Dist. 22, Art. 3, Q. 2
Book IV: On the Sacraments · Distinction 22
Quaestio II. Utrum poenitentia habeat rationem tabulae.
Secundo quaeritur circa hoc de poenitentia sub ratione tabulae. Et primo videtur, quod ista duo non compatiantur se circa poenitentiam, scilicet tabula et fundamentum:
Ad oppositum.
1. Quoniam fundamenti est subsistere, et tabulae est superefferri: ergo si poenitentia recte dicitur fundamentum, improprie a Magistro1 tabula appellatur.
2. Item, Hieronymus super illud2: Peccatum suum sicut Sodoma etc.: «Secunda tabula post naufragium est peccati absconsio»; sed poenitentia consistit in peccati detectione: ergo etc.
3. Item, fundamentum est primum: ergo si poenitentia est fundamentum et est tabula, ergo est prima tabula: ergo male dicit Hieronymus, quod sit secunda tabula. — Videntur enim ista incompossibilia, quod sit fundamentum, et quod sit secundum. Si dicas, quod est tabula, secundum quod est Sacramentum, et fundamentum, secundum quod est virtus; contra: si est tabula3 in quantum Sacramentum, ergo est secundum Sacramentum: ergo immediate de ipsa debet determinari post baptismum.
4. Item, tabula dicitur, quia liberat a naufragio; sed poenitentia liberat a naufragio secundum quod virtus: ergo est tabula secundum quod virtus.
Quaestio incidens. Quaeritur ergo, secundum quem tropum dicatur tabula.
Conclusio.
Poenitentia secundum diversas acceptiones recte ut virtus dicitur fundamentum, et ut Sacramentum, tabula.
Respondeo: Dicendum, quod poenitentia, sive dicatur fundamentum, sive tabula, sub tropo dictum est, tamen secundum aliam et aliam acceptionem, secundum quam fit duplex translatio. Poenitentia enim est virtus, et sic competit ei ratio fundamenti; poenitentia Sacramentum est, et sic secundum hoc competit ei ratio tabulae.
Ratio autem huius est, quia virtus, ut vult Augustinus, de Quantitate animae4, nihil aliud est quam «aequalitas mentis undique rationi consentientis»; unde est quaedam quadratura, per quam anima in spirituali aedificio collocatur. Et quoniam in hac collocatione poenitentiae virtus primo occurrit in aedificatione; ideo competit ei ratio primae partis aedificii, haec autem est fundamentum; et ideo poenitentiae virtuti rectissime aptatur nomen et proprietas fundamenti5.
Sed nomen et proprietas tabulae competit poenitentiae Sacramento. — Ad quod intelligendum oportet nosse, quid sit mare, quid naufragium, quid navis et quid tabula. Mare est praesens saeculum, secundum illud Psalmi6: Hoc mare magnum etc. — Navis, quae perducit ad portum salutis, est unitas ecclesiastica, de qua dicitur Sapientiae decimo quarto: Transeuntes mare per ratem liberati sunt; et Actuum vigesimo septimo: Nisi in navi manseritis etc. — Naufragium navis est per separationem et scissionem membrorum, secundum illud Iudae7: Hi sunt qui segregant semetipsos etc. — Tabula est adiutorium aliquod collatum, per quod possit ille qui est in periculo naufragii, sublevari a periculo peccati; et hoc est Sacramentum. — Et cum duplex sit peccati periculum, duplex et naufragium; duplex est Sacramentum liberans a duplici naufragio, scilicet a naufragio originalis, et hoc est baptismus; et quia originale est primum, ideo baptismus est prima tabula. Et secundum naufragium est per actuale, et quia ab hoc liberat poenitentia, ideo dicitur secunda tabula8.
1. Et sic patet, quod recte dicitur fundamentum, et recte dicitur tabula, secundum diversas acceptiones; et recte in quantum virtus dicitur fundamentum, recte in quantum Sacramentum liberans a naufragio dicitur secunda tabula.
3. Et sic patet illud argumentum: est secunda tabula: ergo secundum Sacramentum. Patet etiam secundo9 obiectum de incompossibilitate horum duorum.
