Dist. 13
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/13/q/bon-sent-I-d13-littera
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# Distinction XIII.

…that he is from God, yet is not himself the Son — for he is read of as being from God by proceeding, not by being born — we have already disputed above, so far as it seemed fit.

### *Whether the Holy Spirit ought to be called unbegotten, since he is not begotten.*

Now it must be considered, since the Holy Spirit is not begotten, whether he ought to be called unbegotten. To which we say, that the Holy Spirit ought to be called neither begotten nor unbegotten. Hence Augustine, *to Orosius*, says: "Sure faith declares the Holy Spirit to be neither begotten nor unbegotten; for if we say unbegotten, we shall seem to affirm two fathers; but if begotten, we are blamed for believing two sons." For just as the Son alone is called begotten, so also the Father alone is called unbegotten, in that he is not from another. Hence Augustine in the fifteenth book *On the Trinity*: "The Father alone," he says, "is not from another, and for that reason he alone is called unbegotten — not indeed in the Scriptures, but in the usage of disputants who utter such speech as they were able concerning so great a matter. But the Son is born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds principally from the Father, and from both in common. And therefore, although we do not call the Holy Spirit begotten, yet we do not dare to call him unbegotten, lest by this word someone should suspect either two fathers in that Trinity, or two persons who are not from another." Behold, by these words he plainly shows that the Holy Spirit ought to be called neither begotten nor unbegotten.

### *Jerome speaks otherwise.*

Yet Jerome *in the Rules of Definitions*, against the heretics, says that the Holy Spirit is unbegotten, in these words: "The Holy Spirit is not the Father, but is unbegotten and unmade. He is not the Father, because he is of the Father and is in the Father; he has procession from the Father, and not nativity; nor is he the Son, because he is not begotten." Behold, by these words the Holy Spirit is said to be unbegotten — which seems to be opposed to the preceding words of Augustine.

### *How Jerome's saying is to be resolved. The two senses of "unbegotten".*

But that we may put aside this seeming contradiction, we say that Jerome took the term *unbegotten* in one sense, and Augustine in another. For Augustine took *unbegotten* as meaning "he, or that, which is not from another"; and according to this, it is said only of the Father. Jerome, however, calls *unbegotten* "not begotten"; and according to this it can be said of the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit is not begotten.

### *The reason is shown.*

That Jerome did so understand the term is shown from his own words, which he uses in the same treatise, making this division: "Everything that is, is either unbegotten, or begotten, or made. There is therefore that which is neither born nor made; and there is that which is born and is not made; and there is that which is neither born nor made; and there is that which is made and is not born; and there is that which is made and is born and is reborn; and there is that which is made and is born and is not reborn. Let us now assign a subsistence to each of the things set forth. That which is neither born nor made is the Father; for he is not from anything. That which is born and is not made is the Son, who is begotten of the Father, not made. That which is again neither born nor made is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father. That which is made and is not born is heaven and earth and the other things that are insensible. That which is made and born and reborn is man. That which is made and born and not reborn — these are the animals." Behold, by these words Jerome shows that he takes *unbegotten* as *not begotten*. For otherwise the foregoing division would not be true — namely, that everything which is, is either unbegotten, or begotten, or made. And in carrying out this division, in his assignment of "unbegotten", he everywhere puts *not born*.

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