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← Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity)/Book 1 · Speculum caritatis — Liber I
Chapter 12SpCar.1.12

Quod nec salvatis nec damnatis liberum arbitrium auferatur, et quod gratia non nisi in libero arbitrio operetur.

Free Will in Glory and Infancy

In glory and even in infancy, free will remains necessary for partaking in salvation or judgment, and grace works through it rather than replacing it.

But surely in that glory we won't be either without the will by which we consent to so great a good, or without the reason by which we judge this good to be ours? Therefore not without free will either — not that we'll be able to do any evil, but that we may be made capable of that good. For beasts can be liable neither to damnation nor capable of salvation, precisely because they are destitute of reason and will. For infants, in whom there are no merits from any gift, although on account of the weakness that comes as punishment for sin they live and die stripped of free will — nevertheless, once they are freed from the bodily covering by which they are hindered, it is by no means to be believed that they partake of eternal happiness, or of the damnation owed to them, without a rational will.1 From those who are saved, grace becomes all the more evident — since they lack the free will to which merits could be ascribed — but to me that grace seems more abundant by which both merits and rewards are given. Therefore we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own. For who sets you apart, O man?✦ Free will?✦

Freedom Remains in Injustice

Even the unjust possess free will, because injustice cannot exist without choice, and wherever there is will, there is freedom.

That's clearly the case — but it's true of beasts of burden, not of the unjust. For the unjust also have free will, without which they could not even be unjust. Original sin alone is the exception — which binds even the unwilling by a different logic — for no one is unjust except by choice, and no one can be unjust except by choice; and so not without free will.2 But grace alone raises the will toward justice; the will casts itself down into injustice. Furthermore, wherever there is will, there is also freedom. For wherever the will is present, it is not compelled into necessity.3 The will therefore has an innate freedom of its own, because it cannot be subjected to necessity. Would you like to hear about a certain freedom that exists even in injustice?

Scripture's Witness to Bondage and Freedom

Using the Apostle and the Prophet, the text shows that even slaves of sin and the damned retain free choice and rational judgment in their misery.

Listen to the Apostle: "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness" (Rom.✦ 6). Do you see that freedom isn't lacking in the will, even in slavery to sin? But surely in the unjust freedom of the will, the judgment of reason is not lacking — by which it can distinguish what it wants from what it doesn't want, and by which it can judge something as advantageous, or good, or pleasurable, even what it wants badly? For if either of these were lacking, a person could perhaps desire only pleasurable things, and yet not be able to dissent from them by any rational judgment — which is the mark of free choice. The fact that a person can misuse reason even for evil proves that well-known prophetic saying: "They are wise in order to do evil" (Jer.✦ 4). For neither in the punishments of hell is free choice lacking, by which the damned can voluntarily — and through this, freely — dissent from the evils they endure; nor is the judgment of reason lacking, by which they accuse and judge themselves, because by their own merits they suffer such things.

Grace Works Within Free Will

Grace does not destroy free will but operates within it, inclining the will toward the good so that good works are both God's gift and our free choice.

It's clear, unless I'm mistaken, that grace doesn't destroy free will, nor does free will diminish grace. For how could grace take away free will, since grace works only in free will?4 For the grace we're speaking of doesn't operate in brute animals or in things without sensation, but only in those who are capable of hearing a command or a prohibition: Do this, and do that; don't do this, and don't do that.5 These words, beyond any doubt, are spoken only to those who possess free will, by which they can choose this or that. So when God's grace moves them to will the good, it doesn't destroy free will so that they will nothing at all, but inclines it toward this: that they will the good.6 So when you do something good, don't suppose you're doing it by your own strength; and yet don't distance it from your own will either, since a good work can't be called good unless it's also freely chosen.7

Read the original Latin

Sed nunquid in illa gloria, aut sine voluntate erimus, qua tanto bono consentiamus; aut sine ratione, qua hoc bonum nostrum judicemus? Ergo nec sine libero arbitrio; non quo ullum malum poterimus; sed quo illius boni capaces existamus. Non enim pecora aut damnationis obnoxia, aut salutis possunt esse capacia, utique quia sunt rationis ac voluntatis expertia. Nam infantes quidem, in quibus nec ex dono ulla sunt merita, licet ob infirmitatem, quae ex peccati poena accidit, sine libero et vivant et moriantur arbitrio, exuti tamen hoc, quo impediuntur, carnis involucro, nequaquam credendi sunt absque rationali voluntate aeternae felicitatis, vel debitae damnationis esse participes. E quibus quotquot salvantur, evidentiori fit gratia; quippe quibus liberum deest arbitrium, cui possint ascribi merita; caeterum illa mihi videtur cumulatior; qua et merita donantur et praemia. Igitur in nullo gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil est. Quis enim te discernit, o homo? Liberum arbitrium?

