BECK index

Francesco and Bonaventure

Arnold of Brescia and Peter Valdes
Hildegard of Bingen
Francesco of Assisi
Bonaventure

This is a chapter in Guides to Peace and Justice from Ancient Sages to the Suffragettes, which is published as a book. For ordering information, please click here.

It has been ordained also that at all times
disputes and suits on the subject of
the Peace and Truce of God
shall be settled before the bishop and his chapter.
Council of Toulouges Decree of 1041

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light!
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Franciscan prayer

In the beginning I call upon the First Beginning,
from whom all illuminations descend
as from the Father of Lights,
from whom comes every good and every perfect gift.
I call upon the Eternal Father
through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
that through the intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary,
the mother of the same God and Lord Jesus Christ,
and through the intercession of blessed Francesco,
our leader and father,
he may enlighten the eyes of our soul
to guide our feet in the way of that peace
which surpasses all understanding.
This is the peace proclaimed
and given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ
and preached again and again by our father Francesco.
At the beginning and end of every sermon he announced peace
in every greeting he wished for peace;
in every contemplation he sighed for ecstatic peace ­
like a citizen of that Jerusalem
of which that Man of Peace says,
who was peaceable with those who hated peace:
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."
For he knew that the throne of Solomon
would not stand except in peace, since it is written:
"In peace is his place and his abode in Sion."
Bonaventure, The Soul's Journey into God Prologue 1

Efforts to establish peace throughout Europe began in the tenth century as the French Church organized a peace movement in various places and persuaded nobles to renounce and outlaw private war and violence in order to protect pilgrims and travelers. In 989 a council at Charroux declared the Pax Dei (Peace of God) which prohibited men from forcing their way into churches to plunder them and from usurping the property of peasants. Anyone using violence on noncombatants in war was to be excommunicated. At the Council of Le Puy the next year Le Puy bishop Guy of Anjou urged all men to become sons of peace.

In 1023 in a conference at Mouzon, Robert the Pious of France and German emperor Heinrich II discussed the idea of a universal peace pact for their kingdoms and eventually for all Christendom. Starting in 1027 the Truce of God was proclaimed by church authorities in Aquitane to regulate warfare with specific laws. Military attacks were prohibited after sunset on Wednesday until sunrise on Monday as well as on all fast days and feast days including Lent. Most of Gaul adopted this beneficial law as lords swore to uphold it. All churches, unarmed clerics, and monks were declared inviolable, and peasants, flocks, and farming implements were protected. Armistices were used to stop feuding parties, and bishops got people to take pledges for peace. Heinrich II's son Heinrich III cooperated with the Truce of God, and at Constance in 1043 he pardoned all those who had injured him and encouraged his subjects to renounce vengeance and hatred.

The Catholic Church was instrumental in developing canon laws to modify the tendencies toward violence and war. In Bologna the monk and law teacher Gratian incorporated the results of the second Lateran Council (1139) in his compilation of canon law entitled A Concordance of Differing Canons or simply Decretum, which was published about 1140. In this scholastic work Gratian attempted to remove contradictions between the two principles of natural law and customs for all church practices. Gratian in his causa 23 affirmed the old Roman law that a just war must be based on both a just cause, that is redress of injuries, and a declaration by the proper authority. A formal proclamation should enumerate the reasons justifying the war, but he specifically outlawed any anticipation of imminent or future actions to attempt to justify preemptive attacks. As with Augustine, love for the enemy and the desire for lasting peace was supposed to regulate the conduct of the war. Thus violence must be controlled, and vindictiveness is disallowed. In a just war efforts should be made to protect non-combatants. These principles became a part of the chivalric ideal of knights taking up the cross.

A canon from the eleventh council of Toledo in 675 had prohibited priests from participating in any judgments involving bloodshed. Gratian allowed clerics to exhort others to defend the oppressed and attack the enemies of God; but he still forbade bishops from commanding anyone to shed blood even by imperial authority. However, Gratian did take the position that bishops with regalia could use their temporal authority to participate in an overlord's campaign provided that they did not order killing nor commit acts of violence themselves. Gratian gave permission for clerics to declare war and gave the Pope the greatest authority; but those in holy orders were forbidden to participate in the actual combat. Yet Gratian approved of the Church using force against heretics to convert them against their will.

Gratian's Decretum was influential, and several canon lawyers wrote commentaries. Concerned that the war of Philip II of France to take over Plantagenet lands in Normandy was an unjust war, Stephen Langton argued that soldiers could save their honor by refusing to fight except to defend the king. Thomas of Chobham asked bishops to persuade soldiers from fighting in unjust wars and hoped that it could be done unanimously without schism or sedition. Soldiers could remain loyal to their king but still refuse to kill Christians or plunder.

