Bonaventure

In his own words on 1 Corinthians

• 1 Corinthians 1:19

  "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject." That is the wisdom of which Jeremiah says: "They are wise to do evil, but to do good they know not." To scatter this wisdom Christ died, made poor, afflicted, and humble, so that he might teach us to beware of it. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? — when on the cross he chose the contraries of worldly wisdom. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 9

• 1 Corinthians 1:21

  Scripture was handed down for the disclosing of wisdom which is found in it alone. Hence: "For since, in God's wisdom, the world did not come to know God by 'wisdom,' it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save those who believe."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 14

• 1 Corinthians 1:24

  Our restorative principle, Christ the Lord, the incarnate Word, since He is the power and wisdom of God and our mercy, must so powerfully, so wisely, so mercifully, so fittingly institute His Sacraments in the law of grace that nothing whatsoever is lacking for our healing, insofar as befits the state of the present life. For the perfect healing of sickness, these three things concur, namely: the expulsion of the sickness, the introduction of health, and the preservation of the health that has been introduced. Since for perfect healing a perfect and universal expulsion of the disease is required, and the disease is sevenfold—threefold as to guilt, namely original sin, mortal sins, and venial sin; and fourfold as to penalty, namely ignorance, malice, weakness, and concupiscence—hence it was necessary that a sevenfold remedy be applied against these to expel more fully this sevenfold disease, namely, against original sin, baptism; against mortal sin, penance; against venial sin, extreme unction; against ignorance, holy orders; against malice, the Eucharist; against weakness, confirmation; and against concupiscence, matrimony, which tempers and excuses it.

  Breviloquium, Part 6

• 1 Corinthians 1:25

  "When a strong man armed guards his court, those things which he possesses are in peace; but if a stronger one than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he will take away all his armor in which he trusted, and will distribute his spoils." This stronger one is God, because "the weakness of God is stronger than men." The Son of God was made weak for our sake.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 5

• 1 Corinthians 1:25

  You esteem the abundance of riches, and Christ chose poverty; you esteem the experience of sensual delights, and Christ chose the bitterness of suffering; you esteem the ambition of worldly pomps, and Christ willed to be despised and put to shame. And the wisdom of God prevailed; therefore the Apostle says: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men." To scatter the false wisdom of the world Christ died, made poor, afflicted, and humble, so that he might teach us to beware of it. When on the cross he chose the contraries of worldly wisdom, God made foolish the wisdom of this world.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 9

• 1 Corinthians 1:30

  All of which comes about through Jesus Christ, who was made for us by God wisdom and justice and sanctification and redemption. Who, since He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and is the incarnate Word full of grace and truth, brought about grace and truth: He poured in the grace, namely, of charity, which, since it proceeds from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith, rectifies the whole soul according to its threefold aspect mentioned above; and He taught the knowledge of truth according to the threefold mode of theology, namely symbolic, proper, and mystical, so that through symbolic theology we might rightly use sensible things, through proper theology we might rightly use intelligible things, and through mystical theology we might be rapt to supermental ecstasies.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 1

• 1 Corinthians 2:6

  The third fruit of wisdom consists in contemplating the supreme good which arises from a close consideration of the gifts of grace. For grace can be so great that a man living in it would be existing as it were in paradise. He would have an insight into his inner self, like blessed Paul who says: "Wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature." And later: "But to us God has revealed them through His Spirit. For who among men knows the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the things of God we do not know, unless the Spirit of God goes into us."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• 1 Corinthians 2:6

  The fourth face of wisdom is the most difficult, for it is without form. Thus would it seem to destroy the preceding faces, and yet it does not. The Apostle speaks of it in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature, yet not a wisdom of this world. But we speak the wisdom of God, mysterious, hidden, which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. But to us God has revealed it through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." Paul taught this wisdom to Dionysius and Timothy and other perfect men, but he kept it hidden from others. It is up to us, then, to be perfect in order to reach it.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Corinthians 2:7

