Dist. 16
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/16/q/bon-sent-I-d16-littera
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### Distinction XVI.

*On the mission of the Holy Spirit, which is made in two ways, visibly and invisibly.*

Now we must consider, concerning the Holy Spirit, beyond that ineffable and eternal procession by which he proceeds from the Father and the Son and not from himself, what his temporal procession is — which is called mission or bestowal. To this we say that, just as the Son is said to be sent in two ways — one, by which he appeared visibly; the other, by which he is invisibly perceived by chaste minds — so also the Holy Spirit is said to proceed or be sent or be given by the Father and the Son and by himself in two ways: one visibly, the other invisibly. For he was given by visible demonstration of a creature, as on the day of Pentecost and on other occasions; and he is given daily, invisibly, by gliding into the minds of the faithful.

And first let us treat of that mode of mission which is made in a visible form. Of this Augustine in book II *On the Trinity* thus says: "It is easy to understand concerning the Holy Spirit why he too is said to be sent. For there was made some species of a creature in time, in which the Holy Spirit was visibly shown forth — whether when he descended upon the Lord himself in the bodily form of a dove, or when on the day of Pentecost there came suddenly a sound from heaven, as of a vehement wind being borne, and there appeared to them divided tongues as it were of fire, which also sat upon each one of them. This operation, visibly expressed and offered to mortal eyes, was called the mission of the Holy Spirit — not that there should appear to them that very substance by which he himself is invisible and unchangeable, just as the Father and the Son are, but that by these external sights the hearts of men, moved from the temporal manifestation of him as coming, might be turned to the hidden eternity of him who is always present." Behold, by these words Augustine opens up that mode of mission which is exhibited visibly — although the Spirit himself in his own nature is not seen, who was not in those creatures more than in others, but to a different end. For he was in them, that, coming through them to men, he might be shown to be in those to whom those creatures came. For the Holy Spirit did not then come or descend upon men by a temporal motion, but by the temporal motion of the creature was signified the spiritual and invisible infusion of the Holy Spirit. And, to speak more openly, by that mode of mission of the Holy Spirit exhibited bodily, the spiritual and interior mission or bestowal of the Holy Spirit was shown — concerning which we must now treat.

But first it must be asked: since the Son is said to be lesser than the Father with respect to the mission by which he appeared in a created form, why is the Holy Spirit not said to be similarly lesser than the Father, since he too has appeared in a created form. For concerning the Son, that he is lesser than the Father according to the form in which he appeared as sent, Augustine plainly shows in book IV *On the Trinity*, saying: "God sent his Son made of a woman, made under the law, so much made small that he was made; and so sent in the manner in which he was made. Let us therefore confess that he is lesser as having been made, and as much lesser as he was made, and as much made as he was sent." Behold, you have it that the Son, insofar as he is sent — that is, made — is lesser than the Father. Why then is the Holy Spirit not called lesser than the Father, since he also assumed a creature in which he appeared? Because the Spirit assumed the creature in which he appeared otherwise than the Son did. For the Son received [it] through union, but the Spirit not [so]. For the Son received the man in such a way that he became man; but the Holy Spirit did not so receive the dove that he became a dove. Of this Augustine in book II *On the Trinity* thus says: "Therefore it is nowhere written that God the Father is greater than the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is lesser than the Father, since the creature in which the Holy Spirit appeared was not so assumed as the Son of Man was assumed, in which the form of the very Word of God's person was presented — not so that he might *have* the Word of God, as do other holy wise men, but that he himself was the Word. For one thing is the Word in flesh, another the Word [which is] flesh; that is, one is the Word in a man, another is the Word [who is] man. For *flesh* is put for *man* in that which he says: *The Word was made flesh*. Therefore the creature

in which the Holy Spirit appeared was not so assumed as that flesh and human form was assumed from the Virgin Mary. For he did not beatify and join to himself in unity of person, for eternity, the dove or that wind or that fire." From the foregoing it has been plainly shown according to what the Son is called lesser than the Father, and why the Son is called lesser than the Father, and not the Holy Spirit.

### Chapter II.

*That the Son according as he is man is lesser not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit.*

It must be noted, however, that the Son, according as he was made man, is called lesser not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit, and even than himself. And that even than himself he is called lesser according to the form of a servant, Augustine shows in book I *On the Trinity*, saying: "Men have erred, transferring those things which were said of Christ according to [his] humanity to his substance, which is sempiternal — as in that which the Lord himself says: *The Father is greater than I*; which Truth says on account of the form of a servant, in which manner the Son is also lesser than himself. For how is he not also made lesser than himself, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant? For he did not so take the form of a servant that he might lose the form of God, in which he was equal to the Father. In the form of God therefore the Only-Begotten of the Father is equal to the Father. In the form of a servant he is even lesser than himself. Therefore not without reason does Scripture say both — namely, both that the Son is equal to the Father, and that the Father is greater than the Son; the former is understood on account of the form of God, the latter on account of the form of a servant." On this same point in book II *On the Trinity* Augustine says: "The Son of God is equal to the Father according to the form of God, in which he is, and lesser than the Father according to the form of a servant which he received, in which he was found lesser not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit; and not only this, but even than himself." "On account of which" — as the same Augustine says in the *Letter to Maximus* — "he was made lesser not only than the Father but even than himself and than the Holy Spirit, and was even *made a little less than the Angels*." "The Son of God therefore is, as he himself says in book I *On the Trinity*, equal to God the Father in nature, lesser in condition — that is, in the form of a servant which he received." By these authorities it is plainly shown that the Son according to the form of a servant is lesser than the Father and than himself and than the Holy Spirit.

Hilary, however, seems to say that the Father is greater than the Son, yet that the Son is not lesser than the Father. For the Father is called greater on account of authority, since in him is the authority of generation, according to which he says: *The Father is greater than I*; and the Apostle: *He bestowed on him a name which is above every name*. When therefore he says: *The Father is greater than I*, this is as if he were saying: he bestowed on me a name. "If therefore," says Hilary in book IX *On the Trinity*, "by the authority of the giver the Father is greater, is the Son lesser through the confession of the gift? The giver is therefore greater; but he is not now lesser to whom it is given to be one [with the giver]; for he says: *I and the Father are one*. If this is not given to Jesus, that he should be confessed in the glory of God the Father, he is lesser than the Father. But if it is given to him to be in that glory in which the Father is, you have both, in the authority of the giver — that he is greater — and in the confession of the one given to — that they are one. The Father therefore is greater than the Son, and plainly greater, to whom he gives to be as great as he himself is; to whom by the sacrament of [his] nativity he imparts being as the image of unbegottenness, [the one] whom from himself in his own form he begets." You have heard, reader, what Hilary says on this; whose words, wherever they come up, mark carefully and understand piously.

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