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Fr. Bernardino M. Bonansea understands Bonaventure’s argument as a rejection of
Aquinas’s distinction between essentially and accidentally subordinated causes. He finds
Aquinas’s distinction to be misplaced because even the accidentally subordinated causes are de
facto necessary: even though they do not act simultaneously, all are needed for the final effect. 77
Etienne Gilson finds in Bonaventure’s attachment to the Christian view of the universe, the
reason for Bonaventure’s rejection of Aquinas’s distinction. Bonaventure was not ignorant of
this distinction and he rejects it not because he cannot grasp it but because “it implies a state of
the universe which is incompatible with his profoundest metaphysical tendencies.” 78 There is no
place in Bonaventure’s universe for non-essential causality. Divine Providence must permeate
the universe to its smallest details. All events are unique and have their place fixed in the grand
drama of Salvation. 79
The disagreement between Aquinas and Bonaventure on the meaningfulness of the series
of accidentally subordinated causes might also hinge on their respective answers to the next
objection. There, as we will see, Bonaventure presumes that the series of accidentally
subordinated causes must have a first cause which is infinitely distant from the final effect
produced by the series. Since the infinity cannot be traversed, the final effect cannot take place.
Therefore, the series must be finite. 80 Aquinas, on the other hand, perceives the infinite series of
accidentally subordinated causes to be without beginning. Each cause in this series can bring
77
Bonansea, "The Question,” 14.
Etienne Gilson, The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure, tr. Illtyd Trethowan and F. J. Sheed (London: Sheed & Ward,
1940), 191.
79
Ibid, 192.
80
Bonaventure, Comm. in Sent. 2, d.1, pars 1, art. 1, q.2: Impossibile est infinita pertransiri; sed si mundus non
coepit, infinitae revolutions fuerunt: ergo impossibile est illas pertransire: ergo impossibile fuit devenire usque ad
hanc.
78
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