Coll. 3
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/3/q/bon-hex-c3
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### COLLATION III.
#### *On the fulness of understanding, insofar as it is the key of contemplation through the understanding of the Word uncreated, incarnate and inspired.*

### Summarium

*The gift of understanding is the rule of moral circumspections, the door of scientific considerations, the key of heavenly contemplations, 1. — The key of contemplation is a threefold understanding, namely of the Word uncreated, incarnate, inspired, 2. — Part I. On the understanding of the Word uncreated, through which all things are produced. This is known through its effect as the cause of all; the errors of the philosophers, 3. — It is the key to understanding that from one there are many, 4–5. — Likewise, that from the eternal there are temporal things, 6. — Likewise, that from the most actual there are possible things, 7–8. — Likewise, that from the most stable there are changeable things, from the most sublime the lowest. But this key belongs only to a soul purged through faith, 9. — Part II. On the understanding of the Word incarnate, through which all things are repaired. Who the repairer is, 10. — The prefiguring in the two Cherubim over the ark, 11. — He repaired two hierarchies; he had five properties, 12. — He was most exalted, 13. — Likewise, of sound sense, 14-15-16. — Acceptable to God, 17. — Most victorious, 18. — Bountiful, 19–20. — Supremely just, 21. — Part III. On the understanding of the Word inspired, through which all things are revealed. Understanding is required in a vision, 22. — A threefold vision, 23. — Six modes of vision according to the six days of creation, 24. — The first is the vision of the understanding implanted by nature, 25. — The second, of the understanding lifted up by faith, 26. — The third, instructed by Scripture, 27. — The fourth, suspended by contemplation, 28. — The fifth, illumined by prophecy, 29. — The sixth, absorbed by rapture, 30. — The seventh and eighth day, 31. — Epilogue on the key of David, 32.*

1. *In the midst of the Church he shall open his mouth, and the Lord shall fill him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding*. Wisdom having been spoken of, we must speak of understanding, of which it was said in the Collation on the gifts that *understanding is the rule of moral circumspections, the door of scientific considerations, the key of heavenly contemplations*. And this understanding is properly a *gift*. — One must begin from understanding and come through to wisdom. *The Lord fed him with the bread of life and understanding, and gave him the water of wholesome wisdom to drink*. One must begin from food, not from drink. For unless a man is exercised in the gift of understanding, he does not profit in the drink-of-wisdom, which pours rivers into the soul when it is drunk by it, and becomes for it *a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting*. The gift of understanding is solid food, like bread, which, as blessed Francis used to say, is had by many labours. First the seed is sown, then it grows, then it is gathered, then it is carried to the mill, then it is baked, and many such things. And so it is with the gift of understanding; to procure understanding is difficult in itself. Wisdom likewise is not had except by one who thirsts; whence in the Psalm: *My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God*; and: *As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after thee, O God.*

2. The *key* therefore *of contemplation* is a threefold understanding: namely the understanding of the *Word uncreated*, through which all things are produced; the understanding of the *Word incarnate*, through which all things are repaired; the understanding of the *Word inspired*, through which all things are revealed. For unless a man can consider concerning things how they take their origin, how they are led back to their end, and how God shines forth in them, he cannot have understanding.

3. Of the first, to the Romans: *The invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, are clearly seen, his eternal power also and Divinity.* His eternal power and Divinity are understood through the effect, because God is the cause of all things, and by his power *all things* were *made*; which is against the philosophers, who deny that from one and the same, always remaining the same, there are things of many forms, from the eternal temporal things, from the most actual there remain possible things, from the most stable changeable things, from the most simple composite things, from the most sublime the lowest; since the effect is like the cause, and this cause is contrary in these conditions.

4. The door of these things is the understanding of the *Word uncreated*, which is the root of the understanding of all things; whence he who does not have this door cannot enter. But the philosophers hold for impossible the things that are supremely true, because the door is closed to them. — But how these things are to be understood is said to the Hebrews: *By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, that from invisible things visible things might be made.* Now it is impossible that the highest spirit should not understand itself; and since the thing understood is made equal to the one understanding, he understands whatever is and whatever he can: therefore the ground of understanding also is made equal to the understanding, and it is his likeness. And this likeness is the *Word*, because, according to Augustine and Anselm, the likeness of the mind turning itself upon itself, which is in the mind's gaze, is a word. If therefore this likeness is equal, then it is God, and, taking its origin from God, it represents the one originating and whatever the Father can: therefore it represents many things. — Again, since it represents the power of the Father, it represents a most united power; but «power, the more united, the more infinite»: therefore that likeness

has to represent infinite things; and so it is necessary that from one there should be many. If therefore thou understandest the Word, thou understandest all things knowable. But the Jew cannot understand this; and yet Scripture says: *God said: Be light made*; and again: *God said* — that is, he begot the Word, in «whom he disposed all things», and in disposing he makes all things. Whence Augustine in the book of the *Confessions*: «By thy Word coeternal with thee thou makest whatever thou makest, nor in any other way than by speaking dost thou make; yet not everlastingly dost thou make what thou everlastingly sayest».

