Coll. 9
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/9/q/bon-don-c9
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### COLLATION IX.
#### *On the gift of wisdom.*

### Summarium

*Introduction,* 1. — *Explanation of the text; the twofold wisdom, with its subdivision,* 2, 3. — *False wisdom is to be emptied out, true wisdom to be desired,* 4. — Part I. Wisdom descending from above builds the house of God by its threefold effect. *The light descends to the three powers of the soul: first, to the intellective, to illuminate it,* 5. — *Secondly, to the affective, to gladden it,* 6. — *Thirdly, to the operative, to strengthen it,* 7. — *Thus it builds up the Church and the soul, that it may be the house of God; in which are required the seven pillars intimated by James,* 8. — Part II. On the seven pillars of the house of God; *these are enumerated,* 9. — *The first pillar is chastity in the flesh,* 10. — *The second, innocence in the mind,* 11. — *The third, modesty in speech,* 12. — *The fourth, readiness to be persuaded, in the affection,* 13. — *The fifth, generosity in effect; this is required especially in prelates,* 14, 15. — *The sixth, maturity in judgment; two things are required for it,* 16. — *The seventh, simplicity of intention,* 17.

1. *If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth*. — *Son, if thou desire wisdom, keep justice, and God will give her to thee.* The last words are in Ecclesiasticus, and in them Ecclesiasticus shows how a man may obtain the gift of wisdom. It is true that this gift is from God; but if you would have it, you must *desire* wisdom, for wisdom does not enter into a soul except one that is borne toward her with great affection, nor is she denied to a soul that desires her; whence in the book of Wisdom: *I wished, and understanding was given me; and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me.* Together with the desire of wisdom *justice* must be kept, because wisdom does not agree with iniquity; whence he says: *keep justice.* Among other things this is the highest justice, that a man be not *ungrateful* to God, but pour back the gifts conferred upon him into the giver. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *To him that giveth me wisdom will I give glory;* because if you glory in wisdom, by that very fact you lose wisdom. Jeremiah: *Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength.* And the reason for this is given in Ezekiel, where it is said: *Thou, full of wisdom and of beauty, wast in the delights of the paradise of God; thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty.* — This is the highest justice, that we give God the glory and ask wisdom of him. Whence in the Canonical Epistle of James: *If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God,* etc., *nothing wavering in faith.* And because I who am about to speak of wisdom want wisdom, and you my hearers likewise, therefore at the beginning let us pray the Lord, etc.

2. *If you be risen with Christ,* etc. That word is suited to the present season and to our purpose; it is written in the Epistle which is read in the Mass, and it is the word of the Apostle to the Colossians, in which the holy Apostle exhorts us to *obtain* true wisdom and to *flee* vain wisdom. He touches the first when he says: *If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above,* etc. He touches the second when he says: *not the things that are upon the earth;* in which he gives us to understand that as there is a twofold gaze of the soul, so there is a twofold affection of it. One gaze of it is toward heavenly and invisible things, the other toward earthly and corruptible things; and so too there is a twofold affection of the soul: one is of eternal things, the other of temporal. So too there is a *wisdom which is from above,* and another *which is from below.* He exhorts us to the first, and dissuades us from that one which is upon the earth. — The one which is from below blessed James describes, saying: *Glory not, and be not liars against the truth. For this is not wisdom descending from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish.* That wisdom seeks with its whole solicitude to take delight in every pleasantness, in the abundance of worldly riches, and in the experience of sensual delights, and in the eminence or the ambition of worldly pomps. Insofar as it makes a man solicitous to take delight in every pleasantness in the abundance *of riches,* it is *earthly;* insofar as it makes a man solicitous to take delight in the *experience of sensual delights,* it is *sensual;* but insofar as it makes a man solicitous to take delight in the eminence and ambition of worldly *pomps,* it is *devilish;* because *pride is the root of all evils,* and it is condemned principally in the devilish king.

