118 Bonaventure, Saint
FREDERICKI BARBAROSSAmade the law school a university
with a charter. This exempted it from secular jurisdiction
and permitted its teachers and students to travel freely.
In the 13th century antiimperial feelings grew along
with opposition to FREDERICK II. The GUELF party
became dominant. In the 14th and 15th centuries, two
families claimed the right to rule the city, as lords, the
BENTIVOGLIOand the VISCONTI, and later the SFORZAof
MILAN. The struggle between these dynasties proved in
the end to work in favor of the papacy. Pope Julius II (r.
1503–13) assumed authority over the city in 1506,
restoring it completely to the Papal States.
Bologna was a remarkable center of Italian GOTHIC
architecture. Its cathedral, built on the site of the Roman
center, was a fine example of 14th-century Gothic. A
podestà’s palace was started in 1201 and the city hall in
1290, with a merchants’ guild hall added in the 14th cen-
tury. In the center of the city, two extant towers (97 and
42 meters high, respectively), built for defense purposes
at the beginning of the 12th century, stand as reminders
of the struggle among its noble families.
UNIVERSITYThe University of Bologna has been considered one of the
oldest universities in the world. It grew out of the School
of Law, founded in 1088. A college of liberal arts was
established in the middle of the 12th century. In 1218,
Pope Honorius III (r. 1216–27) granted the university
self-government and permitted the conferring of degrees.
During the 13th century a medical school was added and
quickly became one of the most famous in Europe.
See alsoANATOMY; LAW, CANON AND ECCLESIASTICAL;
COMMUNE;CORPUS IURIS CIVILIS.
Further reading: Cecilia Ady, The Bentivoglio of
Bologna: A Study in Despotism(Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1937); Naomi Miller, Renaissance Bologna: A Study
in Architectural Form and Content(New York: P. Lang,
1989); Nicholas Terpstra, Lay Confraternities and Civic
Religion in Renaissance Bologna(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1995).
Bonaventure, Saint(Giovanni di Fidanza) (ca. 1217–
1274)Franciscan theologian, philosopher
Born John of Fidanza in Bagnoregio in Italy about 1217,
Bonaventure was the son of a prosperous doctor. He
received his early education in the town of his birth,
Bagnoregio, near Lake Bolsena not far from Orvieto in
central ITA LY. In 1234 he went to PARISto study and
earned a master of arts degree. Influenced by the FRAN-
CISCANSthroughout his education and thus acquiring
deep reverence for the life of Saint FRANCISof Assisi, he
entered the Franciscan Order about 1243. Bonaventure
continued his studies in THEOLOGY under Alexander
of Hales (1170–1265) at the University of Paris and
wrote commentaries on the Scriptures in 1248 and on
the Sentences of PETER LOMBARD between 1250 and- He received a license to teach in 1253, and proba-
bly from that time until his election as minister general
of the order in 1257 Bonaventure taught theology at the
University of Paris.
FRANCISCAN ORDER
By the middle of the 13th century, the Franciscan Order
was divided between those who wished to continue to
alter the rule and program of Saint Francis in favor of the
corporate possession of private property and activity in
university education and political life and those who
wished to remain as faithful as possible to Saint Francis’s
original ideal of poverty and missionary activity among
common people. By training and probably by inclination,
Bonaventure was a proponent of ideas of the former
group. He advocated Franciscan participation in educa-
tion and ecclesiastical affairs. To do that the order had to
have the regular financial support and time provided by
the corporate possession of property. At the same time, he
was active in the debate about the use of the ideas of
ARISTOTLEand IBNSINAor Avicenna, in theology and phi-
losophy, whose study he strongly opposed.CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS
As minister general of the Franciscans, Bonaventure tried
to make Paris the center of his administration, but trav-
eled and visited Italy. In 1260 the order adopted as its
new constitution the collection of Franciscan legislation
compiled by Bonaventure. A revisionist biography of
Saint Francis was written by Bonaventure and was
accepted as the official biography, with earlier biographies
to be destroyed. His views were to have lasting influence
on the activity and spirit of the Franciscans. In recogni-
tion of his activity as general of the Franciscan order and
for assistance in his election, Pope Gregory X (r.
1273–76) made Bonaventure the cardinal bishop of
Albano in 1273. Bonaventure helped to organize and con-
duct the Second General Council of LYONSin 1274. On
July 15, before the end of the council, he died suddenly
and was buried the same day in the Franciscan church in
Lyon. He was canonized in 1482 and was later made a
doctor of the church.
Bonaventure was a traditional theologian, much
influenced by the thought of Saint AUGUSTINE. Christ-
centered and nonapologetic, he was not preoccupied with
presenting Christianity to nonbelievers. Although he
adopted the rational Aristotelian description of the pro-
cess of empirical knowledge, Bonaventure maintained
that certain ideas and values, were placed within the
human mind and recognized by means of divine illumi-
nation. Many of Bonaventure’s writings may be described
as mystical with the immediate aim of encouraging indi-
viduals in their quest for and ascent to GOD.
Further reading:Jacques Guy Bougerol, Introduction
to the Works of Bonaventure,trans. José de Vinck (Paterson,