Compendiosum principium in libros Sententiarum
Bonaventure (1217–1274)
A brief prefatory introduction to the books of Peter Lombard's Sentences, organized around the scriptural image of the circuit of heaven and transmitted with an editorial argument on circumincession.
Caput I: Argumentum
(From the Vatican edition. Published by the Quarrachi Collegium Fathers, Tome VI)
What each of the books of the Sentences contains, Saint Bonaventure sets forth summarily, briefly, and artfully in this little work1, having used the words of Ecclesiasticus: I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, etc. But since in the first book of the Sentences the treatment of God proceeds according to a threefold circuit, as he himself says — of which one circuit he affirms to be that concerning God according to the circumincession of the persons — it seemed worthwhile to note the concept of the name circumincession2, and its force, both among the Latin scholastic doctors and among the Greek theologians. Circumincession is therefore the same as the Greek περιχώρησις [perikhōrēsis], which word, as is evident from Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. 9, and from Damascene, third book of the Orthodox Faith, chs. 5 & 7, signifies a mutual passing-through of certain things, or a going-into one another. This word was perhaps adopted by some Latin scholastic professors on the ground that they had come upon some ancient translation of Damascene which rendered the Greek word by circumincession. For not all the ancient scholastics made mention of this term: Saint Thomas nowhere, so far as comes to mind, makes mention of it, although, in I, q. 42, a. 2, and in I Sent., d. 19, he insists upon that very question, whether the Father in the divine realm is in the Son, and conversely. But among Saint Bonaventure the use of this word is frequent, as may be seen in this little work, and in Sermon 21 of the Hexaemeron, and in I Sent., d. 19, and in many other places. Moreover, among the more recent scholastics — namely Scotus, Gabriel, Ockham, Durand, and others — the word circumincession is found. Yet the force attributed to this name by the Greek theologians our own scholastic doctors interpret differently, turning the eyes of the mind toward the thought of Sts. Hilary, Ambrose, and Augustine, whom the Master of the Sentences in the same 19th distinction of the first book brings forward in explanation of that passage of John 14: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me: these Fathers held that what is simply signified by this word of the Lord is that the persons are consubstantial with one another. For this reason, the scholastic doctors, perceiving that circumincession had been introduced by the Greeks on account of this Johannine text and similar ones, explained it as the relation of one person to another, or as the mode of inexistence whereby certain things inexist through participation or communion of nature. Hence among them the circumincession of the persons in God is nothing other than one person's being in another, and conversely. The Greek theologians, however, wished by this name to signify not only the consubstantiality of the divine persons, but rather their inseparability, their mutual and close embrace, and a kind of mutual penetration and marvellous and stupendous entry into one another — yet without any confusion or mixture. Whence it comes about that the divine persons are one, or even one God, by circumincession, because through it they are united, they indwell, they circulate around one another, and they pass into one another. For since the Father is immense, the Son immense, the Holy Spirit immense, they cannot be outside one another. And so, in order to mutually contain and measure one another, it is necessary that they do so without any confusion or mixture. This is called in Greek περιχωρεῖν [perikhōrēin], and in Latin to circumincede, or to pass freely back and forth. If you desire this matter to be explained more fully, read, among the more recent authors, Gilbert Génébrard, the Parisian theologian most skilled in the use and knowledge of languages, in his second book On the Trinity, and in his Apology against the fourteenth and fifteenth blasphemy of the heretic Schechi.
Caput II: Compendiosum principium
I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven1, etc. How inaccessible is the height of the book of the Sentences; how intricate is the investigation of the knotted profundity of the book of the Sentences; how consummate is the fullness of knowledge2 of the uncreated knowable in the book of the Sentences; how dense is the darkness of the dull and bleary intellect — all this the uncreated Wisdom shows in the proposed text: I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, etc.
The inaccessible height of the book of the Sentences is touched upon when it says: of heaven — so that we may truly say with Job: Look up at the heavens, and behold the sky, for it is higher than you.3
The intricate investigation of knotted profundity is noted when it says: I have compassed. For it is like the windings of a labyrinth to inquire into the Trinity through the knowledge of creatures.
The consummate fullness of knowledge of the uncreated knowable is noted by the name circuit.
The dense darkness of the dull and bleary intellect is noted when it says: alone. For if uncreated Wisdom alone circuits the circuit of heaven, human reason does not attain it. Whence St. Augustine also says: "The gaze of the human mind, being infirm, is not fixed upon so excellent a light."4 He says, therefore: I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, etc.
The circuit of heaven has a fourfold understanding, corresponding proportionally to the four books of the Sentences.
The circuit of heaven is called the spherical expanse of heaven, that is, the connected surface of the sphere of heaven.
The circuit of heaven is called the greater circle of the sphere of heaven, than which there is no greater in the sphere of heaven, and it passes through the centre of the earth, which is the centre of heaven. Hence the equinoctial is called the circuit of heaven, which is called the girdle of the orb, and each colure can be called a circuit of heaven.
The circuit of heaven is called the return of the first into the last and of the last into the first. And in this sense the Zodiac is called a circuit of heaven, because in it the Sun revolves from East to East by way of the West.
The circuit of heaven is called the sevenfold revolution around the Pole.5
The circuit of heaven which is the particular expanse of heaven designates the matter of the first book of the Sentences, which treats of God. Now in the first book of the Sentences God is treated according to a threefold circuit. For God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere, as Hermes Trismegistus says.6 For in the first book the treatment is of God according to the circuit of the unity of essence in the three persons, up to distinction xxxi.
