Dist. 50, Part 2, Art. 2, Q. 2
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/50/q/bon-sent-IV-d50-p2-a2-q2
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### Question II. *Whether, and for what reason, there is a spiritual worm in the damned.*

Secondly it is asked whether there is a spiritual worm in the damned; and it is asked: in what respect is a worm said to be in them?

1. Is it because there is in them a gnawing pain? But in the penitent there is the greatest pain over their sins: therefore also the greatest worm.

2. Likewise, some are so perverse that they *rejoice when they have done evil, and exult*, to such a degree that they feel no remorse or pain at all: therefore, if the damned are more perverse than wayfarers, it seems that they have no remorse whatever.

3. Likewise, some are so blinded and obstinate in evil that they feel no remorse at all, like heretics who die in defence of their heresy; but the damned are more obstinate and blinded: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, if they have pain, it is either over *punishment* or over *fault*. If over *punishment*, then the worm does not differ from the punishment of fire, since fire does not punish except in that they suffer pain. If over *fault*, it is either by the *deliberative* will or by the *natural* will, that is, by *synderesis*. But not by the *deliberative*, since according to it they do not repent; rather, the will to sin persists in them. Not according to *synderesis*, since synderesis in some wayfarers is *cast down headlong*: therefore it seems to be utterly *extinguished* in them. And this is seen by reason: because, as the tinder of sin stands to evil, so synderesis stands to good; but the tinder is altogether extinguished in the Blessed: therefore synderesis is extinguished in the damned.

Likewise I ask: since a worm is born of putrefaction and gnaws, by what metaphor is it called the worm of conscience, since conscience does not putrefy?

**Sed contra:** 1. That there is in the damned a spiritual worm, that is, pain, is seen: because upon that text of Ecclesiasticus: *The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly* etc., the Gloss says: « *The worm is the too-late repentance for crimes* »; and Augustine in *On Faith, to Peter* says that they will have this torment.

2. Likewise, it is seen *by reason*: because synderesis naturally murmurs against evil; but « vice does not take away the last vestiges of nature »: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, whatever things make for the punishment of the damned ought to be in them; but the murmuring of synderesis increases their punishment: therefore at least that act ought not to be taken away.

4. Likewise, every creature, insofar as it is nature, serves the Creator: therefore if the rational will, insofar as it is nature, is upright, then it serves him; but *the creature serving the Creator is armed for torment against the unjust*: therefore etc.

### Conclusion

> *In the damned a spiritual worm is in full vigour, four grounds concurring.*

**Respondeo:** It must be said that the very transferring of "worm" to spiritual pain makes clear in whom and in what manner there is a worm, if one attends to the *ground of the transfer*. For in a material worm two things are considered, its *origin* and its *biting*: it *arises*, I say, from putrefaction, and it *bites* that in which it arises. So in spiritual pain not just any pain is a *worm*, but that which is born from the *putrefaction of sin*, and then the sin is called *putrid*; namely, when the soul finally rests in it. — *Again*, there must be a *biting* in the pain. But this comes from the concurrence of two movers *meeting* and *resisting* one another. These two movers in man are the *natural* and the *deliberative* will, each of which moves. These *concur* through conscience dictating that some deed is undue; and then they *meet*, when the *natural* will detests what is undue and it pleases the *deliberative*; and then they *resist*, when each is in vigour in its own act, so that the one effectively detests and the other unchangeably clings.

According to this, therefore, it is clear *in whom* the worm is and *when*. For when *concurrence*, which is through the consciousness of sin, is lacking, there is no worm, as in heretics and in those who believe that in sinning they have done well. — When *meeting* is lacking, there is no worm, as for instance in those who grieve over fault according to a will not only natural but also deliberative, as the penitent do. — When *resistance* is lacking, there is no worm, as for instance when the will is borne into sin with such delight that it absorbs the motion of the natural will, so that it does not feel. — And thus it is clear why the worm fails: either through the defect of *putrefaction* in the *just*, or of *concurrence* in the *blind*, or of *meeting* in the *truly penitent*, or of *resistance*, as in those who *sin out of great lust*. — And from these things it is clear that in the damned the worm will be in vigour: because there will be the *putrefaction* of sin from this, that sin finally remained in their soul; there will be *concurrence* on account of the most open vision of their sins; there will be *meeting* on account of the obstinacy of the deliberative will and the murmuring of synderesis; there will be *resistance*, because the delight of sin will have been taken away through the bitterness of punishment, and from this the action of synderesis itself is strengthened, and from this the worm gnaws and punishes marvellously.

*To 4.* But to that which is objected, that synderesis is extinguished in the damned, it must be said that synderesis has a threefold act: one, which is *to instigate toward the good*, and this indeed has been taken away from the damned, since there is no longer any place for doing well; the second, which is *to draw back from doing evil*, and this is extinguished in the demons on account of the wicked malice of their will; the third, which is *the murmuring* against the evil deed, and this remains in them by the just judgement of God; yet according to that act it does not, in the damned, murmur against evil because it is *fault*, or because it is *dishonourable*, but because from it one is *punished*; hence this act too is in some manner extinguished; and because the demons do not yet feel the bitterness of the punishments intensely, as the damned do, therefore they do not have remorse in this way.

Yet it could quite reasonably be said that synderesis murmurs against the evil deed because it is undue; for synderesis itself does not refer fault to punishment, and *besides* it looks to the honourable, not to the advantageous; and *again*, the deliberative will itself detests the evil of fault on account of the punishment; for the ungodly man would not have wished to sin or to have done that whence he must needs suffer so many evils, or at least he would prefer never to have had the delight than to be in such misery and pain. Hence it must be resolved that, as regards that act, since it is penal, synderesis is also God's instrument for scourging the wicked, and it will not be extinguished; and remorse is at present not so intense in the demons on account of the *defect of resistance*, since at present they take delight in their faults.

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