Proemium
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/0/q/bon-sent-II-proem
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### PROEMIUM
#### TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SENTENCES.

> *Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions*.

To one who carefully considers the principal intention and the whole content of the present book, namely of the second book of the Sentences, there occurs that to which the Wise Man says his inquiry was brought, in Ecclesiastes the seventh chapter, in the word set before us. For when he had tried all things in wisdom and had failed more than he had gained, at last he confesses that he found this: that *God made man right,* and so on. In which word two things are enclosed, namely that man's *right formation* and rectitude is *from God;* and this is touched on when it is said: *God made man right.* The other is that man's *wretched crookedness* is *from himself;* and this is touched on when it is said: *and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions.* — And in these two is enclosed the ter-

minus of the whole of human comprehension: that man may know the *origin of good,* and knowing it may seek it and come to it and there rest; and that he may know the *origin and beginning of evil,* and may shun and beware of it. In these also is enclosed the whole intention of the treatise of the present book, which turns upon two things, namely upon man's *making,* and his *deviation.*

Now man's *making* is touched on when it is said: *God made man right.* But in what way that is to be understood, that God made man right, Ecclesiasticus explains in the seventeenth chapter, where he says: *God created man of the earth* — this he says as to the body — *and made him after his own image* — this he says as to the nature of the soul — *and turned him again into it* — this he says as to superadded grace, which turns the soul to God through the habits of the virtues; and therefore he subjoins: *and he clothed him with strength according to himself.* In this word it is shown that God not only made man *capable* of rectitude, by conferring his own image upon him, but also made man *right,* by turning him to himself. For then is man right, when his *understanding* is made equal to the highest truth in knowing, his *will* is conformed to the highest goodness in loving, and his *power* is joined continuously to the highest power in working. And this is when man is turned to God out of his whole self.

First, therefore, man is right when his *understanding* is made equal to the highest truth; but I say *made equal* not by an all-round filling out, but by a certain imitation. For if « truth, as Anselm says, is a rectitude perceptible by the mind alone », and nothing can be made equal to rectitude but what is right; when our intellect is made equal to truth, it is necessarily made right. And it is then made equal, when it actually turns itself to truth. For truth in act is defined as « the adequation of the thing and the intellect ». Now our understanding, turned to truth, is made true, and through this is made equal to truth; and while it is made equal to rectitude, it is made right; whence « without truth no one judges rightly », as is said in the book *On True Religion*, and he who looks to truth judges rightly, according to what the Lord says to Simon, in Luke the seventh: *Thou hast judged rightly,* that is, thou hast rightly decided.

Likewise man is made right while his *will* is conformed to the highest goodness. For the highest goodness is the highest equity or justice; for a man is so much the better as he is the more just. But, as Anselm says, « justice is the rectitude of the will »: and nothing is conformed to rectitude but what is right. While, therefore, the will is conformed to the highest goodness and equity, it is necessarily made right. And it is then conformed, when it is turned to it by loving. Whence Hugh: « I know, O my soul, that while thou lovest anything, thou art transformed into its likeness ». For he who loves goodness is right. And this is what is said in the Canticle, chapter one: *The righteous love thee;* for the right are turned to thy goodness, and thy goodness is inclined towards them. Whence the soul that has experience cries out and says: *How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart*. And because only the right have experience of it, therefore *praise is comely for the upright.*

Nonetheless man is made right while his *power* is joined continuously to the highest power. For « that is right whose middle does not go out from the extremes ». The extremes are *the first and the last, alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.* The middle between these is operation, through which the efficient cause arrives at the end. That power, therefore, is right whose operation is from the first beginning and unto the last end. Since, therefore, the divine power works all things and for God's sake, hence it is that it is most right in working. But nothing is joined continuously to what is right save what is right; when, therefore, our power is joined continuously to the highest power, without doubt it is made right: and from this man becomes not only *right,* but also *ruler* and *king,* Deuteronomy, the next-to-last chapter: *And he shall be king with the most righteous, the princes of the people being assembled with the tribes of Israel.* This will be in glory, when our power shall be joined continuously to the divine power; then we shall be omnipotent over our own will, as God is over his, and therefore all *kings;* and therefore to all is promised *the kingdom of heaven.*

God, therefore, made man right, in that he made him turned to himself. For in man's turning to God he was made right not only towards what is above, but also towards what is below. For man, set in the middle, when he was made turned to God and subject to him, the rest are subject to him, so that God had subjected all created truth to his intellect *for adjudging,* all goodness to his affection *for using,* all power to his power *for governing.*

For from this, that his understanding is turned to the divine truth, it lays claim to wisdom, through which it *adjudges* all things, according to what is said in Wisdom the seventh: *She gave me the knowledge of all things that are, that I might know the disposition of the whole world and the virtues of the elements: the beginning, and the ending, and the midst of the times, the alterations of their courses and the changes of seasons, the revolutions of the year and the dispositions of the stars, the natures of living creatures and the rage of wild beasts, the force of winds and the reasonings of men, the diversities of plants, and the virtues of roots, and all such things as are hid and not foreseen.* Whence also Adam imposed names upon all things.

