Dist. 25, 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/25/q/bon-sent-III-d25-a2-q1
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### Article II. *On the progress of faith according to the diversity of times.*

Consequently there is inquiry concerning the progress of faith according to the diversity of times. And concerning this three things are inquired. First it is asked whether faith has grown as to the multitude of things to be believed; Second, whether it has grown as to the fullness of the light; Third it is asked whether it has progressed as to the certitude of cognition.

### Question I. *Whether faith has grown as to the multitude of things to be believed.*

Concerning the first one proceeds thus and there is inquiry whether faith has grown or progressed as to the multitude of things to be believed. And that it is so, it seems.

1. Exodus six: *My name Adonai I did not make known to them*; therefore from this text it is evident that the later Fathers knew something which the preceding ones did not know, because the Lord revealed to Moses what he did not reveal to the [earlier] Fathers: therefore it seems that our faith now knows something which the faith of the Fathers did not know: therefore faith has grown as to the things to be believed.

2. Likewise, as the evangelical Law stands to the Mosaic Law as to *morals*, so the faith of the new Law [stands] to the faith of the old Law as to *the things to be believed*; but the Gospel adds many counsels over and above the old Law: therefore it seems that the faith of the new Law extends to more things to be believed than the faith of the old Law.

3. Likewise, the incarnation of Christ, the passion, the resurrection and the ascension and such things are set forth to be believed by all who are in the new Law; but these were not set forth to those who were in the Mosaic Law: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, the Church knew something after the coming of Christ which lay hidden from the Angels, therefore much more strongly does it know and believe something which lay hidden from mere men: therefore it seems that faith has grown as to those things which are believed and known through it. This is *first* manifested through what is said to the Ephesians, chapter three: *That the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the Powers and Principalities through the Church.*

**On the contrary:** *To the opposite.* 1. The whole Christian faith is contained in the new Law, and the whole new Law is contained in the old, because the wheel is in the wheel, according as is said in Ezekiel, chapter one: if therefore the faith of the first Fathers preceding the

coming of Christ enclosed in itself whatever was of the old Law, it enclosed also, and consequently, whatever was of the new Law: therefore it seems that faith, according to the diverse times, has not grown as to the things to be believed.

2. Likewise, the object being changed, the habit is changed: therefore if faith, according to the diverse times, had some new object, namely if it believed something which it had not believed before, it would have been changed according to the diverse times; but «faith according to the diverse times has not been changed», according as Augustine says, and is held in the text: therefore it seems that it has not progressed as to the things to be believed.

3. Likewise, everything that is *now* true concerning the past, was *at some time* true concerning the future: therefore just as it is *now* true that Christ was incarnate, born, and suffered; so it was true in the *past* that Christ was to be incarnate, to be born, and to suffer; and by whatever account it is now credible concerning the past, by the same account it was then credible concerning the future: therefore it does not seem that faith has grown as to the number of things to be believed.

4. Likewise, although charity has progressed in some way as to intensity and fervor, yet it has not progressed as to the multitude of things to be loved — for there were as many things lovable in the old Law as in the new — therefore by a like account it seems also concerning faith and the things to be believed, that even though faith progresses, the things to be believed are not on that account multiplied.

### Conclusion.

> Faith in the process of time has progressed, not indeed by the addition of new articles, but by the explication of things implicit.

**I respond:** It must be said that the things to be believed being multiplied can be understood in two ways: either as to the *addition of new articles*, or as to the *explication of things implicit*. If it be understood in the first way, then it is not to be granted that faith has progressed as to the multitude of things to be believed; if in the second way, then it has progressed according to the process of time, because what at one time was believed implicitly and as it were in one article, in the process of time was explicated and as it were distinguished into many things to be believed; just as above it was said that it sufficed at some time to believe in the Redeemer to come; but now concerning the Redeemer himself seven articles are explicated, and many things consequent upon them and annexed to them are manifested. — And this is what master Hugh of St. Victor says in the book *On the Sacraments*: «Before the Law, he says, God was believed as Creator, and from him salvation and redemption was awaited; but through whom and in what manner the same salvation was to be fulfilled and perfected, except for a few to whom it was singularly granted as a gift to know this, by the rest of the faithful it was not known. But under the Law the person of the Redeemer was preached as to be sent; but who that person would be, that is, man, or Angel, or God, was not yet manifested; for those alone knew this who were illumined by the Spirit. But under grace [it] is now manifestly preached and believed by all, both the manner of redemption and the quality of the person of the Redeemer». — And thus it is evident that faith has progressed as to the multitude of things to be believed, not by adding new things, but in a certain way by explicating things implicit. For the quality of the person of the Redeemer and the manner of redemption cannot be known openly, except under a certain multitude and distinction of articles. — Therefore the reasons adduced for the first side, which show that faith has in some way progressed as to the multitude of things to be believed, are to be granted.

1. But to that which is objected first to the contrary, that the new Law is in the old, as the wheel in the wheel; it must be said that the wheel does not have being in the wheel except according to a certain implication, because what in the new Law is explicit was implicit in the old Law. Hence from this it does not follow that faith in the new Law has not progressed as to the multitude of articles, by explicating through many what was contained implicitly in one; but [it follows] that it did not grow by adding something extraneous which had not been contained in the old Law either explicitly or implicitly.

2. To that which is objected, that the object being changed, the habit is changed; the response is now evident: because that multiplication of articles, according to which we say that faith has progressed, does not change the object as to substance, but only as to accident, because it explicates the implicit; and therefore from this it cannot be inferred that faith has been essentially changed.

3. To that which is objected, that all the things which we believe concerning the past were credible concerning the future; it must be said that this is true; but although all those things

which we now believe were known and believed explicitly by certain persons from a special gift of God, yet to the universality of the people they were not set forth to be believed except implicitly; whence also the people commonly awaited the Messiah or Redeemer, thinking nothing of the incarnation of the Son of God, or the passion, or the resurrection. But now all these things are explicated, and they are not only *credible*, nay rather *actually believed* and set forth to be believed; and as to this we say that they are multiplied, although as to the truth of the matter they are not augmented.

4. To that which is objected, that charity has not progressed as to number; it must be said that if we speak of that mode of progressing, it can be granted concerning charity in the same way as it was granted concerning faith: since in the old Law it was not commanded to love the enemy except implicitly, but this is explicated in the evangelical Law: so also in faith it is to be understood in its own way, as was touched on before. For we are speaking here of the progress of faith and charity by comparison to the *common* state of the people, not as to the *special privilege* of certain persons.