Pars 4, Cap. 3
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/4/q/bon-brev-p4-c3
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### Chapter III. *On the incarnation as regards the mode.*

Concerning the *mode* of the incarnation this is to be held: that, when the Angel announced to the most blessed Virgin Mary the mystery of the incarnation to be accomplished in her, the Virgin believed, desired and consented; the Holy Spirit came upon her to sanctify and to make fruitful, by whose power « the Virgin conceived the Son of God, whom the Virgin bore and after the birth remained a Virgin ». — Now she conceived not only flesh, but also flesh ensouled and united to the Word, liable to no sin, but wholly holy and immaculate, by reason of which the sweetest Virgin Mary is called and is the *mother of God*.

Now the reason for the understanding of the foresaid is this: since the incarnation is a work flowing from the first principle, inasmuch as it is reparative in a mode *most fitting, most common* and *most complete*. For it befits his *wisdom* to work *fittingly*, it befits his *bounty* to work *commonly*, and his *power*, to work *perfectly*.

Since therefore the incarnation is from the first principle repairing in the *most fitting* mode; and the fitting mode is that the medicine answer from the opposite side to the disease, and the repair to the fall, and the remedy to the harm; since the human race had fallen through the *devil's suggestion*, and through the *consent of the woman* deceived, and through *generation in concupiscence*, transmitting the original [taint] into the offspring: it behoved that on the contrary there should here be a *good Angel* persuading to good, and a *believing Virgin* also consenting to the good persuaded, and the *charity of the Holy Spirit* sanctifying and making fruitful unto an immaculate conception; so that thus « contraries might be cured by contraries ». And through this, as the woman, deceived by the devil and known in concupiscence by the man and corrupted, transmitted into all guilt, disease and death; so a woman, instructed by an Angel and sanctified and made fruitful by the Holy Spirit, without any corruption either of mind or of body, should generate an offspring which would give grace, health and life to all who came to her.

Again, because the incarnation is from the first principle repairing in the *most common* mode — for through the incarnate Word the fall of men and of angels is repaired, as of things heavenly and earthly, and the fall of men is repaired according to either sex — so that the medicament might be *common to all*, it was most fitting that for the mystery of the incarnation there should come about a concurrence *of an Angel, of a woman* and *of a man: of the Angel* as announcing, *of the woman, a Virgin,* as conceiving, and *of the man* indeed as [the father] of the offspring conceived; so that thus *the Angel Gabriel* should be the messenger of the eternal Father, *the immaculate Virgin* should be the temple of the Holy Spirit, *the offspring conceived* should be the very person of the Word; and through this, in the common reparation of all there should come about a common concurrence of three from the threefold hierarchy, namely the divine, the angelic and the human, to intimate not only the Trinity of God, but also the generality of the benefit and the liberality of the highest repairer. And since *liberality* is appropriated to the Holy Spirit, and the *sanctification of the Virgin*, in which the conception of the Word was accomplished; hence it is that, although that work is from the whole Trinity, nevertheless *by appropriation* the Virgin is said to have conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, since it is from the first principle repairing in the *most complete* mode; hence it is that in the conception the due completeness was in the *offspring*, was in the *conceiving*, and was also in the *conceiving power*. Because the due completeness had to be in the *offspring*, hence it is that in the instant of the conception there was not only a severing of the seed, but also its consolidation, its configuration, its vivification through the soul and its deification through the Deity united to it; so that thus the Virgin truly conceived the Son of God on account of the union of the flesh to the Deity, by the mediation of the rational spirit, through which, as through a middle of congruity, the flesh was fit for the union. — But because the due completeness had to be in the *conceiving*; since of the four modes three modes of producing man had gone before — the first neither from man nor from woman, as in Adam; the second from man without woman, as in Eve; the third from woman and man, as in all born in concupiscence — it befitted, for the completion of the universe, that a fourth mode be introduced, which namely should be from a woman without male seed, through the power of the highest worker. — But because the due completeness had to be in the *power*; hence it is that in the conception of the Son of God there concurred at once *innate* power, *infused* power and *uncreated* power: the *innate* power prepared the matter, the *infused* power segregated it by purifying, the *uncreated* power *suddenly* perfected what could not come to be by created power except *successively*. And so the most blessed Virgin Mary was a mother in the most complete mode, conceiving the Son of God himself without a man, the Holy Spirit making her fruitful. For because in the mind of the Virgin the love of the Holy Spirit burned in a singular way; therefore in her flesh the power of the Holy Spirit worked marvels, by grace namely partly *arousing*, partly *aiding*, partly *elevating* nature, according to what that marvellous conception required.

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