{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33448/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33448","id":"gutenberg_33448","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33448","summary":null,"tags":["Bonaventure, Saint, Cardinal, approximately 1217-1274","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Medieval/Middle Ages","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Don Kostuch\n\n\n\n\n[Transcriber's Notes]\n  This text is derived from a copy in the Ave Maria University\n  library, catalog number \"B 765 .B74 C678 1911\"\n\n  Footnotes have been renumbered to avoid ambiguity.\n[End Transcriber's Notes]\n\n\nTHE FRIAR SAINTS SERIES\n\n_Editors for the Franciscan Lives_\n\nThe Very Rev. Fr. OSMUND. O.F.M., Provincial, and C. M. ANTONY\n\n\n_Editors for the Dominican Lives_\n\nThe Rev. Fr. BEDE JARRETT. O.P., and C. M. ANTONY\n\n\nST. BONAVENTURE\n\nNihil Obstat:\n   D. THOMAS BERGH, O.S.B.,\n            _Censor Deputatus_\n\nImprimatur:\n   EDM. CAN. SURMONT,\n            _Vicarius Generalis_\n\nWESTMONASTERII,\n   _die 30 Martii, 1911._\n\n\n[Illustration;\n  ST. BONAVENTURE.\n\n  _From an engraving by Eitel after the painting by\n  Cavazzola (P. Morando)_]\n\n\nSAINT BONAVENTURE\n\nTHE SERAPHIC DOCTOR MINISTER-GENERAL OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER\nCARDINAL BISHOP OF ALBANO\n\n\nBY THE REV. FR. LAURENCE COSTELLOE, O.F.M.\n\n[Illustration:\n  Herald. \"DEUS MEUS ET OMNIA\"]\n\n\nWITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nLONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.\n\nFOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK\nLONDON, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA\n\n1911\n\n{v}\n\nPREFATORY NOTICE.\n\nThe first two volumes of the \"Friar Saints\" Series now published will\nbe followed at short intervals by four more \"Lives,\" two at a time,\nDominican and Franciscan together. Should the first six \"Lives\" prove\nsuccessful they will be followed by a second set of six. The order of\npublication will probably be as follows:--\n\n    _Dominican_.\n\n (1) St. Thomas Aquinas.\n     By Fr. PLACID CONWAY, O.P.\n\n (2) St. Vincent Ferrer.\n     By Fr. STANISLAUS HOGAN, O.P.\n\n (3) St. Pius V.\n     By C. M. ANTONY.\n\n (4) St. Antoninus of Florence.\n     By Fr. BEDE JARRETT, O.P.\n\n (5) St. Raymond of Pennafort.\n     By Fr. THOMAS SCHWERTNER, O.P\n\n (6) St. Louis Bertrand.\n     By the Rev. Mother MARY REGINALD,\n\n    _Franciscan_.\n\n (1) St. Bonaventure.\n     By Fr. LAURENCE COSTELLOE. O.F.M.\n\n (2) St. Antony of Padua.\n     By C. M. ANTONY.\n\n (3) St. John Capistran.\n     By Fr. VINCENT FITZGERALD, O.F.M.\n\n (4) St. Bernardine of Siena.\n     By Miss M. WARD.\n\n (5) St. Leonard of Port-Maurice.\n     By Fr. ALEXANDER MURPHY, O.F.M.\n\n (6) St. Peter of Alcantara.\n     By Fr. EOBERT CARROL, O.F.M. O.S.D.\n\n{vi}\n\nThe \"Friar Saints\" Series, which has received the warm approval of the\nauthorities of both Orders in England, Ireland, and America, is\nearnestly recommended to Tertiaries, and to the Catholic public\ngenerally.\n\nThe Master-General of the Dominicans at Rome, sending his blessing to\nthe writers and readers of the \"Friar Saints\" Series, says: \"The Lives\nshould teach their readers not only to know the Saints, but also to\nimitate them \".\n\nThe Minister-General of the Franciscans, Fr. Denis Schuler, sends his\nblessing and best wishes for the success of the \"Lives of the Friar\nSaints\".\n\n   F. OSMUND. O.F.M., PROVINCIAL,\n   F. BEDE JARRETT, O.P.,\n   C. M. ANTONY,\n               _Editors_.\n\n{vii}\n\nFOREWORD.\n\nThe life of Saint Bonaventure, the \"Seraphic Doctor,\" is now\nappropriately presented to the public as the first of the Franciscan\nlives in this \"Series of the Lives of the Friar Saints\". Till the days\nof this \"Second Founder of the Franciscan Order,\" the simplicity of\nour Holy Father St. Francis had been the salient feature of his\ninstitute: no successful effort had hitherto been made to organize the\ngrowing Order unto the full measure of its efficiency. Speaking\ngenerally, everything so far had been left to individual initiative,\nand the keynote of those early days is struck in the liberty enjoyed\nby the individual--a liberty which, though charming to contemplate and\nof irresistible appeal to a democratic age, is yet incompatible with\nthe distinctive work a corporate body must perforce fulfil if its\ndeeds are to justify its {viii} existence. To effect this purpose a\ncertain amount of that rigid uniformity attendant on all organization\nwas imperatively demanded.\n\nUnder the influence of St. Bonaventure this was successfully\naccomplished. Among the many elements that entered into this process\nof development we must, perhaps, assign the most conspicuous place to\nthe systematic pursuit of learning which our Saint engrafted on St.\nFrancis' ideal of contemplation and zeal, and which, under the\nguidance of God's Providence, has been destined to render the\nFranciscan Order an effective force in dealing with the world's most\nvital problems. Together with this pursuit of learning came the\nintroduction into the Order of a uniform exterior observance; an\nobservance inculcated and fostered by a systematized code of\nConstitutions and ordinances which remain substantially the same\nto-day as when first framed centuries ago.\n\nThe life of St. Bonaventure may, accordingly, be considered as the\nideal to which the modern Franciscan tends: an ideal in which the\nsimplicity of St. Francis is blended with a thorough grasp of the\nlatest developments in scientific thought: in which personal holiness,\nbecause cognizant of self-weakness, is {ix} large-hearted and generous\nin its sympathy with others: in which the multitudinous details of\nactive and administrative life are raised by a strong interior spirit\nfrom what might be a fertile source of distraction into a means of\ncloser union with God.\n\nWe have now but to add that the following pages on the life-work of\nSt. Bonaventure, written by the late Fr. Laurence Costelloe, O.F.M.,\nare based on the critical life of the Seraphic Doctor contained in the\ntenth volume of his works (Quaracchi, 1902). At the request of his\nsuperiors he intended to revise and publish his work, but sudden death\nfrustrated his design. This revision has now been undertaken by the\nRev. Fr. Leo, O.F.M., who has verified the sources, and introduced\nsuch changes as were demanded by the prescribed length of this work.\n\n   OSMUND COONEY, O.F.M.,\n   _Provincial_.\n\n   THE FRIARY, FOREST GATE, LONDON,\n   _Feast of the Annunciation, 1911_\n\n{x}\n\n{xi}\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n  CHAPTER PAGE\n\n  I.    CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH                    1\n  II.   SANCTITY AND LEARNING                  8\n  III.  THE MENDICANT ORDERS ASSAILED         17\n  IV.   THE MENDICANTS VINDICATED             23\n  V.    MINISTER-GENERAL                      30\n  VI.   DISCIPLINE AND OBSERVANCE             37\n  VII.  INCIDENTS OF ADMINISTRATION           45\n  VIII. ST. FRANCIS' BIOGRAPHER               56\n  IX.   INTERIOR SPIRIT                       64\n  X.    LOVE OF GOD                           72\n  XI.   THE ARCHBISHOPRIC OF YORK             82\n  XII.  MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES OF THE SAINT  88\n  XIII. THE CARDINALATE                       97\n  XIV.  DEATH                                104\n  XV.   CANONIZATION                         115\n\n\n{xii}\n\n  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n  ST. BONAVENTURE                                  _Frontispiece_\n    _From an Engraving by Eitel,\n    after the painting\n    by Cavazzola (P. Morando)_.\n\n  THE CORONATION OF OUR LADY To face               _To face p. 36_\n    _From a Photograph by Alinari of the picture\n    by Pinturichio in the Vatican, Rome._\n\n  ST. BONAVENTURE IN ECSTASY WHILE\n  WRITING THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS IS\n  VISITED BY ST. THOMAS AQUINAS\n    _From a Fresco by Giacomelli in the\n    Franciscan Church at Cimiex_                   _To face p. 62_\n\n  THE PAPAL ENVOY PRESENTING\n  ST. BONAVENTURE WITH THE CARDINAL'S HAT          _Page 73_\n\n  ST. BONAVENTURE\n    _From Raphael's Disputa in the Vatican_.       _Page 105_\n\n  ST. BONAVENTURE. _Church of S. Maria\n    degli Angeli, Dintorni\n    (Tiberio d' Assisi)\n    From a Photograph by Alinari_.                 _To face p. 114_\n\n\n{1}\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nCHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.\n\nIt is refreshing to turn from the depressing materialism of the\npresent time to the inspiring faith of the Middle Ages. The change of\noutlook is invigorating; it has on the soul the effect which a bracing\natmosphere has on the body.\n\nThe temper of modern times tends to enfeeble our sense of the\nsupernatural. If we would maintain undiminished our spiritual vigour\nwe must withdraw occasionally from its influence and endeavour to\ndwell for a time in a more healthy religious atmosphere.\n\nThis is why I would take my readers back to the thirteenth century--a\nperiod glowing with the faith and fervour of the great spiritual\nrevival effected by St. Francis and St. Dominic. I do not intend to\ntreat of that epoch and its characteristics generally; a field so wide\ncould be but very imperfectly surveyed in these pages. I think we\nshall receive a clearer and more forcible impression of it if we study\nit as exemplified in the life of one {2} of those great saints who\npersonified its spirit in themselves. Of course we should find this in\nall its fulness in St. Francis, but there are so many works treating\nof the Seraphic Patriarch that only the discovery of some entirely new\naspect of his marvellous life would fully justify another. I do not\npretend to this; but I consider that we shall achieve our purpose by\nstudying the life of one of Francis' most remarkable sons, viz. the\nSeraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure. This great man presents to us an\naspect of the Franciscan spirit which those who study the life of St.\nFrancis in all its literal simplicity may fail to discover. For actual\npre-eminence in learning and the establishment of means to secure its\ncontinuance amongst his followers do not at first sight appear to\nreceive either approval or support from the life of St. Francis.\nLearning and the honour naturally attaching to it seem to savour of\ntemporal greatness, but direct and absolute opposition to this was the\ndominant note in Francis' life. He would have his brethren called\n\"Friars Minor,\" or lesser brethren, and he directly says in his Rule:\n\"Let those who are unlearned not seek to learn\". Yet we find St.\nBonaventure--deeply imbued with the spirit of St. Francis, and seventh\nGeneral of his Order--bearing the high dignity of Master of Theology\nand Arts, and as Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, occupying one of\nthe most exalted stations in Christendom.\n\n{3}\n\nIn the course of our survey we shall discover the secret of this\napparent anomaly. No one appears to have been more fully alive to its\nexistence than St. Bonaventure himself, as frequent references to it\nin his writings testify. It is from these references and the\nexplanations they contain that we receive the truest insight into the\ndevelopment of the spirit of learning in the Franciscan Order.\n\nSt. Bonaventure was born in the year 1221, at Balneumregis, the modern\nBagnorea, in the vicinity of Viterbo. His parents were John and\nRitella Fidanza. Their station in life is a matter of conjecture. One\nhistorian asserts that John Fidanza was descended from the noble house\nof Fidanza of Castello, and was a Master of Medicine. We are in no way\nconcerned to prove the nobility of Bonaventure's ancestors. His\npersonal eminence in learning and holiness, with which alone we are\nconcerned, was not the inheritance of rank or station. It may have\nbeen otherwise with those instincts of piety and virtue that developed\nin his soul even as a child. To the fostering care of a devout mother\nthe presence of these may justly be attributed. Experience teaches us\nthat the mother's influence, if it be good, and well and prudently\ndirected, is paramount in the life of the child for all time,\ndetermining it for good according to the degree of its own excellence.\n\n\nOf the early years of our Saint only one striking episode is preserved\nto us, which is thus recorded {4} by himself in his introduction\n[Footnote 1] to the Life of St. Francis. Lamenting his \"inability and\nunworthiness to relate that life most worthy of all imitation,\" he\nfeels himself bound, \"through the love he is compelled to feel for our\nHoly Father,\" to undertake the task which the General Chapter so\nurgently laid on him. \"For,\" he continues, \"through his invocation and\nmerits I was snatched from the jaws of death while yet a child--as I\nremember with fresh and vivid memory. Were I then to refrain from\npublishing his praises I should fear to incur the crime of\ningratitude.\" In his smaller life of St. Francis,[Footnote 2] he again\nrefers to this incident, but adds a further detail. \"God does not\ncease,\" are his words, \"to glorify his servant by numberless miracles\nwrought in various parts of the world, as I myself can vouch from\npersonal experience. For as I lay dangerously ill as a child, I was\nsnatched from the very jaws of death and restored to healthy life\nowing to a vow my mother made to the Blessed Father Francis.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: \"Legenda Major Sti Francisci,\" Prolog. No.3.]\n\n[Footnote 2: \"Legenda Minor Sti Francisci,\" Lectio Octava.]\n\nAround this incident, thus simply recorded, the legend has grown up\nthat our Saint owes his name to a prophecy uttered by St. Francis on\nthe occasion of his cure. We are told that the sick child was\npresented to Francis by the anxious mother who with tears besought his\nintercession. The Saint took the child in his arms and, raising his\neyes to {5} Heaven, prayed earnestly for its restoration. Assured that\nhis petition was granted, he restored it to its mother, and regarding\nit with prophetic gaze, exclaimed, _O buona ventura--_\"Oh good luck!\"\nWe cannot vouch for the authenticity of this narrative, but it has the\nsupport of a fairly reliable tradition. One thing is certain, that\nprior to the time of our Saint, the name Bonaventure was in existence.\nFrom his father he appears to have received the name of John, and in\nmany MSS. he is frequently referred to under that name. He has also\nbeen referred to as Eustachius, Jacobus, Eutychius. This must be\nattributed partly to errors in transcription and partly to the Saint's\nintercourse with Greek theologians who adapted the Greek form of his\nname. Bonaventure, however, is the name by which he was commonly known\nto his contemporaries, and it is the one under which his fame has come\ndown to us.\n\nAs has been said, the story of his boyhood is lost to us. We might\nsketch a fanciful portrait of it, to harmonize with the holiness and\nlearning of his subsequent life, but conjecture is not history. In the\nabsence of recorded facts we are condemned to silence. The biographers\nto whom we might look for enlightenment on this matter are silent.\nThey seem so intent on proclaiming the world-wide fame of his mature\nyears and recording his great achievements on behalf of the Church and\nthe Franciscan Order, that they have overlooked the {6} comparatively\nobscure period of his youth. This was no uncommon fault with the\nchroniclers of that period. We have another very striking example of\nit in the insoluble obscurity in which the biographers of the renowned\nDuns Scotus have left the question of his birthplace and nationality.\nWe do not know where Bonaventure acquired the rudiments of learning;\nwe do not know with anything like certainty the name of the convent in\nwhich he made his novitiate. Our certain knowledge of him dates from\nhis appearance in Paris in the year 1242.\n\nCertain of our Saint's words, however, lift the veil, though somewhat\nslightly, from the shadows that obscure his early years. Writing in\nafter years against a detractor of the Rule he professed, Bonaventure\nthus gave expression [Footnote 3] to the trend of his earlier\nthoughts: \"Do not take offence,\" he wrote, \"that in the beginning, the\nbrethren were simple and unlettered. This ought rather to raise the\nOrder in your esteem. For my part I acknowledge as before God that\nwhat chiefly drew me to love the life-work of Blessed Francis was that\nit bore so close a resemblance to the beginning and growth of the\nChurch. As the Church began with simple fishermen and afterwards\nnumbered renowned and skilled doctors, so too did it happen in the\nOrder of the Blessed Francis. In this way God makes it {7} evident\nthat the Institute was founded not by the prudence of men but by\nChrist.\"\n\n[Footnote 3: \"Epistola de tribus Quaestionibus,\"\nTom. VIII, p. 336. No. 13.]\n\nWith his mind penetrated with that miracle of his early years we can\nreadily conceive how the spiritual awakening started by the Franciscan\nmovement seized on Bonaventure's thoughts. His mother's vow,\nharmonizing with his youthful desires, would clothe those impulses\nwith the glamour of the virtue of religion. It is certain that our\nSaint entered the Franciscan Order as a youth; all the ancient\nchroniclers testify to this. The precise year of his reception,\nhowever, is a debatable question. To the learned editors of our\nSaint's works [Footnote 4] it seems almost established that he entered\nthe Order in the year 1238. We know authoritatively that it was in the\nnovitiate of the Roman Province St. Bonaventure received the habit,\nbut the name of the friary has not come down to us. The three years\nfollowing on his profession in 1239 were spent in the study of\nphilosophy at some quiet house of the Roman Province which tradition\ntells us was Orvieto. Wherever these three years were passed, our\nSaint's lectors could not but notice his opening powers, and plans\nwere formed for developing those conspicuous abilities which would\nreflect, they were sure--and time has ratified their conviction--such\nglory on the Order. Accordingly in 1242 Bonaventure proceeded to the\nUniversity of Paris.\n\n[Footnote 4: \"Opera Omnia\" (Quaracchi, 1902),\nTom. X, pp. 42, 43, 44.]\n\n{8}\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nSANCTITY AND LEARNING.\n\nWhen St. Bonaventure arrived at Paris he was twenty-one years of age\nand had spent three years in the Order. In those days Paris was the\ngreat centre of philosophical and theological learning. Universities\ndevoted to the study of those branches did not exist in Italy until\nfully a century later, hence all who were desirous of acquiring\nproficiency in these sciences had to journey to France. The\nFranciscans founded a monastery at Paris about the year 1216.\n[Footnote 5] Only about twenty years later were they thoroughly\nestablished there. By the munificent benefactions of St. Louis and his\nsaintly mother, Blanche of Castille, they succeeded in erecting a\nlarge church and monastery. The latter was to be the chief house of\nstudies not only for France but for all the Provinces of the Order.\n\n[Footnote 5: \"Wadding,\" Tom. I, Anno 1219. No. 43.]\n\nA very detailed account of this convent, and of the nature of the\nstudies, and the manner in which they were pursued, is given by\nWadding. [Footnote 6] There was accommodation for 240 Friars,\nincluding professors. The school comprised four departments, one for\nGrammar, Rhetoric and Logic respectively, and one for Theology and\nPhilosophy. The study {9} rooms and public lecture halls were the\nlargest and best appointed in the city. They were four in number, each\nmeasuring seventy-six feet by forty-six. Unlike similar structures of\nthat period, they were built without pillars and were lighted by\neleven large windows. At the end of the Theological hall stood a large\nrostrum composed of two stages or compartments, from the higher of\nwhich the Licentiates and Doctors lectured, whilst the lower served\nfor the Bachelors who under the guidance of the former were sometimes\nallowed to lecture on Physics and Theology. Each morning there were\ntwo lectures on Theology, and in the evening two on Scripture. An hour\nwas devoted every day to the discussion by students and professors of\nthe matter treated of in class. Once a week the public defence of some\nthesis was undertaken. Like the other students of the University the\nFriars, when necessary, attended lectures outside their own convent.\nThey underwent examinations and took their degrees publicly. As early\nas the year 1234, we find special ordinations, issuing from the\nMinister-General of the Order, determining the number of Friars to be\nsent to Paris from each Province and regulating the manner in which\nthey were to be presented for degrees. Two Fathers from each Province\nwere generally chosen every year for the degree of Doctor. Having\nsuccessfully complied with all the tests, public and private, imposed\nby the University, they were {10} formally proclaimed Doctors in the\ncourt of the Archbishop of Paris.\n\n[Footnote 6: Tom. II, Anno 1234. Nos. 17-36.]\n\nTo this world-famous centre of theological learning Bonaventure came\nin 1242, and for three years followed the ordinary University course\nwhich was based mainly on Scriptural Exegesis and on the Exposition of\nthe \"Book of Sentences\". This oft-referred-to work was a compendium of\nDogmatic Theology written about the year 1140 by Peter Lombard. It\ntakes its name from the fact that its doctrine is based upon the\n\"Sentences,\" i.e. the views or opinions of the Fathers of the Church.\nDivided into four books, it treats respectively of God and the\nTrinity; of Creation and the Fall; of the Incarnation; and finally of\nthe Sacramental system. For years it constituted the recognized\ntext-book among scholastic theologians whose labours and lectures upon\nit are embodied in the immense commentaries bequeathed to us.\n\nAt this time the great Franciscan doctor Alexander of Hales occupied\nthe chair of Theology at Paris. Born in Gloucestershire, he derived\nhis name from the monastery in that county at which he was educated.