doctrine, that Gerson so illustriously testified concerning him: I know not if ever the University of Paris had such a Doctor as Bonaventure. And so at that very time, or rather day, on which St. Thomas obtained the master's chair in the same academy, Bonaventure also ascended his own, who, having obtained the prior place, out of humility yielded to St. Thomas in the laureateship. Rightly indeed, if all these things were proved from suitable authors, in whom concerning the communication of the studies of SS. Bonaventure and Thomas nothing is found. Nor concerning the year in which each was declared Doctor and master in that faculty did Wadding plainly touch the matter, as the preliminary Commentary on the Angelic Doctor teaches, where it is not obscurely insinuated that he obtained that supreme degree in the school in the year 1254, nay in the following 1255, as others hold with the more recent bibliographers. Consult, if you please, the most recent Echard, already praised, from whom you will understand that St. Thomas did not obtain the laurel of the mastership before the year 1257. See him, page 279. Better does Wadding, the Annalist of the Order, refute others, than establish the deed for the said year 1253: about to please more, if he adduced witnesses of his assertions more ancient than the fifteenth century, to whom alone Echard deservedly appeals. Let us hear his following words:

[29] created General in 1256: The time of his obtained dignity, and the years in which he before heard or taught, you will perceive with difficulty from Galesinius, which others also confound. He says that he spent seven years in learning well philosophy and theology, then, about seven years being finished, that he came to Paris to Alexander of Hales; a little after, that he heard Alexander three years, lastly, in the third year after he came to Paris, that he was held suitable and worthy to undertake and sustain the public office of interpreting theology there. These things indeed cannot cohere with those which we above wrote from approved authors and common sense, concerning the birth of Bonaventure, and the death of Alexander of Hales, the discipleship of the one, and the mastership of the other. We asserted Bonaventure was born in the year 1221, initiated in 1243, or earlier, about the twenty-second year of his age; if seven years being finished after that he came to Paris, how could he hear Alexander of Hales, who died in the year 1245? Much less after those years of the monastic life elapsed, could he for three others be the disciple of him who three years after

his initiation departed from life. But this is not the only blemish of Galesinius, which Wadding would not make so much of, if he had sifted each of his judgments with an equal censorial rod. But let the rest of his words impose an end on this paragraph.

[30] Wherefore, that all things may cohere, and that the mastership of Alexander of Hales, asserted by all, may subsist, which are ordered a little more distinctly. the time is so to be measured out, that immediately from the novitiate he was sent to Paris, and for less than three years, or for parts of three years, gave his labor to Alexander of Hales, then under John de la Rochelle and others learned, up to seven years, and to about the twentieth nay thirtieth year of his age; hence the care of reading the books of the Sentences to his fellow-members being imposed; at last the master's chair in the academy committed to him. Thus from others it can be more reasonably perceived, and the Pisan, an ancient author, said more clearly: In the seventh year after his entrance into the Order he read the Sentences at Paris, in the tenth year he received the master's chair, in the thirteenth year he was assumed to the government of the Order. These things distribute into the years of the then running thirteenth century thus, that the seventh year be 1250; then let the tenth year be connected with 1253, at last let the thirteenth be 1256, from which it is necessary that eighteen run, in which, by the consent of all writers, he discharged the office of general Minister in the Order; namely up to the year in which he most certainly died, 1274. What in Wadding follows concerning the disposition, virtues, and doctrine of St. Bonaventure, is not here to be commemorated by me, inasmuch as abundantly illustrated by Octavian and Galesinius, and above in the eulogies. We pursue our series, to be brought in the following paragraph even to the end of his life.

§ IV. The sequel of the Life from the undertaking of the generalate to his death.

The year 1256 being now last marked, that St. Bonaventure, teaching at Paris, and far distant from the city of Rome, At the very beginning of his government, was there in a general Chapter elected Minister of the whole Franciscan family, eighth in order, being then at most 34 years old, or in the 35th year of his age, is openly gathered from the series hitherto deduced, and the writers unanimously hand it down: whether Alexander IV being himself present at the assembly, and so persuading, or by the designation of his predecessor John of Parma, I will not too scrupulously inquire: in this certainly not a few go astray, that they will have the Saint to have succeeded Parma, already dead; whereas it is certain that the man survived several more years, nay, as Wadding writes, whole thirty and more, which is not here to be examined. That he was not a little troubled by St. Bonaventure himself is certain, all which things are more laboriously digested in the Annals at the aforesaid year 1256 from number 2, where, endeavors to remove abuses being premised, the points of accusations against him are enumerated; pressed by which and other troubles, he at last resigned his office; the Brethren being gathered on the day of the Purification of the Virgin at the monastery of Aracoeli, John insisting that he be absolved from the burden, for two whole days there was hesitation about his resuming it, until the Pontiff decreed that they should proceed to the election of another; concerning the manner of which, variously narrated, see Wadding, number 3.

[52] he was compelled to act more harshly against his predecessor and others; The Annalist there goes on to recount the other heads of the controversies, everywhere neglected by other writers; which would bring chief light to the Life of St. Bonaventure: from which I will readily allow the authority of Bivar to be absent, which he has obtained no great one from the illustration of Flavius Pseudo-Dexter. But how far the associates of Parma are to be blamed; with what due eulogies he himself is extolled, and deservedly vindicated from grave calumny; inasmuch as his vindication was confirmed even by visions; it is not ours here to pursue: more to the point are those weights of reasons, weighed by Wadding, number 16, page 126, by which St. Bonaventure was moved to be compelled to act more harshly against such a predecessor, a pious and holy man, whence we gather the first and no small difficulties, which the holy General, still young, met to be explained at the very beginning of his administration. But the deeds thereupon done in the first three or four years of his generalate, I think aimed chiefly at this, that what had been disturbed in the Order or shaken by contentions, he might, gently indeed but firmly, restore to the former rigor and splendor of discipline by fatherly admonitions, as Wadding accurately describes in the following number 17. But what he subjoins concerning the union then first made of the Augustinian Fathers, and the conformable habit assumed by them, I prefer that the readers find in him, than that they be here related by me.

[33] then in 1257 and following to compose the tumults of the University of Paris. The discords of the University of Paris being then quieted by Pope Alexander, urging without doubt St. Bonaventure, the praised Annalist of the Order inweaves at the next year 1257, at the same time insinuating what end at last the assault of the Mendicants through the famous William of St. Amour and his followers had. But with how great vigilance, and with what fortitude of mind the holy General applied himself to governing the Brethren, his encyclical letter teaches, in the same year given at Paris to all the superiors of the Order on the ninth of the Kalends of May, or on the feast of St. George, the supreme Pontiff meanwhile striving that his statutes be rightly put into execution, being intent especially on reducing to order the ill-natured men of Picenum, which see there from number 9. In Gaul especially through that time St. Bonaventure seems to have stayed, prosperously directing the helm of the Order, until, all those things being diligently explored which he perceived to be cut off with the sword of correction, being busy about his affairs, in the year 1260 he convoked, on the feast of Pentecost, which fell on the day before the Ides of June, the chief Fathers to Narbonne, for celebrating the assembly of the Order, says Wadding at the same year, number 11, where very many grave and useful things were established for the universal government, distributed through twelve rubrics or chapters, which he indeed does not more distinctly enumerate, but they can be read in Marcus of Lisbon, book 2, chapter 12, whither also I have judged the readers should be referred.

[34] It was moreover treated in the same assembly of the cult of various Saints; when also the several provinces of the Order are said to be more accurately separated, In the assembly of 1260 he undertakes to write the Life of St. Francis: there recounted. Wadding then disputes, number 17, of the changed form of the Franciscan habit in that congregation, to which these words of Rodolphus pertain: It is reported also that Bonaventure instituted the habit and hood which we use, approved by Pope John XXII, as distinctive from certain Brethren, who had withdrawn themselves from the common life of the others. At last the Fathers asked the holy Chief, that, the variety of many Legends being removed, out of the divers fragments of histories which were circulated concerning St. Francis, he himself would put together a grave and sincere history. To whom although he answered that more cares of his office remained to him than that he could attend to serious studies; yet at length acquiescing, he took upon himself the burden of narrating the deeds of his Institutor. But that Legend he compiled in the following year 1261 at Paris, as Wadding there pursues; through whole twenty and more numbers, concerning which we think enough has already been said. He says that he made a pilgrimage through all Gaul, traversed also all Italy, for the cause of restoring everywhere on earth the Seraphic religion, then gradually collapsing: but in what order of times these things were done, neither could he himself discern, nor is it easy for us today to explore.

[35] He seems to have stayed at Paris all that remaining part of the year 1260 and the beginning of the following, in 1263 he undertakes the visitation of the Order: occupied in writing the history of his most holy parent; whence, having undertaken the visitation of the provinces, he first traversed Gaul, thence proceeding into Italy, where it is agreed that he was present in the year 1263 at the translation of St. Anthony of Padua, performed there with the greatest solemnity in the Octave of the Lord's Resurrection on the seventh of the Ides of April, as see in the Annalist at that year, number 14, where I should prefer to write the sixth of the Ides, Easter falling on the Kalends themselves. Thence carried to Pisa, St. Bonaventure presided over new assemblies, held again on the very feast of Pentecost on the twentieth of May, in which very many things were prudently established, and that especially, that John de Ursinis, the Gaetan, be sought as Protector of the Order. Then, that the care of the Damianite nuns or Poor Clares be altogether laid down, who contended that the humanity and homage before rendered, freely bestowed on them by the Brethren, these and greater things were to be rendered to them of due and statutory right; and that so it had been agreed between St. Francis and Clare the chief, of whose monastery the holy man took the care upon himself and his Brethren. It seemed to all to shake off that yoke, which was not so very obvious. The rest there established Wadding pursues, whose words well-nigh I use, but they have been sufficiently explained by Octavian and Galesinius.

[36] I go on with the Annalist, at this year 1264 recalling the transaction and composition of the arduous suit between the brothers and sisters. in 1264 the discords with the Poor Clares are quieted: St. Bonaventure first obtained from Urban IV the Cardinal Gaetan as protector of the Order. Then he added another petition, that the decree of the general Chapter be approved, concerning the rejecting of the care of the nuns, and that the brothers be freed from the so troublesome and perilous homages of the sisters. The Pontiff assented, assigning to each institute a peculiar Cardinal; to whom the contention was devolved, both urging the greater emolument of the religion committed to them. The controversy was allayed when both Orders returned to the recommendation of the Gaetan; by whom was more gently composed the discord between the brothers and sisters; for this, to conserve the bond of charity between the Orders, equally instituted by St. Francis, the holy man obtained, that he should reassume the rejected care of the sisters, a caution or declaration, Pontifical and his own, being first added, that no homages should be rendered to them of due, but of charity. To the pious father and highest benefactor, Bonaventure could not deny this, although he grieved at the secret evil and hidden peril, considering how earnestly St. Francis had labored, that there be no commerce between the sisters and brothers. Urban IV's diploma for establishing the concord was given at Montefiascone on the fourteenth of the Kalends of September in the year 1264, and is extant in the Pontifical Register in Wadding, page 96. Moreover how cautiously the holy General provided against perils, you have in the Annals at the said year, page 272.

[37] in 1265 he refuses the archbishopric of York. Urban IV being through that time, namely on the second of October of the year 1264, taken from the living, in the next following 1265 succeeded, on the fifth of February, Clement IV, chief esteemer of the virtues and erudition of St. Bonaventure and his signal favorer, so much so that concerning his being promoted to the see of York in England he thought that very year, as is clear from the Brief, inscribed to Bonaventure, and given at Perugia on the eighth of the Kalends of December in the first year, in Wadding number 14, to which Panvinio or Ciaconius in the compendium of the Saint's Life wrongly prefixed: "Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God." For the aforesaid Brief and the designation to the sacred mitre all authors ascribe to Clement, none to Gregory, in whose time the see of York neither was vacant, nor consequently could be devolved to the Roman Pontiff.

the prerogative of election could not be devolved, which plainly happened in the times of Clement IV, through the death of Godfrey de Kinton about the feast of Epiphany 1264, the see being left vacant until the month of October 1265, when on the fifteenth day of the same month Walter Giffard was confirmed, as the Catalogue of the Bishops of York has; namely after St. Bonaventure had deprecated the aforesaid mitre, the Pontiff being overcome by his prayers, who, admiring the integrity of his mind and his noble contempt of dignities, at length subjoined that of Ecclesiasticus: Stand in your covenant, and converse in it, and grow old in the work of your commandments. The Gallic Legendist therefore errs, when he refers these things to the year 1266: but why the English writers were silent on that matter, and its other circumstances, see in Wadding, number 13.

[38] In the assembly of Paris he institutes public disputations, 1266. That we may weave through the series of times, in the year 1266 Bonaventure the general Minister, in the month of April, convokes to Paris to a general synod the chief Fathers of the Order, in which it was agreed that public disputations be held, says Wadding from number 4, and it was treated of restoring the luster of the Order, and removing certain abuses, which had crept in the more easily from the multiplied family. It was committed to the holy President as his province, that by his letters he should make the inferior Ministers of the whole Order more certain of the deeds and decrees, a copy of which letters Marcus relates, chapter 14, and Wadding here. At that same time, with singular skill also, Bonaventure endeavored to allay and quiet the discords arisen between the Orders of Minors and Preachers, which to recount I forbear. And thence the Saint is again to be led back into Italy, where in the year 1269 they record that new assemblies were celebrated at Assisi, in which he commended the danger of the Christian commonwealth to the prayers of his fellow-members, and to their solicitude in preaching the Cross through deputed ministers; a great expedition against the Saracens being then namely prepared. What things besides were there piously established, chiefly in honor of the most Blessed Virgin Mother, the Annalist more fully narrates, number 4, who in the next following subjoins a wonderful example of the Saint's most profuse piety and mercy toward an afflicted Brother: then indeed his illustrious contests against Gerald of Abbeville, whose unhappy end you will understand from Octavian and Galesinius, let it here suffice to have indicated that the things done against this biting hater of the Mendicants are to be recalled to about this year.

[39] To the year 1270 pertains the institution of the confraternities or sodalities, [Other things up to the year 1271, in which he is said to have designated Gregory X:] first begun, as they will have it, by St. Bonaventure, concerning which the cited authors, and we in passing above. And this especially most worthy of memory, which they record happened in the year immediately following, 1271, in the election of St. Gregory X, after the discord of the Cardinals, most known by a trite little verse, protracted now into the third year; for Clement IV had died on the twenty-ninth of November 1268, yet only in this year 1271, on the first day of September, was Theobald, Archdeacon of Liège, absent in Syria, proclaimed Pontiff, St. Bonaventure especially striving, in the circumstances of whose election the opinions of various writers are plainly various, explained by Wadding according to the more received opinion of the Order, which we do not here undertake to discuss: this only let it be permitted to note, that Peter Galesinius could have been passed over, whose authority we do not greatly revere. However that whole election and compromise was made, this well-nigh all commonly sufficiently intimate, that St. Gregory, then elected, acknowledged how greatly he was bound to St. Bonaventure, when, inaugurated at Rome on the twenty-eighth of March 1272, in the year immediately following 1273, at Orvieto about the Pentecostal season, co-opting him into the number of the Cardinals, he willed him to be not presbyter of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, as the Vinea trifles, but bishop of Albano; concerning which matter Wadding debates at more length from number 10.

[40] There remains the last year of his life, 1274, sufficiently, I think, in 1273 he is made Cardinal, and in the following he dies. established above in §1 of this Commentary, number 9, to which Wadding refers many things, here not to be repeated, inasmuch as by our authors, already praised, Octavian and Galesinius, not idly adorned, yet omitted by both is that prodigy concerning the most holy Eucharist, received in the manner of a Viaticum, through the side or breast, asserted by Wadding and others on the sole faith of the Franciscan Vinea, which history, to say it candidly, from the authority of that one book alone, I hold at least for uncertain, so long as it is not confirmed by other more ancient and more approved monuments. But if it please anyone to defend that writer, he will be brought to this, that he be compelled to call into doubt even another miracle, concerning a particle of the sacred host, brought to him, who out of humility feared to approach communion, on account of the wonderful circumstances, devised by a man too easy, of which not a word is found elsewhere. But of that Vinea it must be treated more laboriously in §6. Here in passing I would say, that St. Bonaventure is somewhere called president of the Council of Lyons, although the Pontiff Gregory was present at it. In what sense this can be conveniently understood, Wadding will teach; we think the Saint's life has been brought, as far as could be done, to the series of years.

§ V. The deeds after the death of St. Bonaventure, up to the Canonization and these times.

[41] After the Saint's honorable obsequies, The hitherto ordered course of his most holy life was crowned by honorable, if ever any were, and most solemn obsequies in the very Council of Lyons, the holy Pontiff Gregory X being present with the whole synod, the Cardinal bishop of Ostia, Peter of Tarentaise, of the Order of Preachers, afterward Pope Innocent V, delivering the oration, the theme being taken from the second book of Kings, chapter 1, I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan, as the Life or eulogies to be given by us more fully deduce with Wadding. And these things indeed were performed duly and with the greatest solemnity, but indeed I read that nothing was thereafter attempted by anyone, which regarded the exaltation of the sacred body, or the promoting of his canonization, or the narrating of his deeds, virtues, sanctity of life, or miracles, or conduced to instituting processes. Only, that I know, Bl. Francis of Fabriano, who died in the year 1321, deplored the loss of the Church, in that Leonine dirge which I find among our papers, with this beginning: O mournful lament of the Church, and hard wound, the fount of grace, brother Bonaventure, is dead! etc., which Wadding published entire in print at the said year 1274, number 14, whither we again refer the readers, intending here only cursorily to commemorate and digest into order those things which afterward, for the honor of the Saint or his cult, both by the Brethren and by others, at a slow pace indeed, were both petitioned and treated.

[42] the memory seems buried with the body, Hither therefore pertain the things we lately insinuated in few words, that the memory of the Seraphic Doctor was in a manner buried with his body, as Wadding confesses at the year 1482, number 31, in these plain words: Wonderful indeed, that of so great and such a man, most celebrated in doctrine and virtue, the canonization was deferred for two centuries of years; namely made in the two hundred and eighth year from his decease. The head of a most ample Religion, doctor of the University of Paris, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, most excellently deserving of the Apostolic See in the Council of Lyons, lay so obscurely, that neither the professors of his institute, nor his fellow-members the masters of Paris, nor his colleagues the Cardinals, nor finally the supreme Pontiffs, and especially that truly greatest Gregory X, designated by Bonaventure to the highest summit of loftiness, and through whom in turn, by reciprocal affection, he grew to such glory, and under whom he departed from this life, girded themselves to procuring his canonization, whom nevertheless from elsewhere they could easily judge, by the merits of his virtues and the signs of miracles, to reign together with the heavenly ones. Of his perennial fame of sanctity Octavian's oration and the very decretal of Sixtus IV sufficiently witness; but the delay is excused by the Office of the translation of which in Wadding: But although, says he, the canonization was long deferred, yet the later, the more gloriously it was performed, well-nigh all the Christian Princes earnestly petitioning it from the Pontiff Sixtus.

[43] the body being merely occasionally translated in 1434, So plainly; but meanwhile the sacred body lay hidden under the earth for whole one hundred sixty years, about to remain longer in the first place of burial, had it not had to be translated into a new church, sacred to St. Francis, which afterward obtained the title of the holy Doctor himself, and holds it even today: so true is it that of the canonization there was then not yet any thought. But of that translation, made in the year 1434, the writers make mention so cursorily, that Wadding at the said year did not touch it even by a word, content with those things which he had elsewhere noted in a few words, and touching upon that well-nigh alone, to demonstrate the miracle then exhibited, in the head and heart found entire, concerning which I do not find the concurring testimonies of the more ancient writers. Among them the chief numbered, praised elsewhere, Bartholomew of Pisa, thus narrating the matter in few words, page 89, column 2, at the end: The body of this one (St. Bonaventure, of whom he there speaks), while it was placed in the sacristy in a new sepulcher, where it now lies; the body being reduced to ashes, the tongue was found sound and entire, as if it had never been buried. Which the brethren seeing, placing it in an ivory box, they laid it up in his sepulcher. So the Pisan, making mention of the tongue alone.

[44] The discourse grows in Marcus of Lisbon, writing toward the end of chapter 7, when some things are said to be found entire, that in the aforesaid translation the head was found with the hair, lips, teeth, and the very tongue entire; which same things all are read in the Franciscan Vinea; not likewise what Marcus testifies he adds from the Chronicles, namely that the heart itself also was found incorrupt. Otherwise speaks Rodolphus, and, the head and its other parts being passed over, he joined the tongue alone to the heart in an ivory box, page 94, in these words: After some time the Brethren, wishing honorably to lay his body in a tomb, the tongue was found fresh and his heart (the body being reduced to ashes), which were laid up in an ivory box. Hear now Wadding, combining all things, year 1274, number 22: And indeed the most august miracle is not to be passed over in silence, and most notable, to the everlasting testification of the sound and sincere doctrine, which both his tongue taught, and which he left signed in letters: for in the hundred and sixtieth year after his death, when the body had to be translated elsewhere, neither the lips, nor the teeth, nor the tongue, nor even the hair being consumed, the head was found entire, and well-nigh in the manner of one breathing … His heart likewise, the body being reduced to ashes, they write remained incorrupt, Hartmann Schedel, the continuator of Vincent, and Peter Rodolphus, whose words we have already related; of Schedel's faith and authority this is not the place to inquire.

[45] Wadding's observations I pass over, which I could wish supported by a somewhat greater foundation; concerning which Wadding does not determine rightly enough. for the first and weightier authority of Bartholomew of Pisa either is none, or is to be referred altogether to another time than the translation of the year 1434, since he, according to Wadding, died long before that time, namely,

as he himself will have it, in the year 1401: but if he survived to the year, as his epitaph bears, 1451, his authority alone all but overturns all the others, inasmuch as he, being contemporary with the deed, would merit the greatest faith. Of the Pisan's age Wadding disputes at the year 1399, whether rightly enough, let those see whose interest it is: certainly the testimony adduced from his chief work concerning St. Bonaventure's tongue found entire, not obscurely proves either that he protracted his life even to the year 1434, or it must be confessed that his book On the Conformities was interpolated and augmented by another; or finally it will be necessary to say that already in the fourteenth century, at least before the year 1401, the holy Doctor's body was translated, and placed in the sacristy, until many years after it was carried to the church; in which sense it will be false that the aforesaid tongue was found in that state after 160 years. These and other things of that kind, of which it must be treated elsewhere, ought to have been recalled by Wadding to a severer historical balance, before they were so roundly and undoubtedly asserted.

[46] The canonization began to be treated much later; But for the rest, that Bonaventure, however illustrious with the aforesaid signs and other miracles, lay so long unknown at Lyons, we have already sufficiently marveled with the Annalist, and this is added to the rest, that a miracle indeed most august, at the very time when it was manifested, was not consigned to surer records. That the Franciscan Fathers did not treat more laboriously, at that time, namely about the year 1434, of referring Bonaventure among the Saints, I more easily understand: the ecclesiastical discords being then most fervent between Pope Eugenius IV and the Baselites, which persisting, that it was not opportune enough to undertake such a matter, there is no one who does not perceive, whatever some writers may record, that in the Council of Florence the Saint's authority contributed not a little to the union of the Greeks. Namely for more peaceful times was reserved the exaltation of the Seraphic Doctor, and for a supreme Pontiff assumed from the Order, under whom at last sitting, his canonization began to be seriously treated. Hear Wadding at the year 1475, number 4: There began, says he, about this time to be renewed the memory of St. Bonaventure, the merits of his virtues so requiring, which God wrought through him, willing that he be worthily worshipped on earth, whom he long since glorified in heaven. Sixtus, greatly addicted to his doctrine, willingly promoted the work, nor did he ungratefully hear the Princes deprecating for his canonization: concerning whom see below, Octavian, number 24.

[47] namely about the year 1475. But nowhere does the Annalist of the Order speak more fully of St. Bonaventure than at the year 1482, relating the oration of the often-praised Octavian, the Sixtine diploma of Canonization, and other things, some of which will presently be illustrated by us. Here deserves a place the dedicatory letter of the Orator himself, copied by our Elders from the Corsendonck manuscript codex, and nowhere, that I know, hitherto published in print, from which it will appear who chiefly brought weight and moment to the aforesaid canonization. The obsequious address could indeed be contracted into fewer words, but since the author deserved so well of the Saint, I thought all his words should be related entire. The title is of this kind, I know not whether set by the author or by another: Preface to the oration of Octavian de Martinis, on the Life of St. Bonaventure. The true inscription is: To the most Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord Julian della Rovere, bishop of Siena, Cardinal of Sabina, called of St. Peter in Chains, greater Penitentiary, most worthy protector of the Order of Minors, his most benign benefactor, Octavian de Martinis, most observant of the same. The Patron's benevolence being first captured, he thus begins the oration, or rather the preamble of the oration:

[48] of Octavian de Martinis of Sinuessa, Having experienced the mildness and courtesy of your mind, and your charity toward me, I have dared to dedicate to you these my lucubrations, such as they are: which, for noting the course of life and the miracles of Bonaventure, I have by your command more curiously executed: although I know they do not stand by such art, or shine with such ornament of speaking: that I should believe them worthy of your reading, or that from that dedication any ornament would accrue to you: yet I understand the matter of itself sufficiently suffices to detain in its reading your eyes and mind, who, for the singular religion and piety with which you are bound to blessed Bonaventure, do nothing more willingly, or say more often, than what pertains to the celebration and praise of that holy Man, in which I have myself as a most abundant witness: who, following your Dignity, seeking the princes and peoples of the West by Apostolic legation, saw your most reverend Dignity held with a certain incredible affection and desire of visiting the sepulcher of Bonaventure himself, as soon as we had reached Lyons: where, although the chief Prelates of the kingdom, and Satraps, even sprung of royal blood, who accompanied you to the royal command with solemn pomp, most instantly urged that the King be approached more speedily, to which they themselves were urged by royal letters: yet they could not extort this before you had spent a whole day in saluting the Saint's sepulcher, and in piously rendering due venerations in the church where he rests.

[49] Who besides has brought forth so much labor to obtain the celebration of Bonaventure? to the oration then delivered, to be given below, Who with special zeal, at his own cost also, took care to send messengers to the Princes and foreign nations to procure testimonies and instruments, by which the sanctity of the Man might be more openly shown? Who finally added sharper spurs to the Pontiff himself, sometimes stirred to this of himself, that, the endeavors of other great matters being laid aside, he might attend to this work alone, as if you had hoped that anyone could be honored by this office? There was truly no one to whom I understand I owe this more than to your Highness, most excellently deserving of me: by which I was honored with so many ornaments and commendation. By your intervention also with the supreme Prince, it is permitted publicly to defend and plead causes in public consistory. By your zeal for me it came to pass that the supreme Prince willed to summon me, and to exhort me by sacred address, and efficaciously to move me, that I should follow you setting out to the appointed office of legation, and pursue you faithfully with my services and counsels. I brought it about again, that of so many and illustrious Prelates who were illustrated at your side, none should surpass me in the luster of offices. You brought it about for me, that I should be esteemed among the first sharers most of all in your faith and in the prudence of your secrets; whom you judged suitable, and destined, for accomplishing and treating arduous matters with the most Illustrious Princes. You finally brought it to pass, that at last, of so many most illustrious colleagues of mine, to me alone it was permitted to obtain a matter of so great merit, that in so great an assembly—what more can I say?—I should recount the notable merits of Bonaventure; where, the oration being finished, the same most clement Pontiff, having amply praised me, and professed that I had most abundantly satisfied the offices, promised that the Apostolic See and his Holiness would never fail my advantages and honor.

[50] Rightly therefore I pursue you with what office I can, the exordium to be prefixed. from whom so much of favor and ornament accrues to me, as I should never have thought it lawful to hope or further to wish, so that if account was to be had in this of my advantages; to omit how much of splendor and name your Highness will bring to this my lucubration, who promotes you more laboriously, favors more benignly, adorns more amply, gives more largely? Nor yet shall I fear the mark, that I have not rather chosen in this the Pontiff himself, than whom no one was ever more religious, or more studious of Bonaventure, in the course of life and sanctity, in the discipline of letters, and in the most upright studies joined. For the mind is affrighted, to detain with these my writings a divine man, steeped even in the sacred nectar of the eloquences of Bonaventure, who nevertheless would have thought it honorable to have accepted that office: certainly, according to his wisdom and charity toward you, it will not be unpleasant to his Holiness, that his dearest nephew and the ornament of his family bestows benefits from himself upon his worshippers, and by that favor is present with them with his uncle, the god of the earth, so that they may plainly understand, that what they have bestowed on you, has been received by his Beatitude with as grateful a mind, as if they had exhibited it to himself. Receive therefore, Father, and my most benign Lord, my office, such as it is; but proceeding from a most grateful mind and most devoted to you: Only I would have you, when you shall have read the writings over, remember them noted by one who knows not how to exceed the bounds of a patron of causes: which if, as the other offices proceeding from me toward you, you shall, as I wish, praise, even if they please less, it will be a solace of my labors: but if they shall delight you; I shall reckon it to be held in place of the greatest reward.

