Scotus Academicus, Tomus quintus: De Creaturarum Corporalium et de Homine

Although the human body, vitiated by sin, is assailed by the holy Fathers with every eloquence of words that they can muster — as being, while conceived, foul seed; while living, a bag of dung; while dying, the food of worms; whose matter is vile, whose operation shameful, whose state unstable; whose end is darksome, death sorrowful, dissolution miserable, as says Bernard, that honey-flowing doctor after St. Augustine — nonetheless, if we consider the original state of the human body, we shall pronounce without doubt, with St. Ambrose (lib. 6. Hexaemeron, c. D.), that it is a wondrous workmanship of divine Wisdom. Now its dignity and excellence can be attended to chiefly under three heads: namely either as regards its Formation, or its Disposition, or its Union with the rational and immortal soul; concerning which there will be three following Questions.

Note 1. The dignity and excellence of any work must be drawn chiefly from a threefold source: namely from the supreme skill of the Artificer; from the matter, whether by reason of its price or of its usefulness; finally from a figure and form wrought with most exquisite care. Indeed, the skill of an artificer sometimes shines forth more manifestly in the fashioning of a lesser than of a greater work. For far more expert surely was the sagacity and industry of that Artificer who had fitted chariot and steeds with such elegant deftness that they could be covered by the wing of a single fly, veil-like, and borne through the air in flight, than was the art and ingenuity of that Craftsman who had hammered out the immense Colossus of Rhodes in bronze. In like manner the summit of divine Wisdom, and the power and activity of omnipotence, are more commended in the production of a tiny ant than in the fabrication and construction of a huge elephant. Likewise the dignity of matter must be estimated not so much from price as from usefulness; especially in those things which are of supreme utility and necessity, both for the public or particular good, and for attaining some most excellent end: whence bread and other foods seem dearer and more precious to man than gold, silver, and other things commended for their price, since those serve immediately for the conservation of life, these only for pleasure.

Note 2. Since the human body was formed that it might serve the rational soul in eliciting its operations, chiefly in acquiring knowledge, it had to be made such as to be capable of the senses. Indeed, whereas the rational soul was to be created naked and devoid of all science, and had itself to hunt down and acquire it through the senses, it was necessary that the body of man be furnished and adorned with all the senses. But touch is as it were the foundation of all the senses, constituted in a certain mediocrity and quasi-tempering of the primary qualities; for beyond the others it serves efficaciously toward acquiring knowledge from experience. For the other senses are oftentimes deceived in perceiving their objects, whether on account of a vitiated organ, or on account of too great distance of the object to be perceived, or on account of a medium indisposed: but their error is corrected by touch, which is not subject to these deceptions, as we demonstrated in the first Question of our Philosophy. Whence it comes that the human body ought to have been fabricated of that matter which was most suitable for touch.

Note 3. From our Alensis, pur. 2. p. 8. lib., member 2, ad primum: the rational soul, like the human body, can be considered in a threefold state: namely of innocence, of fall, and of glory; in which, he says, the body and soul of the first man shared a certain parity in nobility and ignobility: First, just as the soul in the first state, namely before the fall, was allotted to be noble, in which it lived the life of nature integrally, strengthened and sustained by the life of grace, which was in potency and habituation unto its final and ultimate esse of nobility: so likewise the body in that state was in the integrity of nature best in its genus, and, by means of the fruits given it for sustenance, could be perpetuated in that esse until it attained its most noble esse.... Wherefore just as the soul in the life of nature was nourished and sustained by grace, as by spiritual food, in its progress toward its best esse: so the body was promoted by corporal food, the fruits of paradise, unto the most noble esse of the body. Second, just as in the state of guilt the soul was allotted to be ignoble, incurring by its fall into sin a twofold evil, namely of corruption and of spiritual death, whereby it was made unworthy of the good for which it was created: so likewise the body was allotted to be ignoble, incurring a twofold evil, namely of corruption and of the necessity of dying; and was made unworthy of the good for which it was created. Third, just as the soul, by advancing, recovered aptitude and dignity for obtaining its optimum, which it had lost through sin, upon possessing which it is allotted to be most noble: so likewise the body, through the exercises of bodily virtues and the Evangelical torments of mortification, is advanced to the beatific state, in which it will obtain its most noble esse ».

These things thus premised, we must now demonstrate the dignity and excellence of the human body: first from its divine Artificer; then from its ministries and offices toward the rational soul; lastly from its most excellent configuration and form.

First Conclusion. — THE PREROGATIVE OF THE HUMAN BODY AMONG SENSIBLE THINGS IS, THAT BEYOND ALL OTHER CORPOREAL THINGS IT WAS FIGURED BY A SPECIAL WORKMANSHIP OF GOD, AS IT WERE BY HIS OWN AND DIVINE HANDS; AND LIKEWISE ON ACCOUNT OF ITS VARIOUS MINISTRIES AND OFFICES TOWARD THE RATIONAL SOUL.

This Conclusion consists of two parts, whereof the first is common among the holy Fathers, who commend and illustrate this truth by many texts of sacred Scripture. Chiefly indeed St. Ambrose, expounding on Psalm 118, octonary 10, those words, Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, weighs them thus: Beasts thy hands made not, but thou didst say: let the waters bring forth reptiles of living souls; and the earth brought forth according to kind quadrupeds, and reptiles, and beasts of the earth. But me, he says, thou hast made, me thy hands have figured: that is, thou didst not figure the beasts with thy hands, nor reptiles, nor flying things. And further on he observes that God fashioned the human body not only with one hand: but that He applied a double hand to this work. Hands, he says, have fashioned me: he says hands, in the plural, not hand: whereas everywhere else it stands: I have strengthened the heaven with my hand, and my hand hath made all these things: in the constitution of man what did not abound seems abundant beyond what abounded for the making of the whole world. One hand formed the heavens, as it is written; and both the hands of God figured man, as we read. From which it is established how great is the supercelestial dignity of the human body, since to form the celestial body God applied but a single hand; to fashion the human body He labored with a double hand. — This truth Tertullian commended above the rest, lib. De resurrectione carnis, c. 6, wherein he extols human flesh thus: How much did He confer who made it, when already then it gloried that that littleness, that clay, arrived at whatever are the hands of God: blessed enough even if merely touched. For what if by no further work the figment stood constituted straightway from the contact of God? So great a thing was in hand, when that matter was being wrought out. And so it is honored as often as it suffers the gift of God, while it is touched, while it is shaped, while it is drawn out, while it is refashioned. Recollect that whole God occupied about it, devoted to the thing, not only in sense, work, counsel, wisdom, and above all in that very affection which guided the instruments. A few words later, rebuking Marcion because he would make the human body vile, seeing it had been drawn from earth and figured, he says: What gift does he make toward weakening the origin of man, by recalling the name of earth, as if sordid, as of an element lying prostrate? Since even had another material been chosen for stamping out man, the height of the Artificer ought still to be recollected, who judged it worthy in choosing it, and made it in working it. Phidias fashions and polishes his Olympian Jove out of ivory: the tooth of an already-dead beast, and of no distinguished beast at all, yet the supreme light of the age: not because Elephant, but because Phidias is so great. That is, the work is commended not by the price of the material, but by the skill of the Artificer. How then, true God and very God, had He not cleansed whatsoever dignity of material from His own operation, and purified it from all infirmity? There will remain this, that man was more honorably framed by God than God by man? All these things Prudence described in most elegant verses in Apotheosis:

So great his love of earth, so great his fondness for us, That he deigns with divine fingers to take up the soft Clod of the fat soil: nor does he judge sordid the contagion Of the clinging mass. Light he bade complete the work: It was done as he bade: all things, his command Imperious, drew forth new forms as they emerged. Man alone merited to take in the Lord's right hand His moldable face, and to be born of the river of Deity's breath.