\nBefore his entrance into the Order (1222) he had studied at Paris and\nwas already one of the most renowned professors of that University. He\nwas subsequently styled and is now known as \"The Irrefragable Doctor,\"\nand \"The Monarch of Theologians\": There is, perhaps, no greater\nblessing for a rich and growing {11} mind than to come early and to\nremain long under the influence of another mind which, while equally\nrich, is yet more highly educated and matured with a wider experience\nthan itself. During the three years our Saint was following Alexander\nthrough his expositions of Scripture and of \"The Sentences of\nLombard\"--studying his points of view, his workable materials and his\nconstructive methods--the magnificence of his master's genius allured\nhim as with magnetic force; and Bonaventure's emulous efforts to be\nworthy of his master's care could not but lead him to undreamt of\nheights of knowledge.\n\nWe catch a glimpse of their mutually cordial attitude from a few of\ntheir casual expressions. Whereas St. Bonaventure refers to Alexander\nas \"his master\", and \"his father\" and in his choice of a decision is\ndrawn almost unconsciously to \"that Father's\" opinion, Alexander\nanticipated in the case of his pupil the verdict of Sixtus IV. That\npart of the Bull of canonization serves as so apt a commentary on\nAlexander's words that we quote it in full. \"Bonaventure was great in\nlearning, but not less great in humility and holiness. The innocence\nand dove-like simplicity of his life were such that the renowned\nDoctor Alexander of Hales used to say of him, 'It seemed as though\nAdam had never sinned in him'.\"\n\nIn 1245, when twenty-four years of age, Bonaventure received his\ndegree of Bachelor. Following {12} this came the necessary letters\nfrom the Minister-General, our Saint then fulfilling the office of\nProfessor to his own brethren and at times teaching publicly in the\nUniversity under the guidance of a fully-qualified lector. That same\nyear Alexander died, and the chair thus vacated was filled by John of\nLa Rochelle. Three years later, however, he resigned, and then at the\ncommand of the Minister-General, John of Parma, and at the earnest\nentreaty of the authorities of the University, Bonaventure succeeded\nto the post. This took place in 1248. Bonaventure was now a\nLicentiate, i.e. he was \"licensed\" or allowed to lecture publicly in\nview of his qualifications being recognized. It was no doubt a trial\nto his humility to follow so eminent a light as the \"Monarch of\nTheologians,\" but fortunately personal distrust yielded to obedience.\nOne of the ancient chroniclers, referring to this event, shows us\nBonaventure as his contemporaries saw him. \"This Brother Bonaventure,\"\nwrites Blessed Francis of Fabriano, \"was a most eloquent man,\nwonderful in his understanding of the Sacred Page and of the whole of\nTheology. He was also an excellent lecturer, a very fine preacher and\nin his presence every tongue was hushed.\"\n\nBonaventure occupied this post from 1245 to 1257, and during that time\nacquired those stores of knowledge which he at first communicated to\nhis pupils in the form of lectures, and then, with after-thoughts,\ncorrections and additions bequeathed to {13} the world in the four\nfolio volumes known as \"The Commentary on the Sentences of the\nLombard\". His love of God growing in proportion, Bonaventure\nultimately reached those sublime heights of contemplation which earned\nfor him the title of Seraphic Doctor. To the Saint his youthful age\nseemed unequal to the fulfilment of such a task. His superiors,\nhowever, in laying on him the burden of obedience, felt assured that\nhe would more than justify the wisdom of their appointment. And indeed\nso exceptional were the natural and supernatural gifts of this\nSeraphic Doctor that Sixtus IV. could say of him in his Bull of\nCanonization: \"Such things he uttered on sacred science that the Holy\nGhost would seem to have spoken through his mouth.\" And again,\n\"Enlightened by Him Who is the Light, the Way, the Truth and the Life,\nin the space of a few years he attained to incredible knowledge\".\n\nThe timidity with which his humility undertook the work contrasts\nstrangely with the universal appreciation it has received at the hands\nof others. Thus at the end of the third volume, he writes: \"I render\nthanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, that taking pity on the poverty of my\nknowledge and ability, He has enabled me to come to the end of this\nwork. I beseech Him to aid me to go forward in my work unto the merit\nof obedience and the welfare of my brethren--for which two motives\nalone this task was undertaken.\" And again in the {14} Introduction to\nthe second volume, \"By the help of God's grace I have ended the\nCommentary on the first book, and at the instance of the Brethren must\nneeds begin the second. . . . I do not intend to propound new opinions\nbut to reproduce those that are generally admitted. Nor should anyone\nthink that I wish to be the author of a new book; I am sincerely\nconscious and acknowledge that I am but a poor and faulty compiler.\"\n\nThis is the language of profound humility which is all the more\nstriking in view of posterity's verdict on our Saint, and his\nwritings. Salimbene, [Footnote 7] a contemporary chronicler, writes as\nfollows of Bonaventure: \"He then lectured on the whole Gospel of St.\nLuke--a beautiful and excellent treatise: and he wrote four books on\nthe Sentences which even to this day remain useful and esteemed. It\nwas then the year 1248 but now the year 1284.\" Gerson, the learned\nchancellor of Paris University, is more unstinting in his praise.\n\"Were I to be asked,\" he writes, \"who is the most eminent amongst all\nthe doctors, I should answer, without prejudice, 'Bonaventure'. I know\nnot that Paris ever possessed another such Doctor.\" And again, \"In\nTheology there is nothing more sublime, more divine, more salutary,\nnor more sweet than Bonaventure's writings\". The following striking\ntestimony of Pope Sixtus V in the Bull _Triumphantis\nJerusalem_--conferring on St. Bonaventure the title {15} of\n\"Doctor\"--adumbrates his two salient characteristics as embodied in\nhis title \"The Seraphic Doctor\". \"In his writings,\" the Pope's words\nrun, \"Bonaventure united to the deepest erudition an equal amount of\nthe most ardent piety, so that whilst enlightening his readers, he\nalso moved their hearts, penetrating to the inmost recesses of their\nsouls.\"\n\n[Footnote 7: \"Chronica,\" p. 129.]\n\nNumberless other proofs might be adduced of the high esteem in which\nBonaventure's works have always been held, but these will suffice. As\nan instance, however, of the widespread popularity they enjoyed it is\ncurious to note that amongst the depredations of his book-borrowing\nfriends which Charles Lamb, the genial author of the \"Essays of Elia,\"\ndeplores, [Footnote 8] is the abstraction of his \"Opera Bonaventurae\".\n\"That foul gap in the bottom of the shelf facing you, like a great\neye-tooth knocked out, with the huge Switzer-like tomes on each side\n(like the Guildhall giants in their reformed posture, guardant of\nnothing) once held the tallest of my folios, 'Opera Bonaventurae,'\nchoice and massy divinity, to which its two supporters (school\ndivinity also, but of a lesser calibre--Bellarmine and Holy Thomas),\nshowed but as dwarfs--itself an Ascapart!\"\n\n[Footnote 8: \"The Two Races of Men\".]\n\nThe fundamental characteristic underlying the fervour and the love of\nthe Seraphic Doctor's writings, is his ever-conscious realization of\nGod's {16} presence. This with Bonaventure was not a feature of\npassing or variable devotion; it rested upon the basis of\nphilosophical conviction, and of vivid childlike faith. To\nBonaventure, in his system of thought as in his spiritual ideals, God\nis constantly and emphatically the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and\nthe End, the Source and Centre, by Whom and in Whom and from Whom all\nthings are. Throughout the whole of his writings God is ever the\ncentral idea round which all converges. As in his writings so in his\nlife. In this continual and abiding presence of God--the very spirit\nas it is also the ideal of monastic solitude--his soul, his entire\nbeing, grew and blossomed, turning ever to the light and warmth of the\nDivine Beauty as the sunflower to the sun.\n\nNot only was this the source of his light and unction, it was also the\nguiding principle of his spiritual and mental life. Hence sprang that\nmoderation of tone--the calm balancing of evidence as in the presence\nof an impartial Judge. Hence that humility--his simultaneous knowledge\nof God and himself--to which all arrogance and pretension are so\nalien. Hence, too, that directness of aim--fastening on the essence\nof facts, rather than on their accidental surroundings--which ensured\nat once a love of truth for truth's sake, and limpid, simple utterance\nas its worthiest channel. In God's sight all men are brothers, so it\nbecame our Saint to communicate his lights in the spirit of deference\n{17} and self-effacement. Hence, finally, came that unflinching\nloyalty to His Lord's revelations which implies aversion to curious\nsearchings, singular views, and novel innovations--which, when not the\nresult, are often the occasion of heretical betrayal of the trust\ncommitted to our care.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE MENDICANT ORDERS ASSAILED.\n\nFrom 1248 to 1255 Bonaventure taught publicly at Paris with great\ndistinction. About this time, however, owing to a violent outburst of\nopposition to the Mendicant Friars on the part of the secular\nprofessors of the University, he was compelled to suspend his\nlectures. This occurrence affords us a valuable insight into the\ncondition of the Friars at that epoch. It shows us how they were\nregarded by their friends and by their enemies, and it enables us to\nform a better estimate of their merits. Their lives and actions were\nopenly and unsparingly impeached. They were put on their trial before\nthe entire Church, and their very existence depended on the issue.\nEvery weak spot in their constitution was laid bare--their faults and\nfailings were proclaimed with emphasis: Their adversaries were men of\nrepute and learning--doctors and professors of the most renowned\nTheological School of Christendom. Thoroughly versed in all the {18}\nwiles of controversy, and apparently animated by religious zeal, they\nwere unscrupulous in their methods, and frequently had recourse to\nslander and falsehood. The conflict was thorough and decisive. Issuing\ntriumphant from such an ordeal the Mendicant Orders proved once and\nfor all that their position in the Church of Christ is impregnable. So\nimportant an incident ought not to be lightly dismissed.\n\nVarious causes tended to create a spirit of opposition to the Friars.\nJealousy at their success, and a spirit of worldliness to which their\nlives was a constant reproach, appear to be the chief. The Friars\nsucceeded in attracting universal admiration. Their professors were\nthe most brilliant in the University; their lecture halls the best\nappointed; their audience the most enthusiastic. They enjoyed the\nfavour of the Pope and of the King, both of whom conferred many\nprivileges on them. They possessed neither money nor lands, yet they\nstood in need of nothing. They had renounced the pomp and glory of the\nworld, but the world ran eagerly after them. Their preaching attracted\nimmense crowds and their confessionals were thronged. They were the\nleast by profession but the greatest by repute. To some extent they\nsupplanted the secular clergy. The bishops and the Faithful found\nthemselves less dependent upon the latter, for the Friars formed\nwilling and efficient substitutes for them in almost every capacity.\nThe spirit of {19} the secular clergy of Paris at that period was not\nsuch as to enable them to view this new development without hostility.\nAn indevout and worldly spirit reigned amongst them, and they were\nprofoundly indifferent to the highest maxims of the Gospel. This we\nlearn from the strain in which Pope Alexander [Footnote 9] writes to the\nBishop of Paris in the year 1256: \"Concerning certain masters and\nscholars of Paris it is notorious that they glory not in being\nconsidered the children of peace but rather in being the authors of\nscandal; they glory not in being called the sons of God, but of Satan.\nSo great is their disorder that they hinder piety not only in\nthemselves but also in others, and impede the salvation of souls which\nwe so greatly desire.\"\n\n[Footnote 9: Cf. \"Wadding,\" Tom. IV, Anno 1256. No. 23.]\n\nThe smouldering elements of discord were fanned into flame in the year\n1254, and the secular and regular professors came to an open rupture.\nThe matter arose thus. A noisy brawl occurred amongst the students.\nThe civil guard intervened; a riot ensued, and one student was killed\nand several were wounded. Such encounters were not infrequent, and\nthey resulted in creating a bad spirit between the magistrates and the\nauthorities of the University. The latter sought to exempt the\nstudents from civil jurisdiction, whilst the former, in the interests\nof public order, insisted on subjecting them to it. The occurrence\njust recorded brought matters to a {20} climax. The University\ndemanded the punishment of the civil guard, the magistrates refused\ncompliance. Thereupon the entire staff of secular professors suspended\ntheir lectures and withdrew from the city. The Regulars kept their\nhalls open and continued to teach. This gave great offence to the\nsecular professors, and when the difference between them and the\nmunicipal authorities was eventually settled, and they had once more\nresumed their duties, they did not forget it. Determined to prevent\nits recurrence, they framed a statute binding the Regulars to act in\naccordance with the majority of the professors. To this they refused\nto submit, and in consequence they were forced to abandon their\nChairs. They appealed to the Pope who eventually reinstated them and\nrevoked the obnoxious statute.\n\nMeantime the agitation against them was vigorously carried on. Its\nleading spirit was William of St. Amour, a doctor and professor of the\nUniversity. Prominently associated with him were Odo of Douay,\nChristian, Canon of Beauvais, John Belin and John of Gectville, an\nEnglishman and Rector of the University--all men of consequence and\npossessing considerable influence. William of St. Amour was a type of\nthe worldly-wise Christian, and he represented a large and powerful\nelement at Paris. He was a man of undoubted ability and learning, but\nwanting in moderation and soundness of judgment. Possibly he may have\nmeant well, {21} but blinded by prejudice he did not see the injustice\nof his conduct, nor the falseness of his views. He aimed at expelling\nthe Regulars from the University and eventually obtaining their\nsuppression. He wrote and preached, against them. His book on the\n\"Perils of the Last Times,\" his sermon on the \"Publican and the\nPharisee,\" his pamphlet on the \"Robust Beggar,\" were violent\nonslaughts upon them. They were based on false principles and teemed\nwith slander and invective. William endeavoured to show that the\nmendicant form of life was unchristian and pernicious, and that those\nwho professed it were outside the pale of salvation. Mendicancy,\npreaching, hearing confessions, and teaching publicly were the capital\nsins that consigned the Friars to reprobation.\n\nHe speaks thus of mendicancy: \"There is a great danger attendant upon\nbegging. Those who live by it become flatterers, liars, detractors,\nthieves and unjust. To leave all things for Christ and to follow\nChrist begging is not an act of perfection. Regulars may not beg even\nthough the Church permits it. Whoever begs whilst in good health sins\ngrievously. Hence, whoever places himself in the necessity of doing so\nis not within the pale of salvation.\"\n\nTo preach and hear confessions was also on the part of the Friars\nwrong and unjustifiable: \"All though authorized by the Pope or the\nbishop they may not preach unless invited by the parish priest. {22}\nThey may not live by the Gospel. Those who preach to the Faithful who\nhave their own pastors, viz. bishops and priests, are not true but\nfalse Apostles. It is greatly to be feared that such as these will\ngrievously injure the Church unless they are expelled from it.\nConfession to Mendicants, approved of by the Pope, does not satisfy\nthe Easter Precept.\"\n\nTo become professors and teach publicly was another grievous\ntransgression: \"The office of master is an honour, and Religious\nshould not aspire to honours. Seeing that they belong to a state of\nperfection, they should observe the Gospel Counsels, one of which is:\n'Wish not to be called master'. Aspiring to the dignity of master they\ntransgress this counsel and thereby sin publicly, scandalize the\nFaithful and deserve to be shunned.\"\n\nSuch were the opinions proclaimed by William, and the effect they\nproduced was deplorable. A species of universal boycott was instituted\nagainst the Mendicants. Students were dissuaded from attending their\nlectures; they were excluded from the University, and the people were\nexhorted to refuse them alms. Matters reached such a crisis that the\nDominicans were way-laid and beaten in the streets so that they were\nafraid to leave their convent. The opposition to the latter seems to\nhave been much keener than to the Franciscans, and it would appear\nthat they were forced to quit the University earlier. It is certain\nthat {23} St. Bonaventure lectured publicly on the question in\ndispute. His treatise on \"Evangelical Perfection\" is a reply to the\nutterances of William of St. Amour. It is recorded that the latter,\nhearing of the Saint's action, sent one of his adherents to report the\nsubstance of his lectures--to which he wrote a rejoinder. As we intend\nto treat in detail of Bonaventure's apology for the Franciscan Order,\nwe shall make no further reference to it here. Lest, however, a false\nimpression concerning the merits of this controversy should remain on\nthe minds of my readers, I consider it expedient to point out, in the\nnext chapter, how it was regarded by the Holy See.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE MENDICANTS VINDICATED.\n\nThe commotion caused by William of St. Amour's book extended to the\nCourt, and the pious King Louis, desirous of removing the scandal,\nformally referred the matter to the Holy See. Two doctors of the Paris\nUniversity were appointed to take the book to the Papal Court and\npresent it for examination to the Pope. This project having become\npublic, William and his chief adherents determined to defend their\nviews and set out for Anagni. The Pope received the King's envoys and\nregarded the matter as of very grave importance. He appointed a\nCommission of Cardinals carefully to examine the {24} book and to\njudge between the Mendicants and their opponents.\n\nA public discussion was instituted at which were present\nrepresentatives of both parties. On the side of the Mendicants were\nthe Ministers General of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders--Humbert\nof Rome and John of Parma--Albert the Great, St. Thomas of Aquin,\nO.P., Bertrand of Bajona, O.F.M., and, according to some authors, St.\nBonaventure. We cannot say with certainty who the defenders of St.\nAmour's book were. It is doubtful if he himself had arrived at Anagni\nbefore the work was condemned. Albert the Great and St. Thomas\npowerfully vindicated the cause of the Mendicants. The treatise\ncomposed by the latter, \"_Contra impugnantes Dei cultum_,\" is a\nmasterly defence of the principles attacked by St. Amour. St.\nBonaventure's work on \"Evangelical Perfection\" is no less solid and\nconvincing. It was written in connection with this dispute and was\nvery probably submitted to the Commission. This may account for the\nassertion put forward by some writers that Bonaventure was present at\nAnagni and took part in the discussion--an assertion which more\naccurate investigation has almost entirely discredited. On the arrival\nof William and his followers a strenuous effort was made to avert the\nimpending condemnation, and even to effect its revocation, but to no\npurpose.\n\nAfter an examination extending over several {25} weeks the Cardinals\ngave their decision. It was an unconditional condemnation of Amour's\nbook, which was ordered to be publicly burned both at the Papal Court\nand at the University of Paris. The sentence was proclaimed by the\nPope in the Bull _Romanus Pontifex_ issued on 5 October, 1256.\nReferring to William and his supporters the Pontiff says:--[Footnote 10]\n\n[Footnote 10: Cf. Wadding, Tom. IV, Anno 1256. No. 31.]\n\n\"They heaped calumny on the Brethren and placed a stumbling-block in\nthe way of the chosen children of the Church. Nay, more, in the excess\nof their bitterness they burst forth into malicious invectives, and\ncomposed a certain book which is most pernicious and detestable--a\nbook not only not according to reason but utterly opposed to it; not\ntrue but false; not edifying but scandalous; not enlightening but\nmisleading. This book having been brought to Our knowledge, We\nentrusted it for examination to certain Cardinals that they might\ndiscover and diligently consider all that it contained. Which having\ncarefully and with due deliberation performed, they report to Us that\nthe said book contains many things false and pernicious concerning the\nPope and the bishops, also concerning those who, overcoming the world\nand its works, live by alms in strict poverty. It also assails those\nwho, burning with zeal for souls and devoted to sacred science,\ngreatly further the spiritual welfare of God's Church. It condemns the\nstate of life of {26} poor Religious, such as the Friars Preachers and\nFriars Minor, who by the power of the Spirit, having abandoned earthly\nthings, aspire with all their force to the heavenly reward. The book\nis a veritable hot-bed of scandal and disorder, and greatly injures\nsouls by withdrawing them from devotion, the giving of alms, and\nentrance into holy Religion. This same book which bears the title\n'Perils of the Last Times,' with the advice of Our Brethren and by Our\nApostolic authority We reject and condemn for ever as wicked,\niniquitous and execrable, and containing bad, false and nefarious\nsentiments. We strictly command all its possessors to burn it and\nprocure its destruction within eight days from the issue of this Our\ncondemnation. Against those who despise Our command We pronounce\nsentence of excommunication.