Dist. 50, Part 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-littera
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## Part II.

### Chap. III. *Whether the souls of the damned have knowledge of the things that are done here.*

Moreover it is wont to be asked whether the souls of the reprobate, who are now tormented in hell, have knowledge of the things that are done concerning their own in this life; and whether they in any way grieve over the misfortunes of their dear ones. — Augustine recalls this question, explaining it in part, but in part leaving it unresolved. For he says: « Someone will ask whether any grief touches the dead concerning those things which befall their own after death, or how the spirits of the departed know the things that are done about us. To him I answer that it is a great question and not to be discussed at present. Nevertheless it can briefly be said that the dead have care for their dear ones, as is read of the rich man who, while he was suffering torments among those below, *lifted up his eyes to Abraham* and among other things said: *For I have five brothers; send someone from the dead, that he may bear witness to them, lest they too come into this place of torments.* For the dead have care for the living, whom they know to be living, since they see them neither in the places of punishment, where the rich man was without his brothers, nor in the rest of the blessed, where he recognized Lazarus and Abraham, though far off. Yet it does not follow on that account that they know what is done here about their dear ones, whether glad or sad ».

### Chap. IV. *On Lazarus and the rich man.*

But if anyone asks how what is read of Lazarus and the rich man is to be understood, let him hear the answer of Augustine, who says: « If anyone thinks that souls stripped of the body are contained in bodily places, since they are without a body, there will be no lack of those who would favour him and contend that the thirsting rich man was in a bodily place, and that the soul itself, being corporeal, had prepared a tongue and had desired a drop from Lazarus's finger. But it is better to doubt about hidden things than to quarrel about uncertain ones. That the rich man is in torment and the poor man in refreshment, I do not doubt. But how the rich man's *tongue*, Lazarus's *finger*, the *flame* of hell, Abraham's *bosom* and the like are to be understood, is scarcely found out by the gentle, and never by the contentious ».

### Chap. V. *Whether the good and the wicked see one another.*

It is also wont to be asked whether those who are in hell and those who are in glory see one another in turn. — As the Saints hand down, both the good see the wicked and the wicked the good up to the judgement; but after the judgement the good will see the wicked, but not the wicked the good. Whence Gregory: « The unbelieving, set in the lowest place, before the day of judgement look upon the faithful above them in rest, whose joys afterwards they cannot contemplate ».

### Chap. VI. *On the chasm between the good and the wicked.*

But since the Saints see the wicked in torments, are they not moved by some compassion towards them? Do they not desire that they be freed from their torments? — Recall that saying of the Gospel which Abraham answered the rich man: *Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor pass over from there to here.* What is that *chasm* between the good and the wicked, if not justice on this side and iniquity on that, which can in no way be joined together? For the Saints are so bound over to God's justice that by no compassion can they pass over to the reprobate, and no intercession is made for them among the Saints. — How then do some wish thence to *pass over* to those, but cannot? Because, if God's justice allowed it, the freeing of them would not be burdensome to them. — Or they are said in this way to will and not to be able, not because they will and cannot, but because, even if they willed, they could not help them. On this Gregory speaks thus: « Just as the reprobate wish to pass over from their punishments to the glory of the Saints and cannot, so the just out of mercy wish to go in mind to those set in torments, that they may free them; but they cannot, because the souls of the just, even though in the goodness of their own nature they have mercy, being already then joined to the justice of their Author, are constrained by so great a rectitude that they are moved by no compassion towards the reprobate ».

### Chap. VII. *Whether the sight of the punishment of the impious lessens or increases the glory of the Good.*

Lastly it is asked whether the sight of the punishment of the reprobate discolours the glory of the Blessed, or profits their beatitude. — On this Gregory speaks thus: « In the mind of the just the punishment of the reprobate, when beheld, does not darken their beatitude, because, where there will no longer be compassion for misery, it will not be able to lessen the gladness of the Blessed. And although their own joys suffice for the just, yet unto a greater glory they see the punishments of the wicked, which they have escaped through grace; because those who see the brightness of God — nothing is done in creation which they cannot see ». « Nor is it to be wondered at if the Saints, now immortal, see the reprobate

by the understanding of the mind, since the Prophets, still mortal, merited to see all these things. The elect will therefore go forth, not in place, but by understanding or by manifest vision, to see the torments of the impious; and seeing them they will not be affected with grief, but will be filled with gladness, giving thanks for their own deliverance, at the sight of the unspeakable calamity of the impious ». Whence Isaiah, describing the torments of the impious and expressing from the sight of them the gladness of the good, says: *They shall go forth*, « the elect, that is », *and shall see the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against me. Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be unto the fullness of the sight of all flesh*, that is, of the elect. *For the just man shall rejoice when he shall see the vengeance.*

### Epilogue.

Let it suffice to have recalled these things concerning the *feet of Him who sits upon the lofty throne, whom the Seraphim veiled with two wings* — for the writer, even if not for the hearer — who, having begun from the face of the One seated, has come, through the middle parts, all the way to the feet, with the Way for his guide.

**HERE ENDS THE FOURTH AND LAST BOOK OF THE SENTENCES.**

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