Dist. 22
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-littera
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### Chap. I. *Whether forgiven sins return.*

And since it has been asserted above by many authorities that, in true contrition of heart, sins are forgiven before confession or satisfaction — even for one who is at some point going to relapse into a crime — it is asked whether, if after contrition of heart he has scorned to confess, or has fallen back into the same or a like sin, forgiven sins return. The solution of this question is obscure and perplexed, some asserting, others on the contrary denying, that sins once forgiven are charged again unto punishment. Those, however, who say that forgiven sins return fortify themselves with the following testimonies. Ambrose says: « Forgive one another, if one sin against the other; otherwise God demands back the things forgiven. For if in these matters he be despised, without doubt he will revoke the sentence by which he had granted mercy, as is read in the Gospel concerning the wicked servant, who was caught being impious toward his fellow servant ». Likewise Rabanus: « The wicked servant

God handed over to the torturers, until he should pay back the whole debt; because not only the sins which a man committed after baptism will be reckoned to him unto punishment, but also the original sins which were forgiven him in baptism ». Likewise Gregory: « From the evangelical sayings it is established that, if we do not forgive from the heart what is committed against us, that too is demanded back again, over which we rejoiced that it had already been forgiven us through penance ». Likewise Augustine: « God says: *Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you;* but I have first forgiven, forgive at least afterward. For if you do not forgive, I will recall you, and whatever I had forgiven, I will charge again to you ». Likewise: « He who, forgetful of the divine benefit, wishes to avenge his own injuries, will not only not merit pardon for future sins, but even the past ones, which he believed had already been forgiven him, will be charged back to him unto vengeance ». Likewise Bede: « *I will return into my house* etc. That verse is to be feared, not to be expounded, lest the fault which we believed extinguished in us, through negligence oppress us as we lie idle ». Likewise: « For whomever, after baptism, either heretical depravity or worldly cupidity has seized, it will soon lay him prostrate in the depths of the vices ». Likewise Augustine: « That forgiven sins return, where fraternal charity is not, the Lord most plainly teaches in the Gospel, in that servant from whom the Lord demanded back the forgiven debt, because he was unwilling to forgive his fellow servant his debt ». — Upon these authorities rely those who say that forgiven sins return, if they are charged again. — Against whom it is objected: if anyone is punished again for a sin of which he repented and received indulgence, it does not seem just. If he is punished for what he sinned and did not amend, the justice is open; but if what had been remitted is required back, either it is injustice, or a hidden justice. It also seems that God judges twice for the same thing, and that a double tribulation arises; which Scripture denies. — But to this it can be said that neither does a double tribulation arise, nor does God judge twice for the same thing. For this would happen if, after condign satisfaction and sufficient punishment, he punished again; but he who did not persevere did not satisfy worthily and sufficiently. For he ought to have kept a continual memory of the sin, not for the doing of it, but for the avoiding of it; he ought *not to forget all the retributions of God,* which are as many as are the remissions of sins: as many gifts of God, therefore, ought he to have pondered as his own evils, and for them to give thanks unto the end. But because, ungrateful, *he returned to the vomit like a dog,* he mortified the good things previously done and recalled the forgiven sin, so that to him — to whom, when humbled beforehand, God had forgiven the sin — to the same, afterward lifted up and ungrateful, he may charge it.

But because it seems absurd that forgiven sins should be charged again, it is pleasing to some that no one is punished again by God for sins once forgiven; but they are said *to return* forgiven and to be charged because, on account of ingratitude, he is so constituted guilty and a sinner as he had been before. For thus what had been forgiven is said *to be required back,* because the man ungrateful for the remission received becomes so guilty as he had been before. — For both parts of the question approved doctors are favorable; and therefore, prejudging neither part, I leave the judgment to the studious reader, adding that it will be safe for me and near to salvation to eat crumbs under the table of the masters.

### Chap. II. *What the Sacrament is and the reality.*

After what has been said, it remains to investigate what in the action of penance is the Sacrament and the reality. For a Sacrament is a *sign* of a sacred thing; what, therefore, is here the *sign?* And what is the sacred *reality* of this sign? — Some say that the Sacrament here is what is done *exteriorly* only, namely exterior penance, which is the *sign* of interior penance, namely of contrition of heart and of humiliation. — But if not every evangelical Sacrament effects what it figures — for exterior penance does not effect the interior, rather the interior is the cause of the exterior — . — But to this those men reply that this is to be understood of those Sacraments which were instituted in the new testament, as is the Sacrament of baptism, of confirmation, and of the body of Christ. But the Sacrament of penance, like that of marriage also, existed before the time of grace, even from the beginning of the human race. For both were instituted in the first parents. — Likewise, if *exterior* penance is the Sacrament, and the *interior* is the reality of the Sacrament, the reality more often precedes the Sacrament than the Sacrament the reality. — But neither is this unfitting. For in the other Sacraments also, which effect what they figure, this often happens.

Some, however, say that exterior penance and interior are the Sacrament, and not two Sacraments, but one, just as the species of bread and wine are not two Sacraments, but one. And just as in the Sacrament of the body, so also in this Sacrament they say that one thing is the *Sacrament only,* namely exterior penance; another the *Sacrament and the reality,* namely interior penance; another the *reality and not the Sacrament,* namely the remission of sins. For interior penance both is the *reality* of the Sacrament — that is, of exterior penance — and is the *Sacrament* of the remission of sin, which it both signifies and effects. Exterior penance too is both the sign of the interior and of the remission of sins.

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