\"\n\nThis condemnation does not appear to have produced the desired effect.\nThe agitation against the Friars still continued. It was found\nnecessary to counteract the pernicious influence of Amour's teaching\nby some more direct and forcible method, and to this end the Pope\naddressed [Footnote 11] the following letter 19 October, 1256, to King\nLouis and the French bishops:--\n\n[Footnote 11: Ibid. No. 33.]\n\n\"Not without much bitterness of heart and trouble of mind, We have\nlearnt that certain Masters and Doctors and others, 'sharpening their\ntongues like swords,' and 'bearing the poison of {27} asps in their\nlips,' for the defamation, vexation and destruction of the innocent,\nhave wickedly poured it out in slander and injuries on our beloved\nsons, the Brothers of the Order of Preachers and Friars Minor. By\nlecturing and preaching and otherwise, they have dared to say that\nthey were not in the way of salvation; that their Mendicancy was\nneither salutary or meritorious, since health permitting, and other\nreasonable hindrances ceasing, they should work with their hands and\nnot depend for necessary help upon others. Furthermore, they have\nasserted that they may not preach nor hear confessions, even when\nauthorized by the Pope or the bishop, lest they encroach upon the\nrights of the parish priests, and many other things false and\nreprehensible have they uttered against them. Now these same Orders\nfor some time back have been approved by the Holy See as holy,\nrenowned and illustrious. And some of the Brothers thereof, having\nreached their heavenly country, are inscribed in the catalogue of the\nSaints and shine like suns in the Church of God, whilst by their\nBrethren the light of holy doctrine is shed over the whole world, the\nGospel of Christ is earnestly and efficaciously preached, and right\nand sound counsel and salutary example prevail. Furthermore, as the\naforesaid Brothers are assiduously and continually engaged in the\nstudy of the Holy Scriptures and the Word of God, in saying the Divine\nOffice and in prayer, they are by no means indulging in idleness, but\nexercising {28} themselves in the best and highest pursuit, for wisdom\nis the noblest attainment; nor do they do more who devote themselves\nto external labours, than those who are engaged in the study of divine\nthings. Hence, the Lord, whilst Martha was busy working and\nministering, commended principally the docility and devout attention\nof Mary to His word. From this it appears clearly that the Brothers\nare not bound to work with their hands. Nay more, were they to neglect\nspiritual things for manual labour they would be abandoning, not\nwithout detriment to their souls, the greater for the lesser, the\nnecessary for the unnecessary. Moreover, these Brothers, having left\nall things for God, when they beg the bare necessaries of life,\nimitate the poor Christ and practise Evangelical Perfection. Hence, it\nclearly follows that they are in the way of salvation, and by the\nobservance of their Rule merit eternal life. Furthermore, by\ncommission or command of the Roman Pontiff or the Bishop of the\nDioceses they may lawfully preach and hear confessions. Therefore, We\nstrictly command all the Doctors or Masters who have dared to deny\nthese things, publicly to retract and renounce the same and hold and\nproclaim the contrary. Should they refuse to do this they must be\nproceeded against by suspension, excommunication, and the perpetual\ndeprivation of their benefices. Lay people transgressing in this\nmatter are to be seriously reprimanded.\"\n\n{29}\n\nSome of the prominent adherents of William of St. Amour accepted the\nPapal condemnation in a submissive spirit and publicly retracted their\nfalse opinions, and promised on oath never more to maintain them.\nAmongst these were Christian of Beauvais and Odo of Douay. William\nhimself was not so tractable. He had recourse to evasions and\nexplanations, and endeavoured to show that his views were not really\ncondemned. He continued to foster a spirit of hostility to the\nMendicants amongst his partisans at Paris, and eventually he drew upon\nhimself the sentence of perpetual banishment from France. Under pain\nof excommunication and forfeiture of all his benefices he was\nforbidden ever to return, and under like penalties he was prohibited\nto preach or teach. His friends at Paris did all in their power to\nprocure his recall, but they were strenuously opposed by the\nMendicants. Thus, the ill-feeling between the two parties was\nmaintained, and it was only by the renewed intervention of the Pope\nand the employment by him of stringent measures against the secular\nprofessors that order was established and the Mendicants treated with\njustice and tolerance.\n\nAfter ten years' exile Pope Clement permitted William to return to\nParis. He had not abandoned his old opinions, and it needed a severe\nreprimand on the part of the Pope accompanied by a threat of further\nbanishment to restrain him from again assailing the Mendicants. After\nhis death, some {30} years later, the agitation against the Friars\ngradually died out, and they regained the esteem and confidence in\nwhich they had formerly been held.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nMINISTER-GENERAL.\n\nBonaventure was elected Minister-General of the Franciscan Order in\nthe year 1257. At that time the Order was passing through a serious\ncrisis in its history. Internal difficulties had arisen concerning the\nobservance of certain points of the Rule. Some of the Brethren\nadvocated the rigorous and literal acceptation of all its\nprescriptions: others contended for a more mild and liberal\ninterpretation. Amongst the advocates of both views were extremists\nwho sought to introduce excessive rigour or undue laxity: the main\nbody on either side were men of moderation. These eventually prevailed\nand preserved to the world the Order of St. Francis in the only\nfeasible way in which it could continue to exist. Those who aimed at\ntoo great laxity, which would deprive the Order of its distinctive\nfeatures, and those who would accentuate those features until they\nbecame impracticable or grotesque, were gradually eliminated.\n\nThe process by which this was effected was slow {31} and fraught with\nthe gravest danger to the Order. It could be accomplished successfully\nonly under the prudent guidance of a wise Superior. Bonaventure was\neminently such a man. His predecessor, John of Parma, could not cope\nwith the difficulties of the situation. He was possessed of great\nability, and his heroic sanctity has raised him to our altars, but he\nseems to have lacked that enlightened judgment and liberal sympathy\nwhich smooths away opposition and brings conflicting views into\nharmony. Where the motive of subjection is the love of God and the\ndesire of perfection, the exercise of authority must be tempered with\ninfinite tact and kindness. The inflexible rigour of the stern\nSuperior is so wholly opposed to the spirit of Christ, to whom the\nReligious ever looks, that instead of securing obedience it excites\nresentment, and if it does not culminate in apostasy begets an abiding\nspirit of bitterness and discontent. With one section of the Order the\nlatter appears to have been the effect of John of Parma's rule. Some\nwriters [Footnote 12] affirm that he was released from his office at\nthe express wish of the Sovereign Pontiff.\n\n[Footnote 12: Cf. Wadding, Tom. IV, Anno 1256. Nos. 2 and 3.]\n\nIn view of his failure, Bonaventure's success is all the more\nconspicuous. In order to appreciate this success at its proper value\nwe must consider briefly the difficulties that troubled the peace of\nthe Order. What precisely they were it is somewhat {32} difficult to\ndetermine. They must be traced back to the influence of Brother Elias.\nFor a period, even during the lifetime of St. Francis, this man seems\nto have exerted an influence in the Order second only to that of the\nSaint himself. He was truly a remarkable man and the story of his life\nis strange and sad.\n\nAn intimate friend and devoted disciple of St. Francis, he had been\ndeemed worthy by the latter to rule the Order during his absence in\nPalestine. Though full of admiration for the Seraphic Father and\nprofessing intense reverence for his saintly life and Christ-like\nspirit, he appears never to have quite accepted his views concerning\nthe absolute poverty and rigorous mode of life he wished to impose\nupon his followers. He seems to have considered that such austerity\nwould render impossible its uniform and continued observance by any\nconsiderable body of men. Whilst a few chosen souls such as Francis\nhimself could live up to it, the heterogeneous multitude who were\nflocking to the Order could not prudently be expected to do so. Hence\nhe advocated certain mitigations in the matter of poverty. What these\nwere we cannot definitely affirm. His views and actions are presented\nto us from a thoroughly hostile standpoint. His biographers, generally\nspeaking, were his avowed opponents, and although they were men of\nremarkable virtue and integrity of life, we can hardly believe that\nthey were free from the {33} influence of bias and party spirit. In\ntheir eyes Elias was a wrecker--the enemy of their Order and the\ndestroyer of its high ideals. Hence their accounts of him must be\ncautiously received and allowance made for the exaggerations of pious\nzeal.\n\nWe are told that Elias sought to introduce the use of money; that in\nvisiting the Order he rode on horseback; that he wore a somewhat\nelegant habit; that there was a general tendency to relaxation\ndiscernible in his life. No doubt he was guilty of these things, but\nin view of subsequent developments it is not easy to determine how far\nthey were incompatible with the spirit of the Rule. We are told that\nhe was a man of remarkable foresight and a born ruler. Perhaps he\nwished to establish from the beginning what the natural evolution of\ncircumstances was eventually to achieve. He may have foreseen that\ncertain prescriptions theoretically feasible for all, and practically\nso for a few, would actually become impracticable for the general body\nof the Order. Thus by the very force of circumstances it soon became\nnecessary for the Friars to use money at least indirectly. Be the\ncountry where they reside Catholic or Protestant, friendly or hostile,\nthere are instances where to live means to use money. Nor does the\nMinister-General of the Order now visit the Order on foot, nor is the\nFranciscan habit of the present day such perhaps as would meet with\nentire approval from those {34} early rigorists. But there has been no\nsubstantial defection from the primitive spirit of the Rule; these\nmodifications have arisen as the necessary result of changed\nconditions. Nor is this to be wondered at. Christianity itself began\neven as the Franciscan Order. Like to that Order it increased and\ndeveloped. In course of time, whilst theoretically maintaining its\nhighest ideals, it practically ceased to make them the guiding\nprinciples of its general conduct. Thus, community of goods, prevalent\nin the time of the Apostles, gradually ceased. Again, the successors\nof the Apostles who were counselled to possess neither gold nor silver\nnor scrip eventually appear as temporal rulers; and the Saviour's\ndoctrine of submission to evil gave way, when circumstances demanded,\nto armed resistance. The highest ideals of Christianity were\npractically abandoned by the multitude, and maintained only by the\nfew. Indeed, it is very questionable from an historical point of view,\nwhether the absolute perfection of the Gospel outlined in the counsels\nof our Lord could ever be more than the ideal of the very\nfew--something to which one or other favoured soul might actually\nattain but which was never intended to be the practical aim of society\nin general. This must be borne in mind when studying the history of\nthe Franciscan movement, which was an attempt to restore literally and\nrigidly the highest Christian ideals. Broadly speaking it succeeded\nand continues to succeed. The Order {35} can never revert to the\nattitude of the world towards the Evangelical Counsels although time\nand circumstances may modify its interpretation of them.\n\nThe Friars have absolute community of goods; they are bound to the\npoor use of the necessities of life. Whilst some interpret their\nobligations in this and all other matters most rigidly, and emulate\nSt. Francis in every respect, others, although fully observing the\nsubstance of the Rule, quite justifiably regard its precepts in a\nmilder light. They are none the less true Franciscans. Of late years\nthere has arisen a class of writers whom we may describe as the\nacademic critics of the Rule and Spirit of St. Francis. Regarding the\nFranciscan movement from an extrinsic and speculative point of view,\nthey are particularly attracted by its more rigorous features. But\nthey look upon them as things of the past and discuss them with\nmelancholy interest. They seem to think that the Franciscan ideal has\nvanished from the world, and that the modern Friar is scarcely a\nrepresentative of his prototype. Whoever is not a Francis, or a Giles,\nor a Juniper, is not worthy of consideration. To the professor of the\nRule of St. Francis there is something particularly irritating in the\nattitude of these writers. He knows that he is observing the Rule in\nits simple literalness--that there is no precept of it which he does\nnot fulfil; yet because he does not realize the romantic ideal\nconceived by these shallow critics he {36} receives at most only\ntolerant pity or condescending regard.\n\nBut to return to Elias and the dissensions his influence created in\nthe Order. He seems to have gained over to his side the majority of\nthe Provincial Ministers, so that he was twice elected General. On\nboth occasions, strange to say, his administration ended in his\ndeposition. Still, many of his supporters adhered to him and he was\nproposed a third time for the office of General. On this occasion\nElias was ignominiously rejected by the Pope, who also deprived him of\nsome privileges he enjoyed. Thereupon, overcome by pride and\nindignation, he set the Pontiff at defiance, and sought the protection\nof his declared enemy, the Emperor Frederic. He thus absolutely\nabandoned the Order, but there remained behind him some who advocated\nhis views. We are even told that the succeeding General, Crescentius,\nwas one of his followers and pursued a similar policy. Certain it is\nthe dissensions increased during his time of office.\n\n\n[Illustration:\n_Photo. A liuari  Pinturichio, pinx_.\n\nTHE CORONATION OF OUR LADY.\n\n_From the picture in the Vatican, Rome._\n\n_(St. Bonaventure is the figure to the left of the group of Saints)_.]\n\n{37}\n\nWe have seen how John of Parma, his successor, failed to grapple with\nthe difficulties of the situation. Wadding [Footnote 13] represents\nhim as stern and uncompromising in his views, and as equally rigorous\nin forcing those views on others. When at length he saw that many\nReligious, who would conscientiously carry out a less lofty ideal,\nwere being simply forced by reason of his well-meant yet none the less\nstringent insistence to a revolt against the very principle of\nobedience, John summoned a General Chapter at Rome and resigned his\noffice. According to certain writers, [Footnote 14] Alexander IV., the\nCardinals and the Brethren assembled sought to persuade him to\ncontinue in office. John, however, was resolute in his refusal. For a\nwhole day the business of the Chapter was suspended; still the\nMinister-General stood firm. Then the Vocals [Footnote 15] \"in view\nof his determined attitude said to him: 'Father, you who have invited\nthe whole Order and know the merits of all the Brethren, tell us who\nis the best suited to succeed you?' There and then John replied\n'Brother Bonaventure of Bagnorea; no one is more worthy than he'.\nThereupon he was unanimously elected.\"\n\n[Footnote 13: Tom. IV, Anno 1256. NO.2.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Author of the Chronicles of the XXIV Generals.\n\"Analecta Franciscana,\" Tom. III, pp. 286, 287. Also Bernard of Besse.\nIbid. p. 698.]\n\n[Footnote 15: Salimbene, p. 137.]\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nDISCIPLINE AND OBSERVANCE.\n\nBonaventure was teaching at Paris when he was elected\nMinister-General. However reluctant he may have been to accept the\nresponsibility, he did not think of shirking it. He was a young man--\nonly thirty-seven years of age--and fully conscious {38} of his\ndeficiencies and of the arduous task before him. That he undertook it\ncalmly and confidently shows that he possessed the virtue of fortitude\nin no slight degree. He was well aware of the dissensions within the\nOrder and of the relaxation of discipline that prevailed amongst some\nof the Brethren. To remedy these was his first concern.\n\nShortly after his election he wrote [Footnote 16] a remarkable letter\nto the Provincials of the Order. He began by acknowledging his\nunfitness for the high and important office to which he had been\ncalled, alleging the weakness of his body, the imperfection of his\nmind, the inexperience of his life and the repugnance of his will.\nStill, he did not dare to resist the voice of obedience, and to make\nup for his shortcomings he counts upon the worthy cooperation of the\nProvincial Ministers. He then refers to the irregularities existing in\nthe Order which had begun to endanger its success and bring it into\ndisrepute amongst the Faithful. Remembering that the Order was then in\nexistence barely fifty years it is interesting to consider what these\nwere. Ten causes of relaxation are enumerated by Bonaventure:--\n\n1. Too great multiplication of temporal affairs for which money is\neagerly sought, carelessly received, and recklessly handled.\n\n2. The idleness of some of the Brethren.\n\n3. Useless travelling from place to place, to the {39} scandal rather\nthan to the edification of the people.\n\n4. Importunate begging, whereby the Brethren are feared as highwaymen.\n\n5. The construction of costly and pretentious buildings, which\ndisturbs the peace of the Order and exposes the Brethren to the\nattacks of their enemies.\n\n6. The increase of dangerous friendships from which arose suspicions,\ncalumnies and scandals.\n\n7. The imprudent bestowal of offices on those who were incapable of\ndischarging them.\n\n8. The eager reception of legacies and officious interference with\nobsequies, to the great offence of the secular clergy.\n\n9. Frequent and expensive change of residence, to the disturbance of\nthe locality and the prejudice of poverty.\n\n10. Finally, expensive living, by which the Brethren became a burden\nto the people.\n\n[Footnote 16: Cf. \"Opera Omnia\" (Quaracchi), Tom. VIII, p. 468.]\n\nWhilst many, he remarks, are blameless in these matters, still, the\nevil redounds upon all, and must not be overlooked nor tolerated on\nany account. He then points out the remedy and insists on its\napplication. He concludes his letter with the following remarkable\nutterance: \"Should I learn from the Visitors whom I desire to pay\nspecial attention to these matters, that my directions have been\nobeyed, I shall give thanks to God and to you; but if it should be\notherwise (which God {40} forbid), you may rest assured that my\nconscience will not permit me to allow the matter to pass unnoticed.\nAlthough it is not my intention to forge new chains for you, yet must\nI in compliance with the dictates of conscience aim at the extirpation\nof abuses.\"\n\nFrom this we can gather the nature of the policy adopted by the Saint.\nIt was clearly one of firmness and moderation. Perceiving that they\narose from minor causes, such as the particular views of individuals,\nhe makes no reference to the internal dissensions of the Order. He\naimed at uniformity on general lines, convinced that if this were\naccomplished lesser differences would gradually disappear, or, at\nleast, lose their power of seriously disturbing the peace of the\nOrder. The Rule was to be observed; no abuse was to be tolerated. But\nwhilst strongly condemning the excesses of those who aimed at\nrelaxation, he was not less determined in restraining the zeal of\nthose who sought excessive rigour. This provoked the displeasure of\nthe latter. In view of the Saint's words quoted above and of the\nConstitutions enforced by him at the Chapter of Narbonne, their\nfailure to agree with his policy demonstrates how extreme were the\nviews they entertained. And it is apparent that those who regard such\nmen as representing the true spirit of the Order are seriously\nmistaken. Excessive rigour is as foreign to the latter as excessive\nmildness. True virtue avoids {41} both extremes, and Bonaventure's\nwisdom enabled him to aim at the golden mean.\n\nIn 1260 our Saint celebrated the General Chapter of Narbonne. Here the\nvarious Constitutions hitherto established in the Order were revised\nand promulgated anew. These Constitutions differ but slightly from\nthose that prevail at the present day. The vicissitudes of six hundred\nyears have necessitated certain additions and modifications, but they\nhave remained substantially the same and constitute an enduring\nmonument to the wisdom and foresight of Bonaventure. Wadding [Footnote\n17] says of them: \"The Statutes of Bonaventure are weighty--the\noutcome of mature deliberation and discussion--and they are redolent\nof a truly religious spirit. In them is enjoined whatever is of\nprimary importance and necessity. They ought never to be abrogated,\nbut whatever modifications changes of time and place may call for\nshould be added to them, for of all they are the most excellent.