Dist. 8, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/8/q/bon-sent-IV-d8-p1-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On the prefiguring of the Sacrament of the eucharist.*
### Question I. *Whether the Sacrament of the eucharist ought to have been prefigured.*

That this Sacrament *was prefigured* is clear from that saying of the Apostle, First to the Corinthians, the tenth chapter: *They all ate the same spiritual food;* and afterward: *All these things happened to them in figure.* And that it *ought to have been so* appears:

1. Because, if the old law was for us a figure of things to come, and the things which were more worthy ought the more to be prefigured, then since this Sacrament is the most worthy, it most of all ought to have been prefigured.

2. Likewise, it is shown by another *reason:* because it was fitting that the passage from darkness to light should be made by means of shadow and figure, for, as nature does not bear sudden changes, so neither does the soul; but in this Sacrament the light itself is present: therefore it ought to have been prefigured.

3. Likewise, this Sacrament is the most difficult to believe; but the weak person must be advanced toward difficult things gradually: therefore, etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. "Of a change there is no change": therefore neither is there a sign of a sign; but this Sacrament, by the very fact that it is a Sacrament, is a sign and a figure: therefore it ought not to have been presignified nor prefigured.

2. Likewise, confirmation and extreme unction are Sacraments of the new law and do not have figures in the old — for, if you should speak of the anointing of kings, that is nothing, because that is special, this universal — therefore neither ought this one to have had it.

3. Likewise, baptism had a figure, which was not only a figure but also a remedy, as for instance circumcision; but nothing preceded the Sacrament of the altar which would have its remedy: therefore this Sacrament is without a figure.

> ### Conclusion.
> *That the Sacrament of the eucharist be prefigured was fitting both by reason of its dignity and by reason of the difficulty in believing.*

**I respond:** It must be said that this Sacrament was prefigured and ought to have been prefigured both by reason of its *dignity* and by reason of its *difficulty:* by reason of its dignity, because it was to be proclaimed and awaited as the most excellent gift of God; and therefore the figures

of this Sacrament had to go before, and in them the expectation of the faithful might be revived, and the dignity of this Sacrament might be shown more renowned; whence the sending-ahead of the figures was nothing other than the spreading abroad of its fame. — By reason of *difficulty*, because among the rest of the Sacraments this is the most difficult to believe, indeed among the rest of the things to be believed; and therefore men had to be accustomed to it by a certain leading-by-the-hand of figures.

1. To that which is objected first to the contrary, that there is no sign of a sign; it must be said that that sign has truth joined to it; whence it is not only a sign, but by reason of what is joined to it, it is truth; and since there can be a sign and figure of truth, therefore there can be a sign and figure of the Sacraments of the new law, and most of all of this one.

2. To that which is objected concerning confirmation and extreme unction, the response is manifold. — For some say that all the Sacraments were prefigured in the old law, since *the wheel was within the wheel*, in the vision of Ezekiel. And as to what is objected concerning the two Sacraments, they resolve it *by interception:* because the three anointings of the new law are prefigured by the three anointings of David, of which First Kings the sixteenth, and Second Kings the second and fifth, and thus they respond *by interception*.

Others say otherwise, that those Sacraments were not prefigured on account of their perfection; whence they distinguish three kinds of Sacraments. For some are *supreme*, as those which give perfect grace either for *fighting* or for *going forth;* and such are confirmation and extreme unction, which by their very account bespeak perfection; and since *the Law brought no one to perfection*, therefore these two are proper to the new law. — Others are as it were *middle*, which give great grace, and therefore pertain to the new law; yet, because they do not bespeak perfection, they could be presignified in the old testament, and these, as they say, are two, namely baptism and the eucharist. — Some are *lowest*, as matrimony, order, and penance; and these are not proper, but rather common, nor only presignified, but rather begun and perfected in the new. — Yet to prefer other Sacraments to the two which were prefigured seems quite absurd, since these two Sacraments, baptism and the eucharist, are the most renowned.

And therefore it must be said otherwise, that although all were in some way prefigured, these two nevertheless were prefigured by more and more express figures, both on account of the *difficulty in believing*, which is in baptism, because it is the first Sacrament, and in the eucharist, because it is the highest; both on account of *dignity*, which is in baptism with respect to *efficacy*, in the eucharist with respect to *containing;* both on account of *the unity of the Church*, which is in baptism with respect to its beginning, in the eucharist with respect to its consummation, or in baptism with respect to *the seal of christianity*, in the eucharist with respect to *the worship of the Deity*. Whence, although the others have figures in some way, yet not so chiefly nor so expressly.

3. To that which is objected, that baptism had a sanctifying figure; it must be said that the reason for this is twofold. The first is, because baptism is a remedy against a pernicious and deadly disease; and it is a remedy for little children, who cannot help themselves; and since those who can less help themselves need greater assistance: therefore a *Sacrament* preceded baptism, which would have efficacy of itself. It is not so with the eucharist, since it is a Sacrament of the now-living and of adults, who can help themselves by the assistance of faith and the movement of free will; whence in them faith supplies what was lacking on the part of the Sacrament. And thus the things sought are clear.