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

Note 1. That concerning the size of Paradise the opinions of Authors are various. For first, some judge its extent to be enormous; so much so that it would seem incomprehensible: thus St. Anastasius Sinaita, Homily 9. on Genesis, says: Since the breadth of Paradise is of incomprehensible magnitude, until out of the abundance of its irrigation it makes four rivers watering almost the whole earth. Some affirm it to be of such a size as one of the chief parts of the earth, namely Asia, or Africa, or Europe. But both of these opinions are justly rejected by all, because so great an expanse of Paradise could by no means lie hidden in the earth: especially since at this very time the whole globe has been sailed around; for without doubt someone would already have fallen in upon those regions of Paradise, which assuredly has nowhere happened. Tostatus thinks, on chapter 13. of Genesis, that Paradise had not a greater extent than three or four leagues in length, and about twelve in circuit, or not many more. Others think otherwise. From whom it is evident that the matter is doubtless entirely uncertain, so that only conjectures are permitted for uncovering the magnitude of Paradise.

Note 2. That it likewise seems uncertain whether Paradise was so prepared for man that, had the state of innocence persevered, brute animals would not have dwelt in it. For St. Basil, in the book De Paradiso, says: In Paradise there were all kinds of animals, which delighted man unbelievably both with the beauty of their colors and with the sweetness of their song. There were there also spectacles of rarer animals: but all were tame, obedient to man, moving about among themselves harmoniously and peaceably, and they conversed among themselves, and spoke with understanding. The serpent, moreover, was not then horrid, but gentle and tame: nor did it crawl terribly upon the surface of the earth as if swimming, but lofty and erect, standing on its feet, it went about. To him accords St. Augustine lib. 11. De Civit. Dei, cap. 11. where he says: That proud Angel chose the serpent in the corporeal Paradise, where together with those two human beings, male and female, the other earthly animals also were wandering, subject and harmless, namely a slippery animal, mobile with tortuous windings, congruous to his work, through which he might lie in wait. This same truth Bellarmine most vigorously defends in the book De gratia primi hominis, cap. 15. and Pererius on the 2nd chap. of Genesis, and they rest principally upon these reasons: First, because dominion over animals was given to man existing in Paradise: therefore the animals must have been in Paradise, wherein he might exercise his dominion. Second, Heva could not have failed to be vehemently horror-struck at the first sight of the serpent, if she had never before seen either a serpent or any other animal. Third, no little ornament and beauty would have been wanting to Paradise, if no fish could be seen in the waters, no little birds in the trees, especially parti-colored and melodious ones, many creatures in the forests, no cattle in the plains. Fourth, innocent man would have lacked various pleasures which he could derive from animals and birds. — Others on the contrary expressly deny that any animals would have dwelt in Paradise had the happy state of innocence persevered. Thus St. Damascenus, lib. 2. De Fide, cap. 11. A worthy place indeed was Paradise, he says, and worthy of him who had been created after the image of God for its inhabiting; in which none of the irrational beings dwelt: but man alone, the handiwork of the divine hands. Very many of the More Recent writers accord with him, drawn chiefly by these reasons: First, because that place proper to immortality did not befit animals subject to death and corruption. Second, if animals had existed in Paradise, they would either have been created there or carried thither from elsewhere. Not the first; for indeed Adam was not created there [i.e., they were not created there]. Nor even the second, because, whether they would have always remained there, or Adam having been cast out, they would have been thrust out along with him. Not the first, since God having created only one male and one female, it would follow that in our earth there would be no propagation of all the animals created by God. Nor even the second, because in the expulsion of Adam from Paradise no mention is made of expelled animals. Therefore the question remains undiscussed whether animals truly existed in Paradise.