\" The\nAnnalist is unsparing in his condemnation of the attempts made at\nvarious times to change them. \"One cannot but be displeased,\" he\nwrites, deploring a state of things which now happily no longer\nexists, \"at the facility with which some make laws at General\nChapters. It would seem as though one could not consider himself a\nrenowned ruler unless he posed as a legislator and drew up new laws to\nmark his term of office. Hence, we have daily {42} fresh and\nbewildering laws, and such a multitude of crude and undigested\nstatutes, that the poor subject does not know to-day what he may have\nto observe to-morrow.\"\n\n[Footnote 17: Tom. IV, Anno 1260. No. II.]\n\nThe Constitutions of Narbonne were distributed under twelve heads and\nformed an enlightened and prudent interpretation of the twelve\nchapters of the Rule. Writing [Footnote 18] to the Provincials six\nyears after their promulgation, Bonaventure attributes the existence\nof certain irregularities to their non-observance. His appeal to the\nprelates of the Order on this occasion reveals the burning zeal of the\nSaint: \"Lest the 'blood of souls'--not only of those committed to our\ncare but of all who esteem the religious life--should be 'demanded at\nour hands' .... I adjure you by the shedding of Christ's Most Precious\nBlood and by the Wounds of His Passion, which appeared with\nunmistakable clearness on the body of our Holy Father, St. Francis,\nthat like prudent and faithful servants of Christ you apply yourselves\ndiligently to the rooting out of pestiferous abuses, and that you show\nyourselves attentive to discipline and examples of religious fervour.\nIn the first place, excite the Brethren to a love of prayer, and at\nthe same time entreat and even compel them to observe the Rule\nfaithfully--'fearing the countenance of none; rooting up and pulling\ndown; wasting and destroying'; committing the disaffected and\ninsubordinate to prison, {43} or expelling them from the Order, as the\nlaws or justice and piety may demand, lest, whilst with cruel mercy\nyou spare a diseased member, the corruption extend itself to the\nentire body.\"\n\n[Footnote 18: \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. VIII, p. 470.]\n\nNo reasonable man reading these words of Bonaventure could doubt his\nearnestness in procuring regular observance, or think of accusing him\nof remissness or laxity. It only shows how extreme were the views of a\ncertain section of the Order when we find them attempting to do so.\nPeter John Olivi, the leader of the rigorists, replying to some who\nsought to justify their relaxations by saying that Bonaventure and\nothers lived very laxly, says: [Footnote 19] \"Hitherto, it was the\ncustom to adduce worthy men as examples of perfection; now, alas! they\nare brought forward to justify relaxation and inobservance .... Let me\nsay what I think of Bonaventure. He was a most excellent and pious\nman, and in his teaching he insisted on the perfection of poverty. But\nhe was of a somewhat delicate constitution and therefore, perhaps,\ninclined to be somewhat indulgent to himself, as I have often heard\nhim humbly admit. For he was not greater than the Apostle who said 'We\nall offend in many things'. Still, the prevailing relaxation affected\nhim so much that I heard him declare at the Chapter of Paris that from\nthe day he was made General there never was a moment when he was not\nprepared to be ground to dust so that the Order might retain the\npurity and {44} strictness intended by St. Francis and his companions,\nand attain the end they aimed at. On this account the holy man may be\nexcused somewhat, though not entirely. He was not one of those who\nsought to justify relaxation or assail the purity of the Rule, making\nsuch conduct the rule of their lives. If he was in any way found\nwanting he regarded the matter with grief and sorrow.\" In conclusion,\nPeter John Olivi makes the astounding assertion that he does not\nconsider Bonaventure's attitude to have been mortally sinful. \"I do\nnot think,\" he says, \"that such men are to be judged guilty of mortal\nsin unless, taking everything into account, this kind of excess should\nin their case be considered enormous.\"\n\n[Footnote 19: Cf. \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. X, p. 50.]\n\nAssuredly, Bonaventure is deserving of our sympathy. On the one hand\nwe find him grief-stricken at the relaxations in the Order and doing\neverything in his power to remedy them; on the other hand we find him\nassailed as conniving at them and in some degree responsible for them.\nThe rigorists could not distinguish between what was strictly\ncommanded and what was a matter of perfection. This latter could be\nrecommended but not enforced, and because our Saint's wisdom would not\nallow him to attempt its enforcement they accused him of laxity.\n\nIt has been said in a previous chapter that the observance of St.\nFrancis was something peculiar to the Saint himself and could not\nbecome a matter {45} of obligation for all. Strict observance admits\nof many degrees of perfection. This Bonaventure perceived, and whilst\nsincerely desiring that which was most perfect he felt that it was\nunattainable. Hence, he chose a middle course and steadfastly adhered\nto it. By this means unity and peace were on the whole well maintained\nin the Order during his Generalship. Still the elements of discord\nwere not destroyed. They were only held in check by the powerful\npersonality of the Saint. They continued to operate slowly and\nimperceptibly, giving rise in time to the fanatical sect known as the\nFraticelli. We are justified in thinking that the maintenance of the\nbody of the Order in its substantial purity was due to the wise\nadministration of Bonaventure. A more rigorous General or a less\nobservant one might have led the Order to some extreme which would\nhave wrought its ruin. From this point of view our Saint deserves the\ntitle which has widely been bestowed upon him of Second Founder of the\nFranciscan Order.\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nINCIDENTS OF ADMINISTRATION.\n\nBonaventure's life, for the ensuing years, is a record of\nfast-succeeding events centring mainly round the work of his personal\nsanctification and his exertions for the welfare of the Order. On {46}\n23 October, 1257, our Saint received the degree of Doctor of Theology.\nThe differences between the University and the Mendicant Friars had\ngradually passed away and a better spirit, prevailed. Still, the\nfavour bestowed upon our Saint is to be attributed principally to the\nletter of the Sovereign Pontiff commanding the University to extend,\nall its privileges to the Friars Thomas of Aquin and Bonaventure.\n\nDuring the Pentecost of 1281 [Footnote 20] we find him assisting at\nthe foundation of a hospital at Pisa. In the official record of this\ninstitution we read how \"Friar Bonaventure, the Minister-General of\nthe whole Order of Friars Minor, was, at the command of Pope\nAlexander, present at the afore-mentioned foundation; at the command\nof the same Holy Father he made each and every benefactor of the\nhospital a sharer in the prayers said and good works performed by all\nthe members of the Order\".\n\n[Footnote 20: Cf. \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. X, p. 52.]\n\nBonaventure celebrated five General Chapters--that of Narbonne in\n1260; of Pisa in 1263; of Paris in 1266; of Assisi in 1269; of Lyons\nin 1274. These Chapters are the most convincing proofs of his\nindefatigable activity. In each of them, apart from the general\nefforts made to further regular observance, some special ordination of\na remarkable kind was enacted. Thus, in the Chapter of Pisa, the\nsuffrages for the dead were regulated, and amongst the Masses and\nprayers appointed to {47} be said for deceased benefactors we find the\nSolemn Requiem for the parents of the Brethren. In the Chapter of\nAssisi in 1269 the recital of the Angelus and the celebration of a\nMass every Saturday in honour of our Lady were prescribed. In the\nChapter of Paris, by the tact and prudence of Bonaventure, a somewhat\nserious difference which had arisen between the Franciscans and\nDominicans was amicably settled. The disagreement arose concerning the\nrespective spheres of the Inquisitors of the two Orders. The office of\nInquisitor, already held by the Dominicans, was assigned to the\nFranciscans by Innocent IV. in the year 1254. The settlement of this\ndispute became the occasion of the consolidation of that spirit of\nfraternity and friendship that has ever since existed between the two\nOrders, and which, as is commonly known, originated in the reciprocal\nbrotherly love of Francis and Dominic.\n\nIt is asserted that it was at the Chapter of Narbonne that the\nFranciscan habit received its present shape. Up to that time it\nappears to have been more or less identical with the dress worn by the\nUmbrian shepherds--a simple tunic with a girdle, and a hood to protect\nthe head. It is not, however, easy to determine the precise nature of\nthe alteration effected.\n\nThere is one incident of Bonaventure's administration which calls for\nspecial attention; an incident which has deeply influenced the\nhistorical estimate formed of him by certain writers. This is his\naction {48} with regard to John of Parma--his predecessor in the\nGeneralship of the Order. The upholders of the rigorous observance of\nthe Rule pretend to see in it evidence of harshness, injustice, nay,\neven of duplicity. This assumption, needless to say, is utterly devoid\nof solid foundation.\n\nOwing to the peculiar temperament of the times and some untoward\ncircumstances, John of Parma fell under the suspicion of heresy, and\nat the request of the Sovereign Pontiff it became necessary for\nBonaventure to investigate the charge. The biographers of our Saint\nare at variance in determining the year in which this trial was held.\nWadding [Footnote 21] and the editors of our Saint's works [Footnote\n22] place it under the year 1257, but as Father Livarius Oliger,\nO.F.M., points out in a review [Footnote 23] of Father Lemmens' recent\n\"Life of St. Bonaventure,\" the investigation is known to have been\nproceeded with before Cardinal John Cajetan, who at the time was the\nProtector of the Order. Cardinal Cajetan, however, was nominated\nProtector of the Order \"shortly after the assumption of Pope Urban,\"\nwho was elected Pope, 29 August, 1261. This is a typical instance of\nthe chronological difficulties and uncertainties which are associated\nwith the life of our Saint.\n\n[Footnote 21: Tom. IV, Anno 1256. Nos. 5 and 6.]\n\n[Footnote 22: II Tom. X, p. 48. No.4.]\n\n[Footnote 23: \"Archivium Franciscanum Historicum,\" Annus III,\nFasc. II, p. 346.]\n\n{49}\n\nHow a man so remarkable for learning and virtue as the ex-General\nshould have provoked such an accusation demands some further\nexplanation.\n\nIn the first place, it must be borne in mind that this was the period\nwhen the Inquisition reigned in all the fervent zeal of its recent\ninstitution. Whatever savoured in the least of heterodoxy, either in\ntheory or in practice, aroused its vigilance. It was closely\ninvestigated and its author, no matter what admirable qualities he\nmight otherwise display, was regarded with suspicion and distrust.\nThis attitude of the ecclesiastical authorities was fully justified by\nthe prevalence of false mysticism, under the guise of which the\nWaldenses and Albigenses were just then putting forth the most\npernicious and subversive doctrines.\n\nTrue mysticism is the perfection of Christianity. Its essence is union\nwith God. The more perfectly it accomplishes this union, the more\nthoroughly it achieves its end. It is the noblest and most exalted\naspect of religion, but, at the same time, it is attended by very\ngrave dangers. The mystic sees only God and his own soul--or rather he\nhas no direct consciousness of anything but God alone. He converses\nwith God and is guided directly by him--anything else is to a large\nextent ignored.\n\nThe danger of this state is apparent. The mystic is at the mercy of\nhis imagination and of a thousand natural influences which he is\nliable to {50} mistake for the voice of God. And when he thinks that\nGod speaks, no matter to what folly or extravagance the imagined voice\nmay urge him, nor how clearly it may oppose the dictates of obedience,\nhe considers himself bound to obey it; for is he not sure, even as St.\nPeter, that he \"must obey God rather than man!\" Unless he possess a\nsound judgment and a thorough grasp of Catholic doctrine, or, failing\nthese, unless he be humbly submissive to the teaching of some\ncompetent spiritual guide, he needs must go astray. This danger,\nFrancis, who was a mystic in the truest sense of the word, avoided\nperfectly, but as much cannot be said of some of his earlier\nfollowers. For notwithstanding Pontifical utterances and the\nenactments of General Chapters, they persisted in maintaining that\ntheir particular views concerning the observance of the Rule were the\nonly permissible ones. A mild form of fanaticism seems to have laid\nhold of them. Their immoderate regard for the Rule and its observance\nled them to extremes. They were convinced that it was inspired by our\nLord Himself and they attributed to it an authority equal to that of\nthe Gospels. Contending that it was perfectly clear and intelligible,\nthey denied that any authority on earth had the power to explain or\ninterpret it. In these ideas they were strengthened by the writings of\nJoachim, Abbot of Flora.\n\nThis remarkable man flourished about the latter {51} portion of the\ntwelfth century. He was deeply imbued with the spirit of mysticism,\nand its dangers were only too fully realized in his case. In treating\nof the Blessed Trinity he erred seriously, and his doctrine was\ncondemned by the Fourth Lateran Council. He seems to have considered\nhimself inspired, and he gave utterance to a long series of prophecies\nconcerning the Church's future. He declaimed vehemently against all\nranks of the clergy--denouncing Popes, Cardinals and Bishops for their\nindifference and corruption, and predicting for them the most terrible\npunishments. Turning to the relations between mankind and God he\nproceeded to divide Revelation into three epochs: that of the Father,\nor the Old Testament; that of the Son, or the New Testament; and that\nof the Holy Ghost--a period which was to come and which would be much\nmore perfect than the preceding two. It was to be characterized by the\nmost powerful and universal sway of Divine Love, a clear vision of the\neternal truths, and the rise of a contemplative monachism.\n\nNotwithstanding these peculiar tenets, Joachim was a man of rare\nvirtue and piety and he died in full union with the Church. He was\nregarded by many as a saint and a prophet, and his writings were\nthought to be divinely inspired. John of Parma, indeed, held him in\nhigh esteem, but some of the Brethren with whom he was intimately\nassociated, and to some extent identified, exceeded {52} the bounds of\nall moderation in their ardent advocacy of him. Inflamed as they were\nwith intense religious fervour and deeply penetrated with a spirit of\npenance and self-sacrifice, the teaching of Joachim appealed most\nforcibly to them. His denunciation of the worldliness of the age, his\ncontempt for all things temporal, his love of contemplation, and above\nall, his vivid prophecy about the institution of a new Religious Order\nin which the light and love of God would govern all, filled them with\nunbounded admiration. They pretended to see in Joachim the precursor\nof St. Francis and the realization of his prophecy in the Order he\nestablished. Amongst the most extreme partisans of Joachim were two\nintimate friends of John of Parma--Friars Gerard and Leonard. Upon\nthese principally rested the suspicion of heresy. They were tried,\nfound guilty, and condemned to perpetual confinement.\n\nThe trial of Blessed John of Parma then came on. He was accused of\nleaning to the views of Abbot Joachim and of wavering in his belief in\nthe Trinity. The ex-General, perhaps, inclined somewhat to certain of\nthe Abbot's views; in any case the suspicion that such was the fact\nhad subjected him to many and great persecutions. The public character\nof John, the immense influence he wielded over a great part of the\nOrder, rendered it imperative that the case should be thoroughly\ninvestigated and a definite issue come to at a public trial. Were {53}\nJohn guilty of heresy--the stern measure would be more than justified;\nwere he innocent--his name would gain lustre from the ordeal, and\nmalicious tongues be silenced.\n\nThe details of the trial have not come down to us. Wadding [Footnote\n24] merely gives us the result, stating \"that iniquity was not found\nin him \". He admits, however, that John was too favourably inclined to\nthe mysticism of Joachim, and that he submissively retracted in the\npresence of the Cardinal and assembled Fathers. A few details we have,\nbut it is impossible to determine how far they are coloured with\npartisan prejudice. One historian states that the suavity of John's\nanswers so wrought on his opponents that they openly declared that as\na heretic he should be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. To be\nstigmatized as a heretic was more than John could bear in patience.\nDrawing himself to his full height and looking up to heaven he\nprofessed clearly and with ardent zeal his adherence to all the\narticles contained in the Apostles' Creed. \"He assumed the role of an\ninnocent follower of Christ,\" writes Angelo Clarenus, \"and averred\nthat he did believe as he ever had believed on that question as on all\nother questions what the Church holds and the Saints teach.\" This\nfurther incensed his accusers; and they determined to imprison for\nlife their late Minister-General. That he was finally {54} acquitted\nmust be attributed to the intervention of Cardinal Otto Boni--then one\nof the most influential members of the Sacred College and afterwards\nPope Adrian V. He dispatched two letters, one to the Cardinal\nPresident, the other to Bonaventure, in which, among other things, he\nwrote: \"It is with the deepest regret I have learned of the process\ninstituted against John of Parma, and that party strife has led to his\narraignment on a charge of heresy. For many years--even before my\nelevation to the Cardinalate--I have had personal warrant both as to\nthe orthodoxy of his doctrine and the holiness of his life; nor have I\nyet found anyone more loyal to his creed or more faithful to his\nideals. So firmly am I persuaded of this, that I have no hesitation in\nsaying that his faith is my faith. Let me then most earnestly beseech\nyou that this trial be not conducted recklessly nor with partisan\nbias. He and I are one: injustice towards him will redound on me; the\nverdict you pass on him you pass also on me; his sentence, too, is\nmine--and my sincerest wish is to be fully associated with him.\"\n\n[Footnote 24: Tom. IV, Anno 1256. No.6.]\n\nThese letters produced the desired effect. John left the Assembly\nfully acquitted, and availing himself of the choice of residence that\nBonaventure courteously extended to him, withdrew to the friary at\nGreccio. There he spent many years in the practice of every virtue and\nfinally expired in the odour of sanctity.\n\n{55}\n\nAngelo Clarenus, [Footnote 25] condemns the part played by Bonaventure\nin this inquiry. \"Bonaventure,\" he states, \"on the testimony of John\nof Parma himself, acted wrongly in no slight degree; for whilst\ndiscussing the question in dispute privately with John of Parma in his\ncell he agreed with him, affirming that he thought as he did, but\npublicly in presence of the Brethren he showed that he held the\ncontrary.\" And again he says: \"Brother John enters; as one suspect of\nheresy he is forced to take an oath; a wise man is cross-examined by\nthose less wise, an aged man by youths; one full of the Holy Ghost is\nsearched into by the indevout, and by those who follow the desires of\ntheir heart. Then the wisdom and holiness of Bonaventure were obscured\nand vanished, and his mildness by the agitation of his soul was\nchanged into violent anger. To such an extent was he carried away that\nhe exclaimed: 'If it were not for the honour of the Order I should\nhave him publicly punished as a heretic'.\"\n\n[Footnote 25: Cf. \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. X, p. 49.]\n\nTo preside at this trial was one of the painful duties which his\nposition placed upon Bonaventure. At the instance of the Brethren and\nthe Sovereign Pontiff he was bound to undertake it. John of Parma had\nacquired a great reputation for holiness, and his indefatigable\nlabours on behalf of the Order and of the Church had made his name\nfamous throughout Europe. Furthermore, he was a {56} personal friend\nof Bonaventure, for was it not he who recommended him for the office\nof General! In the face of these considerations it is incredible that\nhe should have been guilty of injustice or duplicity towards him. It\nis much easier to believe that Angelo Clarenus, carried away by party\nspirit, gave ready credence to the exaggerated reports circulated by\nthe admirers of John of Parma, who were bitterly, though unreasonably,\nindignant that Bonaventure should have listened to the accusation of\nheresy and lent his authority to the investigation that followed.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nST. FRANCIS' BIOGRAPHER.\n\nAt the General Chapter of Narbonne, in 1260, Bonaventure was requested\nto write the life of St. Francis. Owing to the circumstances that\nsurround it, considerable importance attaches to this incident. There\nalready existed several legends of the Saint. Thomas of Celano had\nwritten one in 1229. His work received the approval of Gregory IX.,\nwho had officially recommended it to the Brethren. In the year 1246,\nat the request of the Minister-General, Crescentius, appeared the\n\"Legend of the Three Companions,\" written by Brothers Angelo, Rufinus\nand Leo. A second life was written by Thomas of Celano in 1247 or\n1248.\n\nA few years ago the well-known French writer, {57} M. Paul Sabatier,\nedited a work [Footnote 26] which he contended was anterior to any of\nthese. He maintained it was nothing less than a complete life of St.