From these things therefore it is established how great is the dignity of the human body, since it has had for its Maker God omnipotent, an Artificer of peculiar wisdom; for all other bodies, nay even the spiritual intelligences, stood by the mere command, nay mandate, of God alone; but the human body was wrought by the hands of God. Not indeed by true and corporeal hands (whatever Tertullian imagined, thinking God had assumed the likeness of a body that He might fashion the human body), but by mystical hands, that is, by a special unfolding of divine wisdom and omnipotence: for by these two excellencies, namely wisdom and power, God, as it were with hands, molds and works all His creatures.

Second Conclusion. — THE BODY OF MAN CONTINUALLY WAS FORMED FROM ELEMENTARY MATTER RATHER THAN FROM CELESTIAL.

This truth the Seraphic Doctor proves in 2 dist. 17, art. 2, qu. 1, by a fourfold reason, to be sought from the four orders which man holds, either toward God, or toward the Angels, or toward corporeal creatures, or toward himself. First, indeed, the order of man toward himself required this; because, he says, man was therefore created and born that he might know many things, not only by intellectual but also by sensitive cognition: therefore he ought to have a multiform body consisting of diverse organs: that the diverse senses might serve for knowing various objects. Moreover, because he was created with supreme liberty of will, by which he could live as he pleased, original justice preserved; or become liable to death, original justice forfeited by his own fault through voluntary sin committed: he also ought to have a body which should be devoted not only to life but also to death: and so the order of man toward himself required that his body be multiform and corruptible, and therefore it ought to be not celestial but elementary.

Second. The order of man toward inferior creature required the same; for since corporeal creatures were made inferior to man, that they might serve him for attaining his end, he also ought to be formed of composite matter, namely that he might admit the service of inferior creatures, so that through him as mediator those inferior creatures might in some way be promoted to beatitude, and glorified together with man. But this could not have been had man been formed of celestial matter; for in that state he would in no wise have needed the service of inferior creatures for the attainment of his ultimate end: therefore on this account it was fitting that his body be constituted of elementary matter.

Third. This same thing the order which he holds toward a peer creature, namely the Angel, required; for just as one rational creature was made near to God, and in the supreme place, as in the Empyrean: so another rational creature ought to be made in the lowest place, namely the earth: and therefore his body ought to be constituted of such a nature as befitted such a habitation: and so more fittingly was it formed of an elementary than of a celestial nature.

Fourthly, finally. This also befitted the order which man held toward God as toward his ultimate end; for it was fitting that man be subjected to God, that by humility of subjection he might ascend whence the Angel had fallen by loftiness of elation: and therefore he ought to have a body constituted of earthly and inferior nature, that, reckoning himself earth and ashes, he might be subject to God in all things.

You will say 1. To the most noble form ought to be given the most noble matter; since matter must be proportionate to form: but the rational soul is a most noble form: therefore it ought to have the most noble matter. But the most noble among bodily natures is the celestial nature: therefore the human body ought to have been formed of it.

The Seraphic Doctor answers that the nobility of matter is not to be regarded from the nature of the matter itself, but from the order it holds to form. Therefore since the human body was formed not only that it might be vivified by the rational soul: but also that it might serve it for meriting eternal beatitude, by means namely of those virtues which can be exercised only by benefit of the body, accordingly it was fittingly formed, not of incorruptible matter, but of that which should be liable to corruption, and apt likewise for the manifold operation of the senses, such as is the elemental nature, and not the celestial.

You will say 2. It was becoming that such a body be formed for man, from which his integral nature should consist: but such did not exist with a corruptible body and an incorruptible soul; since the soul by reason of its incorruptibility is perpetually vivifying of the body; but a corruptible body is not perpetually vivifiable: therefore it is not apt to be united to the soul. For according to Aristotle, what is possible on the part of the form must also be possible on the part of the matter: as in like manner what is possible on the part of active power is possible also on the part of passive power, otherwise that power would be frustraneous; but God and nature work nothing in vain in things, nor permit it to be: therefore it would have been more fitting that the immortal soul have an incorruptible body, and therefore one formed of incorruptible matter, namely the celestial.

The Angelic Doctor answers, 1 part, q. 76, art. 5, that in the matter chosen as cause of any form a twofold condition is found: one which is chosen per se, that by it the matter be fitting for receiving the form, and suitable that the form may perform its proper actions; the other truly, which is not chosen per se, but which, since it naturally follows the former condition from necessity of the matter, cannot be rejected and removed from the matter. By way of example, an Artificer, to fabricate a saw, chooses iron, as matter suitable thereto, which namely by its hardness is apt for cutting; but that the teeth of the iron saw can be dulled and affected with rust follows from necessity of the matter. So for the intellectual soul there is due per se a body of equal complexion, capable of vegetative and sensitive soul; but such a body from necessity of the matter entails corruptibility. So he. As though he said, God indeed fitted the human body to the rational soul not inasmuch as it was corruptible, but inasmuch as it could serve it for performing its operations; so that corruptibility bears an accidental relation to the soul itself to which the body is fitted, because, clearly, that corruptibility follows from the condition of the matter, and not from the intention of the agent assuming the matter, to unite it with such a form. Add that God also constituted the immortality of the body from the beginning in the choice and power of the soul itself, conferring on it the gifts of innocence, which assuredly had it preserved them, its body would not have been subjected to corruption and death.

Third Conclusion. — THE HUMAN BODY IN ITS CONFIGURATION AND FABRIC SURPASSES ALL OTHER CORPOREAL THINGS.