  The fourth face of wisdom is the most difficult, for it is without form. Thus would it seem to destroy the preceding faces, and yet it does not. The Apostle speaks of it in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature, yet not a wisdom of this world. But we speak the wisdom of God, mysterious, hidden, which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. But to us God has revealed it through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." Paul taught this wisdom to Dionysius and Timothy and other perfect men, but he kept it hidden from others. It is up to us, then, to be perfect in order to reach it.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Corinthians 2:9

  The fourth face of wisdom is the most difficult, for it is without form. Thus would it seem to destroy the preceding faces, and yet it does not. The Apostle speaks of it: "Wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature, yet not a wisdom of this world. But we speak the wisdom of God, mysterious, hidden, which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. But to us God has revealed it through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." Paul taught this wisdom to Dionysius and Timothy and other perfect men, but he kept it hidden from others. It is up to us, then, to be perfect in order to reach it. "Forgetting what is behind, I strain forward to what is before," hoping that I may understand.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Corinthians 2:9

  Rouse yourself now, O my soul, and lift up your whole understanding and think, as much as you can, of what kind and how great that good is. For if individual goods are delightful, think intently how delightful is that good which contains the joyfulness of all goods, not such as we have experienced in created things, but differing as much as the Creator differs from the creature. For if created life is good, how good is the creative life? If wrought salvation is joyful, how joyful is the salvation that makes all salvation? If wisdom in the knowledge of created things is lovable, how lovable is the wisdom that created all things from nothing? In short, if there are many and great delights in delightful things, of what kind and how great is the delight in him who made those very delightful things? Who will enjoy this good, what shall be his, and what shall not be his? Surely whatever he wills shall be, and what he does not will shall not be. There indeed shall be goods of body and soul, such as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. Why then do you wander through many things, O little man, seeking the goods of your soul and your body? Love the one good, in which are all goods, and it suffices. Desire the simple good, which is every good, and it is enough.

  Breviloquium, Part 7

• 1 Corinthians 2:10

  "But to us God has revealed it through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." Paul taught this wisdom to Dionysius and Timothy and other perfect men, but he kept it hidden from others. It is up to us, then, to be perfect in order to reach it.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Corinthians 2:10

  In this passing over, however, if it is to be perfect, it is necessary that all intellectual operations be relinquished, and that the summit of affection be wholly transferred and transformed into God. This, however, is mystical and most secret, which no one knows unless he receives it, nor does anyone receive it unless he desires it, nor does anyone desire it unless the fire of the Holy Spirit inflames him to the marrow, which fire Christ sent upon the earth. And therefore the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom has been revealed through the Holy Spirit.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 7

• 1 Corinthians 2:10

  The third fruit of wisdom consists in contemplating the supreme good which arises from a close consideration of the gifts of grace. For grace can be so great that a man living in it would be existing as it were in paradise. He would have an insight into his inner self, like blessed Paul who says: "Wisdom, however, we speak among those who are mature." And later: "But to us God has revealed them through His Spirit. For who among men knows the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the things of God we do not know, unless the Spirit of God goes into us."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• 1 Corinthians 2:11

  When our mind has been filled with all these intellectual lights, it is inhabited by the divine Wisdom as a house of God, having been made a daughter of God, a spouse and friend; having been made a member of Christ the Head, a sister and co-heir; having been made no less a temple of the Holy Spirit, founded through faith, elevated through hope, and dedicated to God through holiness of mind and body. All of which the most sincere charity of Christ accomplishes, which is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, without which Spirit we cannot know the secrets of God. For just as the things of a man no one can know except the spirit of man which is in him, so also the things of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 4

• 1 Corinthians 2:12

  Gratuitous knowledge is called the knowledge of the Saints first because it is given by the Holy Spirit moving the soul, inspiring and informing it unto holiness. I say by the Holy Spirit inspiring unto the awareness of holiness, unto the delight in holiness, and unto the guardianship of holiness. Whence the Apostle to the Corinthians: "We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been given to us by God": and in what manner? If we know, we guard and approve the things inspired through the Holy Spirit unto the awareness of holiness, unto the delight in holiness, and its guardianship.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4

