Coll. 13
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/11/d/13/q/bon-hex-c13
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### Collation XIII.
#### *On the third vision, which is that of the understanding instructed through Scripture: the first treatment, in which the spiritual understandings of Scripture are treated.*

### Summarium

*Introduction, 1. — The primary division is made of the threefold matter to be treated in the third vision, namely of the spiritual understandings of Scripture, its sacramental figures, its manifold theories, 2. — Part I. On the multiplicity of the spiritual understandings in general. These understandings are compared to the gathering of the waters for three reasons, 3. — On the first reason, 4. — On the second, 5. — On the third, 6. — In time to come Scripture will be better understood, 7. — On the increase of revelation according to Scripture, 8. 9. — Scripture, that it may be the voice of God and sublime, must be manifold in sense, 10. — Part II. On the four senses of Scripture in particular. A threefold manifestation of God in every creature; likewise a threefold spiritual understanding of Scripture; the four senses are compared to four faces, 11. — The book of creatures, as good as dead through original sin, is illumined again through the other book, that of Scripture, 12. 13. — The figures in Ezekiel and in the Apocalypse are explained, 14. 15. — The literal sense with its 4 faces, 16. 17. — The object of allegory, tropology and anagogy, 18. — In the anagogic sense there are four faces, 19. — Likewise, in the allegoric, 20. — Likewise, in the tropologic, 21. — These are explained by the example of the sun as understood in Scripture in many ways; first, according to anagogy it has four senses, which is proved from passages of Scripture, 22-25. — Likewise, according to allegory, 26-29. — Likewise, according to tropology, 30-33.*

1. *Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And he said: let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit-*

*bearing tree, yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth* etc. This is the third vision, that of the understanding instructed through Scripture, which is understood in the work of the third day. And as in the works of the days there is an addition of the second to the first and of the third to both; so from the first and the second vision the third arises; and that vision is nobler and greater than the preceding ones. And although the adaptation and correspondence with the work of the third day may seem unfitting, on the ground that earth is the lowest of the elements while Scripture is the most sublime, it is nevertheless most fittingly assigned: because whatever heaven contains in a certain excellence, earth holds or receives or has in a certain liveliness. Whence it receives the influences of heaven and makes the most beautiful sproutings.

2. Now this vision consists in three things, namely in the *spiritual understandings* of the senses or the senses themselves, in the *sacramental figures*, in the *manifold theories* drawn from them. To these three all Scripture is reduced. — The first are given to be understood through the *gatherings of the waters*, namely the spiritual understandings; the second, namely the sacramental figures, through the sproutings of the earth, there: *Let the earth bring forth the green herb;* the third, namely the manifold theories, are understood through the seeds, there: *Whose seed is in itself* etc. — Who can know the infinity of seeds, since in one there are forests of forests and thereafter infinite seeds? So from the Scriptures infinite theories can be drawn, which none can comprehend save God alone. For as from plants new seeds, so from the Scriptures new theories and new senses, and therefore sacred Scripture is distinguished. Whence, as if one drop were drawn out of the sea, so are all the theories that are drawn out with respect to those that can be drawn.

3. First therefore it must be said of the *spiritual understandings*, and afterwards of the *signs*, and afterwards of the *theories*; because signs avail nothing unless the things be understood. So too he first gathered the waters, then produced trees, then seeds. — Of the gathering the Psalm says: *Gathering together the waters of the sea, as in a vessel.* In a *vessel* he gathered the waters of the sea, when in the hide of Scripture he gathered the whole array of the spiritual understandings. — Now the understandings are likened to waters gathered in a vessel for three reasons: namely on account of the spiritual understandings' own *primal origination*, on account of the spiritual understandings' *most profound loftiness*, on account of the spiritual understandings' *most out-flowing manifoldness*.

4. Of the first, in Ecclesiastes: *All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow; unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, that they may flow again;* so all the spiritual understandings from divine Scripture. The spiritual understandings are called *rivers* — and so also are men who understand spiritually — because they have their origin from Scripture and are confirmed through Scripture, and through them other understandings are had; whence in the Psalm: *The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods have lifted up their waves, with the noise of many waters.* Why? *Because wonderful are the surges of the sea.* Why? *Because wonderful is the Lord on high;* the voice of God had to be great.