[51] In what year the relics were scattered by the heretics; You have in the aforesaid, and in those things which were done after the death of St. Bonaventure up to the canonization, some chronological series, to which I could wish reduced and exact also the aforesaid order of his life, some history of the Saint, in which that too might be explained in a word, which at the beginning could not opportunely be done, namely in what year the sacrilegious scattering of the Lyons relics was made by the raging Calvinists; some marking the year 1561, others 1562. The solution depends on the month in which the sacrilege was performed, and on the manner of beginning the years in the Roman or Gallic fashion, concerning which we have treated elsewhere more than once. The determined month or day I have not yet found, but if the thing happened before Easter of the Roman or present year 1562, the writers seemingly opposed are easily reconciled; for in that Roman year 1562, in which especially the Calvinian madness diffused itself into Gaul about Lyons and other parts, there still obtained the manner of beginning the year from Easter both in Gaul and in Belgium, under Charles IX, a little after brought into accord with the Roman; so that if the Lyons image-breaking happened before Easter, there would still be running for the Gauls and us the year 1561, the year 1562 being first begun at Easter. These things it seemed good to indicate, lest anything anywhere should delay the reader.

[52] and what things have followed to our times. But what, the sixteenth century being now well-nigh advanced, another Pontiff of the same Order, Sixtus V, performed, his diploma, to be produced below, so explains, that nothing here remains to be added by us. No less known is the edition of his works, to which Galesinius not obscurely insinuates that he labored. It could indeed be observed, that it ought to be reckoned no last miracle of St. Bonaventure, that in so brief a course of religious life, distracted by so many offices and occupations, he left after him so great a store of books. There remain two decrees of the Congregation of Rites given on the thirteenth of June 1693, and the seventeenth of July 1694; the one in favor of the Order of Minors of the Observance, at the request of Father Francis Diaz of St. Bonaventure, the other at the prayers of Father John Damascene Bragaldi, of the Order of Minors Conventual, by which it is granted, that the Fathers of both Orders may recite once in the month, on a feast-day of nine lessons not impeded, the Office of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Seraphic Doctor, under a semidouble rite, excepting nevertheless the times of Advent and Lent.

It now remains that in a last paragraph we recount and weigh in order the chief authors who have written of the Saint.

§ VI. The writers who have treated of St. Bonaventure, and what things are here published.

Above, in §3, we began to say that it is altogether to be wondered at, that no one hitherto from so illustrious a religious family has digested the Life of St. Bonaventure by a historical method; Whom Wadding says wrote the Life, this indeed will presently more appear from the enumeration of those whom we have found to have treated of the Saint in Wadding and others. The chief ones the praised Annalist adduces, volume 2, at the year 1274, number 19, page 395. Thus he there has it: His (Bonaventure's) Life was written by Peter Galesinius, consistorial advocate of the sacred Palace, Bartholomew of Pisa, Marcus of Lisbon, Peter Rodolphus, an Anonymous in manuscript with me, but more compendiously here, yet from good faith. And these are they, on whose authority especially rest those things which he himself digested through divers years, as it seemed more opportune, as in the preceding paragraphs we have abundantly insinuated. Not to be omitted was the Franciscan Vinea, from which alone Wadding relates the prodigy, concerning the sacred Viaticum received at the last in an altogether unwonted manner, the author of which history we shall presently more closely deal with, and examine his faith a little more accurately. Those we do not think should be expressed one by one whom he here and there scatteredly alleges or indicates, e.g. Marianus, author of the Foundation of the Three Orders, and others, so that we may cleave solely to those whom he himself has already asserted wrote the Saint's Life.

[54] And that I may ascend from the last named to the others, as the Pisan, Marcus, and others; concerning that manuscript codex I find nothing to say, since it perhaps came under the eyes of few, except of Wadding alone: all the rest I have at hand, and them, as is clear, I have already announced above. But, be it said with good leave of Wadding, I do not sufficiently grasp what Life of St. Bonaventure he attributes to Bartholomew of Pisa, more than once commemorated by us, who in his whole work On the Conformities of Christ and St. Francis, scarcely narrates anything else of the Saint, besides the few things which are extant in our Bologna edition of 1590, page 89, where through a little more than half a column, only very brief heads pertaining to the Saint are recounted, under the title of the Burgundian Province; namely: That, as a youth, by a miracle wrought for him through blessed Francis, delivered from the jaws of death, he entered the Order, excelling in the honesty of so good a disposition, that master Alexander of Hales said once of him, that in him Adam seemed not to have sinned. The order of his studies and his election as General we have related above from him. That at Narbonne in the Chapter he gave form to the constitutions of the Order: that in the Chapter at Pisa the distinction of the provinces of the Order, as they now are, was made: that he composed the greater and lesser Legend of St. Francis: that he was made Cardinal by the Lord Gregory X. He subjoins the miracle of the particle of the host received, while out of humility he abstained from sacred Communion. Finally that he died at Lyons, and that the Pope with the Cardinals celebrated the obsequies over his body. His last words, concerning the integrity of the tongue, are adduced above.

[55] You have the Life written by the Pisan, of whose age it was treated in the preceding paragraph, in sum, they touched only upon these heads; but that Marcus of Lisbon greatly amplified, a writer of the sixteenth century, of whom it was permitted to obtain only the Gallic edition. He runs through, but by a method plainly other than historical, ten chapters of his second book, from which we have plucked some things above: you will know the author, when we shall have described in order only the titles of the chapters. First is prefixed this title: How St. Bonaventure entered the Order of Friars Minor. Second: Of the progress of St. Bonaventure in religion and in sacred Scripture. Third: Of the government and zeal of this Saint. Fourth: That this servant of God refused to admit the archbishopric, and of the translation of St. Anthony of Padua and St. Clare. Fifth: Of the books written by this glorious Saint. Sixth: The testimony given by John Gerson, most celebrated Doctor, and Chancellor of the University of Paris, concerning the authority and usefulness of the doctrine of this Seraphic Doctor. Seventh: In what manner he was promoted to the Cardinalate, of the great fruit thence redounding to the Church, and of his glorious death. In the following chapters 8, 9, and 10 are enumerated the Saint's miracles, which are more briefly recounted by Octavian. There is subjoined the diploma of Sixtus IV; and thence he relates some Chapters over which the Saint presided, and two encyclical letters written by him for the reformation of the Order. So much for Marcus.

[56] as also did Rodolphus. Peter Rodolphus produces more ornate things indeed, but also things of such a kind as can by no means be called a Life of the Saint, unless to it be ascribed the oration of Octavian, which Wadding would rather well-nigh have named a Life, inasmuch as it alone was copied by Surius and other Legendaries everywhere, unless perhaps he had observed with me, that the whole substance of the aforesaid oration is well-nigh taken from Marcus of Lisbon. That I may add the rest concerning Rodolphus; he has three images expressed in wood, of which the first is represented the true, as he thinks, effigy of St. Bonaventure; the second the appearance of one praying under the title, of his exceeding humility and the love with which he was borne toward God; the third relates two miracles, of an infant dead recalled to life, and of a lame man set upright, under the epigraph, of the frequent miracles of the divine Bonaventure. Those things which pertain to the Saint's life are dispatched in a few and brief articles, of his highest erudition and of his instructor in sacred Theology. Likewise of his notable doctrine, and of the various works which he wrote. The rest he touches upon equally cursorily, of the generalate of the Order, of the obtained Cardinalitial dignity, of the refused bishopric of York, of his death and his sacred relics; to which is added the oration of Octavian of Sinuessa before Sixtus IV, supreme Pontiff, on the praises of the Lord Bonaventure. It sufficiently appears, I think, that here there does not appear a Life of the Saint written by Rodolphus.

[57] Neither can the work of Galesinius be called a Life. There remains therefore only Galesinius, by Wadding consigned to the first place among the writers of the Life, for this sole merit, that he deduced the matter a little more fully than the rest; for the rest it must be called a treatise rather concerning the Saint's virtues and doctrine, than a true history of his life. It is prefixed to the works, collected by the command of Sixtus V, and published in the new Vatican printing-house established by him, in the year 1588, after the Saint had been co-opted among the Doctors of the Church. Of the author's sincerity I should not indeed so much doubt, since he seems only to have amplified the Octavian oration, the work being divided into twenty chapters, in which he perpetually slides down to doctrine and writings, by a counsel opportune for him, inasmuch as where matters are to be ordered chronologically, he was wont mostly to embrace the latter part: but what things occur to be criticized or restored you will understand from our annotations. And those things indeed which the cited writers handed down do not so exceed the limits of probability, as some other things taken from Pelbart of Temesvár and the author of the Franciscan Vinea, who, by no means content with the more ancient ones, being solely intent on augmenting and amplifying the glory of the Saint himself, added various things, which Henry Sedulius so inserted into his notes, in his Seraphic history, printed at Antwerp in the year 1613, that, in my judgment, he would have better left them untouched. Pelbart I have not consulted, but what is to be thought of the Vinea, not to repeat what has already been said above in §2 and elsewhere, a few other specimens excerpted from that book will teach, from which you may make a conjecture concerning the rest. Have first the idea of the work.

[58] It is a sufficiently thick volume in small folio, as we say, of the Belgian Franciscan Vinea, or in large quarto, written in a sufficiently rude Belgian speech, and printed in German letters in the year, as the printer testifies at the end, 1518, in the city of Antwerp. The title, rendered from Belgian into Latin, is: The Vinea of St. Francis, beautiful histories, Legends, and salutary doctrines, most useful to all men. There is premised a partition of the work, and then in the prefaces the author more than once repeats that he collected all things from Latin writers, although he nowhere names any; and this he professes again toward the end of the work. But from these it is not obscurely given to understand, that that Vinea, such as it is, was first digested into that form not in Latin but in Belgian, nor ever otherwise published, so that if it be cited by others than those skilled in our tongue, it may safely seem able to be said, that they themselves have not consulted the source; which is to be judged of the place in Wadding, where, in volume 2 at the year 1274, number 17, page 394, the miracle of the Viaticum received at the last by St. Bonaventure, taken solely from this Vinea, he narrates a little otherwise than it is had in it, but otherwise Benignus Fremaut in his newest Belgian Legend of the Franciscan saints, divided into twelve volumes. Moreover in the whole Vinea there occurs not a trace from which you may come to a knowledge of the author. This description being premised, determine of the value of the book itself from the subjoined specimens.

[59] There is an error at the beginning, when he records that St. Bonaventure was called Eustachius in Baptism. some notable specimens. He errs likewise, but not alone, when he says that the Saint succeeded John of Parma dead in the generalate. On folio 187, he feigns a colloquy of Bl. Bonaventure in England with the bishop of Lincoln, which others say was held with St. Thomas Aquinas. What things moreover he records to have passed between them on the same folio verso, column 1 at the end, has been sufficiently said above. But hear the pleasant history annexed to the former. He invents that St. Bonaventure was wont often to meet the queen of France, Blanche, inasmuch as her confessor; whence in the mind of King Louis VIII jealousy blazed up, on account of the excellence of that Saint's form; and that so far, that the King gravely complained of that matter to St. Thomas Aquinas his confessor, who in vain attesting the innocence of St. Bonaventure, the King went on rashly to suspect, until by some pleasant catastrophe all the shadows vanished. Gather the ineptitude of the little fable from this, that Louis VIII died in the year 1226, while both Saints still lay in their cradles. Many other things he attributes to St. Bonaventure, plainly unknown to others: one for many; he asserts that his Saint composed the Office of the Blessed Sacrament, but that he postponed it to the other put together by St. Thomas. The history of the particle of the sacred host received miraculously, he adorns with so many circumstances, that if we attend to them, the miracle itself is rendered well-nigh doubtful. He feigns that Gregory X was present at his election, who scarcely seven months after arrived in Europe.

[60] The order of the things which are here handed down, That I be not longer, I dismiss the rest, not more exactly conformed to the norm of truth, for these I think suffice, that anyone may prudently determine, whether at least that prodigious reception of the sacred Viaticum be not uncertain, supported by the sole authority of that writer. That therefore and the rest of that kind being for a while laid aside, we will adhere solely to those things which from more approved monuments the praised Sedulius collected, whose edition,

lest we should have to wander through the various volumes of the Saint's own works, we have chiefly used for this edition of ours. He exhibits five instruments making especially for St. Bonaventure, most of which we too have judged should be described, although the order being somewhat changed. In the first place he relates the already mentioned Life, put together in whatever manner by Galesinius, whose twenty briefer chapters we have contracted to our norm in this edition. To this he subjoined the so often named oration, on the life and merits of St. Bonaventure, by the notable doctor of both laws, most eloquent Octavian de Martinis of Sinuessa, illustrious Consistorial advocate of the sacred Apostolic palace. Then the diploma of the canonization pronounced by Sixtus IV. Then another diploma of Sixtus V, by which the Seraphic doctor is numbered among the eminent and excellent Doctors of the holy Catholic Church. The last place is occupied by the oration of Maurice Bressius on St. Bonaventure numbered among the chief Doctors of the Church by our Lord Sixtus V, supreme Pontiff.

[61] and what things are deservedly passed over. But this we thought should be passed over, because it well-nigh only repeats the aforesaid, adorning the same with many words, and thus contributing very little to the history of the deeds, just as Sedulius himself rightly neglected another treatise quite long, or relation of R. P. John Francis de Pavinis. That is a preparatory dissertation for the canonization of St. Bonaventure, distributed into two parts and twenty articles, which also, some things being changed, could be referred to other Saints. There is extant, subjoined in the Saint's works in the last volume, the sermon of master Robert on the praises of St. Bonaventure, of the Order of Minors: but neither this did I think should be greatly cared for, sufficiently secure that nothing solid, or pertaining to the life, has been omitted in those things which are adduced by us, only the order observed by Sedulius being transposed, as I said. For the series of things seems to require that the more ancient, inasmuch as shining before the rest, be set before the more recent: whence in this our edition we have believed the chief instrument of the Life to be that very oration of Octavian, digested well-nigh from Marcus, as has been said, to which we have altogether assigned also the first place, the bull of canonization being subjoined, which is in some manner connected with the aforesaid oration. Then we subjoin the diploma of Sixtus V, which ought to have preceded the edition of St. Bonaventure's works, into which since the treatise of Galesinius was inserted, it by a certain right of its own claims for itself the last place, which I marvel Sedulius did not observe. Let there therefore follow

OF OCTAVIAN DE MARTINIS OF SINUESSA, DOCTOR OF BOTH LAWS.

An Oration on the life and miracles of St. Bonaventure, in which it is petitioned from Sixtus the Fourth, supreme Pontiff, that he be referred into the number of the Saints.

BHL Number: 1391

BY OCTAVIAN DE MARTINIS

The justice of the suffrages, most blessed Father, to the bestowing of which I was desired, stirred me, hesitating, to undertake, all delay being removed, the province of the office enjoined me. Captation of benevolence from the praise of Pope Sixtus IV, For it did not otherwise escape me, how arduous, and how uncertain an office I discharged, to petition on merit, that a Saint, by decree of the Roman See, be referred into the order or catalogue of the heavenly Saints, who reign with Christ: and this in this dread audience, under the aspect of the sacred senate of the most Reverend Fathers, and of the wise Prelates and men, over whom your Sanctity, by the heavenly gift of the Powers above, most wisely presides in your majesty: where not only I, who am versed in the pleading of forensic causes, in the style of our age; but even another, however exercised, and finally consummate orator, might be believed able to be affrighted. For, by the immortal God, who so wise or eloquent might here bring forth anything so polished, or thought out by studious lucubration, whereby he could, by speaking, even mediocrely equal the majesty of the place? What moreover, thought out with so great study, which was not foreseen and worn among Fathers of so great wisdom, and you before others, most holy Prince; who, since for many years you have most fully learned the science of divine and human things, and of all philosophy finally, like a most splendid star in the firmament, have illumined the rest in the Church of God? Which things indeed, to one revolving them, could strike no light tremor into the mind, and utterly dissuade from this action, than which none is more illustrious: had not the justice of the merits (as I premised) of blessed Bonaventure, for whom we intercede, raised and confirmed the mind.

[2] of the most worthy Vicar of Christ on earth. There was added besides, that a Prince not profane was to be asked for a religious, nor unlearned for a lettered man: but you truly, most blessed Father, who, destined from heaven from your mother's womb for divine services in the Religion of blessed Francis, in the same served almighty God more religiously, and at last, carried to its principate by your singular merits, wisely and wholesomely governed, increased, and amplified it. Who, since you have obtained the science of the divine mysteries, through the traditions of the Fathers, then indeed from the works of the same divine Bonaventure (which he published by a divine inbreathing light) you have most certainly procured the understanding of the Creator. For thus it was fitting that you, whom it behooved to bear the office of the Creator on earth, should instruct in his commandments the flock committed to you: for no one happily bears the office of him whom he does not thoroughly know: nor does he rightly teach others his commandments, which he has not first illustriously learned. Wherefore, since I was to intercede for a father of divine wisdom, the general Minister of the Order of Minors, the Cardinal bishop of Albano, with you, most blessed Father, who, illustrious with the same merits, and having gloriously discharged the same offices; and therefore chosen for this work, reserved for you divinely even to these days: I had by no means to fear, lest through insufficiency I be neglected by you, who, being also a deserving Pastor of the faithful, have learned most clemently to compassionate our weakness. And now I who had begun with a certain horror, not without faltering, having perceived with how benign a countenance and clement nod you grant audience, raised into a better hope, more confidently proceed; and by the oracle of your sacred affection that prophetic saying seems to sound in my ears: Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. And again: I will give you a well-sounding word in your mouth, that you may please in the mouth of a prince: and therefore I beseech, with equal clemency be willing to favor, while, aided by the divine power, and strengthened by your benign favor, I bring forth those things which may fall to the perpetual praise of the Creator himself, of Bonaventure, and of this holy See.

[3] In canonization inquiry must be made into the life and miracles. Being about to entreat from your Sanctity, most blessed Father, the canonization of the divine Bonaventure, it was my great zeal to unroll more diligently the codices of the sacred Letters, to discern what things might befit the matter of which we treat. Which being more curiously examined, as far as I could gather, I understand that two things especially were to be inspected and deservedly inquired into, namely the life and the miracles, which if by reciting I shall have shown to be found in this man, such as suffice for canonization; your Sanctity, to whose judgment this is subjected, will benignly deign to answer the vows of the suppliants. And since the beginning of the life, which I take up from his Religion, is miraculous: no one will turn it to a fault for me, if, being about to relate the life before the miracles, I mingle the one with the other in recounting. Nor again will he wonder, that, as most who are about to commend the memory of someone, I do not insist on the first beginnings of the birth and boyhood of the divine Bonaventure, or begin higher from the dignity of his parents. For the frequent and more illustrious deeds of the man forbid, and those transacted by him in a more perfect state. Nor yet will I omit, that Bonaventure, a Tuscan by nation, a Bagnorean by country, sprung of John Fidanza and Ritella, faithful spouses, and sprinkled with the water of baptism; which things have been well ascertained from John a master of medicine, and Felix son of Antonius, who themselves also draw their origin from those forefathers, and from other witnesses of Bagnorea.

[4] Born at Bagnorea, still a boy he is most grievously sick. But, the longer series of the premises being passed over, the life will take its beginning thence, where, the state of mortality being left, he dies to the world, and dedicated himself a perpetual victim to almighty God by the merits of most blessed Francis. The glorious God in his Saints, whom he predestined for himself as elect from eternity, and, according to the necessity of the time, for the salvation of the human race brings forth into the light; since he had chosen blessed Bonaventure for himself as a vessel of election, and had destined him for his services in the Religion of St. Francis; that nevertheless his conversion might one day be understood to have proceeded from God's disposing, and by that the glory of his majesty be revealed: he permitted the same to be endangered in extreme sickness. For whose health his dearest parent, fearing with anxious solicitude, when she had in vain tried the diligence of the Physicians whom she employed, and found the powers of remedies of less avail to relieve him: humbly invoked for the boy's health the aid of God alone, whom the holy woman feared, and to whom she understood the chaste morals of the boy, which as a mother she well knew, to be acceptable; and, reverently imploring the suffrages of St. Francis, devoted him, if she should recover him sound, to his Religion perpetually. She was heard, by the divine clemency and her own reverence; and, health being recovered, the boy came forth entire, not without the admiration of the Physicians: especially of those who had well discerned in him that state of body, that they had utterly despaired of the sick one being able to be relieved by human aid.

[5] The same, now an adolescent, and then advanced in age, when he understood himself ripe for Religion, and owed to it by his parent's vow, By his mother's vow recovering through St. Francis, he becomes a Minorite. and mindful of the divine command brought forth to the human race through the prophet David: Vow and render to the Lord your God: in about the twenty-second year of his age, most devoutly took up the habit of the Religion of St. Francis, and at the making of his profession openly testified his benefit in these words: By a vow made for me by my mother to blessed Francis when I was languishing most grievously, while I was still a little boy: I was snatched from the very jaws of death, and restored unharmed to the strength of life. Which, since I hold it in living memory, I now profess by a true confession: lest, retaining so great a benefit, I be charged with crime as ungrateful, and pouring out a prayer to him most piously in these words: Receive therefore, blessed Father, whatever thin thanksgivings, unequal to your merits and benefits; and when you have received my vows, so excuse our faults by praying, that you may snatch me from present evils, and lead me to everlasting goods.

[6] Therefore the holy man, advancing in the same vocation, [By the grace of God and the teacher Alexander of Hales he acquires the highest erudition.] since his whole life was engaged in the sure knowledge and contemplation of God, to the attaining of which he applied himself by the assiduous reading of the sacred Scriptures, prayers, and contemplations, Alexander of Hales, master of the sacred page, teaching him: he obtained in a short time so great perfection of doctrines, that from the seventh year of his entrance, chosen by the concordant judgment of the masters of the Order, he most illustriously read the book of the Sentences in the University of Paris, and received the master's chair. Admirable therefore to all, that in so small a space he could procure that sufficiency. But let them indeed marvel, who measure human things only from the natural course, and not from the divine power: which two disciples plainly ignorant of letters, hastening to the town of Emmaus, having accompanied them for the short space of the journey, most fully taught the science of divine things.

[7] The same, having obtained from God the gifts of the Holy Spirit for his assiduous merits, The more learned, the more humble. received day by day great increases of doctrine, which seem rather divinely inspired than humanly acquired. And when for the three following years he had governed the master's chair, in the thirty-second year of his age, he was held among the first in religion and doctrine in the Order. For to him there was as it were an infinite treasure of knowledge, of which those who used were made partakers of the friendship of God. And what was more notable and more admirable in him; the more he had emerged in knowledge and authority, the more he was depressed by humility of mind. Nor, as most, puffed up by the science of letters, did he disdain lowly domestic ministries: but scarcely, and not except through obedience, was he with difficulty restrained from their performance, the Prelates reckoning it unworthy, if by such tasks he, as an excellent man, should not be set apart, in whom the grace of the Holy Spirit was plainly seen to dwell.

[8] The sad he benignly consoles. Nor yet did the holy man omit any offices of charity on account of his literary actions, but, directing his eyes upon all the brethren: if he perhaps understood any to be sad, or repentant of his profession, with so great sweetness in speech he met him, consoled, admonished, and confirmed him: that none departed from him but that he gladly pursued the begun journey of Religion. Besides, in the care of the sick he was delighted more than can be believed: and the more they were burdened with graver or contagious diseases, the more he applied himself wholly to their service. In which offices, when he spent the greater part of the day, he was none the less in the public lectures and interpretations of the Scriptures: which he rendered to be understood by the hearers with so great clarity, that he could deservedly seem the very author of them. But in the Chapters, whether Provincial or General, his answers were given with so great wisdom, that the General Minister, having perceived the magnitude of his counsels, thought nothing at all grave to be executed, in which he had not first explored the judgment of the holy man.

[9] He is chosen General Minister of the Order. Illustrated with which gifts and graces, when he was now illustrious in Religion by every merit, the General Minister being dead, in the thirteenth year of his entrance, out of so many holy men, with whom the Religion flourished in its newness, he alone of all, without contradiction, was substituted. This holy man, girding himself for graver actions, when the Religious had now begun to decline a little from the founder's discipline: and by admonishing, insisting, chastising, and laboring more busily, had led them back to a better fruit of life: in the General Chapter which he first held at Narbonne, reformed and expounded the Rule of blessed Francis; and he assessed the order into Provinces and Custodies ^b, and added two, where, strenuously contending against the venomous assaults of the rash and the detractors, who had impudently opened their mouths against the Religion of Mendicants and the holy man, and skirmished with artful calumnies: safe by justice and innocence alone, he remained unconquered, as one who, entire of life and pure of crime, needs not the javelins of the Moor, nor the bow, nor a quiver heavy with poisoned arrows, Fuscus: having experienced the fruit of the holy admonitions of Basil the Great, the divine interpreter of the Homeric verse, where he raises Ulysses to heaven for his merits, asserting that the Poet testified with clear voice: O men! let there be to you a care of virtue, which swims out with the shipwrecked, and shows him, cast on the shore, more venerable. Where also he confuted, no less eloquently than subtly, a most pernicious little book against the Minors, published (as they think) by Master Gerard of Abbeville by way of apology. Which Gerard also, not long after, condemned by the just judgment of God, paid the deserved penalties of his crime, being made a paralytic and sprinkled with a piteous leprosy, with which hardships he ended his life.

[10] But the General Chapter being gathered at Pisa, by his authority it was instituted, He piously institutes many things, shrinking from all dignity. that "Glory to you, O Lord, who were born of the Virgin," should be continued even to the Epiphany, in the same manner in which it is sung within the Octave of the Lord's Nativity: and other Rubrics in the Breviary were reformed, and others added. The same most pious worshipper of the glorious Virgin mother of Jesus instituted, that the brethren should exhort the people to salute the same, at the sign of the bell which is given after Compline: because it was believed that she was at that hour saluted by the Angel. Then was translated the venerable body of blessed Anthony to the great church of Padua: whose tongue, in the thirty-second year of his death, was found fresh and ruddy; which the holy man devoutly receiving in his hands, and bedewing with more copious showers of tears, reverently addressed with such words: O blessed tongue! which always blessed God, and taught others to bless: now it is plainly seen how great merit you had with God. To which fixing kisses devoutly, he took care that it be honorably placed. Whose fame also moving the Pontiff, then Clement IV, that he might draw him into a part of his solicitude, set him over the wealthy church of York: nor yet could he obtain that the holy man should accept that promotion: who, constant in his purpose, chose rather to remain in Religion, where he might procure riches and dignities for himself in heaven. Whose constancy the Pontiff admiring, said to him: Stand in your covenant, and converse in it, and grow old in the work of your commandments.

[11] But now there offers itself a more numerous heap of his divine writings. When he had read at Paris the first book of Genesis, Of the works of St. Bonaventure. the noble work was published which is entitled Of the Seven Visions of Bonaventure. On the books of the Sentences he published celebrated commentaries, especially the second and fourth; which he also pursued in verse. And they begin, "O fount of splendor, vessel of sweetness and love," to which, on account of the sublime genius of the author there interspersed, the title "The Sentences of the Sentences of Bonaventure" was given. On the Gospels he wrote compendiously and usefully, especially on Luke the Chancellor of the pious mother of Jesus; whom, impressed on his breast, he ever venerated with assiduous meditation. Again, by the contemplation of St. Louis King of France, he published a most devout Office of the Cross: which, received by the Church with nothing changed, is read everywhere on that solemnity. He composed also a solemn Office in honor of blessed Francis, and of his life first noted by a serious treatise, and secondly by way of reduction. He composed also a little book on the six wings of the Seraphim, on Mount Alverna. Two noble little works he published, breathing most pious contemplations: of which the one was called the Itinerary of the Mind into God, and the other into itself. He composed also a little book approbatory of the Religion of Mendicants, which they call the Defensory. He composed also a little book on the life of Christ, or of the meditations of his passions, which they name the Tree of the Cross. He composed also the Breviloquium. Likewise Sunday Sermons, on the Gospels and Epistles through the whole circle of the year. Likewise a compendium of the truth of sacred Scripture. Likewise a little book of the ordering or instruction of novices. Likewise also a little book on the goad of love. Likewise also a little book which they call the Quiver, of the principal authorities of the approved Doctors, which he pursued through the Alphabet. And many other little works up to the number of three hundred, which in the parts of Gaul are rather frequently had in hands.

