Question XV: Whether charity can be lost, and how

Of old there was the error of the Jovinians, who said that Charity and grace, once had, cannot be lost. So reports D. Jerome Lib. 1 [contra Iovinianum] and 1 against the same.

In that error was also Pelagius, as is clear from D. Augustine Lib. de haeresibus, cap. 88. Likewise the Beghards and Beguines, as is clear from the Clementine, Ad nostram. Wycliffe, as Vega reports Lib. 12 super Concilium, cap. 22. Finally Calvin, who devoured nearly all heresies, swallowed this one too Lib. 3 Instit. cap. 4. Bellarmine reports and refutes them Lib. 3 de Iustific. cap. 14. Bouetius demonstr. 2 Symb. 2 art. 3. Valencia 1. 2 disp. 3 q. 2 puncto 4. S. Bonaventure calls this error madness.

Yet the true and Catholic de fide teaching is that a just man can fall from Charity.

It is proved by D. Bonaventure first by examples recounted many times in Scripture.

For first Adam and Eve, established in grace, sinned most grievously; whence the sin of Adam found death Rom. 5. By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death.

Next Saul was just; for so you have 1 Reg. 9. Saul was elect and good: and there was not among the sons of Israel a man better than he. The same is intimated cap. 15 and 16, and adduced by D. Augustine Lib. 2 ad Simplicianum, quaest. 1. Cyprian Lib. 1 epist. 5. Whence you see Calvin lying, who denies it.

Accordingly David was so just that of him it was said, Act. 13. I have found David the man after my own heart, who shall do all my wills. This testimony was taken from 1 Reg. 16. But who will deny that he sinned gravely by the homicide of Urias and adultery with Bethsabee? Surely his penitential Psalms openly testify to his repentance, which presupposes sin.

The son of David also, Solomon, was just; for of him 2 Reg. 7. the Lord says: I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son; and cap. 12. And he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and called his name, Beloved of the Lord, because the Lord loved him. He was the son of David, a holy man, from which Calvin and Peter Martyr infer that he was holy. But that this man in old age fell from justice, Scripture testifies 3 Reg. 11. where his Idolatries are enumerated, and his filthy loves with forbidden women Exodi 34, and he is proclaimed condemned by many holy Fathers, whom Serlogus reports in the Antilogiae of the Canticle, Pineda de rebus Salomonis, and others. Hear D. Augustine Lib. 22 cont. Faustum, cap. 88. What shall I say of Solomon? Whom holy Scripture vehemently charges and condemns; and it commemorates nothing at all of his repentance or of God's indulgence toward him.

Let us come to the just of the New Testament. Peter without doubt was just, of whom Matth. 16. Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Iona. And Ioan. 13. He who is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet, etc. And you are clean, but not all. For he knew who was about to betray him. Therefore he acclaims all the Apostles as just, Judas excepted; and yet he sinned lethally, denying Christ, as he notes from D. Augustine tract. 66 in Ioan. S. Bonaventure ad eum locum, and the Magdeburgenses confess it Centur. 1 Lib. 2 cap. 10.

Iudas therefore was previously just, as D. Jerome shows Lib. 3 adversus Pelagianos, from those words of the Lord, Ioan. 17. Father, those whom thou hast given me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, as S. Bonaventure saw in his commentary.

Similarly the other Apostles, whom I showed above to be just, doubted in faith, as it is had in Mark and Luke, last chapter.

Some disciples also Ioannis 6. went back and left Christ.

It is proved secondly by S. Thomas from the testimonies of Scripture asserting it. Prima Corinth. 10. He who thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Ezech. 18. When the just man shall turn himself away from his justice and do iniquity, he shall die in it. The same is had in chapter 33. Bouer adds these.

By yourselves justice stands in Faith alone: Therefore it also is lost. Lucae 8. For that on the rock, who when they hear the word with joy receive it; but these have no roots, for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. To which passage S. Thomas adds Deuter. 32. of the people: He forsook God his saviour. And Oseae 7. Woe to them, for they have departed from me. Ioan. 15. Every branch in me not bearing fruit, he will take it away. Where S. Bonaventure observes that these branches were once living, and are taken away because the graces of God are lacking, contrary to the warning Heb. 12. and are taken away stripped of grace and cast into the fire, as D. Augustine expounds tract. 81.

