The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy | Page 5

dii. Cuius coniunctionis
ratio est indifferentia. Eos enim differentia comitatur qui uel augent uel
minuunt, ut Arriani qui gradibus meritorum trinitatem uariantes
distrahunt atque in pluralitatem diducunt. Principium enim pluralitatis
alteritas est; praeter alteritatem enim nec pluralitas quid sit intellegi
potest. Trium namque rerum uel quotlibet tum genere tum specie tum
numero diuersitas constat; quotiens enim idem dicitur, totiens diuersum
etiam praedicatur. Idem uero dicitur tribus modis: aut genere ut idem
homo quod equus, quia his idem genus ut animal; uel specie ut idem
Cato quod Cicero, quia eadem species ut homo; uel numero ut Tullius
et Cicero, quia unus est numero. Quare diuersum etiam uel genere uel
specie uel numero dicitur. Sed numero differentiam accidentium
uarietas facit. Nam tres homines neque genere neque specie sed suis
accidentibus distant; nam uel si animo cuncta ab his accidentia
separemus, tamen locus cunctis diuersus est quem unum fingere nullo
modo possumus; duo enim corpora unum locum non obtinebunt, qui est
accidens. Atque ideo sunt numero plures, quoniam accidentibus plures
fiunt.

I.
There are many who claim as theirs the dignity of the Christian religion;
but that form of faith is valid and only valid which, both on account of
the universal character of the rules and doctrines affirming its authority,
and because the worship in which they are expressed has spread
throughout the world, is called catholic or universal. The belief of this
religion concerning the Unity of the Trinity is as follows: the Father is
God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Therefore Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit are one God, not three Gods. The principle of this union is
absence of difference[10]: difference cannot be avoided by those who
add to or take from the Unity, as for instance the Arians, who, by

graduating the Trinity according to merit, break it up and convert it to
Plurality. For the essence of plurality is otherness; apart from otherness
plurality is unintelligible. In fact, the difference between three or more
things lies in genus or species or number. Difference is the necessary
correlative of sameness. Sameness is predicated in three ways: By
genus; e.g. a man and a horse, because of their common genus, animal.
By species; e.g. Cato and Cicero, because of their common species,
man. By number; e.g. Tully and Cicero, because they are numerically
one. Similarly difference is expressed by genus, species, and number.
Now numerical difference is caused by variety of accidents; three men
differ neither by genus nor species but by their accidents, for if we
mentally remove from them all other accidents,[11] still each one
occupies a different place which cannot possibly be regarded as the
same for each, since two bodies cannot occupy the same place, and
place is an accident. Wherefore it is because men are plural by their
accidents that they are plural in number.
[10] The terms differentia, numerus, species, are used expertly, as
would be expected of the author of the In Isag. Porph. Commenta. See
S. Brandt's edition of that work (in the Vienna Corpus, 1906), s.v.
differentia, etc.
[11] This method of mental abstraction is employed more elaborately in
Tr. iii. (vide infra, p. 44) and in Cons. v. pr. 4, where the notion of
divine foreknowledge is abstracted in imagination.

II.
Age igitur ingrediamur et unumquodque ut intellegi atque capi potest
dispiciamus; nam, sicut optime dictum uidetur, eruditi est hominis
unum quodque ut ipsum est ita de eo fidem capere temptare.
Nam cum tres sint speculatiuae partes, naturalis, in motu inabstracta
[Greek: anupexairetos] (considerat enim corporum formas cum materia,
quae a corporibus actu separari non possunt, quae corpora in motu sunt
ut cum terra deorsum ignis sursum fertur, habetque motum forma

materiae coniuncta), mathematica, sine motu inabstracta (haec enim
formas corporum speculatur sine materia ac per hoc sine motu, quae
formae cum in materia sint, ab his separari non possunt), theologica,
sine motu abstracta atque separabilis (nam dei substantia et materia et
motu caret), in naturalibus igitur rationabiliter, in mathematicis
disciplinaliter, in diuinis intellectualiter uersari oportebit neque diduci
ad imaginationes, sed potius ipsam inspicere formam quae uere forma
neque imago est et quae esse ipsum est et ex qua esse est. Omne
namque esse ex forma est. Statua enim non secundum aes quod est
materia, sed secundum formam qua in eo insignita est effigies animalis
dicitur, ipsumque aes non secundum terram quod est eius materia, sed
dicitur secundum aeris figuram. Terra quoque ipsa non secundum
[Greek: apoion hulaen] dicitur, sed secundum siccitatem grauitatemque
quae sunt formae. Nihil igitur secundum materiam esse dicitur sed
secundum propriam formam. Sed diuina substantia sine materia forma
est atque ideo unum et est id quod est. Reliqua enim non sunt id quod
sunt. Vnum quodque enim habet esse suum ex his ex quibus est, id est
ex partibus suis, et