Breviloquium

Concerning the mode of the incarnation, this is to be held: when the Angel announced to the most blessed Virgin Mary the mystery of the incarnation to be perfected in her, the Virgin believed, desired, and consented; the Holy Spirit came upon her¹ to sanctify and make fruitful, by whose power “the Virgin conceived the Son of God, whom the Virgin bore, and after giving birth remained a Virgin.” — She conceived not only flesh, but also flesh animated and united to the Word, subject to no sin, but wholly holy and immaculate, by reason of which the sweetest Virgin Mary is called and is the mother of God.

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: the incarnation is a work emanating from the first principle insofar as it is reparative in the most fitting, most universal, and most complete mode. For it befits its wisdom to work fittingly, its generosity to work universally, and its virtue to work perfectly².

Since, therefore, the incarnation is from the first principle repairing in the most fitting mode, and the fitting mode is that the medicine correspond to the disease from the opposite side, reparation to the fall, and remedy to the harm, since the human race had fallen through diabolical suggestion, through the consent of the deceived woman, and through concupiscible generation transmitting the original to the offspring³, it was necessary that, on the contrary, there be here a good Angel urging what is good, a Virgin believing and consenting to the good proposed, and the charity of the Holy Spirit sanctifying and making fruitful for an immaculate conception, so that thus “contraries might be cured by contraries⁴.” And thereby, just as the woman, deceived by the devil and carnally known by the man and corrupted, transmitted guilt, disease, and death to all, so the woman, instructed by the Angel and sanctified and made fruitful by the Holy Spirit, would, without any corruption of mind or body, generate offspring that would give grace, health, and life to all who came to her.

Again, because the incarnation is from the first principle repairing in the most universal mode—for through the incarnate Word the fall of men and angels, namely, of heavenly and earthly beings, is repaired⁵ and the fall of men is repaired according to both sexes—for the medicine to be common to all, it was most fitting that an Angel, a woman, and a man concur in the mystery of the incarnation: the Angel as announcer, the Virgin woman as conceiver, and the man in the conceived offspring; so that the Angel Gabriel would be the messenger of the eternal Father, the immaculate Virgin would be the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the conceived offspring would be the very person of the Word; and thereby, in the common reparation of all, there would be a common concurrence of three from the threefold hierarchy, namely, divine, angelic, and human, to suggest not only the Trinity of God, but also the universality of the benefit and the generosity of the highest reparator. And since generosity is appropriated to the Holy Spirit, as is the sanctification of the Virgin in whom the conception of the Word was accomplished, hence, although that work is from the whole Trinity, the Virgin is nevertheless said by appropriation to have conceived from the Holy Spirit⁶.

Finally, since it is from the first principle repairing in the most complete mode, hence in the conception due completion was in the offspring, in the act of conception, and in the conceiving virtue. Because due completion had to be in the offspring, hence at the instant of conception there was not only a separation of the seed, but also consolidation, formation, vivification through the soul, and deification through the united Deity⁷; so that the Virgin truly conceived the Son of God because of the union of flesh with Deity, with the rational spirit serving as a fitting medium, through which the flesh was suited for union. — But because due completion had to be in the act of conception, and three of the four modes of producing man had preceded—the first neither from man nor woman, as in Adam; the second from man without woman, as in Eve; the third from woman and man, as in all who are born through concupiscence—it was fitting, for the completion of the universe, that the fourth mode be introduced, namely, from woman without male seed through the virtue of the highest operator⁸. — But because due completion had to be in the virtue, hence in the conception of the Son of God there concurred at once innate virtue, infused virtue, and uncreated virtue: innate virtue prepared the matter, infused virtue separated it by purifying it, and uncreated virtue immediately perfected what could be done by created virtue only successively. And thus the most blessed Virgin Mary was a mother in the most complete mode, conceiving the Son of God himself without a man, with the Holy Spirit making her fruitful. For because the love of the Holy Spirit burned singularly in the Virgin’s mind, therefore in her flesh the virtue of the Holy Spirit worked wonders, grace namely partly stirring, partly aiding, and partly elevating nature, according as that wondrous conception required.