As I mentioned in the Introduction, I have chosen to treat Thomas and Bonaventure’s inception addresses first before considering their earlier and later works. There are several reasons for beginning with each master’s inception addresses and not with earlier or later works. First, each man’s inception addresses were delivered to a similar audience and were written according to the same University regulations. It is revealing to see how the two men approached the same assignment in different ways. Second, the master’s principium marks a definite beginning to each man’s career. However good or ill their earlier student efforts might have been, when they were incepted, the educational development of the two masters should have been equal. Both had been through the required two years as a cursor biblicus and four as baccalarius sententiarum, and both were judged worthy by their superiors for taking on the duties of a master. Shortly after each man was incepted, however, their careers veered off in very different directions: Bonaventure became the master general of the Franciscan order but remained in Paris; Thomas remained teaching as a master of theology but left Paris for other assignments after only three years. The inception addresses of the two masters constitute the last point at which their educational development remained similar enough that the effort to compare their efforts is meaningful.