5. For if unity could know the whole of its own power, it would see and know all numbers; and if a point knew the whole of its own power, it would know all the lines in the centre; unity, however, is more a principle than a point, because unity is an essential part of number, whereas the point is a principle and not a part; nor is either of these an active principle. Therefore, since the first understanding is an active principle, it is necessary that in its own likeness it should dispose all things, express all things.

6. Again, from the eternal are all temporal things. For the things that proceed from the Father proceed in order, and one is the cause of another, in the order of nature and in the order of time: therefore the Word so represents things as they are produced in being. For just as in my foresight or memory there can be many future things, and one future thing more distant than another; nor does it follow on that account that when they come to pass there is a change in my memory; so in the Word there is no change. For when he creates this soul, he is not changed, because from eternity he said that this soul was now to be created. Whence by the same saying by which he said it from eternity, he now creates; just as, if my willing were my power: if I willed now that a thing should come to be tomorrow, there would be no change in me if it came to be; but there would be, if from not willing I became willing.

7. Again, from the most actual are made possible or material things. For the Father is understood as a principle principiating from himself, a principle principiating from nothing, a principle principiating from something material. And the Word expresses the Father as a principle principiating from himself, and so is explaining and representing the production of the Holy Spirit and his own, that is, of the eternal. — He expresses the Father also as principiating something from nothing, and so represents the production of the *aeviternal*, as of the Angels and of souls. — He represents him also as principiating something from something as material; but what comes to be from something is first in potency before it comes to be; it is necessary therefore that he should represent *possible* things. Necessarily therefore from the most actual are made possible things.

8. And this likeness or Word is *truth*. What is truth according to its definition? «The adequation of the understanding and the thing understood» — of that understanding, I say, which is the cause of the thing, not of my understanding, which is not the cause of the thing. — This adequation is true when a thing is *of such size, of such a kind*, having its order, *acting, undergoing, when, where*, having its position, according to the differences of the categories. For then things are true when they are in the thing or in the universe as they are in the eternal art, or as they are expressed there. And a thing is true according as it is made adequate to the causing understanding. But because it is not perfectly made adequate to the ground which expresses or represents it, therefore every creature is a lie, according to Augustine. But a thing made adequate is not its own adequation: therefore it is necessary that the Word or likeness or ground should be *truth*; and there is the truth of the creature, and the lowest things are represented through the Word as much as the highest. Whence, although an Angel shares more with the Word in noble conditions — for instance as to the image of God — than a little worm does; yet in respect of exemplarity the ground of the Angel is not nobler than the ground of the little worm; the ground of the little worm expresses or represents the little worm just as the ground of the Angel does the Angel, nor in this respect is the Angel nobler than the little worm. But every creature is a shadow in respect of the Creator.

9. And thus it is clear that from the most actual are possible things, from the most stable changeable things, and from the most sublime the lowest. And as the shining sun makes the variety and

manifoldness of colours, so from that Word is the variety of things. Whence it does not happen that one understands except through the Word. — And this is the most noble key of a soul purged through faith, which is necessary, because «the gaze of our mind, being too weak, is not fixed on so excellent a light unless it be cleansed by the justice of faith». Whence all who do not have this faith have a hand cut off. Hence in the Psalm: *For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created*, etc.

