The lying witnesses: Bonaventure on the character of every order

And afterwards he answers the fivefold argument by which the feigned teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence would be proved; and so the first fabrication of the lie, and the conflict of the witnesses brought forward, is clear.¹ 499If (I say) it were permitted to strain out of lying witnesses the fabrication in which they have erred, it is clear that a most heretical teaching could be gathered not only from the teaching of the devil and his membersmembrum: member, but from the teaching of catholic doctors. For the devil, by the art of lying, often mingles truth with lies; therefore, when one doctor is duly taken as a witness, it ought to be supposed that he is not contrary, in the same book and the same matter, to that [teaching] to which he would be bearing witness;² even if it should be argued that I am under the same condemnation, since for one supposition that I made I allege the whole world, and it is evident that the world is a liar and a traitor.³ And such arguments are not worthy to be sent back to the street of the schools to be examined by sophists, as [neither is] the conclusionconclusio: conclusion stated above, which holds that the churchecclesia: church which before Christ’s death was the synagogue, the same in number, began after Christ’s death; but this quibbleargucie; argucia: stratagems, quibbles; a quibble, inferringconcludere: to infer from particulars a particular irrelevant to them, is to be sent to the Oxford alewives for examination;⁴ just as the rejoinder about what was said, that "it does not avail to feign this or that", ought to be sent to the grammarians. "I," he says, "am able to feign this" (for just as there are many worlds, so it avails): it is equivocal, according to the grammarians who speak thus: "He who valet is able, and he who valet is strong; now the impersonal is marked, now the personal."⁵ What then can the whole race of men judge of these quibbles? The second fabrication of the lie is about the charactercarecter, caracter (sensibilis): (perceptible) character of order, that it is imprinted only on priestssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter; and Bonaventure on distinction 24 of the fourth [book] of the Sentences is allegedallegare / allegacio: allege / allegation in testimony of this fictionficticia: fiction; and by that lie he says he disposes oftollere (instanciam, argumentum): to dispose of, demolish the supposition that I supposed 500in defining the cleric.⁶ And that lie is shown [to be one] from the truth of the doctors’ writing.

And he asks first whether a character is imprinted in all orders and, proving that it is by a fourfold argument, he recites two opinions, which he rejects. The first of them says that a character is imprinted in the priestly order alone, while in the lower orders there is made only a disposition to the priestly character; but this he says is false. Since in the lower sacred orders there is made a perpetual separation of the clergy from the laity, it is therefore manifest that the assignmentlimitacio (ad officium): assignment in those orders is, or requires, a clerical character.⁷ The second opinion, which he rejects, is that a character is imprinted in all the sacred orders but not in the lower ones, since these and not the others can mingle with lay people; but since no order is repeatable and each has something of the nature of a sacrament, it seems that in each there is something that has the nature of a thing and of a perpetual sign; and this we call a character.⁸ Therefore the third opinion is more probable, that a character is imprinted in all orders, as the reasons show expressly. For since a character is a seal that is express, distinctive and perpetual and configuring to Christ, and this is so in all orders, it is not to be doubted that a character is imprinted in all.⁹

And consequently he answers the fourfold objectioninstancia; objectum: objection. To the first, by which it is argued thus: A character is a spiritual seal; therefore it is imprinted only in those in which some new and spiritual power is given; now the power of all the lower orders is bodily, as to open a door or guard it, to speak prophecies, to 501carry candlesticks; therefore in these a character is in no way imprinted. "It must be said," he says, "that in all orders a power is given that is either spiritual in itself or ordering to the spiritual. Hence the power of the porter is for admitting men to the divine sacrifice; the power of the lector is not only for rousing the outward hearer but also the inward; and so of the others."¹⁰ Secondly it is argued thus: A character is a seal that regards, or is to be imprinted in, the image, to configure it to God; now the acts of some orders concern only lower ministries; therefore, since such things do not pertain to the configuring of this [image], it seems that in them no character is imprinted. "It must be said," he says, "that the character of order, as preservative, configures the soul to God according to the image, as [a soul] made like to God, which is done most of all in the highest order; or it must be said that such a seal is more properly configured to Christ.¹¹ Hence, since Christ had a threefold office, namely of minister in acting, of champion in suffering, of redeemer in dying, there was a threefold sacrament according to which a man is thus configured to Christ in three ways; hence there is only a threefold sacrament in which the impression of a character is made. For baptism is configured to the one dying and redeeming; hence a man is buried into death. And confirmation is configured to the one suffering and fighting; therefore the sign of the cross is made on the forehead. But order is configured to the one ministering and working, as the Master shows in the text;¹² and since in all orders a cleric is configured to Christ more or less, therefore in all of them a character is imprinted." Thirdly 502it is argued thus: A character is an indelible sign; therefore if it places a man in some state, it is impossible to withdraw from that state without an insult being done to the sacrament; now those placed in the minor orders can lawfully return to the lay [state]; therefore in them a character is not imprinted. "It must be said," he says, "that the character of all orders remains in the soul, whether of one returning to the lay state or of one dying, as a distinctive seal, and this either to glory, if he has used it well, or to ignominy, if badly."¹³