\nFrancis written by Brother Leo in the year 1227--within a year of the\nSaint's death. This remarkable work had been already well known, but\naccording to M. Sabatier its authorship and the date of its\n_compilation_ had been misconceived. Although the learned writer\nsupports his contention with weighty arguments he cannot be said to\nhave rendered it certain. He is enamoured of the tone and spirit of\nthe book. If it be an original work and the production of Brother Leo,\nit is, to the modern critic, an ideal biography. It reveals simply and\nforcibly the human side of Francis. The personal traits of the Saint\nare brought prominently before us in all their unique individuality.\nWe have the real, living man--not the stereotyped example of every\nvirtue which the earlier hagiographers delighted in. Still it must be\nadmitted that the book is characterized by the prejudices of its\nauthor. Certain sayings and doings of Francis which appealed to his\nprepossessions are insisted upon with evident emphasis. Indeed, to\nsuch an extent is this apparent that the work cannot be regarded as\npurely historical. It is largely polemical and would seem to have been\ndesigned to refute the ideas of the moderate party concerning certain\npoints of observance.\n\n[Footnote 26: \"The Mirror of Perfection,\" by Brother Leo, Paris, 1898.]\n\nBefore quitting this subject it may be said that {58} the ardour and\nenthusiasm with which the greatest literary critics of the day,\nCatholic and non-Catholic, devote themselves to the investigation of\nthe sources of St. Francis' biography, is one of the most remarkable\nphenomena which our times witness. We hear of the formation of\nsocieties composed of the ablest scholars of Europe for the study of\nearly documents relating to Francis and his Order. How the words of\nChrist are herein verified: \"He that humbleth himself shall be\nexalted!\" I doubt if there is a personality in history, exclusive of\nthe Divine Founder of Christianity, whose words and actions are so\nclosely studied in a spirit of loving admiration as are those of St.\nFrancis.\n\nTo return to Bonaventure and the task imposed upon him by the General\nChapter, the importance of the latter becomes apparent when we reflect\nthat as far as the Order could effect it, the legend he was about to\ncompose was to be the sole record of the life of Francis which should\ncome down to posterity. This purpose evidently underlay the demand for\nits composition, for when the work was finished and submitted to the\nGeneral Chapter of Pisa three years later it was officially approved\nof and all the other legends were formally proscribed. More stringent\nmeasures still for the suppression of the older legends were adopted\nat the Chapter of Paris in 1266. Therein was framed the following\nConstitution: [Footnote 27] \"The General Chapter commands {59} under\nobedience that all the legends of St. Francis hitherto composed be\ndestroyed, and that where they can be found outside the Order the\nBrethren shall strive to remove them, for the legend composed by the\nGeneral was written according as he had it from the mouth of those\nwho, as it were, had been always with Blessed Francis and knew\neverything with certainty, and those things which are proven are\ntherein diligently set down.\"\n\n[Footnote 27: \"Rinaldi,\" p. 11. Cf. \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. X, p. 58.]\n\nOn the part of modern historiographers this ordination has excited\nmuch criticism, and even the warmest admirers and staunchest advocates\nof the Order must confess their inability to account for it\nadequately. At first sight it appears to be a very high-handed and\nobscurantist procedure, little in keeping with the ingenuous\nsimplicity of the Franciscan spirit. It looks like an attempt to put\nout the light--to abolish the true ideal and substitute a counterfeit\nin its stead. But in reality it was nothing of the sort. At the\npresent day it is impossible to determine the precise motives that\nactuated the authors of that statute, but no one who is even slightly\nacquainted with the condition of the Order at the period can fail to\nconjecture what most likely was the prevailing influence.\n\nThe Chapter aimed at introducing peace and harmony amongst the\nBrethren and producing uniformity of thought and action in their\ncommon life. We have seen that these most desirable elements were\nwanting--that there were dissensions {60} and differences concerning\nthe nature of the observance to be pursued. The appeal of the\ncontending parties was ever to the words and actions of St. Francis,\nwhich, according to their respective views, they strained and\nexaggerated and, unconsciously perhaps, even falsified. We cannot but\nconclude that such a state of affairs affected very prejudicially the\nbiographers of the Saint and tended to depreciate the historical value\nof their labours. For these, too, took sides, and, as it is easy to\nsee, they made the Lives they wrote the vehicle of their particular\nideas. Thus Thomas of Celano favours Brother Elias and the moderate\nobservance, whilst the \"Three Companions,\" and (if M. Sabatier's\ncontention be correct), the \"Mirror of Perfection\" by Brother Leo,\nconstitute a species of manifesto against the latter, and an appeal\nfor a literal and rigorous observance.\n\nNow it is evident that whilst such a condition of things was\ntolerated, unity and peace could never be established. As long as\nthese old legends, redolent of party spirit and biassed views,\nremained, legislation making for harmony would be of no avail. This\nthe Chapter clearly perceived, and hence its statute. We may say of it\nfinally that although it was a drastic measure the circumstances more\nthan justified it. And we must not forget that it was adopted only\nafter Bonaventure's work had been examined and approved.\n\nOf this work it is now time to give some account. {61} Owing to the\nimportant place in history this new \"life\" was to hold, and the\nmanifold distractions of public duties among which it was to be\nwritten, we may accept in strict and literal sincerity our Saint's\nexpressions of reluctance to undertake it. \"Feeling myself unworthy,\"\nhe writes, [Footnote 28] \"to relate that life most worthy of all\nimitation, I should in no wise have attempted it, had not the devout\ndesires of the Brethren and the unanimous importunity of the Chapter\nmoved me thereunto, and had not that love compelled me which I am\nbound to feel for our holy Father. . . . This, indeed, was my chief\nreason for undertaking this work; to wit, that since I owe to him\nunder God the life of my body and soul, and have learned the holiness\nof his life through personal experience of his power with God, it\nbehoved me in return to collect, as best I could, his words and\ndeeds--fragments, as it were, partly overlooked and partly\nscattered--that they be not utterly lost with the death of those who\nlived and conversed with the Blessed Servant or God.\"\n\n[Footnote 28: \"Legend of St. Francis,\" Prologue, Sec. 3.]\n\nDuring the year 1261, St. Bonaventure was in Italy collecting the\nmaterials for his work. \"The better to come by first-hand information\nof this life,\" he tells [Footnote 29] us, \"I visited the scenes of the\nbirth, life and death of the Blessed Francis, and held studious\nconverse on these things with all who had enjoyed his intimacy, and\nwith such especially as {62} had fuller knowledge of his holiness and\nwere his chief disciples. To all of these all credence is due alike\nfor their tried virtue as for their perfect knowledge of the truth.\"\nWe cannot say definitely who these \"chief disciples\" were. To have\nmentioned them by name would have frustrated the purpose for which the\nlife was undertaken. We presume, however, that our Saint was chiefly\nindebted to Brothers Leo, Illuminatus, and Giles.\n\n[Footnote 29: \"Ibid.\" Sec. 4.]\n\nWhen these researches were completed, Bonaventure returned to Paris to\nwork up into an authentic record of St. Francis' life all the\nmaterials--oral and written--he had come by during his sojourn in\nItaly. Every incident of any moment in St. Francis' life is faithfully\nrecorded. The graces bestowed upon him, the labours he undertook, the\nsufferings he bore, the virtues he practised, the miracles he worked:\nall are graphically and sympathetically described. The following\nepisode gives us an insight into the fervour of soul with which this\ntask was undertaken. On one occasion, as our Saint was engaged on his\nwork, his intimate friend St. Thomas Aquinas came to visit him. Gently\nopening the door of his cell, the saintly Dominican saw Bonaventure\nseated at his table, pen in hand, and so engrossed in contemplation\nthat he was lost to exterior things. Deeply moved, St. Thomas withdrew\nwhispering to his companion \"Come! let us leave a Saint to write the\nlife of a Saint\".\n\n[Illustration:\nST. BONAVENTURE IN ECSTASY WHILE WRITING THE\nLIFE OF ST. FRANCIS IS VISITED BY ST. THOMAS AQUINAS\n_From a fresco by Giacomelli in the Franciscan Church at Cimiez_.]\n\n{63}\n\nIn his undertaking Bonaventure had before him an ideal. He wished to\npresent Francis as the chosen servant of God, raised up to be the\nfounder and head of a great Religious Order. Accordingly, his\nattention is fixed on the supernatural rather than on the natural\nelement in Francis, and he deals more with those aspects of his life\nand character that bring him within practical reach of his spiritual\nchildren than with those that lift him up into a sphere so high that\nthe ordinary soul dares not aspire to it. He distinguishes judiciously\nbetween what Francis recommended and practised himself and that which\nhe strictly enjoined upon his Brethren. Here the conciliatory aim of\nthe book is apparent. But he is never betrayed into anything unworthy\nof an upright biographer. All his facts are unassailable--nothing of\nimportance is suppressed or distorted. In consequence, such a picture\nof Francis as his spiritual children required is the result. This was\nthe end Bonaventure had in view, and having accomplished it, it\nmatters little if his work forfeits the approval of those modern\ncritics who, in the life of Francis, wish to find a record of the\nnatural rather than the supernatural.\n\nFrom this \"Greater Legend\"--as it is called--Bonaventure made an\nabstract of the salient events, and arranged them under seven\nheadings, each of which contained nine lessons or readings. This was\ncalled the \"Smaller Legend\" and was intended {64} for the use of the\nReligious in the Divine Office during the Octave of St. Francis. To\nthis smaller work attaches the same historical accuracy that\ndistinguishes the Greater Legend. In many instances events are\ndescribed in the same words; other incidents are given in abridged\nform; the whole work is marked by a more liturgic style, and\noccasionally fresh details are given.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nINTERIOR SPIRIT.\n\nHitherto we have considered principally the outward life of\nBonaventure; we now turn to those interior virtues which made him a\nsaint. Notwithstanding his manifold labours and the eminently\nstrenuous life he led he was a perfect master of the interior life. A\nglance at his writings will show how thoroughly he understood the\nsecrets of Mystic Theology, and how intimately acquainted he was with\nevery aspect of the spiritual life. There is no phase of divine\ncontemplation that he does not seem to have learnt by personal\nexperience. It was this very striking characteristic which gained for\nhim the title of Seraphic Doctor.\n\nHe possessed the rare faculty of keeping his mind habitually fixed\nupon God in the midst of external occupations. To this may be traced\nthe very remarkable attribute of his writings whereby {65} every\nsubject he treats of is made ultimately to converge Godwards. In his\ntreatises \"The Journey of the Mind to God,\" and \"The Reduction of the\nArts to Theology,\" the workings of his soul in this respect are\nsystematized and reduced to scientific order. St. Antoninus notes this\nfeature of Bonaventure's works when he says: \"According as Bonaventure\nmade progress in science and the knowledge of the Scriptures, so, too,\nhe grew in the grace of devotion. For whatever he perceived with the\nintellect he reduced to the form of prayer and worship of God and kept\nmeditating on it continually in his heart.\"\n\nBesides maintaining at all times this habitual spirit of recollection,\nour Saint sometimes withdrew entirely from the cares of his office and\ngave himself exclusively to prayer and recollection. It was on one\nsuch occasion, in the seclusion of Mount Alverna, that he conceived\nthe idea of, and actually composed, his \"Journey of the Mind to God\".\nHe tells us this himself. \"On an occasion,\" he says, [Footnote 30]\n\"when, after the example of the most Blessed Francis, I, a sinner,\nsighed for spiritual peace--I who, though unworthy in every respect,\nam yet his seventh successor in the general ministry of the\nBrethren--it happened that about the thirty-third year after his death\nI had withdrawn to Mount Alverna as to a quiet place where I might\nfind {66} the peace I sought. Whilst there, as I reflected on certain\nelevations of the soul to God, amongst other thoughts there occurred\nto me the miracle which happened to Blessed Francis in this place,\nviz. the apparition of the Crucified Seraph. On reflection it\ninstantly seemed to me that the vision signified the lifting up of St.\nFrancis by contemplation and the manner in which it was accomplished.\"\n\n\n[Footnote 30: \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. V, Prologus, p. 295.]\n\nUnfortunately the biographers of Bonaventure give us no definite\ninsight into his interior spirit. There is no attempt at depicting\nthat inner life which by words and actions, by trains of thought,\nlines of policy and personal habits, is always revealed to observant\ncontemporaries. We have innumerable vague, though glowing,\nappreciations of his virtues and character in general. We are told\nmost emphatically that he was a saint, but what kind of a saint we are\nnot informed. In this dearth of particulars we must fall back upon the\nSaint's writings. We can justly hope to find in them some revelation\nof his spirit--of those particular ideas that guided and animated him.\nWe can take it for granted that what he taught he practised. The fact\nthat he is a canonized Saint forbids us to think otherwise. Hence, in\nhis numerous descriptions of those interior virtues that should adorn\nthe spiritual life in general, we may see a reflection of those\nvirtues which flourished in his own soul.\n\nThere is a small work on the spiritual life written by our Saint in\nwhich he depicts the virtues that {67} make for religious perfection.\nThe book is entitled \"The Perfection of Life,\" and it reveals the\nspirit of Bonaventure more simply and, for our present purpose, more\nsuitably than his greater works. It was written at the request of the\nMother Abbess of some Community of Poor Clares. He refers to this fact\nin his introduction, and his words breathe such a deep spirit of\nhumility that I cannot refrain from quoting them.\n\n\"Wherefore, Reverend Mother, devoted to God and dear to me, you have\nasked me out of the poverty of my heart to write something whereby,\nfor the time being, you may instruct your soul in the way of devotion.\nI sincerely confess that rather do I stand in need of such instruction\nmyself, seeing that my life is not adorned with virtue outwardly, nor\nis it inflamed with devotion inwardly, nor is it enhanced by learning.\nNevertheless, moved by your pious wish, even as you have requested I\nhave obeyed. But I ask your blessedness, most holy mother, to regard\nrather my good will than the result of my efforts; rather the truth of\nmy words than the elegance of my language; and, that, where I fail to\ngive satisfaction, you will excuse and forgive me on account of the\nlack of time and the pressure of business.\"\n\nWe must remember that these words were uttered by the successor of St.\nFrancis--a man whose reputation for learning and sanctity was\nworld-wide--a man who was consulted by Popes and Princes, {68} whose\nmerits were soon to raise him to the dignity of the Cardinalate, and\nupon whose words a few years later the entire Christian Church in\nGeneral Council assembled would hang with profound admiration. Such an\nutterance gives us a better insight into Bonaventure's mind and\ncharacter than pages of indefinite eulogy.\n\nHis deep sense of humility sprang from his perfect knowledge of\nhimself. He considered self-knowledge an essential condition to the\nacquisition of true knowledge of any kind. \"He knows nothing aright\nwho knows not himself--who understands not the conditions of his own\nbeing. How dangerous it is for a religious soul to be eager to know\nindifferent things and yet neglect to learn its own deficiencies. That\nsoul is near to ruin which is curious to know extraneous things and\nprone to judge others yet cares not to know itself.\" Apart from the\nsentiment of humility prompting this utterance, what profound wisdom\ndoes it not reveal! It establishes a truly golden rule for the\nguidance of the soul in its search after knowledge, secular or\nspiritual. It must begin by discovering its own limitations and\ndefects. If it ignores these it cannot form a true estimate of\nanything. This truth was uttered by our Saint six hundred years ago\nand it is strange to hear it re-echoed in our own day under totally\ndifferent circumstances. Men of science, on purely rational grounds,\nare reverting to the advice given by Bonaventure and are {69}\ndeprecating the consequences of having hitherto more or less ignored\nit. Our knowledge of things distinct from ourselves must be modified\nand verified by our knowledge of the means by which it is acquired.\n\nThe intensity of Bonaventure's humility is evidenced by the fact that\nwhereas his biographers seem to have overlooked his other virtues,\nthey have left on record several instances of his humility. The\nfollowing incident related [Footnote 31] by Wadding is touching in its\nsimplicity:--\n\n[Footnote 31: \"Annals,\" Tom. IV, Anno 1269. NO.5.]\n\n\"As Bonaventure was on his way to the General Chapter of Assisi, it\nhappened that a poor spiritually afflicted Brother, named Fulginas,\nwas very desirous of speaking to him but could not do so because of\nthe numbers that surrounded him and engaged his attention. The poor\nBrother went along in advance of the Saint until he came almost to the\nwalls of Assisi and there awaited him. On his approach he cried out:\n'Reverend Father, I should like very much to speak with you for my\nconsolation, and I humbly beseech you not to despise your poor subject\nthough he is beneath notice'. Bonaventure immediately left the company\nthat surrounded him and seating himself on the ground beside the poor\nBrother, listened with great patience and kindness to his long and\ntedious recital, and consoled him with much compassion and sympathy.\nHis {70} companions, impatient at his long absence, expressed their\ndisapproval of his action. But he said: 'I could not do otherwise. I\nam the minister and servant--the poor Brother my lord and master. I\noften recall those words of the Rule: 'Let the Ministers receive the\nBrothers charitably and kindly, and show themselves so familiar\ntowards them that they (_the Brothers_) may speak and act with them\nlike masters with their servants.' I, being the servant, should obey\nthe will of my master and solace the misery of that poor sufferer.\"\n\nThis other anecdote illustrates this virtue of humility quite as\nforcibly, and has the advantage of being more authentic. Salimbene,\n[Footnote 32] a contemporary chronicler, is our authority. \"Brother\nMark,\" he wrote, \"was my special friend, and to such a degree did he\nlove Brother Bonaventure, that he would frequently burst into tears on\nrecalling (after his father's death) the learning and heavenly graces\nthat had crowned his life. When Brother Bonaventure, the\nMinister-General, was about to preach to the clergy, this same brother\nMark would say to him: 'You are indeed a hireling,' or, 'On former\noccasions you have preached without knowing precisely what you were\ntalking about. I sincerely hope you are not going to do that now.'\nBrother Mark acted thus to incite the General to more painstaking\nefforts. His depreciation was merely {71} affected and in no way\ngenuine, for Mark reported all the sermons of his master and treasured\nthem greatly. Brother Bonaventure _rejoiced_ at his friend's reproaches,\nand that for five reasons. First, because his was a kindly-hearted and\nlong-suffering character; secondly, because thus he could imitate his\nblessed Father Francis; thirdly, because it showed how loyally Mark\nwas devoted to him; fourthly, because it afforded him the means of\navoiding vainglory; lastly, because it incited him to more careful\npreparation.\"\n\n[Footnote 32: \"Chronica,\" p. 138.]\n\nFor a mind so powerful, so enlightened, of such perfect equilibrium\nand sound judgment, humility was the only possible attitude. Pride is\nthe accompaniment of a weak mind or an unsound judgment. It is based\nupon a notion so palpably false and unworthy as to be inadmissible to\na powerful mind. The proud man attributes to himself what he does not\npossess, or he fails to see that what he does possess is limited and\nimperfect, and that it is attributable rather to the Author of his\nbeing than to himself. Consequently, he does not perceive how\nsenseless it is to glory in it or to despise his neighbour because he\nlacks it. The more a man knows, however, the humbler he is; because\nthe very greatness of his knowledge only widens the extent of his\noutlook into the boundless sphere of truth that surrounds him, and\nwhich he feels he cannot explore.\n\nIn keeping with his spirit of humility our Saint {72} shunned honours\nof every kind. He steadfastly refused the Archbishopric of York to\nwhich he was appointed by Clement IV., and when that Pope, to secure\nmore effectively his invaluable services for the Church, insisted on\nmaking him Cardinal, the envoys who brought him the Cardinal's hat\nfound him washing the dishes of the monastery--nor would he receive it\nbefore he had finished his menial task.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nLOVE OF GOD.