Matth. 24. Iniquity shall abound, and the Charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. Prima Cor. 9. I chastise my body, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a reprobate. Galat. 5. You are made void of Christ, who are justified in the Law; you are fallen from grace. Prima Timot. first chapter. Some have suffered shipwreck concerning the faith. And cap. 4. In the last days some shall depart from the Faith; and cap. 6. Which some seeking after, have erred from the Faith. Heb. 6. It is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Spirit; have nevertheless tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, and are fallen away, to be renewed again unto repentance. Apoc. 2. I have somewhat against thee: that thou hast left thy first Charity; be mindful from whence thou art fallen, etc.

It is PROVED thirdly from the definition of the Church. In the Council of Vienne, as is had in the Clementine cis; of Trent sess. 6 cap. 12 and 13 and can. 23. where it is said: If anyone shall say that a man once justified cannot sin again, nor lose grace, and therefore that he who falls and sins was never truly justified; let him be anathema.

It is PROVED fourthly by S. Thomas from the authorities of the Fathers which the Master reports. To these add the holy Augustine Lib. de corrept. et gratia, cap. 13 and Lib. de praedest. Sanctorum, cap. 14. Cyprian Lib. de Lapsis, Ambrose exhort. ad Poenit. Jerome Lib. 2 contra Iovinianum, Gregory lib. 1 moral. c. 42 and lib. 30 cap. 32. Chrysostom homil. 24 in Matth.

It is PROVED fifthly by S. Thomas: It is certain that baptized infants are justified and enriched with grace and Charity, and yet many in adult age sin gravely, even by falling away from the Faith. The major is conceded also by the Lutherans; indeed Calvin, Peter Martyr, and Bucer assert it even without baptism, as Bellarmine reports, who presses this argument.

But who will say that all of them are predestinated and impeccable? Yet if all baptized in infancy are predestinated and cannot perish, by what reasoning do we cry all the baptized children of Antichrist and miserably fallen?

It is PROVED sixthly. It is easier to fall away from Charity than to make progress; and to fall than to rise; it is easier also to lose Charity than faith; because when Faith is lost, Charity is lost, but not the reverse; but it is possible for a man who has not Charity to acquire it: it is possible also for a man having Faith to fall away from the Faith: Therefore it is easier for one having Charity to fall from it.

It is PROVED seventhly by S. Thomas: The state of the way is such that free will is free for good and for evil, which is clear from so many precepts, exhortations, promises for good works, threats against sins, with which the whole of Scripture is filled for the present state; all of which would be in vain if man could not fall and did not have liberty toward either.

The heretics OBJECT with many authorities, Cant. 8. Many waters cannot extinguish Charity.

S. Thomas responds in the Diaeta, tit. 5 cap. 2. that Charity is that fire of which Lucae 12. I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be kindled? and it is kindled by our will cooperating, as S. Thomas observes ad 12 Lucae. And so Charity is not extinguished so long as we do not will it to be extinguished. Water indeed that is natural extinguishes fire naturally; but waters that are not natural, among which tribulations also are reckoned, do not extinguish Charity. S. Ambrose Lib. 1 de Iacob cap. 7. and Gregory to this passage understand tribulations by these waters: for Charity endureth all things, from prima Cor. 13.

They OBJECT secondly with Ioan. 4. Whoever shall drink of this water shall not thirst forever; but there shall be made in him a fountain of water springing up unto life eternal.

S. Thomas responds to this passage that he who, drinking of this water, rests in it forever, does not thirst for the waters of concupiscence; and while he refuses the waters of the concupiscence of Egypt, he does not lose these waters: For they that drink me shall yet thirst. Eccl. 24, says the Wise Man. Therefore if beside the precious fountain of spiritual goods, which when had are ever more dear, standing in them we hold our lips greedily, as St. Augustine says Lib. 1 de doct. Christiana, cap. 38. and Gregory homil. 36 in Evang. and ever drink greedily, he will give perennial waters. See also collation 21 of S. Bonaventure on cap. 4 Ioannis, where he treats of it admirably.

They OBJECT thirdly with Rom. 8. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, etc. shall be able to separate us from the Charity of God.

