Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Note from Ioannes Bremer

Ioannes Bremer was a 15th c. franciscan theologian working at the studium generale at Erfurt. Here is a comment from the prologue of his commentary on the Sentences, which I just had to share (cited. by L. Meier, "De schola Franciscana Erfordiensi saeculi XV" in Antonianum 5 p.72):

"Sicut sunt quatuor sensus Sacrae Scripturae, ut iam dictum est, ita sunt quatuor scriptores eam scribentes ac quatuor Evangelistae; et sunt quatuor antiqui Sancti Doctores Ecclesiae, eam exponentes, scilicet Hieronymus, Ambrosius, Gregorius, Augustinus. Et quatuor sunt etiam moderni fideles Doctores legis divinae, eam cordibus imprimentes, scilicet Nicolaus de Lyra et Franciscus de Maronis, Bonaventura et Ioannes Scotus."

Just as there are four senses of Sacred Scripture, as has now been said, so there are four writers writing it and four evangelists; and there are four ancient holy doctors of the Church expositing it, namely Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory and Augustine. And there are also four modern faithful teachers of the divine law, impressing it in their hearts, namely Nicholas de Lyra and Francis of Meyronnes, Bonaventure, and John Scotus.

3 comments:

Brandon said...

Interesting; one wonders why Nicholas and Francis stood out so. Although, I suppose, we tend to forget how extraordinarily popular Nicholas's Postilla was; and there were plenty of Maronitae in the 15th century. So perhaps we should be asking the reverse question, why they stand out so little for our contemporaries, given they were so important then.

Lee Faber said...

Francis was extremely popular as well. the number of mss. of his works rivals Scotus, and he was also printed numerous times in the early modern period.

Brother Charles said...

Is it ever a joy for me to have discovered this blog tonight. Thanks.