On The Six Days of Creation - Robert Grosseteste

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ROBERT GRGfSSETESTE
ON THE/5IX DAYS
OF CREATION
AUCTORES BRITANNICI MEDII AEVI • VI(2)
ROBERT GROSSETESTE
ON THE SIX DAYS
OF CREATION
A TRANSLATION OF THE HEXAEMERON
BY
C. F. J. MARTIN
Published for THE BRITISH ACADEMY

by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp
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Contents
Preface vi
Introduction vii
Grosseteste vii
The Hexaemeron viii
The text ix
The translation ix
On the Six Days of Creation 1
Chapter Index 3
Text 13
Bibliography 349
Index 353
Preface
I should like to take this opportunity of thanking Professor D. E. Lus-

combe, the chairman of the Medieval Texts Editorial Committee of the
British Academy, and the other members of the committee, for inviting me
to make this translation.
I owe special thanks to my friend and colleague at Glasgow, Professor
Alexander Broadie, for many services related to this translation: for
suggesting my name to the Committee, for his trust that I would be
adequate to perform the task, for stimulus and encouragement in difficult
moments, when other problems made it difficult for me to continue, for
persuading our Head of Department to release me for a time from some
other onerous duties to enable me to make progress, and for having very
kindly taken on the heroic work of checking and correcting the translation
once produced. I owe an incalculable amount to him. Readers also owe him
their thanks for removing errors: any that remain are my own fault.
A translation of this size is a wearing task, and not only for the
translator, but for those who have the misfortune to 'have him staying
with them. I should like to thank the residents of Grandpont House,
Oxford, and of Dunreath Study Centre, Glasgow, for putting up with me
when I was most deeply involved in this work.
C. F. J. Martin
Introduction
Grosseteste
A distinguished scholar, of a distinctively English kind; and an effective

administrator, keeping strict control of his subordinates, jealous of the
interference of his superiors. This is the picture of Grosseteste that
emerges from Sir Richard Southern's excellent book1. McEvoy2, in his
equally fine study, calls him "The most striking personality in the
academic and ecclesiastical life of England during the second quarter of
the thirteenth century", which appears faint praise until McEvoy points out
that St Edmund of Abingdon was among his contemporaries.
It is as a scholar that we need to deal with him here. Southern argues
that Grosseteste's idiosyncrasies arise from the fact that he never studied in
Paris: his style of scholarship is one that he acquired in English cathedral
and abbey schools, and from his own remarkably wide reading, before
Parisian styles came to be widespread in the country through the university
of Oxford. The most casual reader will notice in Grosseteste the breadth of
his reading and his concern for the linguistic and other minutiae of little-
known Greek texts, a knowledge of which he helped to spread. This is what
we should expect from the one who first made a subject-index for books:
and, had he made no other contribution to scholarship than this, he would
have deserved well of posterity.
In fact his contribution was greater. He can be called a polymath even
by the standards of his own demanding time. He has works on science, on
astronomy and its application to the calendar, on meteorology and on tides,
on the metaphysics and physics of light, and on optics; a translation of and
commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics, commentaries on the Physics and
the Posterior Analytics; and commentaries on the Psalms and on the
Epistles, as well as theological, pastoral and practical works in both Latin
and French. He is a towering figure by any standards.
1 R.W. Southern, Robert Grosseteste: the growth of an English mind in medieval Europe,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986
2 James McEvoy, The philosophy of Robert Grosseteste, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982
viii INTRODUCTION
The Hexaemeron
It seems possible to call the Hexaemeron a work of Grosseteste's early

maturity, despite the fact that his dates are obscure. Southern believes that
in his time at Oxford, for about ten years from 1225, Grosseteste began to
abandon science and philosophy for theology. To the early part of this
period, apparently, may belong the separate work which is included here as
the Proemium to the Hexaemeron. By the later part of this period he may
have been at work on the Hexaemeron proper. This commentary on the
early chapters of Genesis, on the six days of creation, gave a suitable
context for Grosseteste to develop a number of ideas that were of great
importance to him. It enabled him to present the thought of the great
eastern fathers, especially that of St Basil the Great, whose own homilies
on the creation, his Hexaemeron, Grosseteste clearly found of great value.
He was able to present this and reconcile it with the thought of St
Augustine, particularly, and that of other western fathers such as
Ambrose and Bede. From these authors, particularly Basil and Augustine,
Grosseteste had derived his own attitude to theology, to the world, and to
the place of human beings in that world.
Grosseteste tells us that theology "in some way includes all things".
Its object of study is the One in whom all things were made. The con
sideration of the least of God's works, undertaken in the proper spirit,
could be valuable. But the question of what is the proper spirit thus
becomes crucial. For Grosseteste, as for his masters, it was an attitude in
which mind and will were set together on God, in which both the aspectus
and the affectus of the mind were bent on their true goods.
He is confident that his own heart is in the right place, which allows
him a freedom in the standard medieval task of reconciliation which is
refreshing. He recognises that Augustine thumpingly disagrees with most
other authorities, and with his younger self, about the creation of the
universe over a period of time: but he feels that neither he nor his readers
need solve this problem. Other medieval commentators expend infinite
ingenuity in attempting to reconcile this disagreement, or in determining
the question in one way or the other: Grosseteste clearly feels that he
need not try to reconcile the irreconcilable, nor decide between autho
rities. He limits himself to drawing out the consequences of the different
approaches, to calling to our attention where they unexpectedly coincide or
unexpectedly differ, and to pointing out that both are consistent with the text
of Scripture. He is confident in himself, I said: but this manner of writing
surely suggests that he is no less confident in the abilities of his readers.
Other typical themes of Grosseteste are to be found throughout the
work. He insists, here as elsewhere, on the importance of God's being
INTRODUCTION ix
called the Light, and on God's use of bodily light as his first instrument in
the forming of the world. He insists that the human being is a microcosm,
and that all things were created for human beings. He insists on the
goodness of creation, on the falsehood and the deception of judicial
astrology, on the errors about creation to be found in the ancient philoso
phers, and on the role of the true prelate in the life of the Church. This may
seem a ragbag of opinions, but Grosseteste's life brought them into a unity.
The text
The text translated here is that prepared for the British Academy's series
Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, by Richard C. Dales and Servus Gieben,
published for the Academy by the Oxford University Press in 1982. This
is an excellent text, with minimal conjectural emendations, in the modern
style. The editors have performed a great service to scholarship in
identifying not only Grosseteste's citations of his authorities, but also, in
so far as possible, the use made of the Hexaemeron by contemporary or
near-contemporary writers, e.g. Fishacre and Richard Rufus of Cornwall. I
have decided to include in this translation references to Grosseteste's
citations of others, but not to others' citations of Grosseteste.
The translation
The reader will be able to make out from a very small sample what I
have tried to do in this translation. I have aimed at a fairly literal
rendering, following the order of Grosseteste's sentences as far as pos
sible. I have allowed myself rather more freedom in translating the fairly
lengthy quotations Grosseteste makes, particularly from Basil and from
Augustine. Naturally, the texts of these and other authors which were
used by Grosseteste are not identical with the texts established by modern
scholarship: I have translated the text as Grosseteste gives it. The same is
true of the text of the Bible. In citing the Bible I have generally used the
Douai version, which is the closest English translation of the Vulgate.
But Grosseteste allows himself a certain amount of freedom in quoting
the Bible, and I have used a similar licence.
ON THE SIX DAYS
OF CREATION
Chapter Index
Chapter headings marked G below are those of Grosseteste himself: the

others derive from Dales and Gieben.
PROEMIUM 14
PART ONE
Chapter I G On the subject-matter of theology 47
Chapter II. 1 G That all things belong, in some way, to
theology 48
Chapter II.2 G Two kinds of believable things 49
Chapter II.3 G That theology should start with the
establishment of the world 49
Chapter III.l G What should be the first sense of this text:
In the beginning 50
Chapter III.2 G That the first literal sense is a sign for five
mystical things 50
Chapter III.3-8 G That the six ways of understanding this text
are signified by the six days 50
Chapter IV-V.l G The progress of theology 51
Chapter V.2 G How the hearer of theology should be 53
Chapter VI G Praise of Moses 53
Chapter VII G The literal sense of this text: In the
beginning 54
Chapter VIII. 1 G A fuller exposition of this text: In the
beginning 56
Chapter VIII.2 G Against those who say that Aristotle did not
think that the world was of infinite duration 56
Chapter Vffl.3-4 G Varying opinions on the beginning of the
world 57
Chapter Vffl.5 G The cause of the mistake made by the
philosophers in claiming that the world is
eternal 59
Chapter VIII.6 G The dissolutions of the errors 59
Chapter VIII.7 G Oppositions to the philosophers 60
4 CHAPTER INDEX
Chapter IX. 1-2 G That by signifying individuals he overthrows

those who claimed there were many
principia 60
Chapter IX.3 G The oppositions of the philosophers to do
with the principia of the world 61
Chapter X.l G The distinction of principium 63
Chapter X.2 G That the world was established, in truth 63
Chapter XI G On the understanding of "creation" 65
Chapter XII G Heaven and earth 66
Chapter XII. 1 G A different exposition of the text: In the
beginning God made 66
Chapter XIII.2 G "Heaven and earth": that the order of
words has no force 68
Chapter XIV G An inquiry, why it does not say "God said: let
heaven and earth be made" 70
Chapter XV G A proof that matter was created from
nothing 70
Chapter XVI. 1 G That the first heaven is something different
from the firmament that was created on the
second day 71
Chapter XVI.2 G What is the benefit of the first heaven 73
Chapter XVI.3 G That the first heaven and the firmament are
identical 74
Chapter XVII G That the first heaven is unmovable 74
Chapter XVIII G The earth was void 76
Chapter XIX G Allegory 77
Chapter XX G And the Spirit of God 79
Chapter XXI. 1-3 G On the spiritual meanings of the earth and
the water and the depth 80
Chapter XXI.4 G Why the word depth is used 80
Chapter XXII The opinions of authorities on the number
of bodies that were made at the beginning 81
Chapter XXIII G Where the heresy of the Manichees takes
its rise from 81
Chapter XXIV G Against the Manichees 83
PART TWO
Chapter I.1 God said: let there be light 84
Chapter I.2 G God, in the beginning, made all things by
his Word alone, without the assistance of
any creature 84
Chapter I.3 G The same is proved by reasoning 85
CHAPTER INDEX 5
Chapter II The utterance of the Word is his generation 85

Chapter III G That not all things are co-eternal with the
Word through whom they were made 86
Chapter IV G Bodily light 87
Chapter V G Oppositions to the successive establishment
of the world 88
Chapter VI What things are understood by earth, water,
and the depth, and by the light that was
established on the first day 92
Chapter VII How evening and morning are understood
in a different way 94
Chapter VIII G That the establishment of the angels is not
omitted here 95
Chapter IX G Spiritually 96
Chapter X G On the properties of bodily light 97
Chapter XI G Why it says one day, not the first day 100
PART THREE
Chapter I G Why it says so often: God said, when God
spoke only once 102
Chapter II G The view according to which the firmament
is understood as the air 102
Chapter III G That there are waters above the starry
heaven 103
Chapter IV G Why it is called firmament, and why heaven 105
Chapter V Greek etymologies 105
Chapter VI G That we have discovered nothing certain
about the nature of the firmament, and
about its movements 106
Chapter VII The heavens are inanimate 107
Chapter VIII That the number of heavens is uncertain 108
Chapter IX G The final cause of the firmament 109
Chapter X G What is the benefit of the waters in the
upper heaven 109
Chapter XI G Why the expression of being made is used
three times 110
Chapter XII G God called the firmament, Heaven 112
Chapter XIII G Why it does not say: God saw that it was
good 112
Chapter XIV G Allegory 113
Chapter XV G Morally 117
Chapter XVI G On the properties of heaven 118
6 CHAPTER INDEX
PART FOUR
Chapter I G An inquiry, why here the way of speaking is
changed 122
Chapter II G Let the waters be gathered: three ways of
understanding this 125
Chapter III Doubts about this utterance 126
Chapter IV G The one place of waters 127
Chapter V Why the waters of the sea do not transgress
their boundaries: a geometrical proof 128
Chapter VI G Why the waters do not transgress their
boundaries 129
Chapter VII G Let the dry land appear 130
Chapter VIII Why God said: Let the dry land appear, and
not: Let the land appear 131
Chapter IX G That our translation says Let there be only
twice 131
Chapter X G And God called the dry land, earth:
expounded three ways 132
Chapter XI Spiritually 133
Chapter XII G On water, morally 136
Chapter XIII G On water 138
Chapter XIV G On the sea 140
Chapter XV G On the earth 141
Chapter XVI Let the earth bring forth: why this
command belongs to the work of this day 143
Chapter XVII G That the plants were brought forth all at
once 143
Chapter XIX G The green herb, and such as may seed, after
its kind 145
Chapter XX G The fruit-bearing tree: the difference
between fruit and seed 146
Chapter XXI G Which may have seed in itself 146
Chapter XXII An inquiry about this addition: upon the
earth 148
Chapter XXIII G Let the earth bring forth the herb offood,
etc. 148
Chapter XXIV G Yielding seed, in the neuter 149
Chapter XXV G Why there were plants before the sun 149
Chapter XXVI On the herbs that yield no seed, and on the
trees that yield no fruit 150
Chapter XXVII G An inquiry about thorns and the like 150
Chapter XXVIII G The difference between the herb and the tree 152
CHAPTER INDEX 7
Chapter XXIX G Spiritually 153

Chapter XXX G On vegetables in general 155
PART FIVE
Chapter I On the middle place of the luminaries in
the order of creation 159
Chapter II G That the luminaries are not of the same
creation as the firmament 160
Chapter III What should be understood by the name
firmament 161
Chapter IV What the luminaries are made from 161
Chapter V The opinions of the sacred commentators on
the light of the luminaries 162
Chapter VI That the luminaries divide between them
the day and the night 163
Chapter VII That the luminaries were made as signs in
five ways 164
Chapter VIII On the signs that it is lawful to give
attention to 165
Chapter IX G Against judicial astrology 1 66
Chapter X That the stars have no effect on free will 168
Chapter XI A warning against judicial astronomy 171
Chapter XII How the beginning of time is to be
understood 173
Chapter XIII What "day" and "year" signify 175
Chapter XIV The final cause of the luminaries 176
Chapter XV A doubt about why the moon is called a
great luminary 176
Chapter XVI How many ways to divide the day and the
night is understood 177
Chapter XVII Was the Moon made at the full? 178
Chapter XVIII Are the luminaries only bodies? 178
Chapter XIX The spiritual senses of the firmament 179
Chapter XX What the firmament means, morally 180
Chapter XXI On the sun and its properties and benefits 181
Chapter XXII The Moon, likewise 183
Chapter XXIII The stars, likewise 185
PART SIX
Chapter I Why in the order of the elements the air is
not first mentioned and adorned, after the
heaven, then the water, and last the earth 187
Chapter II G Swimming things are cognate with the water 188
8 CHAPTER INDEX
Chapter in G That swimming things are called creeping

things 189
Chapter IV G Why it says living soul 190
Chapter V G The flying thing above the earth, under the
firmament of heaven 190
Chapter VI G On whales 191
Chapter VII On three differences of the soul, said in a
(Topological sense 192
Chapter VIII G Why it was not said to the plants: Increase
and multiply 192
Chapter IX That the translation of the Seventy, which
Augustine expounds, mentions the coming
to be of animals from the waters three times 193
Chapter X That the utterance: Let the waters bring
forth the creeping creature of a living soul,
does not include every kind of water animal 194
Chapter XI How it was said generally to the things
brought forth from water: Increase and
multiply 195
Chapter XII G Spiritually 195
Chapter xni On the same, morally 198
Chapter XIV That the creeping things and flying things
are to be taken mystically in a bad sense
and a good sense 198
Chapter XV What the whales signify, mystically 199
Chapter XVI What a living soul signifies 200
Chapter XVII On God's word of blessing: Increase and
multiply 200
PART SEVEN
Chapter I That the Lawmaker brings in, as last of the
works of the six days, the adornment of the
lowest and last element 202
Chapter II On three specific differences, of cattle, of
creeping things, and of beasts 204
Chapter III On the names of land animals 204
Chapter IV Inquiries about the tiny animals that are not
born by propagation 205
Chapter V Whether the things that are born from
corruption would have arisen if the human
being had not sinned 206
CHAPTER INDEX
Chapter VI Inquiries about the poisonous and harmful

animals which do not arise from rottenness
Chapter VII G The causes of harmful things
Chapter VIII Why do some dumb animals harm others,
when they did not sin?
Chapter IX That according to the first law of nature, all
the animals of the earth ate fruits
Chapter X An inquiry: if harmful animals damage
living people as a punishment, why do they
also tear up the bodies of the dead for their
food?
Chapter XI G Allegorically
Chapter XII On the allegorical meanings, to do with the
things that the earth thus brings forth as
living souls
Chapter XIII G On the generic division of animals
Chapter XIV. 1 On the things that animals have in common
Chapter XIV.2 G Special properties of some animals
PART EIGHT
Chapter I How the words image and likeness should
be understood
Chapter II That the words let us make and our
consignify the Trinity
Chapter III G That God is three
Chapter IV G Illustrations of the divine trinity
Chapter V How the human being is to be understood
as an image of the divine trinity
Chapter VI A threefold consideration of reason and of
free will, in so far as the human being is
made to the image of God
Chapter VII Of the differences between an image and a
likeness
Chapter VIII That the human being is said to be made to
the likeness of God in its sharing in the
good things of grace
Chapter IX That likeness is to be understood as a name
for the reformed image
Chapter X That the human being is one image of the
one divine trinity
Chapter XI How the consultation is to be understood
here
10 CHAPTER INDEX
Chapter XII The human being is so great and so valuable a

thing
Chapter XIII On the dominion of the human being over the
animals
Chapter XIV That the animals are subjected to human power
in the same series of order
Chapter XV Are angels not creatures? or are human beings
placed above the angels?
Chapter XVI That the human being has dominion even over
the smallest and lowest things
Chapter XVII What the triple repetition of the expression he
created means
Chapter XVIII That in this place the human being is said to
have been made both in soul and in body
Chapter XIX How the words of blessing, Increase and
multiply, should be understood
Chapter XX That there was granted to the human race the
possibility of breeding, but that there was no
necessity of breeding imposed
Chapter XXI That the movement of the genitals is indecent
because it is disobedient
Chapter XXII That this blessing is common to the water
animals and the dumb animals, as well as to
human beings
Chapter XXIII How to understand: Fill the earth and subdue it
Chapter XXIV On human food
Chapter XXV That eating meat was permitted because of
weakness, as a medicinal remedy
Chapter XXVI On the utterance: And it was so done
Chapter XXVII What the words: And God saw all the things that
he had made, and they were very good, refer to
Chapter XXVIII That at the beginning the human being was
created alone
Chapter XXIX Why the custom of scripture is not observed at
the establishment of the human being
Chapter XXX On the six ages of the world
Chapter XXXI On the six ages of human beings
Chapter XXXII That the six ages of the human being can be
made to fit the first six days
Chapter XXXIII That the first six days can signify the six ages of
the new man
CHAPTER INDEX 11
Chapter XXXIV Another signification of the first six days 264

Chapter XXXV And another 264
PART NINE
Chapter I On the perfection of the number six, and, hence,
of the world 269
Chapter II Did God complete his works on the sixth day, or
the seventh? 272
Chapter III That God did not create new natures after the
first six days 275
Chapter IV On how to understand the words: He rested from
all his work which he had done 278
Chapter V On the blessing of the seventh day 279
Chapter VI That God alone immediately created all things 280
Chapter VII On the adornments of heaven and of earth,
allegorically 280
Chapter VIII That in Christ all things are made perfect and are
consummated 282
Chapter IX What the seventh day signifies, allegorically and
morally 283
Chapter X On the mysteries of the number seven 287
PART TEN
Chapter I On the manner of generation of those things that
are now generated in a manner different from
that in which they were generated in their first
establishment 292
Chapter II On the manner in which the human being was
established 296
Chapter III How to understand the words This is the book,
etc. 300
Chapter IV A fuller exposition of the same 302
Chapter V On the words: A spring rose out of the earth, etc. 304
Chapter VI On the creation of the woman 305
Chapter VII On Augustine's opinion about the establishment
of the human being 306
Chapter VIII On the generations of heaven and earth,
mystically 308
Chapter IX On the formation of the human being, morally
and historically 311
12 CHAPTER INDEX
PART ELEVEN
Chapter I A description of Paradise 313
Chapter II Were the first seven days days of time, or not? 314
Chapter III A doubt: is the bringing forth of all trees
recorded here? 314
Chapter IV On the tree of life 315
Chapter V Is Paradise to be understood only in a literal
sense, or also figuratively? 317
Chapter VI Figurative understandings of Paradise 319
Chapter VII On the fruit-bearing trees in Paradise 321
Chapter VIII On the tree of life 321
Chapter IX On the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 323
Chapter X On the four rivers flowing out of Paradise: the
literal understanding 324
Chapter XI On the river Phison, i.e. the Ganges, literally 324
Chapter XII On the river Gehon, i.e. the Nile, literally 325
Chapter XIII On the river Tigris, literally 327
Chapter XIV On the river Euphrates, literally 327
Chapter XV On the river that waters Paradise 328
Chapter XVI On the land of Hevilath 328
Chapter XVII Bdellium 329
Chapter XVIII Onyx 329
Chapter XIX The carbuncle 329
Chapter XX The prase stone 330
Chapter XXI The emerald 330
Chapter XXII The river flowing out of Paradise, what it means
in a spiritual sense 330
Chapter XXIII The spring, what it means in a spiritual sense 332
Chapter XXIV The four rivers, what they mean in a spiritual
sense 332
Chapter XXV The commentary of Ambrose on these rivers 336
Chapter XXVI And the Lord God took man, etc. 338
Chapter XXVII The pleasures of tilling the ground, according to
Augustine 338
Chapter XXVIII How it should be understood, in a mystical
sense, that God took man 343
Chapter XXIX And he commanded him, etc. 345
Chapter XXX Why our first parent was forbidden to eat from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 346
Proemium
[190A] 1. Brother Ambrose, etc.1 This letter, which is prefixed to the

body of the text of the old and new testaments to stand as a sort of
prologue, is written by St Jerome to a priest by the name of Paulinus.2
This man, we learn from another letter of St Jerome's to him, was a man of
great intelligence and limitless capability of language, who spoke with ease
and purity; and the ease and purity of his speech were combined with
practical wisdom. This Paulinus wrote a book, full of wisdom and adorn
ment for the emperor Theodosius: it contained articulate and brilliant
eloquence, especially in the moral epigrams.3 By these he celebrated the
reign of Theodosius and sanctified the value of his laws. But though
Paulinus was such a great man, and was honoured by the Senate as a man
of fame and nobility, he was, as yet, not greatly instructed in the Scriptures.
But he had a desire to come to the knowledge of them, and to turn his back
for good on the world. However, he was bound by duties to a sister of his,
and this still held him back in the world. He had made known in a letter to St
Jerome his desire of coming to understand the Holy Scripture, and of putting
away from himself the restraints of the world. Furthermore, as we can
gather from St Jerome's own words, Paulinus had asked whether one could
find a way to understand the Scriptures without a teacher. At the same time
he had made it clear that he wanted to be able to spend time with St Jerome,
in order to be better taught about Holy Scripture by him.
2. So St Jerome writes this letter back to him. He commends his study
and his vow, and he encourages him with persuasive argument to a greater
love of the knowledge of Scripture, and of learning about it: not so much by
looking at what has been written, but rather by learning viva-voce4 from
1 The so-called proemium to the Hexaemeron consists of a quite independent work, a

commentary on Jerome's Epistula LIII ad Paulinum presbyterum, in which Jerome defends
his translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) against critics. In Grosseteste's day, and frequently
since, it was prefixed to the text of the Vulgate. E.g. it can be found in Biblia Sacra iuxta
latinam vulgatum versionem, ed. Henricus Quentin, I, (Rome, 1926), 1-37. It is perhaps most
conveniently available in J6r6me Labourt, ed. Saint Jerome lettres, (Paris 1953), III, 73-85.
In what follows of the Proemium words and phrases of Jerome that Grosseteste is commenting
on are italicised.
2 St Paulinus of Nola.
3 Now lost.
4 Literally, "by living voice".
14 PROEMIUM
masters. For this "living voice" teaches more vividly as it forces its way in
through the ear, than does the "dead voice" that slips in through the eyes.
To persuade him of this he brings as examples first the pagan philosophers,
and then St Paul. They made great efforts to go to be with and to hear those
whose writings they had read before. And to add to this judgement he
brings a saying of Aeschines which agrees with it.
3. Someone might think that Jerome means secretly to persuade
Paulinus to come and listen to him, as being a great and famous master.
But he makes this idea impossible by saying "/ do not say this because there
is in me anything such", etc. Having put away from himself the suspicion of
vain glory, he goes back to persuading Paulinus that teaching should be
received from others, by using the example of a shapeless lump of wax, and
the example of Paul, who learnt from Gamaliel. He concludes from this that
knowledge and understanding of Scripture are especially appropriate for a
priest, and that a priest should not be satisfied without education. To prove
this he brings us the words of the Apostle, in his exhortation of Timothy, and
the words of God through Malachi, and other evidence taken from Deuter
onomy, from the Psalms, and from Daniel. And since it could be objected
that many came to know Scripture without being taught — for example, the
apostles — he replies that in their case there was an internal stimulus from
the Holy Spirit to make up for what others usually get from an external
teaching and training. And since someone might say that theology could be
learnt without an instructor, since it is an easy study, especially for one who
is trained in secular literature, he proves that this is not so: that Scripture
has a hidden and sealed-up sense, which it is hard to reach.
4. So from all this collection he concludes that without a master who
can lead one and go before one, there is no opening through which one can
get into Scripture, obscure as it is. And he brings in here another proof of
this by an argument a fortiori. The other arts — not just the liberal arts, but
even the mechanical arts [190B] — cannot be acquired without a teacher.
How much the more will this be so of this art, which is the most inclusive
of all arts, and the one whose understanding lies deepest. But this is the
only art which we often find people presuming to teach without having
studied. Such people Jerome goes on to convict of presumption.
5. In order that it may be clearer that this presumption is wicked, and
in order to fire Paulinus yet more with desire to hear this learning from a
master, he sets out in order the difficulty and the excellence of each of the
books of the old and new testaments. And when he has done this, he urges
Paulinus on to the study of Holy Scripture, which is so excellent and so
difficult to understand. And he gently counsels Paulinus to come to him,
not as to a master, but as to one who can be his companion in studies and
can assist him. And so that Paulinus may not be held back from his
PROEMIUM IS
purpose, he encourages him not merely to untie, but rather to cut through
the cords that bind him to this world.
6. In addressing Paulinus, then, in this letter, he says to him: a
"Brother", whose name is "Ambrose has brought me those gifts of
yours", i.e. the gifts you sent me, "and has delivered me your letter"
which was "most kind" both for the elegance of the language and for the
wisdom of its judgements. These letters "brought" (or "offered") your
faith" i.e. the truth of your perseverance, "ofproven friendship" — proven
by its being shown in deeds. Proven, I say, "from the start", when you
addressed me by letter. "Friendship", I say, which "already", at the time
of your first communication, was "old", since you loved me long before
you wrote to me. And this, that you already loved me with true friendship,
is shown by the fact that this friendship is "true need" — this is the cause
and the reason for the bond of friendship — "and joined by the cement of
Christ", i.e. by Christ's uniting power. This need "comes about not
through self-interest, nor through our physical nearness, nor through"
the deceit and disguise of "flattery, but through the fear of God and the
study of divine Scripture." Since this cause of friendship existed before you
wrote to me, "it made it an old friendship before that".
7. The order of construction of what follows is mostly straightforward.
But many of the individual words that follow are not easily to be under
stood. They also touch on matters of history that some people scarcely
know of. So I will not, then, consider it a trouble to put down the
explanation of some obscure word, or the account of some history, when
I know it — for I must admit that I could not do this fully for the whole
letter, since there are many things that I do not know, both among the
explanations of words used in it, and in the references to history. When he
says "new peoples", then, he means peoples that were previously
unknown. And when he says "that they knew from books" he means
from books that they themselves had written. That is why people wanted
to see them face to face, in order to learn from them.
8. The next construction should be ordered as follows: "Thus Pytha
goras" — i.e. by much travel — saw face to face "the priests of Memphis,
thus Plato by strenuous journeyings wandered through Egypt and that
shore of Italy then called Greater Greece, and" saw "Archytas of Tar-
entum" face to face.
9. Isidore says in his Etymologies:1 "Memphis is a city of the
Egyptians, where paper was first invented, as we read in Lucan: 'the
thirsty paper of Memphis is made with papyrus'.2 He says that the paper
1 Isidore, Etymologies, VI, x, 1-2

2 Lucan, The civil war, IV, 36
16 PROEMIUM
is thirsty because it soaks up the damp." This city "was built by Epaphus
the son of Jupiter, when he reigned over Egypt in the second age. The
people there were superlative mathematicians,1 for evidence of their error
from ancient times and even from the present shows this city to have been
given over to the magic arts".2
10. Pythagoras was a philosopher, who discovered the harmonies of
music from the striking of hammers3. He came from Samos4 and invented
[190C] the letter "Y", a letter which he drew thus to signify the double
paths open to a human life5. He forbade the eating of meat and persuaded
people to live on vegetables. He said that souls were immortal and returned
again and again into different bodies. He fled from cruel lords, and his
hatred of tyranny made him exile himself and live at Crotona, where Numa
Pompilius heard him. Augustine, too, says this of Pythagoras in the eighth
book of The City of God6: As regards Greek literature — a language which
is considered as the clearest among those of all other nations — there are
two families of philosophers that are passed on. One is the Italian, from the
part of Italy that once used to be called Greater Greece, and the other is the
Ionian, from those lands that are now called Greece. The father of the
Italian family was Pythagoras of Samos, who, they say, also was the person
who first gave the name of "philosophy" . This is because previously those
who seemed to offer others a way to live in a praiseworthy manner were
called "the wise" : "but when Pythagoras was asked what he claimed to be,
he said he was a philosopher: that is, one who loves or pursues wisdom,
since it seemed to him to be extremely arrogant to claim that one was
wise"7.
11. In the same place Augustine speaks also of Plato6. "Among the
pupils of Socrates who were deservedly made famous by surpassing glory,
Plato was the one who throws the others into obscurity. He was from
Athens, of an origin that was honourable there, and he far outstripped
his fellow-pupils by his wonderful mind. But he was far from thinking
that he alone was capable of bringing philosophy to perfection on the basis
of the teaching he had had from Socrates: so he wandered as far and wide
as he could, wherever he was taken by a rumour of being able to receive
some knowledge from someone's nobility. So he learnt whatever great
1 I.e. astrologers
2 Isidore, Etymologies, XV, i, 31
3 Isidore, Etymologies, III, xvi, 1
4 Isidore, Etymologies, I, ii, 7
5 Cp. Persius, Satires, 111, 56-7
6 Augustine The City of God, VIII, 9 (CSEL, XL.l, 368-369
7 Isidore, Etymologies, VIII, vi, 2
8 Augustine The City of God, VIII, 4 (CSEL XL.l, 358-359)
PROEMIUM 17
things were being thought or taught in that place: and from there went to
those parts of Italy where the Pythagoreans were famous, and gathered in
with ease whatever philosophy was then flourishing in Italy, by hearing the
more famous teachers there." Of Plato Pliny says in the seventh book of the
Natural Histories1: "Dionysius, a tyrant who was in all else naturally proud
and savage, sent to meet Plato, the chief of philosophers, a ship decorated
with ribbons, and himself came to meet him at the shore in a chariot drawn
by four snow-white horses." When Plato saw Dionysius, surrounded by his
fence of bodyguards, he asked "Are you such a great criminal, that you
need to be so closely guarded?" Whether this Dionysius was the cruel
tyrant to whom, Jerome tells us, Plato had to submit, I do not know. But in
his eleventh book2 Pliny tells us that a swarm of bees settled on the mouth
of Plato when he was a child, as a portent of the gentle sweetness of his
speech.
12. Egypt is the region that is flooded by the river Nile, and is called
Egypt after the Greek for "nearing the river". For eggizo means "I near",
and potamos a river3. But an etymology given is derived from aigas pionas,
that is, from its having "fat goats". Or as Isidore has it4: "Egypt, which
previously had been called Aeria was called after Aegyptus the brother of
Danaus: it took this name after he had been king there. It is bounded on the
east by Syria and the Red Sea, and has Libya to its west. To the north is the
great sea. To the south it stretches back into the interior as far as the
Ethiopians. It is a land that is unused to showers from heaven, and that
knows nothing of heavy rain. It is the Nile alone that flows around it and
waters it, and makes it fertile with its flood. Hence it is fruitful of crops,
and feeds a great part of the world with corn. It is also plentiful in other
industries, and fills the world with other needful goods. The extreme limit
of Egypt is called Canopea, after Canopus the helmsman of Menelaus, who
is buried on that island that marks the border with Libya [190D] and the
mouth of the Nile."
13. Who Archytas was I do not remember having read, except that
Pliny, in the Natural Histories, mentioning the authorities that he was
following, names Archytas among those authorities he was following in
dealing with the natures of animals and birds and trees, and of the nature of
1 Pliny, Natural histories, VII, xxx, 31, 110

2 Pliny, Natural histories, XI, xvii, 18, 55
3 I reproduce Grosseteste's transliterations, here as elsewhere. He is not quite consistent, but
has a tendency to transliterate phonetically, according to the contemporary pronunciation of
Greek, which is roughly the same as that of modern Greek. It is more normal nowadays to
transliterate conventionally.
4 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, iii, 27-28
18 PROEMIUM
the heavens in relation to trees, and of the relation of trees to heaven and to
husbandry. He was one of the Greek authorities1.
14. Tarentum is a Spartan city: hence Ovid, in the fifteenth book of the
Metamorphoses, says, of the voyage of Micilus2: "With favourable winds
he sails the smooth Ionian sea, and passes Spartan Tarentum."3
15. Athens, according to some, means the immortals, from a, that is,
"without", and thanatos, that is "death". This is because wisdom, which is
immortal, flourished there. Or perhaps a truer etymology is from Athena,
the Greek name for Diana, who gave her name to the city. Hence Augustine
in book eighteen of The City of God: "It should be called Athens, since the
name is certainly from Minerva, who is called Athena in Greek. Varro
gives the following reason: suddenly there appeared there an olive tree, and
in another place a spring of water. These prodigies moved the king to send
to ask the oracle of Apollo at Delphi what they meant or what should be
done. The reply was that the olive signified Minerva, and the water
Neptune, and it was for the citizens to decide after which of the two
gods whose signs these were they should name the city. Cecrops accepted
this oracle, and summoned the citizens together to vote on it: all of them, of
both sexes, for the custom there in those days was for women to take part in
public decision-making as well. So it was put to the people, and the men
voted for Neptune, and the women for Minerva: and because the count
showed one more woman than there were men, Minerva won."4 And the
interpretation of the name Athena according to the Greeks is from athrein
nun, "gathering together understanding", since she is the goddess of
wisdom. Or from "not sucking"5, since, the story goes, she was born
from Jupiter's head, without a mother.
16. The Academy was the country house of Plato. That is why the
Academics were so called, because Plato taught there. It means, accord
ing to some, "mourning", because of the war that was fought there
between Neptune and Apollo. "Plato, since he was rich, in order to be
able to be free to devote himself to philosophy, chose the Academy, a
country house far from the city. It was not only uninhabited, but an
unhealthy place as well. This was so that the onslaught of the illnesses
of pleasure might be broken there by study and application, and so that his
disciples might have no pleasure in anything other than in what he taught
them."6
1 Pliny, Natural histories, I, cited as one ofthe sources for books VIII, X, XIV, XV, XVII, XVIII.
2 I.e. of Mycale.
3 Ovid, Metamorphoses, XV, 49-5 1
4 Augustine, The City of God, XIII, 9, (CSEL XL.2, 277-278)
5 Greek a + tittheuein
6 Jerome, Against Jovinian, II, 9 (PL, XXIII, 311-312)
PROEMIUM 19
17. "The gingnic sport"1, says Isidore, "is the showing off of speed
and strength, and the place for this is called the gingnasium. There the
athletes exercise and there the speed of the runners is tested. So it comes
that training in almost any skill is called "gingnastic". In the old days,
when they competed in these places, they wore a tight belt to stop their
nakedness being exposed: but one runner, after his belt was loosened, at
once fell down and died2. So by a consultative decree of the superintendent
Hippomenes they were all allowed to exercise naked from then on. Hence
gingnasia: because the young men would exercise themselves in the field
naked, with only their private parts covered."3
18. Pirates are brigands at sea. A pirate ship is called "paro". Hence
Cicero says: "Then does he give and entrust himself to the waveborne
paro
19. Titus Livy wrote the history of Rome from its foundation5, a book
often mentioned by Priscian.
20. "Spain used to be called Iberia after the river Hiberus, Ebro, but
afterwards was called Hispania after Hispalis6. [191 A] It is also the country
called Hesperia, named after Vesper, the evening star. It lies between
Africa and Gaul, closed off in the north by the Pyrenean mountains, and
bounded on every other side by the sea. It is temperate and of healthy
climate, fruitful in all kinds of produce, and extremely rich in its quantities
of jewels and metals."7
21. Gaul is so called from the paleness of its people: for "gala" is the
Greek for milk. "Mountains and bad weather cut them off from the place
where the sun's burning has its origin, so their pale bodies are not tanned. It
is looked down on from the east by the range of the Alps, bordered by the
ocean on the west, cut off from the south by the Pyrenees, and on the north
by the river Rhine and by Germany, which begins at the border of the
Belgic land."8
22. I recall having read in Pliny's Natural Histories of two men called
Apollonius: one of them was called Apollonius of Pergamum, whom he
follows in dealing with the natures of animals and the natures of trees, and
1 I.e. gymnastics.
2 Reading "exanimatus" instead of the "examinatus" of the text, of which I can make no
sense.
3 Isidore, Etymologies, XVIII, xvii, 1-2
4 Cicero, Poems, fragment 20: preserved in Isidore, Etymologies, XIX, i, 20.
5 This History is also known as Ab urbe condita (From the foundation of the City).
6 Seville.
7 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, iv, 28
8 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, iv, 25
20 PROEMIUM
the other was called Apollonius of Tarentum, who is one of those that Pliny
follows in dealing with the natures of plants1.
23. "The Magi are those who are called 'malefici', ill-workers,
witches, on account of the greatness of their crimes. They stir up the
elements, disturb the minds of men, and kill them without any poisonous
draughts merely by the force of their spells. Hence Lucan: 'His mind
perished by enchantment, not by drinking the foul slime of any poison.'2
They summon up devils and set them in motion, to kill their personal
enemies by evil arts. They make use of blood and of sacrificial victims,
and often defile the bodies of the dead."3 Others say that the magi are the
wise men of Persia: either wise in the sense of having read ancient
literature, or wise in the proper sense. They are skilled in interpreting
dreams and the meanings of unusual events. Hence Cicero in the first
book of On Divination tells of those who interpreted the dream of Cyrus
King of Persia, who dreamt that he saw the sun at his feet three times, and
that he tried three times to catch it in his hands, to no avail: it escaped him
and went away. Cicero calls these interpreters of dreams "magi", and says
that such wise and learned men are to be found in Persia.4 In the same place
he also says: auguries and divinations are performed among the Persians by
magi, who have meetings in order to comment and discuss among them
selves. No-one can be king of Persia who has not received the learning and
knowledge of the magi.
24. Philosopher is derived from philos, i.e. a friend, and from sophos,
i.e. wise, or from sophia, i.e. wisdom. It means a lover of wisdom. So when
he says "a philosopher, as the Pythagoreans say" he is perhaps alluding to
what was mentioned above, that Pythagoras invented this word. Or perhaps
it means that the Pythagoreans said that this Apollonius was a philosopher.
25. As Isidore says: "The Persians are so called from their king
Perseus, who went from Greece into Asia, and overcame the foreign
peoples through a bitter and lengthy war. But in the end he won and
gave his name to the people he had conquered. Before the time of Cyrus
the Persians were very insignificant, and considered by other nations as of
no importance. The Medes were always very powerful."5
26. "The mountain-range of Caucasus, which reaches from India to
the Taurus, has many names, because of the many different peoples and
different languages in all the places it goes through. Where it reaches its
greatest height, in the East, it is called Caucasus because of the whiteness
1 Pliny, Natural histories, I, among the sources for books XIV and XV
2 Lucan, The civil war, VI, 457-458
3 Isidore, Etymologies, VIII, ix, 9-10
4 Cicero, On Divination, I, 23
5 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, ii, 47
PROEMIUM 21
of its snow: for caucasus means white in the eastern tongue, i.e. white
[191B] with the thickest snow. Hence the Scythians, who live next to the
same range, called it croakasim. Casim, in their language, means whiteness
or snow."1
27. Isidore again: "In the parts of Asiatic Sycia there are people who
believe that they are descended from Jason. They are born with white hair
because of the continual snow. This colour of their hair gives them their
name: so they are called Albanians. Their eyes are grey but the pupil is
dark so that they can see better by night than by day. The Albanians were
neighbours of the Amazons."2
28. From Magog the son of Japhet "the Scythians and Goths are
thought to have taken their origin."3 "The Persian border, which divides
the Scythians from the Armenians, is also called the Scytha: from this
border some think that the Scythians, a very ancient nation, take their
name. Their women founded Amazonian realms."4
29. The Massagetae are Scythian in origin, and they are called the
Massagetae, meaning the heavy or strong Getae. Livy uses the word
"massas" for silver, meaning heavy. They live between the Scythians
and the Albanians on the northern ridges.5
30. About the kingdom of India Pliny says6 that it starts in the south in
the southern sea, called the Indian sea, and it reaches west as far as the river
Indus. Several people have established by making the voyage by ship, that
its length is of forty days' and nights' journeying. The heavens look
different there, and the stars rise in different places. Hence there are two
summers and two harvests in the year, with winter falling between them.
There are countless peoples and cities there. They say that India is a third
of the whole of the dry land. Of its people some work the land, others serve
in the army, others carry merchandise about. The noblest and richest
govern the states, sit in judgement, and attend to the kings. There is a
fifth kind who are given to that renowned wisdom which has become
almost a religion, and always put an end to their lives by a voluntary
death on their funeral pile. There is another kind who are half wild
and devoted to an enormous task, that supports all the above: that of
hunting and taming elephants. With elephants the farmers are found to
know most of these matters of animals. With elephants they fight and do
battle over their borders. The beasts are picked for war by strength and
1 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, vii, 2

