Dist. 48, 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/48/q/bon-sent-IV-d48-a2-q3
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### Article II. *On the renewal of the higher bodies.*
### Question III. *Whether the elements will be renewed.*

Thirdly it is asked, whether the elements will be renewed. And that they will, it seems.

1. First to the Corinthians, chapter seven: *The figure of this world passeth away*; either therefore into *nothing*, or into something *better*, or into something *worse*. Not into *nothing*, because God permits nothing to perish utterly; not into something *worse*, because, if man is made better, so also the world: therefore into something *better*. But that which grows old and is changed into something *better* is renewed; therefore this world is; but the elements are parts of the world: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, Augustine, *On Ecclesiastical Dogmas*: « We do not say that the elements are to be abolished, but to be changed into something better ».

3. Likewise, it seems *by reason*: because either *all* will be renewed, or *none*, or *some*. If *all*, I have what I proposed; if *none*: then they will be in continual transmutation and in the impurity which they have contracted; but this is unfitting, since they exist for the sake of a man incorruptible and wholly clean. If *some* thus, and *some* not: then the harmony of the elements is dissolved: therefore also the beauty and comeliness of the universe.

4. Likewise, fire is the most complete of the elements, whence it is even called the *species of the elements*. I ask therefore: either fire *will be renewed*, or *not*. If it is *not* renewed, but consumed: then the nobility and comeliness of the elements perishes. If it *is* renewed: then, since the other elements are more inclined toward oldness, it seems that all ought to be renewed.

**On the contrary:**
1. Matthew, chapter twenty-four: *Heaven and earth shall pass away*: if therefore the earth is the most stable among the elements, and it itself is not renewed but passes away, neither will the others be renewed. *If you say* that it does not pass away as to *substance*, but as to *figure*, as is said in the first to the Corinthians, chapter seven: *The figure of this world passeth away*; then therefore, since *figure* regards quantity and the disposition of parts, not quality; it seems therefore that the universe will be *of another figure*. Since therefore it is now circular, then it will be non-circular; but this is unfitting: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, on the last chapter of the second [epistle] of Peter the Gloss says: « The four elements of which the world consists, that greatest fire will consume; nor will it consume all of them so far that they should not be; but two it will consume wholly, while two it will restore to a better appearance ».

3. Likewise, it seems *by reason*: because, if the elements will be renewed, then either as to *substance*, or as to *quality*. Not as to *substance*, because the substance will be the same, « not receiving more and less »; not as to *qualities*, because

accidents are unalterable: therefore in no way. *If you say* that as to *qualities* there will be a renewal, because those qualities will pass away; *on the contrary*: the substantial form in matter is the immediate cause of those elementary qualities: therefore if, « the immediate cause being posited, the effect is necessarily posited »; but the substantial form will remain in matter: therefore the qualities also.

4. Likewise, heat in the highest degree is the disposition toward the form of fire; but when the disposition is removed and taken away, the form is consequently taken away: therefore etc.

### Conclusion

> *Both the substance and the qualities of the elements will remain; but the qualities, remaining as to their substance, will be renewed as to their character of corruptibility.*

**I respond:** It must be said that where there is *renewal*, the substance remains the same, but under other properties; therefore it must be said that all the elements will remain according to *substance*, but as to *qualities* they will be renewed. — But concerning those *qualities* there is a twofold opinion.

For some say that there are three kinds of qualities in the elements: certain ones according to which they are *ordered within the world*, such as heaviness and lightness; and these will remain, because the order and the situation of the elements will remain in the world. There are certain qualities according to which there is a *reception of the influence of light* without any corruption, such as clarity and transparency; and these likewise will remain, just as the influence of light does. And there are certain ones according to which they are *ordered to acting and to being acted upon*, and thus consequently to transmutation and corruption; and according to these they will not remain. But among these some are *active*, such as heat and cold; some *passive*, such as moisture and dryness. — And those which are *active* are those which stir up and effect transmutation; and these will be taken away from the elements, and will not return into nothing, but will fall into the region of the damned, as Basil holds upon that text: *The voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire*. For he says that « the heat should go over to the portion of the damned, but the light into the region of those to be saved »; and likewise in water the *cold* [goes] to afflicting; but the dry and the moist will not be taken away, but will be brought to their term. And therefore they say that Bede says that « two will be wholly consumed » on account of the conjunction which arose from the twofold quality, not as to the *integrity of the substance*, but as to the *totality of the twofold quality* by reason of the active one. — But since Augustine says in the twentieth [book] *On the City of God* that « the qualities of all the elements will utterly perish in the burning », and dryness and moisture are corruptible qualities; there seems to be no greater reason concerning heat and cold than concerning the other two.

Therefore others say otherwise, that all things, so far as in them lies, desire a perpetual and divine *being*; but there are *certain* forms which desire to continue their *being* through the multiplication of themselves in another, as for instance the *active* forms, both accidental and substantial; while *certain* others desire to continue their *being* through a continual adherence to matter, as are the *passive* forms and qualities. Since therefore after the judgment every ground of multiplying themselves will be taken away from the elements, and there will be given a power of continuing themselves in themselves, because they will be incorruptible; hence it is that the elements which have *active* qualities are said to be *wholly consumed*, because there will be entirely taken away from them the ground of acting and of multiplying themselves; while the other two are said to be *restored to a better appearance*, because the appetite of continuing their *being* in themselves, which is now in them according to an *imperfect being*, will be completed and perfected. The qualities of all the elements will therefore remain as to *substance*, but as to their *character of corruptibility* they will be renewed; and likewise the substantial forms. — And this opinion is the more probable.

**To the opposing arguments:**
*Ad 1.* And the objections are clear except the first, which says that the figure does not pass away. For I say that *figure* is spoken of in three ways: in one way as the *disposition arising from the enclosure of lines*; and this passes away as regards the earth, because it is not wholly spherical. In a second way figure is called the *outer face of a thing* or its beauty; and this will pass away, as is said in the Gloss, « not the substance, but the beauty ». In a third way figure is called *fashioning* or *frailty*, from *fingo, fingis*, as the potter's vessels; and thus too it will pass away. — And thus it is clear that the *substance* will not pass away, but the *disposition of parts* as regards the earth, and the *beauty* and the *frailty*.

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