Bonaventure

In his own words on 1 Peter

• 1 Peter 1:3

  From Christ is the fruit of grace. This fruit of grace is fourfold: it consists in steadying the soul through faith, blessing it through divine love, lifting it up through hope, curbing it through divine fear. And in the First Epistle of Peter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• 1 Peter 1:12

  And in these degrees consists the ladder of Jacob, whose summit reaches heaven: and the throne of Solomon, upon which sits the most wise King, truly peaceful and loving as the most beautiful bridegroom and wholly desirable: upon whom the Angels desire to gaze, and toward whom the desire of holy souls sighs, as the hart longs for the fountains of waters. By which most fervent desire, in the manner of fire, our spirit is not only made agile for ascent, but also by a certain learned ignorance is rapt above itself into darkness and ecstasy.

  Breviloquium, Part 5

• 1 Peter 1:13

  From Christ is the fruit of grace. This fruit of grace is fourfold: it consists in steadying the soul through faith, blessing it through divine love, lifting it up through hope, curbing it through divine fear. Peter speaks of the second: "Therefore, having girded up the loins of your understanding, be sober and set your hope completely on that grace which is brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ." For sanctification consists in this, that virtues, which are the loins of the mind, are transformed in God.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• 1 Peter 1:18

  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 Peter 1:19

  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 Peter 2:6

  The blessed Virgin on account of her sanctity, piety, and sublimity had a crown of precious stone. Who is this stone? Certainly Christ. Whence blessed Peter: "Behold, I shall place in the foundation a precious stone." The blessed Virgin was crowned with this stone in the flesh: seeing in the flesh the glorified body of Christ, seeing in spirit his glorified soul, and in mind his Divinity. Christ was crowned first, and she afterward.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6

• 1 Peter 2:6

  Christ is the foundation of this faith. 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 Peter 2:9

  From all of which it is gathered that the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, being understood through those things which have been made, are clearly seen: so that those who are unwilling to attend to these things and to know, bless, and love God in all of them are without excuse, since they are unwilling to be transferred from darkness into the admirable light of God. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who from darkness has transferred us into His admirable light, while through these lights given outwardly to the mirror of our mind, in which divine things shine forth, we are disposed to re-enter.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 2

• 1 Peter 2:9

  But whatever Aristotle's opinion, other enlightened philosophers presupposed the existence of ideas: they were the worshipers of a single God, who placed all good in the supremely good God, and believed in the existence of exemplary virtues from which the cardinal virtues flowed, first into the cognitive power, and thence into the affective, and finally into the operative, according to the phrase "knowledge, will and definitive action," as established by the most noble Plotinus in regard to the school of Plato, and Tullius of the Academic school. And so these were seen to be enlightened and to be capable of enjoying happiness as such. Yet, these men lived in darkness, since they did not have the light of faith; we by contrast do have that light. Hence, in the First Epistle of Peter: You, however, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people; that you may proclaim the perfections of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 7

• 1 Peter 2:13

  1 Peter 2: Be subject to every human creature for the sake of God: therefore the more efficaciously one does this, the more perfectly one acts; but he who subjects himself to another by vow does this most efficaciously: therefore such a person acts most perfectly. Whence Bernard, Homily 42 on the Song of Songs: "It is a small thing to be subject to God unless you are also subject to every human creature for the sake of God: subject yourself to equals, subject yourself to inferiors: for thus it befits us to fulfill all justice"; but this is done most especially by binding oneself by vow to obey another.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• 1 Peter 2:17

  In the father there is authority: and in this commandment a precept is given that the father be obeyed, because he has authority. Moreover, everyone who presides over public affairs, or political affairs, or monastic affairs has authority. He who presides over public affairs is called father by reason of authority, such as a prince, baron, count, and the like, and is called father by guardianship or defense; and we ought to honor him as a father. Whence blessed Peter: Fear God, honor the king.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 5

• 1 Peter 2:21

  Likewise, Christ was most imitable according to the state He had on the cross, according to that passage of 1 Peter 2: Christ suffered for us, leaving an example, that you should follow His steps; but on the cross He was entirely naked; whence Jerome to Hedibia: "Do you wish to be perfect and to stand at the highest summit of dignity? Do what the Apostles did: sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and follow the Savior, and follow the naked and solitary cross with naked and solitary virtue": therefore etc.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Peter 3:7

