This volume is a translation of selected distinctions from St. Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Sentences - Book Four. The work intends to provide English-speaking students easier access to Bonaventure’s sacramental theology. Through extensive annotations in the original language of earlier theological sources, which Bonaventure cites or to which he alludes, scholars will discover the extensive earlier sources that are behind Bonaventure’s text. This will facilitate research into the patristic and earlier medieval sources Bonaventure utilizes to develop his theology. These annotations will also reveal the breadth and depth of Bonaventure’s roots in the earlier Christian tradition.
This volume does not translate all of Bonaventure’s articles or questions on the sacraments found in his Commentary. According to the judgment of the editors, the translation covers the broad scope of Bonaventure’s treatment on sacraments; it presents thereby the foundational principles and fundamentals found in Bonaventure’s sacramental theology, especially as these pertain to the integrity of the external sign and the interior reception of grace. For this selection, the Breviloquium, Bonaventure’s own outline of his theology, was used as a guide. Thus, peripheral or specifically canonical questions were not included in this translation. Otherwise, the task and the final product would have become unmanageable and even less useful in view of the principal goals mentioned above. Given the centrality of the Eucharist, however, nearly all the questions pertaining to it are included.
The reader will note that technical theological terms, for reasons of accuracy, are not translated and remain in the original Latin. When nuances of the original Latin text could not be brought forward in the translation, the original Latin phrase or sentence is cited in the footnotes. Where there were difficulties in the Latin text itself, these too were noted in footnotes. For the annotations, which present earlier original Latin texts, the most recent critical editions were utilized in addition to earlier references to the Patrologia Latina. The English translation of Scriptural citations follows the direction of the Douay-Rheims, which follows the Vulgate.
The translation provided in this work comes from the Quaracchi critical edition. It begins with the prooemium with which Bonaventure opens Book Four on the sacraments. He here writes that sacraments are twofold “ideal remedies” for the person, who is afflicted in two ways: by “offending God,” in which one is “stripped of grace,” and “by damaging nature,” in which one is “inflicted with wounds.” Bonaventure then adds, “The sacraments are instituted with ‘word’ and ‘element’ together; so we speak of them as being not only ‘made’ but ‘made up’ for healing,” that is, as will be seen, for the healing of specific spiritual wounds.
After the prooemium, the distinctions as outlined by Bonaventure are presented. Here follows a list of these, with expanded commentary on those that appear in this translation:
Distinctions One and Two offer an introduction to the sacraments in general. From the first of these two distinctions, this volume presents questions concerning the institution, signification, content, and efficacy of the sacraments; in Distinction Two, three questions concerning the time of the institution of sacraments are treated.
Distinctions Three and Four consider questions about Baptism. The selection of questions translated, here and in each of the subsequent sacraments, emphasizes questions on the integrity and form of the sacrament, that is, on the specific sacramental and therefore signifying dimensions. Thus, in Distinction Three, all the questions that pertain to integrity and form are translated. Distinction Four focuses on questions concerning worthy reception and infant baptism.
Distinction Five was not translated, as it primarily considers canonical questions.
Distinction Six investigates the question of character in the context of whether or not Baptism can be repeated. The essence and purpose of character is pursued. This question comes up again in the sacrament of Order.1
Distinction Seven treats Confirmation. In Bonaventure’s commentary, this sacrament receives the shortest exposition, only one distinction. Here the editors chose to translate only the first part of that distinction, namely, article one, on specifically sacramental questions: the form of words used in Confirmation, the matter signifying, and the minister.
Distinctions Eight through Thirteen cover the Eucharist. All these distinctions are represented in the translation found here. All the questions of Distinction Eight (on prefiguration, institution, form and significance) are translated. The first article of Distinction Nine, which treats sacramental and spiritual eating, is translated. The article on the eating done by sinners or heretics, however, is not translated. In Distinction Ten, on the truth and mode of the presence of Christ, this volume presents the first three questions because these specifically address the “sacramental” truth and mode of Christ’s presence. Distinction Eleven, on conversio and confectio of the Eucharist, is translated in its totality because the questions in this distinction go to the heart of the sacramental nature of the Eucharist. Distinction Twelve, on accidents, efficacy, and use of the Eucharist, is translated in its entirety. Distinction Thirteen is the last distinction Bonaventure dedicates to the Eucharist, and it is also translated in full, as it treats the power of the one who ‘confects’ the Eucharist and the one who consumes it. One of the questions of this thirteenth distinction asks, Does the body of Christ descend into the human stomach or even the stomach of a mouse? Hence, a translation of nearly all the material found in these six distinctions on the Eucharist is found here. Only several small sections that have no bearing on the central question of the “sacramentality” of the Eucharist were not translated.
Distinctions Fourteen through Twenty-Two treat the sacrament of Penance. Like that on the Eucharist, the treatise on Penance is long. However, unlike the treatement of the Eucharist, the treatment on this sacrament deals with many canonical and penitential questions and deals with few questions on the sacramental integrity of this sacrament. Thus, only two questions of article two of the last distinction, Distinction Twenty-Two, are here translated: “The Sacrament of Penance in its Institution” and “Concerning the Sacrament of Penance insofar as Signification.”
Distinction Twenty-Three considers the sacrament of Extreme Unction, and it does this in two articles, both of which are here translated in their entirety. In the course of identifying the integrity of this sacrament, Bonaventure reflects upon and further develops principles already employed in treating other sacraments.
Distinctions Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five raise questions about the sacrament of Order. Distinction Twenty-Four has two parts, with two articles in each part. All of this is translated except for the first article of the first part, which deals only with questions concerning the clerical state. Then in Distinction Twenty-Five the second article is translated, which asks the question about who is able to receive this sacrament.
Distinctions Twenty-Six through Twenty-Eight seek answers to questions about the institution of the sacrament of Matrimony and investigate the integrity of the sign and the signified. Then Bonaventure approaches what he identifies as essential to the sign of the sacrament, the co-joining of male and female and the indissoluble bond based on the free consent of both parties. Finally, the last distinction further investigates the several modes of expressing free consent. These three distinctions are, for all practical purposes, translated in their entirety.
Distinctions Twenty-Nine through Forty-Two, although they concern Matrimony, are not here translated. These consider questions beyond the sacramental nature of Matrimony, e.g., impediments, consanguinity, divorce, second nuptials, etc.
Distinction Forty-Three begins Part Two of Book Four and begins discussion of the last things, those toward which the healing found in the sacraments leads, to the future coming of the Lord in glory.
This volume also includes general theological orientations to each of the sacraments. These are found at the beginning of the translated texts pertinent to each of the seven sacraments and at the beginning of Bonaventure’s treatment of the sacraments in general. These orientations provide a general perspective on the theology operative within the specific texts on each of the sacraments. The citations found in these general orientations are taken from the distinctions that follow, in order to provide the reader with guideposts for moving through the text. These general orientations are not intended to provide analysis or a systematic presentation of the theology involved. This task is left to the readers.
_______________
1 Cf. Bonaventure, Sentence Commentary, IV, d. 24, p. 2, a. 1.