Pars 3, Cap. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/3/q/bon-brev-p3-c1
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### PART THREE.

### *On the corruption of sin.*

### Chapter I. *On the origin of evil in general.*

Some things, therefore, having been determined beforehand and briefly concerning the Trinity of God and the creature of the world, it remains now to touch briefly upon some things concerning the corruption of sin. Concerning which this is to be held in summary: that sin is not any *essence*, but a *defect and corruption*, by which, namely, *mode, species* and *order* are corrupted in the created will; and through this the corruption of sin is *contrary* to the good itself, and yet it has *being* only in the good, nor does it draw its *rise* except from a good — which good is indeed free will; and free will is neither supremely evil, since it can will the good, nor supremely good, since it can turn aside into evil.

Now the reason for the understanding of the foresaid is this: since the first principle, being a being *of itself*, not from another, must necessarily be a being *for the sake of itself*, and through this supremely good, having absolutely no defect. There is not, therefore, nor can there be, anything which is a first and supreme evil, because the first principle bespeaks the highest *completion*, while the supreme evil bespeaks the very greatest *defect*. Since therefore the first principle, as supremely being and complete, can fail neither in being nor in operating; it is neither *supremely* evil nor is it *any* evil, nor can it in any way *give origin to* evil. — Yet because it is omnipotent, it can lead the good from *non-being* into *being*, even without the aid of any matter. And this it did when it fashioned the creature, to which it gave *to be, to live, to understand* and *to will*; and since these came from the supreme good according to the disposition of a threefold cause, it was fitting that the creature should have in its substance and will *mode, species* and *order*. It was born, therefore, to do its works *from God* and *according to God* and *for the sake of God*, and this according to the mode, species and order implanted in it.

But because it was out of nothing and defectible, it was able to *fail* in acting *for the sake of God*, so as to do something for the sake of *itself*, not for the sake of God, and through this neither *from God* nor *according to God* nor *for the sake of God*; and this is *sin*, which is destructive of *mode, species* and *order*; and sin, because it is a defect, does not have an *efficient* cause, but a *deficient* one, namely the defect of the created will.

But because it is a corruption, and only of a good; and every corruption is in a corruptible thing: therefore it is only in a good; and through this, since the free will corrupts in its very self mode, species and order by failing away from the true good, every sin as such both is *from the will*, as from its first origin, and is *in the will*, as in its proper subject; and this indeed the will does when, by its defectibility, mutability and vertibility, spurning the unfailing and unchangeable good, it clings to a changeable good.

From these things it is gathered that « sin is not the seeking of evil things, but the deserting of better ones »; and therefore in the appetite of the will it is *destructive of mode, species and order*, and through this « so voluntary that, if it is not voluntary, it is not yet sin ». — And these things having been understood beforehand, the impiety of the Manichees manifestly falls, who posit a supreme evil as the first principle of all evils. It also appears what the origin of evil is, and what the subject of evil is.

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