Dist. 14, Part 1, Art. 2, 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/2/d/14/q/bon-sent-II-d14-p1-a2-q1
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### Article II. *On the heavens with respect to figure.*

It is then asked concerning the heavens with respect to figure. And on this matter two questions are asked. First, it is asked whether the heavens have a spherical figure. Second, it is asked whether they have a right and a left.

### Question I. *Whether the heaven is of spherical figure.*

That they have a spherical figure is shown:

1. And first by the experience of the senses. For to whatever part of the earth or of the water one may go, the heaven always appears to be equally distant from the earth; but this would not be so, unless it had a spherical figure: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, we see by the senses that the heaven is moved circularly; but circular motion does not befit anything except a circular figure: therefore the heaven is of spherical figure.

3. Likewise, to the simplest body the simplest figure is owed; but the heaven is the simplest among bodies, since it is the most subtle: therefore it must have the simplest figure. But this is the circular figure: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, to that body which is most containing, the most capacious figure is owed; but the heaven is the container of all things, as Damascene says, and the spherical figure is the most capacious, as reason and sense plainly establish: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, to the most perfect body the most perfect figure is owed; but the heaven is the most perfect of all, and the spherical figure is the most perfect of all figures, as is proved in another science, especially since in it the perfection of the senary is found — for six times is found in the circumference as much as the distance from the circumference to the center — therefore etc.

6. Likewise, to the swiftest body is owed the figure most apt for motion; but the heaven is the swiftest body, and the figure most apt for motion is the spherical: therefore etc.

*On the contrary* it is argued: 1. First by that of the Psalm: *Stretching out the heaven like a skin*, another translation, *like a tent*: therefore it seems that the heaven has itself after the manner of a tent, and so seems to be of semicircular figure.

2. Likewise, by *reason* it seems so, because in the universe nothing is superfluous, but all things were made for man: therefore nothing is to be posited which is not of use to man. But if the heaven were of semicircular figure, it would suffice to cover the earth inhabited by men: therefore it seems that the other semicircle is superfluous.

3. Likewise, the heavens are most solidly firmed, as is said in Job; and the very name of the eighth sphere, which is called *firmament*, implies this: therefore the figure most befitting them is that according to which they are most stabilized; but this is more the semicircular than the circular: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, if the heaven is of spherical figure: then either some part of the heaven will be empty, or the body of Christ will be much more distant from certain of the Blessed than the heaven is from the earth, since the earth lies in the middle between one circumference of the heaven and the other. Therefore, if it is not fitting to posit that some part of the empyrean is empty of the containing of the Blessed, neither is it to be posited that there is such a distance between Christ and the other beatified bodies; it seems that the empyrean is not of spherical figure; and if this, then neither the crystalline nor the firmament.

> **Conclusion.** *The heaven is seen to have a spherical figure.*

**I respond:** It must be said that to this question it is sufficiently plain to respond according to philosophy, although the expositors of sacred Scripture seem to speak about it doubtfully. They do this out of reverence for sacred Scripture itself, not daring to explain what God by divine disposition willed to leave unsaid; or they do this to restrain our curiosity, willing that we, in the matters spoken of in the Law and the Prophets, be content and inquire nothing beyond. Yet because the urgency of the curious does not desist, the doctors of sacred Scripture must determine many things which without loss of salvation might easily be passed over. — *To be noted.*

On account of which they respond to the said question and, in accord with the witness of reason and sense, say that the heaven has a spherical figure, and that this most befits it both by reason of *simplicity*, by reason of *capaciousness*, by reason of *perfection*, and by reason of *mobility*, as is clear to one who works it through. — *Conclusion.*

**To the arguments on the contrary:**

1. To that which is objected on the contrary from sacred Scripture, which says that the heaven is *stretched out like a skin*, or like a *tent*; it must be said that Scripture, condescending to the lowliness of the simple, often speaks in the common manner; and so, when it speaks of the heaven, it speaks of it according to what appears to our sense; and says that it is stretched after the manner of a *skin*, or of a *tent*, with respect to our hemisphere. — *Resolution of the contrary arguments.*

2. To that which is objected, that the part of the lower hemisphere is not useful for human use; it must be said that this is false, on the contrary it is necessary, if the heaven is to revolve circularly above us; and one part serves us by day, the other serves by night.

3. To that which is objected, that the heavens are most solidly firmed; it must be said that that *firmness* does not exclude every mobility, but only that by which something is moved upwards and downwards according to straight motion; whence the heaven is called *firm*, because it is not moved as to place. Nevertheless it is also *mobile*, since it is moved around place, or in place; and to such a disposition the spherical figure befits more than any other.

4. To that which is asked, how the empyrean, if it is circular, will be filled on every side with the bodies of the Saints; it must be said that, although it is not certain in what manner and by what mode the Saints are located there; nevertheless, in whichever way it is said, whether that they are in *one* semicircle of the empyrean, or that they are in the *whole*, nothing prevents either being posited. For if they are in the *whole*, they will have a power of vision so potent that they will be able to see Christ wherever he may be. But if they are in the middle part of the heaven, the other is neither empty nor superfluous, just as a great palace is not empty, when there is one great inhabitant, although he does not fill every part. For the greatness and spaciousness of the court, even if it is not totally filled, nevertheless serves to manifest royal magnificence. But this we shall know better when we shall see. — *To be noted.*