Saint Bonaventure
Doctor of the
CHRIST, THE ONE MASTER OF ALL
1. One is your
Master, the Christ, Matthew, chapter 23.1
In this verse it is declared, that there is a fontal principle of
cognitive illumination, namely the Christ, who since He is the splendor of the
Fathers glory and the figure of His Substance, bearing all things by the word
of His virtue, just as is said to the Hebrews, chapter 1;2 is Himself, the One who is the Origin of
every wisdom, according to that (verse) of Ecclesiasticus, chapter 1:3 The Fount of wisdom, the Word of God on high. For He is the Way, the Truth and the Life,
John, chapter 14.4 For indeed threefold is the step of certain
[certitudinalis] and right cognition, according to that which Hugo (of St.
Victor) says in De Sacramentis:5 « There
are three steps for the promotion of the Faith, by which growing faith tends
and/or climbs thoroughly to perfection [ad perfectum . . . conscendit]: the first, (is) to choose through piety; the
second, to approve through reason; the third, to apprehend through truth
». According to this (verse) it appears,
that threefold is the manner of cognizing, of which the first is through the
credulity of pious assenting, the second through the approbation of right
reason,6 but
the third through the clarity of clean contemplation. The first looks to the habit of the virtue,
which is faith; the second to the habit of the gift, which is
understanding; the third to the habit of the beatitude, which is
cleanliness of heart.
2. For indeed Christ
according to which He is the Way is the Master and Principle of the cognition,
which is through the Faith. For this
cognition is had in a twofold way, namely through revelation and through
authority. For just as (
3. Moreover He comes
into the mind as a light revealing all the visions of the prophets, according
to that (verse) of Daniel, chapter 2:4
He reveals things profound and hidden away and knows the things
constituted in the shadows, and the Light is with Him; the light, namely, of the Divine Wisdom,
which is Christ, according to that (verse) of John, chapter 8:5 I am the Light
of the world; he who follows Me walks not in the shadows, and chapter 12: While you have the Light, believe in the
Light, so that you may be sons of the Light; because, as is said in John,
chapter 1, He gave them power to become sons of God, those who believe in His
Name. Without this Light, which is
Christ, no one can penetrate the Sacraments of the Faith. On account of which Wisdom, chapter 9 says:6 Send Her speaking of Wisdom from Thy holy
Heaven and from the throne of Thy Majesty, so that She may be with me and work
with me, that I may know, what has been accepted before Thee. For what man can know the counsel of God, or
who can ponder, what God may want etc., up to Thy sense, etc.. From which one is given to understand, that
one cannot come to a certain revelation of the Faith except through the advent
of Christ in the mind.
4. He comes also into
the flesh as the word approving all the sayings of the prophets; Hebrews, chapter
1:7 In a manifold manner and in many
ways etc.. For because Christ Himself is
the speech [sermo] of the Father full of power, according to that (verse) of
Ecclesiastes, chapter 8:8 His speech is
full of power, and no one can say to Him:
why hast Thou done thus? He is also9 the speech full of truth, nay the
Truth Itself, according to that (verse) of John, chapter
5. And for that reason the whole authentic Scripture and its
preachers have their power of sight trained on Christ coming into the flesh as
the foundation of the whole Christian Faith, according to that (verse) of the
First (Letter) to the Corinthians, chapter 3:12 According to the grace, which has been
given to me, as a wise architect I have laid the foundation. For another foundation no one can lay, except
that which has been laid etc.. For He is the foundation of
the whole authentic doctrine, whether apostolic or prophetic, according to each
Law, the new and the old. On
account of which (it is said) to the Ephesians, chapter
6. He is also the
Master of the cognition, which is through reason, and this, inasmuch as He is
the Truth.14 For
there is necessarily required for the cognition of knowledge [cognitionem scientialem]
immutable truth on the part of the knowable, and infallible certitude on the
part of the knower. For every
(something), which is known, is in itself necessary and to the very knower
certain.
7. Therefore, on the part of the knowable immutable truth is
required. Moreover, (a truth) of this
kind is not a created truth, simply and absolutely (speaking); but rather a
creating truth, which has a full immutability.
