Dist. 19, Art. 1, Q. 2
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/19/q/bon-sent-III-d19-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether through the passion of Christ the blotting out of the bond was accomplished.*

Secondly it is asked, whether through the passion of Christ the blotting out of the bond was accomplished. And that it was so, it seems:

1. First, by the authority of the Apostle to the Colossians, chapter two: *Forgiving us our offenses and blotting out the bond of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us.*

2. Likewise, this same thing seems [to follow] from the authority of Augustine, which the Master sets down in the text: « *When the blood was poured out without fault, the bonds of all faults were blotted out* ».

3. Likewise, all merits and demerits are written down by the just judge, according to that which is said in Jeremiah, chapter seventeen: *The sin of Judah is written with a pen*

*of iron, with the point of a diamond*; but the passion of Christ freed us from the wrath to come: therefore it blotted out the bonds of our faults.

4. Likewise, before the coming of Christ even the holy Fathers were justly held in limbo; but this was not except on account of the sin of Adam, which had gone before: therefore that sin still remained in memory as in a writing. But after the passion of Christ they were not held [there]: therefore it seems that that writing, by which they were bound, was blotted out. It remains, therefore, that Christ in his passion blotted out the bonds of our faults.

**On the contrary:** 1. There still are certain sins, on account of which the devil holds men, here and in the future, for the suffering of punishments: therefore if they are held on account of the memory of some fault, it seems that through the passion of Christ the bonds of all faults are not blotted out.

2. Likewise, if through the passion the bonds of all faults are blotted out: then all other remedies are superfluous; and if this is false, the conclusion follows, etc.

3. Likewise, those crucifying Christ and procuring his passion sinned gravely in that very passion: therefore it does not seem that through the passion the bonds of their faults are blotted out, but rather inscribed and reinforced. If you say that they were blotted out as to merit through the passion: on the contrary: the killing of Christ was as great an evil as the life of Christ was a good: therefore the malice of those killing was equal to the payment of the price: therefore it does not seem that through the passion of Christ the writing of their fault could be blotted out.

4. Likewise, the bond of the decree is either fault or punishment. If fault: then it is the same to blot out the bond and to blot out the fault: then the Apostle distinguishes badly, to the Colossians chapter two, between these two, saying: *Forgiving us our offenses and blotting out that which was against us, the bond.* If punishment; on the contrary: a bond obligates, but punishment does not obligate: therefore it seems that a bond cannot stand for punishment, or for fault. If, therefore, the passion of Christ is only against fault, or against punishment, through the passion of Christ the bonds of our faults are not blotted out.

5. Likewise, that bond was held either by God, or by us, or by the devil. If by God, then it seems that he could not blot it out, since by no one can the divine justice be overcome nor the divine sentence broken. If it was held by us: then it seems that it was not against us. If by the devil; on the contrary: the devil had acquired no right over us: therefore he had no bond against us.

Likewise, in connection with this it is asked what is the difference between the bond of the decree and the bond of fault, since Augustine names it by one name and the Apostle by another; and what that writing is, and in what way through the passion of Christ it was fixed to the cross.

### Conclusion.

> **Conclusion.** Christ through his passion blotted out the bonds of faults, because through his passion he obtained the remission of faults as to stain and as to guilt.

**I respond:** For the understanding of the foregoing it must be noted that this manner of speaking is metaphorical, by which it is said that through the passion of Christ the bonds of faults are blotted out. For a bond [*chirographum*] is named from *chiros*, which is the hand, and *graphia*, which is writing, as it were a writing made by hand. But what that writing is, which is called the bond of the decree and the bond of fault, can be assigned in various ways according to various expositions, which are intimated on [the passage from] the second [chapter] to the Colossians.

According, however, to the exposition which agrees more with the word of the Apostle and the saying of Augustine, it must be known that the bond of fault is said to be a memorial by which the soul is held bound and obligated to some punishment, just as someone, when he obligates himself to another, makes for him a bond; and this Augustine intimates in the text, when he says: « *The bonds of faults were blotted out,*

*by which the debtors were before held by the devil* ». And that bond is called the bond of fault and the bond of the decree, because such an obligation arises from our fault as from merit, and from the divine sentence as from a decree. And thus that bond is said to be that memorial by which sin indeed remains as to guilt, by reason of which the divine justice has [the right] to punish us, the diabolical malice can accuse and detain [us], and our conscience can murmur against us. And that bond against us has [the right] to be inscribed not only for our actual sins, but also for the sin of the first parent; and by reason of this the devil has some power over us either simply, or for a time.

Since, therefore, Christ through his passion obtained for us not only the remission of fault as to stain, but also as to guilt; hence it is that the Apostle says, and Augustine, that Christ through his passion blotted out the bonds of faults. — But the Apostle says in the singular, blotting out *the bond of the decree*, because he speaks of the memorial of the transgression of the first parent; Augustine, however, [says it] in the *plural*, because he speaks of the remission of all sins as to guilt, in order to express the perfect effect of the passion itself. — It must be granted, therefore, that through the passion of Christ the bonds of faults are blotted out. The reasons too which show this must be granted.

**To the arguments to the contrary:**

1. To that which is first objected to the contrary, that the devil holds many for the suffering of punishments; it must be said that there are two ways of speaking of the efficiency of the passion of Christ; either as to sufficiency, or as to efficacy. As to sufficiency, thus it extends to all men and to all faults. But if as to efficacy, thus it extends only to those who are baptized in his name, who are absolved from the guilt of the original and the actual [sin], so that they can no longer be held by the devil, unless perchance they voluntarily subject themselves to him, and new bonds be written against them.

2. To that which is objected, that if the bonds of faults are blotted out through the passion, then the other remedies are superfluous; it must be said that this does not follow, because the other remedies have their efficacy from the passion; nor does the passion efficiently blot out bonds of this kind, unless those remedies intervene.

3. To that which is objected, that the bonds of those who crucified [Christ] are not blotted out, but rather written; it must be said that they had been blotted out in the crucifiers themselves as to sufficiency and as to merit: although in many of them they are not blotted out as to efficacy and as to act, on account of their negligence. And if you object that the magnitude of their transgression was equal to the magnitude of the satisfaction; it must be said that they were excused through ignorance, as Anselm says; *for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.* — Otherwise too it can be said that those crucifiers never killed Christ with so evil a will as the good will with which Christ underwent the passion; and therefore the passion of Christ was far more powerful for making satisfaction than their fault was for obligating.

4. To that which is asked, whether the bond of the decree is fault or punishment; it must be said that, properly speaking, it is neither fault nor punishment; but it is the guilt consequent upon fault, which is an obligation to punishment, which indeed is called a bond, inasmuch as it holds an obligation with respect to punishment and the character of a memorial with respect to the past fault. « *For fault frequently passes in act and remains in guilt* », as is evident in the holy Fathers, who were held in limbo, in whom the original [sin] was blotted out as to fault, but the guilt still remained in them, on account of which the gate was closed to them.

5. To that which is asked: who held that bond? it must be said, as was touched upon, that both God and man and the devil held it, but God as judge, man as defendant, the devil as accuser. And just as a thief bears the mark against himself, so man bore the bond against his own self, nor through that bond was any right acquired for the devil. For although man was justly detained, he himself [the devil] nevertheless detained [him] unjustly. Nor in the blotting out of it was any prejudice done to the divine justice, but rather satisfaction was made to it through the benefit of the mercy of the Redeemer.

But to those things which were asked last, the response is evident through the things that have been said in the beginning of this response, as is plain to one who works it through.

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