Dist. 15
Book II: On the Creation of Things · Distinction 15
DISTINCTIO XV.
Cap. I. De opere quinti diei, quo facta sunt natatilia et volatilia.
Dixit etiam Deus1: Producant aquae reptile animae viventis et volatile super terram etc. Dubium 1. Opus quinti diei est formatio piscium et avium, quibus duo elementa ornantur; et de eadem materia, id est de aquis, pisces et aves creavit, volatilia levans in aera et natatilia remittens gurgiti.
Cap. II. De opere sexti diei, quo creata sunt animalia et reptilia terrae.
Sequitur: Dixit Deus: Producat terra animam viventem, iumenta et reptilia et bestias terrae secundum species suas2 etc. Dubium 2. Sexti diei opus describitur, cum terra suis animalibus ornari dicitur.
Cap. III. De venenosis et noxiis animalibus.
Quaeri solet « de venenosis et perniciosis animantibus, Augustinus. utrum post peccatum hominis ad vindictam creata sint, an potius creata innoxia peccatoribus nocere coeperint. Sane dici potest, quod creata nihil homini nocuissent, si non peccasset; puniendorum namque vitiorum et terrendorum, vel probandae et perficiendae virtutis causa nocere coeperunt. Fuerunt ergo creata innoxia, sed propter peccatum facta sunt noxia3 ».
Cap. IV. Utrum minima animalia tunc creata fuerint.
« De quibusdam etiam minutis animantibus quaestio est, Augustinus. utrum in primis conditionibus creata sint, an ex rebus corruptis postea orta sint. Pleraque enim de humidorum corporum vitiis, vel exhalationibus terrae, sive de cadaveribus gignuntur; quaedam etiam de corruptione lignorum et herbarum et fructuum; et Deus auctor omnium est. Potest autem dici, quod ea quae de corporibus animalium, maxime mortuorum, nascuntur, cum animalibus creata non fuerint nisi potentialiter et materialiter; ea vero quae ex terra vel aquis nascuntur, vel ex eis, quae terra germinante orta sunt, tunc creata fuisse, non incongrue dici potest4 ».
Cap. V. Quare post omnia factus est homo.
Omnibus autem creatis atque dispositis, novissime factus est homo, tanquam dominus et possessor, qui et omnibus praeferendus erat; unde sequitur5: Vidit Deus, quod esset bonum, et ait: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem etc. Sed antequam de hominis creatione tractemus, quod supra6 breviter tetigimus plenius versantes clarius faciamus. In hac enim rerum distinctione Dubium 3. catholici tractatores dissentire, ut supra diximus, inveniuntur, aliis dicentibus, Opinio 1. res creatas atque distinctas secundum species suas per intervalla sex dierum: quorum sententiae quia littera Genesis magis inservire videtur atque catholica Ecclesia magis approbat, ideo hactenus studiose docuimus, quomodo ex illa communi materia, prius informiter facta, postea rerum corporalium genera per sex dierum volumina distinctim sint formata.
Cap. VI. De sententia illorum qui simul omnia facta esse contendunt.
Aliis autem videtur, quod non per intervalla Opinio 2. temporum facta sint, sed simul ita formata ad esse prodierint. Quod Augustinus super Genesim7 pluribus modis Augustinus. nititur ostendere dicens, « elementa quatuor ita formata, sicut modo apparent, ab initio exstitisse, et caelum sideribus ornatum fuisse; quaedam vero non forma-
liter, sed materialiter tunc facta fuisse, quae post per temporis accessum formaliter distincta sunt, ut herbae, arbores et forte animalia. Omnia ergo in ipso temporis initio facta esse dicunt, sed quaedam formaliter et secundum species, quas habere cernimus, ut maiores mundi partes, quaedam vero materialiter tantum ». Sed, ut dicunt, Moyses, loquens rudi et carnali populo, locutionis modum temperavit, de Deo loquens a simili hominis, qui per moras temporum opera sua perficit, cum ipse simul sua opera Augustinus. fecerit. Unde Augustinus: « Ideo, inquit, Moyses divisim refert, Deum illa opera fecisse, quia non potuit simul ab homine dici quod a Deo simul potuit fieri ». Item: « Potuit dividere Scriptura loquendi temporibus quod Deus operandi temporibus non divisit ». Illi qui his auctoritatibus et aliis huiusmodi inhaerentes dicunt, quatuor elementa atque caeli luminaria ita formata simul esse8, illos sex dies, quos Scriptura commemorat, sex rerum genera, id est distinctiones appellant, quae simul factae sunt, partim formaliter, partim causaliter.