Arnold of Brescia and Peter Valdes

Arnold of Brescia was a student of Abelard. He lived simply begging his daily bread from house to house while protesting the secularization of the church and aiming to restore apostolic purity and simplicity. Arnold criticized clergy for their worldly possessions so vehemently that the Brescians expelled their bishop Manfred in 1137. While attempting to give earthly power back to the laity, he alienated the clergy; for he preached that neither clerics owning property nor bishops with regalia nor monks with possessions could be saved; he also questioned the sacraments and infant baptism. Arnold was charged for inciting the laity against the clergy at the Second Lateran Council in 1139 and was banished from Italy as a schismatic. He went back to France, and Pope Innocent II silenced him with Abelard in a convent. Abelard retired and died two years later, but Arnold gave public lectures in Paris criticizing the avarice of bishops and accusing Bernard of Clairvaux of being ambitious and envying scholars. Bernard got King Louis VII to expel Arnold from France. Arnold went to Zurich, and Bernard denounced him to the bishop of Constance. Arnold went to Passau in Germany, where he was protected by Cardinal Guido and reconciled with Pope Eugenius III in 1145.

Eugenius sent the radical Arnold to Rome on pilgrimage. After the Pope fled to France, Arnold strengthened republican sentiments and was protected by the Senate. Arnold argued that the pontiff should preside only over ecclesiastical courts and that the administration of Rome should be under the Senate and a revived equestrian order. The Romans renounced papal authority, and the city soon had a militia like the Lombard republics. Arnold was excommunicated in 1148. Adrian IV, the only English Pope, was elected in 1154. When a cardinal was attacked and wounded by Arnold's followers, Adrian put Rome under an interdict, banishing Arnold and his party. Arnold himself was captured but was given refuge by sympathetic barons. Germany's new king Friedrich Barbarossa invaded Italy in 1155 and destroyed Milan's ally town of Tortona. Pope Adrian sent a request that Arnold of Brescia should be handed over and executed by Friedrich, who had him hanged and his body burned, scattering his ashes in the Tiber to prevent the people from venerating his body. Arnold's doctrines were eventually declared heretical by a council at Verona in 1184.

Intolerance for what Church authorities called heresy had led to only occasional persecution for many centuries; but in the 13th century authorities of the Catholic Church would launch major efforts to eliminate heresy. A village priest named Peter de Bruis from the Alps preached there and influenced the Rhone Valley for about twenty years. He rejected infant baptism and opposed veneration of the cross, preferring the teachings of the Gospels to the traditions of the Church. About 1140 he was killed at St. Gilles when he was pushed into the fire in which he was burning crucifixes. A priest and monk named Henri, who began his radical preaching about 1116 at Le Mans, became known as a Petrobrusian; but he was ordered to stop preaching by a council at Pisa in 1133. Pope Eugenius III sent Bernard of Clairvaux and others in 1145 to preach against Henri, who was imprisoned by the bishop of Toulouse.

Peter Valdes was a successful merchant and money-lender at Lyons and asked his friend Stephen d'Anse to translate the scriptures into the vernacular language. After Stephen died in an accident in 1173, Peter suddenly gave away his wealth for a life of poverty in order to practice the Gospels. His followers were called Waldensians. They preached and had the scriptures translated into the vernacular Occitan. Both male and female Waldensians preached, were celibate, and owning nothing, they lived on alms. They memorized portions of the vernacular Bible to enhance their preaching. They did not believe in taking oaths nor in killing, not even as judicial punishment.

Peter Valdes attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179, signed an orthodox statement required of suspected heretics, and was confirmed in his poverty by Pope Alexander III; but the next year Lyons archbishop Jean de Bellesmains forbade the Waldensians to preach, and in 1182 they were excommunicated and driven from the city. Two years later the Waldensians and the Humiliati of Lombardy were condemned by a papal synod at Verona. Waldensians believed the Roman Church fell into heresy when Sylvester was Pope (314-35), and they criticized the corruption of clergy and rejected Church authority and some sacraments. Yet many of them spoke against the Cathars, and in 1205 the Italian and French Waldensians separated. In 1208 those led by Durand of Huesca returned to orthodoxy and were known as Poor Catholics, and Pope Innocent III allowed them to preach on moral behavior.

