Remembering The Dead

Non enim erit memoria sapientis similiter ut stulti in perpetuum, et futura tempora oblivione cuncta pariter operient: moritur doctus similiter ut indoctus. Quaeritur de hoc quod dicit: Non erit memoria sapientis ut stulti. CONTRA: 1. Proverbiorum decimo: Memoria iusti cum laudibus, et nomen impiorum putrescet. 2. Item, Ecclesiastici trigesimo nono: Non recedet memoria eius, et nomen eius requiretur etc. Respondeo: ad hoc dicunt quidam, quod ipse loquitur in persona carnalis, unde falsum dicit simpliciter, sed verum secundum carnalium aestimationem. Sed hoc non plene solvit, quia debet carnalium positionem non asserere, sed potius infirmare. Propterea dicendum , quod est loqui de memoria sapientis et stulti aut quantum ad Deum , aut quantum ad homines. Si loquamur quantum ad Deum, memoria utique est boni sapientis , qui studet sapientiae ad gloriam Dei; sed quantum ad homines tam bonorum quam malorum transit memoria, ut in pluribus, quia homines pauca recolunt. Si autem de malo sapiente et vano, non est memoria, nec quantum ad Deum nec quantum ad homines, immo nomen eius transit ut nomen stulti; et ideo stultum est propter famam nominis in sapientia laborare. Ecclesiastes autem loquitur de sapiente vano, qui oculum habet ad terrena , et loquitur de memoria humana, non divina. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Ecclesiasten, Caput II Source: Here, p26

There shall be no remembrance of the wise man or the fool alike, for future times will cover all things in forgetfulness, alike the learned and the unlearned die. 1 It must be asked why it says here, 'There shall be no remembrance of the wise man or the fool.' Against this, in the tenth chapter of Proverbs, 'The righteous man shall be remembered with praise and the name of the wicked shall rot.' 2 And in the same way, in the thirty ninth chapter Of Ecclesiasticus, 'The memory of him will not fade, and his name will be sought.' 3 I answer that some say about this that he speaks as a worldly person, whence universally it is said falsely but it is true according to worldly judgement. But this does not resolve the matter fully, because one should not just state the worldly position but rather refute it. On account of which it must be said that one may speak of the memory of the wise man and the fool according to God and according to men. If we should speak of how it is according to God, then there is remembrance of him who is good and wise, who is zealous in wisdom for the glory of God, but as it pertains to man the remembrance of both the good and the wicked does pass away, for so it is with many of them since men remember few things. But if there is no memory of the evil and vain wise man according to God and men, so indeed his name passes away just like the name of the fool, and therefore it is foolish to labour in wisdom to make one's name famous. Here, then, Ecclesiastes, speaks of vain wisdom which has its eye on worldly things and he speaks of human memory and not the Divine. Saint Bonaventura, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2 1 Eccles 2.16 2 Prov 10.7 3 Sirach 39.13