Cap. VII. Quomodo intelligenda sit requies Dei.
Iam de septimae diei requie aliquid nos eloqui oportet. Scriptum est, quia complevit Deus die septimo opus suum... et requievit die septimo ab universo opere, Augustinus. quod patrarat9. « Requievisse dicitur Deus die septimo, non quasi operando lassus, sed ab universo opere requievit, quia novam creaturam facere cessavit. Re- Dubium 4. quiescere enim cessare dicitur10 ». Unde in Apocalypsi: Non habebant requiem dicentia: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, id est, dicere non cessabant. Requievisse Augustinus. igitur Deus dicitur, quia « cessavit a faciendis generibus creaturae, quia ultra nova non condidit. Usque nunc tamen, ut Veritas in Evangelio ait, operatur Pater cum Filio, scilicet administrationem eorundem generum, quae tunc instituta sunt. Creatoris enim virtus causa subsistendi est omni creaturae. Quod ergo dicitur: Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor; illud universae creaturae continuam administrationem ostendit. Die ergo septimo requievit, ut novam creaturam ulterius non faceret, cuius materia vel similitudo11 non praecesserit; sed usque nunc operatur, ut quod condidit continere et gubernare non cesset ».
Cap. VIII. Quomodo accipiendum sit, quod dicitur Deus complesse opus suum septimo die, cum tunc quieverit.
Sed quaeritur, quomodo septimo die dicatur Deus complesse opus suum, cum ab omni opere illo die requieverit nec aliquod genus novum rerum fecerit. « Alia translatio habet: Consummavit Deus die sexta opera sua; quae nihil quaestionis affert, quia manifesta sunt quae in eo facta sunt12 » et omnium consummatio eo die perfecta est, sicut Scriptura ostendit, cum ait: Vidit Deus cuncta, quae fecerat, et erant valde bona.
Cap. IX. Quomodo omnia a Deo facta dicantur valde bona.
« Omnia quidem naturaliter bona erant nilque in sui Augustinus. natura vitii habentia. Et sunt bona, quae condidit Deus, etiam singula; simul vero universa valde bona, quia ex omnibus consistit universitatis admirabilis pulcritudo », « in qua etiam illud quod malum dicitur, bene ordinatum et loco suo positum, eminentius commendat bona, ut magis placeant et laudabiliora sint, dum comparantur malis ». Sexto ergo die facta est omnium operum consummatio. — Ideo praemissa oritur quaestio, quomodo dicatur Deus die septimo opus suum complesse, quod « Hebraica veritas habet, in quo tamen nihil novum creasse dicitur, nisi forte dicatur die septimo complevisse opus suum, quia ipsum benedixit et sanctificavit », sicut subiicit Scriptura: Benedixit diei septimo et sanctificavit illum. « Opus enim est benedictio et sanctificatio, sicut Salomon aliquid operis fecit, cum templum dedicavit ».
Cap. X. De sanctificatione septimi diei.
Illum autem diem sanctificasse et benedixisse dicitur, Dubium 5. quia mystica prae ceteris benedictione et sanctificatione eum donavit. Unde in Lege dicitur: Memento sanctificare diem sabbati. Et inde est, quod numerando dies usque ad septimum procedimus et Dubium 6. dicimus, septem esse dies, quorum repetitione omne
tempus agitur; non quia alius sit ab illis dies octavus et nonus, et sic de ceteris, sed quia in sex diebus rerum genera distincta sunt, et in septimo, licet non fuerit novum genus rerum institutum, tamen fuit in eo quasi quidam novus status sanctificationis operum et requietionis opificis. Potest etiam sic exponi illud: Complevit Deus die septimo opus suum, id est, completum et consummatum vidit.
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DISTINCTION XV.
Cap. I. On the work of the fifth day, on which the swimming and flying creatures were made.
God also said1: Let the waters bring forth the creeping thing of living soul and that which flies above the earth etc. Dubium 1. The work of the fifth day is the formation of fishes and birds, by which two elements are adorned; and from the same matter, that is, from the waters, he created fishes and birds, lifting the flying things into the air and entrusting the swimming things to the deep.
Cap. II. On the work of the sixth day, on which the animals and reptiles of the earth were created.
There follows: God said: Let the earth bring forth the living soul, cattle and reptiles and beasts of the earth according to their kinds2 etc. Dubium 2. The work of the sixth day is described, when the earth is said to be adorned with its animals.
Cap. III. On venomous and noxious animals.