[12] Made a Cardinal, he did many illustrious things in the Council of Lyons: And when the Religion of blessed Francis, which he governed for eighteen years by a holy government, was, by his admonitions and examples, in a state of more solid sanctity; and the fame of the man, for the sanctity of his life, the eminence of his doctrine, and the divinity of his works, shone forth everywhere; then by chance the Roman See labored greatly with difficulties, which had emerged inextricable in the Council which was being gathered at Lyons: Gregory then Pope X and the rest of the sacred Senate, allured by their zeal for the man (whom they understood would greatly avail for relieving the said difficulties, and for the government of the universal Church, and otherwise to be raised for his merits) promoted him, though reluctant, to Cardinal; and, what is rare, from the very beginning, on account of the man's excellence, Bishop of Albano. And soon, for treating the arduous matters of the Council, he alone of all was chosen, there being deputed to assist him the illustrious Bishops of Rouen and Tripoli of that time, who themselves also from the Religion of St. Francis had been called to the Episcopate for their merit. In which Council, of many things, by his wisdom it was holily consulted and decreed, and the heresies of the Greeks composed: who then, in the presence of Palaeologus ^c their Emperor, those of them who had come to Lyons for this, freely returned to the obedience of the Roman See; for whose reduction had been sent Brother Jerome of Ascoli and Brother Bonagratia the Dalmatian, religious of the Order of Minors, of eminent merit. Who having returned with letters, the same Gregory, glad, convoked the Brethren and Prelates who were present in the Council, in the church of Lyons; where the holy man delivered an illustrious oration, the theme being proposed which is read in Baruch the fifth, Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and look about toward the East; and see your children gathered together from the rising of the sun even to the West.

[13] Successively persevering in that vocation with equal sanctity and fruit of works, where he is extolled with the highest praises. when he had labored a rather long time in the Church of God; so that with the Apostle he could rightly say: I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; in the year of salvation one thousand two hundred seventy-four, and in the fifty-third of his age, at the morning hour of the Lord's Day, which was the thirteenth of the month of July ^d, he was taken from human affairs, and restored to the holy Fathers (as we ought to believe) to live eternally. On which day his venerable body is laid in the sepulcher, in the church of St. Francis of Lyons, with many tears and consternation of the brethren, lamenting themselves to be deprived of the society of so great a man, who seemed to leave none equal to himself in the Church of God; the Pontiff Gregory esteeming him very greatly; who there publicly testified, that the Church of God, by his death, had incurred a great loss. At whose obsequies the first Mass was celebrated by Brother Peter of Tarentaise, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia ^e; and he delivered a sermon, the theme being proposed, I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan. Where, among the other commemorations of the graces and gifts which God gave him, was also this, that whoever saw him was straightway captivated by his love, and gladly received his admonitions, especially the Greeks; for whose reduction his divine eloquences and counsels greatly contributed. Benign, affable, pleasing to all, and never a scandal to any; pious, prudent, humble, chaste, sober, pure, and quiet: the actions and offices of which virtues he always strenuously performed. Which, even if we were taught by no other proof, sufficiently and clearly appears from his divine writings: in which with so intense an affection he pursues each of the aforesaid; that except by the habit assumed concerning them, he could not have insisted upon them so ardently. Then indeed, that by the testimony of Alexander of Hales his teacher, he was approved free from every vice, who, his life and morals being well ascertained, was wont to say of him: This is a true Israelite, in whom Adam seems not to have sinned. Whose teacher's authority is agreed to have availed so greatly with the Church, that they thought it a sacrilege to doubt of his sayings or writings: and all testified that the divine oracle was fulfilled,

published concerning him through blessed Francis, that he would be a great man in the Church of God, and that his Religion would through him receive great increases of sanctity.

[14] Now you understand, most blessed Father, what also through yourself you understood more plainly; He narrates the miracles. who and what manner of man Bonaventure was, of whom we treat: by whose life and examples the Religion of blessed Francis was illustrated, and the whole earth filled with his doctrine. Now what in the second place we undertake, with equal patience deign to hear, while I relate what memorable things almighty God deigned to show in him, and by his power in others. I begin from a matter to be marveled at. Bonaventure, while still in minor orders, out of the humility of a lowly mind rather than from any injustice, had for several days abstained from receiving the most sacred body of Christ; fearing lest, if he received it unworthily, he should eat and drink judgment to himself. And when on a certain day he was devoutly present at Mass; In sacred Communion he is miraculously refreshed. God, regarding his humility, mercifully placed in his mouth a particle of the consecrated host, taken by an angel from the hand of the celebrant. For he regarded the humility of his servant, for which he is called blessed by all nations. Again, when with intense affection he was studying, contemplating and noting the Life of blessed Francis, the glorious St. Thomas Aquinas, who at the same time was illustrious for merits, and was joined to Bonaventure with great charity; coming to his chamber, looked in through the hole of the door, and saw him rapt in contemplation, and wonderfully lifted up from the earth, then, drawing back to his own, said: Let us leave the Saint, who labors for the Saint. Simona of Lyons pursued blessed Bonaventure living with the highest devotion, who, as it pleased the Lord, bore a child dead. To whom the holy man being summoned, the corpse being laid before his feet, both the mother, He raises a dead infant. who groaned upon her bed before him, and the other women who were present, besought the holy man's aid for the health of the dead one. Then the holy man, taking compassion, with hands and eyes raised to heaven, most devoutly prayed. Soon, the sign of the cross being made over the boy, he restored him living to his mother.

[15] He makes women in travail bring forth easily. It is trite and frequent among the town of Lyons, the country district, and the whole province, that women laboring in childbirth, invoking him, he hears, and delivers from danger. Joanna of Lyons, for eight continuous days distended in the womb, and tortured by the constant effort of bringing forth, had despaired of her health. Admonished by the women who were present with the laboring one, she commended herself to the Saint's prayers and suffrages, making a certain vow for the recovery of her health; and at once, being unharmed, she bore an unharmed child. A lame man is healed at his sepulcher. Peter, son of John Aiuse the hatter, notably lame in the right leg, so that for four months he could neither walk without a staff nor stand upon his feet; by prayers, a vow, and orations made at his sepulcher, began there to make a novena, and within nine days recovered complete health. By the same invocation, the son of Francis Massodius, a Notary of Lyons, was freed from a like ailment. And the fevered. A noble soldier, the lord of the places of Vincelles and of Gromelles, was worn out and exhausted by a pestilential fever; whom, destitute of speech, sense, and motion, Marcus de Ferrariis, a noble physician of Pavia, who had well ascertained in him all the signs of mortality, had declared beyond hope of health. But a certain Religious was present, Brother Matulinus the Biblicus, of the convent of St. Francis of Lyons; who began to commemorate what marvels almighty God worked through the invocation of the said Saint; therefore he persuaded that his aid be asked for the health of the dying man. Then by a votive invocation, through his kinsmen and the said Religious, and a certain vow made for his health to blessed Bonaventure, he who seemed about to die, at once began to feel, to move, to speak, and to be better, and in a short time recovered complete health. By a like invocation, from most grievous fevers were freed Brother John Benedicti, of the Order of St. Francis, master of the sacred page; Ludovica wife of Peter Rover, Gasparda daughter of the noble man Peter Carion of Chambéry, the son of Richard Ridanus, the sister of Pineta wife of Claude, Pinolus, Antony Cathalanus, Lancelot Mercurius, Stephen Gennes the hatter, the servant of John Adiusse from a quartan, and brother Philip Laicerti.

[16] And many others are freed from various diseases by vow. Francisca suffered a plague, or "formica," on her neck; whose fire gradually extended itself into the rest of the body, and miserably burned the tender flesh of the girl: over whom grieving, Gilbert Alerii her unhappy father, betook himself to the venerable sepulcher of St. Bonaventure, and most devoutly invoked his aid and suffrages for the health of his daughter, and made a certain vow in this. Soon returning home, the fire being extinguished, he found her miraculously sound and free. Stephaneta, widow of John Michael, struck in the eyes by the chance of a beam, incurred grievous pains, and was brought into danger of losing an eye; she commended herself to blessed Bonaventure, and sent to his sepulcher her little maiden daughter, with a waxen image of eyes, on whose return Waxen images are offered at his sepulcher. she was freed from her pains, and in a short time recovered entire health of her eyes. In which this too is more notable, that when a certain Religious Preacher of the word of God had come to Lyons, and had proclaimed to the people, that whoever knew anything of the miracles of blessed Bonaventure, ought to reveal it to him; the same Stephaneta, who for the health of her eyes had also invoked the aids of the glorious Virgin Mary; perplexed by whose benefit she had obtained the health of her eyes, for some time declined to relate anything to the Preacher. Then she fell into a graver ailment of the eyes; and sending again her daughter, as she had done before, to the same sepulcher, and a prayer and vow being made, she was miraculously freed. Then, acknowledging her guilt, she went to the same Preacher, and revealed the whole series of things. By a like invocation, from pains and peril of the eyes were freed Denis of Forresta a merchant, Claudia de Piscaria, Claude Poleti a shoemaker, Margaret wife of John Petit a weaver, the son of John Adiusse.

[17] John Adiusse the hatter, suddenly smitten with a dire palsy, Likewise paralytics are restored. having lost his senses and the lower half of his body, was made dull and fell; whose fall his father grieving, on bended knees commended him to blessed Bonaventure: and at once he who had fallen began to feel, to speak, and to be better. Then, placing him on a litter, the father, mother, and Peter the other son, carried him to the Saint's sepulcher, and, setting him there, on bended knees invoked blessed Bonaventure; and, certain prayers and a vow being made, brought him back home sound and free. By the same invocation from a like ailment were freed Francis Davegnier, otherwise Ravillon, William of Bletena a weaver, Catherine of Bauline, Joanna widow of Peter Rolinus; Margaret widow of John of Vaulx a carter.

[18] The illustrious Duke of Orléans ^f was held captive by the powerful King of Great Britain or England, From the Duke of Orléans a quartan fever departs. where, suffering a long quartan, he incurred intense pains of the head and kidneys: destitute of all aid, he most devoutly invoked the help of blessed Bonaventure, most devoutly hoping in his suffrages: at once miraculously freed from his pains and ailments, he was within a year restored into Gaul. Soon seeking Lyons, he visited the venerable sepulcher of the Saint, and, offerings being made, gave thanks to God and to the Saint for the benefits received; and what he had obtained through his invocation, he made manifest to the Religious of the said convent. A leprous woman is cleansed. Laqueda, wife of Nicholas Colinetus of Lyons, sprinkled and infected with a horrid leprosy, to be shunned by her own, could now no longer decline but that, her home, kinsmen, and city being left, she should give herself to the miserable fellowship of lepers. She, since she had always devoutly cultivated the name of blessed Bonaventure, fell prostrate at his sepulcher, praying more intensely that he would have pity on her lot; an offering and vow being devoutly made, she obtained to be cleansed and freed from the leprosy. Michael of Chel, Grievously struck by a horse's kick, he is thoroughly healed. otherwise Gennes, into whose right side a horse with a vehement blow had wrenched and driven a strong kick, so that, two ribs being well-nigh crushed, with great impediment of breathing, he lay languishing three months, and, various fomentations, soothing applications, and poultices being applied in vain, health being despaired of, commended himself to Bl. Bonaventure: and, a certain vow being made in his honor, was taken from peril, and restored to health. By a like invocation, was also freed from a pain of the ribs John Michael of Cheval, a servant of the Court of Lyons, and by the same, Margaret of John Petit, who, fallen from a higher part of the buildings, had come down.

[19] A vow being made to him, various sick persons are aided. John Garboti, a royal secretary, had a wife wasting with perpetual languor, or dropsical, and by no moderate aid could he cure her; he went to the venerable sepulcher of the Saint, reverently commending to him the health of his wife, nay their common health; and, a certain vow being made in honor of the Saint, returning home, he obtained her sound and free. John Dusolier, a Marshal of Lyons, lay languishing four months with a putrid and withered leg, and when he could no longer endure the torturing pains, had placed his hope in the sole amputation of the leg. Being by chance admonished in sleep by night, he commended himself to blessed Bonaventure; and sent his wife with a waxen image of a leg most devoutly to his sepulcher. On whose return he was utterly taken from his pains, and in a short time recovered complete health. Peter Moyer had a wooden mill on the river Rhône, which, the mill itself being raised and heightened by an overflowing flood of waters, the more violent stream, though it was held by a strong chain, carried off and swallowed into itself. Which being seen, the same Peter, who had always cultivated blessed Bonaventure, fled to his sepulcher; and, falling down, reverently prayed that he would turn away the calamitous loss from his devoted one. Soon going out, he beheld and recovered the mill unshaken, cast out on the shore at the other bank of the Rhône, and miraculously restored.

[20] Things lost and perished are restored. Stephaneta, mother of the aforesaid Francis Davegnier, otherwise of Rovillon of Squilincia, was laboring at her last, who could neither recognize nor receive the Lord's body brought to her; which Francis her son bearing most grievously, who well knew that his mother had always with great devotion cultivated blessed Bonaventure, fled to his venerable sepulcher, most devoutly praying that he would not suffer his devoted one to depart from life without the viaticum of salvation. Returning home most faithfully hoping in Bl. Bonaventure, he took care to bring the Lord's body again; which, at once recognized, the mother reverently received. The venerable Religious Brother Benedict of Lulino, of the Order of St. Anthony of Vienne, procurator of the house of St. Anthony of Lyons, had lost the census-books of the house, which, much diligence being applied, he could not find, to the great scandal and detriment of the house: he went to the venerable sepulcher of Bl. Bonaventure, and there, candles being lit, commended himself to him, and at last returning, merited to find the books. By a like invocation Richard Ridanus, a merchant, was able to find the lost probatory instruments and other things of his shop. Likewise also brother Peter Fabri, the things appointed for his use, being lost.

[21] Those with gout are cured by his aid. Margaret Gruelle, wife of Hugh Francis a Burgundian hosier, an inhabitant of Lyons, was tortured by an intense pain of the gout. Who, since she well knew the medical art

to avail little in this, fled to the invocation of the suffrages of Bl. Bonaventure, and reverently sent her little maiden daughter with a waxen image of a foot to his sepulcher, and at once was freed from the gout, nor was she ever thereafter troubled by it. By the same invocation was freed Catherine, wife of John the Weaver of Spain, and the son of master Francis Massedi the Notary. Likewise those with hernia, Margaret, wife of Benedict Garrinus, had a son ruptured in the groin, and miserably putrefying in the bowels; who, cut by the physician's hand, was brought into a worse state, and certain peril of death, which the mother groaning, who more especially venerated Bl. Bonaventure, reverently fled to his sepulcher; there she prayed most devoutly, that he would have pity on her bereavement, and began to make a novena in his honor, and on the eighth day merited to obtain him sound and free. Peter Morget, carrying a cask full of wine into the cellar, unequal to its weight, pressed down, sank, and, it falling upon him, was shaken and well-nigh crushed: he commended himself to Bl. Bonaventure, and merited to obtain health. By a like invocation was freed his kinswoman, who by a chance had grievously hurt her shoulder-blade and arm.

[22] There are besides innumerable others, who by the merits of the same Saint and very many others. merited to be miraculously freed from various pains, ailments, and perils: of whom, if I go on to recount each, I shall undoubtedly be, for the present work, of detriment rather than of use or favor. Yet in this place I will not commit that I pass over in silence something stupendous and memorable, which almighty God, to give a sure testimony of the man's sanctity, deigned of his clemency to show in his venerable body. The head of St. Bonaventure entire in the 160th year from his death. While the same venerable body was being translated to the new church, erected at Lyons under the title of St. Francis; in the one hundred and sixtieth year of his death, the rest of the body being otherwise consumed and corroded, the head yet was found solid, the hair clinging, the lips, teeth, and tongue, in nothing changed from their vital state or color. It was truly of the divine clemency, to preserve from putrefaction that mouth which was ever busy for the salvation of the faithful, and in the divine praises, and not to give his Saint to see corruption.

[23] There are extant besides frequent and memorable benefits, Male offspring is obtained by his prayers; which the fellow-citizens of Bagnorea and of Orvieto frequently merited to obtain through the invocation of the same Saint: of which so many it does not weary me to recount even one, or two more. Laodamia of Orvieto had loaded her house with a burden of daughters; and therefore was somewhat hateful to Francis, son of Matthew Nebie, her husband: who, from the straitness of his family means, unequal to the burden, abstained from the marriage-bed, of which he had found nothing to proceed but females. These spouses the venerable Religious of the Minors, master Francis of Acquapendente, who was greatly cultivated by them, having consoled; affirmed that he had documents from the institutes of the Lord Bonaventure, which, if being admonished they should take up, they would obtain male offspring. To those listening, he said: Together with me pour forth votive prayers to the glorious Bonaventure, and piously hope to obtain what you wish. Which parents, at his admonitions, for a few days gave their attention to begetting offspring: and the wife became pregnant, and in the appointed month bore a male, to whom, by the institution of the same Religious, they gave the name Bonaventure, praising God and the Saint, in whose power he had wrought marvels with them. Three years after, when that city was grievously afflicted with the disease of Epidemic and a deadly plague, the whole house of the spouses was sprinkled with that poison; and, all the daughters being extinguished, Bonaventure, set beyond hope of health, was believed now about to follow his sisters by an equal mortality. Who, being also vexed by the immediate instance of unclean spirits, could escape their persecution in no part of the house, the unhappy one crying out: Succor with sword and club, put these more malignant spirits to flight. The parents being consternated with the affliction and sadness of such things, and destitute of every remedy, the recollection of the Saint came upon them, by whose gift they had obtained the son: soon led into hope, they prayed him with this prayer: Most glorious Saint, which house also, defended from the infesting demons, is freed from the plague. who benignly procured us this son, of the same benignity grant, that, the malignant spirits being put to flight, we may keep him safe from the plague. And the prayer being made, the exiled spirits were shut out, the fever ceased: and in a short time the boy rose wholly safe from the ailment, with great gladness of his parents and of all the citizens, rejoicing that, for overcoming the malignities of diseases and spirits, they knew themselves fortified by the protection of so strong a defender.

[25] Sanctity in those Saints is chiefly to be regarded, not miracles. I might perhaps seem inept, if, studious of my undertaking, I should go on to spend the day in recounting miracles; to the relation of which I know well enough that neither a day nor certainly days suffice. But why do we further seek miracles? As though indeed we admire and venerate Basil the Great, Jerome, and Augustine, the lucid stars of our faith, Thomas Aquinas, and very many others, whom in the Church of God we worship as Saints, for miracles, and not for the divinity of their doctrine: whom nevertheless we well understand to have obtained the testimony of sanctity from nothing more certainly than from their commentaries; which, as full of divinity, they could not have published save by an infused knowledge; from which it is more truly proved that the Holy Spirit dwelt in them. But if we still demand miracles, let us consider not so much those which through him appeared in others, as those which appeared in himself. Peroration, If therefore it is now agreed that the divine Bonaventure was miraculous in his works; if his divine commentaries profess that he obtained his knowledge infused by the gift of the Holy Spirit; if he performed the offices of charity more ardently, despised worldly honors, cast off the affections of earthly things, remained constant in persecutions, was fruitful in the Religion of blessed Francis and in the universal one; if by a heavenly vocation, like Paul, he was miraculously converted into the lot of the Lord; if by the divine presage of blessed Francis he was proclaimed a Saint; if by the sedulous observation of Alexander of Hales, the irrefragable Doctor, his teacher, he was ascertained and declared a Saint; if by the vow of the Religious Minors, who were mighty in sanctity, he was assumed as a holier supreme Prelate; if by the judgment of the Roman See, as one illustrious in merits, about to profit the government of the universal Church, he was summoned; if finally by the common opinion of all the faithful he is held, and named, and worshipped as a Saint, if he benignly succors daily those who invoke him: your Sanctity could, even with none petitioning, decree public honors to the Saint, in which one thing alone was lacking; how much more do you owe this to the vows of lofty princes? [A catalogue of Kings and Princes petitioning that St. Bonaventure be inscribed in the roll of the Saints.] There are added the most pious prayers of the most Serene and most Illustrious Frederick, King of the Romans, ever Augustus, Louis the most Christian of the Franks, Ferdinand of Sicily, and also Matthias of Hungary, Catholic Kings: who, since they are wont to deserve well of the Christian Commonwealth, ought certainly to seem worthy to obtain from your Sanctity so holy a thing. There ask besides the Illustrious Dukes and peoples, and as the greatest gift seek this, of Calabria, of Venice, of Milan, of Savoy, and the Duchesses of Calabria and of Bourbon, the Florentines, the Sienese, the Perugians, the Lyonese, and the city of Bagnorea, which although it be humble, yet ought to seem most illustrious and most pleasing to God, to which it fell to bring forth so great a star. There asks besides, of the most Reverend Fathers of that Order, John of Aragon, the most Illustrious offspring of the same most Serene King Ferdinand, who more religiously venerates and worships the Saints who were illustrious in the Order. There demands finally by its own right the holy Religion of blessed Francis, whose alumnus, you cannot fail one asking just things. There demands the Saint himself, from the promise made in the name of almighty God to those warring strenuously: that the Church should sing their praises; to which obligation it is necessary that his Vicar make satisfaction.

[25] Bound therefore with so many chains, no judge, however favorable, could loose, save loosing the one who looses. Let great Tully be recalled from the shades of hell, and let Servius even defend you: You cannot be absolved. It being ascertained, besides the things I have said, with what singular zeal the most exact examination of the foreknowing of the Saint's life and miracles the most Reverend Fathers Julian della Rovere, of St. Peter in Chains, the deserving protector of the same Order, Stephen of Milan, and Francis Gonzaga of Mantua, your Sanctity's Commissioners in this, bestowed; the Milanese especially, whom, struggling with sharp instance against his adverse health from the holy purpose, not even the account of his own health could retard: which most Reverend Fathers also, allured by their zeal for the ascertained sanctity of the man, most instantly demand it. What therefore does your Sanctity further defer? Why does it delay? Why does it prorogue this to another's glory? Many celebrated deeds of yours are extant, which illustrate you and yours, and will perpetually illustrate: yet nothing, in my grasp, could so equally happen glorious to a Roman Pontiff, as that he decree public celebration to a Saint for his merits. Which you also, most blessed Father, who are joined to Bl. Bonaventure by every right of relationship, by the authority of almighty God, whom, a demigod, you represent to mortals on earth, deign benignly of your clemency to grant to the suppliants.

ANNOTATIONS.

DIPLOMA OF OUR LORD POPE SIXTUS IV,

By which St. Bonaventure, bishop and Cardinal of Albano, is referred into the number of the Saints.

Bull of canonization.

Great joys from the merits of the Saints, Sixtus, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the perpetual memory of the matter. The heavenly celestial fatherland, the city Jerusalem, whose participation is in itself; so rejoices in the salvation of all the elect, that those whose merits are more excellent, receive also more copious joys of rewards: which the Prophet Isaiah, set in the excess of his mind, seems to have felt when he said: Exult and praise, O habitation of Sion: for great is the Holy One in the midst of you. Let therefore the choirs of all the Angels exult, who, solicitous for the habitation of the empty seats, strive to lead, from virtue to virtue, by humility, to those blessed mansions whence the proud spirits fell. Let all the souls of the just also exult, who have followed the footsteps of Christ; and all the faithful, both of the old and of the new Testament, the friends of God: who, the vanities of this world being despised, rejoice together in the number of their fellow-citizens. Let heaven exult with praises, let earth resound with joys, since the bringing forth of the Saints has the gladness of very many: for the piety of faith greatly requires, that what is done for the salvation of many, be everywhere celebrated with common

joys. But especially let the assembly of blessed Pontiffs exult, and the sacred company of the Doctors: who shine in heaven like stars unto perpetual eternities: among whom, when holy Bonaventure, like a new star, from this vale of tears, migrated to the heavenly Jerusalem which is above, the Lord calling him, he shone forth.

[2] who bring these to us. But we, who, the Most High disposing, raised to the summit of the Apostolate, bear the care of the Christian flock; which, for the debt of our pastoral office, we desire with intense longings to conform, as we ought, to the joyful college of the Saints: to the Church militant (for whose edification and increase we have judged that Bonaventure himself should be referred into the Catalogue of the Saints) we can not incongruously say, Exult today, and praise, O habitation of Sion, that is, Christian Religion: in which, as on Mount Sion, through true faith dwells the true God; for great is the Holy One in the midst of you. For in the midst of the Church he opened his mouth, and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and clothed him with the robe of glory; and crowned him at the gates of paradise, in which, together with the Angels, he rejoices in glory and felicity. Let us therefore rejoice and exult: because that heavenly court has from us one who may have care of us, who may protect us by his merits, whom he formed by examples, illumined by doctrines, and confirmed by miracles; whom God gave to all peoples for glory and honor, whose memory is in benediction.

[3] For he wrote such things concerning divine matters; that in him the Holy Spirit seems to have spoken; Miracles and merits show the Saint. so piously, religiously, and holily he lived; that his life agreed with his writings, and what he wrote, he taught by example; in whom the virtue of morals and the clarity of signs is so ascertained: that, the greatest merits and miracles concurring, the testimony of true sanctity is owed to him by the militant Church. For when in the green flower of youth, human enticements being cast off, he had devoted himself to the divine service; having entered the Religion of blessed Francis (which tends through arduous ways), he so profited by sedulous reading and assiduous prayer; that with the Wise Man he could deservedly say: I wished, and understanding was given me. For illumined by him who illumines every sense, who is light, way, truth, and life: in the space of a few years he obtained incredible knowledge. Nor did he tie up in a napkin the talent entrusted to him by the Lord, or bury it in the earth, but, as a most wise dispenser, turned it to the common utility. For in the celebrated Paris university he governed a chair: where, unfolding the hidden things of the Scriptures, he not only profited many by living voice, but also left very many monuments of the best books, both in sacred letters and in the greater sciences, which should be of profit to posterity for all time.

[4] Great in doctrine, not less in humility and in the merits of his life: The eulogy of St. Bonaventure. whom Alexander of Hales, most illustrious Doctor (to whom St. Bonaventure had given himself in discipline), experienced to be of such innocence and dove-like simplicity, that he was wont to say; It seemed to him, that in him Adam had never sinned. Great also in the Order of Friars Minor; to which he alone of all, after blessed Francis, profited very greatly: for called to its helm, and made General Minister, the Lord inspiring, he showed himself such to his subjects, that in him that dominical word seemed fulfilled; He who is greater among you, let him be your minister. For, greater in wisdom and integrity of morals, he exercised the office of prelacy with so great charity; that, humble of his own accord, now by doctrine, now by admonitions, now by fraternal exhortation, now even by bodily service, he busied himself, as a good soldier of Christ, to minister to his inferiors. Nor only did he most diligently keep those things which had been piously and holily instituted by blessed Francis himself, but he added also many things devised, which, the number of Brethren increasing, seemed necessary. He also divided the Order itself into Provinces and Custodies.

[5] He was great also in dignity in the Roman Church. He is made Cardinal Bishop of Albano, and president of the Council of Lyons. For, the fame of his innocence, doctrine, and prudence growing, by Pope Gregory the Tenth of happy memory, our predecessor, he was called to the honor of the Cardinalate: that he might use his labor in the greatest and most difficult matters (which had happened in those times). In whom Gregory himself, for the vast merits of the man, used a new example. For at once he committed to him the church of Albano, which is wont to be committed only to the older Cardinals. He did not deceive the expectation of the supreme Pontiff and of the sacred Senate, the best man and most friendly to God: but presiding in the Council of Lyons, and directing all things to the praise of God, the discords being allayed and the difficulties removed; he was of the greatest use and ornament to the Church itself. By which things it is openly known, that the Lord established for him a covenant of peace, and made him a prince; that the dignity of the priesthood might be to him for ever. Whom vainglory did not puff up, nor riches drove awry: but persevering in faith and gentleness, pious toward God, merciful toward the poor, just toward all, he so put off this corruptible body; that with the Apostle he could say; I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice.

[6] The faith is confirmed by signs and prodigies. Who although from perseverance alone he could be believed a saint; according to that; Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life: yet there followed after his life many and very great miracles, which give a sure token of his sanctity; and lead us to the veneration of him, whom God, by his preceding merits, showed to be venerated. For God himself omnipotent, that he may manifest the power of his virtue, and lay open the cause of our salvation, often also honors in the world his faithful elect, whom he crowns in heaven, working signs and prodigies at their memorials: that heretical depravity may be confounded, and the orthodox faith preserved. We give therefore to God himself as great thanks as we can: that he has judged us worthy, through whom this Canonization should be celebrated: which, although, the divine monuments of his letters being extant, and his miracles shining, it could long ago have been duly done: yet never before this was it petitioned, either by princes, or by others, with so great diligence. In our time, our dearest sons in Christ, Frederick, Emperor of the Romans, ever Augustus, Louis the most Christian of the Franks, Ferdinand of Sicily, and Matthias of Hungary, illustrious Kings; our beloved sons also, the noble men Alphonsus of Calabria, John Mocenigo of Venice, John Galeazzo [*] of Milan, and John Bourbon, notable Dukes; besides, the Cities of the Florentines, the Sienese, the Lyonese, Perugia, and Bagnorea which bore such a light, with so great zeal and so great perseverance petitioned it of us, that we should think it hard and impious to resist them in a matter so pious, which they also seemed to petition by the admonition of God. There were added the assiduous prayers of our Venerable Brother the Bishop Julian of Sabina, protector of the same Order: and also of our beloved sons Francis Samson, General Minister, and Peter de Rodolphis, Procurator of the said Order, professor of sacred Theology: who, in the name of their General Chapter, demanded it as just and due. We had most studiously read the divine writings of this Saint, with which (after by age it was permitted to have some taste) we were always delighted. We had also heard from the older Brethren of the aforesaid Religion, and grave men: who themselves also had received from their elders, concerning the sanctity of his life; we knew there was a constant fame, concerning many and very great miracles: nor was there besides any doubt with us, but that in the triumphant Church he triumphed in heaven, and merited veneration on earth.

