Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (58).

1. After the account given of the angels, the creation of other things is treated, and especially the distinction of the works of the six days. Let what has been said about the constitution of angelic nature suffice. It remains now to set forth something also about the creation of the other things, and especially about the distinction of the works of the six days.

2. When God in his wisdom created the angelic spirits, he also created other things, as the Scripture of Genesis mentioned above shows, saying that in the beginning God created heaven, that is, the angels, and earth, namely the still confused and formless matter of the four elements, which the Greeks called chaos 2; and this was before any day. Then he distinguished the elements and gave each thing its own distinct species according to its kind; these he formed not all at once, as pleased certain holy Fathers, but over intervals of time and through the six circuits 3 of days, as others thought.

Chapter 2 (59).

That the holy interpreters seem to have handed down almost contrary accounts of this, some saying that all things were made at once in matter and form, others that they were made over intervals of time. For certain holy Fathers, who searched the words and mysteries of God with excellence, seem to have written almost contrary accounts about this. — Some taught that all things were created at once in matter and form; Augustine 1 seems to have held this. — Others judged and maintained rather that first the crude and formless matter, containing the mixture and confusion of the four elements, was created; afterward, over the intervals of six days, kinds of bodily things were formed from that matter according to their proper species. Gregory, Jerome, Bede 2, and many others 3 commend and prefer this opinion; it also seems to agree better with the Scripture of Genesis, from which our first knowledge of this matter came.

Chapter 3 (60).

1. How bodily things were made over intervals of time. Let us therefore consider, according to this tradition, the order and manner of the creation and formation of things. As was mentioned above 4, in the beginning God created heaven, namely the angelic nature, but still formless, as some hold 5; and earth, that is, that confused matter of the four elements.

2. Why that confused matter is called earth, abyss, and water. Moses therefore called it by the name earth, as Augustine says in Against the Manichaeans 6, “because earth is the least beautiful among all the elements”; and it was empty and unformed 7, “because of the mixture of all the elements.” — He also calls the same thing the abyss, saying 8: And darkness was over the face of the abyss, because it was confused and mixed, lacking distinct form. — “The same ¹ formless matter was also called water, over which the Spirit of the Lord was borne ², just as the will of an artisan is borne over things being fashioned”; “because ³ what it had begun to form and complete lay subject to the Creator’s good will,” who “as lord and maker presided over the flowing and confused matter, so that he might distinguish it into various species whenever and however he wished.” “This was called water for this reason: that all things which grow on the earth, whether animals, trees, grasses, or the like, begin to be formed and nourished from moisture” ⁴ That formless matter was called by all these names “so that an unknown thing might be suggested to the less learned through familiar words; and not by only one name, for if it were signified by a single word, it would be thought to be what people were accustomed to understand by that word. Therefore, under these names that unseen and formless matter was signified, which could not be seen or handled in any form,” that is, “by the names ⁵ of visible things that were to come from it, because of the weakness of little ones, who are less able to grasp invisible things.”

1 Resp. Gen. 1, 1; compare above, Dist. 2, cc. 1, 2, 5 (pp. 336ss, 341). 2 De Genesi ad litt., I, c. 15, n. 29; IV, cc. 33–35; VII, c. 28, nn. 41–42 (PL 34, 257, 317ss, 370s; CSEL 28-I, 21s, 131–136, 226ss); Gregorius, Moralia, XXXII, c. 12, n. 16 (PL 76, 644 D–645 C); Hieron., perhaps Hebraicae quaest. in libro Gen., 1, 1 (PL 23 [1845], 937 C–939 A; CCL 72, 3); Beda, In Gen., I (PL 91, 13 B, 35 C, 39 A–40 A; CCL 118A, 3, 32, 39s). 3 For example, Isidorus, De differentiis, II, c. 11, nn. 27–29 (PL 83, 74 C); Rabanus, In Genesim, I, c. 11 (PL 107, 471 A–B); Summa sent., III, 1 (PL 171, 1117 C; 176, 90 B); Sent. divinitatis, I, 1 (ed. B. Geyer, 9s). 4 Above, c. 1, n. 2. 5 Compare above, Dist. 2, c. 5 (p. 340s). 6 De Genesi contra Manich., I, c. 7, n. 12 (PL 34, 179). 7 Resp. Gen. 1, 2; the Vulgate reads: et vacua. 8 Gen. 1, 2.

Apparatus: 3–4 rerum creatione trp. BCN. 10 scilicet id est NOPV. 15 scilicet] id est LMR. 18 Quam] quo BC, quod OP.

Chapter 1. Summa sent., III, 1 (PL 171, 1116 C, 1117 B; 176, 89 A, 90 A–B); Dist. 15, ch. 6. — Chapter 2. Hugh, De sacram., I, 1, 2 (PL 176, 187 C, 188 A–B); Ordinary Gloss on Genesis; Gregory, Prothemata of the Ordinary Gloss (in Lyra, I, 22d; v 2b); Jerome, ibid. (21c–d; v 2b).

Bede, Prothemata (22a; v 1c). — Chapter 3. Glossa ordinaria on Gen. 1:1–2 (in Lyra, I, 23c–d, 24a; vv. 2c–3b); Lombard’s Gloss on Heb. 11:3 (PL 192, 489 A–D).

