QUOMODO TOTUS IUSTUS ET SUMME IUSTUS PARCAT MALIS; ET QUOD IUSTE MISEREATUR MALIS.
The Problem of Mercy toward the Wicked
Anselm presses the tension between God's perfect justice and His mercy toward the wicked, asking how saving the undeserving can be just.
But how can you spare the wicked, if you are wholly just and supremely just? For how can one who is wholly and supremely just do anything that is not just? Or what justice is it, to one deserving eternal death, to give everlasting life? So where does this come from, good God — good to the good and to the wicked — where does it come from for you to save the wicked, if this is not just, and yet you do nothing that is not just?
The Hidden Source of Mercy
Anselm locates the origin of mercy in the incomprehensible depth of God's goodness, likening it to a hidden spring feeding a visible river.
Is it because your goodness is beyond comprehension that this remains hidden in the inaccessible light you dwell in? Truly, in the highest and most hidden depth of your goodness lies the source from which the river of your mercy flows.
Mercy Flows from Supreme Goodness
Because God is supremely good, He is kind to the wicked as well as the good, and this broader mercy is a higher expression of goodness than rewarding only the righteous.
For since you are wholly and supremely just, you are nevertheless for that reason also kind to the wicked, because you are wholly and supremely good. You would be less good if you were kind to no one who is wicked. For the one who is good to both the good and the wicked is better than the one who is good only to the good. And the one who is good to the wicked both by punishing and by sparing is better than the one who is good only by punishing. And so you are merciful because you are wholly and supremely good. And although it may seem puzzling why you repay good things to the good and evil things to the wicked, this at least is deeply to be wondered at: that you, wholly just and needing nothing from the wicked, bestow good things on those who are guilty.
Beholding the Unfathomable Spring
Anselm exclaims at the depth of God's goodness, affirming that mercy flows from its fullness even though the source itself remains beyond human sight.
O the depth of your goodness, God! We can see where your mercy comes from, but we cannot see through to its source. We can see where the river flows, but we cannot make out the spring from which it rises. For it comes from the fullness of your goodness that you are more generous to your sinners, and hidden in the depth of that goodness is the reason why you are this way.
The Wonder of Mercy Crossing Justice
While repaying each according to deserts seems just, it is the surprising fact that the supremely just God also wills to give good things to the wicked that evokes wonder.
For even though you may repay good to the good and ill to the bad out of your goodness, the demands of justice seem to require this. But when you grant good things to the bad, it is known that you, being supremely good, willed to do this — and it is a wonder that you, being supremely just, could will it.
A Cry for Mercy's Sweetness
Anselm breaks into passionate prayer, marveling at how God saves the righteous and frees sinners, and pleading that mercy prevail over judgment.
O mercy, with what rich sweetness and sweet richness you flow out to us! O immensity of God's goodness, with what love you are to be loved by sinners! For you save the righteous, with justice accompanying them, but you free those others by condemning them with that same justice. Those you help by their merits, and these you resist by their merits. Those you acknowledge by recognizing the good things you gave; these you forgive by overlooking the wrongs you hated. O immense goodness, you surpass every understanding — let that mercy come upon me, the mercy that proceeds from so great an abundance of yourself! Let it flow into me — the mercy that flows out from you! Spare through mercy, so you don't avenge through justice!
Merciful Because Supremely Just
Anselm reasons that since God's mercy flows from His supreme goodness and His goodness is never without justice, mercy and justice are not opposed — indeed, God is merciful precisely because He is supremely just.
For even if it's difficult to understand how your mercy doesn't stand apart from your justice, it's still necessary to believe it, because what flows from your goodness — a goodness that is never without justice — is by no means opposed to justice; indeed, it truly accords with justice. Surely if you're merciful because you're supremely good, and you're not supremely good unless you're supremely just — then truly you're merciful precisely because you're supremely just. Help me, just and merciful God — it's your light I'm searching for — help me understand what I'm saying. Truly, then, you are merciful precisely because you are just.
Is Mercy toward the Wicked Just?
Anselm probes whether mercy toward the wicked is itself an act of justice, concluding that God's supreme goodness and power make it just both to spare the wicked and to make good people from them.
Does your mercy then arise from your justice? Do you spare the wicked out of justice? If that is so, Lord—if that is so—teach me how it can be. Or is it simply that you are so good that no one can be thought better, and that you work so powerfully that no one can be imagined more powerful? For what is more just than this? This certainly would never happen if you were good only by repaying and not by sparing, and if you made good people only from those who were not good, and not also from the wicked. And so in this way it is just: that you spare the wicked, and that you make good people out of the wicked.
Mercy to the Wicked Is Just
Anselm closes by arguing that since God does nothing unjustly, His mercy to the wicked must be just, and it would be impious to deny it.
