Theologicae regulae

Every science relies upon its own rules as if upon its proper foundations: and, to say nothing of grammar, which rests entirely upon human convention and will, and whose rules exist only by human stipulation, the other sciences have their own proper rules, on which they rely, and by which they are enclosed as by certain fixed limits, just as dialectic has rules which it calls maxims, rhetoric has commonplaces, ethics has general maxims, physics has aphorisms, arithmetic has porisms, that is, subtle rules, which yield to the one who contemplates them a kind of reward, on account of the subtle understanding of them: whence porisms are called as it were rewards; for porisma in Greek is called reward in Latin. There are also the axioms of musicians, which are the rules of the art of music, which are called axioms because they weigh proportions together, that is, they consider consonances. For axia in Greek is called weightin Latin. The theorems of geometers, moreover, are rules, which are called theorems, that is, speculations; for theoriain Greek is speculation in Latin, because through them geometry contemplates the truth of the things that pertain to it. Astronomy too has its own maxims, which it calls excellences on account of their dignity and the subtlety of their understanding. But the supercelestial science, that is, theology, is not defrauded of its own; for it has rules more worthy, surpassing the others in obscurity and subtlety; and while the whole necessity of the other rules wavers, because it consists only in custom, according to the accustomed course of nature, the necessity of the theological maxims is absolute and irrefragable, because these give assurance of things which cannot be changed either in act or by nature. Whence, on account of their immutable necessity and their glorious subtlety, they are called by philosophers paradoxes, as it were glorious truths; on account of their obscurity, enigmas; on account of the inner splendor of understanding they are called emblems, because they are grasped by a purer sharpness of mind; enthymemes, as it were things lying hidden within the mind, from en, which is within, and time, or timos, which is mind; on account of their authority they are called hebdomades, that is, dignities. For hebdam in Greek is dignity in Latin. Whence Boethius entitled a book On the Hebdomads, as if concerning the most subtle propositions of theologians. These propositions, the higher the understanding they possess, the more skilled a hearer they require. Whence they are not to be set before the untrained and those still being introduced, who are given over solely to the speculations of the senses, but before those who, led by a purer mind, ascend to ineffable things, and with a purer eye perceive the secrets of philosophy. These propositions are hidden in the fuller bosom of theology, and speak only to the wise. Intending, therefore, to treat of the theological maxims, let us take the beginning of our treatise from the source, and as it were from the bosom of all the maxims, that is, from the most general maxim. A common conception of the mind is a statement which every intellect, once heard, approves. This embraces all the maxims by its generality, of whatever faculty they may be. It is elegantly said, common of the mind, that is, of many minds: for in order that it be a maxim, it must, by nature or by artifice, come into the knowledge of the many, so that if it is brought forward to prove something else, it need not itself be proved by another. Whence it is called indemonstrable, known through itself, and a maxim. Wherefore it is rightly added, which every intelligent person, once heard, approves.

Now of the theological maxims, some come into the knowledge of many, such as this: "There is one principle of things"; others into the knowledge of few, that is, of the wise, such as this: "Every simple thing is its own being, and what it is, it has as one." Of these, then, which come into the knowledge of few, we must now treat.