Letter B

B

Basil, bishop of Caesarea of the Cappadocians, by fact and by surname the Great — whom the common consent of the Greek fathers affirms never to have erred in any sentence or in any word¹ — sprung from Helenopontus, a town of Pontus, of noble parents, Basil a priest and Emmelia; brother of two bishops, that is, of Gregory of Nyssa and of Peter of Sebaste;² joined in the closest intimacy with Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom. This man, in expounding the divine Scriptures, just as he supremely loved lucid interpretations of the historical sense — interspersed with certain moral, and likewise ardent, little exhortations — so was he vehemently delighted to adorn his expositions with all the ornaments of secular literature; which he displayed especially in those nine most celebrated homilies on the Hexaemeron. These he illustrated with so admirable a care of elaborate diction, and with such majesty of oration, that the most eloquent and most learned Gregory the Theologian not undeservedly said³ that Basil’s oration surpasses all the discourses of men as much as the divine voice surpasses human voices. With such riches also of all the disciplines and of the good arts — drawn chiefly from the midst of the Peripatetic philosophy — he enriched those homilies, as also his other explanations, so that he was rightly called the philosopher of the Christians, and the most Christian of philosophers.⁴ But how much the venerable antiquity of the fathers esteemed this divine work, the Hexaemeron, is shown, among others, by Gregory of Nazianzus (surnamed the Theologian), Gregory of Nyssa, and Ambrose — most learned and most holy men — of whom the first, in his Monody [funeral oration], speaks thus:

The great Basil — than whom no one has expounded the sacred volumes more eloquently, more truly, or more richly — wrote a Hexaemeron, in which he discourses divinely on the beginning of things; which, as often as I read it, I so confirm myself in the love, the charity, and the knowledge of the Creator, that by nothing am I more moved or delighted.

Subscribing to whom, Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, in the preface of the Hexaemeron published by himself, speaks thus:

Those who have read that divine commentary of our father Basil upon the great Moses admire it no less than the things which were written by Moses himself — and rightly, in my opinion. For what relation the ear of corn has with the grain (which both comes forth from it, and is [that grain] — or rather, since that very grain is contained in it, yet the ear differs from it in magnitude, and in beauty, and in form of variety) — the same relation you may say [Basil’s commentary] has with the discourse of the great

> …the discourse of the great Moses, which were elaborated by the great Basil with a more accurate zeal. For the things which Moses embraced in few words, our doctor [Basil] so augmented and heaped up with sublime philosophy that he made, not an ear of corn, but a tree — after the likeness of the grain of mustard seed, which is compared to the kingdom of heaven.

Thus far Gregory. And Ambrose held this same work in so great esteem that he translated that [Hexaemeron], turned from the Greek — the whole, and with the same sentences and words — into a Hexaemeron composed by himself.⁵ A certain Eustathius — eloquent and learned in both [tongues], as Junilius the African, or Bede, testifies in the preface of his commentaries on Genesis — first made this work Latin for Syncletia, his own sister; which begins thus in Greek: Πρέπουσα ἀρχὴ ᾧ περὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συστάσεως — that is, A fitting beginning for him who is about to speak of the constitution of the world.

He wrote also, after the Hexaemeron, very many homilies upon the whole Psalter, of which there now survive only seventeen, delivered upon sixteen Psalms, that is: On Psalm 1, 7, 14, 28, 29, 32, 33, 37, 44, 45, 48, 49, 59, 61, 114, and 115.

He wrote likewise on Paradise, on the 3rd chapter of Genesis, one homily. Likewise, On the Restraining of the Thoughts of the Mind, one homily upon that which is read among us at Deuteronomy 15, Beware lest perhaps [a wicked thought] creep in, etc.; and according to the edition of the Seventy it has πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ, that is, Take heed to thyself. This homily some, led by a false opinion, attribute to Zeno, bishop of Verona, and write it among his sermons.

On the beginning of Proverbs, one homily.

