Pars 7, Cap. 4
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-c4
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### Chapter IV. *On the things concomitant with the judgment, of which sort is the conflagration of fires.*

Next, something must be *added* concerning the things *concomitant* with the judgment, which are two, namely the *conflagration* of the world's *fires* and the *resurrection of bodies*.

Concerning the *conflagration*, therefore, this must be held: that a fire will go before the face of the Judge, by which the face of the earth will be burned up, so that the *figure of this world* will perish by the conflagration of the world's fires, as the flood came about by the inundation of the waters. — But the *figure of this world* is said to pass away, not as regards the total destruction of this sensible world, but because through the action of that fire, which sets ablaze all elemental things, *plants and animals will be consumed, the elements will be purged and renewed* — most of all air and earth — *the just will be purged and the reprobate scorched*; and when these things are done, the motion of the heaven will also cease, so that thus, when the number of the elect is complete, there may come about in a certain way the *renewal and rewarding* of the world's bodies.

Now the reason for the understanding of the aforesaid is this: since the universal principle of things, being most wise — although in all the things which it does it attends to the order of wisdom, yet most of all it must attend to it in those things which regard the consummation; so that thus the first may not be out of accord with the middle, nor the middle with the last, but that in all things most fittingly ordered there may appear that first principle's ordering wisdom and goodness and loftiness. Since therefore God, according to his most ordered wisdom, made this whole sensible and greater world for the sake of the lesser world, namely man, who is placed in the middle between God and these lower things; hence it is that,

in order that all things may be mutually congruent and the dwelling have harmony with the dweller, man being *well instituted*, this world had to be instituted in a good and quiet state; man *falling*, this world too had to be made worse; man being *disturbed*, it had to be disturbed; man being *purged out*, it had to be purged out; man being *renewed*, it had to be renewed; and man being *consummated*, it had to be brought to rest.

First, therefore, since this world must be *disturbed*, man being *disturbed* — as it stood with him standing and in a certain way fell with him falling; and since in the future judgment, for the showing forth of the Judge's severity, it is necessary that the hearts of all be terrified, and most of all those of sinners, who despised the Lord of all things, so that thus every creature may take up the divine zeal and be conformed to its Author, and conformed also to its dweller: it is necessary that the hinges of the whole world be most horribly *shaken*. And because nothing more intensely and more swiftly and more horribly in its acting shakes the other elements than fire running together from this side and that out of every quarter: hence it is that it is necessary that fire go before the face of the Judge himself, not from one quarter only, but from every quarter of the world, so that there may be there a concurrence of *elemental* and *terrestrial* fire, of *purgatorial* and also of *infernal* fire, so that by the *infernal* the reprobate may be scorched, by the *purgatorial* the just may be purged, by the *terrestrial* these things growing from the earth may be consumed, by the *elemental* the elements may be made subtle and disposed toward the face of the renewal, and together with this the rest may be thrown into confusion, so that not only men and demons, but the Angels also, beholding it, may be terrified.

Again, since this world must be *purged* along with man who is *to be purged out*; and man, in the state of the final time, needs to be purged from the dross of *avarice* and of *malice*, as in the first time from the dregs of *luxury*; and needs also to be purged both *swiftly* and *inwardly* and *perfectly*: hence it is that, just as the world was formerly destroyed and in a certain way purged through the element of *water*, which is cold, against the burning and the dregs of luxury; so the final world is purged through *fire*, on account of the cooling of charity and the coldness of malice and avarice, which will reign at the end as in the old age of the world itself. And because these are adherences of the greatest kind, it is necessary that what purges be of an *inward*, *violent* and *accelerated* action; which does not happen to be found in any other element than in fire. And therefore, as the flood came about by the inundation of the waters, so through the action of fire the face of this sensible world will be burned up.

Further, since this world must be *renewed* along with man who is *renewed*; and nothing can be renewed into a new form unless it lose the old one and be in a certain way disposed by a new disposition superinduced: hence it is that, since fire most of all has the power *expulsive* of an extraneous form, and has also a *subtiliating* force akin to the celestial nature: therefore through it there must come about *purgation* together with *renewal*, in such wise that, since it has a twofold efficacy, as regards *one* part it goes before the Judge's coming, but as regards the *remaining* part it has to follow. And since renewal is toward a newness which no more returns to oldness, and through this toward an incorruptible newness, which it is not in the power of any creature to give: hence it is that, although in that purgation and renewal fire does something through its *natural* power — as to set ablaze, to purge, to rarefy and to make subtle — nevertheless it is necessary that together with that natural power there be a power operating *above nature*, by whose command the beginning of the conflagration will come about, and by whose power its completion will none the less come about.

Lastly, since this world must be *consummated*, man being *consummated*; and man is then consummated when in glory the number of the elect shall have been completed, toward which state indeed all things tend as toward the last and complete end: it is necessary that, when the completion of that number has been made, the *motions of the celestial nature* be terminated and brought to rest; it is necessary also that the *elemental transmutations* be terminated; it is necessary also, in consequence, that *generation* be terminated, which is in *animals* and in *plants*. For since all these things are ordered toward the most noble form, which indeed is the rational soul; when a settled state has been posited in souls, it is necessary that the settled state and completion be posited in the other things that precede. — And therefore the *celestial* bodies, having obtained rest and the fullness of light, are said to be *rewarded*. But the *elements*, which no longer have the force of multiplying through mutual transmutation, are said to *perish*, not as regards substance, but as regards mutual action and passion, and this most of all as regards the active qualities. But *plants* and *sensible things*, because they do not have the power for perpetual life and everlasting duration, such as befits

the state of that nobility, must be consumed in their proper nature — yet in such wise that they are preserved in their *principles* and in a certain way in something *like* them, namely in man, who has a likeness with every kind of creature; and therefore in his renewal and glorification all things can be said to be *renewed* and in a certain way *rewarded*.

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