Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 12: The Same Confirmed by Natural Reason
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Monachis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book II), On Monks (On the Members of the Church, Book II). 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).
Lastly, it is proved by a reason drawn both from natural bodies and from political commonwealths. For we see in any natural thing that there is a twofold perfection: one necessary to being, the other to well-being; one without which the nature of the thing is not perfect, the other without which it is not adorned. A man, if he have soul and body, is perfect as to nature, even though otherwise he be deformed, unskilled, and wicked. But when he is elegant, polished, comely, learned, upright, he has a certain other perfection. Therefore in the same way the Christian man ought to have a twofold perfection: one necessary to being — that is, by which he is truly a son of God and heir of the kingdom, which consists in the observance of the precepts (for otherwise Christ would not be a good lawgiver, if He had given a law which did not perfect the Christian man); the other necessary to well-being, which consists in the counsels.
Likewise we see in all well-ordered commonwealths that, besides the rewards and penalties appointed for those who keep or transgress the laws, there are also certain rewards decreed for heroic deeds. Hence among the Romans, besides the pay due to soldiers who did not violate the discipline of warfare, there were also civic crowns, ovations, thanksgivings, and triumphs decreed for heroic deeds, as all know. So, then, it is not repugnant to reason, but rather conformable to reason, that besides the eternal life promised to the observers of the divine law, there be also certain rewards and singular honors for those who not only keep the law of God, but also show heroic virtues.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPDT XII. Idem confirmatur naturali ratione. Ultimo probatur ratione desumpta, tum ex corporibus naturalibus, tum ex politicis . Bebuspublicis./ Videmus enim in quali¬ bet re naturali, duplicem esse perfectio- 534 LIBER II. nem : unam necessariam ad esse, alteram ad bene esse : unam, sine qua »ei natura non est perfecta, alteram, sine qua non est ornata ; homo si habeat animam et corpus, perfectus est, quod ad naturam attinet, etiamsi alioqui deformis, et imperitus, atque improbus sit. At cum est elegans, politus, formosus, doctus, probus, aliam quamdam habet perfectionem ; ergo eodem modo homo Christianus duplicem habere debet perfectionem : unam necessariam ad esse, id est, per quam sit vere filius Dei, et hseres regni, quae consistit in praeceptorum obser¬ vatione ; alioqui enim non esset Christus bonus legislator, si legem tulisset, quae non perficeret hominem Christianum : alteram necessariam ad bene esse, quae consistit in consiliis. Yidemus item in omnibus bene institutis Rebuspublicis praeter praemia, et pcenas constitutas servantibus, aut transgredienti- bus leges, esse etiam praemia quaedam de¬ creta heroicis operibus. Hinc apud Romanos praeter stipendia debita militibus, non vio¬ lantibus militiae disciplinam, fuisse etiam coronas civicas, ovationes, supplicationes, ac triumphos decretos factis heroicis, ut omnes noverunt. Ita ergo non abhorret a ratione, imo potius conforme est rationi, ut praeter vitam aeternam promissam obser¬ vatoribus legis divinae, sintetiam certa prae¬ mia, et singulares honores pro iis, qui non solum Dei legem servant, sed etiam virtutes heroicas ostendunt.