3. Of this threefold wisdom the Apostle says to the Corinthians: *It is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject.* That is the wisdom of which Jeremiah says: *They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.* To scatter this wisdom Christ died, having been made poor, afflicted and lowly, that he might teach us to beware of it. The Apostle to the Corinthians: *Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?* as if he should say, when on the cross he chose what is contrary to worldly wisdom. The Apostle: *It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men.* You prize the abundance of riches, and Christ chose poverty; you prize the experience of sensual delights, and Christ chose the bitterness of the passion; you prize the ambition of worldly pomps, and Christ willed to be despised and confounded. And the wisdom of God prevailed; therefore he says: *The foolishness of God is wiser*

*than men.* Solomon in Proverbs says: *I am the most foolish of men, and the wisdom of men is not with me. I have not learned wisdom, and have not known the wisdom of saints.* Christ was foolish in outward appearance when he withdrew from the appetite of fools; more foolish, when he willed to be afflicted; most foolish indeed, when he chose the death of the cross and died a most shameful death. — This is the *wisdom of saints.* The Apostle: *For our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience,* that *not in carnal wisdom, but in the wisdom of God, we have conversed in this world.* The Apostle: *If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.* And to the Philippians he says: *Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly,* on account of *sensual* wisdom; *and whose glory is in their shame,* on account of *devilish* wisdom; *who mind earthly things,* namely on account of *earthly* wisdom.

4. Therefore do *not* mind *the things that are upon the earth,* because Christ was crucified in order to empty out that wisdom; and as Christ died in order to empty out and destroy *vain* wisdom, so he rose and ascended in order to teach *true* wisdom and to establish it in our hearts. On the cross he taught us to despise the wisdom of the world, and going into heaven he taught us to desire the wisdom of God and to love the fountain of life. The whole wisdom of the world is to despise these things. But the greatest folly is to empty out the death of Christ; which they do who mind *the things that are upon the earth.* Therefore that wisdom must be emptied out, and the wisdom which is *from above* must be desired.

5. But what is the wisdom which is *from above?* The Wise Man says in Ecclesiastes: *I saw that wisdom excelled folly as much as light differeth from darkness.* Therefore he gives us to understand that wisdom is light — light, I say, *descending from above from the Father of lights,* from whom is *every best gift and every perfect gift.* This light descends to our *cognitive* power *to illuminate* it, to our *affective* power *to gladden* it, and to our *operative* power *to strengthen* it. It descends from the most high God into the intellect, from the intellect into the affection, and down to the lowest, namely operation. — That it is a light descending to our *intellective* power *to illuminate* it is plain, because it is written in the book of Wisdom that *she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness. And being but one, she can do all things; and remaining in herself the same, she reneweth all things, and through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls, and maketh the friends of God and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the stars; being compared with the light, she is found before it.* Rightly is wisdom called the *seat of God;* and the soul so described, which is more beautiful than heaven, indeed than the whole universe, is the seat of God.

6. Secondly, wisdom descends from above as a light to our *affective* power *to gladden* it. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *Wine and music rejoice the heart, and above them both is the love of wisdom.* — *Wine and music rejoice the heart,* namely from without and according to *impressed species,* which are not *truth* itself, but a certain *likeness* of the thing, and they do not fill the soul, and they gladden not truly but fantastically. But where there is union according to *truth,* there is joy, where truth glides into the soul and fills it and gladdens it. Of this wisdom the Wise Man says: *Her have I loved, and have preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and have counted riches nothing in comparison of her; above health and beauty have I loved her. Now all good things came to me together with her, and innumerable honour through her hands; and I rejoiced in all these, for this wisdom went before me.* The Philosopher says that wisdom has the greatest delights. If it is a great thing to be *illuminated* by wisdom, it is more to be *gladdened,* inasmuch as one loves one's own principle.