5. The second reason, on account of its *most profound loftiness*; in the Psalm: *They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters.* He goes down with ships into the sea who approaches the exposition of the Scriptures with a spirit of the highest reverence. He goes down *with ships* who has the wood of the cross for his guidance; because he who wishes to enter the sea of Scripture without that wood is drowned, falling into the greatest errors; for unless he be Peter, he sinks. Whence, *a great depth; who shall find it out*? Wisdom glories, who *pierced the depth of the abyss* and saw the wonders of God in the deep; Ecclesiasticus the twenty-fourth: *I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of a cloud. I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven and have pierced into the bottom of the deep, and have walked in the waves of the sea.* This says Wisdom incarnate: *I dwelt in the highest places*, in creation; *my throne is in a pillar of a cloud*, in the incarnation; *I have walked in the waves of the sea*, in the passion; *I have pierced into the bottom of the deep*, in the penetration of the Scriptures, since *he opened their understanding* after the resurrection, that they might understand the Scriptures. On account of faith in the cross Peter walked upon the sea.

6. The third reason is on account of its *most out-flowing manifoldness*. For manifold is the out-flowing from the waters of the clouds, from the rivers, from the springs, and all are from the sea. — If you ask: in what way? Through various channels and through various motions; so answers the cloud, so the river, so the spring; Isaiah: *The earth is filled*

*with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea.* And that goes before it: *They shall not hurt nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain.*

7. And this refers chiefly to the time of the New Testament, when Scripture was made manifest, and most of all at the end, when the Scriptures shall be understood which now are not understood. Then there will be the *mountain*, namely the contemplative Church; and then *they shall not hurt*, when the monsters of heresies shall flee at the wearing of wisdom. But today mount Sion is laid waste because of the *foxes*, that is, because of expositors crafty and foul.

8. Of this third, Esther: *A little fountain grew into a very great river and was turned into light and into the sun, and it abounded into many waters.* Scripture was a *little fountain* in the giving of the Law, since the book of the precepts of the Law is little; but afterwards it grew *into* a very great *river* in the book of Joshua, of Judges, of Kings, of Esdras, of Judith, of Tobias, of Esther, of the Machabees. And afterwards it was turned *into light*, namely of the Prophets; for prophecy is light; and afterwards *into the sun*, namely in the Gospel; and many understandings were drawn forth, and thus *it abounded into many waters*.

9. This manifoldness Ezekiel saw more clearly, who saw *in the midst* the likeness of four living creatures; and the first creature had the face of a *man*; the second, the face of a *lion*; the third, the face of an *ox*; and the fourth, the face of an *eagle*; and each one had four faces. And afterwards there appeared a *wheel in the midst of a wheel*; and afterwards he says that the appearance of the wheels and their work was as *the vision of the sea*, and that *a wheel was within a wheel*. And afterwards he says that he heard *the sound of the wings as the sound of many waters and as the sound of the sublime God*. By the *four living creatures* all understand the writers of sacred Scripture, and chiefly the Prophets and the Evangelists. According to Gregory, by the *two wheels* having *four faces* is understood Scripture as having the Old and the New Testament; and the *four faces* are the four principal understandings, namely the literal, the allegoric, the moral, the anagogic. But the appearance is as *the vision of the sea*, on account of the depth of the spiritual mysteries; and *the flights are heard*, when minds are stirred up; and there comes to be *the sound of the sublime God*, since all things are from God; whence in the Apocalypse: *And the voice which I heard was as the voice of many waters*, on account of the multitude of the understandings; *the voice of harpers*, on account of the concord of those understandings, since in a wonderful way they agree, and wonderful is the harmony.

10. Now Scripture has many understandings, since such must be the voice of God, that it be *sublime*. The other sciences are content under one sense, but in this one it is manifold, and in this one both *words* and *things* signify; in the others, however, only *words*, since every teaching is determined through the signs proper to it; whence letters and words, of which letters are the elements, are the signs of understandings; and since understandings are proportioned and bounded, so also are words, so that a name once imposed is not to be used equivocally. — But God is the cause both of *souls* and of the *words* formed by the soul and of the *things* of which the words are.