10. The second key is the understanding of the *Word incarnate*, through which all things are repaired. Whence in the last chapter of Luke: *These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you; for all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.* Who speaks? The Word of God, of whom in the first chapter of John: *The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us*, where he shows two natures in one person. There follows: *The Scriptures must be fulfilled concerning me*; whence to the Romans: *The end of the Law is Christ, unto justice to everyone that believeth.*

11. In designation of this, the two Cherubim *with their faces turned toward the propitiatory looked one toward the other*. The two Cherubim are the two testaments, whose gaze is upon Christ. *Then he opened their understanding*, when they understood the Scriptures — that is, through this key of the Word incarnate the book of Scripture is to be understood, since it is principally about the works of reparation. For unless thou understandest the order and origin of reparation, thou canst not understand Scripture. And the name of the repairer is *the Word of God*; in the Apocalypse: *He was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, and his name was called the Word of God.* — But I should like to know how the Word of God is Repairer. Of this Isaiah: *A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called: Wonderful, Counsellor, God, the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace.*

12. He repaired the *heavenly* and the *subcelestial* hierarchy, which had wholly fallen. Therefore it was necessary that he should touch heaven and earth. This hierarch had to be *most exalted, of sound sense, acceptable to God, victorious, bountiful, just*.

13. He had first to be *most exalted* in power, who alone could save. Whence to the Hebrews: *God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the Prophets, last of all in these days hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds*; as far as: *Being made so much better than the Angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent name than they.* — For from him proceed miracles; and therefore it was necessary that in him should be shown the miracle of miracles, namely the manifoldness of natures. For he has a bodily nature, a spiritual nature, a divine nature; a temporal, an aeviternal, an eternal nature. Whence he has it to bind the lowest to the highest. In Ecclesiasticus: *Look upon the rainbow and bless him that made it.* The rainbow has manifoldness of natures and of colours. For as the sun went down by ten degrees on the dial of Achaz, so the Word incarnate came down through the nine orders of Angels as far as man, who is reckoned the tenth. This is the greatest miracle, that God should be man, that the first should be the last; and therefore all miracles look to this miracle; whence all cry out: *Hosanna to the son of David*. — In this miracle faith takes its strength. Whence Moses, after he had driven the flock *to the inner parts of the desert*, saw the bush which burned and was not consumed; *I will go*, he said, *and see this great vision*, etc.; where he was illumined. The *bush*, thorny, is the passibility of the flesh; the *flame*, the soul of Christ full of lights and of the fire of charity; the *light*, the Godhead; the light joined to the bush by the mediation of the flame, the Godhead joined to the flesh by the mediation of the spirit or soul. In order therefore that he might be able to make the dead living, and of men *the sons of God*, it is necessary that he be *most exalted*; and this is what is meant by *Wonderful*.

14. Again, it is necessary that our hierarch be *of sound sense* according to the threefold wisdom in him, namely the *innate*, such as the Angels and the first man had, the *infused*, and the *eternal*. By the first he knows all that we can know by a habit; by the second he comprehends gloriously and infinitely, because *of his wisdom there is no number*; by the third, all things. For he who had to repair the whole world, it was necessary that he should know the conditions of the whole world; whence to the Hebrews, the fourth chapter: *The word of God is living and effectual*; there follows: *All things are naked and open to his eyes, to whom our speech is.* Whence it behoved that he should be not only *powerful*, but also *of sound sense*.

15. But if thou sayest: what necessity was there that he should have another wisdom besides the divine? I answer: that he might be able to experience; to the Hebrews: *We have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities; but one tempted in all things like as we are,*

*without sin.* And this one is our *advocate* for us, and judges against us. He was the best counsellor and the wisest; whence all other wise men were only certain figures and images of this wise one. — From him proceed teachings most certain and most illustrious, in which we need to be instructed; therefore he is called *Counsellor*.

16. To him are referred all the utterances of the wisdom of Scripture, as of Solomon and of others. Yet the Jews take of Solomon what is said of Christ in the Psalm: *Thou art beautiful above the sons of men, grace is poured abroad in thy lips*; Solomon was not such; and: *Let his name be blessed for evermore.*

17. Again, this hierarch is *acceptable to God*; because we need a most holy *reconciler*. To the Hebrews: *It was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and made higher than the heavens*, so that he might be wholly *deiform*; whence in John: *We saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth*, on account of the multitude of graces. For he had the grace of his singular person, the grace of the head, by which he flows into the members, and the grace of the union, and this is infinite on one side. Whence he was acceptable to God not only because deiform, but because God. Since he is God, he cannot be unacceptable. And therefore he is called *God*; and so from him come the most holy examples. — Whence wherever in the Scriptures mention is made of emanations, of the rivers of paradise, of the welling up of fountains, they are referred to him.

