Bonaventure

The numbered footnotes below correspond to markers in both the Latin body above and the English translation; Quaracchi restart their numbering on every printed page, so the labels are qualified by page.

PROLOGUS MAGISTRI

IN LIBROS SENTENTIARUM¹

Cupientes aliquid de penuria ac tenuitate nostra cum paupercula in gazophylacium Domini mittere², ardua scandere, opus ultra vires nostras agere praesumsimus, consummationis fiduciam laborisque mercedem in Samaritano³ statuentes, qui, prolatis in curationem semivivi duobus denariis, supereroganti cuncta reddere professus est. Delectat nos veritas pollicentis, sed terret immensitas laboris: desiderium hortatur proficiendi, sed dehortatur infirmitas deficiendi, quam vincit zelus domus Dei. «Quo⁴ inardescentes, fidem nostram adversus errores carnalium atque animalium hominum» Davidicae turris clypeis munire vel potius munitam ostendere ac theologicarum inquisitionum abdita aperire nec non et sacramentorum ecclesiasticorum pro modico⁵ intelligentiae nostrae notitiam tradere studuimus, «non valentes studiosorum fratrum votis iure resistere, eorum in Christo laudabilibus studiis lingua ac stilo nos servire flagitantium, quas bigas in nobis agitat Christi caritas⁶».

«Qnamvis⁷ non ambigamus, omnem humani eloquii sermonem calumniae atque contradictioni aemulorum semper fuisse obnoxium, quia, dissentientibus voluntatum motibus, dissentiens quoque fit animorum sensus», «ut, cum omne dictum veri ratione perfectum sit, tamen, dum aliud aliis aut videtur aut complacet, veritati vel non intellectae vel offendenti⁸ impietatis error obnitatur, ac voluntatis invidia resultet», «quam Deus huius saeculi operatur in illis diffidentiae filiis⁹, qui non rationi voluntatem subiiciunt nec doctrinae studium impendunt, sed his quae somniarunt sapientiae verba coaptare nituntur, non veri, sed placiti rationem sectantes, quos iniqua voluntas non ad intelligentiam

veritatis, sed ad defensionem¹ placentium incitat, non desiderantes doceri veritatem, sed ab ea ad fabulas convertentes auditum². Quorum professio est magis placita quam docenda conquirere nec docenda desiderare, sed desideratis doctrinam coaptare. Habent rationem sapientiae in superstitione³: quia fidei defectionem sequitur hypocrisis mendax, ut sit vel⁴ in verbis pietas, quam amiserit conscientia, ipsamque simulatam pietatem omni⁵ verborum mendacio impiam reddunt, falsae doctrinae institutis fidei sanctitatem corrumpere molientes auriumque pruriginem sub novello sui desiderii dogmate aliis ingerentes, qui contentioni studentes contra veritatem sine foedere bellant». «Inter veri namque assertionem et placiti defensionem pertinax pugna est, dum se et⁶ veritas tenet, et se voluntas erroris tuetur». Horum igitur et⁷ Deo odibilem ecclesiam evertere atque ora oppilare, ne virus nequitiae in alios effundere queant, et lucernam veritatis in candelabro exaltare volentes⁸, in labore multo ac sudore hoc volumen, Deo praestante, compegimus ex testimoniis veritatis in aeternum fundatis, in quatuor libros distinctum.

In quo maiorum exempla doctrinamque reperies⁹, in quo per dominicae fidei sinceram professionem vipereae doctrinae fraudulentiam prodidimus, aditum demonstrandae veritatis complexi nec periculo impiae professionis inserti¹⁰, temperato inter utrumque moderamine utentes. Sicubi vero parum vox nostra insonuit¹¹, non a paternis discessit limitibus. «Non igitur debet hic labor cuiquam pigro vel multum docto videri superfluus, cum multis impigris multisque indoctis, inter quos etiam mihi, sit necessarius¹²», brevi volumine complicans Patrum sententias, appositis eorum testimoniis, ut non sit necesse quaerenti librorum numerositatem evolvere, cui brevitas collecta¹³ quod quaeritur offert sine labore. «In hoc autem tractatu non solum pium lectorem, sed etiam liberum correctorem desidero, maxime ubi profunda versatur veritatis quaestio, quae utinam tot haberet inventores, quot habet contradictores¹⁴». Ut autem quod quaeritur facilius occurrat, titulos, quibus singulorum librorum capitula distinguuntur, praemisimus.

