Bonaventure

DISTINCTIO L.

Pars I.

On the apparatus numbering. Quaracchi restarts its footnote numbering on every printed page. The notes below are therefore labelled by page: notes 1–5 of page 1033, and note 1 of page 1034. Page 1033's register is d.50's entire; the remaining notes of page 1034 (2 onward) anchor in Pars II and belong to the next chunk.

Cap. I.

Si mali in inferno peccabunt.

Hic oritur quaestio ex praemissis ducens originem. Supra enim¹ Augustinus, loquens de malis in inferno damnatis et bonis in caelo glorificatis, dixit, quod nec bonis voluntas, nec malis facultas peccandi esse poterit. Et de bonis quidem constat; sed de malis, a quibus voluntatem malam non removet, quaeritur, quomodo verum sit, eos non posse peccare, immo quomodo verum sit, eos non peccare, cum malam habeant voluntatem. — Quidam autumant, illam malam voluntatem non esse peccatum, sed supplicium tantum; alii vero peccatum esse fatentur, sed per illud eos non mereri aliquam poenam, quia non est ibi locus merendi. Illud ergo peccatum dicunt non esse meritum supplicii, sed supplicium mali meriti, quod in hac vita praecessit.

De hoc autem Augustinus² ita dicit: «Tempus acquirendi vitam aeternam in hac tantum vita Deus hominibus dedit, ubi voluit etiam poenitentiam esse fructuosam. Ideo hic poenitentia fructuosa est, quia potest hic homo, deposita malitia, bene vivere, et mutata voluntate, merita simul operaque mutare et ea gerere, quae Deo placeant. Quod qui in hac vita non fecerit habebit quidem poenitentiam in futuro saeculo de malis suis, sed indulgentiam in conspectu Dei non inveniet; quia, etsi erit ibi stimulus poenitudinis, tamen nulla erit correctio voluntatis. A talibus enim ita culpabitur iniquitas sua, ut nullatenus ab eis possit vel diligi vel desiderari iustitia. Voluntas enim eorum talis erit, ut habeat semper in se malignitatis suae supplicium, nunquam tamen recipere possit bonitatis affectum: quia, sicut illi qui cum Christo regnabunt, nullas in se malae voluntatis reliquias habebunt, ita illi qui erunt in supplicio ignis aeterni cum diabolo et Angelis eius deputati, sicut nullam habebunt ulterius requiem, sic bonam nullatenus poterunt habere voluntatem; et sicut coheredibus Christi dabitur perfectio gratiae ad aeternam gloriam, ita consortibus diaboli cumulabit ipsa malignitas poenam, quando, exterioribus deputati tenebris, nullo illustrabuntur interiori lumine veritatis».

— Ex his apparet, reprobos in inferno sic poenitentiam gesturos, ut per eam pravam voluntatem non deserant; et illa maligna voluntas erit eis ad cumulum poenae, per quam tamen non merebuntur, quia nullus meretur nisi in hac vita.

Cap. II.

Quare dicuntur tenebrae exteriores.

Hic quaeri potest: quare illae tenebrae, quibus involventur mali in gehenna, dicuntur exteriores³? — Quia tunc mali penitus extra lucem corporalem et spiritualem, scilicet Deum, erunt. Nunc enim, etsi patiantur tenebras in caecitate mentis, non tamen penitus extra lucem Dei sunt nec corporali luce privantur. De hoc Augustinus⁴ sic ait: «Ira Dei et in iudicio erit et hic est in caecitate mentis, cum dantur mali in reprobum sensum. Ibi exteriores tenebrae erunt, quia tunc peccatores penitus erunt extra Deum. Quid est enim penitus esse extra Deum, nisi esse in summa caecitate? Siquidem Deus habitat lucem inaccessibilem. Hae autem tenebrae hic iam incipiunt in peccante, cum ab interiori Dei luce secluditur, sed non penitus, dum in hac vita est».

— Ecce, quare ibi peccator dicitur pati exteriores tenebras, et non hic; quia ibi secludetur penitus a luce Dei, quod non hic. — Sed quomodo intelligenda est illa seclusio? An quia non videbunt Deum per speciem? Sed nec aliquis videt hic Deum per speciem. An per dissimilitudinem, quam facit peccatum inter Deum et hominem? Sed et hic multi per gravia peccata elongantur a Deo. An quia Deum odiunt, ita ut velint, eum non esse? Sed et hic multi Deum oderunt, de quibus scriptum est⁵: Superbia eorum qui te oderunt, ascendit semper. Quae est igitur illa elongatio?

— Sane exteriores tenebrae intelligi possunt quaedam malignitas odii et voluntatis, quae tunc excrescet in mentibus reproborum, et quaedam oblivio Dei, quia tormentorum interiorum et exteriorum doloribus adeo afficientur et turbabuntur, ut ab illis ad cogitandum aliquid de Deo vix vel raro vel nunquam mentem revocent; ut qui nimio premuntur pondere adeo stupescunt et turbantur, ut interim in aliam cogitationem mentem non extendant, sed illuc tendit impetus cogitationis, ubi sentitur vis doloris. Sed in hac vita nullus adeo malus est, ut penitus secludatur a cogitatione Dei, quia nec perdit appetitum beatitudinis et quendam boni amorem, quem naturaliter habet rationalis creatura.