He published also, upon the whole of Isaiah, according to the literal sense, an enarration of most succinct brevity, clear and elegant; which I hear was lately turned into Latin by I know not whom. I myself have read it only in Greek, and it begins thus: Εὔξασθε μὴ γενέσθαι τὴν φυγὴν ὑμῶν χειμῶνος ἢ σαββάτῳ — that is, Pray that your flight be not in winter, or on the Sabbath. Testimonies from this work are cited by John Damascene, in the third book against the Iconomachs [Iconoclasts], and by Oecumenius, in his commentary on the first [epistle] to the Corinthians, chapter 3.

He had also, upon that passage of Luke 12, on the rich man whose field brought forth abundant fruits, one homily. Likewise, on that of Luke 18, Sell all that thou hast, to the rich, one homily. Likewise, on the beginning of the Gospel of John, one homily. Again, on the Samaritan woman, on John 4, to Flavian, one book. On that passage of 1 Thessalonians 5, Rejoice always, one homily.

Basil dies in the times of the emperors Valens and Valentinian, in the year of the Lord 380, when he had presided over his church for eight years; and he was borne to the sepulchre of his ancestors, where his grandfather (a martyr) and his father (a priest) had been buried under the Emperor Maximian.⁶ Four divine Bishops wrote his life in a most eloquent style: Gregory, prelate of the church of Nyssa; Amphilochius of Iconium; Gregory, prelate of the church of Nazianzus; and Helladius, bishop of Caesarea, Basil’s disciple and successor in the episcopate. Of these, Gregory of Nyssa added two sermons to Basil’s Hexaemeron, to supply those things which Basil, prevented by death, could not complete concerning the formation of man. These [two sermons] Dionysius Exiguus, an ancient Roman author, made Latin, beginning thus, By the paying-off of an old debt.

Bartholomew of Bologna [Barptolemaeus Bononiensis], of the Order of Preachers, imbued with Scholastic Theology, wrote a Postil on the Gospel of Luke, which begins, Thou shalt make four circles. Likewise, upon all the Canonical Epistles, a Postil, beginning, In the sixth [chapter] of Joshua the Lord commanded.

Bartholomew the Little [Barptolemaeus Parvus], of the Order of Preachers, applied a postil upon Luke, whose beginning is, The oblation of the just fattens the altar.

Bartholomew of Urbino [Barptolemaeus], Bishop and citizen of Urbino, by profession a Hermit [of St. Augustine], a man plainly learned and of singular memory, holding in memory almost all the volumes of St. Augustine, wove together — out of various sentences and passages of the divine Augustine — a huge work, divided into two Tomes, in the explanation of the whole of divine scripture. Which work a certain John Gast lately usurped to himself impudently enough, the name of the true author being deleted, and, in its place, his own name being set on the front of the volume; and — what is more grievous — with certain passages of the same work transposed, truncated, and wrested toward the heresy of the Lutherans, he contaminated the most useful and most pious labor of the Catholic author, and branded it with the suspicion of heresy.⁷ He flourished under Rupert, King of the Romans, in the year of the Lord 1410; dear above all to Pope Clement V.

Bede the Venerable, presbyter and monk, by nation a Briton, by race an Anglo-Saxon, by fatherland a Cantabrigian; when he was still a little boy, and had not yet completed the seventh year of his tender age, he entered the monastery of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul — which is situated in England, at the mouth of the river Wear, in the place called Ingirium [Jarrow] — in which, under the care first of Benedict [Biscop], and afterward of Ceolfrid, abbots of that monastery, being imbued with the monastic institutions, and instructed in the erudition of the sciences of every kind, in a very short time — and, what is more wonderful, amid the constant exercises of monastic discipline, and a continual care of praying, singing psalms, and reading in the temple day and night — he so profited that he came forth a grammarian no less skilled in Greek than in Latin, a poet, rhetorician, historian, astronomer, arithmetician, chronographer, cosmographer, Philosopher, and Theologian: so admirable in those times that among the more learned of that age a proverb was said of him — that a man, born in the farthest corner of the world, had encompassed the whole world with his genius.

