Dist. 13, Art. 2, Q. 1
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/3/d/13/q/bon-sent-III-d13-a2-q1
----------------------------------------
### Article II. *On the grace of the Head.*

Next the grace of the Head is inquired into, concerning which three things are asked.

First it is asked of it with respect to essence, what it is.

Second, with respect to difference, whether it differs from another grace.

Third, with respect to influence, whether it overflows into the whole Church.

### Question I. *Whether the grace of the Head is something created or uncreated.*

Concerning the first, one proceeds thus, and it is asked, what the grace of the Head is according to essence, namely whether it is something created or uncreated. And that it is something created seems [the case].

1. Every grace which began to be in Christ is something created; but the grace of the Head began to be in Christ, since Christ began to be Head, according to what is said in Ephesians, chapter one: *He gave Him as Head over the whole Church:* therefore etc.

2. Likewise, every grace which is in Christ, insofar as He is man, is a created grace; but the grace of the Head is of this kind: therefore etc. The major is evident; the minor is proved by this, that the grace of the Head belongs to Christ insofar as He is Head; but head and members are of one nature: therefore Christ is Head according to His human nature: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, that is the grace of the Head of whose fullness we have received; but of the created grace of Christ we have received grace for grace — for He merited for all and made satisfaction for all — therefore etc.

4. Likewise, that is the grace of the Head according to which the totality of the senses is regarded — for in Christ, as in the head, all the senses are found — but the grace according to which the diversity of the senses is regarded, and according to which they are gathered together in Christ, is a created grace: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**
1. Nothing created infuses the motion and sensation of grace into the members; but the grace of the Head is that according to which there is an influence of motion and sensation into the members of Christ: therefore the grace of the Head cannot be something created.

2. Likewise, nothing created and one in number is altogether uncircumscribed; but Christ, insofar as He is Head, is undivided from each of His members: therefore He cannot be Head according to something created. If, therefore, He is Head according to some grace, it seems that that grace is uncreated.

3. Likewise, the head is the principle and origin of the members; but Christ cannot be the principle of souls except according to His divine nature: therefore He is Head according to it: therefore if "head" signifies something uncreated, it seems likewise that the grace of the Head is something uncreated according to its essence.

4. Likewise, the head is either simultaneous with the members, or precedes the members: therefore the grace of the Head either precedes or accompanies the grace of the members; but the created grace of Christ did not precede the grace of the members — for the human nature in Christ did not exist prior to its existing in many of the Saints, but long afterward — therefore the grace of the Head cannot be a created grace.

### Conclusion.

> The grace of the Head, by reason of conformity of nature and of influx by way of preparing or meriting, belongs to Christ by reason of His human nature and signifies something created; but by reason of being a principle and of influx by way of efficiency, it signifies something uncreated.

**I respond:** For the understanding of what has been said, it must be noted that "head" in spiritual things is said by transference from "head" in corporeal things; "for all who transfer [a term] transfer it according to some likeness": and so "head" in spiritual things is said according to a concomitance with some property of the material head. Now in the material head we find these three things, namely that it is conformed to the members, is the principle of the members, and is also that which infuses sensation and motion. And therefore in it all the senses are found in a more perfect manner than in the other members. — Now all these properties are to be found in Christ with respect to the good; and therefore very reasonably does Holy Scripture say that Christ is the Head of the Church. — But the first property, namely conformity, belongs to Him by reason of His human nature. Hence Augustine, on John: «The vine and the branches are of one nature. On account of which, since He was God, of whose nature we are not, He was made man, so that in Him the human nature might be the vine, of which we too could be the branches»; for entirely the same is to be understood of the head as of the vine.

But the second property, namely being a principle, belongs to Him by reason of His divine nature, according as He is the principle of all things. Hence in Colossians, chapter one: *He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the principle* etc.; there the Gloss: «Who is the principle according to divinity, that is, the founder of the Church, since all the just, who are begotten from Abel to the last just one, are illumined by the power of the divinity».

But the third property, namely the infusing of motion and sensation, belongs to Him by reason of the divinity and by reason of the humanity. For grace happens to infuse sensation and motion in two ways: either by way of preparing, or by way of imparting. If by way of preparing, then it is Christ's own by reason of His human nature, in which He suffered for us, and by suffering made satisfaction, and removed enmities, and disposed [us] to receive perfect grace. If by way of imparting and conferring, then it is Christ's own by reason of His divine nature, who «alone is God, who illumines devout minds», He alone it is who baptizes interiorly, in that «our mind is formed immediately by Truth itself», as Augustine often says. And so to infuse by way of preparing belongs to Christ as man, by way of imparting belongs to Christ as God. — Or, in other words, and it comes to the same, to infuse by way of meriting belongs to Christ as man; by way of efficiency, to Christ as God; or to infuse with respect to the remission of punishment belongs to Christ as man, with respect to the remission of guilt, to Christ as God. And thus the influence in one way regards Christ according to created nature, in another way according to uncreated nature. —

If, therefore, the grace of the Head is said to be that grace according to which Christ has [the power] to infuse motion and sensation into the members; it remains that this must be laid down, that the grace of the Head in one way names an uncreated grace, and in another way names not only an uncreated but also a created grace, as the arguments for the first part show; and therefore they are to be conceded.

**To the arguments:**
*To 1.* As for what is objected, that it cannot be a created grace, because it could not infuse; the response is already clear, since, although it cannot infuse effectively and causally, it can nevertheless infuse meritoriously and dispositively according to the human nature.

*To 2.* As for what is objected, that Christ, insofar as He is Head, is undivided; it must be said that there is a union by unity of nature, and there is a union by faith and love. It must therefore be said that the union of Christ to the body of the Church is by faith and love. When, then, it is said that the head is undivided from the members; it must be said that the lack of division does not exclude local distance or separation of bodies, but the separation and disagreement of minds and affections. And therefore from this it is not posited that Christ, insofar as He is Head, is uncircumscribed, since the same can be in one place only, and yet through knowledge and love in the hearts of diverse persons. Hence Ephesians, chapter three: *That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts.*

*To 3.* As for what is objected, that the head is the principle of the members; it must be said that, for the head to be a principle with respect to the being of nature, this belongs to the truth of the head and to its express property; nor is this to be found in Christ according to the human nature, but according to the divine, as was said above. — Yet Christ could in some way be said to be the principle of His members with respect to the being of grace even according to the human nature, since no one ever attained grace unless he had Christ in his heart as a foundation, which is laid by faith. For no one can lay any other foundation in the members of Christ than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus, and without this foundation no one could have grace, since there was never salvation for anyone without faith in the Mediator. And this is what is said in Colossians, chapter one: *Who is the principle* etc.; the Gloss: «According to His humanity He can be called the principle of the Church, since the Church is founded upon the faith of His humanity».

*To 4.* As for what is objected, that the grace of the Head either accompanies or precedes; it must be said that, just as was said of the union, that the spiritual head need not be united materially and naturally, but spiritually through knowledge and love; so too it must be understood concerning precedence. Hence, for Christ to be the Head of the just who preceded, it was not required that He accompany them in reality, but in faith; and so indeed it was, since the faith of Christ went before in the hearts of those to be saved. — And so it is evident that the character of the Head and likewise the grace, with respect to the perfect likeness, regards in Christ something uncreated; it also regards something created, so that for understanding the perfect character of the Head it is necessary that both concur.