Dist. 7, Art. 3, 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/7/q/bon-sent-IV-d7-a3-q2
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### Article III. *On the use.*
### Question II. *Whether the grace of confirmation is necessary for salvation.*

Secondly, inquiry is made about the necessity of this Sacrament, and it is asked whether the grace of confirmation is necessary for salvation; and that it is, seems to be the case.

1. Rabanus: « All the faithful ought to receive the Holy Spirit through the imposition of the bishops' hands, that they may be found full Christians »; but no one is saved unless he be a full Christian: therefore likewise no one is saved without the Sacrament of confirmation.

2. Likewise, Hugh: « What does it profit that through baptism you are raised up from the fall, unless you are also confirmed through confirmation so as to stand »? as if to say: nothing.

3. Likewise, Hugh: « It would be altogether dangerous, if one should happen to depart from this life without confirmation »; but it would not be altogether dangerous, unless it were necessary for salvation: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, to the Romans, chapter ten: *With the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation*, therefore both are necessary for salvation; but no one is saved unless he believes, or has the Sacrament of faith: therefore no one is saved unless he confesses, or has the Sacrament ordained for this.

**On the contrary:** 1. Baptism blots out guilt, therefore it gives grace; but one having grace, however little, has what is necessary for him for salvation: therefore confirmation, or anything else, is not further necessary for him. If you say that it suffices for salvation, if he dies, but not for fighting, if he lives; *on the contrary*: in baptism grace is given with all the virtues, as the Master says in the first distinction; but one who has the virtues has arms sufficient for the fight: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, no one falls except willingly: therefore from the fact that he has the grace establishing him, he can stand: therefore it is not necessary to fall: therefore the grace of confirmation is not necessary.

3. Likewise, great charity suffices for enduring death; but it is possible that he who is baptized may, before he receives this Sacrament, come through good works to great charity: therefore without this Sacrament there is salvation for those who fight.

### Conclusion

> The Sacrament of confirmation is necessary not absolutely, but from a condition; but he who, by neglecting it, despises it exposes himself to peril.

**I respond:** It must be said that there is an absolute necessity, and there is a conditioned necessity. Absolutely, the grace of confirmation is not necessary, but it is necessary from a condition, namely for one who fights and wills to conquer, just as eating is necessary for one who wills to live. Hence Pope Melchiades says, and it is found in *On Consecration*, distinction five: « In this world one must walk all one's life amid invisible enemies and dangers; and by baptism we are regenerated unto life, after baptism we are confirmed for the fight »; for all who live, live in a fight, because warfare is *the life of man upon the earth*.

From the institution of the Church, therefore, it is that no one is excepted from this Sacrament, but all ought to receive it, that they may be vigorous fighters; and therefore, if anyone, when he has the place and time and opportunity, despises it by neglecting it, he exposes himself to peril.

1. 2. 3. The reasons, therefore, proving that it is absolutely necessary, are not valid. And first, the authority of Rabanus is to be understood of the fullness of abundance, not of sufficiency, or of fullness not in being, but in strength. The authority of Hugh is to be understood of him who must live in the fight. The following authority is to be understood by reason of negligence and contempt of the institution of the Church.

4. To that which is objected concerning the confession of faith, it must be said that this is not similar: because to believe is necessary for everyone, from the time he is an adult; but one is not bound to confess except according to place and time.

1. To that which is objected on the opposite side, that it is not necessary absolutely; it is true, because for one who is dying and not despising it, baptismal grace suffices.

2. But to that which is objected, that it is not necessary for the fight; it must be said that, although free choice is not coerced, nevertheless it is so weakened by faint-heartedness that it would never stand, unless it were sustained by a strengthening grace, and that infirmity were healed: and therefore it is necessary for [maintaining] the state not only on account of the one impelling, but on account of the interior weakness.

3. To that which is objected, that great charity can be increased; it must be said that, just as it happens in baptism, that a man by preparing himself well has the grace which is given in baptism, before he is baptized; so it can be in the grace of confirmation; and yet the Sacrament of baptism is necessary, not superfluous, because it gives that grace more efficaciously and gives it to those who could not of themselves dispose themselves sufficiently without the Sacrament: in this manner, therefore, it is to be understood in confirmation. — Therefore the grace of confirmation is necessary, not as that without which there absolutely is no salvation, but as that without which, whether received through the Sacrament or received otherwise, one does not by fighting arrive at salvation.

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