the
Cardinal's hat.]

{75}

None realized better than Bonaventure the supremacy of charity.
"Charity alone," he writes, [Footnote 33] "renders us pleasing to God.
Of all the virtues charity alone makes its possessor wealthy and
blessed. If it is absent, in vain are all the other virtues present;
if only it be present, all is present--for whoso possesses it
possesses the Holy Ghost. If virtue constitute the blessed
life--virtue, I should add, is nothing else but the highest love of
God." Since charity is so excellent it must be insisted upon beyond
all the other virtues. Nor ought any kind of charity to be considered
sufficient but that alone by which we love God above all things and
our neighbour as ourselves for God's sake. The Saint insists,
particularly, on the exclusive nature of the love of God. No interest
in creatures and no affection for them should be allowed to interfere
with it. "We should love God," he says, "with the whole heart, the
whole mind and the whole soul. To love anything not in God and for God
is to be wanting in His love." He quotes with approval the remarkable
utterance of St. Augustine: "He loveth Thee less, O Lord! who loveth
anything along with Thee which he does not love because of Thee". He
assigns as the proof of perfect love willingness to lay down one's
life for God: "We love God with our whole soul when for the love of
Jesus Christ we freely expose ourselves to death {76} when
circumstances demand it. To love God with our whole mind is to be ever
mindful of Him, to love Him unceasingly and without forgetfulness or
neglect." Such is the substance of Bonaventure's general teachings on
charity.

[Footnote 33: "Opera Omnia," Tom. VIII, "De Perfectione Vitae," Cap.
VII, p. 124.]

Elsewhere in his treatise, "The Triple Way, or the Fire of Love," he
treats of the subject more in detail. He writes, no doubt, from the
fulness of his heart and describes, the love which dominated his own
soul. He distinguishes [Footnote 34] six stages or degrees of perfect
charity.

[Footnote 34: "Opera Omnia," Tom. VIII, "De Triplici Via," Cap. II,
Sec.4, p. 10.]

The first stage is that of _sweetness_ when the soul learns to "taste
and see how sweet the Lord is".

The second consists in the _yearning_ of the soul for God. Having
become accustomed to spiritual sweetness, it is filled with a longing
which nothing save the perfect possession of that which it loves can
satisfy. And as this cannot be atta