Coll. 19
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/19/q/bon-hex-c19
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### COLLATION XIX.
#### *On the third vision: the seventh and last treatment, which treats of the right way and method by which the fruits of Scripture are received, or by which one comes through knowledge and holiness to wisdom.*

### Summarium

*Introduction. On the fruits of Scripture, to which the eternal Wisdom invites us. The good passage and the bad, 1. — Wisdom and charity are the principal fruits, to which vanity is contrary, 2. — The danger in the passage from knowledge to wisdom; the middle way is holiness, 3. — The temptation in knowledge; curiosity, 4. — Part I. On the study of knowledge and on the manner of studying. Four things are required, 5. — First, order; the four kinds of writings, 6. — Knowledge is to be sought at the fountain, that is, in sacred Scripture, 7. 8. — The first thing is that a man should have Scripture not as the Jew has it, 9. — On the original works of the Saints and on the Summas of the masters, 10. — The danger in the second kind, greater in the third, 11. — Greatest in the fourth, that is, in philosophy; the example of Jerome, 12. — This is figured in Scripture in Gideon, 13. — The example in blessed Francis, 14. — Epilogue on the order of studying, 15. — Second, assiduity, 16. — Third, complacency, 17. — A warning, 18. — Fourth, commensuration; epilogue of Part I, 19. — Part II. On holiness as the way to wisdom, and on wisdom itself. The four properties of the holy life; first, the life ought to be*

*fearing, 20. — Second, unpolluted, 21. — Third, religious, 22. — Fourth, upbuilding, 23. — Wisdom, which is the fruit of knowledge and of holiness, consists in four things: first, in the recognition of one's inward defects, 24. — Second, in the chastening of the passions, 25. — Third, in the ordering of one's thoughts, 26. — Fourth, in the lifting up of desire, 27.*

1. *The earth brought forth the green herb* and so on. It has been said of the fruits of sacred Scripture; and to these fruits the eternal Wisdom invites us; in Ecclesiasticus: *I as the vine have brought forth a sweet odour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.* If we wish to pass over, it is necessary that we be sons of Israel, who *passed over Egypt;* but the Egyptians did not pass over, but *were drowned*. Those pass over who set their whole study upon this, how they may pass over from vanities into the region of truth. From truth into vanity Adam passed over, whence in the Psalm: *Surely man passeth as an image, yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He storeth up, and he knoweth not for whom he shall gather these things. In the morning let him pass away as grass, in the morning let him flourish and pass away, in the evening let him fall, grow dry and wither.* When, therefore, a changeable good, transitory and vain, is loved, then a man passes away; and this passing Wisdom reproves. This passing does every evil. Thus Lucifer passed over, to whom it was said: *But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell.* First he was cast out through fault, second through judgment. So too did Adam; after he let go the *tree of life,* he hid himself. For he saw himself naked of all good habits; on account of which he was cast out of paradise.

2. *Wisdom,* then, and *charity* are the principal fruits; to which *vanity* is principally contrary. Whence in the Canticle a loving wisdom is expressed. For no one can utter the words of the Canticle without wisdom and love, nor unless he be far removed from vanity. And therefore Ecclesiastes goes before this book; where he shows vanity, when he says: *Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.* This proposition is true and is proved throughout the whole book. It is necessary, therefore, to pass over from all things to truth, so that there may be no delight save in God.

3. But how is one to pass over? All wish to be *wise* and *knowing.* But it quickly happens that *the woman deceives the man*. Now *wisdom* is *above,* as being noble; but *knowledge below,* and yet it seems beautiful to a man, and therefore he wishes to be joined to it, and the soul is bent toward the knowable and the sensible, and wishes to know these things and to experience what it knows and consequently to be united to them. And so it is unnerved, like Solomon, who wished to know all things and disputed *of trees from the cedar that is in Libanus unto the hyssop*; and he forgot the chief thing, and therefore was made vain. The passage from *knowledge* to *wisdom* is therefore not safe; a middle term must be set, namely *holiness.* Now the passage is *exercise:* the exercise from the study of *knowledge* to the study of *holiness,* and from the study of *holiness* to the study of *wisdom;* of which in the Psalm: *Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge.* He begins from the highest, because he would *taste how good and sweet the Lord is;* but to *wisdom* one cannot come except through *discipline,* nor to *discipline* except through *knowledge:* the last, then, is not to be preferred to the first. He would be a bad merchant who chose tin before gold. For whoever prefers *knowledge to holiness* will never prosper.

