Coll. 8
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/12/d/8/q/bon-don-c8
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### COLLATION VIII.
#### *On the gift of understanding.*

### Summarium

*Introduction; it is profitable for all to hear the word of God,* 1. — *Exposition of the text, in which is intimated the disposition on the part of him who receives this gift, and the liberal outpouring on the part of the giver. First, by way of preface, the threefold disposition on the part of the receiver is treated,* 2. — *The first is holiness of life,* 3. — *The second, the tractableness of meekness,* 4. — *The third, the taking captive of the intelligence,* 5. — *On the liberality on the part of the giver. From the first intelligence comes all the radiance of intelligence; three are noted in particular, of which the two former are expounded,* 6. — Part I. On the understanding which is the rule of moral circumspections. *A man must be directed according to the divine rules if he is to receive this gift,* 7. — *The understanding teaches three things: first, what is to be avoided,* 8. — *Secondly, what is to be carried through,* 9. — *Thirdly, what is to be looked for,* 10. — *These things are confirmed by Scripture,* 11. — Part II. On the understanding which is the door of scientific considerations. *This has a threefold root,* 12. — *First, it is partly from the dictate of nature,* 13. — *Secondly, partly from frequency of experience,* 14. — *Thirdly, partly from the illumination of the eternal light; the threefold certitude; this illumination is helped by the Angels; God is the cause of being in the soul as its principle, the order of living as an infused gift, the reason of understanding as the sun of intelligence,* 15. — *Against these three there are three errors, namely on the eternity of the world, on fatal necessity and on the unity of the understanding,* 16-19. — *How the three understandings differ,* 20.

1. *I will bless the Lord, who hath given me understanding*. — *A wise man shall hear and shall be wiser, and he that understandeth shall possess governments.* In the second saying Solomon shows that it is profitable to hear the word of God;

and the reason is that in the hearing of the word of God both he who understands and likewise he who does not understand make progress: therefore both the wise and the simple ought to go to hear the word of God. That the wise make progress by hearing the word of God is plain, because he says that *a wise man hearing wisdom shall be wiser.* Likewise, that the simple make progress by hearing the word of God is plain, because it is said in the Psalm: *The declaration of thy words giveth light, and giveth understanding to little ones.* He is here called a *little one* who is called little on account of the middling measure of his knowledge, just as he is said to have a small soul who knows few things, and likewise he is said to be of great understanding who knows many things. He is also called a *little one* who bears himself humbly, even though he knows many things and is very intelligent. Whence it is said in the Gospel: *Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones,* that is, to the humble. — For nothing so darkens the understanding in the things that are God's as presumption. We all praise humility and blame presumption; yet few are free from presumption. Richard of Saint Victor says that "in disputing against pride a man frequently grows proud." Behold how the strong deceiver deceives many. No one can enlighten the hearts of men except him who knows the consciences of men. At the outset let us pray to God, etc.

2. *I will bless the Lord,* etc. This brief saying is that of David himself, expounding to us by the Holy Spirit that very *gift of understanding* given to us by the Holy Spirit; and he expounds it to us in respect of *the humble gratitude of the receiver* and in respect of *the liberal outpouring of the giver.* The receiver's humble gratitude is noted when he says: *I will bless the Lord;* the giver's liberal outpouring is noted when he adds: *Who hath given me understanding.* This gift requires that a man be thankful to God, and it brings it about that a man acknowledges himself and the gift and the source of the gift; and by understanding the source of the gift a man acknowledges himself, and so gives thanks. And then he blesses God and pours back the beauty of the gift upon the author of the gift himself, and praises him and does not fight against the giver. — Now we dispose ourselves to receive this gift by three things: first, by *holiness of life;* secondly, by *the tractableness of meekness;* and thirdly, by *the taking captive of the intelligence,* that we may bless the author of this gift.

3. First, I say, we dispose ourselves to receive this gift of understanding by *holiness of life;* whence Isaiah: *Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? Them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts.* — *Milk* signifies the sweetness of carnal delights, on which sweetness the carnal and infants feed, that is, those who follow infantile motions. And so long as a man is joined to these carnal consolations he is said to be a suckling and is not fit to receive the solid food of life and of understanding. If we wish to bless God and to receive this gift, we must be drawn away from these consolations and set ourselves apart from the milk of concupiscences. Of Daniel and his companions, who were continent, it is said that *God gave them knowledge and skill in every book and wisdom.* Delight in respect of touch fights hardest against this gift — drunkenness on the side in front, and lust on the side behind.