Ita plane, sed a jumentis, non ab injustis. Nam et injusti liberum habent arbitrium, sine quo non possent esse vel injusti. Excepto duntaxat originali peccato, quod alia ratione etiam invitos quosque constringit, nemo nisi voluntate justus, nemo nisi voluntate potest esse injustus: ac proinde nec sine libero arbitrio. Sed voluntatem ad justitiam sola gratia erigit; in injustitiam ipsa se dejicit. Porro, ubicunque voluntas ibi et libertas. Ubicunque enim voluntate est, ibi non cogitur, ut sit necessitate. Habet ergo innatam sibi quodammodo voluntas libertatem, quia nullam potest pati necessitatem. Vis audire quamdam etiam in injustitia libertatem?

Audi Apostolum: Cum enim servi essetis peccati, liberi fuistis justitiae (Rom. vi). Videsne quod non desit libertas voluntati, etiam in servitute peccati? Sed nunquid in libertate injusta voluntatis judicium deest rationis; quo id quod vult discernat, ab eo quod non vult: quo sibi commodum, vel bonum, vel voluptuosum judicet, etiam id quod male vult? Nam, si utrumlibet horum deesset, posset forte voluptuosa tantum appetere, non autem illis rationali quodam judicio dissentire: quod est liberi arbitrii. Nam quod ratione etiam ad malum abuti possit homo, probat illud propheticum: Sapientes sunt, ut faciant mala (Jer. iv). Nam nec in poenis inferni liberum deest arbitrium, quo voluntarie, ac per hoc libere a malis dissentiant, quae patiuntur; nec judicium rationis, quo seipsos accusent et judicent, quia suis meritis talia patiuntur.

Patet, ni fallor, ratio, quod nec gratia liberum arbitrium destruat; nec liberum arbitrium gratiam minuat. Quomodo enim gratia liberum arbitrium auferat, cum gratia non nisi in libero operetur arbitrio? Neque enim gratia ista, de qua loquimur, aut in brutis animalibus, aut in rebus operatur insensibilibus; sed in his tantum, qui praeceptionis, aut prohibitionis capaces audiunt: Fac hoc, et fac illud; et noli hoc, et noli illud. Quae procul dubio non dicuntur, nisi his, quibus inest liberum arbitrium, quo possint velle hoc aut illud. Ut autem bonum velint, Dei gratia operatur; non liberum destruens arbitrium, ut nihil velint, sed ad hoc inclinans, ut bonum velint. Quocirca, cum aliquid boni facis, non existimes hoc te tuis viribus agere; nec tamen a tua id alienes voluntate, quandoquidem non dicendum est opus bonum, nisi sit et voluntarium.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
  2. ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
  3. ↩Rom.6.20 — For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
  4. ↩Jer.4.22 — For my people are foolish; they have not known me. They are senseless children, and they are not discerning. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The passage teaches that infants, though lacking free will in this life due to the weakness inherited from original sin, possess a rational will in the life to come and are thus capable of receiving either eternal happiness or damnation. The theology of original sin and infant salvation is compressed here.
  2. 2 ↩The phrase 'alia ratione' ('by a different logic / by another rationale') is left somewhat open: the point is that original sin constrains involuntarily, unlike personal sin which requires the will's consent.
  3. 3 ↩The ut-clause is rendered as expressing result: the will's presence means it is not driven into a state of necessity.
  4. 4 ↩cum is causal here ('since'), not temporal ('when').
  5. 5 ↩brutis animalibus rendered as 'brute animals' to preserve the contrast with rational, command-receiving beings.
  6. 6 ↩The first ut is purpose ('in order that'), the second ut is result ('so that'), and the third ut is purpose again ('that'). The shift from purpose to result and back is preserved in English.
  7. 7 ↩nec...tamen rendered as 'and yet don't' to preserve the concessive force ('nor...nevertheless').

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