Dist. 30, Art. 3, Q. 2
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/30/q/bon-sent-II-d30-a3-q2
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### Question II. *Whether anything passes over into the truth of human nature through the work of the nutritive power.*

Secondly it is asked concerning this, whether anything passes over into the truth of human nature by means of the work of the nutritive power. And that it does not, it seems:

1. *First*, through Augustine, who in the twenty-second book *On the City of God* says that little children will rise again in the bodily perfection and the manly age which they were going to have, on the ground that they already had the whole of it in *reason*, although they did not have it in *bulk*. This is the sense of his words: therefore, if little children will be raised up as large as those who have eaten much; it seems that the taking of food does not increase the truth of human nature, and hence that nothing of those foods passes over into the truth of the human body.

2. *Likewise*, in the same place Augustine says that, if someone is nourished on human flesh, that flesh will not rise again in the one who is nourished, but in the one in whom it was flesh first. But nothing belongs to the truth of anyone, except what will rise again in him: if therefore flesh, which has been generated through food, will not rise again in the one in whom it is; it seems that nothing extrinsic passes over into the truth of anyone by means of the work of the nutritive power.

3. *Likewise*, only that is said to be true which has an act befitting it by nature: therefore that alone belongs to the truth of human flesh which has an act befitting such flesh. But flesh having an act befitting it can convert other flesh into itself, and is called *flesh according to species*: therefore that alone passes over into the truth of human flesh which passes over into the truth *according to species*. But by means of the work of the nutritive power nothing passes over into flesh *according to species*, as the Philosopher holds, otherwise there would be increase to infinity: therefore by means of that power nothing passes over into the truth of human nature.

4. *Likewise*, that alone belongs to the truth of anything in which the substance of the thing is preserved; but the radical moisture alone is that which remains, which must be continued unto the end: therefore that alone passes over into the truth of human nature which passes over into the radical moisture. But nothing can pass over into the radical moisture by means of the nutritive power, as the physicians say, otherwise a man could grow young again and perpetuate his life: therefore by means of this power nothing passes over into the truth of human nature.

5. *Likewise*, what is generated by nature can also be corrupted by nature: therefore what by means of the work of the nutritive power thrives and grows can also be diminished and decrease. If therefore by means of the nutritive power something passed over into the truth of human nature, that could be lost, and so a new thing be continually restored: it would therefore happen at some time that a man would have a different body, as we see in the water that flows out from a fountain.

**On the contrary:**
1. Augustine, *On True Religion*: « Into the structure of this visible body the foods that are suitable are taken up; the unsuitable, however, are cast out through the appropriate passages ». If therefore what belongs to the structure and integrity of this body belongs to the truth of human nature, it seems etc.

2. *Likewise*, everything that will rise again belongs to the truth of human nature; but that into which food passes over by means of the work of the nutritive power will rise again, as for instance the hairs, in Luke chapter twenty-one: *A hair of your head shall not perish*: therefore etc.

3. *Likewise*, the truth of the flesh is nothing other than true flesh; but that is true flesh to which the operation of flesh is owed; and the foremost operation of flesh is to live through the soul; but into this flesh food passes over by means of the nutritive power, since the whole flesh of man lives: therefore etc.

4. *Likewise*, wherever there is nutrition, there is conversion and assimilation and union; but where there is assimilation and union, that to which it is united, and that which is united, become of the same nature: therefore if the nutritive power does this by converting the food, it seems that through it something of the food passes over into the truth of human nature.

5. *Likewise*, as the generative power stands to the production of offspring or of the generated, so the nutritive and augmentative power stands to the perfecting and conserving of the nourished and the increased: therefore if something passes over into the truth of human nature of the generated by means of the generative power, likewise also something will pass over into the truth of human nature of the nourished by means of the nutritive and augmentative power.

There is therefore a question, what the truth of human nature is, and what difference there is between the truth of human nature and *flesh according to species*. And again, what difference there is between *flesh according to species* and *flesh according to matter*; and why the truth of human nature is spoken of rather than the truth of the nature of an ass. All these things are of use for understanding what is said in the fourth book, in the question on the resurrection.

### Conclusion.

> Nothing extrinsic passes over into the truth of human nature by means of the work of the nutritive power, except insofar as truth is said *broadly*.

**I respond:** It must be said that, besides the general meaning by which *true* is divided against *false* — according to which meaning a thing is called true which has matter and form and an act befitting it — there is also another twofold meaning of *true*, namely the one by which *true* is divided against the *intermixed*, and another by which *true* is divided against the *empty*. And in the first of these ways that is called *true* which is *pure* and *unmixed*. In the other way that is called *true* which is *permanent* and *fixed*. — When therefore the authors speak of human nature, they speak under the term of truth, calling it true. For to speak of the truth of human nature is nothing other than [to speak of] true human nature. And they call it so when speaking of human nature on the side of the body, on the ground that the human body — besides having a form and an operation befitting it, as do other natural bodies also — has an ordering to immortality, and thus a certain unmixedness in this, that it cannot be so far transmuted that it is not at last rendered back to the soul which gave it life; it has nonetheless a certain fixity or incorruption, on the ground that it must at some time become immortal. By reason therefore of the ordering to incorruption, from which there belongs to the human body not only the due operation but also unmixedness and a certain incorruption, the human body is called true. That therefore precisely and properly belongs to the truth of human nature which is ordained to incorruption and resurrection.

