Dist. 13, Art. 2, Q. 3
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-q3
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### Question III. *Whether God, by means of the grace of the Head, infuses sense into every creature having grace, whether angelic or human.*

Thirdly, inquiry is made concerning the grace of the Head as regards influence, and the question is whether, by means of that grace, God infuses sense into every other creature having grace, whether angelic or human. And that he does so seems to be the case.

1. To the Ephesians, chapter one: *He purposed to restore all things in Christ, which are in heaven and which are on earth*; the Gloss: « *Which are in heaven*, that is, to fill up the diminished number of the Angels; *and which are on earth*, that is, to renew men, who had been depraved through sin »; but those receive sense and motion by means of Christ, who are restored through him into perfect being: therefore, if these are the heavenly and earthly things, men and Angels receive grace by means of him, and the grace of the Head redounds into these and into those.

2. Likewise, a little after, in the same place: *Him he gave as head over the whole Church*; but the head infuses into all the members: therefore Christ as man, through his grace, has influence into the whole Church. But the Church communicates her illuminations to the Angels, as is said to the Ephesians, chapter three: *That there may be made known to the Principalities and Powers through the Church the manifold wisdom of God*: therefore it seems that the influence of Christ's grace must be extended to all the elect.

3. Likewise, the malice of the prince of darkness does not extend itself only to the demons; rather, it has great efficacy upon men — whence through pride he is made their prince — if therefore the goodness of Christ's grace is much more excellent and more efficacious and more common, it seems that it extends itself by efficacy to all the elect, whether they be men, or Angels, or wayfarers, or the blessed.

4. Likewise, « this is the order of the divine wisdom and law, as reason dictates and as Dionysius wills, namely that the lowest be led back through the middle, and the middle through the highest » — whence also the Angels of the lower orders receive purgations and perfections from the Angels of the higher orders — but Christ is above all, both Angels and Archangels, for *he sits at the right hand of God, made so much better than the Angels as he has inherited a more excellent name beyond them*: if therefore he is preeminent over all the elect by a perfect excellence, it seems that his grace has efficacy and influence into all.

**On the contrary:** 1. The head does not infuse into the heart, but rather the converse: if therefore, according to a correct transumption, that grace which redounds into others is called the grace of the Head; it does not seem that it infuses into the whole body of the Church; or if it infuses into the whole, it ought rather to be called the grace of the heart than of the head.

2. Likewise, the grace of the Head infuses only into those who are already members; and none are members unless they be joined to him through faith and charity: therefore it infuses into none except those having faith and charity. But those having faith and charity have motion and sense: therefore it seems that the grace of the Head infuses neither motion nor sense into any; nor is there anything else to assign that it might infuse: therefore, etc.

3. Likewise, the grace of the Head infuses only into those with respect to whom the one having grace is head; but Christ, according to his human nature, is not the head of the Angels, since head and members are of one nature: therefore he has no influence into the Angels.

4. Likewise, supposing that the Son of God had not become incarnate, the Angels would be blessed; nor are any of them redeemed and liberated on account of Christ's incarnation: therefore it seems that the grace of Christ confers nothing on them.

5. Likewise, nothing acts except while it exists; but Christ's grace did not exist before the coming of Christ: therefore it seems that, upon those who preceded the coming of Christ, that grace had no effect.

6. Likewise, if it so flowed in before the coming of Christ into the Saints who preceded, just as now it has effect in us: therefore, just as this is called the time of grace on account of the redundancy from the fullness of Christ, so it seems that that time too ought to be called the time of grace; and if it is not so called, it seems that the influence of Christ's grace does not extend itself to those who preceded.

> **Conclusion.** The grace of Christ infuses into all, both into the Angels and into men, both into those who preceded him and into those who followed, yet not in the same way, but according to more and less.

**I respond:** For the understanding of the foregoing, it must be noted that sense, in spiritual things, is regarded as to cognition, but motion as to affection and love, which is the weight inclining each spirit and drawing it to the place owed to it. To infuse motion and sense, therefore, is to cause in us faith and love, whether faith working through love, or cognition and love. But it must be noted that cognition and love are in a threefold difference: one which regards the state of merit, and this is called gratuitous; another in which the substance of the reward consists, and this is called glorious; another which is annexed to both, which is neither of the essence of merit nor of reward, but of well-being.