The Catholic Church was instrumental in developing canon laws to modify the tendencies toward violence and war. In Bologna the monk and law teacher Gratian incorporated the results of the Second Lateran Council (1139) in his compilation of canon law entitled A Concordance of Differing Canons or simply Decretum, which was published about 1140. In this scholastic work Gratian attempted to remove contradictions between the two principles of natural law and customs for all church practices. Gratian in his causa 23 affirmed the old Roman law that a just war must be based on both a just cause, that is redress of injuries, and a declaration by the proper authority. A formal proclamation should enumerate the reasons justifying the war, but he specifically outlawed any anticipation of imminent or future actions to attempt to justify preemptive attacks. As with Augustine, love for the enemy and the desire for lasting peace was supposed to regulate the conduct of the war. Thus violence must be controlled, and vindictiveness is disallowed. In a just war efforts should be made to protect non-combatants. These principles became a part of the chivalric ideal of knights taking up the cross.
A canon from the eleventh council of Toledo in 675 had prohibited priests from participating in any judgments involving bloodshed. Gratian allowed clerics to exhort others to defend the oppressed and attack the enemies of God; but he still forbade bishops from commanding anyone to shed blood even by imperial authority. However, Gratian did take the position that bishops with regalia could use their temporal authority to participate in an overlord's campaign provided that they did not order killing nor commit acts of violence themselves. Gratian gave permission for clerics to declare war and gave the Pope the greatest authority; but those in holy orders were forbidden to participate in the actual combat. Yet Gratian approved of the Church using force against heretics to convert them against their will.
Gratian's Decretum was influential, and several canon lawyers wrote commentaries. Concerned that the war of Philip II of France to take over Plantagenet lands in Normandy was an unjust war, Stephen Langton argued that soldiers could save their honor by refusing to fight except to defend the king. Thomas of Chobham asked bishops to persuade soldiers from fighting in unjust wars and hoped that it could be done unanimously without schism or sedition. Soldiers could remain loyal to their king but still refuse to kill Christians or plunder.

Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard was born in Mainz in 1098, and she was only about eight years old when she was dedicated to a religious life in the cell of an anchoress named Jutta at Disibodenberg. By the age of 15 Hildegard was bewildered by her extraordinary perceptions, but she eventually confided them to Jutta. Until Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard had little contact with the world; but then she was appointed prioress by Abbot Kuno. She apparently had visions often, but her life changed dramatically in 1141 after a blinding vision by a very brilliant light helped her understand her religious reading. When she did not obey the call to write, she eventually became so sick that she told Volmar, who got permission for her to begin writing her major work Scivias that took ten years to complete. Bernard of Clairvaux brought her writing to the attention of Pope Eugenius, and in 1148 the Pope sent her a letter encouraging her to record her visions. In 1147 Hildegard had proclaimed that God commanded that her nunnery move to Rupertsberg. At first her proposal was dismissed; but Hildegard withdrew in silence to her bed. They rebuilt the ruins of Rupertsberg and moved there in 1150, gaining autonomy but compromising on property settlements. Hildegard also resisted the leaving of her friend and assistant Richardis, who was appointed an abbess; but Hildegard later repented of this attachment.

Hildegard described her own era as an effeminate time, and she prophesied that the churches would have their temporal powers confiscated as a just punishment for their greed. She wrote to Pope Anastasius IV prophesying the ruin of Rome; but, like Joachim of Fiore, she foresaw rising from the ruins a new nation in which pagans, Jews, the worldly, and the unbelievers will be converted in a regenerated world of peace. In 1158 Hildegard began writing her Book of the Rewards of Life and traveling to preach despite her poor health. In 1163 she undertook her cosmological Book of the Divine Works, which was also based on visions and took about eleven years to write. A biography of her by Godfrey of Disibodenberg described at length how Hildegard exorcised a woman who had been suffering from an evil spirit for eight years. After Godfrey died, Guibert of Gembloux replaced him in 1177 as Hildegard's secretary and as provost to the nuns. In the last year of her life before she died in 1179, Hildegard struggled to keep undisturbed the grave of an excommunicated man even though the district of Mainz was put under interdict for a time.

The title Scivias means "know the ways," and this long book is a visionary theology. Hildegard criticized the clergy who polluted church buildings with murders or fornication. She recommended repentance and confession to a priest. She approved of marriage but condemned homosexual behavior as a sin against God and the ordained union of man and woman; she also criticized masturbation and bestiality. To reduce sexual lust she advised replacing the meat of mammals with that of birds. Many of the virtues are described as being feminine. In the vision of the tower anticipating God's will the five strong virtues that occur in people by God's will are heavenly love, discipline, modesty, mercy, and victory. In her vision of the stone wall of the old law Hildegard described figures representing the eight virtues of abstinence, liberality, piety, truth, peace, beatitude, discretion, and salvation. In the final vision of the symphony of the blessed the virtues fight for the king of kings to win victory over the devil's arts. This vision was adapted into an operatic morality play called The Play of Virtues (Ordo virtutum), which is an allegorical presentation of the soul tempted by the devil but rescued by the virtues. Hildegard also composed canticles and chants for religious services.

Hildegard also wrote about nature and medicine, describing more than 200 herbs in her Physica, and she discussed healing and herbs further in Causes and Cures. She described the four humors as choleric (yellow bile) that is hot and relates to fire, sanguine (blood) that is dry and relates to air, phlegmatic (phlegm) that is moist and relates to water, and melancholic (black bile) that is cold and relates to earth. According to this theory illness is caused by an imbalance of these humors. Essentially all Hildegard's writings derive from her visions of what she called the light of life that she said she perceived not with her senses but within her soul.

