An historical analysis of the concept of peace in Bonaventure's 'Itinerarium mentis in deum'

This dissertation argues that, in the context of his transition from academic to administrator and in the midst of the emerging Franciscan controversy, Bonaventure wrote the Itinerarium because he needed to bring about peace in the Order. During the 1250s the nature of the Franciscan controversy involved: (1) problems arising from the observance of poverty, and (2) problems caused by radical Franciscan Joachimism. Both of these aspects were inextricably intertwined in the secular-mendicant controversy at the University of Paris between 1254 and 1257. In short, Bonaventure's emphasis on peace within the Itinerarium is a nuanced reply to these Franciscan controversies.In effect, the Itinerarium inaugurates Bonaventure's program of spiritual reform that is inspired by and modeled after Francis's reception of the stigmata. In the Itinerarium, Bonaventure invites his fellow friars to walk in the footsteps of their spiritual father and aims to re-form the friars to an imitation of Francis. Bonaventure invites the viator to imitate Francis's passionate love for the crucified Christ and to participate in the ecstatic peace attained through the cross, namely, the peace Francis himself received on Mt. La Verna. In this regard, Bonaventure intentionally composed the Itinerarium to function as a pedagogical text that forms the reader by providing six levels of illumination constructed according to a symbolic interpretation of Francis's stigmata. Simply stated, the Itinerarium is basically pedagogical.The Itinerarium may be viewed as Bonaventure's subtle yet profound response to the Franciscan controversies of the 1250s. He outlines for the reader, in the form of a guidebook of prayer, a via ad pacem by which the viator may attain union with Christ crucified. The historical evidence suggests that the Itinerarium was a guidebook of prayer that was integral to Bonaventure's program of spiritual renewal which he undertook after becoming Minister General.