Dist. 12
Book II: On the Creation of Things · Distinction 12
DISTINCTIO XII.
Cap. I.
De distinctione operum sex dierum.
Haec de angelicae naturae conditione dicta sufficiant. Nunc superest de aliarum quoque rerum creatione, ac praecipue de operum sex dierum distinctione nonnulla in medium proferre2. Cum Deus in sapientia sua angelicos condidit spiritus, alia etiam creavit, sicut ostendit supra memorata Scriptura Genesis, quae dicit, in principio Deum creasse caelum, id est Angelos, et terram, scilicet materiam quatuor elementorum1 adhuc confusam et informem, quae a Graecis dicta est chaos; et hoc fuit ante omnem diem. Deinde elementa distinxit Deus et species proprias atque distinctas singulis rebus secundum genus suum dedit, quae non simul, ut quibusdam sanctorum Patrum placuit, sed per intervalla temporum ac sex volumina dierum, ut aliis visum est, formavit.
Cap. II.
Quod alii senserunt omnia simul facta in materia et forma, alii per intervalla temporum.
Quidam namque sanctorum Patrum, qui verba Dei atque arcana excellenter scrutati sunt, super hoc quasi adversa scripsisse videntur. Alii quidem tradiderunt, omnia simul in materia et forma fuisse creata; quod Augustinus3 sensisse videtur. — Alii vero hoc magis probaverunt atque asseruerunt, ut primum materia rudis atque informis, quatuor elementorum commixtionem atque confusionem tenens, creata sit; postmodum vero per intervalla sex dierum ex illa materia rerum corporalium genera sint formata secundum species proprias. Quam sententiam Gregorius4, Hieronymus, Beda aliique plures commendant ac praeferunt, quae etiam Scripturae Genesis, unde prima huius rei cognitio ad nos manavit, magis congruere videtur.
Cap. III.
Quomodo per intervalla temporum res corporales conditae sunt.
Secundum hanc itaque traditionem, ordinem atque modum creationis formationisque rerum inspiciamus, sicut supra memoratum est5. In principio creavit Deus caelum, id est angelicam naturam, sed adhuc informem, ut quibusdam placet, et terram, id est illam confusam materiam quatuor elementorum, quam nomine terrae, ut ait Augustinus6 contra Manichaeos, ideo appellavit Moyses, « quia terra inter omnia elementa minus est speciosa; et illa invisibilis erat et incomposita7 propter omnium elementorum commixtionem. Eandem etiam vocat abyssum, dicens: Et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi etc., quia confusa erat et commixta, specie distincta carens. Eadem etiam materia informis dicta est aqua, super quam ferebatur spiritus Domini, sicut superfertur fabricandis rebus voluntas artificis; quia subiacebat bonae voluntati Creatoris quod formandum perficiendumque inchoaverat, qui sicut Dominus et Conditor praeerat fluitanti et confusae materiae, ut distingueret per species varias, quando vellet et sicut vellet. Haec ideo dicta est aqua, quia omnia, quae in terra nascuntur, sive animalia sive arbores vel herbae et similia, ab humore incipiunt formari atque nutriri8. His omnibus vocabulis vocata est illa informis materia, ut res ignota nobis vocabulis insinuaretur imperitioribus, et non uno tantum; nam si uno tantum significaretur vocabulo, hoc esse putaretur, quod consueverant homines in illo vocabulo intelligere ». Sub his ergo nominibus significata est materia illa confusa et informis, quae nulla specie cerni ac tractari poterat, id est unguibus visibilium rerum, quae inde futurae erant, propter infirmitatem parvulorum, qui minus idonei sunt invisibilia comprehendere. — Et tunc erant tenebrae, id est lucis absentia. « Non enim tenebrae aliquid sunt, sed ipsa lucis absentia; sicut silentium non aliqua res est, sed ubi sonus non est, silentium dicitur; et nuditas non aliqua res est, sed in corpore, ubi tegumentum non est, nuditas dicitur; sicut et inanitas non est aliquid, sed inanis dicitur locus esse, ubi non est corpus, et inanitas est absentia corporis9 ».
