CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV.
Theological Teaching—Theological Books— St. Thomas of Aquin.
'* Sapientiam sine fictione didici, et sine invidia communico, et honestatem illius non abscondo,''— WISsD., vii.
Tue Order of St. Francis had been worthily represented at the University of Paris by Alexander Hales and Jean de la Rochelle, but a still greater glory was reserved for it.
The young religious, whose virtues spread among his brethren and disciples the sweet fragrance of Jesus Christ, had become a master entrusted with teaching them.
His lessons at first were restricted to the interior of his Community, where he had to train the new members in sacred knowledge, but soon he had to instruct a larger audience.
The hopes which had been formed of him during his time of study would not allow his superiors to hold him long back from ministering to the needs of the
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multitude of students who were eager for instruction, and he soon received the order to appear in public.
At this time, the Magister Sententiarum was the text-book of the Professors of the University ; and it was their boast to make their commentaries as learned as possible.
This book, which was about a century old, was an excellent abridgment of theology.
Peter Lombard, its author, had sought out the arguments of the Fathers on all religious questions, and he had interpreted them with sense and order, St. Bonaventure's book on the work of Peter
Lombard is a sublime work on theology.
In the first, second, and fourth part, St. Bonaventure can compete with the cleverest commentators of this writer; but in the third, which treats of the Incarnation, and of the wonders of our
Redemption, he has far surpassed all others.
Love had revealed to him in the Heart of the Saviour, secrets which were hidden from the rest of mankind.
Like St. John, he reposed on the Bosom of Jesus, and there learned ineffable things which love caused him to reveal to his brethren in Christ.
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In all the. course of his learned explanations, it is impossible not to admire the theologian who exposes, discusses, and prizes the inalienable rights of truth, the hero whose work is to drive back error to its retrenchment, and the mystic who is anxious not only to enlighten his hearers, to guard them against lying snares, but also to fill their souls with devotion, with confidence, and with love.
What can be more tender and more affectionate than the following words?
"The new law has added to the ancient one, but all that is added to a thing does not always increase its weight ; certain things, on the contrary, make it more buoyant and free, as wings to a bird, wheels to a chariot, and sails to a ship.
So is it with all that the Gospel has added to the old law.
These additions serve only to increase charity, and charity is the wing which raises us above the earth, the wheel of the chariot which bears us onward to good works, and the sail which wafts us in safety over the deep waters of temptation and tribulation.
"Tt is impossible to doubt that the great soul of Mary and her courageous nature consented to the death of Jesus, and that the mother's will
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was, in all things, similar to that of the Father's.
Therefore our praises are due to her for having acquiesced in the sacrifice of her Son for the salvation of mankind.
But at the same time she was penetrated by so vast compassion for the Saviour, that she would gladly have taken to herself all the torments He had to bear, if only she could have done so.
She was, at the same time, strong, yet full of tenderness, gentle, yet severe, economical, yet full of generosity. That is why she deserves our love and our veneration and next after the Supreme Trinity and Jesus
_Christ our Lord, the divine mysteries of Whose Being no mortal tongue is worthy to relate."
Besides this great effort of his genius, St.
Bonaventure composed several important treatises on theology.
Among these there is an Lixplanation of Theological Terms, and one on Zhe Resurrection from Sin to Grace, and another that is called Zhe Mirror of the Soul.
All these, and several other works, were written during the time that the Saint was engaged on his Commentary.
He wrote them while he was General of his Order, when the spiritual needs of his brothers seemed to require them.
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The Brevilogus is one of the greatest of these.
It comprises in a small compass a complete course of theology, it explains certain rules for studying and explaining the Scriptures.
It also treats of the Mysteries of the Holy Trinity, and of the Divine Attributes of the Creator, of the corruption caused by sin, of the Incarnation of the Word, of grace and of the Sacraments, and of our last end.
In his admirable conclusion, the soul of St. Bonaventure and that of St. Anselm seem to have mingled in the same enthusiastic fervour, and to have invited the reader to share their joy.
*"O my soul, awake with all the power of thine intelligence, and think, with all thy most profound attention, how delicious is that Goodness, in Whom is contained the sweetness of all good.
Tf created life is beautiful, what must not be the Creating Essence Itself?
If power is to us a source of joy, what must not that Power be by which all things were made?
If the knowledge of created beings is pleasant to us, how much more delectable must not be the knowledge of uncreated Beings?
Why, then, should our thoughts wander away to other things?
, .
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If beauty attracts thee, consider how the just shall shine like the sun.
If strength and freedom have a charm for thee, are they not enjoyed by the angels of God in Heaven?
If a long and flourishing life is thy desire, in Heaven is the perfection of unchanging health.
If thou wouldst be satiated, the blessed ones in Heaven will be satisfied with glory and intoxicated with the lavish abundance of the house of God.
Dost thou love the sound of sweet melody P—thou shalt hear the songs of angels.
Dost thou desire the charms of friendship and society >— ~ there thou shalt enjoy the company of the elect, who are moved by one will and filled with the same desires.
Lastly, if thou dost aspire to riches and honour, know that they abound in the house of the Lord.
If thou dost seek certain happiness, thou shalt possess it for all eternity.
O human heart, poor heart, heart that - is a prey to grief, or rather crushed by it, what a happiness it would be for thee to possess such blessings as these!
Ask of the inner depths of thy being, and see if they will contain the joy of thy beatitude.
And if thou canst not contain thine own happiness, how wilt thou be able to
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receive that of all the elect?
