Dist. 22, Art. 3, Q. 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/22/q/bon-sent-IV-d22-a3-q1
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### Article III. *On penance, insofar as it has the character of a foundation.*

Next, for the understanding of all the things that have been said in this treatise on penance, penance is inquired into insofar as it has the character of a foundation. And concerning this two things are inquired into. First it is asked about the character of a foundation in itself. Second, however, about it in relation to the character of a plank.

### Question I. *Whether penance has in itself the character of a foundation.*

As to the first, it is shown that penance holds the character of a foundation.

1. To the Hebrews, chapter six: *Not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works.*

2. Likewise, the Gloss: «What earlier it called *the discourse of the beginning* it now calls *the foundation*»; but in the discourse by which one coming to Christ is instructed, penance is *the foundation*; which is clear through that excellent teacher John, who preached penance; it is clear also through the Teacher of teachers, who began his preaching from this word, Matthew four: *Do penance*; the Gloss: «Penance is the first virtue», because there it is said: «The first virtue is to destroy the old man through penance».

3. Likewise, it is impossible to build the house of God in the heart unless the building of Satan be destroyed and he himself be expelled; but this is first done through the introduction of penance: therefore it seems that penance is first laid down: therefore it is itself the foundation.

**On the contrary:** 1. First to the Corinthians, chapter three: *No one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ*: therefore if Christ alone is the foundation; and penance is not Christ: it is evident, etc.

2. Likewise, to the Hebrews, chapter eleven: *Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for*; the Gloss: «It is the foundation of all good things»; but there are not two foundations: therefore, etc.

3. Likewise, penance and impenitence are opposites; but impenitence is the *consummation* of the diabolical building: therefore it is not a *foundation*: therefore, by the opposite, it seems that penance is the *consummation* of the building of Jesus Christ, not a *foundation*.

Likewise, it is asked about the number and the order of the things that are placed in the foundation by the Apostle. For he places two *virtues*, when he says: *Not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works and of faith toward God*; for he touches on two *Sacraments*, when he says: *Of the doctrine of baptisms, of the imposition also of hands*; two *articles of faith*, when he says: *Of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment*. Since the *virtues* are far more numerous, and the *Sacraments* far more, and also the *articles*; it is asked: why does he enumerate only these?

Likewise, it is asked in connection with this, since the *foundation* is said to be Christ, first to the Corinthians, chapter three: *No other foundation* etc.; and penance too is said [to be a foundation] in the aforesaid authority; faith too is said [to be one], to the Hebrews, chapter eleven, in the text and the Gloss; charity too is said [to be one], to the Ephesians, chapter three: *Rooted and founded in charity*; humility is said [to be one], according to Gregory, who says in the *Morals*: «The whole of what you build grows toward ruin if you do not first attend to the foundations of humility before the mass of the structure»; patience is said [to be one], according to Prudentius, who says:

*For that is a lesser virtue which patience does not strengthen;*

according to what common nature found in these is it rather called the *foundation* of these than of others?

> **Conclusion.** Penance has the character of a foundation, insofar as for the sinner coming to Christ it removes what stands in the way.

**I respond:** For the understanding of that last question, it must be noted that a *foundation* is spoken of

in two ways: in one way as a *place* in which the building is stabilized, and in this way Christ is called the foundation; and this is well noted in the Gloss, first to the Corinthians, chapter three, where it is said that just as the whole *material* building tends *downward*, because the founding place is downward; so the *spiritual* building tends *upward*, because Christ the Lord, who is the foundation of the spiritual building, is above. — In another way that is called a *foundation* according to which a thing is set and stabilized in its *support*; and this can be in a threefold manner: either that by which *the impediment is removed*; or that by which it is *set* there; or that by which it is *confirmed and stabilized*. If it is that by which *the impediment is removed*, then it is *penance*, which removes the filth of sin, upon which the diabolical engine had been constructed. If, however, it be as *setting in place*; but there are two things in us by which we are born to be set and to tend toward our place, namely *intellect* and *affection*: *intellect* is set in Christ through *faith*, and *affection* is set and glued fast through *charity*; and therefore the Apostle says not only *founded in charity*, but also *rooted*. If, however, it be as *defending and strengthening*; either against the wind of *prosperity*, or against the wind of *adversity*: if against the wind of *prosperity*, it is *humility*; if against the wind of *adversity*, it is *patience* or *fortitude*. And thus by this the soul itself is founded upon the firm rock. And thus it is clear that the character of a *foundation* is spoken of all these things according to a certain *analogy*, which has its origin and root in Christ.

Therefore, to that which is asked, whether penance is a foundation; it must be said that it is so, for one coming to Christ from the region of unlikeness or of sin.

1. 2. And the response is clear also to that which is objected concerning faith and concerning Christ.

3. Therefore, to that which is objected concerning impenitence, it must be said that, because it is opposed *privatively*, and in privative opposites the *inference from the contrary* holds, but not in the thing itself, as is clear in the composition of a thing and its resolution, because what is first in composing is last in resolving; therefore this argument makes rather for the opposite than for the proposition.

To that which is asked about the number and order of the things that are placed in the foundation; it must be said that the Apostle, as the Gloss says, calls *the foundation* the discourse of the beginning, that is, the discourse that must be made to those who are to be called to Christ first. In this discourse, however, he comprehends six things, which one must necessarily know if one wishes to enter the law of Christians and through this to come to life. For it is necessary for one who wishes to reach God that he know *whither* he ought to tend, and the *aid* by which he can arrive; and the *way* by which he ought to proceed. The *terminus* is the reward, the *aid* is the Sacrament, the *way* is virtue or the work of virtue, which is the precept; and these three it behooves one to know who wishes to come to God, according to that saying of Hugh, that three things are chiefly to be attended to: «precepts, Sacraments, promises». — The *way*, therefore, is in the virtues; and since, in order that the way may proceed rightly, it must needs turn away from evil and tend toward good; therefore he places virtue in a twofold manner: one by which one turns away from evil, and this is penance; another by which one tends toward good, and this is faith tending toward God through love, which follows penance as to the tending, although it precedes as to the knowing. — The *aid* likewise must be at least twofold: one which frees from evil, and this is the Sacrament of baptism, in which sins are blotted out; the other which confirms in good, and this is confirmation, or the imposition of hands. — Likewise, one must know a twofold *recompense*, namely of the good and of the wicked: of the good, through the resurrection of the dead who are to be changed through glory; of the wicked, through the eternal judgment.

These things it behooved to be preached first, and among the first things penance first of all. And thus the *number* and the *order* are clear; and it is also for our instruction, as to how we ought to teach those who newly come to the law of Christ.