On account of which there is said in the Psalm:2 And Thou in the beginning, Lord, has founded the
Earth, up to here: shall not fail. But this, as the Apostle says to the Hebrews,
chapter 1,3 is
said regarding the Son of God, who is the Word, the Art and the Reason of the
Omnipotent God, and for that reason the Sempiternal Truth, according to that
(verse) of the Psalm:4 In eternity,
Lord, shall Thy Word remain, and unto the Age of age Thy Truth. Since, therefore, things have being [esse]
in their own genus, they also have being in the Eternal Reason; nor is their
being entirely immutable in the first and second manner, but only in the
third, that is, insofar as they are in the eternal Word: it remains, that nothing can make things
perfectly knowable, unless Christ, the Son of God and Master, be there.
8. Whence (St.)
Augustine (says) in the second chapter of De Libero Arbitrio:5 « In no manner will you have denied, that
there is an incommutable Truth, containing all these things, which are
incommutably true, which I cannot say is yours and/or mine and/or of any man,
but is ready at hand to all discerning incommutable truths and offers itself
commonly (to all) ». This very (passage)
is had in the fourteenth chapter of De Trinitate.6 When the impious see the rules,
according to which anyone ought to live; « where do they see them? For neither in their own nature, though
without doubt these are seen in the mind and let one grant [constet] that
their minds are mutable
however it sees that these rules are immutable, and anyone among
them could see this; nor in the habit of their mind, since those rules belong
to justice, but their minds, it is granted [constat], are unjust. Where then are those rules written, whereby
even the unjust acknowledges and7 discerns, that what be just has to be that
which he himself does not have? Where,
therefore, have they been written except in the book of that light, which is
called the Truth, whence every just law is described, and (whence) justice, not
by migrating into the heart of a man, but as if by being impressed is
transferred »? This very (discourse) is
said in the book De Vera Religione8 and in the sixth book of De Musica and
in the book Rectrationum.
9. There is also
required, second, for cognition of this kind, certitude on the part of the
knower. But this (certitude) cannot be
on the part of that, which can fail, and/or from that light, which can be
obscured. Moreover, the light9 of such
(a cognition) is not the light of the created intelligence, but of the
uncreated Wisdom, which is Christ. On
account of which (there is said) in Wisdom, chapter
10. Therefore the
light of the created intellect is not self-sufficient for a certain
comprehension of whatever thing without
the light of the Eternal Word. Whence (St.) Augustine (says) in the first
book of his Soliloquiorum:1 « As in this
it is licit to advert only to a certain three: what is, what shines, what
illumines, so also in that most secrete God there are a certain three: what is, what understands, what causes all
others to be understood ». Whence he
even a little before this prefaces (this), (saying) that « just as the Earth
could not be seen except it be brightened by light, so those things which are
handed down in the (academic) disciplines, though everyone without doubt concedes2
that they are understood to be most true, it must be believed, that they could
not be understood, unless they were brightened by Him as if by their sun
». Likewise, in the twelfth book of De
Trinitate, the last chapter,3 speaking of the boy, who was correctly
answering (questions) concerning geometry without a master, and reproving the
Platonic position, which says, that souls imbued with bodies are infused
beforehand with knowledge [scientiis], says that this is not true. « But rather
it must be believed, he says, that the nature of the intellectual mind has been
thus established, that having been subjected to intelligible things in the
natural order, by the disposition of the Founder, sees these in a certain,
corporeal, sui generis light, in the same manner as [sic . . . quemadmodum] (a
man) sees, with the eyes of his flesh, those things which in this corporeal
light lie before him [contraiacent], of which light, as one capable, he has
been created fit for it. ».4 what, moreover, be that light, is spoken of
[dicitur] in the second book of De Libero Arbitrio:5 « That beauty
[pulchritudo] of truth and wisdom, which neither is driven along by time, nor
migrates from place to place [locis], nor is cut off by the night, nor closed
in by shadow nor lies beneath the senses of the body; having converted to
Herself from the whole world, those who love Her, is near to all, sempiternal
to all, is in no place, is lacking in nothing, admonishes without, teaches
within; no one judges of Her, no one
judges well without Her. And through
this, it is manifest, that She is without doubt more
powerful than our minds, each of which by Her [ab ipsa una] become wise and
judge not of Her, but through Her concerning all other things ». This very (passage) is said in the book De
Vera Religione6 and
in the eighth book of De Trinitate and in the book De Magistro, where (St.
