Dist. 18, 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/18/q/bon-sent-IV-d18-p1-littera
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### Part I.

### Chap. I. *On the remission which the priest bestows.*

Here it is wont to be asked: if a sin has been wholly forgiven by God through contrition of heart, from the moment the penitent has had the desire of confessing, what is afterward forgiven him by the priest. For I see by what bond he binds him, namely of temporal penalty, but not from what he absolves him; and therefore I ask. For before the repentance of the heart the guilty soul has the stain and stench of sin, and exists bound by the bond of eternal vengeance. But if before confession, through contrition of heart, God by Himself, without the ministry of a priest, both wholly relaxes the debt and interiorly purges the soul from the contagion and stench of sin; what then does the priest cleanse, what does he forgive? Where are those keys which the Lord delivered to Peter and his successors, saying: *To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven?* But that the foregoing question may be more fully unfolded, as it were by a net cast deeper, let us discourse concerning these keys and their use.

### Chap. II. *On the keys.*

These keys are not corporeal, but spiritual, namely « the knowledge of discerning and the power of judging », that is, of binding and loosing, by which the ecclesiastical judge « ought to receive the worthy and exclude the unworthy from the kingdom », who, as he has the right of binding, so also of loosing. Whence Ambrose: « The Lord willed the right both of loosing and of binding to be equal, who promised both on an equal condition. Therefore he who has not the right of loosing, has not the right of binding either ». And below: « It is certain that both are lawful to the Church, that heresy has neither; for this right is permitted to priests alone. Rightly therefore does the Church claim this for herself, who has true priests; heresy cannot claim it, who has not true priests ».

### Chap. III. *On the use of the keys.*

But the use of these keys is manifold, namely to discern who are to be bound or loosed, and then to bind or loose. « For he who binds or looses the unworthy by his own power deprives himself », that is, makes himself worthy of deprivation.

### Chap. IV. *Whether the priest can forgive, or retain, sin.*

But it is asked whether the priest can loose from sin, that is from *guilt,* so as to wipe away the stain of guilt, or can loose the debt of eternal death. — Some have judged that, since the sinner is bound in a twofold way, as has been said, namely by the contagion and blindness of mind and by the debt of future penalty, the one is cured by God, the other loosed by the priest. For through sin he suffers certain interior darknesses and stains, from which unless he be freed, he will be cast *into the exterior darkness;* but when he is freed from these, he is raised from the death of sin. Whence the Apostle: *Rise thou that sleepest, and Christ shall enlighten thee.* For Christ alone, not the priest, raises the soul, and, the interior darknesses and stains being driven out, enlightens and cleanses it, who washes the face of the soul; but to loose the debt of eternal penalty He granted

to the priests. Which they assert was signified in the resurrection of Lazarus, whom Christ first interiorly vivified by Himself, then bade go forth, and, while he was still bound, bade the Apostles loose him; because, as they say, He Himself interiorly cleanses the soul from the gloom and stain of sin, but to the priests He gave [the power] to loose the bond of eternal death.

But others say that God alone, not the priest, forgives the debt of eternal death, just as He also interiorly vivifies the soul by Himself; nor yet do they deny that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was delivered to priests, to whom it was said: *Whose sins you shall forgive* etc. For just as He retained to Himself the power of baptism, so also of penance. And therefore, just as He interiorly enlightens the soul by His grace, so also at the same time He relaxes the debt of eternal death. For He Himself by Himself covers the sins of the penitent, and He covers them then, when He does not reserve them for penalty. Then therefore He covers, when He looses the debt of penalty. But that He Himself covers, Augustine plainly says, expounding that place of the Psalm: *Whose sins are covered,* that is « hidden and abolished. For if God has covered the sins, He willed not to advert to them; if He willed not to advert, He willed not to take notice, that is, to punish, but to pardon. Thus therefore He says they are covered by God, that God may not see them, that is, eternally punish them ». For to see sins is, for God, to impute them to penalty; but to turn the face from sins is not to reserve them for penalty. Likewise Jerome: « Those to whom God forgives sins, He covers, lest they be revealed in judgment ». Likewise Cassiodorus: « As to those who have grave sins, to some God imputes them, to others through mercy He does not impute them ».