Cap. IV.
Quo sensu tenebrae dicantur esse aliquid, et quo dicantur non esse aliquid.
Attende, quia hic Augustinus tenebras dicit non esse aliquid, cum alibi tenebrae inter creaturas ponantur, quae benedicunt Dominum; unde dicitur10: Benedicite, lux et tenebrae, Domino. Ideoque sciendum est, tenebras diversis modis accipi, scilicet vel pro lucis absentia, qualiter supra accepit Augustinus, iuxta quam acceptionem non sunt aliquid; vel pro aere obscurato sive aeris obscura qualitate; et secundum hoc aliquae res creatae sunt. Ideo ergo dicit, tenebras tunc fuisse super faciem abyssi, quia nondum erat lux, quae si esset, et superesset et superfunderetur; sed nondum lucis gratia opus suum Deus venustaverat, quae postea in primo die formata est.
Cap. V.
Quare illa materia confusa sit dicta informis, et ubi ad esse prodiit, et quantumcumque in altum ascenderit.
De qua re priusquam tractemus, duo nobis discutienda occurrunt: primum, quare illa materia confusa informis dicatur, an quia omni forma caruerit, an propter aliud; secundo, ubi ad esse prodierit et quantum in altum ascenderit. — Ad illud ergo quod primo positum est, breviter respondentes dicimus, illam primam materiam non ideo dictam fore informem, quod nullam omnino formam habuerit, quia non aliquid corporeum tale existere potest, quod nullam habeat formam; sed ideo non absurde informem appellari posse dicimus, quia in confusione et permixtione quadam subsistens, nondum pulchram apertamque et distinctam receperat formam, qualem modo cernimus. Facta est ergo illa materia in forma confusionis ante formam dispositionis11. In forma confusionis prius omnia corporalia materialiter simul et semel sunt creata, postmodum in forma dispositionis sex diebus sunt ordinata. — Ecce absolutum est quod primo in discussione propositum fuit, scilicet quare illa materia dicatur informis.
« Nunc superest quod secundo proponebatur explicare, ubi scilicet illa materia substiterit et quantum in altitudine porrigebatur. Ad quod nihil temere asserentes dicimus, quod illa prima rerum omnium moles, quando creata est, ibidem ad esse videtur prodiisse, ubi nunc formata subsistit; eratque terreum hoc elementum in uno loco eodemque medio subsistens, ceteris tribus in una confusione permixtis, eisdemque circumquaque in modum cuiusdam nebulae oppansis12, ita obvolutum erat, ut apparere non posset quod fuit. Illa vero tria, in una permixtione confusa circumquaque suspensa, eousque in altum porrigebantur, quousque nunc summitas corporeae naturae pertingit ». Et sicut quibusdam videtur, ultra locum firmamenti extendebatur illa moles, quae in inferiori parte spissior atque grossior erat, in superiori vero rarior et levior atque subtilior existebat; de qua rariori substantia putant quidam fuisse aquas, quae super firmamentum esse dicuntur. « Talis fuit mundi facies in principio, priusquam reciperet formam vel dispositionem ».
Nunc superest, ut dispositionem illam, qualiter perfecta sit, ordine prosequamur. Sex diebus, sicut docet Scriptura Genesis, distinxit Deus et in formas redegit proprias cuncta, quae simul materialiter fecerat; perfecitque opus suum in die sexto, et sic deinde die septimo requievit ab omni opere, id est, cessavit novam creaturam facere. Sex enim diebus sex rerum genera distinxit nihilque postea fecit, quod in aliquo illorum non contineatur; operatus est tamen postea, sicut Veritas in Evangelio13 ait: Pater meus operatur usque nunc, et ego operor illud.
Cap. VI.
De quatuor modis divinae operationis.