First Conclusion. — It is probable that the earthly Paradise was neither so narrow nor so spacious as to have exceeded fifteen or twenty leagues. Thus it is gathered from St. Augustine lib. 8. on Genesis, cap. 10. where he says: Neither was Paradise a place too small, which the whole fountain watered. To him subscribes Moses Bar-Cepha in the book De Paradiso, cap. 15. where he says: It is necessary that it was a certain spacious and ample place. For that immense river, wherewith it was watered, gives credit to this thing; for if this, when it had sufficiently washed Paradise, was divided into four great rivers, which nourish by their course a great part of this globe which we inhabit; it is most certainly consistent that it was very great, most ample, and most profound before it was led forth and distributed into those four great rivers. Now indeed from the magnitude of the river it is concluded that Paradise also, which was watered by it, was most ample. And cap. 28. Paradise was said to be most suitable for the habitation and delight of men. But how great was this amplitude, sufficiently shows the great river which flowed forth from it, and after it had flowed away was divided into four rivers. For if the river itself was great, it is manifest that Paradise, which it watered, was great and spacious. Yet I confess that argument does not sufficiently prove the magnitude and vastness of Paradise. For who does not know that sometimes the greatest rivers are at their origin very small, and afterwards are increased by the influx of others and by the springs of fountains into an enormous confluence? for indeed the Danube and the Rhine have small and very near sources: nevertheless they wash several provinces; seeing that the Danube flows through Hungary and Thrace, and discharges itself after Constantinople; while the Rhine, where it has watered Germany and Holland, bursts into the Ocean. Add that the earthly Paradise was planted in that altitude, so that conveniently those four immense rivers could burst forth thence into four parts greatly distant from each other.

You will say: If Adam had not sinned, all his posterity would have inhabited the earthly Paradise: but they could not have been contained within the space of fifteen or twenty leagues: therefore the earthly Paradise ought to have been far more spacious and broader. The minor is proved; for if after Adam's sin some men lived nearly a thousand years, as Adam himself, and Mathusalem etc., doubtless in the state of innocence they would have lived not less than three or four thousand years: within which space of time an innumerable offspring, no one then dying, would have been propagated: therefore they could not have subsisted simultaneously in Paradise unless that place had equaled at least one part of the whole globe. The major also stands: seeing that Paradise had been destined as a dwelling for innocent man; therefore, since Adam had not sinned, all his posterity would have been gifted with innocence, and thus they ought to have inhabited that abode of delight. Add that in Paradise lay the health-giving tree of life, whose fruit men ought to have plucked and eaten, that they might prolong their life, and consequently it was necessary that all of them subsist in Paradise. — I answer 1. by denying the major; for if that happy state of innocence had stood, Adam's posterity would have dwelt not in Paradise alone, but throughout the whole earth; both because God blessed Adam and Eve created in Original Justice, and said: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. Moreover He says: Rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth: but He speaks of the whole earth newly created by Him even outside Paradise, as also of the fishes of all seas, of the birds of all regions under heaven, of the animals, herbs, trees of the whole world. If, therefore, God subjected to man all this earth and sea with all animals, birds, aquatic creatures, herbs, and trees before sin, and willed that with his offspring he fill the earth, till it, and compel it to serve his uses with all its ornament; shall we think that, man not sinning, these things were said to him in vain, and that mankind then confined beside the walls of Paradise was going to leave forever all the rest of the earth, vast, deserted, void of inhabitant, when the earth was chiefly created for the use of men? Add, that the whole earth would be uncultivated, wild, and unlovely, if it were deserted and empty of men, since man's industry and culture contribute much to its fertility, amenity, and beauty: nay, it would be altogether idle, and created by God in vain; which repugns Sacred Scripture saying, Isaias 45.¹ The Lord made the earth, He is its fashioner: He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited. — I answer 2. The major being granted, the minor can be denied: for since in that happy state men would not have been distressed by any cold, nor by any heat of the Sun, they would have needed neither houses nor Palaces, and equally could many dwell together. Add that not all men to be born would always have remained therein: but perhaps those who were of more advanced age and perfected in merit would have been translated to heaven, as the Master of the Sentences teaches in 2. distinct. 20. Yet I confess we can determine and divine nothing certain about this matter. Therefore let