11. Therefore the first sense is the *literal*; then, because *things* signify, there are three senses. For God manifests himself in every creature in three ways: according to *substance, power* and *operation*. And every creature represents God, who is Trinity, and in what manner one comes to him. And because it is through faith, hope and charity that one comes to God, therefore every creature intimates what is to be *believed*, what is to be *hoped for*, what is to be *done*. And according to this the spiritual understanding is threefold: *allegory*, what is to be believed; *anagogy*, what is to be hoped for; *tropology*, what is to be done, since charity makes one act. — The *literal* understanding is as it were the *natural* face, namely that of the *man*; the others are *mystical* faces: through the *lion*, which has magnificence, *allegory*, or what is to be believed; through the face of the *ox*, which draws the plough and furrows the earth for fruit-bearing, *tropology* or the moral sense; through the *eagle*, which flies on high, *anagogy*. — The first face, namely the literal, is *open*; the second, magnificence, is *lifted up on high*; the third, tropology, is *fruitful*; the fourth as it were *gazes upon the sun* with unblinking eyes. — These four are as it were *the vision of the sea* on account of the spiritual understandings' *primal origination, most profound loftiness* and *most out-flowing manifoldness*. Whence, as there are three persons in one essence, so there are three understandings in one surface of the letter.

12. But it is to be noted that the world, although it serves man as regards the *body*, serves him chiefly nevertheless as re-

gards the *soul*; and if it serves as regards *life*, chiefly it does so as regards *wisdom*. It is certain that man, while he stood, had knowledge of created things and through their representation was borne into God, to praise him, to venerate him, to love him; and for this creatures exist, and thus are they led back into God. But when man had fallen, since he had lost that knowledge, there was none to lead them back into God. Whence that book, namely the world, was as good as dead and blotted out; and another book was needed, through which this one might be illumined, that it might receive the metaphors of things. Now this book is that of Scripture, which sets down the likenesses, properties and metaphors of things written in the book of the world. The book of Scripture, therefore, is restorative of the whole world unto knowing, praising and loving God. Whence, if you ask what a serpent is worth to you, or what it serves you for? It is worth more to you than the whole world, since it teaches you prudence, as the ant teaches wisdom; Solomon: *Go to the ant, O sluggard, and learn wisdom;* likewise, in Matthew: *Be ye prudent as serpents.*

13. These four understandings are the four *rivers* of the *sea* of Scripture, from which they are *derived* or arise and to which they *return*. Whence sacred Scripture is *illuminative* of all things and *reductive* into God, as the creature was at first.

14. But in what way does each said understanding have four *faces*, since it is said that each living creature had *four faces*? Let us ask the *friend of the bridegroom*, namely John — and he spoke here: he is of that order in a special way — and he says in the Apocalypse that four living creatures were about the throne of God, and that the first creature had the face of a *lion*; the second, the face of an *ox*; the third, the face of a *man*; the fourth, the face of an *eagle*; and he does not say that each one had four faces; Ezekiel, however, says that the living creatures *went*, and this one, that they *stood*; Ezekiel says that the first creature had the face of a *man*; this one, that it had the face of a *lion*; likewise, this one says that they cried *holy*; the other expresses none of these things, save that they gave forth voices. Whence John seems to comprehend the vision of Isaiah and of Ezekiel.

15. On this it is to be noted that Ezekiel intends to describe those understandings according to their *principal* order; therefore he begins from the natural face of the *man*, which signifies the *literal* understanding. John, however, intends to describe the four *non-principal* understandings according to the four faces, which are the four understandings, namely the *literal*, or the *allegoric*, or the *tropologic*, or the *anagogic*, four of each.