This is common among the holy Fathers; and St. Ambrose extols it thus on Psalm 118, Octonary 10. If anyone wish to consider the very fabric of the human body, he says, he will judge nothing on earth more precious: for man is lofty in stature, comely in culture, pleasing in hair; not curved after the manner of any of the other animals; but sublime by the very law of nature, who looks up into heaven with free gaze, bowed down to earth by no craving servitude of neck: but as conscious of his own liberty, and rich, a witness of his own authority. But what he here commends in general, he sets forth in detail, lib. 9. Hexaemeron. c. 9, wherein he elegantly delineates the excellence, beauty, and grace of the human body from the wondrous constitution of its members thus: Let it seem, he says, that one and the same is the substance of all earthly bodies, stature and height being in certain beasts greater: nevertheless the form of the human body is more graceful, its posture erect and lofty, so that neither be there enormous tallness, nor vile and abject littleness: then the very build of the body is sweet and pleasing, so that neither gluttonous vastity be an horror, nor slender thinness an infirmity. But first of all let us recognize that the fabric of the human body is the counterpart of the world. For as heaven towers over air, lands, and sea, which are as it were certain members of the world; so also we see the Head eminent above the remaining limbs of our body, and most excellent of all, as heaven among the elements; as citadel among the remaining walls of the city. In this citadel moreover dwells a certain royal wisdom, according to the Prophetical saying: for the eyes of the wise are in his head: this is safer than the rest, and from it vigor and providence are conveyed to all the members. For what profit the strength and force of arms, what the swiftness of feet, unless there minister a certain imperial power of the head as of their prince? For from this all things are either destitute or all are supported. What does fortitude do, unless it use the eye as guide in battle? What flight, if sight be lacking? The whole body is blind, shuddering in darksome plight, unless illumined by the aspect of the eyes. What therefore Sol and Luna are in heaven, that are the eyes in man. Sol and Luna are two luminaries of the world: but the eyes are certain stars shining in flesh from above, illuminating inferior things with clear light, nor suffer us to be entangled in some shadows of night. Our sentinels keep watch day and night: for from sleep they are roused sooner than the other members, and keeping vigil look around on all; for they are nearer to the brain, whence flows all use of seeing. The head therefore explores all things with the eyes, ransacks hidden things with the ears, knows secrets, hears what is done elsewhere in the world. But the crown of the head itself, how sweet and pleasing! how beautiful the hair! how reverend in old men! how venerable in priests! how terrible in warriors! how decorous in youths! how adorned in women! how sweet in boys. From trees indeed one may estimate how great is the grace of the human head. On the head of every tree is the growth, there is all its beauty, whose foliage covers us either from rains or defends us from Sun. Take from the tree its foliage, the whole tree is unlovely. How much greater therefore the adornment of the human head, which with the hairs of the head guards and clothes our brain, that is, the seat and origin of our senses, lest it be vexed either by cold or by heat? For he is wholly of all things: and therefore where injury harms, there grace preeminently helps. What is man without the head, when the whole is in the head? When you see the head, you recognize a man. If the head be wanting, no recognition can be: lies the ignoble trunk, without honor, without name. Heads of princes alone cast in bronze, and features drawn from bronze or marble, are adored by men. Not undeservedly therefore do the other members minister to this as their counselor, and encompass it with servile gesture as a numen, and venerate it placed on high. Whence with lordly power it directs the services of certain little servants whither it will, and decrees commands to each to be obeyed. You may see everything serving its emperor gratuitously with stipend. Some carry, some feed, some defend, and exhibit their ministry: obeying as prince, serving as lord: thence proceeds as it were a certain watchword, whereby the feet should know what course to run, whereby the hands, soldiers, execute their duties in completing works: what form of abstaining or eating the imposed discipline of the belly hold. To this the forehead, free, open with bare temples, whereby it betrays the habit of mind in its appearance: now glad, now sadder: now set toward severity, now remitted toward gentleness, expressing by silent signs the inward will: a certain image of the soul. It speaks in the countenance, basis of faith, on which daily the name of the Lord is inscribed and held. It a twin hedge of eyebrows follows, which offer ramparts to the eyes and preface grace: that both the loveliness of beauty may smile, and the diligence of protection assist: for if anything sordid fall from the head, whether sand's dust, or dewy mist, or sweat of moistened crown, it is caught by the eyebrow, lest offense disturb the tender sight of soft eyes: the eyes adhere as it were to certain brows of mountains, that they may be safer under protecting mountain peak, and as if placed on high, survey all things from a superior stage. Most excellent also is the gift of hearing, with a proud grace over vision. Therefore the ears are more extended, that they may both preface ornamental beauty, and catch all that whatsoever of dregs or moisture has flowed from the crown; meanwhile that within their bounds the voice repelled may enter inner windings without offense: for were it not so, who would not be stunned at every louder sound of voice, since amid their very defenses we often feel ourselves deafened by unforeseen stroke of clamor? Then you may see them put forward as it were certain bulwarks against the harshness of cold and the flagrancy of heat, that neither cold penetrate the open ducts, nor excessive heat scorch. But the interior winding of the ears affords a certain rhythm and discipline of modulation: since through the windings of the ears a certain rhythm is effected. Moreover that the very windings of the ears retain received speech, usage itself teaches us: since as in hollows of mountains, or recess of rocks, or winding of streams, the voice is heard sweeter, and echoes back bearing suave responses. Even the dregs of the ears themselves are not useless, which bind the voice that its memory be more tenacious within us, and its charm. But of the nostrils what shall I say, which by their curved and elongated opening afford a sort of cavern for receiving odors, that odor pass not through punctorially but linger longer in the nostrils, and by their duct graze the brain and senses? Therefore odor, received, flames longer than speech resounds or sight appears. Often what you have smelled in a brief moment breathes in your nostrils the whole day. Through them too the purgations of the head flow away, and are diverted without loss or any offense of body. There is also no mean sense in touch, and in it a most pleasing pleasure and sincere judgment: for oftentimes we prove by touching what we cannot prove by eyes. Last is also the office of the Mouth, or tongue, which however ministers strength to all: for neither would the eyes have vigor of seeing, unless bodily substance received virtue, which is conveyed by food and drink: nor ears for hearing, nor nostrils for smelling, nor hands for touching, unless the whole body were refreshed with aliments. For we fail in strength, unless we repair it by constancy of competent food. Finally, [the senses] comforted are delighted with no pleasures of the senses, but as it were bereft feel not their blandishments. Why should I describe the rampart of Teeth, whereby food is prepared, and fullness of voice expressed? Who without teeth would delight in nourishment? Finally we often discern those ripened early aging the faster for this very thing, that with teeth lost they can assume no virtue of stronger food. Therefore mute infancy, because it has not yet the organ of voice. Of the tongue too not only in speaking, but even in eating, is the most precious office; for it is as it were the plectrum of the speaker, and a certain hand of the eater, whereby it offers and ministers the food flowing down to the teeth. But why speak of the kiss of the mouth, which is the pledge of piety and charity? Sheep and dove kiss: but what is that to the grace of the human kiss, wherein shines forth the sign of friendship and humanity, in which the full faith of charity is expressed with affection? Wherefore also the Lord, condemning as it were a species of prodigy in the traitor, says: Judas, dost thou betray the Son of man with a kiss? That is, thou turnest the sign of charity into a token of betrayal, and evidence of infidelity: [turnest] the pledge of true peace into cruelty: What therefore is the mouth of man, but a certain approach of discourse, fountain of disputation, hall of words, storehouse of will? There follows the Throat, through which vital commerce and the passage of spirit is infused to the whole body. Next succeed the arms and sturdy masses of shoulders, strong hands for working, and elongated fingers apt for holding. Thence apter use of working, thence elegance of writing, and that penman of the swiftly writing clerk, whereby the oracles of divinity are expressed by voice. The hand is that which ministers food to the mouth: the hand is that by which it leans on illustrious touches, which as conciliatrix of divine grace is borne to sacred altars, through which we offer and receive the heavenly sacraments: the hand is that which works and dispenses alike the divine mysteries, whose name the Son of God deigned not to refuse to be called by, David saying: The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me. The hand is that which made all things, as God omnipotent said: All these things my hand hath made. The hand is the bulwark of the whole body, protectress of the head. Which although lower in place, shields the entire crown, and beautifies it with honorable ornament. Who worthily unfolds the lattice of the Chest, and softness of the Belly? For otherwise softer viscera could not be guarded, and the recesses of the intestines would doubtless be wounded by hard bones. What so salutary as that the Lung be joined to the heart by neighboring boundary, that when the heart has burned with wrath and indignation it be the sooner tempered by blood and humor of the lung? and therefore the lung is softer, because it is ever moist, simultaneously that it soften rigor of indignation. This also holds tractuous vicinity with the gall: which while it takes wherewith itself is fed, wipes off whatsoever dregs it detects, that through the finer fibers of the liver the thin and subtle remnants of foods may pass, which may be turned into blood and profit the strengths, and not be cast out with dung and dregs. But the circumplex coils of the intestines, though bound by no knot, yet mutually linked together, what else do they show than the divine foresight of the Creator? That food pass not quickly through, and presently run down from stomach; which were it so, perpetual gullets and continual lust of devouring would be begotten in men. For the viscera emptied and exhausted, while by momentary effusion there must needs be generated an inexpleble and insatiable craving for food and drink, which doubtless immature death would follow. Therefore prudently food is first concocted in upper womb, next is labored in liver, until its juice digested by vapor be transfused into the remaining parts of the body, and with that substance human limbs are nourished: which the young receive for increment: the aged for perseverance: but the remainder, as it were superfluous, is led down through intestines, and diverted through that cross door. What of the office of the Feet, which sustain the whole body without any injury of burden? The flexible knee, whereby beyond the rest offense of the Lord is mitigated, anger soothed, grace provoked: for this is the gift of the highest Father toward the Son: that in the name of Jesus every knee shall be bent, etc. For two things there are which beyond the rest soothe God, humility and faith. The foot therefore expresses the affection of humility and the obedience of sedulous servitude: faith equals the Son to the Father, and confesses the same glory of both. Rightly however not more but two feet are man's: for four feet are beasts' and wild animals', birds' two by two; and therefore man is as it were of the chased-metal kind, who aims at high things with sight, and flutters with a certain oarsmanship of sublime thoughts. And therefore of him is it said: Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's, because he is nearer to celestials, and loftier than eagles, who can say: But our conversation is in heaven ». All these things, save few, St. Ambrose.