In The Book of the Rewards of Life (Liber vitae meritorum) Hildegard described 35 vices, and to counter them she recommended fasting, flagellation, and ascetic prayer. For each vice she advised the response of an appropriate virtue. One could respond to worldly love with heavenly love, to impudence with discipline, to jesting with shyness, to hard-heartedness with mercy, to slothfulness with divine victory, to anger with patience, and to foolish joy with sighing for God. She noted that impudence leads people away from honesty, and she explained how foolish joy can follow anger, which she considered the worst fault. She wrote that one could respond to gluttony with abstinence, to bitterness with bountifulness, to impiety with piety, to falseness with truth, to strife with peace, to unhappiness with blessedness, to immoderation with discretion, and to destruction of souls with the salvation of souls. It is best to respond to pride with humility, to envy with charity, to vainglory with fear of the Lord, to disobedience with obedience, to unfaithfulness with faith, to despair with hope, and to luxury with chastity. Her visions showed how God responds to injustice with justice, to numbness with strength, to forgetfulness with holiness, to changeableness with steadiness, to care of earthly things with heavenly desire, to obstinacy with sorrow of the heart, to desire with contempt for the world, and to discord with concord. She also saw how one could respond to scurrility with reverence, to aimlessness with quiet stability, to wrong doing with true care of God, to avarice with pure contentment, and to the sorrow of time with heavenly joy. She observed that good masters, like good air, guide their disciples with discretion and immediate correction. She concluded this visionary book with descriptions of heavenly joys and blessings.

Francesco of Assisi

Born at Assisi in Umbria probably in September 1181, his mother Pica had her first son baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. His father Pietro di Bernardone was a cloth merchant traveling in France; when he returned, he re-named the boy Francesco after that country. According to the earliest biography by Thomas of Celano, Francesco received little or no religious instruction when he was young and thus was under the sway of his vices. Brought up with servants, the wealthy young Francesco worked in his father's lucrative business and was generous to his friends in games and entertainment, becoming a leader among his peers.

In 1199 a civil war broke out in Assisi. The burghers and lower classes (minores) revolted against the nobles, who were defeated and fled to Perugia, including the families of Clare and Leonardo. Francesco may have learned how to use brick and mortar in the wall around Assisi then erected. Francesco fought for Assisi against their rival Perugia in November 1202 at the battle of Collestrada; but they were defeated, and he was captured and held prisoner for a year. When he became ill, Francesco was ransomed by his father. After two years of illness he still dreamed of becoming a knight; he outfitted himself better than most knights and went to join the papal forces led by Count Gentile against Friedrich II in Apulia; but in 1205 at Spoleto he had a vision guiding him to return to Assisi to serve God instead of a lower master. Thomas of Celano wrote that Francesco began to despise himself and feel contempt for the things he had valued and loved before. He was promised a most beautiful spouse, who would excel all in wisdom. He prayed in solitude to learn the will of God and went on a pilgrimage to Rome, where mingling with beggars he overcame his loathing of leprosy by kissing a leper.

While praying in the ruins of the San Damiano church near Assisi, Francesco received the message that he should repair the broken-down church. So he went home, gathered some cloth, and sold it with his horse at Foligno, planning to give the money to the priest at San Damiano. His father complained and locked him up for several days; but while his father was gone, his mother released him. When his father took him to the bishop, Francesco gave everything he had back to his father, even stripping off his clothes so that the bishop was moved to cover him with a mantle. He once was thrown into a ditch of snow by robbers, and he worked for a few days as a scullion in a monastery. Francesco lived with lepers and washed them at Gubbio in 1206. One day he upbraided a poor man for begging; but later he repented, reproached himself, and vowed he would never again refuse anyone who asked for the love of God. Living in poverty and dressing like a hermit, Francesco worked restoring San Damiano and the Porziuncula chapel. On February 24, 1208 he heard a mass that included the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples going out to preach. So Francesco reduced himself to even simpler poverty, giving up his extra cloak and sandals, and he began to preach repentance.

In April 1208 Francesco gained his first companions or disciples that included Bernard, Peter Catanii, and Giles. Bernard set the example of selling all his goods and giving the money to the poor. Francesco and Giles went on a mission to the Marches of Ancona. Philip and two others joined the band that summer, and soon four pairs went on missions with Bernard and Giles going to Florence. In 1209 Francesco wrote his first rule for his eleven companions, and they went to Rome to gain the approval of Pope Innocent III. Sabina bishop John became their advocate and argued that if the pontiff refused their request because he considered it too difficult, he would be offending the teaching of Jesus. Francesco told a parable about a rich king who had children by a beautiful but poor woman. Francesco said that he was that woman and that the Eternal King would provide for the poor children, his followers. The Pope told Francesco to preach penance to all. As they traveled through the Spoleto valley, they begged from door to door as needed. They practiced holy simplicity, which Francesco called the daughter of grace, the sister of wisdom, and the mother of justice. He noted that pleasure is short, but punishment is eternal; suffering is small compared to infinite glory; retribution comes to all. Few writings of Francesco exist. Among his Admonitions is the following:

