Viginti Unius Sententiarum

The Book of the Twenty-One Sentences or Questions. First Sentence. — The Blessed One. Everyone who wishes to live blessedly, if he lives as he wishes, is blessed: but every man wishes to live blessedly: therefore every man who lives as he wishes is blessed. From this it follows that no one lives as he wishes who wishes to live shamefully; because no one is blessed who lives shamefully. But he does not live as he wishes for this reason, that even if he does many things according to his own will, yet more things follow contrary to that same will. Second Sentence. — Concerning the Jews. Since the Apostle says that all things happened in figure to the Jews (1 Cor. 10:11), and that all past things were shadows; for the body is Christ: I can contend that the Passover was not performed more than once, when the figurative body was the slain Christ. For if a sheep, such as the law describes for the Passover, cannot be found, so that it is from sheep and goats—for the very nature of these animals disagrees with the conjunction of a common fetus—how could the true Passover be performed, when that lamb which is the Passover was lacking? But if Christ, such as he is born from the righteous, that is, sheep, and from sinners, that is, goats, according to the flesh, this is the only lamb that is sought, and since he is slain not more than once, that perfect Passover is shown to have been celebrated not more than once according to the truth.

The figures, therefore, as we have said, were of that time: for a lamb is chosen, to signify simplicity and innocence; a male is sought, that virtue may be approved; an unblemished one, that it be without crime; a yearling, that the time of preaching be completed; a perfect one, that it be instructed in every kind of virtue; in the first month, that the whole year be consecrated from its own beginning; on the fourteenth day of the month, that, with the light of truth fulfilled, the night of error be covered; at evening, that the impending sunset of the age be approved; with leaven removed, that the corruption of a perverse mind's malice be taken away from the heart; with the doorposts of the houses smeared with blood, that the figure of the Lord's passion be marked on the forehead; roasted by fire, for the Gospel and the word of Christ are robust food; nor soaked in water, for it is not to be dissolved by the moist languor of delicate interpretation. Nothing is omitted, for nothing in Christ is altogether rejected. The bones are not broken, because Christ cannot be crushed, that is, conquered, in any respect. Whatever remains is placed upon the divine fires; that is, what one cannot grasp, he refers to the divine knowledge of Christ, intent only on feasting to the best of his ability on those things that are manifest. For also that they eat standing is a form, lest anyone fall, or lest anyone prostrate himself out of necessity in the Gospel; but, with the strength of a vigorous mind, unconquered against the battles of persecutions, that is, he stands forth as exalted and erect.

For that the loins are girded is a sign of evangelical continence, while the seat of the seeds is restrained and constricted; with the addition of staves, the Holy Spirit, by which one is supported; with the feet shod, that is, with the slipperiness of error cast out, while by advancement to faith in heavenly things, as if with ironclad supports, all things in the Gospel are fixed, a most solid truth made firm. Also those who hasten: for the fervent are proven in faith, while the lukewarm and negligent are rejected and vomited forth. They are taken with unleavened bread: for Christ is taken with the pure simplicity of an entirely simple mind. With bitter herbs: for this Passover turned into the most bitter bitterness for the condemnation of the Jews. It was given only to the circumcised (Exod. 12): for only to those purified and cleansed by the bath of heavenly indulgence is the faculty of receiving the consecrated food of Christ's body extended. Thus what had been figured in the Israelites has been confirmed in us; and what were images for them are for us the truths themselves. They imitated the celebration of Passover, while they were exercised in likenesses, but only the disciples of Christ were to celebrate the true Passover.

Not those who handle the entrails and hearts of beasts, but those whose prudent virtue cleanses the heart, shutting out the stain of vices placed beneath, will be able to penetrate the sky with a second oarage, and to traverse the now empty ether with joyful wings. SENT. III. — On the question of fate and fortune. Because I noticed that your mind was not lightly moved, both when I was present and now more gratefully and certainly from your letter, I owe you a reply of no small volume, etc. Yet I will be more eager if you do not tire of frequently reminding me of your Charity by letter, and if you inform me by a reply what you think of this epistle. SENT. IV. — On magic miracles. One ought not to be disturbed when by magic arts miracles are often performed similar to those performed by the holy servants of God: as it is written in Exodus, that the magicians of Pharaoh did some things similarly to what Moses did (Exod. VII and VIII). Therefore, one ought not to marvel at these things: because all things that are done visibly, even through the lower powers of this air, are believed not absurdly to be able to be done. But the difference is this, that when holy men do such things, in the name of God the Lord of all things, command is given to the lower creature from higher arrangements; but when evil men work similar things by magic arts, they put themselves into the hands of demons, when they are heard by them.

