The Life and Writings of Bonaventure
Introduction The Life and Writings of Bonaventure The medieval town of Bagnoregio lies far from the well-traveled tourist paths of central Italy. The occasional visitor finds the remnants of the town perched precariously on the summit of a hill carved away by a centuries-old earthquake. It was here in 1217 that Giovanni, later called Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, was born to Giovanni of Fidanza, most probably a physician by profession, and his wife, Maria di Ritello.
Few historical records remain which would serve to document the early years of Bonaventure's life in Bagnoregio. One incident that stands out is related in the conclusion of The Minor Life of Saint Francis where he recounts to his fellow friars the reasons he agreed to write a biography of the saint. As a young boy, Bonaventure was near death until his mother made a vow to Saint Francis and prayed for his intercession. Once healed of his sickness, Bonaventure's life would be linked to that of the Poor Man of Assisi:
Because of him innumerable benefits from God do not cease to abound in different parts of the world, as even I myself who wrote the above have experienced in my own life. When I was just a child and very seriously ill, my mother made a vow on my behalf to the blessed Father Francis. I was snatched from the very jaws of death and restored to the vigor of a healthy life. Since I hold this vividly in my memory, I now publicly proclaim it as true, lest keeping silent about such a benefit I woulu be
Introduction accused of being ungrateful. Accept, therefore, blessed Father, my thanks however meager and unequal to your merits and benefits. As you accept our desires, also excuse our faults in virtue of our prayer, so that you may both rescue those faithfully devoted to you fr]om present evils and lead them to everlasting blessings.
The University Years The outlines of Bonaventure's life come into clearer relief around the year 1235 when he arrives in Paris to study for a master's degree in arts at the University of Paris. In Bonaventure's day Paris, not Rome, was the intellectual center of Christendom. Students from all over Europe streamed into the city on the Seine where they studied with the great masters of the University such as Alexander of Hales. Beginning with the arts, that is, logic, mathematics, physics, metaphysics and ethics, students prepared themselves for later study in the areas of canon law, medicine, or theology.
Although he may have studied earlier at the school of the friars in Bagnoregio, Bonaventure was not yet a member of the Franciscan Order while he studied the arts. The school of the friars in Paris focused exclusively on theology.2 When
Bonaventure finished his master's degree around 1243, he entered the Paris novitiate of the Franciscans. The beginning of the novitiate coincided with Bonaventure's first year of theological studies. Alexander of Hales, who himself had entered the Franciscan Order in 1236, became the prime mentor for the young theologian. Under the guidance of Alexander and another great Franciscan master, John of La Rochelle,
Bonaventure took up the study of the sacred scripture. This first phase of theological studies lasted five years and culmi1. Minor Life, lesson 8 (VIII, 579a) found inDoctoris Seraphici S. Bonaventurae Opera Omnia. ed. PP. Collegii a S. Bonaventura. 10 vols. (Quarracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae,
1882·1902). All translations from the Latin are taken from the critical editions of Bonaventure's writings.
2. Francesco Covino, Bonaventura da Bagnoregio: frallcescano e pensatore (Bari: Dedaldo Libri,
1980) 112.
Introduction nated in his selection as a bachelor of Sacred Scripture. Two years of mandatory lecturing on selected biblical texts followed in which Bonaventure began to formulate his rich commentaries on Ecclesiastes, the Gospel of John, and the Gospel of Luke. During his initial biblical studies, both Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle passed away. Other Franciscan masters such as Odo Rigaldi and William of Middleton accompanied Bonaventure as he continued his studies and moved toward becoming a bachelor of sentences.
The presence of Alexander of Hales could be sensed, no doubt, in 1250 when Bonaventure began his exposition on The Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. This work was a compilation of Latin and Greek sources which served as a textbook for theologians. It was Alexander of Hales himself who introduced, to the objection of friars such as Roger Bacon in Oxford, Peter Lombard's collection of texts into the curriculum of the Parisian friars. In the course of two years
Bonaventure produced the beginnings of his own Commentary on the Sentences, which in four volumes reveal the broad foundations of his keen theological insights and the initial trajectory of its future development.
The year 1252 brought the official recognition of Bonaventure as a mature theologian capable of participating in the theological disputations of the master theologians of the University. In 1254 he received the license to teach theology and was named master of the Franciscan school in Paris. As master, he now directed a series of disputations among his students on a wide variety of theological themes. A number of important works such as The Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ, The Disputed Questions on the Trinity, and The Disputed
Questions on Evangelical Peifection originated during this period of intense academic activity.
While each one of the preceding works reveals the penetrating characteristics of Bonaventure's theological acumen, it is the third, The Disputed Questions on Evangelical Peifection, that best illuminates the harsh political climate in which he taught.
