Pars 4, Cap. 6
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-c6
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### Chapter VI. *On the fullness of wisdom in the intellect.*

Concerning the fullness of Christ's *wisdom in the intellect*, however, this is to be held: that in the incarnate Word, namely Christ our Lord, there was the fullness of all wisdom not only as regards the *things known*, but also as regards the *modes of knowing* and their differences. — For in Christ there was *everlasting* knowledge on the side of the Deity, *sensible* knowledge on the side of the sensuality and the flesh, *scientific* knowledge on the side of the mind and the spirit; and this last was threefold: some of it, namely, through *nature*, some through *grace* and some through *glory*. Hence he had wisdom both as God and as man, both as comprehensor and as wayfarer, both as illuminated through grace and as rightly formed through nature; and so in all there were in Christ five modes of knowing. — The first is according to the *divine nature*; and in this mode he knew all things actual and possible, finite and infinite, by *actual* and *comprehensive* knowledge. — The second is through *glory*; and in this mode he knew all things actual and finite by *actual* and *comprehensive* knowledge; the infinite, however, not save perhaps by *habitual* or *excessive* knowledge. — The third, through *grace*; and in this mode he knew all things that pertain to the redemption of the human race. — The fourth, according to *entire nature*, of the sort that was in Adam; and in this mode he knew all things that pertain to the constitution of the universe. — The fifth, according to *sensible experience*; and in this mode he knew those things that come to the organs of the senses, according to which mode it is said that *he learned, from the things which he suffered, obedience*.

Now the reason for the understanding of the foresaid is this: since, just as it belongs to the reparative principle to repair us through most liberal grace, so also through most provident wisdom. For what was founded according to the order of wisdom cannot be repaired apart from the light and order of wisdom; and therefore, just as Christ had to be immune from all *fault*, so he had to be set far from all *ignorance*, and through this wholly filled with the light and encompassing radiance of supernal wisdom. Wherefore he had perfect knowledge according to each nature and cognitive power, and according to the whole existence of things.

Since therefore things have *being* in the *eternal art* and in the *human mind* and in their *own kind*; it was necessary that Christ have this threefold knowledge of things. And since a thing can be known in the *art* in two ways, namely either by the artificer himself or by another contemplating the art; likewise it has being and is known in two ways in the *mind*, apart even from *acquisition*, which does not belong to Christ on account of imperfection, namely either according to an *innate habit* or according to an *infused habit*: hence it is that it was necessary, for the perfect fullness of wisdom, that the five foresaid modes be found in Christ, God and man, so that in the *eternal art* he might know things both through the *nature of the Deity* and through the *glory of comprehension*; in his own *mind* through a natural and *innate* habit, as Adam and the Angels knew; and through a gratuitous and *infused* habit, as the Saints of God illuminated through the Holy Spirit; while in their *own kind* he would know them by way of sense, memory and experience, which in *us* makes a thing unknown to be known, but in *Christ* made a thing known according to one mode to be known according to another.

Now since the divine substance, power and operation is immeasurable, hence it is that according to the *first* mode, which is through the nature of the Deity, *he actually comprehends the infinite*; for by a certain ineffable mode every infinity is finite to the supremely infinite.

But since the substance, power and operation of a creature, however sublimated, is finite — yet in such wise that the human mind does not rest except in the infinite good, nor nevertheless properly comprehends it, since the infinite is not comprehended by the finite, comprehension being taken properly: hence it is that as regards the *second* mode of knowing, the soul of Christ, through the glory of comprehension, grasps as much as a finite nature can grasp, beatified by the infinite good, to which it is supremely united; and through this it extends itself to *finite* things by *actually comprehending*, but to *infinite* things not save perhaps *habitually*, or even by *exceeding*. For the soul cannot be equalled to the Word, neither in knowledge nor in anything else.

Again, since grace chiefly regards the work of reparation; hence it is that according to the *third* mode of knowing Christ knew, through most perfect grace, all things that pertain to our reparation, far more excellently and better than any of the Prophets, or even of the Angels.

Further, since human nature, well instituted, was born to preside over all creatures and to know them as those which ought to serve it, as appeared in the condition of the first man: hence it is that as regards the *fourth* mode of knowing Christ knew all things that pertain to the constructing of the world's fabric, far more excellently than Adam.

Lastly, since sense is not perceptive of things except at the presence of the object; hence it is that according to sensitive knowledge he did not know all things at once, but now these, now those, according as was opportune for effecting the reparation of the human race.

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