De Dignitatate Conditionis Humanae Libellus

ON THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN CONDITION A SHORT TREATISE CHAPTER ONE. — "Let us make man in our image and likeness" (Gen. 11:26). Thus the dignity of the human condition is recognized to be so great that man was created not merely by the commanding word of the Creator, like the other works of the six days, but by the counsel of the Holy Trinity and the work of divine majesty; so that from the honor of his first condition he would understand how much he owed to his Creator, since the Creator granted him such a privilege of dignity immediately in his condition; and so that he would love the Creator all the more ardently, the more wonderfully he understood himself to have been created by Him; and not only for this reason—that he was so excellently created by the Creator through the counsel of the Holy Trinity—but also because the Creator of all things created him in His own image and likeness, which He granted to no other among the creatures. CHAPTER TWO. — This image is to be considered more carefully from the nobility of the inner man. First, because just as God is always one, everywhere whole, giving life, moving, and governing all things—as the Apostle confirms: "In Him we live, move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28)—so the soul in its body is everywhere whole, thriving, giving it life, moving it, and governing it. For it is not greater in the larger members of its body and lesser in the smaller; but in the smallest it is whole, and in the largest it is whole. And this is the image of the omnipotent God's unity which the soul possesses within itself.

This also bears a certain image of the holy Trinity. First, in that just as God is, lives, and knows, so the soul in its own mode is, lives, and knows. There is also another trinity in it, which is formed in the image of its perfect and supreme Creator, that is, of the supreme Trinity, which is constituted of Father and Son and Holy Spirit; and although that Trinity is of one nature, it nevertheless has three dignities in itself, namely, intellect, will, and memory. This same thing, although in other words, is indicated in the Gospel when it is said: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind" (Matt. 13:37), that is, with your whole intellect, and with your whole will, and with your whole memory. For just as the Son is generated from the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so from the intellect is generated the will, and from these both proceeds memory, as can easily be understood by any wise person; for the soul is not perfect without these three, nor is any one of these three, as far as its own beatitude is concerned, complete without the other two: and just as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is, yet they are not three gods, but one God having three persons, so the soul is intellect, the soul is will, the soul is memory, yet they are not three souls in one body, but one soul having three dignities.

And in these three, our inner man wonderfully bears its image in his own nature, from which, as from the more excellent dignities of the soul, we are commanded to love the Creator: so that insofar as He is understood, He is loved; and insofar as He is loved, He is always held in memory. Nor does understanding of Him alone suffice, unless the will is formed in love of Him; indeed, neither do these two suffice, unless memory is added, by which God may remain in the mind of the one understanding and loving; so that just as there can be no moment in which man does not use or enjoy the goodness and mercy of God, so there should be no moment in which he does not have Him present in memory. And therefore, O most beloved son, it rightly seems to me that the inner man is said to be the image of God; for the soul is called the entire inner man, by which that clayey mass, moistened with juices, is enlivened, ruled, and contained, lest it dry out and dissolve. God is called that ineffably great, and immeasurably wise power, as it is written: "Our Lord is great, and His power is great, and His wisdom has no number" (Psalm 146:5); and incomparably sweet, as elsewhere it says: "The Lord is sweet to all, and His mercies are above all His works" (Psalm 144:5).

From which, and through which, and in which are all things that are; all things that are are governed; all things that are are contained: I mean the whole universe itself, which is the totality, which is other than He who made it and was not made. But He Himself is that from which, and that which is from Him, and that in which; which God from whom He is, is called Father by us who are poor in understanding, poorer in words; that which is from Him is called Son; that in which is called Holy Spirit. For God is called Father because He Himself is that from which, and wisdom is that by which all things are ordered, and love is that by which all things desire to remain as they are ordered. Therefore, that from which, and that which is from Him, and that in which they love each other, these two are three, and those three are therefore one; because they are so from the one those two, that nevertheless they are not separated from Him: but they are from Him because they are not from themselves; and in Him because they are not separated; and He Himself is what they are, and He Himself is what He is; and not He Himself is what they are who He is, and not they themselves are what He is which they are. This power is God, and God Himself is three, and each one of these three is God, and all three of them are not gods, but God.

Therefore, as has been said, the Creator made the human soul in His own image, which is wholly called soul. I do not, however, mean the same thing by soul as by mind when I speak of the human soul; rather, I mean soul for one thing and mind for another. For the whole that lives is the human soul: but when the soul acts in itself, from itself, and through itself, it alone is usually called mind; while sense, fulfilling its own ministries, is more commonly called soul. Therefore, mind generates knowing, and loves the knowing that it knows. I do not mean that knowing by which some thing is suddenly known that was previously thought unknown, but that from which and by which anything and everything that is known or unknown can be known. Therefore, mind generates that knowing, and when it is generated, it can be called knowledge. So there are now two: mind, and what that mind knows; a third remains, common to both. Every mind, whatever it knows, loves to know. Love is no less than between two: the lover and what is loved. Therefore, the love of both is one, which is also the third. But it cannot be denied that this whole is one soul, and that one soul is these three; for just as these three are truly one soul, so no less truly is one soul this one and this other and this third.

This creature, so eminent, compares itself to its supremely eminent Creator, except for this one point, and that not far removed above itself: that all goodness, and every good, and all the sweetness of goodness and good belong to the Creator from Himself; but the creature has not only what it is, but also that it is such, from another, not from itself; and He Himself is always what He is. Although the soul itself is in its own way immutable; for it is always soul, once it has begun to be, and it knows, and it wills to know. Therefore, as I have said, the soul compares itself, in the way it can, to its Creator; so that the mind may be called Father, because it begets knowing; knowing may be called Son, because it is from another, and is not other than that which He Himself is, from whom it is; love may be called Holy Spirit, because it belongs to both of those who love each other. Hence in our Scriptures love, that is, charity, which is in God toward us, and which from us toward God, is often called the Spirit Himself. And take this, O most beloved son, concerning the image.

CHAPTER III. — Now understand something of a likeness that is to be discerned in lesser things: that just as God the Creator, who created man in his own image, is charity, is good, and just, patient and gentle, pure and merciful, and bears the other marks of holy virtues that are read of him, so man was created that he might have charity, that he might be good and just, that he might be patient and gentle, pure and merciful. The more each person fosters these virtues in himself, the closer he is to God, and the greater likeness of his Creator he bears. If, however—which God forbid—someone, through the byways of vices and the crossroads of crimes, strays degenerately from this most noble likeness of his Creator, then what is written will come to pass concerning him: "And when man was in honor, he did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts, and became like them" (Ps. 48:13). What greater honor could man have had than to be created in the likeness of his Maker, and to be adorned with the same garments of virtues with which the Creator is also adorned, of whom it is read: "The Lord reigned, clothed in beauty" (Ps. 29:1)? That is, adorned with the splendor of all virtues and the beauty of all goodness. Or what greater disgrace could befall man, or what more wretched misery, than that, having lost this glory of likeness to his Creator, he should sink into the formless and irrational likeness of brute beasts?

Therefore, O most beloved, let each one who attends more diligently to the excellence of his first condition recognize in himself the venerable image of the holy Trinity, and strive to possess the honor of the divine likeness to which he was created, through nobility of character, exercise of virtues, and dignity of merits; so that when he appears as he is, he may then appear similar to Him who wonderfully formed him in his own likeness in the first Adam, and more wonderfully refashioned him in the second (1 John 3:2).