Cap. 3, Vers. 16-22
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/15/d/3/q/bon-eccl-c3-v16-22
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#### Part II. The vanity of fault is proved; then a remedy against it is set down.

*I saw under the sun* etc. Above he treated of the *vanity of nature*, here of the *vanity of fault;* and because this is dangerous, therefore it needs a remedy. First, then, he sets down the vanity; secondly, the remedy against it, below, chapter 4: *Keep thy foot.*

#### *Member I of the second part. The vanity of fault is shown under a threefold difference, and this both as to rulers and as to subjects.*

Now the vanity is under a threefold difference: first he treats of the vanity of *malice;* secondly of *avarice*, at: *Considering I found;* thirdly of *imprudence*, at: *Better is a child.* Now the vanity is in rulers and in subjects. First, then, he treats of the vanity of malice in *those who rule* and judge; secondly in *subjects*, at: *I turned myself.*

#### Art. 1. *On the vanity of malice, first in rulers, described in a fourfold order.*

First, then, the vanity of *malice* which is in *rulers* is described in this order: first he intimates the consideration of this vanity; secondly, that from this one comes to the premeditation of the future judgement; thirdly, to the consideration of the present state; fourthly, how he fell into an erroneous opinion.

(Vers. 16.). First, then, he intimates that he *considered the malice of judges*, saying: *I saw under the sun in the place of judgement wickedness*, as to the examination of the cause; *and in the place of justice iniquity*, as to the passing of sentence; Isaias, chapter 1: « How is the faithful city, full of judgement, become a harlot; justice once dwelt in it, but now murderers; thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves; they all love gifts,

they follow after rewards, they judge not for the fatherless, and the cause of the widow cometh not in to them »; for it is said in the Psalm: « In whose hands are iniquities; their right hand is filled with gifts ».

(Vers. 17.). *And I said in my heart: God shall judge both the just and the wicked.* Here, secondly, he shows how from this he comes to the *premeditation of the future judgement.* On account of which he subjoins: *And I said in my heart: He shall judge the just*, unto reward; *the wicked*, unto punishment; Job, chapter 34: « Far from God be wickedness, and iniquity from the Almighty. For the work of a man he will render to him, and according to the ways of every one he will reward them. For in very deed God will not condemn without cause, neither will the Almighty pervert judgement ». And therefore God will judge them according to their works, which will then be manifest; whence he subjoins: *And the time of every thing shall be then*, that is, the time of the judgement of every man, who seems to be *every thing*, II Corinthians, chapter 5: « For we must all be manifested before the judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, whether it be good or evil ». — Or: *the time of every thing*, that is, of the manifestation of every thing; I Corinthians, chapter 4: « Judge not before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ». — Or: *the time of every thing*, that is, of the retribution of every thing; Romans, chapter 8: « Every creature groaneth » etc. — This time Ecclesiastes awaited as to come, from the sight of present iniquity; Isaias, chapter 59: « Judgement is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far off, because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not come in; and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his eyes, because it is not manifest, and the just one put on a breastplate and a helmet of salvation ».

*I said in my heart concerning the sons of men* etc. Here, thirdly, is touched how from this he comes to the *consideration of the present state*, namely why the Lord willed men to be wretched in the present; to this end, namely that he might *prove* them, therefore he made the life of man like to the beasts.

(Vers. 18. 19. 20. 21.). On account of which he says: *I said in my heart*, that is, I knew; *concerning the sons of men*, as to nature; *that God would prove them, and show them to be like beasts*, that is, by likening them to beasts he would prove who they were, whether truly good or evil; for the evil, seeing their likeness to the beasts in life, wish to be likened to them in morals and live beastlike; but the good live spiritually; therefore it is said in the Psalm: « Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them ». And he shows the likeness of men to beasts in *death* and *life* and in *matter;* there is no manifest unlikeness in the spiritual substance. — As to *death* he says: *Therefore the death of man and of beasts is one, and the condition of them both is equal*, namely for the proving of men, because, just as a beast does not always live, but at some time dies, so also man; below, chapter 9: « There is none that always liveth, or that hath hope of this »; and therefore he makes manifest that the likeness is in death, whence: *As man dieth, so those also die.* — Nor is the likeness only in the end of life, but also in the *act of living;* therefore he subjoins: *All things breathe alike*, namely those that breathe; *and man hath nothing more than beast*, namely as to the act of life; Wisdom, chapter 7: « There is one going out of men unto life, and a like departure ». Thus the likeness as to life is plain. — And he subjoins the likeness as to *matter;* and therefore he says: *All things are subject to vanity*, namely, because they were made from nothing, therefore they are vain; Romans, chapter 8: « The creature was made subject to vanity ». He does not say that matter is nothing, but he means to say this: that they do not have uncreated matter nor essence, but have created matter, which he understands by the name of *earth.* — Therefore he says: *And all things go to one place*, namely to the matter from which they were made. *Of earth they were made, and into earth they return together*, together, that is, conformably. And so the likeness in matter is noted; Ecclesiasticus, chapter 40: « All things that were made of the earth shall be turned into earth; likewise all waters shall be turned into the sea ». — But only in these is the *likeness open*, but the *difference in the soul* does not appear. *Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend upward?* to heaven, namely to recompense, or downward through corruption; as, conversely, *whether the spirit of the beasts descend downward?* through corruption, or even upward, as also that of man, to the retribution of the judgement. Few have known this; many have erred and held that the spirits of man and of beast are

uniform. This the faithful have known, in whose person it is said below, chapter 12: « The body returns into its earth, from whence it was; and the spirit returns to God, who gave it ». But this the carnal do not know, in whose person it is said below, chapter 9: « The dead know nothing more, neither have they a reward any more ».