He, therefore, in the thirtieth year of his age, having been ordained presbyter by Bishop John, at the exhortation of Acca, bishop of York, and of many brethren, undertook to write — upon the whole sacrosanct Scripture — diverse volumes of explanations, distinguished into four orders,⁸ namely into Rhapsodies, Questions, Homilies, and Commentaries. In the Rhapsodies (or Stromata, or Collectanea) he gathered together expositions more mystical than historical, out of the most approved sentences of the Doctors of the Church,

…and the sayings [of the Doctors], collected here and there interruptedly and interpolatedly, with some things also inserted of his own after the imitation of their sense, where it was opportune — so that the various sermons and periods of the Fathers might either cohere more fitly among themselves, or be rendered briefer and more illustrious. And, lest he should seem to steal the sayings of his elders and to compose them as if his own, he had resolved to interpose the names of the Doctors throughout each passage, and to show by name what was said by which Author; but, since this appeared to him too laborious, he set only the first syllables of the names in the margins, over against each sentence — which afterward, through the ignorance or the carelessness of the copyists, perished from all the exemplars.

In the Commentaries, Questions, and Homilies — in which he more frequently uses both his own speech and his own sense — he has a style neither wholly inelegant, nor curious of affected elegance, but temperate;⁹ which neither by a multitude of words breeds distaste, nor by a scarcity begets obscurity, but runs with a brief facility most agreeably.

His works, while he was yet living and always writing new ones, were held in so great esteem that, by the ordinance of the Bishops of Britain, they were read publicly in the churches. And since, in the reading of his Homilies, they prefixed his name after the manner of the author — [namely] “of the venerable Bede the presbyter” — not being able, while he lived, to proclaim him otherwise, the title once attributed from the beginning has held even to the present day: so that Bede is rather called “Venerable” than “Saint.”¹⁰ For to call him, while living, otherwise — although he was illustrious for holiness of life — was not lawful. This holy man dies under the Emperor Leo, in the sixty-second year of his age, that is, in the year 734 from the birth of Christ, on the day on which the memory of the Lord’s Ascension is celebrated.

The number and the arguments of Bede’s exegetical works — of which he himself reviewed a part at the end of his English history — is this:

Upon the first three chapters of Genesis (that is, from the beginning up to the ejection of the first parents from paradise), two books of Collectanea out of Basil, Ambrose, and Augustine, addressed to Acca the Bishop; of which the former begins, On the beginning of the book of Genesis. These certain printers have wrongly ascribed to Junilius the African. — Upon the same first three chapters again, one book of Collectanea, beginning, That chapter. — Upon the first twenty-four chapters of Genesis, four books, beginning: The head of all the books is. — Upon the whole book of Genesis, one book of Collectanea, whose beginning is, In the beginning indeed of time. — Upon Genesis, one book of Questions: First of all, my teacher, it is necessary for me to inquire.

Upon Exodus, one book of Collectanea: By this sentence Esdras… — Upon Exodus, from the twenty-fourth chapter up to the thirtieth, On the Tabernacle, and its vessels, and the vestments of the priests, three books; whose opening is, About to speak, with the Lord’s help. — Upon Exodus, one book of Questions: Certain mysteries.

Upon Leviticus, one book of Collectanea: He is wont to be questioned by some. — Upon Leviticus, one book of Questions: In the opening of Leviticus, four kinds.

Upon Numbers, one book of Collectanea: In the opening of Numbers. — Upon Numbers, one book of Questions: The first question arises for us.

Upon Deuteronomy, one book of Collectanea: It is indeed to be known. — Upon Deuteronomy, one book of Questions: Deuteronomy according to the faith.

Upon Joshua [Jesus Nave], one book of Questions: After the death, therefore, of Moses.

Upon Judges, one book of Questions: The history of the Judges.

Upon Ruth, one book of Questions: Let us now see concerning Ruth.

Upon Samuel, four books of Commentaries of allegorical explanation, addressed to Acca: Whatsoever things are written.