4. Secondly, a man is disposed to receive this gift by *the tractableness of meekness.* Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *Be meek to hear the word, that thou mayst understand.* Concupiscence beclouds the understanding, and fury impedes the intelligence, because "anger hinders the mind, that it cannot discern the truth." — The Philosopher says that "by being at rest the soul becomes prudent and knowing." When water is still, a man sees his own face well in it; but when it is troubled, he can see nothing in it. So too, when a man is in anger, he does not see the truth. The contentious impede intelligence both in themselves and in others. The angry man also stubbornly defends what is false. Hence the Lawgiver was most meek. Isaiah says: *Vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear.* A tractable man learns and becomes gentle.

5. Thirdly, a man is disposed worthily to receive the gift of understanding by *the taking captive of the intelligence.* Whence Isaiah, according to the translation of the Septuagint, says: *Unless you believe, you shall not understand.* And Augustine says: "Unless a man take his understanding captive and follow by faith the things he hears, he is not disposed for the gift of understanding." And the Apostle says: *Bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ.* He who wishes to search out sacred Scripture according to the light of his own intelligence thinks up the falsest errors. In this life we are little ones, and "the learner must believe";

for God must be believed, and most of all in things sublime, which transcend our intelligence. The first Angel erred because he presumed upon himself. — The *concupiscible* power, when disordered, impedes this gift; likewise the *irascible,* when it is disordered; but when the *rational* is disordered, it impedes this gift most of all. We must therefore take our understanding captive if we wish to receive this gift. He is raging mad who despises everything; he is not disposed to receive this gift, nor is the presumptuous man. We must therefore take our understanding captive, because he who believes he knows more frequently knows less. — By these three a man is disposed worthily to receive the gift of understanding. So now the first is plain, namely *the humble gratitude of the receiver.*

6. There follows *the liberality on the part of the giver,* which is touched on when he says: *Who hath given me understanding.* May God grant me something to say and give me understanding to say something fitting about this gift of understanding. — All the radiance of intelligence comes from that fountain of intelligence. And although the radiance of intelligence is manifold, I wish nevertheless for the present to speak of three, namely that the understanding is the *rule of moral circumspections,* the *door of scientific considerations,* and the *key of heavenly contemplations;* and this last is the gift.

7. First I shall begin from that which is the *rule of moral circumspections.* For you must be well-mannered if you wish to have this gift of understanding. The Psalm: *I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go; I will fix my eyes upon thee. Do not become like the horse and the mule, who have no understanding.* The Lord promises us this understanding and shows us how we ought to receive it. — *I will fix,* he says, *my eyes upon thee.* The divine good pleasure accepts what we do, approving it in the present and rewarding it in the future. If you wish to be ruled according to this rule, take heed that you be not bestial but regular: be not directed according to the impulse of sense, but according to the judgment of reason; not according to bestial phantasms, but according to intellectual judgments. Otherwise there will happen to you what happened to Adam, who, despising the rule of truth, followed the prompting of the woman, and the woman followed the prompting of the serpent. The Psalm: *Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them.* Man became brutish and subject to the passions.

8. This understanding is *prudential,* by which a man is instructed according to the dictate of the divine law to know *what is to be avoided,* namely every *evil; what is to be carried through,* namely every *good;* and *what is to be looked for,* namely the *highest good.* — First, I say, prudential understanding teaches *what is to be avoided,* namely every evil. Whence the Wise Man says: *If thou shalt call for wisdom and incline thy heart to prudence, and shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.* He who wishes to have this understanding must seek it with desire of heart and diligence of work; and what will you find then? Assuredly, the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. That every man who wishes to be directed toward the good must fear God, so as to shun every evil, the Psalm says: *Holy,* he says, *and terrible is his name; the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding to all that do it.* Behold: *the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is prudence,* says the wise man. — Therefore prudential understanding teaches first what is to be avoided, namely every evil.

9. Secondly it teaches *what is to be carried through,* namely every good, according to the way of interior thought and exterior operation. It is written in Josue: *Decline not from the law;* there follows: *that thou mayst understand all things which thou doest. The wisdom of a discreet man is to understand his way, and the imprudence of fools erreth.* It is written: *If thou have understanding, answer thy neighbour; but if not, let thy hand be upon thy mouth.* And in the book of Wisdom: *The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding.* For God wills that we do all things reasonably. And blessed Ambrose says that we ought neither to do nor to say anything of which we cannot give a reason. — This is the second part of moral understanding. Solomon says: *For every business there is a time and opportunity.*

10. Thirdly, prudential understanding instructs *what is to be looked for,* namely the highest good. Whence in Proverbs: *The expectation of him that asketh is a most acceptable jewel; whithersoever he turneth himself, he understandeth prudently.* In all the things that direct our intelligence in what is to be done and in what is to be shunned, a man ought to use the counsel of the end. For a man must look for something in what he does. If you aim at temporal advantage, you look for a cheap wage. A pleasing, indeed a most pleasing jewel, is the eternal good. Whence in Baruch: *Learn where is prudence, where is strength, where is understanding, that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes and peace.* — He says: *that thou mayst know where is length of days and life, the light of the eyes and peace.* And where is it? Assuredly, *length of days is in her right hand*; and the Psalm says: *With thee*

*is the fountain of life,* etc. If you have the light of the eyes, you will act prudently.

