Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (96).

1. On the creation of the soul: whether it was made from something or not, when it was made, and what grace it had at creation. Many questions are usually raised here about the soul’s origin: from what it was created, when, and what grace it had at creation.

2. Just as man’s formation according to the body is described when it says: God formed man from the clay of the earth, so his making according to the soul is described in what follows: And he breathed into his face the breath of life. For God formed the body from the clay of the earth and breathed a soul into it—or, according to another reading, breathed or blew; not as though he breathed with his mouth or formed the body with bodily hands: for God is spirit and is not composed of the outlines of limbs.

3. That God should not be understood to have formed or breathed by bodily instruments. — Bede: “Let us not therefore think carnally that God formed the body with bodily hands or breathed the soul through his mouth”; rather, he formed man’s body from the clay of the earth “by commanding and willing,” that is, he willed and “commanded by his word that it should be so; and he breathed into his face the breath of life, that is, he created the substance of the soul in which man would live,” not from any bodily or spiritual matter, but from nothing.

Apparatus: 4 habuerit] habuit BCLV. 5 fuit] fuerit MTV. 6 habuit] habuerit MPT. 8 Deus] dominus OPRW. 15 carnaliter putemus trp. BCL.

1 Gen. 2, 7. 2 Iuxta LXX: Et insufflavit in faciem eius flatum vitae. Codices portant nomen Augustini in marginibus; cf. De Genesi ad litt., VII, c. 1, n. 2: «Nonnulli enim codices habent spiravit vel inspiravit... Sed non dubitatur flavit vel sufflavit esse dicendum» (PL 34, 356; CSEL 28-I, 201). 3 In Gen. 2, 7 (PL 91, 42 C–D, et 43 B–C; CCL 118A, 44s).

Chapter 1, no. 1: Hugh, On the Sacraments I.6.3 (PL 176, 264 D). Nos. 2–3: Summa sententiarum III.2 (PL 171, 1119 B; 176, 92 A); Ordinary and Interlinear Glosses on Gen. 2:7 (Lyra I, 36a, 35v; v 16b–c); Augustine, Literal Commentary on Genesis VII.1–3 (PL 34, 356ff.; CSEL 28-I, 200–203). No. 5: Ordinary Gloss (Lyra 36a and 36b; v 16c, 17b); Augustine, Literal Commentary on Genesis VII.2, no. 3, and VII.3, no. 5 (PL 34, 356–357; CSEL 28-I, 202–203); Against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets I.14, nos. 21–22 (PL 42, 614s).

Chapter 2 (97).

1. Here: when the soul was made, whether before the body or in the body. But whether it was in the body or outside the body is also a difficult question even among learned people.

2. Augustine’s opinion: he says that the soul was created with the angels and came to the body by its own will. For Augustine, in On Genesis, teaches that the soul was created without a body along with the angels, and later came to the body. It was not forced to become embodied, but “naturally willed it; that is, it was created in such a way that it would will this, just as it is natural for us to will to live. But to will to live badly belongs not to nature but to a perverse will.”

Apparatus: 5 pervicaciter] pertinaciter RTX. 9 substantia sua trp. BCLMRVWX. 20 ante] extra BCX. 23–24 Rubrica om. NRVW.

1 Haec refert August., De Genesi ad litt., VII, cc. 2–3 (PL 34, 356; CSEL 28-I, 201ss). 2 Vide alteram seriem notarum (p. 410). 3 Isai. 57, 16, iuxta LXX: Et flatus ego faciam. 4 Beda, In Gen. 2, 7 (PL 91, 43 B–C; CCL 118A, 45). 5 Lib. VII, c. 24, n. 35 (PL 34, 368; CSEL 28-I, 222s), quaerendo tamen, non asserendo loquitur.

Chapter 2: The question in no. 1 is raised both by Hugh, On the Sacraments I.6.3 (PL 176, 265 A), and by the author of Summa sententiarum III.2 (PL 171, 1119 B; 176, 92 B). — No. 2: Although that Summa also refers to Augustine’s On Genesis in the same place, the Master instead turns to the Ordinary Gloss on Genesis 2:7 (in Lyra I, 36b; v 16d–17a), from which he excerpts Augustine’s opinion in both sense and wording. — No. 4: Partly from the same Summa sententiarum. — No. 5: From the same Ordinary Gloss (36b; 16d). to have approached. Nor was it compelled to be embodied, but “it naturally willed that, that is, it was created so as to will, just as it is natural for us to wish to live. To wish to live badly, however, belongs not to nature but to a perverse will.”

3. The opinion of others, who say that the soul was created in the body. Others say that the soul of the first man was created in the body, thus explaining those words: He breathed into his face the breath of life: that is, he created the soul in the body, to animate the whole body; yet he specifically fashioned the face because this part is adorned with senses for contemplating higher things.