But that there be had an integral and exact delineation of the principal parts of man, it is pleasing to add from Lugo, lib. De Provid. Numinis. Man has need of bones, that he be sustained: but he could not consist of a single bone, because he would not have been able to bend himself, and use his limbs for various motions and functions. Therefore he is constructed of very many bones, part greater, part lesser, part most minute; of which each has that magnitude, figure, firmness, and connexion which the strength of body, facility of motion, and use of the members required. The bones of the head are eight: of the upper jaw twelve, of the lower one. Teeth thirty-two: the spine consists of thirty-two vertebrae, the ensiform bone of the breast of three bones. The ribs are twenty-four, of which fourteen reach from the spine of the back to the bone of the breast, and are therein fixed for the custody of heart and lungs; ten do not reach, that laxity be left for the stomach and belly. Each finger consists of three bones, the thumb of two.

He adds from Galen that there are in the human body above two hundred bones: and each bone has above 10 ends, to be considered in forming, disposing, connecting them; so that for the bones alone of the human body to be aptly formed more than eighty thousand ends must be reckoned. Muscles to be above six hundred, of which each has ten ends; and consequently in muscles alone six thousand ends to be considered. The same art, he says, exists about all viscera, and absolutely about any part whatever, so that if one consider the ends of structure, their multitude grows into several myriads. Hence he concludes the human body to be formed by a most wise and most potent artificer. Nor was it enough for the human body to consist of bones and muscles, but heat was needed that it might live, and blood whereby it might be fed, and spirit whereby it might move and feel. For it is agreed that without spirit the soul can neither feel nor move its body. For spirit, since it is a most tenuous substance, is as it were a medium between the most subtle soul and the gross body, and the nearest instrument of the soul, by which it effects motion and sense, without which also distribution of aliment cannot occur. Providence therefore fabricated three principal viscera in man, by which these things are accomplished, heart, liver, brain. Heart for the heat of the whole body and vital spirit: liver for blood and natural spirit: brain for animal spirit. The workshop therefore of blood is the liver: for from the liver two huge veins issue, one upward, the other downward, which are then divided into various branches, and each branch again into other lesser ones, and these into others, until at length they end in minutest invisible veinlets... Wonderful is the structure and force of veins: for they consist of direct, oblique, and transverse fibers. Direct, that they attract and suck blood: oblique, that they retain it; transverse, that they transmit it further to muscles and even extremest parts. The same art observed in the ducts of the intestines; they have the power of conserving blood, which poured outside them straightway putrefies and produces diseases, as we see in pleurisy, contusions, and inflammations. To blood is mixed serous humor for easier distribution, which afterwards is either dissipated by heat into breath, or excreted in sweat. Is mixed also a little bile for tenuity, lest it thicken and as it were coagulate: is mixed also spirit, which we call natural, that it open pores and conduct aliment. For there is no particle of body which is not porous. As liver supplies to all parts of body blood whereby they be fed, and natural spirit; so heart heat and vital spirit, whereby native heat be continually cherished and ventilated: to which end from heart issue two arteries, one upward, one downward, which again go into many branches, and these again into other lesser ones, until they terminate in minutest as it were fibers, precisely in the manner of veins. The little branches of arteries reach all muscles and all viscera, that they may infuse to them heat and spirit. Brain supplies animal spirit, which, as blood and natural spirit through veins, and as heat and vital spirit through arteries, so is diffused through nerves. But because from the brain, contained in the head, sufficient nerves could not proceed reaching all viscera and all muscles; the crafting providence of man extended the substance of the brain together with its membranes from the head through the vertebrae of the neck and through the whole spine of the back, so that spinal marrow is nothing else than a certain continuation and prolongation of the brain. Lest however spirits vanish and the animal suddenly die, the brain is wrapped in double membrane, one thinner, which is inner, another harder and sturdier, which is outer and proximate to skull bone. In similar manner is wrapped the spinal marrow. Wonderful is composition of nerves: as the brain entire consists of three, namely marrow and double membrane wherewith it is wrapped: so also each individual nerve arising from it; for the inmost marrow of nerves is similar to brain substance, covered by two tunics: so that nerves seem to be nothing else than production and continuation of that marrow and those membranes of which brain consists. By this reasoning it happens that the brain is in a manner throughout the whole body, and in each particle of body having sense and motion. For primarily located in head, wherein are all organs of senses: from head extended together with its membranes through spine: from spine departs into nerves, which spread diffused through whole body into all muscles. In similar manner heart through arteries, which imitate nature of heart, and liver through veins, which retain its force and character, are diffused through whole body and exist in any least particle: by which wondrous artifice those three principal viscera by which sense, motion, pulsation, and nutrition are accomplished, namely brain, heart, liver, extend through whole body and exist in a manner in each of its parts. I omit other innumerable things which could be said of structure and use of each.

