Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (60).

1. On the sending of the Holy Spirit by which he is sent invisibly. Let us now proceed to assign the sending of the Holy Spirit by which he is sent invisibly into the hearts of the faithful. For the Holy Spirit himself, who is God and who was made less than the Father and the Holy Spirit himself, and also made a little lower than the angels¹, «is therefore», as he himself says in Book I of The Trinity², «by nature equal to God the Father, but less in condition, that is, in the form of a servant which he took». — These authorities plainly show that the Son according to the form of a servant is less than the Father, himself, and the Holy Spirit.

³ om. LRW. 7 sit maior] trp. BMVX. 11 hoc est] om. OP.]

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Chapter 1: Cf. J. Schupp, Die Gnadenlehre des Petrus Lombardus, 216–242; A. M. Landgraf, Caritas und Heiliger Geist, in Dogmengeschichte der Frühscholastik I-1, Regensburg 1952, 220–237; and J. Schneider, Die Lehre vom Dreieinigen Gott..., 105–111. the third person in the Trinity, as was shown above⁶, proceeds temporally from the Father, the Son, and himself, that is, he is sent and given to the faithful. But what this sending or donation is, and how it occurs, must be considered.

2. Something necessary for this demonstration is set forth first, namely, that the Holy Spirit is the charity by which we love God and neighbor. In order that this may be taught more intelligibly and perceived more fully, something very necessary for the matter must first be stated. It was said above⁷ and shown by sacred authorities that the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son, by which they love one another and us. To this must be added that the same Holy Spirit himself is the love or charity by which we love God and neighbor. When this charity is in us in such a way that it makes us love God and neighbor, the Holy Spirit is then said to be sent or given to us; and whoever loves the love itself by which he loves his neighbor loves God in that very act, because that love is God⁸, that is, the Holy Spirit.

3. He confirms this by authorities. But lest we seem to introduce anything of our own into so great a matter, let us corroborate what was said with sacred authorities. — On this Augustine says in Book VIII of The Trinity⁹: «Whoever loves his neighbor must consequently love love itself above all. But God is love¹⁰; consequently he must love God above all».

— Likewise in the same work¹¹: «God is love, as the Apostle John says¹². Why, then, do we go and run to the heights of heaven and the depths of the earth, seeking him who is with us, if we wish to be with him?» «Let no one say: I do not know what to love. Let him love his brother, and let him love that same love. For he knows the love by which he loves better than the brother whom he loves. Behold, he can now have a more knowable God than his brother—plainly more knowable, because more present, more inward, more certain. Embrace love, God, and embrace God with love. It is love itself that joins all good angels and all God’s servants in the bond of holiness. The holier we are, and the less empty with the swelling of pride, the fuller we are of love; and with what is one full, if not with God, when one is full of love?» By these words Augustine sufficiently shows that the love itself by which we love God or neighbor is God.

4. But he adds still more plainly in the same book¹³: «Let us attend to how highly the Apostle John commends brotherly love. Whoever loves, he says¹⁴, remains in the light, and there is no scandal in him. It is clear that he placed the perfection of justice in love of one’s brother; for whoever has no scandal is certainly perfect. And yet he seems to have been silent about love of God, which he would never do unless he wished God to be understood in that brotherly love. For most plainly in the same Epistle, shortly afterward¹⁵, he says: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This sequence clearly declares that this very brotherly love—for brotherly love is that by which we love one another—is preached by such great authority, namely John’s, to be not only from God but also God. When, therefore, we love our brother with love, we love our brother with God; nor can it happen that we do not love above all that same love by which we love our brother, since God is love¹⁶». Likewise¹⁷: «Whoever does not love his brother is not in love; and whoever is not in love is not in God, because God is love». Behold, he has said most plainly that brotherly love is God.

Chapter 2 (61).

That brotherly love, although it is God, is not the Father or the Son, but only the Holy Spirit. Since brotherly love is God, it is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Holy Spirit, who is properly called love or charity in the Trinity. — Hence Augustine in Book XV of The Trinity¹⁸: «If there is nothing greater among God’s gifts than charity, and no gift of God is greater than the Holy Spirit, what follows more reasonably than that he himself is the charity which is called both God and from God?» «For John says¹⁹: Love is from God; and shortly afterward: God is love. Here he shows that he called that love God which he said was from God. God, therefore, is from God love». — Likewise in the same work²⁰: «John, wishing to speak more clearly about this matter, says: By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. Therefore the Holy Spirit, of whom he has given us, makes us remain in God and him in us; but love does this. He is therefore God-love; he is therefore signified where it is read²¹: God is love.» From these things it is clear that the Holy Spirit is charity.

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²³ ac added BCMNTW. 13 Deum] eum omitted OP, corrected in O². 22 esse velimus transposed in BCX. 29 sanctiores] seniores MNR (Augustine).]