18. Again it behoves that the hierarch be *most victorious* on account of the multitude of his triumph and victory. Whence to the Colossians: *And you, when you were dead in your offences and the uncircumcision of your flesh*; and there follows: *Despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath led them away confidently, openly triumphing over them in himself.* For he conquered the world, despoiled hell, restored paradise. Whence in the Psalm: *Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord who is strong and mighty.* Still we wish to hear: *Lift up your gates, O ye princes. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts.* This one therefore is *the Mighty*. Whence it is necessary that *at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth and under the earth*. Isaiah: *Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save.* — And therefore he is called *the Mighty*. From him flow strong defences. Whence: *mountains are round about it.* Whence all the wars of Scripture are referred to the victory of Christ.

19. Again it behoves that our hierarch be *bountiful* on account of the greatness of his inflowing. To the Ephesians: *To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ.* On which account he says: *Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men.* For as a cloud goes up on high in order that afterwards it may rain, so Christ ascended in order to give his gifts; *when the sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in her order*. For at first he had given the Holy Spirit on earth in a hidden way, but after he ascended, then openly, because the Holy Spirit himself was the hierarch *purging, illuminating, perfecting*, and the Holy Spirit came down into the heavenly and the subcelestial hierarchy. Whence *there came suddenly a sound from heaven as of a Spirit coming*. The Holy Spirit came down as purging; whence it is said *of a Spirit coming*; as instructing: *there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire*; in perfecting power: *and it sat upon every one of them.* From him flow the gratuitous gifts. — Whatever therefore is found in Scripture of the pouring out in the sun and in other things and in banquets is referred to his largess. Whence in the Psalm: *The beauty of the house shall divide spoils*; and in Isaiah: *They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice as conquerors when the prey is taken, when they divide the spoils.* These are the gifts of Christ's bounty. — Whence he is called *the Father of the world to come*; because he is the principle of the inflowings by which we shall live in the world to come; James: *Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.* There follows: *Of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature.* Now we are the beginning of the creature, but then we shall be simply the creature.

20. He is most bountiful, because he gives us whatever we ask: *Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in my name*, etc. He swears and asserts it in truth. Whence in the Psalms: *Thou openest thy hand and fillest with blessing every living creature*; and: *Men and beasts thou wilt save, O Lord. They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house.*

21. Again, he must be *supremely just* on account of the multitude of a justice infallibly inquiring, irreprehensibly examining, irrevocably sentencing, that he may *render to every man according to his works*. Isaiah:

*There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and justice shall be the girdle of his loins; he shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.* Therefore God is such; because if he were a mere man, he could not judge except through witnesses. — To this judgement are referred all the judgements of Scripture; and therefore he is called *the Prince of peace*. Whence from him flow just rewards. — This David therefore has the key, *who openeth and no man shutteth; shutteth and no man openeth*. And this key is the *mystery of the union*.

22. The third key is the understanding of the *Word inspired*, through which all things are revealed; for revelation does not come about except through the Word inspired. Daniel understood the discourse. For understanding is needful in a vision. For unless the word sound in the ear of the heart, and splendour shine in the eye, and *the vapour and emanation of the Almighty* be in the smell, and sweetness in the taste, and everlastingness fill the soul, a man is not fit to understand visions. But *to Daniel God gave understanding of all visions and dreams*. By what? By the Word inspired.

23. Now a vision is threefold, as is commonly said: *bodily, imaginary, intellectual*. The first two are worth nothing without the third. Whence the bodily vision of the hand availed Balthasar little, and the imaginary vision of the golden statue Nabuchodonosor, and to Pharaoh the vision in the ears of corn and the oxen — but they availed Daniel and Joseph. Joseph answers to John, Daniel to Paul.

24. Besides these there is a sixfold vision, which answers to the works of the six days; by which the *lesser world* is made perfect, as the *greater world* was in six days. There is the vision *of the understanding implanted by nature*, and the vision of the understanding *lifted up by faith*, *instructed by Scripture*, *suspended by contemplation*, *illumined by prophecy*, *absorbed by rapture into God*. To these there follows the seventh vision, of the glorified soul; all of which Paul had. — The first two belong to many, the next two to few, these last two to very few.

25. By the first is understood how far our understanding can be extended of itself. This is understood by the first day, on which *light was made*; whence in the Psalm: *The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us.* Without this implanted light a man has nothing, neither faith nor grace nor the light of wisdom; and therefore also *the light was divided from the darkness*.

26. The second is understood by the second day, where *the firmament was made in the midst*. This firmament is faith, and it *divides the waters from the waters*. Faith is the origin of wisdom and the origin of knowledge; whether it be of eternal or of temporal things, whether knowledge or wisdom, they do not disagree with faith.

