Dist. 44, Dubia
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/44/q/bon-sent-II-d44-dubia
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### Doubts concerning the text of the Master.

> The numbered footnotes below correspond to markers in both the Latin body above and the English translation, following Quaracchi's per-page footer sequences.

#### Doubt I.

In this part there are questions concerning the text, and first there is asked about that response which the Master makes: *It must be known that the Apostle is there speaking of secular power.* For the Master does not seem to resolve the question raised sufficiently, but rather to flee from it, because, as was held in the preceding chapter, the devil does not have the power of harming from himself, but from God; since therefore the Apostle says that all power is from God, he understands this not only of the power of man, but also of the power of the devil. — Likewise it seems that his power is not to be resisted, because in Jeremiah twenty-seven: *The nation and kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar* etc., the Lord threatens those who will not serve Nebuchadnezzar. If therefore by Nebuchadnezzar the devil is signified, it seems etc. — Likewise, we ought not to resist power, [namely] the members of the devil, such as evil prelates and tyrants, who are members of the devil himself: therefore much more not the devil himself, who is the head of those evil ones.

**I respond:** It must be said that the Master speaks rightly in what he says, that the word of the Apostle, by which it is said that power is not to be resisted, is to be understood of human power, not of diabolical power; because human power is both ordained and frequently moves and commands in an ordered way, and therefore he who resists it resists the divine ordinance, at least if it commands in an ordered way. But since the devil, from the perversity of his will, always moves in a disordered way and toward evil and against God, therefore, according to right order and the command of the Apostle, he is to be resisted strongly and fought against as against the worst adversary. — As for what is said, that the power of the devil is from God; it must be said that this is true; but he does not use it for that to which God gave it to him, but rather always intends evil; and while we strongly resist him, we turn his evil into our good.

To that which is objected concerning the members of the devil, it must be said that it is not similar; for his members do not always move toward evil in the same way as he who is obstinate in evil, and from whom all evil took its beginning.

#### Doubt II.

Likewise there is asked about what he says: *Observe the very grades of human affairs: if a procurator should command* etc. In which word he intimates that if a lower power should run counter to a higher power, the higher power is to be obeyed rather than the lower. But the contrary of this is held upon that passage of Apocalypse two: *And to the Angel of the Church of Pergamum write:* « The archbishop does not dare to lay his hand upon the subjects of a bishop without him »; but the bishop can do this without the archbishop: therefore it seems that the lower is to be obeyed rather than the higher. — Likewise, an immediate power influences more than a mediate one: therefore if the lower power is more immediate than the higher, it seems that the lower power is to be adhered to rather than the higher. — The contrary of this is so, because Boethius says: *Whatever a lower power can do, a higher can do, but not conversely:* therefore the higher power can restrain the lower: therefore its command is rather to be adhered to.

**I respond:** It must be said that there is a twofold way of speaking of higher and lower power: either in such a way that the lower power *flows totally from the higher power*, to which it is ordered, as the power of a procurator from the power of a proconsul, and the power of a proconsul from the power of an emperor: and then it is true what he says, that the power of the higher is to be adhered to rather than that of the lower. Or those powers are so related that *both flow from a higher one*, and in determinate cases one presupposes the other, and that third [power] has full ability over both, as the power of a bishop and of an archbishop from the power of the Pope, who has *full* power over both; and then it is not generally true that the higher power must be obeyed rather than the lower, such as the power of the archbishop rather than the bishop, because the one is an immediate prelate,

the other a mediate one. But with respect to him who has *full* power over both, it holds true, because he is not only a mediate prelate. Hence a subject ought to adhere to the mandate of the Pope rather than to the mandate of some lower prelate. And in this case Augustine speaks. — And by this the response to the objections is clear.

#### Doubt III.

Lastly there is asked about those authorities which the Master adduces in the text. For since the question is about the power of *sinning,* it seems that he less rightly adduces those authorities which speak of the power of *ruling* and of inflicting the evil of punishment, as is plain to one who looks.

And it must be said that *by consequence* they can in some way be applied to the matter at hand; nevertheless, as plainly appears, the Master alleges them somewhat less rightly. Yet it is not to be wondered at, if among so many and such good sayings the Master said something less completely; nor is he to be reproached on this account. For by his labor he has merited the prayers and thanksgivings of readers rather than their reproaches, although in some places he has departed from the common opinions and adhered to the less probable side, especially in eight places.

For in the first book there are two, namely one in distinction seventeen, that charity, which is the love of God and neighbor, is not something created, but uncreated. The other is that these names *triune* and *trinity* do not state a position, but only a privation; and this he sets down in distinction twenty-four. — In the second book likewise he says two things, of which the first is that in the blessed Angels reward preceded, and merit with respect to substantial reward follows; and this he says in distinction five and also in distinction eleven. The other is that nothing of food passes into the truth of human nature, neither by generation nor by nutrition. — In the third book likewise he says two things: one is that the soul stripped from the body is a person; and this he says in distinction five. The other is that Christ was a man in the three days; and this he says in distinction twenty-two. — In the fourth he likewise says two things: one is that the baptism of John with the imposition of hands was equivalent to the baptism of Christ, so that one baptized with the baptism of John in faith of the Trinity was not to be rebaptized, and this he says in distinction two. The other is about the power of baptizing inwardly, of which he spoke; that God was able to give it to another, and that a creature was able to receive it; and likewise, that God can communicate the power of creating and create through a creature as through a minister; and this he says in distinction five.

In these eight positions the doctors of Paris commonly do not follow the Master, nor do I believe that he is to be upheld in all these, lest by love of the man prejudice be done to the truth; and all these things are made manifest in their places and will be made manifest.

But if it seems otherwise to anyone, and perhaps better, I do not envy [him]; but this I ask, that if anyone in the explanation of the two preceding books and also of the two following should find anything in this little work worthy of approval, let him give thanks to God, the bestower of goods. But in other places, where he should find either something false, or doubtful, or obscure, let him kindly pardon the insufficiency of the writer, who without doubt, conscience being witness, desired to say things *true* and *open* and *common.* For whatever may be the case concerning words, which are compared to leaves, this above all is to be observed and attended to in every inquiry, that no one so *rejoice in the judgment of his own mouth* and so cling to it that he despise the words of another's mouth, looking upon them with a less sound eye, and thus through swelling and envy close off to himself the access of truth and be of the number of those of whom the Apostle says that they are *always learning and never arriving at the way of truth;* which may God avert from all inquirers after truth. — But that we may seek this truth indefatigably, find it infallibly, apprehend and hold it unlosably, may He grant us who is *the way, the truth, and the life*, who, being one in essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit and distinct from them in person, made man upright, who involved himself in the infinite questions of sinners, according as the series of the two preceding books makes manifest; to whom is all honor and glory, praise and dominion through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

**HERE ENDS THE SECOND BOOK.**

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