4. Augustine, in the *City of God*, says that the good Angels or spirits have the name *angels,* that is, *messengers,* because they rejoice in humility; the wicked spirits are called *demons,* that is, *knowers,* because they wish to be named from that pride. But what Job says of behemoth-leviathan is to be feared: *He shall esteem gold as mire.* For through *knowledge* the temptation to ruin is easy. Whence: *You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.* Whence certain men wish to search out things beyond the way of nature, as about contingent things. Blessed Bernard says of the degrees of pride that the first vice is *curiosity,* through which Lucifer fell; through this Adam also fell. The appetite for *knowledge* must be tempered, and *wisdom* and *holiness* are to be preferred to it.

5. How, then, is one to study *knowledge* and *holiness* and *wisdom*? One must know, so that the fruits of wisdom may be had, and that we may be able to enter in *through the gates of the city;* Ecclesiastes: *The labour of fools shall afflict them that know not how to go to the city,* that is, who know not how to study in the things in which they ought. In Genesis it is said that *the Lord God took man and put him in paradise, that he might dress it and keep it.* — One must work in sacred Scripture and exercise the understanding. Seneca: « I have found many exercising the body, few the mind ». This exercise is of the spirit unto piety; whence in Proverbs: *I passed by the field of the slothful man, and by the vineyard of the foolish man. And behold, nettles had filled it all up, and thorns had covered the face thereof, and the wall of stones was broken down.* This comes about when a man has a good disposition and does not exercise it, but there grow up the *nettles* of malice, the *thorns* of cupidity. The *wall of stones* of the virtues is broken down through the scattering of thoughts; whence in the same place: *Prepare thy work without, and diligently till thy ground.*

6. The *manner of studying* ought to have four conditions: *order, assiduity, complacency, commensuration.* — *Order* is handed down in various ways by various men; but one must proceed in order, lest they make of the first the last. There are, then, four kinds of writings, about which one must be exercised in order. The *first* books are those of sacred Scripture. In the Old Testament, according to Jerome, there are twenty-two books, in the New Testament there are eight. The *second* books are the *original works of the Saints;* the *third,* the *Sentences of the masters;* the *fourth,* those of worldly teachings, or of the *philosophers.*

7. Whoever, then, wishes to learn, let him seek knowledge at the fountain, that is, in sacred Scripture, because among the philosophers there is no knowledge for the giving of the remission of sins; nor among the *Summas* of the masters, because they drew from the *original works,* and the *original works* from sacred Scripture. Whence Augustine says that he himself can be deceived, and others too; but there is such faith there, where there can be no deception. And this Dionysius says *On the Divine Names,* that « nothing is to be taken up except what has been divinely expressed to us out of the sacred utterances ». — Christ's disciple ought to study in sacred Scripture as children first learn *a, b, c, d* and so on, and afterwards to form syllables, and afterwards to read, and afterwards what a part signifies. Likewise in sacred Scripture one ought first to study in the text and to have it ready to hand and to understand « what is said by the name », not only as the Jew does, who always attends to the literal sense. The whole of Scripture is as it were one [?], and the lower string by itself does not make harmo[?], but together with the others; likewise one passage of Scripture depends upon another, nay, a thousand passages regard one passage.

8. It is to be noted that when Christ worked the miracle of the changing of water into wine, he did not at once say: let there be wine, nor did he make it from nothing; but he willed that the servants should fill the water-pots with water, as Gregory says. As to the *letter,* why he did so, no reason can be given; but according to the *spiritual understanding* a reason can be given: because the Holy Spirit does not give spiritual understanding unless a man fill the *water-pot,* that is, his own capacity, with *water,* that is, with the knowledge of the literal sense, and afterwards God changes the water of the literal sense into the wine of spiritual understanding. — On account of this Paul was lofty, because he himself had learned the Law at the feet of Gamaliel. Whence he who has Scripture is mighty in utterance and also in graceful speech. Whence blessed Bernard knew little, but because he studied much in Scripture, therefore he spoke most elegantly.

9. The first thing, then, is that a man should have Scripture not as the Jew has it, who wants only the rind. Whence a certain Jew was once reading that chapter of Isaiah: *Lord, who hath believed our report?* and so on; and he was reading it according to the letter and could get neither concordance nor sense, and therefore he threw the book to the ground, praying that God would confound Isaiah, because, as it seemed to him, what he said could not stand.