All these things, more briefly but not less elegantly and graphically, depicts holy Clement, lib. 8. Recognitionum. Behold, he says, in the body of man

the work of the Artificer, how bones serve as certain columns whereon flesh may be supported and borne: then how equal measure is kept on either side, that is right and left; that foot fit foot, and hand hand: finger too fingers, that each answer each with total equality: and eye eye, ear ear, which are not only consonant and concordant with themselves, but aptly formed for necessary uses: hands namely that they be commodious for work, and feet for strides: eyes that they serve vision, guarded by the watches of the brows: ears so formed for hearing that like cymbals they render back the repercussed sound of the word received higher, and emit it even to the sense of the heart. Hear what follows, artistic and wondrous. The tongue moreover renders for them, with the teeth, the office of plectrum for speaking: the teeth indeed themselves, some to incise and divide foods and deliver them to the inner ones. The inner ones grind in manner of millstone and crush, that delivered the more opportunely to stomach they be cooked, whence they are called molars. But the nostrils too were made for passage of breath and for rendering and receiving, that by renewal of spirit the natural heat, which is from heart, be able to be kindled or cooled as need requires, by office of lung, which given to adhere to breast, that by its softness it caress and cherish vigor of heart, in which life seems to consist: life I say, not soul. For what shall I say of substance of blood, which like river proceeding from fountain, conveyed first from one bed, then derived through innumerable veins as through channels, irrigates the whole land of human body with vital streams, ministered by operation of liver, which lies on right side for efficacy of digesting foods and changing them into blood? Who of all these recognizes not work of reason, and wisdom of Creator? » —

To be heard also is Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienna, lib. 1. Poëmatum, which is on the creation of the world, wherein he graphically represents the fabric of the human body thus:

Thus Almighty from the side handles the bow that was to live, And meditates the viscera in yielding mire. Hence he marks the citadel of the head in lofty crown, Fitting the sevenfold face to senses of reason, Potent in smell, hearing, touch, and taste. Touch alone shall be, which judge through whole body, Shall feel, and scatter its own vigor through limbs. Thus the pliant tongue is fastened to hollow palate, That pressed in chamber by stroke of striking plectrum The measured speech resound in struck air. Then over the extended body the succedant chest Scatters branching palms behind strong arms. Middle succeeds to stomach, which with soft covering Between either side cherishes vitals, the belly. Femur receives the part of divided frame, that gait Alternate move itself with doubled knee. But from other part, which one Founder fashions, Neck submitted begins to descend from its occiput, And to add vast sinews to its framework.

Spine rigid with brain between exchanges of modes Diffuses the double grate from order of ribs. Inner part is fashioned to new uses of life, Vitals prepare natural covering for heart, And mass hanging of congested entrails hides. Added to these is lung to be fed by thin air, Which drawing the breathing-holes of slow breath conceived, May receive returning, return airs which it took, And in turn panting be driven by frequent draught. Right holds fountain of liver to be quickened with blood, Wherewith veins sprinkle closed river through viscera. Rule of spleen allots left part, Whereby hairs and nails, they say, grow again cut. Nor do they smart cut: hence now resumes increase What live and lack sense in use of body. After image of newness perfected lay, And molded mud reached species into every part, Mud is tempered into flesh, and hardened drew Soft marrows into viscera of middle. Blood is inserted into veins, and living color Redness infects mouth: then pallor through whole body Is driven out, and purple paints snowy faces. Thence when whole man consents to live with perfected limbs, And warmed viscera await that they may assume the sole [soul], Expect the soul, which from pure font Creator May draw forth, and send ruling upright airs: Light perpetual breath he pours forth from mouth And inspires into man: which he straightway received Draws in, and learns airs of frequent breathing.

To be heard also is Cicero, lib. 1. De legibus, discoursing thus on the excellent configuration of the human body: But man himself the same nature adorned not only with celerity of mind, but attributed senses also as satellites and messengers, and initiated obscure, not sufficiently lucid apprehensions of many things, as it were certain foundations of science: and gave figure of body apt and suited to human genius. For when she had cast down other animate beings to pasture, man alone she erected, and excited to view of heaven as it were of kinship and pristine home: then she so formed the species of face, as to portray therein manners deeply hidden. For the eyes are exceedingly eloquent, how we are affected in mind: and that which is called countenance, which can exist in no animate being save man, indicates manners: whose force Greeks know, name they utterly lack. » So Cicero.

Note 1. That there is a twofold uprightness of man, namely spiritual and corporeal, of which Ecclesiastes chap. 7 speaks, saying:

God made man upright: namely as regards the disposition of the body, and as regards the habit of the mind, as our Alexander of Hales explains, part 2, qu. 81, mem. 2. The former is that natural and inborn inclination of the rational soul, by which, superior to all bodily things, and likewise mistress of all the senses and passions of the body which it informs, it is borne toward God as toward the center in which it may rest, toward the first truth which it may contemplate, and toward the highest good in whose love and comprehension it may be blessed and delight. The latter is the tall and upright posture of the human body itself, whereby it is not bent, as the other animals are, with face prone toward the ground: but is borne heavenward with countenance erect, and looks forth. Of the former uprightness there will be treatise in what follows; here, however, of the latter.

Note 2. That since man can be considered in a threefold state: namely of nature, of grace, and of glory, in which he has diverse gifts and operations, even the dignity and majesty of the uprightness of his body can be gathered from the operations to be elicited in this threefold state. For since God by His divine wisdom and counsel brought forth all things in number, weight, and measure, that is, constituted each in a just and certain order of perfection, of disposition, and of position, according to the nature of each and its mode of existing and operating; hence it is that He ought to grant to man, according to his threefold order, that figure and disposition of body which was more congruent and apt for his diverse operations to be elicited in this threefold state; which corporeal uprightness we shall demonstrate to be such.

Note 3. That corporeal uprightness considered in itself does not indeed confer the highest perfection upon the one possessing it: for certain creatures, even of the least dignity, have an upright figure and are raised toward heaven, such as nearly all genera of plants; on the contrary, however, certain most noble bodies, such as the stars and precious stones, do not have this uprightness and erection toward heaven: for the virtue of the stars inclines more toward the earth than toward heaven, and the most precious pebbles grow sordid and lie hidden in the earth. Whence the dignity of the human body is not to be measured and gathered from its uprightness alone, but chiefly from its erection; for erected uprightness, says Alexander of Hales, in the same place, is the first sign of the perfection of the human body, namely of its noble and heavenly form, and likewise of its appetite for beatitude, which it can have complete only in heaven. Not so, however, of plants, which although upright are not yet erect, but rather bowed down by the adhesion of their part to the earth from which they obtain life and growth; hence man and plant hold a contrary position, wherefore man is called the inverted tree.

