Pars 7, 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/7/q/bon-brev-p7-c3
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### Chapter III. *On the things antecedent to the judgment, of which sort are the ecclesiastical suffrages.*

Now concerning the *ecclesiastical suffrages* this must be held: that the suffrages of the Church profit the dead — suffrages, I say, which the Church makes for the dead, such as sacrifices, fasts, almsgivings and other prayers and punishments voluntarily undertaken for the more speedy and easier expiation of their faults. — But they profit the dead, not any whatsoever, but the « moderately good », namely those who are in purgatory; not the « very wicked », that is, those who are in hell; « nor the very good », that is, those who are in heaven — rather, on the contrary, their merits and prayers give suffrage to the Church militant, for whose members the Blessed obtain many benefits. — But they profit according to more and less, either on account of the diversity of merits in the dead, or on account of the charity of the living, which is more solicitous for some than for others; and this either for the mitigation of their punishments or for a swifter deliverance, according as the dispensation of the supernal providence shall have seen it better to be expedient for them.

Now the reason for the understanding of the aforesaid is this: since the first principle, being the best, and by this very fact of the highest *severity* against evil, ought equally to be of the highest *sweetness* toward the good; and therefore, since by reason of the *severity* of justice the just, in whom there is the liability of fault, ought after this life to be tormented in purgatory, they ought also by reason of the *sweetness* of mercy to be relieved and to have help and protection, most of all because they are set in misery and by their own works and merits can no longer help themselves. The governance of divine providence therefore had to dispose that suffrages be conferred upon them by those who are able, saving nevertheless the *rectitude of justice*, from which the *sweetness of the divine mercy* neither ought nor can dissent nor in any way be separated. Since therefore the *rectitude of justice* requires the *preservation of the divine honor, of the governance of the universe* and *of the quality of human merit*; therefore the supreme providence of the supernal and first principle disposed that these suffrages avail the departed according to the *sweetness of mercy* and the *rectitude of justice*, which preserves the dignity of the divine honor, the governance of the universe and the quality of human merit.

First therefore, since in suffrages of this kind *justice* must be preserved, which is above all *preservative of the divine honor*; and the divine honor nonetheless requires that satisfactory and penal works be paid out to it for faults: hence it is that suffrages have to be made through those works by which *satisfaction is made* most of all, and *honor is recompensed* to God. Since therefore of this kind are the three parts of *satisfaction*: *fasting*, *prayer* and *almsgiving*, and the *sacrifice* of the altar, in which most of all the *honor due to God* is rendered on account of the presence of Him who is offered in that sacrifice: hence it is that the suffrages of the Church consist in satisfactory works of this kind, and most of all in the celebration of Masses; according as Gregory in the fourth book of the *Dialogues* intimates that some, on account of the benefits of Masses, were most swiftly delivered from great punishments. And through this the pomp of funeral rites and the careful ordering of a burial and things of this kind ought not to be reckoned among the suffrages of the Church. On account of which the holy

Augustine also says in the book *On the Care to be Had for the Dead* that « the ordering of a burial, the manner of interment and the pomp of funeral rites are consolations of the living rather than aids of the dead ».

Further, since there must be preserved there a justice *preservative of the order and governance of the universe*; and this requires that in the communication of influences there be preserved the order and the *symbolum* between the things from which and into which those influences flow; and through this that the lower ought not to flow into that which is above, nor into that which is removed by an utter distance: hence it is that the suffrages of the Church cannot avail those who are in *hell*, because they are wholly separated from the mystical body of Christ; whence no spiritual influence reaches them nor profits them, just as neither does the influence of the head profit members cut off from the body. — Hence it is also that they do not profit the *Blessed*, because they are altogether superior in state, and, already existing in the term, cannot ascend to higher things; but rather, on the contrary, they themselves profit us, and their prayers do so — for this too they merited in the flesh — therefore the divine order disposed that prayers be offered to God for those Saints themselves also, so that they too may give suffrage to us for the obtaining of divine benefits. Ecclesiastical suffrages therefore do not profit them, but rather theirs profit us. — It remains therefore that they profit the *just* alone, who are in *purgatorial punishments*. For these, by reason of their *punishment* and of their *impotence* to help themselves, are inferior to the living, but by reason of *justice* they are joined to the other members of the Church; so that deservedly the merits of holy Church can give them suffrage on account of the *symbolum* and the order.

Lastly, since there must be preserved in these things a justice which weighs the *requirement of merits*; hence it is that those suffrages which are made *in common* for the departed, although they avail all the good according to their measure, avail these more amply, who merited the more that they should profit and avail them, while they were in the state of the way. But those which are made *specially* for certain persons — because the intention of the one making them is right and proceeds according to God, and the ecclesiastical institution is without doubt not void: therefore they avail more those for whom they are determinately made, although they be also in some way communicated to others. Nor yet can they come to the aid of *others* in the way they do that principal person, for the reason that, although they be spiritual things, nevertheless divine justice requires a greater amends for a greater fault and more amends for more faults. Whence the example of the light, which equally illumines those sitting at one table, does not satisfy, because suffrages of this kind have rather to be likened to redemptive prices than to diffusive influences of this kind. — But how much they avail each one determinately, He has to define with certitude whose it is to attend to the weight and the number and the measure in liabilities and punishments and suffrages.

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