Dist. 3, Part 1, Art. 1, 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/3/q/bon-sent-IV-d3-p1-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether vocal expression of the word belongs to the integrity of baptism.*

Secondly it is asked whether vocal expression of the word belongs to the integrity of baptism. And that it does is plain:

1. From the Lord's own institution, in the last [chapter] of Matthew: *Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:* therefore it is necessary that the Trinity be named there. *If you say* that it must be named in the heart, and need not be [named] by the voice; *on the contrary:* in baptism, which is the Sacrament of faith, there must be a profession of faith: therefore since it is a perfect Sacrament, it must have a perfect profession; but this is in the word, because it is said in Romans the tenth: *With the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth* etc.: therefore it is necessary that the word be expressed.

2. Likewise, Augustine says, and it is found in the text: «By the word baptism is consecrated; take away the word, and what is water but water»? Therefore he understands either of the created word, or the uncreated. If of the uncreated; but that cannot be taken away, because it is always present: therefore since he understands of a word that can come and go, and this is the vocal word; it seems that it belongs to the integrity of baptism.

**On the contrary:**
1. Hugh: «It was fitting that through the Word, through whom all things were created, all things should be re-created», and so the word accords with the Sacrament; but that was the uncreated Word alone: therefore a vocal or created word is not required for the essence of the Sacrament.

2. Likewise, even if [it be] created; it does not seem [to be required] that [it be] vocal: because Augustine says, and it is found in the text, that «the power of the water is from the word, not because it is spoken, but because it is believed»: therefore a mental word suffices.

3. Likewise, if a vocal word is necessary: since "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" are three vocal names, one ought therefore to be baptized not in the name, but in the names.

4. Likewise, that [there should] not [be] a vocal word seems [the case]: because vocal words are not the same among all peoples, therefore neither [would] the Sacrament [be the same]; and this is false, because there is one faith and one baptism, [as it says] in Ephesians the fourth.

> **Conclusion.** In baptism it is necessary that a vocal word be expressed.

**I respond:** It must be said that it is necessary that a vocal word be expressed, because God has conferred power on the word; whence without the word it is of no efficacy. — But the reason why he willed it to be expressed is the perfect *profession of faith,* so that it might be in deed and in word. There is also a perfect signation; for since regeneration was wrought through the incarnate Word; and the incarnate Word is best signified through a word clothed with voice: therefore he willed and instituted that there should be a vocal word there.

**To the objections:**
1. To that, then, which is objected first, that all things are created through the uncreated Word; it must be said that through it, insofar as it is incarnate, all things are re-created *sufficiently,* but *efficiently* through faith and the profession of this; and because in the Sacrament there is *efficiency,* therefore there is there an expression in the vocal word.

2. To that which is objected: not because it is spoken, but because it is believed; it is to be understood with *precision,* not [as if] *only because it is spoken,* but also because it is believed.

3. To that which is objected, that it would have to be said in the names; it must be said that a name is spoken of in three ways: in one way [it is] a *voice* imposed to signify someone, as "Peter." In another way a name is called *knowledge,* as when it is said: *God, in thy name save me,* for if it were *only a voice,* there would now be no salvation for the mute. In a third way a name is called knowledge expressed by the voice, as in the Psalm: *God is known in Judah, in Israel his name is great;* for he is said to be *of a great name* whose name's fame has spread abroad; and so it is taken in the matter at hand. And since the knowledge of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one, because the faith is one; therefore it is said in the name, not in the names.

4. To that which is objected, that the voices are diverse; it must be said that although the tongues be diverse, yet they agree in the understanding and in the mode of understanding, that is, in the signification and the mode of signifying; and because a name is not required insofar as it is voice only, but insofar as the voice is signifying and generating such an understanding and in such a mode; and this is the same among all peoples: therefore the Sacrament is the same, just as *homo* and *anthropos*.

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