They are indeed those who are deceived by such a hearing, so that what they seem to obtain as a benefit becomes a punishment for them, when certain aerial powers exhibit miracles to them, as it were, in private, in order to keep them subjugated, the light of divine providence being withheld, so that each receives what is due according to the merits of their souls. SENTENCE V. — Concerning the one hundred and fifty-three fishes. This number, if considered, can also be seen to pertain to the sanctity of the Church, etc., where sinners, who belong to the left side, are not found. SENTENCE VI. — In what respect man is like the beasts. That man consists of soul and body is doubted by no one, so that the soul is a certain power by which the body is given life; and these two are such that one is superior to the other, the former rules, the latter serves. But again, in the same soul, two things seem to appear: one, which, loving divine things, understands and partakes of reason, and is called rational; the other, which, enjoying sensible things, shares in the nature of beasts, and is irrational. This, in turn, is to be observed in two aspects: one, by which it resists what opposes it; the other, by which it seeks what is suitable, which it is clear that beasts also do. From these gathered points, it will appear that man consists indeed of soul and body, but with duties diverse according to this division.

Over all these, however, presides that first part, which is nearest to reason; and when it, by the power and strength of the maker—not through itself, because in itself it is nothing, but through the kindness of God by which the soul exists—has been delighted, it frees the lower part of its nature, by restraining it and by drawing it away from temporal things, from the poverty of sorrows, the difficulty of need, and the troubles of diseases; and it leads it back, by its own good and beneficent generosity, so that the firmness of justice may remain in it, ruling according to its own nature and providing for what serves it. But if the life of that which serves has been delighted and has loved temporal things, not ruling but serving, and not providing for the lower but obeying it, it will be judged, and in the end will experience heavier punishments, deserted by all those things which it loved contrary to God's precepts. But by returning to higher things and by taking up itself entirely through God's benefits, it will be similar to that by which it was made, and it will be blessed, having its likeness to which it was made. For it is written: "And God made man to the image of God" (Gen. 1:27). That we are to receive this very sight is said through the apostle John: "Beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we will be; we know that when it appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). Concerning the distribution of the soul, it is said: "You shall love your Lord God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind" (Deut. 6:5, and Matt. 22:37).

The Apostle Paul speaks thus: "May the Lord preserve your spirit, soul, and body" (1 Thess. 5:23). Therefore man surpasses beasts in nothing except that he has an intellectual soul; but he surpasses other men themselves when he understands God, and does not pursue temporal goods with perverse vanity. And that saying is most true: "Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding" (Ps. 31:9). And that: "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Cor. 1:31); thus he understands: "Because I am the Lord." And that: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What abundance does man have in all his labor, which he labors under the sun?" (Eccl. 1:1, 5). SEVENTH SECTION — On the resurrection of the body. Apart from the fact that it is worthy of all faith that God can do nothing, it can also be gathered by such reasoning that it is not against nature for this body to rise again. The whole body, which is also signified by the name of the heaven and earth of this sensible world, exists in some way. But everything that exists in some way, yet not in the highest way, exists by participation in that species, in whatever degree it exists, which exists in the highest way; and when it is held, it can undergo ordered changes. But it cannot be that there is no body at all. For if there will be no body at all, it will either be nothing, or something else.

but it is not permitted that it be nothing, since the form that always remains and truly and supremely is prevails. Nothing can be better than a body, because the measure of the whole body is fixed, and the number of incorporeal things that have been made does not need to be increased; and there is no need for some new nature to be made, either because not all things were made, or because another must be substituted in place of something that has perished; since all things have been made perfect, and they are governed by providence according to the form that always remains, so that ordered mutability, and through this a certain permanence in the changing, yields to sensible nature, and thus it is held in its own kind and preserves its own proper measure. From this it follows that every body exists in one way and another, yet does not cease to be a body: thus all things in the whole of nature are preserved, which depart from our senses and are thought to perish entirely. Hence it is not surprising if this body receives its own measure, by which it now is, insofar as it is, or obtains some better one; since what is called destruction is a passing into other measures, not an utter annihilation.

