Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Grace and Free Choice · Book I: On Grace
Chapter 1: On the various acceptations of grace
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, Book I. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
About to write, God helping, of grace and free choice, I see that the beginning must deservedly be made from grace itself.
Grace, then, took its name from this, that it is given gratis: “grace,” says St. Augustine in the tractate on Psalm 43 [al. 30], “is deservedly so named, because it is given gratis.” And it is opposed to debt, the Apostle saying, Romans 4: Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt. And Romans 11: And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
Now there are in the sacred writings three notions of this word. It is taken, first, in the amplest signification, for any benefit of God whatever, whether it be natural, or transcend the order and degree of nature; in which signification grace is taken in those words of Wisdom, chapter 16: Therefore even then it was transformed into all things, and was obedient to thy grace, that nourisheth all. In which place Scripture calls grace that kindness and providence of God which, as a nurse, preserves and cherishes all the things that were created by God himself. So also St. Augustine, on Psalm 144, on that verse, “and shall rejoice in thy justice”: “Let us attend to the grace of God — not only that whereby he made us, but also why he made us.” And in epistle 95 [al. 177]: “By a certain not disallowable reasoning, that whereby we were created is called the grace of God, and for this so great benefit we ought to give thanks. Whence deservedly this too ought to be called grace, because it was given not by the merits of any preceding works, but by the gratuitous goodness of God.” But this acceptation of grace does not make much to our matter; nor are the theologians wont, when they institute the disputation on the grace of God against the Pelagian heretics, to signify by the name of grace natural gifts. For the Pelagians did not deny grace taken in this first way; nay, they even strove to cover their heresies with it as with a certain cloak, when they said that without the grace of God we can do nothing — but by the name of grace they would have free choice, and other natural gifts of that kind, understood, as St. Augustine is witness in the book On the Grace of Christ, chapter 3 and following.
Grace of God is taken, second, for those divine benefits alone which, superadded to nature, are neither necessary for constituting or preserving the nature of the thing, nor flow from it, nor are in any way owed to it. And we understand that in this place the name of grace of God is given to supernatural benefits in a certain general signification, so that those also are comprehended which are conferred not from the merit of Christ, but from the mere liberality of God; and not on the unworthy and sinners, but on the not-worthy and not-just; and which are to be named not so much unowed as not owed. That of this kind were the original righteousness and the grace that makes pleasing conferred on our first parent in creation, we shall demonstrate a little later. Of which grace, as also of the grace of the angels, which pertains to this same kind, St. Augustine disputes, both elsewhere and in the book On Rebuke and Grace, chapters 10 and 11. Hither also can be referred the grace which the Scriptures witness to have been in the humanity of Christ. Psalm 44: grace is poured abroad in thy lips. Luke 2: the grace of God was in him. John 1: full of grace and truth. Of which St. Augustine speaks thus, book 1 On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 15: “By that grace every man, from the beginning of his faith, becomes a Christian, by which grace that man from his beginning was made the Christ; of that same Spirit is this man reborn, of which that man was born; by the same Spirit is wrought in us the remission of sins, by which Spirit it was wrought that he had no sin.” Thus Augustine.
Grace of God is taken, third, most properly, for those benefits of God alone which are not only supernatural and not owed, but are also conferred on unworthy men from the merit of Christ. Romans 3: Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus. Where the Apostle did not believe it enough to say “justified freely,” but added, “by his grace,” and, “through the redemption that is in Christ” — to signify, namely, that justification after Adam's fall is not only given gratis, but is given also to the unworthy and to sinners, who, unless they were redeemed through the second Adam, would remain sons of wrath and slaves of Satan for eternal time. The same blessed Apostle also, when he had said, Romans 6, “the wages of sin is death,” did not adjoin “the wages of righteousness is eternal life,” which the antithesis seemed to require, and which without doubt he would have adjoined had he been speaking of man before the fall, as St. Augustine disputes in the Enchiridion, chapters 106 and 107; but he adjoined, “the grace of God is life everlasting.” For although, as Augustine writes in the place cited, eternal life is the sure reward of works, yet the holy Apostle preferred to call it grace, that we might understand that our very merits also are the gifts of God — and not only because without the grace of God there can be no good merits of free choice, but because after that ruin of Adam free choice had to be delivered from the captivity and servitude of sin by a certain new and singular grace of God.