Annotation XCVII

”And he went abroad.” — Matthew 21:33

On the subtraction of grace.

Ambrose [Catharinus], reproving Thomas Cajetan’s exposition in the second book of [his] Annotations, says: “That which he expounds in the parable of the vineyard — that the ‘going abroad’ is a subtraction of the gratuitous help which preserves them from evil — I judge false and dangerous: because, if [God] did this, he would unjustly demand fruit. And in other parables, although the lord [has] gone abroad, they nevertheless render him the gain of the talents and the minae — which would not be [so], if such a ‘going abroad’ signified that, namely, a subtraction of the divine help.”