Dist. 45, 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/45/q/bon-sent-IV-d45-a2-q3
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### Question III. *Whether suffrages profit more the one who merited more, or the one for whom they are specially made.*

Thirdly it is asked how much suffrages profit; and since they do not profit all equally, it is asked whom they profit more — the one who merited more, or the one for whom they are specially made. And it seems that they profit the one who *merited more*.

1. "They profit for this reason, because he merited that they should profit": therefore, if he merited more, they profit more, since in *per se predications* such a consequence holds.

2. Likewise, the benefit of suffrages is according to God's distribution: therefore, if He *is not a respecter of persons*, it seems that He ought rather to distribute to the one who is more worthy.

3. Likewise, this is shown *through the impossible*: because he who merited that they should profit, merited to be freed sooner; but if they do not profit more, he is not freed sooner: therefore he who merited to be freed sooner is freed later. But this is against God's justice: therefore, etc.

4. Likewise, the offering of the price on the cross profited equally, as if it had been offered for each one by himself, and it profits each one as much as he merited: therefore the offering of the sacrifice on the altar for a like reason, since it is the memorial of that offering: therefore [it profits] more the one who merited more.

**On the contrary:** 1. When God hears us, He in a certain way conforms His will to us, because *God obeyed the voice of a man*: therefore if someone having charity prays specially for someone, it seems that God specially receives it on his behalf: therefore it seems that they profit more those for whom they are made *more specially and more frequently*.

2. Likewise, if in this life some rich man were to give an alms, it would profit himself more than another: therefore if at his command it be given after death — since God accounts it for such a man as if he himself were expending it — therefore it profits him more than another.

3. Likewise, God accepts a work according to the intention; but the intention of the one making it is that it profit more specially and more that man for whom he makes it: therefore, etc.

4. Likewise, it is shown through the impossible: because, if it does not profit more, then there is no need to pray specially for anyone: therefore the whole Church is moved foolishly, which prays specially.

> **Conclusion.** Suffrages, if they are made in common, other things being equal, profit more the one who merited more; but if in particular, they profit more the one for whom they are made.

**I respond:** It must be said that the opinion of some was — as of Praepositivus — that the suffrages of the Church, whether made specially or generally, profit more the one who merited more. And they set down an example: just as if a *candle* is lit before a rich man, it not only affords light to him, but also to others, and to those who see better it affords greater light. The example is also clear in a *reading*, which is worth as much if it be read to all in common as if to each in particular, and is worth more to the bystander who understands better, even if it be read for another who understands less, even though it be read specially for that other. If, then, it is so in light, how much more in the Sacrament. If it is so in a reading, how not in prayer? Without doubt it seems so. — And *if* the common custom of the Church *be objected*, they answer that the fact that the Church does more for someone specially, it does not do on this account, that it should profit him more, but because a man acts more willingly for the one whom he loves more specially, and is more animated to the doing of it. Hence, if this were known to simple folk, they would not so willingly perform suffrages. — But this I do not believe, because, as

Augustine says, *On the Care to be Had for the Dead*, burial in a holy place avails on account of the prayers of the Saints, who pray for him at whose tomb they are remembered. — *Further*, suffrages are for the discharging of punishment or of guilt; but it is more to make satisfaction for the debt of many than of one, and satisfaction is more easily made for the debt of one than of several: therefore two need more suffrages than one alone: therefore if they are divided between them, each has less: therefore it does not seem that they extend equally to all. — And therefore it must be said that that [example] is not alike: because *illumination* carries the whole appearance of the thing seen to the eye, and likewise a *reading* the whole likeness of the voice; but it is not so in *discharge* as it is in sight and consideration. For although two creditors can equally and at the same time look upon one gold piece, nevertheless it cannot be equally paid out to two. So must it be understood in the matter proposed, which is done through suffrages. Hence it makes a difference whether they are made for several or for one.

And therefore a distinction must be made here, because the suffrages of the Church are made either in *common* or in *particular*. If in *common*, they profit more the one who merited more that they should profit, other conditions being equal, because not only *worthiness* but also *need* is considered. — And thus the first arguments prove. — But if they are made in *particular*, they profit more the one for whom they are made; and thus the following arguments prove.

*To 1 and 2.* To that, however, which is objected first — that they profit more the one who merited more — it must be said that this is true so far as it is *of itself*, unless a compact should shape it otherwise; and this is the intention of the one making it. — And likewise it must be answered to the next, that God distributes according to the intention of him who offers the suffrage.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that he merited to be freed sooner: it must be said that this is true, other things being equal; and because the one who merited less had greater and more helpers, hence it is that he is freed sooner by reason of another's aid. And *again*, this man merited to be freed sooner, not as regards those things which are *proper*, but as regards those which are *common*, of which he receives more, other things being equal.

*To 4.* To that which is objected concerning the sacrifice of the cross and of the altar, it must be said that although it is the same, nevertheless it does not operate uniformly in both; for on the cross the price was poured out in *every kind of fullness*, but on the altar it has a *determinate* effect, since it is taken up daily. And on this account the first offering is not repeated, but the second is repeated; and therefore that argument is not valid, because it proceeds as if the effect were equal. — And *again*, that one was offered *for all*, whereas this one can be made specially. Nor does that saying of Jerome stand in the way, in *On Consecration*, distinction five: "When a psalm or a Mass is said for the souls of a hundred departed, it is received nothing less than if it were said for any one of them." For it must be said that Jerome, as is clear from the surrounding words, speaks as regards the merit of *the one making it*, not as regards the profit *of him for whom it is made*.

**[An alternative continuation, printed in smaller type at the foot of p. 946:]**

> …in a house it also illumines all the bystanders, some more, some less, according to the strength of the keenness of their sight; so an alms offered for one man who is in purgatory profits all, and perhaps profits more the one for whom it is not made than the one for whom it is made — indeed it may be that it does not profit the one for whom it is made, as if he is exceedingly wicked or exceedingly good; yet it profits those for whom it is not made, just as it does not profit a master who is blind, or set in the full brightness of day, in whose honour a candle is lit in a dark house, but profits others. And this Jerome seems to intend, who says: "When we sing psalms for the souls of the departed, or a Mass is chanted, it is received nothing less than if it were said for any one of them." [See below in the solution to 4.] But they will object: on this account only general prayers ought to be made. To this it is answered that it was necessary that special ones be made, for the stirring up of devotion; for sameness is the mother of tedium, just as, on the contrary, variety is the mother of desire. And I confess that this pleases me more.

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