[7] But mindful, that we ourselves had entered the same Order of Minors by vow, What preliminary diligence was applied to the canonization. in which, the divine grace assisting, we profited somewhat in sacred letters and religious morals; and exercised the same offices of the ministry; and thence to the dignity of the Cardinalate, so that by like degrees we know ourselves to have been raised to the summit of the Pontificate, the Lord disposing, through which the holy Bonaventure himself was raised to the unfading glory of the triumphant Church: lest we should seem to be moved to this rather by our own affection than by due devotion, we applied that diligence and gravity which the magnitude of the matter demanded. For we committed to three of our Venerable Brethren, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, that they should order inquiry to be made concerning the truth of the miracles. And when one of them, the process being begun (as it pleased God), had migrated from this light, we substituted another Cardinal in place of the dead one, and, he also dying, we substituted another. Nor content with these, when the process itself was now well-nigh completed, and those who had been delegated had most faithfully reported: yet because there did not seem to have been observed in proceeding so great a solemnity as is required, we ordered it to be reiterated. At last, when from a fuller relation, and from the reception of witnesses worthy of belief, it had been ascertained concerning this, that many and great miracles were being wrought by God through the Saint himself, which were seen in the sight of the multitude: we, lest we should seem to resist the Holy Spirit, who by the mouth of the Prophet bids us praise God in his Saints; in our secret Consistory, held for the cause of this matter, sifted the votes of the same our Venerable Brethren, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, concerning this Canonization. And when the opinion of all had been one and the same, that he ought to be referred into the number of the Saints; we then held a public Consistory: in which, a great multitude standing by, we proclaimed prayers and fasts for three days: that almighty God might deign to show us what was best to be done in this matter; and might not suffer his militant Church to err, which strove to conform itself to the triumphant. Then, the three days being elapsed, we ordered all the Prelates who were in the Roman Curia to assemble: who, being questioned to a man what seemed should be done; agreed in the same opinion, and judged that blessed Bonaventure should be canonized.

[8] We therefore, following the nod and will of God, and considering it just and due, Whom God honors, let men also honor. that those whom God honors in heaven, we should praise and glorify on earth by the office of veneration; since he himself is rather praised and glorified in those who is praiseworthy and glorious for ever; we appointed this day of the canonization of the same holy Bonaventure to be celebrated in the midst of the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles of the City, whither a very great multitude of every kind and order had flowed together. There, all the rest being lawfully performed, the Procurator of the Order of Minors, standing in the midst, proposing with clear voice that saying of Bl. John the Apostle; namely: There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; proved also, the process on the premises being had, that the very Persons of the most blessed Trinity had given testimony, that blessed Bonaventure is in heaven: namely the Father in the power of miracles, the Son in the wisdom of doctrine, and the Holy Spirit in the goodness of his life. And therefore, not only in the names of all who supplicated that this very canonization be done: but also on the part of the undivided Trinity, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that we would deign to pronounce blessed Bonaventure himself a Saint, he requested instantly, more instantly, most instantly.

[9] He is inscribed in the roll of the Saints. Trusting therefore, that in this Canonization God will not permit us to err, who have caused and observed all things in any wise required in it to be observed even superabundantly: by the unanimous consent and mature counsel of the same our Brethren, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and of all the Prelates existing in the Roman Curia, relying on the authority of almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we decree that Bonaventure of Bagnorea, of blessed memory, professor of sacred Theology, assumed from the bosom of the sacred Order of Minors, and from the office of the generalate to be Cardinal Bishop; is a Saint, and is to be inscribed, added, and aggregated to the Catalogue of the other Saints of God, and ought faithfully and firmly to be held; and him we solemnly for the present inscribe and aggregate, by these presents, to the fellowship of the holy Confessors, Pontiffs, and Doctors (whom the holy Church of God venerates). Establishing also, and commanding our Venerable Brethren the Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and our beloved sons the chapters of the said, and of the Patriarchal, Metropolitan, and Cathedral churches, and the professors of whatsoever Orders, both Mendicant and non-Mendicant, and also all ecclesiastical persons: that they celebrate the feast of the same St. Bonaventure, on the second Sunday of the month of July, His anniversary solemnity to be celebrated. every year solemnly and devoutly; performing the divine office, as for one Confessor Pontiff and Doctor, both publicly and privately (as it shall happen): but to our beloved sons the Brethren of the aforesaid Order of Minors, we grant the faculty of celebrating this office under a Double feast and Octave, in that manner in which they are wont to celebrate the feasts and Octaves of the other Saints of the said Order.

[10] Indulgences are granted to the devout. Moreover, by the same authority, to all truly penitent and confessed, who on the same Sunday shall devoutly visit the church in which his holy body rests, we mercifully in the Lord relax and bestow, from the enjoined penances, yearly seven years and as many quarantines; but to those who at other times, on the several Sundays, a hundred days, and to those who shall be present at the divine offices in the churches of the Friars Minor wherever established, both on the very day of the feast and in the Octave, the like indulgences and remissions of sins, which on the several feasts of the other Saints of the same Order, from Apostolic indults generally promulgated, the Roman Pontiffs have granted.

[11] Considering besides, how great increases the Holy Roman Church has received from this very holy Bonaventure, His feast-day, a feast of the Sacred Palace. by reason of his knowledge and sanctity of life, and of his Episcopal and Cardinalitial dignity; and how great a familiarity and spiritual conjunction the same Saint kept in this life with Bl. Thomas Aquinas, his coeval, fellow-disciple, and fellow-master, so that those whom fraternal charity joined in this world, and whom we believe to have obtained the same rewards in heaven, the present Church may venerate with equal honor: assuming and numbering the aforesaid feast among the feasts of the Sacred Apostolic Palace; we grant the same indulgence on the aforesaid feast, in the church of the Holy Apostles of the City, which is held on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the church of Bl. Mary the Virgin of the City (commonly called the Minerva), and likewise decree, that the Friars Minor in the nourishing University of Paris can and ought to use and enjoy the same privileges, for the merits of St. Bonaventure himself, which, from Apostolic indults, the Friars Preachers in the same University, out of regard and grace for the same St. Thomas, are wont to obtain and enjoy, and do enjoy, or can in any wise obtain and enjoy in the future.

[12] Wherefore we require and admonish all and singular constituted in dignity; He orders the letters to be published, that, solemnly publishing these our present letters to all the Clergy and peoples of their cities, dioceses, and parishes; they exhort the same, humbly to beseech God himself, from whom all good things proceed: that, entreated by the merits and prayers of the holy Doctor and Confessor Bonaventure himself, he may protect the militant Church, the Apostolic faith, and all the faithful of Christ, from the incursions of pagans and other unbelievers and heretics, and always guard and defend them from all perils, and grant them that peace which the world cannot give, all dread of enemies being removed, with firm tranquillity: and that after the warfare of this life, and the ministry of the pastoral office laid down, together with the flock entrusted to us, we may at last merit to come to the everlasting joys.

[13] Finally, because it would be difficult, that the present original letters be carried to the knowledge of everyone, and that faith be given to the transcripts. we will and decree, that to a transcript of them, under the seal of the General Minister of the aforesaid Order, and duly subscribed by the hands of two public Notaries, undoubted faith be given in all things and through all, and that everywhere it be stood by, as if the original letters of this kind had been exhibited or shown. Let it therefore be lawful to no man at all to infringe this page of our constitution, inscription, congregation, statute, mandate, grant, relaxation, bestowal, assumption, numbering, admonition, and will, or with rash daring to go against it. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God, and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred eighty-two, on the eighteenth of the Kalends of May, in the eleventh year of our Pontificate.

* Galeazzo.

DECRETAL LETTERS OF OUR LORD POPE SIXTUS THE FIFTH,

By which St. Bonaventure the Seraphic Doctor, bishop and Cardinal of Albano, is numbered among the eminent and excellent holy Doctors of the Catholic Church: and his feast is commanded to be celebrated and worshipped on the 14th of July under the rite of a double Office, with the bestowal of Indulgences.

Bull of Sixtus V.

The Church praises God wonderful in the Saints; Sixtus, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all our venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and to our beloved sons the Prelates of the other churches constituted throughout the whole world, salvation and Apostolic benediction.

[1] The everlasting glory of the triumphant Jerusalem, and the never-fading crowns of the Saints reigning most happily with Christ, holy mother Church, still warring on earth, but hastening to that same crown of justice, admiring with joy, ceases not to proclaim God wonderful in his Saints. Nor indeed does she celebrate with eminent praises only the notable victories and illustrious merits of the Saints: but the same Saints, whom God wonderfully honors, she also piously venerates and worships; by whose preaching, namely, and salutary doctrine she was instituted, by whose blood founded, by whose illustrious works of charity and examples educated, and by whose fervent prayers with God she is daily aided. Wherefore, in bestowing also the due and fitting honors to be attributed to each of the Saints singly, she chiefly strives to conform herself to the norm and image of that heavenly Hierarchy, where all things are ordered in perfect charity (so far indeed as is permitted in the exile of this passing world). For as in that great house of the supreme Father of the family, heaped with all good things, there are many mansions, and those blessed souls, with a certain wonderful variety, enjoy the beatitude of one glory: so the Catholic Church, which is the image of that heavenly one (as an army of camps set in array), in the veneration to be applied to the Saints of God, acknowledges and distinguishes those sacred orders, illumined by the divine light.

[2] which piously renders to the Saints their honors. And so, while she praises the glorious choir of the Apostles, the laudable number of the Prophets, the army of the most valiant Martyrs, and duly renders honors to the other Saints in their place and order: in one spirit of charity, and a like affection of pious devotion, she manifoldly exults. But among those most blessed choirs of the Saints, whose memory is deservedly celebrated by all the faithful with religious worship, there shines with notable splendor the order of the holy Doctors, expressly enumerated by the Apostle Paul, when he says, And he himself gave some indeed Apostles, and some Prophets, and others Evangelists, and others Pastors and Doctors: whom he constituted the strenuous and faithful cultivators and workmen of his vineyard, for the perfecting of the Saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the edification of the body of Christ. These are they, of whom the divine Wisdom cries; They that explain me shall have life everlasting: of these the Angel in Daniel speaks; But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that instruct many unto justice, as stars for perpetual eternities. These finally the Savior himself, Christ the Lord, adorned with that notable eulogy; He that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

[3] But since in all times the study and doctrine of the sacred Doctors has been useful and salutary in the Church of God, The Doctors of the Church convict heresies. then most of all the very matter demonstrated it to be fruitful and plainly necessary, when, the horrible fury of the persecutors of the Christian name being repressed, in the very peace of the Church, the most foul wars of heresies were more vehemently excited: for then the wiles and fallacies of the heretics, who, the devil instigating, cease not to oversow tares in the field of the Lord, being detected by the care and diligence of the Doctors, and the pestiferous and detestable errors cut off with the sword of the spirit, and by the force of Catholic truth, the sacred Doctors being the ministers, falsehood was laid prostrate. Wherefore by best right the holy Doctors in the Church are designated by the name of the stars of the Hyades: who, the very cold winter and the long nights of infidelity being ended, and the tempest of persecution being allayed, then arose more clearly to the holy Church, when the sun of truth grew warm more deeply through the hearts of the faithful, and, as it were in a new spring of faith, a more lucid year was opened.

[4] But now among those whom the Lord willed to fill with the great spirit of understanding, St. Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church. and who sent forth, like showers, the eloquences of their wisdom in the Church of God, is deservedly numbered St. Bonaventure, Confessor and Pontiff, and in the same Catholic Church an eminent Doctor, whom Pope Sixtus IV, of happy memory, our predecessor, for the admirable sanctity of his life, and his excellent doctrine, inscribed in the number of the Saints. For he, born at Bagnorea in Etruria, (that he might satisfy his pious mother's vow) as an adolescent entered the Seraphic religion of St. Francis, through whose footsteps still fresh a new soldier of Christ humbly and constantly walking, drew in the most wholesome observance of the regular institutes with so great ardor of mind, and so great avidity of heart, that the highest sanctity appeared in him: and by innocence of life, and chastity, holy humility, patience, meekness, contempt of earthly things, desire of heavenly things, he was to all both an example and an admiration: kindled also with so great sweetness of spirit, and fervor of divine love, he was rapt into God, that, now led into the wine-cellar of the bridegroom, and drunk with the best wine of charity, he seemed everywhere to behold Jesus Christ crucified and suffering, and to dwell in his wounds.

[5] But to this eminent sanctity of life, the man of God joined great praise of excellent doctrine, God so disposing: He joins doctrine to piety. that for his glory, and the utility of the Church, he might greatly profit not only by example, but by word and erudition. And so when in the study of the sacred letters, the reading of the holy Fathers, and the very necessary discipline of Scholastic Theology, Alexander of Hales being his Master,

a distinguished Theologian of that age, he was most diligently engaged: in a short space of time, by the goodness of his excellent genius, by assiduous labor, and (what is chief) by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who was forming from every side a golden vessel chosen for honor, he made so great progress, and attained to so great a perfection of doctrine, that, adorned in solemn manner with the insignia of Doctor and Master in the most celebrated University of Paris, he there publicly professed sacred Theology. And so great praise did he win in the office of interpreting, and in the knowledge of all Theology, that the most learned men admired his doctrine and erudition.

[6] His writings, moving to the soul. And indeed the manifold lucubrations of the holy man, and his excellent writings, which even now exist with great utility to the Church, and no slight benefit from God, and which the learned men both of our own and of former ages have always read with much fruit, and greatly approved, sufficiently declare how great he was in Theology. For he left to posterity such monuments of his divine genius, in which the most difficult questions, wrapped in many obscurities, are, with a great abundance of the best arguments, in due way and order, clearly and lucidly explained, the truth of the Catholic faith is illustrated, pernicious errors and profane heresies are overthrown, and the pious minds of the faithful are wonderfully inflamed to the love of God and the desire of the heavenly country. For there was in St. Bonaventure this chief and singular thing, that he excelled not only in subtlety of arguing, ease of teaching, and skill of defining, but he was preeminent in a certain divine power of moving souls: for so in writing he joins to the highest erudition an equal ardor of piety, so that by teaching he moves the reader, and glides into the inmost recesses of the soul, and finally pricks the heart with certain Seraphic goads, and pours it over with a wondrous sweetness of devotion: which grace indeed, diffused in his mouth and pen, our predecessor Sixtus IV, admiring, did not hesitate to say that the Holy Spirit seemed to have spoken in him.

[7] His excellent administration of the Order. Since therefore so many and so excellent talents had been entrusted by the Lord to the faithful servant, that by exercising and trading with them for the utility of the brethren he might amplify the treasures of heavenly grace: by divine counsel, and with the highest consent of his whole Order, he was made at Rome the seventh Minister General after blessed Francis, in which office he displayed not only prudence, vigilance, and solicitude: but he was kindled with so great an ardor of fraternal charity, and served the brethren with so great a lowliness of Christian humility, that in him that saying of the Savior was recognized; He that is the greater among you, let him be your minister. Nay, our predecessor of pious memory Clement Pope IV, who greatly loved the holy man, and was wonderfully delighted with his doctrine, that so excellent virtue and prudence might run out into a wider field for the utility of many, offered him the distinguished Archbishopric of York. But he, since he would not easily suffer himself to be torn away from the embrace of Seraphic poverty, modestly and humbly refused the dignity offered. Moreover, when Gregory the Tenth, Supreme Pontiff, on account of the most grave concerns of the Christian Commonwealth, had proclaimed a general Council at Lyons, and was seeking out men distinguished in sanctity, doctrine, and wisdom, Summoned to the Council of Lyons with St. Thomas. by whose strong and faithful service he might make use for the treatment and explication of a most weighty matter: he chose in the first place two most illustrious lights of that age, from the two most flourishing Orders of Preachers and of Minors, Saints Thomas and Bonaventure: whom he ordered to come to him. But when the one had fallen into sickness on the very journey, and had happily flown away to the crown of glory, St. Bonaventure, having set out for Lyons, was most kindly received by the Roman Pontiff Gregory; who so reposed in his virtue and wisdom, that he decreed the parts of rightly directing and administering the Council to be especially assigned to him. Wherefore, out of the public utility and necessity of the Church, that with greater dignity and authority he might not only take part in the affairs of the Council, but preside over them: he determined to set the burning and shining lamp upon a lofty candlestick, that it might shine the more in the house of God.

[8] Therefore St. Bonaventure, seeking no honors, Created Cardinal by Gregory X rather fleeing them, but obeying the Vicar of Christ, and refusing to undergo no labors for the Church, he forthwith co-opted, as it were in the theater of the whole world, into the sacred College of Cardinals, and into the order of Bishops: for he set him over the Church of Albano, which honor is wont to be assigned to the elder Cardinal Priests. Increased by which most ample dignity, he conferred it wholly to the glory of God and the utility of the Church: for in the arduous affairs of the Council he rendered outstanding service, most constantly defended the Catholic faith, most keenly refuted depraved opinions; and by his prudence, doctrine, sanctity, and prayers the pastoral solicitude of Pope Gregory was so greatly aided, that, the dissension of schism being removed through God's mercy, Michael Palaeologus, Emperor of the Greeks, and the Eastern nations returned to the obedience, unity, and communion of the Apostolic See: and at last he was held worthy to be called by the Greeks by the name of Eutychius. The Greeks call him Eutychius, who by his labor returned to the Church. Deservedly therefore, when a little after in that same Council the most valiant athlete of Christ had migrated from the pilgrimage of this life to the heavenly country; all grieved his death, all bewailed the common loss, all adorned his funeral with tears and praises: but one beyond the rest most truly celebrated with distinguished laudation the most upright life led by the most holy man, his most approved character, his very many labors undertaken for the Church, and his doctrine beheld in that very Council. This was Peter, Cardinal of Tarantaise, of pious memory, a man distinguished in erudition and Christian eloquence: who afterward, raised to the summit of the Pontificate, was called Pope Innocent the Fifth. And the Supreme Pontiff Gregory the Tenth himself, grieving from the depths of his soul for the brother, helper, and most faithful counselor he had lost, openly testified in grave words, that the Catholic Church, which had received most abundant fruits from the piety and doctrine of so great a man, had suffered a great loss by his death.

[9] Miracles make him more illustrious. But truly it was said by the Holy Spirit, The just shall be in everlasting remembrance: for he who in life had been illustrious, became long after his death more illustrious, God, who is wonderful and glorious in his Saints, approving the sanctity of his servant by many signs and prodigies and miracles most especially notable. When the fame of these miracles spread abroad among all, the same Sixtus our predecessor, beholding them from the lofty watchtower of the Apostolic See, plainly understood the finger of God, who alone doeth great wonders, to be there. And so, both of his own accord, and at the vehement request of Frederick of famous memory, Emperor of the Romans, of Kings, Commonwealths, Dukes, and very many cities, and at the demand of the consent of almost all the faithful, he took up a thought worthy of a Roman Pontiff, concerning the referring of that most excellent man Bonaventure, Bishop and Cardinal, among the Saints. With the highest care and diligence therefore, the eminent sanctity of his life, and the truth of his miracles being examined and ascertained, and finally all things which pertained to that matter being duly and rightly done, to the glory of God and the exaltation of the Catholic Church, by his supreme power delivered to him by God in blessed Peter the Apostle, he referred the same blessed Bonaventure, with the consent of his brethren the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church, and of all the Prelates, among the Saints, and inscribed and aggregated him to the number of the holy Confessors, Pontiffs, and Doctors, and commanded his anniversary feast to be celebrated on the second Sunday of the month of July, and the office concerning him to be recited in the whole Church, as of a Confessor, Pontiff, and Doctor, other decrees being likewise added, which are more fully contained in the letters of the same Sixtus.

[10] Why he is to be numbered among the Doctors of the Church. And although this glorious Doctor St. Bonaventure is both most celebrated in the Catholic Church, and shines forth most greatly in heaven: where he is crowned with that crown which God hath promised to them that love him, nor needs any human thing, who enjoys those good things with Christ, which neither eye hath seen, nor have ascended into the heart of man; yet the charity of Christ urges us, and a certain ardent affection of devotion, with which from almost our earliest age we have perpetually burned toward him: that we may think of the propagating and illustrating, more and more, of his sanctity and doctrine (as far as we can with the Lord). We are moved indeed, as is fitting, by the holy communion we hold with him of our Seraphic Religion, in which we were educated, and in which we have passed so many years, and to which, as to a mother most well-deserving, we ought to render all the monuments of piety and of a grateful mind: but much more do the glory of God move us, the pastoral office which we bear, the so many labors undertaken for the Church of God by the most holy man, his so many illustrious merits, his so great conjunction with the Roman Church, in whose most ample order and senate he sat with the highest praise. Finally the utility of the universal Church moves us, which from the erudition of so great a Doctor can always be received greater and more abundant: especially since the snares of the heretics, and the diabolical machinations, by which in this mournful age they most vehemently assail sacred Theology, which is called Scholastic, greatly admonish us to retain, illustrate, and propagate with all zeal that same Theology, than which nothing is more fruitful for the Church of God.

[11] For by the divine gift of him who alone giveth the spirit of knowledge, The praise and utility of Scholastic Theology, and of wisdom, and of understanding, and who furnishes his Church through the ages of the centuries (as need is) with new supports; Scholastic Theology was discovered by our most wise elders: which two most glorious Doctors above all, the Angelic St. Thomas, and the Seraphic St. Bonaventure, the most illustrious professors of this faculty, and the first among those who have been referred to the number of the Saints, cultivated and adorned with excellent genius, assiduous study, great labors, and vigils, and handed it down to posterity most excellently disposed, and set forth in many ways with distinction: and the knowledge and exercise indeed of this so salutary science, which flows from the most abundant fountains of the divine letters, of the Supreme Pontiffs, of the holy Fathers, and of the Councils, has surely always been able to bring the greatest help to the Church, whether for truly and soundly understanding the Scriptures themselves; or for reading through the Fathers more safely and profitably; or for detecting and refuting various errors and heresies. But in these latter days, in which those perilous times described by the Apostle have now come, and men blasphemous, proud, seducers grow worse, erring and driving others into error; it is indeed most necessary for confirming the dogmas of the Catholic faith, for strengthening the faith, and confuting heresies. and for confuting heresies. And truly the very enemies of truth are judges that the matter is so, to whom Scholastic Theology is most formidable: who indeed understand, that by that apt and interconnected coherence of things and causes, by that order and disposition, as it were the array of soldiers in battle, by those lucid definitions and distinctions, by that firmness of arguments and most acute disputations, light is distinguished from darkness, the true from the false; and their lies, wrapped in many deceits and fallacies, as with the garment stripped off, are laid bare and made naked.

By how much the more therefore they strive to assault and overthrow this most fortified citadel of Scholastic Theology, so much the more does it become us to defend this invincible bulwark of the faith, and to preserve and guard the inheritance of our fathers, and to adorn with deserved honors, as far as we can, the keenest defenders of truth.

[12] Wherefore, that the erudition of the Seraphic Doctor may be more widely diffused to the utility of many; The College of St. Bonaventure established in the City. and that learned and studious men may from his books and works receive daily more copious and sweeter fruits (which cannot be doubted to make for some glory of the Saint himself, though most blessed in heaven) we have first indeed established, in our nourishing City, in this Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles, a College under the name of St. Bonaventure, in which sacred Theology may be publicly explained, especially from the works and commentaries of this eminent and devout Doctor: then also we take care that all his works, which could be found, partly not yet published, and sought out on every side by our authority and at our expense; partly already published, be all together printed in becoming form, and as correctly as possible, and brought to light from our Vatican press. And that which from the very beginning of our Pontificate we have constantly proposed, God (as we piously believe) inspiring, namely to celebrate the name and glorious merits of this holy Doctor before all according to our power, and to increase and amplify the veneration of the faithful toward him, we have been in no small measure aroused to this also by the example of Pope Pius V of holy memory, our predecessor, most well-deserving of the Christian Commonwealth, and whom we still revere and honor as a parent. For he, moved by religious piety, and by that singular devotion with which he was affected toward St. Thomas Aquinas, the glory of his Order, and the ornament of the Catholic Church; desiring in the same manner to adorn the same Saint with fitting honors on account of his most excellent merits toward the Catholic Church, among other things ordered and decreed this, that his feast day should be perpetually celebrated every year with the rite of a Double Office, after the manner of the four holy Doctors of the Church; which we assuredly judge ought fittingly to be granted also to St. Bonaventure the eminent Doctor, since there intervenes among them so great a conjunction and likeness of virtue, sanctity, doctrine, and merits.

[13] A noble pair of friends. For these are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks shining in the house of God, who illuminate the whole Church both with the richness of charity and with the light of knowledge: these, by the singular providence of God, at the same time, like two rising stars, came forth from two most illustrious families of the Regular Orders, which are ever most useful to the holy Church for defending the Catholic Religion, and ever ready to undergo all labors and perils for the orthodox faith, from which, as from a fertile and well-tilled soil, there are daily brought forth, by the grace of God, fruitful and fructifying plants, that is, men distinguished in doctrine and sanctity: who render strong and faithful service to the little bark of Peter, tossed by so many waves, and to the Roman Pontiff, holding its helm not without great solicitude. These two Saints, since they were coeval, and fellow-disciples devoted to the same studies, at once Masters, honored in like manner by Gregory the Tenth, Supreme Pontiff (since both were summoned to the Council), were in the pilgrimage of this life greatly joined by fraternal charity, spiritual familiarity, and fellowship of holy labors, and finally, migrating with equal step to the heavenly country, alike happy and glorious enjoy that everlasting beatitude, where with the same affection of charity (as we piously believe) they pray for us laboring in this vale of tears, and implore the divine help: so that deservedly the same Sixtus the Fourth, recognizing these two Saints as most alike, and as it were twin brothers in Christ, decreed that St. Bonaventure was to be adorned with a like prerogative of veneration and honor as St. Thomas. It is decreed by Sixtus V that St. Bonaventure is a Doctor of the Church;

[14] That therefore which both the charity of the Seraphic Order, and the greatness of the merits of St. Bonaventure, and the utility and edification of the Catholic Church, whose helm has been committed to us by God, though unworthy, require of us; having had over all these matters mature deliberation with our Venerable brethren the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church; by their counsel and unanimous assent, and of our certain knowledge, and out of the fullness of the Apostolic power attributed to us, by this our constitution to endure perpetually, we too greatly praise and commend in the Lord the doctrine of St. Bonaventure himself, praised by our aforesaid predecessors Clement IV, Gregory X, and Sixtus IV, most highly esteemed in the Council of Lyons, employed also in that of Florence for explaining difficult matters, attested and commended by the authority of most grave men, and worthy of an eminent Doctor of the Church, and, approving and renewing by the tenor of these presents the letters of the same Sixtus IV, which we will to be held in this place as expressed (excepting his ordination concerning the feast day of St. Bonaventure to be celebrated on the second Sunday of July), we decree and declare that St. Bonaventure himself, inscribed and numbered by the same Sixtus IV in the fellowship of the holy Doctors, is by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, to be held and venerated among the chief and foremost who have excelled in the mastery of the Theological faculty.

[15] And for that cause, hoping in the Lord, whose words have authority both publicly and privately. that the lucubrations of this Seraphic Doctor will be of the greatest help to the doctrine and devotion which we greatly desire to shine and burn in the clergy and Christian people; we will and decree that his books, commentaries, opuscula, and finally all his works, as they are brought forth as correctly as possible (as was said above) from our Vatican press, be cited, brought forward, and (when the matter shall require it) employed, like those of the other eminent Doctors of the Church, not only privately, but publicly in the Gymnasia, Academies, Schools, Colleges, lectures, disputations, interpretations, sermons, discourses, and all other ecclesiastical studies and Christian exercises: and nevertheless, that the glorious memory of this most wise Doctor may, if not for his own dignity, at least for human weakness, on account of his immense merits, be recalled with more ardent zeal, moved by the example of our predecessors of happy memory Pope Boniface VIII, who commanded the same concerning the four holy Doctors, and Pope Pius V, who commanded the same concerning the aforesaid St. Thomas, we command that the feast day of the same St. Bonaventure be, in all parts of the Christian world, under a Double Office, by all ecclesiastical persons, secular, and Regulars of whatsoever Orders, both publicly and privately, celebrated on the day before the Ides of July (the aforesaid ordination of Sixtus the Fourth concerning the second Sunday of the said month notwithstanding), and be described and printed in the Calendars, with the name of Doctor, and the addition of a Double feast, even though in the latest reformations of the Roman Breviary and Missal it may have been otherwise disposed; nor do we decree that it can be reckoned or interpreted otherwise than as was ordained by us, as above, by any persons whatsoever endowed with any authority. Exhorting all the faithful of Christ of both sexes, of the city of Bagnorea, which brought forth this most illustrious light, and of that diocese; that on the same feast day they abstain from servile works, according to the custom of the holy Church.