10. Now to this understanding a man cannot come by himself, save through those to whom God revealed it, that is, through the *original works of the Saints,* such as Augustine's, Jerome's and others'. It is needful, therefore, to have recourse to the original works of the Saints; but these are difficult; therefore the *Summas* of the masters are necessary, in which those difficulties are made clear. But one must beware of the multitude of writings. But because these writings

bring forward the words of the philosophers, it is necessary that a man should know or presuppose them. — There is therefore a danger in descending to the *original works,* because the speech of the original works is beautiful; but Scripture has not so beautiful a speech. Whence Augustine — if you let go Scripture and study in his books, he does not take it for good; just as neither did Paul in the case of those who were baptized in Paul's name. Sacred Scripture is to be held in great reverence.

11. But there is a greater danger in descending to the *Summas of the masters,* because sometimes there is error in them; and they believe that they understand the *original works,* and they do not understand them, nay, they contradict them. Whence, as a man would be a fool who wished always to linger over the treatises and never to ascend to the text, so it is with the *Summas* of the masters. In these a man ought to beware, so that he may always cleave to the more common way.

12. But to descend to *philosophy* is the greatest danger; whence Isaiah: *Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that go with silence, and hath rather taken Rasin and the son of Romelia; therefore, behold, the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the king of the Assyrians* and so on. There is no returning any more into Egypt. — It is to be noted of Jerome, who after the study of Cicero had no relish for the prophetic books; therefore he was scourged before the tribunal. And this was done for our sake; whence masters ought to beware lest they commend and prize the sayings of the philosophers too much, lest on this occasion the people return into Egypt, or by their example let go the *waters of Siloe,* in which is the highest perfection, and go to the waters of the philosophers, in which is eternal deception.

13. This was signified in Gideon, where those who were proved at the waters, that is, who lapped like dogs, fought and conquered; and those who drank bowed down upon bended knee turned back; and to the conquerors were given trumpets and pitchers and lanterns, and by the blare of the trumpet and the smashing of the pitchers they conquered. These are the preachers of the Church, who sound the *trumpet* in preaching. The *pitchers* are bodies, the *lamps* are miracles. For when they died for the truth, they flashed with miracles and overcame their enemies. But those who drink by drawing with the *tongue* like dogs, who draw up little water with the tongue, are they who take little from philosophy; but those who drink *upon bended knee* are they who bow themselves down wholly there; and they are bent to infinite errors, and thence the leaven of error is fostered; Hosea: *The city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened;* and they cherish *the eggs of asps, so that what is hatched shall break out into a basilisk.*

14. Note concerning blessed Francis, who was preaching to the Sultan. To whom the Sultan said that he should dispute with his priests. And he said that concerning faith one could not dispute by reason, because it is above reason, nor by Scripture, because they would not accept it; but he asked that a fire be made, and that he and they should enter it. — So much water of philosophy, then, is not to be mingled into the wine of sacred Scripture that of wine there be made water; this would be the worst of miracles; and we read that Christ made wine of water, not the other way round. — From this it is clear that for believers faith can be proved not by reason, but by Scripture and by miracles. In the primitive Church, too, they burned the books of philosophy. For loaves ought not to be changed into stones.

15. The order, then, is that a man should first study in sacred Scripture as to the letter and the spirit, afterwards in the *original works,* and should subject them to sacred Scripture; likewise in the writings of the masters and in the writings of the philosophers, but passing through and stealing, as though one were not to remain there. What did Rachel gain, that she *stole the idols of her father*? So much did she gain, that she lied and feigned infirmity and *hid them under the camel's litter and sat upon them;* so it is when the quires of the philosophers are hidden away. Our waters ought not to descend to the dead sea, but into their own first origin.

16. Second, one must have *assiduity.* For the greatest hindrance is wandering reading, as of one planting now here, now there; now reading

one thing, now another. Outward wandering is a sign of the wandering of the soul; and therefore such a man cannot make progress, because nothing is fixed in the memory; as Gregory gives the example, that when a man sees a man's face once, he does not afterwards know it so perfectly, but when he sees it often, he will afterwards know it. So of sacred Scripture: because at first it has an obscure face, but afterwards, when it is often looked upon, it becomes familiar.

17. Third, one must have *complacency.* For as God made taste and food proportionate to each other, because to food he gave savour, and to taste discernment; and out of these two the food is incorporated: so first one must *take* Scripture, afterwards *chew* it, and at last *incorporate* it. To what end shall a man drink muddy water? Jeremiah: *What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink muddy water?* But drink the water of salvation, that is, of *wisdom.*

