Dist. 34, Part 2, Art. 1, 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/34/q/bon-sent-III-d34-p2-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On unformed or servile fear.*
### Question I. *Whether servile fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit divinely given.*

Concerning the first point one proceeds thus, and inquiry is made about servile fear in comparison to its principle, namely whether it is a gift of the Holy Spirit divinely given. And that it is, seems [to be the case]:

1. *First*, by the Gloss on that text to the Romans, chapter eight: *You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear;* there the Gloss says: «Beware, lest from the fact that it speaks of the spirit of bondage and the spirit of adoption, you understand a diverse Spirit, since it is one and the same Spirit»: if therefore the spirit of adoption is a gift of the Holy Spirit, from this Gloss it seems it can necessarily be concluded that servile fear is from the same [Spirit].

2. *Likewise*, Augustine says, and it is contained in the [Master's] text: «Servile fear is good and useful, through which little by little the habit of justice comes about»; but *every best gift and every perfect gift is from above:* therefore servile fear descends from above.

3. *Likewise*, this same thing seems to be proved by the authority of the Old Testament, because, as is said in Ecclesiasticus chapter one: *The root of wisdom is to fear God;* and Proverbs chapter fifteen: *In the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil;* and Isaiah chapter twenty-six: *From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation:* if therefore servile fear is the beginning of wisdom and makes one turn away from evil and conceive good, and all this is only from a gift of God; it seems therefore that servile fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

4. *Likewise*, not only is *cooperating* grace from God, but also the grace *preparing* the will: therefore not only from God will be that fear which governs man in the state of justice, but also that which prepares for that state: since therefore servile fear is of this kind, it seems that servile fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

5. *Likewise*, it is more to fear God than to believe — for many believe who do not fear — but the faith by which one believes is given to man from above even in the state of sin: therefore also the gift by which he fears. But servile fear is of this kind: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**

1. Every gift of the Holy Spirit can stand together with the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is not at variance with his own gifts; but when the Holy Spirit is infused, then servile fear is expelled, as Augustine says, and it is contained in the [Master's] text: therefore servile fear is not a gift of the Holy Spirit.

2. *Likewise*, every gift of the Holy Spirit has a corresponding exemplar in God: but servile fear has no corresponding exemplar in God, neither insofar as it is fear nor insofar as it is servile — for in God there is no dread, no servitude — therefore etc.

3. *Likewise*, every gift of the Holy Spirit is given to dispose the soul to something arduous and excellent; but fear consists rather in a lowering than in any raising up, and is rather from a lack of virtue than from sufficiency: it seems therefore that servile fear is not a gift of the Holy Spirit.

4. *Likewise*, just as it happens that one fears God on account of the punishments which he inflicts, so also it happens that one loves [God] on account of the benefits which he bestows on us even in the state of sin; but that love which is on account of temporal things is not placed among the gifts of the Holy Spirit: therefore neither is servile fear, which principally has its eye on punishment.

5. *Likewise*, just as someone refrains from transgressing the commandments of God on account of the fear of eternal punishments, so the thief refrains from transgressing the king's edict on account of the fear of the gallows; but the fear by which the thief fears to steal, lest he be hanged, is not held to be a gift of the Holy Spirit: therefore it seems likewise concerning that fear by which one fears to sin, lest he be eternally punished — indeed it seems so with much stronger reason, because, if a lesser evil is feared easily, a greater evil is feared much more easily. Since therefore eternal punishments are a greater evil than temporal ones; if we have no need of a gift for fearing temporal punishments, much more it seems that we do not need one for fearing eternal punishments.

*[In codex S alone the following nine arguments to the contrary are here added, whose solutions are supplied below at the end of the question:]*

6. *Likewise*, Gregory says that the gifts are given as an aid to the powers of the soul against the defects contracted from sin; but fear does not denote an aid strengthening some power, but rather a defect and despair of aid: therefore etc. The minor is clear from that text of Wisdom chapter seventeen: *Fear is nothing... but a betrayal of the succours which reason offers* [lit. an aid of presumption, a betrayal of the thought of helps]; for the sense of this definition according to the expositors is that fear "aids" one to presume evils, that is, to suspect troubles, and "betrays," that is, withdraws or fails, in the sense in which a traitor is called a betrayer of the counsel concerning aid.