Upon the fifth and sixth chapter of the third book of Kings, On the Temple of Solomon, one book: The way of election exhorts us. — Upon the four books of Kings, four books of Questions: After the book of Judges. — Upon the four books of Kings again, one book of thirty Questions, addressed to Nothelm: What concerning the book of Kings.

Upon Paralipomenon [Chronicles], two books, cited by Trithemius.

Upon Esdras, three books of allegorical exposition, addressed to Acca: An excellent interpreter of the sacred things.

Upon Tobit, one book of allegorical explanation: The book of the holy shepherd Tobias.

Upon Job, addressed to Nectarius the bishop, three books of commentaries. — Upon Job he is reported to have applied exegeses, of which, however, Trithemius nowhere makes mention in his Catalogue. John Herwagen the printer inserted, in place of these, among Bede’s works, three books of explanations on Job, addressed to Nectarius, beginning, At thy exhortation. But Bede himself, in his little book On the reckoning of ounces, confesses these to be the work of Philip the presbyter.

Upon the Psalter, a most copious volume of commentaries, whose beginning is, Since, by the help of Him without whom every action is nothing. — Upon Psalm 52, a broader commentary, beginning, When several clerics. — Upon the Psalter, from the Hebrew verity, one book of Meditations, in which are excerpted all the verses and sentences pertaining to prayer, with some little prayers inserted, so that the mind of the one praying, aroused and instructed by David’s words, may the more easily and ardently be raised up to God.

Upon the Proverbs of Solomon, three books of explanation, both historical and allegorical; which certain persons, inserting into the works of Jerome, marked beforehand with the false title of Jerome — although they

…them it plainly appears to be Bede the presbyter’s, and collected by him out of the commentaries of the ancient fathers — of which, in the explanation of the 21st chapter, are cited by name: Gregory, in his evangelical homilies, and in the exposition of the sixth and 21st chapter; [and] Augustine, in the exposition of the 30th chapter; [and] Jerome. The beginning of these is, The Greek parable.

Upon Ecclesiastes, one book, cited by Trithemius.

Upon the Song of Songs, seven books of mystical explanation; in the first of which are refuted the errors of Julian [of Eclanum], bishop in Campania — a man indeed most eloquent, and next to the eloquence of Cicero, but an asserter of the Pelagian doctrine, who had put out most eloquent commentaries on this book, in which, disputing against the grace of God, he taught that we can, by the choice of free will, do the good things which we will (although by the help of God’s grace we may accomplish them more easily) — just as travelers are able to make the journey, and indeed on foot, but, without doubt, with less labor when the horses on which they may be carried are present. In the five following books the exposition of the whole Canticle is completed. In the seventh and last book is gathered a brief explanation of the Canticle out of those things which St. Gregory, throughout all his little works, discoursed here and there concerning this volume — which the author himself, leaving untouched in the preceding six books, had reserved for the last, as it were for the crown of the whole work. The work begins, About to write, grace helping.

Upon all the Prophets, both greater and lesser, 18 books; that is, on Isaiah two books, on Jeremiah two books, on Ezekiel one book, on Daniel one book, on the twelve Minor Prophets twelve books.

Upon the Gospel of Matthew, four books of Annotations: For it is the custom of the Scriptures. — Upon the Gospel of Mark, literally and mystically, addressed to Acca the Bishop, four books, which begin: In the exposition of the Gospel according to Mark. — Upon the Gospel of Luke, according to the literal and allegorical sense, commentaries addressed to Acca the Bishop, six books: It is wonderfully true, and truly wonderful. — Upon the Gospel of John, one book of Annotations: This is John the Evangelist.

Upon the Acts of the Apostles, historically and mystically, addressed to Acca the Bishop, one book: I have received very frequent [letters]. — Upon the Acts of the Apostles, one book of Retractations: We know [him to be] an excellent doctor. — Upon the Acts of the Apostles, one book of six Questions: What does that indicate.