16. All the teaching of the *Old* Testament is either *legal*, as in Moses; or *historial*, as in the historial books; or *sapiential*, as in the sapiential books; or *prophetal*, as in the Psalms and in the twelve lesser Prophets and the four greater. — The Scripture of the *New* Testament likewise is either *legal*, as in the Gospel, where the precepts are set down; or *historial*, as in the Acts of the Apostles; or *sapiential*, as in the Epistles of Paul, together with the canonical ones; or *prophetal*, as in the Apocalypse; and although the Epistles are placed after the Gospels, yet the Acts of the Apostles immediately follow the Gospel: *The former treatise I made of all things, O Theophilus, which Jesus began to do and to teach*. — The *legal* answers to the lion on account of magnificence and authority; the *historial* to the ox, which draws the plough, on account of simplicity, and because it furrows the earth; the *sapiential* answers to the man; the *prophetal* answers to the face of the eagle.

17. For Scripture intends to lead back to the original beginning through reformation; either therefore it describes *eternal* things, which are the laws and the Gospels; in the Psalm: *The Lord hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away;* and in Ecclesiasticus: *Eternal foundations upon a solid rock, and the commandments of God in the heart of a holy woman;* this woman is the Church. For it is not to be understood that the law or the precepts pass away; rather they will be better kept in the *fatherland*. For they are not kept in the same manner under the old law and the new, but better under the new, and most completely in the fatherland. For God lives according to the laws which he gave. — But if Scripture treats of *temporal* things, either then of things *past*, and so they are historial; or of things *present*, and so sapiential; or of things *to come*, and so prophetal. There are therefore *commandments, examples, teachings, revelations*. — This first understanding therefore has four faces; if we order them according to Ezekiel's order, then the order right *in itself* is had; but we, according to our nature, must carry the eye to *eternal* things, which are the principal ones.

18. *Anagogy*, however, is of things *above; allegory* is of the things which *have been done; tropology* of the things which *are to be done*. *Anagogy* is also a part of *allegory* according to Hugh, which is of the things to be *believed*.

19. In the *anagogic* sense, therefore, there are four faces, namely the eternal Trinity of God, the exemplar Wisdom, the angelic sublimity, the Church triumphant. When

therefore Scripture speaks of these, this belongs to anagogy.

20. In the *allegoric* sense likewise there are four faces, namely the humanity assumed as regards the nativity and the passion, which are the principal allegories. — The second is the mother of God, Mary, since wonderful things are said of her in the Scriptures, because in all the Scriptures she is referred to in relation to the Son. And as to what some say: why are so few things said of the blessed Virgin? — it is nothing; because many things are said, since everywhere they are of her, and it is more that *she should be spoken of everywhere* than if one treatise were made. — The third is the Church militant or mother Church, which has wonderful praises in Scripture. — The fourth is sacred Scripture, which says many things of itself, as is plain of the *wheels*, plain of the *table*, plain of the *Cherubim*, who looked toward one another, plain of the *candlestick*.

21. In the *tropologic* sense likewise it has four faces. The first is spiritual grace and virtue and every such inflowing. — The second, the spiritual life, as *active* and *contemplative* and every manner of living. — The third, the spiritual chair, as *of the master, of prelacy, of the pontificate*. — The fourth, the spiritual battle, how one must fight against the demons, the world and the flesh.

22. These are the four faces fourfolded in every sense. — Let us set an example of all these in one vestige, namely in the *sun*, by which sometimes the *Trinity*, sometimes the *exemplar Wisdom*, sometimes the *angelic disposition*, sometimes the *Church triumphant* is signified. — Of the *Trinity*, in Ecclesiasticus: *The sun, giving light, hath looked upon all things, and full of the glory of the Lord is his work.* The sun has *substance, splendour, heat;* so God has the *originating* principle, the Father; the *splendour*, the Son; the *heat*, the Holy Spirit; and yet it is the same sun in the *heaven* as regards substance, the same in the *eye* as regards light, the same in the *body* as regards heat. — Thus was a certain blind man persuaded, who had once seen the sun and was standing in the sun, and could not understand the Trinity in God.