7. *Likewise*, that for which nature suffices — not only human nature, but any nature — needs no gift; but every nature naturally fears the punishments which it suspects will be inflicted upon it, and flees them as much as it can: therefore man does not need this gift. — But if one should say that he needs a gift for believing in eternal punishments, which he does not see nor experience; against this is that that pertains not to fear but to faith.

8. *Likewise*, on that text of the Psalm: *In thee, O Lord, have I hoped* etc.; the Gloss says: «Hope is from God and a gift of God; but what you fear is from yourself»; but what man has from himself is not reckoned among the gifts of God, neither complete nor incomplete, in the way we are now speaking: therefore fear is not a gift.

9. *Likewise*, all the gifts were in Christ; servile fear was not: therefore etc.

10. *Likewise*, the gifts are the greatest goods; servile fear is not.

11. *Likewise*, that which takes away from a good the character of good is not a gift of God: this fear does, because, although what one does by such fear is good, nevertheless he does not do it well, as is said in the [Master's] text.

12. *Likewise*, Dionysius says: «It belongs to the best to bring about the best»; and James chapter one: *Every best gift* etc.; but such fear is not best.

13. *Likewise*, Damascene says: Fear is a desire moving according to a *systole,* that is, a contraction and lowering; but the gifts of God demand and stretch out the soul: therefore it is not a gift.

14. *Likewise*, if one should say that it is an incomplete gift; on the contrary: the incomplete, when it approaches the complete, becomes a part of the complete and of its substance; servile fear does not, but rather recedes when charity comes: therefore it is not etc.

### Conclusion.

> Servile fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit, though an imperfect one.

**I respond:** It must be said that without doubt servile fear is a gift of the Holy Spirit. — And the reason for this is: that just as it is a gift of God to know or to believe in future punishments, inasmuch as there is therein a certain illumination and direction of the heart; so it is a gift of God to flee and fear those eternal punishments, inasmuch as from such a gift there is a certain softening of the heart, and a restriction of the flux of concupiscence, and in this a certain rectification. That there is a *softening* therein, Isaiah the prophet sufficiently intimates when he says: *Thou hast hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee.* That there is therein a *restriction of the flux of concupiscence,* the Prophet intimates in the Psalm when he says: *Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear;* which indeed comes about not only through chaste fear, but also through servile fear, by which eternal torments are feared, and the divine judgments are feared. And on account of the fear of those things man ceases from the perpetration of sins, though he does not entirely cease from the will [to sin], as the Gloss says; all of which is from the divine gift. — Therefore the reasons brought forward for this side are to be granted.

1. *To that* which is first objected to the contrary, that servile fear does not remain with the Holy Spirit; it must be said that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are of manifold difference. For a certain gift is *from* the Holy Spirit, but not *with* the Holy Spirit, because it prepares for the Holy Spirit; and such a gift is servile fear as such. But a certain other is a gift which is from the Holy Spirit and always with the Holy Spirit, because through it the dwelling-place is consecrated to the Holy Spirit, as is the gift of charity. And a certain other is a gift which is from the Holy Spirit and sometimes with the Holy Spirit, sometimes without the Holy Spirit, as the gift which is for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and is ordered not only to one's own utility but also to another's, as the gift of prophecy and the gift of knowledge, which may be found at times in the good, at times in the wicked. — When therefore it is said that a gift of the Holy Spirit is compatible with the Holy Spirit; it must be said that this finds its counter-instance in that gift which is ordered to preparing the dwelling for the Holy Spirit. — It could also be said otherwise, that servile fear, although insofar as it is servile it cannot stand with the Holy Spirit on account of the imperfection annexed to it, which denotes a repugnance to the state of grace; nevertheless as to *something of itself* nothing prevents it from standing with the Holy Spirit, as will be made clearer below; and as to this it is a gift of his.

