Dist. 21
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/21/q/bon-sent-II-d21-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXI.

#### Chapter I.

#### *On the envy of the devil, by which he came to tempt.*

“Seeing therefore that man could ascend by the humility of obedience to that place from which he himself had fallen through pride, the devil envied him; and he who was first *diabolus* through pride, that is, *one fallen downward*, was made *satan*, that is, *adversary*, through the zeal of envy. Hence also he tempted the woman, in whom he knew reason to flourish less than in the man.” “For his malice, being timid about tempting virtue, assailed human nature in that part where it seemed weaker, so that if perchance he prevailed there in some measure, afterwards he might approach with greater confidence to assail and rather to overthrow the other,

which was more robust. First, therefore, he sounded out the solitary woman, that in her he might first try the whole force of his temptation.”

#### Chapter II.

#### *On the form in which he came.*

“But because he could not harm him by violence, he turned to fraud, that he might supplant man by guile, whom he could not overcome by strength. Now lest his fraud be too manifest, he did not come in his own form, lest he be openly recognized and so be repelled. Again, lest his fraud be too hidden — which then could not be guarded against, and man at the same time would seem to suffer injustice, if God permitted him to be deceived in such a way that he could not foresee it — the devil was permitted to come in an alien form, but in such a one in which his malice could easily be detected. Therefore that he should not come in his own form was done by his own will; that he should come in a form fitting his malice was done by divine arrangement. He came therefore to man in a serpent, who perhaps, if it had been permitted, would have preferred to come in the form of a dove. But it was not fitting that the malign spirit should make that form hateful to man in which the Holy Spirit was to appear.” “Therefore the devil was permitted to tempt only through the serpent, so that through that which was outward the woman might perceive the cunning of the tempter.” For the devil tempted through the serpent, in which he was speaking.

#### Chapter III.

#### *On the cunning of the serpent.*

Therefore the serpent is said to be *more cunning than all the animals of the earth*, because, as Augustine says, “the evil angels, although cast down by pride, are nevertheless by nature more excellent than all beasts on account of the eminence of reason”; “although the serpent, not by a rational soul but by the diabolical spirit, can be called most wise.” “It is no wonder, then, if the devil, filling the serpent with his own spirit (as he filled the soothsayers), made him the wisest of all beasts; yet the devil did not choose him to tempt, but tempted through that animal which he was permitted to.”

#### Chapter IV.

#### *Whether the devil chose the serpent, that he might tempt through it.*

Hence Augustine, on Genesis: “It is not to be supposed that the devil chose the serpent through which he tempted; but since he desired to deceive, he could not, except through that animal through which he was permitted to be able. For the will to do harm is in each one from himself, but the power is from God.” “Now the devil spoke through the unknowing serpent just as he speaks through the possessed or the frenzied. For he used the serpent as an organ, moving its nature to express the sounds of words and signs, by which he might make known his will. Therefore the serpent neither understood the words nor was made rational; yet he is called most cunning on account of the cunning of the devil.” “He spoke moreover as Balaam’s ass; but the latter was diabolical, the former angelic; for good and evil angels operate in like manner.”

“Here it is usually asked: why was the woman not horrified at the serpent? Because, since she knew it to be a creature, she supposed it had also received the office of speaking from God.”

#### Chapter V.

#### *On the manner of the temptation.*

“The temptation was carried out in this manner.” “The proud enemy, standing before the woman, does not dare to enter into words of persuasion, fearing to be detected; but he attacks her under the form of a question, that from the answer he might gather how he might proceed in his malice. *Why*, he said, *did God command you not to eat of every tree of paradise? To whom the woman replied: Of the fruit of the trees which are in paradise, we feed; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch, lest perhaps we die*. In which word she gave place to the tempter, when she said, *lest perhaps we die*; whence presently the devil *said to the woman: You shall not die the death; for God doth know that in whatever day you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil*. Attend to the order and progress of human ruin. First God had said: *In whatever day you shall eat thereof, you shall die the death*. Then the woman said: *Lest perhaps we die*. Last the serpent said: *You shall not die the death*. God affirmed; the woman as it were doubting said the same; the devil denied. She therefore who had doubted withdrew from the one affirming and drew near to the one denying.”

He, in order to support his persuasion more fully — that is, in order freely to persuade the evil he intended — “both removed the evil which the woman feared by denying it, and added a counter-promise, and, that his persuasion might be received the more quickly, he doubled the promise. Persuading one act of eating, he set forth two things in reward: likeness to God and the knowledge of good and evil. Here he tempted man in three ways, namely by *gluttony* in the persuasion of food, when he said: *In whatever day you shall eat thereof*; by *vainglory* in the promise of deity, when he said: *You shall be as gods*; by *avarice* in the promise of knowledge, when he said: *Knowing good and evil*. Gluttony is the immoderate appetite for food, vainglory is the love of one’s own excellence, avarice is the immoderate desire for having — which is not only of money, but also of high status and of knowledge, when sublimity is sought beyond measure.”

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