4 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, ii, 62-63
6 Pliny, Natural histories, VI, xvii, 21, 56-59
22 PROEMIUM
age and size. This people of the Indians takes its origin from Jectan the
son of Heber.
31. Physon is one of the rivers that flow from Paradise which goes
about the whole land of Hevilath,2 where are to be found the best gold
and bdellium and the onyx stone, or, as another translation3 has it, the
carbuncle and the prase. Phison means "the change of face"4 since it
changes its appearance, which is different in different places. This river
is called by another name, Ganges, when it reaches the region of India from
Paradise. It is "filled by ten great rivers which it joins to itself and makes
one. It is called Ganges after Gangarus the king of India."5 It is said to
flood as the Nile does and to overflow across the eastern lands. This river,
as Pliny says, "at its narrowest is eight miles wide, and is only medium-
sized when it is twelve miles wide. Its depth is never less than a hundred
feet."6
32. Bragman was a king who gave this people and country its name.
Hence they are called Bragmanes or Bragmani. And, according to Greek
writers, this same king wrote down the laws and manners of this people in
their own language.
33. The customs of this people are like this:7 The people of the
Bragmani lead a pure and simple life. They are not entrapped by any of
the enchantments of the world, and desire nothing more than what natural
reason demands. They live only on the food that the earth provides without
husbandry. [191C] Hence there are no kinds of disease among them, and
there is no use of medicine. Their sparingness is their medicine, and a
healthy long life carries them to their death as to the goal of their old age.
Hence a father there never buries a son. No-one among them is superior to
another: none is richer. There are no law-suits, for there are no wrongs to
be righted. The people have one statute: not to go against the law of nature.
No-one spends effort on bodily labour, for they do not farm the land nor
hunt nor trap nor fish. They do not wash their bodies, since they do not

2 Genesis, 2: 11-12. Quotations from scripture in English, in this translation, are usually
made from the Douai version, as being the closest to the Vulgate that Grosseteste was using.
3 I.e. the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament
4 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, (PL, XXIII, 823)
5 Isidore, Etymologies, XIII, xx, 8
6 Pliny, Natural histories, VI, xviii, 22, 65 (ed. Sillig, I, 426)
7 Grosseteste derives what follows from the First reply ofDindimus to Alexander, translated
into Latin by Julius Valerius as Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis, edited by B. Kuebler
(Leipzig: Tuebner, 1888), pp. 170-182; also in Kleine Texte zum Alexanderroman, ed. F.
Pfister (Heidelberg 1910), pp. 1 1-16. But the text Grosseteste is following is not the same as
that given in these editions. For manuscripts of this text, see Lynn Thorndike, A History of
magic and experimental science, I, (New York, 1923), 555-556
PROEMIUM 23
make them dirty by dealing with dirty things. They slake their thirst at a
stream. They do not build, but live in caves dug in the earth, or in crevices
hollowed out in the hills. They are buried, when they die, in the same place
where they dwelt when alive. They have no expensive clothes, dyed in
colours: they cover their limbs with a wrapper of paper. Neither they nor
their womenfolk strive to make themselves more beautiful than the way
they were born: they realise that no-one can improve on the work of nature.
Hence they think that the use of ornaments is more of a burden than a
decoration. There is no fornication, incest or adultery, nor do they sleep
together except for the sake of having children. They do not bear arms, they
do not make war. Peace is protected by their customs, not by their strength.
There are no shows or entertainment among them, no horse-racing, no
circus games or stage-plays: the decoration of the world is the only sight
that gives them pleasure. They do not work as merchants, nor do they have
an itch to travel, just to see passing sights. Their eloquence is simple: it is
not the artificial wit of the orator, but is common to all, and teaches them
only to avoid lying. They do not pursue different disagreeing philosophies:
their philosophy is one whose only knowledge is how to do good with
justice, and how not to do harm even with justice. They do not decorate
their temples or altars, or kill beasts in honour of their Lord: they profess
and claim that God is propitiated by the word of those who pray, since only
God and men possess the word, and he is pleased by this great likeness. The
word, they say, is divine. It made, it governs and it provides for all. They
say that they honour it, they love it, and they draw their breath from it.
Indeed, they say that God is a spirit and a mind, and so is not pleased with
earthly riches, nor with generous gifts, but with works of devotion and
thanksgiving. This information about the customs of the Bragmani is taken
from the letter of Dindimus to Alexander.
34. There is a Greek book1 in which I have found a great deal written
about the things I have said, and, in addition, that these Bragmanes live in
an island in the ocean which they were given by God as their inheritance.
When Alexander the Macedonian arrived there he put up a column on
which he wrote: I, King Alexander the Great, put this up.
35. In the island they dwell in they are long-lived: they live a hundred
and fifty years because of the cleanliness and good constitution of the air.
They have no four-footed beasts, nor iron, nor fire, nor gold, nor silver, nor
bread, nor wine. They worship God as the head of their household, and pray
unceasingly. Their womenfolk live apart, on the other side of the Ganges
river, where it falls into the ocean. The men sail across to their wives in the
1 Palladius, De gentibus Indiae et Bragmanibus, ed. E. Bissaeus (London, 1668), pp. 2-3,
8-10; also Kleine Texte tum Alexanderroman, pp. 1-5; cp. also Thorndike, op. cit., I, 556
24 PROEMIUM
months of July and August, during which time they are cooler, since the
sun moves to the north and goes some way away from them, living as they
do at the Equator. [19 ID] They live together with their wives for forty
days, and then return. When a woman has had two children her husband
does not come to her again, nor does she go to any other man. This is
because they are very religious. If it happens that one of the women is
barren, her husband comes to her for five years: but when he realises that
she has not conceived for five years, he does not come to her again. For this
reason the country is not heavily populated.
36. The spring of Tantalus is a name for worldly wisdom, which
always draws the meddlesome on to drink from it, but always escapes
from those who want to drink.1 This matches what Solomon said when
speaking in the character of the meddlesome: "I said: I will be wise: and it
departed farther from me".2
37. The Elamites, according to Isidore, are so called from the firstborn
son of Shem who was called Elam. They are the nobles of Persia.3
38. The Babylonians are named after Babylon and Babylon is named
after the tower of Babel which the peoples descended from the sons of
Noah built, before they were scattered over the whole earth. The person
who made them build it was Nimrod. "Babel" means "confusion", since
that is where the language of the builders was confused. About which the
Sybil wrote as follows: "When all mortals used one tongue, some of them
built an exceedingly high tower, anxious to climb heaven by its means. But
the gods sent winds and whirlwinds and overthrew the tower, and gave to
each of them their own separate language."4 And Pliny says of it:
"Babylon, the capital of the peoples of Chaldea, achieved for a long
time the highest reputation of any city on earth. That is why the rest of
Mesopotamia and Assyria is called Babylonia. It is sixty [thousand] paces
round, enclosed by walls two hundred feet high, five hundred wide: each
foot of theirs is three inches longer than ours. The Euphrates flows through
it and there is marvellous work on either side. The temple of Jupiter Belus
still stands there. He discovered the science of the stars here."5
39. As Isidore says "The Casdeans are now called Chaldeans. Their
1 Cp. Seneca, Thyestis, 1 49 ff. and Medea, 745 ff. ; perhaps also Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV, 45 8.
2 Ecclesiastes, 7: 24
3 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, 2, 3
4 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, I, 4, 3 (Blatt's edition, p. 138). Josephus's source
here is Alexander Polyhistor, who is cited by Eusebius, Chronicles, I, 24 (see Jacoby,
FrGrH, IIa, 273 F79). A similar oracle is found in Oracula Sibyllina, ed. A. Rzach
(Vienna, 1891) pp. 53-4, but this was composed in the 2nd century A.D.
5 Pliny, Natural histories, VI, xxvi, 30, 121
PROEMIUM 25
name comes from Caseth the son of Nathor [Nachor], the brother of
Abraham."1 But some think that the Chaldean nation has its origin from
Arphaxad, the third son of Shem.2
40. The Medes are thought to have taken their name from their king.
For Jason, the brother of king Peliacus, was expelled from Thessaly by the
sons of Pelias with Medea, his wife. His step-son, Medus, was king of
Athens, and after the death of Jason conquered the land of the east and
founded a city there, Media, and called the people Medes after his own
name.3 But we find in Genesis that Madai, the son of Japhet, was the
forefather of the Median people, and that they are named from him.4
41. The second of the sons of Shem was "Assur, who was the founder
of the Assyrian empire,"5 "a very powerful people, who held all the land
that lies between the Euphrates and the borders of India".6
42. "The Parthians, too, trace their origin to the Scythians. They were
exiles from Scythia, as their name indicates: for "parthi" is the Scythian
word for exiles. They were driven out by civil war in Parthia and first took
control stealthily of the wastelands beside the Hyrcanus. Thereafter they
seized a great deal more by force."7
43. The fifth son of Shem was "Aram, from whom the Syrians come,
whose capital was Damascus".8 Or "The Syrians are so called after Surim,
Abraham's grandson by Cethura. The ancients called them Assyrians,
[192A] we now call them Syrians, naming the whole for the part."9
44. From Canaan the son of Ham are descended the Africans and the
Phoenicians and the ten peoples of the Canaanites.10 The Phoenicians are
so called after Phoenix the brother of Cadmus, who went from Thebes, the
Egyptian city, to Syria, and ruled over Sidon, the Egyptian city. He called
the people after his own name, Phoenicians, and called the province
Phoenicia. This people of the Phoenicians are famous as the inventors of
writing, the discoverers of new stars, and inventors of warlike arts.11
45. The Arabs are the same as the Sabaeans, who come from Saba, one
of the sons of Chus, from whom they are called Sabaeans.12 Or "They are

4 Genesis 10: 2
11 Pliny, Natural histories, V, xii, 13, 67
12 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, 2, 14
26 PROEMIUM
called Sabaeans from sabesthe, that is, worship: for we honour the
godhead with their incense. They are the Arabs, who live on the moun
tains of Arabia that are called Libanus and Antilibanus, where incense is
gathered."1 "It is called Arabia, i.e. the holy. The meaning of this is that it
is the country that produces incense, and makes perfumes. Hence the
Greeks gave it the name of eudemon, that is, the blessed. From its wild
places come both myrrh and cinnamon. The phoenix (a bird) and the
sardonyx (a stone) both come from there."2 Hence Pliny speaks of Arabia
"that reaches the Red Sea and having the names of perfumed and rich and
blessed and glorious".3
46. "The Philistines are the Palestinians, because the Hebrew alphabet
has no letter 'P': they use the Greek letter O for it. So they say Philistines
instead of Palestinians. They also call them Allophili, that is, the foreigners,
since they were always the enemies of Israel and of very remote kinship
with them."4 They were descended from Cesloim the son of Masraim. The
Red Sea meets their land on the east, the south is contained by India, the
borders in the north are closed by the region of Tyre, and in the west the
limit is defined by Egypt.
47. Pliny says:5 "Alexandria was founded on the shores of Egypt by
Alexander the Great, on the shores of Lake Mareotis, twelve miles from the
Canopic mouth [of the Nile]. The lake used to be called Erapotes. It was
measured by Dinocrates the architect in a number of ingenious manners to
be of 15 miles at its widest, in the shape of a Macedonian cloak, full of
indentations, like a rolled up ball with sticking out corners to left and
right". It lies between Egypt and the sea, like a barrier, without any port.
48. "Ethiopia is so called from the colour of its peoples, who are burnt
by the nearness of the sun. After all, the colour of men comes from the
power of that star. The heat there is intense, for every part of it is under the
southern tropic. Towards the west it is mountainous; in the middle it is
sandy, and on the western border it is a desert. Its location reaches from
mount Atlas in the west to the borders of Egypt in the east. It is bordered by
the ocean in the south, and by the river Nile in the north. It contains many
peoples of different appearances and of terrifying and unnatural shapes. It
is said to contain a large number of wild beasts and snakes. And there too is
the beast called rhinoceros, and camelopards, and basilisks, huge snakes
from whose brain they extract a precious stone. The jacynth and the
chrysophrase are found there, and cinnamon is gathered. There are two

2 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, iii, 15
3 Pliny, Natural histories, V, vi, 12, 65
5 Pliny, Natural Histories, V, x, 11, 62
PROEMIUM 27
Ethiopias, one far in the east, the other far in the west in Mauritania."1
49. "The gingnosophists are thought to be philosophers who live in the
uninhabited [192B] forests of India, naked except for a covering for their
genitals. The word 'gymno' comes from young men training in the field
naked, with only their private parts covered. They restrain themselves from
begetting children."2 Jerome says about them in Against Jovinian:3
"Bardesanes, the Babylonian, divides the gymnosophists in India into
two kinds. One he calls the Bragmanae, the other the Samanei. These are
of such great continence that they live on the apples of the trees that grow
beside the river Ganges, or on the public food of orizia and flour. When the
king visits them, he always worships them, in the belief that the peace of his
dominions is founded on their prayers." You should know that according to
the Greeks the pronunciation is "gymnasium" and "gymnosophist", that
is, with a "g" and a "y", the Samian letter.4 "Gimnos" is the Greek word
for the Latin "nudus", naked.
50. On the table of the Sun the masters say that in Valerius Maximus5
it says that someone paid money for whatever some fishermen would catch
in their next cast of the net, in the sea near Apollo's temple at Delphi: and it
happened that in the next cast the fishermen brought up a golden table. The
man who had bought the cast wanted to have it, but the fishermen refused,
saying that the deal had been for fish only. In the end they stopped arguing
with the agreement to consult the Seven Sages about whose it should be.
The Sages consulted the oracle of Apollo, and the answer was that it should
be given to the wisest of all. So, on the advice of the Seven Sages the table
was given and consecrated to Apollo at Sabulus, that is, on the sandy shore,
where there was a temple of Apollo. And the fame of this spread so far that
Apollonius went to see it. Some say, too, that six of the sages judged that
Solon was the wisest. He was the seventh and had the reputation of being
the wisest. But he gave it to Apollo, because he had done him honour.
Others say that the name is Zabulus with a "z" , and is the proper name for
the place where the table of the sun was.
51. Ebdomas is a word taken from the Greek. They say "ebdomos". It
derives from "epta" which means seven: it is as if the word were
"eptomos", but the "p" changes to a "b" and the "t" to a "d", and it
is pronounced "ebdomos". In a similar way "ogdoas" — a Greek word —
derives from "octo", eight. In Latin we take the word "octo" from Greek
without changing it.
1 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, v, 14-16

2 Isidore, Etymologies, VIII, vi, 17
3 Jerome, Against Jovinian, II, 14 (PL, XXIII, 317)
4 Cp. Persius Flaccus, III, 56
5 Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia, IV, i, ext. 7 (pp. 172-173 in Kempfs edition)
28 PROEMIUM
52. Energia, likewise, is a Greek expression, and means operation. It

derives from the Greek verb "energo", with a circumflex termination. It is
composed of the Greek preposition "en" and the verb "ergo". The living
voice has a hidden operation of making a strong impression, on the mind of
the hearer, of the meaning that the speaker understands in the utterance. For
the understanding of the speaker is the life and form of the utterance of the
word as it enters through the hearer's ears.
53. On Aeschines Pliny says:1 "Aeschines of Athens was an excellent
orator. When in exile in Rhodes he read in public the accusation that he had
made against Demosthenes: he also read the defence of Demosthenes,
which had driven Aeschines out into exile. The audience thought it
marvellous: he told them that they would have found it yet more marvel
lous if they had heard the man himself speaking. He was thus a great
witness in favour of his opponent."
54. Rhodes is the name of an island and also of the city that Cecrops
founded on it.2
55. Plastes comes from the Greek verb "plasso" which means "I put
together by hand". The noun "plastes" comes from the second person of
the perfect passive, "peplaste" , and it means [192C] a moulder or maker.
From the same verb we get "plasma", neuter, which means "making" or
"origin".
56. For the expression used in "They were all, as it was written,
teachable of God"3 — or, as some texts have, "teachable by God", or
the other way round, "of God teachable" or "by God teachable" — Jerome
puts the Greek equivalent. In the Gospel of John it is written in Greek as
"kov e'aovtai navxzq SiSaieroi Geou". Transliterated into the Latin
alphabet this is "kai esontai pontes didactoi theoy", and it is pro
nounced as "ke esonte pontes didacti theu". The diphthong "ai" sounds
like "e", and the diphthong "oi" sounds like "i". And the diphthong "oy"
sounds like the vowel "u". The meaning of this is "and they will all be
teachable of God", or perhaps better "taught of God". "Didasco" is a
Greek verb meaning "I teach". Hence "didascalos", a teacher, and
"didactos", taught.
57. Logos derives from the Greek verb lego, Xeya, that is, "I say".
The expression "logos" has many meanings in Greek, as Jerome suggests
here. In what way the wisdom of the Father is "the Word, and the reason,
and the cause of everything" is very clearly set out by Augustine in various
places, and his expositions are sufficiently well known. We can call this
1 Pliny, Natural histories, VII, xxx, 31, 110

2 Isidore, Etymologies, XV, i, 48
3 John 6: 45
PROEMIUM 29
same wisdom of the Father a reckoning, since according to Augustine this

wisdom of the Father is number. Hence he says in On Free Will:1 "I most
wonder at the fact that number is considered base by most men, while
wisdom is dear" since these two, number and wisdom, are in the most
secret and most certain truth. The witness of Scripture chimes in with this
where it says: "I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and
consider and seek out wisdom and number" ? "Nevertheless we find it said
of wisdom in the divine writings that she reaches from beginning to end in
might, and lays down all things in gentleness.3 That power that reaches in
might from beginning to end could perhaps be called number, while that
which disposes all things in gentleness is now properly called wisdom.
Both belong to one and the same wisdom, but wisdom gives a number to
everything, even the lowest and last of things. For all bodies, even those at
the ends of the universe, have their number. But being wise does not belong
to bodies, nor even to all souls: only to rational souls, and so wisdom has
set up her throne there, from which she disposes all things, even the lowest,
to which she gives a number." Understanding things in this way I think we
can correctly understand there to be a reckoning in Christ, since he
"reaches from beginning to end in might", giving numbers to all things
and counting everything.
58. When Jerome says "This the learned Plato did not know" he
seems to be contradicted by what Augustine says in the seventh book of
the Confessions.4 He says there that he had read in some Platonic books
"not, indeed, in these words: but the same point was made by many
different arguments, that 'in the beginning was the Word' " and what
follows it down as far as 'and the darkness did not comprehend it':5 and
"that no soul, though it should bear witness to the light, is the light itself.
The light is the Word of God, for God is the true light that 'enlighteneth
every man that cometh into the world';6 and that 'He was in the world, and
the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.' " And he says
that he read there too "that God the Word was born of God, not of flesh, not
of blood, not of the will of man, not of the will of flesh".7 So it seems from
this that the learned Plato knew that "in the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God". But he did not know this
[192D] by a pure glance8 of the mind as John knew it, but by some puzzling
1 Augustine, On free will, II, 123-5 (CSEL LXXIV, 68)

4 Augustine, Confessions, VII, x, 13 (PL, XXXII, 740)
5 John, 1: 1-5
6 John, 1: 9-10
7 Augustine, Confessions, VII, ix, 14 (PL, XXXII, 740-741)
8 Aspectus, a key notion for Grosseteste. See Southern, pp. 44-5
30 PROEMIUM
process of reasoning. The one who does not worship God should be
snatched away in order that he may not contemplate the glory of God by
a pure glance of the mind.
59. Demosthenes, according to its Greek derivation, comes from
Stiuxn;, demos, that is, people, and from aGevoq, sthenos, which is power
or authority: hence, the strength and authority or power of the people.
60. Eunuch comes from having or keeping an undefiled bed. For euVr|,
eune, is bed, e'xco, echo, is I have or I keep. Or perhaps "eunuch" means
one who has or keeps an undefiled woman. For eune can mean woman as
well as bed. Or "eunuch" means "being alone" — one not joined to others,
from the Greek word heis, whose genitive is henos. Hence, enuch: adding a
"u", eunuch. Heis, henos mean one, of one. Or "eunuch" comes from eu,
which is "good", and noys, which is mind, and echo, I have: meaning "one
who has a good mind".
61. Jerome gives us three Greek words which are equivalent to the
three words teaching, reason, and practice: but I have not yet found a copy
of the text in which the Greek words are given in a way that is not so
corrupted that I cannot make them out. But for the last of these three words,
practice, I can guess from a number of copies that he wrote neipav, peiran,
which fits well enough, since peira is knowledge by experience. Teaching
is in Greek didaskalia or dogma, and reason is logos. But the corrupt texts
that I have so far seen do not fit any of these. If Jerome wrote other words
instead of these, I admit that I cannot guess them. 1
62 The old man is said to be "delirious" , i.e. doting. Lirima is the
Greek for foolishness. Hence people speak of the delirium of Origen: the
errors on which he doted. Some texts have for "wordy sophist" "wordy
solecist". To make a solecism is to put together several words that do not
fit. "The word solecism comes from the people of the city of Soloe, now
called Pompeyopolis, who left their town and lived among other people and
confused together their ways of talking in a bad and foolish way. This was
given the name of a solecism. Hence others who speak in the same way are
said to commit solecisms."2
63. The centos of Homer and the centos of Virgil are names for
extracts made from the books of Homer and of Virgil. These extracts
were put together in a single text which told the story of Jesus Christ.
The editors, going through the books of these authors, marked by pricking
the places where they found something that fitted their matter, so that they
could then go over it again and quickly find what fitted their matter, which
they wanted to extract. From the fact that they pricked the place the
1 Jerome in fact wrote 5oy|ia, ne9o8ov and i\xm\p\.av, dogma, methodon and empeirian.
2 Isidore, Etymologies, I, xxxiii, 1-2
PROEMIUM 31
extracts put together in one text are called centos. Kento is a Greek verb,
with a circumflex ending, which means "I prick". Hence cento, a prick or
pricking. Hence these extracts are sometimes called centres of Homer or
centres of Virgil. A centre is the mid point of a circle, and comes from
kento "I prick" with an "r" added. The word "Homerocentonas" [trans
lated as centos of Homer] is a Greek accusative. Centos of Homer on Christ
were composed by Eudochia, the wife of Theodosius the lesser, the
daughter of Leontius, the Athenian philosopher, who was taught by her
father in the study of philosophy. She was helped by Patricius, the bishop
of Jerusalem [193A], and by Comas and Supplicius. Centos of Virgil were
composed by Proba, the wife of Adelphus. But Isidore says: "among
literary students, cento is the word for people who stitch together in one
work material taken from the poems of Homer or Virgil, many lines put
together from here and there, for the expression of their own subject-
matter. They do a hundred lines at a time.1 The last one was Proba, the
wife of Adelphus, who made a very complete cento of Virgil about the
making of the world. She made the matter fit the lines and put the lines
together to fit the sense. The same thing was done by a certain Pomponius
who, among other spare-time writing composed a Tityrus from the same
author in honour of Christ, and also an Aeneid."2
64. "The circus games" Isidore says,3 "are so called from circulating.
Or because where the turning posts are now there used to be swords set up
where the chariots turned. Hence 'circenses', circus games, from 'circa
enses', around the swords. Also, when they organised races on the seashore
or river banks, they would set up swords in a line on the bank, and the skill
consisted in riding your horse in and out of the hazards. Hence it is thought,
'circenses', from 'circum enses', among the swords. A circus is the whole
place where horses go round and round. The Romans think it comes from
the circuit of the horses, since the horses race there around the turning
posts. But the Greeks say it is named after Circe, the daughter of the sun,
who set up this kind of competition in honour of her father, and they argue
for the name of circus coming from her."
65. I think that when Jerome says "racing round in a circle" here he
means circus games, since someone who teaches what he does not know
goes round in a circle. He never makes an end and danger is always
hanging over him. It is a toilsome drudgery, one which requires great
1 Isidore seems to want to associate "cento" with "centum", the Latin for one hundred,
mistakenly. But his expression is very obscure.
2 Isidore, Etymologies, I, xxxix, 25-26
3 Isidore, Etymologies, XVIII, xxvi, 3 - xxviii, 2
32 PROEMIUM
effort, but which is fruitless; and Jerome thinks that the same is true of the
composition of centos.
66. The book of Genesis is called bresith in Hebrew,1 and in Greek
yevT|ai<;, genesis, or the beginning, in Latin. rev©, gend, is the Greek
circumflex verb, whose future is yevr|O"C0, geneso. From this we get the
verbal noun yevT|m<;, genesis.
67. Exodus is called ellesmoth in Hebrew. The Greek is exodus, from
ex, the Greek preposition, and odos a journey. In Latin it is departure, since
it speaks of the departure of Israel from Egypt.
68. The third book is called vagetra in Hebrew. We call it Leviticus,
since it deals with the duties of the Levites and all the different kinds of
offerings, and the whole Levitical scheme is set out in it. The Levites are so
called after Levi the son of Aaron.
69. The fourth book is called vagedaber in Hebrew. We call it the
book of Numbers, since in it the tribes that left Egypt are numbered. It
contains an account of their forty-two years' dwelling in the desert.
70. The fifth is called elladabarim in Hebrew, Deuteronomion in
Greek. This comes from deuteros, the second, and nomos, law: that is,
the second law.
7 1 . Moyses, Moses, comes from the Egyptian for water, moy, and from
ses, I take up: because he was taken up out of the water by Pharaoh's
daughter.
72. These five books are called the Pentateuch, from penta, five, and
teucos, book or scroll.
73. Job2 means "the suffering one". The beginning and the end of this
book are written in Hebrew prose. But in the middle, from "Let the day
perish wherein I was born" as far as "therefore I reprehend myself, and do
penance" it is all in heroic metre.3 Jerome puts this book right after the
Pentateuch of Moses, because, some think, it was written by Moses. Or he
puts it here after the Pentateuch and before Joshua [193B] and Judges,
because Job was the Jobab of whom we read in Genesis 36: "And Balach
died, and Jobab the son of Zara of Bosra reigned in his stead."4 But these
are opinions rather than the certainty of truth.
74. The book of Joshua5 is named after Jesus the son of Nave, whose
story it tells. According to the Hebrews, he also wrote it. Jesus and Joshua
1 Here and hereafter, I give Grosseteste's transliteration, which is not that which would be
given into English nowadays. While composing the Hexaemeron, it seems that Grosseteste
had not yet learnt Hebrew.
2 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 88 (PL, XXIII, 883)
3 Job, 3: 3 to 42: 6
4 Genesis, 36: 33
5 Jerome. Adversus Jovinianum, I, 21 (PL, XXIII, 250)
PROEMIUM 33
and Hosea are the same name. He is called in Hebrew Joshua ben Nun, that
is, the son of Nun, that is, of Nave.
75. The book of Judges is called sothim in Hebrew, in Latin judges,
from the judges who were put over the people after Joshua, before there
were kings. Samuel is thought to have written this book.
76. The first and second books of Kings are called the books of
Samuel. In the first we have an account of the birth, priesthood and deeds
of Samuel. Hence their name, from him. It is true, indeed, that this book
also contains the story of Saul and David: but both these go back to
Samuel, as it was he who anointed Saul as king, and David as the king
that was to be. The first part of the book was written by Samuel himself, the
second, as far as the end, by David.
77. The book of Malachim is so called because it deals with the kings
of Israel and Judah and their peoples and deeds in chronological order.
Malac in Hebrew means kings in Latin. This book was first brought
together in one volume by Jeremiah: before, it was scattered through the
histories of the different reigns.
78. Prophet comes from the Greek prophetes, from the Greek
preposition pro, before, and the Greek circumflex verb pho, I say.
79. Hosea means the saving or the saved. This is because he
"prophesied the wrath of God against the people of Israel for their crime
of idolatry: he proclaimed the salvation of the house of Israel, which is
indicated through Hezekiah's purification of the temple of the Lord by
taking away the idols."1
80. Joel: He begins of God, or God is, or he is of God.2 Phatuel: the
breadth of God, or God who opens.
81. "Amos: the mighty, or the strong, or the one who takes away the
people, or the people turned away. For his prophecy was to the people of
Israel who were already turned away from God, and served the golden
calves, or were turned away from the kingdom of David's line."3
82. "Obadiah: the servant of the Lord. Just as Moses was the servant
of the Lord and the apostle was the servant of Christ, so he was sent as a
messenger to the gentiles: he sees and preaches the things that are fitting to
the prophet's ministry and service."4 According to Jerome Obadiah is
called the servant of the Lord in a special way because he hid and fed a
hundred prophets in the caves in two groups of fifty, when Jezebel was
killing the prophets of the Lord.
1 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 75, (PL, XXIII); Isidore, Etymologies, VII, viii, 10
2 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 76 (PL, XXIII loc. cit.)
3 Isidore, Etymologies, VII, viii, 12
34 PROEMIUM
83. Jonah: "a dove, or a sufferer: a dove for his mourning, because he
was three days in the belly of the sea-beast; a sufferer because he was sad
when the men of Nineveh were saved, or when the gourd suddenly
withered, whose shade protected him against the burning sun."1
84. Micah:2 "who is here?" (adverb of place) or "who is this?".
Morasti means the heir. It is a place facing the east of Eleutheropolis.
85. Nahum:3 a seed, or a consoler, because after rebuking the city for
its blood guilt, and after its overthrow, he consoles Zion with the words
"Behold upon the mountains, etc."4
86. Habakkuk:5 the embracer. Either because he was loved by the
Lord, or because in his struggle with God he came to him like a wrestler.
For no-one else dared to use such strong language to urge God [193C] to
the proof of his justice, asking why in human affairs and in so many
things of the world evil is so much involved.
87. Zephaniah:6 means "hiding him", or "a mirror" or "the Lord's
secret" . This is because he was one who foreknew some advance tidings of
God's secrets.
88. Haggai means joyful, celebrating, because "he prophesies that the
temple which was destroyed will be built, and proclaims the joy of return
after the sorrow of exile."7
89. Zachariah means "the remembrance of the Lord. Seventy years
after the destruction of the temple, at Zachariah' s words the Lord remem
bered his people, and at Darius 's command the people of God returned, and
the city and the temple were rebuilt."8
90. Malachi means my angel,9 or "the Lord's angel, that is,
messenger. Whatever he said as something commanded by the Lord was
believed as such, and hence his name. The Seventy give the translation: the
taking up of the word of the Lord upon Israel in the hand of his angel".10
91. Isaiah means the saviour of the Lord, since "he proclaimed the
saviour of all the nations, and his sacraments, more fully than the
others."11
92. "Jeremiah: the exalted of the Lord, because it was said to him: Lo,

2 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 76
3 Cp. Isidore, Etymologies, VII, viii, 13
4 Nahum, 1: 15
5 Cp. Isidore, Etymologies, VII, VIII, 14
6 Isidore, Etymologies, VII, viii, 16 and Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 77 (PL, XXIII)
9 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 78 (PL, XXIII)
PROEMIUM 35
I have set thee over the nations, and over kingdoms1."2 He wrote four
alphabetic poems in various metres. The first two were in sapphics: three
verses connected together and beginning with the same letter, rounded off
by a heroic line; the third in trimeters; the fourth is thought to be like the
first and second.
93. Ezekiel: the strength of God,3 because it was said to him: "Behold
I have made thy face stronger than their faces: and thy forehead stronger
than their foreheads. I have made thy face like an adamant and like flint."4
94. "Daniel: the judgement of God, either because in the judgement of
the elders he pronounced the sentence of the divine scrutiny, when he
revealed their falsehood and freed Susannah from death; or because he
interpreted the visions and dreams by which portents and riddles of the
future were made known, by the wisdom of his mind. He is also called the
man of desires, because he did not eat the bread of desire, and did not drink
the wine of lust."5
95. Philistorycus means "philo hystoricus", from philos, a friend, and
hystoricus. Hystoricus comes from uatopco, hystoro, a circumflex Greek
verb which means "I see" or "I frequent for the sake of honour". Properly
speaking, historians are those who tell of what they have seen. Hence there
was a philosopher called Alexander Polyhistor, for the many things he had
seen and experienced.
96. David6 means strong of hand, or desirable, because he was very
mighty in battle and desirable in virtue of his line, of which the prophet
predicted: the desired of all nations shall come.7 He is here called by
Jerome, in virtue of a simile, by the names of six poets of whom some
or all wrote lyric poetry. In lyric poetry there are separate verses with one
and the same subject, as in Horace: "Happy is he who far away from
business", followed by the separate verse "as the older race of mortals"8.
It is called "lyric" from the lyre. Lyre derives a'no too Xopeiv, apo toy
lyrein, that is, from variety of voices, since it makes different sounds.9
Hence David wrote the psalms in a Hebrew song-metre, and Flaccus
[Horace] did it in Latin, and Pindar in Greek, sometimes in iambics,
sometimes in alcaics, sometimes in sapphic trimeters, sometimes in
1 Jeremiah, 1: 10
4 Ezekiel, 3: 8-9
7 Haggai, 2: 8
8 Horace, Epodes, II, 1-2; Isidore, Etymologies, I, xxxix, 24
9 Isidore, Etymologies, VIII, vii, 4
36 PROEMIUM
hexameters: that is why Jerome describes David using the names of these
poets. Cicero tells us in his book On the Nature of the Gods1 that
Simonides was not only a melodious poet, but also learned and wise.
Also Isidore2 says that Simonides the soldier added, to the seventeen letters
invented by Cadmus, and the three added by Palamedes, three others: S,
0, psi, xi and theta. But whether this Simonides was the one spoken of by
Cicero I do not know. But Isidore himself says of Simonides the poet3 that
the Simonidean metre is the metre that Simonides the lyric poet wrote in.
Other texts have Sinphonides, glossed by some masters as "the one who
brings sounds together": but the reading is corrupt.
97. Solomon means the peaceful,4 because during his reign there was
peace. He gave us three books under three different names. Under his name
"Solomon" he gave us the book of Proverbs which has to do with manners.
Under the name of "Ecclesiastes" he gave us the book which bears the
same name which he addresses everyone publicly and expounds the nature
of the world. Under the name "Itida", which means "the beloved of the
Lord"5, he gave us the Song of Songs, in which, expounding theology, he
sings the epithalamium of the wedding of Christ and his Church. An
epithalamium is a song for those who are getting married, sung by a choir
in honour of bride and groom. It comes from epi, the Greek preposition,
and the Greek noun thalamos, which is what we call a bride-chamber, that
is, the house that the bride and groom go to.
98. Esther means the hidden. Ezra is thought to have written her book.
99. napaA-Eurco, paralipo, is a Greek verb which means "I omit" or "I
leave aside". It comes from para, apart, and lipo, I leave. From this we get
paralipomenos, the past passive participle, whose genitive plural is para-
lipomenon. That is, it is the book "of those things omitted or left aside:
because things either omitted or not fully told in the Law or the books of
the Kings are here dealt with briefly and in summary."6
100. 'Ejutout|, epitome, is abridgement or extract, from the preposition
epi and thomos a division.
101. Ezra means a helper, Nehemias a consoler from God. This is
because these two were a help and a consolation to the people as they
returned to their homeland, and rebuilt the temple of the Lord, and began
work on the walls and towers.7
1 Cicero, On the nature of the gods, I, 60

