Dist. 15, 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/15/q/bon-sent-IV-d15-p1-littera
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### Chap. I. *That one entangled in many sins cannot truly repent of one, unless he repent of all.*

And just as by the aforesaid authorities the error of those is refuted who think penance is not to be done more often, and who deny that those falling from a lapse rise frequently through it; so by the same is the opinion of those overthrown who assert that one entangled in many sins truly repents of one and can obtain pardon of it from the Lord without penance for another. Which also they try to establish by authorities. For the Prophet says: *God will not judge twice for the same thing,* or as others have translated it: *A double tribulation shall not arise.* If therefore, those men say, anyone has confessed to a priest one of two or more sins and has fulfilled for that one the satisfaction enjoined on him by the priest, the others being left unspoken; he is not to be judged any further for that sin of which he has made satisfaction at the judgment of the priest, who bears the place of Christ in the Church. And therefore, if he be judged again for it, God judges twice for the same thing, and a double tribulation shall arise. — But « this must be understood only of those who are converted to good by present punishments and so persevere, over whom a double tribulation shall not arise. But those who amid scourges become harder and worse, like Pharao, join eternal things to present ones, so that the temporal punishment is to them the beginning of eternal punishment. Whence Augustine: *A fire is kindled* etc. — that is, vengeance shall begin here — *and shall burn unto the uttermost damnation.* This must be noted against those who say that the saying, namely: *God will not judge twice for the same thing,* pertains to all scourges, because some are corrected here by scourges, others are punished both here and in eternity ».

### Chap. II. *For what causes scourges happen.*

For in five ways do scourges happen: either that the merits of the just be increased through patience, as for Job; or for the guarding of virtues, lest pride tempt, as for Paul; or for the correction of sins, as the leprosy of Mary; or for the glory of God, as concerning the man born blind; or for the beginning of punishment, as for Herod, so that here may be seen what follows in hell, according to that saying: *Crush them with a double crushing, O Lord.* « That authority of Nahum, therefore, does not compel us to hold that all things which are punished temporally are not to be further punished by God ».

### Chap. III. *On the Egyptians and Sodomites, who are said to be punished temporally, lest they perish eternally.*

For although on the same passage Jerome says that the Egyptians and Israelites were punished temporally by God, lest they be punished eternally; yet it is not to be understood generally of all. For he says thus: « Know that He destroyed the human race by the flood, the Sodomites by fire, the Egyptians by the sea, the Israelites in the desert, and that He thus punished them temporally for their sins, lest He punish them eternally », because God will not judge twice for the same thing. Those, therefore, who have been punished

shall not be punished afterward; otherwise the Scripture lies, which it is impious to say.

Attend, reader, to these words and beware, lest thou understand them generally of all, « but only of those who amid the scourges themselves did penance, believing in the God of the Hebrews; which penance, though brief and momentary, yet God did not spurn ». But that those who are not corrected by a temporal scourge are afterward punished eternally, he shows in the same place, treating of a believer caught in adultery, who is beheaded; where he shows that light sins are purged by a brief and temporal punishment, but great ones are reserved for lasting and eternal punishments, thus saying: « Let someone here ask, if a believer caught in adultery be beheaded, what becomes of him afterward? For either he will be punished, and what is said is false: *God will not judge twice for the same thing*; or he will not be punished, and it is to be wished for adulterers that they be punished here with a brief penalty, that they may escape the eternal torments. To which we answer that God knows the measures of punishments, as of all things; and that the sentence of the judge is not anticipated, nor is the power of exercising punishment henceforth upon the sinner taken from Him; and a great sin is atoned by great and lasting torments. But if anyone has been punished, like him who had cursed the Israelite, and him who had gathered wood on the Sabbath, that such are not punished afterward, because the light fault has been compensated by present punishment ». For a light fault is compensated by a light punishment. — Here Jerome sufficiently intimates that grave sins, of which penance is not done amid the scourges, are both punished here with grave punishment and are to be punished eternally in the future; but that light ones, which are punished here, receive their compensation by a light penalty; which we do not doubt is done in the case of good men, and perhaps it is so done also in the case of evil ones. — It is now sufficiently apparent that what those men adduced from the prophecy makes nothing for those who say that pardon is granted through penance to one who reserves a crime to himself, for another sin.

