Dist. 14, Part 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/14/q/bon-sent-IV-d14-p1-littera
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### Part I.

### Chap. I. *On penance, and whence penance is named.*

After these things penance must be treated of. Penance is necessary for those set far from God, that they may draw near. For it is, as Jerome says, « the second plank after shipwreck »; because, if anyone has corrupted by sinning the garment of innocence received in baptism, he can repair it by the remedy of penance. The first plank is *baptism,* where *the old man is put off, and the new is put on;* the second, *penance,* by which after a fall we rise again, while the old state, having returned, is repelled, and the lost newness is resumed. Those who have lapsed *after* baptism can be renewed by penance, but not *by* baptism. It is permitted to a man to do penance more often, but not to be baptized. Baptism alone is a Sacrament, but penance is called both a *Sacrament* and a *virtue of the mind.* For there is an *interior* penance and an *exterior* penance: the *exterior* is a Sacrament, the *interior* is a virtue of the mind; and each is a cause of salvation and of justification. — But whether every *exterior* penance is a *Sacrament,* or if not every one, which is to be reckoned by this name, we shall consequently investigate. — From penance began the preaching of John, saying: *Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.* « But what the herald taught, the Truth afterward preached, taking the beginning of his discourse from penance ».

### Chap. II. *What penance and to repent are.*

« Penance is named from *punishing,* by which one punishes the unlawful things which he has committed. The virtue of penance is conceived through fear ». Whence Isaiah: *From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation.* « But penance is, as Ambrose says, to bewail past evils and not to commit again things to be bewailed ». Likewise Gregory: « To repent is to weep for sins formerly done and not to commit things to be wept for. For he who so deplores some things, that yet he commits others, either knows not or dissembles how to do penance still. For what does it profit, if one weeps for the sins of lust and still pants with the heats of avarice? »

### Part II.

Some, clinging too vehemently to these words, contend that one who is truly penitent cannot thereafter sin damnably; and that, if he has sinned grievously, a true penance did not precede; which they fortify also with other testimonies. For Isidore says: « He is a mocker, and not penitent, who still does that of which he repents. Nor does he seem as a subject to entreat God, but as one proud to deride: a dog returned to its vomit, and a penitent to his sin. Many shed tears unceasingly, and do not cease to sin. Some I perceive to take up tears for penance, and not to have the affection of penance, because by inconstancy of mind they now shed tears at the remembrance of sin; now, the habit reviving, they commit again by repeating the things they had bewailed. Isaiah says of sinners: *Be washed, be clean.* He is washed and is clean who bewails past things and does not commit again things to be bewailed. He is washed, and is not clean, who bewails the things he has done, yet does not forsake them and after his tears repeats the things he had wept for ». Likewise Augustine: « Empty is the penance which a following fault defiles. Laments profit nothing, if sins are repeated. It avails nothing to beg pardon for evils and to do the evils anew ». Likewise Gregory: « He who bewails things admitted, yet does not forsake them, subjects himself to a graver punishment ». Likewise Ambrose: « There are found those who think penance is to be done more often, who luxuriate in Christ. For if they truly did penance in Christ, they would not afterward think it to be repeated; because, as there is one baptism, so there is one penance ». These and many other things they use to assert their opinion. — But Ambrose says: « This is true penance, to cease from sin ». And again: « It is of great profit to have renounced error ». « For to put off and amend minds steeped in vices belongs to perfect virtue and heavenly grace ».