2 Isidore, Etymologies, I, iii, 6
3 Isidore, Etymologies, I, xxxix, 19
5 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 58 (PL, XXIII, 861); cp. 2 Kings, 12: 25)
6 Isidore, Etymologies, VI, ii, 2
7 Cp. Isidore, Etymologies, VII, viii, 23
PROEMIUM 37
102. Proselyte is a Greek noun for what we call an incomer, and comes
from the preposition pros which means "towards" and the verb eltho
which means "I come".
103. Matthew means the one given1. He was a tax-collector and he was
made an apostle.
104. Mark means the exalted one.
105. Luke: "the arising one" or "he who lifts up"2.
106. John: "In him is grace" or "to him it is given"3.
107. Paul means the marvellous or the chosen4, since he worked many
miracles and preached the Gospel of Christ among all nations from east to
west. Of his choosing it is said: "Separate me Barnabas and Paul, for the
work whereunto I have taken them"5; and again: "He is a vessel of
election"6. In Latin Paulus means the little one, because he was in his
own opinion the last of the apostles and the least of all the saints.
108. Apocalypse is the Greek word for what in Latin is called a
revelation.7 It comes from the verb a7tOKaA.U7ttO), apokalypto, the future
of which is a7tOKaA.o\|«o, apokalypso; hence the verbal noun apocalypse. It
is a compound of apo, which in a compound means re-, and lypto, a verb
which means "I veil".
109. Hermagoras: a Greek orator, one of the earliest, who had a
pompous style and made promises rather than making clear. Tully says
of him in the First Rhetoric? Hermagoras seemed neither to pay attention
to what he was saying, nor to understand what he promised. He divided the
orator's subject into the matter and the inquiry.
110. "The gazophylacium was the chest in the temple where they kept
things given for the needs of the poor. The word is a compound of Persian
and Greek. Gaza in Persian means a treasure, and phylasso in Greek means
I keep." Hence gazophylacium, a thing for keeping treasure.
111. Croesus was an exceedingly rich king of Lydia.
112. I have had to go over again some of the words above that are
difficult, though not very difficult, explaining them for some simpler
students. For example: "he was to be briefed as the future preacher to
the gentiles" : "briefed" here means appointed rather than informed: for he

3 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 1 1 1 (PL, XXXIII, 899)
4 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 108 (PL, XXXIII, 897)
5 Acts, 13: 2
6 Acts, 9: 5
7 Isidore, Etymologies, VI, ii, 49
8 Cicero, De inventione, I, 8
38 PROEMIUM
says in the epistle to the Galatians: "For to me, they that seemed to be
something added nothing".1
113. "Even without us should be approved for its own sake": without
us, that is, leaving me out of the reckoning, it should still on its own
account be greatly praised by me and by others, since a spirit that is
willing to be taught is something praiseworthy in itself. Much more
praiseworthy, then, is the desire for, and the effort to achieve, a spirit
willing to be taught. Let us consider, then, Paulinus, not what you will get
from me but what you want to get from me. You want to get teaching in the
living voice from me, whom you have known from my writings.
114. "Soft wax", etc. The example shows that a spirit willing to be
taught, even without a teacher, is praiseworthy.
1 15. "For it is sealed" : this sealing is the secret union of God and man
in one and the same person.
116. "Literate": a philosopher.
117. "Astronomers, astrologers"-} Jerome counts astronomy and
astrology together. One is the science of the movements of the heavenly
bodies, the other is the science of divination. But the science of divination
is harmful, being superstitious. So how can he say that it is of benefit to
mortals, among the other sciences? Or is there just one good science, and
then a use of it which is not good, but rather superstitious? But if the benefit
of a thing arises in the use that is made of it, then perhaps he calls it "of
benefit" because there is a valuable science that derives from the part of it
that makes judgements on changes in inferior elements from the move
ments of higher things.3 When it makes judgements about future voluntary
acts it is not valuable nor even a science: it is a deceit of the demons.
118. "As if we could not", etc. He means, "still more could we call
Virgil a Christian", since according to those who extracted the centos, he
wrote those verses about Christ when he did not have Christ in his faith.
119. The two lines "Now the Virgin returns" and "Now a new
generation" come in the Bucolics, fourth eclogue, the one that begins
"Muses of Sicily",4 and the line "My child, who art alone my strength"
is in the first book of the Aeneid.5 The line "Recalling such things, he stood
unmoved" is in the second book of the Aeneid.6
1 Galatians, 2: 6
2 See below, V, ix, 1
3 This "part that makes judgements" is what is technically known as "judicial astronomy"
or "judicial astrology", the science of the stars applied to making judgements on earthly
affairs, which roughly corresponds to what we today call astrology. See below, V, viii-xi
4 Virgil, Eclogues, IV, 6-7
5 Virgil, Aeneid, I, 664
6 Virgil, Aeneid, II, 650
PROEMIUM 39
120. "Nor is it foolish". Some texts miss out the word "foolish". The
sense of those texts is: it is extremely childish, if I may speak in anger, not
to know what you do not know. Six ancient texts contain the word
"foolish", and give the sense: yet more, if I may speak in anger, this is
not even foolish: it is yet further removed from reason and wisdom than is
foolishness. In a foolish mind there is the possibility of wisdom. What shall
I say? This — to know what it is you do not know — is not even
foolishness. The one who teaches what he does not know pretends to
know what he does not know: because the one who truly teaches knows
what he is teaching.
121. "What mysteries does he not?": he teaches nature and reason and
manners and the countless mysteries of the atonement made for us. Also it
has every elegance of diction.
122. " 'And on the last day' ". The last day is the day of judgement,
because thereafter there will be no day for the wicked and no night for the
good.
123. "How many princes", etc. This is because the judges are types of
Christ and of the different degrees of prelates in the Church, and the
orderings of reason to the people of lesser powers.
124. "Jezrael" the son of Hosea by his wife Gomer. The two wives —
the wife of fornication and the wife of adultery — have a bearing on the ten
tribes.
125. "Send forth the lamb":1 The lamb that has dominion over the
earth is Christ. "The stone of the desert" : according to Jerome this is Ruth
who, left a widow by the death of her husband, had a son Obed by Booz.
Obed was the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David, David was the
father of Christ. "The mountain of the daughter ofZion": Jerusalem or the
Church, which is set up at the peak of the virtues.
126. "The palmer-worm": the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the
Chaldeans. "The bruchus": the Macedonians and all the successors of
Alexander. "The locust": the Medes and the Persians. "The mildew": the
Romans. Or by these words the four principal vices are meant. Or the
palmer-worm is evil thoughts; the bruchus is consenting to them; the locust
is carrying them out; the mildew is not repenting of carrying them out.
127. "They make a number offifteen degrees": the number fifteen, if
you add together each of its parts [i.e. the natural numbers from one to
fifteen] grows to a hundred and twenty, and vice-versa, a hundred and
twenty makes fifteen added in that way. The fifteen degrees either means its
parts [as above], or seven plus eight: there are seven pastors and eight
primates. Or it is the ten commandments of the Law and the five books of
1 Isaiah, 16: 1
40 PROEMIUM
Moses. Or as it is noted in the [fifteen gradual] psalms1 whose addition

makes a mystical one hundred and twenty.
128. "Amos the shepherd", etc. Hence Amos himself says: "I am not a
prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild
figs. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock".2
129. "Fat kine": greedy priests. "The greater house": Israel. "The
lesser house": Judah. "The one who forms the locust": the Lord. "The
locust": Sennacherib. "The wall": the apostles. "Plastered": anointed
with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and invincible. "The hook to draw down
fruit" : the laying down of punishment for sinners.
130. "Isaiah": Isaiah tells the story of the gospel: of the one
conceived by a virgin, and of the incarnation and the passion.
131. "Jesus" is a type of Jesus Christ; "the stone": strength; "seven
eyes": because of the spirit that takes seven forms; "defiled clothes": weak
flesh in the likeness of sinful flesh; "the candlestick": the Church; "two
olive trees": the law and the gospel; "the red, speckled and white horses":
the martyrs, confessors and virgins.
132. "The rod": the punishment inflicted by the Chaldeans; "the
boiling pot": Jerusalem; "the panther"} the inconstant and variable and
shifting people of the Jews.
133. Daniel was "aware of the times" because he predicted things of
all times, which no-one else did.
134. "And the day of celebration": the feastday of the fifteenth of
Adar. "These should be days of feasting and gladness, in which they should
send to one another portions of meats, and should give gifts to the poor."4
135. "Without carrying out what I intended": that is, without having
fully shown the difficulty of understanding Scripture; that is, the difficulty
of learning it without a teacher.
136. "We have only heard": we have heard in summary the contents
of Scripture, which we should know and love. This is signified by the
courts of the Lord. About it we know that we do not know it.
137. "Matthew, Mark" etc. These are like the four animals that draw
Christ about. "Fulness of knowledge" is to be found in their gospels. "With
eyes everywhere": they see the past, present and future; "sparks": the
words of preaching. "Lightning": threats. "Feet": the affections. "They
stretch up on high" by contemplation. Being "winged" with the virtues
they fly to every place, like clouds, to preach. "They hold each other
1 Reading ' 'in psalmis' ' for the ' 'in psalmo' ' of the text, of which I can make no good sense.
2 Amos, 7: 14
3 Presumably the leopard, from its variegated coat.
4 Esther, 9: 22
PROEMIUM 41
together and are interwoven": they bear witness to one another and
agree. "Wheels within wheels": because there is allegory in the history.
138. Luke's "praise is in the gospel":1 that is, he is praiseworthy
because he wrote his gospel, and from the facts of his skill together with his
writing the gospel we can be sure that the Acts of the Apostles that he wrote
are full of mystical meanings.
139. In the letter that Jerome wrote to Desiderius,2 the following
things seemed to me to need some explanation for younger people.
140. "Dangerous" , that is, toilsome, and in which it is easy to make
mistakes. "Barking": be aware that slanderers are dogs who bite one
another. "Insult": insult is a hidden and deceitful strangling. "Approving
of wisdom as you would wine": that is, preferring the wisdom of the
ancients to that of the moderns, in opposition to what Priscian says "The
younger the sharper: their intelligence flourishes more, their hard work
prevails more. This is something confirmed by the judgement of all the
most learned people."3 This is because old wine is better, or because they
think the wisdom of the moderns is like new wine, brimming over with the
froth of pride, like still fermenting wine. Hence Job 32: "behold, my belly
is as new wine which wanteth vent".4 Or because they taste wisdom by
pouring out a tiny drop of what comes from wisdom, as wine is tasted by a
tiny drop which is first poured out.
141. "Defiled": just as the offering of gold and silver is not defiled by
the offering of goat's wool, in the same way the venerable translation of the
Seventy is not made something despicable by my translation.
142. Isidore: "an asterisk is put by things which have been omitted, in
order to draw attention with this mark to the things that seem to be missing.
A star is called aster in Greek speech, from which we derive asterisk."5
143. "An obelus, that is, a horizontal dash, is put by words or
sentences that are repeated unnecessarily, or in places where there is
known to be some falsehood in the reading, so that it can, like an arrow,
abolish what is unnecessary and undermine what is false. An arrow is
called obelus in Greek." So the asterisk marks that what was missing
before appears afterwards. Belos is the Greek for the Latin arrow, and by
putting an "o" in front we get obelus. An obol is a kind of weight.
1 2 Corinthians, 8: 18
2 This prologue to the Pentateuch, addressed to Desiderius, was also often prefixed to the
text of the Old Testament: e.g in Biblia Sacra, I (Rome 1926), 63-69. It is not included in the
collection of Jerome's letters cited above, but can be found at PL, XXVIII, 177-184.
3 Priscian, On the art ofgrammar, proemium, I; in the Works of Priscian, ed. Augustus L. G.
Krehl, (Leipzig 1819). I, 4, and H. Keill, Grammatici Latini, II, (Leipzig 1865), 1.
4 Job, 32: 19
5 Isidore, Etymologies, I, xxi, 2-3
42 PROEMIUM
144. "In our books" , that is, in the translation of the Seventy. "Out
of Egypt did I call my son":1 according to Jerome in the Letter to
Pammachius on the best kind of translation2 and in On Hosea3 the
Hebrew really says:4 "Because Israel is my child, and I loved him, and
out of Egypt did I call my son". The Seventy translate this: "For Israel was
a little child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt did I call his children." "A
Nazirite": Jerome, letter 36:5 "This is in Isaiah. For where I read and
translated 'A shoot shall go out from Jesse, and a blossom from him shall
descend',6 in Hebrew, according to their idiom, the word 'Nazirite' is
written". But in On Isaiah1 Jerome says that the Seventy, "for 'blos
som', which is nezer in Hebrew, they put 'seed'", and that the learned
among the Hebrews think that it is from this place that Matthew takes "He
shall be called a Nazarene".8 "But you should know that this word nezer is
written with the letter tsadeh: it has a nature and a sound between 's' and
'z' that is not used in Latin. It is a hissing sound between clenched teeth,
and with the tongue scarcely touching. But 'Nazirites', translated by the
Seventy as 'sanctifed men', is always written with a zain."
145. "They will look on him they have pierced": Jerome, letter 36:9
"John the evangelist takes this as it truly is in Hebrew 'they will look on
him they have pierced',10 but in the Seventy for this we read: and they
will look on me for those things that they have mocked or insulted me
with."
146. "From his breast, rivers",11 et cetera. Some say that where we
have in the Proverbs "let thy fountains be conveyed abroad"12 the Jews
have "rivers will flow from his breast", etc. Others say that the Jews have
"rivers" etc. in the Proverbs where we have "The mouth of the just is a
vein of life".13 And: "things no eye has seen" et cetera. Jerome again, in
1 Matthew, 2: 15
2 Jerome, Letter LVII to Pammachius on the best kind of translation, VII, 6 (CSEL, LIV,
514-515): more conveniently, in Labourt's edition of Jerome's letters (Paris, 1953), Vol. Ill,
pp. 55-72.
3 Jerome, Commentary on Hosea, III, xi (PL, XXV, 914-915)
4 Hosea, 11: 1
5 Jerome, Letter LVII, 8 (CSEL, LIV, 515)
6 Isaiah, 11: 1
7 Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, IV, xi (PL, XXIV, 144)
8 Matthew, 2: 23
9 Jerome, Letter LVII, VII, 4 (CSEL, LIV, 513-514)
10 John, 19: 37
11 John, 7: 38
12 Proverbs, 5: 16
13 Proverbs, 10: 11
PROEMIUM 43
letter 36: 1 "In Isaiah the true Hebrew text reads: from everlasting they have
not heard nor perceived with their ears, eye has not seen, O God, except for
thee, the things that thou hast prepared for those that await thee2. Here the
Seventy give a quite different translation: 'From everlasting we have not
heard, nor have our eyes seen any god, except for thee, and thy works of
truthfulness, and thy face for those who await mercy from thee.'" Hence
the witness of the apostle is taken as being in harmony, not by one explicit
word set against another, but by the same sense being pointed to in
different expressions.
147. Syntagma [or syntax] is the same as co-ordination or construc
tion. Tatto or tasso is a Greek word that means "I order": hence taxis, a
feminine noun, and tagma, a neuter noun, order or ordering. Hence
syntagma is a compound of the Greek preposition syn and tagma.
148. Apocryphal means the same as concealed. Crypto is a Greek verb
that means I hide, and from this we get the compound apocrypto which
means I conceal. From this is derived apocryphal, concealed. Writings
whose authors are not certain are called apocryphal.
149. Iberian, that is Spanish.3 The Iberians, according to Isidore, are
the Spanish, who are descended from Tubal the son of Japhet. They used to
be called Iberians after the river Hiberus, Ebro, and were later called
Spanish after the Spanius.
150. Neniae are said by some to be vain charms written over the graves
of the dead. They are called Iberian neniae because this custom was first
found among the Spanish. Others say that neniae are the songs that nurses
sing to soothe the tears of children and send them to sleep.
151. "The causes of error", that is, the ravings of the supporters of the
apocryphal writings.
152. According to Josephus4 this Ptolemy was the one surnamed
Philadelphus, the son of Ptolemy the son of Lagus. It was at his command
that Demetrius of Phalerum, who was in charge of the royal library, sought
to bring together all the books written throughout the world. He was asked
by Ptolemy how many thousand volumes he had, and said that he had
twenty thousand and could soon reach fifty thousand. Ptolemy, on the
request of Aristaeus, who is mentioned here, freed from captivity more
than a hundred thousand Jewish children, giving their owners one hundred
and twenty drachmas a head. Ptolemy asked Eleazer, the high priest, to
send to him six wise elders from each of the tribes of the Jews, to translate
1 Jerome, Letter LVII, IX, 6 (CSEL, LIV, 520)

2 Isaiah, 64: 4
3 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, ii, 29; IX, ii, 109
4 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, XII, 34-39
44 PROEMIUM
the law of the Jews into Greek. This was done. It is dealt with more fully in
the Antiquities of Josephus, book twelve, chapter two.
153. Augustine does not think that the story of the Septuagint being
translated in seventy separate rooms is false. He says in the second book of
On Christian Doctrine:1 "Among the Greek translations, so far as the old
testament is concerned, that done by the Seventy has the most authority. It
is said in all the most expert churches that they did their translation with
such presence of the Holy Spirit that all of them, so many as they were,
spoke with a single voice. It is said, and said by many who are worthy of
credit, that each of them, on his own, in a room of his own, translated it:
and there was nothing in any of their texts that was not found in the others
in the same words and the same order. Who would dare to put anything else
beside this authority, let alone put anything before it? Or even if they came
to an agreement by consultation and study to produce one voice for all,
even then it is not right or fitting for one individual, however expert, to
dream of correcting what so many learned sages agreed on. Hence, if
anything is found in the Hebrew texts which is different from what they
gave us, I think we should bow before the divine disposition that came
through them, which brought it about that the books that the Jewish people
— either through devotion or through jealousy — did not want to give out
to the world, should, by the Lord's action, have been given to the Gentiles:
to those Gentiles who were to come to belief. They were given a very long
time before, by the aid of the power of king Ptolemy. So it may be that they
translated according to the judgement of the Holy Spirit, who drove them
on, made them make something fitting for the Gentiles, and made them all
speak with one mouth."
154. "Double divinity": that is, a divinity of two persons.
155. Hyperaspistis in Greek is the Latin protector. It is a compound of
the Greek preposition yper and aspistis. Spizo is a Greek verb meaning "I
stretch out". Hence aspizo, "I roll up in a circle". That is why snakes are
called asps, since they coil themselves up like round shields, and "aspis"
means a round shield. Hence aspizo means "I protect with a shield", and
from this comes the compound hyperaspizo, and from this hyperaspistis.
156. "The Economicus of Xenophon": the book of economics, that
is stewardship. Economus means a steward. This is a book written by
Xenophon, presumably on the duties of the steward. In Greek they do not
write economus with an "e": they write oikonomus with the diphthong
"oi". The word is derived from oikos, a house.
157. "The Pythagoras of Plato". A book written by Plato, like the
1 Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, II, xv (PL, XXXIV, 46)

PROEMIUM 45
Timaeus of Plato. He named his books after his pupils or after the
characters he brings in to speak in them.
158. Demosthenes the orator is thought to have written a book in
defence of someone called Ctesiphon. Just as one speaks of Cicero's Pro
Deiotaro, so one speaks of Demosthenes's Pro Ctesiphonte. Hence the
whole book is called the Protesiphon. These books were translated by
Cicero from Greek into Latin.
159. "In which the translators almost hold" the last place: understand,
"in which gifts". See Corinthians I, 12, where the apostle says:1 "And God
has placed in the Church first the apostles", etc. "They": the Hebrews.
"Your books": the translation of the Seventy. "It is another thing": this is
all ironical. It is as if he said: it would be strange if the Hebrews approved
of the witness insisted on by the apostles against them, even after the
apostles had insisted on it against them. He means: this is not the case.
160. "More correct": the most correct texts are in Hebrew, the next
are in Greek, the third are in Latin. The first texts are Hebrew, the second
Greek translated from the Hebrew, the third Latin translated from the
Greek: hence the Latin texts are the least correct.
-
Part One
Chapter I
1. Each science, each kind of wisdom has a matter and a subject on
which its attention is turned. Hence this most sacred wisdom, whose name
is theology, has a subject on which it is turned. That subject is thought by
some to be the whole Christ: that is to say, the incarnate Word, together
with his body, the Church. Or perhaps it would not be unfitting to say that
the subject of this wisdom is that One of which the Saviour himself speaks
in the gospel of John: "And not for them only do I pray, but for them also
who through their word shall believe in me; that they all may be one, as
thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me."1 In this One, then, of which it
was said "that they also may be one in us" there seem to be grouped
together the following unities or unions: the union by which the incarnate
Word is one Christ, one Christ in his person, God and man; the union by
which Christ is one in nature with the church through the human nature he
took on; and the union by which the church is reunited with him by a
condign taking up, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, of that flesh which he
took up from the virgin, in which he was crucified, died, and was buried,
rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, from whence he will come to
judge the living and the dead. These three unions seem to be grouped
together in the One which is called the whole Christ. Of this One the
apostle says, to the Ephesians2: "For you are all one in Christ Jesus",
or, as the Greek text has it: "You are all one person in Christ Jesus". That
One of which it says: "That they also may be one in us" seems [195B],
moreover, to add to the foregoing considerations that the Son, as Word, is
one in substance with the Father, and hence with the Holy Spirit. The Son
speaks of this substantial unity when he says: "as thou, Father, in me, and I
in thee"3. It adds also the unity of our conformity in the highest kind with
the Blessed Trinity, through our reason. To this conformity and Deiformity
we are led by the mediator, Christ, God and man, with whom we form one
Christ.
1 John, 17: 20-21

2 Sic: in fact Galatians, 3: 28
3 John, 17: 21
48 PART ONE
First Version Second Version
2-3. Consider that it is said in what way 2. This one, then, by which we are one in
we are one, that one by which we are one the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
with the Father and the Son and the Holy — for he says "that they also may be one in
Spirit — something also said in John where us" — seems to bring together in itself the
it says "that they also may be one in us". substantial one of Father and Son and Holy
This one seems to bring together in itself the Spirit, the one of the union of the two
substantial one of Father, Son and Holy natures in the person of Christ, the one by
Spirit, the one of personal union of the which we are all one or one person in Christ,
two natures in Christ, and the one of the and the one of the renewal of the spirit of
renewal of the spirit of our mind with the our mind together with the most high
most high Trinity. And [consider] that from Trinity. Hence from this one, which is thus
this one there is an orderly descent, through put together and united, as from a subject,
the unity of the Trinity and through the there can be an orderly descent to the
incarnate Word, through his body which is Trinity, to the unity of the Trinity, and to
the church, to our being one, in a deiform the incarnate Word, and to his body which
way. And consider that all creatures, in so is the church, and to our being one in
far as they take their origin from this One God-form with the Trinity.
and have a relation to it, belong to this 3. Hence the wisdoms that have to do
science. This is so even though according with these parts will belong in an orderly
to other characteristics they fall outside way to this wisdom. Also, all creatures, in
this wisdom, and are parts of other sciences. so far as they have an ordering of essence to
the aforesaid one which is the subject of this
wisdom, that is, in so far as they flow from
this one and return to this one, belong to this
science. This is so even though according to
other characteristics they fall outside this
wisdom, and are parts of other sciences.
Chapter II
1. Whether or not the subject of this wisdom is this one, which we
called the whole Christ, the subject of this wisdom is neither known in its
own right, nor received through science: it is only accepted and believed
through faith. Nor can it be understood, unless it is first believed. For it
does not fall under, nor is it included in, any division of the existent that is
used by human philosophy in dividing the existent. It is not the Creator
alone, nor is it creation alone. And if, of the one we spoke of, it should
be asked, what is it?, we cannot answer: except to say it is the one we
spoke of. For it is not some one nature, but it is the place of that wisdom
which the wise men of this world could not discover. It was of this that
Job spoke: "But where is wisdom to be found, and where is the place of
understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the
land of them that live in delights. The depth saith: It is not in me: and the
sea saith: It is not with me. Wisdom is drawn out of secret places." And:
"It is hid from the eyes of all living."1 The subject of this wisdom, then,
as has been said, is received only by faith. For this reason the things that
belong to this wisdom are things believable rather than things knowable.
1 Job, 28: 12-14

CHAPTERS I-II 49
Hence it should start rather with things believable than with things
knowable without faith.
2. Things believable are of two kinds. Some things are believable
because of the likelihood of the things themselves; others, because of the
authority of the one who speaks. In this wisdom believability on account of
the likelihood of things is an accident. For the things that in this wisdom
are believable, properly speaking, are believable on account of the author
ity of the one who speaks. Hence, since in this text there is no difference in
the authority of the one who speaks — since it is all the authority of God
who speaks "by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been from the
beginning" — there is no difference in the believability of the things to be
believed in this writing or scripture. (Unless, indeed, someone should say
that the things God the Father said to us in his Son, through the mouth of
the incarnate Word, are more believable than the things he said to us
through the prophets.) But of two things that are equally believable,
simply because they are equally believable, there is no need to worry
about which was said first and which was said afterwards. Nor should
one thing be argued for [195C] on the basis of another: since in so far as
they are thus believable, it is not the case that one is better known than the
other. This is so even though, of the things that are thus equally believable,
one might be more easily imaginable and the other less easily so. Easily
imaginable are the species and forms of this sensible world, such as the
heavens, the earth, the sea and all the sensible species that are in them.
These species of the sensible world, in so far as they fall outside the
certitude of sense-perception, or of science, and fall under faith, are,
without qualification, more acceptable, and more easily so, by faith. That
is why Scripture, which, without qualification, is put forward to the whole
human race, has to begin with the sensible things of this world in so far as
they fall under faith. For the opening parts of every teaching, by which that
teaching is put forward, should be the most graspable things.
3. The species of this world, in so far as regards the way they are now
governed, have the certainty of sense and of science. But in so far as
regards the ordering in which they were created, they cannot be grasped
at first except by faith. So the creation of the sensible world, on account of
the way in which the world is imaginable and graspable by the external
senses of the body, should be told in the opening part of Scripture. This is
in order that anyone, even among the uneducated, may be able to grasp a
story of this kind easily, through his imagination and through the images of
corporeal things, and grow stronger in faith through the authority of the one
who speaks.
1 Luke, 1: 70
50 PART ONE
Chapter III
1 . So the first literal sense of the beginning of Scripture has to do with
the successive creation in time of bodily and visible things, of heaven and
earth and their visible adornment. It would not be right for the first literal
meaning to speak expressly of the creation of the angels, since they are
substances which we can grasp only with our intellect, and do not belong
with those easily-grasped substances with which Scripture opens. Nor
would it even be right for the first literal sense to refer to the creation
from nothing of unformed, non-sensible first matter. But it is right for the
first literal, imaginable sense to point to the world which is grasped only by
the intellect, in order that in this opening there should be meat for the
perfect to eat and milk for babes to suck.
2. Hence the first literal sense of "created world" refers to 1) the
uncreated archetypal world, that is, to the eternal and unchangeable ideas
of the created world that are in the mind of God. The literal, imaginable
sense also refers to 2) the establishment of the angels and to the knowledge,
in the mind of the angels, of the world that had to be created. It refers, too,
to 3) the creation of primordial matter and form out of nothing, and to 4)
the ordered establishment of the sensible world out of them. It refers, too,
in an allegorical way, to 5) the ordering of the Church, and in a tropological
way to 6) the perfecting of the soul by faith and morals. There are, then, to
sum up, six different ways of understanding and expounding this opening
which deals with the creation of the world in six days. Perhaps these six
ways of expounding are hinted at by the six days and their works.
3. For what is the archetypal world — that is to say, the begotten
wisdom of the Father — if not the primeval light, and the first day which
"enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world"1. In that light there is
no darkness, as John says: "God is light and in him there is no darkness"2.
Every created light, after all, has some darkness, or at least can have. But
this light is begotten at God the Father's speaking, and this "speaking" is
the generation of the Word. This light is not, of course, either created or
made: but we can understand the making of created light to mean the
eternal generation of uncreated light from unbegotten light. This light is,
in its own nature, something which is most clear to the intelligence, but
because of our human capacity, and because of its remoteness from us, it is
something unclear. [195D] And this lack of clarity which arises from
remoteness can be called "the evening".
4. The second day could be the created intelligence of the angels. The
possibility of turning that belongs to its free choice, which is to remain
1 John, 1: 9
2 1 John, 1: 5
CHAPTERS III-IV 51
fixed for ever, is like the turning firmament. The water above the firmament
is the change of their intelligence for the better through success, and the
water below the firmament is the change of their intelligence for the worse
through failure.
5. The third day is the bringing of matter and form into existence out
of nothing. The instability of matter is water, and it is gathered together and
made firm by form. And matter itself is like the earth in bringing forth from
itself and producing the bodily forms of things, just as the earth brings forth
green plants and fruit-bearing trees.
6. The fourth day is the foundation and ordering of the Church. In the
Church there are greater and lesser officers, just as there is a greater light
and a lesser light. These rule over those who shine by their wisdom and
virtues, and over those who are in the darkness of ignorance and vice, just
as the great lights rule over day and night. They make appropriate distinc
tions between each and every one, they serve as signs for, and ordain
changes in, both the movement of time and fitting actions.
7. The fifth day is the wavering soul being formed — through the
waters of baptism and through the wisdom which brings salvation — either
for the power of contemplation, which flies up to the things that are above,
or for the power of good works which immerses itself in the stream of
temporal things.
8. The sixth day is the making of this visible world in time over six
days, in which time God brought to completion heaven and earth and all
their adornment, and made man to his own image and likeness. So these six
days are the orderly and fitting opening to Scripture.
Chapter IV
1. Meanwhile, it is right that the way of advance from this opening
should go along the line of the generation of the human race right up to
Christ the saviour. It is right to mix in with this advance the histories and
deeds of the prophets, which prefigure Christ and his body the Church. It
was right, too, to put in the witness the prophets bore to him, a witness
which is given both in plain words and in allegorical meanings. Moreover it
was fitting that the rules of conduct that correspond to every condition
should be written down. The Old Testament is made up of these things, that
is to say, history, prophecy and moral teaching. After this, then, it was right
that there should be written down the teaching and life of Christ, when he
came among us in the flesh. But this could not all be written in full detail —
for if each and every thing were written, "the world itself" would not "be
able to contain the books that should be written"1. It was right for them to
1 John, 21: 25
52 PART ONE
be written in a brief summary, and it was fitting to add to them a clearer

explanation, and also rules for living in a spiritual way, which befits the
grace and newness of the Gospel. This makes up the four Gospels, and the
Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. For the epistles contain an exposition
of the gospel and a training for the new life by means of spiritual and moral
teaching. The Acts of the Apostles contains instruction by means of
examples. Lastly, it was fitting that the end and completion of the world
should be described, and the eternal and unchangeable glorification of the
Church that is to come, and this is done and made clear in the Apocalypse.
And since no state of things is to come after the state of glory of the
Church, nothing more can be added to Scripture. Therefore, Scripture
contains everything that nature contains, since after the creation of the
world, there are no new natures or species added. It also contains the whole
of the supernatural, that is to say, our restoration and future glorification. It
also contains [196A] the whole of morality and the whole of rational
knowledge. This is because the archetypal world is the reason, the art,
the rule, and the rational knowledge of every single thing. In it is every
single cause of existence, every reason of understanding and every ordering
of life. So it is clear how truly Augustine says: "A man may learn things
from sources other than Scripture: but if they are harmful they are con
demned here, and if helpful they are found here"1. And while anything
valuable which is taught elsewhere can be found in Scripture, in yet more
abundance are found things that are never taught anywhere else, but which
are learned from Scripture alone, in marvellous sublimity and marvellous
lowliness.
But the end to which this marvellous scripture is directed is the state of
glory.
Chapter V
1. So, since it is right to direct all things to their end, the art of
expounding Scripture is to make everything found in it mean, in the end,
something to do with the state of glory, or something which leads us
directly to the state of glory, such as faith, hope and charity. That is why
Basil says that the end of what is said in this teaching is not the praise of
those who speak but the salvation of those who learn2. And Augustine in
his book On Christian Teaching says: "This kind of rule is to be observed
in figurative utterances: that loving attention is to be paid to what is read,
1 Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, II, 42 (PL, XXIV, 65)

2 Eustathius, In Hexaemeron S. Basilii Latina Metaphrasis. I, 1, 2 (E. Amand de Mendieta
and St. Y. Rudberg, eds., Eustathius ancienne version latine des neuf homilies sur
VHexaemeron de Basile de Cesaree, [Berlin, 1958], p. 4
CHAPTERS IV-VI 53
for just so long as it takes for the interpretation to reach the realm of
charity. But if this is already apparent, then do not think of there being a
figurative utterance"1.
2. In order not to toil away at this wisdom in vain, or even to one's
detriment, listen to how a student of this wisdom should be, from Basil's
mouth: "What kind of study, then, befits the greatness of what is being
recounted? How should the spirit be trained, if it is to grasp such matters?
Clearly it should be a spirit which is unharmed by fleshly vices, and as little
as possible overwhelmed by worldly tasks, a spirit which is hard-working
and keen and careful in everything, in order to draw down the knowledge
of God that such a one deserves."2 Aristotle, too, in his Ethics says: "A
young man is not a fitting student of politics, since he has no experience of
the activities that make up life, and our arguments are drawn from such
activities, and have to do with them. Moreover, it is vain and fruitless for
those who pursue the passions to study this subject, for its end is not
knowledge but action."3 How much more in vain do such people study
the sacred writings! Solomon, too, in the Proverbs4 says that he will teach
wisdom, yet most of what he teaches is the purification of the desires and of
the attitude of the mind5.
Chapter VI
1 . Nor should we think that the one who wrote down the first part of
Scripture, the Pentateuch, was unversed in instruction or wisdom, even
though his words, if superficially looked at, do not seem to have much of
the bloom of rhetoric or the depth of wisdom. To realise this, let us hear his
praises pronounced by Saint Basil: "Moses, then, is the composer of this
history; Moses, who was held in favour by God while yet at his mother's
breast; Moses, whom the daughter of Pharaoh adopted and brought up
nobly in the king's ways, and for whose teaching she provided philo
sophers of Egypt as masters; Moses, who shrank from deeds of tyranny
and returned to the lowliness of his own people, who preferred suffering
with God's people to gathering the temporal fruit of sin. Moses, who had
the love of justice in his bones, and who even before becoming the ruler of
his people was seen to pursue the wicked to their death, out of his inborn
hatred of evil. Moses, who fled from those he had succoured, who gladly
abandoned the excitement [196B] of Egypt and went into Ethiopia, and
1 Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, III, 54 (CSEL, LXXX, 93)

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 1, 1 (ed. cit. p. 1)
3 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I, 1095a5-6
4 Proverbs, 4:11
5 Affectus et aspectus mentis.
54 PART ONE
there, shunning all other tasks, set himself to the contemplation of nature
for forty years. Moses, who at eighty years of age had sight of God, such
sight as was possible to men, but a greater sight than any other could have,
as the Lord himself bears witness: 'If there be among you a prophet of the
Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream. But
it is not so with my servant Moses who is most faithful in all my house. For
I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by riddles and figures
doth he see the Lord.'1"2 And it was he, who was made equal to the angels
in bearing the intimate presence of God, who has listened to God and
spoken to us.
2. So much from Basil in praise of Moses. It is Moses who in the first
book of the Pentateuch, besides its historical sense, describes the fall of
man once established among goods both of nature and of grace, and the
descent of the human race into the spiritual Egypt, that is, into the shadows
of vice. In the second book he describes the return of the human race
from the spiritual Egypt through baptism, and makes a dwelling-place for
God out of the baptized people. And since no man lives and acts day by
day without fault of sin, in the third book he describes the victims and
atonement-offerings for sin. And since the more our spiritual gifts increase,
the more the onslaughts of spiritual wickedness against us increase, in the
fourth book he numbers and describes God's people as mighty in battle,
and, when they have overcome their foes, brings them through the penance
of the wilderness to enter the promised land. In the fifth book he renews the
law, since a new life is fitting for those who have overcome the rebellion of
flesh against spirit and who say with the Psalmist: "My heart and my flesh
have rejoiced in the living God".3
Chapter VII
1 . The first sense, then, of this text, which can be figured by all, what
on the face of it this text offers, is that God, in the beginning of time and at
the origin of created things made the heaven, which goes around and about
and contains all the other bodies of this sensible world, and made this
visible earth which we stand and dwell on. This earth was still void, for
none of the things that grow in the earth had yet sprouted, and it was empty
of the animals that were to live on it. By the words that follow: "Darkness
was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the
waters"4, it clearly suggests that the whole mid-space between heaven
1 Numbers, 12: 6-8

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 1, 4-7 (ed. cit. pp. 4-5)
3 Psalms, 83: 3
4 Genesis, 1: 2
CHAPTERS VI-VII 55
and earth was full of waters, which were created at the same time as
were the heaven and the earth. (He does not say that they were made
together with heaven and earth, perhaps because they were the matter for
the things that were to come to be between heaven and earth.) For in one
motion of his will God made the great mass of the things that we see. So
right from the beginning the mass of the world was completed, though not
all its forms were. Over the deep, then, of the waters that were between
heaven and earth was darkness, since there was yet no light to light up their
darkness. And the spirit, that is, the good will of the Lord, stirred over these
waters, in order to draw them out into visible forms. And for this to come to
be, God, by his first word, made physical light from these waters, giving
light to the darkness of the waters that we have mentioned, as far as the
earth. And he divided up the period of a day, that is, twenty-four hours of
the equinox1, in such a way that for half of the day the earth where people
dwell2 should have light, while for the other half the light should be put
beneath it, and made day and night; which, taken together, [196C] form one
day of nature.
2. Then, by God's word, the firmament was made from these waters,
the firmament where we now see the lights of heaven. The place and
position of this firmament is far below the heaven that was made at the
beginning. So part of the primordial waters was left above the firmament,
and filled the whole space above it up to the first heaven, while part was left
below the firmament, and filled the whole space from it down to the earth
beneath. All this was brought to completion on the second day, a day not
yet brought about by the sun, but by the light that was first made, dividing
up day and night by its giving light and its bringing its light underneath. On
the third day, too, which was brought back by that light, the waters that
were under the firmament were gathered together: that is, they were
condensed out of the vaporous waters and became the dense waters which
we now see in the sea and the rivers. And they were collected into the
hollows of the earth which are now the places of seas and rivers. But when
the vaporous waters were condensed into denser waters, then since that
which has been made dense occupies less space, and since no space can
stay empty, part of the vaporous waters therefore stayed where it was,
1 An "hour of the equinox" is what we mean by "an hour": the twenty-fourth part of the
period of the earth's rotation. In Grosseteste's time an hour usually meant one-twelfth of the
period of daylight, which obviously varies with the seasons. Only at the equinoxes is one-
twelfth of the period of daylight equal to one twenty-fourth of the period of the earth's
rotation.
2 Literally, "the dwelling-place of earth": but, from the context, not the earth considered as
a dwelling place, but that part of the earth that is a human dwelling-place, i.e. the northern
hemisphere.
56 PART ONE
rarefied, and occupying a greater space, to match the lesser space occupied
by the part that had been condensed. Thus, at the same time as the waters
were gathered together air came into existence, since to rarefy vaporous
waters is to produce air. If the rarefication and thinning down is very great,
then even fire and flame are produced. Now, when the waters were gathered
together into seas and rivers, just as we now see them, and the air filled this
place above the earth, by the word of God the earth brought forth the living
things that grow in it as we now see them, each one of which was to
propagate its own like according to its kind by its seed and its fruit. On the
fourth day were made the lights and the stars which we now see in their
place in the firmament, by whose movement and giving of light day and
night came to be separated, and periods and measurements of time are
shown to us. On the fifth day the word of God brought forth from the
gathered waters the creeping things of the waters and the flying creatures of
heaven, and God's command joined them in pairs to begin to breed their
future offspring. On the sixth day the earthly animals were brought forth
from the earth, and man was made in the image and likeness of his maker.
That the world and its adornment were made in this order, according to this
order of the days of time, is maintained by Josephus, Bede, Basil, Ambrose
and Jerome, and other authorities, even though they seem to disagree on
several other matters that have to do with the literal exposition of the text.
This we will show, with God's help, later on.
Chapter VIII
1. The first word then, "In the beginning", proclaims the start of time,
and that the world was made at the beginning of time, and does not have an
unlimited and infinite past. Hence, in the use of this single word, "in the
beginning", Moses overthrows the error of the philosophers who said that
the world has no start in time. Aristotle said this, and tried to prove it, in the
eighth book of the Physics, and Plato, likewise, in the Timaeus, brings in
someone who claims that there have previously been an infinite number of
Deluges1.
2. But there are some contemporary writers whose philosophy has
been yet more hollow than that of Plato and Aristotle, and who have
been yet more madly foolish than they. These say rather that Aristotle
did not think that the world lacked an opening in time, but that he held the
view of the Catholic Church on this point, and claimed that time and the
world had an opening. They are clearly refuted [196D] by the text of
Aristotle, and by the premisses he uses to reach his conclusion, and by
the ending of his last book, in which he tries to prove the existence of the
1 Plato, Timaeus, 23B