Second Conclusion. — The earthly Paradise was most lovely and most delightful. Moses sufficiently indicates this very thing while he calls it the Paradise of pleasure, that is, filled with every pleasure and loveliness; whence the Hebrews call it Gan-Eden, as Maldonatus observes, that is, the garden of delights; for among the Hebrews Gan signifies garden, but Eden delights and pleasure. This truth is strengthened by the opinions of all the holy Fathers, who express the loveliness and beauty of Paradise with all the elegance they can. But above all St. Basil must be heard in the Oration De Paradiso, where, after he had declared that this most lovely place is agitated by no storms, nor enjoys darkness on account of the loftiness of the place, he concludes thus: God so constituted this place, that each season of the year sufficiently illumined it round about; nay rather, each season, attended by its own special faculties, contributed to it from its common store; you would see spring possessing delicacy and pleasantness; summer in food fit to eat, autumnal gladness, winter leisure and quiet. Then, that the earth should be rich, soft, and as it were flowing with milk and honey; accommodated to the fertility of fragrance, and irrigated by most fruitful waters, which indeed exhibited a certain incredible beauty. For those subtle and limpid waters confer indeed much pleasantness on beholders, yet more utility. — St. Damascenus lib. 2 De Fide, cap. 11. depicts this very garden of delights thus: Whereas God was about to form man after His image and likeness, as it were a King and Prince of the whole earth and of the things that are in it, He prepared for him, as it were, a royal palace, that he might lead a happy life; and this itself is the divine Paradise of God, planted in the mountains of Eden, a storehouse of every joy and pleasure; for Eden is interpreted pleasure. Moreover all the East is elevated hill country, of most fitting temperateness, and resplendent with an air most subtle and most pure; distinguished by plants ever green, filled with sweetness of odor and full of light, surpassing in intelligence every sensible comeliness and beauty. Truly a place worthy, and worthy of him who was created after the image of God, for habitation. — By which words the holy Fathers declare that the pleasure and loveliness of the earthly Paradise consisted chiefly in five things, namely in Heaven, air, waters, earth, and plants. For in Heaven there was a perpetual salubrious influx of the stars, and at all times a certain most sweet equability, which effected, as it were, a perpetual spring. There was firm rest, serenity and purity, and presently perpetual clarity unclouded by any darkness. The abundance of waters was immense, whereby Paradise, bubbling everywhere with rivulets, was most pleasantly irrigated; but their limpidity and purity was supreme, which like a mirror reflected to beholders the most grateful aspect of this most lovely place. But the earth was most fertile, which without any labor of its cultivators brought forth trees and plants. Finally the plants themselves and trees supplied not only most sweet flowers and most precious aromatics, wherewith sight and smell were refreshed, but also most sweet fruits for food and the delight of taste. For God had planted in it, says St. Basil, the beauty of trees in every variety, which would be most pleasing to behold and exhibit their use most delightful: whence Scripture: The Lord God brought forth of the ground every tree beautiful to the eye, and pleasant to eat: by which words He signifies that in Paradise there were trees and plants not only for the necessity and sweetness of food, but also for the delight of the eyes. All these things Tertullian lucidly expresses in the lib. De iudicio Domini, capit. 8. where he sings thus:

All bears the fertile earth, with soil most rich, Flowers scent the meadows, purple decks the plains... The tree stands fairest with new blossom and fruits; And vital harvests crowd the bounteous oaks; Honey in thickets burns upon the greening field: Milk too flows drinkable from brimming rivulets: There breathes of life whatever pious earth makes green: And sweetly breathes the healing gift of Crete. A fountain there through gentle plains glides with calm course; Four rivers thence water the lands apportioned, Spring, I think, is ever present, the garden clad in flowers: No cold varies the breeze of winter's stars: And it refreshes the teeming earth with a better gale. There no stars guard the night with darkness. Fraud and snares are absent, and dread desire, And fear shut out, cares beaten from the threshold.

This same loveliness and delight of Paradise the holy Alcimus Avitus of Vienna also describes graphically in lib. 1. De initio mundi:

Here constant spring the clemency of Heaven preserves, The turbulent south wind is absent, ever under clear air, Clouds flee away, yielding to the ceaseless serene. Nor does the nature of the place demand rains it has not: But contented, they are endowed with a twofold dew. Every soil is green perpetually, and the face of the laughing earth Shines winsome: grasses stand forever on the hills, And foliage on the trees, which, when they spread themselves in frequent blossom, Consolidate their buds with swift sap. For whatever is now born for us through the whole year, The months there give in season ripened with fruit.