\n\nThe Love of God is the perfection of the interior life. It is this\nwhich unites the soul with God, and the more intense it is, the closer\nis the union and the greater the consequent perfection. It is the\ncrown and, consummation of all the virtues. Where it exists we shall,\nas a matter of consequence, find all the other virtues; and to\ndescribe it is implicitly to portray them all. Hence, when we shall\nhave treated of St. Bonaventure's love for God, we shall consider\nourselves absolved from the necessity of discussing his other virtues,\nespecially as there is such a scarcity of data to lay under\ncontribution. And even concerning the virtue under consideration, we\nmust be content with reviewing the Saint's teaching upon it.\n\n\n[Illustration:\nThe Papal Envoy presenting St. Bonaventure with the\nCardinal's hat.]\n\n{75}\n\nNone realized better than Bonaventure the supremacy of charity.\n\"Charity alone,\" he writes, [Footnote 33] \"renders us pleasing to God.\nOf all the virtues charity alone makes its possessor wealthy and\nblessed. If it is absent, in vain are all the other virtues present;\nif only it be present, all is present--for whoso possesses it\npossesses the Holy Ghost. If virtue constitute the blessed\nlife--virtue, I should add, is nothing else but the highest love of\nGod.\" Since charity is so excellent it must be insisted upon beyond\nall the other virtues. Nor ought any kind of charity to be considered\nsufficient but that alone by which we love God above all things and\nour neighbour as ourselves for God's sake. The Saint insists,\nparticularly, on the exclusive nature of the love of God. No interest\nin creatures and no affection for them should be allowed to interfere\nwith it. \"We should love God,\" he says, \"with the whole heart, the\nwhole mind and the whole soul. To love anything not in God and for God\nis to be wanting in His love.\" He quotes with approval the remarkable\nutterance of St. Augustine: \"He loveth Thee less, O Lord! who loveth\nanything along with Thee which he does not love because of Thee\". He\nassigns as the proof of perfect love willingness to lay down one's\nlife for God: \"We love God with our whole soul when for the love of\nJesus Christ we freely expose ourselves to death {76} when\ncircumstances demand it. To love God with our whole mind is to be ever\nmindful of Him, to love Him unceasingly and without forgetfulness or\nneglect.\" Such is the substance of Bonaventure's general teachings on\ncharity.\n\n[Footnote 33: \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. VIII, \"De Perfectione Vitae,\" Cap.\nVII, p. 124.]\n\nElsewhere in his treatise, \"The Triple Way, or the Fire of Love,\" he\ntreats of the subject more in detail. He writes, no doubt, from the\nfulness of his heart and describes, the love which dominated his own\nsoul. He distinguishes [Footnote 34] six stages or degrees of perfect\ncharity.\n\n[Footnote 34: \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. VIII, \"De Triplici Via,\" Cap. II,\nSec.4, p. 10.]\n\nThe first stage is that of _sweetness_ when the soul learns to \"taste\nand see how sweet the Lord is\".\n\nThe second consists in the _yearning_ of the soul for God. Having\nbecome accustomed to spiritual sweetness, it is filled with a longing\nwhich nothing save the perfect possession of that which it loves can\nsatisfy. And as this cannot be attained to here below the soul is\ncontinually transported out of itself by ecstatic love, and exclaims\nin the words of the Psalmist: \"As the hart panteth after the fountains\nof water, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God!\" (Ps. XLI. 2).\n\nThe third degree is _satiety_ which succeeds to the yearning just\ndescribed. As the soul most vehemently desires God and is lifted up\ntowards Him, everything that tends to hold it down becomes distasteful\nto it. It can find no pleasure in {77} anything save its beloved. It\nis like one whose appetite has been fully appeased: if he attempt to\ntake more food it produces disgust rather than pleasure. Such is the\nattitude of the soul at this stage towards all earthly things.\n\nThe fourth degree is that of spiritual _inebriation_ which follows\nupon the aforesaid satiety. Inebriation consists in this: The soul's\nlove for God is so great that not only does it reject all comfort and\npleasure but it delights in suffering. For its consolation it embraces\npain, and, as the Apostle did of old, it rejoices in reproaches and\nscourgings and torments for the love of its beloved.\n\nThe fifth degree of perfect charity is _security_. When the soul\nrealizes that it loves God so greatly that it would willingly bear\nevery pain and opprobrium for Him, it conceives such confidence in the\ndivine assistance that it casts out all fear and assures itself that\nit can never by any means be separated from God. The Apostle had\nreached this stage when he exclaimed: \"Who shall separate me from the\nlove of Christ? I am certain that neither life nor death can separate\nus from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\"\n\nThe sixth and last degree is found in true and perfect _tranquillity_,\nwherein such peace and quiet reign that the soul appears to lie in\npeaceful slumber from which there is nothing to disturb it. For what\ncan disturb the soul which no movement of passion assails and no pang\nof fear disquiets? {78} In such a soul peace and quiet reign. It has\nreached the final stage--\"His place is in peace\". It is impossible to\nreach such perfect tranquillity save by perfect charity. When this is\nattained it is very easy for a man to fulfil all that appertains to\nperfection--whether it be to do or to suffer, to live or to die.\n\nHere indeed we have disclosed to us the dizziest heights of spiritual\nperfection. No more intimate union with God can we conceive, and yet\nmay we not justly conjecture that it is a faithful portrayal of the\npersonal experience of the Saint himself. The title of _Seraphic_\nDoctor bestowed upon Bonaventure is an undeniable tribute to his\nall-absorbing love for God. To the minds of his contemporaries,\nimpregnated with the mysticism and supernatural atmosphere of the\nMiddle Ages, the spirit that breathed in his writings seemed to find\nits parallel only in the lives of those heavenly beings--the\nSeraphim--whose existence is depicted as like to a glowing flame of\ndivine love.\n\nFurthermore, in his utterances concerning the workings of the soul in\nprayer, there is what I consider a very striking revelation of the\nintensity of Bonaventure's love for God. It is the love of God that\nvivifies prayer. Prayer is more or less perfect according to the\ncharity that reigns in the soul--it reaches its highest perfection\nwhere love is all-pervading. Then we look for raptures and ecstasies\nsuch as marked the lives of the greatest saints. {79} Bonaventure's\nreflections on prayer imply this most burning love. The following\nutterances, [Footnote 35] of which I give the substance, are clearly\nindicative of this.\n\n[Footnote 35: \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. VIII, \"De Perfectione Vitae,\" Cap.\nV, _passim_.]\n\n\"In prayer we must enter with the Beloved into the chamber of the\nheart and there remain alone with Him. We must forget all external\nthings, and with our whole heart and all our mind and all our\naffections and desires endeavour to lift our souls up to God. We\nshould endeavour by the ardour of our devotion to mount higher and\nhigher until we enter even into the heavenly court, and there with the\neyes of the soul having caught sight of our Beloved, and having tasted\nhow sweet the Lord is, we should rush into His embrace, kissing Him\nwith the lips of tenderest devotion. Thus are we carried out of\nourselves, rapt up to Heaven, and as it were, transformed into\nChrist.\" The Saint proceeds to explain how the ecstatic state is\nreached. \"It sometimes happens,\" he says, \"that the mind is rapt out\nof itself when we are so inflamed with heavenly desires that\neverything earthly becomes distasteful, and the fire of divine love\nburns beyond measure, so that the soul melts like wax, and is\ndissolved--ascending up before the throne of God like the fumes of\nfragrant incense. Again, it sometimes arrives that the soul is so\nflooded with divine light and overwhelmed by the vision of God's\nbeauty that it is stricken with {80} bewilderment and dislodged from\nits bearings. And the deeper it sinks down by self-abasement in the\npresence of God's beauty, like a streak of lightning, the quicker it\nis caught up and rapt out of itself. Finally, it occurs that the soul\ninebriated by the fulness of interior sweetness utterly forgets what\nit is and what it has been, and is transported into a state of\nineffable beatitude and entirely permeated with uncreated love. It is\nforced to cry out with the Prophet: 'How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O\nLord of Hosts. My soul longeth and fainteth for the Courts of the\nLord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God'\" (Ps.\nLXXXIII.).\n\nEffusions such as these assuredly give us an insight into the\nextraordinary love that burned in the soul of Bonaventure. From the\nspiritual tepidity that oppresses us we can only contemplate it with\nwistful admiration. It proves to us indeed \"how wonderful is God in\nHis Saints,\" and how profoundly and intimately He influences the\nhearts of His chosen ones and attaches them inseparably to Himself.\n\nIt will be fitting to bring this chapter to a close by quoting, as\noutside testimony, the tribute which Cardinal Wiseman paid [Footnote\n36] to this feature of our Saint's life. \"There is another writer upon\nthis inexhaustible subject,\" said His Eminence, \"who more than any\nother will justify all that I have {81} said; and, moreover, prove the\ninfluence which these festivals of the Passion may exercise upon the\nhabitual feelings of a Christian. I speak of the exquisite meditations\nof St. Bonaventure upon the life of Christ, a work in which it is\ndifficult what most to admire, the riches of imagination surpassed by\nno poet, or the tenderness of sentiment, or the variety of adaptation.\nAfter having led us through the affecting incidents of Our Saviour's\ninfancy and life, and brought us to the last moving scenes, his steps\nbecome slower from the variety of his beautiful but melancholy\nfancies; he now proceeds, not from year to year, or from month to\nmonth, or from day to day, but each hour has its meditations, and\nevery act of the last tragedy affords him matter for pathetic\nimagination. But when at the conclusion, he comes to propose to us the\nmethod of practising his holy contemplations, he so distributes them,\nthat from Monday to Wednesday shall embrace the whole, of Our\nSaviour's life; but from Thursday to Sunday inclusive each day shall\nbe entirely taken up with the mystery which the Church in Holy Week\nhas allotted to it. In this manner did he, with many others, extend\nthroughout the whole year the solemn commemorations of Holy Week, for\nthe promotion of individual devotion and sanctification, even as the\nChurch had done for the public welfare.\"\n\n[Footnote 36: Four Lectures on the Offices and Ceremonies of Holy\nWeek. Lecture the Fourth.]\n\n{82}\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nTHE ARCHBISHOPRIC OF YORK.\n\nIn a previous chapter reference was made to St. Bonaventure's\nappointment to the Archiepiscopal See of York. It occurred in the year\n1265. The See of York had been rendered vacant by the death of Bishop\nGodfrey de Kinton, or William Ludham--it is not certain which of\nthese two prelates immediately preceded Bonaventure's appointment. The\nEnglish chroniclers do not refer to our Saint's nomination. The fact\nmay never have come to their knowledge, or their silence may be\naccounted for by their opposition to foreign appointments. The epoch\nwas one of the most troublous in the history of England. The country\nwas in the throes of the civil war kindled by the revolt of the Earl\nof Leicester against Henry III. The partial success of the Earl and\nthe captivity of Henry moved Pope Urban to intervene. He despatched\nCardinal Guido to England as his legate, but the latter having been\nthreatened with death if he dared to set foot in the country, remained\nin France. His mission was a failure. After a short delay, and some\nineffectual negotiations, he returned to Rome, where shortly\nafterwards he was raised to the Papacy. It was this Pontiff who\nappointed Bonaventure to the See of York. He was thoroughly acquainted\nwith the disturbed state of the country {83} and knew full well the\nmanifold and serious difficulties which would beset the occupant of so\nimportant a See. In the Bull of appointment he makes particular\nreference to this. He beseeches the Saint to attend diligently to the\nneeds of the Church and to work for the peace and welfare of the\nKingdom \"sorely disturbed and convulsed by the storms of civil\nstrife\".\n\nThe condition of the Church in England was not more satisfactory than\nthat of the State. It was deprived of the liberty necessary for its\ngenuine welfare. In the year 1261, we hear the Bishops of England, in\nCouncil at Lambeth, bewailing the violation of the Church's rights\nwhich they asserted were trampled under foot. They enumerated the\nfollowing abuses which commonly prevailed: the undue interference of\nthe civil power in ecclesiastical matters; the intrusion by secular\nauthority of incumbents into benefices; the unjust and violent seizure\nof Church property and the goods of the clergy; the pretension of the\nCrown to the right of patronage in all the more important benefices;\nfinally, the plurality of benefices, and the tenure of benefices by\nforeign ecclesiastics.\n\nNo sooner was the Papal Bull delivered to Bonaventure than he hastened\nto Perugia, where the Pope was residing, and besought him not to\nimpose upon him so weighty a responsibility. We know not what reasons\nhe adduced, but they must have been very powerful to overcome the\nPope's {84} resolution and turn him from his purpose, for he seems to\nhave chosen Bonaventure after the fullest deliberation and to have\nbeen very intent upon his accepting the dignity. It appears that the\nChapter of York had chosen its Dean as Archbishop, but the Pope\nrefused to ratify the election, declaring that on the present occasion\nhe reserved to himself the right of appointment. In the Bull which he\nissued to our Saint, [Footnote 37] he says:--\n\n[Footnote 37: Cf. Wadding, Anno 1265. No. 14.]\n\n\"We have long considered this appointment. We have given it our\nprofound and careful attention. Our mind has long been occupied with\nit in all its bearings. The welfare of a Church so great and\nhonourable, of a daughter so noble and so devoted to the Apostolic\nSee, of a Catholic Kingdom so renowned as England and so dear to the\nRoman See--the welfare of a Church so amply endowed and enjoying\nArchiepiscopal dignity fills us with deepest solicitude. It has\naroused our anxiety, increased our vigilance and intensified our\ndeliberation. We have studied more intimately, and considered more\ncarefully, all that in this election might make for the greater\nwelfare of the Church, of the Apostolic See, and of the entire\nKingdom. We have striven by every means in our power to find a worthy\nman--one devoted to the Apostolic See and suited to the wants of the\naforesaid Church and zealous for the peace and welfare of the\nKingdom--a man conspicuous for virtue, renowned for {85} learning,\nremarkable for foresight--a man whom the Lord might love, in whose\ngoodness He might dwell--a man whose good deeds render him worthy of\nimitation, by whom the Catholic flock as by a shining light may be led\nto salvation. Seeking for such an one we have fixed our choice on\nthee--our mind has rested upon thee with entire satisfaction. For we\nbehold in thee religious fervour, candour of life, irreproachable\nconduct, renowned learning, prudent foresight, serious gravity. We see\nthat thou hast so long and so laudably presided over thine Order, and\nfulfilled so faithfully the office of Minister-General--exercising it\nprudently and profitably for the greater honour and welfare of the\nOrder, striving to live innocently under regular observance, showing\nthyself peaceful and lovable to all. Wherefore, we are fully convinced\nthat we see in thee what we desire for the welfare of the said Church,\nthe Apostolic See and the entire Kingdom. By our Apostolic authority,\ntherefore, we make provision for the aforesaid Church through thee,\nand constitute thee its Archbishop and Pastor, absolving thee from the\noffice of Minister-General and transferring thee to the said Church,\ngranting thee free licence to go thither. Therefore we exhort,\nadmonish, affectionately entreat, and strictly command thee by virtue\nof holy obedience not to resist the Divine Will, nor to oppose any\nobstacle nor delay to our command, but humbly to submit to the call of\nHeaven and accept the burden placed upon thee by God.\"\n\n{86}\n\nUndoubtedly, only the gravest reasons could have induced Bonaventure\nto resist so urgent an appeal of the Vicar of Christ. What they were\nwe do not know, and it is useless to enter upon conjectures. The\nincident shows us the extraordinary esteem in which our Saint was\nheld, and it also gives us an insight into the deep solicitude with\nwhich the Popes in the thirteenth century watched over the interests\nof the Church in England. The action of the Roman Pontiffs in\nappointing foreign ecclesiastics to English Sees has been severely\ncondemned by Protestant historians, but anyone reading the Bull of\nBonaventure's appointment must confess that they took the greatest\ncare to select worthy and suitable candidates.\n\nHaving succeeded in obtaining the revocation of his appointment, our\nSaint went to Paris, where he remained teaching and attending to the\naffairs of the Order until the year 1269, when he celebrated the\nGeneral Chapter at Assisi. Returning again to Paris he devoted himself\nto his writings, lectures, sermons and ministerial duties, until 1271,\nwhen at Viterbo he played a most important part in a very memorable\nevent. On the death of Clement IV. (1268), the Cardinals were so\nhopelessly divided in their opinions that for nearly three years they\nwere unable to agree in the choice of a successor. In the year just\nmentioned they were assembled at Viterbo. Six candidates were, before\nthem for election and there seemed but little chance {87} of arriving\nat any decision. Bonaventure's reputation was so great that the\nCardinals sought his services, and, according to one chronicler,\n[Footnote 38] empowered him to nominate himself or any other to the\nPapal See, promising at the same time to ratify his selection. He\nnominated Theobald of Piacenza, a most worthy man who was at that time\nLegate in Syria. The Cardinals acquiesced in his choice and the new\nPope took the name of Gregory X. This incident must be regarded as\nquite authentic, for reference is made to it in the process of our\nSaint's canonization. That the Cardinals seriously authorized him to\nnominate himself is the only item concerning which a doubt may be\nraised. To some writers it seems too improbable on the face of it, and\nthey refuse to admit it.\n\n[Footnote 38: Bartholomew of Pisa, \"Conformities,\" Lib. I. Conform. 8.\nPars. 2.]\n\nThe election of Gregory exercised an unforeseen influence on\nBonaventure's career. The new Pope arrived at Viterbo in 1272, and\nproceeded to Rome, where he was solemnly crowned in the year 1273.\nFull of admiration for our Saint and reposing the greatest confidence\nin his wisdom, he desired to avail himself of his counsel in the\ngovernment of the Church. Accordingly he summoned him to Rome and\nconfided to him the transaction of many important matters. Amongst\nthese was the selection of Legates to undertake the reconciliation\n{88} of the Greeks and Tartars to the Latin Church. However, his stay\nin Rome was not of long duration, for in the same year, 1273, he was\nback again in Paris attending to his ministerial duties and working\nfor the fulfilment of a very important commission entrusted to him by\nthe Pope.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nMISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES OF THE SAINT.\n\nBefore we pass on to St. Bonaventure's elevation to the Cardinalate it\nwill be worth while to gather under one heading such scattered\nmemories of him as have been preserved, and which shed additional\nlight on his life and character. These are associated chiefly with the\nFrench King St. Louis IX., and St. Thomas Aquinas. As the sainted\nFranciscan General lived almost thirty-two years at the University of\nParis, it was but natural he should come into close relationship with\nthe equally sainted King of France. King Louis died 25 August, 1270,\nand at the second chapter of Pisa, held in 1272, St. Bonaventure\nintroduced into the Order the solemn annual celebration of the day of\nhis death. Mindful of his old-time friendship, our Saint secured this\nfavour from Gregory X, as the first act of grace on the occasion of\nhis coronation.\n\nThe following incident reveals the unreserve {89} with which Louis IX.\nconfided in his Franciscan friend. On the death of his eldest son, the\nFrench King, in spite of the great love he had ever borne him, was\nthoroughly resigned to what he recognized as the will of God. He told\nSt. Bonaventure that since God had willed the heir apparent should die\nhe himself would not, even if he could, have his son live. \"Sire,\" our\nSaint made answer, \"how can that be?\" St. Louis replied, \"I believe\nand I know that such was the will of God. Seeing that it is God's\nwill, on no account ought I to will the contrary; rather ought I\ncheerfully to accept God's good pleasure and not prove disloyal to His\nsupreme will.\" \"How much I suffer,\" he continued, \"you can scarcely\ncredit. Yet though I feel this loss so keenly, I must force myself not\nto manifest it.\" As he said, so he did, as the whole nation was\nwitness.\n\nOn another occasion the King told St. Bonaventure that someone had\napproached him saying, \"The Lord our God has three crowns, one of\ngold, one of thorns and the other incorruptible--the crown of Eternal\nLife. Two of these He has bestowed on you. I earnestly recommend you,\nhowever, that after the example of Jesus Christ, you strive to acquire\nby your good works the crown of Eternal Life. What will the two crowns\nyou have avail you, if you secure not the third?\" \"Now it seems to\nme,\" was the pious King's comment, \"that he spoke with very much\nwisdom. {90} His words entered my very heart.