CHAPTERS VII-VIII 57
first mover from the perpetuity of motion. All those who comment on this
point of Aristotle, too, both Greeks and Arabs, expound in the same way
this point of the perpetuity of motion, of time and of the world — that is, its
infinite duration in both past and future. Boethius, too, in his On the
Consolation of Philosophy, clearly states that both Plato and Aristotle
thought that the world had no beginning1. For after he has given a defini
tion of eternity, he wants to make it more clearly distinct from the
aggregate of temporal things, and says: "This is subject to the condition
of time: even if we were to think of the world as Aristotle did, and believe
that it never came into existence nor will cease, and that its life is extended
in an infinity of time, we should not believe that it is such as to be strictly
eternal. For it does not at one moment include and embrace a period of
eternal life, since it does not yet contain future things which have not yet
been brought about." From this it is clear that Aristotle believed that the
world never had a beginning and would never cease to be, but was
extended in an infinity of time. A little later in the same book Boethius
says: "People are wrong when, hearing that Plato thought that this world
had no beginning in time and will have no ceasing, they think that in this
way the created world becomes equally eternal with its creator. One thing
is to live an unending life, as Plato thought the world did: quite another is
the altogether, instantaneous presence of an unending life, which clearly
belongs to the divine mind alone." Augustine, meanwhile, in the eleventh
book of The City of God states that some philosophers thought that the
world was eternal and without any beginning, and so wanted to see it as not
made by God, either: "Far, far away from the truth," he says, "and raving
with the deadly disease of impiety."2
3. Others, as he recounts, say that the world "was indeed made, but
will admit no beginning of time, but only an origin of creation, so that the
world, in some scarcely intelligible way, has been made for ever." Some of
the ancient Platonists, too, bring in the example of this which Augustine
mentions in the tenth book of The City of God when he says: "Though
Plato, in writing on the world, and on the "gods" in the worlds that God
made, clearly says that they came to be and had an origin, he claims that
they will have no end, but by the most powerful will of their maker will
endure for ever. The Platonists find a way to make sense of this: it is not,
they say, an origin in time, but an origin of subsistence. 'It is just like the
following case,' they say, 'If a foot had been pressed into the dust from all
eternity, there would always have been a footprint under it, and no-one
would doubt that the footprint was made by the foot. Neither the one nor
1 Boethius, On the consolation ofphilosophy, V, prosa 6 {PL, LXIII, 858-9)

2 Augustine, The City of God, XI, 4 (CSEL, XL. 1, 515)
58 PART ONE
the other would come first, though the one was made by the other. In the
same way, the world and the gods that are created in it have always existed,
since the one who made them has always existed; and yet they are
made.' "l In the twelfth book of The City of God Augustine tells us that
Apuleius and many others believed that the world and the human race had
always existed2. And in the same book, a little farther on, Augustine gives
us the cleverest argument the philosophers use to try [197A] to prove that
the world was never non-existent, and has existed without a beginning in
time, but is nevertheless something which is made. In the thirteenth book of
The City of God, too, he tells us that Plato thought that the world was an
animal, ever-living, the greatest and most richly-endowed of all3. And
Ambrose, in his Hexaemeron, says "Aristotle dared to say that the world
always had existed and always would exist. Plato, on the other hand,
presumed to claim that it had not always existed, but would always exist
in the future. But very many others bear witness in their writings that
neither has it always existed, nor will it exist always in the future."4 Plato
seems to be inconsistent, then, since, as we see from these quotations, in
one place he says that the world had no beginning, but in another hints that
it did have. This is why Augustine in the thirteenth book of The City of
God5 says that Plato openly stated that the world had not always existed,
that is, that it began to exist, even though some people have taken him to
have thought something different from what he says. Basil, too, in his
Hexaemeron, in the first homily, says: "Some philosophers state that this
visible world is co-eternal with God, the creator of all things, and to be
thought of as without beginning or end. And some of them, as a result,
refuse to admit that it was made by him, but regard it as some kind of
shadow of God's power. They think it came to be spontaneously, and
though they admit that God is its originator, they admit this in such a
sense that they are able to maintain that it came from him without his will,
in the way that a shadow comes from a body, or illumination comes from a
light.6 Pliny, too, in the second book of his Natural history says that the
world is an eternal divinity, unmeasured, which neither came to be nor will
ever perish7.
4. From these texts, and from many others which could be cited, were
it not for reasons of space, it is abundantly clear that very many philo-
1 Augustine, The City of God, X, 31 (CSEL, XL.l, 502-3)

2 Augustine, The City of God, XII, 10 (CSEL, XL.l, 582)
3 Augustine, The City of God, XIII, 16 (CSEL, XL.l, 634-635)
4 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, I, 1, 3 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 4)
5 Augustine, The City of God, XII, 13 (CSEL, XL.l, 585)
6 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 2, 1 - I, 3, 8 (ed. cit. pp. 5-6)
7 Pliny, Natural History, II, i, 1, 1 (ed. Sillig, I, 101)
CHAPTER VIII 59
sophers claim, with Aristotle, that the world had no beginning in time. By
throwing in one word, by saying "In the beginning", Moses strikes them
down and crushes them entirely. We have cited all these texts against
certain modern writers who, in the teeth of Aristotle himself, and his
commentators, and the sacred commentators too, strive to make Aristotle's
view, which was heretical, a Catholic one. With amazing blindness and
presumption they think that they can understand Aristotle more clearly, and
interpret him more accurately, as they work from a corrupt Latin text, than
could the philosophers, Catholics and heathens, who had perfect know
ledge of the original, uncorrupted Greek text. They should not deceive
themselves and toil away at making Aristotle into a Catholic, or they will
fruitlessly use up their time and strength of mind, and while they make a
Catholic of Aristotle, will make heretics of themselves. But enough of
them.
5. You should be aware that what led the ancients astray into claiming
that the world had no beginning was above all a false use of the imagina
tion. This made them imagine before any given time, another time: just as
the fantasy imagines a place outside any given place, and a space outside
any given space, and so on to infinity. To cleanse oneself of this error, then,
one can only cleanse the affection of one's mind1 of its love of temporal
things, so that the glance of the mind2, untouched by images, can go
beyond time and grasp the simplicity of eternity, in which there is no
extension of before and after, and from which all time and every before
and every after proceed. They were also led astray by that argument of
theirs which says: "If there exists a full and complete cause, to which no
condition [197B] need be added for it to act, it necessarily follows that that
cause's full and complete effect should always co-exist together with it.
But God is a cause of this kind, since he is almighty, and there is no new
condition or power or wisdom or will that accrues to him: he always
exists in one sole uniform way. So, if the world was made by him, then it
always co-exists together with him; so the world, like God, has no
beginning. So even though the world is something made3, nevertheless it
has no beginning." And they adduce the examples of the foot in the dust
and the footprint, the body and the shadow, the light and the illumination.
6. They do not realise that the expression "The co-existence of a
complete effect together with a complete cause" implies that the cause
and effect fall under the measurement of the same genus: that is to say, that
both should be temporal things, or both eternal. And with regard to things
1 Affectus mentis
2 Aspectus mentis
3 Reading factus est for factus non est:
60 PART ONE
that have a share in the measure of the same genus, the argument given
above does yield a necessarily true conclusion. But if the cause and the
caused do not have a share in the same measure of a genus of existence,
you cannot apply this rule to them and say: "If the cause exists, necessarily
the effect co-exists". Since God is eternal, therefore, and the world, motion
and time are temporal, and since time and eternity do not belong to the
measure of the same genus, there is no application to them of this rule of
the co-existence of cause and caused. The rule applies, as has been said,
when cause and caused have a share in the same measure. Hence the Father
and the Son, who are both eternal, are co-eternal, as the Father is the cause
of the Son, as John Chrysostom, John Damascene, and Augustine say, and
the origin of the Son.1 But God, who is eternal, is the cause of the temporal
world and of time: but God does not precede them in time, but in the
simplicity of eternity. Also the claim that every change is preceded by
another change, and that every instant comes between two instants, one
future in relation to it and one past, is false. The change from absolute non
existence to existence cannot be preceded by any other change, and the
instant that begins time is not the junction of a past and a future, but simply
the beginning of a future.
7. It was right, then, for Moses to say: "In the beginning". For the
world, being composite, cries aloud that it was made. But what was made
or comes to be has existence after non-existence, and thus has a temporal
beginning of existence. And perhaps the simplicity of eternity is incon
sistent with the beginning and succession of time. Moreover, if an infinite
time had gone before us, then either there must now be an infinite number
of souls stripped of their bodies, or there can be only one soul for all, or
they must return into other bodies again and again, or they must die: and all
of these are impossible. So at the beginning of what he says, by saying "In
the beginning", Moses annihilates an innumerable host of very serious
errors.
Chapter IX
1 . But it is not just that he strikes down the errors we have spoken of
by means of the signification of this word "beginning", [i.e. in Latin
"principium"]: he also refutes those who claim that there are many
origins, by means of its consignification. This is because he says: "In the
beginning", that is, not in many beginnings, but in one alone. In this he yet
1 Chrysostom, On the Epistle to the Hebrews, homily 2, n. 2 PG, LXIII, 21); Damascene, On
the orthodox faith, VIII, 2 (St John Damascene De Fide Orthodoxa: Versions of Bugundio
and Cerbanus, ed. E. M. Buytaert, O.F.M., [Louvain and Paderborn, 1955], p. 30; Augustine
On the Trinity, V, 13-14 (PL, XLII, 920)
CHAPTERS VIII-IX 61
again smites down Plato and Aristotle together. For Plato said that there
were three origins (principia), and Aristotle two — though he added one
which he called the operative origin. Many, however, have seen nothing
wrong in what these two claim. For hyle is the material origin of all bodies,
and the form which Aristotle posited is the formal origin. Meanwhile, God
is the effective [197C] origin of all things; the Idea being the reason, form
and art of all things in the mind of God. But you should be aware that these
philosophers understood the word "origin" or "principium" to include in
its meaning not having a beginning. They said that an origin was something
that was the cause of the existence of other things, and that did not come
from anything else, nor came to be out of nothing, nor came to be from a
temporal beginning. They were wrong, then, to posit any such origin,
which would be different from God, and yet would not come to be from
nothing, nor from anything else, nor from some beginning of existence.
These attributes belong to God alone.
2. First matter and first form were created, in fact, from nothing and
from the beginning of time. Plato was wrong, too, in his positing of Ideas:
he claimed that the Idea was an exemplar distinct from God, which God
looked to in making the world. Do not imagine that Aristotle and Plato had
any other view about the origins: listen to what Ambrose has to say: "Some
of these presumptuous men — for example, Plato and his school — set up
three origins of all things: God, the exemplar, and matter. They claimed
that these origins were all indestructible and uncreated and without any
beginning, and that God was not the creator of matter, but rather a crafts
man who looked to the exemplar, or Idea, and made the world out of
matter, or hyle, which, they said, gave everything its causal power of
bringing into existence. Some, too, thought that the world itself was
indestructible, and neither created nor made. Others, too, claimed — as
Aristotle thought should be argued with his students — that there should be
postulated two origins, matter and form, and a third besides them, which is
called the operative origin. It was the operative origin's task to bring about
effectively what it thought it should undertake."1 Jerome and Bede, also,
and other sacred writers, rebuke these philosophers for these claims, even
though Plato seems elsewhere to have thought that the Idea was just the
concepts of things in the divine mind. But I think that Plato seems to be
inconsistent on this claim, as he is on the question of the eternity of the
world, which we mentioned earlier.
3. It was not just these two, however: other philosophers went amiss in
positing origins. For very many of them posited, apart from God, either one
or several origins that had no beginning in time, and were not made of any

62 PART ONE
other matter, nor were created out of nothing. So. for example. Thales of
Miletus "thought that water was the origin of things, and that from water
came into existence all the elements of the world, the world itself, and the
things that come to be in the world. But he set nothing that came from the
mind of God over this work, which, when we contemplate the world, we
find so wonderful."1 Anaximander, on the other hand, accurately attributed
to each thing its origin, and said that there were innumerable worlds which
came to be out of them, but put nothing divine over them. Anaximenes.
meanwhile, attributed the causes of everything to the bounded air. "He did
not deny the existence of gods, or ignore them, but believed that while not
made out of air, they came to be from the air. Anaxagoras. on the other
hand, believed and said that everything that we see was brought about by a
divine spirit, but from an unbounded matter, which consisted in similar
particles of all things, and that each and every thing came to be, made by
the divine spirit, from its own proper particles. Diogenes, meanwhile, said
that air was the matter of things, from which they all came to be. but that
air shared in the divine concept; if not, nothing could come to be from it.
Archelaus also thought that everything was made up of similar particles
from which each and every thing came to be, but his view was that the
divine mind was in them as well, the divine mind which did all things by
gathering and scattering the eternal bodies — that is, the particles."2
[197D] All of these, then, claimed that there was some origin, other than
God, which had no beginning. And since God is an origin of this kind, they
claimed, in consequence, that there are several origins — even those who
apparently claim that there is only one.
4. The errors of all these philosophers are overthrown by Moses, by
means of one syllable or letter of one word. This is because the singularity
and uniqueness consignified in the singular noun "beginning" denies that
there are many origins. The uniqueness of singularity in the word "begin
ning" is consignified by and learned from its last letter or syllable3. The
depth of the wisdom of Moses is remarkable: by using even one syllable or
letter of one word he lays low such a mob of errors. Nor is there much need
for us to argue much about the errors of this kind of foolish philosophizing,
for its authors attack and destroy one another. That is why St Basil says:
"The Greek philosophers argued a great deal about the nature of things, but
there was no fixed or stable doctrine among them. One theory was always
1 Augustine, The City of God. VIII, 2

2 Ibid.
3 I.e. by saying in principio, in the beginning, and not in principiis, in the beginnings. A
noun signifies a thing, but consignifies by its inflection the number of things, or some relation
to the thing.
CHAPTERS IX-X 63
overthrown by the next. We need not bother to undermine their views: they
are quite capable of destroying themselves on their own."1
Chapter X
1. Now, the word "principium" — beginning, origin, originating
principle — has several different meanings. We speak of the "princi
pium" in the succession of time, and the "principium" in the order of
numbers. We speak of the "principium" in mass and size, and the
"principium" in change. But none of these different meanings is incon
sistent with the notion of being from another, without qualification. So in
respect of this meaning, there is only one "principium". The other
meanings hint at the meaning for "principium" of "being first in its
genus" and "having nothing prior in its own genus". Also, art is said to
be the "principium" of the work of art, and that from which a thing can
most easily be done is called a "principium", and the last end, the best of
all, is called the "principium" of what happens towards that end. But
"principium" is said without qualification of the power of God, in so far
as it is the first moving and efficient cause of everything. Now, all the
meanings of "principium" we have mentioned are grouped together in the
word when we say: "In the 'principium' God made heaven and earth". For
God did this at the "principium" of time. The "principium" of time has
three meanings. First, the first indivisible instant, before which there was
no time, and from which the whole succession of time began. This
"principium" of time is not itself a time. Secondly, the "principium" of
time means some short moment: but this time's earlier limit is the first
indivisible instant. Thirdly, the "principium" of time means the form of
time, according to which form time began. In the first indivisible instant of
time, then, God immediately made heaven and earth, whether we mean by
"heaven and earth" the unformed spiritual and corporeal nature, or form
and first matter, or the heaven which surrounds all other bodies and the
earth we stand on, with vaporous water occupying the space between
heaven and earth. (All authorities hold that the mass and size of the things
we see were made immediately.) Or these two words might mean, by
anticipation, everything that was afterwards divided up into parts, as
Augustine says on this point in his Literal commentary on Genesis: "The
whole was made in one instant, the first instant", even though according to
other authorities, as we said above, this world which we see was made bit
by bit.2
2. The world was made in the month of Nisan, that is, at the spring
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 2, 2 (ed. cit., p.5)

2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, I, 9, (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 13)
64 PART ONE
equinox. [198A] Exodus says of that month: "This month shall be to you
the beginning of months: it shall be the first in the months of the year"1.
Moses hinted, then, that the mass of the world was made immediately in
the first instant of time, and that no time preceded that instant. That instant
began the month of Nisan, and at the start of that month the world was
made, that is, just at the spring equinox. It was fitting for the world and
time to begin from the spring equinox, since spring is the most evenly
mixed of seasons, and the time of generation and growth. Moreover, the
day of the equinox has this special property among all other days, that the
sun lights up the whole earth in the daily circuit of that one single day, the
day of the equinox, and it leaves no part of the earth without illumination
for any part of the natural equinoctial day. On any other natural day the sun
leaves some part of the earth, for that whole day, unlit. The day of the
equinox, then, is more complete as regards the action of illuminating than
any other day. But the day of the autumn equinox is at the time of the
moving away and and failing of the sun, so the beginning of the world from
that equinox would not be perfect.
3. Heaven and earth were created at the "principium" of numerical
order, too. This is because natural numerical order is the order of the things
that are to be numbered. Hence things come before or after in numerical
order when they are before or after in the natural order of existence. So
since heaven and earth, as here understood, are by nature before the other
parts of the world, when we reckon creatures according to their ordering in
nature, heaven and earth come at once, first, at the "principiwn" of
numbering.
4. These two, as well, were created by God as the foundational
"principium" of the mass and the mechanism of the world. Hence the
Psalmist says: "In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the
heavens are the works of thy hands"2. And Wisdom says: "When he
balanced the foundations of the earth, I was with him forming all
things"3. Isaiah, too, says: "Have you not understood the foundations of
the earth?"4; and later, "My hand also hath founded the earth"5. He also
hints at the same thing, at heaven and earth as the two foundational
"principia" of the world when, speaking in God's name, he says:
"Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool"6.
5. Whether we understand by "heaven and earth" the first matter and
1 Exodus, 12, 2
2 Psalms, 101: 26
3 Proverbs, 8: 29-30
4 Isaiah, 40: 21
5 Isaiah, 48: 13
6 Isaiah, 66: 1
CHAPTERS X-XI 65
first form, or the unformed nature of bodies and spirits, heaven and earth
were created in the "principium" , that is, in the first change. For the first
change is the bringing from simple non-existence and nothingness into
existence.
6. And whatever is understood by "heaven and earth", it is clear that
they were made in the "principium" in the sense in which art is said to be a
"principium". For the first and greatest art, the art of all arts and the art of
all things, is the eternal wisdom of God, in accordance with which every
thing was made, as the Psalmist says: "Thou hast made all things in
wisdom"1. It is the eternal Word of the Father who is this art and this
"principium", as he says about himself: "The beginning, who also speak to
you"2. It is in virtue of this art and this "principium" that the causes of all
things, even those which are perishable, survive, and the unchanging
sources of all changeable things remain, and the everlasting concepts of
all non-rational and temporal things live on.
7. Then, too, the same "principium" is that from which a whole comes
to be most easily. [198B] "He spoke and they were made"3: what could be
easier than speaking?
8. The same "principium" , also, is the best end of all things.
9. And the divine power from which, through which, and in which all
things exist, is the first moving cause and the first efficient cause of all
things.
10. In all these ways then, and perhaps also in other ways which I have
missed, by that "principium" we have spoken of, God created heaven and
earth in the "principium" .
Chapter XI
1 . Now, creation is the bringing of a thing from nothing into existence.
Thus creation corresponds properly to the creation of first matter, in which
form was co-created, and which was not made out of any pre-existing
matter. We do, however, sometimes use the word "creation" of something
made out of pre-existing matter, because its construction can be broken back
down to the first matter which was made out of nothing. And by the words
"heaven and earth" is meant not merely that which was immediately
created out of nothing: hence we read in the version of the Seventy: "In
the beginning God made the heaven and the earth". For things are said to
be made even when they are made out of some pre-existing matter. A
1 Psalms, 103: 24
2 John, 8: 25: this reading, followed by the Vulgate and by Douai, is now thought to be
corrupt.
3 Psalms, 32: 9
66 PART ONE
comparison of both versions hints that the word "creation" applies also to
things made out of some pre-existing matter. By this past-tense verb, then,
"created" or "made in the beginning" we are told that the Creator had the
fullness of existence from the very beginning, and hence that he did not
begin to exist in the beginning but exists from eternity. For if he had
existed from the beginning, he would not have completed any action in
that first beginning. The consignification of the past tense of the verb also
tells us of the incomprehensible swiftness of God's action1. That is why
Ambrose says: '"In the beginning God made' is aptly said to express the
incomprehensible swiftness of the action, since it sets out the effect of the
completed action before the start of the action begun"2. The consignifica
tion of the same verb hints that there was no succession in the action, or
successive deliberation before the action, only a simple eternal foresight of
the whole together; also that there was no use, in the action, of instru
ments or other things, only the infinite might of the agent's power, which
conferred completion on so great a work and involved no previous
undertaking of the work.
Chapter XII
1. By the words "heaven and earth", then, as we said above, are meant,
in the first sense, the heaven which contains all things, and this visible
earth, as was the opinion of Bede, Ambrose, Basil, Jerome, Josephus, and
several other commentators. Or, in these two words there could be included
in general all the things that were to be unfolded little by little. Or "heaven
and earth" means first matter and first form, or spiritual creation and
corporeal creation — though both should be understood as being as yet
unformed. Or "heaven" could mean spiritual creation, which was made
perfect and blessed right from the start, while "earth" would mean the as
yet imperfect matter of bodies. The unformedness of this is hinted at by
what follows: "The earth was void and empty"3. Or "heaven and earth"
could suggest the first active creation and the first passive creation, that
which initiates change and that in which change can be initiated, that which
forms and that which can be formed. And in the knowledge in the mind of
the angels all creatures came to be in the same order as that in which they
are laid out in the eternal foresight; and in the same natural order, by the
disposition of that foresight, they come to be.
2. The allegorical sense of "heaven and earth" could be the Church
1 See above, I, ix, 4. A verb signifies an action: but consignifies by its inflection a mode and
a time of action, and a person.
2 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, I, 2, 5 (CSEL, XXXII, 1, 5)
3 Genesis, 1: 2
CHAPTERS XI-XII 67
triumphant and the Church militant, and, within the Church militant,
"heaven" could mean those who live a contemplative life, "earth", those
who lead an active life. Also "heaven" [198C] could mean spiritual
animals, "earth" fleshly animals; or "heaven" could mean those heavenly
people who bear heaven's image, and "earth" the earthly people who bear
the image of earth.
3. The moral sense — meaning something in the soul — of "heaven
and earth", could be the power of contemplation and the power of action;
or the higher reason and the lower reason; or reason, without qualification,
and sensuality; or the inner man and the outer man; or the soul informed by
grace and the soul deprived of grace; or the natural powers in the soul that
govern us as heaven does, and the powers that are governed as the earth is.
4. The anagogical sense could be to point to the archetypal world in
the creation of the world. But perhaps it is impossible to explain — it is
certainly impossible for me to explain — what Basil hints at in the first
homily of his Hexaemeron, when he says: "For there was, I see clearly,
some existent before this world, which our intellect can contemplate. But
with inquiry it was abandoned because of the incompetence of those who
were brought in while yet children in knowledge. It was, I say, the oldest
ordering of creatures, fitting in with the powers that transcend the world,
having its origin outside time, everlasting, complete in itself, in which God
the creator of all things set up definite works. These, I say, were the light
that the intellect can grasp, that befits the blessedness of those who love the
Lord, the conceptual and invisible natures, and the adornment of all things
that can be grasped with the mind. These things surpass what our mind can
contain, and we cannot bring back word of them. You should know that
these things filled the substance of the invisible world, as Paul teaches us
when he says: 'For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or
powers'1 whether hosts of angels, or assemblies of archangels."2 And a
little later in the same homily he says: "Not without reason, not vainly, was
this world formed. It was so that he should provide a valuable and needful
outcome for things, in that he granted to our mind a teaching, as we said,
for reasoning souls, and instruction in the knowledge of God by means of
these visible and sensible things. He guides us in this way, if I may dare to
say so, by the hand, so that we may more easily contemplate invisible
things. As the Apostle says: 'For the invisible things of him, from the
creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made'3"4. This anagogical understanding of Basil, which takes us up
1 Colossians, 1: 16
2 Basil, Hexaemeron, [, 5, 1-3 (ed. cit. p. 9)
3 Romans, 1 : 20
4 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 6, 3
68 PART ONE
from created things to the uncreated ideas in the mind of God, I pass over
without interpretation, since I have no idea of how to interpret it. Indeed,
even with the other interpretations I am as a child, and can only speak of
them stammeringly. How much the more will I not know how to speak of
this interpretation1. So let us return to the matters we are used to.
Chapter XIII
1. Apart from all the expositions given above, we can understand by
"principium" the incarnate Word, in whom God the Father made a union
of heaven and earth, that is, of divine nature and human nature. And it was
in the same incarnate Son that he made the heaven and the earth, i.e. made
all the superior intelligences of heaven and earth: he made them, I mean, by
reparation. For the heaven of the angels underwent a loss in the number of
its citizens by the fall of some of the angels. And the whole of the physical
creation underwent a worsening in the fall of man. But when the son of
God became incarnate and suffered, all things were brought back to their
former dignity. In the incarnate son, also, [198D] reparation will be made
for all things in the general resurrection, through the glorification that will
occur, when a new heaven and a new earth will be made, and the Scripture
will be fulfilled that says: "Behold, I make all things new"2. With this
interpretation, also, according to which "principium" means the incarnate
Word, the translation of Aquila fits3. This translation has: "In the capitu
lum God made the heaven and the earth". "Capitulum" is a diminutive
form of "caput" , a head. Christ is the Head, as the apostle says in First
Corinthians: "The head of every man is Christ"4; and in Ephesians he says
"And hath made him head over all the Church"5 and later "The husband is
the head of the woman, as Christ is the head of the Church"6. The
diminution of this greatest of heads, who was in the form of God, to
make the "capitulum", is that emptying of which the Apostle speaks in
Philippians: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being
1 The difficulties Grosseteste found in understanding this text he has managed to

communicate successfully to the translator.
2 Apocalypse, 21:5
3 Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim, I, 1 (PL, XXIII, 987A). Aquila is the name
given to a rather shadowy 2nd century A.D. translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The
translation, which only survives in fragments, is notable for its extreme literal fidelity.
Aquila is sometimes identified, probably mistakenly, with Onkelos, who was responsible,
at more or less the same time, for a theologically sophisticated paraphrase of the Hebrew
Bible into Aramaic.
5 Ephesians, 1: 22
6 Ephesians, 5: 23
CHAPTERS XII-XIII 69
made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled

himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross."1
And this diminution is also what the apostle touches on elsewhere when he
says: "that being rich he became poor for your sakes"2. With this exposi
tion there fits also the other translation which Basil transmits, i.e.: "In
summary God made the heaven and the earth"3. For "In summary" means:
in an abbreviating or abbreviated word. To this adverbial expression "in
summary" we tend to add only verbs of speech, e.g. "I am talking in
summary", "I speaking in summary", and so on. We do not say "I am
running in summary" or "I am sitting in summary" and so on. Thus, in
summary, i.e. in an abbreviating or abbreviated word, God made the
heaven and the earth. But this can be understood in two ways. The one
word of the Father is that by which the Father expresses himself, and in
expressing himself by that single word, by that single word he also
expresses all things. This word is therefore to the highest degree abbre
viating and abbreviated, for though it is single and said only once, it
expresses all things. For this is the height of abbreviation: to grasp all
the many things there are in the simplicity of a single word, uttered once
only. Nor is it, in the way that Wisdom speaks, a general word according to
a general concept: he expresses all things in a most express and special
way. The other way in which this word, that abbreviates itself and is
abbreviated, is said is: "The word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst
us"4. Therefore, the abbreviated word is the word made flesh. This is the
word about which Isaiah was speaking when, according to another transla
tion, he said "For he shall finish his word, and cut it short in justice;
because a short word shall the Lord make upon the earth"5; or as the
apostle says to the Colossians: "In him were all things created in heaven
and earth, visible and invisible"6.
2. According to Jerome there is no special force in the order of the
words "heaven" and "earth": it is not as if the word "heaven" comes first
because the heaven was made first. They were made together, but they
cannot be uttered together. Hence, in order that we should not understand
that the order of things is according to the order of the words, in the Psalms
the words are put the other way round. For it says: "In the beginning, O
Lord, thou foundedst the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy
hands"7. But Basil read into these two words a force of ordering: he
1 Philippians, 2: 6-8
4 John, 1: 14
5 Isaiah, 10: 22, as quoted at Romans, 9: 28
6 Colossians, 1: 16
7 Psalms, 101: 26, quoted from Hebrews, 1: 10
70 PART ONE
says "From the two sovereign elements, therefore, it indicates that the
substance of all things was produced. To heaven he gave the more worthy
privileges, and he set up the earth in second place, the place of creatures"1.
There is, then, between these two, a before and after of worth and of order,
but not of time.
Chapter XIV
1. Augustine2 asks why it does not say "God said, let heaven and earth
be made", in the way that lower down it says, [199A] "God said, Be light
made" and "God said, let there be a firmament made" He resolves this
question by saying that in the two words here, heaven and earth, lack of
form and lack of perfection are signified. "For imperfection does not
imitate" the form of the Word, "since it is unlike that which principally
and primarily exists, and by a certain lack of form it has a tendency towards
nothingness. It imitates the form of the Word when it too, by a turning
around of its nature towards that which always truly exists — that is,
towards the creator of its substance — it receives a form and becomes a
perfect creation. This is by the co-eternal Word of the Father calling the
imperfection of creation back to himself, so that it may not lack form. In
this turning around and reception of form it imitates, in its own way, the
Word of God, that is, the son of God. It does not imitate this form of the
Word, unless it is called back to the Creator: it remains without form and
without perfection. For this reason mention is made of the Son, not in so far
as he is the Word, but only in so far as he is the principium, in the words 'In
the principium God made the heaven and the earth'. The suggestion is that
the beginning of the creation was still in the lack of form that belongs to
imperfection. But there is mention of the Son, as being also the Word,
where it is written: 'God said, let there be'. When it speaks of him in so far
as he is the principium, there is a suggestion of the beginning of the
creation from him in a state that is still imperfect; when it speaks of him
in so far as he is the Word, there is a suggestion of the perfection of
creation as it is called back to him, to be formed by dwelling in the creator
and, according to its own nature, imitating the form that dwells eternally
and unchangeably in the Father."
Chapter XV
1 . That God made matter out of nothing, and did not make the world
out of unmade matter, as some vain philosophers thought, we can know
from this: that the creator would not be almighty if he needed previously

2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, I, 2-4 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 7-8)
CHAPTERS XIII-XVI 71
available matter, as a craftsman does, to work on: he would be truly in need

and imperfect. For just as matter is in need, since it cannot form itself but
needs someone to form it, so the one who forms is in need if he cannot
provide the matter for himself but can only form something out of some
subject. Hence Augustine in the first book of Against the adversary of the
law and the prophets1 says "Nor is matter simply nothing, that matter of
which we read in the book of Wisdom: 'Which made the world of matter
without form'". It is not nothing, just because it is said to be without form.
Nor was it co-eternal with God, as if it were not made by anyone. Nor did
anyone else make it, for God to have something to make the world out of.
Let it not be said that the almighty could not make unless he found
something to make with. Therefore God made it. Nor should we think it
bad because it is formless. It should be understood as good, in so far as it is
formable, that is, in so far as it can be formed. For if the form of something
belongs to the good, then to some extent it belongs to the good that it
should be capable of belonging to the good." And a little further on he
says: "So we should understand that God made the world from some
unformed matter, but also at the same time co-created that matter together
with the world.3" Basil, too, says "If we say that matter did not come to be,
then beyond a doubt we make it co-equal with God: it will be judged to
deserve the same honour, and to be worthy of the same privileges as he is.
Or if it is such that it can receive all the teaching of God, nevertheless the
powers of God seem to be co-equal with its substance"4. So from these
arguments drawn from authority it is clear that matter is not something
ungenerated, but that it was made by God from nothing.
Chapter XVI
1 . But someone might doubt whether the heaven — which according
to the first literal sense mentioned above, was said to enclose all the other
bodies in the world — is above the firmament which we are told of as
having been made on the second day, and whether the waters in the midst
are above the firmament and below this heaven. That this heaven, taken in
the literal sense, is above the firmament made on the second day, [199B]
and above the waters that are above the firmament, we can gather from the
authority of Jerome, of Strabus, of Bede, of John Damscene, and of Basil.
For Strabus says: "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.
The heaven is not the visible firmament, but the empyrean or fiery or
1 Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, I, viii, 1 1 (PL, XLI1, 609-610)

2 Wisdom, 11: 18
3 Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, I, ix, 12 (PL, XLII, 610)
4 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 2, 3 (ed. lit. pp. 19-20)
72 PART ONE
intellectual heaven. It is called fiery not because it has the heat of fire, but
because it has the brightness of fire. It was at once filled with angels."1
Bede, too, in his book On the nature of things says: "The heaven, which
has its own limit at the higher circle, and is placed everywhere at equal
distances, contains the angelic powers. When these come to us they take
bodies made of ether so that they can be like human beings, even in eating.
When they go back they put them off. God cooled this heaven with icy
waters, so that it might not set fire to the elements below it. From here he
made firm the lower heaven, not by one motion, but by many, and he called
it firmament because it keeps up the waters above."2 Bede also says, in the
same book, "The waters above the firmament stand below the spiritual
heavens, but above the whole of bodily creation. Some say they were kept
back there to be used for the flood: others, more correctly, that they are
suspended there to cool the fire of the stars."3 From these words of Bede it
would seem also that that highest heaven is not bodily but spiritual. But this
can be resolved by the gloss on Psalm 135, which says '"Who made the
heavens in understanding': that is, he made the intelligible heavens, that is,
the empyrean. Though it is something bodily, it is of such great subtlety
that it cannot be seen by mortals."4 Jerome, too, says of this heaven:
" 'Heaven' does not refer to the firmament, which was made on the second
day, but to the invisible, spiritual heaven, which, once made, was at once
filled with the holy angels." And John Damascene says: "Therefore there is
some 'heaven of the heavens' which is the first heaven that is found above
the firmament. Thus there are two heavens: since God called the firmament
heaven as well."5 And a little later he says: "He wants to say, 'the heaven
of the heaven', but he says 'the heavens of the heavens'. This means the
heaven of the heaven which is above the firmament." Basil also asks, of the
heaven of which it is said "In the beginning God made the heaven and the
earth", whether it is the same as the firmament which was made on the
second day. And in resolving this he says that it is different. He says:
"Secondly, we must ask whether the firmament — which is also called the
heaven — was anything different from the heaven that was made in the
beginning; or whether there are two heavens. (Though the philosophers
who discuss the heaven would prefer to put their tongues out to have them
cut off, rather than admit that there are two heavens.) They say that there is
one heaven, whose nature, they say, is not in any way such that a second or
1 Glossa ordinaria. I. 1 (PL. CXIII, 68C)

2 Bede. De natura rerum, VII (PL, XC, 200-201)
3 Bede. De natura rerum, VIII (PL, XC. 201-202)
4 Glossa inreriinearis. from Peter Lombard Commentary on the Psalms, 135: 5 (PL, CXCI,
1196B)
5 John Damascene. De fide orthodoxa, XX. 8 (ed. cit. pp. 81-82)
CHAPTER XVI 73
third could be added to it. The reason they give for this is that the whole
substance of heaven was used up in a single instantiation."1 A little further
on he says: "We, however, are so far from denying that there is a second
heaven, that we would even claim that there is a third. Paul saw it, and was
not deceived: it is a blessed state. In any case, the psalm which speaks of
the heavens of the heavens makes our understanding submit to even more
heavens. But this question does not seem more surprising than that there
should be seven spheres, which everyone agrees to admit that there are, in
which the seven planets are carried around. And though these spheres are
hidden away, in their own nature, the experts tell us of them by means of
the example of a number of bowls joined together. They tell us that the
spheres are driven against each other by contrary motions, and mix high
notes with low notes and produce music, a [199C] sweet song of
harmony."2 And then, after a few other remarks, he says later on: "It
was said by our predecessors that this was not the creation of the second
heaven but a revealing of the first. For in the earlier passage Scripture told
us briefly of the making of heaven and earth; in the later it more carefully
gives us the account of how each element is constructed. But we say that
since another word is used, and used in a proper sense, in the later passage,
therefore the heaven that was first made must be something different,
something which has a more powerful nature which communicates to
everything its surpassing usefulness."3
2. What the surpassing usefulness of this heaven is, Basil explains in
his second homily. He says: "We judge that if there was anything before
the foundation of this sensible and corruptible world, it was certainly in the
light. It is not fitting for the angels, or for the whole host of heaven, or for
anything called intangible, or for a rational power, or for a ministering
spirit, to dwell in the dark. It must have a way of life in light and in joy. I
do not think anyone will contradict me on this. Each one expects that that
light which is above the heavens is in the possession of the good. Of this
Solomon spoke: 'A light for the just for ever'4: and the apostle said:
'Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers
of the lot of the saints in light'5. If the damned are put away in the farthest
darkness, then those to whom a reward for their good works is promised
look forward, without doubt, to a place for those at rest in that light which
is outside the world. So it is clear that the heaven was made by God's
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, III, 3, 1-2 (ed. cit. p. 33)

4 Proverbs, 13: 9
5 Colossians, 1: 12
74 PART ONE
command, and that it was at once spread out and shut in in its well-known
spherical shape around the earth. It contained the gross body and was
capable of having its outer part separated from the inner parts. After this
was done it necessarily left a region behind it which was lacking in light,
from which the brightness that shone down from above was shut out."1
Also, Aristotle says in the book On the heaven and the earth, "We have
just shown and said that there is no place outside the heaven. Neither is
there a vacuum, nor time. If it is as we have said, then for this reason
whatever is there is not in a place. Nor can time make it old, nor is its
beginning, outside the last, in any way altered or changed: but it is in every
way fixed. It does not change nor receive impressions"2. Life there is fixed,
then, it is everlasting, for ever and ever. It does not stop or end: it is the
better life. From these authorities, then, it is plain that the first heaven,
about which it was said "In the beginning God made the heaven and the
earth" is something different from the firmament that was made on the
second day; that that heaven is above the waters that are above the
firmament, and that this first heaven contains no other heavenly body;
and that in the light of that heaven, spreading outwards and upwards, is
the dwelling of the blessed: full of light, of rest, of blessedness.
3. But Josephus and Gregory of Nyssa, and some other commentators,
differ from the authorities cited above, and think that this heaven is nothing
different from the firmament created on the second day. Josephus says:
"After this, on the second day, he placed the heaven over everything, and
distinguishing it in itself from other things he ordered it to be set up, and
fixing the crystal around it he made it fittingly damp and rainy, for the sake
of the benefit which is derived from the rains of the earth"3. [199D] And
Gregory of Nyssa says that the heaven of which Moses said "In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth" was the heaven that
rotates4. This heaven that rotates, and the motionless earth, he puts for
ward as the two foundations of the other elements of the world. Just below
this heaven he puts fire, then air, then water.
Chapter XVII
1. It is not for me to decide either way on this dispute between
authorities. But if this first heaven is something different from the firma
ment created on the second day, it seems to be something unmoveable.
This is because all things are for the sake of human beings, that is, in order
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 5, 8-10 (ed. cit. p. 25)

