Dist. 43, Art. 2, Q. 3
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/43/q/bon-sent-IV-d43-a2-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the book of life will necessarily be opened.*

Thirdly, inquiry is made concerning the opening of this book. And it seems that there is no necessity of opening this book:

1. For the merits will be seen sufficiently in the consciences of all: therefore, if it is superfluous to do by many means what can be done by fewer, the point is clear, etc.

2. Likewise, from the opposite side it is shown: for if that book sufficiently represents [everything], it seems that it would be superfluous to open the other books.

Likewise, it is asked, to whose eyes it will be opened. And it seems [to be to the eyes] of all:

1. For all will be judged according to the things that are written there: therefore, if both the sentence and the ground of the sentence must be made manifest to all, the point is clear, etc.

2. Likewise, the Gloss on the twentieth [chapter] of the Apocalypse: *Another book was opened*, says that "the wicked will then openly know that they are not predestined"; and this is in the opening of the book: therefore, etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. This book is nothing other than the nature of God: therefore, since the substance of God is to be seen in the judgment only by the good, it is clear that not all will see in the opening of this book.

2. Likewise, in the book of life nothing is written except good things: therefore, if the wicked ought to see only the evils by which they are condemned, they will not see in the opening of that book, and so forth.

> **Conclusion.** The book of life will be opened at the resurrection.

**I respond:** It must be said that, as has been said, the book of life is the book of *those returning*, [while] the art is [the book] of *those going forth*.

Now *exit* and *return* differ, because the *exit* depends on God alone, but the *return* [depends] on God's grace and on our will, since the return is through good merits, which are from God's grace and from our will. Since, therefore, the judgment will be according to our merits; and merits are from us and from God: therefore, in order to weigh the quantity and dignity of merits, it is necessary that the books of *consciences* and the book of *life* be opened, in which appears the quantity of grace according to the measure of the divine liberality, according to whose measure the glory also is. — And from this the first question is clear.

To that which is asked, *to whom* it is opened; it must be said that there are two ways of speaking about the opening: either as to the *beholding* (intuition) of the book itself, or as to the *subsequent cognition*. As to the beholding, it is opened only for the good, because they alone will see; as to the subsequent cognition, [it is opened] for all; because the good, reading themselves there, will know themselves to be predestined; but the wicked, from this very fact, that they cannot read openly in the book, will know that they are not predestined.

And thus the answer to the objections is clear. And there is an example: just as a poor man who does not have the king's token — that is, the seal which the poor carry in order to receive alms — knows well that he departs empty, recognizing [it] not by a positing but by a privation: so the damned, when they do not read their names there, will know that they are not written unto glory, and thereby will know on God's part that God will damn them; and on the part of their own conscience they will know that they are worthy of punishment: and so from the comparison of both books they will know this, yet not by reading in the way that the good read in the book of life.

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