Dist. 49, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 5
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/49/q/bon-sent-IV-d49-p1-a1-q5
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### Question V. *In which powers the act or operation of glory resides.*

Fifthly it is asked, concerning the act or operation of glory, in what it resides; and it is shown that its act belongs to all the powers.

1. Because glory is a full and ultimate perfection. Because it is full, it therefore perfects the whole soul: therefore every spiritual power of it. Because it is ultimate, beyond which there is no other; since an ultimate perfection is conjoined to act, because act perfects a habit: therefore all the powers are placed in act.

2. Likewise, glory perfects the whole of what grace was disposing; but grace disposes and perfects the acts of the soul, not only those which are toward God, but also those which are toward a created good, through the cardinal virtues: therefore glorious acts will be not only toward God, but also toward the creature.

3. Likewise, this is shown: because the cardinal virtues will remain in the fatherland in a perfect state, therefore in act; but their act is in those things which are toward the end, and in them the act of glory consists, because, just as their acts are now gratuitous, so then they will be glorious: therefore etc.

Likewise, it is asked whether there is there an act perfecting the memory. And that there is, seems so:

4. *By reason*: because, if glory reforms the image, and the image is regarded with respect to *memory*, *intelligence*, and *will*: therefore it must be that memory is in act.

5. Likewise, Bernard says this very thing: « God will be to the intellect a fullness of light, to the will a multitude of peace, to the memory a continuation of eternity ».

Likewise, it is shown that there is there an act of the irascible:

6. Because that which is perfectible by virtue is perfectible by glory; but the irascible is perfected by hope: therefore etc.

7. Likewise, upon that text of First Corinthians thirteen: *But now there remain* etc.; Ambrose says that « beatitude will succeed to hope »: and Augustine likewise says this in *On Christian Doctrine*; therefore etc.

**On the contrary:** That there is not an act of glory according to all the powers, seems so.

1. Upon that text of the Psalm: *I will show him my salvation*; the Gloss says that « vision is the whole reward »: therefore the whole account of beatitude consists in the act of the intelligence. — If you say that this is said by a certain concomitance; by the same reasoning it would have to be said that faith is the whole merit.

2. Likewise, it is asked: why does he not rather speak of union than of vision?

3. Likewise, Augustine *On the Morals of the Church*: « He is blessed who loves the best, and when he has the best, which he loves »:

therefore it seems that it lies only in the act of the motive power.

4. Likewise, Augustine, in the last book *On the City of God*: « We shall see, we shall love, we shall praise » — these are the acts of glory; and if Augustine enumerates them sufficiently, then here there is no act of memory nor of the irascible power; it is clear etc.

5. Likewise, the dowries are distinguished according to the acts of glory; but two are assigned according to the act of the rational and of the concupiscible, namely vision and love: therefore if any are distinguished according to the acts of memory and of the irascible, then there will be four dowries; which is against everyone's opinion; for only three are posited.

6. Similarly it is objected, that if acts of glory are posited according to all the virtues, then there will be seven.

It is asked therefore why the glorious acts are called *dowries*; and why they are only *three*; and according to what they are taken and distinguished; and since *praise* is the most glorious act, according to what is said upon that text of the Psalm: *Praise ye the Lord, for a psalm is good*; on what account is it not a dowry?

### Conclusio

> *According to the three acts of glory — namely the vision of the rational power, the love of the concupiscible, the comprehension or holding of the irascible — only three dowries of the soul are assigned.*

**I respond:** For the understanding of the objections it must be noted that glorious acts are not only toward *God* as toward an object, but also toward *created goods*; for man will rejoice and will love his neighbour. But because the *substantial* reward of beatitude consists in *God*, therefore the principal acts of glory are those according to which the soul is turned toward God. And according to these acts the *dowries* are assigned, because according to these the soul is united to God as a bride to a bridegroom; and in these she is enriched and filled, not merely invigorated. And therefore they are called *dowries*, as it were the riches of a betrothed soul.

But some say that these acts are *three*, because three things are required for the soul to rejoice perfectly in God, namely perfect *vision*, perfect *love*, and perfect *fruition* of him. And they say that fruition is not according to any other power than the *rational* and the *concupiscible*. For the *irascible* does not have there an act toward *God*, yet it has some act, namely to *glory* through the virtues which remain in *it*; for love and fortitude remain. — But this position seems incompetent in two ways: first indeed, because then the third dowry does not differ from the first and the second except *in account*; and it is foolish to say this. The other way seems unfitting, namely that the *irascible* should not have in glory an act tending toward God, since on the way it has *hope*, by whose act it tends toward God.

And therefore it must be said otherwise, that all the powers which have through grace an act toward God will have through glory perfect acts, the imperfect ones being done away. Hence the *rational*, whose office it is now to believe through faith, will then see openly; the *concupiscible*, whose office it is to love, will then love perfectly; the *irascible*, whose office it is to be raised up and to lean by hope, will then hold continuously and certainly. Hence according to these three acts three dowries are distinguished, namely vision, love, comprehension or holding or *fruition* by *appropriation*; for fruition embraces these three.

To that, therefore, which is objected, that the acts of glory are many, because according to all the virtues; the response is clear: because, even if they are according to all the *virtues*, they are nevertheless not taken according to all the *dowries*, but according to those which tend immediately toward God.

*To 1, 2, 3.* To that which is objected, that vision is the whole reward, and the like; it must be said that these three acts are altogether *conjoined and connected*; hence he who sees perfectly loves perfectly and possesses; and therefore in the words of the Saints, by that connection, what belongs to all is attributed to *one*; but it is rather attributed to *vision* on account of this, that in vision the *state of the fatherland* is distinguished from the *state of the way*; not so in *love*, because in both there is love, but in the fatherland there is vision, not on the way, but rather belief concerning what is not seen.

*To 4, 5.* To that which is objected: why is there not one act according to *memory*? it must be said that *memory* is not reformed *first*, but *as a consequence*, through the reformation of the irascible; for it is least of all subject to free choice, and therefore its act is reformed through the reformation of the irascible in the reformation of *grace*; and so too in the perfection of *glory*. And the reason for this is, that

in a certain way they agree in act; for it belongs to both *to hold continuously*.

To that which is objected last concerning praise, it must be said that either it is understood of *vocal* praise, and thus it is not a principal act nor ought it to be a dowry; or of *mental* praise, and thus it comprehends the acts of the three interior powers; and therefore it is not to be distinguished from the others, but rather is called *the whole reward*.

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