2 Aristotle, De caelo et mundo, I, 9 (279a)
3 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 1 (Ed. Blatt, p. 127)
4 Gregory of Nyssa, De hominis opificio, I, 1 (ed. Forbes, p. 115)
CHAPTERS XVI-XVII 75
that the generation of the human race should be completed up to the

bringing to completion of the body of Christ, the church. Hence the
movement of the heavens will be solely for the sake of the generation of
the human race and of those things which here below are of service to
human beings. The motion of the heaven, for the sake of bringing about
generation in things here below, is just so that the star, or stars, placed in it,
may make their orbit. This is because the orbit of the stars around the earth
is in its own right productive of generation. The heaven that surrounds the
star is homogeneous, and it would not initiate change in things below it
according to one position that it is in, more than another, if it were not that
the star is in it. Hence any movement of the heaven that did not produce the
movement of a star would not have any effect on generation, and it would
thus be useless. But this heaven, which is supposed to be above the
firmament and above the waters above the firmament, would not move
any stars in virtue of its own movement, it seems. We attach no value to
what some philosophers say, which is that the movement of the heaven is
because the intelligence that initiates movement in the heaven bears a
likeness to its creator: that is, because the moving intelligence in the
body of the heaven, in its own way, actualises all the possibilities of that
body. But the only possibilities of the body of the heaven are possibilities
of position. Hence, if it is to actualise every possible position, and since it
cannot occupy them all at once, the intelligence of the heaven moves it,
they say. Thus it becomes like its maker, actualising every possibility, in its
own limited way. This account of the movement of the heaven we regard as
valueless, in many ways, since very many of our authorities do not even
admit that there is an intelligence that moves the heaven. And again, if it
moves the heaven according to the account given, then on the same account
human beings, too, ought to be in perpetual motion, wandering over land
and sea, so that they might take up every position possible to them and thus
become more like the creator who at one and the same time has everything
that he can have. For this, they say, is what true philosophy is: human
beings becoming like their creator. What is more, God, though unmoving,
makes everything move; and though at rest, does everything. Being at rest
is more like the state of the divinity than is movement. Every movement
implies imperfection: it means the acquiring of something one does not yet
possess, and the loss of something one does possess. But rest is remaining
with what one has: there is no tendency beyond it, towards acquiring
something. So the state of rest, and an action performed by one at rest,
is more like the state of divinity, as has been said. Hence, if that first
heaven were in a state of permanent rest, either given it by an angel or by
its own nature, and remaining in a state of rest passed on something of its
own property of light to the things below it, and thus acted on them, it
76 PART ONE
would be far more truly like the state of eternity, since it would be acting
and at rest — far more truly like than if it were in some kind of movement.
The earth is wholly at rest with regard to place, but every bit of it is headed
downwards and has a tendency to the place below it. Hence this rest is not
perfect, [200A] since there is a tendency to movement. Hence it seems far
more fitting that there should be a body which does not have a tendency
towards anything that it does not have, either as regards its whole or as
regards its parts. This would seem to have its share truly both in rest and in
action that is at rest; its bodily nature would not be deprived of a likeness to
its creator in virtue of its potentiality and its receptivity. And it would also
seem fitting that the place and dwelling for those at rest among the saints
should be at rest. This place is the first heaven, as was said above. Also it
seems fitting that, since the movement of any one of the heavens that is in
movement is a movement on two unmoveable poles, which are as it were
the foundations of the movement, the movement, without qualification, of
the world should have two foundations that are at rest, that is, the first
heaven, and the earth which is at the bottom. This motionlessness of the
first heaven fits with what Bede said of the highest heaven, that it is
separated from the rotation of the world, and as soon as it was created
was filled with the holy angels1. Notice that he calls this heaven the
highest, and says it is separated from the rotation of the world, and thus
it is at rest.
Chapter XVIH
1. It goes on: "And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved over the waters"2.
The sense which is at first sight put forward by this text was explained
briefly above. To that brief account we can add here that by "the face of the
deep" it means to suggest the diaphanousness, that is the transparency, the
natural potency which makes the deep able to receive illumination, and
show it forth once it has received it. This is because the face of a thing is
that by which a thing most shows itself forth. There was still darkness over
this face, since there was no light yet which could be poured out on, and
illuminate, the deep. Or, according to Basil, the light of the first heaven
already existed but was projected outwards3. The lower body of this heaven
cast shadow on the earth. This is clear from what we quoted of him above.
2. There were other senses of "earth" suggested above4, in which
1 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 13D-14A)

2 Genesis, 1: 2
3 See above, I, xvi, 2
4 See above, I, xii, 1
CHAPTERS XVII-XIX 77
"earth" means something unformed and imperfect, but which can be

formed and is to be made perfect. In so far as it is unformed and
imperfect, it is "void" and "empty". "Void" because it is lacking in the
useful actions which it can carry out when it is formed, and for which it is
to be formed. "Empty", because it has not yet received in itself the defects
and needs of others which are to be made good. For any thing that is
formed and perfect not only does something useful for other things in the
ordering of the universe, but also receives in itself the defects of others
which are to be made good. When it brings these two functions to perfec
tion, it is neither void nor empty. The deep is said to be dark, according to
the meanings stated, because of the privation of form, which is light, which
it has not yet received from the higher thing that forms it. For every form is
some kind of light, since every form shows itself forth. And perhaps these
three words, void, empty, and dark, correspond to form, nature and action.
For species, in so far as it completes matter, is form: in so far as it inclines
and tends towards action, it is nature. Matter, or that which is still material,
is unformed and imperfect, in so far as it has not yet been completed and lit
up by a form that is proportionate to it. In so far as it lacks the fullness of its
initiating tendency to action, it is empty; in so far as it is lacking in useful
action, it is void. Or vice-versa: as lacking the light of ordered action, it is
dark, while as unformed and imperfect, it is void.
3. For "earth", "deep" and "water" all mean the same. For in every
movement by which something is formed and perfected from the unformed,
there is something that underlies, in an unchangeable way, that movement.
Because it is an unmoving something that underlies1 [200B] it is called
"earth", and, similarly, because of its formlessness. For matter, and the
material, in so far as it is material, is the most formless of things, just as the
earth is the most formless of the elements. It is called "water" because of
its changeability and fluidity. For matter itself, as Augustine says, is the
changeableness of changeable things, and is capable of receiving all the
forms into which changeable things change2. It is called "the deep"
because it is not wholly penetrated by the light of the intellect that grasps
it, and because its potentiality is not wholly occupied by the light of any
particular form, since it is possible for it to receive other forms.
Chapter XIX
1 . According to the allegorical and tropological senses — according
to which the earth, the deep and the water signify, in the way above
Reading, with some of the manuscripts, "immobilem subsistenciam".

2 Augustine, Sermon, CCXIV, 2 (PL, XXXVIII, 1067), or perhaps more likely Pseudo-
Augustine, Principia dialecticae, V (PL, XXXII, 1410)
78 PART ONE
mentioned, something rational in an unformed way — we can understand

the void, the empty and the dark too: that is, we understand, with
Dionysius, that in the rational power, as yet unformed, there is something
that needs to be purified, illuminated and brought to completion1. For the
divine operation purifies, illumines, and brings to completion the rational
part of the mind. While it is lacking that purification it is void; while it is
lacking illumination it is empty; while it is lacking completion it is dark.
Purification takes away the stains and the defects, and thus frees it from its
voidness. Illumination, which is "the best of gifts descending from the
Father of lights"2 fills and takes away the emptiness. Completion, which
reveals the fullness of the light which has been received in order that the
perfect work may be shown forth, illuminates and takes away the dark. Or
in another order: light takes away the dark, purification takes away the
voidness, completion takes away the emptiness. Or the rational part of the
mind, which is still imperfect and formless, is dark in its glance3, empty in
its desire4, and void of good action. And perhaps by these three privations,
voidness, emptiness and darkness, could be signified the absence of order
in the rational part of the mind, of the power of wisdom, and of the will.
Also the absence of the order of mind, spirit and flesh; also of the higher
reason, the lower reason, and sensuality; also of rational virtue, con-
cupiscible virtue, and irascible virtue; also of the rational part of the
soul, the sensible part, and the vegetative part; also thought, word and deed.
2. All the above has been dealt with briefly in order to avoid going on
at tedious length. A full commentary on them would mean showing in
virtue of what special characteristics each of the words given, i.e. heaven,
earth, water, deep, void, empty and dark, means each of the things that it
means. If this were done, it would make quite a considerable book. So let
the reader of this science take note that until he can comment in this way on
what has gone before and on what will follow, he is studying rather in the
way that someone might look from a long way off, across a great inter
vening space, at a very fine piece of carving: he cannot see the worked
extensions of the carving, nor distinguish the varied formed surface of the
carving from the rough and unformed wood. Augustine gives one com
mentary which understands "earth" to mean corporeal matter and nature
that is as yet unformed5. This formlessness is meant when "void and
empty" are added. "Heaven" and "deep" are understood to mean the
1 Pseudo-Dionysius, On the hierarchy of heaven, with the commentary of Hugh of St Victor,

c. Ill, 2 (PL, CLXXV, 991-993
2 James, 1: 17
3 Aspectus
4 Affectus
5 Augustine, Confessions, XII, xxvii, 2
CHAPTERS XIX-XX 79
nature of the angels, as yet unformed, that is, not yet turned back to its
creator. This formlessness is hinted at when there is added: "and darkness
was upon the face of the deep".
Chapter XX
1. "And the spirit of God". Some have thought that by "the spirit"
which is here said to "move over the waters" the air should be understood.
Basil hints at this in commenting on this passage in his Hexaemeron,
second homily1: and Augustine gives the same view [200C] in the eighth
book of The City of God 2. Hence they thought that in these words there
was explicit reference to the four elements of the world, giving fire the
place of heaven and understanding the word "heaven" to mean fire. Earth
and water are mentioned by name here: so if the spirit were the air, the four
elements would be named here.
2. But both Basil and Augustine reject this interpretation. Even though
air is called a spirit and is created by God, it is not usual for it to be called
the spirit of God. Usually, by "the spirit of God" Scripture means the Holy
Spirit, that proceeds from the Father and the Son. So the sense is: the Holy
Spirit and the good will of the Father and the Son moved over the flowing
and formable formlessness, with the intention of bringing it to its forming.
One interpretation has "brooded" for "moved over": Basil explains this as
follows: "He brooded over and gave life to the nature of the waters, in the
way that a broody hen initiates the power of life in what she is brooding
over" . But Jerome says "in Hebrew the word is merepheth, which is
what we would call brooding over or hatching, like a bird that gives lifes to
its eggs by warming them. So we understand it" Jerome goes on to say "to
be said not of the spirit of the world" (that is, of the wind) "as some think,
but of the Holy Spirit"4. Just as the will of the craftsman moves over the
things that he is to make, so the Holy Spirit had it in his power how each
and every thing was to be set out. And according to Augustine it is right for
the Holy Spirit to be said to move over the waters, as he hints here:
"Because a needy and an impoverished love loves in such a way that it
is placed under the things that it loves. For this reason it is recorded of the
Spirit of God, in whom we understand there to have been a holy benevo
lence and love, that it is said that he moved over. This is so we should
appreciate that God loves, not because of neediness and necessity of the
works he does, but rather because of his abundance and benevolence."5
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 2, 9-10 (ed. cit. pp. 20-21)

2 Augustine, The City of God, VIII, 11 (CSEL, XL.l, 372-373)
3 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 6, 3 (ed. cit. p. 26)
4 Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim, I: 2 (PL, XXIII, 987B-988A)
5 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, I, 7 (CSEL, XXVIII, 1, 11)
80 PART ONE
3. The understanding of this verb, which says that the spirit moved, is
common to all the above explanations of the words "earth", "water", and
"deep", and it is that the power of the Holy Spirit, either in its own right, or
in active things (which is signified by "heaven") acts by forming all
formless things, signified by "earth", "water", and "deep". Hence of
the expression "The Spirit of God moved over the waters" there are as
many spiritual interpretations as there are spiritual significations of
"earth", "waters" and "deep".
Chapter XXI
1. The text of the Seventy means: "But the earth was invisible and
uncomposed, and dark was on the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over
the waters". This text is explained by Augustine and by the Greek com
mentators. According to the literal interpretation, then, the earth was
invisible because there were yet no human beings to see it. But it would
be truer to say it was invisible because it was in the dark, owing to the
waters that were put around it, or because there was not yet any light by
whose illumination it would be visible. It was uncomposed, because it was
lacking in its natural adornment, that is, the things that grow in the earth and
the animals that dwell on it. For the things that grow in the earth adorn the
earth as carvings and paintings adorn a house. The animals adorn it as the
dweller adorns his dwelling.
2. In a spiritual sense: all the formless things — which are signified, in
so far as they are formless, by "earth" — were invisible to any under
standing. This is because all understanding is by means of form. Hence,
just as the dark cannot be seen by the eye of flesh, the formless cannot be
seen by the eye of the mind. The formless things are unadorned, too,
because they lack form and species, and hence they are also dark.
3. The moral sense is: the earth of our heart is invisible, when it does
not show itself forth by the light of good action: i.e. when our light does not
shine before men1. It is uncomposed when it is not ordered in its desire2; it
is dark, when it lacks [200D] the light of wisdom in the glance of the
mind3. The earth of the inner man is visible to us by means of the outer
light of good action. Or vice versa: that mind is said to be invisible to God
which lacks the light of wisdom; that desire is said to be uncomposed that
lacks the ordering of love; that whole body is said to be dark that lacks the
light of good action.
4. According to Basil "the deep" means "a great quantity of water of
1 Cp. Matthew, 5: 16
2 Affectus
3 Aspectus mentis
CHAPTERS XX-XXIII 81
infinite depth"1. "Deep" translates the Greek noun "abyss". According to

the Greek derivation of this word it means "pathless, uncrossable,
unstable". Buco, bio, is a Greek verb from which "abyss" comes, and it
means two things. It means "I enter" and also "I strengthen", and "abyss"
comes from this verb and the privative prefix "a".
Chapter XXII
1 . At this point the different authorities have different opinions about
the number of bodies that were made at the beginning. Some think that only
three bodies were made at the beginning, i.e. heaven, water, and earth, as
on the face of it the text seems to give us. Hence Augustine, in On the
definitions of right faith says: "In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth and the water from nothing, while the darkness still covered
the water, and the water hid the earth. And at that time there were the holy
angels and all the heavenly powers."2 Others think that at the beginning the
four elements were created. Hence Jerome: "It should be noted, indeed,
that by "heaven and earth" you should understand the four elements. For
the waters are mentioned afterwards, and in the bowels of the earth are
contained iron and flints, in which fire lies hidden. And air is proved to be
in the earth by the fact that when damp earth receives the warmth of the sun
it breathes out long streams of vapour."3 Basil, too, says that the four
elements were made in the beginning, and that they at once begin to exist in
act [not only in potency]. Hence he says: "When it says 'In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth' it keeps silent about several more
things, i.e. fire, water and air. Also the dispositions which come from these
principal things were created: and all these things, the things that complete
the world, all at the same time doubtless came forth. But the historian here
passes over mentioning them, to make our heart sharper to achieve skill
from a few suggestions, a skill which makes us think and track down what
is missing."4 And a little later he says that light was created on the first
day, and that the air which was immediately illuminated by that light, was
above the ether and near to heaven5.
Chapter XXIII
1. Also here you should know that from the expression "darkness was
upon the face of the deep", wrongly taken, there arose the heresy of the
Manichees, and of Marcion, and Valentinus. As Augustine says: "Heresies
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 4, 6, (ed. cit. p. 23)

2 In fact Gennadius, Liber de ecclesiasticis dogmatibus, X (PL, LVIII, 983C-D)
3 Cp. Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 15A-B)
82 PART ONE
only arise when good Scripture is badly understood, and when what in it is
badly understood is moreover rashly and boldly asserted."1 This is how it
was with these people: they did not understand this expression of Scripture
properly, and fell into heresy, to the point of saying, as Basil tells us, that
darkness is not shadowy air "but an evil power, or rather evil itself, having
its own principle of origin in itself, opposed to the goodness of God. This,
they said, is the nature of the darkness. If God is light, they say, then
beyond doubt darkness is a power that fights against him, according to the
account they give of the meaning. It does not borrow its substance from
anything else, but is its own begetter. In its evil it is the bane of souls, the
producer of death, the enemy of right: and they say it exists in its own right
and is not made by God."2 Augustine talks of this sect, also, in the first
book of On Genesis, against the Manichees3: "The Manichees believe that
there is a race of darkness, to which they think there belong bodies, and the
forms and souls in those bodies. They think, then, that darkness is some
thing that really exists." The Manichees, also, according to what Augustine
says in Commentary on the gospel ofJohn, first homily, argue that because
a fly stings it must be bad: and from the parallel [201 A] with the fly, they
argue that the bee must be bad, and, consequently, also the locust. And
thus, step by step, they argue that all bodies are evil, and thus that it was not
God that made them, but the Devil. They even say that stones, and walls,
and ropes, and wool, all have life and have souls . Again, Augustine, in
Commentary on the gospel of John, homily 42, says of the Manichean
heresy that it "says that there is a nature of evil, and a race of darkness with
its leaders, which has dared to fight against God. And they say that God, in
order that the race which is the enemy of his kingdom might not conquer,
has sent out against them, as if they were parts of him, leaders from his
light. And that race was conquered, from which the devil takes his origin.
That, they say, is the origin of our flesh, and this is how they interpret what
Our Lord said, 'You are of your father the devil'5, as meaning that they are
of an evil nature, as it were, whose origin goes back to the enemy race of
darkness."6
2. They also say that the God proclaimed in the Old Testament was not
the father of Christ, but some leader of the wicked angels. These errors, and
others like them, they formed originally from having understood this text
incorrectly. For they bring in here what is said about the darkness, as if it
1 Augustine, On the gospel of John, XVIII, 5 (PL, XXXV, 1536)

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 4, 2-3 (ed. cit. p. 22)
3 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, I, iv, 7 (PL, XXXIV, 177)
4 Augustine, On the gospel of John, I, 1, 14 (PL, XXXV, 1386)
5 John, 8: 44
6 Augustine, On the gospel of John, XLII, 10 (PL, XXXV, 1703)
CHAPTERS XXIII-XXIV 83
were not created by God. For when it says "he created the heaven and the
earth" it adds "and darkness was on the face of the deep", as if it was
created together with heaven and earth. It was there, then, and it existed:
but it was not created, since it is not said to have been created. Hence, since
it existed and did not come from God, it existed in its own right, and had no
beginning, and is thus a "principium" which is co-equal in age with God.
This would indeed follow, if the darkness were something real, as they
imagine. They do not understand that darkness is not an essence, but
merely the privation of light. Moreover, they thought that the darkness
was an essence opposed to the light, and evil by nature; or rather, by nature
it was evil itself, just as light, which is God, is by nature goodness itself.
Chapter XXIV
1. But the error of these people is completely destroyed by all the
proofs which the commentators on holy scripture use to prove that evil and
privation and darkness are not any kind of essence, but the lack of an
essence. These proofs are well known and very long, so we will omit them
here.
2. Their error is overthrown, also, in the following way: if the light,
which is God, and the darkness, which is the enemy of the light, were
opposed to and incompatible with each other, either these two contrary and
mutually incompatible things are equal to each other in power or they are
unequal in power. If they are equal in power and always restrain each other,
then they are always and for ever fighting, neither winning. This would
mean that God would be in an everlasting state of wretchedness in this war,
since he would be fighting against an enemy power which he can never
beat. But if the light and the darkness are unequal in power, then the one
which is stronger will at some time defeat the weaker and will destroy it
altogether. We see this happening in different pairs of unlike and incom
patible properties, as for example in heat and cold, and similar things
contrary to each other by nature. So either at some time there will be no
God, when the darkness overcomes his light — which is an extremely
inappropriate conclusion — or at some time there will be no darkness,
when the divine light overcomes it. Moreover, God would not be almighty,
if at any time some other power could oppose him. Also, as Augustine says
in Commentary on the gospel of John, Homily 99: "Those who think that
evil is a substance not made by God, make God a changeable substance"1.
Many other such things could be said against these pernicious errors, but let
this suffice for the present, so as to avoid wordiness.
1 Augustine, On the gospel of John, XCVIII, 4 (PL, XXXV, 1882)

Part Two
Chapter I
1. God said, be light made. This divine utterance was not made with
the sound of a voice [20 IB] as it was when the Father's voice was heard
from a cloud saying "This is my beloved Son"1. It would have been
pointless for there to be an audible sound when there was no bodily ear
to hear the sound. Nor did he say "be light made" by means of the
intellectual word of any created intelligence. For if this first light was an
angelic intelligence, which was either to be created or to be formed by
turning to its creator, then it was neither in an angelic word nor through an
angelic word that God said "be light made"; rather he said it in the Word
that was co-eternal with him. He did not yet speak in a creature and through
a creature. But if this light was physical light, and the angelic intelligence
was already created, how shall we prove that it was not through the
intellectual word of an angel that God spoke and formed the lower crea
tures? For many philosophers have thought that it was in his own right that
God created the angel, and that the angel then created and formed bodies.
And the angel would only do this through the intellectual word that was in
him. Thus God would speak through him. But authorities who have com
mented on sacred scripture hold this view as one to be rejected: they say
that God, solely by the Word which is co-eternal with him, and without the
service of any creature, made the works of the six days at the beginning of
the world. Hence Augustine, in the eighth book of Literal commentary on
Genesis, dealing with this text: "We should hold most certainly that God
spoke either through his own substance or through some creature subject to
him. But he only speaks through his own nature to create all natures, and to
illuminate as well as to create the intellectual and spiritual natures, since
they could already grasp that utterance of his that is in his Word that 'in the
beginning was with God: and the Word was God', the Word through which
all things were made."2
2. Also, in the same work, dealing with the same subject, in book nine:
"Now indeed we should see how we should understand that God should say
'it is not good for man to be alone'3. We should see whether God said this
1 Matthew, 3: 17
2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 27 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 266)
3 Genesis, 2: 18
CHAPTER I-II 85
with a voice and with sounds in time, or whether what is recorded here is
the reasoning which was in God as a principle of origin, the reasoning that
woman should be made. That is the reason which is taken up by scripture
when it says 'And God said: Let there be' this or that thing, when at first all
things were established."1 Jerome thinks the same when he says: "He said
this, not in our way, by means of the sound of a bodily voice, but did it
through his only-begotten Word."2 Basil too suggests that the utterance of
God in the first creation of things in the world is just the movement of his
own will3. The Psalm suggests the same thing when, after inviting creation
to give praise, it gives the reason for giving praise when it says: "For he
spoke and they were made"4. The pronoun "he" is there to distinguish and
to exclude there being any sharer in the speaking and making through the
Word.
3. It is clear, then, from authority, that it was by the eternal Word
alone, the Word that God speaks eternally in virtue of his substance, that he
made all things in the beginning, and that he did not use the service of any
creature. This was most fittingly foreseen: that God should not make use of
the service of any creature in creating the world, but that he should make
use of the service of some creatures in the government and the propagation
of the world once created. For by this he has shown us both the greatness of
his power and the generosity of his goodness. If he had made use of the
service of a creature in creating, it could seem that he was lacking in power
to create the world on his own, and that he made use of the service of a
creature because he was in need of it. But since we know that to create out
of nothing is proper to the greatest power, and we understand that he
created all things out of nothing without the help of any service, we
know from this that he is almighty; and that if he makes use of the services
of created things in government and propagation, it is not because he is in
any need; but because, being generous and good, he grants a share in
government. He created, then, without making use of service, so that we
should recognise and go in awe of his exceedingly great power; and he has
seen fit to govern created things by making use of service, so that we may
recognise and love his most generous [20 1C] goodness.
Chapter II
1. So God said: that is: he begot the Word that is co-eternal with him.
The utterance of the Word is a begetting, and since it is one who begets and
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, IX, 2 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 269-70)

2 Cp. Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 16D)
4 Psalms, 32: 9
86 PART TWO
another who is begotten, you have here two persons, the Father and the
Son, clearly referred to: and above the spirit of God was referred to. Hence
the whole Trinity has now been referred to. The Father and the Son have
been referred to twice: once, when it was said above "In the beginning God
made", and now again when it says "God said". The Holy Spirit has been
referred to once, when it said "The Spirit of God moved over the waters".
Chapter III
1. This Word is co-eternal with the Father, since he is the shining of
the light, and the understanding begotten from the memory of one who is
always remembering in act, and the image from a mirror which is always
reflecting an image, and the Son of the eternal Father to whom no change
occurs, and "with whom there is no alteration or shadow of change"1.
2. Since, then, this Word is eternal, why is that which is made by this
Word not co-eternal with him? Augustine gives an answer to this question
when he says: "When we say 'when' or 'at some time' the words are words
of time. But the 'when' of 'when a thing should come to be' is a 'when' in
the Word of God, and eternal. A thing comes to be when it should come to
be. It is in that Word, that Word in whom there is no 'when' or 'at some
time', since that Word is wholly eternal."2 There is only one such Word,
only once uttered. By this Word the Father by a single, unrepeated
utterance, says himself, and the Son says himself and the Father, and the
Father and the Son say all things. Hence Augustine in the seventh book of
On the Trinity says: "The Father is speaking by the Word which he begot:
not by a word which is uttered and is heard and passes away, but by the
Word through whom all things were made, the Word who is equal to
himself, and by whom he says himself, forever and in an incommunicable
way."3 Also in the fifteenth book of On the Trinity he says: "The Father, as
if he were saying himself, begot the Word who is equal to him in all things.
He would not have said himself wholly and completely if there were
anything more or less in his Word than in himself."4 And a little later:
"Therefore, God the Father knows all things in himself, and knows all
things in the Son; but he knows them in himself as himself, and knows
them in the Son as his Word. This word is begotten from all the things that
are in himself. Likewise, the Son knows all things in himself, but as things
that are begotten from what the Father knows in himself; and he knows
them in the Father as things from which were begotten the things that the
Son knows in himself. The Father and the Son thus know each other, but
the Father knows by begetting, the Son by being begotten." And each of
1 James, 1: 17
2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, I, 2 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 6)
3 Augustine, De Trinitate, VII, i, 1 (PL, XLII, 933)
4 Augustine, De Trinitate, XV, xiv, 23 (PL, XLII, 1076)
CHAPTER II-IV 87
them "at one and the same time sees all things: there is nothing that either
does not always see"1 — and thus, nothing that each does not always say:
for this seeing is saying. He says the same in Commentary on John, 42: "If
the Son speaks the truth which he saw with the Father, he sees himself, and
speaks himself, since he himself is the truth of the Father, whom he saw
with the Father."2 "So God said, be light made; and light was made". This
is because the Word is himself a creative power. Hence Ambrose says: "He
did not say it in such a way that the action should follow, but rather, by
saying it he finished the business. Hence it was well said by David: 'He
said and they were made'3, because the utterance fulfilled the effects.4"
Nor would God be almighty if he did not carry out, by his utterance and his
word, what he says. Therefore, by the eternal Word he does all things.
Hence Augustine: "God does not do things by movements in time, as it
might be of his soul or his body, as angels and human beings do: he does
them by the eternal and unchangeable and stable concepts of his Word that
is co-eternal with him, and, if I may say so, by the warming of his equally
co-eternal Holy Spirit."5
Chapter IV
1 . Therefore light, which is now said to be made, according to the first
literal sense, is understood, as was said above, to be physical light. By the
illumination of this light the first and second and third days were made.
Each of those days had the length of twenty-four equinoctial hours, and
according to Bede and Jerome this physical light, which was first created,
had a position and a place in the higher parts of the world [201 D], parts in
which the sun is now located6. And that light went right around the earth,
from east to west, coming back to the east again in the period of twenty-
four equinoctial hours, just as now in a like period of time the sun goes
round the earth in its daily movement. And that light made the day by its
presence, and on the opposite side of the earth, its shadow made the night.
And in this way it divided the light and the darkness, just as the sun now
divides them. But, as Bede and Jerome say, the light of day was not as
bright as it is now7. That physical light gave the earth such illumination as
1 Augustine, De Trinitate, XV, xiv, 23 (PL, XLII, 1077)

2 Augustine, In loannis evangelium, XLII, 2 (PL, XXXV, 1700)
3 Psalms, 32: 9
6 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 18A); and Glossa ordinaria, on Genesis, 1: 4 (PL, CXIII,
71D)
7 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 23D); and Glossa ordinaria (PL, CXIII, 76D). (On this
attribution, as elsewhere, see J.T. Muckle, "Did Robert Grosseteste attribute the Hexaemeron
of St Venerable Bede to Jerome?", Mediaeval studies, XIII (1951), 243)
88 PART TWO
we normally get now before sunrise. That light also differed from the light
of the sun in this, that it had no power to warm or heat. And since there
were no stars yet, the nights of those three days were completely dark, as
the night is now when there is no shining from the stars.
2. But according to Basil day and night did not come to be in those first
three days by the circular motion of that bodily light around the earth.
Rather the sending out of illumination and shining from that light made the
day, and the being drawn back of that same illumination and shining made
the night. Hence Basil says: "At that time it was not by the movement of
the sun's body, but by the pouring out of the original light — now sent out,
now brought back, according to the divine command — that day was made
and night returned."1 John Damascene follows this view of Basil when he
says "Therefore in the first three days night and day were made by the
pouring out and drawing back of illumination at the divine command."2
3. Augustine in the first book of Literal commentary on Genesis,
dealing with this text, makes a number of objections to the world's having
been established successively over six days of time, and against both views
about the three days before the sun came into existence3. And there are,
indeed, quite a number of things that could apparently be reasonably
objected to in these views.
Chapter V
1 . We could ask Jerome, Bede and Basil and those who follow them,
whether that light came to be in an instant; and likewise, whether the
firmament was made all at once, and whether the same is true of the
gathering of the waters in one place, and the drawing out from the earth
of things that grow in the earth. And likewise, we can ask of the works of
the other following days whether they were done all at once or succes
sively. And if they were done successively, how long did it take for them to
be done? The whole day in which each of the works was performed, or a
lesser time? And I think that to this question these authorities would answer
that the light which made the first three days was made in an instant, all at
once. When this was done, the period of the first day had its beginning, and
there was no moment of that day that was prior to the perfection of that
light. They would also reply that the sun was made all at once, that is to
say, at the first instant of the fourth day. That instant was the beginning of
the fourth day and the end of the third day. The sun was not either perfect
or begun at any moment on the third day, but it nevertheless was perfect in
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 8, 1 (ed. cit., p. 28)

2 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXI, 2 (ed. cit., p. 85)
3 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 8 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 43-45)
CHAPTER IV-V 89
carrying out its movement for the whole period of the fourth day. This is
clear from the details of the text.
2. And perhaps we could reasonably conjecture, by means of a likeness
with these points, that the works of the rest of the six days were completed
all at once at the beginning of each day — although it might seem that the
gathering of the waters in one place was by means of movement of place or
condensation, and the sprouting of plants and their drawing forth to their
full size was by the movement of growth. Such movements cannot come
to be all at once, but can only occur with the succession of time. But
perhaps the authorities mentioned would reply that at the beginning they
did not occur by successive movements but by instantaneous change of
characteristics. [202A] After all, the first light and the sun were completed
by such instantaneous changes. For according to Augustine, who makes
this sort of objection to the successive establishment of the world, the
gathering of the waters and the sprouting of plants and their being brought
to their full size were done all at once. Hence he says in the first book of
Literal commentary on Genesis, on this text: "It should not be doubted that
this formless matter, which is nearly nothing at all, was made only by God
and by the things that were formed from it. It was co-created at the same
time as they were.1" Also he says the same in his On the marvels of divine
scripture2: "Though all created things are shown to us through the alter
nation of six days, this is not understood as a period of time; it shows the
interweaving of the works done. Afterwards the teller of the story separates
in what he says things that God did not separate in the completing of his
work." Augustine seems to hint at the same when he touches on this text in
the fifth and sixth books [of Literal commentary on Genesis], that is, that
God, at the beginning of time, created all at once and all together the
heaven and the earth and the stars, all complete in their kinds3. But things
that grow in the earth and animals and the first human beings he created at
the beginning of time, but not complete in their kinds: he created them all
together at that time in causal and seminal reasons4. Then, in the movement
of time, after seven days that were all together and all at once completed in

2 Pseudo-Augustine, De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae, I, 1 (PL, XXXV, 2152)
3 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, V, 4 and VI, 11 (CSEL, XXVIII.l, 142-145, 183-185)
4 "Seminal reasons" is a term taken over by Augustine from Stoic cosmology. They were
like the substantial forms of Aristotelian philosophy, and made things to be what they are. As
seen here, they could have a mode of existence that was independent of the things whose
"seminal reasons" they were, in the same way as a seed exists independently of the plant
which it is to grow into. Everything contained the seminal reasons of whatever it could
become.
90 PART TWO
the knowledge of the angels, he formed plants, animals and the first human
beings, into their complete forms.
3. Another objection to the authorities mentioned, is that [on their
account] day does not come before night during those three days, though
the text of Scripture does say that day went before. For if, as Jerome and
Bede say, that light rotated around the earth as the sun now does, it would
be at one and the same time day and night and evening and morning. This is
so if you consider only the relation [of the light] to the world without
qualification: just as now, if you only consider the relation [of light] to the
world, without qualification, every hour is daytime where the sun is
present, and every hour is night at the opposite side of the world where
the sun is absent; and every hour is morning where the sun is rising, and
every hour is evening in the place opposite, on which the sun is setting. So
in relation to the world, without qualification, it cannot be said that the day
comes before the night, or evening comes before the morning, or vice-
versa. Therefore day's coming before night does not exist relative to the
world without qualification, but only relative to some marked individual
place in the world. But in those three days that the authorities mentioned
propose, there was no part of the world that had greater value than any
other, such that light should be created first in the hemisphere that it is in,
since no part of the world was yet dwelt in by a human being or by any
animal, or was adorned by any thing that grows in the earth. Nor was God,
either, in one part of the world rather than the other, since God is every
where. Rather, the whole earth, on all sides, was covered by a homo
geneous dark confusion of the deep. To this objection, which Augustine
makes, the authorities mentioned offered a solution, which Augustine also
gives: that the light was made in the hemisphere belonging to that part of
the world which human beings were to dwell in. The reason why that part
was more worthy of receiving the first light was that it was already laid
down by providence as being the dwelling-place of the human race. Also,
by receiving the first light that part was made of more value than the other
parts. It was in that part, and not in the world, without qualification, that
day came before night during those three days, and evening came before
morning. It is also objected to these authorities that the successive move
ment of this light was useless [202B], since there were no plants or animals
yet to be warmed by this light or to see it. Nor was there need for that light
in order to prepare some matter so that the things that were to follow might
be made, since in the first establishment of things God only spoke by the
Word and things were made, as we said above. He did not make use of the
service of a creature or the help of anything that made preparation. But to
this objection we can reply that there are countless things of whose use we
are ignorant, but which we do not doubt are useful. Hence it does not
CHAPTER V 91
follow that the successive circling of the light was useless, just because we
do not know what special usefulness it had. In any case, perhaps the
authorities mentioned did know what the use of it was. People also object
to them, why was the sun made afterwards, if that light was enough to bring
about day and night? But this is resolved by what was said above by the
authorities mentioned1, that the light of those three days was less than the
light of the sun now is, and that light did not have the power to heat and
warm that the sun now has.
4. Against the sending out and the drawing back of the illumination,
which Basil and John Damascene hint at, Augustine objects that there
seems to be no cause for this sending out and drawing back of the
illumination during those three days: nor is it easy to find an example
"by which we can prove [the possibility of] this kind of sending out and
drawing back of light, to bring about the alternation of day and night."2 But
it does seem that these authorities could find an example of this kind of
sending out and drawing back of illumination, in the case in which
darkness covered Egypt for three days. At that time the sun, which was
in our inhabitable hemisphere, sent out its rays of light into the land of
Goshen and other inhabitable lands of that sort, but at the same time drew
back the rays of the same light from the land of Egypt3. It seems also, that
at the passion of our Lord the darkness that was "over the whole earth from
the sixth hour until the ninth hour"4 came about through the drawing back
of the rays of the sun: unless, indeed, someone wants to say that at that time
the sun was indeed darkened in itself and deprived of light. But you cannot
say this of the three days' darkness in Egypt.
5. Also, if three things were made at the beginning — i.e. heaven,
earth, and water, complete according to their kind, Augustine asks why
Scripture does not say "God said, Let heaven and earth and water be
made", as it does say "God said: Let light be made" and "Let there be
a firmament", and so on for the other works of the six days5. For Scripture
meant to hint, by giving us the full words of the speaker, the full formation
of the thing that was said by the words. Hence, in virtue of the words of
Scripture, there is a clear hint of the first creation of formless matter from
nothing, and afterwards, of the ordered completion of the formless matter
of the world through species. This is not because formless matter was prior
in time to formed things, since matter cannot exist on its own without form:
1 See above, II, iv, 1

3 Cp. Exodus, 10: 22
4 Matthew, 27: 45
92 PART TWO
rather, it is because matter in nature comes before the thing formed out of
matter. This is the same as voice's being the matter of words: "words"
means formed voice. It is not that someone who speaks first lets out a
formless voice, which he can then catch and form into words. In the same
way, according to Augustine, God the Creator did not first make formless
matter and then afterwards, as if by an afterthought, by the ordering of some
natures or other, form it; no, he created it by forming it and he formed it by
creating it. And thus, as Augustine himself says1, all things were co-created
together, according to what Scripture says: "He that liveth for ever created
all things together"2. But you should be aware that Augustine [202C] did
not insist on this: he was only trying here to give a plausible reasoning. In
other writings of his he seems rather to agree with a successive creation of
the world.
6. Whatever we may have said above about whether the world was
established successively, as Bede, Jerome and Basil thought, or whether it
was made all at once, as Augustine tries to argue in his commentary on this
passage in Literal commentary on Genesis, it is nevertheless true that
Augustine is right when he interprets the turning around of the six days
in the mind of the angels as having taken place all at once.
Chapter VI
1. "Earth" and "water" and "the deep" also mean formless first
matter, and the light established on the first day means the nature of the
angels, turned back to the Creator by the summoning of the eternal Word,
and formed by this turning back. This nature, in its natural condition, in
relation to this turning back, was formless. That it is said "Let there be" is
to be related, according to all the interpretations, to that character in which
all things subsisted in the eternal Word before they existed in themselves.
That it is said "and light was made" is to be related to that character by
which all things came to be in themselves. The vision of God, by which
"he saw the light that it was good" is his good pleasure, by which he was
pleased at the goodness of the light that he had made. For there are many
people who are pleased that something should be made; but when it is made
it rather displeases them. God is not like that. When it pleases him that
something should be made, that thing also pleases him when it is made. So
he said that it should be made, and he saw that it should remain once made:
or, "he saw it" means that he made it to be seen by us. For he does what we
do in him and what he does in us. The goodness of a thing consists in the
action on account of which the thing has been specially made, and in the
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 33 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 133)

