Dist. 25, 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/25/q/bon-sent-III-d25-a2-q3
----------------------------------------
### Question III. *Whether faith has grown as to the certitude of assent.*

Third it is asked whether faith has grown as to the certitude of assent. And that it is so, it seems.

1. One assents more certainly to that which is more clearly known; but faith, according to the diversity of times, has progressed in clarity of knowing: therefore [also] in certitude of assenting.

2. Likewise, one assents more certainly to a thing the more certain it is in itself; but the necessary is more certain than the contingent: therefore faith, which is of the necessary, is more certain than faith which is of the contingent. But the faith by which we believe that Christ has suffered is of the necessary; the faith by which they believed that Christ was to suffer was of the contingent: therefore faith after the coming of Christ is more certain than before.

3. Likewise, a thing is more certain the more it is confirmed by many witnesses: but the faith of the Church has been confirmed by more witnesses than was the faith of the Synagogue, whether as to wonders, or as to martyrdoms, or as to the oracles of the Prophets.

4. Likewise, the more firmly faith adheres, the more certain it is, but the more devout faith is, the more firmly it adheres; but according to the diversity of times the devotion of faith grew: therefore the certitude of faith itself grew. And that according to the diversity of times the devotion of faith grew is manifest: because the Synagogue admires the devotion of the Church itself in the Canticles, as it were throughout, according as the Glosses expound; and this very thing can be expressly seen in the choirs of Martyrs, of Virgins, and of Confessors, who abound more amply after the coming of Christ than before.

**On the contrary:** 1. The whole certitude of faith itself depends on the divine Truth which dictates; but to the divine Truth itself which dictates no certitude at all can accrue: therefore by like reasoning neither [can any accrue] to faith itself which assents.

2. Likewise, the cognition of faith is conformed to the divine foreknowledge, from which it receives its illumination; but the divine foreknowledge is equally certain of the future, before it comes to pass, as of the past, after it has come to pass:

therefore it seems that the faith of the Fathers who preceded the coming of Christ had as great a certitude as the faith of those who followed has.

3. Likewise, faith is as certain of what it knows as prophecy is; but «prophecy is a divine inspiration, announcing the outcome of things with immovable truth», which is as certain of the future as of the past — whence also it frequently announces future things in the manner of past things — therefore by like reasoning it seems that faith too in the Fathers preceding the coming of Christ was equally certain as in those who followed.

4. Likewise, just as in our faith no error falls, no doubt, so neither [does any fall] in the faith of the preceding Fathers: if therefore «that is called *whiter* which is more unmingled with black», and that *more certain* which is removed from all doubt; and the faith of the ancient Fathers was equally removed from error and doubt as ours is: therefore it was equally certain: therefore faith has not grown as to certitude.

### Conclusion.

> The certitude of faith, in comparison to the Truth which dictates, has not grown, although in comparison to the believer himself it can grow.

**I respond:** It must be said that one may speak of the certitude of faith in two ways according to a twofold comparison. For faith has [a relation] to be compared to the Truth itself which dictates, and it has also [a relation] to be compared to the intellect itself which assents. If we speak of the certitude of faith by comparison to the Truth which dictates, then its certitude can neither be diminished nor increased, because, since the divine Truth itself is most certain and cannot be deceived; as far as is on the part of the dictating ground, in any faith whatever, by which it assents to the divine Truth for its own sake and above all things, there is a state of certitude, nor on that side does faith have to progress in certitude, as the reasons adduced for the second part show. — But if we speak of the certitude of faith by comparison to the believer himself, then it can be granted that faith grows as to certitude, both on account of a clearer cognition and on account of a greater devotion. For that faith is more certain which knows more openly and acquiesces more devoutly. And as to these two faith grows according to the diversity of times, according as master Hugh of St. Victor says in the book *On the Sacraments*: «Two things, he says, there are according to which faith is said to grow, *cognition* and *affection*. According to *cognition* faith grows, when it is instructed unto knowledge; but according to *affection*, when it is excited to devotion and strengthened unto constancy». And in both modes faith grew according to the diversity of times. For that it grew as to *devotion*, the passions of the Martyrs sufficiently show; that [it grew] as to *knowledge*, the erudition of the Doctors sufficiently shows. — Whence Hugh says that this was signified in the thirteenth [chapter] of Numbers concerning the cluster of grapes which was carried on a pole, of which he speaks thus: «The cluster on the pole is indeed Christ on the cross, whose mystery in the sacrament two peoples carry. Those who *preceded* carried it, but did not see; because those preceding his coming carried the sacraments of his passion, but not all were able to understand [it] through cognition. But *the latter* both carry and see, because the faithful after the coming of Christ receive the sacrament of his passion through faith and now openly know [it] through revealed cognition». Thus therefore it is plain that, although the certitude of faith on the part of the *Truth which dictates* has no increase, yet it has to progress on the part of *the believer himself*.

And according to this the response to the question proposed is plain. The response to the objections is also plain: because the reasons for the first part proceed according to one way, and the reasons for the second part proceed by another, as is manifest to one who examines [them].

It is also plain in general from the foregoing what is the mode of progressing in faith itself. For faith progresses in a certain way *extensively* as to the explication of the articles; it progresses also *intensively* as to a clearer illumination; it progresses also *radically* as to the adherence of certitude and devotion; and this I say with regard to the common state. — And in a like manner it has to progress in the same *man* and also in *diverse men*, who are under the same Law, gradually exceeding one another according to the progress of faith. And this is what Hugh of St. Victor says: «According to the increments of faith diverse kinds of men are found. For some are faithful, who choose to believe by piety alone, but

whether a thing is to be believed, or not to be believed, they do not comprehend by reason. But others approve by reason what they already believe by faith. But others experience, by the understanding of a purified mind, what they believe by faith and approve by reason. In the first faith alone makes the choice; in the second reason adds approval; in the third the purity of understanding apprehends certitude». — And thus the response to the question proposed is plain.

---