Upon all the Epistles of Paul, 14 books of Collectanea, which he collected out of all the works of St. Augustine, the same sentences and words being heaped together into one; their beginning is, Paul the Apostle, who [was] with [the name] Saul. — There are those who think that these collectanea (which are now carried about under the name of Bede, in a rather confused order and with an ill-adapted exposition) are not those which Bede himself put together, but those which a certain Bartholomew of Urbino, an Augustinian, author of the work called the Milleloquium of Augustine, somehow patched together. And there are those who attribute the work itself to Florus the Monk.

Upon all the Catholic Epistles, 7 books; of which the fourth, which is on the epistle of John, addressed to Acca the Bishop, was excerpted from the homilies of Augustine upon the same epistle. The beginning of the whole work is, Paul said of this to James.

Upon the Apocalypse of John, addressed to Eusebius, three books of mystical explanation, excerpted from the commentaries which Tyconius the African, a most learned man, had published on that book: To my most beloved brother Eusebius.

On the Interpretation of both the Hebrew and the Greek words which are contained in both Testaments, one book, digested in alphabetical order: Is he apprehending… — On the Schemes and Tropes of Sacred Scripture, one book, necessary for understanding the phrases of the celestial tongue, which begins, It is sometimes wont in the Scriptures. In it, against the Greeks — who glory that they were the inventors of the tropes — he shows that no such tropes, schemes, and figures are found in the writings of the Greeks which had not, long before, been in use in the sacred letters.¹¹

On the Places of the Holy Land which are contained in the divine letters, one book, abridged from the work of Adamnan the presbyter: The site of the city of Jerusalem. — On the Times, one book, most useful for understanding the computation of the times of divine scripture: On the nature of things, and of the times.

Upon the Lections which are read from both testaments throughout the circle of the year, ninety-eight sermons: namely, seventy de tempore [On the Season], and forty-eight de sanctis [On the Saints]. Yet you should know that very many of these are not homilies or sermons, but shreds of expositions, torn by an uncertain author out of Bede’s commentaries, and placed in a volume of sermons.

Hector Boece, in the 9th book of the History of the Scots, writes that Italy contends with Albion [Britain] concerning Bede’s cradle — the Italians asserting that he was born and died at Genoa, and that his sepulchre is held in honor in that same city. But from Bede’s own writings, says Boece, it is established that he lived as a youth in Italy, but as an old man in Northumbria, and chiefly in the monastery called Melrose, which is in Scotland.

Bellator, presbyter of an uncertain church, illustrious in the erudition of secular literature and of the sacred volumes, is said to have written many commentaries upon the holy scriptures; of which the most praised are seven books upon the Wisdom of Solomon. He lived in the times of the Emperor Louis, in the year of the Lord 840.

Benedict Arias Montanus of Seville [Hispalensis] wrote commentaries on the twelve Minor Prophets; likewise elucidations on the four Gospels and on the Acts of the Apostles. He also presided over the edition of the Bibles which were printed at Antwerp at the expense of Philip, the Catholic King; and in the last tome, in the Sacred Apparatus, he added seven books: On the Hebrew Idioms, On the Secret Speech, On the Action or Vesture, On the Sacred Weights and Measures, On the Sacred Structures, On the Ages and Times, [and] the Psalter of David in Latin ver‑

…rendered [the Psalter of David] in Latin verse.

Benedict Pereira [Pererius] of Valencia, of the Society of Jesus, a man of distinguished erudition and learning, taught for many years in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, first philosophy, then Theology. In the year 1589 from the birth of the Lord — but in the 53rd year of the age of Benedict himself — he published seven books of Commentaries on Genesis; having, three years before, put forth sixteen [books] on Daniel the Prophet, and thirteen years before, 15 books on Philosophy. He lives (praise be to God) and teaches Theology at Rome. Him I had at Rome as my teacher in Scholastic Theology, in the year of the Lord 1568 and 1569. [Later-edition addition: Pereira’s seven-book Genesis commentary appeared in 1589, twenty years after Sixtus’s death in 1569, so a later editor expanded this entry — although the first-person note about studying under Pereira at Rome in 1568–69 is Sixtus’s own.]