• 1 Corinthians 3:11

  The seventh and last column of wisdom is simplicity in intention. Christ is the fountain of wisdom; He Himself is the foundation and completion of this gift. The Apostle, as a wise architect, says: "No one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus." As a certain Gloss says, man is related to a tree in the opposite manner with respect to the root: for a tree has its root below, but man above; and a spiritual building has its foundation above, but a corporeal one below. Christ therefore is the foundation of this gift.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 9

• 1 Corinthians 3:11

  Christ is the foundation of this faith. For other foundation no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. For He is the cornerstone of which Isaiah and Peter speak: See, I am laying a stone in Sion, a stone that has been tested, a precious cornerstone as a sure foundation. And the Apostle: You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9

• 1 Corinthians 3:15

  The purgatorial fire is a corporeal fire, by which nevertheless the spirits of the just, who in this life did not fulfill condign penance and satisfaction, are afflicted to a greater or lesser degree, according as they carried with them from this life more or less of what is combustible. They are afflicted, however, less gravely than in hell, and more gravely than in this world; yet not so gravely that they do not always hope and know that they are not in hell. By this affliction inflicted by corporeal fire, spirits are purged from guilt and dross and also from the remnants of sins; and when these have been sufficiently purged away, they immediately fly forth and are introduced into the glory of paradise. And because just men, who are in grace, are worthy of nothing but transitory punishment: and they are worthy of so much greater punishment as they committed greater sins and performed lesser penance: hence it is that they are punished by material fire temporally, some however for a longer time, some indeed for a shorter, some more harshly, some more lightly, according as the guilt of their offenses requires. For one is purged with so much more difficulty as the love of worldly things had clung more intimately to the marrow of one's heart. Since that punishment ought to be purgative, and that purgation is spiritual: the very power of grace dwelling within, aided by the extrinsic punishment, purges the soul itself—already punished for its offenses and relieved of the burden of its guilt—with a sufficient purgation, so that no dissimilitude to glory may remain. And since such spirits are disposed in the highest degree to receive in themselves the deiformity of glory: when the gate is opened and purgation is consummated, it is necessary that those spirits fly upward, in whom is the fire of charity lifting them upward, and nothing holding them back on the part of the soul's impurity or guilt.

  Breviloquium, Part 7

• 1 Corinthians 4:7

  It is also true that no one can boast of merits, because God crowns nothing in us except his own gifts. For God has reserved to himself the gifts of grace to be freely bestowed, so that man may learn not to be ungrateful nor to glory in himself as though he had not received, but to glory in the Lord.

  Breviloquium, Part 5

• 1 Corinthians 6:12

  A man is instructed by the gift of counsel to discern what is lawful, what is fitting, and what is expedient according to the judgment of right reason. First a man ought to consider whether it is lawful, whether it is fitting: many things are lawful that are not fitting. Afterward he ought to consider whether it is expedient, because the Apostle says: 'All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient.' Once this threefold consideration has been attained, thoughts are instructed, and wisdom dwells in the counsel of man.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7

• 1 Corinthians 6:15

  To approach Christ is through faith, or through the Sacrament of faith; and the faith of Christ is the same in past, present, and future: therefore the ground of influencing is posited in Christ with respect to all, past as well as present as well as future, who believe in Christ and are reborn in Christ, who through faith are joined to Christ and through inflowing grace become members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit, and thereby children of God the Father, connected to one another through the indivisible bond of charity. Which just as it is not divided by distance of places, so neither is it separated by length of times; and thereby all the just, wherever they may be and whenever they may have been, constitute one mystical body of Christ, receiving sense and motion from the one influencing head, according to the fontal, radical, and original fullness of all grace dwelling in Christ as in a fountain.

  Breviloquium

• 1 Corinthians 6:17

  When a worthy admission has come about together with a holy perception, then the soul is rapt in God, that is, in the beloved. "My Lover belongs to me and I to Him; He browses among the lilies," for the soul already feels the union and is made one spirit with God: "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." And this is the highest thing in the soul: it makes it abide in heaven.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 22

• 1 Corinthians 6:19

  To approach Christ is through faith, or through the Sacrament of faith; and the faith of Christ is the same in past, present, and future: therefore the ground of influencing is posited in Christ with respect to all, past as well as present as well as future, who believe in Christ and are reborn in Christ, who through faith are joined to Christ and through inflowing grace become members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit, and thereby children of God the Father, connected to one another through the indivisible bond of charity. Which just as it is not divided by distance of places, so neither is it separated by length of times; and thereby all the just, wherever they may be and whenever they may have been, constitute one mystical body of Christ, receiving sense and motion from the one influencing head, according to the fontal, radical, and original fullness of all grace dwelling in Christ as in a fountain.