11. This prudential understanding is threefold, and he who has not this understanding cannot be set right. Whence it is written: *They are a nation without counsel and without prudence; O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.* He touches the three parts of intelligence, namely *memory of things past, intelligence of things present,* and *circumspection of things to come.* — This understanding is the rule of moral circumspections, with desire of heart and carrying through of work, so that a man may consider what is to be shunned, what is to be done, and what is to be looked for. For God gives this understanding, and it is God's gift. Whence the Psalm: *I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go.*

12. There is another understanding, which is the *door of scientific considerations,* of which it is said in Ecclesiasticus: *In the treasures of wisdom is understanding,* etc.; which is to say that the hidden treasures of knowledge consist either in the cognition of the highest causes, or of conclusions, or of principles. And one must dig by the study of truth, that a man may come to this treasure. — This understanding, which is the door of scientific considerations, is partly *from the dictate of nature,* that is, from an interior light; partly *from frequency of experience,* as from an exterior light; and partly *from the illumination of the eternal light,* as from a light above.

13. That it is partly from the *dictate of nature* is plain in Ecclesiasticus, where it is said: *God created man of the earth,* that is, as to the body, *and made him after his own image,* that is, as to the soul. There follows: *He created of him a helper like to himself; counsel and a tongue and eyes and ears and a heart he gave them to devise, and he filled them with the discipline of understanding.* He gives us to understand that the human soul has three operations, according as it has its power and its operation. "Every noble soul has three operations," by which it turns itself upon its own body, upon itself, and to divine things. Sometimes it turns itself upon the body: it has a tongue for speaking, ears for hearing, etc.; sometimes it turns itself upon itself; sometimes to *understanding* and knowing God. — And this is according to the threefold consideration of the soul; for the soul is considered as *the form and perfection of the body,* as *this something* and as *image.* — But that this understanding is partly from the dictate of nature is plain in Adam, since he imposed names on all things. But that God filled him with the *discipline of understanding* was his privilege; whence it is not in us. Our soul, however, has stamped upon it a certain light of nature, by which it is fit to know first principles; but that alone does not suffice, because, according to the Philosopher, "we know principles inasmuch as we know terms." For when I know what a whole is and what a part is, at once I know that "every whole is greater than its part."

14. Secondly I say that it is partly from *frequency of experience;* in Ecclesiasticus: *A man that hath much experience shall know many things.* The Philosopher: "Out of many *sensations* one *memory* is made; out of many *memories* one *experience;* out of many *experiences* one universal, which is the principle of *art* and *science.*"

15. And however good a *natural power of judgment* a man may have, and with it *frequency of experience,* they do not suffice unless there be *illumination by a divine influence.* Whence it is said in Daniel: *He giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that have understanding. He revealeth deep and hidden things, and knoweth what is in darkness; and light is with him.* He touches the *sapiential, scientific* and *intellectual* certitude. But whence is this certitude? Assuredly from God. He touches sapiential certitude when he says: *He revealeth deep things.* The Apostle: *He hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.* This light is pure and *is with him;* whence in John: *He was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.* No one is enlightened with certitude save through him. And Augustine, in the fourteenth book *On the Trinity*, asks whence it comes that the impious man sometimes judges well; whence he asks: "Where are written those laws of justice according to which the impious man judges well?" And he answers that "they are written in the book of the eternal light, and they descend into the soul not by migrating but by imprinting, as the image of a ring which is impressed on wax

