Dist. 28
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/28/q/bon-sent-II-d28-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXVIII.

#### Cap. I.

#### *On the Pelagian heresy.*

But let us hold this unshakenly and without hesitation, that free choice without prevenient and assisting grace does not suffice to obtain justice and salvation; nor is the grace of God summoned by preceding merits, as the Pelagian heresy has handed down. For, as Augustine says in the first book of the Retractations: « The new Pelagian heretics so assert the choice of the will that they leave no place for the grace of God, which they assert to be given according to our merits ».

#### Cap. II.

#### *That the Pelagians use the sayings of Augustine in testimony of their error.*

« The Pelagian heresy, the most recent of all, arose from Pelagius the monk. These are such enemies of the grace of God, by which we are predestined, and by which we have merited to be rescued from the power of darkness, that they believe a man can do all the divine commands without it. In short, Pelagius, rebuked by the brethren because he attributed nothing to the help of the grace of God for the doing of his commands, did not place that grace before free choice, but with unbelieving cunning placed it beneath, saying that it is given to men for this, that the things which they are commanded to do through free choice they may be able to fulfill more easily through grace. By saying that they may be able to do them *more easily*, he wished it to be believed that, even if with more difficulty, yet men can do the divine commands without grace. But that grace of God, without which we can do nothing good, they say is nothing other than in free choice, which our nature received from him by no preceding merits of its own, he aiding us for this only through his law and teaching, that we may learn what we ought to do and what to hope for; but not for this through the gift of the Holy Spirit, that what we have learned ought to be done, we may do. And through this they confess that knowledge is given us divinely, by which ignorance is dispelled; but they deny that charity, by which one lives piously, is given divinely — so that knowledge, which

without charity puffs up, may be the gift of God; and charity itself, which, that knowledge may not puff up, builds up, may not be the gift of God. They destroy also the prayers which the Church makes both for unbelievers and those resisting the teaching of God, that they may be converted to God, and for the faithful, that their faith may be increased, and that they may persevere in it. For men contend that they have these things not by receiving them from him, but of themselves, [namely] the grace of God by which we are freed from impiety, saying that it is given according to our merits. They assert also that little children are born without any bond of original sin ».

#### Cap. III.

#### *In what way Augustine determines those words in the Retractations.*

But that which they say, that without grace a man fulfills all commands through free choice, they fortify by inductions of this kind. If, they say, a man cannot do those things which are commanded, it is not to be imputed to him unto death, just as you yourself, Augustine, in the book on Free Choice assert: « Who, you say, sins in that which can in no way be guarded against? But sin is committed: therefore it can be guarded against ». Pelagius used this testimony of Augustine, disputing against him, nay rather against grace, as Augustine in the book of the Retractations, retracting that and other things of this kind, recalls, saying: « In these and words of this kind of mine, because the grace of God is not mentioned, of which it was not then a question, the Pelagians think that we held their opinion; but they think this in vain. For it is the will by which one sins and lives rightly, which we treated in these words; but unless that will be freed by the grace of God and aided to overcome its vices, it cannot live rightly among mortals ». — Behold, he plainly determines in what sense he said those things, refuting the enemies of grace.

Similarly Pelagius also relied on the words of Augustine against grace, who in the book on the Two Souls says: « To hold anyone guilty of sin, he says, because he did not do what he could not do, is of the highest iniquity and madness ». Hearing this, Pelagius leapt up, saying: Why then are little children and those who do not have grace, without which they cannot do the divine commands, held guilty? — But on what occasion he said this, he discloses in the book of the Retractations, answering Pelagius. For he said it against the Manichees, who contend that there are two natures in man, one good from God, the other evil from the race of darkness, which was never good nor can will the good; and if this were so, it would not seem to be imputed to it, if it did not do good.

Elsewhere too Augustine says that which seems to contradict this grace by which we are justified. For he says in the book against Adimantus, the disciple of Manichaeus: « Unless one changes his will, he cannot do good; which the Lord teaches to be placed in our power, where he says: *Either make the tree good, or its fruits good*, etc. ». — Which Augustine in the Retractations « shows is not against the grace of God which we preach. For it is in the power of man to change his will for the better, but that power is nothing unless it be given by God, of whom it was said: *He gave them power to become the sons of God*. For since this is in our power, which we do when we will, nothing is so in our power as the will itself; but the will is prepared by the Lord: in this way, therefore, he gives the power ».

So too is it to be understood what he says in the same work, namely, that it is in our power that we should merit either to be grafted in by the goodness of God, or to be cut off by his severity; because nothing is in our power except what follows our will, which, when it is prepared by the Lord, easily becomes a work of piety, even what was impossible and difficult.

In the Exposition also of certain propositions of the Epistle to the Romans Augustine inserts certain things which seem to be opposed to this teaching of grace. For he says: « What we believe is ours; but the good which we do is his, who gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe ». And a little after: « It is ours to believe and to will; but his to give to those who believe and will the faculty of doing well through the Holy Spirit ». — In what way these are to be understood, Augustine discloses in the book of the Retractations, saying: « It is indeed true that the good we do is from God, but the rule of both is the same, namely of willing and of doing; and both are his, because he himself prepares the will, and both are ours, because it is not done unless we will it ». « Those things therefore I certainly would not have said, had I then known that faith itself also is to be found among the gifts of the Holy Spirit ».

This too must be carefully examined, which Augustine says in the book of the Sentences of Prosper, namely that « to be able to have faith, just as to be able to have charity, is of the nature of men; but to have faith, just as to have charity, is of the grace of the faithful ». — Which is not said as though faith or charity could be had from free choice, but because the mind of man has a natural aptitude for believing or loving, which, prevented by the grace of God, believes and loves; which it cannot do without grace.

#### Cap. IV.

#### *On the heresy of Jovinian and the Manichee, whom Jerome strikes down together.*

This therefore concerning grace and free choice let us hold without doubt, which Jerome in the Explanation of the Catholic faith to Pope Damasus, striking down together the errors of Jovinian and the Manichee

and of Pelagius, teaches. « Free choice, he says, we so confess, that we say we always need the help of God; and that both those err who with the Manichee say that a man cannot avoid sin, and those who with Jovinian assert that a man cannot sin. Each takes away the liberty of choice. But we say that a man can always both sin and not sin, so that we may always confess ourselves to be of free choice. This is the faith which in the Catholic Church we have learned and which we have always held ».

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