Lilies shine forth flowering under much sun: Nor does touch violate the violets and the redness of the rose, Grace preserving suffuses them with perpetual countenance. Thus since winter is absent, nor torrid summer boils, Autumn lacks no fruits, nor the year flowers. Here too are born the cinnamons fame feigns to be given by the Sabaeans. There the branch, sweating burning balms, Offers a perpetual flow from its fat trunk.

Then if perchance a light wind learns to breathe, With slight blasts, moved by a gentle whisper, The rich wood trembles with leaves, and wholesome flower, Which, scattered far and wide, dispenses sweet odors. Here a fountain rises resplendent with transparent flood. Such grace does not gleam in silver, so great Nor do crystals draw such light from shining cold. On the margin of the banks green pebbles glittered, And the gems which the world's ostentation admires, There lie as stones; the fields give various colors, And paint the plains with a natural diadem. The river, drawn up from the fountain's light summit, Is straightway cloven into four broad streams.

Marius Victor also must be heard, lib. 1. Comment. on Genesis, where he sings in this manner:

Where the fortunate land opens eastern recesses. Upon a higher globe the grove's delightful Paradise Is unfolded: and is marked off by the order of smooth woodland, Here where now a boundary is discerned by equal spaces, And alone it tempers eternal spring with like hours. There also a tree stands rich with its own fruits, And apples are struck down mellow by apples due in turn, Which, pleasing to the eyes, full of wondrous vigor They cherish bodies and minds, and feed with savor and odor. Here the earth, distinct, darts sidereal heats. Ever verdant with new bloom, and with fresh fruit Here breathing things release their fragile reeds, The cinnamas breathing the odors of Ambrosian gift. But neither what the Mede scents, nor with loosened hair What the Archimenian wafts fragrance, what the Assyrian rich In soft amomum, and blushing with Mareotic nard sent, What the shrubs of Tartessus, what the rod of the Sabaean, And what the Palestinian branch weeps from a torn wound. All things thou shalt think heaped hither in rivalry into this garden. For God directed hither all things alike, which singly Each nature received in fixed places, made perfect. And while, stirred by a gentle breeze's motion, the wood sways, He mingles nectar into one out of diverse odor, And it becomes a new gift which no tree may claim.

And wherever trembling, gently swayed little by little with bland sound, They quiver with leaves stirred, the sound rings through every tree: The forest hymns to God, and the tempered air whistles Songs; nor does empty motion beat an empty air.

Nor less elegantly, though more briefly, the upright Faltonia must be praised, wife of Adolphus the proconsul, most learned in Greek and Latin, who, since she held Virgil's works by memory, reduced them into centones for expounding metrically the mysteries of Christian doctrine; in which she has these things about the delights of Paradise:

Behold then beneath the light of the sun the first risings Came down to places, where soft marjoram embraces them, Breathing upon them with flowers and sweet shade. Here through the purple is summer, and in months not its own; Here liquid fountains; here at heaven's appointed season Sweet honeys are pressed; here white poplar overhangs the cave, And trailing vines weave shady bowers. They invite to praises with saffron flowers the gardens, Amid the odorous laurel grove; and the earth itself Bore all things more freely, none demanding.

Nor was this same truth unknown even to the Ethnic Poets: since Homer delineated the loveliness of the earthly Paradise under the veiled image of Alcinous' little garden, in nearly the manner in which Moses himself had described it:

There grew great trees long ago, Pears, and pomegranates, and fruit-bearing apple trees, And sweet figs, and olives flourishing, Whose fruit never perishes, nor fails, Perennial in winter nor in summer, but ever the breeze Zephyrian blowing brings one to birth, ripens another. Pear grows old after pear, and apple after apple, And grape after grape, and fig after fig.

Here for him was planted a fruitful vineyard, one area of which is dried in the Sun on level ground; others they gather vintage from, others they warm; present are unripe grapes with fallen blossom, others are ripening.

Ovid accords with him, who seems to have hinted at Paradise not obscurely at all when he sings in the first of the Transformations:

Spring was eternal, and Zephyrs, with gentle breezes warm, Breathed upon flowers born without seed: Soon indeed untilled earth bore fruits, Nor did the renewed field lack gravid ears.

Other things similar to these you will find among the holy Fathers and the more Recent Theologians, whom you may consult if you desire more.