2 Ecclesiasticus, 18: 1
CHAPTER V-VI 93
usefulness of that action, in an ordering both towards that thing itself and
towards others, and indeed towards the universe as a whole. Hence, the
goodness of each of the works of each of the days was to show forth the
special natures of the special works of each day, and their natural actions
and functions, and to bring out the beauty of their ordering towards the
universe. That this feat is highly difficult and inexplicable, I will not try to
disguise. Basil and Ambrose sweated away over explaining the natures of
things created on each of the six days, and to the best of their ability
showed forth the goodness of their creator: but many have thought that
their aim in writing all that was rather to show off how learned they were in
the natures of things.
2. "And God saw the light that it was good". That is, he was pleased
with the usefulness, beauty and ordering of created light. "And he divided
the light from the darkness": that is, he distinguished the formed from the
unformed. This does not mean that he put the formed on one side and the
unformed on another, while the thing itself remained in its unformedness: a
thing itself, in so far as it is formed, is by nature distinct from that which is
in itself unformed, even though the unformed never exists according to an
act of existence. Now, that which is light, considered in the fullness of its
formation, is day when considered in relation to its usefulness. Thus it
follows that he called the light "day": the thing that he had made to exist in
its own right by forming it, he gave an ordering to, relative to the universe,
through its useful act and use. By this ordering he made it knowable and
nameable. The thing which he named "light" in virtue of the form through
which it exists, he named "day" in virtue of the ordering and use through
which it is useful and good. God does not only give an ordering to things
which have an essence, but also to defects and privations, and brings their
lack of ordering into an ordering, and even gives a good ordering to evil
and a fair ordering to foulness, and makes something good and useful out
of anything bad. So he also gave an ordering to that real formlessness that
is called darkness, an ordering that is good [202D] and fitting and useful.
Relative to this ordering, what is in its own right called darkness is called
"night". Evening is the ending of the work completed; morning is the
beginning of the work that is to come. Skipping over the consideration of
different concepts and meanings in the names of "light" and "day", and of
"darkness" and "night", we can say without any qualification that light
and day are the formed thing or the forming of the thing; while night and
darkness are a thing's lacking or being deprived of its form. Every creature
has this privation, either actually or potentially. For every forming is by
nature preceded by the privation of the form, and in every thing that is
formed there is by nature a possibility of ceasing with regard to that form.
Things that last for ever without ceasing do so by the grace and will of
94 PART TWO
the creator, not from the character they have by nature. Therefore the
name "night" means the privation that precedes form, and the possibility
of ceasing in a thing already formed, and the ceasing of things that do
cease.
Chapter VII
1. There is another way of understanding "evening" and "morning".
For the first light, according to Augustine, as we have said, is the nature of
the angels turning back to God, and being made like to God by this turning
back to him1. In this likeness to God there is a sort of light and day, after
the darkness of the negation of their existence, and after the darkness of
privation that by nature preceded this light of their likeness to God. These
things were like "darkness over the face of the deep". In this light and day
the nature of the angels knew the Creator, and knew itself in its creative
concept in the divine mind. The evening of this first day, then, after the
light of the knowledge we have spoken of, is a sort of more obscure
knowledge of its own nature in itself, by which it knows that it is not
God. But when after this more obscure knowledge of itself in itself, it
returns to praising the light that is God, by the contemplation of which it is
formed, and in which light it perceives the firmament that was to be
created, morning comes. This, as it were, puts an end to the first day of
nature and begins the second day. The second day, then, is the angel's
remaining in its knowledge of the firmament in virtue of the creative
concept in the divine mind. The evening of this light comes when the
angel knows the firmament, not in virtue of the Word of God, as it did
before, but in virtue of its own nature. This knowledge is a lesser know
ledge, and is correctly called evening. "After this was the morning which
ended the second day and began the third. In that morning there is a turning
back of this light — that is, of this day — in order to praise God for having
wrought the firmament, and in order to receive from his Word the know
ledge of the creature that was to be established after the firmament. And so
on, for all the others until the morning after the evening of the sixth day. For
there is a great difference between the knowledge of a thing in the Word of
God and the knowledge of it in its nature. The former rightly belongs to day
and morning, the latter to evening and night. For in relation to that light
which is seen in the Word of God, any knowledge which we have of any
creature in itself can rightly be called night and evening. But again, this
latter is so different from the error or ignorance of those who do not even
know creatures, that in relation to that it can fittingly be called day."2
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 22-23 (CSEL, XXVIII.l, 121-123)

2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 22-23 (CSEL, XXVIII.l, 121-123)
CHAPTER VI-VIII 95
Therefore this circling round from morning to morning in the knowledge

of the angels is by nature a day. But these days have no temporal succes
sion, and the seven days which are here recorded did not follow one
another in time, but existed all together in the knowledge of the angels.
That is why day and night and evening and morning are together [203A].
But they have a before and an after according to their nature: just as the
shining of the sun travels all at once, and at one and the same time lights up
the nearer places and the farther places; but nevertheless by nature it lights
up the nearer places first.
2. The division of light and darkness can also be understood as the
angels that did not fall and the angels that fell. God saw the light, that it
was good: that is, he saw the nature of the angels turned back to him in the
angels that did not fall, and he ordered the light that had turned back to him
to have a reward and a confirmation of their blessedness. But the fallen
angels, who had become dark by the privation of the light that they had
abandoned, he ordered to eternal and unremitting punishment. Therefore he
divided the light and the darkness according to the way in which they
deserved different retribution. He also divided them by giving them
different places that fitted their retributions. He appointed for the angels
that did not fall a dwelling place in the heaven of light, and the repose of
blessedness. But for the fallen angels he appointed this dark air, to be shut
up there for all the length of forever, in the prison of hell.
Chapter VHI
1 . No-one should think that the creation of the angels has been skipped
over in the works of the six days. Their creation and coming to complete
ness is expressed perfectly appropriately in these six days by the establish
ment of light. There is no omission of the establishment of any thing in
these days. This is made very clear by the concluding passage which the
lawmaker gives us: "God saw all the things that he had made, and they
were very good"1; and, a little further on: "On the seventh day God rested
from the work which he had made"2. From this it is clear that on the
seventh day he ceased from establishing natures. Therefore the nature of
the angels had already been established. Nor was it established before the
heaven and the earth, since it was in the beginning that he established the
heaven and the earth. Therefore the nature of the angels was created among
the works of the six days. That the nature of the angels is the work of God
is shown by the hymn of the three young men3 and the 148th Psalm. Now,
1 Genesis, 1: 31
2 Genesis, 2: 2
3 Daniel, 3: 51-90
96 PART TWO
whatever was created on any of the six days is included in the words of
creation of that day. God is said here to have seen only the things which
were shown as created by the earlier words. For he saw all the things that
he had made. Therefore the creation of all things is related here. That the
angels belong to the work of the first day, is clear from the words of Job on
Behemoth: "He is the beginning of the ways of God", or, as another
translation has it, "This is the first of the moulding of God"1. God's
moulding means his making, and his ways mean his actions. The beginning
of his ways, therefore, is the first of his creatures.
2. The light which is established, then, means in the first sense the
visible light that went on through the first three days in a temporal way. In
the second sense it means the nature of the angels, turned back to the
contemplation of God. In the third sense the establishment of light can be
taken to mean the bringing of formless matter to forming. For every form is
a kind of light and the manifestation of the matter that it forms, as Paul
says: "All that is made manifest is light"2.
Chapter IX
1 . In a spiritual sense: light is made both in the church and in any holy
soul when its rational knowledge rises up to the contemplation of the
Trinity through a contemplation which is stripped of images, or to the
theoretical consideration of intellectual and incorporeal creatures through
the intellect; or, again, to the knowledge of those things that are laid down
and cared for in time by faith, for the salvation of the human race. The
darkness means when there is an obscuring of the understanding of divine
things, or of the understanding of spiritual things, or of faith in the
sacraments that exist in time, through ignorance or error. And this light
is divided [203B] from this darkness, and it gets the names of day and light
in a way similar to the way dealt with above, when we commented on the
division of light from darkness as being the distinction between the thing as
formed and the same thing as formless.
2. In the same way as "light" is understood to mean the knowledge of
the truth, with regard to the glance3 of the mind, in just that way it is
understood as the love of the known truth in the desire4 of the mind. And
darkness means the vicious lack of ordering of love. Also, in an allegorical
sense, the light is the wise and spiritual prelates of the church, who shine
with the knowledge of the truth, with love, and with the outward shining of
1 Job, 40: 14
2 Ephesians, 5: 13
3 Aspectus
4 Affectus
CHAPTER VIII-X 97
good works. The darkness is their subjects who are wrapped in the darkness
of ignorance, and are animal and carnal. Also light comes to be when the
fleshly sense of Scripture breaks through into the spiritual sense: it is as if
light then shines out in the darkness, when the historical and fleshly sense
of Scripture becomes bright by moving into a spiritual understanding.
3. Also, the establishment of light can be understood as the forming of
our first parent in a state of grace in paradise: darkness and night and
evening, as his fall from the grace he had received and the damaging by
this fall of the natural goods with which he had been established. Morning
can be understood as his return to grace through penance. Likewise, in the
baptized the establishment of light is when by that sacrament they put on
the Lord Jesus Christ and become light in the Lord, though before they
were, in their own right, darkness. And those who fall away from the grace
of baptism by sin, fall, as it were, through evening into the darkness of
night. Those among them who return through penance, receive the renewed
light of morning.
4. Also the establishment of light is the vision of the truth through
contemplation, the evening is descent to action, and the morning is return
to contemplation.
5. In all these ways of understanding the text it is easy, from what has
been said above, to understand what is the division of light and darkness,
and what is the calling of them "day" and "night".
Chapter X
1 . And since by the goodness of the light that God saw we understand
its usefulness and its good use, that it carries out in the universe in virtue of
its natural properties, we will say a little about the properties of physical
light. From this it should be possible to understand the properties of the
things that are mystically signified by physical light. The nature of light is
such that it multiplies itself in all directions1. It has what I might call a self-
generativity of its own substance. For of its nature light multiplies itself in
all directions by generating itself, and it generates all the time that it exists.
For this reason it fills the place around it all at once: the light which is by
nature first generates the light that follows it, and the light that is generated
at the same time comes to be, and exists, and generates the light that next
follows it, and the following light does the same for the light that follows it:
and so on. That is why in one instant one point of light can fill a whole
sphere with light. If light moved by local motion, as some have imagined,
1 What follows, as far as the end of chapter X, is a paraphrase of Grosseteste's own work De
luce, ed. Baur, pp. 51-59. There are also frequent parallels to passages in his De operatione
solis, ed. McEvoy.
98 PART TWO
the lighting up of dark places would have to be successive, not all at once.
And perhaps it is because light is self-generative by its nature, that it is also
self-manifesting. Perhaps its self-generativity is its manifestability. Light,
too, according to Augustine, is the most subtle of all things of a bodily
nature1. Thus it is most like to the soul, which is, without qualification,
non-bodily. For this reason it is, as it were, the first instrument of the soul
when it acts through a body: through moving this first instrument first it
moves other things that are grosser. Light is therefore the instrument of the
soul in sensing [203C] through the senses of the body: "At first it is on its
own and pure, as it is diffused through the eyes, and flashes out in rays to
catch sight of visible things. Then it is mixed in some way with pure air,
then secondly with dark and cloudy air, thirdly with the more gross liquid,
fourthly with the thickness of earth, and makes the five senses, together
with the sense of the eyes where it stands out alone." Light, then, is that by
which the soul acts in all the senses, and is that which acts as an instrument
in all of them. According to Augustine in the second book of On free will
light is a body and holds the first place among bodies2. And in the Letter to
Volusianus Augustine, speaking of the vain understanding that some people
have of God, says "The sense of the human being exists simply to grasp the
bodies of things that have power: whether they are grosser, as liquid and
earth are, or more subtle such as air and light, they are still bodies."3 And a
little later in the same letter he says: "Two liquids are mixed so that neither
keeps its own character: though, even among bodies, light is mixed with air
without being corrupted."4 From these remarks it is clear that Augustine
reckons light among the bodies.
2. John Damascene says that light is a quality of fire, and that since it
is always generated by fire it does not have its own "hypostasis", that is,
existence in its own right5. Again, in the same book of Opinions he says:
"Fire just is light, some say"6. Since we believe that the two opinions of
the two authorities are both true and are compatible, we say that "light"
must have two senses: it means a bodily substance which is very subtle and
close to non-bodiliness, a substance which is by nature self-generative; and
it means an accidental quality that proceeds from the natural generative
action of the substance of light. The ceaseless movement of the generative
action is the quality of a substance that generates itself ceaselessly. For
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, XII, 16 (CSEL, XXVII. 1, 401), and pseudo-Augustine,

De spiritu et anima, XXII (PL, XL, 795)
2 Augustine, De libero arbitrio, III, 58 (CSEL, LXXIV, 103)
3 Augustine, Letters, CXXXVII, ii, 4 (CSEL, XLIV, 100-101)
4 Augustine, Letters, CXXXVII, iii, 11 (CSEL, XLIV, 110)
5 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, VIII, 6 (ed. cit. p. 34)
6 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXI, 1 (ed. cit. p. 84)
CHAPTER X 99
movement is in the category of quality, as is repose. Light is also, as

Augustine said, the queen of colours since it brings them into existence
by being embodied and moving them by being shone on to them1. For
colour is a light embodied in a clear liquid. This colour cannot generate its
likeness in the air because it is slowed down by its embodiment, but when
light is shone on to it, it moves it to the act of generating its likeness in the
air. Without light, therefore, all bodies are hidden and unknown. Hence
John Damascene says: "Take away the light and everything will be left
unknown in the dark, since they cannot show their own shapeliness."2
Light is therefore the beauty and the adornment of every visible creature.
And, as Basil says, "Light is that one of all created natures such that the
thought of mortals cannot reach up to enjoy anything more pleasant."3
3. "The first utterance of the Lord made the nature of light and
scattered the darkness, rid us of sadness, and at once brought forth every
pleasant and happy appearance."4
4. Light is beautiful in itself, since "its nature is simple and in every
way homogeneous"5: therefore it is united with itself to a very high degree,
and most harmoniously proportioned to itself by its equality. Harmony in
proportion is what beauty is: hence even without the shapes of bodies light
is beautiful, by its own harmonious proportion, and is most pleasing to the
sight. That is why gold, without any carved decoration, is beautiful:
because of its sparkling shine. And the stars seem very beautiful to the
sight, though they do not show us any elegance in the arrangement of their
parts or the proportion of their shapes, simply because they shine with
light. As Ambrose says: [203D] "The nature of light is such that there is all
grace in its appearance: not in its size, or dimensions, or weight, as happens
in other things. It is light that makes the other things of the world worthy of
praise."6 And, as Augustine says, when light stretches out its rays from the
lights of the world to the earth, even though these rays pass through
unclean media they are not defiled7. It travels in a straight line, and never
moves in a curve: and it travels the longest line all at once. And it has such
great power that without any delay of time, all at once, it fills all things.
The reason for this we hinted at above; and Basil, Ambrose and Augustine,
in their books On the six days of creation, in dealing with this text of
Genesis, are witnesses to the fact. Also, light is reflected from the surfaces
1 Augustine, Confessions, X, xxxiv, 51 (CSEL, XXXIII. 1, 265)

5 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 7, 10 (ed. cit. p. 27-28)
7 Not traced.
100 PART TWO
of polished bodies at equal angles, and it presents before us everywhere the

forms and images of bodily things: and what is by substance in one place it
multiplies and puts everywhere by form and image. It is the most restful
dwelling place of the angels and the saints, as Basil says, where it is
diffused above the first heaven; and, of all bodily things, it gives the
clearest example to show us the most high Trinity . That is why God,
who is light, fittingly began the works of the six days with light, because its
worth is so great.
5. The fitting of these properties of light to the spiritual meanings we
leave for the present to the diligence of the reader, though, with God's help
we will have a chance to say something about these things according to the
spiritual interpretation later on.
Chapter XI
1. We ask here, why at the end it adds "one day" and not "the first
day". "The first day" would be more suitable, as "the second" and "the
third" follow. According to the historical sense there are many reasons for
this. One is that the night and the day that are made by art should be shown
to be one natural day: and also that night gives way to the power of day and
light, which is what makes both night and day. For light, which makes day
by its presence, casts and shapes a shadow from the earth on the other side.
And night just is the shadow of the earth, cast on the other side of the earth,
by the light that makes day. Night, then, gives way to the effective power
and the unity of day.
2. Another reason is so that, every day together with its night, be it
summer or winter, should be shown to be identical in length of sensible
time, in the time it takes to come back to sunrise again, and so that the one,
first, natural day should be given an identical and uniform period. For all
natural days, in accordance with the equal and uniform movement of the
sun (which the astronomers call the "middle movement" of the sun), are
identical with each other. But in accordance with another movement of the
sun, and in accordance with the different seasons of the rising of different
constellations, there are natural days with different lengths. But because we
cannot sense the difference between them, we say without qualification that
all natural days are equal to one another. This unity of equality in all things
is hinted at when it says "one day", and not "the first day", even though
the second day and the third day follow.
3. The third reason is, that by this it is hinted that other days are just a
repetition of this first day.
4. The fourth reason is that in the word "one" there is a hint that the

CHAPTER X-XI 101
succession of the day is its turning back on itself in a circle. For going
round in a circle is a kind of making one [204A] that has no beginning or
end. These are reasons that Basil hints at. But Augustine, in the eleventh
book of The City of God adds an account of this that fits his explanation of
the light as being the nature of the angels turned back to God. He says "If
the angels belong to the works of God of these days, then they are that light
that was given the name of 'day'. And in order to commend the unity of
this nature, it does not say 'first day' but 'one day'. Not that the second or
third or other days are anything else. That one is repeated to fill up the
number of six or of seven, because of that nature's sixfold or sevenfold
knowledge" 1 by participation in the eternal light, which is the only-begotten
Son of God.
1 Augustine, The City of God, XI, 9 (CSEL, XL.l, 524)

Part Three
Chapter I
1 . And God said, let there be a firmament made. About the Word of
God by which God said "let there be a firmament made", and by which he
said "Let there be" the other things that follow, and about his good
pleasure by which he saw that it was good, and about the evening and
the morning, I do not need to deal again in a similar way. But I will say
here, to remind you, that God did not say "Let there be" as many times as
Scripture repeats it. This is because God the Father begot one Word, in
whom he said everything once, at one time. Through this Word each thing
was made. But Scripture, which is kind towards little children, reminds us
more than once of God's single utterance, because the minds of little
children do not understand at one grasping of it that God by his single
Word spoke and made everything. They grasp by one grasping that God
made one thing by his Word, and they grasp by another grasping that God
by his Word made something else. So this repetition in Scripture of God's
speaking does not suggest the repetition of the divine utterance, but the
repeated grasping by the minds of the weak of God's single utterance, and
their incapacity to grasp by one grasping the one utterance of God that
worked many things.
Chapter II
1. Some people think that by "the firmament" here we should under
stand the air, since the air is often called the heaven, as when it is said "the
birds of heaven"1, or again, "The heaven gave rain"2, or when it is said
that thunder comes to be in the heaven, or when the Lord says in the Gospel
"You know how to discern the face of heaven"3. The reason these people
have for saying that the air should be understood here under the name of
"firmament" is that the firmament here named divides the upper waters
from the lower. But the starry firmament, they say, cannot have any waters
above it: only the air, where the birds fly, has waters above it, waters
suspended in a vaporous state, that are often gathered together in clouds
1 E.g. at Genesis, 1: 30
2 E.g. at James, 5: 18, John, 12: 29
3 Luke, 12: 56. Cp. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 4 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 37)
CHAPTERS I-III 103
and rainwater. That there cannot be waters above the starry heaven they try
to prove from the weight that water has, and from the place that is
appointed for this element by nature. The more proper and natural place
for this element is close to the earth and above it, since it is next in weight
to earth: lighter than earth, but heavier than air and fire. Hence it is heavier
than any body that belongs to the heavens. Hence, just as air put in water
tends upwards and air put into the higher sphere of fire tends and moves
downwards, how very much more so would water put above the body of
heaven (that is more subtle than fire) move downwards and be unable to
stay there? Augustine thinks that the work that went into this consideration
is praiseworthy, because speaking in this way [204B] about the firmament
and about heaven is not contrary to the faith: and he briefly puts forward
the evidence that shows that air is called "heaven"1.
Chapter III
1. However, in his own opinion, and in that of other commentators, the
word "firmament" is more correctly understood to mean the heaven in
which the stars are placed, above which waters are truthfully said to be.
Augustine tries to show that this is not improbable2: for if the waters which
we see can be divided into so many very small particles and be made so
subtle and — by the power of heat being impressed into them, or by some
other means — can made so light as to be suspended above our air in the
clouds, in a vaporous state, by parity of reason the same waters, divided up
into yet smaller particles, with greater subtlety and lightness, in proportion
as the place above the firmament is higher than the place of the clouds, can
be suspended up there. And if the power which makes them subtle and
lightens them is a permanent and enduring power, then they can stay up
there constantly.
2. And as a proof that there are waters above the firmament, there
seems to be the coldness of the star Saturn. This star, because of its
position, above that of the six other planets, and because of the movement
which it derives from the movement of heaven from east to west, which is
swifter than that of the others, ought to be hotter than the others, if its heat
were not cooled by the waters that are above it. For the coldness which
these waters have by nature seems to be mixed with the heating power of
this star: just as we see that when you put two bodies next to each other,
one hot and the other freezing, the air between them derives less heat from
the hot body, because of the proximity of the freezing body, and it derives
less cold from the freezing body because of the proximity of the hot body.
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 4 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 37)

104 PART THREE
That is, the active powers of both the bodies are mixed, and each power is
diminished in its action by its mixing with the other.
3. But some have thought that the nature of water is suspended above
the firmament, not in virtue of vapourous thinness, but in virtue of icy
solidity. After all, the crystal stone, which is of great solidity and great
transparency, is made from water by freezing: so it should not be surprising
that up there the upper waters should be solidified in one great crystal1.
And whether each part of that crystal is heavy or light, since its mid-point
is at the centre of the earth, to which all heavy things tend, and away from
which all light things tend, the whole crystal must necessarily be balanced
motionlessly by its own tendencies and be established on its own stability:
just as the earth, by its weight, is balanced and established on its own
stability. For if a thing has no heaviness or lightness, then clearly it must
not move either up or down.
4. Moreover, let us suppose that those waters are heavy and liquid.
There is no necessity that forces them to flow downwards, as, according to
the philosophers, the body of heaven can neither be rarefied nor condensed;
nor is it divisible by the penetration of any other body. Nor does anything
force those waters to flow in any direction over the firmament, since the
outer surface of the firmament is at all points equidistant from the centre of
the earth. It is a smooth sphere, and no point is lower than any other.
5. But, why do we seek for nature in these things? as Ambrose would
say2. Since the origin of nature is the word of God, it is God's right to give
a law to nature, since he gave it its origin. Since he acts because he is
powerful and is power, "why do you wonder that above the firmament
[204C] of heaven water can be suspended by an action of such great
majesty? You can gather it from other examples, from things which human
eyes have seen, as when at the crossing of the Jews the waters were
divided. Ask the reason for that happening! It does not happen naturally,
that water should divide itself from water and in the midst of the deeps
where water flows land should be separated. 'The flowing water stood', it
says3, and the spirits of the firmament held back their flow at their usual
limit. Could God not have freed the people of the Hebrews in some other
way? But he wanted to show you, so that by beholding that sight you might
judge that you should believe even things that you have not seen. The river
Jordan, too, reversed its flow and went back to its source. It is not usual for
flowing water to stop: for it to flow back up again without any dam is
thought to be impossible. But what is impossible to the one who gave
1 See below, IV, xv, 1

2 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, II, 3, 10-11 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 49)
3 Exodus, 15: 8
CHAPTERS III-V 105
power to whoever he wanted? Or to the one who gave power to weak

nesses, so that a weak man might say 'I can do all things in him who
strengtheneth me?' . It is extremely easy to believe that just as the Lord
made the waters of the Red Sea and the river Jordan to stand still for a time
as in a vessel2, against the usual run of nature, so also he may do things that
remain for ever against and above the usual run of nature.
6. But what is the point of repeating all these different opinions, since
they cannot all be true together? Well, for this reason: that we may know
the possible ways in which it may come about that there really are waters
located above the firmament, and may be able to give an answer to those
who try to prove that there cannot be any waters above the heavens, and
show to them that there are several ways in which what Scripture says may
be true. The holy commentators wrote these things not so much in order to
assert one of them as true, as to show what possible ways there are for what
Scripture says to be true.
7. But as Augustine says, "However it may be that those waters are
there, and of whatever kind they may be, let us not have the slightest doubt
that they are there. The authority of this text of scripture is greater than that
of all the power of human ingenuity."3
Chapter IV
1 . According to Augustine the firmament is so called not because of its
fixed position, as some think, but because of the firmness of its unalterable
essence — unalterable until a new heaven and a new earth come to be4. Or
because it is an uncrossable frontier for the waters. Or as Basil says: "The
name of 'firmament' does not mean hard and strong nature, which is held
up by some support and weight. For if it did the earth would far better
deserve the name. It is because it is the substance of higher things, which is
thought to be subtle and fine and not graspable by any of the senses, that it
is called the firmament: that is, in relation to the lighter bodies, which we
are not able to reach with our sight or our touch."5
Chapter V
1 . This firmament is also called the heaven — though by an anticipa
tion of what comes afterwards — since it was to be adorned and engraved
with stars6. Or, according to Basil, it is called the heaven "because of our
1 Philippians, 4: 13
2 Psalms, 77: 13
5 Basil, Hexaemeron, III, 7, 2 (ed. cit. p. 40)
6 There is a play here on "caelum", heaven, and "caelatum", engraved. See Bede, De
orthographia, s.v. caelo (PL, XC, 130)
106 PART THREE
looking"1, which is clearer from the Greek etymology. The word he uses
for heaven is oupavoq, oyranos, dno too dpaaGai, apo toy orasthe, that is,
from seeing. Or, according to John Damascene: oopavo? is from 6pa a'v®,
ora ano, that is, he looks up2. Or "caelum", heaven, from hiding, celando,
since it covers everything, or from "casa rfkiov, elioy" , that is, the house
of the sun3.
Chapter VI
1. What the nature of this heaven is, and how many are the heavens
that are contained within this one heaven that is called the firmament —
that is stretched out in extent from the lowest wanderings of the moon right
up to above the fixed stars where the upper waters are placed — many have
made extremely careful investigations. But I do not know whether any of
them have found out the truth. [204D] Or if they have perhaps found it, I do
not know whether any of them have grasped that they had found the truth
with any true and certain reasoning. For the philosophers write things about
this that are incompatible. For some of them say that there are only four
elements, and that the whole which we call the firmament is of the nature of
fire. Plato in the Timaeus seems to be of this opinion4. And Augustine, in a
number of places, seems to agree5. And John Damascene openly suggests
in his book of Opinions that the immaterial body, which the Greek savants
call the fifth body, cannot exist6. But others, like Aristotle and his
followers, argue for a fifth kind of body, over and above the four elemen
tary natures7. To put down these discussions and arguments here would
drag this out too long and would bore the listeners, and it does not seem
particularly necessary for what I mean to do.
2. John Damascene says: "Then" — i.e. after the highest heaven
which contains everything — "God called the heaven 'firmament', the
heaven which he commanded to come to be in the midst of the waters, so
ordering it as to separate, by coming in their midst, the waters that were
above the firmament; and, also by coming in their midst, the waters that
were below the firmament. Saint Basil says that the nature of this is as
subtle as smoke: he was taught this by the divine Scripture. Others" John
says, say that its nature is watery, since "it came to be in the midst of the
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, III, 8, 2 (ed. cit. p. 41-42)

2 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XX, 8 (ed. cit. p. 82)
3 Bede, De orthographia, s.v. caelo (PL, XC, 130)
4 Plato, Timaeus, 32b-32c
5 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram. III, 4; Enarrationes in Psalmos, VI, 5; De libero
arbitrio, III, 5; Sermon 147, 6
7 Aristotle, De caelo, I, 2 (268b)
CHAPTERS V-VII 107
waters. Others say it is made of the four elements; others, of the fifth body"
as was said above1. John also says "We should not ask after the substance
of heaven: it exists, though unknown by us."2
Chapter VII
1. And he adds: "Let no-one think that the heavens or the lights of
heaven have souls. They are soulless and senseless. This is why, even if
Scripture says, 'Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad'3, what it
does is call to rejoicing those who are in heaven — the angels — and those
who are on earth — human beings."4 This is the view of John Damascene
on the heaven and the firmament, though he was well aware how much
effort the philosophers had spent on proving that the heavens had souls.
Some of them thought that there was one soul for all the ensouled heavens,
others that each had a different one. Some thought that the heavens were
moved, not by a soul that was joined to them in the unity of an individual,
but by an intelligence, or intelligences, that could not be united with a body
in the unity of a person. Augustine in the Enchiridion says: "But I do not
even hold it as certain, that the sun and the moon and all the stars belong to
the fellowship of the angels. Some have thought that they were bodies that
shine, not with any sense or intelligence."5 He suggests here that if they are
ensouled, they belong to the fellowship of the angels. But in his book of
Retractations he says: "That this world is an animal, as Plato6 and many
other philosophers thought, I have not been able to find out by any certain
reasoning, nor have I found it to be something of which one can be
convinced by the authority of the divine scriptures. Hence what I said to
this effect, which can also be found in the book On the immortality of the
soul, I have marked as a rash statement. This is not because I now confirm
that it is false, but because I cannot grasp it as true, that the world is an
animal."7 Jerome thinks that the heaven and the heavenly bodies are not
ensouled, and counts among the heresies of Origen that he said that the sun
and the moon and the other heavenly bodies are animals8. Since on this
subject of the nature of the heavens, and of the movers of the heavens, and
of the moving powers they have, so many philosophers and authorities have
1 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XX, 2 (ed. cit. pp. 78-9)

2 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XX, 10 (ed. cit. p. 83)
3 Psalms, 95: 11
4 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XX, 1 1 (ed. cit. p. 83)
5 Augustine, Enchiridion, LVIII, 15 (PL, XL, 260)
6 Plato, Timaeus, 30b
7 Augustine, Retractationes, I, x, 4 (CSEL, XXXVI, 55)
8 Jerome, Letters, CXXIV, 4 (CSEL, LVI, 99-100) and Contra loannem Hierosolymitanum,
17 (PL, XXIII, 385 B-C)
108 PART THREE
given so many and such uncertain [205A] opinions, what can I do except
admit and bewail my own ignorance on the point?
Chapter VIII
1 . I am not ashamed to admit my ignorance about the number of the
heavens, and about their movements, even though I could tell you a large
number of views from the astronomers as well as from the natural philo
sophers. I do not know how to show up any of them as liars, or show them
forth as telling the truth, since they have left us nothing but ambiguity.
Who knows whether it is not by the movement of the firmament — that is,
of the whole body from the moon up to the fixed stars, one and the same
thing, with one and the same nature — that the fixed stars and the planets
are moved in cycles and epicycles, as Ptolemy, dealing with their move
ments, seems to think?1 Everything which he said, and thought he had
demonstrated, about the movements of the stars, can be imagined to exist
without any movement of the heavens, even though he supposed that the
firmament was pushing against the stars and the stars against the firma
ment. For it is not difficult to posit some intellective power or even bodily
power to move the stars round those circles that Ptolemy discovered with
his experiments and instruments — or that the astronomers that came
before him or after him discovered. Hence Augustine says that if the
firmament is fixed, there is nothing to stop the stars moving and going
round2. Hence, again, does anyone know whether there are as many spheres
of the heavens as there are known planets? And above them is the sphere of
the fixed stars, and above that, the starless heaven which moves everything
below it with a simple daily motion, they say. Thus there would be nine
heavens in the universe: the seven heavens of the fixed stars, and the starry
heaven, and the aplanon [fixed] heaven3. From this number some people
think they can prove the number of the orders of angels.
2. They say, too, that it is not the case that there are more heavens than
these, since the heaven only exists for the sake of the star or stars that it
moves: and we cannot perceive from the stars the movement of more
heavens than these. If the stars are moved, not by their own movement,
but only by the movements of the heavens that move them, then there must
be nine heavens, they say, since the fixed stars, besides their daily move
ment, also have a movement of coming near and going away; and then there
is the first heaven which is moved only by a simple circular movement4.
1 Ptolemy, Almagest, I, 8
3 Alpetragius, De motibus caelorum, V, 8 (ed. Carmody, p. 83)
4 Alpetragius, De motibus caelorum, V, 7-8 (ed. Carmody, pp. 82-83)
CHAPTERS VII-X 109
3. But how do they know that there are not several wandering stars
which are invisible to us, but which are necessary and useful for generation
in the lower part of the world? Philosophers, too, say that the Milky Way is
composed of tiny fixed stars that we cannot see. How, then, can we know,
except by divine revelation, that there are not very many of these stars that
are invisible to us, of which each of them would have its heaven to move it
for the sake of generation in the world beneath? For the stars that make up
the Milky Way, though they may be indistinguishable by sight, will not be
lacking in effectiveness in the generation and growth of the world beneath.
Moreover, if, as they say, the aplanon (fixed) or anastron (starless) heaven
— that is, the heaven that does not contain any heavenly bodies —
necessarily moves the lower heavens and their stars with a daily move
ment, and if its movement is not for the sake of the movement of any
heavenly bodies that are in it, but for the sake of the movement of the
heavenly bodies that are in the lower heavens, then it might perhaps be the
case that since every planet has several movements, and maybe more
movements that have not yet been observed — for we have not yet fully
observed the movements of any of them — any planet might need, besides
its own heaven in which it is located [205B], another heaven, or several
heavens, to bring about the planet's various movements by its own various
movements. Since things are like this, then, no-one can say anything with
certainty about the numbers of the heavens, or about their movements, or
their movers or their natures, even though worldly philosophers pride
themselves vainly on knowing about such things. The reasonings that
they weave on these matters are more fragile than cobwebs.
Chapter IX
1. Though we are sorry for our ignorance, we hold that the firmament
exists, basing ourselves on the voice of God. The cause of the essence of
the firmament, as Basil said "is clearly declared by Scripture: 'let it divide
the waters from the waters' "1. And there is no doubt that the firmament,
both in its own right and through the stars that are placed in it — whether it
moves them by some means or not — is of great help in the generation and
growth of things below. For those heavenly bodies have a light which
assists vital heat.
Chapter X
1. But what is the use of the waters that are above the firmament?
Josephus says that God, after making the firmament on the second day
"fixed around it the crystal, making it fittingly damp and rainy for the

110 PART THREE
benefit that comes from showers on the earth."1 Others think that the
waters outside the firmament were stored up in order to be poured out as
the waters of the Flood: though one might ask such people, how they could
get through the impenetrable firmament in order to get down, and how it is
that they did not leave an empty space when they came down in such huge
quantities. It would seem impossible for them to come down unless some
thing went into their place, or part of them remained in a more rarefied state
and occupied more space.
2. Others think that the waters stored there are to cool the heat of the
stars and the ether. Bede mentions this in his On the nature of things, which
we quoted above2. Ambrose refers to this reason for the waters above —
and below as well — when he says "Since they say that the sphere of
heaven is rolled round and shines with burning stars, would not divine
providence have seen to it, that within the sphere of heaven and above it
there should be plenty of water to cool the fires of that burning axis? Also,
since fire pours forth and burns, water too pours forth on the earth, so that
the heat of the rising sun and of the twinkling stars might not burn it up,
and the tender beginnings of things might not be harmed by the unusual
vapour.3" Basil, too, says: "A very great supply of water was also needed,
so that incessantly and without interruption the fire might draw up suste
nance from it"4. And John Damascene says: "God made the firmament
that, in the midst, separates the water above the firmament from the water
below the firmament. It was fixed in the middle of the deeps of water by his
mighty command. So God said that the firmament should be made, and it
was made. But why did God put water above the firmament? Because of the
very great heat of the sun and of the ether. For the ether was made very
soon after the firmament. But the sun and the moon and the stars are in the
firmament, and unless there were water above, the firmament would by now
have caught fire from their heat.5"
3. On the usefulness of the lower waters we will speak more fully
when we deal with the work of the following day6.
Chapter XI
1. It should be carefully considered that the expression for a thing's
being made is mentioned here three times, while in the establishment of
light it was mentioned only twice. This was explained more fully by
1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 1, 30 (ed. cit. p. 127): see above, I, xvi, 3
2 Bede, De natura rerum, VII (PL, XC, 200-201); see above, I, xvi, 1
3 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, II, 3, 12 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 50)
5 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXIII, 1 (ed. cit. pp. 98-99)
6 See below, IV, xiii, 1-4
CHAPTERS X-XI 111
Augustine, when he commented on this text in Literal commentary on

Genesis: "The angelic [205C] nature, which is signified by 'light', has
two modes of existing, in the Word of God and in itself. Hence 'God said:
let light be made, and light was made': so that what was there in the Word
should be here [in the created world] in deed. The first state of heaven was
first in the Word of God, according to the begotten wisdom, and then was
made in the spiritual creation — i.e. in the knowledge of the angels
according to the wisdom created in them — and then heaven was made,
to be now the created heaven itself, after its own kind. This is how it was
for the distinction or specification of waters and earths, for the natures of
trees and plants, for the lights of heaven, and for the animals born from the
earth and the waters. The concept by which a creature is established existed
in the Word before it existed in the creature that was thus established; and
the knowledge of that concept existed in intellectual creatures, that were
not clouded by sin; and only afterwards did it exist in the establishment of
the creature. The angels did not have to make progress towards achieving
wisdom, as we have to, catching a glimpse of the invisible things of God
after understanding the things that are made. This is because, from the
moment they were created, they enjoyed the holy and loving contemplation
of the eternity of the Word, and then looked down from there according to
that Word: they see within, and approve of what is done well and reject sin.
Hence, once the light was made — by which we understand, once the
rational angelic creature was formed by the eternal light — when we hear,
in the formation of other things 'And God said: Let there be', we should
understand that the intention of Scripture is to refer to the eternity of the
Word of God. But when we hear 'And it was made', we should understand
the knowledge which came to be in intellectual creatures of the concept
which is in the Word of God of the creature which is established. So the
creature was first made in some way in that [intellectual] nature, which, by
some previous movement, first knew that it was to be made in the Word of
God. And it is the same creature that afterwards, when we hear it said
repeatedly that God made it, we should understand to have come to be in its
own nature."1 Basil, too notes this repetition of the expression of being
made: 'And God said: let there be a firmament made'. This expression of
his purpose shows the cause. But when it says 'And God made a
firmament', it shows the completion."2
2. The tripling of the verb of being made may also draw attention to
[three things]: first, that a thing should come to be as regards its matter out
of nothing at all; then that it should come to be in the seminal and causal
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 8 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 43^*5)

