QUOMODO IUSTE PUNIAT ET IUSTE PARCAT MALIS.
The Paradox of Divine Justice
Anselm poses the apparent contradiction that God is both just in punishing the wicked and just in sparing them.
And yet it is right that you punish the wicked. For what is more right than that the good receive good and the wicked receive evil? How then is it right that you punish the wicked, and right that you spare the wicked?
Two Standards of Justice
The resolution begins: punishment aligns with human merit, while pardon aligns with God's inherent goodness.
Is it in one way that you justly punish the wicked, and in another that you justly spare the wicked? When you punish the wicked, it is just, because it fits their merits; but when you spare the wicked, it is just, not because it fits their merits, but because it befits your goodness.
God's Goodness as the Measure
God's justice in mercy operates by His own standard of goodness, resolving the contradiction so that He justly punishes and justly spares.
For in sparing the wicked you are just by your own standard, not by ours; just as you are merciful by our standard, not by yours. Because in saving us, whom you would justly lose, you are merciful — not because you experience the feeling, but because we experience the effect; so you are just — not because you pay us what we are owed, but because you do what supremely becomes you, the supreme Good. So then, without any contradiction, you justly punish and you justly spare.
Read the original Latin
Sed et iustum est, ut malos punias. Quid namque iustius, quam ut boni bona et mali male recipient? Quomodo ergo et iustum est ut malos punias, et iustum est ut malis parcas?
An alio modo iuste punis malos, et alio modo iuste parcis malis? Cum enim punis malos, iustum est, quia illorum meritis convenit; cum vero parcis malis, iustum est, non quia illorum meritis sed quia bonitati tuae condecens est.
Nam parcendo malis ita iustus es secundum te et non secundum nos, sicut misericors es secundum nos et non secundum te. Quoniam salvando nos quos iuste perderes, sicut misericors es non quia tu sentias affectum sed quia nos sentimus effectum: ita iustus es non quia nobis reddas debitum sed quia facis quod decet te summe bonum. Sic itaque sine repugnantia iuste punis et iuste parcis.
Proslogion (Address / Discourse on the Existence of God) companion
One chapter of historic wisdom, every day
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Anselm designed the Proslogion to be read slowly as prayer, and the Chosen Portion app serves it exactly that way — one short portion per day.
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