Dist. 13
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/13/q/bon-sent-IV-d13-littera
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### Chap. I. *Whether this Sacrament is confected by heretics, or by the excommunicate.*

It is also wont to be asked whether wicked priests can confect this Sacrament. To which it can be said that some, although they be wicked, truly consecrate — namely those who are within in name and Sacrament, even if not in life; because it is brought about not by the merit of the one consecrating, but by the word of the Creator. Whence Augustine: « Within the catholic Church, in the mystery of the body and blood of the Lord, nothing more is brought about by a good priest, nothing less by a bad one, because it is brought about not by the merit of the one consecrating, but by the word of the Creator and the power of the Holy Spirit. For it is to be believed that the Sacraments are confected in the words of Christ. As he himself is the one who baptizes, so he himself is the one who through the Holy Spirit makes his flesh and blood ». Likewise Gregory: « Some suppose that the communion of the body is less sanctified if it be done by the office of those whose life seems to their eyes ignoble. Alas, into how great a snare they fall, that they believe the divine and hidden mysteries can be made more sanctified by some than by others, when one and the same Holy Spirit invisibly in the whole Church both sanctifies those mysteries by his working and blesses them by his sanctifying! It is therefore called *mystery* because it has a secret and hidden dispensation; but *sacrifice,* as it were a sacred thing done, because by mystical prayer it is consecrated for us in memory of the Lord's passion. *Sacrament* is in some celebration, when the thing is so done that we receive something of the signified reality. The Sacraments are: baptism, chrism, the body of Christ, which are therefore called Sacraments because under the covering of visible things the divine power more secretly works the salvation of those same Sacraments; whence they are called *Sacraments* from secret powers or sacred things. The Sacrament of the bread and the chalice is in Greek called *eucharistia,* in Latin interpreted *good grace;* and what is better than the body and blood of Christ? Whether therefore it be dispensed by good or by evil ministers within the Church, it is nonetheless a Sacrament, because the Holy Spirit gives life; nor is it enlarged by the merits of good dispensers nor diminished by those of bad ones. This is to be said and held concerning the body of the Lord, this also concerning baptism and chrism; because the divine power works in them more secretly, and this power or might is divine alone, not of human efficacy ».

But those who are excommunicate, or manifestly noted for heresy, do not seem able to confect this Sacrament, although they be priests; because no one says in the consecration itself *I offer,* but *we offer,* as if in the person of the Church. And therefore, since the other Sacraments can be celebrated outside the Church, concerning this one it does not seem so. Which Augustine also seems to hand down, saying: « Recall the name and attend to the truth! For it is called *Missa* (Mass) because the heavenly messenger comes to consecrate the life-giving body, according to the saying of the priest who says: « Almighty God, bid these things to be carried up by the hands of thy holy Angel to thy sublime altar » etc. Therefore, unless the Angel come, it can in no way rightly be called *Missa.* For if a heretic shall have dared to usurp this mystery, would God send an Angel from heaven to consecrate his oblation; especially since he threatened those same by the Prophet, saying: *I will curse your blessings.*

For if the Truth asserts that he will curse their blessings, what will become of the victim? Shall we then say that it can be blessed by him whom we know is to be cursed by God along with his blessing? For if God shall have cursed, and a simoniac shall have blessed; which of them will prevail? Can the blessing of the cursed reduce to nothing the most true words of the threatening God »?

From these things it is gathered that a heretic cut off from the catholic Church cannot confect this Sacrament, because the holy Angels, who assist at the celebration of this mystery, are then not present, when a heretic, or a simoniac, presumes rashly to celebrate this mystery. For it cannot be doubted that, where the mysteries of the Lord's body and blood are performed, an assembly of the citizens above is present. But in the carrying-out of this mystery, just as the *form* must be observed, so the *order* must be kept — namely that there be a priest — and the *intention* must be applied, so that he intend to do it. — But if he does not believe concerning that mystery as the truth holds, can he *intend* to confect it? And if he does not *intend,* does he confect it? — Some say that even one who does not think rightly concerning that mystery can *intend,* not indeed to *confect* it — for that would already be to believe rightly — but to *do that* which is performed by others while it is confected, and thus the intention is applied; and even if the intention be said to be lacking of confecting that mystery, nevertheless, since he intends to say and do the things which are performed by others, the mystery is fulfilled. — This too can soundly be said, that the body of Christ is not taken by brute animals, even if it seem so. What then does a mouse take, what does it eat? God knows. — Concerning this heavenly mystery we have touched on a few things, to be faithfully held by Catholics; for whoever contradicts these is judged a heretic.

### Chap. II. *What makes a heretic, and what a heretic is.*

But lest you be ignorant what makes a *heretic,* or what a *heretic* is, hear briefly what the holy Doctors hand down concerning it. Hilary says: « There have arisen many who took up the simplicity of the heavenly words, not the absoluteness of the truth itself, interpreting otherwise than the force of the sayings required. For heresy is of the *understanding,* not of *Scripture;* and the *sense,* not the *word,* becomes the crime ». The same, in book seven: « The sense of the understanding is in the crime ». Jerome says that « by words uttered without order heresy is incurred ». Augustine, defining what a heretic is, says: « A heretic is one who for the sake of some temporal advantage, and especially for the glory and primacy of himself, either begets or follows false and new opinions ».

*Note 1.* « I will curse your blessings — that is, those things which you possess by those blessings, or whatever is blessed by you — or because they do not bless the holy with a true heart, or because those who act unjustly are blessed by them, and they flatter sinners, provided they be rich ». Likewise: « I will curse your blessings, that is, whatever shall be blessed by you, by me shall be cursed ».

*Note 2.* Gregory on Ezekiel: « He who in the exposition of the sacred Word, in order to please his hearers, invents something, speaks his own words, not God's; but he who in the words of the Lord has thought otherwise than he who uttered them, even if under another understanding, nevertheless tends toward the edification of charity »; the words which he speaks are the Lord's.

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