CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI.
University of Paris and the Mendicant Orders.
'*Quidam Scripture sacre intelligentiam se habere putantes, sed divertendes a tramite recti sensus, cogitaverunt malitiam, et contra innocuos et rectos iniquitatem maximam sunt locuti."
MEANWHILE some stormy days were in preparation for the Orders of St. Francis and St.
Dominic.
In the year 1229, the University of Paris thought that it had a grave cause of complaint against the Court of France, and it suspended its lessons, but things turned out otherwise than had been hoped for. .
The Order of St. Dominic had, among its members, some eminent men of letters, who, before their entry into religion, had been distinguished professors of theology.
The Bishop of Paris accordingly chose two from that Order to occupy two of the chairs left vacant by the resignation of the professors, and when, some years after, by the efforts
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of Pope Gregory IX., things were restored to a more peaceful state, the new masters continued to occupy their posts, to the chagrin of the old
' doctors.
After the Dominicans, the Minor Friars had also gained a footing in the University, and if we may judge by the privilege granted to Alexander Hales of choosing a successor, and the great renown attained by his Summary of Theology, nothing could have made them foresee the attacks which were hereafter to be made upon them.
The tempest which had so long been threatening the children of St. Dominic burst upon them at this time in all its force, and attacked both
Orders at once.
The opportunity was too favourable to the enemies of the regular clergy to be allowed to pass.
The seculars had only two or three of the theological professorships.
Out of twelve, six were occupied by religious, and three by the Canons of Notre Dame.
Their enemies therefore resolved to enter seriously on the combat, in order to recover the lost ground.
Then a general movement was organised against the Mendicant Orders, and the religious applied to the Pope. The Nuncio from the Holy See, on
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his way to England, stopped at Paris, in the hope of making peace, but at last his efforts having proved fruitless, he went away leaving the question in the same state in which he had found it.
The affair was carried to Rome, but before it could be settled the Pope (Innocent IV.) died.
Alexander IV. succeeded to the Pontificate ; he was the nephew of Gregory IX., who had canonised Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua.
Like his uncle, he had a great affection for the children of St. Francis and St. Dominic, and he took their cause in hand and supported it against the pretensions of the University.
One of the most bitter of the enemies of the religious Orders was William de Saint-Amour, who may be regarded as the principal author of the scandals which this quarrel caused in the Church in France.
In his theological courses and in his sermons, both in public and in private, he took every opportunity of hurling his invectives against the religious, and he gathered together all the different satires written by himself and by others against the Mendicants and published them under the title of Livre des perils des derniers temps. This book brought the scandal to its
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highest point : the world was astonished to learn that these men, who had hitherto been considered as the most perfect imitators of evangelical poverty, were instead the false prophets, against whom the Holy Scriptures had warned them.
This book of Doctor Saint-Amour attained a deplorable popularity.
It became the fashionable book among scholars, always greedy for novelty, gossip, and scandal.
But the religious who were thus attacked were not inclined to see themselves crushed, without raising their voice.
Albert the Great and St. Bonaventure were sent to Anagui, where the Pope resided, to defend their cause before him, and St. Thomas was ordered to leave Paris, where he was exposed to constant insult, to join them.
Although the Pope and the Cardinals had no need to be reassured as to the justice of the cause of the religious, it was necessary for the sake of weaker brethren that they should be ready with a reply to the accusations which were made against them.
"Our light," said St. Bonaventure, "ought to shine before all eyes, if we do not wish our works to become a snare to the blind.
It is important for us to bring into the broad
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light of day things which, if not understood, might seem dark and hurtful to the edification of our neighbour.
The works of God are of sparkling purity, and yet, for the ignorant and faithless, they are often an occasion of ruin, when they are misunderstood and explained in a rude and perverse way.
. If you desire that your torch should spread rays of light afar, remove all the obstacles which might make its radiance less pure and less bright."
St. Thomas was deputed by his Order to examine and to refute the book of Saint-Amour.
Before he began to read it, with his usual humility and modesty, he asked the prayers of his Community, and afterwards he examined it with his penetrating eye, which would allow no error to escape its vigilance.
By the next day he was able to lay before his assembled brethren his plan for its refutation.
'I have read," he said to them, "this miserable publication, which has made our enemies triumph too easily.
_It is a mystery of lies, which the Spirit of Truth will enable me to confound as positively as such a holy cause requires."
In fact the famous — Doctor crushed, with all the power of his great
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genius, the arguments of his foes; and up to the present time the book of Thomas of Aquin stands like a pillar, which resists the ravages of time.
Bonaventure, on his side, was not idle.
