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Nc forte haec prim a doctrinae rudim ents despiciat. 14. 4 ad 3: ed. Dionysius Siedler, Opera O m n ia (M u n ­ ster 1978) 34/1. 2 1 . ‘Quia vero sensus litteralis est quern auctor intendit, auctor autem sacrae scripturae Deus est qui omnia simul suo intellectu com prehendit.. l a. 10. 32 Jo h n Van Engen Auvergne argued. But in explaining and defending the literal sense, he derived from it what he called a sermo universalis, meaning, its abiding intent, that is, the timeless tea­ ching intended, say, when God prescribed circumcision or forbade idol-worship55, Bonaventure told the masters at Paris in 1273 to study the text and know it virtually by heart, to understand what its “ nomen” imparts.

His fellow lecturers on Scripture urged him to con­ struct an intelligible historical account from amidst the diffuse mass of Text and glos­ ses they were lecturing on49. Students found in his book, culled from available glosses and commentaries, including Victorine materials, the best opportunity yet to grasp the whole of Scripture presented manageably as a historical narrative. The original exegetical activity was hidden from sight in a relatively smooth narrative that did not visibly record the interweaving of text, gloss, and exposition - the exact opposite of what Herbert of Bosham had wanted to achieve.

For twenty years later (February 1252) the Parisian secular theolo­ gians declared that no bachelor could be promoted to a chair unless he had first proved himself by diligently lecturing on more than one book of “Theology glossed” (,aliqtios libros Iheologie glosatos) and on the Sentences (et Sententias) in the classroom of a ruling master30 - an attempt at guild control over the right to lecture on the Bible and the Sentences. “Theology” meant the Bible, and the text taught was a glossed Bi­ ble.