  Breviloquium

• 1 Corinthians 6:20

  This is the price of which the Apostle says: "You have been bought with a great price; bear and glorify God in your body." That the price is great, the Apostle Peter says: "You were redeemed not with corruptible gold or silver from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood as of a Lamb unspotted and undefiled." This had to be a great price, by which the whole world and the entire human race was to be redeemed; because man could not make satisfaction, since no single man could be worth all men, nor could any creature. Nothing was sufficient to redeem the entire human race unless it possessed human nature and a nature above every creature; therefore it was necessary that it possess both a divine and a human nature.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6

• 1 Corinthians 6:20

  Let us not give our body to sin. "We have been bought at a great price. Do not become servants of men" nor of demons nor of sins. If I had redeemed some servant, I would not give him away for nothing.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6

• 1 Corinthians 7:1

  The hands of a woman are bonds to those who touch her, because she holds so tightly that a man cannot be separated from her. Whence the Apostle: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6

• 1 Corinthians 7:1

  That widowed continence according to the evangelical law ought to be vowed is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: It is good for a man not to touch a woman: therefore by equal reasoning it is good for a woman not to touch a man: but this is not a good of precept, but of counsel; and counsels are to be vowed: therefore not to touch a woman is to be vowed. But this is a vow of continence.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:2

  To that which is objected from the word of the Apostle, who says: On account of fornication, let each man have his own wife; it must be said that the following text determines this: But I say this by way of concession, not by way of command. Whence the Gloss on the aforementioned word: "The Apostle says this in order to exclude fornication, not to close the way to those striving toward a better life." And because the Apostle had said: Let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband, and come together again; namely, lest he should seem to have said this by way of precept, he adds: But I say this by way of concession, not by way of command. And therefore he does not sin who acts otherwise, that is, who practices continence; rather, he who acts thus sins, because there is some fault there, but a light one.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:2

  Against the vowing of widowed continence it is objected: 1 Corinthians 7: On account of fornication let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband: but that is not a counsel, since it is not a work of perfection nor of supererogation: therefore it is a precept: therefore whoever vows continence acts against this precept.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:3-4

  That conjugal chastity is to be approved according to the evangelical law is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: Let the husband render to the wife the debt owed, and the wife to the husband. The husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife does: therefore for the husband to render the debt to the wife is consonant with the law of God: but this is done according to the conjugal act: therefore the conjugal act is consonant with the law of God.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:5-6

  To that objection that the act of marriage is by way of indulgence: it must be said that this is not said of marriage itself and of the nuptial act that is performed for the procreation of children, but of that which is performed for the restraining of incontinence, because this has venial fault joined to it. Hence Augustine, in the book On the Good of Marriage: "If you have taken a wife, you have not sinned: and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. From this it is no longer permissible to doubt that marriage is not a sin; therefore the Apostle does not grant marriage by way of pardon. For who would hesitate to say that it is most absurd to say that those to whom pardon is given have not sinned? But he grants that intercourse by way of pardon which takes place on account of incontinence, not solely for the sake of procreating, but also sometimes with no purpose of procreating; which marriage does not compel to happen, but obtains pardon for, provided however that it is not so excessive as to impede the times that ought to be set aside for prayer, nor changed into that use which is against nature."