Where there is charity and wisdom,
there is neither fear nor ignorance.
Where there is patience and humility,
there is neither anger nor disturbance.
Where there is poverty with joy,
there is neither covetousness nor avarice.
Where there is inner peace and meditation,
there is neither anxiousness nor dissipation.
Where there is fear of the Lord to guard the house,
there the enemy cannot gain entry.
Where there is mercy and discernment,
there is neither excess nor hardness of heart.1

Francesco preached boldly without flattery or seductive blandishments. He reproved himself sternly and disciplined others similarly, saying that he corrected and chastised those whom he loved. He named his Order Friars Minor, because he considered them lesser brothers. Thomas of Celano described the group as having chaste embraces, gentle feelings, pleasing conversation, modest laughter, joyous looks, submissive spirits, peaceable tongues, mild answers, oneness of purpose, ready obedience, and unwearied hands. They did not resist insults, ridicule, beatings, robbing nor imprisonment, and they did not seek patronage for protection. Francesco taught his companions to consider money like dung, and so they avoided it. They despised all worldly things and strove for peace and gentleness. Francesco slept on the bare ground and rarely ate cooked food. If he saw someone with garments worse than what he was wearing, he would give them his. He preached to the birds and other animals that they should be grateful to their Creator. Francesco believed that the safest guard against the devil's temptations is inner spiritual joy. Thus he made a point of keeping joy in his heart. He avoided the miserable illness of dejection. If he felt it creeping into his mind even a little, he would quickly have recourse to prayer.

In 1211 Francesco embarked for Palestine but was shipwrecked in Dalmatia. The next year Clare of Favarone (1194-1253) came back to Assisi, and after staying in convents for a few weeks she moved into San Damiano while Count Orlando offered Mount La Verna to Francesco as a hermitage. Clare was joined by her cousin Pacifica of Guelfuccio and her own younger sister Agnes, and the religious community of Clare and her poor sisters was soon organized. Francesco once wrote to her, "Live always in the truth, that you may die in obedience. Do not look at the life outside, for that of the Spirit is better."2 Some time before attending the Fourth Lateran Council, Francesco visited Spain but was too ill to go to Morocco. In 1217 missions were sent beyond the Alps and abroad. Giles went to Tunis and Elias to Syria, but Francesco was stopped on his way to France by Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia. In 1219 Hugolino wrote the Rule for the Poor Ladies that was approved by Francesco and confirmed by Pope Honorius III.

In 1219 Francesco wrote a letter to the rulers of the peoples warning them to pause and reflect, because the day of death is approaching. Those who are wiser and more powerful in this world will have greater punishments in the next. He urged them to remember God and follow the commandments, suggesting that a town crier be appointed to exhort people to thank and praise God. John of La Penna led sixty brothers to Germany, and the troubadour Pacifico, who had been crowned king of the poets by the Emperor, went to France. Giles went to Tunis, and the five brothers who went to Morocco suffered martyrdom. Also in 1219 Francesco went to the crusade at Damietta, where after being insulted and beaten he tried to convert the Egyptian sultan Malik al-Kamil. Francesco despised the many rich gifts bestowed upon him, impressing the Sultan as someone unique. According to a companion, Francesco had a vision that the Christians would lose the battle that was about to occur; but his warnings, forbidding of the war, and denunciations of its reasons were to no avail. In the defeat it was reported that 6,000 Christians were killed or captured. Francesco visited Palestine, and during these travels he contracted an eye infection.

When Francesco returned to Italy by way of Venice, Cardinal Hugolino was appointed protector of the Order. Brothers were established in a house in St. Denis near Paris, where they were led by the theologian Aymon of Faversham. Francesco recovered from malaria but gave up the leadership to Peter Catanii and obeyed him; but Peter died in March 1221. Elias became vicar, and 3,000 brothers attended the Pentecost chapter that year. Cardinal Hugolino also protected the Order of Poor Ladies founded by Clare, and the third Order for married men and women called the Penitential Brothers was approved by Pope Honorius. They were to be in the world but not of the world. Those joining pledged to give back all unjustly acquired goods, to pay tithes owed, to make their wills, and not to swear nor hold public office. They wore a distinctive poor habit and spent their time in prayer and works of charity. Francesco and Hugolino, who was living in Bologna, wrote their first Rule that prohibited the carrying of weapons and required women to gain their husbands' consent before joining.

The Rule Francesco wrote for the Lesser Brothers states that brothers must live without anything of their own and in chastity and obedience. Anyone wanting to accept their life should sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. The brothers should not become involved in these temporal affairs nor should they accept money. After a probation of one year the brother may be accepted into obedience. All brothers should wear poor clothes that can be patched with sackcloth. The brothers are to pray the divine office and fast from All Saints until Christmas and from Epiphany until Easter. Brothers are assigned to provinces but may meet once a year. No one is bound to obey anything that is contrary to their life or against their conscience, but they should reasonably and diligently consider the actions of ministers and servants, admonishing them if they are not according to the Spirit. Any brother wishing to live according to the flesh is to be admonished, instructed, and corrected humbly and diligently.