— Illas autem exteriores et profundissimas tenebras reprobos perpessuros post iudicium, dicit Augustinus¹, opponens de illo divite, qui in inferno positus, elevans oculos, vidit Abraham et in sinu eius Lazarum, cuius comparatione coactus est confiteri mala sua «usque adeo, ut et fratres roget ab his praemoneri, quod ante iudicium factum legitur. Sed post iudicium in profundioribus tenebris erunt impii, ubi nullam Dei lucem videbunt, cui confiteantur».

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DISTINCTION L.

Part I.

Chapter I.

Whether the wicked will sin in hell.

Here a question arises taking its origin from what has gone before. For above¹ Augustine, speaking of the wicked damned in hell and of the good glorified in heaven, said that neither will the good have the will, nor the wicked the capacity, to sin. And concerning the good this indeed is established; but concerning the wicked, from whom he does not remove the evil will, it is asked how it is true that they cannot sin, nay rather how it is true that they do not sin, since they have an evil will. — Some maintain that that evil will is not a sin, but a punishment only; others, however, confess it to be a sin, but that through it they do not merit any punishment, because there is no place of meriting there. Therefore they say that that sin is not the merit of punishment, but the punishment of an evil merit which preceded in this life.

Concerning this, however, Augustine² speaks thus: «The time of acquiring eternal life God has given to men in this life only, where he willed penitence also to be fruitful. For this reason penitence is fruitful here, because here a man can, having laid aside his malice, live well, and, his will being changed, change at once his merits and his works and do those things which please God. But he who shall not have done this in this life will indeed have penitence in the age to come for his evils, but he will not find indulgence in the sight of God; because, even though there will be there a goad of repentance, yet there will be no correction of the will. For by such men their own iniquity will be so blamed that in no way can justice be either loved or desired by them. For their will shall be such that it always has within itself the punishment of its own malignity, yet can never receive the affection of goodness: because, just as those who will reign with Christ will have in themselves no remnants of an evil will, so those who will be in the punishment of the eternal fire, assigned with the devil and his angels, just as they will have no rest thereafter, so they will in no way be able to have a good will; and just as to the coheirs of Christ there will be given the perfection of grace unto eternal glory, so for the companions of the devil that very malignity will heap up punishment, when, assigned to the outer darkness, they will be illumined by no interior light of truth».

— From these things it appears that the reprobate in hell will so bear penitence that through it they do not forsake their depraved will; and that malignant will shall be to them for a heaping up of punishment, through which nevertheless they will not merit, because no one merits except in this life.

Chapter II.

Why they are called outer darkness.

Here it can be asked: why is that darkness, in which the wicked will be enveloped in Gehenna, called outer³? — Because then the wicked will be wholly outside the corporeal and the spiritual light, namely God. For now, even if they suffer darkness in the blindness of the mind, yet they are not wholly outside the light of God, nor are they deprived of corporeal light. Concerning this Augustine⁴ speaks thus: «The wrath of God will be both in the judgement and is here in the blindness of the mind, when the wicked are given over to a reprobate sense. There will the outer darkness be, because then sinners will be wholly outside God. For what is it to be wholly outside God, if not to be in the utmost blindness? Since indeed God dwells in light inaccessible. But this darkness here already begins in the sinner, when he is shut off from the interior light of God, yet not wholly, while he is in this life».

— Behold, why there the sinner is said to suffer outer darkness, and not here; because there he will be shut off wholly from the light of God, which is not so here. — But how is that shutting-off to be understood? Is it because they will not see God through his species? But neither does anyone here see God through his species. Is it through the dissimilitude which sin makes between God and man? But here too many are estranged from God through grave sins. Is it because they hate God, so that they wish him not to be? But here too many have hated God, of whom it is written⁵: The pride of them that hate thee ascendeth ever. What then is that estrangement?

— Rightly the outer darkness can be understood as a certain malignity of hatred and of will, which will then grow up in the minds of the reprobate, and a certain forgetfulness of God, because they will be so afflicted and disturbed by the pains of interior and exterior torments that from them they scarcely or rarely or never recall the mind to think anything of God; just as those who are pressed by an excessive weight so grow numb and are disturbed that meanwhile they do not extend the mind to another thought, but the impulse of thought tends thither where the force of pain is felt. But in this life no one is so evil that he is wholly shut off from the thought of God, because he does not lose the appetite for beatitude and a certain love of the good, which the rational creature has by nature.

— But that the reprobate will suffer that outer and most profound darkness after the judgement, Augustine¹ says, adducing that rich man who, placed in hell, lifting up his eyes, saw Abraham and in his bosom Lazarus, by comparison with whom he was compelled to confess his own evils «to such a degree that he even begs that his brothers be forewarned by them, which is read to have been done before the judgement. But after the judgement the impious will be in a deeper darkness, where they will see no light of God, to whom they might confess».

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