Eighth. — On faith, hope, and charity. Faith without hope and charity is, if you say: I believe that the things to which you call me are true; but I cannot grasp them, nor do I wish to. Faith without hope with charity is, if you say: I believe that the things to which you call me are true, and I wish to attain them; but I cannot. Faith with hope without charity is, if you say: I believe that the things to which you call me are true, and I can attain them if I wish; but I do not wish to. Charity without hope and faith is, if someone says that he vehemently desires to live without the allurements of his body in eternity; but he neither believes that there is eternal life, nor, if it exists, that he can attain it. With faith without hope charity is, if someone says that he both desires eternal life and believes it exists; but he denies that he can attain it. Hope, however, without faith, how it can exist, I do not find. For no one hopes that he can attain what he does not believe exists. Therefore, all three must be present in the soul: faith, hope, and charity; so that it both believes that the things to which it is called are true, and hopes that it can attain them, and loves them entirely.

Ninth. — That philosophy is divided into three parts. Philosophy is divided into three parts: moral, natural, rational. Moral is divided into two: knowledge and administration. Knowledge is divided into two: exhortation and treatment of goods and evils. Administration is divided into two: duty and end: duty, what we ought to do; end, to which we refer everything we do rightly, and it itself is referred to nothing else. Natural is distributed into two parts: corporeal and incorporeal. The division of corporeal things is fivefold: into cause, which makes something; matter, from which it makes; motion, by which it makes; causation, why it makes; effect, which it makes. The division of incorporeal things is fourfold: into place; for place is not a body, but the space which is occupied by a body: into time: into extremities; for the extremities of bodies are not bodies, because they have no thickness: into dicibilia; for dicibilia, which we conceive in the mind so that we may utter them in words, are not bodies. Indeed, they are called dicibilia if they have been impressed upon the mind from things by words. Rational is divided into three parts: direction, which is in the perception of the senses, or is said to be; definition, by which we define whatever exists; distinction, by which we reason and conclude an argument.

Tenth. — In what state Adam was before he sinned. Before Adam had sinned, his soul was rational, perfect, and blessed: having a body not such as we now have, fragile and mortal, but such as suited such a soul, which had not yet corrupted the likeness of God in itself by depraved will; such as we also shall have after the resurrection, when the same soul has received the same likeness of God through perfect sanctity. But after he sinned, the rational soul became corrupted by desire, having a body such as we now see in us. Eleventh. — On the fall of the sinner. We seek the fall of the sinner coming from free will, which no lack nor desire was pressing. But I seem to suspect it was done by the quality of matter. But the work of God, the perfection of God, by which he deserved to be made so great and so excellent, occurs to me; and it confounds all our reasoning, lest God, despairing of that matter by a more base design, gave free will for this reason, so that if sin should creep in, he would rightly be free from blame.

Twelfth. — One must beware lest anything be thought more true than that everything which is, is from that which exists through itself. And that which exists supremely, with it and from it, is; but that which does not exist supremely receives its existence from that which exists supremely, out of nothing. In this nature, therefore, nothing can rightly be attributed to God except what it has in itself of being, that is, all its good. But what pertains to sins and death undoubtedly tends toward non-being: wherever this comes from, it is certainly not from that which exists supremely, nor from that which exists in any way. Therefore it is not from God nor from any work of God. It will therefore be from that which is contrary to that which exists supremely. What you ask, then, whence it is, has no whence. Thirteenth. — What is common to man. First, mortal, insentient, irrational living things, such as trees and the rest, with which man has in common to grow, to generate, to be nourished, to die. Second, mortal, irrational, sentient living things, such as cattle, with which man has in common to grow, to generate, to be nourished, to die, to feel, to desire, to flee. Third, sentient, rational, mortal living things, such as men. Fourth, immortal, sentient, rational living things, such as Angels, with which man has in common to hear, to feel, to understand.