One Conclusion. — THE HIGHEST DIGNITY AND MAJESTY OF THE HUMAN BODY SHINES FORTH CHIEFLY IN ITS TALLNESS AND ITS ERECTION TOWARD HEAVEN.

This truth our Alexander of Hales proves from the threefold state of man, namely of innocence, of grace, and of glory, in which man ought to have various operations, toward which the very erection of the body especially conduces. For first, the state of innocence was endowed with three excellencies; for in it man had power in ruling, wisdom in speaking, and goodness in loving: despoiled of which by sin, he fell into infirmity of operation, into the darkness of ignorance, and into the malice of concupiscence, as Alexander of Hales says: but for the fulfilling of these three gifts the tallness and erection of the body were necessary; for first, it indicates that royal majesty and power by which innocent man ought to rule over the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth; for all these animate creatures, that they might testify their obedience and observance toward man, held their bodies prone, and were inclined downward more readily, that, subjected to man as standing above them, as to their prince and head, they might exhibit their veneration. — This erect state likewise serves for demonstrating the wisdom of man in speaking: for if his body had been inclined and not erect, he would not have had easy use of speech, which is the most excellent indication of the divine wisdom communicated to him.

Hence St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the book De hominis opificio, chap. 9, gathers that man was therefore endowed with hands, not only that they might be ready instruments for all the arts and all works to be carried on in peace and in war; but also that they might serve speech and language. For if, he says, man had to be without these, doubtless, after the manner of four-footed animals, the parts of the human face would needs have been so formed that they would be accommodated to the nourishing of man; and therefore the form of this had to be oblong, attenuated, and pressed in where the nostrils are situated, while the lips had to be prominent, covered with callus, hard and thick, that manifestly they might be aptly fitted for cropping herbs. Moreover the tongue between the teeth, not indeed such as we now use; but either ample in flesh, solid, rough, which would crush together with the teeth whatever had been cast between them: or on the contrary, soft toward the sides, and fluid; such as is the tongue of dogs and of the other raw-eating animals, whereby it is diffused between the as it were iron-fenced chinks of the teeth. Wherefore if hands had not been added to the human body, how at last could articulate as it were speech have been expressed, the parts of the mouth being conformed not sufficiently apt for aiding the sound? For assuredly man would have had either to bleat, or to frisk like a goat, or to bark, or to neigh, or to low, or to trumpet, or indeed to utter bellowsings after the manner of beasts. Now since hands have been given to man, the mouth serves and is occupied solely in expressing speech: therefore it is rightly established that the hand is a certain proper instrument of nature endowed with the faculty of speaking, and that it has been made chiefly for this end, that through its agency the use of speech might be more ready in us. » So he. Whence if hands were not present to the human body, man could utter no speech. But if the body of man were inclined and prone, it would not have hands; because in all inclined animals the anterior members of the body are feet: and therefore if the body did not have erection, neither would it have the free ministry of speech; nor consequently would it be endowed with wisdom, for speech is not only an indication of wisdom, but also its vehicle. Hence Ovid, 1 Metamorphoses, says elegantly:

Pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri Iussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.

Lastly, it is evident that that erection of the human body also conduces most of all to divine contemplation and divine love: for since love is in spirits what weight is in bodies, according to that familiar saying of St. Augustine, My love is my weight: by it I am borne, whithersoever I am borne. Hence it is that since bodies tend downward by their natural weight, the very human body, which is the sanctuary of divine love, the vessel and organ of the spirit tending toward God, ought also by its natural disposition to tend upward, whither the love of man ought to be borne: for there love is, where the eye is. Whence Cassiodorus, book De anima, chap. 16: Moreover the animal of man, erect in the likeness of most beautiful contemplation, looks toward the things above and renewed: whose harmonious disposition declares to us the mysteries by our understanding. He subjoins how all the parts of our body conduce to the glory of God.

Likewise this erection of the human body conduced most of all to the operations of grace, which are contained chiefly in two things: the first is that carnal delight be cast aside: the second, that man be wholly ordered and occupied in pursuing spiritual delights. But both are rightly evident and gathered from the very tallness and erection of the human body. For therefore the other animals are prone, and have their looks turned toward their belly: because all their delight is carnal and earthly: but the delights of man are heavenly and spiritual. Which St. Basil in the Hexaemeron explains excellently: All cattle, he says, are earthly, and they disdain not those things which are earthly: but man is a certain heavenly plantation, who as much exceeds the cattle in habit as in dignity. Their gaze is borne downward, that it may look upon the belly, and follow that which is pleasing to its lust: but thy head is ever raised toward Heaven: thy eyes look upon the things above. But if thou delight in the pleasure of the body, obeying the belly and its lower parts, thou art compared to the foolish beasts, and made like unto them. To whom St. Bernard consents, on the Canticles, serm. 21: God gave man, he says, an upright stature of body, perhaps that that uprightness of the exterior body, a figure of spiritual uprightness, might admonish that man, who was made to the image of God, concerning spiritual things, of his second uprightness: and that the comeliness of the body might argue the deformity of the soul. For what is more unseemly than to bear a perverse mind in an upright body? Perverse is the way, and sordid, to be mire, which the body is, of the earth, and to have the eyes upward. Freely to look up at the heavens, and to delight the sight in the lights of heaven, while on the contrary the spiritual and heavenly creature, that is, the inward sense and affection, draws its equals down to the earth: and that which ought to have been nourished in heavenly things, to cling to the mire as one of the swine, and to embrace the dung.

Lastly, this erect disposition of the human body affords some trace of the future glory: for it implants in man a twofold contemplation; namely of heavenly things, and of earthly. For, as St. Augustine says, book 83 Questions, The body of man alone among the bodies of earthly animals is not prone, prostrated upon the ground, though it be discernible, and erect for beholding Heaven. And further on: Such is it, that it is the more apt for contemplating Heaven: in this it can deservedly be judged more to the image and likeness of God than the other bodies of animals. Whence St. Bernard in the place praised subjoins: Blush, O my soul, to have exchanged the divine likeness for the worse: Blush, to wallow in the mire, thou who art of Heaven. Blush, saith the body, O soul, in the consideration of me. A creature like unto a creature upright, thou hast received me also as a help like unto thee, assuredly according to the lineaments of the uprightness of the body, whithersoever thou bearest thyself, whether upward toward God, or downward toward me. For no one ever hated his own flesh: everywhere there meets thee the semblance of thy beauty, everywhere according to the state of thy dignity thou hast from the teaching of the wise a familiar admonition. Wherefore, since I have not retained, while beholding, the prerogative which I received for thy sake, how is it that thou art not confounded to have lost thine?

