Dist. 48, Dubia
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-dubia
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### Doubts concerning the text of the Master.

### Doubt I.

In this part there are doubts concerning the text, and first it is asked about this which he says: *That he will sit not on the earth, but in the space of the air over against the Mount of Olives.* For an objection is then raised against this, concerning those who are to be judged, because the whole land of promise could not hold all the men who are to be judged. — *If you say* that they will be in the air, *on the contrary:* the bodies *of the damned* will be heavy: therefore they will not be in the air. — *If you say* that the bodies *of the elect* will be in the air, then, since the damned are innumerably more numerous, how will they be able to be on the earth?

**I respond:** It must be said that it is to be believed that at the judgement the Lord will descend to that place from which he ascended, as is gathered from the text, Acts the first.

As to what is asked, whether he will descend to the earth: it is to be believed that he will be in a more eminent place, whence the rest will be able to see him. — *If you ask* about the multitude, it can be said that many will be on the earth, and in a small land innumerable thousands of men can be, since they will be pressed together; nor is it to be understood that they will all be enclosed within that little valley, because this is childish, as Jerome says, but that they will be there and in the surrounding places; and if it be necessary, the elect will be in the air through the agility of their bodies, and the damned too will be able to be, by the divine power holding them up.

### Doubt II.

Likewise it is asked about this which he says: *The sun and moon are said to be darkened, not by the privation of their own light.* For he seems to speak badly, because Rabanus on Matthew says: « Nothing forbids us to understand that the sun and moon, with the rest of the stars, are truly deprived of their own light, as is agreed to have happened to the sun at the time of the Lord's passion ». — Likewise, it seems so *by reason:* because there is turbulence in the world on account of man's sin, and all bodies ought to show themselves to have been made for the divine honour, and nothing is renewed unless it in some way grows old; whence man is not glorified unless he rise again. If therefore at the end man's sin will increase, and the pride of antichrist will ascend above the heavens unto the reproach of God — although he cannot be reproached — and those bodies ought to be renewed: therefore the whole world ought to be darkened, both on account of man's sin, and on account of the contumely done to God, and on account of the renewal of the world: therefore he speaks badly in the text.

**I respond:** It must be said that here there is no contrariety; for it can be that some darkening will befall the stars first; but after the renewal, from

the presence of the body of Christ and of the other bodies, there will be a darkening only in *appearance,* or else in *comparison;* and thus both can be true according to different times, and both are sufficiently probable.

### Doubt III.

Likewise it is asked about this which he says, that *he is called great on account of the great things which will happen there.* It is asked what those *great things* are which will happen then, and the signs which will precede.

**I respond:** It must be said that it is customarily reported thus, that on the first day all the seas will be raised fifteen cubits above the high mountains, not flooding the globe of the earth, but standing as the waters now do. — Secondly, all the waters will be laid low into the lowest depth, so that they can scarcely be looked upon by human eyes. — Thirdly, all the seas will be reduced to their ancient state, such as they were created from the beginning. — Fourthly, all the sea-beasts and all things that move in the waters will be gathered together and lifted up above the deep, bellowing at one another after the manner of strife, and men will not know what they think, but God alone. — Fifthly, all the birds of heaven will be gathered together in the fields, each kind in its own order; in the same way the birds will be lamenting one to another, not eating nor drinking, but fearing the coming of the Judge. — Sixthly, rivers of fire will rise from the setting of the sun against the face of the firmament, rushing on unto its rising. — Seventhly, the wandering stars and the fixed ones will all scatter from themselves fiery tresses, as in comets a sign appears to the world with its inhabitants. — Eighthly, there will be a great earthquake, so that no man can stand and no animal, but all will be laid flat upon the ground. — Ninthly, all stones, small as well as great, will be split into four parts, and each part will strike against the other, and man will not know the sound of it, but God alone. — On the tenth day all the trees of the forests and the herbs of the field will drip a bloody dew. — Eleventhly, all mountains and hills and all buildings constructed by human art will be reduced to dust. — Twelfthly, all the animals of the earth will come to the plains out of the woods and mountains, roaring and bellowing, not eating nor drinking. — On the thirteenth day all the sepulchres from the rising of the sun unto its setting will lie open, the corpses rising, until the hour of the final sepulchre, that is, the day of judgement. — On the fourteenth day the whole human race, whatever shall be found of it, will come down swiftly from its dwellings, not understanding nor speaking, but running to and fro. — On the fifteenth day men will die, that they may rise again with those who died long before. — Whether these things are so, God knows.

### Doubt IV.

Likewise it is asked about this which he says, that *the light of the sun will be sevenfold, that is, as the light of seven days.* For he seems to speak badly, because the light of the sun then did not exceed the light which it now has by as much as the sun exceeds the moon; because, if the moon had shone as the sun now does, certainly there would have been no night: therefore, if a proportion must always be preserved among the bodies of the world, then he expounds it badly when he says: *It will be as it was in the first condition.*

**I respond:** It must be said that *as* states a *likeness,* not a *quantity,* inasmuch as the quantity of light will be greater afterwards than before, since all things ought to be bettered, man having been bettered; and man will be better in heaven after the resurrection than he was in paradise before sin. Hence by that which he says

*sevenfold,* it is understood that it will be increased unto a perfect addition.

### Doubt V.

Likewise it is asked about this which he says, that *there will be no alternation of day and night.* For he seems to speak badly: because, if these luminaries were made for the sake of *day and night,* as is said in the first of Genesis: therefore, night ceasing, that luminary ought to cease which was made *that it might rule the night.*

**I respond:** It must be said that when it is said that the moon was made *that it might rule the night,* the reason assigned is not that of *the production of its substance,* but of *the scantiness of its light,* that it should be only so much as would be compatible with night; but according to its substance it was made for the perfection of the universe. And since there will then be no night, but perfect day, there will be given to the moon a luminosity befitting the day, such as is the luminosity of the sun; and the luminosity of the sun will increase unto the perfect day.

### Doubt VI.

Likewise it is asked about this which he says: *It signifies that to those who will then be in eternal beatitude it affords no use of light.* For he seems to speak badly, because all things were made for man's sake: therefore if they will render no usefulness to man, they will be in vain: therefore, if nothing is then in vain, they ought not to remain.

**I respond:** It must be said that this will be unto the glory of the elect. For just as it is a glory to a king to have very many chambers in his palace and a beautiful kitchen, although he does not enter it; so to the elect it will be glory and honour that not only the hall of paradise and the empyrean heaven is beautiful, but also that the starry heaven and their ancient dwelling-place is.

### Doubt VII.

Likewise it is asked about this which Isidore says: *Neither sun nor moon will come to its setting, lest the wicked, placed in torments beneath the earth, should enjoy their light.* For he seems to speak badly: because the wicked are in the middle of the earth, or about the middle; otherwise they are not in the lowest place; indeed, since any surface of the earth whatever is higher in respect of the middle: therefore, just as they do not see the sun when it is in our hemisphere, so they do not see it when it revolves through that other one.

**I respond:** It must be said that it is not to be understood that hell is beneath the earth as though it were on *another surface* of the earth opposite to us, to which we are lower, as it also is to us; but it is to be understood that hell is *beneath the earth*; nevertheless it is possible that hell has some wide mouth, and if the sun were to revolve, it would be possible that it might sometimes afford them the benefit of light; and it is to that extent that Isidore speaks.

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