27. The third is understood by the third day, where *the waters were gathered together, and the dry land appeared*. The earth is Scripture, having spiritual understandings, the angelic and divine hierarchies, which, wonderfully expounded by the Saints, spring up; and in these are produced *the green herb* and the *trees* of paradise. Yet let each beware of the tree of the curiosity of knowledge.

28. The fourth is understood in the work of the fourth day, where it is said: *Let there be lights*, namely the sun and the moon and the stars. He who does not have contemplation does not yet have the adornment of the sun and the moon and the stars. And there ought to appear *a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars*, so that there be a contemplation of the supercelestial hierarchy in the *sun*, of the subcelestial in the *moon*, of the heavenly in the *stars*. *Then shalt thou see and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged*; because in contemplation there is wonder, enlargement, alienation, refreshment; whence: *They ate and saw the God of Israel.*

29. The fifth is by the understanding *illumined through prophecy*, higher still than the foregoing, so that it may see contingent things infallibly, which comes about by a certain special mode of vision in the eternal mirror. For it is certain that, since the contingent is changeable and variable, if the Prophet sees infallibly and with certitude, he does not see it except in the infallible truth. — Whence it is difficult to determine about these things; and it is solved by the same means as the foreknowledge of God: the Prophet sees this as future: therefore it will come to pass; God sees this: therefore it will come to pass — because God's vision does not fall into the past, but states the presence of the divine vision with a temporal connotation, which connotation indeed is contingent, or is connoted. — This is understood in the work of the fifth day, in which *the fishes were made from the waters, and the birds*. For by wings and by the multitude of feathers and by breath the soul is borne into God.

30. The sixth is the vision of the understanding *absorbed by rapture into God*. To the Corinthians: *I know a man above fourteen years ago, whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knoweth, such a one caught up.*

For this lifting up makes the soul most like to God, as far as is possible in the state of the way — nor is *ecstasy* the same as *rapture* — whence, as they say, they do not have the habit of glory, but the act; and just as that vision is on the border of the way and the fatherland, so this is on the border of union with the body and separation from it. Therefore the Apostle says: *Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not.* Whence then does a man presume to determine what Paul did not know? — To this answers the work of the sixth day: *Let us make*, he says, *man to our image and likeness*; because such a one is worthy that he should *rule over the fowls and the fishes of the sea and the creeping things*. — For the more exalted a man is, the more humble, as Paul, who even came down to determining about marriage through humility. Whence it is said in Job: *Will the eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest in high places?* And there follows: *Wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately there.* He had first said wonderful things of the eagle, and afterwards lowly things; so it is with rapture. For he who was greater in rapture is the more humble. And this is necessary, because if he grew proud, he could lose grace and fall into *a reprobate sense*; and he would hardly ever rise again, because the more he knows, the more he would know how to unravel everything that might be said to him; and therefore not without cause was there given to the Apostle *a sting of the flesh, lest the greatness*, he says, *of the revelations should exalt me*. — He, I say, who has come to that state can order and govern others, as Paul did, and Dionysius, who ordered the Church according to the exemplar that was shown to him.

31. The seventh day is release from the body: *this day thou shalt be with me in paradise*; which day has no evening. — And afterwards there follows the eighth day, which is not other than the preceding, but is a repetition of the first day, when the soul shall take up its body again.

32. This then is the key of David, which teaches the *Word inspired*; that Word which is *in the bosom of the Father* uncreated, incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, inspired in thy heart through faith; it glides into angelic and human minds, and entering into them makes them understand these visions, because it is understanding and pure spirit; but in one way and another, because there are greater deepenings according as the soul is inwardly led into itself. And this comes about through the divine ray, as Dionysius says *On the Angelic Hierarchy*: «Therefore, calling upon Jesus», he says, «who is the paternal light», etc.; and as Dionysius says *On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*, «it is the law of the Godhead to lead back the lowest through the middle to the highest». That thearchic ray, descending into the heavenly hierarchy, illumines it, and through it the ecclesiastical or subcelestial. — Yet that ray does the whole, because the Angels do nothing there except occasionally; just as, if a man wished that a ray should illumine many houses, he would open the windows, and then the ray would illumine all the houses; and as if a man were to prepare many mirrors to receive the light. Then, in the order of resolution, that ray leads us back into the contemplation of heavenly things and then of supercelestial.

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