[16] Indulgences on the anniversary feast day. But that the devotion of the faithful of Christ toward honoring the feast day of this Seraphic Doctor, and toward piously imploring his help, may be the more kindled, the more abundantly they shall perceive themselves to be refreshed by this gift of heavenly grace: trusting in the mercy of almighty God, and in the authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the faithful of Christ of both sexes, both in the said city and diocese of Bagnorea, and in the illustrious city of Lyons in Gaul, where he, having lawfully fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith, happily migrated from this calamitous world to heaven, to the reward and crown of his merits, and in our nourishing City, where in this Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles a College has been erected by us (as we have already said), who, devoutly keeping his feast of this kind, as the other festivals wont to be kept by the precept of the Church, being truly penitent, and having first made sacramental confession of their sins, shall on that day receive the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, we mercifully grant and bestow in the Lord a plenary Indulgence and remission of all their sins. But those who shall on the very feast day, from first Vespers until the setting of the sun of that same day, devoutly visit the churches of the Friars Minor of St. Francis, pouring forth there pious prayers to God (as his own devotion shall suggest to each), we mercifully relax in the Lord ten years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined upon them, or otherwise in any wise owed, by these present letters to endure perpetually, which we will in no way to be comprehended under any revocations or limitations of Indulgences.

[17] This diploma to be published and observed, Wherefore we command your fraternity and discretion by Apostolic writings, that you take care that the present letters, and whatsoever things contained in them, be solemnly published, each in his own Provinces, Cities, Churches, and Dioceses, and inviolably and perpetually observed by all ecclesiastical persons, secular, and Regulars of whatsoever Orders, in all places and among all peoples. And we will, that to transcripts, even printed ones, of these same presents, and faith to be given to the transcripts. subscribed by the hand of some public Notary, and fortified with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, the very same faith be everywhere given which would be given to the presents themselves if they were exhibited or shown. Let it therefore be lawful to no man at all to infringe this page of our approbation, declaration, will, precept, grant, bestowal, relaxation, and mandate, or with rash daring to go against it. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand five hundred eighty-seven, on the day before the Ides of March, in the third year of our Pontificate. Thus far the diploma of Pope Sixtus V, to which is subjoined: I Sixtus, Bishop of the Catholic Church, have subscribed, the seal being affixed, expressed in this form in the edition of Sedulius, which we have professed to follow. There follow the subscriptions of fifty Cardinals in all, of whom the first six are Bishops, the last six deacons, and the thirty-eight in between Priests, each recorded there with his own names and titles, with the added testimony of registration and publication, but made first in the year of the Incarnation 1588, Indiction I, on Friday, the 18th of the month of March, in the places and manner wont to be used in these: which things I wished here only to note in passing, on account of a difference found among some, while some cite the bull for the year 1587, in which it was issued by the Pontiff, others for the following year, when it was first made public; then, I suppose, when Cardinal Sarnanus, by order of Sixtus himself, published the part of the impression of the Saint's works that had been prepared, as you may see at greater length in the very dedicatory epistle prefixed to the first volume. And these thus far are the chief documents which can be adduced concerning St. Bonaventure, to which in the last place we add a Life of a sort composed at the same time by Galesinius,

and inserted into the aforesaid volume: with this difference only, that we have reduced the title, and the too unequal twenty chapters of Galesinius, to our norm, plainly in this manner.

LIFE

By the Author Peter Galesinius, Apostolic Protonotary, to Sixtus V, Supreme Pontiff, from the edition of Henry Sedulius.

By Peter Galesinius.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

By divine counsel you established the Vatican printing-house, most blessed Father: you established indeed a thing, The Vatican printing-house established by Sixtus V. or rather perfected it, not only glorious to yourself, but salutary to the Catholic Commonwealth, and in all respects useful and necessary, both for restoring the sacred codices, and for renewing the monuments of the holy Fathers; and also for disseminating right discipline throughout the whole world, not without great propagation of the kingdom of Christ; this indeed good men, with God's good help, surely hope, and the wisest men judge, concerning that illustrious work of yours. But truly, that all may understand it more plainly, I will explain it most fully in a separate book, which will soon be issued. Now, however, since you have willed that the beginning of the Vatican impression be made from the works of the Cardinal St. Bonaventure, Where before other works St. Bonaventure's were printed. whom for the excellence of his doctrine you have rightly numbered among the foremost Doctors of the Church, and that indeed by the best right: it is not only worth the labor, but seems very pious and fruitful, to commit his life to writing as diligently as possible.

[2] Doctrine and holiness of life, a bulwark of the faith. For there are two things, in which the constant and most firm bulwark of our faith has always been; the knowledge of doctrines, and the sanctity of life. In these two the ancient Fathers, both Latin and Greek, divinely instructed, had nothing more at heart than to guard the defenses of holy Religion. For the faith of Jesus Christ, which, under the leadership of the Apostles and the disciples of the Apostles, had long since spread over the whole world, though ofttimes most grievously assailed in the most turbulent times of the Church, although content indeed with its own ornaments and insignia, sufficiently defended itself by its own dignity: yet, defended by the help both of their sanctity and of their doctrine, easily overcame the iniquity of men and the injury of the times. By the splendor therefore of both these things, which have perpetually availed most in the Christian Commonwealth, the man of God Bonaventure shines in the firmament of the Church, like a star, unto perpetual eternities.

[3] His deeds written by many, Nor were there wanting before now those who have written his deeds, most illustrious in the name of piety and religion, nor likewise those who have given excellent testimonies to the divine knowledge and wisdom of so eminent a Doctor. But since the greatest men have this proper to themselves, that they furnish a great subject of writing not to one only, but to many: it is not foreign to the public purpose and plan of writing, to explain more fully the matters which some have touched briefly; and those which they have perhaps left in silence, to write out plainly, all of them, as far as it can be done, clearly and splendidly. John the Deacon, moreover, although very many others had consigned the life of the most holy Pontiff Gregory the Great to the monuments of letters: yet judged it best done, that, as far as in him lay, he should narrate the same more fully in four books. And since illustrious writers, Latin and Greek, have handed down to us an example of this very thing: there is no need to recount at length by many words that which is at hand.

[4] and praised. The Seraphic Bonaventure, moreover, most holy, and likewise most learned, has not only praisers of his virtues, but also most certain beholders and witnesses, who shall be brought forward in their places. For he did deeds so great, and so admirable, God being author and leader, that from the time in which he was on earth, down to this age, there has been almost no writer loving of piety, who has not left something excellently attested concerning him. Very much indeed has been attributed to him, as I shall set forth in order, not only by the Supreme Pontiffs, Alexander the Fourth, Clement the Fourth, Gregory the Tenth, Innocent the Fifth, and Sixtus the Fourth: but also by the Oecumenical Synods, by the most ample College of Cardinals, and by almost all the most grave men who have been engaged, not without praise of genius, either in the science of Theology, or in the office of Annals. Many things concerning both his doctrine and his life did St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, especially commit to immortality: but he would certainly have set forth all things at greater length, if he had reached that age, when the active and luminous virtues of the same, rightly and duly sought out on every side, were known and explored by the testimony of all good men, under Pope Sixtus the Fourth: who, at the demand of almost all the Princes of the whole Christian world, with the highest joy of all Italy, and the public congratulation of all orders, inscribed him in the number of the Saints.

[5] With wondrous and divine praises many excellent men celebrate him, especially Octavianus of Sinuessa, By Latins and Greeks alike. a most illustrious jurisconsult, and John Francis Pavinius, most excellently learned in the knowledge of divine and human things; likewise almost all the men of the Franciscan Order: whose industry contends in praising him. Very much also to his glory are those most brilliant testimonies which most learned writers, John Gerson, Henry of Ghent, and John Trithemius, and the rest of their like, address to him. Nay, he who flourished in the memory of our fathers, and was held prince of philosophers, John Pico of Mirandola, not only perpetually praised his doctrine, but greatly desired to bring it forth worthy of the light of all, if he could in some way have obtained from the Franciscans themselves a certain Ghent exemplar. Nor moreover did the Latins only, but also the Greeks, vehemently admire the virtue and erudition in which he excelled. I indeed once heard from Cardinal Sirleto, most skilled in Greek and Latin, and adorned with every doctrine; that Emmanuel Calecas, a Greek, who wrote in Greek against the Greeks on behalf of the Latins, thought excellently concerning St. Bonaventure.

[6] Aided therefore plainly by the testimonies, and also by the lucubrations and monuments of letters of many great and excellent men, in which appear the traces of his great deeds, The Author imitates Gregory Nazianzen in writing history. I shall undertake, with God's good help, the writing which I have set out concerning his life. And that I may set it forth fully and in order, I shall follow, by imitation, Gregory Nazianzen writing of Basil the Great. For if any difficult and arduous work is to be undertaken by anyone: he ought surely to set before himself in the first place the highest and wisest leader and master, by whose example instructed and aided, he may lay upon himself no ambiguity, no solicitude, in accomplishing it. And truly, although to imitate the virtue and doctrine of writing of so preeminent a Doctor and divine man, whom all antiquity admires, Gregory Nazianzen, is by far most difficult: nevertheless, in a great and arduous writing, since it is plainly agreeable to public interests, to attempt this with every kind of diligence and zeal is not the attempt of a bold man, which in difficult matters is held for virtue; but of an honest will, and of a soul burning with desire for the public good. He, moreover, narrated the country, race, parents, discipline, studies, doctrine, virtues, offices, and works of Basil: the same I judge must be done by me, as regards the order of clearly and distinctly explaining those matters. For this very method of order, since it seems excellent, is taught not only by the imitation of him, but also by the art and letters of those who are masters of rightly speaking and writing, and is most fittingly accommodated by use to this kind of narration, which I have undertaken.

[7] The arduous writing of this work. This subject undertaken by me is, moreover, not only difficult, but great and ample, since it requires both choice and ornament of words, gravity of sentences, the highest variety of elocution, and sometimes the varied force of numerous oration, according to the manner of the deeds and virtues, which are to be commemorated with figures of speech, shining with a certain illustrious splendor, and with every excellent elegance. For since it much concerns the instituting of Christian moral discipline, that the admirable deeds of most holy men, abounding in a wealth of virtues, illustrious in the name of religion and piety, be set forth: of these one must speak copiously, eloquently, and luminously. But on the contrary, sometimes, according to the manner of the matter which is narrated, that polished force of elaborate oration, sprinkled as it were with the flowers of words and sentences, must be rejected: often also that copiousness of speech is to be despised, lest the truth of the matter which is narrated be overwhelmed by the multitude and abundance of words. That Nazianzen fittingly and divinely displayed all these things in writing the deeds of Basil, is agreed among all.

[8] The life of St. Bonaventure a law of the virtues: But I, toward the most holy Bonaventure, whose life also shines with great praises, although I shall be able to display less of that grave, admirable, and solid power of oration; yet certainly I profess that I cannot: I shall try to employ that in which at least some, even the smallest, diligence of mine may appear, or rather a certain desire of my soul. For long since I have burned with incredible zeal to explain his deeds; both for many other reasons, and most of all for that hope, which I have often in mind, of the greatest and most abundant fruits which posterity will reap from his life, so abounding in all precepts, all examples of discipline, all methods of acting rightly and holily, that it may be called, as it were, the law of very many Christian virtues; even as Gregory Nazianzen likewise asserted concerning the life of St. Basil.

[9] who in every study is an eminent doctor: For there is almost no one, a man of whatever order, who, if he reads or hears the excellent actions of Bonaventure, does not surely have him for an example to himself. Those who give themselves to contemplation have Bonaventure as a most diligent master of divine Meditations; those who cultivate the studies of spiritual things, as a most learned teacher of all holy life; those who search into the sacred mysteries, as a most eloquent interpreter; those who are engaged in the science of Theology, as a great Theologian; those who wish to be learnedly skilled in the use of the divine letters, as an eminent Doctor of the Church. It can scarcely be told how studiously he read the sacred books, how divinely he meditated on the law of the Lord, how learnedly, eruditely, and copiously he explained, with great ardor of kindled charity, those divine words, with which the God of majesty thundered, and how wisely and rightly he affirmed all that he taught. Of which matter, since there are very many witnesses, and those most trustworthy, so also he himself thus professes concerning himself in these words: I intend to affirm nothing which is not affirmed by holy Scripture, by the sayings of the Saints, by approved opinions. Excellently said, and worthy of Bonaventure.

[10] There is therefore surely cause, why all good men, reckoned among the chief Doctors of the Church. and those who think well of the Catholic Commonwealth, should owe you very much on many accounts, most blessed Father: who have both decreed him to be among the foremost and chief Doctors of the Church; and have willed his works, which had too long lain in neglect and squalor, diligently and at great expense sought out on every side, studiously emended, and accurately polished, to come forth at last into the light from the Vatican press. This is an excellent benefit, immortal, great, and

ample, which extends far and pertains to the whole Church of God. For you have restored from disused practice, and vindicated from the near oblivion of men, the aging doctrine and discipline of so great and eminent a Doctor: which brings dignity, splendor, amplitude, most abundant utilities, and salutary fruits to the Christian Commonwealth.

[11] It is, moreover, that grave, sweet, admirable, and full doctrine, His salutary doctrine. filled and stored with holier interpretations; by which doctrine one well instructed can, with the aid of divine grace, in so great a darkness of this age, apply a light for the reformation of morals, inflame the souls of the Christian people to act piously, and finally arouse them to all those parts of holy religion, in which lies the perpetual course of the Catholic Church. And there is almost no one, imbued with the studies of ecclesiastical letters, who does not know that fierce and insolent heretics have sometimes been recalled from their obstinacy of impiety; the noxious and criminal from their crimes; the prostrate and slothful been aroused to the offices of virtue, by the force of Seraphic doctrine: which the most holy Bonaventure delivered, filled with the knowledge of the greatest arts, an abundance of the best examples, the science of natural things, and the mysteries of Theology. Wherefore no one can be so unjust an appraiser of things, as not to acknowledge, not to commemorate, not to extol with praises this public benefit of yours: from which, since the fruits are so abundant and so immortal, there will be perpetual gladness to your Holiness; on whose virtue and felicity all who are not averse from the public good truly and heartily congratulate. But now at length it is time to undertake the narration of the life and deeds of St. Bonaventure. Which whole narration I shall set forth in the Nazianzen manner, that it may be a little more full. Nor did I judge it foreign, first to write concerning his name: that what pertains to his country, race, and other things of that kind may thereafter all be aptly woven together.

CHAPTER I.

His name, country, parents, year of birth, the Seraphic Order, and the affairs of the world: the habit of his body and the virtues of his soul.

John was his name, called Bonaventure from the event of good things. Bonaventure, who from the very beginning of his life, when he received baptism, was called John, like his father: afterward had that name from this, that blessed Francis had once, by a divine presentiment of soul, foretold that he, then an infant, would be happy in all praise: for Bonaventura, which word they commonly use in Italian, has plainly that signification. And so at first he was called by one, and likewise by another name: which is clearly seen in the ancient monuments of the codices, whose inscription stands thus; Brother John Bonaventure. But Gerson is of that opinion, that he thinks Eustachius was named Bonaventure: others say Eustathius, others Eutychius. But, God helping, since all things fell out well and happily for him: it came about that the Latins and Italians ever afterward called him Bonaventure without any other name, and the Greeks Eutychius, which if we render in Italian, we interpret Bonaventure. But that others call him Eustathius or Eustachius, most give this reason, that in every disputation which he had held with the Greeks at Lyons, since he had preserved the truth of doctrine and the gravity of discipline with perpetual constancy, for that cause he was called Eustachius in Greek by others. But thus far concerning his name.

[13] The praise of Etruria. But now first it behooves to speak of the region and country where he was brought forth into light, who thereafter shone before almost the whole world with the great lights of sanctity, virtue, and doctrine. Etruria, which by another Latin name is called Tuscia, and in Greek Tyrrhenia, is one of the regions of Italy, most flourishing today; formerly also most happy in all praise, as is clearly known from the monuments of historians, especially Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Pliny; it abounded in the resources of an empire which extended far and wide by land and sea, and in the studies of letters, and for that reason was once called the most learned interpreter of the disciplines. That young men were sent thither by the Romans, as it were for the merchandise of the good arts, the ancient commentaries of the Roman Commonwealth relate: by which it is also handed down, that they were wont to be trained in Etruscan letters, as afterward in Greek. But abounding with a wealth of things which pertain to the use and cultivation of life, both its maritime and its inland part has most noble cities, colonies, towns, villages, and frequent hamlets. And from almost the very beginning of the nascent Christian religion it was imbued with the mysteries of the holy faith. For under the Emperor Domitian, Romulus ^b, a disciple of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, sent thither for the sake of the Gospel, having traversed many places of Italy, and chiefly of Tuscany, when he had everywhere disseminated the doctrine of Christ, at last returning to Fiesole at the admonition of an angel, met martyrdom. It would be too long to recount the very many others, since especially this is clearly manifest from the diptych tables of the cathedral churches, of which there exist not a few in that province.

[14] But this also makes the matter plain, that Bagnorea, The country of St. Bonaventure, Bagnorea. the city of which I now undertake the narration, from the very time when Ansanus ^c, a famous athlete of true and divine piety, completed the course of martyrdom at Siena under the Emperor Diocletian, is handed down in the writings of the Annals to have received the religion of Christ. Now there were, besides the rest, in Etruria the Nine hamlets, which Pliny commemorates: and from these Bagnorea was founded and built up, from which fact its antiquity and excellence of nobility is now plainly perceived. Under Pope Gregory the Great it was captured by the Lombards, and almost cut off by their barbarous savagery: and although Smaragdus, Exarch of Ravenna, had striven to restore it, yet he accomplished nothing. But many years after, Desiderius, King of the Lombards, not only restored it, but, as the manner of those times bore, greatly adorned and enlarged it, since he made one city out of those two, which he calls Civita and Rhoda in his edictal letters, written to Grimoald, Count of Viterbo.

[15] But the city of Bagnorea was of old ennobled in many respects, Its praise. and besides is illustrious on this account, that so many ages ago it had a bishopric. This indeed the very letters of the most holy Pontiff Gregory the Great declare, which he had given to Eulogius, Bishop of Chiusi, concerning the creating of a Bishop of Bagnorea. Nor ought it be doubtful to anyone, that it obtained the Episcopal dignity long before, since at almost the very outset, as was just now narrated, it received the Christian religion. Whence it comes that the series of the Bishops of Bagnorea might be, perhaps, not far derived from Apostolic times. Nor indeed did that city only have, but it bore Bishops most distinguished for the praise of episcopal virtues: and for that reason it is reckoned noble in the first rank; but the nobler for this, that it bore a holy man, a wondrous person, distinguished in sacred and divine doctrine, an eminent Doctor of the Church, a Bishop, and a Cardinal Bishop, an exemplar of the highest virtues, Bonaventure, the narration of whose life I have set out to weave ^d.

[16] He therefore, born at Bagnorea in Tuscany, which is the flower of Italy, The parents of St. Bonaventure. had for parents John Fidantius and Ritelia, spouses sprung of noble stock, and burning with zeal for the works of piety, and obedient to the divine law. And that they were not lacking in family means, but had wherewith to live commodiously enough, after the manner of the citizens of Bagnorea, the ample house long ago plainly showed, which, afterward built into a church at Bagnorea by Antonio Pucci, Cardinal, was consecrated to God under the name of St. Bonaventure ^e.

[17] He is moreover born in the year from the birth of Christ 1221, under Honorius III, Supreme Pontiff, who, two years before blessed Francis departed from this life, His birth. approved by Apostolic authority the rule of the Franciscan Order. His birthday therefore was five years before the death of the Seraphic Father himself, and indeed seven years before he was inscribed by Gregory IX, who next succeeded Honorius, in the number of the holy Confessors at Perugia. For he died in the year 1226, and two years after, which year was 1228, was referred among the Saints. In which matter without doubt is seen the providence of God, and that indeed singular, by which he perpetually took thought for the affairs of the Seraphic Order. For scarcely was this Order established, still less strengthened, increased, and grown up, but then almost first coming to birth, when its parent and author departed from this life; and then commodiously and opportunely there arises by divine gift one who at the necessary time would guard, restore, increase, and adorn it with almost all ornaments. Nor indeed did he die long after, who was also the safeguard and glory of the Order, blessed Anthony of Lisbon, whom we call of Padua.

[18] [Alexander of Hales, the first Professor of sacred Theology in the Order of St. Francis.] But nevertheless the Seraphic religion flourished, until Bonaventure was of grown and confirmed age, with great men, who, illustrious in the name of piety, availed very much also by doctrine. And among these very men most preeminent in the first place is Alexander of Hales, who, amid an admirable concourse of all seekers of letters, first of that Order publicly taught Theology in the Scholastic manner at Paris: John of la Rochelle likewise, and very many others. Nor indeed were there wanting besides, those who, not only by eminent erudition both Latin and Greek, but excellently skilled in the practice of affairs, rendered service and work to the Christian Commonwealth. For since the Greek Church had long dissented too obstinately from the Catholic Roman Church on many matters, especially concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit: Pope Gregory IX had nothing more at heart, nor more ancient, than to send four Apocrisarii, whom it is permitted to interpret as Legates, to Constantinople, for the sake of removing so long-lasting a dissension, Franciscans sent as legates to the Greeks by the Pontiff. and from these he chose especially two of the Seraphic Order, Ralph and Ammonius; who, having set out for Greece, excellently conducted and accomplished the matter, since by the doctrine and authority of the sacrosanct Catholic Roman Church a decree was made especially concerning that dogma: to which decree they themselves subscribed not only in Latin, but in Greek, so that from thence it is clear; that the Franciscans even from the beginning of the Order knew Greek; for that they knew Hebrew excellently is certain and most fully explored ^f. The state therefore of the Seraphic Order in those times was most flourishing in examples of doctrines and virtues: of which, as it were little sparks, it is fitting to observe were even then kindled in Bonaventure from almost the beginning of his age, and so consonant with the office of piety: that the great counsel of God and providence, which establishes the matter of great things long beforehand, may be proclaimed in all the ages of the centuries, even in Bonaventure himself: whom God willed to be instituted and cultivated from infancy with the excellent ornaments of the Franciscan Order, into which he was afterward to be inscribed, that he would be in the number of those who draw near to God as he draws near, and would remain in the pastoral station of the Church. But wondrous also are many other things, and most worthy of everlasting monuments, which, God willing, were done, transacted, and accomplished in those times, not only in the Seraphic Order, but universally in the Christian Commonwealth.

[19] For not only blessed Francis,

(as I have a little before commemorated,) Many Saints in the Church of God. but also blessed Dominic, author of the Order of Preachers, Anthony of Lisbon, whom they commonly called the Bishop of St. Francis, and Elizabeth of Hesse, daughter of the King of Hungary, were referred to the number of the Saints. These pious recollections, not far sought out from the writings of the annals, or drawn from the memory of his parents, or from elsewhere, but recent, recalled to mind by Bonaventure, were for imitation a great example to him, whom God, glorious in his Saints, had determined to set upon the candlestick of the Church, whence he might shine to all who are in the house. The recollection of the examples of past time moves much: but far the most does the memory of recent deeds kindle, which one has received in report as a boy or youth, since he imbibed in his mind a good and firm opinion of them.

[20] That age, moreover, was full of holy institutions. Then it was begun that bells should be rung, when the sacred Eucharist is elevated in the Mass: [The beginning of ringing bells at the elevation of the body of the Lord, and at the Angelic salutation.] likewise at the Angelic salutation, and the praises of the blessed Virgin Mary. And there were established, or also confirmed by Apostolic authority, certain religious Orders, the Dominican, the Monastic of the Valley of Choralium ^g, and that of the Virgins under the name of St. Clare. The Prussians receive the faith of Christ the Lord; the holy War, long undertaken against the Saracens, is excellently conducted; the Stedinger heretics, despising the power of the Church, are conquered and overcome. The first Oecumenical Council is held at Lyons: in which Frederick II, Emperor, leader and author of pestiferous seditions, is declared an enemy of the Church; the recovery of Jerusalem is decreed: the chief charge of that matter is committed to Louis, King of France, who was afterward inscribed in the number of the Saints; the Cardinals are endowed by Innocent the Fourth with the purple and the red hat.

[21] And truly everywhere on earth, especially in Italy, France, and Spain, the studies of letters, which had languished for a hundred years, The studies of letters revive. are greatly aroused by the singular care of Princes ^h. And this indeed is a certain epitome, as it were, and compendium of the times, into which fell the boyhood and adolescence of St. Bonaventure: to whom God willed there to be set forth the courses both of the lives of the holy men of that age, and of the studies and industry of the most learned men, and of the glory of public actions, in which he too might imprint his own footsteps. And it was divinely brought about, that at that necessary time of the Church he pressed upon all these not lightly, but fixed them gravely for everlasting memory. For with holy emulation he expressed the life of the Saints, brought pious institutions into use: to the religious and holy life he joined that praise of doctrine, so that, a man of great and admirable prudence of genius, and of solid and full knowledge of the good disciplines, and of excellent knowledge of sacred Theology, he at last bore the fruit of immortal and perennial glory. But I shall set forth the whole matter in its place and order.

[22] But now, that I may not deflect even the least from the course which Nazianzen held in the life of Basil, The parallel of Saints Basil and Bonaventure. I shall pursue universally, by speaking, those things ⁱ which pertain to the goods of the body and of the soul, with which the divine bounty adorned Bonaventure. But truly, although he whom I have set before myself as Master, Nazianzen, seems of set purpose to pass over the bodily goods of Basil himself, whom he so greatly praises: yet he does not think it foreign to the interests of him who hands down to posterity in writing the life of others. For that he might, as is his wont, digress more widely to the goods of the soul: in a certain manner he passed over those things which are of the body. But in truth, in the judgment of the wise, he did not leave them wholly untold, but touched them briefly: since he writes that magnitude of body, strength, and beauty could be attributed to Basil, in an age still flourishing. I therefore, in imitation of him, shall say these things briefly, but those which pertain to the soul I shall set forth fully and clearly in order.

[23] St. Bonaventure was of tall and firm body, Bonaventure was therefore of a body tall in habit, and well constituted, so much so that he never, or certainly rarely, labored under adverse and infirm health: of which fact the arguments are the so many and so great labors undertaken for the Franciscan Order and for the Church of God, and the innumerable lucubrations of books, opuscula, and commentaries. And of a grave countenance, and angelic aspect, so as to snatch men into admiration of him: with a face sometimes bedewed with tears, since he was wont (as he himself testifies concerning himself), burning with the ardor of divine love, and suffused with the sweetness of gladness, venerable in form. to cling by meditation fixed in the wounds of Christ; and finally of such a form of body, or rather dignity, and of such a highest disposition of soul, that no one did not reverence him, and no one likewise did not most willingly suffer himself to be admonished by him. But I shall speak explicitly of his virtues soon below. These things I have been pleased to preface generally; that I may at last make my approach to the narration of those most excellent matters, in which, since the greatest splendor of piety, religion, sanctity, wisdom, erudition, doctrine, and preeminent virtue shines forth: the course of my writing may not be interrupted by the commemorating afterward of other things, which perhaps seem least.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER II.

His entrance into the Order from his mother's vow; the innocence of his life and his other virtues; his zeal for prayer and contemplation.

First therefore, since I have now, after the example of Nazianzen, said something of his country, parents, and bodily constitution; [St. Bonaventure as a boy, falling sick, was devoted by his mother to the Seraphic Order for his health, and suddenly recovered.] I come to the pious vow of Ritelia his mother, who loved the boy Bonaventure singularly and exceedingly, both as a son, and as one who was of singular hope. And so it will come about, that from his cradle I shall digress in order to his whole course of age; in which he indeed, most holy, and divinely trained to all virtues, laid down the monuments of his admirable and divine actions. By God's permission it came to pass, that Bonaventure, almost an infant, fell into a grave sickness: and for that reason, when his mother greatly feared his death, because she saw especially that neither by the skill of the physicians, nor by the force of medicines, nor by the help of nature did he recover; the woman, of eminent piety, had nothing more at heart, than to implore the help of God, from whom alone she hoped that a son so grievously sick, and despaired of and abandoned by the physicians, could be freed from that most grave and most perilous illness. There was at that time in Italy, and almost everywhere on earth, the celebrated fame of the sanctity of blessed Francis: to whom when she had fled for refuge, she intimately commended herself to his pious prayers and merits: and vowed that if he escaped safe from the peril of life, she would dedicate him to the Franciscan religion. Then the sorrowing and grieving mother he first greatly consoled with every office of charity, and most of all aided by prayer; when, praying to God devoutly, he obtained from the divine mercy that which she had so greatly sought concerning the safety of her son ^a. This indeed seemed exceedingly wonderful to all, and especially to the physicians, who had judged the boy's disease plainly incurable.

