Klöster im Hochmittelalter

94 | Timothy J. Johnson
is the ground of knowledge; however, they soon parted ways on the path to the
heavenly Jerusalem. In the ensuing centuries, philosophers and theologians would
push further until transcendence itself would be eclipsed, only to be replaced by
transcendental categories. ⁴²
Bonaventure maintains that the Poverello’s stigmatized body provides a historically
situated locus for transformation in the desert of this world. This dynamic
promotes the analogical ascent from the exterior world through the interior world
of the soul, upward into the darkness of the divine mysteries in the Holy of Holies.
Often critiqued as making Francis inaccessible to his confreres by raising him up
as an exemplar beyond reach, the Seraphic doctor does the opposite with poetic
creativity and theological acumen. Circumscribed by the physical setting of Mount
La Verna and burdened by the pressing weight of pastoral concerns, he offers his
brothers a familiar and familial figure whom some had even encountered in the
flesh. Distant figures from the past, which were the common guides on the ascent,
were replaced by a poor man from the Umbrian town of Assisi. An analogical ascent
is accessible to all since the proportional stages are the same for everyone and
God’s grace is universal. The locus of transcendence draws nearer when depicted
against the horizon of a known, commonly shared history. If a well-known brother
– no matter how gifted – can ascend on high, why not another brother, neighbor,
friend, or spouse? Is this a step toward the democratization, domestication, or perhaps
even disappearance of transcendence on the cusp of modernity?
For his part, Roger Bacon maintained that the accurate depiction of history, especially
with the assistance of the visual arts, called for an appreciation of the physical
world as locus. Place contains and generates comparison and perspective. The
path to the heavenly Jerusalem is opaque at best if not displayed for human eyes
in the material corporality of the world. To see correctly requires a proper viewing
position and, and to ascend on high, a place below must be confirmed. Those who
refuse to take up the sciences such as languages, geometry, astronomy, and geography
risk never finding the locus of transcendence, and will remain “out of place”
forever. Now the analogical ascent is accessible to all since the sciences allow the
comparison of physical realities with their spiritual counterparts. This emphasis
on securing a place eventually yields to the conception of place as the means by
which distance is measured between points on a grid. Is this intense consideration
by Bacon of the divine footsteps in the physical world a precursor of modernity’s
movement away from a reflection on who (God) left the imprint and where they
lead (heaven), to the precise physical representation of the footsteps (art and geome-
42 Oliver Boulnois, Être et représentation. Une généalogie de la métaphysique moderne à l’époque de
Duns Scot (XIII ᵉ –XIV ᵉ siècle), Paris 1999.