112 PART THREE
reasons which are set in the matter, and in the elements, with reference to
the things of which they are the elements; and thirdly that the thing should
come to be according to its forming in its perfect kind. But whether
everything established after the first day had this threefold character, I
would not lightly say. Perhaps the firmament and the lamps did not have
causal and seminal reasons set in their matter, which would give the matter
of which they were made an inclination, and a natural moving and acting
tendency, to produce the firmament and the lamps into existence from that.
But perhaps their matter only had this in potency, so that these could be
made from them. This would be similar to the way in which bronze has in
passive potency only that a statue can be made out of it, while a seed has in
it that a plant can come out of it, not only in passive potency, but also in a
causal, seminal reason, which gives rise to a tendency for the seed to
become a plant. So we can say in a universal way, that, by the tripling
of the verb, attention is drawn first to a thing's existing in the active
potency of God who makes all things out of nothing; secondly, to created
material existing as a thing in material potency, whether that potency be
only passive, as it is in the bronze, or also active as it is in the seed; [205D]
thirdly, to the thing's existing in itself as in its complete kind.
Chapter XII
1. God called the heaven "firmament" to suggest by this second
naming the ordering and usefulness that the heaven has towards all the
universe. The first name names the thing in itself, and is imposed in virtue
of its form, the form that sets it up as what it is; the second name names the
thing from the ordering it has towards the universe, and is imposed in virtue
of the end for which the thing exists, or in virtue of its nature in so far as it
is by essence ordered to its own end.
Chapter XIII
1. Jerome in his book Against Jovinian says: "While Scripture on the
first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth day, after each of the works is completed,
says: 'and God saw that it was good', on the second day the true Hebrew
text drops this altogether. It leaves us to understand that the number two is
not good, because it divides a union. Hence in Noah's ark, the animals that
went in two by two were the unclean animals."1 Also, in this number the
irregularity of bigamy is referred to. The number two, in so far as it splits
unity, is a type of that evil that withdraws from unity. But in so far as it
returns to unity and joins two together in one, it is a type of concord and of
twofold charity.
1 Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, I, 16 (PL, XXIII, 246C)

CHAPTERS XI-XIV 113
2. You should know that in the translation of the Seventy, when the
work of this day, the heaven which is called the firmament, is finished,
there is added: "And God saw that it was good". Hence Augustine and
Basil, who are commenting on that translation, deal with what that phrase
suggests about this day's work. Augustine says: "But when we hear 'And
God saw that it was good', we should understand that what had been made
pleased the goodness of God: it had pleased him that it should come to be
when 'the spirit of God moved over the waters', and it pleased him that it
should remain in the manner of its own kind."1 Basil says: "A work is said
to be good when it is weighed up by the reasoning of the art that made it,
and is directed towards the end of the benefit that is to be."2 We should not
disguise the fact that it was by the foresight of the Holy Spirit that one
translation should add what the other omits. When we put the two transla
tions together the double meaning of the number two becomes clear. The
first meaning, the meaning it has in its own right, is division and the
withdrawal from unity. Hence it is a type of evil and of defectiveness:
and God does not look on this with the glance of good pleasure. But the
number is also the nearest and most exact return from manyness and
division towards unity. In this way it is a type of twofold charity, which
God always looks on with the glance of the greatest good pleasure.
Chapter XIV
1. In an allegorical sense we can understand by "firmament" the
nature of the angels that was established in the power of free will. This
power by nature stands between the possibility of improving, turning
towards the better, on the one hand, and the possibility of deteriorating,
turning towards the worse, on the other, just as the firmament stands
between the upper waters and the lower waters. These possibilities are
distinguished from each other in their own ways. The possibility of
improvement does not issue in an act unless grace goes before it and
comes after it; but the possibility of deteriorating issues in an act simply
in virtue of one's own will, that is defective with regard to the good.
2. Or "firmament" might mean the nature of the angels, that was
created in free will, as having been turned back to God and confirmed in
blessedness. The creation of the heaven was understood above as the
establishment of this nature; the making of light was understood as its
being turned back to God; and the establishment of the firmament is
understood as the confirmation [in blessedness] of the angels that had
been turned back to God. This commentary fits with what Gregory says

114 PART THREE
in his commentary on Ezekiel, where he comments on the phrase "And

over the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of the firmament, as
the appearance of [206A] crystal terrible to behold"1. Likewise, Rabanus
in the first book of his On the nature of things2. Therefore their remaining
confirmed for ever in the love of their maker is the firmament. The
sweetness which is drawn out by a love that is confirmed in God by God
is the higher waters. The knowledge and the ordered love of the things that
are subject to them is the lower waters.
3. Or, on this interpretation of the firmament, the higher waters are the
natural possibility of falling, that the nature of the angels has, away from
the forming by which it was formed in its being turned back to God. For
though the angels are confirmed in good, they still have, in virtue of their
first establishment, a possibility of falling from good: otherwise it would
not have been the case that some fell. The lower waters are the angels'
possibility of falling away from the natural goods in which they were
established. They are kept from either kind of fall by their confirmation.
4. Others understand the firmament literally: and by the "upper
waters" they understand the angels that did not fall, while by the "lower
waters" they understand the angels that fell. Hence Basil says: "The waters
that are above the heavens are said to praise the Lord. This means that the
best of all the angelic powers, those that are worthy to do so because of the
merit of their purity, honour the creator with fitting praise; and the waters
that are shut up beneath are said to be the spirits of wickedness, who came
down from their natural height to the depths of evil."3 But Basil does not
approve of this commentary, particularly because it is brought in here to
suggest that the element of water does not exist above the firmament. This
suggestion is false, as it is certain that real water exists there.
5. Others understand "higher waters" to mean the angelic nature itself,
without qualification: that is, the rational non-bodily nature. They under
stand "lower waters" to mean the bodily rational nature, i.e. human nature.
6. Ambrose says: "Some do not omit to make a relation between the
heavens of the heavens, on the one hand, and the intellectual powers, and
between the firmament, on the other hand, and the operative powers. That
is why the heavens praise God and announce his glory, while the firmament
proclaims the works of God. They do not proclaim these in so far as they
are spiritual beings, but in so far as they are works of God."4
7. Gregory, commenting on the passage of Ezekiel mentioned above,
1 Gregory, Homiliae in Ezechielem, I, vii, 18 (PL, LXXVI, 849A-849B), on Ezekiel 1: 22

2 Rabanus, De universo, I, 5 (PL, CXI, 19D-30A)
4 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, II, 4, 17 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 56)
CHAPTER XIV 115
says: "By the word 'firmament' we can understand, figuratively, our

Redeemer, who is true God over all things, who came to be in the midst
of all things, and a perfect man in whom our nature is confirmed in the
presence of the Father. It was of him that the Psalmist spoke, prophetically,
when he said: 'Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, and upon
the son of man that thou hast confirmed for thyself'1; for human nature,
before being taken up by the creator of all things, was earth: it was not the
firmament. It was said to sinful man: 'Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt
return'2. But after it was taken up by him who made all things, after it was
raised to heaven and put above the angels, though it had been earth, it
became the firmament. But it is a firmament that is looked at, and what its
likeness was is suggested when it says 'as the appearance of crystal terrible
to behold'3. Crystal, as has been said, is the freezing and hardening of
water4. We know how unstable water is. Now the body of our Redeemer,
which was subject to suffering even unto death, was like water in one way:
it was born, it grew, it wearied, hungered, thirsted, and died: it came to its
passion by movement, moment by moment in time. This coming was
foreseen by the prophet when he wrote: 'he hath rejoiced as a giant
[206B] to run the way'5. But by the glory of his resurrection he
strengthened this corruption into the power of incorruption. He hardened
water, like a crystal, so that the same nature should exist in him, and the
changeability of corruption that had existed before should not exist any
longer. The water changed into crystal, when the weakness of his corrup
tion was changed into the strength of incorruption through his resurrec
tion."6 He is the mediator of God and men, reconciling the lowest with the
highest, being less than the Father in so far as he is a man, but nevertheless
higher than any creature. Thus he, the mediator, is the firmament fixed
between the waters below and the waters above, that is, between the lowest
and the highest that he reconciles, between rational creatures and God.
8. "Firmament" also means Holy Scripture. It was of this that Isaiah
says: "The heaven shall be folded together as a book"7. When Holy
Scripture is inscribed in the glance and desire of our mind8, it strengthens
it and leads it to a heavenly way of life. The angels are above this
firmament of scripture, because they do not read in the book of scripture,
1 Psalms, 79: 18
2 Genesis, 3: 19
3 Ezekiel, 1: 22
4 See above, III, iii, 3
5 Psalms, 18: 6
6 Gregory, Homiliae in Ezechielem, I, vii, 19 (PL, LXXVI, 849B-850A), on Ezekiel 1: 22
7 Isaiah, 34: 4
8 Aspectus et affectus mentis
116 PART THREE
but in the book of life. The waters below are the human sciences, which are
inferior to holy scripture, and are unstable and changeable. They grow
through teaching but flow away through forgetfulness. In this firmament of
holy scripture we find fixed and shining the sun of wisdom, the moon of
understanding, and the stars of the moral commandments.
9. The firmament is also the solid discretion of learning in holy
scripture: distinguishing between fleshly and spiritual interpretations, as
between the waters above and the waters below.
10. The firmament is also the word of the prophets: the waters above
are earlier, and are the law of Moses, while the waters below are later, and
are the new law. The word of the prophets strengthens, distinguishes and
separates these two laws, like the firmament in the midst.
1 1 . The firmament in the midst of the waters also signifies the prelates
of the church, with the firmness of their faith, the strength of their courage,
their firm energy of soul, and their shining doctrine. With these they hold
up those above them, the contemplatives, to stop them slipping down into
lower things or getting themselves involved in worldly affairs; and those
who are involved in worldly affairs, like unstable waters, they restrain so
that they may not disturb the tranquillity of the contemplatives. It is of this
firmament, according to the translation of the Seventy, that it is written in
Daniel: "the just shall shine as stars, and they that are learned as the
firmament."1 These prelates of the church and preachers of the new
covenant are like a firmament set between the waters above — i.e. the
ancient Fathers of the Church — and the waters below — i.e. their subjects,
the faithful people. They come in the midst of these waters and separate
them — but by separating them they join them together — when they
preach the faith to the Christian people in such a way that they do not deny
that it comes down from the ancient Fathers.
12. Also, the firmament comes between the waters and divides them,
when the circumcised are not allowed to become uncircumcised, and the
uncircumcised are not allowed to become circumcised. This is the firma
ment that Paul strove to establish in the letters to the Galatians and to the
Romans, not allowing Jews who observed the ceremonial law to come to
receive the sacraments of grace, nor allowing the baptized among the
Gentiles to observe the ceremonial rites.
13. By this firmament there is a distinction made, through the spirit
who shows himself in seven ways, between those who are the children of
light, and those who are the children of darkness2, between those who have
the purity of heaven and those who have the instability of flesh.
1 Daniel, 12: 3
2 Cp. / Thessalonians, 5: 5
CHAPTERS XIV-XV 117
14. Also, the life of prelates comes between [206C] the active and the
contemplative lives: it is made firm and, as it were, pressed together as
something between these two. Their care and diligence ought to push itself
in between the mighty of this world and the poor, not allowing the violence
of the mighty to break out in oppression of the poor, nor allowing the
insolence of the poor to become deceit and despising towards the rule of
the mighty.
Chapter XV
1. In the moral sense, the firmament means the power of free will in
human beings, in the same way as it did for the angels, as explained above1.
2. It also signifies the virtue of fortitude, constancy of soul and the
strength of patience. This is not crushed or broken by any enemies, and is
not attracted by any enticements. It is made firm in the love of God, as the
apostle says "I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor dominions, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord"2.
3. This firmament is established as something that comes between
thoughts that have to do with divine and heavenly things, and thoughts
that look after the care of disposing ephemeral things for human use, as
between the waters above and the waters below, foreseeing, discerning and
distributing what belongs to each.
4. This firmament is also something made firm in between good times
and bad times: between the violence that comes from outside and the fears
that arise within; between glory and baseness; between infamy and good
reputation. By this firmness, with the apostle "We suffer tribulation, but
are not distressed; we are straitened, but are not destitute; we suffer
persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but perish not . . .
as dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and
possessing all things.3" This firmness is the beauty and strength of which
the psalm speaks: "The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the
Lord is clothed with strength."4 A person is clothed with beauty when he is
not made haughty by good reputation or any kind of prosperity; and he is
clothed with strength when infamy or bad times do not strike him down.
1 See above, III, xiv, 1-3

2 Romans, 8: 38-39
3 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9; 6: 9-10
4 Psalms, 92: 1
118 PART THREE
These, and other things like it, are what is meant by the waters above and
the waters beneath, between which the mind and the strength of fortitude
are made firm.
Chapter XVI
1 . Although, as we said above , we do not know what the heaven is or
how many heavens there are, or whether anything moves the heaven, or, if
the heavens are moved, how many movements we have — even so, it is
relevant to try to put in some details of the properties of the heavens. Some
of these we are sure about, of others less sure: but the commentators have
presupposed them and they are presupposed in the mystical meanings.
Hence, in our modest way, we take care to put them in here, so that the
humble reader — for we do not write these things for the wise and the
perfect — may have to hand some material, so that he can easily adapt the
heaven to the meanings given above, and to be mentioned elsewhere,
according to these properties and likenesses.
2. The heaven, then, is the first body, most simple in its nature, with
minimal density: it is extremely subtle. But it is also, as Job says, "most
strong, as if it were of molten brass."2 It is the first foundation of the world:
in quantity, greatest; in quality, shining; in shape, spherical; in position and
place, highest; in amplitude, containing all the creatures, visible and
invisible, that are below it; the dwelling place of the blessed spirits. And
though God is everywhere, it is nevertheless called the throne of God in a
special way, since it is the greatest kind of body in the world, and the
operation of divine power shines out [206D] most clearly in it. And as John
Damascene says: "God is not circumscribable, and is not in a place. But he
is said to be in a place, and a place is said to be God's place, when God's
operation is shown there. For he passes through everything without mixing
with it, and he gives his operation to all things, according to the fitness and
power to receive his operation that each thing has. So a place is called
God's place if it has the greatest share in his operation. That is why heaven
is his throne."3
3. Concerning the heaven that we said was below the waters, and
called the firmament, the philosophers have something to say: something
that the sacred commentators do not contradict, but very willingly agree
with. This is that it moves on an immobile axis, on two poles, by a simple
uniform movement, from the east to the west. It causes to turn with it, in its
daily movement, the whole that is beneath it, with the sun, moon and stars,
1 See above, III, viii, 2

2 Job, 37: 18
3 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XIII, 2 (ed. cit. p. 57)
CHAPTERS XV-XVI 119
down as far as the sphere that lies beneath the moon. Everything below it,
as far down as the sphere that is beneath the moon, obeys its moving power
in a uniform, undisturbed ordering.
4. And its moving power reaches down even as far as the elements
down here. Hence even the upper fire is believed to turn round with it: they
try to argue this from the fact that comets follow the rotation of the daily
movement. The action of this moving power even reaches the waters, and
to a great extent causes the swelling of the tide in seawater. These three
elements are less obedient to the movement of the heaven, nor do they
always imitate it in one way and in one ordering: rather it is a case of now
more, now less. What is higher and purer and lighter in them obeys more,
and what is less so obeys and follows less. It is the earth alone that does not
obey this power, to derive some local movement from it. Therefore the
heaven has this movement which is uniform, ordered, undisturbed, and is
the swiftest of all movements. It is in movement though it is at rest, since
though it partly alters its position, it does not alter its position as a whole,
nor does it alter its place. Though the things below are troubled and flow
about as if by chance and without ordering, the heaven and heavenly things
never abandon even for the briefest moment the tenor of their ordering. In
the daily movement that goes from east to west and back round to the east
again, the heaven precedes the movement of the stars and planets that goes
the same way. It also leaves them behind it: either because by their own
movement, or by the movements of their heavens, they move in the
opposite direction to the daily motion of the heaven, or because, moving
the same way as the heaven, they fall short of the movement of the heaven.
5. The movement of heaven is also the first subject of time and the
measure of all other movements. Also it brings about generation and
growth in this lower world. And they say that the heaven is in the highest
degree one and the same thing, in three modes of unity: that is, first, by
unity of continuity, secondly, because by its whole form it is one thing, and
thirdly, by its single, most simple, continuous and most uniform movement.
Also the heaven gathers and impresses the power of its light (that brings
about generation and growth) to the highest degree at the place where the
earth is: nor could it gather together the power of its light to such a degree
in any other place. Hence, another place, outside the earth — outside the
centre of the cosmos — could not be so apt for the generation of plants and
animals.
6. This is because every body that gives light spreads light around it in
all directions [207A] from any point. And of all the lines of light that are
spread from that point of the light-giving body, that line of light carries
out the operation of light most strongly, and with the greatest power,
which travels from the light-giving body at right angles to the surface of the
120 PART THREE
light-giving body. And any line of light is more like to this line that goes
out at right angles in power of action, to the extent that it is close to it; and
the less like to it it is, the less power it has of acting and impressing its
light. Every hollow spherical light-giving body, from any point, directs one
radial line to the centre of the spherical body, at right angles to the concave
surface of that spherical body. But at no point marked outside the centre
can there come together more than two radial lines that leave the concave
surface of that sphere at right angles: i.e. those two lines that come from the
points that are diametrically opposite each other, on that diameter of the
sphere that passes through the point marked outside the centre. These two
lines just are a diameter of the sphere, cut in two by the point marked
outside the centre. Also, any point within a light-giving spherical body is
touched by only one radial line from each point on the surface of the
spherical light-giving body. Therefore, at any point within the hollow
part of a light-giving spherical body, there meet as many lines of light as
there do at any other point: i.e., as many lines of light as there are points on
the concave surface of the light-giving spherical body. As far as the number
of lights is concerned, then, any point within the light-giving sphere has as
much light as any other; but as regards the strength of the power of light,
the centre receives more light than any other point, since from each point
on the surrounding light-giving body it receives one line which leaves that
point in the way that is of greatest power in the action of light. Meanwhile,
any point other than the centre receives no more than two such lines. And
the nearer any point outside the centre is to the centre, the more of the
power of light it receives; and the farther it is from the centre, the less of
the power of light it receives. This is because at the point which is nearer
the centre there meet more radial lines which leave the surface of the
Figure to illustrate chapter XVI, 6

CHAPTER XVI 121
hollow surrounding light-giving body less obliquely, while at the point

which is farther from the centre there meet more radial lines which leave at
a more oblique angle. The science of perspective makes all these things
clear.
7. But it is clear from all these things that since the heaven is a
spherical light-giving body, and the earth, in relation to the heaven, is no
more than a point, at the earth there is the greatest gathering together of the
power of the light of heaven, and of the light-giving bodies that are
contained within the heaven. And since the action of the light of the
heavenly bodies causes the generation and growth of plants and animals,
it is clear that the earth, which is the centre, is the most fitting place for
their generation and growth. If the earth were really a point, of indivisible
magnitude, there would be no room for plants and animals. But if it had
some size in relation to the heaven, it would not receive enough [207B] of
the power of light for the generation and growth of animals and plants. So
the heaven has to be large in quantity, and the earth small, so small that it is
a point in comparison with the heaven — provided that its smallness is not
such as to stop it being the thing that holds animals and plants. But as
Aristotle says in his book On animals, it is hard work and difficult to talk
about the heaven, and the knowledge we grasp of the heavenly substances
is very slight, because of the greatness of their nobility1.
1 Aristotle, Partibus animalium, I, 5 (644b)

Part Four
Chapter I
1. God said, let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered
together in one place, and let the dry land appear. The first question here
is why it changes its way of speaking and says "Let the waters be
gathered" and "Let the dry land appear". Why does it not keep to the
way of speaking used above, and say "Let there be a gathering of the
waters" and "Let there be an appearance of dry land"? This question is of
more force against the view of those commentators who say that on this day
the species of water and of earth were made. Augustine replies to the
question by saying: "The reckoning of the days is the reckoning of the
forming of things that already existed formlessly. It has told us already of
the making of heaven out of this bodily matter: the making of heaven,
whose species is far different from earthly things. Now what remains to be
formed from matter is here below; and it does not want to use the same
words in the ordering of things to be created, and say 'Let there be'. This is
because the formless stuff which remains will not take on such a species as
heaven took on: it is going to take on a species that is lower and weaker and
closer to formlessness. So it rather uses these words — 'Let the waters be
gathered' and 'Let the dry land appear' — for these two to take on their
own species, which are very well known to us and easy for us to deal with:
the unstable nature of water and the stable nature of earth. That is why it
says of the waters, 'let them be gathered' and of the earth 'let it appear':
water is a fluid, and unstable, earth is solid and fixed."1 What this argument
means, in summary, is that the species of things here below resemble the
form of the Word that speaks, less than do the species of light and of
heaven, since they are more formless. Hence it is not said of them "God
said, let there be . . .", though "God said, let there be . . ." is said of the
more formed things. This way of talking suggests the close way in which
the thing made resembles the Word through which it is made. For to have
one's becoming and existence, as it were, directly impressed and sealed by
the Word — the Word, who is Existence himself, and truly the existent in
his own right, and is nothing other than existence and the existent — since
anything one says in naming God begins with this word, existing — to have
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 1 1 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 50)

CHAPTER I 123
one's becoming and existence in this way is to be more formed than is

anything which can be said after existing. So when dealing with light and
the heaven and the luminaries, whose existence is more formed, and whose
form is closer to existence, it says "God said: Let there be . . ." But in the
formation of lower things, things like the earth and the waters and the
plants and the irrational animals, a verb is used which is further away from
the verb of existence, e.g. "let them be gathered" or "let it sprout" "let
it bring forth". In the making of man something even greater than these
two is hinted at when it says "God said, Let us make man", etc.
2. And maybe in the different words and ways of speaking attention
could be drawn to something else, i.e. that when what was to be expressed
was just the power of the creator, with no pre-existing material passive
potency, it says, "God created". But when what was to be expressed was
the mere passive potency of matter, which is purely receptive (while the
potency of the creator is active) it said "God said, Let there be". And when
what was to be expressed was a potency in matter which was not merely
passive and receptive, but also one which gave a tendency and moved
[matter] towards the act of existence, it says "God said, let them be
gathered", "let it sprout", "let it bring forth". This is because first matter
and spiritual nature, which are signified by the earth and the heaven that
were created at the beginning, were made from nothing. There was no
potency that preceded them except the active potency of the creator. For
the verb "to create" means "to make from nothing". But light (if it means
bodily light) and the heavens, and the luminaries, were made out of the
matter which had been made, which had a passive potency for these things
to be made out of them. But it does not seem that in their matter there was
any power that gives a special tendency for these things to come from their
matter. This is because any power in matter that moves and gives a
tendency to make the matter better and more formed is impressed in that
matter by a higher power. This, once impressed, strives to return to its
origin in its own way, and to renew the matter in which it is impressed,
making it have the same form as its origin, in so far as it can. In the
impressing of powers of this sort there is a kind of lowering of the greater
to the lesser, and the greater which is lowered brings the lesser to its own
higher status, according to the degree of receptivity that is in the thing to
which it has been lowered. So the power that impresses itself on matter,
and which once impressed gives the matter a tendency to something better,
is previously separated, either in a univocal or in an analogous sense.
Since, then, before the making of heaven, and of bodily light, and of the
luminaries, there was no bodily form which was more noble than these
things that were formed, it seems that there was no bodily creature which
could impress itself on the matter of these things, and could by being thus
124 PART FOUR
impressed give the matter a tendency to be the matter of these things. For
the first form was co-created together with matter, and though apparently
it gives matter a tendency to its perfection, in so far as it is first form, it
does not, apparently, give matter a tendency to this or to that specific
existence. If, therefore, light and the heaven and the luminaries were made
out of this matter, which had only a receptive potency for them to be made
out of it, then it is fitting for this to be suggested by this way of speaking:
"let light be made"; "let a firmament be made"; "let luminaries be made".
If the utterance of a craftsman were an operative power, he would say to
the bronze "Let a statue be made from you": he would not say: "Bring
forth a statue". But he would say to a seed "Bring forth a plant",
meaning "you have a power in you striving for a plant to come to be
out of you".
3. Once the heaven was made and the light was directed to the centre
of heaven (i.e. the centre of the world and the centre of the earth) it may be
that the impression of the light put into the waters (whether they were water
specifically or only materially) a power that gave them a tendency to gather
together; and maybe, once the water was removed, it put into the earth a
power that gave it a tendency to germinate. And once the luminaries were
made, their lights impressed on the earth and the waters a power that gave
them a tendency to bring forth animals. There could be no power, however,
in bodily matter that gave a tendency to the completion of the rational
human being. But the things that had a tendency, in the matter, to being
something complete, only came to be in act on the instigation of the eternal
Word. A potency that gives a tendency, of this kind, is insufficient to give
rise to its act. There is no objection to the account given of the impressing
of a power that gives a tendency to the act of existence, whether the
creation of things was successive or all at once and all together. When
light exists, it at once impresses itself everywhere, as was said above1. And
once it was impressed in lower matter, together with the impression, it
gives matter a tendency towards something which is more like to the light
which is making the impression.
4. I want the reader to know that if I occasionally put in my writing
words which are not from any authority, I am not putting them forward in
an assertive manner, but am making them known to the audience as a sort
of exercise for them, "following the trail of the truth by conjectures and
clues".2
1 See above, II, x, 1

2 Gregory of Nyssa, De opificio hominis, XVII, 15 (ed. Forbes, p. 207)
CHAPTERS I-II 125
Chapter II
1. The expression, "Let the waters that are under the heaven be
gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear", can be
understood in three ways, according to the sense of physical science.
2. The first way is this. The waters, that existed before this in time,
everywhere covered the whole face of the earth. And at God's word of
command the earth sank and provided hollow places to receive the flowing
waters1. This flowing of the waters, by God's command, into the lower
places of the earth, is called the gathering of the waters. This way of
understanding is appropriate if the four elements were already perfect
according to their kinds: that is to say, were such that ethereal fire held
the highest place, air the place next below it, and water flowed about the
earth on all sides and covered it to an equal depth all over. If this is the way
things were before, then when the earth provided some parts that were sunk
and others raised, the liquid mass of water by its weight would have to run
together into the sunken places, leaving the more raised parts of the earth
bare. The gathering of the waters can thus be understood as their gathering
into one place, even without their being condensed. And there is no
objection to both having occurred: i.e. that the waters were condensed
into a greater density than they had previously had, while the air was
rarefied in proportion to the condensation of the waters, and that this
condensed water ran down into the lower places.
3. The gathering of the waters can be understood in a different way2. If
air did not yet exist according to its kind, but the whole space between the
earth and heaven was occupied by vaporous and thin waters, as Jerome and
Bede thought, then when it says "gathered together" it means the thicken
ing and condensation of the vaporous waters to become the dense water we
can drink and sail on. Once these waters were condensed they would
necessarily occupy less space, and then part of the vaporous waters was
rarefied to the thinness of air. And the air that was thus rarefied filled the
place left by the waters. But together with this manner of the waters' being
gathered together there was also the reception of the condensed waters in
the more sunken parts of the earth: this would be so whether the earth
already had its surface in the same uneven shape as it is today, or whether
when God commanded the waters to be gathered and the dry land to
appear. The earth, which had previously been even in shape, provided
some lower and some higher parts of its surface. Either of these two is
possible.
1 Bede, Hexaemeron I (PL, XCI, 20B)

2 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 20A-20B), and pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in
Pentateuchum, Genesis (PL, XCI, 195D-196A)
126 PART FOUR
Chapter III
1. The third way of understanding this text is commented on by
Augustine. In his Against the Manichees the Manichees ask "If the whole
was full of water, how could the water gather in one place?" and he
answers: "But we already said above that 'water' means the matter above
which the spirit of God moved, the matter from which God was to form all
things. Now when it says 'Let the waters that are under the heaven be
gathered together in one gathering' it means that that non-bodily matter
should be given a bodily form, the form of the nature that these waters
which we see have. This gathering into one is the forming of these waters
that we see and touch. For every form is compelled to the rule of unity. And
what else does 'Let the dry land appear' mean, but that that matter should
take on the visible form that the earth which we see and touch now has?
What was above called the invisible and uncomposed earth was called the
confusion and darkness of matter; and what was above called the water
over which the Spirit of God moved, was again called the same matter. But
now this water and this earth are formed out of that matter, which was
above called by those names, before it received the forms which we now
see.1" This commentary of Augustine matches his view that the world was
formed in a non-successive way. And the word "gathering" suggests to us
that every form has a tendency towards unity, and drives matter towards
unity; while the word "appearance" suggests that every form leads what is
formed to show itself.
2. None of these interpretations are put forward by the commentators
as being more than possible. Hence the same authorities give us several
views, offering us alternatives. And perhaps Moses precisely meant to give
a common expression for different ways in which it was possible, and left
the holy expositors the task of investigating and distinguishing the different
possible ways.
3. Basil asks "Why should something that belongs to water by nature,
i.e. its tendency to flow downwards, be attributed by the text to God's
command?"2 For a heavy liquid runs downwards spontaneously, without
any command. This is a question which is appropriate for those who think
that the forming of the world was successive. His reply is that the command
was what gave water the nature of flowing downwards in virtue of its
weight. He says "You should realise that the voice of God is what forms
nature, and the command which was then given gave the creature its
tendency towards all the things that were to be produced. For day and
night, too, were then made; and from that time till now they take each
1 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, I, xii, 18 (PL, XXIV, 181-182)

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 2, 4 (ed. cit. p. 47)
CHAPTERS III-IV 127
other's places and keep the times for their courses that were definitely
meted out to them. The nature of water was commanded to flow, and it
never ceases to obey that command."1 This reply of Basil is not incompa
tible with the claim that the waters had the power that gave a tendency to
gather as a result of the impression on them of the light of heaven. Because
that power which gives a tendency comes from the word which said that the
firmament should be made: and though that power was impressed on the
waters, it could not bring them to act, without the operation and causality
of the eternal Word, who said "Let the waters be gathered". That word
brought it about that the power, which had been there from the beginning,
should burst out in act in the times that followed. The whole thing was
brought about by the speaking of the eternal Word: the whole thing, i.e. the
moving power, and its being impressed, and the actual and continuing
movement that comes from that power that was impressed.
Chapter IV
1. The "one place" in which the waters were gathered, for the dry land
to appear, can be understood in two ways. In one way: the one place of
gathering of the waters is all the sunken places in the surface of the earth,
through which rivers run, and in which lie the ponds and lakes that do not
flow, and which contain the seas, together with the hidden channels under
the ground through which the water of the sea irrigates and dampens the
inner parts of the earth, breaks out in springs and comes to be found in the
lakes and ponds2. All these different places that contain water are called
one place, because they are all connected. This is just as it is in the human
body, where there is one special place for the blood, i.e. the liver. To the
liver come many veins through which the liquid matter of blood is
received, and from it go out many veins through which the moisture of
blood is sent through the whole body, in order to irrigate the whole body.
The liver, together with the veins connected with it, that spread throughout
the body, is the place of blood; and in the same way, the sea, together with
all the channels that there are on the surface of the earth or reaching into it,
is the one place of all waters, because of a unity of connection. And just as
one could say that the human body is the one place of blood because blood
reaches everywhere in it, so one could say that the whole earth is the one
place of the waters, since water reaches the whole earth through hidden
channels, just as the blood reaches the whole human body through the
veins.
2. Or, in another way: the place of the sea alone is called the one place
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 2, 9-IV, 3, 1 (ed. cit. p. 48)

2 Cp. Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 20B-20C)
128 PART FOUR
in which the waters are commanded to gather together. It is correct to say

that all the waters gather together there, because it is the place towards
which all waters, by their nature, most tend. All the rivers and all the waters
scattered through the whole earth came from the sea as their origin par
excellence, and run to the sea as their originating principle. The sea is the
most natural place for water, just as the liver is the place par excellence for
blood. Though it is true that not all the waters are in the sea, nevertheless
they are said to be gathered in the sea because of their natural flow
downhill towards the sea, as tending to their first, originating principle.
The existence of lakes is not incompatible with this. They, as has been said,
have secret connections with the sea and take secret sustenance from the
sea, and flow back into the sea through underground passages. And even if
lakes are not in connection with the sea, nevertheless it would still be true
to say that the place of the sea is the natural place of all waters. "For just as
fire is scattered in tiny parcels in different matters, and gives to all things
its necessary benefit; nonetheless, the whole of fire is said to be in the ether,
in the sphere of fire. And in the same way air, though it slips into individual
bodies, wholly surrounds the earth. And the place of air, without qualifica
tion, is said to be the place around the earth and the water, and next to them
on all sides. Just in the same way, the nature of water, though it is held in
various standing-places into which it is put, has one greatest gathering
which keeps that one element separate from the others"1; and one natural
place for that element.
Chapter V
1. You should know that if there were to be some part of the earth's
spherical shape cut off, even by a cut made with a straight line or surface
— as if a part of a circle were cut off by a chord — then the cut-off part
made in the earth in this way, even if made by a line that did not curve or
arch downwards, would be a deeper place: a place that would naturally
hold water to the point at which the cut-off part of the spherical earth was
filled. And the water could not overflow the place of the cut-off part until it
contained so much water that the surface of the water were a greater part of
the sphere than the sphere of the earth would be. E.g.: let the centre of the
sphere of earth be point a, and let the portion cut off by the straight line bd
be bcd: the part bcd will be a place for holding water up to the point at
which the portion bcd is filled. Its greatest depth will be along a line drawn
from point c, the midpoint between b and c on the arc bcd, to reach the
straight line bd at right angles. This part would not be filled with water until
the surface of the water was equal and commensurable with the segment
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 4, 6 (ed. cit. p. 50)

CHAPTERS IV-VI 129
c
Figure to illustrate chapter V, 1
bcd. The water could not overflow its limits b and d until its surface was a
greater segment of the sphere than the part bcd, and it would not reach the
limits of b and d so long as there were less water than would be needed to
fill the segment bcd.
Chapter VI
1. You should note, as well, that some have thought the following: that
it is not so much because the surface of the earth, bared of the waters, is
higher than the surface of the waters, that the waters of the sea do not flood
the land with sea, but rather because the waters of the sea, by the power of
the command "let the waters be gathered together etc.", are fixed in the sea
as if in a wine-skin. Thus they do not pass the limits set for them by this
command [208C], nor do they turn back to cover the earth, because they
are restrained by the word of this command1. This is hinted at by Job, who,
in speaking of the sea, says "I set my bounds around it, and made it bars
and doors; and I said: Hitherto shalt thou come, and shalt go no further, and
here shalt thou break thy swelling waves."2.
2. Evidence of this — that the water of the sea is restrained from
covering the earth more by the aforementioned command than by the fact
that the earth is raised above the waters of the sea — is said by Basil and
Ambrose to be the fact that the Red Sea is higher than the land of Egypt,
and the land of Egypt lower than the sea. Basil says: " 'Let the water be
gathered together in one place': that is to say, that as it flows in, when it is
1 Cp. Psalms, 103: 9 and 87: 13

2 Job, 38: 10-11
130 PART FOUR
poured into the containers that it has filled up, it should not overflow all its
limits at once. That is why it was commanded to be brought together in one
gathering. If it were otherwise, what utterance could prevent the Red Sea
from encroaching on the whole of Egypt, which is lower down, and joining
the ocean that is beside it? — were it not that the command of the Creator
prevents it. That Egypt is lower than the Red Sea we can learn with
certainty from those who wished to join the Egyptian Ocean and the
Indian Ocean. The first of these was Sesostres of Egypt, and the second
Darius of Media. I have said this so that we may be able to recognise the
power of the divine injunction."1 Ambrose, likewise, says: "If it were not
restrained by the power of the command of Heaven, what would stop the
Red Sea from joining the Egyptian Ocean through the flat lands of Egypt,
which are said to be a plain that lies in extremely low valleys?" And after
telling of the project of the two kings mentioned by Basil, Ambrose adds:
"And perhaps it was in order that the sea might not spread itself more
widely, rushing down from higher to lower, that the two kings called off
their endeavour."2
Chapter VII
1 . The text goes on "And let the dry land appear". If the earth was pre
existing in time, as the text of Scripture, at first glance, appears to say, what
is clear here is that the earth was from the beginning visible by nature and
by its colour, but invisible because of the water's being poured out on top
of it. And the text of the Seventy speaks of the "invisible earth". This
invisibility was for three reasons, before the creation of light. Firstly,
because of the absence of light. Secondly, because the dense water was
poured out on top of it. Thirdly, because there was as yet no animal that
could see it. When light was created, the earth remained invisible in two
ways, i.e. because of the pouring out of dense water that stopped the light
clearly illuminating it, and because there was as yet no eye to see it. But
now that the waters have been gathered in one place, the earth is visible and
can appear to the eye, because of its own colour that was set in it from the
beginning and because of the pouring out on it of the light that now exists:
since the obstacle of the waters that used to lie in the way has been
removed. But it was still invisible, because there was as yet no eye to
see. However, since many of the causes of visibility now existed, it is right
that it should now be suggested that it was "visible", without qualification.
This is done when it says "Let the dry land appear".
2. Nor should anyone think that the earth could not have been coloured
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 3, 6-8 (ed. cit. p. 49)