Augustine) proves throughout the whole book this conclusion: that One is our Master, the Christ.
11. Lastly, Christ, inasmuch (as He is) the Life, is the
Master of contemplative cognition,7 about which the soul exerts herself in a
twofoldmanner, according to the twofold difference of pasture, namely of the
one interior in His Deity, and of the one exterior in His Humanity, according
to which there is a twofold manner of contemplating, that is the ingressive and
the egressive, to which one cannot arrive except through Christ. On account of which He Himself says in John,
chapter 10:8 I am the gate; if anyone
will enter through Me, he shall be saved, and he shall step in and step out
find pasture.
12. For indeed there
is an ingress to Christ according to which (He is) the
uncreated Word and the food of Angels, of which (there is said) in John,
chapter 1: In the beginning was the
Word. Of this ingress there is said in
the Psalm9 according to the other translation: I shall step into the place of
the admirable tabernacle even unto the house of god, in a voice of exsultation
and confession, of the sound of a priest offering a sacrificial feast [sonus
epulantis]. This is said of that
supernal Jerusalem, to contemplate which no one steps in, except through the
uncreated Word, which is Christ, he be introduced. Whence Dionysius (says) in the first book of
De Angelica Hierarchia:10 « Therefore
invoking Jesus, the Light of the Father, which is indeed the True (Light),
which illumines every man comming into this world, through which to the
principle Light, the Father, we have access, we look back, as much as is
possible, into the illuminations of the most sacred utterances [eloquiorum],
handed down from the Father, and we will consider, as much as we are able, the
hierarchies, of celestial souls, manifested symbolically and anagogically to us
by these (illuminations), (as we) look back to the principle and superprinciple
Divine Clarity of the Father with the immaterial and untrembling eyes of our
mind ».
13. Moreover, there
is an egress to the incarnate Word, which is the milk of children, of which
(there is said) in John, chapter
was ...had been... formed from His
side, just as Eve (was) from the side of her man. And for that reason through it the whole ecclesiastical
hierarchy was purged, illuminated and perfected; and for that reason it is to be looked upon
as the vivifying pasture of the whole Church, according to that (verse) of
John, chapter 6:1 My Flesh is truly
food, and My Blood is truly drink. And
on that account He says further on:2 Who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has
eternal life.
14. And this is what
is said in the book De Anima et spiritus:3 « Twofold is the life of the soul: one, that by which it lives in the flesh; and
the other, that by which it lives in God.
Two indeed are the senses in man:
one interior, and one exterior; and each has its own good, in which it
is refected: the interior sense in
contemplation of the Deity, the exterior sense in the contemplation of the
Humanity. For on this account God has
become man, to beatify the whole man in Himself, so that he might step in or
step out, find pasture in his Maker, pasture without in the Flesh of the Savior
and pasture within in the Divinity of the Creator ». Moreover this ingress to the Divinity
and egress to the Humanity is nothing other than the ascent to Heaven and the
descent to Earth, which is done through Christ as through a ladder [scalam], of
which Genesis, chapter 28 (says):4 Jacob
say in his dream a latter standing upon the earth, and its top touching Heaven,
and also the Angels ascending and descending by it. By ladder there is understood Christ, by the
ascent and descent of the Angels the illumination of contemplative men, ascending
and descending. Here too a twofold manner of contemplation is
understood through interior and exterior
reading of the book written inside and out, of which Apocalypse, chapter 5
(speaks):5 I saw at the right hand of
the One seated on the throne a book written inside and out, sealed with seven
seals; and there is said further on there, that no one could neither in Heaven
nor on earth nor beneath the earth open the book nor even look upon it
[respicere]; and there is said further on there, that the Lion of the tribe of
Judah has conquered, He who is worthy to open the book and loose its seven
seals. If therefore He is properly to be
called the Teacher [doctor], He who opens the book and loosens its seals;
(then) such even is the Christ, who was the Lion rising and the slain
Lamb; therefore it appears, that One is
our Master, the Christ, in every difference of cognition, according to which He
is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
15. From the aforesaid, therefore, there appears, the order
by which and the author by whom one arrives at Wisdom. For the order is, to begin from the
stability of the Faith and procedes through the serentity of reason, to arrive at
the savoriness of contemplation; which Christ hinted at, when He said: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And in this manner is fulfilled that (verse)
of Proverbs, chapter 4:6
The path of the just as a splendid light goes forth and grows
even unto the perfect day. To this order
did the Saints hold, attentive (as they were) to that (verse) of Isaiah,7 according to the
other translation: Unless you will have
believed, you will not understand. This
order the philosophers ignore, who neglecting the Faith and totally founding
themselves on reason, could in no manner arrive at contemplation; because, as
(St.) Augustine says in the first book of De Trinitate,8 « the sickly keeness [invalida acies] of the
human mind is not fixed in such an excellent light, unless it be cleansed
through the justice of the Faith ».