Chapter 3 (62).

That the statement ‘God is charity’ was not made by reason of a cause, as ‘You are my patience and my hope’ was. But lest someone perhaps say that the statement God is charity was made by expressing a cause, namely, because charity is from God and is not God himself, just as God is our patience and hope is said—not because he himself is these things, but because these things are from him—Augustine responds by showing that this was not said by reason of a cause as those statements were. In Book XV of The Trinity²⁴ he says: «We shall not say that charity is called God not because charity is some substance worthy of the name God, but because it is God’s gift, just as it is said to God²⁵: You are my patience. This was certainly not said because our patience is God’s substance, but because it is from him; hence elsewhere²⁶: My patience is from him. The very language of Scripture easily refutes this interpretation: You are my patience is of the same kind as Lord, my hope²⁷ and My God, my mercy²⁸, and many similar statements. But it was not said, Lord, you are my love, or You are my love, or God, you are my love; rather it was said²⁹: God is love, just as it was said³⁰: God is Spirit. Whoever does not distinguish this should not ask us for an interpretation from the Lord; for we cannot say anything more clearly. God, therefore, is love». From the foregoing it is clear that the Holy Spirit is the charity by which we love God and neighbor; hence it is easier for us to show how the Holy Spirit is sent or given to us.

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Chapter 4 (63).

1. How the Holy Spirit is sent or given to us. He is then said to be sent or given when he is in us in such a way that he makes us love God and neighbor, through which we remain in God and God in us. — Hence Augustine, indicating this mode of sending, says in Book XV of The Trinity³²: «God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from God, when he has been given to a human being, kindles him to love God and neighbor, and he himself is love. For a human being has no means by which to love God except from God». Behold how the Holy Spirit is given or sent to us, insofar as he is called something given or a gift.

2. Here it is noted more clearly how the Holy Spirit is given. Augustine commends this gift by explaining more clearly how it is given in the same book³³: «The love, he says, of God has been poured into our hearts, as the Apostle says³⁴, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. No gift of God is more excellent than this; it alone distinguishes between the children of the kingdom and the children of perdition. Other gifts are also given through the Spirit, but without charity they are of no benefit. Unless, therefore, the Holy Spirit is imparted to each person to such an extent that he makes him a lover of God and neighbor, he is not transferred from the left to the right. Nor is the Holy Spirit properly called a gift except on account of the love which, if someone does not have it, even if he speaks in all tongues, has prophecy and all knowledge and all faith, distributes his substance, and hands over his body to be burned, benefits him nothing³⁵. How great, then, is the good without which such great goods bring no one to eternal life! Love or charity itself—for both are names of one thing—brings one to the kingdom. The love, therefore, which is from God and is God, is properly the Holy Spirit, through whom God-love is poured into our hearts, through which the whole Trinity dwells in us. Therefore most rightly the Holy Spirit, since he is God, is also called the gift of God³⁶. What else should this gift properly be understood to be but charity, which leads to God, and without which no other gift of God leads to God?"

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3. He gathers the substance of the foregoing authority. Here it is disclosed what was said above, namely that charity is the Holy Spirit and the more excellent gift, and how this gift, that is, the Holy Spirit, is given to us: namely, when he is imparted to someone, that is, when he so comes to be in someone that he makes that person a lover of God and neighbor. When he does this, he is then said to be given or sent to someone, and that person is then properly said to have the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 5 (64).

1. Whether it should be granted that the Holy Spirit increases in a person and is possessed or given more or less. Here it is asked: if charity is the Holy Spirit, and if it increases and decreases in a person, and is possessed more or less at different times, should it be granted that the Holy Spirit increases or decreases in a person and is possessed more or less? For if he increases in a person and is given and possessed more or less, he seems to be changeable; but God is wholly immutable. Therefore it seems either that the Holy Spirit is not charity, or that charity does not increase or decrease in a person.

2. Whether the Holy Spirit is given to one who has him and to one who does not. Again, charity is given to one who does not have it, so that he may have it, and to one who has it, so that he may have it more fully³⁹. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is charity, he is given to one who does not have him so that he may have him, and to one who has him so that he may have him more fully. But how is he given to one who does not have him, since as God he is wholly everywhere and in all creatures? And how is he given or possessed more fully without a change in him?

3. Response to the first question. We respond to these questions by saying that the Holy Spirit, or charity, is wholly immutable: he neither increases nor decreases in himself, nor receives more or less in himself; but he increases and decreases in a person, or rather for a person, and is given or possessed more or less—just as God is said to be magnified and exalted in us, although he is neither magnified nor exalted in himself. Hence the Prophet⁴⁰: A man shall come to the deep heart, and God shall be exalted. On this passage the authority says⁴¹: "God grows great not in himself, but in the human heart." Thus the Holy Spirit is given to a person, and, once given, is given more fully—that is, he increases—and is possessed more or less, while nevertheless remaining immutable.

