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1) The absolute gratuity of predestination to glory is distinctly the teaching of St. Bellarmine.1 His purpose is to prove, like the Thomists and Augustinians, by means of Scripture, tradition, and theological reasoning, the proposition that no reason can be assigned on our part for divine predestination, which means that predestination to glory is absolutely gratuitous, or previous to any foreseen merits. St. Bellarmine excludes as a reason for predestination to glory, not only all merit in the strict sense, but also all congruous merit, whatsoever use of free will or of grace, and every indispensable condition.2 He proves3 this doctrine from Scripture, which teaches that God has elected certain persons,4 and efficaciously so, that they may infallibly get to heaven.5 Texts in proof of this are: "This is the will of the Father . . . that of all that He hath given Me, I should lose nothing"; 6 "No man shall pluck them out of My hand . . . no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father"; 7 "Whom He predestined, them He also called . . . and justified . . . and glorified." 8 He also proves that God's choice of the elect was entirely gratuitous and previous to any foreseeing of their merits. Texts in support of this are: "It hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom"; 9 "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit"; 10 "There is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace." 11

St. Bellarmine also interprets like St. Thomas and the Thomists the following text of St. Paul: "As He chose us . . . that we should be holy, . . . according to the purpose of His will." 12 "In whom we also are called by lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will." 13 Finally he adds 14 that the elect were chosen gratuitously but independently of any foreseeing of their good works, according to the teaching of St. Paul, who says: "For when the children were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand . . . there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace." 15 St. Bellarmine shows 16 that these principles of St. Paul apply not only to the election of nations, but also to individuals chosen for eternal life. To those who object that in St. Paul's text17 foreknowledge precedes predestination, for he says: "Whom He foreknew, He also predestinated," St. Bellarmine replies that it is not a question here of the foreknowledge of merits, for which there would be no foundation in St. Paul's epistles, and which would be in contradiction to several of his texts, but the meaning is: "whom He foreknew by the knowledge of approbation, whom He loved, whom He willed, those He predestined. . . . For to know and to foreknow in the Scripture are frequently taken to mean the knowledge of approbation, as is evident from the following text: 'God hath not cast away His people, which He foreknew' " (Rom. 11: 2).18 This is the exegesis of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, and is retained at the present day by Fathers Lagrange, Allo, Zahn, Julicher, and others.

Finally, St. Bellarmine proves that, according to the teaching of St. Augustine, St. Prosper, and St. Fulgentius, no reason can be assigned on our part for predestination to glory. He writes: "No reason can be assigned on our part that God should predestine us to glory. . . . Not only do these holy Fathers (Augustine, Prosper, and Fulgentius) affirm this, but also the more learned of their predecessors, whom the rest subsequently followed, record this opinion as pertaining to the Catholic faith, and they reject the contrary opinion held by the Pelagians. I shall mention some of their works, so that if any perchance are of the opposite opinion, they may realize, from the judgment of these most holy Fathers, how manifestly they err on this point." 19 He mentions in particular two works, one by St. Augustine,20 and the other by St. Prosper.21 In addition to this he remarks,22 as St. Augustine does, that the Fathers who lived previous to the rise of the Pelagian heresy touched but incidentally upon this question of predestination. He quotes, however, St. John Chrysostom who, on the words: "For who distinguisheth thee?" comments as follows: "Therefore thou hast received what thou hast, neither this only or that, but whatever thou hast. For these are not thy merits, but God's gifts." 23 Finally, he points out that the fathers previous to the time of St. Augustine, especially the Greek Fathers, often took predestination as meaning the will to give glory after this life, and that they scarcely spoke of it except by way of exhortation, and therefore they had in mind the order of execution, in which merits precede glorification; whereas in the order of intention the case is the reverse. God, in the order of intention, wills the end before the means, glory before grace and merits; but in the order of execution He wills glory as the reward of merits. God wills to give glory gratuitously in the order of intention; but in the order of execution He does not will to give it gratuitously, and this is contrary to what the Protestants say. In this Bellarmine speaks exactly as the Thomists do, and like them he remarks that after the rise of the Pelagian heresy it was necessary to consider predestination no longer merely in the order of execution, but also in that of intention, so that everything in the affair of salvation may be attributed to God, as the Fathers previous to the time of Bellarmine had said when commenting on St. Paul's words: "For who distinguisheth thee?"

Thus St. Robert Bellarmine saw in the absolute gratuity of predestination the very teaching of Scripture and its great interpreters. This accounts for the fact of his admitting St. Augustine's definition of predestination, which states that it is "the foreknowledge and preparation of those gifts of God whereby they who are liberated are most certainly liberated." 24 In support of this definition, in which the foreknowledge refers not to merits but to the divine gifts, Bellarmine appeals to the scriptural text: "No man shall pluck them out of My hand." 25


Garrigou-Lagrange, Rev. Fr. Reginald. Predestination: The Meaning of Predestination in Scripture and the Church (pp. 153-157). (Function). Kindle Edition.