Dist. 26, Art. 1, Q. 4
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/26/q/bon-sent-II-d26-a1-q4
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### Question IV. *Whether grace is in the genus of a corruptible or an incorruptible accident.*

Fourthly it is asked whether grace is in the genus of a corruptible or an incorruptible accident. And that it is a corruptible accident, it seems.

1. Every accident that is in a variable subject, insofar as it is variable, is corruptible; but grace is in a variable subject, namely in the soul, according to the freedom of choice, in which consist change and mutability: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, every accident that has an opposite capable of being in its subject is corruptible; but grace is opposed to fault, and fault can be in the soul of a just man, so long as he is in the state of the wayfarer: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, every accident that is from elsewhere and does not have its cause in the subject can be separated from it; but grace is in the soul and does not have its origin from the soul: therefore it can be separated from it; but after separation it cannot be preserved in *being*: therefore grace is apt to be corrupted.

4. Likewise, every accident whose preservation depends on the conversion of the will to God is corruptible, since the will can be turned away from God; but grace is of this kind: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**
1. The soul, by the very fact that it is the image of God, is incorruptible — «for it would not be the image of God, as Augustine says, if it were closed off by the term of death» — therefore since the image of reformation consists in grace, it seems that grace is incorruptible.

2. Likewise, an accident that is in a subject not of itself, but from another, is not necessarily moved by the motion of that in which it is, as is clear of the species existing in a mirror, and of light existing in a medium; but grace is in the soul not of itself, but from God: therefore it does not seem that it is corrupted by the change or variation of the soul.

3. Likewise, to things that are corruptible the divine power gave the capacity of propagating; therefore either grace is not corruptible, or if it is corrupted, it has the power of producing grace like itself; but grace cannot produce its like, as was shown in the first book: therefore it is not corruptible of itself.

4. Likewise, everything that is corrupted in time grows old in time by its long duration; but grace, the more it endures in a man, is the more perfect and stable and the more it renews the spirit: therefore grace does not seem to be corrupted.

5. Likewise, if grace is corrupted, it is corrupted either by God, or by free choice, or by sin; not by God, since for grace to be corrupted is an evil; not by free choice, since no subject corrupts its own perfection; not by sin, since sin is a pure privation, and a little grace prevails over every fault: therefore since it has nothing to corrupt it, it seems that it is incorruptible.

6. Likewise, if it is corrupted, it is corrupted either into something, or into nothing. If into something, I ask: into what? Nor is there anything to assign, since it is not produced out of anything, but from nothing. If into nothing; on the contrary: nothing that is corrupted withdraws entirely into *non-being*. If therefore grace is the most noble among all accidents, and God does not permit other accidents to pass into non-being, it seems that He does not permit it of grace either.

### Conclusion.

> Grace is corruptible and can be reduced to nothing.

**I respond:** It must be said that since grace is an accident, it cannot exist apart from the subject in which it is; and since in the subject in which it is, it cannot subsist together with fault, and it happens that fault is in the very subject in which the grace is: it is necessary that grace be something corruptible. — Again, since grace is not produced materially out of anything, but is simply a gratuitous gift and entirely *coming down from above from the Father of lights*; and since everything that is corrupted passes into that out of which it is produced: it is necessary that grace, just as it is produced from nothing, so be reduced to nothing, when it is corrupted. — But such a mode of corruption belongs to grace not only by reason of its beginning, but also by reason of its proper being or mode of existing. By reason, I say, of its beginning, because, as has been said, just as it is produced from nothing, so it is reduced to nothing, just as is found likewise in other accidents, that they return into that out of which they go forth, when they are produced. — This belongs to it also by reason of its proper being or mode of existing, since, as grace is not caused from the principles of that in which it is, but has one thing for its subject, another for its cause, just as, when light is corrupted, or a likeness in a mirror, or the species itself in the soul, that in which it is is not corrupted, nor does it return to that from which it is, but as far as it is of itself, it passes into nothing: so grace — because it does not have *being* in the soul after the manner of a nature, but after the manner of a habit, as was held before, nor is it produced from the principles of the soul — when it is corrupted, is reduced to nothing. And therefore sin, in which the corruption of grace occurs, is said to be nothing, and among all corruptions it is known to displease most the supreme Author and Preserver of all goods. — Therefore the arguments showing that grace is corrupted must be conceded.