  That conjugal chastity is to be approved according to the evangelical law is shown by authority, as follows. 1 Peter 3: Husbands, dwelling together according to knowledge, bestowing honor on the woman as on a weaker vessel; but this is according to the conjugal act: therefore the conjugal act is consonant with the law of God.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• 1 Peter 3:15

  That the Lord commands sanctification, that is, rest for the sake of loving, this is a purely moral precept. Whence blessed Peter says: But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, that is, love him. For he sanctifies or makes holy the Sabbath who loves God above all things for his own sake, not for the sake of something else.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 4

• 1 Peter 3:19

  The soul of Christ after the passion descended to hell, that is, to limbo, for the liberation not of all, but of those who had departed as members of Christ through living faith, or through the Sacraments of faith. Because the remedy of the passion was most sufficient, it extended itself to celestial, terrestrial, and infernal things. Through Christ infernal things were recovered, terrestrial things remedied, and celestial things restored to wholeness—such that the first of these He accomplished through pardon, the second through grace, and the third through glory: therefore after the passion His soul descended to the nether regions to free those detained in hell. Because that remedy was most efficacious both upon those who preceded the coming of Christ and upon those who follow, who nevertheless approached and approach Christ Himself and were and are His members—and such are those who cling to Him through faith, hope, and charity—therefore that remedy ought to have had efficacy first upon those who believed in Christ, and by believing hoped, and by hoping loved; and on this account He ought to have descended to the nether regions immediately for their liberation. Whence, when the gate of heaven was opened through the passion of Christ—who by making satisfaction removed the flaming sword, by changing the divine sentence—He snatched from hell all His members.

  Breviloquium

• 1 Peter 3:21

  Likewise in the time after the cleansing of sin, there were three divisions: the building of the Ark, the showing of the rainbow, and the separation of tongues. For a hundred years, Noah worked on the Ark in which he was saved together with seven souls. And, as Peter says, baptism is the type of this — of water, of desire and of blood. In the New Testament, Clement was saved in this Ark, for a marble temple was prepared for him in the sea by angel hands, while the others were submerged. And out of this there came about a great miracle, that for so many years the sea remained open, until pirates and robbers removed his body.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 16

• 1 Peter 4:10

  The chief of the Apostles, blessed Peter, says: "Each one, as he has received grace, ministering it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Dionysius determines for us the use of grace in the angelic and celestial hierarchy and says that if the higher Angels were to contain themselves and were unwilling to flow into the lower Angels, then they would close off for themselves the way of God's influence. If the good that you have from God you deny to another, and you see one who is poor in life or in merit, you are not worthy of eternal life, and your life is most wretched and swinish.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 1

• 1 Peter 5:5

  Because humility is the dwelling place of grace, the grace of the Holy Spirit rests upon the humble alone. Whence Augustine, in the third book of On Christian Doctrine: "For this reason the sins of great men were written down, so that that apostolic saying might everywhere be feared: Wherefore let him who seems to stand take heed lest he fall. For there is no page of the holy books in which it does not resound: God resists the proud, but to the humble He gives grace."

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 1

• 1 Peter 5:8

  The soul is disposed to the gift of fortitude through the unconquerable shield of faith. The devil draws man to the concupiscence of the flesh, to the concupiscence of the eyes, and to the pride of life. What is the means of resisting these? Through truth. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield," namely through faith dwelling within. And blessed Peter said: "Your adversary as a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, strong in faith." If we loved truth, we would not fear the devil, because it is written: "The eyes of the Lord behold the whole earth and give fortitude to those who believe in him with a perfect heart."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 5

• 1 Peter 5:9

  The soul is disposed to the gift of fortitude through the unconquerable shield of faith. The devil draws man to the concupiscence of the flesh, to the concupiscence of the eyes, and to the pride of life. What is the means of resisting these? Through truth. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield," namely through faith dwelling within. And blessed Peter said: "Your adversary as a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, strong in faith." If we loved truth, we would not fear the devil, because it is written: "The eyes of the Lord behold the whole earth and give fortitude to those who believe in him with a perfect heart."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 5