Dist. 21, Part 1, Art. 3, 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/21/q/bon-sent-IV-d21-p1-a3-q2
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### Question II. *Whether any of the saints flies up into heaven before the judgment.*

Secondly it is asked whether any of the saints flies up into heaven before the judgment. And it seems that it does not.

1. The Apostle, in Hebrews eleven, speaking of holy and faithful men, says: *All these did not receive the promises, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be perfected without us*: therefore if the earlier Saints ought not to be perfected without the other holy Apostles; since up to the day of judgment the number of the Saints increases, it is plain that one does not fly up before another.

2. Likewise, Matthew twenty-five: *He will set the lambs on the right, but the goats on the left*; *and he will say to those who will be on the right: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom*: therefore it seems that they are not going to receive the glory before that judgment. For if they had received it before, the Lord would not say: *receive the kingdom*.

3. Likewise, no one's possession which is had through a sentence is obtained before the rendering of the sentence; but the possession of eternal life is had through a sentence: therefore, since the sentence is given on the day of judgment, it seems that before the day of judgment no soul flies up into heaven.

4. Likewise, it belongs to a magnificent king to bestow stipends in that manner by which his magnificence is the more declared; but this is especially so when one court is made from a multitude and from the gathering of many: therefore it seems that the Lord reserves the eternal glory, that he may confer it on all at once.

5. Likewise, the soul sinned in the flesh, therefore it seems that it ought to be punished in the flesh: therefore it is never perfectly purged nor punished until it resumes the body, in which it is to be purged; but before perfect purgation the soul does not fly up into heaven: therefore not before the day of judgment.

6. Likewise, bodies will not be glorified before the day of judgment, however holy he is who dies: therefore by parity of reasoning neither will souls.

**On the contrary:**
1. In Luke twenty-three the Lord said to the thief: *Today you will be with me in paradise*, therefore the soul of the thief was with Christ; but it is established that what Christ promised he did not afterward take away: therefore it was ever after with Christ. But Christ ascended into heaven: therefore the soul of the thief ascended; therefore by parity of reasoning so too the other holy souls.

2. Likewise, to the Philippians one: *I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ*, thus said the Apostle; but it is established that his desire was not in vain: therefore immediately after the dissolution he was with Christ.

3. Likewise, Apocalypse six: *Single robes were given to them*; but there is no robe except the glory of the soul and the robe of the body: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, charity is a weight sufficiently inclining and elevating upward: therefore if there is nothing holding back, the soul straightway flies up through charity; but he who is purged in purgatory, after the purgation has nothing holding him back: therefore he straightway flies up.

5. Likewise, to defer the wage of a hireling does prejudice to justice; but God is supremely just: therefore as soon as he finds a man disposed, he straightway repays.

6. Likewise, hope which is deferred afflicts the soul: if therefore the reward of the Saints is deferred until the judgment, it seems that they are in continual affliction and groaning and expectation: therefore if God defers so long, it seems that he himself is most cruel.

> **Conclusion.** It is erroneous to say that the holy souls, which have no liability to punishment, are not to be glorified at once, but rather to wait until the last day of judgment.

**I respond:** It must be said that certain foolish persons err about this, saying that souls are not to be glorified, but rather to wait until the last day of judgment. — I have called them foolish because such an error has support neither from authority nor from any efficacious reason, nor did this position have any great author or defender, but it is imputed to certain Greeks. There seems, however, to make for this error the Gloss which is on the Psalm: *Be not emulous*, where it is said

that the just who die are not at once where they will be after the judgment, but in that rest where Lazarus was with Abraham. But as is plain in the Gloss itself from what follows, that was said with respect to the robe of the body, not with respect to glory, or place. For it is certain that Christ despoiled the principalities and powers, and through this it is established that the Saints who were in limbo were raised up to heaven with Christ, and through this also all the just who have no liability to punishment.

1. To that, then, which is objected, that they did not receive the promises; it must be said that the Apostle calls "consummation" the filling-up of that supernal city, after which no one will enter. — Or it must be said that the Apostle understands it with respect to the time of grace, which he preserved down to us, so that we, made partakers of grace in abundance, might be made partakers also of glory.

2. To that which is objected, that *he will set the lambs* etc.; it must be said that that judgment will be with respect to the consummated glorification to be received in soul and in flesh, which the dead do not yet have, although the souls are blessed in heaven.

3. To that which is objected concerning the sentence, it must be said that, just as it happens in two ways to obtain the kingdom, namely wholly and perfectly or in the whole, and in another way according to the soul or in part: so the judgment is twofold, or even the sentence is twofold. For just as a man is glorified according to a part, so too he is judged particularly, and a sentence is borne concerning him when the soul departs from the body; but the universal judgment and sentence will be when the man is to be glorified totally, and then the heavenly court will be consummated; and so the twofold judgment corresponds to the twofold mode of possessing glory. And the twofold mode corresponds to two things, namely the divine magnificence and our indigence. For the removing of our indigence, straightway, when the soul is fit, it is raised up to glory, because it would wait in vain, since it can no longer merit. For the showing of the divine magnificence, the general and universal resurrection of bodies is reserved at the end of the ages. And so no prejudice is done to our advantage, while the soul is taken up into glory, none to the divine glory, while at the end there will be done, in the resuming of bodies, the whole that would be done if glory were deferred from the souls.

4. 5. 6. And through this those three are plain, namely concerning possession through a sentence, concerning God's magnification, and concerning the resuscitation of bodies. Concerning which—why it is deferred—it is treated in its place below.

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