1. To that, then, which is objected first to the contrary, that in grace is found the account of an image, just as in the soul; it must be said that the image is found otherwise here and otherwise there. For the soul «is the image of God, because it is capable of God and can be a partaker», and so it is made for the sake of beatitude and apt for beatitude.

Which beatitude, I say, cannot be in any but an immortal substance; therefore it is necessary that the soul be immortal. But grace is called an image on this ground alone, that it is the reformation of the image; and since that image reformed by grace can be deformed, hence it is that grace can be corrupted. Nor does that argument avail, because the reception of the image is not alike on the one side and the other.

2. To that which is objected, that an accident which does not have its origin from the subject is not changed at the change of the subject; it must be said that this is not on account of this alone, that it has its origin from elsewhere, but because it does not depend on that in which it is, as is clear in the case of a ray and light. But grace not only depends on that from which it is, but also on the soul in which it is, nor does it persist in it except so long as it has its face or mind turned to God.

3. 4. To that which is objected, that to a corruptible thing ought to be given the power of propagating; it must be said that this is true when that thing is apt to receive such a power, and when also that corruptibility is in the thing from a defect of its proper nature; but neither of these belongs to grace. For grace is apt to proceed immediately from God Himself, nor is it corrupted in any way except on account of the turning away of our mind from the rectitude of eternal truth. — And by this is clear the answer to the next, which is objected, that everything that is corrupted grows old in time; for this is true of that which has the cause of its corruption within itself.

5. To that which is asked, by what it is corrupted, whether by God, or by sin, or by free choice; it must be said that grace itself fails in itself. — But if the reason of this be asked, why it fails; this is on account of the turning away of the human mind. For since grace is not preserved except by the continuation of the influence from the divine goodness upon the face of our mind; when the soul is turned away from God, the influence is not continued, and consequently grace is corrupted; but the soul is turned away through sin: and therefore in a certain manner grace is said to be corrupted through sin, not because sin acts upon grace, but because, when the soul turns itself away through sin and God ceases to inflow, it is necessary that grace fail in itself.

6. To that which is objected, that nothing which is corrupted withdraws entirely into non-being; it must be said that this is true in accidents that have the *being* of a nature, and in those which are caused from the principles of the subject, for the reason that, when the accidents are corrupted, those principles nonetheless remain and are preserved; and therefore, when such accidents are corrupted, they are not entirely annihilated. But in those accidents which have the *being* of a habit, such as a likeness in the soul and light in the air, it is not true. For the likeness of a dead man, which is in your soul, if it be erased and corrupted from your soul, does not return to that man; nor when light is corrupted does it return to the sun, especially if the corruption of the light occurs through the interposition of a body; unless perhaps someone should say that it returns to its origin, for the reason that it is still preserved in its effective principle, which can produce its like. Since therefore grace stands after the manner of a habit and is produced from nothing, as was held before; therefore that proposition does not hold here. — And if you ask: whence is it that God permits so noble an accident to perish? it is easy enough to answer. For a similar question is, if it be asked: since God loves His friends and loves one holy soul more than He loves heaven and earth; what is it that He permits a holy soul to be separated from Him, and does not permit heaven and earth to be corrupted? To this he who understands rightly will answer that this is fitting to the course of things, and «God so administers the things which He founded, that He lets them perform their proper motions». And therefore, because the treasure of grace is held in earthen vessels, although it is very noble, yet it is easily lost, so long as it is shaken by the storms of temptations.

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