Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

The Gnostics, according to the testimony of St. Epiphanius, Haeres. 25 and 26, denied that the world was created by God. The Manichaeans, from the same, Haeres. 22 and following, and from Augustine, Haeres. 46, maintained two gods independent of themselves, one good, who was the author of the New Testament, of light, of spiritual and incorruptible things; the other evil, who was the author of the Old Testament, of darkness, and of visible and corruptible things.

Plato and Hermogenes, in Tertullian, de Praescript., part I, c. 33, and the Seleucians and Hermians, in St. Augustine, Haeres. 39, said that matter was not produced by God, but is coeternal with Him, from which He produced the visible world.

I say: Every being other than God, which in any way is, is efficiently caused by God¹.

It is of the faith by which we believe, in the Nicene and Constantinopolitan symbols, « in God, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. » And in cap. Firmiter, de summa Trinitate, book I of the Decretals, the Church in the Lateran Council I confesses « that the one God, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, is the one principle of all things, the Creator of all visible and invisible things, spiritual and corporeal. » Hence the First Council of Braga, canon 13, thus defines: « If anyone shall say that the creation of all flesh is not the workmanship of God, but of evil angels, as Manichaeus and Priscillian said: let him be anathema. »

The same is taught by the Vatican Council below, with article III being cited.

It is proved. First, from sacred Scripture. Genesis, I, 1: In the beginning God created heaven and earth; where under heaven all heavenly things, and under earth all lower things, are contained. Hence, Exodus, XX, 11: In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them; Isaiah, XLIV, 24: I am the Lord, making all things, stretching forth the heavens alone, establishing the earth; Psalm CXLV, 6: Who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; John, I, 3: All things were made through him; Romans, XI, 36: From him, and through him, and in him are all things; Acts, XVII, 24: God, who made the world and all things that are in it.

It is proved. Secondly, by reason. Whatever in any way is, is contained virtually and eminently in God. Therefore whatever in any way is, is participated and caused by God. — The consequence is evident; because, if there were some being that were not caused by God, that thing would not be contained virtually and eminently in God. — The antecedent is proved. God thus is

being through essence, so as to comprehend the whole ratio of being, according to its entire breadth and extension; for this is what the notions of pure act, infinite being, and infinitely perfect being import, which belong to God. Therefore everything that in whatever way is, is contained virtually and eminently in God; otherwise God would not contain the whole fullness of being.

You say: The essences of things are eternal, and do not depend on God: thus from eternity and independently of God man is a rational animal. Therefore.

I respond. I distinguish the antecedent. The essences of things are eternal and do not depend on God with respect to the connection of predicate and subject, I concede; with respect to actual being, I deny: for this they have from God in time.

Hence you will infer that matter, concerning which the ancient philosophers erred most gravely, as the Angelic Doctor explains², is also produced by God; because, since God, as has been said, is the cause of being insofar as it is being, He is the cause of all things that pertain to the ratio of being. Prime matter, however, pertains to the ratio of corporeal being. For although according to itself it is not being in act, but only through substantial form, without which it is not produced specifically, nevertheless from it and form there comes to be being in act; and therefore, properly speaking, matter is not created, but concreated.