CONTEMPLATION AND THE FORMATION OF THE VIR SPIRITUALIS IN BONAVENTURE’S COLLATIONES IN HEXAEMERON Jay M. Hammond In 1273, from Easter (April 9) to Pentecost (May 28),1 Bonaventure delivered his Collationes in Hexaemeron at the Franciscan Convent of Cordeliers at the University of Paris.2 They are third in a series of collationes3 he delivered at Paris between 1267–1273 and represent his final synthesis.4 Attacks against the mendicants and the domi- nance of Averroistic Aristotelianism within the faculty of arts, which was making steady inroads from philosophy into theology, were two controversies within the Parisian intelligentsia that prompted Bonaventure to deliver the conferences.5 The Hexaemeron records such tension: “For there have been attacks on the life of Christ by theo- logians in morals,6 and attacks on the doctrine of Christ by the false 1 Palémon Glorieux, “La date des Collationes de S. Bonaventure,” Archivum fran- ciscanum historicum 22 (1929), pp. 257–272, especially 270–272; Jacques Guy Bougerol, Introduction à Saint Bonaventure (Paris, 1988), pp. 237–238. 2 Unless noted, all citations of the Hexaemeron are from S. Bonaventurae opera omnia, vol. 5, ed. Collegii a S. Bonaventura (Quaracchi, 1889), pp. 327–454, hereafter Hex. 3 Olga Weijers, Terminologie des universités au XIIIe siècle, (Lessico Intellettuale Europeo) 39 (Rome, 1987), pp. 374–375, identifies the Hexaemeron as belonging to the genre of university sermon on a specific theme. Moreover, when a non-regent master delivered the sermons, as is the case with Bonaventure, the collatio resembles a con- ference rather than an official university act of the studia generalia. Thus, these con- ferences took the form of a series of sermons on a designated topic of great theological import. Also see, Bougerol, Introduction, p. 227. 4 In 1267 Bonaventure delivered the Collationes de Decem Preceptis, and in 1268 the Collationes de Septem Donis Spiritus Sancti. Hex 2.1 and 3.1 (5.336a, 343a) state that the Hexaemeron continues the analysis of the Collationes de Septem Donis Spiritus Sancti. 5 Bougerol, Introduction, pp. 227–237; Cherubino Bigi, Studi sul pensiero di S. Bonaventura (Assisi, 1988), pp. 321–329; Pedro-Amador Barrajón Muñoz, La Sabiduría Cristiana según San Buenaventura: Un estudio de las Collationes in Hexaëmeron (Barcelona, 1998), pp. 16–29; Pietro Maranesi, Verbum inspiratum: Chiave ermeneutica dell’Hexaëmeron di San Bonaventura (Rome, 1996), pp. 331–344. 6 A reference to the secular masters who, led by Gerard of Abbeville, were attack- ing the mendicant ideals proposed by the Franciscan and Dominican orders; see Philippe Grand, “Gérard d’Abbeville et la pauvreté volontaire,” in Études sur l’histoire de la pauvreté, ed. Michel Mollat (Paris, 1974), pp. 389–409. 124 jay m. hammond positions of the philosophers7 in the arts.”8 In effect, morals and metaphysics frame the discourse of the collations.9 Although the text’s context is polemical,10 its content is primarily pedagogical. It teaches the audience (the intended reader) how to read, not in the grammatical sense,11 but in the contemplative sense of becoming a better exegete of Scripture in a manner akin to the linked practices of lectio divina and lectio spiritualis,12 which was emerg- ing during 12th and 13th centuries, especially within the new mendicant orders.13 While lectio divina provides the scriptural frame- work for conducting meditative exercises, lectio spiritualis offers various methods for interior reflection that mainly deal with the reader’s own affective response to a text, especially Scripture. The differentiation between the two developed into a distinction between the intellec- tual (intellectus mentis) and the affective (affectus mentis) dimensions of reading14 that parallel Bonaventure’s dual understanding of intellec- tual and sapiential contemplation,15 which in turn provide a distinct answer to the dual discourse of metaphysics and morals confronting the Franciscan community at Paris. For Bonaventure, a good exegete 7 A reference to the masters at Paris who, led by Siger of Brabant, were pro- moting Averroistic Aristotelianism, and the related claim that philosophy is self- sufficient without theology/faith/revelation; see Hadrianus Krizovljan, “Controversia doctrinalis inter magistros franciscanos et Sigerum de Brabant,” Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), pp. 121–165. 8 Hex 1.9 (5.330b): “Praecessit enim impugnatio vitae Christi in moribus per theologos, et impugnatio doctrinae Christi per falsas positiones per artistas.” 9 The twofold focus of the discourse—mores et metaphysica—parallels the develop- ing twofold character of Franciscan preaching—exhortatio et praedicatio—of which Bonaventure is a prime representative; see Bert Roest, Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent (Leiden, 2004), pp. 4–6. This twofold polemic also fits the category of the “new theology” that divided theology into two parts: theoretical and practical. See Edward Grant, God & Reason in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2001), p. 212. 10 The disputes were so intense that the University of Paris was closed in the spring of 1273; a fact that Bonaventure mentions in a sermon he delivered in Paris on April 25 in celebration of the Feast of St. Mark, see De Sancto Marco Evangelista (9.524a). 11 Suzanne Reynolds, Medieval Reading: Grammar, Rhetoric and the Classical Text (New York, 1996), pp. 7–33. 12 See Jacques Rousse, Hermann Sieben and André Boland, “Lectio divina et lecture spirituelle,” Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. 9 (Paris, 1976), cols. 470–510. 13 Sieben, “Lectio divina et lecture spirituelle,” Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, col. 488. 14 Sieben, “Lectio divina et lecture spirituelle,” Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, col. 487. 15 Jacques-Guy Bougerol, Lexique Saint Bonaventure (Paris, 1969), p. 40, and Ephrem Longpré, “Bonaventure,” Dictionnaire de spiritualité, vol. 1 (Paris, 1937), cols. 1767–1843, especially cols. 1796–1798..