S. Thomas responds in the Diaeta, tit. 5 cap. 2, and de sex alis Seraphim, cap. 2 and 7 and 8, and de septem Itineribus AEternitatis, dist. 6 and Itinere 4 dist. 5 art. 2. with D. Augustine Lib. de moribus Ecclesiae, cap. 11. that the power of Charity is here expressed, that if it burn in us it makes us undaunted against all tribulations; provided however that we wish to be constant, as Bellarmine also says; and therefore Augustine warns in the same place that Charity can be lost in the way.

S. Thomas responds secondly de septem Itineribus AEternitatis, Itinere 4 dist. 5, and in the little work on the Incendium amoris, cap. 2. that the Apostle speaks with a certain vehemence of resolve, inflamed in prayer, and promising to himself a certain moral security from the grace of God.

They OBJECT fourthly with prima Corinrh. 13. Charity never falleth away.

S. Thomas responds 3 dist. 31 art. 3 quaest. 1. that it does not fall away of itself, because both in this life and in the future it has its place, as the Gloss says: but in contrast to Faith and Hope, which cease from their entity; the Apostle does not will, however, that no one fall from Charity. S. Thomas also refers to the responses of the Master.

They OBJECT fifthly, prima Ioan. 3. Whoever is born of God sinneth not: for his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin; because he is born of God.

It is answered from D. Augustine tract. 5 in epist. Ioan. Jerome Lib. 1 adversus Pelag. and Lib. 2 contra Iovinianum, that while grace abides in us, preserving us in the state of sons of God, we cannot sin; for on that supposition Charity abides, which is contrary to aversion from God: This response is also D. Bonaventure's ad tertium.

They also ADD the presumptuous saying attributed to Augustine epist. 111. Charity which can be deserted was never true.

It is answered, that this is not D. Augustine's.

S. Thomas responds secondly 3 dist. 31 dub. 1. that the major is true, that is, with respect to the accomplishment of the End, whence it is rather called vain, or void of the end of Faith.

You OBJECT first, Charity is stronger than natural love; but the latter unites indissolubly: Therefore.

S. Thomas responds, that Charity is not more noble than natural love in indissolubility, but in object and term and supernatural end.

You OBJECT secondly. A weaker cannot expel a stronger with more force; but Charity is strong as death: Therefore.

S. Thomas responds; that Charity is not expelled in combat by sin, but fails from the demerit of the sinner and God refusing influx.

You OBJECT thirdly; Because sin arises either from love or from perverse fear, from D. Bernard Lib. de diligendo Deo, cap. 8. but one having Charity admits neither a perverse fear that depresses, nor a love that wrongly inflames: Therefore.

S. Thomas responds, that these evil affections are not actually in the composite sense together with Charity prior in time to sin; yet they can be induced previously in origin and expel Charity; for free will, made straight by Charity, can be curved by cupidity.

You OBJECT fourthly: The will follows the predominant affection; but this is Charity: Therefore.

It is answered, that the will follows the affection actually predominant, but not the habit; therefore, although Charity predominate by habit, nevertheless an act can arise that turns the will away, while man established in grace forgets God and thinks on the things of the world.

You OBJECT fifthly. One having Charity has Christ for foundation, and the Holy Spirit for aid.

It is answered, that Christ sustains only those willing, and the Holy Spirit aids those cooperating. But how mortal sin destroys Charity, physically or morally, was disputed prima secundae, Tract. de Peccato, disp. 1 quaest. 6. where I showed that grace and sin are opposed morally, not physically, with D. Bonaventure in the places there adduced, and in 3 dist. 31 a. 1, Scotus in 4 dist. 16 quaest. 2 against the Thomists.

It is proved also by D. Bonaventure to the second. Man does not attain the effective production of Charity, because he cannot attain creation: Therefore neither annihilation. For every agent, as it acts from a subject, so it resolves its effect into a subject.

Whence the response of Calpensis fell, taken from the corruption of natural forms, insofar as something which did not produce a form can destroy it by producing something contrary to it. This response, I say, is vain; because sin is not a formal entity able to expel Charity; but it is a privation: And if it were a form, it would not have annihilative virtue, just as it has not creative virtue.