[25] Mindful of the vow, he becomes a Minorite. And so Bonaventure, being in his twenty-second year, mindful both of the vow which his mother had made, and of the divine precept, which was written by David in these words; Vow ye, and render to the Lord your God, all you that round about him bring presents: took up the habit of St. Francis, and the institutes of the Seraphic rule, with incredible ardor of soul, and with a memorable example of piety, most worthy of imitation. And since he made so much of this benefit, as to esteem that the divine gift ought to be made the greatest by himself, he openly showed and professed it in these words; By the vow made to blessed Francis by my mother for me when languishing, while I was still a little boy, I was snatched from the very jaws of death, and restored unharmed to the strength of life. Which since I hold in living memory, I now profess by true confession, lest, keeping silent so great a benefit, I be convicted of the crime of ingratitude. Wherefore he poured forth prayers to him thus; Receive, blessed Father, whatsoever thanksgivings, unequal to thy merits and benefits; and when thou hast received our vows, so excuse our faults by praying, that thou mayest snatch us from present evils, and lead us to everlasting goods. Inscribed therefore in the Order of St. Francis, he referred all his counsels, thoughts, and deeds to the life of the Seraphic Father: which he so expressed in his morals, that he seemed to be the heir of his virtues. For of him whose deeds, done piously, religiously, admirably, and divinely, he was to consign to posterity in the monuments of letters, he preferred first to imitate them with holy emulation of deeds, rather than to narrate them with abundance of writings.

[26] A singular eulogy. And so at this point, where Bonaventure has now entered by vow upon the way and course of the religious and Seraphic life, I shall first set up my discourse concerning those greatest ornaments, with which the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation, willed him to be adorned: then indeed concerning his eminent erudition, and excellent doctrine; which he received not so much as gained by his own singular study and labor, as also handed down to him divinely. And of such innocence of life, such chastity of morals, and such splendor of a sincere soul

did he indeed outshine the rest, that Alexander of Hales, that most illustrious Master of Theology, to whom he gave his service, was wont to say; That Adam seemed not to have sinned in Bonaventure. Nor indeed did the eminent opinion which he had conceived of him deceive him.

[27] The highest lowliness of the holy man's soul, But humility, which is the seedbed of all the virtues, and which the heavenly Master, Christ the Lord, willed especially to be learned from himself; Learn, he says, of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, he himself wondrously cultivated, and gave very many examples of it as lessons. And he left writing concerning it in many places and books, and especially in that which he entitled the Quiver (Pharetra). In almost every opuscule indeed he shows and professes himself humble. Full of humility are the words which he sometimes brings forth from the inmost feelings of his soul in the book of Confession thus; Moreover, being simple, writing simple things simply for the simple, I have arranged the particles of the present opuscule according as they occurred to my memory, rather than according to their natural coherence with one another, supplicating with all the humility and devotion I can, that

Be to me a corrector, cutting away the superfluous, reader; And deign to join the true to the true, where they are lacking, Every defect ascribe partly to zeal for brevity Of the writer, partly to the fault of rudeness.

Besides, in the opuscule which he published On the Purity of conscience, of which Gerson at times makes excellent mention, one may also perceive, especially in the last chapter, how lowly, how humbly he thinks of himself. And since of this virtue, which is exalted, and so high that it penetrates even heaven, he not only himself ran the course, but greatly desired others to be engaged in the same, whenever he found some place in the divine letters where he might demonstrate the degrees of that most lofty virtue, he by no means passes it over; the humility of Christ the Lord, and likewise of the Virgin Mary his mother, almost everywhere in several opuscules he teaches and preaches.

[28] But surely he furnished and left very many examples of the same virtue, in which he himself delights to do humble things. since he was assiduously engaged in those holy meditations of the same life both of Christ Jesus and of the most blessed Virgin. Nor indeed did he, whose soul was trained to the offices of humility, ever swell or grow puffed up, nor did he, even from the abundance of doctrines in which he abounded, cease from works which are commonly thought base and contemptible. He wiped and washed the little vessels, gave his labor to sweeping the dining-rooms and chambers of the house, and to performing other ministries of that sort, which the rest seemed to render more fastidiously. And from these he could scarcely be drawn away, except by the command of superiors, whom he had to obey. For they thought it very unworthy, that so great a man, whom they beheld shining in sanctity, abounding in knowledge, and adorned with many gifts of the Holy Spirit, should busy himself with work in humble and most abject things. Nay rather, what is most to be admired, he displayed so great humility, that when for a long while, still younger, he had thought himself unworthy of the most holy body of Christ, he was so worthy, that he received it with an Angel ministering ^b.

[29] But he willed perpetually to have especial care of the sick; and cheerfully ministered to them, and the more gladly, He takes care of the sick. the graver and more contagious the disease was. Which matter indeed I commemorate, not unlike that which Nazianzen writes of Basil: who both cured and kissed the wounds of men laboring under leprosy. And in caring for the sick brethren, Bonaventure was so assiduous, that he consumed a great part of the day: nor for that reason, however, did he desist from the office of interpreting, and from other literary exercises.

[30] And he burned toward all with such charity, that, He consoles the sorrowful. if he ever saw anyone sad and disturbed, he did not rest, until he made him cheerful and glad, by consoling roused him lying in grief; and one turning aside from a good purpose, he recalled to the way of rightly advancing. It can scarcely be told with how sweet, how obliging manners he conducted himself; so that Pope Innocent the Fifth once affirmed in a sermon, that as many as had fallen in with him, captivated by their sweetness, were obedient to his words and admonitions. But the matter will become plainer, when the place shall occur of narrating concerning the Greeks, whose good-will he greatly conciliated to himself in the Second Oecumenical Council of Lyons.

[31] Assiduous in prayers, But meditating in the law of the Lord day and night, with an admirable abundance of tears he piously poured himself wholly into contemplations of the life of Christ the Redeemer. He wove an opuscule under that name, the use and method of which he most holily and rightly accommodated to the several ferias of the week. He fled the tempest of the cares of this world by the assiduity of prayers: to which he so fixedly clung, that by the heavenly thoughts of his mind he sometimes withdrew himself from the senses of the body. Christ the Lord suffering he set before his eyes not only by meditating, but also by writing. And for that cause he wrote so diligently, that he vehemently moves the souls of readers, and admirably inflames them to divine piety, and to the knowledge of heavenly things. Wisely therefore did a most grave author say concerning him; St. Bonaventure brought forth words not inflating, but inflaming. But truly, when I come to that part which pertains to his eminent and exquisite doctrine and erudition, or certainly to his manner, force, and dignity of writing, I shall not pass over any parts of that kind.

[32] and in meditations, But surely that he was most diligent in the zeal of holy contemplations and meditations, there is no one but easily understands, who uses him as master and guide in those exercises. For most excellently skilled in their use, he excellently taught their force, matter, form, end, and distinction: and indeed concerning each he gave very useful precepts, and examples, by which the minds and souls of pious men might be formed not only to contemplating and meditating, but also to thinking and praying. And contemplation he rightly distinguished from meditation, prayer, and thought, as one who had in each of them perpetual and great advancements. And besides he showed the alternations of contemplation and action; which things are to be meditated on each day, which also in the several hours of the day, or rather in the several moments, and which agree with meditation, which likewise are to be engaged in perennial and continual meditation, he so lucidly explained in many opuscules, that one may easily recognize an eminent teacher of holy meditations and contemplations, and an excellent interpreter.

[33] whose method he teaches well. He taught the manner of praying instituted and prescribed by Christ the Lord: what it is to pray without ceasing, he ofttimes set forth: the degrees, parts, fruits, utilities, and time of prayer he narrated. For whom prayers ought to be employed he explained; also, daily, especially for the holy Roman Church, of which he always showed himself an eminent cultivator. But the several opuscules which he published concerning spiritual exercises plainly declare and signify the zeal and use with which he exercised himself day and night in every kind of religious prayers, not only in mind and spirit, but also with the voice. A cultivator of the Virgin Mother, And for that cause he composed an Office of the Passion of the Lord, and likewise of the cross. Moreover, he chose the most blessed Mother of God, Mary the Virgin, as his heavenly patroness, and cultivated her with eminent piety: and therefore he composed opuscules, by which he most excellently and salubriously instructed both himself and others to her praises. He wrote that book which is called the Mariale, and the Mirror of the blessed Virgin, and her Psalter. Besides, he explained the Angelic salutation, and the antiphon, Salve Regina, with wondrous and divine praises: and wove the Crown of the blessed Virgin Mary with a pious office; that in the veneration and worship of the Mother of God there might be a perpetual course of the clergy and Christian people. And so indeed he aroused himself to all parts of piety and devotion by a most ardent zeal for prayer, that both for his manner of writing, and for his ardor in acting piously and praying, he was by best right and deservedly called the Seraphic and devout Bonaventure. For since he had nothing more at heart than to make advancements in the studies of religion, perpetually advancing to them, in the grace of devotion, says St. Antoninus, he took a continual increase of grace. Since indeed all things whatsoever he thought out subtly, or prepared for writing, lest prayer should grow lukewarm from doctrines, he turned into the form and manner of pious prayer.

[34] But a little later I shall tell from the brilliant testimony of Trithemius, the devout and Seraphic Bonaventure. how eminently he joined devotion with knowledge. His remaining many virtues, by the excellence of which the great man, or rather the highest, was held to be Bonaventure in the course of this life, namely fortitude in labors, constancy in despising honors, patience in assaults, wisdom in the public and provincial assemblies of the Brethren, prudence in the administration of his Seraphic Order, and the other parts of his excellent genius and soul, I shall in some manner make plain: when a little later, in their places, I shall commemorate finally all the rest, and those indeed admirable and divine deeds of his; in which shines the greatest splendor of the ornaments which God most benignly conferred upon him.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER III.

His admirable erudition and doctrine, and his advancement, and that of others, in the University of Paris.

Now I shall write of his erudition and doctrine, following Nazianzen, who said so much of Basil's knowledge. Now the doctrine of St. Bonaventure was, Instructed divinely, admirable in its manner of divine contemplations, distinguished in erudition of the disciplines, consisting of every kind of knowledge, agreeing with the decrees of the Church and the Fathers, and the same true and solid, filled with mysteries, and full of piety and devotion, gained not only by the highest studies, but received divinely: namely, because he who illuminates wonderfully from the everlasting mountains, poured into his mind, as into a mirror, the rays of his light. The spirit of wisdom rests upon the humble, and upon him that trembles at his words. A mind surely humble and lowly, wholly distrusting its own resources, with which St. Bonaventure was endowed, dreading the judgment of God, was imbued with those abundances of divine doctrine, with which he adorned and increased the holy Catholic Church: especially since, grown up in those heavenly contemplations which I have just narrated, and wholly fixed in mind and soul in meditation of the Lord's passion, he drew thence, as from a most abundant fountain, all the force of divine Wisdom.

[36] and assiduous in studies, But his industry also must be commemorated, which he applied to the study of letters. Nothing was preferred by him to labor and diligence: nothing was more detestable to him than sloth, idleness, and negligence; nothing finally more foreign than that most slothful ease, in which affluent men shamefully grow dull and languid. And so when first he joined himself by vow to the Seraphic religion, besides the functions of office, of which it behooved him to render many according to the prescribed rules of the Order; he thought he must labor in this also, that he should studiously read the monuments of the holy Fathers, whence he might take the precepts of doctrine and discipline. Therefore the book which he called the Quiver, He first published the Quiver, at the very entrance of religion he wove from the works of the holy Doctors, Pope Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Isidore, Anselm, Bernard,

Cassiodorus, and many others. He burned indeed with so great zeal for the divine letters, that he wrote out two copies of the sacred Bible with his own hand: of which one is said to be extant at Bagnorea in the church of the Friars Minor, the other in the Borromean library.

[37] Always intent by meditating on both Testaments. Nor can it be a wonder, if he held the Old and New Testament in memory; since he not only read both most studiously, and wore them out by use, but once and again copied them out, as diligently as he could. Demosthenes so ofttimes copied out the History of Thucydides, that he might retain the juice of Attic eloquence: likewise this our man did with the sacrosanct Bible, that from their words and sentences he might gain for himself that force and power, which he showed in his lucubrations with great praise of religious industry. At that very time, kindled with incredible zeal both for sacred studies, with the ardor of which he was most burning, and for the charity with which he eminently loved the Brethren of his Order in Christ the Lord; he composed some opuscules, which he conferred upon their community as an alms, that in their extreme poverty they might thence also honestly and piously seek their livelihood ^b. Wherefore, since he never left any place to sloth and idleness, he was wanting neither to the offices which, according to the prescript of the Franciscan norm and rule, he rendered both many and great; nor to the exercises of meditations, in the use of which he outshone the rest; nor to the advancements of sacred and ecclesiastical erudition, in which he was delighted in a wonderful manner.

[38] Humility, the way to erudition. It was about the seventh year, in which, duly professed, he had dedicated himself to God in the religion of the Franciscan Order: in which space of seven years he ascended to such a degree of Philosophy, Theology, and letters, that he aroused great admiration in all of himself and of his preeminent industry and virtue. But the fear of the Lord is wisdom: with which, since he was divinely imbued, it ought not only to seem wonderful, but is plainly credible, and indeed true, that he was increased with every addition and ornament of the most excellent erudition; especially since he both persisted in a certain perpetual course of solid and holy humility, and continually exercised himself in the excellent offices of piety, and the use of divine contemplations. Which matter indeed, with God's good help, has very much of strength and power in the first place, both for advancement and for the summit of studies, which are placed chiefly in sacred doctrine. And for that reason rightly and wisely and holily said St. Augustine to this effect; He who wishes to attain the depth of the Scriptures, ought to be clothed with humility and the fear of God. Well instructed therefore in these virtues, holy Bonaventure abounded with such abundances of doctrines, especially holy ones, as the most wise men and most brilliant writers affirm and profess to have been in him, and those indeed the greatest, whose testimonies I shall set forth in their place.

[39] But now I shall proceed to narrate the rest, which pertains to those eminent advancements of his at Paris. He comes to Paris, To Paris, that seven-year period almost completed, he came to Alexander of Hales ^c. Here one may behold how much he profited in the city, abounding in studies, and with so excellent a master and teacher, and that in the space of three years. Now the University of Paris, first rightly established by Charlemagne on the counsel of Alcuin his preceptor, and of the venerable Bede ^d, that in it pure philosophy might be delivered for propagating the Christian religion; since it always before flourished with most learned men, then indeed was most flourishing, at the time when Bonaventure came to it. For there were then, besides the rest, whom it would be long to enumerate, two most celebrated masters of Theology, Albert the Great ^e, and he whom I mentioned, Alexander of Hales, whom Bonaventure heard for three years. where for three years he heard his preceptor Alexander of Hales, All this is an argument, that no slight increase was added to the doctrine in which he himself abounded. For the city of Paris, which is called the nurse of the good disciplines, since it was greatly useful to others for studies, so most of all profited Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, as Athens did Basil and Nazianzen. Then to the knowledge of our doctor, which almost all with one mouth praise as heaped up and perfected in many respects, that addition of the three years seems to have added very much ^f, which further he spent at Paris most skillfully in perfecting his Summa.

[40] But finally it availed very much to his whole accomplishment, that he used a most learned preceptor, and one most learnedly skilled in the use of Scholastic Theology. who was an Englishman. This was Alexander of Hales, an Englishman, a most wise Jurisconsult, and most illustrious in the knowledge of Theology: who, wonderfully, as the Annals relate, having embraced the religion of the blessed Seraphic Francis; so far illustrated it by his doctrine, piety, and singular zeal, that at that first time public schools were opened in the Franciscan convent at Paris, to which was made the greatest concourse of all Orders, and of all great men. Among these were John Gerson, Stephen Brulefer ^g, and he who is author of the Foundation of the three Orders, and the truly Angelic doctor Thomas Aquinas. And he sometimes writes and professes that he used so excellent a Doctor of Theology. By which testimony it can be clearly manifest, that from the School of that most excellent Master, as from a workshop of the good arts, whence the greatest men came forth, he came forth: so that thence one may recognize what, although out of humility and holy modesty he himself left untold, is nevertheless rightly consequent, that he was a disciple of so great a preceptor by no means plainly unlike him. For that is a proverb worn in speech; Of the best master the best disciple. If therefore the excellence of the master greatly aided those excellent advancements of Bonaventure; certainly also he whom he greatly loved, blessed Thomas Aquinas, a disciple of the same master, or certainly of the same University of Paris, seems to have aroused him not a little.

[41] St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas, a noble pair of friends. These two at Paris were most closely joined by the bond of charity, by the manners of life, and by the zeal of doctrine and piety, as once at Athens were those two, Basil and Nazianzen, of whom, if all things be rightly weighed, they then seemed to bear some image. But this very conjunction will appear the more clearly, the more lucidly it shall be explained below. Now Alexander (as he was of most keen judgment) always made much of Bonaventure his disciple, whom he was wont to call a true Israelite, on account not only of his pure and whole life free from all vice, and plainly angelic, but also his pleasant familiarity of manners, joined with piety and gravity, the beauty and dignity of his aspect, the force of his speech full of sweetness, and especially the highest disposition of genius and soul, both for all virtues and for sacred Theology; in the knowledge of which he excelled with eminent praise. Wherefore in the third year after he came to Paris, Bonaventure was held fit and worthy to take up and sustain there the public office of interpreting Theology. This office of public interpretation first held, as I said, [John of la Rochelle succeeds Alexander of Hales in teaching, then St. Bonaventure.] the Theologian of the Franciscan Order Alexander of Hales: then John of la Rochelle, who, at the demand of the foremost men of the University of Paris, was chosen from among them all as the one especially, being Theologian of the same Order, to succeed him in that place of public interpreter. And thirdly that charge, with the highest consent of all and with rejoicing hearts, was conferred upon Bonaventure; so far outshining not only in holiness, but in splendor of doctrine, that Gerson left an excellent testimony of him in these words; I know not if ever the University of Paris had such a doctor as Bonaventure. And so at the time, or rather on the day, on which St. Thomas obtained the chair of lecturing and interpreting at Paris; on the same day also St. Bonaventure, who had obtained the earlier place, yielded to St. Thomas out of humility ^h.

[42] who taught publicly with praise. Having therefore undertaken the public office of interpreting and teaching, he sustained it so eminently, that he far surpassed the opinion which he had aroused of himself. For whatsoever he undertook to set forth, he so eminently and lucidly explained, that he seemed to have been not the interpreter, but the author, of the disciplines which he interpreted. And truly, when in that very University of Paris he was publicly professing, he followed that method of teaching and doctrine which, approved by all the wisest, was also the most flourishing of all. For in teaching he relied first on the sentences of the divine letters, then on the authorities of the most approved Fathers, then on the firmest arguments, and the weightiest considerations of reasons. And since he himself sometimes makes this testified of himself, as I narrated at the beginning; it is also plainly clear from his books and opuscules, and besides from every exposition and commentary of his; as can easily be understood from the summary which I have prefixed to each ⁱ. Whence it comes, that his explanations are full and heaped with letters written with the finger of God, abounding not in words, but in a wealth of matters, and distinguished, after his Seraphic manner, by gravity of sentences, and perpetually sprinkled with the precepts of discipline: so far, that from the author the doctrine, and again the author from the doctrine, is recognized.

[43] But first at Paris he copiously and gravely set forth the books of the Master of the Sentences, He wrote a Commentary on the Master of the Sentences. and illustrated them with brilliant commentaries: with the doctrine of which commentaries Clement the Fourth, Supreme Pontiff, was wonderfully delighted in the first place. And truly he, as he was a most wise and most religious Pontiff, moved by the fame of the great and exquisite erudition in which St. Bonaventure at those times excelled, when in the University of Paris he was then also first interpreting the chapter of Genesis, Likewise on the Hexaemeron of Genesis. which the Greeks call the Hexaemeron, not without excellent praise, ordered him to come to him: and that he might use his doctrine and wisdom in the gravest deliberations, willed to adorn him with the Archbishopric of York, which was then in the kingdom of England, He renounces the Archbishopric of York. and most ample in diocese and in resources ^k. This will of the Pontiff being known, Bonaventure, that he might, free from the manifold and great care of so great an office, more freely rest in the institutes of the Seraphic Order, and in contemplation and the study of divine things, most constantly refused so great a dignity: showing that that burden was far graver than his strength. The Pontiff, admiring his constancy, dismissed him with these words of the sacred letters; Stand in thy testament, and talk in it, and grow old in the work of thy commandments. His contempt of human things is therefore seen both in his whole life, and most of all in refusing the honor of the Archbishopric, which others seek after.

[44] But since he was engaged in explaining that first chapter of Genesis, namely the Hexaemeron, Mystical Theology, its praise. as I said, having already amply digressed to the exposition in three and twenty sermons, which he called the Lights of the Church, or the five visions, yet he did not complete it. Which indeed I have been pleased to commemorate, that it may be clear that what is written of Basil's Hexaemeron befell Bonaventure also. Basil did not complete it, through death, when he had held only nine discourses to its exposition: but the remaining two his brother of Nyssa completed. But this our man, having undertaken affairs on behalf not only of the Franciscan Order, but of the Church, could by no means finish it: nor indeed did he have one who could have finished it with an equal abundance of doctrine. And those discourses of Basil indeed, which he applied to the commentary on the Hexaemeron, are highly praised by Nazianzen: who,

burning with zeal for them, when he took them in hand, and had them in his mouth, writes that he was the more ardently aroused, both especially to worship God the creator of all things, and to know the reasons of creation. But the same discourses of the Seraphic doctor Bonaventure also kindle, which, filled with the secrets of mystical Theology, illustrious with the splendor of the sacred letters, and kindled as it were with a certain ardor of sentences, not only move, but inflame the souls of readers. This surely eminent doctrine, not only its force, but its abundance, when St. Thomas at Paris both observed and admired in him; he went to him, and asked that his Library be shown to him, that he might seek out the books whence he drew so manifold, and so great, a wealth of erudition. But he pointed to the image of Christ the Lord fixed to the cross: from which most abundant fountain he professed that he received whatsoever he either read or wrote.

[45] The cross of Christ was St. Bonaventure's library. In how short a time he wrote so many things, even amid the highest occupations of public interpretation, I have surely already demonstrated, since he both set forth the Hexaemeron, and most abundantly set forth the First, Second, Third, and Fourth book of the Sentences. But at that very time in which he was at Paris, to the many labors by which he was variously distracted, there was added another no small one, which for the sake of guarding his Order, under Pope Alexander the Fourth, who had immediately preceded Clement the Fourth, he found it necessary to undertake, and indeed undertook most gladly. For William of Saint-Amour He writes against William of Saint-Amour; had written a book against poverty and the Mendicants, with little wisdom: which indeed St. Thomas learnedly refuted in an opuscule, and likewise St. Bonaventure so eminently refuted in his writings, that Pope Alexander both prohibited the book and condemned its author.

[46] and the Life of the holy Father Francis. And although the interpretations, public, full of vigils, and the writings, demanding especially time and diligence, had kept the industrious and most laborious man, and holy Bonaventure, most busy: yet in the Parisian light he took to himself so much leisure, that he not only very often weighed the life of the blessed Seraphic Father Francis in holy meditations and salutary thoughts, but also committed it to writing ^l. Wherefore he first wrote widely and fully concerning him: then embraced all the same things briefly, that, comprehended summarily, they might the more easily be employed both for the discipline of life, and for the use of the divine office in those lessons which it is customary to recite in the Octaves of the feast day dedicated to blessed Francis himself. Now Bonaventure, either writing, or thinking, or meditating with such attention of soul that he seemed a little lifted up from the earth, when blessed Thomas had secretly looked upon him through the little chinks of the chamber doors, who out of mutual charity and friendship used to come to him, would not even knock at the doors, much less set foot in the chamber. This matter being perceived, his companion asked what the cause was, why he did not enter: then he; Let us allow, he said, the saint to labor for the saint. An excellent saying, by which he both called him living a saint, and also praised him rightly writing.

[47] But besides, if to a matter which of itself sufficiently shines forth, something of light must also be brought from a brilliant testimony: Seen lifted up into the air. surely Leonardo Aretino, in those times ^m famous for the praise of erudition and eloquence, when he had studiously read the life of St. Francis written by the Seraphic doctor Bonaventure; being asked his opinion, answered; In that kind of writing, no one could surpass him. This testimony indeed is approved by all: but was far the most approved, if there be added the testimony of the holy Man, and most learned person, and most religious Archbishop Antoninus; who asserts that his life was written by Bonaventure himself with a wonderful style, and judges it to have nothing but what is certain, what is true, what is most approved by trustworthy witnesses, and by those conscious of the matters, which have been committed to writing. Since therefore he wrote of him wonderfully: the place where he wrote is still extant at Paris in the Franciscan monastery, in the manner of a chapel, as a monument of a wonderfully accomplished deed. In his times surely, of Bonaventure, whom all admired as pious, holy, and adorned with perfect erudition, an excellent fame spread everywhere.

[48] But truly, since he looked to that heavenly inheritance of immortal glory, to which he was divinely called: The greater, the humbler. he despised the empty and fleeting praises of this world, ofttimes rashly flowing this way and that with the little rumors of the crowd, and thought them for nothing. Nay even, the greater the praise of men by which his name was extolled, the more diligently did he set himself with his whole soul to this, that, thinking of himself and his affairs humbly and lowly, he should above all give thanks to God, the author of good things, for his advancements; but should hold himself in perpetual humility, which, always following as the parent and guardian of the Christian virtues, he had long since imprinted its firmest footsteps throughout the whole course of his life. But this his highest and singular humility is already sufficiently noted, and greatly seen in those things which I commemorated almost at the beginning.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IV.

The deeds of the Saint at the time when he was Minister General of the Order.

A participant in all the affairs of the Order, But now the thirteenth year had almost passed, since he had come to the religion and discipline of the Franciscan Order: in that very space of time were perceived not only, but also again and again most fully explored, all his remaining virtues. For since he was in so great an esteem of men, as I have set forth to be the greatest: almost nothing was ever done or transacted, either publicly or privately, in the whole Seraphic Order, in which there did not stand out at those times some monument of the piety, charity, prudence, doctrine, and other most excellent things, with the ornaments of which he especially shone. Nor did those who presided over the Seraphic Order, the Ministers General, then determine or do anything ^a, except by his counsel. In public disputations they never departed from his opinion, who wisely and learnedly discoursed on every proposed question. And if ever assemblies, which are called Chapters, whether of all the Provinces of the whole Order, or of one only, were held: if anything arduous and difficult occurred in them, it was referred to the counsel and wisdom of Bonaventure. At last, abounding himself in so many abundances of merits, He is hailed Minister General. he was created Minister General of the whole Order at Rome, in that year which I said, the thirteenth of his profession: which office he bore with such praise of wisdom and sanctity, that he was in the mouth and admiration of all, especially since he not only cultivated and increased the discipline of the Order, but in some part restored it as it was collapsing.

[50] The series of Ministers General before St. Bonaventure. But the whole matter must be written out rightly and clearly here. Now after blessed Francis there had been seven rulers of the Seraphic Order, whom St. Antoninus and the rest call Ministers General. The first was John, surnamed Parens, a Florentine, a Tuscan, created at Assisi, a holy and just man. The second Elias, of Assisi, a man of lofty spirit. The third Albert of Pisa, a Tuscan, made at Rome, under Pope Gregory the Ninth in the year 1239, a good and perfect man. The fourth Haimo, an Englishman, a great Theologian, a man of the highest honesty, created at Rome, under the same Pope Gregory in the year 1241. The fifth Crescentius of Jesi, of Picenum, an old man, created at Assisi under Pope Innocent IV, a just man, and approved for his zeal for discipline. In his time in the province of Picenum the discipline of the Order began to be a little shaken. And Crescentius, when he had proclaimed a general Chapter, was not present: but sent as Vicar Bonaventure of Bagnorea ^b, of whom I write. The sixth, John of la Rochelle, of Parma, a man learned in the knowledge of Theology, and a lecturer in the University of Paris, returning from Greece ^c, whither he had been sent as legate by Pope Innocent, created at Assisi, at last at Rome, where he had proclaimed a general Chapter, in the presence of Pope Alexander IV abdicated the office of the Generalate. And being asked, whom he thought worthy, who could sustain so great a burden by prudence, vigilance, and virtue; he named Bonaventure, who at that time had lately written against William of Saint-Amour, as I said, a holy and learned man. He therefore, after blessed Francis, the seventh Minister General, was created at Rome by the votes of all, and with the highest agreement and gladness, Pope Alexander IV being present: who, from the time when he had been Cardinal of Ostia, since he had held the patronage of the Seraphic Order, also wonderfully and perpetually favored Bonaventure.