And therefore it can soundly be thus defined: penance is a virtue or grace by which we bewail and hate the evils committed, with the purpose of amendment, and are unwilling to commit further the things to be bewailed; because true penance is in the mind to grieve and to hate vices. — Whence those words set down above: to repent is to weep for things formerly done and not to commit things to be bewailed, can rightly be so taken, that they refer not to different times, but to the same, namely that at the time when one bewails the evils committed, he should not commit by will or by deed the things to be bewailed. Which is intimated from the words following: « For he who so deplores some things » etc. Hence Augustine says: « Care must be taken lest anyone suppose that those abominable crimes, such as those who do them shall not possess the kingdom of God, are daily to be perpetrated and daily to be redeemed by alms. For life must be changed for the better, and God must be propitiated for past sins by alms, not in a manner bought off for this, that it may always be permitted to commit them with impunity. For to no one has he given license to sin, even though by his mercy he blots out the sins committed, if a fitting satisfaction be not neglected ». Likewise Pope Pius: « It profits a man nothing to fast and to pray and to do the other works of religion, unless the mind be recalled from iniquity ». — He, therefore, who so recalls his mind from evils that he bewails the things committed and is unwilling to commit the things to be bewailed, nor neglects to make satisfaction, truly repents. Nor is the penance not true on this account, that perhaps afterward he will sin, not of set purpose, but by chance or infirmity. But he is a mocker, and not penitent, who so bewails the things committed that he does not cease to commit by will or by deed the things to be bewailed. He too, who after his tears repeats the things he wept for, is washed for a time, but is not clean, that is, that cleanness is not sufficient for him unto salvation, because it is momentary, not lasting. Likewise that saying: *Empty is the penance which a following fault defiles,* is to be understood thus: It is empty, namely lacking the fruit of that penance which a following fault does *not* defile. For the fruit of that penance is the avoidance of hell and the attainment of glory. For that penance is mortified, and the other good works done before, by the following sin, so that they obtain not the reward which they merited when they were done, and which they would have if the sin did not follow. But also, if penance be done for the succeeding sin, both the penance which preceded and the other good works done before revive; yet only those which proceeded from charity. For those alone are living which are done in charity; and therefore, if they are mortified by following sins, they can revive through subsequent penance. But those which are done without charity are begotten dead and empty; and therefore they cannot revive through penance. Likewise is to be understood that saying: *Laments profit nothing* etc., and that: *It avails nothing* etc. For if sins are repeated, the preceding lament avails nothing at the end unto salvation or unto pardon, because nothing is left of cleanness of life; for either the dismissed sins return, as it pleases some, when they are repeated; or if they do not return, yet, they being blotted out, on account of ingratitude one is so made guilty and unclean, while he is still entangled in the things to be expiated, as if those blotted-out sins returned. Of this, however, namely whether sins return, we shall treat more fully afterward. Likewise it avails nothing for obtaining salvation or for having cleanness of life to beg pardon for misdeeds and to do the evils anew.

— Thus also is to be understood that which the same Augustine says elsewhere: « Penance is a certain vengeance of one grieving, punishing in himself what he grieves to have committed ». And below: « One must grieve continually for sin, which the very force of the word declares. For to repent is to hold punishment, so that one always punishes in himself by avenging what he committed in sinning. He holds punishment who always avenges what he grieves to have committed. Penance therefore is a vengeance always punishing in oneself what one grieves to have committed ». « What remains to us but to grieve in life? for where grief ends, penance too fails. But if penance ends, what is left of pardon? Let him rejoice and hope in grace so long as he is sustained by penance. For the Lord says: *Go, and sin no more.* He did not say: do not sin, but: let not even the will of sinning arise in thee. And how shall this be kept, unless grief be continually guarded in penance? Hence let him always grieve and rejoice over his grief; and let it not be enough that he grieve, but let him grieve from faith and grieve that he has not always grieved ».

Of the penance of the perfect, or that which is sufficient unto salvation, is to be understood what he said above, namely: *Penance is a vengeance always punishing what one has committed;* and other things of this kind. But that saying: *If penance ends, nothing of pardon is left,* can be taken in two ways. For if, according to the understanding of some, the dismissed sins return, it is easy to understand that nothing of pardon is left; because the dismissed sins are repeated again. For just as he who is set free from servitude into liberty is meanwhile truly free, and yet on account of an offense is afterward recalled into servitude; so too to the penitent his sins are truly dismissed, and yet on account of an offense, which is repeated, they return again. — But if they be said not to return, it can soundly be said that even so nothing of pardon is left; not that the dismissed sins are imputed again, but because on account of ingratitude one is so made guilty and unclean, as if those sins returned.