2. *To that* which is objected, that every gift of the Holy Spirit has a corresponding exemplar in God; it must be said that if this be understood *specially,* as to its every property, thus it is not true; but if it be understood *generally,* namely that that is said to have an exemplar in God which has something *corresponding* to it either in itself or according to its genus: thus it can hold true. And in this way fear can have an exemplar in God, because he who fears is removed from evil and stands within his own bounds, so that he does not raise himself above himself. But both of these are found in God, because God is most removed from evil and in no way raises himself above himself: therefore, while through fear we subject ourselves to God, we are assimilated to him; and such an assimilation suffices for fear to have a sufficient character of a gift.

3. *To that* which is objected, that every gift of the Holy Spirit is given to dispose the soul to something arduous and excellent; it must be said that just as to love inordinately is a mark of great wantonness, but to love ordinately is a mark of great virtue and excellence; so to fear inordinately is a mark of sloth and cowardice, but to fear ordinately is a mark of great excellence. For he who truly fears God fears nothing earthly and perishable, but rather from the very fear of God is borne up above those fears. Therefore, although the act of fear may seem to pertain to a certain defectibility, in truth nevertheless it pertains to excellence and nobility; and because in servile fear man begins to fear God himself, hence it is that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, though an imperfect one.

4. *To that* which is objected, that just as it happens that one fears God on account of punishments, so also one loves [God] on account of benefits; it must be said that just as certain benefits are present, certain future, certain that are seen, certain that are awaited; so also are punishments. And if anyone should fear God only on account of present punishments which he has already experienced, this he does not have necessarily from a gift; but when he fears on account of future torments, which he believes are to be inflicted on all who despise the divine justice: so too in love it must be understood that the love of eternal goods is also a gift of God; but the love of present things can be from the natural affection itself. And therefore from this it cannot be concluded that servile fear is not a gift, because by servile fear not only temporal torments are feared, but also eternal ones, as has been touched on above.

5. *To that* which is objected concerning the thief, who fears to steal on account of hanging; it must be said that it is not similar, as has already been touched on, because by natural cognition and estimation the thief knows that punishment and dreads it; but it is not so concerning infernal punishment, but rather it is necessary that one be aided by faith; and further, that the heart be in some way softened, so that it may shrink from those torments at the instinct of faith. Therefore that argument is not valid, because there is no likeness on the one side and the other.

*[The solutions of the arguments of codex S, which are added above (p. 754, note 8) in the same place where it is reported:]*

*To the sixth:* that it there speaks of the fear of despair; and that is not servile fear, because through it sin is not avoided, but one falls into every sin, according to that text of Jeremiah chapter eighteen: *We have despaired; for after our own thoughts we will go, and we will do every one [the wickedness] of his evil heart.*

*To the seventh [read: the eighth],* as is clear there in the Gloss, it there speaks of natural fear, namely of death.

*To the seventh,* that although nature flees punishments that are to be inflicted, nevertheless the will does not always flee the pleasures through which one comes to punishments; both because it is mistress of both and chooses what it wills; both because it succumbs to pleasures not conquered but allured and absorbed; both because pleasure and the punishment due to it are not so immediately bound together that it does not hope for both, namely to have the pleasure and to escape such punishment through penance or in some other way.

*The ninth and tenth* prove that it is not a complete gift.

*To the eleventh,* it does not take away from it the character of good, but of meritorious good, that is, although it is good, nevertheless it is not done well.

*To the twelfth,* God, as far as it lies in himself, always gives the best, but when we do not receive in full, he gives in part, as much as we are willing to take, so that no one is without share of his gifts.

*To the thirteenth,* it is clear from the solution of the third.

*To the fourteenth,* the substance of the incomplete, according to which it is material or of a disposition toward the complete, remains in the complete, but not under the character of the incomplete nor under the disposition of the opposite. Whatever therefore is in servile fear, on account of which it is called a gift of God — such as faith and the flight from eternal punishment — remains with charity, but its servility and imperfection do not. Example: the embryo does not remain under the character of embryo, nor unformed faith under the character of unformed under [faith now] formed.