[51] Here one may behold in the office of this Franciscan prefecture those excellent virtues of St. Bonaventure, illustrious with the splendor of holy actions. St. Bonaventure meek and benign in ruling. The state of the Order was at that time brought almost into some peril, both from the faction and dissension of the Brethren of the province of Picenum, and from the disturbance of the dissensions which arose in all Italy concerning the rule of property, in some manner rescinded. And so when the discipline, bound by the most holy institutes, had begun gradually to be dissolved: then first Bonaventure, set over the care of the whole Order, greatly labored in this, that not by authority only, but by example, wisdom, moderation, doctrine, and constitutions, he might guard the whole matter. And he was in the administration of that office very meek and benign: for by gentleness rather, by exhortations and admonitions, than by threats

or by harshness of penalties, he recalled the erring to the way of acting well. And with a paternal charity, and a clemency altogether singular toward those who had revolted from the discipline of the Order, or had deserted the Seraphic warfare, he so far went, that there were not wanting those who in the Chapters, both General and Provincial, plainly objected this to him as a fault. And indeed those whom he knew to be obstinately laboring to give open offense in the light of men, and to sin by example: against these, according to the measure of their faults, he did not cease to animadvert severely, that he might by every method recall all to the use of the ancient morals, and the right norm of living, which the Seraphic Father had prescribed to the Order, and to salvation, whatever seemed to be more effectual for conducting that matter rightly and religiously. But since he wished above all to be the parent and refuge of the wretched and erring, lest they should despair of themselves: he ofttimes with the gravest words confuted those who charged him with the mercy and patience which he benignly and usefully employed for the salvation of all.

[52] First therefore, that he might the more maturely deliberate concerning the state of the Order, he held an assembly or general Chapter at Narbonne in Gaul, What the General did in the Chapters. in which he determined many things. First he distributed the state of the Order into certain fixed Provinces, to which besides he added two others ^d. He most accurately set forth the Rule of blessed Francis, that, the more lucidly explained, the more easily it might be brought into the use of execution. To the clothing of the Brethren, He prescribed a fixed form of dress to our Order. who before went with head bare, and hair let down and flowing loose in scattered fashion, after the manner of shepherds, he added the cowl. He issued many constitutions concerning the norm and rule of living religiously, which are entered into the monuments of the Seraphic Order ^e. He was especially the author, that on the feasts of the Nativity there should be sung; Glory to thee, O Lord, who wast born of the Virgin ^f. Besides, he assembled another Chapter at Pisa: where, while he was watchful in the same care of well ordering the Order, he added some rubrics to the Breviary. The signal of the bell being given after the hour of Compline, which about the beginning of his age, as I said, was begun in the Church of God, he decreed that the blessed Virgin Mary should be saluted by the whole Order, because he believed that she was saluted by the Angel at that hour. Likewise, that the brethren should admonish the people, he was a most diligent exhorter. He proclaimed a third Chapter at Paris: in which, both in the disputations, and in settling the various discords of the Inquisitors of heretical depravity, his wisdom and doctrine were admirable. A fourth Chapter he held at Assisi: where, besides the conforming of morals which he applied to the Order, he also instituted this, that on each Saturday of every month, a Mass of the blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, should be celebrated with solemn rite. At which time the Seraphic religion, under King Bela, was propagated into Hungary, all rejoicing ^g.

[53] Books written by him for the reformation of the Order, But truly how great the zeal of the same holy Bonaventure then was in the Seraphic Order, not only in restoring it to its pristine state, but in conforming it by the best rules to all parts of acting rightly and religiously, the Epistles declare, which he had written to it. One of them was given at Paris to all the Provincial Ministers on the 9th of the Kalends of May, in the year 1257. Another was written to all its Prefects and guardians a little after the fourth Chapter, which he had held at Assisi. Nor indeed did he ever cease to instruct the brethren in the methods of holy life, and the offices of the religious virtues: therefore he then wrote and published many books or opuscules: of which sort is, the Exposition of the doubts of the Rule, the book of Monastic Collations, the Exposition on the rule of novices, the book on Contempt of the world, an opuscule on Reforming the brethren, another on the method of reforming novices, the Spiritual alphabet of religious, a book likewise on not frequenting the seeking of gain, another on the reasons Why the Minors should preach: and, that nothing might be lacking for aiding them, there is extant also another on the manner of preaching. He willed also to procure for himself this help for rightly conducting the Order, that by Pope Urban IV, who had succeeded Alexander IV, there should be given some Cardinal as Patron and Protector of the Franciscan Religion. He, although he had decreed his cousin Anterus; yet gave, as Bonaventure greatly desired, John Gaetano, Cardinal Deacon, and appointed him patron, a man most excellent in all praise: who, some years after created Pontiff, received the name of Nicholas the Third. Aided therefore by so great a patronage, for the best ordering of the Franciscan affairs, it can scarcely be told how much he most constantly transacted and did for the sake of that matter.

[54] And since Satan, the nefarious master of heresies, likewise against Gerald, the enemy of the Mendicant Orders. then aroused a certain Gerald, a Parisian Theologian, into a reprobate sense, so that against the poor religious and the Mendicants he published a book, by which he most hostilely assailed especially the state of the Seraphic Order: then the most holy Bonaventure, equipped for every defense, who had already against William, of whom I narrated, the most keen enemy of the Mendicants, excellently finished in a distinguished book the contest undertaken on behalf of the Order; applied also the eminent forces and sinews of his industry to repelling, as poisoned darts, the writings of Gerald himself; whose nefarious daring he broke and overcame with the arms of his virtue: for by eloquence, subtlety of writing, force of doctrine, and an Apology full of piety, he refuted what that man had impiously written. But this was done by God, who willed an example of punishment to stand out from that crime of impiety, so that he, conquered and overcome, at last foully afflicted with palsy, and wholly defiled with the filth of leprosy, most miserably perished. And of the defenses which St. Bonaventure bravely undertook for the Seraphic Order, and the monuments of the victory won against those heretics, distinguished for all praise of piety and doctrine, these are extant: the Apology against those opposing the rule, the Books against the calumniator of the Order, the Apology of Evangelical poverty, the Opuscule on the poverty of Christ. And these things indeed he did as prefect of the Order: whose prefecture when he had administered eighteen years, there are also remaining things, which ought by no means to be passed over in silence, since, handed down to posterity in writing, they bring both help and ornament not only to the Seraphic Order, but also to the Christian Commonwealth.

[55] His pious deeds are besides these. At Rome he established an excellent society, which they call the Confraternity of the Gonfalone: He established the Confraternity of the Gonfalone at Rome. to which he prescribed a fixed norm of praying and preaching, out of veneration of the most blessed Mary the Virgin, Mother of God. When he was at Padua, he took care that the body of St. Anthony of Lisbon, whom they name of Padua, should be translated with every solemn rite to the church built in that city under his name with most magnificent workmanship. His tongue, suffused with a ruddy color, and plainly whole and free from all corruption, just as if he who had died two and thirty years before had lately departed from this life, when the holy Bonaventure beheld it, he took into his hands; and gazing upon it with the whole thought of his inmost soul, with great floods of tears: O blessed tongue! he said, which always didst bless the Lord, and didst teach others to bless the same; now indeed it is sufficiently manifest, how pleasing thou wast to God. When he had said this; having kissed it with inmost piety, he commanded it to be laid up separately in a becoming place.

[56] [He wrote the Journey of the mind into God, and another into itself, on Mount Alverna.] In most holy occupations, for the discharging of his office, he spent indeed almost all his time: but what he had appointed for himself either for meditating, praying, and interceding, or for writing, he would by no means pass over. And so, the office of prefecture being now committed to him, most busy, when he had written the other books which I mentioned a little before, he also composed on Mount Alverna two opuscules, truly divine, one of which he entitled the Journey of the mind into God, the other likewise the Journey of the mind into itself. Concerning the excellence indeed of that Journey, and concerning the other opuscule, which he named the Breviloquium, complete in all its parts, I have thought it not foreign to bring forward the brilliant testimony of the most illustrious Theologian John Gerson ^h; Two opuscules, he says, to pass over meanwhile his lectures and other treatises of his, are composed with so great art of compendium, and divinely, that above them there is nothing; I mean the Breviloquium and the Journey: in which one proceeds by two ways of knowing God. For the first of these two treatises proceeds from the beginning, which is God, unto the other truths, believed under God, and held. The other, on the contrary, advances from creatures to the Creator, through six graded steps, unto anagogical approaches. I therefore also will confess in my foolishness, that for thirty years and more back, I have wished to have the aforesaid little treatises familiar to me, often reading them, often even ruminating them, down to the words, not to say the sentences: and behold at this age, in this leisure, as if according to my wish, I have scarcely reached the beginning of a taste of the same, which, even when repeated, always become new to me, and please me. Thus Gerson, than whose testimony nothing can be said more clear, nothing more illustrious, nor indeed anything more apt to the splendor, dignity, and force of the doctrine, in which St. Bonaventure far excelled.

ANNOTATA.

by Galesinius; as also a little below, when he would have an epistle of St. Bonaventure given after the fourth Chapter of Assisi in the year 1269, which it is agreed was written after the third Chapter of Paris; as see in Wadding at the year 1266, number 4.

CHAPTER V.

His excellent doctrine in the expositions of both Testaments, and his manifold method of expounding.

And so, since I have narrated his deeds done in the prefecture of the Order: now this place demands that I write of his eminent erudition, His threefold doctrine, demonstrated in every kind of discipline, which, although above I have touched it sparingly, and indeed briefly, and have perhaps narrated some things singly, now I shall embrace universally the whole kind of his doctrine, after the Nazianzen manner. Now his doctrine is discerned in these three things: in the expositions of sacred Scripture, in the treatises which are entitled Opuscules, and in the interpretation of the Master of the Sentences, which the same Gerson names a Lectura. In all these, if all things be rightly weighed, there appears a wondrous erudition, and that indeed manifold. For the three things by which the disciplines of the arts are procured, were in him: genius, study, and exercise: and he so joined them, that it is not sufficiently clear in which he was the more admirable; which Nazianzen once discourses concerning Basil. The keenness of his genius appears in all his lucubrations, his singular study in the greatest knowledge of the weightiest matters, and his incredible exercise in meditation, contemplation, and writing ^a. Excellently versed in Rhetoric, he at times expounds the precepts of the Rhetoricians: in logical demonstrations and contests he so far excelled, that for those who had undertaken a disputation with him it was difficult to escape the edge of his arguments, whenever the matter so required. He omitted no parts of Philosophy, when there was sometimes need, so far that of those things which happen on high he not rarely comprehends the sum most accurately, though briefly. The proportions of numbers also, and many other things which are taught by the Mathematicians, he sometimes demonstrated, as one learnedly skilled in those precepts.

[58] But he so divinely prepared himself for the sacred Letters and for Theology, especially in expounding the sacred Letters. that, most splendidly illumined by the light of knowledge, he diligently searched out and investigated the things that are of God. Whence it came about that he trained the souls of men to the Christian virtues, and led them, distracted by the cares of the things of this world, to the knowledge of those things which are heavenly and divine. Of this kind he published very many books, as mute masters, yet excellently speaking: of which sort are the opuscules which pertain either to the ordering of life, or to spiritual studies, and the advancements of the virtues: all of which, distinguished in order, shall be set before the eyes in their place. But now summarily, as the matter is, and truly, I shall speak in those very words in which St. Antoninus speaks of him; All his opuscules, he says, are redolent of the perspicacity of Bonaventure's understanding to those who, seeking divine knowledge, venerate this more gladly than Aristotelian vanity.

[59] His writings testify that the Holy Spirit spoke in Bonaventure. But truly, what greatly concerns us, since the Spirit of God seems to have spoken in him, as can be clear from the letters of Pope Sixtus IV; he joined devotion to doctrine: which is the mark of very few of those who write books. Trithemius gives him this testimony in these words; Many bring forth doctrine, many preach devotion: few, in writing books, have taught both. But Bonaventure both surpassed the many, and the few: while his doctrine instructs devotion, and his devotion instructs doctrine. Wherefore if thou wilt be both learned and devout, be intent upon his opuscules. For there is in him life and doctrine, as Cassiodorus said of St. Ambrose, plainly equal. That the Holy Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God, Scripture testifies. But the Seraphic Bonaventure investigated the things which are of the Spirit; as those who studiously read his books easily observe. Among the ancients, who sufficiently praise him on that account, Gerson is one; from whom testimonies brilliantly explained are also brought forth by me a little later in order. But reason demands, that the whole matter, distinctly and lucidly narrated, be as it were turned before the eyes.

[60] A threefold order, which I have demonstrated, exists in his lucubrations. His wondrous understanding in the various senses of holy Scripture, There are first Commentaries on the Old and New Testament; which expositions, after the manner of St. Gregory the Great, he called. Of the Old he expounded many books: but of the New almost the whole, as I shall show distributed by a sure index. It can scarcely be written with how great a wealth of doctrines he explained the sacred codices. Having sometimes embraced the literal sense in interpreting them, he brought to their treatment not one only, but two, three, four, or more, at times, the example of St. Augustine being set before him. Whence it comes that, what is excellent in an eminent doctor of the Church, he both is and is held fruitful in a wealth of senses. For he seems to have clung most learnedly to the mystical sense; since he omitted almost none, not even the history, much less the allegory, anagogy, and tropology, whenever he aptly found a place where he might digress to those holier senses, drawn from heavenly doctrine and divine contemplation. This is clear both from his other expositions, and truly from that which I mentioned a little before, written on the first chapter of Genesis. I shall pass over in silence the rest, in which he, as most learned men profess, shows himself a doctor both Seraphic, and wise, and devout, and an eminent doctor of the Church most fit, such as Gerson acknowledges, both for illuminating the minds of men with the light of his excellent doctrine, and for inflaming with the ardor of piety the salutary affections of the soul.

[61] But there is nevertheless cause, why I should speak briefly of the explanation which he joined to the Psalter, and in his exposition of the Psalms. since it also has more, in which one may place some study. For it is not only full of salutary mystical doctrines; but has also places by which the opinions of heretics are exploded; and truly abounds in the riches of lessons, by which pious men and religious persons are cultivated and instructed to the excellent meditations of the divine law. And besides, what most pertains to the right method of chanting, he so observes each thing in explaining the Psalms, that he uses an almost perpetual interpretation, whence the mind of readers or of those chanting may be kindled, not only to the thought, but also to a certain desire of pursuing that virtue, which by the very exposition of the Psalms he demonstrates. Nor also in that kind of narration does he omit to open the mysteries of the rites and ceremonies, which must ofttimes be explained, for the use and method of the discipline of the Church. From which matter one may also perceive, that he learnedly held ritual knowledge, which pertains to a religious man, and one most attentive and most diligent toward the divine prayers, such as he is shown to have been also by the books, on the sacrosanct cross, and on the Office of the Lord's passion, duly composed, which I have already enumerated, and the Rubrics ^b likewise added to the Breviary at those times, and more studiously explained.

[62] But now I return to that which I proposed, that the most holy Bonaventure in every mystical commentary of both Testaments so accurately followed those senses and holier interpretations, With mystical interpretations also. that those which the most wise men attribute singly to this or that eminent doctor of the Church, he alone embraced all, if less copiously, at least in some part briefly and summarily. This he makes plain by his remaining lucubrations, but especially by two opuscules; of which one he significantly entitled the Lights of the Church. Concerning this I have already narrated a little before: but by that which he rightly called the Beginning, when he declares the excellence of sacred Scripture itself, which is the brightness of eternal life, he surely seems to instruct himself and others for its treatment, abounding not in a wealth of words, but in a wealth of mystical senses.

[63] But it must not be passed over in silence, that which seems in some manner proper to him, that with frequent and heaped sentences of the sacred Letters The method and manner of his Commentaries, he weaves the divine senses, and explains the places of the book which he interprets by a commentary: the matter is at hand, and is clear in every exposition of his; nor is it needful why it should be demonstrated by many words, especially since, as I said at the beginning, he himself writes this of himself. This kind of interpreting, since the holy Bonaventure once gave it as praise to St. Bernard, he doubtless wished also himself to pursue the same. For he thinks that man skilled in the use of sacred Scripture, because he prepared himself for every exposition by the places of the Bible. But this very thing the Seraphic Doctor also eminently displayed, since his will was in the law of the Lord, and his meditation day and night. For he, with his whole soul, and with his whole heart in Christ, embracing sacred Scripture, so fixedly clung to it, that, what I also touched briefly a little before, he held the Old and New Testament in memory; as can easily be observed from his treatments or expositions; but also from this, that he ofttimes excellently discourses of the consent and concord of both. For whatsoever concerning the Conception of Christ the Lord from the Virgin, his birth, his presentation in the temple, his flight into Egypt, and likewise his return, concerning his doctrine, miracles, the blindness of the Jews, the conversion of the Gentiles, concerning his passion, his most bitter death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit, concerning his coming to judgment, and all the other mysteries of the Christian faith, are foresignified and prefigured either in the law, or in the prophets, or in the sacred books whether historical or spiritual, he plainly shows to have been fulfilled by the letters and authorities of the New Testament agreeing with the Old.

[64] in which he used both editions. But how studiously he comprehended the sacred books in mind and memory, is clear from that excellent partition of both Testaments, not only in the opuscule which he called the Beginning of sacred Scripture, but also in the Centiloquium and the Breviloquium. And he rightly knew the sacred Bible of both editions, namely the Vulgate, which we use, and besides the old one from the interpretation of the Seventy. For he brings both to the exposition of the places, as in the Canticle of Habakkuk, where we read, In the midst of the years; he from the old; In the midst of two animals: in the Proverbs; The way of a man in a maiden, from the old likewise. And truly more often in the book of Wisdom; but in the Psalms indeed certainly most often. But to pursue by recounting all things singly would be too long: yet they are already perceived and explored by those who in a long course of study of that kind have completed the course of their doctrine and industry. Wherefore what Nazianzen once wisely left written of St. Athanasius, this likewise may be affirmed, God blessing, of St. Bonaventure, that he diligently meditated on the books both of the Old and New Testament: and by that meditation, having searched out all things which are of God, he truly made a golden chain of both; and employed a true, solid interpretation, furnished with mystical senses. To which when he came with life as guide, and the knowledge of Theology as mistress; he doubtless sealed it with the ornaments of a brilliant and excellent doctrine.

[65] St. Bonaventure followed the lessons of the Fathers. But truly to all that excellent exposition, which, as I said, he drew from the divine letters, he added also another, which is according to doctrine, namely of the ancient Fathers. For he taught the law of God, and its salutary precepts, and so interpreted the divine Scripture, not so much from his own sense, as from the ancient monuments and traditions of the Fathers themselves, excelling in holiness and erudition in the Church of God. And that this very thing ought to be done by a doctor of the Church, St. Clement, Pontiff and martyr, demonstrates in the epistle which he had given to the disciples at Jerusalem; and he testifies that he had received this lesson likewise from the Prince of the Apostles, blessed Peter. And that St. Bonaventure studiously performed this, can be doubtful to no one, or certainly ought not to be. There is his exposition on the first chapter of Genesis, heaped with the sentences of the Latin Fathers, Augustine in the first place, Gregory the Great, and others also of a lower age, such as Rabanus, Ralph of Flavigny, and good interpreters of that kind: and truly of the Greeks, Basil, Dionysius the Areopagite, and the Damascene.

[66] And this indeed is so far true, that he follows not only the sentences, but the words of those men. From St. Jerome he ofttimes takes prologues; as can be clear in many of his Commentaries. And moreover in the exposition of the Psalter he ofttimes willed to have for his help and use both the ancients, and those nearly of his own age, especially Richard whom they call of St. Victor. He therefore followed that well-worn and customary way, in which the elders willed to walk. But the book Pharetra makes this plainer. In which book, since he most abundantly treats the offices of the virtues, and the common places of Theology: he studied to explain all things according to the sense and sentence of the Fathers, Pope Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Isidore, Anselm, Bernard, Cassiodorus, and besides many others ^c. And these things indeed concerning the interpretation drawn from the senses of the Fathers.

[67] But a third other kind, which he writes that he used, as I mentioned in the exordium, In the dissent of the doctors he chose the better opinions. appears in this, that of the opinions of the doctors sometimes variously dissenting among themselves, he preferred to follow those indeed which seemed and were most approved both by authority, and by reasons, and by use. For in recounting them he was true and sincere, and not carried away by any zeal of contradicting, acute and perspicacious in judging, moderate and modest in refuting, not arrogant in opining, nor a most opinionated man: but excellent in the perception of the true, and in skill, whatsoever he saw more frequently approved, and received by custom, and confirmed by the consent of excellent men, these he embraced, and most skillfully defended. It was besides almost proper to St. Bonaventure alone, or certainly by no means common with many, that which is excellent and laudable, to employ philosophy and the human disciplines for the citadel and defense of the dogmas of the Catholic faith.

[68] Having therefore used the sacred letters, the authorities of the Fathers, and the received sentences, illustrious for the praise of piety and the knowledge of truth, He employed philosophy for defending the truth. when he wrote the expositions of which I have spoken; he also composed the Commentaries, by which he copiously explained the books of the Master of the Sentences, as has been narrated. This is the other part of the doctrine in which also he imprinted the excellent footsteps of his excellent industry: for which reason I have already asserted that Pope Clement the Fourth was greatly delighted with his commentaries on the Sentences. A great concourse of hearers to him teaching. But the concourse, which was made great to him interpreting the Sentences of the Master, seems to indicate the excellence of his knowledge. That this writing of Scholastic interpretation is both notable and devout, St. Antoninus said. For it is most distinguished for all praise alike of knowledge and of piety: therefore John Gerson judged that the Theological doctrine should properly be called that of the eminent and Seraphic doctor Bonaventure: who in a certain book thus asserted; If it be asked of me, who among the other Doctors seems more fit, I answer without prejudice, that the Lord Bonaventure: because in speaking he is solid, and secure, pious, and just, and devout. Besides, in another place he likewise writes, again and again affirming, in these words; Bonaventure singularly among all the Catholic Doctors, with the peace of all preserved, seems fit and most secure for illuminating the understanding, and inflaming the affection. And likewise when he speaks especially of St. Bonaventure's Lectura, by which name he calls the scholastic exposition of the Sentences, he gives this testimony concerning it; Finally his greater lecture teaches fire with light, namely the ardor of piety, and the great splendor of doctrine. Wherefore although others have sometimes thought that others were to be chosen by them in the study of Theology; I, says Gerson, choose for myself St. Bonaventure. And this opinion indeed is approved by many.

[69] He wrote three hundred opuscules. But that which follows, the third part, is discerned in the opuscules, which he is said to have written to the number of three hundred. It is wonderful how he excels in them. Some praise the Journey of the mind into God, some the Breviloquium, some the Centiloquium, some the Diet of salvation, others another opuscule: but all praise his opuscules with one mouth. Concerning which Trithemius thus summarily: Bonaventure wrote many, and profound, and most devout opuscules. For in them shines forth his charity, kindled while he yet lived on earth, and his vehement ardor of piety, and the light of doctrine, and it so shines, or rather kindles, that even a reader thinking of nothing less, it inflames as with certain silent little sparks. His knowledge is therefore thought rather received divinely, than gained by labors, so that I may affirm again and again, what I have also said above ^d.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VI.

The gifts of the eminent Doctor of the Church, not a little illustrated by his excellent actions.

He confuted heretics by his writings. But that nothing might be lacking to heap up the praise of the eminent doctor: when he had declared the loftiest and most obscure places of the sacred Codices, opened the mysteries, and consigned to writing the pious doctrine, which the chief doctors of the Church have divinely also handed down: he repelled also the importunate daring of the heretics, not only by scholastic Theology, which avails so much both for shattering heresies and for confirming the dogmas of the Catholic faith, but also especially by written books, which I have recounted. With these indeed, as with darts of ink, he struck those who were far off at a long distance: but those who, being present, dared to join hand with him, as Nazianzen likewise narrates of Basil, he repressed their contumacy with the weapons of his tongue: which he especially, as I shall soon write, displayed with the highest praise in the Second Oecumenical Synod of Lyons.

[71] But truly, those things which ought to be in an eminent and foremost doctor of the Church, The offices of a true doctor in him; since the blessed Apostle Paul ofttimes mentions them both in the epistles written to Timothy and to Titus, and also Pope Boniface the Eighth in a singular constitution: all those things, or rather each singly, shine forth most greatly in St. Bonaventure. He embraced, according to the sentence of the Apostle Paul, a faithful discourse, namely not empty, not vain, not curious. And that testimony may not be lacking, Trithemius writes of him in these words; Bonaventure of Bagnorea, a man most learned in the divine letters, is profound not verbose, subtle not curious, eloquent not vain. He therefore embraced a faithful discourse, true namely, and worthy of all acceptance; doubtless treating of the excellence of sacred Scripture, its truth, light, and understanding, of its theories, figures, and likewise its mysteries. And truly he embraced a faithful discourse; inasmuch as he, as it pleases the Greek doctors, discourses of faith, hope, and charity, and teaches what is to be believed, what to be hoped, what to be done and worked. With all this doctrine his books are heaped, such as the Diet of salvation, the Centiloquium, and the remaining opuscules, of which I have spoken. And that discourse, from the very words of blessed Paul, he pursued according to doctrine, namely that indeed which agrees with the senses and Traditions of the Fathers, as I set forth a little before.

[72] And likewise he was mighty to exhort in sound doctrine. so that he is mighty in exhorting, Which force and power of exhortation he employed, both in the sermons, of which indeed he held very many to the people concerning the season and the Saints, and also in very many books: of which sort are, the Mirror of the soul, the Goad of love, the Mirror of discipline, and the rest of that kind. There are also in him other things, as excellent in an eminent doctor of the Church: and in the first place that illustrious abundance of salutary lessons, and the excellent beauty of innumerable virtues, with which he adorned the Church. These two things Boniface the Eighth especially commended in those chief doctors of the Church.

[73] A third condition the same Boniface ascribes to a chief doctor of the Church, eloquent in speech. that he be eloquent. Certainly indeed Trithemius attributes the praise of eloquence to St. Bonaventure in these excellent words; For he was clear in speech, subtle, eloquent, bringing forth flaming words. And his eloquence was demonstrated by the discourse held in the Oecumenical Council of Lyons, by which he kindled the souls of the Latins and Greeks to reconciling the concord of the dogmas. Now he was eloquent, not in words, but in sentences, and in the comprehension of many matters, so far that in him almost every single word, almost every single sentence, and every single precept of the doctrines appears. There is no one versed in Theological studies, so rude and ignorant, but understands that he embraced in so brief a discourse in the Lights the whole mystical Theology of Dionysius the Areopagite. He was likewise eloquent in the wealth of his expositions: he expounded the symbol of the Apostles not once but again and a third time with a manifold and various abundance of sentences.

[74] He did not lack a grave eloquence. But whereas there are some who keep saying that no flower of eloquence, no strength of speech, and no sinew is in him: nay indeed, those men are deceived. For eloquence is to be measured not by words, but by sentences: and that indeed is disregarded which is poured forth with an emptiness of words, no sentence being underlying. There is a certain eloquence, says St. Augustine, which more befits a boyish age; this abounds in a wealth of words, and is sprinkled with little flowers: another is aged, or growing hoary, which has its own maturity and, as it were, old age. This, shining with all gravity of sentences, all splendor of great virtues, and all light of wisdom, has great authority and admiration: this befits men most worthy of the highest authority, and divine. That to this very eloquence the Seraphic Bonaventure was equipped, those know well who seek not a feigned majesty of words, who pursue not the empty ornaments of confirmations;

but chiefly regard that which is proper to an orator, to teach, to delight, and to move. He certainly taught almost the whole of sacred Scripture and Theology by lucidly explaining it, and in teaching delights with a certain spiritual sweetness; and, what is the mark of a perfect orator, in delighting moves and kindles; as has been sufficiently said, and explored by the use of wise men and holy men. But thus far concerning his erudition.

[75] His journeys. And since doctrine devoid of action, and again action destitute of the help of doctrine, are each in some manner imperfect; since the one seems to demand, as it were, the aid of the other: the holy Bonaventure joined to the support of doctrine those excellent actions which he rendered to the Church of God, and to his Seraphic Order. For the sake of the public good he approached some, summoned others; admonished, argued with, and rebuked others; for nations, for cities, and even for individual men, he undertook journeys, travels, and labors ^a. And these very things Nazianzen left written of Basil the Great. He once set out for Rome from Paris, when the discipline of the Franciscan Order, shining forth in the splendor of poverty, was called into peril: having traveled through all Gaul, he also traversed all Italy, for the sake of restoring everywhere the Seraphic religion, then gradually collapsing.