Explicit prologus.

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THE MASTER'S PROLOGUE

TO THE BOOKS OF SENTENCES¹

Desiring to cast something out of our own poverty and slenderness, together with the poor widow, into the Lord's treasury², to climb steep places, we have presumed to undertake a work beyond our strength, placing the confidence of its completion and the wage of our labour in the Samaritan³, who, when two denarii had been brought out for the healing of the half-dead man, promised to repay in full whatever should be spent beyond them. The truth of him who promises delights us, but the immensity of the labour affrights us: the desire of making progress exhorts us, but the weakness of falling short dissuades us — a weakness which zeal for the house of God overcomes. «Burning with which⁴, we have striven to fortify our faith against the errors of carnal and animal men» with the shields of the tower of David, or rather to show it already fortified, and to open the hidden things of theological inquiries, and likewise to hand on a knowledge of the sacraments of the Church according to the little measure⁵ of our understanding, «not being able rightly to resist the desires of studious brethren, who demand that we serve their praiseworthy studies in Christ with tongue and pen, which two horses the charity of Christ drives in us⁶».

«Although⁷ we do not doubt that every discourse of human speech has always been liable to the calumny and contradiction of rivals, since, when the motions of wills disagree, the sense of minds also comes to disagree», «so that, although every saying is perfect by the account of truth, yet, while one thing seems or pleases to some and another to others, the error of impiety strives against a truth either not understood or giving offence⁸, and the envy of the will rebounds», «which the god of this world works in those sons of diffidence⁹, who do not subject their will to reason nor spend study upon doctrine, but strive to fit the words of wisdom to the things they have dreamed, following the account not of the true but of the pleasing, whom an iniquitous will incites not to the understanding

of truth, but to the defence¹ of the things that please them, not desiring to be taught the truth, but turning their hearing away from it to fables². Their profession is to seek out what pleases rather than what is to be taught, and not to desire the things to be taught, but to fit doctrine to the things desired. They have an account of wisdom in superstition³: because a lying hypocrisy follows upon the failure of faith, so that there may be at least⁴ in words the piety which conscience has lost; and that very simulated piety they render impious by every⁵ mendacity of words, contriving to corrupt the sanctity of faith by the institutes of false doctrine, and thrusting upon others an itching of the ears under the new-fangled dogma of their own desire — men who, being zealous for contention, war against the truth without a treaty». «For between the assertion of the true and the defence of the pleasing there is a stubborn battle, so long as both⁶ truth holds its own and the will guards its error». Wishing therefore both⁷ to overturn the church of these men, hateful to God, and to stop their mouths, lest they be able to pour out the poison of their wickedness upon others, and to lift up the lamp of truth upon the lampstand⁸, we have with much toil and sweat, God granting it, put together this volume out of the testimonies of truth founded unto eternity, divided into four books.

In it you will find⁹ the examples and the teaching of our forebears; in it, through a sincere profession of the Lord's faith, we have exposed the fraudulence of viperine doctrine, having embraced the approach of demonstrating the truth, yet not entangled¹⁰ in the peril of impious profession, using a moderation tempered between the two. But if anywhere our own voice has sounded too little¹¹, it has not departed from the paternal boundaries. «This labour, then, ought not to seem superfluous to anyone lazy or very learned, since it is necessary to many who are not lazy and to many unlearned, among whom I too am¹²» — gathering into a short volume the sentences of the Fathers, with their testimonies set alongside, so that it need not be necessary for one who seeks to unroll a multitude of books, since the brevity here collected¹³ offers without labour what is sought. «But in this treatise I desire not only a devout reader, but also a free corrector, especially where a deep question of truth is handled, which — would that it had as many discoverers as it has contradictors¹⁴». And that what is sought may come to hand the more easily, we have prefixed the titles by which the chapters of the several books are distinguished.

Here ends the prologue.

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