In short, what isn't done justly shouldn't be done; and what shouldn't be done is done unjustly. So if you don't show mercy to the wicked justly, you shouldn't show mercy; and if you shouldn't show mercy, you show mercy unjustly.1 But if it's impious to say [otherwise], it is right to believe that you show mercy to the wicked justly.2
Read the original Latin
Verum malis quomodo parcis, si es totus iustus et summe iustus? Quomodo enim totus et summe iustus facit aliquid non iustum? Aut quae iustitia est merenti mortem aeternam dare vitam sempiternam? Unde ergo, bone deus, bone bonis et malis, unde tibi salvare malos, si hoc non est iustum, et tu non facis aliquid non iustum?
An quia bonitas tua est incomprehensibilis, latet hoc in luce inaccessibili quam inhabitas? Vere in altissimo et secretissimo bonitatis tuae latet fons, unde manat fluvius misericordiae tuae.
Nam cum totus et summe iustus sis, tamen idcirco etiam malis benignus es, quia totus summe bonus es. Minus namque bonus esses, si nulli malo esses benignus. Melior est enim qui et bonis et malis bonus est, quam qui bonis tantum est bonus. Et melior est qui malis et puniendo et parcendo est bonus, quam qui puniendo tantum. Ideo ergo misericors es, quia totus et summe bonus es. Et cum forsitan videatur, cur bonis bona et malis male retribuas, illud certe penitus est mirandum, cur tu totus iustus et nullo egens malis et reis tuis bona tribuas.
O altitudo bonitatis tuae, deus! et videtur unde sis misericors, et non pervidetur. Cernitur unde flumen manat, et non perspicitur fons unde nascatur. Nam et de plenitudine bonitatis est quia peccatoribus tuis plus es, et in altitudine bonitatis latet qua ratione hoc es.
Etenim licet bonis bona et malis male ex bonitate retribuas, ratio tamen iustitiae hoc postulare videtur. Cum vero malis bona tribuis: et scitur quia summe bonus hoc facere voluit, et mirum est cur summe iustus hoc velle potuit.
O misericordia, de quam opulenta dulcedine et dulci opulentia nobis profluis! O immensitas bonitatis dei, quo affectu amanda es peccatoribus! Iustos enim salvas iustitia comitante, istos vero liberas iustitia damnante. Illos meritis adivuantibus, istos meritis repugnantibus. Illos bona quae dedisti cognoscendo, istos male quae odisti ignoscendo. O immense bonitas, quae sic omnem intellectum excedis, veniat super me misericordia illa, quae de tanta opulentia tui procedit! Influat in me, quae profluit de te! Parce per clementiam, ne ulciscaris per iustitiam!
Nam etsi difficile sit intelligere, quomodo misericordia tua non absit a tua iustitia, necessarium tamen est credere, quia nequaquam adversatur iustitiae quod exundat ex bonitate, quae nulla est sine iustitia, immo vere concordat iustitiae. Nempe si misericors es quia es summe bonus, et summe bonus non es nisi quia es summe iustus: vere idcirco es misericors, quia summe iustus es. Adivua me, iuste et misericors deus, cuius lucem quaero, adivua me, ut intelligam quod dico. Vere ergo ideo misericors es, quia iustus.
Ergone misericordia tua nascitur ex iustitia tua? Ergone parcis malis ex iustitia? Si sic est, domine, si sic est, doce me quomodo est. An quia iustum est te sic esse bonum, ut nequeas intelligi melior, et sic potenter operari, ut non possis cogitari potentius? Quid enim hoc iustius? Hoc utique non fieret, si esses bonus tantum retribuendo et non parcendo, et si faceres de non bonis tantum bonos, et non etiam de malis. Hoc itaque modo iustum est ut parcas malis, et ut facias bonos de malis.
Denique quod non iuste fit, non debet fieri; et quod non debet fieri, iniuste fit. Si ergo non iuste malis misereris, non debes misereri: et si non debes misereri, iniuste misereris. Quod si nefas est dicere, fas est credere te iuste misereri malis.
Notes
- 1 ↩malis is ambiguous between dative and ablative plural; rendered as dative of object with misereris ('show mercy to the wicked') following the gloss, but 'unjustly toward / on account of the wicked' is also possible.
- 2 ↩The Latin syntax is compressed and difficult: 'nefas est dicere, fas est credere te iuste misereri malis' is elliptical. The rendering follows the gloss ('it is impious to say [otherwise]; it is right to believe that you show mercy justly to the wicked'), but the clause boundary after dicere is uncertain and the overall construction may intend something like 'But if it is impious to say [that you do not act justly], it is right to believe that you show mercy to the wicked justly.'
Proslogion (Address / Discourse on the Existence of God) companion
One chapter of historic wisdom, every day
Chosen Portion delivers works like the Proslogion as short daily readings with a prayer — free on iOS.
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.
- Finish the entire Proslogion in 14 days at about 10 minutes a day
- Modern-English rendering of all 27 chapters, no Latin required
- Each reading paired with Anselm's own prayers so study ends in worship