Franciscan Studies

THREEFOLD EXISTENCE AND ILLUMINATION IN SAINT BONAVENTURE In the first chapter of his Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Bonaventure begins by establishing the basic ternary division of the work in accordance with the modes of exemplarity (vestige, image, and God as exemplar) and the orientations of the soul (outside, within and above self). With regard to these divisions he comments: this is the threefold illumination of one day, the first illumination being like evening, the second like morning, and the third like midday; this pertains to the threefold existence of things, namely in matter, in the understanding and in the eternal Art, according as it is said: Let it be, He made it, and it was made.1 In this passage Bonaventure is making use of angelogical considerations deriving from Augustine's interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, transferring them so that here they apply primarily to man. Angelogically considered, the illumination referred to is that of the angehe intelligence, and the day is any one of the six days of creation, but where these are understood as describing the manner of angelic cognition rather than a sequence of temporal periods. Similarly, the description of the three modes of existence pertains to angeUc cognition and its involvement in creation. In the following study I shaU first describe the origin of these considerations in Augustine; second, I shall discuss Bonaventure's treatment and understanding of Augustine's interpretation; third, 1 "...haec est triplex illuminatio unius diei, et prima est sicut vespera, secunda sicut mane, tertia sicut meridies; haec respicit triplicem rerum existentiam, scilicet in materia, in intelligentia et in arte aeterna, secundum quam dictum est: fiat, fecit, et factum est..." Itinerarium, 1.3 (V, 297). All citations from Bonaventure are from the Opera Omnia (Quaracchi, 1882-1902). Citations that intervene between internal and page references (e.g. n. 35, below) indicate passages by incipit and explicit. Column references (a or b) are given when useful. Threefold Existence and Illumination in Saint Bonaventure191 I shaU seek to establish what Bonaventure, in the Ught of his anthropology , would be expected to understand by threefold Ulumination and existence when these are considered in regard to men rather than angels ; and fourth, I shaU look at some passages that reveal his use of Augustine's description of threefold iUumination and existence in a human context. In this way we can arrive at an understanding of the text from the Itinerarium which I have taken as our point of departure. Insofar as this study is concerned with Bonaventure's use of Augustine's interpretation of Gen. 1, it can be said to concern an influence of Augustine on Bonaventure. However, I have set aside the questions of whether this influence is direct or indirect, of how it is shaped by other scholastic discussions, and so on. I On the first day "God said: Let there be Ught; and there was Ught" (et dixit Deus: Fiat lux; et facta est lux. Gen. 1:3). It is written with regard to the second day not only that God said "Let there be a firmament" and that it was made, but also that God made it (et dixit Deus: Fiat firmamentum... Et sic est factum... et fecit Deus firmamentum . Gen. 1:6-7). Thus, in addition to fiat and factum est there is fecit in the description of the second day. Augustine draws attention to this in the second book of his De Genesi ad Litteram.2 According to his understanding of the text the accounts of every day except the first include all three components, impUcitly or explicitly .3 Augustine's explanation of this is as follows. The light created on the first day is the angeUc inteUigence. The term fiat refers to the 2 De Genest ad Litteram, II. 7-8, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 28.3.2, pp. 42-45 (PL 34:268-70). See especially summary at ch. 8, p. 45, 5-15 (PL 34:270, sect. 19). Augustine is using the Old Latin version, in which sic est factum precedes fecit in Gen. 1:6-7; cf. De Genesi ad Litteram, IV.22, p. 122, 4-7 (PL 34:312): "...quod in eius cognitione...