exist; I would far rather suffer
annihilation, than live for ever, even in this world, reigning even as
I now reign, and yet withal remain in perpetual enmity with my God."

A further incident reveals a still more intimate interchange of ideas.
The King once came to Bonaventure and said to him: "The Queen is
greatly disturbed because she hears that our son Peter wishes to join
the Franciscan Order. I said to her, 'Do not trouble and do not allow
the affair to weigh on your mind. Besides, you may mention the matter
so often that the youth may come by the desire of joining the Order.
Personally I feel assured that the love Brother Bonaventure, their
General, bears me will not allow him {91} to receive our son without
my being forewarned.' Did I not speak the truth, Brother Bonaventure?"
To this our Saint made answer, "Sire, if your son comes to me on this
matter, I shall refer to you and lay the responsibility on your
shoulders". "No, Brother Bonaventure," replied King Louis, "that would
not do. I should not like to have it on my conscience that I stood in
the way of my son's following the voice of God." "Pious and holy
King!" the narrative concludes, "his soul was so holy and so given to
God, he preferred to be deprived of his son's society rather than
withdraw that son from the service of God."

In the fourteenth century MSS. from which the previous incidents are
drawn, and which are preserved in the Vatican Library, the following
episode is found. We insert it, though historically it is not beyond
question. The brother of St. Bonaventure once besought our Saint to
use his influence with St. Louis on his behalf. "Do you wish me to
speak to the King for you?" asked our Saint. "How could I exhort and
induce others to the contempt of the world and the embracing of the
Religious Life, if I interested myself on your worldly behalf: if, by
procuring you what you desire, I afforded you the occasion of
remaining in the lay state and of loving the world?"

In the course of this biography we have alluded casually to the
intimate friendship which existed between St. Bonaventure and St.
Thomas Aquinas. {92} There is an account of a holy rivalry of modest
courtesy which took place between them when they were both to receive
the degree of Doctor at the Paris University. St. Thomas could not be
brought to take precedence of our Saint: whilst Bonaventure, true to
the name of Friar Minor, shrank from the thought of anticipating St.
T