### Chap. III. *On solemn and single penance.*

But that which Ambrose says: *There are found* etc. and: *As there is one baptism, so there is one penance,* is understood to be said not according to the general, but according to the special custom of the Church, concerning solemn penance, which among certain persons, once celebrated, is not repeated. Likewise that other saying of Ambrose: « Penance once usurped and not truly celebrated both takes away the fruit of the prior and loses the use of the following »; is understood of solemn penance. But solemn penance, as Ambrose says in the same place, is that which is done outside the Church in public, in ashes and sackcloth, which is imposed only for graver, horrendous, and manifest offenses. And that penance is not to be repeated, out of reverence for the Sacrament, and lest it become cheap and contemptible to men. Whence Augustine: « Although it has been cautiously and wholesomely provided that the place of that most humble penance be granted once in the Church, lest the medicine become cheap or less useful to the sick — which is the more wholesome the less contemptible it is — yet who would dare to say to God: Why dost thou still again spare this man, who after his first penance again binds himself in the snares of iniquity »? Origen too, concerning this solemn penance which is enjoined for graver crimes, says: « If some mortal fault overtake us which consists not in a deadly crime, or in blasphemy of faith, but in a fault of speech or of conduct; this fault can always be repaired, nor is it ever forbidden to do penance of this kind; but not so for graver crimes. For in graver crimes the place of penance is granted but once. The *common* faults, which we frequently incur, always admit penance and are always redeemed ». — By *common* he means venial sins and perhaps certain mortal ones less grave than others, which, just as they are often committed, so are frequently redeemed through penance. But for graver crimes penance is done but once, namely solemn penance. For even of those, if they be repeated, penance is repeated, but not solemn. Which, however, in certain Churches is not observed.

### Chap. IV. *That sins are often dismissed through penance.*

But that penance is not done once only, but is frequently repeated, and that through it pardon is frequently granted again, is proved by many testimonies of the Saints. For Augustine says, writing against certain heretics who said that for those sinning after baptism penance was useful but once, thus: « The faithless still press on, who are wise more than they ought, not soberly, but exceeding measure; for they say: Even if for those sinning once after baptism penance avails, yet it will not profit those sinning often, repeated; otherwise remission would be an incitement to sin. For they say: Who would not always sin, if he could always return? For they say that the Lord is an inciter of evil, if he always succors the penitent; and that the sins please him, to which grace is always at hand. But they err. For it is established that sins much displease him who is always at hand to destroy them; if he loved them, he would not so always destroy them ». The same, to Macedonius: « To such a degree does the iniquity of men sometimes advance, that even after penance has been performed, after reconciliation at the altar, they commit the like or graver things. And yet God makes *his sun to rise* even upon such, nor does he grant less than he had granted before, the most ample gifts of life and salvation. And although that place of penance be not granted them in the Church; yet God does not forget his patience over them. And if one of their number should say to us: Tell me whether anything will profit me unto the future life, if

in this life I have despised the allurements of most enticing pleasure, if by repenting I have tormented myself more vehemently than before, if I have wept more abundantly, if I have lived better, if I have more liberally sustained the poor, if I have burned more ardently with charity; who among us is so foolish as to say to this man: These things shall profit thee nothing for the future? Go, enjoy at least the sweetness of this life. May God avert so monstrous and sacrilegious a madness ». Likewise, John Chrysostom on the restoration of the lapsed: « Such, believe me, such is God's love toward men: he never spurns penance, if it be offered to him sincerely and simply; even if one reach the summit of evils, and yet thence wish to return to the way of virtue; he receives him willingly, embraces him, does all things, to recall him to his former state. And what is yet more excellent and eminent, even if one cannot fulfill the whole order of satisfaction, yet he does not reject the penance, however small and performed in however brief a time; he receives even it, nor suffers, though slight, the reward of conversion to be lost ». By examples too this same thing can be established. For David by penance obtained pardon at once of adultery and of homicide; and yet afterward he grievously transgressed in the numbering of the people, which the prostrate multitude of the people showed. « But that is wonderful, that he offered himself to the Angel striking the people, saying: *What has this flock done? Let thy hand be against me and against the house of my father.* Which done, he was at once judged worthy of sacrifice who was reckoned unworthy of absolution. Nor is it a wonder, if by such an offering of himself for the people he obtained pardon of his own sin; since Moses, offering himself for the people's error, washed away their sins ».

By these and many other testimonies it is evidently shown that through penance we rise from sins not once only, but more often, and that true penance is more often done. For us sinning willingly, as the Apostle says, there is left no sacrifice for sins — a second one, namely — because it behooved Christ to suffer but once; nor is there left a second baptism; but there is left a second penance and a third and so on, as John Chrysostom on this place says: « It is to be known, he says, that here certain men arise who, on the occasion of these words, take away penance, as if through penance a sinner could not rise again after a lapse a second and a third time and so on. But in this too he excludes not penance nor the propitiation which is often made through penance, but a second baptism and sacrifice ».

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