Dist. 14, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/14/q/bon-sent-I-d14-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On the temporal procession of the Holy Spirit.*
### Question I. *Whether a temporal procession of the Holy Spirit is to be posited.*

That a temporal procession is to be posited seems [to be the case]:

1. Through Bede, who says in the homily, and is held in the [Master's] text: "The mission of the Holy Spirit is His procession"; but mission is temporal: therefore a temporal procession of the Holy Spirit is to be posited.

2. Likewise, this same is shown by reason thus: to proceed is from one into another; since therefore the Holy Spirit is from God and is in the creature and in the creature is from God, He proceeds from God into the creature; but this is not before the creature exists, but is from time: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, a gift or thing-given proceeds from the giver into the receiver, when it is given; but the Holy Spirit is given from time: therefore from time He proceeds from the giver into the receiver: therefore a temporal procession is to be posited.

**On the contrary:**

1. The procession of the Holy Spirit is the same as His spiration; but no spiration of His is called temporal: therefore neither [is His] procession.

2. Likewise, just as procession stands toward the Holy Spirit, so generation toward the Son; and just as the Holy Spirit is sent into the mind, so likewise is the Son, both from time; but the generation of the Son by reason of such a mission is in no way called temporal: therefore neither [is] the procession of the Holy Spirit.

3. Likewise, the procession of the Holy Spirit is not called temporal except insofar as it is a procession from something into something, namely into a creature; but procession from something into something occurs only in two ways: either according to procession from the agent into the recipient, or according to procession from place to place. But in the first way it is not a temporal procession, since the Holy Spirit is a person fixed and standing in Himself: therefore He is not produced in a recipient. In the second way [also] not, since what proceeds in such a way recedes from a starting-point and approaches a terminus; but this does not befit the Holy Spirit.

4. Likewise, everything that temporally proceeds from another has a beginning of being from time; if therefore the Holy Spirit temporally proceeds, therefore His being begins.

5. Likewise, a temporal procession is so called either by reason of the Holy Spirit or of grace: not by reason of the Holy Spirit, since [He is] an eternal person; likewise it seems that not by reason of grace, since Augustine says in the fourth [book] of *On the Trinity*: "Insofar as we grasp something eternal with the mind, we are not in this world": therefore if grace elevates [us] to grasping His eternal being, [grace's] procession is not temporal, therefore neither [is] the procession of the Holy Spirit by reason of grace.

6. Likewise, in the procession of the Holy Spirit into the creature there is the procession of an uncreated Gift, which is the Holy Spirit, and of a created gift, which is grace; but the uncreated Gift is more noble; therefore since denomination ought to be made from the more noble, the procession of the Holy Spirit into the creature ought to be called an uncreated procession; but every such [procession is] not temporal: therefore etc.

> **Conclusion.** *A temporal procession of the Holy Spirit must be posited, not by reason of Him from whom He proceeds, but by reason of that into which He proceeds as into a recipient, in which He is received.*

**I respond:** It must be said that *procession*, insofar as it is taken in common of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is called *emanation from* this one, namely from the Father; insofar as it is said of the Holy Spirit [specifically], it is called *procession from one into another*. But to proceed from one into another is in two ways: either as into an object, into which it is extended, or as into a recipient, in which it is received. And the first way indeed is in the eternal procession; for since the Holy Spirit proceeds as mutual love, He proceeds from two, in such a way that from one into another. "For the Holy Spirit, as Jerome and Augustine say, is the love by which the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father."

The second mode could not be in that [eternal procession], although the Greeks so understood [it], that the Holy Spirit is received in the Son and produced from the Father. But under the second mode — since the reception of the Holy Spirit is through the influence of a gratuitous gift, which is from time — is considered the temporal procession, according to which the Holy Spirit is said to proceed from someone into someone not only as into an object, but as into a habitation. And thus it must be conceded that there is a temporal procession of the Holy Spirit, not by reason of Him from whom, but by reason of that into which He proceeds.

**Replies to the arguments:**

*To 1 and 2.* To that which is objected concerning spiration and generation, the response is now apparent, since neither of the aforesaid names expresses a relation to the terminus into which the procession is made.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that the procession of the Holy Spirit cannot be from something into something as into a recipient; it must be said that this is true by reason of the person itself; but yet by reason of what is connoted, which is grace, in which the Holy Spirit is given, He is received, since grace is in something as in a recipient.

*To 4.* To that which is objected: that what proceeds temporally begins to be; it must be said that this is in two ways, since this determination *temporally* can be placed around the act of proceeding either by comparison to the principle from which, or by comparison to the terminus into which. In the first way the proposition is true; but the Holy Spirit is not so called to proceed temporally — that He would be produced from time. In the other way, by comparison to the terminus into which: thus it does not have truth, [namely] if He proceeds in this from time, [in such a way] that He has a beginning, but only that He begins to be in this [terminus].

*To 5.* To that which is objected, that grace does not proceed temporally because it elevates to the eternal; it must be said that *temporal* is said in three ways. In one way that is called temporal which has its beginning and variation and act in time; and in this way that is called temporal which is subject to time and is corruptible and variable. In a second way that is called temporal which has a beginning of being in time, but not variation, like the soul. In a third way that is called temporal which has its beginning in time, but its act outside of time and elevated above time; and in this third way the temporal procession or the giving of grace is so called.

It can however be said that grace has temporal being by reason of that in which it is, namely free choice, which is changed and varies; and Augustine's word, where he says that we are not in this world, is to be understood as regards conformity.

*To 6.* To that which is objected, that denomination ought to be from the more worthy; it must be said that the whole conjoined [thing], since it is destroyed by the destruction of any [one] of its parts, takes its denomination from the more imperfect part. Whence if one part of a conjunction is false, the whole conjoined [whole] is called false; if one [is] contingent, the whole is judged contingent; if one [is] temporal, the whole [is] temporal. Therefore since the temporal procession includes the eternal emanation of the person and the temporal emanation of grace, [the latter] which is temporal, therefore it is called temporal and not eternal.

And as to what is said, that denomination ought to be made from the more worthy; it must be said that this is not true except in that [case] in which what is less worthy is conformed to the more worthy.