23. Of the second anagogy, that is, of the *exemplar Wisdom*, Wisdom the seventh: *For she is more comely than the sun, and above all the disposition of the stars: being compared with the light, she is found before it.* For wisdom is comely, since it is light, but more comely than the sun, since the sun cannot generate its ray within itself; but the eternal Sun generates within itself a most beautiful ray. A certain fool, however, said that the sun was the ray of the sun. Certain astrologers say that all the stars, like the moon, receive their light from the sun. But the truth of that question no one knows; nevertheless both the stars and the moon have some light; and the stars indeed are not overshadowed as the moon is, because the moon has this through its nearness to us and its own motion. So the eternal Wisdom flows into all things. Ecclesiastes the eleventh: *The light is sweet, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun.*

24. The third anagogy, since by the sun is understood the *angelic sublimity*. In Ecclesiasticus: *Three times the sun, burning up the mountains, breathing out fiery vapours and shining forth with his beams, blindeth the eyes;* because the divine ray, one and the same, received in three forms, makes three hierarchies.

25. The fourth anagogy is of the *Church triumphant*, which also is understood by the sun; Habacuc: *The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation*, when soul and body are glorified; and then *they go in the light of thy many arrows*, on account of their sudden operations in the shining and sudden power of God.

26. In *allegory* likewise by the *sun* is understood *Christ: The sun riseth and goeth down*; he rises in the *nativity*, goes down in *death; he goeth about by the south*, in the *ascension; he turneth toward the north*, in the *judgement*. — Of the first, Malachy: *Unto you that fear my name the sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings.* — Of the second it is said: *Their sun shall go down at midday.* At midday the sun went down for the Jews. When Christ was in his greater power, namely after the resurrection and the ascension, the Jews were blinded. — Of the judgement James says: *The sun rose with a burning heat, and the flower fell off, and the grass withered.*

27. The second allegory is of the blessed Virgin Mary; it is said in the Psalm: *He hath set his tabernacle in the sun;* whence she is *fair as the moon, chosen as the sun, terrible as an army set in array*. Whence she is a vessel receptive of light, as the sun is *an admirable vessel, the work of the Most High, shining forth in the firmament of heaven*.

28. The third allegory is of the *Church*; in Ecclesiasticus: *As the sun rising in the world in the highest places of God, so is the beauty of a good wife for the ornament of her house.* This *wife* or *house* is the Church: *wife*, because active; the *house* of God, because contemplative. For this wife is Martha, who receives Christ and is busied about many things.

29. The fourth allegory is of *sacred Scripture*, of which in Genesis: *God made two great lights: the lesser light to rule the night*, namely the Old Testament, *and the greater light to rule the day*, namely the New Testament. As the moon has its light from the sun, so the Old Testament from the New. When therefore the sun stands in the east, and the moon opposite to it in the west — Joshua: *Sun*, he says, *move not toward Gabaon, nor thou, moon, toward the valley of Aialon* — then the Old Testament is illumined; otherwise it cannot shine save through the New.

30. In the *tropologic* understanding of the *sun* there are likewise four faces. First, *the grace of the Holy Spirit;* Esther: *Light and the sun rose up, and the humble were exalted*, namely when God dwells in us through grace. Whence, as the sun illumines continually, so the soul ought continually to receive illuminations from the grace of the Holy Spirit.

31. Second, by the *sun* is understood the *spiritual life*. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun; for a fool is changed as the moon;* as the sun goes straight along the ecliptic and is neither retrograde nor stationary.

32. Third is understood the *spiritual chair*, whether of *teaching*, or of *prelacy*, or of *judgement*. Whence in the Psalm: *His throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfect for ever.* The prelate is the *sun* as regards the teachings of truth, the *moon* as regards the exemplar of virtue; or the *sun* of wisdom, the *moon* of knowledge; or the *sun*, inasmuch as he judges, the *moon*, inasmuch as he shows mercy.

33. Fourth, by the *sun* is understood the *spiritual battle*. Of which: *The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.* When the battle shall be between Christ and antichrist, between the teaching of truth and of falsehood; then *the sun shall become as sackcloth of hair*, and some doctor of truth or prelate according to truth shall be darkened through errors; but others shall stand most steadfast, even though they seem to be darkened as regards repute. — These are the *four faces of the living creatures* and the *twelve lights*, to which are led back all the things that are contained in Scripture.

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