Some, clinging too vehemently to these words, also adduce other authorities. For Gregory says: « *The Lord rained upon one city and upon another rained not, and the same city in part He rained upon and in part left dry.* When he who hates his neighbor corrects himself of other vices, one and the same city is in part rained upon and in part remains dry; because there are some who, while they cut off certain vices, grievously persist in others ». Likewise Ambrose: « The first consolation is that God forgets not to have mercy »; « the second, through punishment, where, even if faith be wanting, the penalty satisfies and relieves ». — They use a reason also, saying: If he who confesses one sin, another being left unspoken, has fulfilled the satisfaction enjoined by the priest, will not penance be imposed on him for both also, if, being converted, he has confessed the unspoken sin? This seems far from reason and the custom of the Church, which for the same sin, unless it be reiterated, imposes penance on no one twice. That, therefore, was a condign satisfaction for the sin, whence the sin too seems blotted out.

To these it can be answered thus. That saying of Gregory: « *The Lord rained* » etc., is to be referred not to the pardon of the crime, but to the abandonment of the act of sin, so that part of the city is said to be rained upon because it now ceases from the act and delight of the sin which it before served; not that it has pardon of it. And that rain is called such continence by which one is recalled from the work of sin, because from the font of God's grace this is instilled into the heart, that thus by degrees he may either come to penance, or be the less punished by God who by longer delight and act of sin would have heaped up a greater torment for himself. But if the rain be referred to the *indulgence* of the guilt, it will seem to contradict the gospel sentence. For if, on account of the mercilessness by which one has no mercy on his neighbor, even those things which were dismissed are repeated for punishment; much more are those which are not yet dismissed shown to be reserved for punishment on account of brotherly hatred. And if he « who is constituted the arbiter of his own will cannot begin a new life, as Augustine says, unless he repent of the old life; how shall he come to the newness of indulgence who has not laid aside the oldness of hatred? » — That also which Ambrose says: « Even if faith be wanting, the penalty satisfies » etc., is to be understood not of the *faith* by which one believes in God, but of the conscience of the fault. For faith is wanting when the consciousness of the sin is not present. For since no one understands all his faults, there is sometimes in a man a sin of which he has no consciousness. Whence the Apostle: *I am conscious of nothing to myself, but I am not thereby justified.* When therefore one is scourged for a sin of which he is not conscious, if he bears the penalty patiently and embraces it humbly, thinking that he perhaps has a sin which he does not understand, and is punished for it by God, that penalty satisfies and relieves the burdened man.

But to that which is objected concerning that satisfaction: If satisfaction was not made, it is to be imposed again; but if it is not to be imposed again, satisfaction was made; and if satisfaction was made, he has obtained pardon; it can be answered that there was no satisfaction, because that man did not produce *worthy fruits of penance.* « For the satisfaction of penance is, as Augustine says, to cut off the causes of sins and not to grant their suggestions entrance ». The same: « Truly those who live wickedly and care not to correct such a life and conduct, and cease not amid their very crimes to give alms frequently, flatter themselves thereby in vain, because the Lord says: *Give alms, and behold all things are clean unto you.* For how widely this extends they understand not ». « For there are many kinds of alms which, when we do them, we are helped. For not only he who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and the like; but also he who gives pardon to one asking gives alms; and he who corrects by a blow one over whom power is given, or restrains by some discipline, or prays that his sin be forgiven him, gives alms, because he shows mercy ».

### Chap. IV. *On the kinds of alms.*

« For many good things are bestowed on the unwilling, when their utility and not their will is consulted ». « But that is greater by which we dismiss from the heart what each one has sinned against us. For it is a less great thing to be benevolent toward him who has done thee no evil; that is much greater, that thou love even thine enemy, and to him who wishes thee evil and, if he can, does it, that thou always wish good and do what thou canst ». « Therefore that which the Lord says: *Give alms, and all things are clean unto you*; we are so to understand it, that to those not believing in Christ all things are clean, if they give those alms ». « For he who wishes to give alms in an ordered way ought to begin with himself and first give them to himself ».