From these things it is plainly shown that God Himself looses the penitent from the debt of penalty, and He looses then, when He inwardly enlightens, by inspiring true contrition of heart. To which opinion reason gives support, and authorities give witness. For no one is truly compunct over sin, having a contrite and humbled heart, except in charity; but he who has charity is worthy of life; and no one is at the same time worthy of life and of death: he is not therefore then bound by the debt of eternal death. For he ceased to be a son of *wrath* from the moment he began to love and repent. From then therefore he is loosed from the wrath which does not remain upon him who believes in Christ, but upon him who does not believe. Not therefore is he afterward freed from eternal wrath by the priest, to whom he confesses, from which he has already been freed by the Lord, from the moment he said: *I will confess.* God alone therefore interiorly cleanses man from the stain of sin and looses him from the debt of eternal penalty; who through the Prophet says: *I alone blot out the iniquities and sins of the people.* Likewise Ambrose: « The Word of God forgives sins; the priest is the judge. The priest indeed performs his office, but exercises the rights of no power ». The same: « He alone forgives sins, who alone died for our sins ». Likewise Augustine: « No one takes away sins but God alone, who is the Lamb taking away the sins of the world; and He takes them away both by forgiving the things that have been done, and by helping that they be not done, and by leading to the life where they can in no wise be done ». — By these and many other testimonies it is taught that God alone by Himself forgives sins; and as He forgives to some, so also He retains the sins of certain others.

### Chap. V. *In what manner priests forgive sin, or retain it.*

Nor yet do we therefore deny that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was granted to priests, since the Truth plainly teaches this in the Gospel. Hence Augustine says: « The charity of the Church, which is poured forth in hearts through the Holy Spirit, forgives the sins of those who are partakers of it, and retains the sins of those who are not ». The same: « Priests can spare those who confess, for those whom they forgive, God forgives. For He offered Lazarus, raised from the tomb, to the disciples to be loosed, by this showing that the power of loosing was granted to priests. For He said: *Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven* etc., that is, I God and all the orders of the heavenly court and all the Saints in my glory praise with you and confirm those whom you *bind and loose.* He did not say: those whom you *think* to bind and loose, but, those upon whom you exercise the work of justice or mercy. But otherwise, or [in respect of] your other works upon sinners, I do not acknowledge [them] ». The same: « When sins are forgiven to one truly converted to God, they are forgiven by those to whom He Himself is joined by true conversion. The Holy Spirit forgives them, who is given to all the Saints cleaving to Him by charity, whether they know one another corporally or not. Likewise when anyone's sins are retained, they are retained by those from whom he is disjoined by the depravity of his heart, whether [those] known corporally or unknown ». « All the wicked are spiritually separated from the good ». — Behold, here he says that sins are forgiven or retained by holy men, and yet he says that the Holy Spirit forgives them. And what is worthy of greater consideration, he likewise says that God by Himself, or through His Saints only, forgives sins. For he says thus: « God gives the Sacrament of grace even through the wicked; but *grace* itself only by Himself, or through His Saints. And therefore the remission of sins He effects either by Himself, or through the members of that dove, to whom He says: *If to anyone you shall forgive, they shall be forgiven* ». — Behold how various are the things handed down by the doctors concerning these matters; and in this so great variety, what is to be held? This indeed we can say and judge, that God alone forgives sins

and retains them, and yet He has conferred upon the Church the power of binding and loosing; but otherwise He Himself looses or binds, otherwise the Church. For He Himself *by Himself* alone forgives sin, because He both cleanses the soul from the interior stain and looses it from the debt of eternal death.

### Chap. VI. *In what manner priests bind, or loose, from sins.*

But this He did not grant to priests, to whom however He gave the power of binding and loosing, that is, of *showing* men bound or loosed — whence the Lord first by Himself restored the leper to health, then sent him to the priests, by whose judgment he should be shown cleansed; thus too He offered Lazarus, already vivified, to the disciples to be loosed — because, even if anyone be loosed in God's sight, yet he is not held loosed in the face of the Church except by the judgment of the priest. In loosing therefore or retaining faults the evangelical priest so works and judges as of old the legal [priest] did among those who were contaminated with the leprosy which signifies sin. Whence Jerome upon Matthew, where the Lord says to Peter: *To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven:* « This place, he says, some not understanding take something from the haughtiness of the Pharisees, so as to think they condemn the innocent or loose themselves who are guilty, whereas in God's sight not the sentence of the priests but the life of the accused is sought. In Leviticus the lepers are bidden to show themselves to the priests, whom those [priests] do not *make* lepers or clean, but discern who are clean or unclean; and so too here ». — Here it is plainly shown that God does not follow the judgment of the Church, which through stealth and ignorance sometimes judges [wrongly]; but God always judges according to truth. And in remitting or retaining faults the evangelical priests have that right and office which of old the legal [priests] had under the Law in curing lepers. These therefore forgive or retain sins, while they judge and show [them] forgiven or retained by God. For the priests place *the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel,* but He Himself blesses, as is read in Numbers. This mode of binding and loosing Jerome noted above. Priests also bind, while they impose the satisfaction of penance on those confessing; they loose, when they remit something of it, or admit those purged through it to the communion of the Sacraments, which mode Pope Leo noted above. According to this mode priests too are said to forgive sins or retain them. Whence Augustine said above: *Those whom they forgive, God forgives* etc. For they exercise the work of justice upon sinners, when they bind them with a just penalty; the work of mercy, when they relax something of it, or reconcile [them] to the communion of the Sacraments; other works upon sinners they cannot exercise. — And it is to be noted that those whom they bind by the satisfaction of penance, they thereby show loosed from sins, because penitential satisfaction is imposed on no one except him whom the priest judges to be truly penitent. Others they do not [thus] charge, and thereby they judge the sin to be retained by God. But that this pertains to the keys, Augustine shows, saying: « He frustrates the keys of the Church who does penance without the judgment of a priest, if pardon of the crime be sought without oral confession ».

