Dist. 4, Part 1, Art. 2, 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/4/q/bon-sent-IV-d4-p1-a2-q2
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### Question II. *Whether the feigner receives the Sacrament but not its reality.*

Secondly it is asked, whether the feigner receives the Sacrament but not its reality. And that he does, it seems:

1. Wisdom 1: *The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the feigner.* *Foundations.*

2. Likewise, by reason it seems: for grace does not stand, nor can it stand, with a purpose of sinning, but rather, once had, it is expelled; but such a one comes with a purpose of sinning: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, baptism is the Sacrament of faith: therefore it is necessary that the one approaching it should believe, if he is in a state in which he can. Hence Mark, last chapter: *He who shall have believed and been baptized* etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. The Sacraments of the new law are a cause; but «the cause being posited, the effect is posited»: therefore if someone receives the Sacrament, even if he is feigning, he receives also its reality. If you say that this cause can be impeded, so that it does not effect, on account of the bad disposition in the recipient; nevertheless it cannot be impeded from signifying: therefore if it signifies that grace is there, and it is not, the sign is therefore false. *To the opposite.*

2. Likewise, I ask: what impedes? And it is agreed that nothing is more repugnant to grace than fault; but fault does not impede, but rather is expelled: therefore by nothing else can it be impeded.

3. Likewise, if feigning impedes, I ask what makes the man a feigner. If a defect of faith: therefore by the same reasoning a defect of charity; and then everyone not having charity is a feigner: therefore no one receives grace.

> **Conclusion.** One approaching baptism in feigning does indeed receive the Sacrament, but not the reality of the Sacrament.

**I respond:** It must be said that on this point some have wished to say that the feigner approaching baptism receives the Sacrament and its reality for that instant in which he is baptized, so that the saying of the Apostle may be verified: *As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ*; but immediately afterward the sins return by the desert

of the feigning; and this they say Augustine held. — But the Master disproves this in the text and shows that Augustine held the contrary.

And therefore it must be said otherwise, that one approaching in feigning receives the Sacrament and not its reality. — Now a feigner is said to be one who outwardly puts forward one thing and inwardly holds another. Such is the one who outwardly subjects himself bodily, but inwardly is opposed in will. Hence, since the interior power is threefold, he can be opposed in three ways: either by disbelieving with respect to the rational [power], or by desiring evil with respect to the concupiscible, or by despising the Sacrament with respect to the irascible; and in such a one the Sacrament does not have its effect, because God gives justice or grace to no one unwilling, otherwise it would not be justice.

**To the solution of the objections:**

*To 1.* And by this is made clear what is objected concerning the cause. — To the other it must be said that the Sacrament signifies that it brings about remission in the recipient, and so far as in itself lies, it always does so; but that it is not done is the fault of the recipient: and thus the truth is always in the Sacrament, but the falsity in the feigner.

*To 2.* To the other it must be said that grace is expelled and received in the soul according to the conformity of the will; likewise also fault. Hence fault does not stand in the way of grace except so long as the will is consenting to it, but when it grieves, then it is in concord. When therefore it is said that nothing is more repugnant to grace than fault, it must be understood that to be repugnant can be in two ways: either with respect to resistance, or with respect to opposition according to form. The example is of darkness in the air and of opacity with respect to light: so it must be said in the matter at hand, that fault and grace are repugnant according to opposition of form, but feigning according to opposition of resistance, whence it is more strongly repugnant.

*To 3.* To that which is objected concerning the defect of faith, it must be said that it is necessary that the reason be in concord with the Sacrament, and the will; but it is not required that there be a perfect concord, which is through grace making-acceptable, but that which is through grace freely given. But the reason is not made concordant except by the grace of faith, at least unformed; the will, however, is made concordant by attrition; likewise the irascible by a certain humility or subjection: therefore it is not the same with charity. He would object well, however, if it were understood of formed faith.

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