You will say 1. That which is inborn and from nature is not worthy of praise or blame, according to Aristotle, 3 Ethics, chap. 5; nor consequently does it confer any dignity: but the uprightness of the human body is inborn in man from nature: therefore from it no dignity accrues to him. Alexander of Hales answers, that a good worthy of praise is of a twofold kind: namely in the genus of morals, and by respect to acts elicited according to the dictate of right reason: or in the genus of nature, and according to the perfection indited by nature to each thing. Of the former the Philosopher speaks: not indeed of the latter, of which our discourse is. For although natural perfection more allures to the praise of the Creator than of the creature; nevertheless on account of that perfection the creature itself also is worthy of praise, inasmuch as it is referred to the good of the Universe, namely insofar as it concurs to the decor and splendor of the Universe itself, so that that which has the greater perfection confers also in a more perfect manner upon the beauty of the Universe; and therefore on account of its more excellent excellencies it may seem worthy of greater praise.

You will say 2. By sin the soul fell from its inborn uprightness: therefore it was likewise fitting that the human body should lose its uprightness, and consequently on account of it man is not to be judged worthy of praise. The consequence is evident; for the uprightness of the body was granted for the illustrating of the uprightness of the soul, as we have said. It is confirmed. from Psal. 48¹ Man when he was in honor did not understand: he is compared to the foolish beasts, and made like unto them: chiefly in the crookedness of the soul, which appears by the goads of concupiscence, ever seeking what is noxious and earthly; for, as St. Augustine says, two things have been inflicted upon us by sin, namely ignorance of what is to be done, and concupiscence of what is noxious: therefore much more ought the body, which was the instrument of sin, to be despoiled of its uprightness, and this in no wise redounds to glory.

I answer, that on account of the loss of the uprightness of the soul the uprightness of the body ought not to be lost: nay rather, therefore the soul comes the more heavily to the goads of penance, because the body subjected to it has preserved its corporeal uprightness; whereas it has voluntarily lost its spiritual tendency toward God by its dejection toward creatures, as we said above from St. Bernard. To the confirmation. They say that man by sin is likened to the beasts on account of the unbridled motions of concupiscence, by which he is driven toward base things, namely those which please the flesh and in which the sinful soul delights: but this likeness is not made as regards the state and disposition of the body itself; for it is evident that it always stands upright, as it was from the beginning, while indeed the state of innocence flourished.

Note 1. That it is certain by faith that the rational soul is the form of the human body, not assisting and merely moving it, as Plato willed; but informing it, and really united to it, as was defined in the Council of Vienne under Clement V in these words: Whosoever shall henceforth presume to assert, defend, or pertinaciously hold that the rational or intellectual soul is not the form of the human body in itself and essentially, let him be regarded as a heretic. Which sanction the third Lateran Council, under Leo X in his decree concerning the rational soul, restored, where he reproves both of the aforesaid opinions, and strikes with anathema those asserting the things reproved, in these words: With the approval of the sacred Council we damn and reprove all asserting that the intellectual soul is mortal, or that it is one in all men; and those turning these things into doubt; since it is not only true, and in itself, and essentially the form of the human body. — Reason also lends its aid: since man understands formally and properly, as Aristotle affirms, 10 Ethics, where he constitutes the happiness of man in actual understanding: but the happiness of man inheres in him formally. Moreover, the rational soul is essentially distinctive of man; for man differs essentially from beasts, not by the body, nor by the vegetative or sensitive grades, which are common to them: therefore by the rational soul: but that which is distinctive essentially inheres formally in that which it distinguishes: therefore, etc. Lastly, if it were only an assisting form, it would be to the body as the pilot to the ship, and the rider to the horse: therefore as the rider can depart from the horse, and the pilot from the ship, both persevering unharmed, so likewise the rational soul, if it were only an assisting form, could depart from the body, the latter persevering unharmed.

Note 2. That God for very many reasons conjoined the spiritual and immortal soul to a material and mortal body, of which the chief are: First, lest the soul should swell with the wind of pride, and on that account fall most easily into error, and incur the same loss with Lucifer and his hostile Angels. Second, God instituted this that He might make known His supreme wisdom, by instituting the greatest of all natural unions: for the greatest union ought to be between the lowest of the highest and the highest of the lowest: therefore since the soul is the lowest among spiritual substances holding the highest place among beings, and since the human body, by its marvelous fabric, holds the first place among bodies, therefore the union of both was congruous. Third, that the soul might profit toward merit of greater glory through good bodily works, namely of chastity, temperance, patience, etc.

Note 3. That the rational soul and the human body can be considered in a twofold manner: namely either absolutely, and according to the proper gifts of each; or respectively, and inasmuch as they are ordered to one another as matter to form, and form to matter. In the former manner the gifts of the body are opposed to the gifts of the soul: for those are material and corruptible: but these are spiritual, immortal, and indefectible; and therefore the body thus considered obtains no nobility from the proximity of the soul; nay it is altogether depressed, and in this comparison grows vile. But otherwise it happens, while they are considered in the latter manner, for there is the greatest nobility in the human body, in that from its congruous harmony it is apt and suitable to be united to a form so excellent, from which it obtains not only life and motion, but even dignity and pre-eminence, as will be proved

One Conclusion. — The highest nobility and pre-eminence of the human body is from its union with the rational soul.

Proof, from the threefold dignity which the human body obtains from the soul, according to the threefold state: namely of nature, of grace, and of glory. For first, by reason of its conjunction with the rational soul it excels all bodily things, as has been proved above: for if thou shouldst separate from it the rational soul, truly the human body, both in the operation of the senses, and in the length of life, and in virtue and strength, would far surpass the bodies of very many beasts, as was said above in Concl. 3 of the first Question of this Article. Therefore the whole natural dignity and pre-eminence of the human body above the other corporeal creatures is to be sought from its internal commerce with the rational soul. Which Tertullian, in the book De Resurrectione carnis, chap. 6, ponders in a most marvelous manner, where he gathers the dignity of the human body from its union with the rational soul; for there he thus addresses Marcion, the darkener of human flesh: Art thou not more diligent, O God, so that thou indeed engrave Scythian and Indian gems, and the shining grains of the red sea, not with lead, not with bronze, not with iron, not even with silver: but with gold most erect and moreover most laborious? Thou vinest therefore, and with most precious unguents, taking care of whatever things were previously congruous: accordingly with swords of well-tempered steel thou equalize the dignity of ravens: but God committed the shadow of His soul, the breath of His spirit, the work of His mouth to some most vile haft, and by placing it unworthily has surely damned it. But He placed it, or rather implanted it, and commingled it with flesh, with indeed such a concreteness, that it can be held uncertain whether the flesh carries about the soul, or the soul the flesh... but although it must rather be believed that the soul inheres and dominates, as nearer to God, this also overflows to the glory of the flesh, that it contains what is near to God, and affords the head of His domination. He subjoins, moreover, how also the body serves the soul for acquiring its natural gifts; For, he says, what use of nature, what fruit of the world, what savor of the elements, does she not enjoy and feed upon through the flesh? ... And the discourse is concerning the organ of the flesh, the arts through the flesh: the studies inborn through the flesh: the works, businesses, offices through the flesh. It belongs to the flesh to seem apt as a whole for the soul, etc. Hence whoever is the author of the book De Spiritu et anima, which is inserted among the works of St. Augustine, tom. 3, and is falsely attributed to him by not a few of the ancients, for in chap. 37 he cites Boethius, far later than Augustine; this author, I say, rightly says in chap. 11: When the soul is joined to the body, by which friendship no one hates his own flesh: for associated with it, although she be burdened by its association, yet by an ineffable condition she loves it, loves her companion, and therefore cannot be free: she is vehemently afflicted by its pains: she fears its destruction, who cannot die: she dreads its failure, who by nature cannot fail. She is fed by the contemplation of the eyes, delighted by sonorous hearings, gladdened by the sweetest odors, refreshed rapaciously by the tongue: and although she uses these things not at all, she is nevertheless afflicted with grave sorrow if they are withdrawn. By which it is evident how natural and how strict is the society and friendship of the rational soul with its body, and how great a dignity thence accrues to the human body.

