Dist. 2, Part 2, Dubia
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/2/q/bon-sent-II-d2-p2-dubia
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### Doubts on the text of the Master.

### Doubt I.

In this part there are doubts concerning the text, and first it is asked concerning that which he says: *When the morning stars praised me.* For he says that this is understood of the Angels. But against this is that which Damascene says: «They impart counsels to one another by speech uttered without voice»: if therefore the Angels do not speak, then they do not praise. — Likewise, the Angels are spiritual substances: therefore they do not have corporeal organs, therefore neither can they form a voice. — Likewise, voice is formed from the percussion and fracture of air: if therefore in the empyrean there is no air, then it does not seem that there can be there a voice nor a sound, therefore neither praise, not only from the Angels but even not from the blessed men. If you say that it is understood of mental, not vocal, praise; to the contrary are the revelations of the Saints, who heard many souls; the greatest example is in blessed Martin, whom a certain holy man heard being borne into heaven with praises. — Likewise, to the contrary is the authority of Isaiah six: *They cried one to another* etc.; and in the Apocalypse, the fourth [chapter]: *They had no rest* etc. — Likewise, reason seems to persuade that, because there will be the organs of voices, and in this is the greatest delight, and in this the divine glory is most manifested: therefore it seems that vocal praise will be in the fatherland.

**I respond:** It must be said that on this there is no certitude, neither through authorities nor through compelling reasons. For since each part is probable, each is held by different [people].

For some say that in the empyrean heaven there will be only mental praise, both from the Angels and from the blessed men, both because it does not befit the place and because it does not befit those located [there], especially the Angels; and if the Angels were shown praising vocally, this was through an imaginary vision, not a corporeal one. Nor is it necessary that such [praise] be corporeal, because the mental [praise] will be so great that this [vocal praise] will have no place.

But to others it pleases more that vocal praise will be in the fatherland as regards men, who will have organs, so that thus not only the mind may praise God, but also the tongue, and the whole man be borne into

divine praise. — And if it be asked how this can be, they say either that that formation of voice will not be through inspiration and respiration, but through air which will be as it were naturally implanted in the Blessed, as is plain in certain animals, as in bees; or certainly the empyrean will so serve the glorified as air [serves] non-glorified bodies. But of the Angels they say that, because they are incorporeal by their proper nature, only mental praise befits them. Hence Gregory: «The praise of the Angels is in the very wonder of contemplation». But because the Angels, while they minister to us, assume bodies for our solace and in them speak and form voices for our instruction sometimes, so also in them they praise God vocally for our consolation.

Whichever part is held, the solution of the objections is plain enough. Whichever of these positions is held, it is plain that the text of Job is understood of the blessed Angels, who are called stars on account of the splendor of the morning knowledge which they have in the Word: and of mental praise as regards the exultation which they have concerning God.

### Doubt II.

Likewise it is asked concerning that which Lucifer says: *I will ascend into heaven.* For since he was in the empyrean, it seems that beyond the empyrean there is another heaven. If you say that it is not another corporeal heaven, but a spiritual one; *on the contrary*: outside the ultimate corporeal heaven there is nothing, because «it is the containment of visible and invisible [things]»: therefore it seems that there is not another spiritual heaven beyond the empyrean, but that there is also another corporeal one. — Likewise, Christ sits at the right hand of God, and the blessed Virgin is exalted above all the choirs of Angels; and both Christ and the blessed Virgin are in a corporeal heaven: therefore if the Angels are in the empyrean, it seems that beyond the empyrean there is another corporeal heaven: therefore it is not understood of a spiritual [one].

It is asked, therefore, if beyond the empyrean there is a spiritual heaven, what it is, what it contains, and for how much it is called heaven.

**I respond:** It must be said that *heaven* is a name imposed on a body according to its first imposition; and the body which is above is called heaven, because it is containing, secret, and quiet. And because this threefold property is found in the loftiness of the divinity, therefore it itself is called heaven: for it is ample by the immensity of [its] power, secret by the profundity of [its] knowledge, quiet by the tranquillity of [its] delight. This is the heaven to which Lucifer wished to ascend, because to this loftiness; this is higher than every heaven, not in position but in dignity; and is greater than every heaven, not by extension but by its immensity, through which it is outside all [things], not excluded, as was said in the first book. But in this heaven there are only three persons, namely Father and Son and Holy Spirit, who alone are wholly and perfectly equal. But all created [things], whether corporeal or spiritual, are within the empyrean.

To what is objected concerning Christ, that he sits at the right hand; it must be said that this, if it is said according to the divine nature, is said by an equality of every mode. But if according to the human, then he is said to sit at the right hand because [he is] in the better goods of the Father; whence in the empyrean he excels the rest, both Angels and men, both in place and in dignity. — After him we believe the blessed Virgin [to be] above all others; then the rest are ordered according to the dignity of [their] merits. — But the imagining of this can be easily had, if one imagines birds in the air according to order, and fish in water; so in the empyrean the bodies are to be understood [as] placed, because that body has much of altitude, like also the other heavens. Hence one ought not to imagine that the Blessed are there as in a sun-room, nor however is it to be understood that the lowest is directly over the head of another; but as, if there were a round mountain, and someone were on the summit, and others round about: so can someone imagine, who knows no better, the disposition of the Blessed in the empyrean heaven and of Christ. Yet scarcely can one so imagine [it] that he arrives at conceiving the disposition by the mode by which it is; and therefore it is more to be desired than to be described in an image.

Note however that in the disposition of the heavens, or [their] number, the doctors of sacred Scripture seem to contradict the philosophers. For the philosophers say [there are] eight spheres, the doctors [say], some posit nine, some eight, some seven heavens; and therefore they seem to be contrary to one another. But the reason of this diversity is that the philosophers said nothing of the empyrean, nor anything of fire and air, when they speak of the heavens. Sacred Scripture also calls the air heaven, and the waters above the heaven, and the empyrean itself, and God himself. — But the reason of the diversity among the doctors comes from this, that some number the spiritual heaven

with the corporeal [ones], like Bede; some however omit [it] further; some divide the firmament into two, namely into the starry heaven and [that] of the planets; some join [them]. Likewise some divide the airy [heaven] into two, some join [them]; likewise concerning the fiery [one]. Yet according to the more common reckoning nine heavens are posited, taking [it] most broadly, namely the airy, the ethereal, the fiery, the Olympic, the heaven of the planets, the firmament, the watery, the empyrean, and the heaven of the Trinity. But the sufficiency of these will be plain below.

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