He subjected likewise all things to the will *for using,* that he might be able to turn all things to his own use and profit. Whence in the Psalm: *Thou hast subjected all things under his feet.* Whence the Apostle, to those turned to God, in the first to the Corinthians, chapter three: *All things are yours.*

He subjected also all things to his power *for governing,* Genesis the first: *Subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air.*

Now this right making of man, as to what is above and what is below at once, is touched on in that word: *Let us make man to our image and likeness, and let him have dominion* and so on. — God, therefore, made man right, in that by turning him to himself he made him like to himself, and through this set him over all things; and so man's right *making* is clear.

And there follows the *wretched deviation,* in that which is subjoined: *And he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions.* In which can be noted both the *manner* of falling and the *state* into which he fell. The *manner* of falling is in these three, which he states according to the three things which are considered in sin, and the three which are set forth in this word. For in sin there is *turning away,* there is *turning towards,* there is the *loss* or despoiling *of goods. Turning towards* is understood through the entangling, *turning away* through the privation of the end, but *despoiling* through the question. For *turning towards* makes a man impure, *turning away* makes him infirm, *despoiling* makes him a beggar: and all this is touched on when it is said: *He hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions.*

There can also be noted the *state* into which he fell. For he so fell from rectitude that he lost rectitude itself, not the aptitude for rectitude; he lost the habit, not the appetite: because he so lost the likeness that nevertheless *he passeth as an image*. Since, therefore, the appetite remained without the habit, therefore man was made anxious in *seeking.* And because nothing created can make up for the good that was lost, since it is infinite, therefore he desires, seeks, and never rests; and therefore, in turning aside from rectitude, *he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions.*

Whence the *understanding,* turning itself away from the highest truth and made *ignorant,* entangled itself with an infinity of questions through *curiosity,* Ecclesiastes the eighth: *There is a man that day and night taketh no sleep with his eyes, and I understood that man can find no reason of all the works of God*— supply: none that would put an end to the appetite or the inquiry; rather it generates another *question,* and brings forth a new *contention,* and mixes in an inextricable *doubt.* For which reason, in Proverbs the twentieth: *It is an honour for a man who separates himself from contentions; but all fools are meddling with reproaches.* Such are the wretched men who give heed to *fables and endless genealogies* and so on, according to what is said in the first to Timothy, chapter one. Such men meddle with *reproaches,* because, as is said in the second to Timothy, chapter three, *they are ever learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth.*

The *will,* falling out with the highest goodness and made *needy,* entangled itself with an infinity of questions through *concupiscence* and cupidity; because, as is said in Proverbs the thirtieth, *the fire never saith:*

*It is enough.* Whence also *the covetous man shall not be satisfied with money,* as is said in Ecclesiastes the fifth. Therefore he always seeks and begs. Likewise concupiscence is never sated, but rather is entangled with an infinity of questions of pleasures, Wisdom the fourteenth: *All things are mingled together, blood, murder, theft, dissimulation, corruption, unfaithfulness, tumults, perjury, disquieting of the good, forgetfulness of the Lord's benefits, defiling of souls, changing of birth, inconstancy of marriages, disorder of adultery and immodesty.* These are the infinite questions which *are mingled together,* with which man *hath entangled himself,* when he deformed his will away from the highest goodness.

But his *power,* breaking off its continuity with the highest power and made *infirm,* entangled itself with an infinity of questions through *instability,* whence it always seeks rest and does not find it. Whence in Isaiah the nineteenth: *The Lord hath mingled in the midst of Egypt the spirit of giddiness.* This is the spirit of instability, in that it can make nothing stable. Whence sinful man is *like the dust which the wind driveth from the face of the earth*. Whence in the Psalm: *When thou turnest away thy face, they shall be troubled; thou shalt take away their breath* and so on, and therefore he shall be *like the dust which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.* As, therefore, the dust cannot rest so long as the wind of giddiness lasts, so neither can our power remain stable; and therefore it seeks and changes an infinity of places, and begs for supports.

Man, therefore, entangled himself with an infinity of questions through *curiosity,* when he fell from truth into ignorance; *through cupidity,* when he fell from goodness into malice; through *instability,* when he fell from power into impotence. So, then, in the word set before us there is noted man's *making* and his *deviation;* and this alone do I find determined in this book. Whence this second book and so on.

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