Quatuor enim modis, ut ait Alcuinus14 super Genesim, operatur Deus: « primo, in Verbo omnia disponendo; secundo, in materia informi quatuor elementorum, de nihilo eam creando, unde: Qui vivit in aeternum creavit omnia simul, omnia scilicet elementa, vel omnia corpora materialiter simul creavit. Tertio, per opera sex dierum varias distinxit creaturas. Quarto, ex primordialibus seminibus non incognitae oriuntur naturae, sed notae saepius reformantur, ne pereant ».
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DISTINCTION XII.
Chapter I.
On the distinction of the works of the six days.
Let what has been said about the constitution of the angelic nature suffice. It now remains to bring forth some things about the creation of the other things as well, and especially about the distinction of the works of the six days2. When God in His wisdom founded the angelic spirits, He also created other things, as the above-mentioned Scripture of Genesis shows, which says that in the beginning God created the heaven — that is, the Angels — and the earth, namely the matter of the four elements1, yet confused and formless, which by the Greeks is called chaos; and this was before any day. Afterward God distinguished the elements and gave to individual things their own and distinct species according to their kind — [things] which He formed, not all at once, as it pleased certain of the holy Fathers, but through the intervals of times and six volumes of days, as it seemed to others.
Chapter II.
That some have held that all things were made at once in matter and form, others through intervals of times.
For certain of the holy Fathers, who excellently searched the words and arcana of God, seem to have written on this matter as if at variance. Some indeed handed down that all things were created at once in matter and form, which Augustine3 seems to have held. — But others rather approved and asserted this: that first rude and formless matter, holding the commixture and confusion of the four elements, was created; afterward, however, through the intervals of six days, the kinds of corporeal things were formed from that matter according to their proper species. This opinion Gregory4, Jerome, Bede, and many others commend and prefer, which also seems to agree more with the Scripture of Genesis, whence the first cognition of this matter has flowed to us.
Chapter III.
How through the intervals of times the corporeal things were established.
According to this tradition therefore let us inspect the order and mode of the creation and formation of things, as has been mentioned above5. In the beginning God created the heaven, that is, the angelic nature — yet still formless, as it pleases some — and the earth, that is, that confused matter of the four elements, which by the name of earth, as Augustine6 says against the Manichees, Moses thus called, « because earth among all the elements is the least seemly; and it was invisible and incomposite7 on account of the commixture of all the elements. The same thing he also calls the abyss, saying: And darkness was upon the face of the abyss etc., because it was confused and commingled, lacking a distinct species. The same formless matter is also called water, over which the spirit of the Lord was borne, just as the will of the craftsman is borne over things to be fabricated; because to the good will of the Creator was subjected what He had begun to form and to perfect; who, as Lord and Founder, presided over the floating and confused matter, that He might distinguish it through diverse species, when He willed and as He willed. It is therefore called water, because all things which are born in earth — whether animals or trees or herbs and the like — begin to be formed and nourished8 from moisture. By all these names that formless matter was called, that a thing unknown to us might be intimated to the more untutored by names, and not by one only; for if it were signified by only one name, this would be thought to be that which men were accustomed to understand under that name ». Under these names, therefore, was signified that confused and formless matter, which could be discerned and handled in no [definite] species — that is, by the senses for visible things — which were to be afterward, on account of the weakness of the little ones, who are less suited to comprehend the invisibles. — And then there was darkness, that is, the absence of light. « For darkness is not something, but the very absence of light; just as silence is not any thing, but where there is no sound, silence is said [to be]; and nakedness is not any thing, but in a body, where there is no covering, nakedness is said [to be]; just as also emptiness is not something, but a place is said to be empty where there is no body, and emptiness is the absence of body9 ».
Chapter IV.
In what sense darkness is said to be something, and in what sense it is said not to be something.
Attend, because here Augustine says that darkness is not something, although elsewhere darkness is placed among the creatures which bless the Lord; whence it is said10: Bless the Lord, light and darkness. Therefore it is to be known that darkness is taken in diverse modes, namely either for the absence of light, in which manner Augustine took it above — according to which acceptation they are not anything — or for darkened air, or for the dark quality of the air; and according to this some things were created. Therefore he says that darkness was then upon the face of the abyss, because there was as yet no light — which, if it had been, would both have been above and would have been poured upon [the abyss]; but not yet had God adorned His work with the grace of light, which afterward in the first day was formed.
