f-fact, alleged to have been done by an
individual two hundred years before; and whose memory is said to have
lain buried with his corpse. Among the miracles specified, it is
recorded, that on one occasion, when he was filled with solemn awe and
fear at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, God, by an angel, took a
particle of the consecrated host from the hands of the priest, and
gently placed it in the holy man's mouth. But, with these transactions,
I am not anxious to interfere, except so far as to ascertain the degree
of authority with which any pious Roman Catholic must be induced to
invest Bonaventura as a teacher and instructor in the doctrines of
Christianity, authorized and appointed by his Church. The case stands
thus:--Pope Sixtus IV. states in his {356} diploma, that the proctor of
the order of Minors, proved by a dissertation on the passage of St.
John, "There are three that bear record in heaven," that the blessed
Trinity had borne testimony to the fact of Bonaventura being a saint in
heaven: the Father proving it by the attested miracles; the Son, in the
WISDOM OF HIS DOCTRINE; the Holy Spirit, by the goodness of his life.
The pontiff then adds, in his own words, "He so wrote on divine
subjects, THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT SEEMS TO HAVE SPOKEN IN HIM." [Page 831.
"Ea de divinis rebus scripsit, ut in eo Spiritus Sanctus locutus
videatur."] A testimony referred to by Pope Sixtus the Fifth.

[Footnote 130: See the canonization of St. Bonaventura in the
Acta Sanctorum.]

This latter pontiff was crowned May 1, 1585, more than a century after
the canonization of Bonaventura, and more than three centuries after his
death. By his order, the works of Bonaventura were "most carefully
emendated." The decretal letters, A.D. 1588, pronounced him to be an
acknowledged doctor of Holy Church, directing his authority to be cited
and employed in all places of education, and in all ecclesiastical
discussions and studies. The same act offers plenary indulgence to all
who assist at the mass on his feast, in certain specified places, with
other minor immunities on the conditions annexed. [Page 837.]

In these documents Bonaventura[131] is called the Seraphic Doctor; and I
repeat my doubt, whether it is possible for any human authority to give
a more full, entire, and unreserved sanction to the works of any human
being than the Church of Rome has given to {357} the writings of
Bonaventura. And what do those works present to