4. But whatever one may judge about the soul of the first man, it must be held with certainty of the others that they are created in the body: for in creating them God infuses them, and in infusing them he creates them.

5. That that soul did not know beforehand the work to come. — Augustine: One must say that “that soul too was not created in such a way as to know beforehand the work to come, whether just or unjust.”

Chapter 3 (98).

1. At what age God made man. It is also customary to ask whether God made man suddenly at the age of maturity, or by perfecting him and increasing his ages, as he now forms him in his mother’s womb.

2. Man was made at the age of maturity, according to the higher causes, not the lower. Augustine, On Genesis, says that Adam was made immediately at the age of maturity; and this was according to the higher, not the lower causes, that is, according to the will and power of God, which he did not bind to the kinds of nature; in this way also Moses’ staff was turned into a serpent. “Such things happen contrary to nature only for us, to whom the course of nature has become known otherwise; but for God nature is what he does.” “Therefore God did not do this contrary to his own disposition. For it was so in the first ordering of causes that man could be made in this way, but it was not necessary there that he be made so. For this was not in the condition of the creature, but in the good pleasure of the Creator, whose will is necessity.” “For that must necessarily come to pass which he wills and foreknows. Many things, however, are future according to lower causes, but are not future in God’s foreknowledge. But if they are future otherwise there, they are future rather as they are there, where the one who cannot be deceived foreknows them.” — Thus Adam was made not according to the lower causes, since it was not in the seminal causes of things that he should be made in this way, but according to the higher: not by acting contrary to nature, since it was in the natural causes of things that he could be made in this way.

Apparatus: 2 nobis est trp. LNRT, riores BCOP. 17 hominem fecerit trp. OP. 20 causas trp. p. inferiores.

1 Ibid., c. 27, n. 38 (PL 34, 369; CSEL 28-I, 224s). 2 Beda, In Gen. 2, 7 (PL 91, 43 A; CCL 118A, 44s); Hugo, De sacram., I, 6, 3 (PL 176, 265 B). 3 Gen. 2, 7. 4 Cf. infra, Dist. 18, c. 7 (p. 420s); et Bernardus, Sermo 2 in Nativ. Domini, n. 6: «creando immittitur, immittendo creatur» (PL 183, 122 C; ed. Romana, IV, 1966, 256). 5 De Genesi ad litt., VII, c. 26 (PL 34, 369; CSEL 28-I, 224). 6 Lib. VI, c. 13 (PL 34, 348s; CSEL 28-I, 187). 7 Exod. 7, 10–11.

Chapter 3: Ordinary Gloss on Gen. 2:7: “It is asked whether God suddenly …” (in Lyra I, 36a; v 17b and 17d). Compare also Summa sententiarum III.2 (PL 171, 1119 B; 176, 92 B).

Chapter 4 (99).

That man, created outside paradise, was placed in paradise, and why this was done. God formed man in this way, as Scripture teaches, and placed him in the paradise of delight which he had planted at the beginning. In these words Moses plainly indicates that man, created outside paradise, was afterward placed in paradise. This is said to have been done because he was not going to remain there; or so that this might be ascribed to grace, not to nature.

Chapter 5 (100).

1. That this paradise was earthly and a physical place. Paradise is understood as a local, bodily place in which man was situated.

2. There are three opinions about paradise, and what they are. For there are three general opinions about paradise: one belongs to those who wish it to be understood bodily.

Apparatus: 2 nobis est trp. LNRT. 16 quem] quam LOR. 23 sint] sunt BCV.

1 Ibid., c. 15 (PL 34, 350; CSEL 28-I, 190). 2 Ibid., c. 17 (PL 34, 350; CSEL 28-I, 191). 3 Gen. 2, 8: Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio, in quo posuit hominem quem formaverat; 2, 15: Tulit ergo Dominus Deus hominem et posuit eum in paradiso voluptatis.

Chapter 4: From Summa sententiarum III.4 (PL 171, 1121 C; 176, 94 B–C); this has some connection with Hugh’s Notulae in Genesim, ch. 7 (PL 175, 39 A).

Chapter 5, no. 2: From the Ordinary Gloss on Genesis 2:8 (in Lyra I, 36c; v 17a), and more remotely from Augustine, Literal Commentary on Genesis VIII.1.1 (PL 34, 371; CSEL 28-I, 229). — Nos. 3–4: From the same Gloss (36b–c; v 17b), correctly attributed to Bede. The words “and pertaining to the height …” belong to Strabo’s Gloss on Genesis 2:9 (in Lyra I, 36c; v 17b). only bodily; another belongs to those who understand paradise only spiritually; the third belongs to those who take paradise in both ways. I confess that the third pleases me: that man was placed in a bodily paradise.

3. From what beginning paradise was planted *. — Bede 1 *. It can be understood to have been planted from that beginning at which he commanded the whole earth, once the waters had been removed, to produce herbs and trees 2.