3. And then there was darkness, that is, the absence of light. — Augustine ⁶ “For darkness is not something, but is the very absence of light. Just as silence is not some thing, but where there is no sound it is called silence. And nakedness is not some thing, but in a body where there is no covering it is called nakedness. So too emptiness is not something, but a place is said to be empty where there is no body”; and emptiness is the absence of body.

Chapter 4 (61).

In what sense darkness is said not to be something, and in what sense it is said to be something. Observe that here Augustine says darkness is not something, although elsewhere darkness is numbered among the creatures that bless the Lord; whence it is said ⁷: Bless the Lord, light and darkness.

But it should be known that darkness is understood in different ways: either as the absence of light, in which sense Augustine understood it above, according to which it is not something; or as darkened air, or the dark quality of air; and in this respect it is a created thing. Therefore he says that darkness was then over the face of the abyss ⁸, “because light did not yet exist; if it had existed, it would have been above and spread over it”; but God had not yet adorned his work with the grace of light, which was formed afterward on the first day.

Chapter 5 (62).

1. Two things are to be considered here: why that confused matter was called formless, and where it came into being and how high it extended. Before we treat of it, two questions arise for discussion: first, why that confused matter is called formless, whether because it lacked every form or for another reason; second, where it came into being and how far upward it extended.

2. A brief answer to the first question *. Answering briefly, then, the first question set forth, we say that the first matter was not called formless because it had absolutely no form, since no such bodily thing can exist that has no form at all; but we say that some bodily thing can exist in this way: subsisting in a certain confusion and mixture, it had not yet received the beautiful, manifest, and distinct form that we now see. Therefore that matter was made in a form of confusion before a form of arrangement. In the form of confusion all bodily things were first created materially together and at once; afterward they were ordered over six days in a form of arrangement. — Thus is resolved what was first proposed for discussion, namely why that matter is called formless.

3. It remains now to explain what was proposed second, namely where that matter subsisted and how far it extended in height.

Apparatus, p. 386: 1 Eadem] est add. COPR, sed exp. P. || est om. CR, quod corr. TV. 5 fluitanti] fluctuanti BCTVX. 16 Augustinus om. CMNO. 24 quia] quod LMRT. 26 unde] ubi LMNTV.

Apparatus, p. 387: 4 aliqua ... creata] aliquae ... creatae BCLR. 12 confusa] et add. MVX. 13 secundo] secundum MRTVX. 17 quod] quia LT. 21 ergo] igitur LMN. || caruit] caruerit MNTVW. 21 habuerit] habuit BCLNW. 15 Rubrica om. LNVW. Chapter 4. Strabo and Augustine, Gloss on Gen. 1:2 and 4 (as cited by Nicholas of Lyra, I, 23d, 24c; on vv. 3a, 3d). — Chapter 5, no. 1. Hugh, De sacram., I, 1, 5 (PL 176, 190 A). — No. 2. Hugh, De sacram., I, 1, 4 (PL 176, 189 C–D). — No. 3. Hugh, De sacram., I, 1, 6; Glossa ordinaria on Gen. 1:6–7 (as cited by Nicholas of Lyra, I, 24d, 25a; on vv. 4v–5r). — Concerning this, asserting nothing rashly, we say that the first mass of all things, when it was created, seems to have come into being there where it now subsists in formed state. This earthy element was at the lowest place, resting at the very center and holding all things in confusion, mixed together; with those same things spread around on every side like a kind of mist, it was so enveloped that what it was could not be seen. The other three, confused together in a single mixture and suspended all around, extended upward as far as the summit of bodily nature now reaches. — And, as some think 1, that mass extended beyond the place of the firmament; its lower part was denser and thicker, while its upper part was more rarefied, lighter, and subtler. Some think that the waters said to be above the firmament came from this rarer substance. — Such was the aspect of the world in the beginning, before it received form or arrangement.

4. Having shown what the aspect of the world was at its very beginning, he begins to pursue the distinction of the works of the six days. It remains now to follow in order how that arrangement was completed. Over six days, as the Scripture of Genesis teaches, God distinguished and brought into their proper forms all the things he had made together materially; he completed his work on the sixth day 2 and thereafter rested on the seventh day from every work, that is, he ceased making a new creature 3. For over six days he distinguished six kinds of things, and afterward made nothing that was not contained in one of them. Yet he worked afterward, as the Truth says in the Gospel 4: My Father is working until now, and I am working.

Chapter 6 (63).

On the four modes of divine operation. For God operates in four modes, as Alcuin says in On Genesis 5: “First, by arranging all things in the Word; second, in the formless matter of the four elements, creating it from nothing, whence 1: He who lives for ever created all things together—that is, he created all the elements or all bodies materially together; third, he distinguished creatures; fourth, natures arise from primordial seeds, but things already known are often reshaped.”

Apparatus, p. 388: 1 altitudine] altum BC, altitudinem LM. 3 terreum] terrenum NRV, corrected by V. 4 in imo] uno in L, primo M, in uno PX. 5 modo] modum MVX (Hugh). 6 obvolutum] involutum LMNVW (Hugh). 13–14 reciperet formam transposed LMNWX. 19 deinde] tum LMX. 27 Alcuinus] Augustinus LMX.

⁹ 2 [Resp. Gen. 2:2, according to another version.] 3 [See below, Dist. 15, ch. 7 (pp. 403ff.).] 4 [John 5:17.] 5 [Interr. 19 (PL 100, 519 A).]

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