Dist. 10, 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/4/d/10/q/bon-sent-IV-d10-p2-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On the Eucharist with respect to the power of transubstantiating.*
### Question I. *Whether it is of equal or greater power to convert bread into the body of Christ than to create something anew.*

As regards the first point, then, it is asked whether it is of equal or greater power to convert bread into the body of Christ than to create something anew.

And that it is not of equal power, it seems:

1. By the word of Ambrose, for Ambrose argues thus: "If the word of Christ could make what was not, can it not change the things that are into what they were not?" — as if to say: it can; but this argument would have no force unless that were of greater power: therefore the power of creating is of greater power than that of transubstantiating.

2. Likewise, *by reason* it seems so, because where there is greater distance, there is a greater reducing power; but between being and non-being there is a greater distance than between being and being: therefore the power in creation is greater, in which from non-being being comes to be.

3. Likewise, that power is greater which acts with fewer means and aids; but the power that produces from nothing suffices by itself alone, whereas the power that produces from something presupposes another ground: therefore, etc.

**On the contrary:**
1. "It is greater to make a godly man out of an ungodly one than to create heaven and earth"; but the transubstantiation of bread into the body of Christ is much greater than to justify the ungodly: therefore that is of greater power than to create.

2. Likewise, that is more impossible which a well-disposed mind judges more difficult; but every mind more readily believes that something comes to be anew than that something is changed into another without any increase of it and without any [observable] change: therefore that is more difficult.

3. Likewise, wherever there is a finite distance between the extremes, something remains common; but in transubstantiation nothing common remains: therefore between the extremes the distance is infinite; and if so, such a transubstantiation is from an infinite power, and thus the one is not of greater power than the other.

4. Likewise, it is of greater power to make that one thing be in many places than that it be one; but this power, which makes the body of Christ be on the altar, makes it be in many places: therefore that is of greater power.

> **Conclusion.** It is greater, as regards the effect, to create than to transubstantiate; but inasmuch as the body of Christ surpasses every creature, as it is with soul and Divinity, the effect of transubstantiation surpasses the creation of any other thing.

**Respondeo:** It must be said that, if we speak of the creating and transubstantiating power, as to which is greater in itself, there is no difference, because it is one, neither intensified nor diminished. — But if [we speak] as regards the effect, [namely] which is indicative of greater power, or rather more declarative of the divine power; it must be said that in each of these operations there are *three things to consider*: the initial principle, the intermediate distance, and the final term. As regards the *initial principle*, it is attestative of greater power *to create* than *to transubstantiate*, because there [it acts] from nothing, here it acts upon something. — But as regards the *intermediate distance*, it is of equal power, because in both cases nothing common is found, nor does anything remain according to the *subject genus*, although [it does] according to the *predicable genus* in the one [case].

— But as regards the *final term*, since there in creation it comes about that what *was not* is, [while] in transubstantiation it comes about that what was somewhere, without its own change, is elsewhere, the former is indeed greater, but the latter rarer; and the former *is* greater, but the latter *seems* greater. As regards the final term, therefore, to create *is* greater, but to transubstantiate *seems* greater.

The first reasons, then, are true, because the greater effect is to create, both as regards the final term and as regards the initial principle. In this, however, that the body of Christ surpasses every creature, as it is with soul and Divinity; and transubstantiation brings it about that that body be on the altar, not from another: therefore it surpasses the creation of *any other* thing, yet not *its own* formation, as will be seen.

**To the arguments:**

1. To that which is objected, that it is greater to make a godly man out of an ungodly one, etc.; it must be said that it is called greater, with free will preserved, because here on the part of free will there is resistance, there none; not so in the case at hand.

2. To that which is objected concerning the judgment of a disposed mind, it must be said that it judges the more customary and the more apparent things to be easier, although they are greater; hence it is not valid.

3. To that which is objected concerning distance, it must be said that this is to be granted as regards this, that nothing common remains, but not as regards a distance in respect of the *predicable genus*.

4. To that which is objected, that it is greater to make that [something] be in many places, etc.; it must be said that when a non-being comes to be, either it is in potency, that it may be, or in no way. If it is in some way in potency, that it may be; then it is indeed to be granted that it is greater to make it be in many places than that it be, because it is in potency to being, not to many places at once. But when it is in no way in potency, that it may be, and has a fittingness for this, that it be in many places, the first is greater; and so in the case at hand, because that which is created has no potency nor ordination to this, that it may be. But the body of Christ, already constituted and perfected, has a suitability for this, that it be in many places under the Sacrament.