[76] In a dissension, a compromise being made, St. Bonaventure chose the Pontiff. But from those things which have been narrated, his various and innumerable labors are perceived, and thence his ennobled excellent actions, among which one is the most excellent of all for everlasting memory. For Pope Clement the Fourth having died at Viterbo, when there was an interpontificate, the Cardinals dissenting among themselves concerning the creating of a Pontiff, agreed on this; being led as much by the integrity of life, as by the wisdom and doctrine of St. Bonaventure, that he alone should settle the dissension of about three years, and that he should be the true Pontiff without controversy, whom he should have pronounced, even if he had chosen himself: but he chose not any of those seventeen Cardinals who were present, but one who was in a most distant province, at Jerusalem, long absent for the sake of a holy pilgrimage, Theobald Visconti, of Piacenza, Archdeacon of Liège, a man in those times most illustrious in the name of religion and piety. In which action one may behold his integrity, equity, wisdom, and his excellent will, and his soul inflamed with the desire of the public good, and not colored with any deceits of ambition.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VII.

His deeds in the Council of Lyons, his death and miracles.

Now there remain the eminent deeds which, beheld in the Oecumenical Council of Lyons, redound to the praises of the Seraphic doctor for posterity. St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure summoned to the Council of Lyons. Pope Gregory the Tenth therefore, who was that very Theobald, when at Lyons, at a most difficult time of the Christian Commonwealth, he had proclaimed an Oecumenical Synod, that, besides the other and greatest things he was about to do, he might especially recall the dissenting Greeks to the faith, authority, and office of piety of the Church, had need, since the matter was to be decided in writing, of the doctrine and wisdom of the greatest men, of whom he chose two chiefly, then most illustrious masters and doctors of the sacred Letters, Thomas Aquinas of the Order of Preachers, and Bonaventure of the Order of Minors. This one was present, the other could not be, through death. But their conjunction seems wonderful: who both, fellow-disciples in the Parisian schools, bound by the mutual offices of charity and familiarity, companions in the office of publicly interpreting, are called also together to the labors of the Council of Lyons: so that it is no wonder, if in the same year also they departed from this life to the reward of their merits in heaven.

[78] Bonaventure therefore came to Lyons, who then, as Minister General, [The care of the Council imposed on him with two other fathers of the Seraphic Order.] bore the care of the whole Seraphic Order with excellent praise. But how much the Pontiff, and all the greatest men attributed to him, I shall soon narrate. Already in almost all quarters the fame of the sanctity, doctrine, and virtues of Bonaventure had been aroused, and his prudence beheld in the greatest matters, and finally known to all, especially to the Supreme Pontiff Gregory the Tenth; who in that most crowded Oecumenical synod of Latins and Greeks used his counsel for all things ^a. First he commanded him, and two others of the Franciscan Order, of whom one was Bishop of Rouen, the other of Tripoli, universally, that they should at that necessary time see to it, that the Church suffer no detriment. In the greatest esteem then of holiness, doctrine, and discipline the Seraphic Order both was held, and was. For not these three only were employed for the highest matters, Jerome of Ascoli of the Order of Minors, Legate to the Greeks. but Jerome of Ascoli, likewise of the same Order, a man wise in the first place, and eminently learned: who, sent as Legate by the Pontiff to Constantinople, dealt excellently with the Greeks, that they should come to Lyons to the council. He moreover was the one who, having on account of his merits obtained the Pontificate, had the name of Nicholas the Fourth. But since almost all who were present in the Council cast their eyes upon Bonaventure alone, excelling in every virtue: Gregory, as he was a Pontiff of singular and divine wisdom, preferred that he should be the one to whom he should especially give the care of directing the Council.

[79] The Emperor of the Greeks with many others come to Lyons. The Emperor of the Greeks therefore, Michael VII Comnenus, Palaeologus ^b, Joseph, Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishops, Bishops, and legates of Greece came to Lyons with a numerous multitude of Clergy: among whom were present most learned men, one of whom was Emmanuel Calecas ^c, who aided the Catholic Roman Church by his brilliant writings. There were present also the Legates of the Scythians. Now the Council was most crowded, since from every Christian region had assembled five hundred Bishops, sixty Abbots, and other Prelates, and a thousand Priests, and likewise innumerable chief laymen. There was treated of the gravest and greatest matters, and in the first place of the recovery of Jerusalem and Palestine, of recalling the Greeks to the Catholic faith, and especially of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son; and besides both of many decrees pertaining to the Church, and of the chief laws which ought to be observed in the elections of the Roman Pontiff. In this highest and most celebrated assembly therefore one may behold the works and offices of the virtues which the holy Bonaventure rendered to the Church of God; so far that everyone with the sense of his eyes beheld the East joined with the West, and the Greek Church in no way dissenting from the Roman Apostolic mother Church. In which matter how much the Seraphic doctor accomplished, I shall briefly set forth.

[80] St. Bonaventure held the first oration in the Council, Now at the very outset of the Council he was especially chosen to hold a discourse, the beginning of which was; Arise, Jerusalem, and look about toward the East; and behold thy children gathered together from the East even to the West. Of that oration surely so great was the force, and so great the excellence of doctrines, that, since he both conciliated to himself the souls of all, and especially of the Greeks, he also aroused the Oecumenical assembly of the Fathers to well conducting the affairs of the Church. Here the name of Bonaventure's doctrine was great, here the excellent praise of the erudition and wisdom of Eutychius (for so the Greeks called him). And so he not only sustained, but now began to surpass the opinion of Pope Gregory, who had both summoned him to the Council, and had chosen him, to discharge the office of well conducting it, and by his discourse to receive all, especially the Greeks. by which he wonderfully conciliated the Greeks, Now that age greatly admired his preeminent doctrine, and his Theology explained in the books which he had published. Now at last, what was divinely brought about, that in every most excellent treatment of letters his excellent knowledge should shine forth, the same, not only beheld before in many lucubrations, but already seen and approved in the light of the University of Paris, the Oecumenical Synod of Lyons admirably beholds in the disputations and encounters with the Greeks. And it can be doubtful to no one, nor indeed ought to be, that he, most learned as he was, completed the courses of eminent erudition in all that treatment at Lyons. Now the public Acts of that Council, which are wanting, if they were extant in these times: certainly in them, as in sealed tablets, we should have his active virtues and eminent wisdom fully attested: concerning whom there was a constant opinion in that age; that the Greeks especially by his virtue, their errors being exploded, returned to the unity of the Catholic faith.

[81] For he was, as I said at first, humble, clement, and brought them, with the Emperor, back to the faith. a stranger to anger, sweet in familiarity of manners, pleasant in speech, angelic in countenance, and adorned with divine ornaments: by which he easily conciliated to himself their good-will. Whence it came about, that, when he had entered the course of the disputations, he left the footsteps of that true and orthodox doctrine imprinted in their souls, in which, as in the other virtues, all had now persuaded themselves that he excelled. Being therefore pleasing to all and to the Greek nation, he was also dear to the Greek Caesar Michael Comnenus. Wherefore the Pontiff Gregory, using his doctrine and labor, at last surely accomplished, the Holy Spirit being author and leader, that which he had most greatly desired, that both the Emperor Michael and the Greeks should profess the Orthodox faith of the Catholic Roman Church. Which matter indeed, long sought after, when it had rightly succeeded: then all those same men, and likewise the Latins together, in Latin and in Greek publicly chanted the symbol with those solemn words; From the Father and the Son he proceeds. Since therefore the holy Bonaventure had greatly aided this concord: then also he rendered service to the Pontiff in composing very many decrees, which, wisely and usefully published in that Council, were afterward entered in order into the sixth book of the Decretals. Nor besides did the same Seraphic doctor, amid those greatest occupations, omit to do this, that he might beat back and shatter the heretics then assailing the religion of the Mendicants.

[82] And so that most celebrated Oecumenical Synod of Lyons at last wonderfully beheld both his eloquence in the discourse, At the beginning of the Council adorned with the Cardinal's purple. and his doctrine in the disputations, and his wisdom in the conciliation of the Greeks, and his prudence in the consultation of the decrees, and the force of his knowledge and excellence of genius in the refutation of the heretics; and finally, to embrace it briefly, his eminent labors and excellent functions in the dignity of the Cardinalate, with which Pope Gregory had adorned him at the beginning of the Council ^d. For in it he made five Cardinals: of whom he especially chose one, for the amplitude of his virtues, Bonaventure, whom he created Cardinal, and Cardinal Bishop of Albano, which perhaps befell no one ever, that one should be pronounced Cardinal Bishop before he had been a Cardinal priest. But this was done by divine counsel, since the Church of God and the Pontiff received thence such abundant fruits: who, when he had ofttimes praised in words his doctrine joined to holiness of life, willed also to approve it by deeds. But Bonaventure, who out of humility, which virtue he always eminently cultivated, had constantly refused the Archbishopric of York, and most modestly resisting in vain, at last compelled, took up the Cardinalate.

[83] He departs from life in the very Council, Having in this Second Council of Lyons holily discharged these pious labors, and many others throughout his whole life, and in every office for the holy Catholic Church, in that very Council on the Ides of July, which day was a Sunday, in the year of salvation 1274, and of his age 53, he departed into heaven; in which very year St. Thomas Aquinas

on the eighth of the Ides of March migrated also to that everlasting heavenly glory. Those therefore who in this course of life were most closely joined both in charity, and in studies, and in mutual familiarity, and in many other things which I have narrated; these in the same year depart to the reward of eternal life.

[84] to the great loss of the Church. But Pope Gregory, who made so much of St. Bonaventure not only in this life, but after his death, as much as it is clear that he made of him, intimately grieving at his death, could not restrain himself from saying, that the Church, which had received such admirable fruits from the erudition of so great a man, had suffered a great loss by his death. Nay, all, both clerics and laymen, both Latins and Greeks, mourned at his death, since he seemed to have left no one equal to himself. So much moreover was attributed to him for his virtue and doctrine, that both the Pontiff, and the Emperor of the Greeks, the Cardinals, and all the Bishops, who were present in great numbers in the Council, adorned his funeral with their presence. That this was ever done with any other man, even the most excellent, is scarcely found in all the antiquity of the Annals. And of the admirable virtues and gifts of knowledge, with which God had adorned him, the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Peter of Tarantaise ^e, gave a brilliant eulogy, who made the beginning from that lamentation: I grieve over thee, my brother Jonathan. His body was buried at Lyons in the church of St. Francis, which afterward, as I shall set forth below, was named by his name.

[85] The Pontiff with the Emperor honored his obsequies by their presence. But since Bonaventure had held perpetually that course of life, and had so established it, that his life and manner of morals should be a norm of living piously and religiously; and his doctrine should be held as a most firm safeguard of the Catholic dogma: at his death there was one almost common voice of all, saying, or rather lamenting, that a column of the Christian Commonwealth had fallen. And with so great a concourse of the people was his funeral borne, that the whole city of Lyons poured itself forth with tears to celebrate it. That which therefore blessed Francis had foretold from his earliest age ^f, that he would be in the Seraphic religion a great man and a most eminent person, whose doctrine would bring to very many a light for dispelling the darkness, can be most certain and most fully explored from those things which I have now clearly written out.

[86] Illustrious for miracles, he freed Lyons from the plague. But God, who is wonderful in his Saints, willed both his sanctity and his doctrine to be attested by the multitude and greatness of miracles. It would be plainly far too long to pursue by enumerating his wonderfully and divinely accomplished deeds: but, since they have been entered into the Annals of the Franciscan Order ^g, and into perennial tablets, there is no need why I should treat at greater length of those which especially are in the mouth of all, and which have been handed down to posterity by brilliant testimonies. Many of his miracles Octavianus of Sinuessa commemorates, which Sixtus the Fourth, Supreme Pontiff, willed to have known rightly and in order, before he inscribed him in the number of the Saints according to the method of the solemn rite. Others the citizens of Bagnorea have, which, most attested by the speech of all, the authority of the sacrosanct Apostolic See also approved. For, while he was engaged in this course of life, he wrought many miracles, the Lord working: then after he migrated hence into heaven, men ran to his sepulcher, as to a common refuge. He, moreover, freed Lyons from the disease and contagion of pestilence, divinely disentangled perilous and difficult births: he wonderfully freed those oppressed by the surge and vexation of evil spirits; he recalled a dead boy to life.

[87] And truly; what must not be passed over in silence, His head incorrupt in the hundred and sixtieth year after his death. there is a most august miracle, and most notable for the everlasting attestation of the sound and sincere doctrine, which he both taught with his tongue, and left consigned in writing. For in the hundred and sixtieth year after his death, when his body was to be transferred elsewhere, with neither the lips, nor the teeth, nor the tongue, nor even the hairs consumed, his head was found whole, and almost with the appearance of one breathing ^h. Which matter surely admirable, if it be rightly weighed, could not be without a signification of mystery. But this certainly one may interpret, that the doctrine which flowed from his head, and once streamed from his tongue, preserved whole from all blemish, is held in that esteem, in which at last it both is held, and is, ever from that time in which he departed from this life. There was almost no one who, after his death, did not praise both his life and his erudition.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VIII.

The commendation of his doctrine after his death, his canonization, and the things which followed the canonization.

In the Council of Florence a decree from the opinion of St. Bonaventure. He had many followers of his industry and knowledge; but heralds and praisers far more. I pass over here Stephen Brulefer, and other men of the Franciscan Order: but there was Gerson who published a singular book concerning the Seraphic doctrine of St. Bonaventure. I have already likewise mentioned St. Antoninus, Henry of Ghent, John Trithemius, and the rest, who feel most eminently concerning the same. Nay, Trithemius asserted, that he surpasses all in the utility of his works. And for that reason it is by best right handed down in the monuments of the Roman Church, that in him is the highest erudition. And in the acts of the Oecumenical Council of Florence, at which the Greeks also had assembled, it appears, not once and again, but a third time, that his doctrine was brought forward, and employed for the use and method of difficult questions. And it was brought forward by a man of the highest erudition, Cardinal Torquemada: to whom likewise the Greeks attributed very much, from the authorities which he had received from the lessons of Bonaventure: the matter at last was decreed, the Latin and Greek Fathers agreeing, according to the prescript of that Seraphic doctrine.

[89] Kings and Princes demanded that St. Bonaventure be enrolled among the Divine. Everywhere on earth was the fame of the sanctity and preeminent knowledge, in which he flourished both in life and after death, God blessing. Wherefore Frederick, Augustus Emperor of the Romans, Louis the Most Christian King of the Gauls, Ferdinand of Sicily, Matthias of Hungary, Catholic Kings, and besides the Dukes both of Venice, and of Savoy, and of Milan, and likewise many peoples, especially the Florentines, the Sienese, the Perugians, and in Gaul the Lyonnese, and again in Italy the citizens of Bagnorea, and the whole Seraphic Order, everywhere among the nations, not only demanded, but urgently besought of Sixtus the Fourth, Supreme Pontiff, that Bonaventure should be enrolled in the number of the holy Confessors, Pontiffs, and Doctors of the Church ^a. Then Pope Sixtus, that the matter might be conducted rightly and in order, entrusted a matter of so great moment to the faith of three Cardinals: of whom one was Julian della Rovere, Cardinal of St. Peter in Chains; another Stephen, Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Nardini; the third Francis Gonzaga, Cardinal of Mantua. And when this cause began to be treated; on every side there stood forth excellent monuments both of the things which he holily, divinely, and wonderfully did, and of the codices which he learnedly, gravely, and piously wrote. The cause Octavianus of Sinuessa, most eloquent Advocate of the sacred Apostolic Palace, pleaded in a most ornate oration, His oration is subjoined. and most heaped with his deeds and lucubrations, by the proclaiming of which he could rightly and truly be celebrated: and John Pavinius, likewise most learned in divine and human law, spoke most abundantly of the same, so far that, the commemoration of the whole matter which was being treated being distributed into two parts, which he also distinguished into certain fixed articles, he demonstrated at length and in order both the excellent and fruitful doctrine of the Seraphic Bonaventure, and his preeminent and divine virtues; and also his holiness of life, shining forth in charity, chastity of morals, and excellent offices, and most fully attested by the greatness of miracles both in life and after death.

[90] All these things being rightly and plainly approved, and truly known, He is declared a Doctor of the Church by Sixtus the Fourth. Pope Sixtus, who writes that, after through age he could understand anything, he most studiously read his divine writings, and was always delighted with them, duly and solemnly enrolled him at Rome in the number of the holy Confessors, Pontiffs, and Doctors ^b, whom the holy Church of God venerates, in the Basilica of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, whither a very great multitude of every kind and every order had flowed together. And that the whole matter might be conducted the more holily, by the office of piety, he proclaimed a fast and prayers of three days. And besides, the rites which his predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, especially Boniface the Ninth at the canonization of St. Bridget; Nicholas the Fifth at that of St. Bernardine; Pius the Second at that of St. Catherine of Siena; Callistus the Third at that of St. Osmund, had employed, these Pope Sixtus solemnly using, published the decretal letters given in the name of that accomplished and completed deed, in the year 1482, on the eighteenth of the Kalends of May. By which letters, besides the rest, he willed this also to be most attested, that the fame of St. Bonaventure's innocence and doctrine had perpetually spread abroad, and that he was great in doctrine, not less in the merits of his life; and that he wrote of divine things in such a way, that the Holy Spirit seemed to have spoken in him.

[91] These letters being promulgated, both in all Italy there arose a public spiritual joy, The Princes of Mirandola admirers of St. Bonaventure. and in all who cultivate the knowledge of the sacred letters a more ardent zeal for his books. Then first John Pico, prince of Mirandola, a man learned in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Arabic, and most learnedly skilled in the use of all the liberal disciplines, and eminently learned in the knowledge of Theology, burned with an incredible desire of having, reading, and publishing the commentaries which the same St. Bonaventure had written on St. Luke. John Francis Pico, besides, his nephew, likewise, as he, most learned, always had in his mouth the exquisite doctrine of the Seraphic doctor, of whom also he ofttimes made mention in those things which

he left in many places, as monuments of his genius. And in Gaul, that province which was then called by the name of Burgundy, began to be named the Province of St. Bonaventure, on account of the veneration of him.

[92] At Lyons likewise, where his name is great and most celebrated, [The relics of his body cast into the Rhône by the Huguenots, the head being preserved.] a place formerly built in the year 1252 under the title of St. Francis, was then, under the name of St. Bonaventure, built and enlarged with a most ample structure. Now that place, illustrious everywhere among the nations by the doctrine, the manner of life, the glory of the deeds, and the work of the precious sepulcher of the same Saint, lacked little but that in the year 1562 ^c it was wholly burned in a nefarious tumult by the Calvinist heretics. There was there, as I said, a sepulcher: where within, in a case artfully and piously wrought, the body of that Saint was kept. This the impious heretics, wickedly snatched thence, wickedly cast into the river Rhône [*]: but thirsting for silver, they kept for themselves the silver case with a horrible crime of sacrilege. But it was divinely brought about, that his head, which after so many years I have commemorated to have been found wonderfully whole, adorned with gems, pearls, and piously sumptuous workmanship, was preserved from the peril of the impious men, seething with a detestable greed for gold.

[93] Some of his relics are extant elsewhere. Which sacred head today, in the same church of the Seraphic Order at Lyons, is also honorably laid up. And that I may pass nothing over in silence, other sacred relics of his are also extant, by divine favor. At Bagnorea, in the Cathedral church, is his arm, which the chief cultivator of that Saint, Francis Sarasonius ^d, Minister General, brought thither from Gaul. At Paris is piously kept a jawbone, which once Charles ^e, the Most Christian King of France, out of zeal of piety, had asked to be granted to him. In how great veneration therefore St. Bonaventure has always been, has now been sufficiently said; so far, that it is clear that the Supreme Pontiffs, whom I have commemorated singly as the chief ones, always attributed much also to his doctrine. And truly in our memory Pius V, Pontiff, most worthy of everlasting glory, that he might in some way restore the eminent doctrine of so preeminent a doctor, almost collapsing through a certain negligence; commanded and decreed that it should be recalled to a more frequent use of studies and custom of interpretations in the schools of the Franciscan Order. But at last it was accomplished by divine favor and gift, that which, both always before, and in these times, in determining that matter, was useful and necessary in all respects to the public interests of the Catholic Church, and, by the office of piety, especially owed to the so great merits of so great a Doctor.

ANNOTATA.

* The Arar (Saône).

CHAPTER IX.

Of the things which Pope Sixtus V did on account of his sanctity and eminent doctrine.

The praises of Pope Sixtus V. At a most opportune time therefore God gave as Pontiff Sixtus V, of whose virtue and wisdom the Christian Commonwealth had very great need. I will not here commemorate that singular and plainly divine force of soul and genius, with which he sustains the Pontifical burden, with which he guards all things, with which he sustains the most difficult matters, with which he accomplishes the greatest things. His deeds are plainly notable for the praise of immortality: which, however, written by me in a separate book, I judge it to be my part to hand down to posterity in the monuments of letters. Now therefore, that I may at last finish this undertaken writing concerning the life of St. Bonaventure; I shall briefly narrate the reasons and causes why he, being especially moved, by best right numbered him among the foremost and chief Doctors of the Church.

[95] Sixtus V is surely a Pontiff, a man of great and admirable prudence of genius, Who decreed that St. Bonaventure's Theology should be taught at Rome, of the highest memory, most learned in the knowledge of all the excellent liberal disciplines, and especially in Theology and the divine letters, and most skilled in the doctrine of St. Bonaventure. And so he, as a man made most wise by long study, since he understood that most abundant fruits both of the knowledge of letters and of the discipline of morals could be received from the books of the Seraphic doctor: did everything, touched everything, while he was in that Order of Minors, not only in the chapters, but at all times, that his expositions of books, and his works, might be introduced into the use of studies. And since this had never been at all effected, he, when created Pontiff, greatly desired to carry out at last what he had long ago usefully and wisely deliberated for the sake of his Order. For that matter he erected and established at Rome, in the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles, whence, as from a fountain, discipline and doctrine flow into all the provinces of the world, a college with a fixed annual revenue; in which he willed that Theology should be lucidly explained, and the divine letters taught, only from the expositions, commentaries, and lucubrations of the same St. Bonaventure.

[96] But surely what was by right and desert attributed by the Supreme Pontiffs to the others excelling in sacred erudition, by a surely excellent counsel, he judged should plainly be attributed to the Seraphic doctor himself; since the reason of equity, of utility, and of necessity most greatly demanded it: which things surely avail very much for every constitution, even the gravest. For he, long and diligently engaged in the studies of the lucubrations of so great a Doctor, both himself of himself knew most excellently the force, greatness, piety, and abundance of the doctrine and erudition with which that man was eminently and divinely adorned; and observed that the same, most flourishing at almost all times, was praised first by Alexander the Fourth, then by the others who thereafter had succeeded in order, the Supreme Pontiffs, Urban the Fourth, likewise Clement the Fourth, Gregory the Tenth, afterward by Sixtus the Fourth, and lately by Pius the Fifth, and was moreover most highly esteemed in the Oecumenical Synod of Lyons, and likewise employed in the Oecumenical Synod of Florence for the method and use of the highest disputations, and attested by the most trustworthy testimonies of the gravest authors, and by their magnificent and excellent words: so far that by the judgment of almost all he knew it to have been always in great opinion and esteem, worthy of an eminent doctor.

[97] Then, what he judged most just concerning him, which he set forth in his diploma. seemed also most useful: since he, illumined by the light of the Holy Spirit, was given by God for the edification of the Church, for indeed the Seraphic doctor bestowed great labors, as I have set forth, and the highest studies, upon interpreting the sacred books, upon explaining the dogmas of the faith, and upon most accurately handing down the excellent offices of piety which ought to be rendered in the Church of God. This doctrine of his, moreover, since Pope Sixtus the Fifth had plainly perceived to have wonderfully profited before at all times: he judged it now also to be useful, both for all those other things, and for the best conforming of morals, and the discipline of the Christian life, which he vehemently desires in the Lord in the clergy and the people everywhere on earth ^a.

[98] Scholastic Theology fortifies against heresies. But what he thought greatly useful in all respects, he besides judged necessary and most opportune. For in these times the heretics, impious and wicked writers, since they strive with all cunning to wrest the sentences of the divine law, of the Prophets, of the Apostles, and of the Fathers to another sense than is fitting: because they perceive that the knowledge of Scholastic Theology very greatly opposes their nefarious attempts, by whose force their windings and long circuits are cut off: they strive most greatly to assail it at present, as before Wycliffe did, as a citadel most fortified against them. Sixtus the Fourth i.e., the Fifth therefore, most diligent and most vigilant in guarding the Church of God, judged it worth the labor, that the more hostilely they attempt to overthrow so great a discipline, the more constantly and bravely he should guard the same, and preserve everywhere its method and the bulwarks of its arguments intact and roofed. For which cause Pius the Fifth, Pontiff, also judged that St. Thomas Aquinas, a most illustrious light of the Church, should be honored with a new decree.

[99] St. Bonaventure numbered among the first doctors of the Church. Moved therefore by these reasons and others, far more, and those the greatest, which he shows in his decretal letters, Pope Sixtus the Fifth judged that what Sixtus the Fourth had sanctioned concerning the Seraphic doctor, should be established more abundantly. And so, the matter being at last maturely deliberated, by the counsel and consent of the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church, on account of the excellent holiness of his life, divinely also attested, the perennial labors undertaken for the Church of God, and the excellent doctrine joined with piety, and illustrious with divine virtues, with the splendor of which St. Bonaventure illumined the Church, he judged him worthy to be numbered among the foremost and chief Doctors of the Church, and that concerning him, on a fixed anniversary day, there should be done with solemn rite, as concerning the other foremost and eminent Doctors of the same Church; according to the prescript of the constitution of Pope Boniface the Eighth. Wherefore he composed decretal letters, and those indeed notable in all respects, and by every office of piety, for everlasting memory, and published them in that name; by which letters all things are lucidly explained.

[100] The rites held in this act by Sixtus V. And that the whole matter might be conducted rightly and solemnly: the Pontiff appointed a fixed day for that solemnity, which was the day before the Ides of March, dedicated also to the celebration of the translation of St. Bonaventure. And for rightly accomplishing the matter he chose in the City the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles, which is of the Order of Minors, where I have narrated the college to have been established by him. On that day therefore, having set out thither early in the morning, with many Cardinals accompanying, he came straight to the altar of the most holy Sacrament, where, having piously prayed a little while, he thence approaches the sacristy; in which place, clad in sacred vestments of white color, and adorned with a precious miter, then the cross being borne before, and the Cardinals clad in a cope of violet color, since it was the time of Lent, going before in order, he proceeds to the high altar, where also he prayed a little. There was in that place the pontifical throne, clad in white ornament, and the benches of the Cardinals; who, according to custom, when they had rendered the office of obedience to the Pontiff, sat in their place. Then Thomas Gualterutius, Secretary of the Pontiff's Briefs, clad in rochet and cope, from the pulpit, on the side of the Gospel, read from the writing those decretal letters, by which the Pontiff had established St. Bonaventure among the foremost Doctors of the Church: and all who were present in great numbers heard them most attentively. The letters being read, presently the choir of singers chanted the antiphon, O best doctor, with solemn modulation: while it was being chanted, the Pontiff, adorned with the miter, stood. Then two singers chanted the versicle: and the Pontiff said the oration of a Doctor of the Church. These things being duly performed, the Cardinal of Ascoli celebrated a solemn Mass of the holy Doctor. Which being solemnly celebrated, Maurice Bressius, a Frenchman, a man eminently learned in all the liberal disciplines, held a brilliant oration concerning St. Bonaventure, printed below in order.

[101] And these things indeed, which pertain to that accomplished deed. The works of St. Bonaventure published from the Vatican press. But that this benefit might extend more widely to the whole Church; the Pontiff willed the works of so eminent a Doctor, sought out on every side at great expense and diligence, and most studiously emended, to be brought forth into the light from the Vatican press, which he established, for all

posterity, as was signified in those same pontifical letters. And since from almost his earliest age he burned with a singular affection of devotion toward his cult, besides the other monuments of his piety toward him, he willed this also to stand, that the Roman galley too, which he decreed to be the foremost and chief of the fleet which he prepares for the sake of the public good, should be called by the most religious and most happy name of Bonaventure. For he hopes, God helping well, that it will at last come to pass, that this galley, aided by the great merits of that heavenly patron, shall be victorious over the pirates and the enemies of the Cross of Christ the Lord.

[102] Prayer to the Saint. Thou therefore, most holy Bonaventure, since I have obtained so great a matter, and, as it were, a harvest of thy heavenly merits; although, not even by thinking, much less by writing, do I seem to have attained the least part of them; yet since thou seest that I have, as I could according to the weakness of my genius, made the attempt with some zeal: grant, I beseech thee, by thy prayers and intercession, that thou wilt be a help to Sixtus the Fifth, Pontiff Best and Greatest, that God may preserve him unharmed as long as possible, laboring so strenuously for the cause of the Church in all the greatest matters, and following with pious and grateful memory those divine virtues, which, while thou wast in the course of this life, thou didst bestow for the salvation and adornment of the same Church.

ANNOTATA.