But something is ordained to resurrection in two ways: either of necessity, or of fittingness. Now that is ordained in us to resurrection of necessity in which the foundation and fabric of our body consists, and this is that to which the soul is first united. And such is drawn from the begetters, and into such nothing can pass over by the work of the nutritive power, according as the nutritive power operates after the union of the soul. — But that is ordained in us to resurrection of fittingness in which the completion of our body's fabric consists; and this is what conduces to the quantity of the perfected body. And thus something of the food can be converted into the truth of human nature by means of the nutritive and augmentative power, which are ordained to completing the body's fabric, which was begun by means of the generative power, to which it belongs to operate until the soul is infused; and from then on follows the operation of the nutritive and augmentative power for conserving and completing the body.

With this manner of speaking both the natural philosophers and the physicians agree. For the natural philosopher distinguishes in man a twofold flesh: *flesh according to species* and *flesh according to matter*. And he calls *flesh according to species* that which has an active power and the capacity of converting food into the nature of flesh; but *flesh according to matter* he calls that which is flesh in such a way that nevertheless it cannot convert anything else into flesh by its own power. He says also that the nutritive and augmentative power does not convert food into flesh *according to species*, but *according to matter*, because, if it were otherwise, then increase would never come to a stop; for with the increase of the flesh the power of increasing would grow too. But it is not so; and thus flesh *according to species* is only from the begetters or by means of the generative power, although flesh *according to matter*, namely « that which flows and flows back », can be by means of the nutritive power. — And there is an example of wine generated in the vine, which has the power of converting water; but that water does not have the power of converting other water; because if it did, then one could always keep adding water, and it would remain wine; but it is not so, because only so much water can be added before the wine loses its power. So also it must be understood in the matter at hand,

that the body's fabricating power can give to the first flesh the power of converting, and that flesh converts, until there comes of flesh *according to matter* as much as the power of converting was there — as we see in wine — both on the side of heat and on the side of the extensibility of the flesh itself *according to species*. And hence it is that one man is increased more than another; and sometimes the increase stops, because the flesh that comes upon it at the end makes it as it were watery, as the Philosopher says, just as water poured over wine.

According to this distinction of flesh the truth of human nature can be distinguished in theology in two ways, as has been said before. — Likewise the physician distinguishes in man a twofold moisture, namely the radical and the nutrimental, and says that the radical moisture is that in which heat is given substance; but the nutrimental is that which supplies the fomenting for the heat itself. They say therefore that the radical moisture is only from the begetters and by means of the work of the generative power; for the nutritive power has no power over this moisture. For if it did, then a man would grow young again and even continue his life forever, if that moisture could be renewed. Since this is agreed to be false, they say that the food, by means of the nutritive power, does not pass over into that moisture. And hence it is that those who labor under the third species of hectic [fever], in which there is the consuming of that moisture, cannot be freed, as they say. But into the nutrimental moisture, which supplies fuel to the heat, it is possible for food to be converted by means of the work of the nutritive power. — And there is an example in a burning lamp, in which there is the moisture of the oil and the moisture of the wick; and the moisture of the wick is likened to the radical moisture, since, once it is consumed, it cannot be restored, and in that wick the flame is given substance; but the moisture of the oil is likened to the nutrimental moisture, which supplies fuel to the fire and prevents the wick from being quickly consumed; and that moisture is sometimes increased, sometimes diminished, sometimes consumed, sometimes restored. — And according to this twofold moisture the theologians distinguish the truth of human nature in two ways, as was said before.

And through this is clear the reply to the question proposed; clear too is the reply to the objections. For the reasons which are brought for the first part, namely that nothing passes over into the truth of human nature by means of the work of the nutritive power, proceed according as something is said to belong to the truth of human nature which is of necessity ordained to incorruption; and in this way it must indeed be granted that nothing passes over into the truth of the nourished. — But the reasons for the opposite proceed concerning the truth of human nature, according as that is said to belong to the truth which is ordained to resurrection of fittingness. And such is not only what is drawn from the begetter, but also all that flesh which is found in a man at his death, especially if it does not conduce to the deformity of the body.

Nor is this hindered by the fact that the Lord will raise up little children in their perfect quantity. For Augustine says that the divine power will supply where nature is deficient; but where nature has prepared sufficient matter, God acts not by supplying, but by reforming. Nor is that reasoning of force which holds that, if God supplies in the resurrection without any addition, then now likewise it may come about without any addition: because that will be a miraculous operation and above nature; but the generation and increase of man which now takes place comes about naturally. And therefore that reasoning which the Master brings forward in the text does not compel, but rather, as is plain to one who looks, argues *from the greater* by affirming. — But those things which were asked last are now plain through the things that have been said.

That therefore it may be said in a word, it must be granted,

as is apparent from what precedes, that something extrinsic passes over into the truth of human nature; but by means of the work of the generative power it passes over into the truth as truth is said *properly*, according as it states a necessary ordering to incorruption; while by means of the work of the nutritive power something passes over into the truth of human nature as truth is said *broadly*, namely according as it states an ordering to resurrection of fittingness; and thus what belongs to the truth of one can rise again in another, according as is made plain in the fourth book. With these things seen, the things that are said in the text are sufficiently plain.

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