Similar to other masters, Bonaventure found himself em-
Introduction
broiled in the ongoing controversy between the secular masters at the University of Paris and the new mendicant communities. The arrival of the Franciscans and Dominicans on the Parisian scene had infused the university environment with new enthusiasm but had also severely shaken the preexisting academic status quo. Although the university chancellor had conferred upon Bonaventure the license to teach theology in 1254, his secular colleagues refused to recognize him as the master of the Franciscan school. One of the secular masters,
William of Saint-Amour, bitterly contested the basic principle of the mendicant orders when he wrote that the poverty practiced by the Franciscans and Dominicans was against the teaching and example of Christ. Bonaventure responded to this and other attacks with The Disputed Questions on Poverty.
So widespread was the tension between the opposing groups that papal intervention was deemed necessary. In the autumn of 1256, Alexander IV urged the Paris masters to incorporate
Bonaventure together with the Dominican, Thomas Aquinas, into the ranks of the university community. This wish was realized in August of 1257 when the two mendicant doctors were installed as masters by their associates. Bonaventure marked the occasion with a salient sermon, aptly entitled,
Christ, the One Teacher of All.
Minister General of the Franciscan Order Bonaventure's regency as master at the University of Paris came to an abrupt halt several months before his formal recognition when he was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order in February, 1257. Leaving his position at the university,
Bonaventure once again found himself in the middle of a political, as well as spiritual, controversy. His election took place in the midst of a tremendous, albeit contested, transformation of his community. Although Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi, was still the prevailing archetype for fraternal life, the relentless pastoral demands of the Church and a steady influx of learned clerics had altered the face of the Franciscan Order permanently.
Gathered often in urban areas in large dwellings, the majority of
Introduction friars now followed a stable lifestyle, which fostered learning and preaching. Many friars who still remembered the early years of the nascent community wished to remain poor, itinerant preachers and hermits. They had placed their hopes in John of Parma, whose ministry as general ended under a cloud of suspicion with the election of Bonaventure.
What provoked suspicion of John of Parma was the accusation, raised by some ecclesial authorities, of his willingness to promote certain tenets ofJoachite thought. Joachim of Fiore, an abbot from Calabria in southern Italy, had spoken a century earlier of a coming age of the Spirit, which would supersede the age of the Son and lead to the elimination of the institutional Church. His millennial vision provided a fitting framework of interpretation for some friars, who conceived of Francis of Assisi and his primitive community as the harbingers of the new age. One friar, Gerardo of Borgo San Donnino, promulgated this view in 1254. He was condemned roundly by William of Saint-Amour and the other Parisian masters, who accused the Franciscan and Dominican Orders of distorting the evangelical life. In the ensuing controversy, John of Parma, whose writings contained hints of Joachite influence, resigned as Minister General. When asked who would best take up the mantle ofleadership in the future, he suggested the Parisian professor, Brother Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.
While professor, Bonaventure had hinted already at his vision of the genesis and future direction of the Franciscan Order in a brief autobiographical aside found in The Letter to an Unknown Master. He described how his vocation as a friar was tied to his love of Saint Francis' evangelical lifestyle and the dynamic evolution of the fraternity:
Do not be disturbed that the friars were simple and illiterate men in the beginning; this should confirm your faith in the Order even more. I confess before God that it is this that made me love the life of blessed Francis above all, because it is similar in its beginning and perfection to that of the Church, which began with simple fishermen and grew to include the most illustrious amI
introduction learned doctors. And so you will see in the Order of blessed Francis, as God displays, that it was not invented by human discretion but Christ.
While the origin of the Order was revealed in the divine inspiration of Francis and other simple men like him, there was no doubl in onaventure's mind that tJ1e future belonged to tl1 ducated friars as welL Certainly ev ry friar, simple or learned, could lay clairn to a place \"Ilthin we frat rni'ly. Ther wouleL be no re'U1rn, however, La what some . n idered to b the pristine past of Francis and his early companions.
The rapid expansion of the Franciscan Order and the indiscriminate acceptance of novitiate candidates led to numerous scandals, which Bonaventure, like his predece or John )f
Parma, strove to curtail. In his First En0'ciiC6rl Letter, wri tten on his assumption of office in 1257, he outlined and condemned a number of abuses which had crept into the fraternity and urged the friars to return to the basic principles of Franciscan life. His Second En0'clicaZ Letter, written in even harsher tones after ten years of ministry to the friars, went so far as to call for the incarceration and expulsion of those who publicly tarnished the image of the Order.
1 .
Although Bonaventure did not hesitate to threaten the lax with juridical sanctions, h pre~ rred to motivat th m and thcir faithful brothers by appealing to the image of Saint Francis.
