The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): MarchBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
During the Lent of 1250 or 1253, the city patrol came in collision with
a party of students, killed one of them, wounded three others, and
carried them off to prison. The secular professors of the University
refused to lecture, until the beadles were punished, but the Dominican
and Franciscan teachers went on with their lectures. When redress
had been granted to the University for the outrage, that body drew
up an oath to observe all the laws of the University, which it was
intended should be taken by all persons before taking the degree as
master. The regulars refused to take it; then the University issued
a decree, declaring the friars excluded from its body, and deprived
of their chairs. The latter appealed to Rome. The pope commissioned
the bishop of Evreux, and Luke, canon of Paris, to re-establish the
friars in their chairs, which was done. This pope dying, his successor
issued a bull, binding all to stop teaching in case of insult, but
re-establishing the friars. The king, returning home, stopped the
execution of the papal briefs. The pope issued another bull more
stringent than the first. Since 1256, S. Thomas had been lecturing
as licentiate. At the same time he was enjoying the friendship of S.
Bonaventura, who was lecturing under the Franciscan professor. Both
men exhibited, in a striking manner, the fundamental quality of the
order to which they respectively belonged. Bonaventura loved to look
into the placid, earnest soul of Thomas, as into a deep sea, with its
marvellous transparency, and awful stillness; whilst Thomas was roused
and brightened by the ardent gushing nature of his friend. S. Thomas
was angelical; S. Bonaventura was seraphic--the one, the deep thinker;
the other, the tender poet. Thomas was famous in the schools for the
keenness of his thought, and for his depth and clearness; Bonaventura
for his eloquence and vivacity in exposition; the former was a child
of contemplation, the latter of activity. Once S. Thomas asked S.
Bonaventura to show him the books out of which he got his sublime
thoughts. "There is the book," replied S. Bonaventura, pointing to
the crucifix. During this time S. Thomas wrote his "Exposition on the
Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the Ten
Commandments, and the Law of Love." Another work on the "Articles of
the Faith and the Sacraments" falls within this period, as well as a
commentary on Isaiah.
Meanwhile, William of S. Amour, the celebrated philosopher and doctor
of the University, was endeavouring to turn the mendicant Orders out of
Paris by getting people to withhold their alms, and by forbidding the
members of these Orders to attend the secular lectures.
He also endeavoured to fix the authorship of an heretical work, called
"The Everlasting Gospel," on the Franciscans and Dominicans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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