16. It is also clear,
who be the Author and the Teacher:
because Christ, who is the Director and Helper of our intelligence not
only generally, as in all works of nature, nor so specially, as in the works of
grace and meritorious virtue, but in a certain middle manner between both. For an understanding of which it must
be noted, that in creatures there is found a threefold manner of conformity to
God. For certain (creatures) are
conformed to God as a vestige, certain ones as an image, certain
ones as a similitude. Moreover vestige
means a comparison to God as to a causative principle; image on the other hand
not only as to a principle, but even as to a motive object ;
« For for this reason the soul is an image of God », as (St.) Augustine says in
the fourteenth (book) of De Trinitate,9
« that it is capable of Him and can be a participant (in Him) », that
is, through cognition and love [amorem].
Moreover, a similitude looks back to God not only according to the
measure [per modum] of a principle and object, but also according to the
measure of infused gift.
17. Therefore, in
these activities [operationibus] of the creature, which belong to it, inasmuch
as it is a vestige, as are natural actions [actiones] universally, God
cooperates as Principle and Cause. But
in those, which belong to it, inasmuch as it is an image, as are the
intellectual actions, by which the soul perceives immutable Truth itself, He
cooperates as Object and motive Reason.
However, in those, which belong to it, inasmuch as it is a similitude,
as are the meritorious activities, . . .
He cooperates as a Gift infused through grace. And on this account (
18. Moreover that He
be called the reason of understanding, must be sanely understood, not that He
be the sole, nor the bare, nor the whole reason of
understanding. For if He were the sole reason,
cognition of a science would not differ from cognition of Wisdom, nor cognition
in the Word from cognition in it proper genus.
Again, if He were the bare and
open reason, cognition of the way would not differ from cognition of the
fatherland, which indeed is false, since that is face to face, but this through
a mirror and in mystery; 2 because our
act of understanding [intelligere] according to the state of the way is not
without the phantasm. Lastly, if He were the whole reason, we would
not need the species and (its) reception (in the senses) to cognize things;
which manifestly we see to be false, because, admitting one sense, we have to
necessarily admit that (there is) one science.3
Whence though according to (St.) Augustine the soul has been conjoined
[connexa] to the eternal laws, because in some manner it attains to that light
according to the supreme keenness of the agent intellect and the superior
portion of reason; nevertheless it is indubitably true, according to what the
Philosopher says,4 that cognition is
generated in us by way of the sense, memory and experience, from which within
us there is gathered the universal, which is the principle of art and
science. Whence because Plato5 turned
the whole of certain cognition [totam cognitionem certitudinalem] toward the
intelligible or ideal world, he was for that reason deservedly reprehended by
Aristotle; not because he said badly, that there are ideas and eternal reasons,
since in this (St.) Augustine praises him:6
but because, having despised the sensible world, he wanted to reduce the
whole certitude of cognition to those ideas; and by posing (the argument) in
this manner, though it would seem that he stabilized the way of wisdom, which
proceeds according to eternal reasons, he nevertheless destroyed the way of
science, which proceeds according to created reasons; which way Aristotle on
the contrary stabilized, having neglected that superior one. And for that reason it seems, that among
philosophers the sermon of wisdom is given to Plato, but to Aristotle the
sermon of science. For the former looked
principally to superior things, but the latter principally to inferior ones.