18. Note that an animal that does not chew the cud is unclean. For rumination comes about by this, that the animal has two stomachs; it draws the food to its mouth and chews it all and casts it into the other, further stomach. — In the Psalm: *How sweet are thy words to my palate, more than honey to my mouth!* Do not love a harlot and dismiss your bride; in Wisdom: *Her have I loved and sought out from my youth.* Do not take acorns and *the husks of swine,* lest you be hanged with Absalom *by the hair,* that is, by your affections. The secular teachings are like oaks, tall, lofty, unbending. Do not eat the melons of Egypt and the leeks and the garlic, but the *manna from heaven*; and be not nauseated *at this food,* be not carnal, like the sons of Israel; and these found only one savour, but other, spiritual men found *the sweetness of every savour.*

19. The fourth is *commensuration,* that one should not wish to be wise beyond one's powers, *but to be wise unto sobriety*. Whence the Wise Man says: *Thou hast found honey, eat what is sufficient for thee, lest being glutted thou vomit it up.* Do not stretch yourself further than your mind can ascend, nor stay below it. Whence, in token of this, as Dionysius says, the Seraphim flew with their *middle* wings, so that a man may neither *stop* short of what he can do, nor *ascend* beyond what he can do; like those who sing beyond their powers, who never make good harmony. — And Augustine says that those who do not order their study are like colts, which now run this way, now that; but the beast of burden goes only at an even pace, and thereby makes equal progress; so a slow man, provided he knows how to order his study, keeps pace with a clever man studying without order.

20. But whoever wishes to make progress in this study must have holiness and be able to study unto a life *fearing, unpolluted, religious, upbuilding.* — This is the *fearing* life of the Saints, that in the things he does he should always fear, whether going to Mass, or to table, whether standing or walking, because in all things there can be sin; Job: *I feared all my works, knowing that thou didst not spare the offender.* Fear is the best sign, and boldness is the worst sign, because such a man is never corrected.

21. Second, the *unpolluted* life, that he do everything for the *love of God,* not for the love of any thing, because every love is suspect save the love of God. Whence Augustine says, and blessed Bernard in a certain letter to a certain monk, that the Apostles' love toward the flesh of Christ hindered the coming of the Holy Spirit. What then of any other love of creatures? The Psalm: *My soul refused to be comforted* and so on. *Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of the eye.* The apple of the eye is not well kept clean when there is vapour, or dust, or moisture in it.

22. Third, that the life be *religious,* enclosed like the *wall of a vineyard;* so it is needful that a man make for himself a restraint of taste, of the tongue, and of the other senses: because, *if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain*. *Hedge in thy ears with thorns.* Our life ought not to be given to speeches, but to tears.

23. Fourth, that the life be *upbuilding* to the neighbour near and far, so that he be ready to build up all and grieve if anyone is scandalized by him; and he ought to beware of another's harm; because, if I alone ate well, and others fasted, it would be badly done. And this is the fruit of others.

24. Likewise there follows from these foregoing things, that is, from knowledge and holiness, the fruit of wisdom, or study, which consists in four things that are necessary, namely the *recognition of one's own inward defects.* Whence on the front of Apollo's temple it was written: « Know thyself »; without this it is impossible to come to wisdom. Whence the more a wise man makes progress, the more he despises himself. Whence he is a bad merchant who deceives himself; which he does who prizes himself more than he is worth; but he ought to prize others and to despise himself; and this is the chief study of wisdom, that a man should persuade himself of his own defects and become humble in his own eyes.

25. The second study of wisdom is the *chastening of the passions,* which are the seven affections of the soul, four principal and three annexed: *fear, sorrow, hope, joy*; *desire, shame, hatred.* In all of these too it happens that one goes to excess. Now a boy, when he cries too much, is checked; so a man ought by a certain judicial censure to tame and restrain passions of this kind, so that, when sorrow comes, it may be said to it: stand in peace, and so with the rest; and cut away those childish things and childish affections. For children are the pursuers of the passions; *cursed is the child of a hundred years*.

26. The third study of wisdom is the *ordering of one's thoughts;* whence: *The fool looketh through the window into his neighbour's house*. And here is the great difficulty of ordering our phantasms, so that, when we are in church, we may think of nothing but the office, and so with the rest; and it is necessary to order these thoughts to this end, that the Holy Spirit may enter through wisdom, because *the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding*. And therefore one must have fixed matters about which we may exercise ourselves.

27. The fourth study of wisdom is the *lifting up of desire;* this makes the other studies avail, so that, *forgetting the things that are behind, we may stretch ourselves forth to those that are before*. *The eyes of a wise man are in his head. The heart of a wise man is at his right hand.* This is the wise man's study, that our study should incline to nothing but God, who is *wholly desirable.* — These four things are difficult unless the first studies be had, and with these they are easy. Whence it is then easy to have dominion over the passions, as is said of a certain philosopher, who said to his servant: « How I would beat you, if I were not angry ».

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