2. Ad illud ergo quod obiicitur de absconsione, dicendum, quod est absconsio per hypocrisim et per poenitentiam veram, quae totum remittit10. Et Hieronymus loquitur de absconsione secunda, quae fit per revelationem, non de prima.
4. Ad illud quod obiicitur, quod poenitentia liberat secundum quod virtus, dicendum, quod sicut fides supplet locum baptismi, ubi quis non potest baptizari11; sic poenitentia-virtus locum Sacramenti; attamen, quia hoc non habet nisi in articulo necessitatis, ut possit a naufragio liberare, Sacramentum autem habet de se: ideo ratio tabulae debet Sacramento attribui, non virtuti. Praeterea, Sacramentum respicit liberationem a malo sive a periculo, non sic virtus; et quia tabula sonat in rationem refugii et liberationis a malo naufragii12 et periculo peccati: ideo magis competit Sacramento quam virtuti. — Et sic patet responsio ad obiecta omnia circa partem oppositam. Solum hoc diligenter attendendum est, quod quamdiu sumus in hoc mari, stringamus tabulam propter periculum evitandum a mari magno13.
Question II. Whether penance has the character of a plank.
Secondly, inquiry is made concerning this — about penance under the character of a plank. And first it seems that these two do not go together in the case of penance, namely plank and foundation:
For the opposite.
1. Since it belongs to a foundation to lie beneath, and to a plank to be borne up on top: therefore if penance is rightly called a foundation, it is improperly called a plank by the Master1.
2. Likewise, Jerome, on that text2: Their sin like Sodom etc.: "The second plank after shipwreck is the hiding of sin"; but penance consists in the disclosure of sin: therefore etc.
3. Likewise, a foundation is first: therefore if penance is a foundation and is a plank, then it is the first plank: therefore Jerome speaks wrongly in saying that it is the second plank. — For these seem incompossible, that it be a foundation and that it be second. If you say that it is a plank insofar as it is a Sacrament, and a foundation insofar as it is a virtue; on the contrary: if it is a plank3 insofar as it is a Sacrament, then it is the second Sacrament: therefore it ought to be treated of immediately after baptism.
4. Likewise, it is called a plank because it frees from shipwreck; but penance frees from shipwreck insofar as it is a virtue: therefore it is a plank insofar as it is a virtue.
Incidental question. It is asked, then, according to what trope it is called a plank.
Conclusion.
Penance, according to its diverse acceptations, is rightly called a foundation insofar as it is a virtue, and a plank insofar as it is a Sacrament.
I respond: It must be said that penance, whether it be called a foundation or a plank, is said tropically, yet according to one and another acceptation, according to which a twofold transferred sense arises. For penance is a virtue, and thus the character of a foundation belongs to it; penance is a Sacrament, and thus according to this the character of a plank belongs to it.
Now the ground of this is that a virtue, as Augustine holds in On the Greatness of the Soul4, is nothing other than "an equality of the mind everywhere consenting to reason"; whence it is a kind of squaring, by which the soul is set in place in the spiritual building. And since in this setting-in-place the virtue of penance first occurs in the building-up; therefore the character of the first part of the building belongs to it, and this is the foundation; and therefore to the virtue of penance the name and property of foundation is most rightly fitted5.
But the name and property of plank belongs to penance as a Sacrament. — To understand which, one must know what the sea is, what shipwreck is, what a ship is, and what a plank is. The sea is the present world, according to that text of the Psalm6: This great sea etc. — The ship, which leads to the harbor of salvation, is ecclesiastical unity, of which it is said in Wisdom, chapter fourteen: Those crossing the sea by a raft were freed; and Acts, chapter twenty-seven: Unless you remain in the ship etc. — Shipwreck of the ship is by the separation and rending of the members, according to that text of Jude7: These are they who separate themselves etc. — A plank is some aid bestowed, by which he who is in the peril of shipwreck may be lifted up from the peril of sin; and this is the Sacrament. — And since the peril of sin is twofold, the shipwreck too is twofold; there is a twofold Sacrament freeing from the twofold shipwreck, namely from the shipwreck of the original [sin], and this is baptism; and because original sin is first, therefore baptism is the first plank. And the second shipwreck is by actual [sin], and because penance frees from this, therefore it is called the second plank8.