7. Thirdly, wisdom descends from above as a light to our *operative* power *to strengthen* it. Whence in Ecclesiastes: *Wisdom hath strengthened the wise man more than ten princes of the city.* Note that no power below the heavens, neither earthly nor human, nor heavenly or angelic, so strengthens the soul as does supercelestial wisdom. Whence in the book of Wisdom: *Wisdom entered into the soul of the servant of God, and stood against kings. She gave him a strong conflict, that he might overcome and know that wisdom is mightier than all.*

8. And thus this wisdom builds up the Church and the soul, that it may be a dwelling-place of God and the *house of God* — a house, I say, that is *pleasant,* a *beautiful* house and a *strong* house. It is said in Matthew: *Every one that heareth these my words and doth them shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a firm rock.* This house is principally built by wisdom; whence in Proverbs: *Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn out seven pillars.* It is certain that wisdom is delighted to be with men; whence she says: *My delights are to be with the children of men.* But that

wisdom does not dwell with us is not a defect on her part but on ours. If we wish the aforesaid light to dwell in us, we must have the *seven pillars.* — But what are the seven pillars of this house? Shall I fashion them out of my own head? God forbid; sacred Scripture explains them sufficiently. Where then shall we find them? Blessed James, describing the wisdom which is from above, sets down seven conditions of it, saying: *First indeed she is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.* If I could explain these things to you, I should not think I was losing my words; rather I should be giving you a great way to wisdom.

9. These pillars are nothing but certain steps to wisdom. Gather the seven pillars. The first is *chastity* in the flesh; the second is *innocence* in the mind; the third is *moderation* in speech; the fourth is *readiness to be persuaded,* in the affection; and the fifth is *generosity* in effect; the sixth is *maturity* in judgment, and the seventh is *simplicity* of intention. By these the house of wisdom is made stable.

10. The first pillar of the house of wisdom, I say, is *chastity* in the flesh; whence she says: *First indeed she is chaste.* Why is this the first? Because this is the one with which one must begin; for it is written in the book of Wisdom: *Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.* An unchaste body is *subject to sins;* therefore wisdom cannot dwell in it. It is said in the book of Wisdom: *And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it.* — Gregory Nazianzen was a most pure youth. It happened that he was studying at Athens. One night, while he was sleeping, there came to him a most beautiful lady, having two handmaids like virgins; he began to drive her away. And the lady said: «Do not flee me, for I have not come to corrupt you. I am wisdom, and my two handmaids are *humility* and *chastity,* that is, purity. If you want me, who am wisdom, keep these handmaids, namely humility and chastity, because *where pride is, there also shall be reproach; but where humility is, there also is wisdom*». True virginity is that with which wisdom is joined. Humility together with chastity is the chief pillar of wisdom. Solomon says: *Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness riotous; whosoever is delighted therewith shall not be wise;* and elsewhere: *Wine and women make wise men fall off, and shall rebuke the prudent.* You have a manageable example in that Solomon who fell away on account of women even to the worship of idolatry, and who nevertheless *was filled with wisdom as a river.* If there were a tavern in which wine were sold that brought on forgetfulness of all wisdom, I believe that no one would be so foolish as to buy that wine. I believe that the eternal God, by the most high dispensation of his counsel, permitted Solomon to fall in order to teach all men to flee women.

11. The second pillar of the house of wisdom is *innocence* in the mind; which is noted when she says: *then peaceable.* Augustine says that «peace is the tranquillity of order» — namely, when someone humbly subjects himself to a *superior,* bears himself with even mind toward an *equal,* and rules discreetly over an *inferior.* All who are sons of wisdom have this order. It is said in Ecclesiasticus: *The sons of wisdom are the church of the just.* Whence then comes war? If you loved your equal, obeyed your superior, and ruled your inferior in an orderly way, you would have peace. He who disturbs that peace destroys the house of wisdom. It is written in Proverbs: *He that is patient is governed with much wisdom; but he that is impatient exalteth his folly,* and so perverts the house of wisdom. Blessed James: *Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew, by a good conversation, his work in the meekness of wisdom.*