### Chap. V. *What alms is.*

« For alms is a work of mercy, and it has been most truly said: *Have mercy on thy soul, pleasing God* ». « Let them not therefore deceive themselves who think to buy impunity by most lavish alms of their fruits or money, while remaining in sins which they so love that they desire to dwell in them. But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul, and he who hates his own soul is not merciful to it, but cruel. For by loving it according to the world, he hates it according to God. If therefore he wishes to give it the alms by which it is made clean, let him hate it according to the world and love it according to God ». By this alms, which a man owes first to himself, the inward parts are made clean. Exhorting to which Christ says: *Make clean the things that are within. For to the unclean nothing is clean; but their mind and conscience are defiled,* as the Apostle says. But all are unclean whom faith makes not clean, by which one believes in Christ; of which it is written: *Purifying their hearts by faith.* « But lest Christ should seem to spurn those alms which are made from the fruits of the earth; *these things,* he said, *it behooved to do,* namely *judgment and the charity of God, and those not to omit,* that is, the alms of earthly fruits ».

### Chap. VI. *Whether those remaining in mortal sin and giving lavish alms ought to be said to make satisfaction.*

From these things it is given to understand that those remaining in mortal sin, even if they give lavish alms, yet do not make satisfaction by them, because they act in a disordered way, while they do not begin with themselves. Nor is such a work properly called alms, while they are cruel to themselves, not pleasing God. That therefore is not to be called a satisfaction for sin which one makes for one sin, while he persists in another; because « it profits nothing to fast and to pray and to do the other good things, unless the mind be recalled from sin »: and if at some time, being converted, he has confessed to the priest the unspoken sin, satisfaction is to be imposed on him for both, because for the first he did not condignly make satisfaction.

To some, however, it seems there was a satisfaction, but a fruitless one, while he persists in the other sin; yet its fruit will be received, and it will begin to profit, when he has repented of the other sin. For then both sins are dismissed, and the preceding satisfaction, which had been dead, is made alive; just as baptism to him who approaches feignedly then first avails when the feigning withdraws from the mind through penance. And for the support of this opinion they adduce authorities. For Augustine says: « It is pious to believe, and our faith demands it, that, when the grace of Christ has destroyed the prior evils in a man, it also rewards the good; and when it has destroyed what it did not find as its own, it loves the good which it planted in the sinner ». Likewise Jerome: « If thou shouldst ever see anyone, amid many sins, doing some just works; God is not so unjust as to forget, on account of many evils, a few goods; but He will cause him to reap and to gather into barns what he sowed in good ground ». — But these sayings we understand of him who in charity at one time does good and is good, but at another time is evil and does many sins. It is not therefore to be understood that he did just works amid many sins, as if at one and the same time he committed sins and just works, but that he did each at different times. For unless he were good when he did the good, he would not be said to have sown good things in the ground. Therefore, the evils being destroyed after the good works committed, the prior good works, namely those done in charity, which the following evils had mortified, by the penance had of those evils are made alive and rewarded. Whence the Apostle: *laying the foundation of penance from*

*dead works*; by naming dead works, he signifies the prior good works which by the following sin had been dead, because these men by sinning made the prior good works void. As these are made void by sinning, so by penance they revive and begin to profit unto the merit of eternity. Likewise God loves that good which He planted in the sinner, in him namely who after that good sinned, and did not exist at once sinning and working well; because the work of such a man God would not love unto reward.

### Chap. VII. *Whether the good works which are done by certain evil men avail unto the merit of life, when they have been converted to good.*

It can also be taken of the good works which are done by someone while he is evil and persists in mortal sin either for a time, or unto the end; which are said to be rewarded by God and not given over to oblivion, not because they profit toward obtaining eternal life, but toward feeling a more tolerable punishment of the last judgment; just as concerning faith and the rest which are had without charity, Augustine says: « If anyone not having the charity which pertains to the *unity of the spirit and the bond of peace,* by which the Church is knit together, being placed in some schism, lest he deny Christ, suffers tribulations, hunger, persecution, or flames, or beasts, or the very cross, from fear of hell; these things are in no way to be blamed, nay rather this patience is to be praised. For we shall not be able to say that it had been better for him, by denying Christ, to suffer none of these things which he suffered by confessing; but it is to be reckoned that perhaps the judgment will be more tolerable for him than if, by denying Christ, he had suffered none of these things, so that what the Apostle says: *If I should deliver my body so that I burn, but have not charity, it profits me nothing,* is to be understood to profit nothing toward obtaining the kingdom, not toward undergoing more tolerably the punishment of the last judgment ». And below: « These things are said on account of charity, without which there cannot be in us true penance, since in good men there is the charity of God which bears all things ».

