"Dominus cuidam devotae suae": A Source for Pseudo-Bonaventure

"DOMINUS CUIDAM DEVOTAE SUAE": A SOURCE FOR PSEUDO-BONAVENTURE In chapter 82 of the Meditationes Vitae Christi, which provides a meditation on the Passion, death and burial of Christ, for the hour of compline, we read: (Maria) flebat autem lacrymis irremediabilibus, aspiciebat vulnera manuum et lateris, modo unum, modo aliud; aspiciebat vultum ejus et caput, et videbat spinarum puncturas, depilationem barbae , faciem et sputis et sanguine deturpatam et caput tonsum; et de fletu et aspectu non poterat satiari. Legitur autem in quadam scriptura quod Dominus devotae suae revelavit quod ipse tonsus fuit capillis et depilatus barba; sed evangelistae non scripserunt omnia; et quidem quod ipse fuit tonsatus vel sicut est nescio probare per scripturam, sed de depilatione barbae potest probari. Dicit enim Isaias in persona Domini: Corpus meum dedi percutientibus , et genas meas vellentibus.1 In the version of the Passion-chapters called Meditationes de Passione Christi this is given as: Flebat autem lacrimis irremediabilibus, aspiciebat vulnera manuum et lateris, modo unum, modo aliud; aspiciebat vultum eius et capud, et videbat spinarum puncturas, depilacionem barbe, faciem et sputis et sanguine deturpatam et capud tonsum; et de fletu et aspectu non poterat saciari. Legitur autem in quadam scriptura quod Dominus cuidam devote sue revelavit quod ipse tonsus fuit capillis et depilatus barba; sed evangeliiste non scripserunt omnia...2 It is very probable that the devota was Mechtild of Hackeborn, and the scriptura her Liber Specialis Gratiae,3 where, in Book II, chapter 9, there is: 1 A. C. Peltier, ed., S. Bonaventurae Opera Omnia, XII (Paris, 1868), 609. 8 M. Jordan Stallings, ed., Meditaciones de Passione Christi olim Sancto Bonaventurae attributae (Washington, D.C, 1965), p. 121. 8 See M. F. Laughlin, "Mechtild of Hackeborn, St." in New Catholic Encyclopedia , IX, 545-46. ??6EDMUND COLLEDGE, ?.S.A. Contristata quadam vice per orationis subsidium sólito more ad Dominum confugit, ipsi cor suum et voluntatem offerens, ita ut non solum hoc, sed etiam quaecumque pro ejus amore libenter sufíeret adversa. Ad quam Dominus dulciter se inclinans, os suum roseum illi praebuit osculandum. Sentiens autem anima ipsum barbam non habere, cogitare coepit si aliquod praemium a Deo Patre pro barbae in passione evulsione accepisset. Cui Dominus : Ego creator universorum non indigeo ullo praemio, sed tu es praemium meum...4 That this survived in the many vernacular translations from the Latin is shown by this excerpt from the fifteenth-century Book of Ghostly Grace:5 This maydene felte in here sowlle that oure lorde hadde no berde att that tyme, ande than sehe begane to thenke wheythere oure lorde Ihesu hadde any rewarde in blis off the fadere in hevene for the teryng of his berde in his passyoun. Oure lorde aunswerde to here thoght ande seyde; I, formere ande maker of alle thynges of noght, nede no suche rewarde, bot thou arte my rewarde.6 Though all scholars today agree that the attribution of the Meditationes Vitae Christi to Bonaventure is spurious, there are still those inclined to credit him with the Meditationes de Passione Christi recension7; but if Mechtild of Hackeborn be indeed the source alluded to, that will rule Bonaventure out. She survived him by a quarter of a century, dying in 1298 or 1299; and many places in her book indicate that it was compiled by amanuenses in the last years of her life, and not completed or published until after her death. But none of this need conflict with other theories about the composition of the Meditationes, which would attribute it to a Tus4 Revelationes Gertrudianae ac Mechtildianae II: Sanctae Mechtildis... Liber Specialis Gratiae, ed. by the Benedictines of Solesmes (Poitiers and Paris, !877). 1438 'Ghostly' is plainly the English translator's own misinterpretation of his Latin exemplar's 'spialis' as 'spiritualis.' In Book II, chapter 22, Mechtild states: "Iterum anima Dominum requisivit quod esset vocabulum libri. Qui respondit: 'Liber Specialis Gratiae' vocabitur" (Solesmes edition, 193). • Theresa A. Halligan, ed., The Booke of Gostlye Grace (Fordham Ph. D. dissertation, 1963), p. 340. 7 For an assessment of the various opinions, expecially those of Öliger and Fischer, by an expert himself inclined to accept some attribution to Bonaventure, see G. Petrocchi: "Sulla composizione e data delle Meditationes Vitae Christi...