Cap. 5, Vers. 9-11
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/5/q/bon-eccl-c5-v9-11
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#### Art. 2. *On the remedy against the vanity of avarice, since riches are to be despised for a threefold reason.*

*A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money.* Above he set down the remedy against the vanity of *malice;* here he adds, secondly, the remedy against the vanity of *avarice.* Now the remedy against avarice is contempt of earthly goods; therefore here he urges contempt of riches. And this he does by a threefold reason: for first he shows that riches are not to be sought, because they *do not enrich* their possessors; secondly, because they *are not handed down* frequently to posterity, where he says: *There is also another grievous evil;* thirdly, because frequently they *pass to strangers,* where he says: *There is also another evil, which I have seen under the sun* etc.

#### First, riches are to be despised because they do not enrich their possessors, and this for a threefold reason.

First, then, he detests avarice, because riches, which are sought, do not help nor *enrich* their possessors, since *they do not suffice;* secondly, because *they do not profit;* thirdly, because *they afflict.*

(Vers. 9.). Riches, therefore, are to be detested and spurned, because to the covetous man *they do not suffice,* and this is what the covetous man seeks first, namely sufficiency. Therefore he says: *A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money;* Ecclesiasticus, the fourteenth chapter: « The eye of the covetous is insatiable ». Hence Jerome: « The covetous man lacks as much what he has as what he has not »; and Seneca: « If you wish to make yourself rich, you must not add to your money, but subtract from your desire ».

(Vers. 9. 10.). *And he that loveth riches* etc. Here, secondly, he dissuades from the love of riches, because *they do not profit.* Therefore he says: *And he that loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them,* and so they do not profit; Ecclesiasticus, the tenth chapter: « There is not a more wicked thing than to love money. For such a one setteth even his own soul to sale »; and so riches profit the covetous man nothing, because he gives his soul for money; hence Matthew, the sixteenth chapter: « What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul »? as if to say: nothing. And from this he infers the vanity in loving them: *So this also is vanity,* a vanity as much of fault as of punishment; of the first, the Psalm: « O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart » etc.; of the second, the Psalm: « Their days were consumed in vanity » etc. The Psalm: « Behold the man that made not God his helper, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and prevailed in his vanity ». — And he shows that riches profit their possessor nothing, because they are consumed, and the master has nothing more than the servant; therefore he says: *Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them;* thus all things are consumed. Hence Seneca: « Wolves follow the carcass, flies the honey; this crowd follows the prey, not the man »; Job, the thirty-ninth chapter: « Her young ones shall suck up blood, and wheresoever the carcass shall be, she is immediately there »; for, according to what is said in Proverbs, the nineteenth chapter, « many honour the person of him that is mighty, and are friends of him that giveth gifts ». *And what doth it profit*

*the owner, but that he seeth the riches with his eyes?* as if to say: nothing more for himself than for others, because any one of the others eats as much as he alone; and so he has no fruit above the others, nay rather loss, because he has more sin; hence Ecclesiasticus, the eleventh chapter: « If thou be rich, thou shalt not be free from sin. If thou pursue after, thou shalt not overtake » etc.

(Vers. 11.). *Sleep is sweet.* Here, thirdly, he shows that riches are to be spurned because *they afflict* and do not allow a man to rest; hence they take away the sleep of rest. Therefore he says: *Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat little or much.* And so the one who works and labours rests at some time; Ecclesiasticus, the thirty-first chapter: « Wholesome sleep in a temperate man: he shall sleep till morning, and his soul shall be delighted with him ». But on the contrary, of the rich man: he does not rest; hence he adds: *But the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep;* either because he has many riches, he has many cares, which take away sleep; Job, the fifteenth chapter: « The sound of dread is always in his ears, and when there is peace, he suspecteth treason »; hence above, in the second chapter: « All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind ». Or also because he eats and drinks much and does not labour, therefore he does not rest; hence Ecclesiasticus, the thirty-first chapter: « Watching, and choler, and gripes are with an intemperate man », and so for surfeit he does not rest.

### Questions.

But it is asked concerning what he says, that *riches do not profit their possessor.*

1. For below, in the seventh chapter: *Wisdom with riches is more profitable, and bringeth more advantage to them that see the sun.*

2. Likewise, Proverbs, the thirteenth chapter: *The ransom of a man's life are his riches:* therefore they avail to ransom the soul.

**On the contrary:** 1. Everything which it is better simply to let go than to keep is simply useless, because, if the absence of something is useful, its presence is harmful; therefore if to let go of riches is good, to keep them is useless.

2. Likewise, all usefulness is reckoned according to ordering to the last end: therefore what presents an impediment to arriving at the end is not useful, but useless; but riches are of this kind, because it is impossible for one who loves riches to enter into heaven, and it is difficult to have them and not love them: therefore the possession of riches impedes: therefore they do not profit, but hurt.

I respond to this that, as Bernard says, « these temporal things are of themselves neither good nor evil; their use is good, their abuse evil, anxiety over them worse, gain from them more shameful ». If, then, it is asked whether riches are useful or useless, I say that to one who uses them well they are useful, but to one who hoards them they are useless, to one who uses them ill harmful; hence it is said below in the same chapter: *Riches kept to the hurt of the owner;* but to one who uses them well they avail, namely when he distributes them in works of piety. — For thus they avail for the *redemption of fault;* Daniel, the fourth chapter: *Redeem thou thy sins with alms.* They avail for the *increase of grace;* the first to Timothy, the fourth chapter: *Exercise thyself unto piety* etc. They avail for the *attainment of glory;* Luke, the sixteenth chapter: *Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.*

1. As to the objection that they are useless because it is good to let them go, it must be said that *to let go* is to give to God, and this is to use riches well; hence they are useful for letting go, for giving to the poor, for buying the kingdom.

2. As to the objection that it is difficult to have them and not love them, I respond that it does not follow from this that they impede, because « every virtue is about the difficult », and yet virtue does not impede, but helps. Yet a more useful and safer use is to let go of the whole at once than to give little by little, for the sake of avoiding the dangers which befall.

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