4. Response to the second. Although he is everywhere and wholly in every creature, there are nevertheless many who do not have him. For not everyone has the Holy Spirit in whom he is; otherwise irrational creatures too would have the Holy Spirit, which the piety of faith does not allow.

5. He confirms both responses by authority. To make what we have said more certain, we confirm it by authority. That the Holy Spirit is received more or less, increases for a person, is given to one who does not have him, and is given to one who has him so that he may have him more fully, Augustine shows when he says in his Commentary on John⁴²: "It is clear that without the Holy Spirit we cannot love Christ and keep his commandments, and that we can do and accomplish this less the less we receive him, and more the more we receive him. Therefore the promise is made not only to one who does not have him, but also not in vain to one who has him: to one who does not have him, so that he may have him; to one who has him, so that he may have him more fully. For if one did not have him less and another more, holy Elisha would not say to holy Elijah: May the spirit that is in you be twofold in me.

6. In the Book of Kings⁴³ it reads: Elijah said to Elisha: Ask what you wish me to do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said: I ask that your spirit be doubled in me. The passage is explained there as follows⁴⁴: "Elijah was outstandingly powerful in the prophetic spirit and in the working of miracles; therefore Elisha asked that the twofold grace which he recognized to be vigorous in his master be granted to him. Hence it is clear that he did not ask to be above his master as a disciple"⁴⁵.

7. "But to Christ⁴⁶, who is the Son of God, the Spirit was not given by measure⁴⁷. For the man Christ, mediator of God and human beings, is not without the grace of the Holy Spirit⁴⁸. As for what he is—the only-begotten Son, equal to the Father—that is not grace but nature; but that the man assumed into the unity of the person of the Only-Begotten is what he is, is grace, not nature. To the others, however, he is given by measure, and, once given, is added to them until each person's proper measure is filled according to the measure of his perfection."

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8. You have here an explicit statement that the Holy Spirit is given more or less, and that, once given to a person, he increases, and is given both to one who has him and to one who does not, because the Holy Spirit is charity, which is given to one who does not have it and increases and advances in one who has it. Indeed, to speak more truly and precisely, the person advances in it, and sometimes falls back; and then charity itself is said to advance or fall back, although it neither advances nor falls back in itself, because it is God. Hence Augustine says in Homily IX on the Epistle of John⁵¹: "Let each person test how far charity has advanced in him—or rather, how far he himself has advanced in charity; for if charity is God, it neither advances nor falls back. Thus charity is said to advance in you because you advance in it." This is how the statement that the Holy Spirit is "increased in us" is to be understood: we advance in him; and the same applies to other statements of this kind.

Chapter 6 (65).

1. That some say the Holy Spirit is not the charity by which we love God and neighbor. It was said above⁵² that the Holy Spirit is the charity of the Father and the Son, by which they love one another and us, and that he is that same charity which is poured into our hearts for loving God and neighbor. All Catholics grant the first of these, namely that the Holy Spirit is the charity of the Father and the Son; but most deny that he is the same charity by which we love God and neighbor. For they say: If the Holy Spirit is the charity of the Father and the Son and of us, then the charity by which God loves us is the same as that by which we love him. But the authorities of the saints seem to deny this.

2. Authorities that seem to support them. Augustine says in his book On the Spirit and the Letter⁵³: "Where does love come from, if not from the same source as faith, namely from the Holy Spirit? It would not be in us unless it were poured into our hearts through the Spirit⁵⁴. But the charity of God is said to be poured into our hearts not as that by which he himself loves us, but as that by which he makes us his lovers: just as the justice of God is that by which we are made just through his gift, and the salvation of the Lord is that by which he saves us, and the faith of Christ⁵⁵ is that by which he makes us faithful." These words seem to show a distinction between the charity by which God loves and that by which we love. And just as our justice is called God's—not because he himself is just by it, but because it makes us just—so too with faith and salvation; thus it seems that the charity of God which is in us is called so not because he loves by it, but because it makes us love. — Augustine likewise says in Book XV of The Trinity⁵⁶: "When John had recalled the love of God—not by which we love him, but by which he himself loved us and sent his Son as deliverer for our sins⁵⁷" etc. Here too he seems plainly to distinguish the love by which we love God from that by which he loves us.

3. He proceeds by arguing from the words of the authorities. If, then, they say, the Holy Spirit is the love by which God loves and by which we love, there are two loves, or rather two different things—which is absurd and far from the truth. Therefore he is not the love by which we love, but only the love by which God loves.