Benedict Stendal [Stendel], a German, wrote upon Genesis one book, upon Numbers one book, upon Deuteronomy one book.

Benedict Stendal, a German, from Halle, a town of Saxony, most learned in the divine scriptures, and nobly instructed in secular philosophy, who taught Theology for many years with the highest praise in the gymnasium of Erfurt, illustrious in life and doctrine, published certain little works of no contemptible reading; of which there are extant, upon the five books of Moses, five books of Scholastic Explanations. He flourished under the Emperor Frederick III, in the year 1470.

Bernard, first Abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux in the diocese of Langres, of the Cistercian order, by nation a Burgundian, by fatherland of Fontaines; most excellent in holiness of life and in distinguished erudition — so from infancy did he drink in the sacred letters, and retained them in memory throughout his whole age, that as often as he attempted either to speak or to write anything, so often was he compelled to burst forth into the words and sentences of the holy scriptures. Whence also all his writings — which can be called nothing else than centos of the divine volumes¹² — are on every side interwoven with the sentences of the Old and New Testament, as with gem-like emblems, and these so conveniently and aptly inserted that they might be believed to have been born there. His manner of teaching is almost always occupied in investigating the mystical senses, and in forming morals. His speech, everywhere sweet and ardent, so delights and ardently enflames, that from his most delightful tongue milk and honey of words seem to flow, and from his most ardent breast the burnings of fiery affections seem to break forth. His exegetical monuments upon the divine letters are these:

Upon the first chapter of Genesis, on the sleep of Adam, one sermon. On 1 Kings 17, on David’s single combat, sermon 1. On 3 Kings 19, on the flight of Elijah, sermon 1. On 4 Kings 5, on Naaman the Syrian, sermon 1. On the beginning of Psalm 183 [so printed; there is no such psalm], sermon 1. On Psalm 84, two sermons. On Psalm 90, seventeen sermons. On Psalm 132, sermon 1. On the Song of Songs, from various passages, 8 sermons. On Isaiah chapter 6, on the vision of him sitting upon the throne, 5 sermons. On Isaiah 7, on the words of Isaiah to Ahaz, sermon 1. On Isaiah 9, on the wonderful name of the child, sermon 1. On Isaiah 12, sermon 1. On Matthew 5, on the seven beatitudes, sermon 1. On Matthew 6, on the Lord’s Prayer, two sermons. On Matthew 15, on the seven loaves, sermon 1. On Mark chapter 16, two sermons. On Luke 1, on the Lord’s Annunciation, 4 sermons. On the Angelic Salutation, from the same chapter, two sermons. On Luke chapter 10, on Martha and Magdalene, sermon 1. On the steward of iniquity, on Luke chapter 16, one tractate — which some believe to be of another author. On Luke 24, on the two disciples going to Emmaus, sermon 1. On that of John 10 [read 8], He that is of God heareth the words of God, sermon 1. On 2 Thessalonians 5 [so printed; 2 Thessalonians has only three chapters], on prayer, petition, supplication, and thanksgiving, sermon 1. On Apocalypse 7, on the seven seals, sermon 1. On Apocalypse 12, on the woman clothed with the sun, sermon 1.

There is extant, besides these, a distinguished work of this Author, which all the learned prefer to his other labors — that is, upon the first three chapters of the Song of Songs, of mystical and continuous explanation, eighty-six sermons, which, in the last year of his life, he poured forth before his monks, for the solace of their daily labor, with living voice and from the depth of his heart; in which he expressed with such eloquence the power and sublimity of divine charity, that it appears he felt in himself all the affections, motions, and even the goads of heavenly love, by the living experience of his own spirit. And since, prevented by death, he could not explain the remaining chapters of this book, Gilbert of Holland [Hoyland], a Cistercian, an imitator of Bernard’s style and spirit, attempted to complete it — publishing, from that place of the third chapter, In my bed by night I sought [Song 3:1], where the Author himself had ended, up to that place of the fifth chapter, My beloved is white and ruddy [Song 5:10], forty-eight sermons. But as he was attempting to advance further in explaining, death took him from among men — as if indignant that he should dare to continue again, and bring to an end, the labor of Bernard interrupted by himself. Bernard dies in the 63rd year of his age, and in the year 1153 from the birth of our Savior. His life William, Abbot of St. Thierry, began to write; but Arnold, abbot of Bonneval, completed it, and digested it into four books.