From these things it is shown that the good works which are done without charity do indeed profit toward feeling a more tolerable punishment, but not toward obtaining life. That also which one does in charity, if he afterward fall and not rise again, is not in the memory of God, Ezekiel says: *If the just man turn himself away from his justice and do iniquity, shall he live? All his justices which he had done shall not be remembered; in his sin he shall die, and the justices which he did shall not be in memory.* In the exposition of which passage Gregory says: « This is to be most considered by us, that, when we commit evils, without cause do we recall the bygone goods to memory, since in the perpetration of evils there ought to be no confidence in the past goods ». — This is to be understood, that past goods give no confidence for receiving life, although otherwise it would be opposed to the aforesaid authority of Augustine concerning a milder punishment. And therefore both goods done without charity, and goods done in charity which a mortal fault accompanies, which the following penance does not blot out, profit toward the sense of a milder punishment, not toward the fruit of life.

I think those have been sufficiently answered who assert that penance is done and pardon granted for one crime, another being retained in delight, or not disclosed by confession; who are confuted not only by the aforesaid authorities, but also by those subjoined. For Augustine says: « There are many who repent of having sinned, but yet wholly reserve to themselves certain things in which they delight, not noticing that the Lord delivered at once the *dumb and deaf* man from the demon, teaching thereby that we are never healed except of all. For if He had wished sins to be reserved in part, He could have profited the man having *seven demons,* one remaining, by casting out six. But He cast out seven, that He might teach that all crimes are to be cast out together. And casting out the *legion* of demons from another, He left none of them all that might possess the man delivered, showing that even if sins be a thousand, one must repent of all. Never did the Lord heal anyone whom He did not wholly deliver. For He healed the whole man on the Sabbath, both the body from every infirmity and the soul from every contagion; indicating that the penitent must grieve at once for every crime. For I know the Lord to be an enemy to every criminal. How then should he who reserves a crime receive pardon for another? He would obtain pardon without the love of God, without which no one ever found grace. For he is an enemy of God, while he offends perseveringly. For it is a certain impiety of unbelief from him who is just and justice itself, to hope for half a pardon; for already without true penance he would find grace. For true penance strives to bring back to the purity of baptism. For the penitent rightly must wash away whatever filth he has contracted after his purification, at least with the tears of the mind; but he is hard enough whose grief of mind the eyes do not declare. But let him know that he is culpably hard who bewails the losses of time or the death of a friend, and shows not the grief of sin in his tears. Whom therefore it repents, let him wholly repent ». The same: « Penitents, if ye are truly penitents and are not mockers, change your life, be reconciled to God! Thou doest penance, thou bendest thy knees and laughest; thou deridest the patience of God. If thou doest penance, it repents thee; if it repents thee not, thou art not penitent. If therefore it repents thee, why doest thou the things thou hast done ill? If it repents thee to have done them, do them not; if thou still doest them, surely thou art not penitent ». Likewise Innocent the Second: « We admonish our brethren, lest they suffer the souls of the laity by false penances

to be deceived and dragged into hell. But it is established that penance is false when, many sins being despised, penance is done for one only; or when it is so done for one that one does not depart from another ».

From the foregoing a clear knowledge of true penance and satisfaction is made. For that is true penance which abolishes sin; which that alone does which corrects the crime; and that corrects the crime which brings the hatred of the crime committed and of committing it, with the desire of making satisfaction. For Judas is read to have repented without the attainment of pardon, because by such penance he did not correct his crime. Whence Jerome: « It profited Judas nothing to have done penance, through which he could not correct his crime. If at some time a brother so sins against a brother, that he can amend what he sinned, it can be forgiven him; but if the deeds remain, in vain is penance assumed by word; this is what is said of that same most wretched man: *And let his prayer become sin*; so that not only could he not amend the wickedness of betrayal, but he added the crime of his own homicide ». — Beware how thou understandest that saying: « That he may amend what he sinned » etc. For *amendment* here is not to be understood as the recompense of the thing taken away, but the reproach and abomination of the fault with the desire of satisfaction. For one unjustly takes away from another what he is not able to restore, as an eye or life and the like; and yet, if he has repented of the sin with the love of condign satisfaction, he has pardon. Nor let anyone therefore think that he who unjustly took away another's property, which he can restore, can repent of that sin and obtain pardon, unless he restore what was taken. « For as long as the thing for which one has sinned is not restored, if it can be restored, penance is not done, but feigned ».

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