4. Response determining the authorities. We respond by determining the words of the authorities cited above in this way: "The charity of God is said to be poured into our hearts not as that by which he himself loves us, but as that by which he makes us love," etc. These words do not divide, nor show divided, the charity by which God loves from that by which we love; rather, since it is one and the same charity, they show that in Scripture the very same charity is called "the charity of God" for different causes and reasons. It is called "the charity of God" either because God loves us by it, or because by it he makes us his lovers.

— Determination of the first authority. When the Apostle says, then, that the charity of God has been poured into our hearts⁵⁸, this is not called the charity of God by which he loves us, but that by which he makes us love; that is, it is not called "the charity of God" there because God loves us by it, but because by it he makes us his lovers. That it could be called "the charity of God" for this reason—that it makes us love—is shown by a similar kind of expression: "Just as it is called the justice of God by which he justifies us, the salvation of the Lord by which he saves us, and the faith of Christ by which he makes us faithful."

— Determination of the second. We explain the other authority in a similar way, where he says that the love of God is recalled not as that by which we love him, but as that by which he himself loved us—as if he were saying: he recalls the love of God not insofar as by it we love God, but insofar as by it he himself loves us.

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5. Another objection. But they bring forward another point, they say, which presses harder. Augustine said above⁶¹ that love is from the Holy Spirit, from whom faith is also. Therefore, just as faith is not the Holy Spirit from whom it is, neither is charity. For how can charity be the Holy Spirit if it is from him? For if it is from him and is he himself, then the Spirit is from himself.

— Response. To this we say: the Holy Spirit is indeed not from himself, yet he is also given to us from himself, as was said above⁶². For the Holy Spirit gives himself to us; and it is in this sense that it was said that charity is from him, namely, in us; and nevertheless charity itself is the Holy Spirit. Faith, however, is from the Holy Spirit and is not the Holy Spirit, because it is only a gift or something given, not the God who gives.

6. The other reasons and authorities they introduce to prove the same thing. They also introduce other reasons to show the same thing, namely that charity is not the Holy Spirit, because charity is an affection of the mind and a movement of the soul. But the Holy Spirit is not an affection of the soul or a movement of the mind, because the Holy Spirit is immutable and uncreated; therefore he is not charity.

— That charity is a movement or affection of the soul. They confirm by authorities that charity is an affection of the soul and a movement of the mind. Augustine says in Book III of On Christian Doctrine⁶³: "I call charity a movement of the soul toward enjoying God for his own sake, and oneself and one's neighbor for God's sake." Likewise, in his book On the Morals of the Catholic Church⁶⁴, while treating the Apostle's saying⁶⁵, Neither death nor life will be able to separate us from the charity of God, he says: "The charity of God is here called the virtue which is the most upright affection of our soul, which joins us to God," by which we love him. These words express that charity is an affection and movement of the soul, and therefore it does not seem to be the Holy Spirit.

7. Response determining the authorities. To this we say that the statement is to be understood as follows: just as God is said to be our hope and our patience⁶⁶ because he makes us hope and endure, so charity is said to be a movement or affection of the soul because through it the soul is moved and affected toward loving God. Nor should you be surprised that charity, since it is the Holy Spirit, is called a movement of the mind, since in the Book of Wisdom⁶⁷ the Spirit of wisdom is also said to reach from end to end, which is the act of something mobile, certain, and undefiled. This is not said because Wisdom is something mobile or some act, but because by its immobility it reaches all things—not by local movement, but by being everywhere always and nowhere held enclosed. Thus charity is called a movement of the soul, not because it itself is a movement or affection or virtue of the soul, but because through it, as though it were a virtue, the mind is affected and moved.

8. But if charity is the Holy Spirit, who works in each person as he wills⁶⁸, and if through him the human mind is affected and moved to believe or hope and the like, just as it is moved to love, why is charity not likewise called a movement or affection of the mind toward believing or hoping, as it is toward loving? — To this one may properly reply that charity, that is, the Holy Spirit, works the other acts and movements of the virtues through the virtues whose acts they are: for example, the act of faith, namely believing, through faith, and the act of hope, namely hoping, through hope; for through faith and hope he works the aforesaid acts. But the act of loving he works by himself alone, without the mediation of any virtue, that is, to love.

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9. Charity, then, truly is the Holy Spirit. Hence Augustine, treating the Apostle's preceding statement in the same book⁷⁴, says that charity is the good than which nothing is better, and thereby signifies that it is God, saying: "If no thing separates us from his charity, what can be not only better, but even more certain than this good?" Here he says that nothing is better than charity. Charity, therefore, is the Holy Spirit, who is God and the gift of God, or something given. He distributes gifts to individual believers without himself being divided; rather, he is given undivided to each. Hence Augustine⁷⁵, where John says⁷⁶ that the Spirit is not given to Christ by measure, says: "To the others he is divided—not the Spirit himself, but his gifts."