The Rule further states that no one is to be called Prior as they are all Lesser Brothers. In their work none should be administrators or managers; they may have tools for their trades. They are not to receive nor carry money for any purpose except what is needed to care for sick brothers. Alms are a legacy from Jesus and are the due right of the poor. Everything people leave behind in the world will perish, but they will be rewarded by the Lord for the charity they have done. Brothers are not to murmur nor detract from others. They should avoid impure glances and association with women. A brother committing the sin of fornication is to be expelled from the Order. Brothers are not to ride horses except for an extreme necessity or sickness. No brother is to preach contrary to the Church and only if authorized. Yet all brothers may preach by their deeds. Francesco wrote the second Rule two years later; it was discussed in Rome and also was approved by Pope Honorius, whom Francesco promised to obey.

In 1224 a mission was sent to England, and that summer Elias received the message that Francesco only had two years to live. After fasting, Francesco was believed to have received the stigmata of nail wounds in the hands and feet and a spear wound in the side as though he had been crucified; but he kept it secret. He showed his love of nature in his famous "Canticle to Brother Sun." In the various biographies many incidents are described in which Francesco performed healings or showed with his words that he understood spiritually things that occurred during his absence. He prophesied that Perugia would fall into a civil war; soon after that the citizens of Perugia fought the knights, and the nobles attacked the common people, each destroying the vineyards and fields of the other. Francesco wanted all his brothers to work, and he encouraged them to learn a craft. He would reproach anyone who was idle and vagrant, calling him Brother Fly, because he did nothing good himself, poisoned the good of others, and was useless and obnoxious to all. He referred to his body as Brother Ass, for he subjected it to heavy labor, beating it with whips, and feeding it the poorest food.

Francesco suffered frequent infirmities, because he chastised his body and was exhausted, traveling with little sleep. Although he taught that brother body should be provided with discretion, Thomas of Celano wrote that this was his only teaching in which his actions differed from his words; for Francesco would subject his innocent body to scourgings and want, multiplying its wounds without cause. By 1225 he was so ill that he had to ride a donkey. For a long time Francesco refused to see a doctor. Finally Brother Elias persuaded him to do so. His head was cauterized; his veins were bled; and plasters and eye-salves were applied; but his condition became worse. Nearly blind, Francesco kept on, saying, "Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up to now we have made little or no progress."3 He warned that it was dangerous to rule, especially in such a wicked era. In the last year of his life Francesco, though ill, helped to make peace between the bishop and the podesta who were feuding in Assisi. He composed new verses for his Sun Song:

Praised be You, my Lord,
through those who give pardon for Your love
and bear infirmity and tribulation.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,
for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.4

Following the song the podesta and Bishop Guido embraced and forgave each other. Six months before his death, Francesco became even more ill with a serious stomach condition and an infected liver that caused him to vomit blood. Before he died on October 3, 1226, Francesco gave Brother Elias his special blessing and warned his disciples of coming tribulations and scandals that would separate some. Many miraculous healings were attributed to Francesco, and he was proclaimed a saint in 1228 after Hugolino became Pope Gregory IX.

Also in 1228 the Pope issued a document allowing Clare and her sisters to live in poverty and reject worldly goods. They followed the principles of Francesco but stayed within their communities instead of going out into the world. After 1234 Clare wrote letters to Bohemian king Ottokar's daughter Agnes, who supported her efforts for a more strict rule in line with the poverty ideals of Francesco rather than the Benedictine Rule. Pope Innocent IV gave the Poor Ladies a new Rule in 1247. Clare also practiced such severe asceticism and penance that her health was poor for 28 years. She wrote a Rule calling for more intense poverty and died two days after Innocent IV approved it with the papal bull Solet annuere in 1253. When Clare died, the Poor Ladies had 68 nunneries in Italy, 21 in Spain, 14 in France, and 8 in the Germanic countries.

Bonaventure

Bonaventure was born as Giovanni Fidanza in Bagnorea, Tuscany about 1217. His father was a physician, but Bonaventure believed he was saved from death by the intercession of Francesco of Assisi. He entered the University of Paris in 1235 and earned his master of arts degree in 1243. Then he joined the Franciscan order and was named Bonaventure, studying theology in their college at the University for five more years. He was influenced by Alexander of Hales, who died in 1245. He began lecturing and wrote a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, attaining a master of theology degree in 1254. The next year Bonaventure was excluded from the University faculty because of a controversy over the mendicant orders. He defended the Franciscans from William of St. Amour's charges that they defamed the Gospel by their begging and poverty.

In 1257 Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas were reinstated as faculty at the University of Paris by papal intervention. However, the same year Bonaventure was elected minister general of the Franciscans, and he turned his attention to monastic administration. He showed how one could attain God through love in his Journey of the Mind to God, written in 1259. The next year he revised the constitutions of the Franciscan Order, and in 1263 he published a biography of Francesco of Assisi. In 1265 he declined the appointment as archbishop of York, but he was made bishop of Albano and a cardinal in 1273. At the Council of Lyons in 1274 Bonaventure preached for a reunion with the Eastern Church, but he died during the conference. While his contemporary Thomas Aquinas emphasized contemplation, Bonaventure recommended the mystical path of love to union with God.