There everyone loves his neighbour as himself, and rejoices in his happiness as much as in his own.
And not only so, but each one there has a joy in the felicity of God, which is incomparably beyond the joy of his own beautitude, and that of all the elect.
As there, each one loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his spirit, his whole heart, soul, and spirit will be unable to contain the fulness of such joy, for the joy will equal the love, and the love will be immense as the horizon which is embraced by the eye.
* Assuredly the eye of man has never seen, his ear has never heard, or his heart conceived,
O my God, how well the Saints shall know and love Thee!
I ask of Thee, then, O Lord, that I may know and love Thee, so as to enjoy Thee for all eternity.
And if, in this life, I cannot attain to the fulness of the knowledge and love of Thee, may these two things be ever growing in me, so that I may be happy here below in hope, and in Heaven may enjoy the reality of bliss.
O Lord, our Father, Thou dost advise us and command us to ask, and thou dost promise to grant the petition, 'that our joy may
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be full' (St. John xvi.).
I beseech Thee, therefore, to grant me that which Thy admirable counsel has taught me to ask, and that which Thou hast also promised to give, a joy that shall be perfect and entire.
I beseech Thee to make my heart to meditate on this eternal bliss, that my tongue may speak of it without ceasing, that my soul may hunger for it, that my flesh may be changed by it, until it is given to me to enter into the joy of my God."
The limits of this volume do not allow us to describe all the other treatises written by the Saint.
The JZirror of the Soul holds a distinguished place among them ; it puts before us a triple aspect of concupiscence, with all the cortége of vices which accompany it, so that every man may see whether his own soul is infected by any of these vices.
In the preface the author describes the tree of sin.
Cupidity is the root of it, the consent of the will is the trunk, and the bad affections of the soul are the branches.
He then describes the vices in detail, and concludes by gathering up all that has gone before, in order to make it more easily remembered.
In all his works the Saint showed himself to
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be familiar with the secrets of theology.
These writings did not take up much of his time, for his mind was as full of sacred knowledge as his heart was of divine love, and he wrote on piety or on theology, according to the different circumstances or needs which presented themselves.
The request of a simple brother was enough to determine him to take up his pen, for his charity would not easily allow him to refuse.
He simply had to invoke his memory, and soon the work was finished.
Sometimes his motive for writing was to provide temporal relief for his brethren, as he could never see them in distress and privation without being touched; therefore, when other means failed, he would write a book, which they sold immediately to procure food, while the fact of so great a writer being reduced to poverty for the sake of Jesus roused compassion and brought relief.
The book was sure to sell, alms were offered, and the Saint enjoyed the consolation of having calmed some distress, and of having, perhaps, revived some courage, which had been sinking under the weight of misery.
While St. Bonaventure was thus, by his teach-
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4t ing, gaining the applause and captivating the intelligence of all Paris, the Order of St.
Dominic was represented by a religious equally brilliant and renowned.
Thomas of Aquin, who was younger than Bonaventure, was his equal, if he did not even surpass him, in the powers of his mind.
He had had to pass through grievous and painful struggles in order to attain to the life of a Preaching Friar, but he had been victorious.
From his infancy he had been seized with a longing for wisdom, and it was a passion with him to know and to love it.
-In wisdom he -saw the pure effusion of the _ brightness of the Almighty, the spotless mirror of the Majesty of God, and the perfect image of His Goodness.
For it he had despised terrestrial wealth and honour, the pleasures of the world, sufferings and persecutions, and in wisdom he found all that he desired.
Such was Thomas of Aquin.
His youth would have prevented his holding a professor's chair at the University, but the laws, bending before his genius, dispensed him from their rule, and soon he had proved by the fame of his teaching how well the privilege was deserved.
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As soon as St. Thomas came to know the humble and learned child of St. Francis, he loved him.
He appreciated better than anyone all that there was of sublime in his genius, of virtue in his soul, of tenderness and charity in his heart.
He attached himself to St. Bonaventure, as to the friend whom the Holy Scriptures declare to be a "treasure"; and he made him the confidant of his most intimate thoughts.
Bonaventure, on his side, soon discovered what the Church had to hope for in Thomas of Aquin ; he saw in this young religious a treasure of love for truth, which the admiration of the world could not touch; he felt him to be worthy of his confidence, and he gave it him without reserve.
No one more sincerely admired Thomas than Bonaventure, and no one more highly esteemed the genius of Bonaventure than Thomas of Aquin; and he, who was the prodigy of his century, declared that he knew nothing compared to the extent of knowledge of his friend.
One day he asked our Saint from what books he had learned so many admirable things, and in reply Bonaventure showed him his crucifix:
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there was the abundant source from which he drew all his lessons, the book of his predilection which he loved to search, and on which he delighted to meditate ; the Master Whose light left no uncertainty in his mind.
The University of Paris had never shone with so bright a lustre, never had she appeared so glorious, as in these days when she could count among her children St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas of Aquin. Their lives were a constant exhortation to contempt of the world and its honours, to love of solitude and of contempla- - tion, to the continual exercise of self-sacrifice and the renunciation of self-will.
They were like the two olive trees and the two candlesticks in the house of the Lord of which the Holy Scriptures speak; they enlightened the whole Church by their abundant charity and by the splendour of their learning.
God, by a special providence, had caused them both to appear at the same time, like two stars arising from the two most famous religious Orders of that century ; He withdrew them both, also, from the world in one year, so that, after having been so closely united during their lives, they were not separated by death.