Dist. 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/4/q/bon-sent-II-d4-littera
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### Cap. I. *Whether they were created perfect and blessed, or wretched and imperfect.*

After these matters it must be considered whether God created the Angels perfect and blessed, or wretched and imperfect. — To which it can be said that they were created neither in blessedness nor in wretchedness. For they could not be wretched before sin, since wretchedness comes from sin. For if there had been no sin, there would be no wretchedness. Blessed, too, those who fell never were, because they were ignorant of their own outcome, that is, of the sin and the punishment to come. For if they foreknew their own fall, either they wished to avoid it but could not, and so were wretched; or they could but would not, and so were foolish and malicious. And therefore we say that they were not foreknowers of their own outcome, nor was the knowledge given to them of those things that were to come upon them. — But the good ones, and those who stood fast, were perhaps foreknowers of their own blessedness. Hence Augustine on Genesis: «How, he says, was he blessed among the Angels who was not foreknowing of the sin and punishment to come? But it is asked why he was not. Perhaps God did not wish to reveal to the devil what he would do or suffer; but to the others he willed to reveal that they would remain in the truth». — By these words Augustine seems to mean that the Angels who fell were not foreknowers of their own fall, and therefore were not blessed; and that the Angels who stood fast foreknew the blessedness that would come to them and were certain of it in hope; whence in a certain way they were already blessed. And indeed, if it had been so, it could be said that those were in some way blessed, but the others not, who did not know their own outcome.

But Augustine says this rather by way of opining and inquiring than of asserting; whence, opposing this opinion, he consequently adds: «But why were those distinguished from the rest, so that God would not reveal to these the things that pertained to them, but would reveal them to the others, since he is not an avenger before anyone is a sinner? For he does not himself condemn the innocent». — Here he seems to suggest that he revealed neither the future evil to those about to sin, nor the future good to those about to remain. Therefore neither those who fell, ever, nor those who stood fast, were blessed until the consummation; because they could not be blessed if they were not certain of their blessedness, or if they were uncertain of damnation. Hence Augustine in the same [work]: «To say of the Angels, he says, that they can be blessed in their own kind while uncertain of damnation or of salvation, for whom there would not even be hope that they would be changed for the better, is excessive presumption». «For how can they be blessed for whom their own blessedness is uncertain»? From the foregoing it follows that the Angels who fell were never blessed, unless someone takes "blessedness" to mean that state of innocence in which they were before sin. But those who stood fast either foreknew their future blessedness, by God's revealing it, and so by the certainty of hope were in some way blessed; or they remained uncertain of their blessedness, and so were not blessed otherwise than the rest who fell. But to me what was said last seems more probable.

Now to the question that was asked, whether they were created perfect or imperfect, it can be said that in one way they were perfect, and in another way imperfect. For a thing is not called perfect in one way only, but in several. — For "perfect" is said in three ways. For there is the perfect according to time, and the perfect according to nature, and the universally perfect. Perfect according to time is that which has whatever the time requires, and is fittingly possessed according to [that] time; and in this way the Angels were perfect before the confirmation, or the fall. Perfect according to nature is that which has whatever is due or expedient to its nature for glorification; and in this way the Angels were perfect after the confirmation, and the Saints will be after the resurrection. Universally and supremely perfect is that to which nothing is ever lacking, and from which all goods proceed, which belongs to God alone. The first perfection, therefore, is of created nature, the second of glorified nature, the third of uncreated nature.

What the Angels were like at creation has been shown: namely good and not evil, and just — that is, innocent — and perfect in one way, but imperfect in another. But they were not blessed until the confirmation, unless "blessedness" be taken, as has already been said, [to mean] that state of innocence and goodness in which they were created.