Bonaventure divided moral philosophy into ethics, economics, and politics. Ethics has to do with a person's actions as an individual, economics as a member of domestic society, and politics as a member of civil society. In Bonaventure's philosophy the universe emanates from God, the divine is the exemplar of life, and God is the goal and perfect end. Human action is good when the will producing it is good, and the will is only good when it conforms to God as the directing principle and is ultimately united to God in a peaceful end. If the relation with God is broken, then evil enters. Although an evil intention makes an action bad, a good intention is not sufficient to make an action good. Not only must the end intended be good, but the action itself must also be good.

Bonaventure believed that to serve God is the greatest freedom, because to serve the divine is to rule. He defined natural law as the impression made on the soul by eternal law. Although some people may be ignorant of written laws, everyone can know the natural law that is imprinted in all by the Creator. From this natural law Bonaventure derived the precepts that God should be honored, loved, and feared; parents should be respected and revered; hierarchical order should be observed; peace should be maintained; all should be given their due; you should not do to others what you do not want them to do to you; and you should do to others what you want them to do to you. Bonaventure considered conscience a habit of the practical intellect that corresponds to science, a habit of the speculative intellect. Conscience derives from natural law; but in its practical application it may or may not conform to divine will, because it is prone to error. When a rule of action is discovered to be contrary to natural law, a person is obligated to reform it. Bonaventure used the term "synderesis" to refer to that within the soul that does always incline the will toward good, that causes it to shrink from what is evil, and that feels remorse after evil is committed.

Bonaventure found that humans are social because they desire companionship, because they are not self-sufficient but need others to satisfy natural desires, and because they share their gifts with others. This includes sharing knowledge, and Bonaventure considered it a sin to know and to refuse to teach others just as it is a sin for a wealthy person to refuse to help the needy. Thus aid to fellows should be economical, educational, and moral. Order is part of natural law and also affects social order. Bonaventure compared society to an organism that requires cooperation between its elements, and various functions require a hierarchy of powers, offices, and dignities based on differing abilities, aptitudes, and merits. He believed that the need for submission and obedience makes authority naturally lawful so that humans can live in peace and harmony.

Justice is the general principle of social order. Bonaventure's first law of justice is to worship, honor, praise, and obey God. The second law of justice regulates our relations to our neighbors, and it is based on the two aspects of the golden rule, or what some call the golden and silver rules. Bonaventure called the principle stated in the negative (do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you) the law of innocence, and the positive principle (do to others what you wish others to do to you) the law of beneficence or doing good. His third law of justice is the duty of rulers and subjects to work for the common good. Rulers are to govern, not for their own private interests, but for the good of all, and the subjects should aid the rulers by seeing that the rules are observed. Bonaventure's fourth principle of moral justice is having correct judgment in regard to persons, things, and ways of acting. Yet even justice is not sufficient for social well-being because it tends to deteriorate if the most essential ingredient of love is lacking. More than anything, charity fosters and protects right order, and it promotes the practice of virtue and observance of law. Charity above all produces true and perfect harmony in society.

A good society depends on the mutual aid of its various members. Free will is what enables humans to act in conformity with their rational and social nature according to the divine plan imprinted in our spiritual nature. For Bonaventure the ultimate end of society is to help humans attain eternal happiness in union with God by providing the material, intellectual, and moral elements that enable people to live virtuously. Bonaventure believed that society requires some authority to guide and direct all to the common goods as the head directs the physical body. Bonaventure perceived a hierarchy in nature that should also be reflected in society with differing entities being influenced from those above while influencing those below to purify, illuminate, and perfect. Just below the divine hierarchy of God and the angels are humans, which he called the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Manual workers produce the material goods needed by all to live. Government administrators and workers are needed to protect, defend, and assist in order to uphold order, justice, and peace. Bonaventure saw the spiritual good being advanced by the prelates correcting the erring and instructing people while the contemplatives are devoted to prayer. Each of the three groups needs the others so that all may receive support, protection, and consolation. The secular and clerical authorities should cooperate together for the betterment of all.

Bonaventure believed that the natural desire for procreation in humans can find expression by natural law in marriage, which he defined as the union of a man and a woman living together in undivided partnership. The generative instinct that all animals share should be governed in humans by rational faculties. In addition to the conjugal love required for procreation, humans have the social love of living together in friendship. All people are free to marry or not to marry, even slaves. No one is obliged to marry because the species is continued by others. Bonaventure believed the male characteristics of strength, virility, and stability complement the feminine traits of weakness, gentleness, and tenderness. Both men and women are equally endowed with rationality and are therefore equal. Women are meant to be companions of men but not their slaves; their obligations and rights are equal, though Bonaventure did grant the husband authority over the wife, as the prince rules a subject. The value of the marriage contract is for unity and stability as well as for teaching the children. Bonaventure recommended marriage for life and considered fidelity a moral good. Matrimony is a love-society.