Bernard de Trilia [de Trylia], a Spaniard, a Dominican, wrote Postils upon Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms; and Questions on the Song of Songs, on the Gospel of John, and on the Apocalypse.

Bernard of Amboise [de Ambasia], Provincial of the Carmelites of Toulouse, wrote on the epistle of St. James, one book, and on the Canonical epistle of John, one book. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1364.

Bernardino Gadolo [Galdolus] of Brescia, a Camaldolese abbot, a man exceedingly learned in good letters, in Philosophy, and in Canon Law, wrote upon all the books of the Bible a distinguished work of annotations. He flourished under Maximilian I, Emperor, in the year of the Lord 1496.

Bernardino [of Siena], by nation a Tuscan, by fatherland of Siena, of the Order of Minors, a man illustrious for holiness of life and for the glory of miracles, the restorer of his falling religion [order], and author of the Observ‑

…of the most observant congregation, wrote — in the Scholastic manner, but in a speech more open and simple — one book upon the Apocalypse, whose beginning is, Blessed is he that readeth the words of this book. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1440.

Bertrand of Milan, a Carmelite Minorite, wrote one book of Sermons on the gospels. He flourished in the year 1325.

Bertrand Parayte of Toulouse, an Augustinian, wrote on the Acts of the Apostles, one book; on the Canonical epistles, 14 books; on the Apocalypse, one book. He lived in 1370.

Bertrand de la Tour [de Turro], a nobleman, composed Lenten sermons; likewise, three volumes of expositions and sermons upon the epistles and the Prophecies throughout the whole year.

Bessarion, Patriarch of Constantinople, by nation a Greek, a most eminent Cardinal of the Roman Church, surnamed the Nicene, a man in every respect most learned, a Philosopher, and a most excellent orator in Greek and Latin, among his many distinguished works left, upon that passage from the 21st chapter of John, So I will have him to remain, one book. He dies on an embassy to France, in the year of the Lord 1473.

Bonaventure, who was also called by the Greek word Eutychius, Bishop of Albano, by nation a Tuscan, from the town of Bagnoregio, the eighth Minister General of the Order of Minors; on account of his exceptional erudition in divine things taken by Gregory X, Supreme Pontiff, into the college of cardinals; he so joined a holiness of life and integrity of morals with the highest knowledge of Scholastic Theology and Philosophy, that that most excellent man Alexander of Hales, his teacher, was wont often to say of him¹³ that it seemed to him that Adam had not sinned in Bonaventure. This man, among many most pious little works — which, kindled with divine love, he composed with most ardent words and most lofty senses, for the illuminating of minds and the enflaming of the wills of readers — dictated also a noble work upon the Hexaemeron, in the scholastic kind of diction; to which the title is On the Luminaries of the Church, or On the Illuminations, or On the Five Visions — for this reason, because in it are especially expounded those five visions of God, comprehended in that sentence of Moses, God saw that it was good, etc.,¹⁴ repeated five times in the beginning of Genesis. The beginning of the work is, In the midst of the church he opened his mouth, etc. And the whole work is divided into twenty-three sermons, most full of tropological senses, ardent sentences, and abstruse mysteries of Scholastic and mystical Theology.

He wrote likewise a Scholastic Postil on the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm, beginning, Alleluia, praise, glory. — Upon the Gospel of Luke, a Scholastic Postil, which begins, The spirit of the Lord. — Upon John, a Postil, which begins, In the beginning.