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:5-6

  Against conjugal chastity it is objected: 1 Corinthians 7: Return together again: but this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of commandment: but no act of virtue requires indulgence: therefore the act of conjugal continence is not an act of virtue.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:7

  That widowed continence according to the evangelical law ought to be vowed is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: I wish all men to be as I myself: but he himself was entirely continent and bound to continence: therefore he wished that all be bound to continence. But this is done through the vow of continence: therefore widowed continence is to be vowed.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:8

  That widowed continence according to the evangelical law ought to be vowed is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: But I say to the unmarried and to widows: it is good for them, if they so remain: therefore according to the Apostle it is good to remain in widowed continence; but this good is a counsel: therefore someone can licitly vow widowed continence.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:23

  Let us not give our body to sin. "We have been bought at a great price. Do not become servants of men" nor of demons nor of sins. If I had redeemed some servant, I would not give him away for nothing.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6

• 1 Corinthians 7:25

  This counselor, namely Christ, has many counselors, to whom he imparts his counsel. And the Apostle himself says: 'In this I give counsel, but I have no precept.' Augustine says that 'Christ became poor to such an extent that he does not have what the foxes have, because foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head; understand: Christ became poor so that we might imitate his poverty.' The Master says that we should imitate him in giving alms, in humility, in poverty, and in obedience.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7

• 1 Corinthians 7:25

  As to the excellence of virtue, it attests to the highest virtue that someone in mortal flesh should lead a life not human but heavenly, should extinguish heat in fire, and in nature should surpass the force of nature: and this virginity does. Hence Jerome to the virgin Demetrias: "Just as in the furnace the fourth one, having the appearance as it were of the Son of man, tempered the immense flames and amid the conflagration of the raging furnace taught the flames to lose their heat and to threaten one thing to the eyes and present another to the touch: so also in the virginal soul, by the heavenly dew and the cold of fasting, youthful heat is extinguished and the manner of life of angels is obtained for the human body. Wherefore also the vessel of election says of virgins that he does not have a precept of the Lord, because it is against nature, nay rather beyond nature, not to exercise that for which you were born, to kill your root within you and to pluck only the fruits of virginity, to know no stranger's bed, to shudder at all intimacy with men, and to live in the body without the body."

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:28

  To that objection that the act of marriage is by way of indulgence: it must be said that this is not said of marriage itself and of the nuptial act that is performed for the procreation of children, but of that which is performed for the restraining of incontinence, because this has venial fault joined to it. Hence Augustine, in the book On the Good of Marriage: "If you have taken a wife, you have not sinned: and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. From this it is no longer permissible to doubt that marriage is not a sin; therefore the Apostle does not grant marriage by way of pardon. For who would hesitate to say that it is most absurd to say that those to whom pardon is given have not sinned? But he grants that intercourse by way of pardon which takes place on account of incontinence, not solely for the sake of procreating, but also sometimes with no purpose of procreating; which marriage does not compel to happen, but obtains pardon for, provided however that it is not so excessive as to impede the times that ought to be set aside for prayer, nor changed into that use which is against nature."

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:28

  That conjugal chastity is to be approved according to the evangelical law is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: If you have taken a wife, you have not sinned: and if a virgin shall have married, she does not sin: therefore if one was previously continent without a wife, it seems that one will also be continent with a wife.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:29

  To that objection that those who have wives ought to be as though not using them: it must be said that the Apostle does not there prohibit every use of worldly things; for then it would be necessary for man to go out of the world, and thus no one in this world would be just and good; but he shows there that one's intention must not be fixed on this world, nor should it be loved as an end, but as a way to the end. This is clear from what he adds: For the figure of this world passes away. Hence from this it is not established that one should not use a wife, but that one should not rest in love of her and use of her, since she is not a stable good, but one transitory and perishable.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:29

  Against conjugal chastity it is objected: 1 Corinthians 7: Let those who have wives be as though not having them; but he who does not have a wife does not use her: therefore he who has one should not use her. But this is contrary to the act of conjugal continence: therefore conjugal continence is repugnant to the law of God.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:31

  To that objection that those who have wives ought to be as though not using them: it must be said that the Apostle does not there prohibit every use of worldly things; for then it would be necessary for man to go out of the world, and thus no one in this world would be just and good; but he shows there that one's intention must not be fixed on this world, nor should it be loved as an end, but as a way to the end. This is clear from what he adds: For the figure of this world passes away. Hence from this it is not established that one should not use a wife, but that one should not rest in love of her and use of her, since she is not a stable good, but one transitory and perishable.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:31

