Ratramnus of Corbie, Paulinus of Aquileia, and Aeneas of Paris as Sources for Bonaventure's Filioque Arguments in the Sentences

Ratramnus of Corbie, Paulinus of Aquileia, and Aeneas of Paris as Sources for Bonaventure’s Filioque Arguments in the Sentences I. Setting up the Problem On July 15, 1274, at the Council of Lyons, Bonaventure died. At this council , the Byzantine emperor Michael Palaeologus (Michael VIII), who not all that long before had retaken Constantinople from the Latin usurpers, urged for union with the West and even confessed the filioque. For this council, Pope Gregory X had summoned two of Roman Catholicism’s best theologians , Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. It may well be no accident that the two men most capable of defending and promulgating the filioque had spent significant amounts of time in France and Paris. French scholars had been on the forefront of the papal theological offensive for some time.  For a brief overview of the Second Council of Lyons, see Edmund J. Fortman , The Triune God: A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1972), 218-20. For a brief overview of the reign of Michael Paleologus , see John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), 314-30. Proponents of the filioque teach that the Holy Spirit receives his being/existence from the Father “and the Son.” This doctrinal opinion is discussed in more detail below.  Early in his papacy, in 1205, Innocent III sent encyclicals to France and specifically Paris for the purpose of exhorting bishops, scholars, and monastics (especially from among the Cluniacs) to facilitate the “reduction,” or restoration, of “the Greeks.” See Patrologia Latina (=PL) 215, 636-8. In the letter to the bishops, Innocent praised Baldwin of Flanders for being a pious man who, because of his recent actions (the usurping of the title Emperor of Byzantium following the sack of Constantinople), had changed the Eastern Church “from one who disobeys into one who obeys and from a despiser into a devotee (637A: facta sit de inobediente obediens , et de contemptrice devota).” Innocent III related that Baldwin requested Cister87 Franciscan Studies 65 (2007) 05.Herbel1.indd 87 12/5/07 17:44:46 Oliver Herbel 88 Bonaventure continued this tradition of French monastics defending the theological prerogatives of Rome. One important issue on which he defended Roman Catholic belief against Eastern Christians was the filioque . Bonaventure addressed the issue of the filioque directly in distinction eleven, article one, question one, in book one of his Sentences. It should be noted that Bonaventure discussed issues that are very important with regard to the filioque in other surrounding sections of the Sentences, such as the position that the procession is from the Father and the Son as though they are “one principle.” This logically implies that Bonaventure did not relegate his Trinitarian reflections to this small section alone. However, it was here that he specifically related the filioque to “the Greeks.” Bonaventure wrote his Sentence Commentary early in his career, between 1250-2. By this time, Bonaventure resided in Paris, had been studying under Alexander of Hales, and was a bachelor of theology preparing to be admitted as a master. Shortly thereafter, Bonaventure would earn his masters and become the Minister General of the Franciscan order. Trinitarian reflections proved to be a prominent enterprise, as evidenced by: Disputed Questions on the Trinity (1253-1257), Breviloquium (1257), Itinerarium (1259), and Collations on the Hexaemeron (1273). Although it might be tempting to by-pass an early work for a later one in some cases, it is only in the Sentences that Bonaventure has directly addressed arguments for and against the filioque. Additionally, Zachary Hayes has argued that the later cians from Cluny for the establishing of the “truth of the Catholic Faith” as well as “missals, breviaries, and other books in which the ecclesiastical office is contained according to the decrees of the Holy Roman Church (637B: … ad fundandam fidei catholicae veritatem … Postulavit missalia, breviaria, caeterosque libros in quibus officium ecclesiasticum secundum institute Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae continetur).” A short letter addressed to the scholars in Paris and another to the Cathedral chapter of Soissons requested arguments useful in the agenda for the “restoration” of the Orthodox to the Roman Catholic Faith (637C-638C). For an overview of East...