The Ontology of Grace of Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle

A major advance in the theology of grace occurred in the 13th century, as theologians began to conceive of grace as created, positing gratia creata alongside gratia increata.While Philip the Chancellor has long been regarded as the primary catalyst of this development, it was Alexander of Hales who introduced these terms, and his Franciscan confrère, John of La Rochelle, who first explained their relation. The contribution of these Franciscans to the development of the theology of grace has been underappreciated, in part because Hales’s Quaestiones disputatae de gratia (the first critical edition of which has only recently appeared) and Rochelle’s Quaestiones disputatae de gratia and Tractatus de gratia have received little attention. Through an exposition and analysis of these texts, as well as the relevant portions of the Summa Halensis, this article demonstrates how the early Franciscans spearheaded the 13-century development in the ontology of grace. A turning point in the theology of grace—what Bernard Lonergan called a ‘Copernican revolution’—occurred in the 13 century at the University of Paris.1 Specifically, this revolution concerned the ontology of grace. Theologians began to conceive of grace as created, positing gratia creata alongside gratia increata. The move can be seen in comparing Peter Lombard’s conception of grace as something uncreated, namely, charity, which is equated with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul, with the view of Thomas Aquinas, who argues that grace is not only uncreated, but also, as sanctifying grace (gratia gratum faciens), is a created form in the soul.2 While this development from the Lombard to Aquinas may have been a Copernican revolution, it was not a quantum leap. Rather, it occurred incrementally through a series of figures. Key among them were the Franciscans Alexander of Hales and his student and confrère, John of La Rochelle (de Rupella). Alexander was the first theologian to use the terms gratia increata and gratia creata. Rupella was the first to explain their relation. Nevertheless, their theology of grace is relatively unknown. The De gratia treatise of the Summa Halensis, the magnum opus of the early Francis Bernard J.F. Lonergan, Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran, Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, 1 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000 [original, 1971]), 17.  Peter Lombard, Sententiae in IV libris distinctae I, d. 17, 2 vols, ed. Ignatius C. Brady, Spicilegium Bonaventurianum, 4–5 (Grottaferrata: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1971–81): 1:141–52; Thomas Aquinas, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum II, d. 26, q. 1, a. 1, 4 vols, ed. Marie Fabien Moos and Pierre Félix Mandonnet (Paris: Sumptibus P. Lethielleux, 1929–47): 2:667–70; Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II, q. 109, a. 7, 4 vols, ed. Pietro Caramello (Turin: Marietti, 1948): 2:553. OpenAccess. © 2020 Lydia Schumacher, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110685008-012 cans, has received a modicum of study.3 Yet their personal treatises on grace, Hales’ Quaestiones disputatae de gratia and Rupella’s Quaestiones disputatae de gratia and Tractatus de gratia, have been largely ignored by scholars.4 Hence the role these theologians played as catalysts of the ‘Copernican revolution’ has been underappreciated. This article seeks to address this lacuna by offering an exposition and analysis of the ontology of grace of Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle. In the process, it will challenge three claims. First, scholars have asserted that John merely repeated, or only minimally developed, Alexander’s theology of grace.5 This claim was made without recourse to Alexander’s principal treatise on grace and consequently without a detailed comparison between Alexander’s and John’s personal treatises on grace. When this comparison is made, as our study will do, it is clear that Rupella significantly developed Hales in articulating the interplay between uncreated and created grace. Second, this article will question the opinion that Philip the Chancellor was the key protagonist in bringing about the new ontology of grace.6 As will be  Studies of the Summa Halensis’ theology of grace include Karl Heim, Die Lehre von der gratia gratis data nach Alexander Halesius (Leipzig: M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1907); Karl Heim, Das Wesen der Gnade und ihr Verhältnis zu den natürlichen Funktionen des Menschen bei Alexander Halesius (Leipzig: Heinsius, 1907); Bogumil Remec, De sanctitate et gratia doctrina summae theologicae Alexandri Halensis (Ljubljana: Domus Societatis Jesu, 1940); Alejandro Salas Cacho, ‘El concepto de la gracia en la Suma Teológica de Alejandro de Hales’ (PhD thesis, Pamplona Universidad Navarra, 1985); H. Daniel Monsour, ‘The Relation Between Uncreated and Created Grace in the Halesian Summa: A Lonergan Reading’ (PhD thesis, University of St Michael’s College, 2000); Hubert Philipp Weber, Sünde und Gnade bei Alexander von Hales: Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung der theologischen Anthropologie im Mittelalter, Innsbrucker Theologische Studien, 63 (Innsbruck: Tyrolia, 2003); Gérard Philips, ‘La théologie de la grâce dans la Summa fratris Alexandri,’ Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 49 (1973): 100–23; Guillermo A. Juarez, ‘La inhabitación y su relación con la presencia ubicua, considerada desde la doctrina de la Suma Halesiana sobre la gracia y la procesión temporal de la persona divina,’ Estudios Trinitarios 41 (2007): 41–88.  A critical edition of Alexander of Hales’ Quaestiones disputatae de gratia is found in Alexander de Hales, Quaestiones disputatae de gratia: Editio critica; Un contributo alla teologia della grazia nella prima metà del sec. XIII, ed. Jacek Mateusz Wierzbicki, Studia Antoniana, 50 (Rome: Antonianum, 2008). Critical editions of John of La Rochelle’s Quaestiones disputatae de gratia and Tractatus de gratia are found in Ludwig Hödl, Die neuen Quästionen der Gnadentheologie des Johannes von Rupella OM (+ 1245) in Cod. lat. Paris. 14726, Mitteilungen des Grabmann-Instituts der Universität München, 8 (Munich: Max Hueber Verlag, 1964). All citations are to page number of these editions.  Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 78–9; Monsour, ‘The Relation Between Uncreated and Created Grace in the Halesian Summa,’ 89, n. 8.  The attribution has become commonplace. Lonergan calls the Chancellor’s formulation of grace a ‘pivotal moment’. Stephen Duffy says a ‘major breakthrough emerges in his [the Chancellor’s] writings.’ Paul O’Callaghan regards the Chancellor as ‘the first medieval author to have reflected on the relationship between the natural and the supernatural order.’ See Lonergan, Grace and Freedom, 20; Stephen J. Duffy, The Graced Horizon: Nature and Grace in Modern Catholic Thought (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 152; Paul O’Callaghan, Children of God in the World: An Introduction to Theological Anthropology (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016), 339. 172 Vincent L. Strand, SJ