Parental authority derives from their procreation of children, and Bonaventure believed the father should be educator, provider, and benefactor. The mother loves the home and is to help the father, who must defend the children and the peace of the domestic order. Yet parental authority declines as the child matures, and they may not interfere with their children's innate right to choose their own life especially after they leave the household. Parents should watch over the moral development, inculcating good habits so their children may acquire virtues. Bonaventure considered it the duty of the father to leave his worldly goods to his children. Because children receive so much from their parents, they are obligated to revere, obey, and do good to their parents. Natural law commands children to love their parents even more than their own children. Yet the obligation to obey one's parents ends when the son or daughter reaches majority and leaves their household. No one is bound to obey any authority that commands something against God's law.

When the state is badly administered, Bonaventure blamed the people. He observed that leaders selected by heredity tend to govern badly, and he argued that societies in which the rulers are elected by the people are far better regulated. If order is not preserved but is perverted, the ruler deserves to lose his authority and power. Christians are obligated to obey earthly authorities but only in what is reasonable and not against God. If one is commanded to do anything contrary to God's laws, Bonaventure held that one is forbidden to obey. The best government respects and takes into consideration the needs and desires of the people, but those in authority have the duty to constrain those who violate the right order. Those elected to positions of authority should have knowledge of law-making and administration. In discussing religious authorities Bonaventure believed that they should have the six virtues of justice, compassion, patience, an exemplary life, prudence, and piety.

Bonaventure believed that the responsibility of a father to care for his children grants him the right of having private property. Because people are corrupt, it is needed to prevent quarrels and contention, though some groups such as the Franciscans are able to share things in common. He did not condemn riches themselves but the inordinate desire for riches. Dissipation is when earthly goods are not well distributed. Aiding the poor is not merely charity but justice as well because excess riches should belong to the poor and be distributed to them. Bonaventure condemned usury as the misappropriation of what belongs to another. The rich should assist the needy and be satisfied with having a loan repaid in full. Yet Bonaventure believed that everyone who is capable should work, though not all work is manual labor. Those who supply people's spiritual needs are also working for the good of society.

Bonaventure emphasized the four cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Prudence discovers and selects the virtuous mean; temperance guards it; justice distributes it; and courage defends it. Temperance modifies; prudence rectifies; justice orders; and courage stabilizes. He considered prudence the most essential of all the moral virtues. Of Aristotle's twelve virtues of moderation he selected as sufficient for the eradication of vice the following six: chastity, generosity, fortitude, gentleness, goodness, and magnanimity. He also found the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love necessary for salvation. Bonaventure envisioned a society of mutual aid rather than competition, a society of friends, not rivals and strangers. He pleaded for mercy and sharing, hoping all would share their gifts. He wrote,

As good dispensers of the divine gifts,
each one is bound to administer to the other
according to what he has received.
This is done by aiding the needy, by teaching the ignorant,
by correcting the delinquent, by bearing with the malicious,
by comforting the afflicted, by elevating the fallen,
by having compassion on all unfortunates,
by showing peace and love to all men.5

For Bonaventure love is what unifies and crowns the social order that goes from God to ourselves to blood relatives to friends and associates to all humans including strangers and enemies and finally to our bodies. Love is the mother of all virtues, and charity is what produces a true and perfect oneness among all.

Notes

1. Francis of Assisi, The Admonitions 27 tr. Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady in Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, p. 35.
2. Francis of Assisi, "The Canticle of Exhortation to Saint Clare and Her Sisters" 2-3 tr. Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady in Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, p. 40.
3. Thomas of Celano, The First Life of St. Francis 103, book 2, chapter 6, tr. Placcid Hermann, p. 94.
4. Francis of Assisi, "The Canticle of Brother Sun" 10-11 tr. Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady in Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, p. 39.
5. S. de Diversis, De Modo Vivendi, IX, p. 724 quoted in De Benedictis, Matthew M., The Social Thought of Saint Bonaventure, p. 255.

Copyright © 2005 by Sanderson Beck

This is a chapter in Guides to Peace and Justice from Ancient Sages to the Suffragettes, which is published as a book. For ordering information, please click here.

Prophets of Israel
Chinese Sages
Upanishads and Yoga
Mahavira and Buddha
Greek Philosophers and Aristophanes
Stoic Philosophers
Jesus and the Early Christians
Zarathushtra, Mani, and the Cathars
Sufis, Philosophers, and Nanak
Francesco and Bonaventure
Dante, Marsilius, and Petrarch
Magna Carta to Wyclif
Erasmus, Anabaptists, and Mennonites
International Law Pioneers
Quakers: Fox and Penn's Holy Experiment
Peace Plans of Rousseau, Bentham, and Kant
Abolitionists, Emerson, and Thoreau
Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá on World Peace
Tolstoy on the Law of Love
Suffragettes and Women's Rights

HISTORY OF PEACE Contents

Bibliography
Chronology of Peacemaking

BECK index