He published also one book of Meditations on the Life of Christ; in which, with a style indeed rude and unpolished, but effective and most penetrating to the heart, he reduced the four gospels into one history, with some meditations of his own inserted — in which, for arousing and enflaming the affections of the reader, he narrates the deeds of Christ according to certain imaginary representations, not only as the things themselves happened, but as they could also have happened, or have come to pass. Wherefore, when in the course of this work it is read, “Thus the Lord Jesus said” or “did” — if that cannot be proved from the evangelical narrative itself, it is to be understood no otherwise than devout meditation requires; that is, just as if it were said, “Meditate with pious mind that Jesus either said and did these things, or could have said and done them.” The work begins, Among other proclamations of the virtues and praises.

There is also carried about a little book of the same author, introductory to the reading of the Bibles, marked with the title The Beginning of Sacred Scripture, whose opening is, The Lord showed me a great river. — He left likewise a metrical scholastic compendium of both Testaments, in iambic dimeter verses, by the free and loosened law of the syllables; which he so arranged that each quatrain contains the sum of one chapter. Its beginning is, The world is made in the beginning.

He dies, the empire being vacant, under Gregory X, in the Council of Lyons, in the year of the Lord 1283 [read 1274]; buried in the church of the Minorites at Lyons, and reckoned among the saints by Sixtus IV, Supreme Pontiff. His life was copiously described by Octavianus Martinianus of Suessa, advocate of the most sacred consistory.

Bonaventure of Padua, Prior General of the Hermits, presbyter cardinal of the title of St. Cecilia, published a scholastic Sermon-book on the Gospels of the whole year, which begins, The desired of all nations shall come. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1320.

Bonino Mombrizio [Boninus Mombritius] of Milan gathered from the four Evangelists, in hexameter verse, [the history] of the Lord’s Passion, [dedicated] to Sixtus IV, Supreme Pontiff — six books, whose beginning is, I who too youthfully consumed my first years.

Bruno, first founder and institutor of the Carthusian order, by nation a German, from Cologne, once a Canon of the church of Reims, and in the University of Paris a public master and distinguished doctor. By a certain marvelous event of a dead man — who, amid his funeral obsequies, three times cried out with a loud voice that he had been condemned by the just judgment of God — being converted to penance, he left the world and withdrew into the desert of the Chartreuse [Cartusia Celesiensis; near Grenoble], and there established an exceedingly arduous purpose of monastic discipline, giving himself to continual prayers and to assiduous studies of the divine scriptures; in which he also left many books of no contemptible exposition, but especially pious and brief commentaries on the Psalter, written in a bare and simple speech, of which such is the opening, The Psalter is a certain musical instrument. Likewise, upon all the epistles of Paul, 14 books, whose beginning is, Paul had not yet come to Rome. He flourished in the year of our salvation 1081.

Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne, published on the four gospels commentaries not to be neglected, whose beginning is, After the Pentateuch of Moses, that we might join new things to the old. They are extant in the Library of the Preachers at Bologna. The same author also testifies that he wrote upon the Pentateuch.

Bruno of Würzburg [Herbipolensis], Bishop of Eastern Franconia, by nation a German, cousin of Conrad Augustus the Second of that name, most celebrated for holiness and erudition, gathered — out of the explanations of the orthodox fathers — a concise and elegant commentary upon all the Psalms, whose beginning is, We forge no new things, but renew the old. He dies under the Emperor Henry II [read III], in the year of the Lord 1045.

Bruno, Archbishop of the Ruthenians, a monk of Cassino, born and educated in Italy, of singular doctrine and renowned for the glory of martyrdom, left some immortal monuments of his noble genius; of which there are extant two books of commentaries on Genesis. This man, when he was preaching the gospel in Prussia with the highest ardor of faith, was crowned with martyrdom by the Prussians, and fell, in the year of the Lord 1010.

Bruno, Bishop of Siena in Tuscany, wrote upon the Apocalypse, with an explanation not to be despised, which begins, The Apocalypse of John has as many sacraments [as it has words]. In these few words, blessed Jerome.

Burchard [Burgardus], of the Order of Preachers, left a book On the Site of the Holy Land, useful for the topography of the sacred volumes.