Dist. 47
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/47/q/bon-sent-IV-d47-littera
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### DISTINCTION XLVII.

> A note on the numbering. Quaracchi numbers its notes anew on each printed page, and on these pages it offers two distinct series: one for St. Bonaventure's commentary, the other, under the heading NOTAE AD LIBR. SENTENTIARUM, for the text of the Master itself. The notes of this chunk are notes 1–3 of the *Notae ad libr. Sententiarum* series of page 968, and notes 1–6 of page 969. Notes 1–7 of the commentary series of page 968 belong to the doubts of Distinction XLVI and are rendered there.

### Cap. I. *On the sentence of the judgement.*

It is also wont to be asked: in what manner will the sentence of the judgement be given? — But it is not clear how to explain this. For Scripture does not openly define whether those words are uttered by *voice*: *Come, ye blessed*, and: *Go, ye cursed*; or whether it will come about by the *power* of the judge, with the consciences of individuals bearing witness, as it is now said will be the case, so that the effect of the judge's power is signified by his very pronouncement. Those words also: *I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat*, and the like, very many think are to be expressed rather to the consciences than in words, because the Apostle hands down that the mystery will be consummated *in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye*. But those who assert that the sentence of the judgement and the rebukes of the wicked and the acclamations of the good are to be expressed in words refer that saying only to the *state of the resurrection*, not to the *judgement*.

### Cap. II. *That the Saints will judge, and in what manner.*

Now Christ alone will not judge, but the Saints too *will judge the nations* with him. For he himself says to the Apostles: *You also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.* Nor is it to be supposed that Christ promised this only to the twelve Apostles. For where will Paul sit, who laboured more than all, if none but twelve shall sit there? « By the twelve *seats*, therefore, » is understood the perfection of the tribunal, that is, « the whole body of those who judge », namely all the perfect, who, *having left all*,

followed *Christ*; « by the twelve tribes, the whole body of those who are judged ». And the Saints will judge them not merely by comparison, but also by authority and power; whence *two-edged swords are in their hands*, that is, the sentence upon the good and the wicked is in their power. — But if it be asked what their power or authority in judging will be, I think that it cannot be known before it is seen, unless someone has learned it by divine revelation.

### Cap. III. *On the orders of those who will be in the judgement.*

Now there will be four orders in the judgement. For there are two parts, namely of the elect and of the reprobate, as Gregory says in the *Morals*, « but two orders each are contained within these several parts. For some are judged and perish, others are not judged and perish; some are judged and reign, others are not judged and reign. Those are judged and perish to whom it shall be said at the Lord's cry: *I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat* etc. Those are not judged and perish to whom the Lord says: *He that believeth not is already judged.* For their damnation is known and certain to the whole Church, and therefore they are said then not to be judged, because they will come before the sight of the stern judge with the open damnation of their unbelief. But those who have the profession of faith without works will be judged and will perish, that is, they will be refuted so that they perish. But those who have not even held the Sacraments of the faith will not hear the judge's rebuke made against them, because, forejudged by the darkness of their own unbelief, they do not deserve to be refuted by the reproach of him whom they had despised. Those at least will hear the words of the judge, who at least in word held his faith. But those in their damnation will not perceive even the words of the eternal judge, who were unwilling to keep reverence for him even in word »; and therefore the former are called to-be-judged, the latter not-to-be-judged. « But on the side of the elect, some are judged and reign, namely those who wipe away the stains of their life with tears and cover them by the overlaying of alms; to whom, standing at his right hand, the judge at his coming will say: *I was hungry, and you gave me to eat.* But others are not judged and reign, who by the power of perfection even transcend the precepts of the law; because they are not content to fulfil only what the law commands, but strive to fulfil also what is counselled unto perfection. Of whom the Prophet says: *The Lord will come to judgement with the elders of his people;* and Solomon, speaking of the spouse of the Church, says: *Her husband is honourable in the gates, when he shall sit among the senators of the land;* and Job: *He saveth not the wicked, and he giveth judgement to the poor.* These, then, are rightly not held under the general judgement, but come as *judges*, because they both overcame the general precepts by their living, and, having left all, followed Christ. Rightly *he giveth judgement to the poor*, since the more they were despised by this world in their great humility, so much the greater will they then rise up to a height of power ». « Of such it is said: *He that shall overcome, I will give to him to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat with my Father in his throne.* The Lord, overcoming, sat with the Father in the throne, because after the contest of the passion and the palm of the resurrection it became clear to all that he was equal to the Father. But for us to sit in the throne of the Son is to judge by the power of that same Son; for since we receive the sovereignty of judging from his power, we as it were reside in his throne ». — From these things it appears that the more perfect Saints too will judge with Christ by power; and why some are called to-be-judged, and others not-to-be-judged.

### Cap. IV. *On the order of the judgement and the ministry of the Angels.*

But since it is read in the Gospel that *the Lord will send his Angels, who shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals and shall cast the wicked into the furnace of fire;* and again: *The Angels shall go out and shall separate the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire;* and again: *He shall send his Angels with a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds;* and the Prophet says: *Gather ye together his Saints to him:* it is not to be doubted that these things are fulfilled by the ministry of the Angels. For when the Lord comes to judgement, a fire will go before him, by which the face of this world will be burned up, and heaven and earth will perish, not according to substance but according to species, which will be changed — the heaven, indeed, that is airy, not the ethereal one. For the fire will rise as high in the judgement as the waters rose in the flood. But that fire will be a consuming for the wicked who shall be found alive, but not for the good. For as Augustine says, this burning of the world will be to the Saints what the furnace was to the three boys; in whom, if there be anything to be purged, it will be purged by that fire; but upon the others it will inflict no trouble. And when the world has been purged by fire, and the Lord is coming to judgement, that great voice will be sent forth, by which all the dead will rise; and then by the ministry of the Angels the threshing-floor will be winnowed, because the good will be gathered to him from the four parts of the world by angelic ministry; by which also they will be caught up *to meet Christ in the air*, the reprobate remaining on the earth which they loved. And then those acclamations of the good: *I was hungry, and you gave me to eat;* and those rebukes of the wicked: *I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat* etc.; will be uttered either by vocal sound, or in some other way. Finally the sentence will be pronounced over both: *Come, ye blessed* etc.; and: *Go, ye cursed* etc.; and by the ministry of the Angels, with the power of God co-operating, the wicked will be cast into the furnace of fire, that is, into hell.

### Cap. V. *Whether after the judgement the demons will preside over men for punishing them.*

And it is wont to be asked whether in hell the demons preside over the wicked for punishing them after the judgement, whom Scripture calls *butchers and torturers of souls.* — The Apo-

stle says that Christ will then *bring to nought all principality and power and virtue.* For while the world lasts, Angels preside over Angels, demons over demons, men over men; but when all have been gathered, then every prelacy will cease. — Hence some think that after the judgement the demons do not have the power of tormenting men, as they do now; but just as they assert that the demons are tormented by the power of God without the ministry of any creature, so likewise that reprobate men are there subjected to eternal torments not through the operation of the demons, but by the divine power alone. — The authority set forth above, however, does not compel one to hold this, since, even if it asserts that then neither do demons preside over demons, nor men over men, it nevertheless does not define whether the demons preside over men for torturing them. Whence it seems to some that they stand forth to men as torturers in punishment, just as they stood forth as instigators in fault.

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