Dist. 14, Part 2, Art. 1, 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/4/d/14/q/bon-sent-IV-d14-p2-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether one can rise again through penance, that is, whether penance is repeated.*

Secondly it is asked whether one can rise again through penance, that is, whether penance is repeated. And that it can be, seems thus:

1. *By the example* of David, who first sinned by homicide and repented, and again, by numbering the people, sinned and repented, and God accepted both.

2. Likewise, *by authority*: Ezekiel the eighteenth chapter: *If the wicked man do penance for all his sins* etc., *I will not remember all his iniquities any more;* but it does not distinguish the [kind of] sinner: therefore it is true of the one who relapsed, because a term in a conditional, [placed] in the antecedent, is taken universally.

3. Likewise, granted that this man, the whole time he was in penance, had been in fault; it is established that he would have been worse; but the way was not closed to him: therefore if he could then have risen through penance, he can also now.

4. Likewise, *by reason* it seems so: because God is more inclined to have mercy than to condemn; but however much a man has served God, if he repents of the good he has done, God forgets the good [deeds]: therefore if he repents of evil, God remits it.

5. Likewise, if he cannot rise a second time, this is either because he cannot repent a second time, or because God does not accept [it]. Not in the first way, because free choice in us is changeable, and we see it change all day long; not in the second way, for to repent is to be contrite and humbled over sin; but it is said in the Psalm: *A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit, a contrite and humbled heart* etc.

**On the contrary:**
1. To the Hebrews, chapter six: *It is impossible for those who have fallen away to be renewed again unto penance.*

2. Likewise, Proverbs the twenty-eighth chapter: *He that walketh in perverse ways shall fall at once.*

3. Likewise, Ambrose says that « penance is one, just as baptism is one ». And Origen says that « in graver crimes only one place for penance is granted ».

4. Likewise, *by reason* it seems so: because the Sacrament of penance has its effect from Christ's passion, as does baptism; but Christ's passion is one, and he can suffer no more: therefore neither can penance be repeated. And this is what the Apostle says to the Hebrews, chapter six: *Crucifying again to themselves the Son of God.*

5. Likewise, baptism is not repeated nor can it be repeated, lest contumely be done to the Sacrament and it come into contempt: therefore by parallel reasoning neither can penance.

> **Conclusion.** Penance can always be repeated, so long as a man is in this life.

**I respond:** It must be said that it is a most wicked and most cruel error that penance cannot be repeated, because it closes up the bowels of the divine mercy; and then it would drive all sinners, or nearly all, to despair. And therefore it must be said that it can be repeated however often, so long as a man is in this life; but after this life it cannot.

And the reason why penance can and ought to be repeated, while baptism cannot, is threefold. One is that in baptism a character is imprinted, which is indelible, [but] in penance not. — The second reason is that baptism is against a non-repeatable disease, such as the disease of original sin; but penance is against a repeatable disease, such as the disease of actual sin. Hence, because the medicine must be fitted to the disease, the point is clear, etc. — The third reason is that baptism has its whole efficacy from Christ's passion, but penance not so much from Christ's passion as from our own act; and therefore baptism is not repeated, just as neither is the passion; but penance is repeated, according as our will turns and returns. Hence it is that in baptism all penalty is remitted, [but] in penance not. And if baptism were repeated, an occasion of sinning would be given to us; it is not so in penance, because it punishes well.

**To the arguments for the opposite side:**
*To 1 and 2.* To that, then, which is objected to the contrary from the word of the Apostle, *it is impossible* etc.; force can be put on his saying *impossible:* because [it is] not by human strength; or *impossible,* that is, difficult: for he is speaking of the perfect, who rise again with difficulty. — Or so that force be put on *penance:* because he is speaking of the renewal which is in penance, which baptism follows;

for this [baptism] has its whole power from the victim of the passion, and concerning this the Apostle says to the Hebrews, chapter ten: *There is left no sacrifice for sin.*

*To 3.* To that of Ambrose and Origen, it must be said that it should be understood of solemn penance, and this according to the custom of certain churches, as is clear in the text [of Lombard].

*To 4 and 5.* To that which is objected concerning baptism and contumely of the Sacrament, the answer is clear from what was said before, that it is not alike. For here no contumely is done to the Sacrament, because it is so instituted and has [its] efficacy, whereas a second baptism is of no efficacy. Nor is contumely done to *the passion,* because it does not receive its whole and full efficacy from the passion in the way baptism does, as was seen in what preceded and will be seen below concerning penance.