12. The third pillar of the house of wisdom is *moderation* in speech; and this is noted when she says: *modest.* Above all things moderation is required in *speech;* whence in Ecclesiasticus: *A wise man will hold his peace till*

*a time; but a light and imprudent man will regard no time. For every business there is a time and an opportunity.* Is it not the highest folly that a man with one and the same sword should run through both himself and his neighbour? An evil word is a killer of the hearer and of the speaker. You cannot detract from your neighbour without killing yourself with the same sword. If I speak a word of scandal, I cannot injure you without also injuring myself. So great is the nearness of silence to wisdom that *a fool, if he hold his peace, shall be counted wise*; and a wise man who talks much is counted a fool. With one word I can utter a detraction; on this account one must *make a balance for one's words.* Whence immoderation of speech is above all to be guarded against. — For speech is the instrument that expresses wisdom, and therefore it ought to be moved according to the rule of wisdom. Whence it is written: *The words of the mouth of a wise man are grace;* and the Apostle: *Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth.* It is astonishing that when men sit at table to refresh themselves spiritually, one devil speaks of temporal matters and of detractions and feeds with that poison all who are at table. *Death and life are in the power of the tongue*. If the woman had held her peace when the devil said to her: *Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat* of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? the devil would not have had occasion to tempt her further. And the philosophers too taught their disciples to keep silence; Cato: «I count it the first of the virtues to restrain the tongue». I believe that the sins of the tongue are so great that the world has enough to do for these alone, if God should rise up to judge them.

13. The fourth pillar of the house of wisdom is that there be *readiness to be persuaded,* in the affection; which is noted when she says: *easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good.* No one is easily persuaded to good unless he is kindly; and this too agrees with wisdom. The malicious man is easily persuaded to evil. It is written: *The spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit the evil speaker from his lips.* Good readiness to be persuaded makes a man prize and love good things and consent to them; and the wiser a man is, the more readily is he persuaded in good things. Whence in Proverbs: *As an earring of gold and a bright pearl, so is he that reproveth the wise, and the obedient ear.* As an earring adorns the ear, and a pearl in a crown adorns the face, so a good word adorns the wise man. When a wise man is reproved, he bears himself as though he were being adorned. For if I correct myself at a word of good admonition, what else do I do but adorn myself with that word? Yet if this pearl is set before a fool, he tramples it like a dog. Whence in Proverbs: *Rebuke not a scorner, lest he hate thee; rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.* Dearly beloved! *it is better to be rebuked by a wise man than to be deceived by the flattery of fools.* A fool, when he is rebuked, does not withdraw from evil nor is he led to good. He who knows his own defects, and to whom they are displeasing, is wise. He who reproves a man and calls him back from evil does him a greater service than if he gave him the whole world.

14. The fifth pillar of the house of wisdom is *generosity* in effect. Wisdom wills to have mercy not only in *affection* but also in *effect.* This is noted when she says: *full of mercy and good fruits. By their fruits you shall know them*. Whence in Proverbs it is said: *She hath opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her hands to the poor. She hath opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of clemency is on her tongue. Of the fruit of her hands* she gave to the needy. Wisdom teaches that a man should do works that are not trifling but fruitful, because *the fruit of good labours is glorious.* Among all fruitful works the more fruitful are the works of mercy. Give therefore of the fruits of your hands.

