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by Saint Thomas Aquinas
42. Cf. chaps. 9, 15.
43. Aristotle, De interpretatione, I, 1 (16 a 3).
44. John 1:14
45. Ancient and medieval Philosophers commonly admitted the possibility of
"equivocal generation," according to which some organisms were thought to be
produced from inorganic matter, especially such as had previously been alive,
under the influence of heavenly bodies, which were believed to be of a superior
nature. Thus St. Thomas, Summa, Ia, q. 71, a. un.: "In the natural generation of
animals begotten of seed, the active principle is the formative power that is in
the seed; but in animals generated from putrefaction, the formative power is the
influence of a heavenly body"; Ia., q. 91, a.2 ad 2: "The power of a heavenly
body may cooperate in the work of natural generation, as the Philosopher says:
'Man is begotten from matter by man, and by the sun as well' (Aristotle, Phys.,
II, 2 [194 b 131]). ... But the power of the heavenly bodies suffices for the
generation of certain imperfect animals from property disposed matter."
46. Aristotle, De anima, III, 8 (431 b 29).
47. Cf chap. 3 7.
48. Cf chap. 9.
49. Cf chap. 15.
50. Aristotle, De anima, 111, 4 (429 b 21).
51. De Genesi ad litteram, XII, vii, 16; xxiv, 50 (PL, XXXIV, 459, 474).
52. Cf chap. 46.
53. The term here used by St. Thomas, intentio intellecta, cannot well be
translated literally. For our purposes we may translate it as "intellectual
likeness," as "intellectual representation," or as "mental word." Regardless,
the meaning itself is clear, for St. Thomas defines the term in his Summa Contra
Gentiles, IV, 11: "Dico autem intentionem intellectam id quod intellectus in
seipso concipit de re intellecta"; that is: "By intentio intellecta I mean that
which the intellect conceives within itself of the thing understood."
54. Cf chap. 23.
55. Cf, e.g., chaps. 4, 6, 9-11, 2 1.
56. Cf. chaps. 3 7, 46.
57. St. Thomas and the Scholastics of his time thought that the stars were
incorruptible and were constructed of matter essentially different from the
matter of terrestrial bodies. Consequently the sun, the moon, and all the stars
were held to be superior to the material objects of our Earth.
58. Cf. chap. 50.
59. Cf. chap. 49.
60. Cf chap. 49.
61. In connection with these two examples, see the better statement in the
Summa, Ia, q. 33, a. 4 ad 3: 'Negation is reduced to the genus of affirmation,
just as not man is reduced to the genus of substance, and not white to the genus
of quality."
62 Cf. chaps. 54,55.
63 The context requires the reading praecedit instead of procedit (which is
found in the Vives and the Mandonnet editions)
64. Cf. chap. 10.
65. Cf. chap. 23.
66. See Gilbert's commentaries, In librum de Trinitate (PL, LXIV, 1292) and In
librum de praedicatione trium personarum (PL, LXIV, 1309). Gilbert retracted his
error at the Council of Reims in 1148, as St. Bernard relates, In Cantica, serm.
LXXX (PL, CLXXXIII, 1170). Cf. Denz., 389, 391.
67. Cf. chap. 53.
68. Cf. chap. 23.
69 Cf. chaps. 10, 22.
Source: The Light of Faith by St. Thomas Aquinas (AD 1200 approx.)
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