It is accustomed to be asked « concerning venomous and pernicious living creatures, Augustine. whether they were created after the sin of man for vengeance, or rather were created harmless and began to harm sinners. Indeed it can be said that, [though] created, they would have done no harm to man if he had not sinned; for they began to harm for the punishing and terrifying of vices, or for the proving and perfecting of virtue. They were therefore created harmless, but on account of sin they became noxious3 ».
Cap. IV. Whether the smallest animals were then created.
« Concerning certain minute living things also there is a question, Augustine. whether they were created in the first foundings, or sprang up afterward from corrupted things. For most are generated from defects of moist bodies, or from exhalations of the earth, or from cadavers; and some also from the corruption of woods and herbs and fruits; and God is the author of all. It can however be said that those which are born from the bodies of animals, especially from dead ones, were not created with the animals except potentially and materially; but those which are born from the earth or the waters, or from those things which sprang from the earth's germinating, can not incongruously be said to have been then created4 ».
Cap. V. Why man was made after all things.
When all things, however, had been created and disposed, last of all man was made, as lord and possessor, who was also to be set before all things; whence there follows5: God saw that it was good, and said: Let us make man to our image etc. But before we treat of the creation of man, let us, by turning over more fully what we touched on briefly above6, make it more clear. For in this distinction of things, Dubium 3. the Catholic commentators are found to disagree, as we said above, with some saying Opinion 1. that things were created and distinguished according to their species through the intervals of six days. Since the opinion of these seems rather to serve the letter of Genesis and the Catholic Church rather approves it, therefore up to now we have diligently taught how, from that common matter, first made formlessly, afterward the kinds of corporeal things were distinctly formed through the courses of six days.
Cap. VI. On the opinion of those who contend that all things were made simultaneously.
But to others it seems that they were not made through Opinion 2. intervals of time, but that, simultaneously so formed, they came forth into being. Augustine on Genesis7 strives to show this in several ways, Augustine. saying: « The four elements, formed as they now appear, existed from the beginning, and the heaven was adorned with stars; but certain things were then made not for-
mally, but materially, which afterward, through the passage of time, were distinguished formally — as herbs, trees, and perhaps animals. Therefore they say that all things were made in the very beginning of time, but some formally and according to the species which we see them to have, as the larger parts of the world, but others only materially ». But, as they say, Moses, speaking to a rude and carnal people, tempered the manner of speech, speaking of God after the likeness of a man who through the delays of time completes his works, although he himself made his works simultaneously. Augustine. Whence Augustine: « Therefore, he says, Moses reports divisively that God made those works, because what could be done simultaneously by God could not be said simultaneously by a man ». Likewise: « Scripture could divide by the times of speaking what God did not divide by the times of working ». Those who, adhering to these authorities and others of this kind, say that the four elements and the luminaries of heaven were so formed simultaneously8, call those six days, which Scripture commemorates, six kinds of things — that is, distinctions — which were made simultaneously, partly formally, partly causally.
Cap. VII. How the rest of God is to be understood.
Now we must speak something about the rest of the seventh day. It is written that God completed his work on the seventh day... and he rested on the seventh day from every work which he had wrought9. Augustine. « God is said to have rested on the seventh day, not as if wearied by working, but he rested from every work, because he ceased to make a new creature. Dubium 4. For to rest is said [to mean] to cease10 ». Hence in the Apocalypse: They had no rest, saying: Holy, holy, holy — that is, they did not cease to say so. Augustine. Therefore God is said to have rested, because « he ceased from making kinds of creature, since he founded no new ones beyond [those]. Yet even now, as the Truth says in the Gospel, the Father works together with the Son, namely the administration of the same kinds which were then instituted. For the power of the Creator is the cause of subsistence for every creature. Therefore that which is said: My Father works even until now, and I work, shows the continuous administration of the whole creature. On the seventh day, therefore, he rested, so that he might no longer make a new creature whose matter or likeness11 had not preceded; but he works even until now, so that he may not cease to contain and govern what he founded ».
Cap. VIII. How it is to be understood that God is said to have completed his work on the seventh day, when then he rested.
But it is asked how God is said on the seventh day to have completed his work, when on that day he rested from every work and made no new kind of things. « Another translation has: God consummated his works on the sixth day; which raises no question, since the things which were done on it are manifest12 »; and on that day the consummation of all things was perfected, as Scripture shows, when it says: God saw all the things which he had made, and they were very good.
Cap. IX. How all things made by God are called very good.