\" This lesson, our Saint\nadds, he also impressed on his court.\n\nSt. Louis once sought St. Bonaventure's opinion on an abstruse\nphilosophic-theological question. \"May a man,\" queried the King,\n\"choose rather to be annihilated than to remain in everlasting\ntorments? or ought he to prefer eternal torture to non-existence?\"\n\"Sire,\" answered Bonaventure, \"endless torments presuppose sin and\nGod's undying wrath against sin; and as no one may choose to remain\nfor ever at enmity with God, non-existence is to be preferred to\nendless suffering.\" \"I hold with Brother Bonaventure,\" the pious King\nexclaimed. Then turning to his courtiers he continued, \"I assure you I\nwould far rather cease to exist; I would far rather suffer\nannihilation, than live for ever, even in this world, reigning even as\nI now reign, and yet withal remain in perpetual enmity with my God.\"\n\nA further incident reveals a still more intimate interchange of ideas.\nThe King once came to Bonaventure and said to him: \"The Queen is\ngreatly disturbed because she hears that our son Peter wishes to join\nthe Franciscan Order. I said to her, 'Do not trouble and do not allow\nthe affair to weigh on your mind. Besides, you may mention the matter\nso often that the youth may come by the desire of joining the Order.\nPersonally I feel assured that the love Brother Bonaventure, their\nGeneral, bears me will not allow him {91} to receive our son without\nmy being forewarned.' Did I not speak the truth, Brother Bonaventure?\"\nTo this our Saint made answer, \"Sire, if your son comes to me on this\nmatter, I shall refer to you and lay the responsibility on your\nshoulders\". \"No, Brother Bonaventure,\" replied King Louis, \"that would\nnot do. I should not like to have it on my conscience that I stood in\nthe way of my son's following the voice of God.\" \"Pious and holy\nKing!\" the narrative concludes, \"his soul was so holy and so given to\nGod, he preferred to be deprived of his son's society rather than\nwithdraw that son from the service of God.\"\n\nIn the fourteenth century MSS. from which the previous incidents are\ndrawn, and which are preserved in the Vatican Library, the following\nepisode is found. We insert it, though historically it is not beyond\nquestion. The brother of St. Bonaventure once besought our Saint to\nuse his influence with St. Louis on his behalf. \"Do you wish me to\nspeak to the King for you?\" asked our Saint. \"How could I exhort and\ninduce others to the contempt of the world and the embracing of the\nReligious Life, if I interested myself on your worldly behalf: if, by\nprocuring you what you desire, I afforded you the occasion of\nremaining in the lay state and of loving the world?\"\n\nIn the course of this biography we have alluded casually to the\nintimate friendship which existed between St. Bonaventure and St.\nThomas Aquinas. {92} There is an account of a holy rivalry of modest\ncourtesy which took place between them when they were both to receive\nthe degree of Doctor at the Paris University. St. Thomas could not be\nbrought to take precedence of our Saint: whilst Bonaventure, true to\nthe name of Friar Minor, shrank from the thought of anticipating St.\nThomas. What they were unable to arrange between themselves was\nsettled for them by their friends. It was thus finally determined that\nBonaventure, as being somewhat older, should be the first to occupy\nthe place of honour. When our Saint had been adorned with the insignia\nof his new degree, he was conducted to his place amongst the Masters\nof Divinity, whence he witnessed St. Thomas passing triumphantly\nthrough the ordeal from which he himself had just emerged with credit.\n\n\nOn a subsequent occasion, however, it was St. Thomas' turn to be\nworsted in a similar contest of holy humility. There is a tradition to\nthe effect that when Pope Urban IV. was contemplating to extend to the\nwhole Church the Feast of Corpus Christi he commissioned St. Thomas\nand St. Bonaventure to compose separately a suitable Office and Mass\nfor the feast. While the work was being done, St. Bonaventure called\nupon his friend, and during the course of the conversation took up and\nread that antiphon for the _Magnificat_ beginning with the words, _O\nSacrum Convivium!_--\"O Sacred Banquet!\" So overcome was he by its\ndepth and {93} sweetness that he returned home and cast into the fire\nthe work he himself had been preparing. Whatever the authenticity of\nthese two episodes, they certainly breathe the spirit of love and of\ncourteous esteem with which these two Saints--representatives of two\nkindred Orders--were actuated towards each other.\n\nThis is another episode of the same holy friendship, which Wadding\n[Footnote 39] recounts on the testimony of Mark of Lisbon. As St.\nThomas Aquinas was once wondering at the varied learning and depth of\ninsight displayed in his friend's writings, he asked St. Bonaventure\nto show him the books from which he had drawn. Thereupon the humble\nFranciscan General showed St. Thomas a Crucifix, and pointing to it\nexclaimed: \"It is from this well-spring of light and love that I have\ndrawn whatever is to be found in my lectures or writings\".\n\n[Footnote 39: Tom. IV, Anno 1260. No. 20.]\n\nThe following incident in connexion with St. Antony of Padua gives us\nan insight into St. Bonaventure's unctuous devotion. When our Saint\nwas in Italy in the year 1263, he presided over the translation of St.\nAntony's relics, which were then removed on 8 April from the humble\nChurch where they had reposed since 1232 to the noble Basilica where\nthey still remain. When the lid of the coffin was removed and all\npressed eagerly forward to gaze, it was seen that though the flesh had\nlong since returned to dust, and even the bones {94} were fast\ncrumbling away, the tongue, \"which for 32 years had lain under the\nearth, was found as fresh and ruddy as though the Most Blessed Father\nhad died that self-same hour\". [Footnote 40] With the tact and\neloquence which were so peculiarly his own, Bonaventure turned this\nextraordinary happening to devout account. Reverently taking the relic\ninto his hands and kissing it with tender devotion, he exclaimed, \"O\nBlessed Tongue, which in life didst ever bless the Lord and lead\nothers to bless Him, now doth it manifestly appear in what high honour\nthou wast held by God Himself\". He then directed that it be preserved\nin a costly reliquary, as a special object of veneration, rather than\nremain with the rest of the body.\n\n[Footnote 40: Cf. \"Analecta Franciscana,\" Tom. III, pp. 328 and 157.]\n\nThere is also recorded a quaint and interesting dialogue which took\nplace between our Saint and Brother Giles. \"On one occasion,\" we read\n[Footnote 41] in the Life of Brother Giles commonly attributed to\nBrother Leo, \"Brother Giles said to Friar Bonaventure, the\nMinister-General, 'Father, God has laden you with many graces. But we\nuneducated and unlearned men who have not received of this fullness,\nwhat shall we do to be saved?' The General made answer, 'Did God\nconfer on man no other grace save only the power to love Him, that\nsurely would suffice'. Then asked Brother Giles, 'Can an ignorant man\nlove God even as can a scholar?' {95} 'A poor, little, aged peasant\nwoman,' the General made answer, 'can love God even more than a Master\nin Theology.' Then arose Brother Giles in the fervour of his soul, and\nrunning towards that part of the garden nearest the highway, cried\naloud, 'Poor little peasant woman love the Lord thy God, and foolish\nand ignorant as thou art, thou mayest be greater in His sight even\nthan Friar Bonaventure'. And as he thus cried aloud he was rapt in\necstasy and remained immovable for the space of three hours.\"\n\n[Footnote 41: Ibid. p. 101.]\n\nThere is one of our Saint's works which we must not omit to mention,\nfor through it he is closely connected with an important present-day\nfeature of the Church's life. Some authors tell us that it is to St.\nBonaventure that we are indebted for our numerous modern\nconfraternities; either, as some say, because he originated the idea\nof these pious societies, or, as others hold, because he prescribed\nfor them a definite form of prayer. It is certain that our Saint\nfounded the \"Confraternity of the Holy Standard,\" and did so probably\nabout the year 1264. [Footnote 42] The root idea of a Confraternity,\nhowever, existed before the time of St. Bonaventure; these pious\nsocieties, in fact, seem but to be the counterpart of those local\nguilds which were early established over Europe. Then anent specific\nrules and prayers, etc., there are the religious {96} prescriptions\nwhich Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, drew up for his guild, not to\nmention the Confraternity organized by Odo, Bishop of Paris, who died\nin 1208. This \"Confraternity of the Standard,\" however, would seem to\nhave been the first introduced into Rome; and its immediate and\nextensive adoption throughout Italy may possibly explain how it came\nto pass that upon St. Bonaventure was fathered an idea that, probably,\nwas merely borrowed from Bishop Odo.\n\n[Footnote 42: Bull of Pope Gregory XIII. \"Pastoris AEterni,\" 23\nOctober, 1576.]\n\nThis \"Confraternity of the Holy Standard\" took its name from the\nbanner which was borne at the head of the Society's processions and on\nwhich was wrought the likeness of the Blessed Virgin. It was also\nknown as the \"Society of the Proteges of Our Blessed Lady,\" for among\ntheir insignia was a representation of the mother of God shielding her\nclients with her mantle. At first the Society embraced only twelve\nmembers, all of noble birth, the number, it is said, shown to our\nSaint in a vision; soon, however, it grew into a large and public\nbody. The distinctive dress of the association was a white habit, to\nthe right shoulder of which was attached a blue badge on which a cross\nwas traced in red and white. This was the period when the Crusades\nwere kindling the West with religious enthusiasm, and it seemed\nappropriate that in spiritual as in temporal warfare, soldiers should\nbear an their person the insignia of the King under whose banner they\nwere fighting. {97} The whiteness of the Cross recalled the purity of\nOur Lady; its deep red colour symbolized the love with which Our Lord\npurchased our redemption, and the heart-felt loyalty we should\nmanifest in return. The aims of this Confraternity were prayer,\nfasting, and almsdeeds: the promotion of peace and harmony among\ncitizens--then so fiercely given to feuds of civic politics; the\nprocuring of dowries for destitute girls; voluntary service to\nhospitals; and, perhaps, chiefly, the ransom of captives from the\ntyranny of the Saracens.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nTHE CARDINALATE.\n\nSoon after his election to the Papacy, Gregory X. decided to hold a\nGeneral Council at Lyons. He directed Bonaventure to undertake the\npreparation of the various matters to be discussed. Amongst all those\nwho might co-operate for the success of the Council, the Pope perceived\nthat there was no one more capable than our Saint. His, authority was\ngreat and his influence was widespread, In the preceding chapter we\nhave dwelt upon his familiar friendship with King Louis of France,\nWith Charles I. of Anjou he was likewise on intimate terms. After his\nelevation to the Cardinalate the prince gave orders for his suitable\nconveyance to the Papal Court. Another somewhat curious {98} instance\nof Bonaventure's widespread influence is seen in a letter written to\nhim by the Secretary of Otto Carus, King of Bohemia. He asks our Saint\nto intercede for him with his royal master so that he might receive\nfrom him some office which he coveted. As General of the Franciscan\nOrder his power was very considerable, but it was greatly increased by\nhis reputation for learning and profound piety. The Order had already\nspread into almost every country of the Old World. In the East and\nWest it possessed thirty-three Provinces and four Vicariates. It had\npenetrated into Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; and was firmly\nestablished all over Europe including the British Isles.\n\nThe supreme ruler of so vast and powerful an organization is\nnecessarily a noteworthy personage in the life of the Church. And it\nis not to be wondered at that Gregory X. fixed his eyes upon\nBonaventure, and with a view to enhancing his authority and extending\nhis sphere of action determined to raise him to the cardinalate.\nAccordingly, on 23 June, 1273, he made him Bishop of Albano and\nCardinal of the Roman Church. Bonaventure's secretary, Bernard of\nBesse, viewing the procedure from the standpoint of the humble Friar\nand with apparently little approval, refers briefly to the fact in\nthese words: \"The aforesaid Lord Gregory X. forced him to become a\nCardinal\". We can imagine how strenuously Bonaventure refused the\nhonour, but the Pope was inflexible and even peremptory. {99} He\ncommanded Bonaventure to submit to his appointment and in a spirit of\nhumility to place no obstacle in the way. He furthermore ordered him\nto repair to the Papal Court without any unreasonable delay or\nhesitation. Our Saint received the Brief at Paris and he set out at\nonce for Florence where the Pope happened to be residing. Having\nreached the vicinity of the town he took up his abode in a small\nconvent of the Order. Thither came the Pope's envoys with the\nCardinal's insignia. As has already been said they found the Bishop\nand Cardinal-elect washing the plates of the monastery, and tradition\nhas it that he ordered them to hang the hat on a branch of a tree\nclose by until he had finished.\n\nAfter a brief stay at Florence, at the Pope's command our Saint set\nout for Lyons, where the General Council was to be held. The assembly\nbegan its sessions in May, 1274. The importance of the part which\nBonaventure played in this Council is admitted by all. His secretary\nand biographer, Bernard of Besse, says: \"By command of our Lord the\nPope he conducted the principal affairs of the Council\". Pope Sixtus\nIV. affirms that Bonaventure \"presided at the Council of Lyons and\ndirected everything to the praise and glory of God; so that having\nsuppressed discords and overcome difficulties, he was a source of\nhonour and utility to the Church\". It is, however, hardly credible\nthat Bonaventure really _presided_ over the Council, for {100} the\nPope himself was present. Most likely he presided over the private\nsessions and prepared and directed the business to be publicly\ntransacted.\n\nThe union of the Greek Church with the Latin, the deliverance of the\nHoly Land from Mohammedan rule, and the restoration of ecclesiastical\ndiscipline were the chief matters discussed by the Council.\n\nIn the work of reuniting the Greek and Latin Churches the Friars Minor\nplayed a very conspicuous part. Through them the negotiations with the\nEmperor Paleologus, and the Greek Church had been carried on. Their\nefforts seemed for a time to be crowned with complete success. The\nEmperor sent civil and ecclesiastical representatives to the Council\nof Lyons to express the adherence of himself and the entire Greek\nChurch to all the tenets of the Church of Rome. In presence of the\nassembled Council and amid great solemnity the envoys made a public\nprofession of Faith, and the great Eastern schism seemed to be healed.\nUnfortunately the result was of very brief duration. In the course of\na few years the Greeks had once more returned to their old condition\nof schism and heresy. Still, even for this temporary success great\ncredit is due to Bonaventure, for to his personal influence it must in\nno small degree be attributed. His learning, his eloquence, his\naffability and his piety deeply impressed the Greeks. They marked\ntheir appreciation of his great ability by bestowing on him {101} the\nname of \"Eutychius\". He surpassed the high opinion which Pope Gregory\nhad formed of him. His extraordinary gifts filled the whole Council\nwith admiration. The facility and precision of his diction, the\nprudence and moderation of his counsel, the breadth and depth of his\nlearning, his skill in controversy and his wonderful power of\ndispatching most weighty matters made him the most prominent figure in\nthe whole of the assembly. At the same time, his humility and meekness\nand the cheerful sweetness of his disposition won all hearts. His\nwords were listened to with sympathetic attention and never failed to\nproduce the desired effect. It is recorded that he preached twice\nduring the Council: first when it was officially announced that the\nGreeks were sending representatives to Lyons, and, secondly, when the\nreunion had been accomplished. A large number of his sermons are\nextant, but amongst them is not found either of these discourses.\n\nWhilst our gaze is fixed on Bonaventure as the central figure in that\ngrand assembly of the Christian Church we can read with interest the\npen-portrait of him left to us by an old chronicler. This writer,\n[Footnote 43] after insisting at much length on the spiritual\nendowments of the Saint, continues thus:--\n\n[Footnote 43: Peter Rodulph, fol. 92. Cf. Wadding, Tom. IV, Anno 1274.\nNo. 20.]\n\n\"Such beauty of soul was matched by exterior {102} comeliness; of\nimposing appearance, tall in stature, and with a certain nobility of\nbearing. His features were handsome and of serious expression. His\nwords were calm and his conversation kind and gentle. He rarely\nsuffered from ill health. His disposition was more than admirable. His\nappearance cannot be described other than like that of an angel sent\nfrom Heaven, for in his day there was no one more beautiful, holier,\nor more wise. Such affability and grace shone forth in his countenance\nthat he was to all not only an object of love but of admiration. Those\nwho once beheld him felt themselves drawn instinctively to admire and\nvenerate him as one especially designed to further the interests of\nreligion.\"\n\nThe description is evidently that of an ardent admirer of\nBonaventure, but making all due allowance for its palpable\nexaggerations we are justified in believing that the personal\nappearance of the Saint must have been impressive and attractive in no\nordinary degree. This seems to have been a characteristic of many of\nthe saints, although their biographers, imbued with the peculiar\nascetical notion that unsightliness of body is somehow necessarily\nassociated with beauty and excellence of soul, usually discard all\nreference to bodily endowments.\n\nIn his labours at the Council our Saint was ably seconded by two other\nFranciscans--Rigaldi, Archbishop of Rouen, and Paul, Bishop of\nTripolis. Their prominence and the authority they wielded {103} seem\nto have excited a certain amount of jealousy among their\ncontemporaries. Thus we find them referred to in the following\nsatirical triplet:--\n\n  Bonaventure, Rouen and Tripolitane\n  Dispense papal laws and unmindful remain\n  Of their Order which scorns all honours as vain.\n\nThis suggests the question: \"How can we reconcile the acceptance of\necclesiastical dignities with the Spirit of St. Francis and the\nprofession of his Rule?\" Many answers might be given, but I believe\nthe following to be the most satisfactory. The leading principle of\nthe Franciscan Rule is obedience to the Pope, the supreme authority in\nall things spiritual. Hence, submission to what he commands cannot be\na violation of the Franciscan spirit. Like every other religious\ndevelopment of human origin the Order of St. Francis is entirely\nsubject to the authority of the Head of the Church. He can modify it\nin its constitution and in its members as circumstances may demand.\nNon-Catholic writers, and even Catholics, sometimes lose sight of\nthis. They seem to think that the Rule of Francis possesses some\nspecies of supreme and absolute authority which no power on earth can,\nor ought to, interfere with. This assumption is utterly false. None\nwould have more emphatically rejected it than St. Francis himself.\nHence, when the Vicar of Christ, for the welfare of the Church, calls\nupon a child of St. Francis to accept some office to {104} which\nattaches dignity or honour he may humbly refuse, but a persistent and\nobstinate refusal would find no justification in the profession he has\nmade.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nDEATH.\n\nBy special Pontifical dispensation Bonaventure retained the office of\nMinister-General for a short time after his elevation to the\nCardinalate. His successor could be elected only by a General Chapter,\nand this could not conveniently be convoked until the feast of\nPentecost. This occurred on 20 May, 1274, and the place chosen for the\nassembly was Lyons. The Saint presided, and having formally resigned\nhis office, Jerome of Ascoli, afterwards Pope Nicholas IV., was\nappointed his successor. With this event Bonaventure's official\nconnection with the Order of St. Francis ceased. As we shall see, it\nwas almost coincident with his death.\n\nThe Council of Lyons was still sitting when Bonaventure was called to\nhis reward. He was only fifty-three years of age, but the immense\nlabours he had undergone and the habitual weakness of his\nconstitution, hastened the end.\n\n\n\n[Illustration:\nSt. Bonaventure.\n_From Raphael's Disputa, in the Vatican_.]\n\n{107}\n\nOn 6 July, the fourth general session of the Council was held. The\nreunion of the Greek and Latin Churches was solemnly ratified.\nBonaventure preached on the occasion. He took for his text the words\nof the prophet Baruch (v. 5). \"Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high;\nand look about towards the East, and behold thy children gathered\ntogether from the rising to the setting sun, by the word of the Holy\nOne rejoicing in the remembrance of God\". The body of the discourse\nhas not come down to us, but we can well imagine that it was well\nworthy of the great occasion and of the genius and sanctity of the\npreacher. It was his last public utterance--the _Nunc dimittis_ of the\nChurch's zealous champion as he witnessed the accomplishment of the\nobject for which he had long so earnestly striven. He was even then\nstanding on the brink of the grave. The echoes of eternity were\nalready beginning to sound in his ears and the everlasting years to\nunfold themselves before his gaze. As he heard the solemn strains of\nthe grand _Te Deum_ that marked the close of the great event he must\nhave felt that his work for God and for the Church was accomplished.