15. This mercy they ought to have who are set over the government of others; whence in the Acts: *Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you men of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business* of dispensing. He would not be a wise dispenser who stole the goods of God. If something were given you to dispense to a household, and you stole it and put it in your own purse, do you not believe that the master's household would cry out against you and call you a most wicked dispenser, and that the master would say: *Cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness*? The greatest wisdom that can be is that a dispenser fruitfully expend what he has to dispense and what has been handed over to him to dispense. Such were blessed Stephen and Laurence. The chief pontiffs in the primitive Church did not busy themselves with these earthly things; nowadays care is taken about having temporal goods, not about dispensing them. She says: *full of mercy;* the Apostle: *What things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap.* If a master gave his servant corn to sow his field, and the servant put the corn in a sack and did not sow it, the land would bear ill, nay it would cry out against him. As *mercy* is the friend of wisdom, so *avarice* is its enemy. Misers deride all who do not love money. In Deuteronomy: *Presents blind the eyes of the wise and change*

*the words of the just.* — *They blind the eyes,* not the bodily but the spiritual; therefore they take away the light of wisdom. It is written: *It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven,* because he has an earthly and heavy heart.

16. The sixth pillar of the house of wisdom is *maturity* in judgment; and this is noted when it is said: *without judging.* There is maturity in judgment when a man does not judge rashly. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *A wise judge shall judge his people,* namely those over whom he *has authority.* But if he overstep his authority, he is not a wise judge, but the judgment is a rash one. If he judges without authority, what is it? Certainly nothing. It is necessary too that the judgment of a wise man have *rectitude of zeal* and *clarity of knowledge.* Of the *first*: *The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment.* That judge is just who is moved by a just zeal, approves all good things and reproves the evil; but he who has not a right zeal cannot judge well. Love and hatred pervert judgment. If you hate me, you cannot judge me rightly; and why? Because it seems to you that all things which are in me are evil. — Likewise it is necessary that the judge have *clarity of knowledge.* How should I judge well of a thing unknown? Whence, when Job's friends argued against him that he was not just, saying: A just God does not punish the just man, and yet he punishes you, therefore you are not just — they wished to judge of hidden things. Job, hearing this, answered them, saying: *Be you all converted and come, and I shall not find among you any wise man.* Therefore blessed James says: *without judging* — not that a man ought not to judge, in place and time, of a matter about which he has certitude and authority and right zeal, but because men judge evil to be good and, on the contrary, good to be evil. It is better, if I must judge of another, that I think well rather than ill. A man ought to be more inclined to excuse mercifully than to judge ill. Nowadays all are judges of *unjust thoughts*. Therefore a man ought not to *overstep his authority* nor to judge rashly without *rectitude of zeal* and *clarity of knowledge.* Matthew: *Judge not, that you may not be judged.* That men judge the inward defects of others and neglect themselves is the highest folly. Gregory: «The mind, the more curious it is in investigating what belongs to others, so much the more foolish is it in knowing what is its own».

17. The seventh and last pillar of wisdom is *simplicity* of intention, which is noted when she says: *without dissimulation.* Of this it is said that *king Solomon made a great throne of ivory,* and made in it *six steps.* The other pillars are *round about,* but this one is *the most principal* and *at the summit.* Of this the Apostle speaks, saying: *Seek the things that are above;* and in Ecclesiastes: *What hath the wise man more than the fool, and what the poor man, but to go thither where there is life?* Certainly, *where Christ is;* and when Christ shall appear, life will appear. — But where is Christ? Certainly, above in heaven; the Apostle: *Seek the things that are above.* Therefore in heaven are Christ and life. Christ, the *fountain of wisdom,* is himself the foundation and the completion of this gift. The Apostle, as a *wise architect,* says: *Other foundation no man can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.* As a certain Gloss says, a man is related to a tree in a contrary way as regards the root; for a tree has its root below, a man above; and a spiritual building has its foundation above, but a bodily one below; Christ therefore is the *foundation* of this gift. He is also its *completion,* because in him *are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge*. In him the house of wisdom is consummated. Whence it is said in Ecclesiastes: *The eyes of a wise man are in his head,* that is, in Christ; *the fool walketh in darkness.* In Christ is the consummation of every good. Whence in John: *Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.* Those things *which are above* we ought to desire, to see and to do; and may he bring us to them who lives and reigns without end. Amen.

**HERE END THE COLLATIONS ON THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.**

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