Chapter V.
Why that confused matter is said to be formless, and where it came to be, and how high it ascended.
Before we treat of this matter, two things present themselves to be discussed: first, why that confused matter is called formless — whether because it lacked all form, or for some other reason; second, where it came to be and how far it ascended on high. — To that, then, which was first set forth, answering briefly we say that that first matter was not on this account said to be formless, that it had no form at all, because no corporeal thing of that kind can exist which has no form; but on this account we say that it can be called formless not absurdly: that, subsisting in a certain confusion and commixture, it had not yet received the beautiful and open and distinct form which we now discern. That matter therefore was made in the form of confusion before the form of disposition11. In the form of confusion all corporeal things were created together and at once materially; afterward, in the form of disposition, they were ordered in six days. — Behold, it is settled what was first proposed in the discussion, namely why that matter is called formless.
« Now it remains to explain what was secondly proposed, namely where that matter subsisted and how far it stretched on high. To which, asserting nothing rashly, we say that that first mass of all things, when it was created, seems to have come to be in the same place where it now formed subsists; and this earthy element was subsisting in one place and at the same middle, the other three being commingled in one confusion, and these spread on all sides about [it] in the manner of a certain cloud12, so wrapped about that what was there could not appear. But those three, confused in one commixture suspended on every side, were stretched on high so far as now the summit of corporeal nature reaches ». And as it seems to some, that mass extended beyond the place of the firmament — which in its lower part was thicker and grosser, in its upper part rarer and lighter and more subtle; and from this rarer substance some think the waters were, which are said to be above the firmament. « Such was the face of the world in the beginning, before it received form or disposition ».
Now it remains that we should pursue in order how that disposition was perfected. In six days, as the Scripture of Genesis teaches, God distinguished and reduced into their proper forms all things which He had made simultaneously in matter; and He perfected His work on the sixth day, and so afterward on the seventh day He rested from every work — that is, He ceased to make a new creature. For in six days He distinguished six kinds of things and made nothing afterward which is not contained in some one of them; yet He worked afterward, just as Truth says in the Gospel13: My Father works until now, and I work.
Chapter VI.
On the four modes of divine operation.
For in four modes, as Alcuin14 says on Genesis, God operates: « first, by disposing all things in the Word; second, in the formless matter of the four elements, creating it from nothing — whence: He who lives forever created all things at once — that is, all the elements, or He created all bodies materially at once. Third, through the works of the six days He distinguished diverse creatures. Fourth, from the primordial seeds not unknown natures arise, but known ones are more often reformed, lest they perish ».
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- Ita codd. F (T a secunda manu) W bb cc et ed. 1; multi codd. perperam plures, quod aliqui codd. omittunt; Vat. universales. Cfr. supra d. 3. p. II. a. 2. q. 1, ubi et quae sequuntur insinuantur.Thus in codices F (T from a second hand), W, bb, cc, and edition 1; many codices wrongly read plures, which some codices omit; the Vatican edition reads universales. Cf. above, d. 3, p. II, a. 2, q. 1, where these things and what follows are intimated.
- Cod. Erf. hic annotat: Hic incipit Hugo [I. de Sacram. p. I. c. 2, deinde c. 4.], et est expositio Augustini.Codex Erf. here notes: Here Hugh begins [I de Sacramentis, p. I, c. 2, then c. 4], and it is an exposition of Augustine.