Fourteenth. — What will is. Will is a movement of the mind, with no one compelling it, toward either not losing or obtaining something. Fifteenth. — Three kinds of virtues. The first are the civil virtues of statesmen; the purgatorial virtues, by which the soul is stripped of vices; the exemplary virtues, which are impressed upon the contemplating mind by God, where everything lives, where everything always lives, where everything always lives blessedly. Intelligible things, which are understood. God is called intelligible because He is understood; intellect, because He understands through Himself; the soul is intelligible because it is understood, intellectual because it too understands. Sixteenth. — On the beauty of the world. Now, if you please, with fair ears and a pure mind, receive the first works of God: which you deny are good, and you cry out that all things ought not to have been made; since as God is the highest, the highest, all things are not made. The four first elements of the world are good goods. Light fire, sharp, and it is that which is mobile above. Heavy and blunt against this is sluggish earth. Therefore, three are hostile to the three, and also to the three below; the two which come in the middle, air and water, bind the extremes again as friends, as much as they themselves are with each other. Air joins lightness and mobility with fire; water joins blunt weight below with earth; the bond by which air and water adhere is dull and immobile. But what is dull speaks to the other; air owes to earth; what is mobile flows into the lowest; water owes to flames. The middle extremes to themselves!

Fourteenth. — What will is. Will is a movement of the mind, with no one compelling it, toward either not losing or obtaining something. Fifteenth. — Three kinds of virtues. The first are the civil virtues of statesmen; they take up pairs from near things, and from things placed far off these single ones have occupied for themselves. Thus this world is squared by various elements: thus there is discordant concord, things far removed joined. Thus all motions are so duly tempered that beauty is paired with unequal numbers. What each element bears, and what they produce suited to themselves, I shall relate, as I am able, in numbers; do you listen kindly: that in these also you may see the harmony of the world by the true law, and believe that these things are made by order. In these four elements, air, water, fire, earth, certain animals are created, suited to their own abode, and having some uses and appropriate motions for others. Walking and fixed, a twofold kind which we see, are animals of the last two elements. Come now, look down at the last of earth, and compare the lowest with the highest: every plant fixed by roots clings to the earth; fixed, as the stars are whirled high in the firm sky. Here are the traces of the earth, which everything creeping creeps on the earth: the globe is such that each thing fixes its step, and the stars themselves swim in the waves, and fly, moving in the surrounding air, Upward and downward, what seeks the living creature alternately, balancing the middle beautifully with effort from here and there. Another thing also fitting to these four in turn, a double contrary quality in the elements, attend briefly, I will teach: for they are not small. Thus the first is held by the third, as the fourth is by the second: I wish you to see contraries in these, and each of the single ones.

Fire burns and is dry, because it occupies the heights: the exceedingly cold and moist earth-creeping wave moves. Placed between the two, mixed from each, the air is contrary, fourth and second, in part equal to both, and wholly unequal. For it liquefies by the moisture of waters, and burns by the heat of fire. The earth takes on hardness from the waters, and becomes dry from the sky. Thus the whole year is tempered by the four seasons, bound to themselves by varying changes through motive times. Rainy winter waters with its waves, water constricts with cold. Dry and fiery summer ripens and parches everything. Spring takes for itself a pleasing temper from both: it holds a tepid breeze, softly flowing, from fire and water. Autumn grows numb with cold, and cracks open with dryness. From these four, our bodies are compounded. This space also of night, and the hours of day, they temper. The middle, which burns and dries with fire, is the time of day. The middle, rigid and moist with water, is the time of night. The extremes of night are moist; the first part of day already grows warm. From this side and that, the mild morning is tempered for you: the last parts of day are dry; the first shadow grows cold: from each, take the law, and temper the evening. And so many such things. The shining stars of the sky, the sky and its form, and the perpetual motions, the fixed in the middle, which is one and the whole weight of the earth. The blue ocean, the sea, and the rivers of the nourishing orb, the liquid airs, fragrant, then soon serene: all bodies, winged, displayed, painted, pleasing, mild, add the varied beauty and brightness of so many swimming creatures.