does not leave the ring," etc. — Now this illumination is helped by the Angels; in Daniel it is said: *Now it came to pass, when I Daniel saw the vision and sought the meaning; behold, there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man,* etc.; *and he cried out and said: Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.* These visions came down from the Father of lights, and the Angel helps Daniel's understanding, so that it may take in the light of God and understand through it. The Gloss says that the understanding has by nature the power of understanding, according to which man is distinguished from the beast; but God alone enlightens perfectly. It is true that a man is instructed ministerially and by way of help through an Angel, as appeared in Daniel; but effectively God alone has power over the rational soul itself, because it is formed immediately by God. For he himself enlightens every man. Whence the Angel enlightens in the way that he who opens a window is said to light up the house. "For he alone has his chair in heaven who teaches man on earth." — Whence what the philosophers say is not true, that one Intelligence creates another, because *to create* belongs to the omnipotent God, not to any created power; whence it belongs to that light which is pure act to do this. Paul said in the Acts of the Apostles,: *In him we live and move and are;* and Augustine says that the Apostle is not speaking there of corporeal life, but of intellectual life. Whence he speaks there of God according as he is to all "the cause of being, the reason of understanding, and the order of living." He is the *cause of being* by producing immediately all perpetual things, and mediately temporal things, yet immediately through elemental powers. And he is the *reason of understanding* because through him intelligences are made certain above the mutability of nature. If all creatures should fight against it, God is nevertheless to be loved; nor can God bring it about that he should not be lovable. Though all things be corrupted, the certitude of truth remains. God is also the *order of living;* unless the gift of the Holy Spirit dwells in a man, he will not be governed according to the rule of right living. — According as God is the *cause of being,* he enters into the soul as its principle; according as he is the *order of living,* he enters into the soul as an infused gift; according as he is the *reason of understanding,* he enters into the soul as the sun of intelligence. This is the sun that enlightens all; from which some go astray, according to what the impious say in the book of Wisdom: *Therefore we have erred from the way of truth and of justice; the light hath not shined upon us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us,* etc.

16. There are three errors to be guarded against in the sciences, which exterminate sacred Scripture and the Christian faith and all wisdom; of which one is against the *cause of being,* another against the *reason of understanding,* and the third against the *order of living*. The error against the cause of being is that concerning the eternity of the world, as to posit the world eternal. The error against the reason of understanding is that concerning fatal necessity, as to posit that all things come about of necessity. The third is that concerning the unity of the human understanding, as to posit that there is one understanding in all. — These errors are signified in the Apocalypse in the number of the name of the beast. It is said there that *he had a name whose number is six hundred sixty-six,* which is a cyclic number. The first ground themselves upon the circle of motion and time; the second, upon the motion of the stars; the third, upon one Intelligence, saying that it enters into and goes out of the body. — All this is false. The first error is refuted by that which is written in the Old Testament: *In the beginning God created heaven and earth*. Accord-

ing to the second error nothing pertains to free will, and the cross of Christ avails nothing. According to the third there is no difference in merit and reward, if the soul of Christ and of Judas the traitor is one. The whole is heretical.

17. The first error, I say, destroys the *cause of being*: because you hold God to be the cause of all things either according to a *part* or according to the *whole.* If according to a *part:* then you take away from God his primacy in causing. If according to the *whole:* then God is the cause of whatever else there is: therefore he produces it not out of himself, not out of anything else, since there is nothing: therefore out of nothing. — Again, it follows on this error that a thing had *being* and *non-being* at once, and that *being* came before *non-being;* and many other absurdities. Whence it is certain that God created all things. And therefore that good woman said to her son in the book of Machabees that he should look upon all things, *because God made them out of nothing.*

18. The second error is that concerning fatal necessity, as about the constellations: that if a man be born under such a constellation, of necessity he will be a thief, or bad, or good. This empties out free will and merit and reward: for if a man does of necessity what he does, what is the worth of the freedom of choice? What will he merit? — It follows also that God is the origin of all evils. It is true that some disposition is left from the stars; but nevertheless God alone rules over the rational soul. Jeremiah says: *They shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach.* An everlasting reproach will they have who so err.

19. The third error is the worst, and it comprehends both. Certain madmen understood ill about the understanding. Whence some said that it was *fire;* some, that it was *water;* these were refuted by the philosophers. — That this understanding should be one in all is against the root of distinction and individuation, because in different men the understanding has a distinct *being:* therefore it has the principles of its essence proper and distinct and individuating. — As for what others say, that one Intelligence irradiates upon all: this is impossible, because no creature can do this. Whence this belongs to God alone.

20. "Every intellectual substance is knowing and returns upon itself with a complete return." Whence every intellectual substance understands itself and loves itself and judges. Whence it has the character of a mirror and of a light shining upon it. And this indeed is true in God, and both in the Angel and in man; but differently: for in God the *mirror* and the *light* are the same in *reality,* but differ in *reason.* In the Angel, however, they differ in *reason* and in *nature*, but not in *time,* because it cannot understand more than it does understand, since "an intelligence is full of forms." But in man they differ both in *reason* and in *nature* and in *time,* because a man does not understand at once when he is able to understand. So then the human understanding has the character of *apprehending* and of *judging,* the *possible* and the *agent* intellect; nor can this understanding be sufficiently enlightened without the help of a higher and loftier light, because the Wise Man says: *The corruptible body is a load upon the soul,* etc.; and the Philosopher says: "As the eye of the bat is to the light of the sun, so is our understanding to the things most manifest in nature."

Of the third understanding, namely that which is the *key of heavenly contemplations,* it would be long to speak. We shall pray the Lord, etc.

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