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT PRIMUM. De variis acceptionibus Gratia1. v / De gratia et libero arbitrio, Deo juvante, scripturus, ab ipsa gratia merito incipiendum esse video. Igitur gratia inde nomen accepit, quod gratis detur; gratia, inquit S. Augustinus tractat, in Psal xliii, merito nominatur , quia gratis datur. Opponitur autem debito, dicente Apostolo, ad Rom. iv. E i autem qui operatur, merces non imputatur secundum gratiam, sed secundum debitum. Et ad Roman. xi. Si autem gratia , jam non ex operibus, alioquin gratia, jam non est gratia (I). Porro tres sunt in sacris litteris hujus vo¬ cabuli notiones, accipitur primum amplis¬ sima significatione pro quovis beneficio Dei, sive illud naturale sit, sive natura? ordinem gradumque transcendat ; qua significatione accipitur gratia in illis verbis Sapient, cap. xvi. Propter hoc et tunc in omnia transfigu¬ rata omnium nutrici gratiae lux deserviebant. Quo loco gratiam vocat Scriptura illam Dei benignitatem et providentiam , quse tan- quam nutrix, omnia quse ab ipso Deo creata sunt, conservat et fovet; sic etiam S. Au¬ gustinus in Psal. cxliv. in illud : Et justitia tua exultabunt : « Attendamus, inquit, gra¬ tiam Dei non solum qua fecit nos, verum etiam quare fecit». Et in Epist. 95 « Quadam inquit, non improbanda ratione dicitur gratia Dei, qua creati sumus, et de hoc tanto bene¬ ficio gratias agere debemus. Unde merito et ista gratia dici debet, quia non praeceden¬ tium aliquorum operum meritis, sed gratuita Dei bonitate donata est. » Cseterum hsec acceptio gratise non mul- , tum ad rem nostram facit, neque solent theologi, cum de gratia Dei disputationem adversus haereticos Pelagianos instituunt, gratise nomine dona naturalia significare. Pelagiani enim gratiam, hoc primo modo ac¬ ceptam, non negabant, quin etiam hinc hse- reses suas quasi quodam pallio tegere cona¬ bantur, cum dicerent, sine Dei gratia nihil nos agere posse ; gratise autem nomine libe¬ rum arbitrium, atque alia id genus naturalia dona intelligi volebant, ut sanctus Augusti¬ nus testis est in libro de gratia Christi, cap. 3. et sequentibus. Accipitur secundo gratia Dei pro solis illis beneficiis divinis, quse natura? superaddita, neque ad rei naturam constituendam, aut conservandam sunt necessaria, neque ex ipsa fluunt, aut ipsi quoquo modo debentur. Intelligimus autem hoc loco gratiam Dei vo¬ cari supernaturalia beneficia generali qua¬ dam significatione, ut etiam illa comprehen¬ dantur, quse non ex merito Christi, sed ex sola Dei liberalitate, neque in indignos, et (l)Rom. IV, 4; Rom. XI, 6. — Sap. XVI, 25. 500 LIBER I. peccatores, sed in non dignos, et non justos conferuntur, quaeque non tara indebita, quam non debita nominanda sunt. Ejusmodi fuisse justitiam originalem, et gratiam gratum fa¬ cientem primo nostro parenti in creatione collatam, post paulo demonstrabimus. De qua gratia, ut etiam de gratia Angelorum, quae ad hoc idem genus pertinet, disputat S. Augustinus, cum alibi, tum in libro de correptione et gratia, cap. 10. et 11. Huc etiam referri potest gratia quam in Christi humanitate fuisse Scripturae testan¬ tur, Psal. xliv. Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis. Luc ii. Gratia Dei erat in illo , Joan. i. Plenum gratise et veritatis (1). De qua sic lo¬ quitur S. Augustinus lib. i. de praedestina¬ tione Sanctorum, cap. Io. « Ea gratia fit ab initio fidei su® homo quicumque Chri¬ stianus, qua gratia homo ille ab initio factus est Christus : de ipso Spiritu et hic renatus, de quo est ille natus : eodem Spiritu fit in nobis remissio peccatorum , quo Spiritu factum est, ut nullum haberet ille pecca¬ tum. )> Hac Augustinus. Accipitur tertio gratia Dei maxime pro¬ prie pro solis illis Dei beneficiis, qua; non modo.supernaturalia et non debita sunt, sed etiam indiguis hominibus ex Christi merito conferuntur, ad Rom. m. Justificati gratis per gratiam ipsius , per redemptionem quse est in Christo Jesu (2). Ubi non satis esse credidit Apostolus si diceret ; Justificati gratis , sed addidit : Per gratiam ipsius, Et : Per Red¬ emptionem , quse est in Christo , nimirum ut significaret, justificationem post lapsum Ad®, non solum gratis dari, sed etiam indi¬ gnis, et peccatoribus dari, qui nisi persecun- dum Adamum redimerentur, iras filii, et servi Sathan® aeterno tempore permanerent. Idem quoque Beatus Apostolus, cum di¬ xisset ad Roman.vi. Stipendium peccati mors, non adjunxit stipendium justitia; vita aeterna, quod antithesis requirere videbatur, et quod sine dubio adjunxisset, si de homine ante lapsum loqueretur, ut sanctus Augustinus disputat in Enchiridio, cap. 10G. et 107. sed adjunxit: Gratia Dei vita aeterna. Tametsi enim, ut loco citato scribit Augustinus, vita aeterna certa sit merces operum, eam tamen gratiam appellare maluit sanctus Apostolus, ut intclligercmus, ipsa etiam nostra merita esse Dei munera, neque id solum, quod sine Dei gratia nulla esse possint liberi arbitrii bona merita, sed quia post illam Ad® rui¬ nam nova quadam et singulari Dei gratia liberandum fuit liberum arbitrium, a capti¬ vitate ac servitute peccati. CAPUT II. De partitionibus gratise.