Second: This same is evident from the order of grace, since sanctifying grace, informing the soul, represses the incentives of bodily vices; it orders its passions, and orders and composes all its motions not only toward reason, but even toward sanctity: in turn also the human body has conferred no little utility upon the rational soul. For no flesh, says Tertullian in the same place chap. 8, can attain salvation, unless it is in the flesh: therefore the flesh is the hinge of salvation; moreover when the soul is joined to God, it is the flesh itself which avails that the soul may be bound. But the flesh is washed, that the soul may be cleansed: the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed, that the soul also may be fortified: the flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of hands, that the soul may be enlightened by the spirit: the flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ, that the soul may be fattened on God... Moreover, the sacrifices acceptable to God, I say the conflicts of the soul, fastings, and squalors, and dry foods, and the squalors of its proper office as appendices, the flesh restores from its own inconvenience. Virginity also, and chastity, and the modest dissimulation of matrimony in secret, and the single knowledge of it concerning the goods of the flesh, are odored to God, etc.

Thirdly, lastly, the dignity of the human body is evident from its union with the rational soul, in that through it it becomes capable of perceiving eternal beatitude: for, as Tertullian says in the same place, They cannot be separated in the reward whom God joins in their works. Therefore that union, says Alexander of Hales, qu. 81, member 3, which is of the soul with God through the conformity of the flesh, in a certain manner redounds to the very body. For it has, and the most perfect dignity in the genus of bodies, from this, that from that union which it has with the soul it has been rendered fit, that according to some part of itself, or of another genus of itself, it might be united to the Son of God in the unity of person: which union excels both that which is of nature and that which is of glory, which dignity the Son of God manifested through His Incarnation. Hence the union of the soul with the body was as it were a delineation of the future beatific union, and likewise of the hypostatic conjunction, which the Author De Spiritu et anima, chap. 14, elegantly explains: The first thing was marvelous, he says, that things so diverse and so divided from one another could be conjoined with one another. Nor less marvelous was it that God joined Himself to our mire, that God and mire might be united to one another: such sublimity, and such vileness: for nothing is more sublime than God, and nothing viler than mire... But if God was able to join so unequal a nature of flesh and soul to mutual federation and friendship, by no means was it previously impossible for the rational spirit, which has been humbled even to the fellowship of an earthly body, to exult together with the same body glorified, that it may be to it what flesh was to it, unto the fellowship of the blessed spirits who persevered in their purity, and to be raised to the participation of its glory: for to this end the Most High created it by charity alone, by no necessity, that He might make it a partaker of His beatitude.

This same truth St. Bernard inculcates with his wonted elegance and piety, Serm. 2 De Nativitate Domini, where he says that the supreme goodness and magnificence of God toward us cry out by a certain threefold pious work: of our first Creation, of our present Redemption, of our future Glorification... To consider the threefold conjunction in these three is a festival of things of most great work and of divine virtue: For in the first work of our condition God fashioned man from the mire of the earth, and breathed into his face the spirit of life. What an artificer, what a founder of things, to whose nod the mire of the earth and the spirit of life are thus glued to one another!.. Know, O man, thy dignity, acknowledge the glory of the human condition: for thou hast thy body in common with the world: for thus it befits him who has been constituted above the whole mass of this corporeal creature, and things like unto it in part: but thou hast also something more sublime, nor art thou altogether to be compared with the other creatures. Compacted and confederated in thee are flesh and soul: the one fashioned, the other inspired. The second conjunction he thus commends: The second conjunction is now made from three, that from it one might ascend to the Sacrament of the Trinity. The Word, which was in the beginning with God, and was God: the soul which was created from nothing, and before was not: flesh from the mass of corruption, without any corruption, segregated by divine artifice, such as no flesh ever was, coalesce in the unity of person by an indissoluble bond. Thou hast in these a threefold genus of power: that which was not, created: that which had perished, repaired: that which was above all things, made a little less than the Angels, etc. — Lastly, the third union he expresses thus: What shall be in the third union, who shall say? Neither hath the eye seen, nor the ear heard, nor hath it ascended into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love him. That consummation will be when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father: and they shall be two no longer one in flesh, but in one spirit. For indeed if the Word adhering to flesh was made flesh, much more he who shall have adhered to God will be one spirit with him. And in this union indeed (namely of the Word with flesh) a middle humility is exhibited, and a humility too great: but in that which we look upon, toward which we sigh, there is laid up for us, if nevertheless for us, a perfected glorification, etc.

You will say. From the same St. Bernard, the dignity of the soul is far depressed by its union with the body: therefore so far is this union from contributing anything to the pre-eminence of the body, that rather it darkens it. The antecedent is proved from chap. 3 of the book De Conditione humanae conditionis: where he thus addresses the soul; O soul signed with the image of God, adorned with the similitude, espoused by faith, imbued with the spirit, redeemed by blood, deputed with the Angels, capable of beatitude, heir of goodness, partaker of reason, what hast thou to do with flesh, whence sufferest thou these things? On account of the flesh the sins of others are imputed to thee, and thy justices are reputed as the cloth of a menstruous woman: and thou thyself art reduced to nothing, and reputed as nothing and vain. Nothing else is the flesh (with which thy society is so great) except foam made of flesh, a fragile rest of comeliness: but trampled, it will be to be despised, a wretched and putrid cadaver, and the food of worms. For however it is honored, it is always flesh. If thou diligently considerest what goes forth through the mouth, and the nostrils, and the other passages of the body, thou hast never seen a viler dunghill. If thou wishest to enumerate its single miseries, since it is laden with sins, entangled with vices, itching with concupiscences, occupied with passions, polluted with illusions, ever prone to evil, and inclined to every vice, thou wilt find it full of all confusion and ignominy! On account of the flesh man has been made like unto vanity, because from that vice of concupiscence he has drawn, whereby he is held captive, and bent that he may love vanity, and work iniquity, etc.

I answer 1. That the aforesaid book, although most devout, is not St. Bernard's, but either Hugh of St. Victor's, or of some more modern Author. Secondly I say, with the Author, that it is to be understood of the body vitiated by original sin; but we speak of the pre-eminence of the human body according to its primary origin and formation, in which it was free from these defects; and therefore the aforesaid authority does not impede the truth of our Conclusion.