The earth-born manifold beautiful, adorned with so many things: And all these things, envious, cry out for you to be unwilling to be such. Swift with slow, and the running wheel fixed, wandering hither and thither: And things that stand still: dense with rare, great with small: Flaming with dark, black with luminous: Things that fall among those born, born to those being born: The middle with extremes, that with the middle, and the lowest with the highest, They harmonize by a supreme law: by a law, I say, of truth: They modulate one song and sing together into one: A certain One is sought by everything that aims to be. And all these things, envious, if you dare, cry out for you to be unwilling to be such. SENTENCE XVII. — That the knowledge of the good is more evident, the experience of evil. Likewise, that good things are not sweet, if they did not suffer adversities. Likewise, a good which, by obeying, it loved less, it loves more ardently by comparing. He will not be great, who thinks it a great thing if wood, stones fall, and mortals die. But if a craftsman makes something from such material which is better than that material, has he not fabricated something better than himself? By no means: because material can be not only not better, but not even equal to the art. For as material is subject to the craftsman: if it is subject, it must necessarily be inferior.

XVIII. — What is it that the prophet says the Lord has arranged everything by measure, number, and weight. Concerning the Son. Concerning the always born. Concerning the Only-begotten. Concerning the Word. Measure can be understood as one. For numbers are measured by it: so that measure can be understood as the Father, and number itself as the Son, weight as the Holy Spirit; for it is love. For one who loves is said to hang. He hangs from love; and he hangs, he is about to come to something. For number will be from measure, and order itself follows from it. From weight comes the word "hangs." It pertains to the striving toward order. For order can also be taken as weight: weight can be a striving toward a place; striving or the appetite for a place occurs; therefore weight pertains to order. That this light of the sun is a substance, not a quality, is manifest. For quality consists in a body, and where the body is, there is quality. The body of the sun is in the sky, therefore quality is there. For quality is like shape, like color, like hardness, like softness. But this light extends all the way to the earth, and it is manifest that it is a body: for it passes from place to place. And these are two things in the world, the light of the sun and the earth. For quality moves with that of which it is a quality. Therefore the substances of the light of the sun and of the air, having their own natures, remaining mutually without any constriction or without expulsion of the other, so mingle with each other that one does not change the other: and they are bodies.

Now it refers to incorporeal coevals, such as light and fire; equals, such as man from man; better coevals than non-coevals; better equals than non-equals. In that nature of divinity, therefore, both co-eval and co-equal. With you the beginning in the day of the power of light, in the splendors of the saints; from the womb before Lucifer I begot you (Ps. 109, 3). The highest good is not unfruitful and sterile. But that which is begotten from it is equal to it, in this especially, that one is from one. And there is a supreme mode in this generation of the one, whence the only-begotten is more approved as equal. Mode, the limit of each thing. But let no one think that because the Son ought to beget; if that were so, there would be no end of begetting. But the moderate is better than the immoderate: on account of equality, the moderate is more of an end. One and two can be infinite, and these bodies, such as air and light, which are extended through places and do not constrict themselves. If therefore in corporeals, how much more in spirituals? In the Lord nothing ought to be mutable. If he begot in time, he is mutable: quality in substance is mutable. In the Wisdom of Solomon: All wisdom is from the Lord God, and was always with him, and is before the ages (Ecclus. 1, 1). Likewise in Solomon: For it is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the omnipotent God (Wisd. 7, 25). Again: The fountain of wisdom is the word of God in the highest (Ecclus. 1, 5). Reason proceeding is rightly called word. Voice is something, silence is nothing.

