Dist. 34, Part 2, Art. 2, 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/34/q/bon-sent-III-d34-p2-a2-q2
----------------------------------------
### Question II. *Whether, as charity grows, fear decreases.*

Secondly there is inquiry concerning gratuitous fear as regards its diminution, and the question is: whether, as charity grows, fear decreases. And that it does so, seems [to follow]:

1. First, from the authority of blessed John in the fourth chapter of the first canonical [epistle]: *Perfect charity casts out fear;* on which Augustine says: "As much as charity grows, by so much does fear decrease; and as much as the former becomes interior, by so much is the latter driven outside; the greater the charity, the lesser the fear"; but it is established that this cannot be understood of servile fear, since that does not stand together with charity: therefore as much as charity grows, by so much does gratuitous fear decrease.

2. Likewise, the more one loves, the more one hopes; and the more one hopes, the less one fears: therefore the more one grows in charity, by so much the more does one decrease in fear.

3. Likewise, the more charity grows, the more tightly and strongly is a man bound to God; and the more tightly he feels himself bound, the less does he fear to be separated: if therefore gratuitous fear is that by which one fears to be separated from God; the more charity is intensified, by so much the more is fear remitted.

4. Likewise, as love grows, taste and delight grow; but the more delight grows, by so much is suffering lessened: if therefore fear has suffering, it seems that as much as charity grows, by so much it is necessary that fear decrease.

**On the contrary:** 1. When the cause is increased, the effect is increased; but faith and love cause gratuitous fear: therefore, as faith and charity grow, it is necessary that fear too grow equally.

2. Likewise, the more anyone loves something, the more he grieves if he should lose it; but just as grief is over a good that has been lost, so fear is over the future, lest it be lost: therefore the more anyone loves something, by so much the more does he fear lest he lose it: therefore, as charity grows, it is necessary that fear grow.

3. Likewise, the greater the charity anyone has, the more humble he is — because "the emptier we are of the swelling of pride, by so much the fuller we are of love," as Augustine says — but as humility grows, the fear of God grows: therefore, from the first [premise], as charity grows, it is necessary that the fear of God grow.

4. Likewise, the greater anyone's charity, the more solicitous he is to serve God and not to do anything that might offend God, according to that [text] of Micah, chapter six: *I will show thee, O man, what God requires of thee;* and afterwards: *And to walk solicitous with the Lord thy God;* but the greater the solicitude for avoiding fault, by so much the greater is the abundance of fear: therefore, etc.

> **Conclusion.** Gratuitous fear, as charity grows, decreases as regards the act by which the heart is made solicitous from the consideration of its own frailty; but it grows as regards the act by which it is humbled from the consideration of its own littleness and of the divine magnitude.

**I respond:** For the understanding of the foregoing it must be noted that here, as in the preceding [questions], different [doctors] hold different views.

For some wish to say that one may speak of fear as regards the *habit* and as regards its *use.* If we speak of it as regards the *habit,* it is true that, as charity grows, it grows, because the gratuitous habits are equal. But if we speak as regards its *use,* thus they have said that, as charity grows, fear decreases; because the more the use of charity flourishes in us, by so much the less does the use of fear flourish. And this is manifest by *experience.* For a man at the beginning of his conversion does many things out of fear; but when he has tasted the spirit of devotion and of the sweetness that is in love, drawing near to the state of perfection, he is now drawn to act well more by the liberality of love than goaded by the penal quality of fear. — But in this mode of speaking two opposites seem to be implied. For if the magnitude of the *habit* is attended to and discerned according to the magnitude of the *act* and of the *use,* then, the gift decreasing as regards *use,* it seems that it is necessary that it *decrease* as regards the *habit;* or if it *grows* as regards the *habit,* it seems that it is necessary that it *grow* as regards *use* and act.

Therefore there is also another mode of speaking, namely that, as was said before, gratuitous fear has to be divided into initial and filial. And when it is asked whether, as charity grows, fear decreases; it can be answered that it is true of a certain fear, and false of another. Of fear, I say, of the initial it is true, because it communicates in a certain manner with the servile in this, that it dreads punishment; but of the filial it is not true, because the greater anyone's charity, by so much the more does he shun the divine offense and walk more solicitously with God, according to that [text] of the Apostle: *Let him who thinks himself to stand take heed lest he fall.* — But this still does not seem to satisfy entirely; since filial fear, by which one fears to offend God, *has suffering,* and the soul is much afflicted in that dread; yet blessed John says that *perfect charity casts out fear* on account of the annexed penal quality.

And therefore it can yet be said otherwise, namely that the *use* of gratuitous fear itself is twofold: one, I say, by which the heart of man is made solicitous from the consideration of its own frailty; the other, by which it is humbled from the consideration of its own littleness and of the divine magnitude. And the first *use* is lessened when charity is perfected, because confidence arises from the perfection of charity, so that now a man says that [word] of the Apostle to the Romans, chapter eight: *Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ,* etc.? But the other *use* grows as charity grows, just as does the habit of fear; whence the more anyone has of the spirit of love, by so much the more does he have of the spirit of fear, because by so much the more is he removed from the spirit of pride or swelling, according to what Augustine says.

And by this the response to the proposed question is evident; the response to the objections is also evident. For the reasons adduced for either part conclude truly, because they proceed according to diverse ways, as is evident from the reasons adduced for the first part, which show that fear is lessened as charity grows. For they proceed concerning fear as regards the use that has *suffering,* that is, as regards that use by which one is made solicitous, lest through his own frailty he fall into fault and through his own fault be cast down into punishment, as is evident in running through them one by one. — But the reasons that are adduced for the opposite proceed concerning fear according to that use according to which it is consonant with perfect charity; and it is true that it grows as regards that [use], as is evident in the first three reasons.

Yet to that which is objected last, namely that, as charity grows, solicitude grows; it must be said that not every solicitude is from fear. For the solicitude by which one is held suspended in mind, so as always to please God and to do the things that are acceptable to God, proceeds more from love than from fear. — But if one should object further, that such a man is not only solicitous to please, but also solicitous not to offend; it must be said that that solicitude is of prudence and of diligence, which, even though it have the affect of fear annexed, nevertheless in perfect men, on account of the security which they conceive from the perfection of love, does not flourish so [strongly] as in the imperfect, speaking *simply,* unless perhaps *by dispensation* and *for a time.* For sometimes the most perfect men, from the consideration of the divine judgments, are shaken to their inmost depths.

And from this there could yet be elicited, besides the aforesaid modes, another mode of speaking, namely that the use of any habit can be said to grow, or decrease, in two ways: either by the *intensity* of motion, or by the *number* of acts. And when it is said that, as charity grows, fear decreases as regards the use of solicitude about falling; this is not understood of *intensity,* but rather of the *number* of motions; because the perfect man does not so much need to be made solicitous as the imperfect, since he has whereby he may the more fear, both by reason of past fault, lest perhaps it be not pardoned, and by reason of future [fault], lest through frailty and a defect of love he fall. — In this, then, stands the sum of the whole response, in whatever way the mode of speaking be varied, namely that gratuitous fear, as charity grows, in one way grows, in another way decreases, even as regards use.