Dist. 12, Art. 1, Q. 2
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/1/d/12/q/bon-sent-I-d12-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father more fully and more principally than from the Son.*

Secondly it is asked, whether [the Spirit] proceeds *more fully* from the Father than from the Son. And that He does so seems [to follow]:

**For the affirmative:**

1. Because *that on account of which each thing [is], that more so*: therefore since the Son spirates *through* the Father — because He has this from the Father — the Father spirates more.

2. Likewise, *every first cause infuses more than the second*; but the Father is the first principle of spirating: therefore He infuses more than the Son.

3. Likewise, [a thing] proceeds more fully from one from whom it proceeds *properly* and *principally* than from one [from whom it does] neither principally nor properly; but the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father properly and principally, as is said in the text and as Augustine says: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, one proceeds more fully from him from whom one has whatever one has, namely *substance* and *property*, than from him from whom one does not have [it]; but the Holy Spirit has from the Father that He be, and that He proceed from the Father and the Son: but from the Son He does not have that He proceeds from the Father, because then the Son would give something to the Father: therefore etc.

**On the contrary. Foundations:**

1. If [He proceeds] more fully from the Father, therefore more perfectly: therefore He does not proceed most perfectly from the Son, therefore in the Trinity there is some imperfection.

2. Likewise, if [He proceeds] more fully from the Father than from the Son, He receives *more* from the Father than from the Son; but where there is *more* and *less*, there is diversity: therefore in the person of the Holy Spirit there is diversity.

3. Likewise, it seems that not even *more principally* from the Father: because he who perfectly gives something to someone gives him use and jurisdiction or *authority*; if therefore the Father gives to the Son the power to spirate, He gives him the authority of spirating: therefore [the Spirit] proceeds equally principally from the Son as from the Father.

> **Conclusion.** *In a sound sense it can be said that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father principally or more principally and per se; yet He does not proceed more fully nor more perfectly.*

**I respond:** It must be said that the Holy Spirit is said to proceed from the Father *principally* and *per se*: *principally*, because the *authority* is in the Father; *per se*, because [He proceeds] not only with the Son as medium, but also immediately. Yet He does not proceed more fully or more perfectly from the Father, because *more fully* posits a degree of perfection, and also posits composition of substance in the produced — neither of which is in the divine being. Hence if the proposition be advanced: *what proceeds from someone more principally, proceeds more fully*, it is simply to be denied.

**To the arguments to the contrary:**

*To 1 and 2.* To what is objected concerning the first cause and the *propter quod* etc.; it must be said that, as has been said before, that [maxim] holds only where there is plurality of causes; but here there is plurality neither of causes nor of principles: therefore it does not hold here.

*To 4.* To what is objected — that the Holy Spirit does not have from the Son that He proceeds from the Father — it must be said in reply that *to have from oneself* or *from another* does not posit a degree of fullness. Hence although the Son has divinity from the Father, yet He is as perfectly God as the Father; and therefore it does not follow that He proceeds more fully from the Father, *because* more principally. — As to what is objected: *He proceeds more fully who has substance and property*; the reply can be made by *killing the minor*: for the Holy Spirit does have from the Son His property, although He does not have it according to every respect; for He has procession from the Son, but not *as from the Father*.

*To 3.* To what is objected, that the Father gives authority to the Son; it must be said that, by giving authority over the Holy Spirit, [the Son] nonetheless has the authority from Him [the Father], because from this the Son ought to refer it back to the Father, since He has it from the Father; and from this it is, that in the Son there is *authority* and *sub-authority*. Hence also He principally produces the Holy Spirit, but the Father more principally, because in Him there is only *authority*, not *sub-authority*. Now *principality* is called *authority* in the divine being.