Works › The Mariale: Questions on “Missus est”
Volume 37 · p. 133
Question 76. Whether cleanness of heart was in her
QUAESTIO LXXVI.
Utrum munditia cordis fuerit in ipsa?
Post haec quaeritur de munditia cordis.
Et probatur, quod haec fuerit in beatissima Virgine simili modo sicut de praedictis:
1. Per illud quod dicit Anselmus quod ea claritate et puritate nitebat, qua sub Deo major nequit intelligi 1.
2. Item, Finis praecepti est charitas de corde puro, et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta 2: sed in beatissima Virgine fuit charitas summa: ergo summa puritas.
3. Item, Actus fidei est purificans corda: sed beatissima Virgo habuit fidem perfectissimam: ergo cordis puritatem.
4. Item, Secundum Dionysium tres sunt hierarchiae actus, scilicet purgare, illuminare, et perficere, et sunt ad se ordinati, ita quod magis purgatus est magis illuminatus et magis perfectus: sed beatissima Virgo fuit in summo purgata: ergo in summo perfecta et illuminata.
5. Item, Visio Dei quae est praemium hujus munditiae, improportionabiliter major est visionibus omnium aliorum: ergo munditia ejus major est munditia omnium aliorum.
6. Item, Beati mundo corde, etc. 3 Glossa: "Mundi corde sunt, quos conscientia non arguit peccatorum." Item, Mundum cor habet, qui nihil sibi conscius est: haec autem in beatissima Virgine fuerunt in summo: ergo habuit munditiam cordis in summo 4.
QUESTION 76.
Whether cleanness of heart was in her.
After these things inquiry is made concerning cleanness of heart.
And it is proved that this was in the most blessed Virgin in a similar way as concerning the things said before:
1. Through that which Anselm says, that she shone with that clarity and purity than which, under God, a greater cannot be understood 1.
2. Likewise, the end of the precept is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith 2. But in the most blessed Virgin there was the highest charity; therefore the highest purity.
3. Likewise, the act of faith is purifying hearts; but the most blessed Virgin had most perfect faith; therefore purity of heart.
4. Likewise, according to Dionysius there are three acts of hierarchy, namely to purge, to illuminate, and to perfect, and they are ordered to one another, so that one more purged is more illuminated and more perfected. But the most blessed Virgin was purged in the highest degree; therefore she was perfected and illuminated in the highest degree.
5. Likewise, the vision of God, which is the reward of this cleanness, is disproportionately greater than the visions of all others; therefore her cleanness is greater than the cleanness of all others.
6. Likewise, Blessed are the clean of heart, and so forth 3. The Gloss says: "The clean of heart are those whom conscience does not accuse of sins." Likewise, one has a clean heart who is conscious to himself of nothing. But these things were in the most blessed Virgin in the highest degree; therefore she had cleanness of heart in the highest degree 4.
Notes
- St. Anselm, book On Sin and Virginal Conception, chapter 18. (S. Anselmus, Lib. de Peccato et conceptione virginali, cap. 18.) ↩
- 1 Timothy 1:3. (I ad Timoth. I, 3.) ↩
- Matthew 5:8. (Matth. V, 8.) ↩
- For the solution of the objections, see below after Question 81. (Pro solutione objectorum, vide infra post Quaest. LXXXI.) ↩
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