### Part II.

### Chap. VII. *In what manner that saying is to be understood: Whatsoever you shall loose etc.*

According to these modes of binding and loosing, in what manner is that which is said true: *Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven?* For sometimes they show loosed or bound those who are not [so] in God's sight, and by the penalty of satisfaction or of excommunication they sometimes bind or loose the unworthy, and admit the unworthy to the Sacraments and keep back the worthy from being admitted. — But this is to be understood of those whose merits demand to be loosed or bound. For then the sentence of the priest is approved and confirmed by the judgment of God and of the whole heavenly court, when it so proceeds from discretion, that

the merits of the accused do not contradict it. Whomsoever therefore they loose or bind, applying the key of discretion to the merits of the accused, are loosed or bound *in heaven,* that is in God's sight; because by divine judgment the sentence of the priest, having so proceeded, is approved and confirmed. Those therefore whom the sentence of the Church strikes according to their merits, it harms, and they are outside in God's sight. — But he who has not deserved [it] is not harmed by the sentence of the Church, unless he despise it. Whence Origen: « Someone goes out from truth, from faith, from charity, and through this he goes out from the camp of the Church, even if he be not cast out by the bishop's voice; just as, on the contrary, someone is sent outside by an unrighteous judgment, but if he has not acted so as to deserve to go out, he is in no way harmed. For sometimes he who is sent outside is within, and he who is outside seems to be retained within ». — Behold of what kind and how great is the use of the apostolic keys. It has now been shown in part how priests forgive sins or retain them, and yet God has retained to Himself a certain singular power of forgiving or retaining, because He alone by Himself looses the debt of eternal death and interiorly purges the soul.

### Chap. VIII. *What the interior darkness and the interior stain are.*

Here it is asked what that stain is, and what those interior darknesses are, from which God interiorly purges the soul, when He sends in true penance. — Concerning the darknesses and the interior gloom it is easy enough both to understand and to answer. For when anyone sins mortally, he is also deprived of the grace of virtue, if any preceded, and suffers a beating-down of his natural goods. Whence also the intellect is dulled, and the whole interior man is darkened, and thus the mind is wrapped as it were in a certain gloom, which gloom is the penalty of sin. But this God drives away, when He sends in penance, through which He restores the goods that were lost and repairs those that were vitiated. Whence the Prophet: *He scattereth the mist like ashes.* — But what is the *stain of sin,* from which He washes the soul? For behold, someone willed to commit homicide and did it, and, this being done, he ceases both to *will* and to *do* it; yet he does not yet truly and humbly repent nor propose to confess. What stain therefore has remained in that soul? The *evil will* indeed was the stain of that soul, but that passes; there is also a stain, if he despises to repent, but this is *another* sin from the preceding. What stain therefore has remained, from which he is purged in penance? — The soul indeed is polluted, so long as it does not repent, just as it was while the evil will was in it. For just as he who touches a carcass or another unclean thing is so polluted after the touch, until he is washed, as he was while he touched it; so after the act of sin the soul remains polluted, just as it was in the very act of sin, because it is so far from God by *unlikeness,* who is the life and cleanness of the mind, as it was while it committed the sin. That *unlikeness* therefore which is in the soul from sin and is a distancing from God, is understood [to be] the stain of the soul, from which it is purged in penance. But this God alone does, who alone raises the soul and enlightens it; which priests cannot [do], who nevertheless are physicians of souls. Whence the Prophet: *Shall physicians raise to life, and confess to thee?* Expounding which Augustine says: « Good teachers are rightly called *physicians,* who can cure the living by their ministry, but not raise the dead; for by the grace of God alone do they come to life again ».

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