Bonaventure Of Padua

, a cardinal, was born in that city June 22, 1332, and descended from a noble and illustrious family. He studied divinity at Paris, where he distinguished himself by his uncommon parts and application, and afterwards taught divinity. He was of the order of St. Augustin, of which he was made general in 1377, on the death of Beauregard. Pope Urban VI. gave him a cardinal’s cap the year after, or as some say, in 1384. This engaging him to stand up for the rights of the church against Francis de Carrario of Padua, that petty tyrant contrived to have him murdered. He was dispatched with the shot of an arrow, as he was passing St. Angelo’s bridge at Rome. This event some place in 1385, others in 1389, 1396, and 1398. The manner of his death gave occasion to the following Latin distich, which cannot be translated so as to be intelligible to an English reader:

"Quæ

Bona tam cupide cœlo Ventura rogabas,

In te livoris missa sagitta dedit."

He was the author of several works: as, Commentaries upon the Epistles of St. John and St. James, Lives of the | Saints, Sermons, &c. Some improperly attribute to him the “Speculum de laudibus B. Maria-,” Nuremberg, 1476; but Fabricius gives it to the preceding cardinal, in whose works it appears, vol. VI. He had a very close and intimate friendship with the celebrated Petrarch, whose funeral oration he pronounced in 1369. ¹