John Duns Scotus

Dionysius Cartusianus, Commentaria in I Sententiarum, d. XVII q. 1; Opera omnia, t. 20 (Tournai, 1902) — reporting Duns Scotus

Reported. These are not John Duns Scotus's own words. The Latin below is Denys the Carthusian's report of him — quoted at length in Denys's survey of the doctors, and rejected by him immediately after; Denys names no redaction, only Scotus, so which redaction this is cannot be recovered. It is evidence for what Denys the Carthusian wrote about John Duns Scotus, and never for what John Duns Scotus wrote.

Datec. 1302Placenot recoverableBench / bandfranciscanDistinctionI d.17 · cap. 1–6 · q.1, as reported by DenysRedactionnot recoverable — the reporter names none

Spirit or habit

English

Scotus, moreover, writes a great deal on this matter, and proves in many ways and effectively that a habit of charity must be posited. Then he adds: "It seems to me that in this matter the Master thought otherwise than is commonly imputed to him. For he holds that besides faith and hope there is also placed in the soul a habit making the soul pleasing, from which the act is called meritorious and is so; because in the second book he grants that grace is a virtue perfecting the soul, and that as rain is poured into the earth and waters and makes it fruitful, so grace is breathed into the soul, watering and perfecting it. He asserts also that the good use of free choice is from grace, which is a virtue of the soul.

"Hence I say that charity and grace are one habit, which is here presupposed; and the Master meant this, although he did not set it out openly. And so besides faith and hope there is no need to posit a habit of charity other than and distinct from grace. But the Master posits the Holy Spirit as assisting grace, so that, grace informing the soul, the Holy Spirit makes the soul itself fruitful through grace, and so, indwelling it, makes the act of its love pleasing; and the will, by the mediation of the habit of grace informing it and of the Holy Spirit indwelling, elicits the act of love. And thus, according to the Master, baptised infants have the Holy Spirit indwelling and grace making them pleasing.

Draft English (Claude), awaiting Wilson · cc-by · published at bonaventure.wrootpress.com. This page quotes it; that is its home.

Latin

Praeterea de hac re plurima scribit Scotus, et multipliciter ac efficaciter probat quod oporteat ponere habitum caritatis. Deinde subjungit: Mihi videtur quod in hac materia aliter sensit Magister quam communiter sibi imponitur. Vult enim quod praeter fidem et spem ponatur in anima etiam habitus gratificans animam, unde actus dicatur et sit meritorius: quia in libro secundo concedit quod gratia sit virtus perficiens animam, et quod sicut pluvia infunditur terrae eamque irrigat et fecundat, sic animae gratia inspiratur, ipsam irrigans atque perficiens. Asserit quoque quod usus bonus liberi arbitrii sit ex gratia, quae virtus est animae.

Hinc dico quod caritas et gratia sunt habitus unus, quod pro praesenti supponitur: et Magister hoc voluit, quamvis non explicavit aperte. Sicque praeter fidem et spem non oportet ponere habitum caritatis alium ac distinctum a gratia. Sed ponit Magister Spiritum Sanctum gratiae adsistentem, ita quod gratia animam informante, Spiritus Sanctus fecundat animam ipsam per gratiam, et sic eam inhabitans, gratificat actum suae dilectionis; et voluntas, mediante habitu gratiae informante ac Spiritu Sancto inhabitante, elicit actum dilectionis: et ita, secundum Magistrum, parvuli baptizati habent Spiritum Sanctum inhabitantem et gratiam gratificantem.

Dionysius Cartusianus, Commentaria in I Sententiarum, d. XVII q. 1; Opera omnia, t. 20 (Tournai, 1902) — reporting Duns Scotus · pd

Notes

⭐⭐ This is the note that answers the question this page has been asking since it was built. Every other witness here treats the Master as having said that charity is the Holy Spirit, and then agrees or disagrees. Scotus says the Master has been misread: mihi videtur quod in hac materia aliter sensit Magister quam communiter sibi imponitur. On his account Lombard does posit a habit making the soul pleasing — he concedes in Book II that grace is a virtue perfecting the soul, and uses the figure of rain watering the earth — and what he means is that charity and grace are one habit, with the Holy Spirit assisting it. And so baptised infants have both the Spirit indwelling and grace making them pleasing, which is the very case the fourteenth century used AGAINST the Master. ⛔ The words are Denys's report, not Scotus's own (RULINGS.md ruling 8), and the redaction cannot be recovered (ruling 9A). ⚠ Denys reports him in order to reject him: Porro haec Scoti opinio videtur in multis deficere, imo et implicare. A reader should know that the man who preserved this passage did not believe it.

Threads

→ contests · Denys the Carthusian
The reporter and the reported disagree, and the reporter says so on the same page: Porro haec Scoti opinio videtur in multis deficere, imo et implicare. Denys determines that the doctors have refuted the Master; the passage he has just quoted says the Master was never read right.
→ parallel · Bonaventure
Alone among the witnesses on this page, Scotus reads the Master as already holding a created habit: Vult enim quod praeter fidem et spem ponatur in anima etiam habitus gratificans animam. The thread is drawn to the divisio, which carries Lombard's own text here, because the relation being asserted is between Scotus and what Lombard MEANT — and no citation runs between them, only a reading of him against everyone else's.