The treatment is secondly of God, with regard to the circuit of the circumincession of the persons with respect to one another, from distinction xxxi up to xxxv.
The treatment is thirdly of God, with regard to the circuit of the appropriated attributes, from the thirty-fifth distinction to the end. Concerning the circuit of the unity of essence in the persons, one may understand what is written: A golden crown around the circuit.7 For since the head of Christ is God, as the Apostle says,8 and in the Canticles we read: his head is finest gold, the golden crown around the circuit is the unity of divinity in the three persons, so to speak revolving-back, not being numbered. Concerning the circuit of the circumincession of the persons into one another, one may understand what is written: He compassed the heaven in the circuit of glory.9 That arc is the uncreated and incarnate Word, a ray of the unbegotten Sun received in the concave cloud of the assumed humanity. This arc — that is, this Word of God — circuits the heaven of the Trinity (for in this way Augustine calls the third heaven10). In the circuit of glory, because both the Word is in the Father and the Father in the Word is, and the Father and the Word are in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Word. Concerning the circuit of the appropriated attributes, namely of power and the rest, one may understand what is written: He who makes the mighty depart, turning them about.11 This is the brazen lip12 which God commanded to be made in a circuit. For a lip has a certain extension and prominence, and signifies the divine essence as compared to creatures through the appropriated attributes. This lip is in a circuit, because power, wisdom, and justice are the same in God, though they do not have the same connotations.13
Secondly, the circuit of the sphere which is the greater circle of the sphere passing through the centre of the sphere most fittingly signifies the matter of the second book of the Sentences, in which the creation of the world is treated. For all principal bodies of the world are spherical. For the spherical figure is most suited to homogeneous bodies: first on account of primacy, since even regarding the first of multilateral figures the first property is proved through the circle, and through that proposition of Euclid about placing an equilateral triangle upon a given line14; second on account of capacity, for the circumscription of a spherical surface contains more than if the same were compressed into a cube; third on account of perfection, because in it the first is joined to the last.
Now in the second book the treatment is of a threefold circuit: of the circuit of the creation and production of things, from the beginning up to distinction xxi; of the circuit of the tempter and circumventer of the principal thing15 from distinction xxi — Therefore the devil, seeing, etc. — up to distinction xxx; of the circuit of transgression and the entanglement of sin, from distinction xxx to the end. Concerning the circuit of the creation and production of things brought into circuit16 one may understand what Wisdom says: The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his ways, before anything he made from the beginning. From eternity I was established, and from ancient times, before the earth was made. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he enclosed the depths with a certain law and circuit.17 Concerning the circuit of the tempter and circumventer of the principal thing, namely man, it is written in Job: Spirits surrounded his tent in a circuit — namely the malignant spirits.18 As for the circuit of the transgression and entanglement of sins, it is written of the same malignant enemy: Around the circuit of his teeth is dread.19 The circuits of the teeth are the entanglements of sins, by which the sinner is swallowed up and drawn into the body of the devil.
Matter of the third book of the Sentences. The circuit which is any revolution whatsoever, whether it be an oblique or a right circle, most fittingly signifies the matter of the third book of the Sentences, in which the treatment is of a threefold circuit: first, of the circuit of the Incarnation, in which the first was joined to the last; second, of the circuit of the Passion and Redemption, through which the last was reunited to the first; third, of the circuit of gratuitous reformation through virtues, gifts, and beatitudes, which are the means by which the lowest enjoys the highest. This threefold circuit is subtly touched upon by Ecclesiastes when he says: The sun rises: see the circuit of the Incarnation; and it sets, see the circuit of the Passion; and it returns to its circuits, see the circuit of the Resurrection; it turns toward the south, see the circuit of gratuitous reformation; it bends toward the north, behold the circuit of summer fruition, for when the Sun is in the northern signs, it is summer.20
Matter of the fourth book of the Sentences. The circuit of heaven is called the sevenfold revolution around the Pole; and this most fittingly signifies the matter of the fourth book of the Sentences, concerning which Job mystically says: Can you bind together the shining stars of the Pleiades, or can you dissipate the circuit of Arcturus?21 The circuit of Arcturus is the sign of seven stars, as Isidore teaches,22 revolving without cease around the Pole. And this sign is after the tail of the Great Bear. This circuit of seven stars signifies the circuit of the seven sacraments, which revolve continuously around the Pole, because the sacraments draw all their efficacy from the Pole of the Passion of Christ Jesus. It is called a circuit, moreover, because we flee to the sacraments both to be washed and, having been washed, to approach the Sacrament. For in the fourth book the treatment is of a threefold circuit. First, of the circuit of sacramental expiation, concerning which it was said: Can you dissipate the circuit of Arcturus? Second, of the circuit of the Resurrection, concerning which it is said in Ezekiel: He shall heap up a rampart in a circuit.23 To heap up a rampart in a circuit is to reform into the very same body in number the human body, which has been dissolved into ashes, and to reunite to it the soul. And this the Master does in distinction xliii24, when he treats of the Resurrection. Concerning this circuit one may also understand what is likewise written in Ezekiel: He led me around through the bones in a circuit, and said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live?25 Third, the circuit of judicial examination is treated toward the end of the fourth book — both with regard to the judgment of the condemnation of the reprobate and with regard to the judgment of the glorification of the elect. The circuit of the condemnation of the reprobate is understood from what is written in the Lamentations: Flames devouring it in a circuit.26 But the blessed souls are in the midst of the daughters of Palestine, who surround them27 in a circuit.28 For all of them, with lamps lit, circuit around her — that is, around the blessed soul.