Preface to the Critical Edition of De visione divinae essentiae

325 Franciscan Studies 63 (2005) PREFACE TO THE CRITICAL EDITION OF De visione divinae essentiae Early in the year 1334, at a critical moment for the University of Paris, the Franciscan order, and the entire Church, Nicholas took up his pen to defend orthodoxy. He directed his treatise against the view of the pope, John XXII, and the Franciscan minister general, Gerald Odonis. Lyra’s is arguably the most influential work from the fourteenthcentury controversy, playing a crucial role in its resolution. At issue was whether the saints, the holy souls in heaven, have a vision of God’s essence before the general resurrection and final judgment. The controversy began with a sermon of Pope John XXII, age 87, on All Saints Day, November 1, 1331, when the pope stated that holy souls would not enjoy beatific vision until after judgment.1 The controversy ended on January 29, 1336, when Pope Benedict XII issued the bull, declaring that holy souls have a vision of God’s essence.2 In the initial sermon, Pope John was simply repeating a view garnered from sermons by Bernard of Clairvaux for the same feast day.3 But in the volatile situation, where William of Ockham and the “rebel Fran1 John XXII, Sermon 1.7, edited by Marc Dykmans, 34 (Rome: Universitas Gregoriana, 1973), 96: “Animae ergo sanctae ante diem iudicii sunt sub altare, id est, sub consolatione et protectione humanitatis Christi; sed post diem iudicii eleuabit eas, ut uideant ipsam diuinitatem.” In all, Pope John will preach six sermons containing the controversial position. Dykmans, 165-97, provides a detailed calendar of events, followed by a “Liste des incipit” for every identified writing in the controversy (around 90 in all). Among these, Lyra’s work survives in more manuscripts (16) than any other. 2 Denzinger 1001: “Hac in perpetuum valitura Constitutione auctoritate Apostolica diffinimus : quod secundum communem Dei ordinationem animae Sanctorum omnium . . . vident divinam essentiam visione intuitiva et etiam faciali, nulla mediante creatura in ratione obiecti visi se habente, sed divina essentia immediate se nude, clare et aperte eis ostendente.” This papal bull is one of the handful considered to be “ex cathedra” pronouncements. 3 See Bernard of Clairvaux, 2.4 and 4.2, vol. 5, edited by J. Leclercq and H. Rochais (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1968), 345-6, 356. MICHAEL WOODWARD 326 ciscans” were ready to pounce on every unwary word from this heretical imposter-pope, the sermon sparked a firestorm. The aged pontiff reacted in his customary way, digging in and gathering authoritative texts for his side. A key supporter of the papal side was Lyra’s own religious superior, Franciscan Minister General Gerald Odonis. In December, 1333, Geraldus held a quodlibetal disputation at the University of Paris where he argued for the delay in beatific vision. The Paris theologians were incensed and soon met to counter the papal view. In the words of Nicholas: . . . the Parisian masters of theology, forty in number, or thereabouts, declared with one accord and sealed with their signatures, in the year of our Lord 1333, that the souls of the saints, when they are completely cleansed, from the time of Christ’s death, see God clearly, face to face, and beatifically; and further, that this vision which they now have is specifically and numerically the same as that which they will have with their bodies resumed at the resurrection (see below, p. 323). As the ranking senior theologian (Lyra had been Master for a quarter century), as a leading Franciscan, and as a renowned Scripture scholar, Nicholas had the task of presenting a full defense of the masters ’ ruling. Among the many treatises written in the heat of the debate , Nicholas’ De visione divinae essentiae stands out by its clarity of argumentation, devoid of polemical excess, and by its neutrality on the question of the vision’s intensification. The latter offered a line of reconciliation onto which the papal side would, in the end, lay hold. When the beleaguered Pope John XXII lay on his deathbed after nearly twenty years of a turbulent reign, it is reported that his tenacious spirit finally yielded, that he retracted his former view and affirmed , along the line of Nicholas’ first...