*And I have found* etc. In the fourth place, on account of this likening, he subjoins how he falls into an *erroneous commendation of pleasure*, as though nothing were better than it.

(Vers. 22.). On account of which he says: *I have found that nothing is better than for a man to be glad in his work*, that is, to take delight in the present, as the carnal do, of whom Isaias, chapter 56: « Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness, and it shall be as today, so also tomorrow, and much more ». And this commendation is erroneous, because it sets down no other recompense and no other life; whence he subjoins: *And that this is his portion*, as though he awaited nothing else; whence in Isaias, chapter 22, it is said in the person of such: « Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die »; and in Wisdom, chapter 2: « Let us everywhere leave tokens of gladness, for this is our portion, and this our lot ». And this erroneous opinion has its origin from the uncertainty of the judgement; on account of which he says: *For who shall bring him to know the things that shall be after him?* that is, who shall show him that there are some future goods which he ought to await? as though he should say: no one. And certainly no one will persuade him, unless he be raised to contemplate spiritual things; « while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal », II Corinthians, chapter 4. But because the carnal man looks at nothing but visible things, therefore he does not await eternal things; therefore I Corinthians, chapter 2: « The sensual man perceiveth not those things that are of God ». Therefore, if he wishes to know the future goods, it is necessary to lay aside carnality.

### Questions

I. It is asked about what he says: *Man hath nothing more than beast, and* that *the condition of them both is equal.* That this is false is shown:

1. In Genesis, chapter 2, it is said: *For Adam there was not found a helper like himself;* therefore no beast is like to man: therefore he has something more than a beast.

2. Likewise, it is certain that man deliberates about future things and discerns past things and expresses his conceptions; but a beast does not do this: therefore etc.

3. Moreover, man tames beasts, but no beast tames man: therefore man has something more than a beast.

But that he does not have more is shown: because he is born, lives and dies and goes into the earth, just as a beast does.

I respond: some say that he says this in the person of the carnal man, who believes that man has nothing more than a beast. — Otherwise it can be said that he speaks in his own person; and he says what is true according to his own understanding. For he himself intends to show the uncertainty of the recompense of the soul through the likeness to the beast. Now he sets down and understands that likeness as to *visible things*, which can be discerned by sense; and by this he does not conclude a likeness concerning *spiritual things*, but a doubt; whence he says: *Who knoweth* etc. — It must be said, therefore, that according to the truth man has reason beyond the beasts, but shares with them in corruptibility, life and breathing; and because reason is not something sensible but intelligible, and he himself speaks of sensible things: therefore there is in this no objection at all.

II. It is doubted about what he says: *Who knoweth whether the spirit of the children of Adam ascend upward?* But that it does is shown:

1. First through the disposition of the body, whose disposition and organization is regarded according to its fittingness for what is upward. If, then, « he gave man a lofty countenance and bade him behold the heaven », and he looks upward: therefore the spirit is borne upward.

2. Likewise, all naturally desire beatitude; but it is certain that no one can be blessed in miseries, least of all one to whom death comes unwillingly: therefore if he cannot have beatitude in this life, he is born to have it after this life as a separated spirit: therefore etc.

3. Moreover, our understanding is unmixed, whence it understands all things; therefore it does not depend on the body as to its act, therefore much less as to its *being:* therefore when the body descends, it is possible for the spirit to ascend.

4. Likewise, by the reasoning of Ecclesiastes himself: because, if some have good things and some evil; and we see that in the present evil things happen to the good and good things to the evil: if, then, it is necessary to posit one ruler, it is necessary to posit another time and recompense, in which *God shall judge the wicked and the just*. Since, then,

our faith says this, Ecclesiastes seems to have been a heretic, who doubted of it.

But that it goes *downward* is shown:

1. Through Scripture: because in Wisdom, chapter 9, it is said: *The body which is corrupted weigheth down the soul;* therefore if the soul is bodily corrupted, it is wholly corrupted.

2. Likewise, what suffers with one who suffers dies with one who dies; but the soul suffers with the body: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, no substance is idle; therefore what takes away from something every operation takes away from it its *being* and duration; but the soul loses every operation when the body is injured; which is plain, because the understanding, of which it seems less so, as in madmen: therefore, when the body is corrupted, it loses its substance.

I respond: it must be said that the good souls ascend upward to recompense, and the souls of beasts descend downward into corruption, our faith says and supposes; and with this reason and philosophy agree; yet that reason and philosophy is both hidden and has many reasons for doubting; therefore almost no one, or few, could be truly made certain of the immortality of the soul and of its beatitude, unless faith had helped. Whence Plato too, who held the soul immortal, erred again as to beatitude, since he held that souls go round through the bodies of brutes. — Ecclesiastes, then, neither denies nor doubts this; but he says that this is difficult to demonstrate; and this indeed is true for the unbeliever.

2. 3. To the objection about operation and compassion, it must be said that for something to be *united to another* is so in two ways: either as a *mover only*, and then it can be separated with no change made in it; or as *mover and perfection;* and this in two ways: either it does not have an operation of its own, as the soul of a brute, or it has one of its own, as the soul of man. Since, then, the soul of man is united to the body as *perfection and mover*, it suffers with the body when the body suffers; therefore it is also impeded when the body is impeded. But since it is joined separably, therefore it is not necessary that it be corrupted; when all harmony is dissolved, the soul departs.

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