1. And thus it is plain that it is rightly called a foundation, and rightly called a plank, according to diverse acceptations; and rightly, insofar as it is a virtue, it is called a foundation, and rightly, insofar as it is a Sacrament freeing from shipwreck, it is called the second plank.
3. And thus that argument is plain: it is the second plank: therefore the second Sacrament. And the objection about the incompossibility of these two is likewise plain in the second place9.
2. To that, then, which is objected concerning the hiding, it must be said that there is a hiding through hypocrisy and through true penance, which remits all10. And Jerome is speaking of the second hiding, which comes about through disclosure, not of the first.
4. To that which is objected — that penance frees insofar as it is a virtue — it must be said that, just as faith supplies the place of baptism where one cannot be baptized11, so penance-as-virtue supplies the place of the Sacrament; yet, because this holds only in a case of necessity, so as to be able to free from shipwreck, whereas the Sacrament has this of itself: therefore the character of plank ought to be attributed to the Sacrament, not to the virtue. Moreover, the Sacrament regards deliverance from evil or from peril, not so the virtue; and because "plank" sounds toward the notion of refuge and of deliverance from the evil of shipwreck12 and the peril of sin: therefore it belongs more to the Sacrament than to the virtue. — And thus the response to all the objections concerning the opposite side is plain. Only this must be diligently attended to: that as long as we are in this sea, we should clutch the plank on account of the peril to be avoided in the great sea13.
- 1Supra d. XIV. c. 4. — Plures codd. Hieronymo.Above, d. XIV, c. 4. — Several codices read Hieronymo [by Jerome].
- 2Isai. 3, 9, quem locum exponens dicit: Secunda enim post naufragium tabula est et consolatio miseriarum impietatem suam abscondere. — In fine arg. fere omnes codd. et ed. I detestatione pro detectione (cfr. supra pag. 439, nota 5, ubi idem occurrit).Isaiah 3:9, expounding which passage he says: "For the second plank after shipwreck, and the consolation of miseries, is to hide one's own impiety." — At the end of the argument nearly all the codices and the first edition read detestatione [detestation] for detectione [disclosure] (cf. above p. 439, note 5, where the same occurs).
- 3Codd. B E W secunda tabula.Codices B, E, W read secunda tabula [second plank].
- 4Cap. 16. n. 27. Cfr. II. Sent. d. 27. dub. 3.[On the Greatness of the Soul] c. 16, n. 27. Cf. Book II of the Sentences, d. 27, dub. 3.
- 5Ut ostensum est quaest. praeced.As was shown in the preceding question.
- 6Psalm. 103, 25. — Seq. locus est Sap. 14, 5; tertius Act. 27, 31: Nisi hi in navi manserint, vos salvi fieri non potestis.Psalm 103:25. — The following passage is Wisdom 14:5; the third, Acts 27:31: "Unless these remain in the ship, you cannot be saved."
- 7Vers. 19. Plurimi codd. et edd. omittunt sunt.Verse 19. Very many codices and editions omit sunt [are].
- 8Cfr. supra d. 14. p. I. dub. 1.Cf. above, d. 14, p. I, dub. 1.
- 9Id est secunda ratio contra horum compossibilitatem.That is, the second reason against the compossibility of these [two].
- 10Prov. 28, 13: Qui abscondit scelera sua non dirigetur; qui autem confessus fuerit et reliquerit ea misericordiam consequetur. Cfr. supra d. 17. p. II. a. 1. q. 1. ad 2. pro parte negativa.Proverbs 28:13: "He who hides his crimes shall not be directed; but he who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy." Cf. above, d. 17, p. II, a. 1, q. 1, ad 2, for the negative side.
- 11Cfr. supra d. 4. p. II. a. 1. q. 1. et dub. 4. nec non pag. 432, nota 4.Cf. above, d. 4, p. II, a. 1, q. 1, and dub. 4, as well as p. 432, note 4.
- 12Codd. F G omittunt naufragii, codd. E L W legunt a naufragio.Codices F, G omit naufragii [of shipwreck]; codices E, L, W read a naufragio [from shipwreck].
- 13Vide scholion ad praecedentem quaest.See the scholion to the preceding question.