During his years as Minister Gen raI, B nav nture Ulrll d repeatedly to til · Poor Man of Assisi a th arch type for frat mal imitation and int graLi n. Two ears after hi lection, 13 · naYentme ~\ . C nded th rugg d lopes of Mount Alvema in ntralltaly tear h, as Francis had done b faTe him, for a taste ofdivin presence. It was here tl1a' Francis receiv d the stigmata, thew unds f hristinth h ights of cstay.B nay :ltm I'
ognized in thi experience, as he r ounts in The Jourlley 0/ the ouf into God, a foml of ont mplati e prayer Olher lik himself c uld practice. !-lis efforts to en 'ourage th imi' a 'on of francis are also clearly visibl in various e.nnon and the hagiographi al
3. Dis/lltud QllcstiolJS, n. 13 (VIII , 336a-b).
Introduction account of the saint, which he authored at the request of the friar gathered in Narbonne in 1260. The Major Life rifSaintFr(fIlcis, tog til r with th liLurgical version, 771£' MilloI' L!te of Saillt Fmncis, offers an Ul.la e. f he aint as a living examplt> ro all th friar', regllrdl5s ftJleir 'r umstaJ1C ,ofwhatitnplOsto liv in 11formity with Christ.
The task of guiding these friars fell to Bonaventure at a moment when the Order counted some thirty thousand members scattered throughout Europe. In their missionary zeal, the friars had even reached distant points in Asia and Africa. In the ensuingyears Bonav·nlt.t.r took to the roads to meet them. His itinrary mlL'~t have b en as exll:lusting as it was exhaustive. On numel' us 0 asions he jsi d haly and France. Spain, Germany and perhaps England also welcomed him. The geography of these travels is evidenced in the chronology of the many sermons he preached to the friars, clergy, and laity of the towns where the friars had founded communities. In addition to his pr aching, Bonav ntur al 0 found lh tim and opportunity to compose various spiritual treatise f r 'l wid alldi nee.
/'I till!
PeTjection qfLife to Sisters, addressed ar und L 260 to (sal ella, the found I' of a Poor lare community and sister of IGng Loui. of France, succinctly outlined the foundations of religious life as Bonaventure understood them. The Triple Way, The Tree of Life, and The Five Feasts of the Child Jesus also date to this period of time when Bonaventure was crisscrossing Europe.
The magnitude of Bonavent.ur 's jounlcys come into I erpe dve whenwe' tnk - into consideration the r ality of medieval b'av 1. Allhough tl1 mbination 0 and nt Roman road~ , more mod r:n public r ads. and feny S 1 lie soffer d him a ready 'ombination of tTavel option it still would have taken him ro 19h1y two months to journey from Pari. this h min Bagnoregio:' Jn1111ersed as Bonav-n ure was in th pastoral r pon ibilities of hi ' offi e, h n 'verth I r turned to tile University of Paris when cir urnstall es such as a r - 4. Jacques Bougerol. Introduzione /ienerale aile opere di sall bonaventura (Roma: Citta Nuova
Editrice, 1990) 20·22.
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newed attack on the mendicants or the controversial use of Aristotelian thought warranted his presence. Two works, The Defense of the Mendicants and The Collations on the Six Days, dating from around 1269 and 1273 respectively, reflect his thoughtful response to these challenges.
The last challenge Bonaventure faced was the organization uf the Second Cuuncil of Lyons. Named a cardinal by Pupe
Gregory X in 1273, he was called upon to assist him in the conciliar preparations. Among other accomplishments,
Bonaventure proved to be instrumental in laying the groundwork for reconciliation, albeit brief, between Rome and the Greek Churches. He died during the council, on July 15, 1274.
A papal chronicler captured the atmosphere of the moment and the enduring legacy of Bonaventure:
Brother Bonaventure of glorious memory, cardinal bishop of Albano, died at the end of the fourth session of the Council of Lyon ... at one in the morning during the night between July 14 and 15. He was a man of knowledge and distinguished eloquence, illustrious in holiness, life, conduct and customs. Loved by God and people, he was good, affable, pious, merciful, and full of virtue. He was buried that Sunday in the church of the Friars Minor of Lyons. The Lord Pope was present at the rites together with all the cardinals, almost all the prelates of the Council, and the entire curia. The Dominican friar, Pietro di Tarantasia, formerly the archbishop of Lyons and now the cardinal bishop of Ostia, celebrated the mass and preached on the theme from the Second
Book of ICings: I cry for you, my brother Jonathan [1:26].
There were many tears and anguished sighs. God had given him, in fact, such a singular grace that whoever met him was moved by a heartfelt love for him.
Despite the obvious affection of many, both inside and outside the fraternity, Bonaventure remained a controversial fig5. The Latin text is found in Jacques Bougerol, Introdllziollc genera Ie aile opere di SIII1 b011a1iClltllra, 14, note 20.