Dist. 20
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/20/q/bon-sent-III-d20-littera
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### DISTINCTION XX.

### Chap. I. *That he could have liberated in another way.*

But if it is asked whether God could liberate man in some other way than through the death of Christ, «we say that another way too was possible for God, to whose power all things are subject; but that for the healing of our misery no other more fitting way was, nor ought to have been. For what so raises our minds and frees them from despair of immortality as that God made so much of us, that the Son of God, immutably good, remaining in himself what he was, and taking from us what he was not, deigned to enter into fellowship with us, so as to bear our evils by dying»?

### Chap. II. *Why rather in this way.*

There is also another reason why he willed to liberate in this way rather than another: «because thus the devil too is overcome by *justice*, not by *power*». «And how this was done, I will explain as I am able». «By a certain *justice* of God the human race was handed over into the power of the devil, since the sin of the first man passes originally into all and binds all by his debt; whence all men are from their origin under the devil as their prince. Whence the Apostle: *We were by nature children of wrath*, by nature, that is, as it is depraved by sin, not as it is rightly created from the beginning. But that manner in which man was handed over into the power of the devil must not be so understood as though God *did* this or *commanded* it to be done, but that he only *permitted* it, yet justly. For, when he deserted him, the author of sin straightway invaded the sinner. Yet God did not *withhold his mercies in his anger*, nor did he lose man from the law of his power when he permitted him to be in the devil's power, since neither is the devil estranged from the power of God, just as not from his goodness. For with whatever life the devil or man might be, he would not subsist save through him who gives life to all things». God therefore did not desert man so as not to show himself God to him, but amid the penal evils he also bestowed many goods even on the wicked; and at last man, whom the commission of sins had subjected to the devil, the remission of sins, given through the blood of Christ, snatched away from the devil, so that thus the devil might be overcome by *justice*, not by *power*.

### Chap. III. *By what justice the devil was overcome.*

«But by what *justice*? That of Jesus Christ. And how was he overcome by it? Because, finding in him nothing worthy of death, he nevertheless slew him. And it is altogether just that the debtors whom he held should be set free, believing in him whom he slew without any debt». «But he willed not to conquer by *power*, because the devil, by the vice of his perversity, is a lover of *power* and a deserter and assailant of *justice*; wherein men the more imitate him who, justice being neglected or even hated, are the more zealous for *power* and rejoice either in its attainment or are inflamed with desire of it. And therefore it pleased God that, not by *power*, but

by *justice* prevailing, he should rescue man, wherein man might learn to imitate him». «But afterwards in the resurrection there was power, since he who had died rose again, never thereafter to die». «But would not the devil have been overcome by a most just right, if Christ had willed to deal with him by *power* alone? Indeed; but Christ set aside what he *could* do, so as first to do what he *ought*». — *Justice* therefore of humility liberated man, whom *power* alone could most justly have liberated.

### Chap. IV. *On the case between God and man and the devil.*

«For if those three should come into court, namely God, man, and the devil, the devil and man would have nothing to say against God. For the devil would be convicted of injury, because he both fraudulently led away God's servant, that is, man, and held him by violence. Man too would be convicted as injurious to God, because he despised his precepts and bound himself over to an alien dominion. The devil too would be convicted of injury to man, because he both first deceived him by a deceitful promise and afterward harmed him by inflicting evils. Unjustly, therefore, as regards himself, did the devil hold man, but man was justly held; because the devil never merited to have power over man, but man merited through his fault to suffer the devil's tyranny». If therefore God, who presided over both, willed to liberate man by *power*, he could most rightly have liberated man by the virtue of his command alone, but for the reason set forth he willed to use the *justice of humility*. Who, while he was crucified in mortal flesh, we were justified, that is, through the remission of sins snatched from the power of the devil; and thus by Christ the devil was overcome by *justice*, not by *power*. But how in his blood our sins were remitted has been explained above.

### Chap. V. *On the betrayal of Christ done by Judas, by God, by the Jews.*

Christ therefore is priest, and likewise victim and price of our reconciliation, who offered himself on the altar of the cross not to the devil, but to the God-Trinity for all as to the sufficiency of the price, but for the elect only as to the efficacy, since he wrought salvation only for the predestined. Of whom it is also read that he was handed over by the Father, and that he handed over himself, and that Judas handed him over, and the Jews. He himself handed himself over, because he came willingly to the passion; and the Father handed him over, because by the will of the Father, indeed of the whole Trinity, he suffered; *Judas* handed him over by betraying, and the *Jews* by inciting. — And the act of Judas and the Jews was evil, and the act of Christ or of the Father good; the work of Christ and of the Father was good, because the will of the Father and of the Son was good; the work of Judas and the Jews was evil, because the intention was evil. There were there diverse deeds or works, that is, diverse acts, and one thing or fact, namely the passion itself. And therefore the doctors sometimes unite in that fact the Father, the Son, Judas, the Jew; sometimes they distinguish them. For looking to the passion, they call it one work of theirs; attending to the *intentions* and *acts*, they discern diverse deeds. Whence Augustine: «There was made, he says, a betrayal by the Father, there was made a betrayal by the Son, there was made a betrayal by Judas: one thing was done. What then distinguishes among them? That the Father and the Son did this in charity, but Judas in betrayal. You see that it is not *what* a man does, but *with what will*, that is to be considered. In the same deed we find God as we find Judas; we bless God, we detest Judas; because God thought of our salvation, Judas thought of the price for which he sold the Lord, the Son of the price which he gave for us. Diverse intention therefore makes diverse deeds, although it be one thing in diverse persons». — Behold, he says that there was there one thing and diverse deeds, because there was there one passion, but diverse acts; and the acts indeed of Judas and the Jews were evil, by which they wrought the passion of Christ, which is good and is the work of God.

### Chap. VI. *Whether the passion of Christ is the work of God, or of the Jews.*

The *passion* therefore of Christ is called both the *work of the Jews*, because it came about from their acts, and the work of God, because it was by him as author, that is, by his willing it. Whence Augustine: «No one takes away Christ's soul from him, because he has the *power* of *laying it down* and of *taking it up*; behold, you have the author of the work. *He will lay down his soul*; behold, you have the work of the author. And, to conclude generally, as often as Christ in the flesh suffers anything, it is the work of the author; for since by his own will, no other compelling, he undergoes it, he himself is the author of the work». — But since the passion of Christ is the work of God, and therefore good, and Judas and the Jews wrought it; it is asked whether it is to be granted that they wrought good there. Here a distinction must be made: for it can be said that they wrought good, because from their acts good came about, that is, the passion of Christ; and likewise, that they did not work good, but evil, because their action was not good, but evil.

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