According to this threefold difference of cognition and love, one must say that the grace of the Head infuses into the members by uncreated grace effectively, but by created grace meritoriously and dispositively. For on account of the merit of Christ's passion promised, God gave to the preceding Fathers the grace of reconciliation; and on account of the passion exhibited, he gives to us the grace of reconciliation more abundantly, in which grace indeed there is the sense of cognition and the motion of affection; and again, on account of that passion the door was opened, so that to all the members of Christ there might be given glorious love and cognition, in which the perfection of motion and sense consists. — From this same thing many mysteries are revealed to the Angels, and many joys are conferred upon them concerning their restoration, which is found to have been accomplished through Christ. And therefore they too receive motion and sense; not, I say, that which is of the essence of grace and glory, but that which is of well-being and perfection.

It must therefore be granted that the grace of the Head redounds into all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, albeit according to more and less: for more into men, who are redeemed, than into the Angels, who are reintegrated; and more into those who follow his coming than into those who preceded, because they see and believe more clearly and are more abundantly suffused with the gifts of the charisms, on account of this, that if the promised passion availed only so far for them as to lead them through the way of salvation, the passion exhibited and accomplished ought to do more. — On account of this, the reasons adduced for the first part must be granted.

1. To that, however, which is objected, that the influence of the heart is more general than that of the head; it must be said that it is more general according to truth, but nevertheless the influence of the head is more general according to manifestation, for the reason that in the head all the senses appear and have a more eminent position, and in it are the cells

apt for cognizing and the nerves apt for sensing and moving; so that the nerves apt for sensing seem to issue from the front part, and the nerves apt for motion from the rear part. And since a transumption for manifesting latent spiritual properties ought to be taken from a manifest thing; hence it is that, on account of the general influence, Christ is rather called head than called heart; on account of which evidence, too, the physicians disagree with the natural philosophers. For the physicians say that the principle of motion and sense is in the head, although the natural philosophers, who consider the principles of things more intimately, say that the principle of these is the heart. And thus that is clear.

2. To that which is objected, that the head does not infuse except into united members; it must be said that this holds true in that head which has a determinate power and cannot unite members to itself and make a member out of a non-member. And therefore this does not hold in the case of Christ the Head, who can, according to his divine nature, make a member out of a non-member, and according to his human nature can merit and obtain this, and so first infuse and continue sense and motion.

3. To that which is objected, that the Angels are not members, because they are not conformed in nature; it must be said that, even though the Angels ought not be called members, nevertheless there can still be an influence from Christ into the Angels, not only according to his divine nature, according to which he is head of all, but also according to his human nature, by accident however; because by infusing and redeeming his members Christ repairs the angelic ruin. When therefore it is said that the grace of the Head does not infuse except into members; if members be understood properly, then it does not hold true, unless the influence be restricted to influence properly so called, of which kind is the influence of grace and glory.

4. To that which is objected, that the Angels would be blessed even if Christ had not become incarnate; it must be said that this does not compel the conclusion that Christ in no way infuses, but that he does not infuse the first motion and sense, which are essential to grace and glory. In some way, however, he can infuse that which makes for well-being, as was shown before.

5. To that which is objected, that that which does not have being cannot infuse; it must be said that this is true of influence by way of an effective principle, but of influence by way of merit it does not hold true. For it suffices that it be in the faith and love of the believer; and through this, while it is believed and loved, the believer and lover is vivified by it, and while too it is promised, by that very promise the rigor of divine severity is somewhat appeased, so that he may render his benevolence.

6. To that which is objected, that the preceding time ought to be called the time of grace; it must be said that in the preceding time the grace of Christ was not lacking; yet that time ought not be called of grace, but of shadow, because there was not so great a redundancy of grace as might drive off the veil of the figures and lighten the burden of the Law. But now, when the truth is manifest, and the commandments have been lightened through love, it must truly be said that the time of grace has come. Whence Christ had efficacy in those who went before and who followed, as a cluster of grapes was carried on a pole by those going before and those following, but those going before bore it and did not see it, while those following both bore it and openly saw it: so by way of likeness it must be understood in the matter at hand.