4. What sort of place paradise is and where *. Although it bears the figure of the present or future Church, it is nevertheless to be understood literally as a most pleasant place, rich in fruit-bearing trees, large and made fertile by a great spring. What we call “at the beginning,” the ancient translation 3 renders “in the east.” Hence they wish paradise to be in the eastern region, set apart by a long intervening expanse of sea or land from the regions inhabited by men, and situated at a height reaching as far as the lunar sphere. Hence the waters of the Flood did not reach it.

Chapter 6 (101).

1. The trees of paradise, among which were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In this paradise there were trees of various kinds, among them one called the tree of life, and another the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 4.

2. Why it was called the tree of life *. The tree was called the tree of life, as Bede 5 and Strabo teach, because it received this power from God: whoever ate of its fruit would have his body strengthened with lasting health and enduring vigor, and would not decline into deterioration or decay through any illness or weakness of age.

Chapter 7 (102).

1. Why it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil *. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not receive this name from its nature, but from an event that followed later. — Augustine, On Genesis 1 *: “For that tree was not evil, but was called the knowledge of good and evil because, after the prohibition, a transgression was to take place through it, by which man would learn through experience what lay between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience. Therefore that name was given not on account of the fruit that would grow from it, but on account of what followed the transgression.” For before he touched this tree, man knew good and evil: good through both wisdom and experience, but evil through wisdom alone. He also came to know evil through experience by taking the forbidden tree, because through the experience of evil he learned what lay between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience.

2. Even if the first human beings had not sinned, it would still have been called the knowledge of good and evil *. If our first parents had remained obedient and not sinned against the command, the tree would nonetheless still have been called the knowledge of good and evil, because this would have happened through touching it, if it were taken. — Augustine, On Genesis 2 *: “Man was therefore forbidden a tree that was not evil, so that keeping the command itself would be good for him, and transgressing it evil. Disobedience is not better understood as an evil than in this way: namely, when man is understood to have become guilty because, though forbidden, he touched something which, had he touched it without being forbidden, he would neither have sinned nor suffered punishment. For if you touch a poisonous herb when forbidden, punishment follows; and it would follow in the same way if no one had forbidden it. If something is also forbidden to be touched which harms not the one who touches it but the one who forbids it, as another’s money does, then the sin lies in the forbidden act because it causes loss to the one who forbade it. But when one touches something which harms neither the one who touches it, if it is not forbidden, nor anyone else if it is touched, it is forbidden so that the good of obedience in itself, and the evil of disobedience,”

1 Resp. Prov. 21, 28: Vir obediens loquetur victoriam. 2 Gen. 2, 21–22.

Apparatus: 5 terram omnem trp. LNT. 7 Qui] Quia BCOPWX. 10 Quod] autem add. LT, nos add. M. 11 longo] longe BOP. 16 erat] erant RVW. 20 Rubrica om. LRW. 17–18 Rubrica om. CNW. 24–25 intelligitur] intelligatur BCPR. 21 sequitur] sequeretur BC, sequetur X; sequeretur] prosequeretur BCPR, corr. in prosequeretur LT. 28 tangenti] tantum add. BCNTWX, add. interl. R, add. sed exp. O. 29 prohibito] prohibitum BC, prohibitio V.

1 In Gen. 2, 8 (PL 91, 43 C–44 A; CCL 118A, 45s). 2 Resp. Gen. 1, 11: Germinet terra herbam virentem ... et lignum pomiferum etc. 3 Nempe LXX. 4 Resp. Gen. 2, 9. 5 In Gen. 2, 9 (PL 91, 44 B; CCL 118A, 46s), nonnullis verbis adiectis ex Strabo in h. l. (PL 131, 61 A).

Chapter 6, no. 1: Summa sententiarum III.4 (PL 171, 1121 C; 176, 94 C). No. 2: Bede and Strabo, Ordinary Gloss on Gen. 2:9 (Lyra I, 36d; v 17d). Chapter 7, no. 1: Summa sententiarum III.4 (PL 171, 1121 D; 176, 94 C); Ordinary Gloss on Gen. 2:9 (Lyra I, 36d–37a; v 18b) and Gen. 2:17 (37d; 20c); Augustine, Literal Commentary on Genesis VII.14.32 (PL 34, 385; CSEL 28-I, 252s); Hugh, On the Sacraments I.6.32 (PL 176, 283 C–D); Lombard’s Sermon on Septuagesima (PL 171, 849 D). No. 2: Ordinary Gloss on Gen. 2:16 (Lyra I, 37c; v 20b); Master’s Gloss on Ps. 70:19 (PL 191, 655 B); Augustine, ad loc. (PL 36, 897; CCL 39, 966). and the evil of disobedience might be shown.” Just as the first man incurred punishment when forbidden a good thing, so that it might be shown that punishment arose not from an evil thing but from disobedience, just as reward arose from obedience 1.