  Now the figure of this world is said to pass away, not as regards the total destruction of this sensible world, but because through the action of that fire all flammable elementary things will be consumed, plants and animals; the elements will be purged and renewed, especially air and earth; the just will be purged and the reprobate will be burned; and when these things have been accomplished, the motion of the heavens will also cease, so that, with the number of the elect completed, there may come about a certain renewal and rewarding of worldly bodies. Since God according to His most orderly wisdom made this entire sensible and greater world for the sake of the lesser world, namely man, who is placed in the middle between God and these lower things: hence it is that, so that all things may be congruent with one another, and the dwelling may have harmony with the dweller, when man was well established, this world ought to have been established in a good and peaceful state; when man fell, this world also ought to have deteriorated; when man was disturbed, it ought to have been disturbed; when man was purged, it ought to have been purged; when man was renewed, it ought to have been renewed; and when man was consummated, it ought to have been brought to rest.

  Breviloquium, Part 7

• 1 Corinthians 7:33

  To that objection, that he who has a wife is anxious, etc.: it must be said that solicitude is twofold: one kind is under God, and this is called distracting and occupying solicitude; the other kind leads to forgetfulness of God, and this is suffocating solicitude: similarly a distinction must be made concerning friendship as well. The Apostle, however, speaks of the first kind, and the argument proceeds from the second.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:33

  Against conjugal chastity it is objected: 1 Corinthians 7: He who is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, and how he may please his wife: but solicitude for and complacency in this world is condemned and is contrary to the law of God: therefore so also is conjugal continence.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:34

  The blessed Virgin brought forth that price as strong and holy with the holiness of uncorrupted modesty. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: "Grace upon grace is a holy and modest woman"; and the Angel said: "Hail, full of grace," because she was holy and modest: holy in flesh and modest in mind. The Apostle: "The unmarried woman and the virgin thinks on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6

• 1 Corinthians 7:35

  Since widowed continence has more in itself of the nature of the honorable on account of purity, more of the nature of the advantageous on account of the removal of impediment, more of the nature of the delightful on account of the removal of burdens which follow upon the law of marriage: hence it is that widowed continence is counseled to all who are unbound; and those who wish to adhere to this counsel according to the dictate of evangelical perfection are not to be restrained but rather encouraged, that is, not only in old age but also in youth. For one is persuaded to abstain from marriage or to be continent, both by the Lord and by the Apostle himself, 1 Corinthians 7: She shall be happier if she so remain, according to my counsel. And the reason for this he himself states beforehand: Moreover, this I say for your profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is honorable, and which may afford the opportunity of beseeching the Lord without hindrance.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:38

  That virginal continence is to be preferred to all others is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: He who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage does better: therefore virginal continence is to be preferred to the other differences of continence, according to the authority of the Apostle.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:40

  This counselor, namely Christ, has many counselors, to whom he imparts his counsel. Paul said: 'She will be more blessed if she so remains according to my counsel; but I think that I also have the Spirit of God.' Whence to the Corinthians: 'You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor.' And the Apostle himself says: 'In this I give counsel, but I have no precept.' Augustine says that 'Christ became poor to such an extent that he does not have what the foxes have, because foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head; understand: Christ became poor so that we might imitate his poverty.' The Master says that we should imitate him in giving alms, in humility, in poverty, and in obedience.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7

• 1 Corinthians 7:40

  Because marriage has something attached which diminishes both honor and utility and spiritual joy, no one is compelled to it against his will, because rather one is persuaded to abstain from it or to be continent, both by the Lord and by the Apostle himself, 1 Corinthians 7: If her husband be dead, the woman is loosed from the law of her husband; let her marry whom she will, only in the Lord; but she shall be happier if she so remain, according to my counsel. And the reason for this he himself states beforehand: Moreover, this I say for your profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is honorable, and which may afford the opportunity of beseeching the Lord without hindrance.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:40

  On that word Augustine says, in On Widowhood: "What I say to one widowed woman I say to every widow: She will be more blessed if she so remains": therefore this is proposed to all widows: therefore it is licit for anyone to vow continence according to the evangelical law.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 7:40