« All things indeed were naturally good, having nothing of vice in their nature. Augustine. And the things which God founded are good, even singly; but at the same time the universe taken together [is] very good, because from all of them consists the admirable beauty of the totality », « in which even that which is called evil, being well ordered and placed in its place, more eminently commends the good things, so that they may more please and be more praiseworthy, while they are compared with evils ». On the sixth day, therefore, the consummation of all the works was made. — Hence the foregoing question arises: how is God said on the seventh day to have completed his work, which « the Hebrew truth has, in which however he is said to have created nothing new, unless perhaps it be said that on the seventh day he completed his work because he blessed and sanctified it itself », as Scripture adds: He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. « For blessing and sanctification is a work, just as Solomon did a certain work when he dedicated the temple ».
Cap. X. On the sanctification of the seventh day.
But he is said to have sanctified and blessed that day, Dubium 5. because by a mystical blessing and sanctification beyond the others he endowed it. Whence in the Law it is said: Remember to sanctify the day of the sabbath. And from that it is, that, numbering the days up to the seventh, we proceed and say Dubium 6. that there are seven days, by whose repetition all
time is reckoned; not because the eighth day is some other than these, and the ninth, and so of the rest, but because in six days the kinds of things were distinguished, and in the seventh, although there was no new kind of things instituted, yet there was in it, as it were, a certain new state of the sanctification of the works and of the rest of the Maker. It can also be expounded thus: God completed his work on the seventh day, that is, he saw it completed and consummated.
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- Gen. 1, 20. Quae sequuntur sunt ex Ambros., V. Hexaem. c. 2. 3. Cod. Erf. citat hic Gandolphum, Sent. II. c. 66.Gen. 1:20. What follows is from Ambrose, Hexaemeron V, c. 2–3. Codex Erf. here cites Gandulph, Sentences II c. 66.
- Gen. 1, 24. Vulgata: viventem in genere suo, iumenta etc.Gen. 1:24. The Vulgate [reads]: living [thing] in its kind, cattle, etc.
- August., III. de Gen. ad lit. c. 15. n. 24, et est etiam in Glossa ordinaria ad hunc locum.Augustine, On Genesis to the Letter III c. 15 n. 24, and is also found in the Ordinary Gloss on this passage.
- August., ibid. c. 14. n. 22. 23, sententialiter. Habetur etiam in Glossa ordinaria.Augustine, ibid. c. 14 nn. 22–23, paraphrastically. It is also found in the Ordinary Gloss.
- Gen. 1, 25. 26.Gen. 1:25–26.
- Dist. XII. c. 2.Distinction XII, c. 2.
- Libr. IV. c. 32. n. 49. 50; V. c. 4. 5; sententialiter. Sequens locus est ibid. l. c. 10. n. 19, c. 15. n. 29, ubi est etiam tertius locus, et teste cod. Erf. habetur apud Gandolphum et Hugonem.[Augustine, On Genesis to the Letter] Bk. IV c. 32 nn. 49–50; Bk. V c. 4–5; paraphrastically. The following passage is in the same book c. 10 n. 19, c. 15 n. 29, where the third passage also [is found]; and according to the witness of codex Erf. it is found in Gandulph and Hugh.
- Post simul esse, codd., excepto cod. D, cum edd. addunt non bene et habuisse.After simul esse, the codices — except codex D — together with the editions add non bene et habuisse ("not well and to have had").
- Gen. 2, 2.Gen. 2:2.
- August., IV. de Gen. ad lit. c. 8. n. 13; seq. locus c. 12. n. 22, sententialiter, sed in Glossa ord. ad hunc locum magna ex parte ad verbum. Locus Apoc. est 4, 8. — Sequens locus s. Scripturae est Ioan. 5, 17. Vulgata: Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor.Augustine, On Genesis to the Letter IV c. 8 n. 13; the following passage c. 12 n. 22, paraphrastically, but in the Ordinary Gloss on this passage in large part word-for-word. The Apocalypse passage is 4:8. — The following passage of sacred Scripture is John 5:17. The Vulgate [reads]: My Father works even until now, and I work.
- Hic cod. Erf. annotat: Similitudo non est ibi nec in Glossa.Here codex Erf. notes: Similitudo is not there nor in the Gloss.
- Glossa ordinaria ad Gen. 2, 2. — S. August. (IV. de Gen. ad lit. c. 10. n. 20.) legit: Consummavit Deus in die sexto opera sua. Sequens locus s. Scripturae est Gen. 1, 31.Ordinary Gloss on Gen. 2:2. — St. Augustine (On Genesis to the Letter IV c. 10 n. 20) reads: God consummated his works on the sixth day. The following passage of sacred Scripture is Gen. 1:31.