DE TOTIUS OPERIS PARTITIONE
Since I am about to give a continuous treatment of the theological loci, I have decided at once to divide the whole work into fourteen books. The first of these will briefly enumerate the loci from which suitable arguments may be drawn, whether the theologian wishes to prove his own conclusions or to refute opposing ones. The ten that follow will teach more fully and accurately what force each of the loci contains—that is, from which ones certain arguments may be drawn, and from which only probable ones. In the twelfth and thirteenth books it will be discussed what use such loci have both in scholastic disputation and in the exposition of Sacred Scripture. For it is certainly not difficult to say what use they have in popular preaching; nevertheless, this must be passed over, lest the treatment seem foreign to the purpose of the school. Finally, the last book, since not all loci suit every disputation, will show individually which arguments the theologian should use to conduct a disputation specifically against heretics, which particularly against Jews and Saracens, and which, finally, against pagans, whenever he must contend with them in defense of the Catholic faith. When, with God's favor, I have completed these matters more fully, my treatment of the theological loci will be suitable and complete in every respect, fulfilled in all its proper parts and divisions.