  That widowed continence according to the evangelical law ought to be vowed is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Corinthians 7: If the husband shall have died, the woman is freed from the law of the husband; but she will be more blessed if she so remains: but what is more blessed can be licitly vowed: and this is through the vow of widowed continence: therefore widowed continence is to be vowed.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Corinthians 8:1

  "Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies"; therefore it is necessary to join charity with knowledge, so that a man may have knowledge and charity together, so that what the Apostle says may be fulfilled: "Rooted and founded in charity, that you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the length, and breadth, and height, and depth, and to know also the charity of Christ which surpasseth knowledge." This is the knowledge which is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4

• 1 Corinthians 8:2

  Gratuitous knowledge teaches to know and the manner of knowing. Whence, upon that saying of the Apostle: "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he hath not yet known how he ought to know": Bernard says: "You see that the Apostle does not approve him who knows many things, but the manner of knowing: see that he places all the fruit and utility of knowledge in the manner of knowing. What does he call the manner of knowing? To know in what order, with what zeal, and to what end each one learns: in what order, so that one may first learn that which is more conducive to salvation; with what zeal, so that one may more ardently pursue that which more powerfully draws to the love of God; to what end, so that one may learn not for vainglory or curiosity, but for the edification of oneself and one's neighbor. There are those who wish to know only for the sake of knowing, and this is base curiosity. There are those who learn and wish to know in order to be known, and this is base vanity. And there are those who wish to know in order to sell their knowledge for money or honors, and this is base profit. There are those who wish to know in order to edify others, and this is charity. And there are those who wish to know in order to be edified, and this is prudence."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4

• 1 Corinthians 8:4

  An idol is nothing, as is said in First Corinthians, chapter eight: therefore to think that God is an idol and that God does not exist is the same thing: but it is thinkable and is sometimes thought that God is an idol: therefore it is thinkable that God is nothing. The reason a pagan thinks that God is an idol is that his apprehension of God is defective: for he does not apprehend Him as the highest and best, but as something powerful that man cannot be; and hence there arises in him the error of deception and the wavering of doubt, into which error he casts himself by his own obstinacy, so that he becomes utterly inexcusable. Nor yet is he entirely deprived of the knowledge of God, because, although out of his own perversity he wills to worship an idol, he nonetheless has a natural instinct to worship God, against which he fights by casting himself into voluntary error.

  Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 1

• 1 Corinthians 9:7

  On that passage in 1 Corinthians 9: Who serves as a soldier, etc.; the Gloss says: "As the Lord ordained, those living from the Gospel ate bread freely given, received from those to whom they preached grace freely given"; but it is called bread freely given because it was not acquired through bodily labor: therefore those exercising the work of preaching are not bound to bodily labor.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Corinthians 9:13

  First Corinthians nine: Do you not know that those who work in the sanctuary eat what belongs to the sanctuary, and those who serve at the altar share with the altar? The Gloss: "Natural reason dictates that one should live from where he labors." If therefore the faithful person who is intent upon spiritual occupations is worthy of being sustained, and such a person is not idle: therefore neither for the sake of avoiding idleness nor even for acquiring sustenance is he bound to work manually.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Corinthians 9:17

  To that which is objected, that such men are imitators of Gehazi, who minister spiritual things for temporal ones: to this the Gloss responds sufficiently enough on that passage of 1 Corinthians 9: A dispensation is entrusted to me: "We ought not to preach the Gospel in order that we may eat, but rather to eat in order that we may preach the Gospel, so that food is not a good which is sought after, but a necessity which is added; so that that saying may be fulfilled: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." Hence if someone were to make a temporal thing the end in preaching the word of God, without doubt he would be perverse, because he would make the means into the end, and he would be like Gehazi and Balaam, who loved the reward of iniquity. But if they seek sustenance as a means ordered to the preaching of the Gospel, then they proceed rightly and imitate the Apostles, nor do they depart from the path of truth in any respect.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Corinthians 10:1

  Concerning the allegory of the Head, Paul writes: "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (for they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ)."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2