Dist. 5
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/5/q/bon-sent-II-d5-littera
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### Distinction V.

### Cap. I. *On the confirmation and conversion of those who stood, and the aversion and fall of those who fell.*

« After these matters, the consideration leads us to inquire of what sort they were made, when they were divided by aversion and conversion. For after creation some were soon turned to their Creator, some turned away. To be turned to God was for him to cleave [to God] in charity; to be turned away was to hate or to envy. For the mother of envy is pride, by which they wished to make themselves equal to God. — In those turned [to God] the wisdom of God began to shine back as in a mirror, by which they were illumined; but those turned away were blinded. And those indeed were turned and illumined by God, grace having been applied. But these were blinded not by the infusion of malice, but by the desertion of grace, from which they were forsaken — not in such a way that what had first been bestowed was withdrawn, but because it was never applied, that they might be converted. This, then, is the conversion and aversion by which those who were good by nature were divided, so that some are above that good through the righteousness of good, others, that good being corrupted, through the fault of evil. Conversion made [them] just, and aversion [made them] unjust. Each was a matter of the will, and the will on both sides was a matter of liberty ».

### Cap. II. *Free choice is briefly touched upon.*

« For they all had free choice, which is the free power and aptitude of the rational will. For they were able by will to choose anything and by reason to judge, that is, to discern — in which [two] free choice consists. Nor were they created *willing* to be turned away or turned [to God], but *apt* for willing this or that; and after creation, by spontaneous will some chose evil, others good. And thus *God divided the light from the darkness*, as Scripture says, that is, the good Angels from the evil, and he called the light *day*, but the darkness *night*, because he illumined the good Angels with his grace, but blinded the evil ».

### Cap. III. *Whether something was given to those who stood, by which they might be converted.*

« But if it is asked whether after creation something was conferred on those who were converted, by which they might be converted, that is, might love God: we say that there was conferred on them *cooperating* grace, without which the rational creature cannot advance to the merit of life. For it can fall of itself, but it cannot advance without assisting grace ».

### Cap. IV. *By what grace the Angels had need, and by what they did not.*

The Angel did not need grace by which he might be justified, since he was not evil, but [grace] by which he might be assisted to love God perfectly and to obey. *Operating* grace, indeed, is that by which the impious is justified, that is, from impious is made pious, from evil good. But *cooperating* [grace is that] by which one is helped to will the good effectively and to love God above all things and to do good and to persevere in good and the like, of which we shall later treat more fully. There was given, then, to the Angels who stood firm, *cooperating* grace, by which they were converted, that they might love God perfectly. They were therefore turned away from a good which they had, not by losing it, to a greater good which they did not have; and this conversion was made through grace *cooperating* with free choice — which grace was not applied to the others, who fell.

### Cap. V. *Whether the aversion is to be imputed to those who fell.*

Therefore it is wont to be said by some that it is not to be imputed to those who were turned away and not converted, since without grace they could not be converted; but that grace was not given to them, nor was it their fault that it was not given, since in them no fault had yet preceded. — To which it can be said that, for those to whom that grace was applied, it was not from their merits — otherwise it would no longer be grace, if it were given from a merit which would exist before grace. But that it was not given to the others was their fault, since, although they were able to stand, they were unwilling [to do so] until grace should be applied, just as the others stood firm until, those [first] falling through pride, grace was applied to them. Plainly, therefore, the fault of those who fell can be detected in this: that, although without grace they could not advance, which they had not yet received, yet through that which had been conferred on them in creation they were able not to fall, that is, to stand; since there was nothing which compelled them to the fall, but by their own spontaneous will they turned aside; and had they not done so, what was given to the others would certainly be given to these as well.

### Cap. VI. *Whether the beatitude which those who stood received in confirmation, they merited through some grace then applied.*

Here it is wont to be asked whether in the confirmation itself the Angels were blessed, and whether they merited that beatitude in some way. — That in the confirmation itself they were blessed, several authorities attest, and therefore it is to be held as certain. — But whether through the grace then given to them they merited that beatitude is ambiguous. For it pleases some that they merited it through the grace which they received in confirmation, and they say that in them merit and reward were simultaneous, and that merit did not precede reward in time, but in cause. — But to others it seems that the beatitude which they received in confirmation they did not merit through the grace then applied — saying that grace was then conferred on them not for meriting, but for living blessedly; nor was a good then given to them by which they might merit, but by which they might happily enjoy. But what they then received as reward, through the services rendered to us out of obedience and reverence toward God, they say is merited; and thus reward preceded merits. And I confess that this latter view pleases me more.