His fiery soul could not contemplate without bitter grief the attacks which threatened the vineyard of the Saviour.
The religious life was for him what it had been for St. Bernard, the house of interior peace, the sanctuary of virtue, the garden of the Heavenly Spouse, the sacred
Mount where God manifested with special -tenderness His designs for the children of men, and now a savage hand threatened to break down its walls.
The Church looked to him, and waited like a sorrowing mother for the consolation of her son.
He took up his pen and wrote a first book against Saint-Amour, on the subject of the Poverty of Jesus Christ.
In it he distinguishes between the forced mendicity of the ordinary poor, and of vagabonds, and that of the poor who have voluntarily embraced that state, in imitation of Jesus Christ, and in order to give themselves more entirely to the preaching of the Gospel.
He shows how per-
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fect is this last poverty, and reduces to nothing the vain arguments of his adversary.
Saint-Amour had insisted on the necessity of the valid poor, and especially of poor religious, giving themselves up to manual labour to provide their own subsistence.
The Saint follows him in this point also, and refutes him by passages from the Gospel, which declare that a contemplative life is superior to an active life.
Finally, taking each objection in turn, he reduced them to powder, but without losing his unalterable peace and calm.
But the book on the Poverty of Jesus Christ was not the only one which St. Bonaventure wrote in defence of his Order: there is another called Answers to Questions about the Rule of St. Francis, in which he states
''why the Minor Friars preach and hear confessions," and several others, among which is a short treatise written to prove that Jesus Christ and his Apostles wore only sandals on their feet.
But in spite of all the explanations which were given on the disputed questions, the contest continued with undiminished zeal; and after
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a time the Saint again took up his pen in defence of his Order, and wrote a new Apology, He despised none of the attacks made upon his community, however devoid of sense they might be, knowing well that such senseless accusations are sometimes the most productive of harm among simple and unlearned men.
Not all the members of the University had joined the enemies of the Religious Orders, but there were many who, while they preserved their old affection for those on whom those virulent attacks were being made, yet could not avoid being disturbed by the evil things that had been said. One of these men begged St. Bonaventure to enlighten him as to three special points in the Rule of the Franciscans: poverty, manual labour, and study.
The Saint replied in a work called the Defence of the Rule.
Its language is affectionate and tender.
In speaking of philosophic studies, he exclaims: "Listen to me, O my well-beloved, and on this point, as on others, you will find that we are agreed.
Vain curiosity displeases you, and I confess it displeases me too; it is displeasing to all good
79°
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religious, and to God and to the holy angels.
I do not wish to defend those who indulge in foolish reading; like you, I have a horror of them.
But I counsel you, as I warn myself, to have a zeal according to knowledge, and not to allow yourself to conceive an aversion for such mentwssct "T pray you then, dear brother, not to think too highly of your own sense, and not to think yourself more prudent or better than other men who are called by God to the same state; and when once you yourself are called to it, never to look back on what you have left behind."
A cause defended by such men as Bonaventure, Thomas of Aquin, and others, and pleaded before a Pope who fully appreciated the value of the work done in the Church by the Mendicant Orders, could not fail to triumph in they end, over the persecutions of jealous ambition, especially as the King St. Louis, whose virtues were the praise of France and of the Church, joined in the debate.
The cause was tried in Rome, and the book of Saint-Amour was seriously examined by four chosen Cardinals, renowned for learning and
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virtue, and in October, 1256, it was condemned by them as an iniquitous, perverse, execrable, and lying book.
It was ordered that all the copies of it should be burned, and that anyone should be excommunicated who should be found to possess one. _ Still the war continued, notwithstanding the condemnation; the Deputies at once submitted to the decision of the Holy See, but not so the author of the work.
As for Saint-Amour, he retired to his birthplace, whence he continued to stir up again the strife which had been temporarily calmed.
But Alexander was not to be moved from his decree by any agitations; pity seemed to him to be weakness, if applied to the bad faith of-a man who was a rebel to the Church, and at last by his wise determination he won the renown of having put an end to a dispute which had lasted for many years.
It was while all these controversies were raging that St. Thomas of Aquin and St. Bonaventure took their degree as Doctors. According to many historians, they presented themselves on the same day for examination, and a dispute
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arose between them, not of the kind which makes a sensation in the world, but such a dispute as Saints may take part in. Bonaventure, it is said, wished to give precedence to St.
Thomas, and he was obliged in his turn to yield to the wishes of his good and virtuous friend.
However this may have been, the two religious certainly proved themselves worthy of their high renown, and of the confidence which their brethren placed in them.