19. Moreover each
speech, that is, of wisdom and of science, was given through the Holy Spirit to
(
20. Therefore He as
the principle Master is principally to be honored, to be heard, to be
questioned. For indeed He is principally to be
honored, as there is attributed to him the dignity of the Magisterium, Matthew,
chapter
21. He is also
principally to be heard through the humility of the Faith, according to that
(verse) of Isaiah, chapter 50:14 The Lord gave me a learned tongue,
that I may know how to support him who is wearied by the word: He raised in the morning, in the morning He
raised my ear, that I may hear Him as my Master. Twice it says He raised,
because it is not sufficient, that our ear be raised to understand (Him),
unless it also be raised to obey (Him).
On account of which there is said in Matthew, chapter
22. He is also principally
to be questioned through the desire of learning, not as the curious and the
incredulous did, who interrogated Him by tempting Him, Matthew, chapter
12:2 Certain of the Scribes answered
Him, saying: Master, we want to sign a
sign from you. Signs indeed they had
seen and were seeing, and nevertheless they still were seeking a sign, so that
there be shown through this, that human curiosity has no end and does not merit
to be lead to the truth.3
Whence they were given the reply, that a sign will not be given
them except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Not in this manner is Jesus to
be questioned, but rather studiously, just as Nicodemus questioned Him, of
which in John, chapter 3,4 there is said, that he came to Jesus at night and
said to Him: Rabbi, we know, that Thou,
Master, hast come from God etc.; and there is added further on there, that
Jesus opened the mysteries of the Faith to him, for the reason that he was not
seeking signs of virtue, but the text-books of the Truth [documenta veritatis].
23. Moreover, this
Master is to be questioned concerning those things which pertain [spectant] to
science, to discipline and goodness, according to that (verse) of the Psalm:5 Goodness and
discipline and science teach me. For
indeed science consists in knowledge of the true, discipline in caution against
the bad, goodness in choosing the good. The first respects the truth, the
second respects holiness, the third respects charity.
Therefore He is to be questioned concerning those things which pertain
to the truth of science, not by striving to tempt Him [studio tentandi], as the
disciples of the Pharisees used to tempt Him, Matthew, chapter 22:6 Master, we know, that you are truthful
etc.. And because they were questioning
with an evil intention, for that reason they were given the response: Why tempest thou Me,
hypocrites? However, because the
question (was) a good one, for that reason He gave a true response: Render, therefore, the things which are
Caesars to Caesar; and the things which are Gods, to God. Second, He is to be questioned
concerning those things which pertain to holiness of discipline, just as that
adolescent questioned Him in Mark, chapter 10:7
Good Master, what shall I do, to posses eternal life? And he was given the response, that he should
observe the commandments, and if he wanted to be perfect, (that) he should
observe the counsels, in which consist the perfect disciple
of morals, in cautioning against those thing which incite us to sin. He is to be questioned also concerning
those things which pertain to the charity of benevolence, after the example of
the doctor of the Law, in Matthew, chapter 22:8
Master, what is t at commandment in the Law? He said to him: Love the Lord thy God with thy heart, and
with thy mind etc.., where He shows, that the fullness of the Law is love
[dilection].
24. Therefore there
are three things, which are to be asked from Christ as from a master, and to
which the whole Law of Christ has been ordained, and for that reason every
doctrine of a servant-teacher [ministerialis doctoris] ought to be to be
ordained to these three, so that under that Most High Magisterium the office of
master might be worthily put into execution [exsecutione mandare]. For indeed a servant-master ought to
direct his attention [intendere] to the science of the truth of the Faith,
according to that (verse) of the First (Letter) to Timothy, chapter
25. He ought to also direct his attention to the
discipline of the holiness of the spirit [animi], according to that (verse)
of the Second (Letter) to Timothy, chapter 1:12 I, Paul, have been set as a preacher and
apostle in the Gospel, for which cause I also suffer these things, because,
according to what is said in Proverbs, chapter 19,13 the
doctrine of a man is known through his patience. For just as it is
not decent that the foolish teach wisdom, so it is not decent that the impatient teach patience, nor the undisciplined teach
discipline.
