Dist. 14, Part 1, Dubia
Book II: On the Creation of Things · Distinction 14
## DUBIA CIRCA LITTERAM MAGISTRI.
Dub. I.
Posset tamen aliquis dubitare de eo quod dicit in littera: Deum glaciali soliditate aquas suspendere. Ex hoc enim videtur supponere, quod aquae illae sint de se ponderosae, et quod ibi teneantur per violentiam soliditatis; quod est contra ordinem universitatis.
Resp. Sed dicendum ad hoc, quod aquas illas comparat glaciali soliditati non propter gravitatem, sed propter continuitatem et stabilitatem, quia non fluunt nec refluunt nec deorsum descendunt.
Dub. II.
Item posset aliquis dubitare de hoc quod dicit: Aquas super illud caelum minutioribus guttis et levioribus emanare vaporibus. Si enim hoc verum est, videtur tunc firmamentum porosum esse, ut per illud possint guttae aquae emanare. Videtur etiam illud caelum alterabile esse, si suscipit peregrinas impressiones1.
Resp. Sed dicendum ad hoc, quod non vult dicere, quod aquae modo per subtiliationem caloris pertranseant caelum sidereum, quia nunquam illuc ascendunt; sed per operationem naturae, quae modo usque super aerem elevat aquas, vult quasi a minori insinuare, quod divina virtus aquas super firmamentum sine naturae praeiudicio potuit constituere, cum in sua potestate esset, magis et magis corpus subtiliare2.
Dub. III.
Item quaeritur de ista ratione, quam reddit: Non est hic dictum… Vidit Deus, quod esset bonum… quia binarius principium est alteritatis et signum divisionis. Contra: Videtur enim ista ratio ita bene esse ad oppositum, sicut ad propositum. Binarius enim plus accedit ad unitatem quam aliquis alius numerus.
Resp. Sed respondendum est ad hoc, quod ista ratio Magistri est allegorica, vera tamen est. Quamvis enim binarius inter numeros minus ab unitate recedat, primo tamen habet rationem recessus in se, et propter hoc per ipsum intelligitur divisio magis, quam per alios numeros, et recessus ab unitate virtutis et perfectionis. Alia tamen ratio est litteralis, quam tangit magister in Historiis3, quia secundo die notatur facta esse distinctio aquarum ab aquis, quae distinctio, etsi inchoata fuit in secundo die, fuit tamen consummata in tertio, cum dicitur: Congregentur aquae in locum unum4. Et quia divina visio significat approbationem post perfectionem, hinc est, quod Scriptura tacuit secundo die verbum videndi.
---
## DOUBTS CONCERNING THE LETTER OF THE MASTER.
Doubt I.
Yet someone could doubt concerning what he says in the letter: That God by a glacial solidity suspended the waters. For from this he seems to suppose that those waters are of themselves heavy, and that they are held there by the violence of solidity; which is contrary to the order of the universe.
Reply. But it must be said to this that he compares those waters to glacial solidity not on account of weight, but on account of continuity and stability, because they neither flow nor flow back nor descend downward.
Doubt II.
Likewise someone could doubt concerning this which he says: That the waters above that heaven emanate in tinier drops and lighter vapors. For if this is true, then the firmament seems to be porous, so that through it drops of water can emanate. That heaven also seems to be alterable, if it receives foreign impressions1.
Reply. But it must be said to this that he does not mean that waters now, through the subtilization of heat, pass through the starry heaven, since they never ascend there; but, through the operation of nature, which now raises waters up above the air, he wishes as it were from the lesser to intimate that the divine power was able, without prejudice to nature, to place waters above the firmament, since it was in his power to make a body more and more subtle2.
Doubt III.
Likewise it is asked about that reason which he gives: It is not said here… God saw that it was good… because the binary is the principle of otherness and the sign of division. On the contrary: This reason seems to be just as good for the opposite as for the proposition. For the binary approaches unity more than any other number.
Reply. But it must be answered to this that this reason of the Master is allegorical, yet it is true. For although the binary, among numbers, departs least from unity, it nevertheless first has in itself the character of departure, and on account of this through it division is understood more than through other numbers, and the departure from the unity of virtue and perfection. There is, however, another reason, a literal one, which the Master touches in the Histories3, namely that on the second day a distinction of waters from waters is noted to have been made, which distinction, although it was begun on the second day, was nevertheless consummated on the third, when it is said: Let the waters be gathered into one place4. And because the divine seeing signifies approbation after perfection, hence it is that Scripture passed over the word "seeing" on the second day.
---
- Scil. mutationes inferiorum corporum, quae secundum Aristot., I. de Caelo et mundo, text. 20. seqq. (c. 3.) et I. Meteor. c. 4. (c. 3.) excluduntur a caelestibus corporibus.Namely the changes of inferior bodies, which according to Aristotle, de Caelo et mundo I, text 20 ff. (c. 3) and Meteorologica I, c. 4 (c. 3), are excluded from celestial bodies.
- Cfr. a. 1. q. 1. huius dist.Cf. art. 1, q. 1 of this distinction.
- Magister Petrus Comestor († 1178), qui in sua Historia Scholastica, quae est compendium historiarum N. et V. T., c. 4. historiae Genesis dicit: Possumus tamen dicere, quia opus tertiae diei quasi adhuc est de opere secundae diei… Unde non commendatur, nisi in tertia die, quasi post sui consummationem.Master Peter Comestor († 1178), who in his Historia Scholastica, which is a compendium of the histories of the N. and O. T., c. 4 of the History of Genesis says: We can however say that the work of the third day is as it were still of the work of the second day… Whence it is not commended except on the third day, as it were after its consummation.
- Gen. 1, 9. — De hoc dubio cfr. Alex. Hal., S. p. II. q. 50. m. 6. a. 2; B. Albert., S. p. II. tr. 11. q. 55; S. Thom. et Petr. a Tar., hic circa lit.Gen. 1:9. — On this doubt cf. Alexander of Hales, Summa p. II, q. 50, m. 6, a. 2; Bl. Albert, Summa p. II, tr. 11, q. 55; St. Thomas and Peter of Tarentaise, here on the letter. ---