If it were only one, it would be in itself, sterile and would produce nothing; but because it is benign, it proceeds to make something, it proceeds into another self. This is the generation of the Only One, because that which makes exists, and that through which it makes exists, and they have become two. For one precedes two; and in these two there is some order, and they become three, which is called Trinity. It is called the hinge of all things, which is understood as the Father. For the hinge, although it is immovable, yet the motion which is the Son himself understood, is said to be one, which all the worthy enjoy, but not all equally. For a man received by divine Wisdom, the more divinely he is received, the more divinely he understands. For although the body is one, yet not all members have the same health. Health is spoken of one way for the eye, another way for the head, another way for the rest of the body. For a man escaping from sin strives to understand; but that one is received by the same understanding. But a hand will never be a foot, nor a foot an eye: so too a man will never be what that one is who is received by the Wisdom of God. God is said to be bounded externally as far as the soul, internally as far as himself: for he contains everything within himself. But the soul is bounded as far as the body, and as far as God. The body, moreover, is bounded externally as far as nothing, but internally it is infinite: for by dividing it is never bounded.

SENTENCE XIX. — On Ideas. Every transition from place to place occurs along a line; because every breadth is joined to itself by a line, and every body is joined to itself by a line, which line is certainly not a body. So too every transition in the soul, that is, change or affection, by which it is at one time foolish, at another wise, occurs through certain lines, as it were, that is, through certain intermediate transitions, just as the soul itself was made from nothing. If a man knows the truth, he is almost a god; if a god does not know the truth, he is not almost, but truly a stone. The human mind, however, ought to be moved with the best motion. By what circuit, then, is it to be moved? And the best circuit of the mind is rational thought, which, having set out from that which is sought, returns more certain to its starting point through a circle of successive arguments. For this reason, likenesses are also suitable for the intellect, because they are presented to the mind through the very motion which nature desires. For they, as it were, carry the mind away from what is being done, and bring it back again; but what they carry away is done against sluggishness; what they bring back is done against error. Hence it pleased even the ancient wise men to signify certain things by images of fables, so that when attention is borne toward them and is brought back to what they signify, the mind, even when it plays, may be exercised in disputation by its own motion. Care must be taken that no one lies. Every soul is changed by affections: for it is also changeable in its duties. For God alone is immutable, and the Angels: therefore they are always immutable, when they perform their duties.

A worm born from death, and consuming death: born from putrefaction, consuming putrefaction. All mutable things are changed even in a point of time, and especially bodies, which do not remain at all, but are moved without interruption through ages. For every thing has its own ages, so that to a brief age every greater age is as it were eternity: since even those still living suffer certain deaths of the ages themselves, and the final death is in a way a greater death, so that even the increments of the ages suffer deaths. And when mountains fall, and when islands fall and are born, deaths occur, as it were, in the universe, so that the final death is also for the world, which is called the conflagration. For there are three things: one always immutable, like God; always mutable, like body; a middle something, like soul, which can be mutable and can also be immutable. But after change, body is not changed. That is true and sincere liberty, whereby it happens that wherever you are, it is well for you. But God alone is nowhere absent from those for whom He alone is pleasure. But the merciful Father was making mortal bonds for them. The descent of the soul is such that when it thinks it is seeking something that benefits itself, it is drawn to other things necessary for this matter: as if that 'which it wanted' becomes entangled in many things, and it says, I have unwillingly forestalled what I wanted; but it returns through the grace of God. There are three kinds of virtues: first, the civil virtues of the politicians, etc.

SENTENCE XX. — On evil. For the knowledge of good is more evident, evil is the experience of those in whom there is interior power, so that through discipline they know evil before experience. Sweet things would not be good if they did not suffer adversities. Likewise, a good which one loved less while observing, one loves more ardently by comparing. He will not be great who thinks it great if trees, stones fall, and mortals die. Whether according to time, or according to excellence, God is before times. For He is not before times according to time: otherwise He begins to precede times in time, and He who precedes them in time does not already precede times. SENTENCE XXI. — On free will. But we, with God commanding, do what we will, since we will what we can, at least the good. For evils are in our power which ought not to be in our will. And this is both the greatest and the only thing in free will: most fully to will everything that you can do rightly, and if you cannot do what you rightly will, make yourself will to do what you rightly can. It is manifest that one sinning against the Holy Spirit cannot have pardon; for it is avenged. For when he is afflicted, in the penance itself he punishes the deed and discharges the vengeance. It is not, therefore, remitted, because it is punished.