- Libr. I. de Gen. ad lit. c. 15. n. 29. Cod. Erf. addit: et libr. IV. c. 7. n. 14, et VII. c. ult. n. 41. planius; nunquam tamen asserit. Unde ibid. n. 42. dicit sic: Si possunt haec melius intelligi, non solum non resisto, verum et faveo [in istis huius codicis citationibus, sicut alibi, correximus et supplevimus numeros]. — Paulo post, faventibus edd. 1, 3, 5, primum substituimus pro prima, quod Vat. cum codd. et aliis edd. exhibet.Book I, On Genesis according to the Letter, c. 15, n. 29. Codex Erf. adds: and Book IV, c. 7, n. 14, and Book VII, last c., n. 41, more plainly; yet he never asserts it. Whence in the same place, n. 42, he says thus: If these things can be better understood, not only do I not resist, but I even favor [in these citations of this codex, as elsewhere, we have corrected and supplied the numbers]. — A little after, with the support of editions 1, 3, and 5, we have substituted primum for prima, which the Vatican edition with the codices and other editions presents.
- Libr. XXXII. Moral. c. 12. n. 16; Hieron., Comment. in Epist. ad Tit. cap. 1, secundum sensum; Beda, I. Hexaem. in princip. Inter plures est etiam Hugo, qui Sum. Sent. tr. 3. c. 1. dicit, quod haec sententia est multo probabilior (ita cod. Erf.).Book XXXII of the Moralia, c. 12, n. 16; Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to Titus, chapter 1, according to the sense; Bede, Hexaemeron I, at the beginning. Among the many is also Hugh, who in the Summa Sententiarum, tr. 3, c. 1, says that this opinion is much more probable (so codex Erf.).
- Dist. 1. et 11. c. 3.Distinction 1 and 11, c. 3.
- Libro I. de Gen. contra Manich. c. 7. n. 12. nonnullis mutatis.Book I On Genesis against the Manichees, c. 7, n. 12, with some things altered.
- Est littera secundum Septuaginta, iuxta annotationem cod. Erf.This is the reading according to the Septuagint, according to the note in codex Erf.
- Cod. Erf. hic annotat: Illud similiter est Augustini super Gen. [scil. contra Manichaeos loc. cit.]; ac deinde ad verba cerni ac tractari poterat annotat: Sententia est Augustini, sed verba Gandolphi.Codex Erf. here notes: This likewise is from Augustine on Genesis [namely Against the Manichees loc. cit.]; and then at the words could be discerned and handled notes: The opinion is Augustine's, but the words Gandulph's.
- August., ibid. c. 4. n. 7, et XII. Confess. c. 5. n. 3.Augustine, ibid., c. 4, n. 7, and Confessions XII, c. 5, n. 3.
- Dan. 3, 72.Daniel 3, 72.
- Cfr. August., I. de Gen. contra Manichaeos c. 7. n. 11. et I. de Gen. ad lit. c. 13. n. 29. et Hugo, I. de Sacram. p. I. c. 4, et quoad subsequentia ibid. c. 6.Cf. Augustine, On Genesis against the Manichees I, c. 7, n. 11, and On Genesis according to the Letter I, c. 13, n. 29, and Hugh, de Sacramentis I, p. I, c. 4, and as to what follows, ibid., c. 6.
- Sic codd. A B E cum edd. 1, 5 pro oppressis, quod in Vat. et ceteris edd. nec non in codd. C D habetur. — Paulo inferius ad verba Et sicut quibusdam cod. Erf. annotat: Magister secundum sententiam Bedae super Gen. [Quaest. super Gen. disput. 2].Thus in codices A, B, E with editions 1 and 5, in place of oppressis, which is found in the Vatican edition and the other editions, and likewise in codices C and D. — A little lower, at the words And as it seems to some, codex Erf. notes: The Master according to the opinion of Bede on Genesis [Questions on Genesis, disp. 2].
- Ioan. 5, 17. De cessatione ab opere cfr. infra d. XV.John 5, 17. On the cessation from work cf. below, d. XV.
- Interrogat. et resp. in Gen., interrogat. 19, fere ad finem [vel ad verbum]. — Locus s. Scripturae est Eccli. 18, 1.Questions and Answers on Genesis, question 19, near the end [or to the word]. — The locus of Sacred Scripture is Ecclesiasticus 18, 1. ---