\nWeakened by disease and worn out by the constant strain and pressure\nof business, his strength was rapidly failing. The ceaseless activity\nof his great mind, his restless energy and burning zeal, had hitherto\nrendered him insensible to the body's decline, but at last the limits\nof endurance were reached and the end was at hand. Bonaventure\nreturned home from the Council, and nine days later he was dead.\n\nThe exact cause of his death is not known. One {108} writer [Footnote\n44] refers to an extraordinary mortality prevailing amongst the\nmembers of the Council. It is just possible that some species of\nepidemic, so frequent in those days, may have broken out in the city,\nand that our Saint in his infirm state of health fell an easy victim\nto it. Incidentally, we learn that one of the symptoms of his last\nillness was a complete inability to retain even the least particle of\nfood. This is recorded [Footnote 45] in connection with the following\ntruly marvellous occurrence. On his death-bed our Saint longed with\nall the ardour of his seraphic soul for the sweet intercourse of\nSacramental Communion. But the cause just mentioned made this\nimpossible. Still, as far as possible to appease his pious longing,\nthe Consecrated Host was brought into his room and placed beside him,\nso that his eyes might rest upon it. This only intensified his desire,\nuntil it would appear that the Lord could no longer withstand the\nardour of his pleadings. A wonderful thing was then seen to happen.\nWithout any visible agency the Sacred Host left the ciborium and,\nmoving through the air towards the dying Saint, vanished within his\nbreast!\n\n[Footnote 44: Cf. \"Opera Omnia,\" Tom. X, p. 67. No.4.]\n\n[Footnote 45: Wadding, \"Annals,\" Tom. IV, Anno 1274. No. 18.]\n\nAt an earlier period in his life a somewhat similar occurrence is\nrecorded. Bartholomew of Pisa and the author [Footnote 46] of the\nChronicles of the Twenty-four Generals relate that, on a certain\noccasion, the pious {109} General, thinking himself unworthy,\nabstained for a long time from saying Holy Mass. But the Lord was\ntouched by his humility, and one day as he was devoutly hearing Mass,\na particle of the Consecrated Host, solely at the command of the\nSaviour, left the altar and entered his mouth, filling his soul with\ndivine sweetness. It may be that both records are but different\nversions of the same fact, and we may doubt which of them is\nauthentic. But if Bonaventure's malady were such as described, we\nshould like to think that the Lord, pitying the loneliness and\nextremity of His dying servant, afforded him, even by a miracle, the\nsupreme consolation which his passing spirit sighed for.\n\n[Footnote 46: Cf. \"Analecta Franciscana,\" Tom. III, p. 334.]\n\nAnother incident which touchingly illustrates the absolute poverty in\nwhich the Saint died is recorded by Wadding. Although Bishop and\nCardinal, his sole possession on his death-bed was his breviary.\nEverything else he had distributed to the poor, and even the breviary\nhe regarded not as his own but as belonging to his Order, and he\ndirected that it should be restored to the Brethren after his death.\n\nWe would fain linger by the deathbed of the Saint but the almost\ncomplete absence of details gives us no encouragement to do so. We are\nnot told even where he died. Was it in the convent of his Order and\nsurrounded by his Brethren, or elsewhere? How did he bear himself in\nthat final struggle? What were his sentiments? What were {110} his\nlast words? None of these things are recorded. Apart from general\nobservations concerning his virtues and his holiness we only know with\ncertainty that during the night of 4 July, 1274, Bonaventure passed to\nhis reward.\n\nWe may well imagine that death has no terror for the Saints; at the\nsame time, we cannot say that it has any special attraction for them.\nEven our Holy Father, St. Francis, whilst unawed at the approach of\n\"Sister Death,\" seemed yet submissively to cling to life. It is a\nnatural and a legitimate instinct. Life is the sum total of our\ntemporal gifts, and its preservation is a duty we owe to the giver. It\nis true, granted the immortality of the soul, and future reward, that\nthere is a greater good than the body's life and that to secure it we\nmay, and in some cases ought, to forfeit the latter. But these\ncircumstances are abnormal and rarely occur. In the ordinary course of\nevents the soul's welfare does not demand the body's death. The\ninterests of body and soul run on parallel lines, and so long as right\norder is maintained they cannot collide. We read indeed that the\nSaints, vividly realizing the happiness of Heaven and aspiring to it\nwith steadfast confidence, longed for death. St. Paul exclaiming: \"I\nwish to be dissolved and to be with Christ,\" is quoted as an example\nof this. But the attitude thus expressed by the Apostle is not\nincompatible with a natural repugnance to, and shrinking from death.\nWe believe this to be in {111} some degree the characteristic of all\nmen, saints as well as sinners.\n\nBonaventure's death was regarded somewhat in the light of a public\ncalamity. The effect it produced upon the Council of Lyons is narrated\nas follows. [Footnote 47] \"At this time, whilst the Council was still\nsitting, the most reverend Father in Christ, the Lord Cardinal\nBonaventure of most venerable memory was laid with the holy Fathers,\nfilling, as we may believe, the Church Triumphant with joy at his\nadvent, but affecting the Church Militant with incredible grief at his\ndeparture. For Greeks and Latins, clergy and laity, followed his bier\nwith bitter tears, lamenting the grievous loss of so great a\npersonage.\"\n\n[Footnote 47: Author of the \"Chronicles of Twenty-four Generals,\" Cf.\n\"Analecta Franciscana,\" Tom. III, p. 356.]\n\nIn accordance with the custom of the time and country, Bonaventure was\nburied on the day of his death. His funeral was attended by the Pope\nand all the Prelates of the Council. Peter, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia,\ncelebrated Holy Mass and preached the funeral oration. He took for his\ntext the pathetic words in which David laments the death of Jonathan\n(2 Kings 1. 26): \"I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan--exceedingly\nbeautiful and amiable above the love of women\". The text was suggested\nno doubt by that striking characteristic of the Saint upon which all\nhis biographers so strongly insist--his wonderful amiability. As one\n{112} writer [Footnote 48] expresses it: \"This grace the Lord had\ngranted him that whosoever looked on him was forthwith irresistibly\ndrawn to love him\".\n\n[Footnote 48: The historian of the Council of Lyons. Cf.\n\"Opera,\" Tom. X, p 67.]\n\nAt the next session of the General Council the Pope referred to the\ngrievous loss sustained by the entire Church in the death of\nBonaventure. And to mark his sense of gratitude for the immense\nlabours he had undergone on its behalf he ordered all the priests and\nprelates of the Catholic world to offer up Holy Mass for the repose of\nhis soul.\n\nThe Saint was buried in the church of the Friars Minor at Lyons. In\nthe year 1434, a new church dedicated to St. Francis was erected in\nthe city, and thither, as to a more suitable resting-place, the body\nwas translated. This took place one hundred and sixty years after the\nSaint's death. Marvellous to relate, the head was then found to be\nentirely incorrupt. The hair, lips, teeth, and tongue were perfectly\npreserved and retained their natural colour. The people of Lyons were\nprofoundly affected by this miracle, and they chose Bonaventure for\nthe patron of their city. The movement, already on foot, to obtain his\ncanonization received thereby a new and powerful impetus.\n\nOn the occasion of this translation the body of St. Bonaventure was\nplaced in a costly reliquary at the command of the Minister-General,\nand kept at the Franciscan Church at Lyons. Later in the {113} same\ncentury, the Minister-General, Father Francis Samson, removed the arms\nof our Saint from Lyons, and entrusted them to the keeping of the\nReligious at Bagnorea. In the Cathedral Church of this town these\nrelics are still piously venerated. Around the reliquary which\nencloses them runs the inscription, \"Father Francis Samson, General,\nbequeathed this reliquary to the Convent of St. Francis in Bagnorea, 1\nMay, 1491 \".\n\nIn 1494 King Charles VIII. of France erected a magnificent side-chapel\nfor the remains at Lyons, and in return requested some relic of St.\nBonaventure. His desire was granted, and the relic he obtained he\nfinally presented to the chapel of Fontainebleau. Thence it was taken\nto the Franciscan Church at Paris, where it remained till the French\nRevolution. Other relics of St. Bonaventure were removed to Venice in\n1494 where they are still exposed to the veneration of the Faithful.\n\nThe shrine at Lyons was enriched with many valuable\nofferings--tributes of gratitude to the efficacy of our Saint's\nintercession. There, in one urn plated with silver, his body was\npreserved; the head being reserved in another equally costly. There,\ntoo, the remains rested in veneration till the second half of the\nsixteenth century.\n\nIn 1562, Lyons fell into the hands of the Huguenots who made an\nassault on the Franciscan Church there and rifled St. Bonaventure's\nshrine of its treasures. Owing, however, to the foresight and {114}\nheroism of Father James Gayete, the Superior, their sacrilegious\npurpose was, in part, thwarted. This holy man had betimes taken the\nprecaution of enclosing our Saint's relics in two urns and burying\nthem in a secret place. The two Religious who shared his secret were\nsent to another convent lest what they knew be wrung from them by\ntorture. Father James was subjected to much harsh treatment, but all\nto no avail. A search was then instituted through the friary and its\ngrounds, and finally the Huguenots succeeded in discovering the body.\nThis was borne to the public square and burned with many images,\npictures, and objects of devotion.\n\nWhen peace again prevailed, the Religious who knew of the secret\nreturned to Lyons and produced the urn which contained the head of our\nSaint as also the crucifix and chalice he was wont to use. The former\ncultus was once more revived; the friary and church rose from their\nruins and the shrine of St. Bonaventure regained its old-time\nsplendour. During the French Revolution, however, the profanation was\nmore complete. The friary and church were razed to the ground, and\nonce again the urn containing the head of our Saint was buried for\nsafety in a secret place. This time, however, the holy Religious died\nwithout divulging his secret, and all subsequent searches to find the\nrelics have proved unavailing.\n\n[Illustration:\n_Photo. Alinari_.\n\nST. BONAVENTURE.\n\n_Church of St. Maria degli Angeli, Dintorni (Tiberio d Assisi)_]\n\n\n{115}\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nCANONIZATION.\n\nFrom all that has hitherto been said it is evident that Bonaventure\nwas eminent amongst his contemporaries. He excelled in holiness and\nlearning. His greatness was religious. The service of God, the\nsanctification of his soul and the welfare of the Church were the sole\nends to which his life was devoted. He achieved them with remarkable\nsuccess. His contemporaries perceived it and they regarded him as a\nsaint. A saint is a man whose life is virtuous in a heroic\ndegree--whose spiritual excellence is indisputable. Such excellence is\nworthy of recognition, and the Catholic Church, with its true\nappreciation of what is right, has adopted suitable means of\nexpressing it. These are embodied in the process of canonization. In\nthe early ages of the Church there was no special form of\ncanonization. It appears to have consisted in the unanimous belief of\nthe Faithful--at first merely tolerated, but in time positively\napproved of by ecclesiastical authority. In the eighth century we come\nacross the liturgical ceremony of solemnly enrolling the Saint amongst\nthe number of the Blessed in Heaven.\n\nThis is not the place to discuss the dogmatic significance of such\nprocedure. Suffice it to say, {116} it would be rash to imagine that\nthe Church could err in so important and truly religious a matter.\n\nAlthough the holiness of the Saints was recognized by their\ncontemporaries, and continued to be the object of devout veneration by\nsucceeding generations, still the Church's authentic recognition of it\nhas sometimes been postponed for long centuries. The Church moves\nslowly in such matters. She is guided by the attitude of the Faithful.\nIf these, through successive generations, maintain a traditional\ncultus of the Servant of God and eventually demand his canonization,\nthe process is usually entered upon. The utmost caution is observed in\nthe procedure. A most careful study is made of the life of the\nindividual. The heroic nature of his virtues, the constant devotion of\nthe Faithful towards him, the miracles attributed to him must be\njudicially proven. All evidence is carefully sifted by expert\ncanonists. Every fact calculated to benefit or to prejudice the cause\nof the Saint is skilfully adduced. All human means likely to ensure\nthe truth of the Church's judgment are employed.\n\nIn the Middle Ages, even as at the present day, it was the custom to\ndemand from the Supreme Pontiff the favour of canonization. The cause\nhad to be put forward, and the Church's definitive sentence formally\nsolicited. In the case of our Saint the petition was presented by the\nMinister-General of the Franciscan Order, Fr. Francis Samson. It was\n{117} supported by the following powerful monarchs and nobles: the\nEmperor Frederick III, King Louis of France, Ferdinand King of Sicily,\nMatthias King of Hungary; the Dukes of Calabria, Venice, Milan, and\nBourbon; also the Municipalities of Florence, Siena, Lyons, Perugia\nand Balneumregis.\n\nIt is somewhat strange to observe that this petition was not presented\nearlier. It was now some one hundred and eighty years since\nBonaventure's death. But, as the Pontiff declared, the delay only\nadded to the glory of the event. It is a prerogative of the greatness\nof the Saints that it appeals so powerfully to the minds of men long\nafter their death. Herein it contrasts strikingly with worldly\ngreatness which vanishes so quickly as scarcely to survive the death\nof those who possessed it.\n\nWhen our Saint's canonization was mooted Sixtus IV. occupied the Papal\nChair. He had been a Franciscan, and this circumstance operated in\nfavour of the undertaking. To the Pontiff the enrolment of a brother\nFriar in the Calendar of the Saints was peculiarly agreeable. He\nrefers to the fact in the Bull of canonization, and he is careful at\nthe same time to guard against the impression that his judgment might\nbe influenced by undue partiality. \"We have read most diligently,\" he\nwrites, \"the divine writings of the aforesaid holy man, and from the\ntime we were capable of understanding them they have been our chief\ndelight. From the older and more trustworthy Brethren of the Order,\nwho in {118} their youth had learnt it from their elders, we have\nheard of the fame of his sanctity and miracles, and we felt that\nwhilst he triumphed in Heaven he ought to be venerated on earth.\nMoreover, we remembered that, by choice, we had embraced the same\nOrder and therein by the Divine assistance made some progress in\nlearning and in the spiritual life--that we had fulfilled the same\nministerial office and had been raised to the dignity of the\nCardinalate and finally to the summit of the Pontificate. So that we\nfeel we have been raised to those eminences in the Church Militant\nthrough which Bonaventure attained to the glory of the Church\nTriumphant. But lest we should appear to be influenced by any personal\nmotive in this process we have been careful to employ all the\ndiligence and caution which the importance of the matter demands.\"\n\nHe points out the measures taken to accomplish this. A Commission of\nCardinals was appointed to examine the life and miracles of the Saint.\nTheir report in the first instance did not satisfy the Pope. It was\nnot drawn up with sufficient solemnity and it had to be repeated. A\nfuller investigation was made, additional witnesses were examined and\nnew miracles investigated. The result this time was satisfactory, and\nthe Pontiff felt himself bound to proceed with the canonization.\n\"Lest,\" he says, \"we should appear to resist the Holy Ghost, who\nthrough the mouth of His Prophet commands us to praise God in His\nSaints, we have taken counsel {119} with our venerable Brethren the\nCardinals concerning this canonization and they have approved of it\nunanimously.\" A public Consistory was then held and the Pope enjoined\nupon the clergy and Faithful of Rome the observance of three days\nprayer and fasting--\"so that God might enlighten us as to the correct\ncourse to pursue, and preserve His Church from falling into error\".\nAfter this the opinion of the Cardinals was sought once more--it was\nentirely favourable.\n\nThus assured, the Pope proceeded to the canonization. The solemn act\ntook place in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles on 14 April, 1482. In\nthe course of the ceremony a very remarkable oration on the Saint was\ndelivered by the great ecclesiastical orator, Octavianus de Martinis.\n[Footnote 49] He insisted particularly on the miracles attributed to\nthe Saint, of which he enumerated something like twenty-one different\nspecies. In the following singularly eloquent passage he summarizes\nthe Saint's claims to canonization:--\n\n[Footnote 49: Cf. Wadding, \"Annals,\" Tom. XIV, Anno 1482. No 3.]\n\n\"If, therefore, it appear that the Blessed Bonaventure was miraculous\nin his works; if his Divine Commentaries show that he possessed the\ngift of infused knowledge; if the assiduous fulfilment of the humblest\noffices prove that he despised worldly honours, and shook off all\nearthly affections; if it appear that he was patient in trials,\nsteadfast in persecution, that he was profitable to the Order of {120}\nSt. Francis and that, like St. Paul, he was miraculously called to the\nservice of religion; if it appear that his future sanctity was\nforetold by St. Francis and affirmed by Alexander of Hales, the\nIrrefragable Doctor; if it appear that the Sons of St. Francis,\nthemselves remarkable for holiness but considering him holier still,\nmade him their chief Superior, and that the Holy See on account of his\nrenowned merits called him to the administration of the Universal\nChurch; if, finally, it appear that by the common consent of the\nFaithful he is regarded, invoked and worshipped as a Saint and that he\ndaily succours those who have recourse to him, then your Holiness\nwithout further request might decree him those public honours which\nalone he lacks. How much more readily ought you not to do this at the\nearnest prayer of so many powerful princes.\"\n\nAt the conclusion of this discourse Peter Rodulph, the\nProcurator-General of the Franciscan Order, arose, and addressing the\nSovereign Pontiff, formally besought [Footnote 50] him in the name of\nthe Most Holy Trinity to enrol Bonaventure in the Calendar of the\nSaints. The Pope's reply is embodied in the Bull already mentioned,\nfrom which we quote the following important passage:--\n\n[Footnote 50: Cf. Wadding, \"Annals,\" Tom. XIV, Anno 1482. No.4.]\n\n\"Confident that God will not allow us to fall into error in the\ncanonization of this Saint, by His Divine Authority and that of His\nHoly Apostles Peter and Paul, we decree that Bonaventure of {121}\nBalneumregis, of blessed memory, Professor of Theology, of the Order\nof Friars Minor, who was raised from the office of Minister-General to\nthat of Bishop and Cardinal, is a Saint, and is to be inscribed in the\nCatalogue of the Saints and joined and associated with them. By these\nletters present we insert him amongst the number of those who are to\nbe venerated by the Church.\"\n\nThus was Bonaventure glorified. But further honours were in store for\nhim. A hundred years later 14 March, 1582, he was declared a Doctor of\nthe Universal Church by Sixtus V. This was an authoritative\npronouncement that our Saint was to be regarded as one of the foremost\nexpounders of the Catholic Faith. He was placed on a level with\nAmbrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory. These are the words of the\nPontiff: [Footnote 51] \"After mature deliberation with our venerable\nBrothers the Cardinals, with their counsel and unanimous consent, and\nby our own certain knowledge . . . we inscribe by right the aforesaid\nSt. Bonaventure amongst the number of Holy Doctors, and we declare and\ndecree that he is to be regarded and venerated as amongst the chief\nand foremost of those who have excelled in the Sacred Science of\nTheology.\"\n\n[Footnote 51: Bull \"Triumphantis Jerusalem\".]\n\nAfter more than seven hundred years Bonaventure's greatness is\nundiminished and his glory is undimmed. His memory is fragrant in the\nChurch of God, and those \"Divine Commentaries\" {122} and other\ntreasures of Christian thought which he left behind him are still with\nus. In the depth and clearness of his dogmatic teaching, but\nespecially in the ardent outpourings of his seraphic soul in his\ndevotional works, we are brought into intimate contact with his\nmarvellous life. From these, rather than from the records of\nbiographers, we learn its true beauty and holiness. The latter offer\nus a portrait of the exterior man, but the former reveal to us the\nsecret workings of the soul. From his writings we gather what\nBonaventure really was--what he thought, what he aspired to, what he\nsought to accomplish. It is in them we may hope to discover the real\nman, and to obtain a clearer grasp of that particular development of\nthe Franciscan spirit with which he is so intimately associated.\n\n\n\nABERDEEN: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.","title":"Saint Bonaventure: The Seraphic Doctor Minister-General of the Franciscan Order","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":29310}