Inspiration and Institution in John of Rupescissa's Liber Ostensor XI

ion, of sensory input. 79 LO XI, §354: “[...] iste modus puncti trascendentis seu raptus vel extasis conficitur ex duobus : primo ex naturali conatu portionis superioris per desiderium ascendentis in rationes infiniti exemplaris omnium rationum, et ex tractu Dei rapientis animam in se ipsum ad capiendum in eo veritates quas optat.” 80 As it is evident in the gradus exaltationis examined above. Graziana S. Ciola Inspiration and Institution 25 experience and practice of “practical theology,” which includes visionary experiences as well. In a considerable measure the process of inspiration is not a passive matter directed by God, who would provide the elect with the whole set of the degrees of perfection from above. Inspiration and salvation are instead a genuinely human effort, an endeavor carried out largely by natural means and powers. Certainly, God intervenes to provide us with those basic revealed principles without which our journey upwards could not even begin; however it falls upon us to consider those principles and put them to use through our natural faculties. Of course, God actively intervenes in the advanced stages of the process to offer us a helping hand when our faculties cannot make the jump anymore; but it is up to us to get there in the first place. To a certain extent, for Rupescissa we are the main authors of our own inspiration and thus ultimately of our own salvation. But, first and foremost, election itself is made possible by partaking of an institutional status, viz., by being a member of the Franciscan Order and fully embracing Franciscan poverty. This means that even predestination and God’s arbitrium are not enough if they are not met midway by an individual’s life choices and genuine commitment. Even once divine intervention has come into play in a more prominent role, God’s tractus remains initially focused on integrating the elect’s natural faculties and activities, elevating them to their fully perfected potential. For example, in the seventh degree of perfection, the first mode of the tractus Dei is bringing self-clarity to the soul’s affectio and natural desire for truth, throughout the ordinary cognitive process.81 Two remarks should be made on this account. First, Rupescissa claims that this inspired way of knowing the deeper structure of the soul was also granted to heathen philosophers.82 In other words, up to a point, genuine and relatively “high-level” inspiration does not ultimately require being a good Franciscan nor indeed embracing the revealed Christian faith. Inspiration and enlightenment are grounded on our natural cognitive faculties and on our intellect’s and affection’s natural desire for truth. Second, neither this new acquisition of such supernaturally granted awareness of the soul’s own structure nor the carefully meditated knowledge of the model to imitate, i.e., Christ, exempts the human soul from its active effort to perfect itself through its own faculties. 81 LO XI, § 355–359. Besides Augustine, De Trinitate 10, ed. W. J. Mountain, CCSL 50 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), 311–332, another explicit reference in Rupescissa’s argument is Bonaventure, in particular: Itinerarium mentis in Deum 2, in Opera omnia V (Quaracchi: Collegio San Bonaventura, 1934), 299b–303a; Collationes in Hexaemeron 3.13, in Opera omnia V (Quaracchi: Collegio San Bonaventura, 1934), 343b. 82 LO XI, §356.