2 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, III, 2, 11 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 67)
CHAPTERS VI-IX 131
from the beginning, since colour is light in a transparent medium and there
was at first no light yet created. For if the creation of the world was
successive, there was fire already mixed with this earth we walk on, as it
is now. And the embodiment of the light of fire in the dampness of earth
made the earth coloured. For these elements that we perceive around us are
not pure, but all mixed in one with another, and take their name from the
ones that predominate.
Chapter VIII
1. It says "Let the dry land appear" [208D] and not "Let the earth
appear" for the following reason (given by Basil and touched on by
Ambrose): "It is so that the earth should not be put forward again as
being in a state of lack of composition, i.e. slimy and still formless from
the flooding of the waters, and powerless; also so that no-one should
attribute the cause of the dryness of the earth to the sun. No: appropriately
enough, the Creator brought about the dryness of the earth before the birth
of the sun. For not only the water that had been above the earth, but also the
water that is hidden in the deeper places, flowed out in obedience at the
command of the One with power."1 So by command the land was made dry
and fit for the growth of plants before the sun existed. The word "earth"
could be used even if it was still slimy and unfit for growth.
Chapter IX
1 . You should know also that our translation only twice mentions the
origin of the gathering of the waters and the appearing of the dry land. It
has it thus: "Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together
into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. And God
called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called
Seas." There is no further repetition of this. Basil also, dealing with this
text, says that the third repetition of the origin of the waters and the
appearing of the dry land is not expressed in the Hebrew text2. Why
then does Augustine say that in the works of each day, excepting the first
day, that the work of making it is said three times? But you should notice
that the translation of the Seventy, which Augustine uses, expresses the
gathering of the waters and the appearing of the dry land three times. It has
it thus: "Let the water that is under heaven be gathered together in its
gatherings, and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. And the water
that is under heaven was gathered together in its gatherings, and the dry
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 5, 2-3 (ed. cit. pp. 51-52); cp. also Ambrose, Hexaemeron, III, 4,
17 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 70)
2 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 5, 2-3 (ed. cit. p. 52)
132 PART FOUR
land appeared. And God called the dry land earth, and he called the
gatherings of the waters seas." Basil, too, says that this third repetition
is found in many texts, but it is marked in the most reliable copies with an
obelus, which is a sign for deletion, since in the Hebrew texts this third
repetition is not found.
Chapter X
1. Then there follows: "And God called the dry land Earth". This
"calling" can be understood in three ways. The first way is that the first
name expresses the thing and the second name expresses the naming of the
thing. Hence the sense would be: "Let this dry thing have this name and
denomination: Earth". The first name is used in a significant way in order
to pick out the thing, the second name is used in a material way to point to
the naming of the thing. For a thing can exist, and as yet not be named by
any name that is uttered. But God made the dry land in time by his eternal
Word, and in the same way by the same Word made it be named by the
uttered name "earth". Not that in the beginning he uttered the name
vocally: he established and ordained by his Word what should be uttered
by human beings.
2. Or, in another way, this name "dry land" could be taken to pick out
the species, which was perfect all at once according to its substantial form,
and according to the natural forms by which it was fitted at once for the
purpose for which it was made. The name "earth" could be taken to do the
same, but understood in a general way, since it was not yet perfect
according to its accidental natural features, and was capable of developing
for the purpose for which it was made. For earth which is still slimy and
watery and not fit for any working or crop-bearing can be called "earth".
3. In the third way referred to above the first name can be taken to
mean the species and the form, in so far as it completes the matter and
makes the thing exist in its first complete existence. The second name can
be taken to mean the same [209A] form in so far as it is the very nature and
principle that initiates the actuality for which the thing is made, and thus
completing the thing in its second existence. And this would seem to fit
these two names well. "Dry land" is said on account of dryness, and this is
the form that perfects earth according to its species and substance. The
word "earth" is said on account of its purpose and of the benefit for which
it was made: that is, from its being rubbed away at by the inhabitants as
whose dwelling place it was made, and by the farmers by their working of
the earth, so that it may produce green plants and fruit-bearing trees1. And
1 There seems to be an etymology suggested here: "terra", earth, from "teritur", it is

rubbed.
CHAPTERS IX-XI 133
this fits the Greek word, too. The Greek word for earth is yr\, ge, from the
Greek circumflex verb 70), go, which means "I get" or "I hold". This is
because the earth is what holds animals and plants. And the Greek word
comes from its fixedness, since it is not borne about but has an unmovable
location: this is fitting for a peaceful dwelling-place. And this might
perhaps be even more clear in the Hebrew words, if anyone knew their
origin and derivation and etymology. And perhaps these three ways of
expounding this text could be adapted to other places where a thing is said
to be called this or that. The clause which is added, "And God saw that it
was good", applies both to the gathering of the waters in one place and the
appearing of the dry land. For the good of either is the purpose of either,
which God achieves through natural properties in the whole of the
universe.
Chapter XI
1. In a spiritual sense "water" means the capability that rational
creatures have of falling away from and losing both the good that is freely
given to them and the good that they have by nature, falling away into
defect of mind and corruption of nature. When a rational creature, through
this capability of falling away, does fall into defect and corruption, the
stability of its mind and nature are, as it were, swallowed up and covered
and again made sterile and uncomposed: it is just as if the whole of the
earth were covered by waters flowing out upon it. These waters are
gathered together in one place when the rational love of the mind is drawn
away and turned away from itself and from creatures, and turned towards
the highest, simple and only good. And by cleaving to the highest good it is
contained and restrained, so that it does not flow out in that falling away we
spoke of. And by its cleaving to the highest good the rational mind is seen
to be in a fixed, firm and stable state, like dry land, ready to grow the seeds
of virtue and the trees of mighty works. That is why the Psalmist says: "It
is good for me to adhere to my God"1, and again "I will keep my strength
to thee"2. Nor is it surprising that the capability of falling away that the
rational mind has should be thus steadied and contained. The one who
cleaves to God is one spirit, and God is a spirit that cannot slip away. It is
"in one place" that the fluidity of human knowledge and memory is
gathered together, in order that the mind may remain fixed in the know
ledge and memory of heavenly things, and not slip away into forgetfulness
of them through the cares of temporal things, and in order that the dry land
of the mind's constancy may not be covered over as if by flooding waters.
1 Psalms, 82: 28
2 Psalms, 58: 10
134 PART FOUR
For though the rational mind that cleaves to God may not actually slip
away into vices through lustful desires, or into forgetfulness of heavenly
things through busy thinking of things below, yet it has in itself these
capabilities of slipping away. But these are restrained, as we said, and, as it
were, contained by certain limits or shores. This is so that they may not
break out and swallow up or wash over the stability of the mind. And the
firm stability of the mind in the good is like the dryness of the land
appearing.
2. Also, as we said above, the lower waters can be understood as the
evil spirits. The evil proper to each of them is gathered together in a single
will of doing harm and rebelling. They are contained by God's [209B]
power and restraint in this dark air, dragged down by the ropes of Hell,
given over to Tartarus, and kept for a judgement of torment. And they are
restrained by the limits set for them by God's power, so that they may not
tempt us beyond what we can bear. Their turbulent and restless storming,
which is shut within these limits, is like the boiling sea, which can neither
be at rest nor go beyond the limits set for it.
3. By this gathering together of the waters in one place the dry land of
the Church triumphant appears. It was tossed about by the waves, as it
were, when Lucifer was storming and seething in his place in Heaven, and
said: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High"1.
In the storm of this flowing away he moved many that agreed with him to a
storm-tossed agitation. And he attacked the solidity of the angels that
remained firm, and strove to push them down with violent waves of
temptation, as if they were the earth under him. I say "as if they were
the earth under him" since he was established as one who was finer than
the others. But the earth of the Church triumphant was dried of this
flooding of waters, when the pride of Lucifer and his rebel angels was
dragged down to hell, and, as Isaiah says, his carcass was fallen down into
the depths of the pit2. And by the restraint which restrains the evil spirit so
that he may not tempt those who are faithful beyond what they are capable
of, the earth of the church militant is made dry and fruitful. For if the force
of the evil one's temptation were not restrained by God's power, it would
flood over and cover the stability of the church, and make it slimy and
sterile with the filth of lust. Hence Job says: "Canst thou put a ring in his
nose?"3 On this text Gregory says in the Moralia: "A ring is put in his nose
1 Isaiah, 14: 13-14

2 Isaiah, 14: 11-15
3 Job, 40: 21
CHAPTER XI 135
when his cunning is contained and led about by the protection of the power
above."1 The nose means his snares, and the ring means the strength of
God's power, which, when it stops us being trapped in temptation, keeps
the snares of the old enemy clasped round by wonderful dispositions.
Putting a ring in his nose, then, is the same as gathering the waters into
one place. These waters will be most completely gathered together in one
place of everlasting condemnation on the day of judgement. On that day,
the waters will not only be prevented from prevailing over anyone by
temptation, but even from directing temptation at anyone on any
account. Then the whole church, both triumphant and militant, will be
brought together in one triumphant church, and be wholly freed from all
the waves of those temptations. In a similar way, the wicked, who are the
body of the devil and referred to as the waters in a similar way, are now
gathered into one place — i.e., in unfaithfulness and in evil will — to
persecute the good. But in the end they will be gathered together in the one
place of Gehenna and of everlasting fire, when the Saviour says: "Depart
from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil
and his angels"2. In the meantime the onslaught of the wicked is restrained
by the power of God, by fear, by ignorance, and by impotence, as if by
shores. Thus they cannot harm the good as much as they want to, and cover
them over with the floods of persecution. The Lord speaks of this restrain
ing of the body of the devil under the image of the sea and its shores in the
book of Job: "I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors: and I
said: Hitherto shalt thou come, and shalt go no further, and here thou shalt
break thy swelling waves."3 And by this [209C] gathering together of the
waters the dry land appears, i.e. the church, which is not driven down by
the floods of the wicked, though they beat at it.
4. But according to Ambrose, dealing with this text, the sea and the
gathering of the waters mean the church, gathered, as it were, in one place,
i.e. in one faith, one hope, one charity; in one baptism and one body, that of
Christ, its head4. And just as at the beginning the waters were gathered
together from the hills and the valleys, from the marshy places and from
the flat plains, so the church was gathered together from the flowing of the
peoples. Some of them were flowing over the hills and the high places of
pride, others in fear in the valleys of timidity, others in the marshes and
filth of lechery, others on the flat plains of wandering licence. This is the
gathering of which Isaiah speaks, when, speaking in the Lord's name, he
1 Gregory, Moralia in Job, XXXIII, xi, 21 (PL, 1XXVI, 685A)

2 Matthew, 25: 41
3 Job, 38: 10-11
4 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, III, 1, 3-3, 13 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 60-68)
136 PART FOUR
says to the church: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with
great mercies I will gather thee"1. And he says, of the same gathering:
"Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold these from the north and
from the sea, and these from the south country"2. And again: "I will bring
thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west. I will say to the
north: Give up: and to the south: keep not back: bring my sons from afar,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth"3. And the Lord says in
Matthew: "Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down
with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven"4. When this
gathering has been made, the dry land appears, that is, the earth of the flesh
of the peoples thus gathered together, dried from their flowing through their
different lusts. Of this the Psalm says: "For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land"5. For the characteristics of the sea are
fitting for the church thus gathered together. It flows and overflows with
widespread charity, which reaches so far as the love of one's enemies. It
flows back and turns in on itself when it considers itself, in fear of the
judgement. It breaks up its own swellings by remembering its own fragility.
It is heard on the low and thin sand in its voice raised in psalms, and it is
made bitter with its groaning in penance.
5. Also, all the natural, visible and tangible waters of this world are
gathered together in the one sacrament of baptism, as in one place. For
when the Lord was baptized, by touching the element of water with his
flesh he cleansed it and gave it the power of cleansing, when the word is
joined to the element in order to bring about the sacrament. By the washing
of baptism the earth of the hearts of the baptized is rid of the flood of
original and actual sin. In this way the dry land appears, which is thirsty for
the dew of grace and the rain of doctrine, so that it may bring forth the
plants of good works.
6. Or the waters are gathered in one place when all the nations are
summoned to obey the natural law. And they are gathered in one place,
when they are brought under the accusation against their first father.
Chapter XII
1. In a moral sense, the inconstant nature of the bodily senses and
pleasures are like the first waters, that wash over the earth of flesh and heart
and make it slimy and infertile. For what is first is animal and carnal, then
1 Isaiah, 54: 7
2 Isaiah, 49: 12
3 Isaiah, 43: 5-6
4 Matthew, 8: 1 1
5 Psalms, 94: 5
CHAPTERS XI-XII 137
comes what is spiritual. It was in these waters that Reuben, the first-born of
Jacob, was poured out: his father said to him: "Thou art poured out as
water, grow thou not" 1 . These waters are gathered in one place, when the
inconstancy of fleshly desires for pleasures is restrained. This restraint, a
restraint, as it were, [209D] of doors and bolts and bars, is brought about by
the fear of judgement and of Gehenna, by the shame and embarrassment of
sinning, and by the hateful and hated foulness of the sin itself. For who
would not hold himself back from sin, if he would often meditate on the
sentence of the almighty and all-knowing judge, who will leave nothing
unchecked, and nothing without being recompensed as it strictly deserves?
And if he should consider, too, what will be the confusion and shame of
those whose iniquities are not forgiven, and whose sins are not covered
over2, when the court is in session and the books opened3, when the things
hidden in darkness have light thrown on them, and the counsels of hearts
are made clear, and all the secrets of all will be thrown open to all?4 And if
he thinks too how shameful sin is, that deforms the image and likeness of
God into the likeness of beasts and birds and four-footed things and
creeping things5: for this is what a man makes himself like and relates
himself to by sin, though he was established in the honourable state of an
image of his creator. For some, too, a restraint for the inconstancy of
pleasure is enclosure, and the enclosed life, and the discipline of a rule.
For some it is the taming of the flesh by fasting, and by rough clothes, and
the recollection of past years in bitterness of soul. For others it is tribula
tion, illness or persecution. These things, like strong bars, or like a rocky
coast, hold back the waves of pleasure. The dry land of flesh appears from
these waves of desires, when the eye turns away so that it may not behold
vanity, and the ear is dulled so that it may not hear the blood6, and a guard
is set upon the mouth so that it may not fall into the words of wickedness7,
when the hands and the feet are bound in the iron chains and manacles of
God's commands8, so that the feet may not run to shed blood and the hands
may not strike without pity9: and, to sum up, when all the limbs are kept
still so that they may not serve as weapons for the iniquity of sin10.
2. According to Gregory, meanwhile, in the Moralia, the sea is "our
1 Genesis, 49: 4
2 Cp. Psalms, 31:1
3 Cp. Daniel, 7: 10
4 Cp. I Corinthians, 4: 5
5 Cp. Genesis, 1 : 26 and Romans, 1 : 23
6 Cp. Psalms, 118: 37 and Isaiah, 33: 15
7 Cp. Psalms, 140: 3-4
8 Cp. Psalms, 149: 38, and Acts, 21: 11
9 Cp. Psalms, 13: 3 and Isaiah, 58: 4
10 Cp. Romans, 6: 13
138 PART FOUR
heart, troubled by anger, bitter with strife, swelling with the height of pride,
dark with the deceit of malice."1 This sea has to be kept in by the restraints
we spoke of, as by its shores, so that it may not break out in the act of foul
deeds and cover the earth of flesh as with a flood.
3. At the end of the world, when there will be a new heaven and a new
earth2, and this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put
on immortality3, there will be a gathering together of the waters of
corruptibility, changeableness, guiltiness, and mortality of the world and
of our bodies, which are to be glorified and renewed in virtue of qualities of
incorruption and light. This gathering will be in one place, i.e. in the place
of punishment, where the wicked will be punished for ever with the devil
and his angels. For in the renewal of the world and the resurrection of our
bodies all changeableness will flow off us and remain in the place of
punishment; and the dry land will appear, i.e. what remains of bodily
creatures will be free from every kind of inconstancy that belongs to
corruption and alteration.
4. This is what has been said up to now of the spiritual sense. And
since the good that God saw in the gathering of the waters and the
appearing of the dry land includes the natural benefits of water, sea and
earth, which derive from their natural properties, through which they bring
about the benefits, let us say a little about these properties.
Chapter XIII
1. "Water is so called because its surface is level4. There are two
elements that are most powerful for human life, fire and water. Hence the
gravest of sentences is to deprive someone of fire and water. The element
of the waters has power over all the others. Waters cool the heavens, they
make the earth fruitful, they make part of the air through their exhalations
[21 OA], they climb to the heights and lay claim to the heaven. For what
could be more wonderful than that waters should be found in the heavens?
And as if it were little for them to go up to such a height, they take shoals of
fish up with them, and when they are poured down they become the cause
of all things that grow in the earth. They give birth to crops, they bring
forth trees, bushes and grasses, they wash away dirt, they cleanse from sin,
they give drink to all living things.5" Water is what holds together,
penetrates, and fills up the earth, which does not hold together of itself,
1 Gregory, Moralia in Job, XXVIII, xix, 43 (PL, LXXVI, 474B)

2 Cp. Apocalypse, 21: 1
3 Cp. / Corinthians, 15: 53
4 The alleged etymology is "aqua" from "aequalis".
5 Isidore, Etymologies, XIII, xii, 1-4
and it does the same for the bodies of earthly things. It fosters and feeds the
heat of the sun and of the stars and of the element of fire, and it also brings
about the cooling of this lower world. For if the exhalations did not cool the
heat that is above, everything here below would very soon be burnt up. So
that there may be enough for so much evaporation, there is a very great
quantity of it, and, as Basil says, it reaches right through to the bottom of
the earth1. It is drunk by animals on earth, and makes food penetrate for the
vital nourishment of their flesh. In itself it has no quality that can be tasted,
and it can receive any other flavour. It is the breath of life for fish, as air is
for animals on land. And, as Basil says "Many fish do not hatch their eggs
as birds do, or make nests, or feed their young by their own efforts: the
water receives the egg and makes it an animal.2" Water is salt when it is in
the sea, but when it is lifted up by evaporation and poured down again in
rain, or filtered through the earth, it loses its bitterness and receives the
quality of sweetness and becomes drinkable. It also receives a boiling
quality when it runs through certain metals, and becomes not only hot
but burning. Then it breaks out hot and is said to be good against different
diseases in those who bathe in it.
2. Water, as Aristotle says in the book On animals, is also "is warmer
inside than is the outside air at night. For this reason some animals live
mostly on land during the day and in the water at night.3" And many
animals "very often take on different colours because of different waters.
For hot waters make hair white, and cold waters make it black. The reason
for this is that there is more air than water in hot water, and when air heats
up, whiteness comes about in it as does foam."4
3. And the clearer water is, the darker it is thought to be, when the
light of the sun does not come down into it. It is always moving down
deeper, and is never at rest until its surface is at all points equidistant from
the centre of the earth. It reflects rays of light, and shines the light it
receives from heavenly bodies back at the heavenly bodies, and in this
way plays the part of a luminous body. And by this action of reflection of
light it projects all kinds of images of all bodily things. It shows forth the
form and beauty of all bodily things. It breaks up the rays of light that
penetrate into it and spreads them over a wider area. That is why things
seen in water seem bigger.
4. Because of these benefits of water, and many others, John Damascene
says that water is "God's masterpiece", "the best of elements, and most

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, VII, 2, 12 (ed. cit. p. 91)
3 Aristotle, Historia animalium, II, 10 (503a)
4 Aristotle, Generatione animalium, V, 6 (786b)
140 PART FOUR
valuable for very many benefits"1. Water that wells out from a rock is finer
and cleaner, and helps in the purging of the belly. Water that wells out of
clayey marshes is denser. Boiled water brings about health and healing in
the body. It is needed in all diseases, and of all waters rain water [21 OB] is
the best: fine, sweet, and easy to digest: it heats up quickly and cools
quickly2. Spring water is chosen which rises eastwards or southwards, or
comes from high mountains: this is closest to rain water. Water that flows
westwards or northwards is very bad. It gives rise to the stone in the
bladder or kidney, and makes women sterile. It makes the body sluggish,
and afflicts with severe monthly periods. It stops the sweat breaking in
illness3. These are the benefits of water without qualification.
Chapter XIV
1 . Of the sea in particular you should know that the sea is a gathering
of waters in one place that is made many by many names in different
places. Nevertheless it is a single continuum, always of inconstant motion,
noisy, foamy, following the moon in its ebbing and flowing, moved by the
power of the moon with its vapour going up from its depths. But its
strength, even in a storm, is restrained by the powder of sand that is the
weakest of all things. It was the sea that first brought living things and
animals to be at God's indication.
2. Add to this the charming thought that what we fear on land we love
in the waters; the things that are harmful on land are harmless in the waters;
and things that are enemies on land are friends in the waters. The things
that dwell in the sea, fish, have no mixing of nature4. No bounds are set for
them, but they keep to bounds. They do not wander beyond their limits,
except when they need to give birth, or avoid bad weather, or to seek the
favour of good weather; and when they reach the end of their going beyond
bounds — though they have no bounds — they go back to their own waves,
as if to their own home and dwelling5. The sea gives the land the dampness it
needs: it is the guest-house and origin of rivers, the source of rains, the
bearer of supplies, by which peoples far away from one another are joined. It
keeps far off the dangers of war, it gives support in need, a refuge in danger.
It adds elegance to pleasures, gives health to the sick, brings together those
who are separated, shortens journeys, offers escape for those who are
oppressed, support for earning, nourishment to infertility6. And they say
1 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXIII, 1 and 5 (ed. cit. pp. 98 and 102)
2 Pliny, Natural history, XXXI, iii, 23, 38^0 (ed. Sillig, IV, 437)
3 Pliny, Natural history, XXXI, iii, 26, 43 (ed. Sillig, IV, 438)
4 Cp. Ambrose, Hexaemeron, V, 3, 9 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 147)
6 Cp. Ambrose, Hexaemeron IV, 5, 22 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, pp. 73-74)
CHAPTERS XIII-XV 141
that the sea is salt because of the burning of the sun, which burns up parts of
the earth that are mixed with the tasteless parts of water1. This mixture
makes for bitterness, and the burning makes the bitterness salty.
3. Add to this that the sea goes around the land in the shape of a cross:
going round it below the equator, crossing it from east to west and back to
the east again. It goes around the land from east to west and from south to
north, under the two poles. The sea gives birth to the golden fleece2. When
the halcyon is hatching its young for seven days, and feeding them for
another seven, the sea is wholly calm there3.
4. Also, as Aristotle says in his book On animals: "The animals that
live in the water and take sea water inside them do not taste anything
rough." "And in the sea there are some things about which there is a doubt
whether they are animals or plants. They are joined to the places where
they are: and many of them die if you take them somewhere else.4" Also,
the sea is thickened after the rising of the star called the Dog-star. Also, the
sea produces animals "of more different shapes than are land animals,
since the nature of the moist is more suitable for breeding than is the earth.
And sea creatures are moister and bigger than freshwater animals.5"
[210C]. This is because the nature of the sea is warm, and in the sea there
is a great part of earth by which hard shells are generated.
Chapter XV
1 . The earth that belongs to what was established on this day, though it
is spoken of as being made before, on the first day, is the body that is
lowest and in the centre, the most gross of all the first bodies [elements] of
this world, which has least of the nature of subtlety and simplicity. This is
the other foundational part of the world, the body that is by nature cold and
dry, the least in quantity, dark and shadowy in quality, spherical in shape.
Without the cement of water it would not stay together. As a whole, it is at
rest, though it often is in motion as regards its parts. It is the dwelling place
of all bodily living things. It is "the footstool of God's feet"6, because the
form of this element is the least among the bodies of the world, and the
action of God's power shines out least in it. That is why it seem to be in
touch with God's last extremity, so to speak. As the poet says7 it is
1 Aristotle, Meteora, II, 3 (356b)

2 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, V, 11, 33 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 167)
3 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, V, 13, 40 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 172); Basil, Hexaemeron, VII, 5, (ed.
cit. p. 106); Aristotle, Historia animalium, IX, 14 (616a)
4 Aristotle, Historia animalium, VIII, 1 (588b)
5 Aristotle, Generatione animalium. III, 2 (761a-761b)
6 1 Chronicles, 28: 2
7 Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 13
142 PART FOUR
balanced by its own weight. Each of its parts tends, by its weight, to the
centre of the whole: and by this tendency and inclination of each of its parts
to the centre, everything around the centre hangs balanced. Hence the
Psalmist says: "Who hast founded the earth upon its own bases: it shall
not be moved for ever and ever"1. And Job says: "He stretched out the
north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing"2. This, of
all the bodies of the world, is that which receives most of the light of
heaven and of the heavenly luminaries, and is for that reason, as it were, the
most fruitful mother of all things, adorned very richly with plants.
2. And if the luminaries of heaven are only bodies and not living
things, then since life is always better and nobler than that which is not life,
and therefore that which has life is better and nobler than that which is not
living, and since plants are living things in virtue of their vegetative soul,
then even if there were no animals or human beings to adorn the earth, the
earth would be more nobly adorned by plants than is the firmament by the
stars. Hence in the dignity and nobility of its adornment the earth recovers
what it loses in the nobility of its substance. For it is in itself the most base
and most ignoble of all bodies in the world. But this detriment with regard
to ignobility it makes up through its adornment. But the heaven is adorned
more nobly than the earth, if the bodies of what adorns them are compared.
3. If, however, the living is compared to the non-living, the adornment
of the earth is nobler than the adornment of the firmament. There is added
also this favour to the dignity of the earth's adornment, that it was the earth
that first brought forth its offspring into the light. For it says "Let the earth
bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit-tree yielding
fruit" before it says "Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven".
So the earth, though in itself it has the lowest place, is set on the peak of
Olympus above the place of the clouds3.
4. These things have been briefly dealt with for the present, things to
do with the benefits of water, the sea, and the earth. And it is for the sake of
these, and of others I do not know of, which may be greater, that it was said
"And God saw that it was good". For according to Basil the "good" which
is spoken of in "God saw that it was good" encompasses the benefit of the
thing made4. And in expounding this word both he and Ambrose try to tell
of the natural benefits of each thing made5. We have followed up, not the
1 Psalms, 103: 5
2 Job, 26: 7
3 Cp. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram. III, 2 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 64)
4 Basil, Hexaemeron, IV, 6-7 (ed. cit. pp. 53-55)
5 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, III, 5, 20-22 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 73-74)
CHAPTERS XV-XVII 143
details of the kinds, which they expounded so excellently, but rather the
kinds of the details, in a sketchy manner, because of our own littleness.
Chapter XVI
1 . There follows: "Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as
may seed, etc." Why the sprouting of plants [210D] belongs to the day on
which the land was made, and why it is nonetheless spoken of separately, is
hinted at by Augustine when he says: "Here we must note the direction of
the one who ordered it: the creation of herbs and trees is a different creation
from the species of earths and waters. They cannot be counted among the
elements, and so they are said to rise from the earth separately. And
separately the usual words are used of them, that is: 'Let there be' and
'it was so done'. And then what was done is repeated; and separately it is
pointed out that God saw that it was good. But since these things are fixed
and joined to the earth with roots, it was his will that they should belong to
the same day.1"
Chapter XVII
1. But according to Jerome plants were made by this command
complete according to their form and size: just as the man, for whose
sake all things were established, is thought to have been made at mature
age2. Jerome also draws from these words that the world was made and
adorned in the springtime. This is the time that is naturally fitted for the
sprouting of plants. And it is plausible that it was the power of the
command that now causes the sprouting of plants in springtime, that
made them sprout in the beginning at a similar time. Basil, too, agrees
with Jerome on the point that the plants were made complete all at once by
this command. He says: "By the uttering of this word all the groves were at
once thickened: the trees whose custom it is to grow high — the olive, the
cedar, the cypress, the pine — and the bushes, were clothed in leaves, the
shrubs with green boughs. And those we call garland-bushes — the rose,
the myrtle, the laurel — all in one moment of time arose, each with their
own nature, though they had not existed before. Each was distinct from the
others by most clear evidence, and brought forth in a definite class." But
both these authorities, as was said above, think that the six days took place
one after another in time. Others have thought that the plants were made all
together, all at once, according to causal and seminal reasons, and were
brought to their completeness over some period of time3.

2 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 96C)
3 E.g. Augustine: see above, IV, xvi, 1
144 PART FOUR
2. Therefore, the command of bringing forth produced the plants from

the earth in the beginning, and it was a sort of law of nature, and was fixed
in the earth, giving it the capability of breeding and bearing fruit in the
future. Therefore, as Basil says, "This slight command obliged these things
to their proper powers, that they have, to give shape to the circlings of each
of the years by bringing forth the kinds of herbs, of seeds, and of trees, just
as the pinewood spinning-top, having been first driven on by whipping,
then unwinds its twisted whirls through a curved path; but once its point is
fixed it goes around that: so the reason of nature, having taken its origin
from God's first command, passes through every age, until it reaches its
common end and limit.1"
Chapter XVIII
1. The manner and order of the bringing forth of plants as it runs
through time to the end of the world is described by Basil as follows:
"Right up to the present day the order in which things are born is a witness
of the way things were first laid down. The germination comes before
anything that germinates. Even if something springs from a root, like the
crocus or like grass, it must first germinate, then become the green leaf,
then bring forth the ear of ripe crop that turns yellow. So when the seed
falls into the ground and is gently softened by moisture and heat, then soon
it is tied in to the lap of earth and receives some generative fostering from
there, and it sinks and slips gradually into its interior. [211 A]. It puts out
very thin fibres2, and as it is born it breaks through the heap of earth above
it, and, now firmly rooted, it easily rises, raising as many stalks above as it
stretches out roots below. And thus the tender seed is made warm, and
draws down to it vapour, which slips through the roots by the drawing
power of heat, and the seed receives the nourishment of the earth. It makes
part of itself into the stalk, part into its skin; it turns part into its grain, and
stretches out part in the beard. And by this perfect gathering together little
by little each part reaches its full measure. Whether it be wheat, then, or
pulse, or garden herbs, or a bush, it is well able to instruct your under
standing so that you can glimpse the wisdom of the Craftsman who
established it so. This is shown in the way in which the stalks of corn
are ringed with something like knees, so that they may be able to support
the weight of the ears by being bound up in thick bundles; and when they
reach the full weight of ripeness, they begin to bend down. That is why the
stalk of oats is quite hollow, since it has no weight at its head. But he
protected wheat by its nature in quite another way, for he put its grain in
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, V, 10, 1-2 (ed. cit. pp. 68-69)

2 Reading "fibris" for the "febris" of the text
CHAPTERS XVII-XIX 145
cases in his providence, so that it would not be scattered by the birds. And
also in good reason he gave it a beard, to protect it, as if with spears, to
keep off the stings of lesser beasts.1"
Chapter XIX
1. What follows this, i.e. "the green herb, and such as may seed"
should be understood as having added to it "according to its kind". This is
expressly stated in the translation of the Seventy: "Let the earth bring forth
the herb of food, such as may seed according to its kind and likeness". And
in the recapitulation, both in our text and in that of the Seventy, this phrase
is repeated: "according to its kind" after both "green herb" and after
"fruit-tree yielding fruit". This is the sense of this expression, i.e. that
every species of herb and of tree produces a seed that generates something
like the herb or the tree that produced the seed: that is to say, a reed comes
from a reed, a rose from a rose, an oak from an oak, a cedar from a cedar,
according to the likeness of its kin. It is not the case that one species
produces another species from itself through a seed.
2. But it seems that in some cases it happens the other way round.
Often when we are reaping yellow wheat we also gather dark wheat. Basil
resolves this problem by saying that this is not a case of the changing of a
kind, but of the illness and weakness of the seed. "Corn that is burned
black has not ceased to be corn. Its appearance has been baked by too much
cold and it has changed its colour and flavour for another. In the same way,
if the field is fruitful and the weather is favourable, it soon returns to its
former state.2" The word "kind" here means species and nature and the
natural power of generating its like. That is why, in order that we should
not understand a generic nature by "kind", it puts the name of the species
for the name of a kind in the repetition. This is so that by the two names
being brought together we may understand the specific nature and its
generative power3. This cannot be fully expressed either by the name of
the kind alone or by the name of the species alone. Thus, once it has given
one name [21 IB] which does not express its full intention, it adds the other:
the conjunction of the two expresses what is meant sufficiently well. That is
why the Seventy were not content to put "according to their kind", but
added: "and according to their likeness", so that the reader would under
stand the substantial likeness, which is a likeness according to the specific

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, V, 5, 3 (ed. cit. p. 61)
3 The Vulgate here supplements its usual expression for "according to their kind", secundum
genus suum, by saying "according to their likeness", or "according to their species",
secundum speciem suam.
146 PART FOUR
nature only, and also the natural power of generation. A seed is "according
to its kind and likeness" or "according to its kind and species", when it is
by nature fit to generate something like itself according to its specific
nature, which is what that seed is a seed of.
Chapter XX
1. "The fruit-tree yielding apples" [literally] is used for "the fruit-tree
yielding fruit". Hence the translation of the Seventy has "the fruit-tree
yielding fruit". The fruit of every kind of tree is understood under the name
"apple".
2. There is a difference between fruit and seed. Every fruit has seed in
it, but not every seed is called fruit. It is called a seed, properly speaking,
when the whole has to be put in the earth, so that it can germinate
appropriately: e.g. a grain of wheat. A piece of a grain of wheat, thrown
into the earth, does not germinate. A fruit is something that has a seed of
this kind inside it, and has besides this something that goes round the seed,
that can be separated from the seed and be used as food or medicine: e.g.
apples, dates, plums, cherries, all of which give food apart from their seeds.
And the fruit is better than the tree, since the tree is for the sake of the fruit.
For perhaps the fruit has something more effective as food or medicine
than the substance of the tree has in itself, though this is often not known.
Chapter XXI
1. But why does it say: "which may have seed in itself"? Would it not
have been enough to have said "the fruit-tree yielding fruit according to its
kind", without adding "which may have seed in itself"? May it not be that
by adding this it wants to suggest that the seed qua seed1, that is, in so far as
it produces something like to that which gave the seed, comes not only
from food (as some natural philosophers thought), but is something cut out
of the substance of what gave the seed, brought into existence by the
creation? For example: the body of our first father was formed from the
slime of the earth, and the food he took in served that body so that it might
endure. Some natural philosophers have thought that it is from that food
alone, when assimilated to the body by nourishment and prepared for being
joined to the substance of the body by nourishment, that the seed is
separated: and from this seed offspring can be procreated.
2. But others have thought that such seed, that is, seed merely
separated from food, is not seed qua seed, i.e. seed that can produce
offspring. They say that seed qua seed, whether in whole or in part, must
be separated from the substance of the body of Adam that God made in the
1 Literally, the seedly seed, semen seminale.

CHAPTERS XIX-XXI 147
beginning from the slime of the earth. This seed, thus separated, passes into
the substantial body of the child, once food is taken in that supports
endurance. And unless seed qua seed were separated in this way, not
from food alone, but from true substantial flesh — what some call "flesh
according to its kind", while they call flesh additionally generated from
food "flesh according to matter"1 — then, they say, if that other opinion
were true, we would not all truly have been in the loins of Adam. And it
would be the same for plants: seed qua seed is in them not in virtue of
the food they take in, but comes from their substance, in virtue of the
command of God that brought them out of the earth. This is what is
suggested by adding "which may have seed in itself". For if its seed
came only from nourishment that is taken in from outside, its seed would
be in another, and not separately in itself. It would be in itself as a thing
is in a container, and by the alterations that it made on it, to the extent
that it gave it the characteristics of seed: but it would not be in a
significant way in itself. For that which is in itself would seem to be
in its true substance.
3. It could be that by adding this it means to suggest a distinction
between the ways of propagating in plants and in animals. The female
among animals receives the seed from the male, and does not have in
herself a complete seed qua seed. But in plants the female does not receive
in herself a seed separated from the male; rather, in plants both male and
female have in themselves a seed which separates from themselves alone,
and does not receive from elsewhere a part of bodily seed. The female
among animals, however, receives from the male a bodily part of the whole
seed from which the animal will be propagated: and the part received from
the male is active and formative. The part given by the female, meanwhile,
is material, passive and formable. Hence among animals neither males
nor females have the whole of the seed, in a bodily way, within them
selves. In plants, on the other hand, both males and females have the
whole seed in themselves, as we said, in a bodily way. The female among
plants, however, receives the active generative power from the male, as is
clear and obvious in the case of palm-trees. The females at the time of
germination of their fruits bend their branches towards the male palm-
trees, and when they have received the active seminal power from the
males, straighten up the branches that were bent down. And female palm
trees become sterile when you cut down the male palm-trees that they
were near to2.
1 Cp. Aristotle, De generatione et corruptions I, 5 (321a-322a)

2 Cp. Basil, Hexaemeron, V, 7, 8 (ed. cit. p. 65)
148 PART FOUR
Chapter XXII
1. It is also asked what is meant by adding "upon the earth". Does the
sacred author mean to hint by this that the seed cannot be in the roots that
are not upon the earth but in it, but can only be in that part that grows and
rises up above the earth? But against this there seems to be what Basil says,
i.e. "Some of the things that the earth brings forth are thought to pick up
their seminal strength in the roots and in the bottom of the plant: e.g. reeds
and a thousand other plants, which are things born from the earth and keep
their renewed offspring in their roots.1" Or is it that they would have no
seminal power of this kind in their roots, were it not for the power of the
upper part that breaks out above the ground by growing? Or maybe the text
wants to suggest something else: that the first seminal power of producing
the first plants from the earth was in the earth only in virtue of the first
command. The seed of the plants to be produced after that was not in the
earth alone, as it was at first, but in the plants themselves that had then risen
out of the earth. It is as if it said: the seminal power of the first plants was in
the earth that they rose from, but the seminal power from which the later
plants were to arise is now above the earth, that is to say in the very
substance of the first plants that are above the earth itself. "Above the
earth": not merely because part of them breaks out into the air, but because
of the dignity and nobility of their nature as a whole. Hence this "being
upon" can be taken to mean the pre-eminence of the nature of plants,
relative to the earth which is their matter.
Chapter XXIII
1. The translation of the Seventy has it as follows: "Let the earth bring
forth the herb of food, such as may seed according to its kind and likeness;
and fruitbearing trees that bear fruit, whose own seed is in itself according
to its kind upon the earth". As one may gather from Basil, by these words
is indicated [21 ID] the order of the production of a herb to its completion.
This order existed naturally in the establishment of the first plants only if
they arose all at once and not successively. Nowadays this occurs succes
sively, through moments of time: that is to say, from the first germination
there is first the breaking out in leaf, then the perfection in food, and thirdly
the completion in the seed. He says: "the first thing in the generation of
things that are born is the germination; then, when it emerges a little, it
becomes a herb. And then when it grows we have the food. And little by
little it puts out its limbs and is pubescent: and so on until the right time for
the solidifying of mature seed.2" First, therefore, comes germination, then

CHAPTERS XXII-XXV 149
follows food, which is soon joined by its continuation in seed. This order is
clearly expressed by the words of the lawgiver according to the Seventy.
Chapter XXIV
1. And you should notice that this expression "such as may seed" in
the Greek translation of the Seventy is in the neuter gender, and it is not
clear in Greek, either from the termination of the word, or from the article
joined to it, whether it is in the nominative case or the accusative. What is
said is common to either of the two cases. Perhaps this is done so that it can
be taken to qualify either the word "earth" or the word "herb", since both
the one and the other co-operate in the work of seeding. The herb produces
the seed through the co-operation of the earth, and likewise, through the
herb, the earth produces the seed in the herb. Nor could one suggest that
it qualifies the expression "food", since the expression "food" in Greek
is both masculine in gender and genitive in case, and hence fails to agree
in two ways with the expression "such as may seed" in the neuter
gender.
Chapter XXV
1. You should note, too, that the production of plants came before the
luminaries, as Basil bears witness, in order that it should not seem that the
sun served as a cause to their production, and so that the pagans might not
be given an excuse for worshipping the sun as in some way the originator
of plants1.
2. After this Basil asks about this text, too, why food for animals was
provided before food for us2. The solution of this is that very many garden
herbs and roots are food not only for animals but also for human beings.
Others are medicines for humans. And those which are given to animals as
their food are also food for humans in a mediate way, since the animals are
food for humans. Hence they are principally provided for the sake of
humans. And this is so even though, if man had not sinned, he would
not have eaten meat, and would not have needed medicine. Still plants
would have been principally for human food. That is why it is said below to
the first human beings: "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed
upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind,
to be your meat, and for all the living things of the earth". And even if
perhaps they were not for human food, still they would have been for some
good human benefit.
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, VI, 2, 2-3 (ed. cit. p. 71)

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, V, 1, 6-7 (ed. cit. p. 56)
150 PART FOUR
Chapter XXVI
1 . Also this text suggests that every herb had seed, and every tree bore
fruit in its first establishment. But now we see that there are many herbs
that have no seed, and many kinds of tree — e.g. the willow and the elm —
that have no fruit. It seems, then, that either there are now some species of
herbs and of trees that were not established at the beginning, or that some
that then bore seed and fruit have become sterile. Augustine solves this, in
[212A] part, by saying that by "fruit" any benefit is meant1.
2. But Basil understands the word "seed" to mean any seminal power,
be it in the roots or in the branches, or in what is clearly the formation of a
seed. Hence, as he says "It is proved true that every plant either provides a
seed to renew its kind, or has joined to it some seminal power.2" "Hence"
as he says, "it will be clear to those who inquire closely, that all trees either
have seed or have some power similar to seed. The poplar or the elm, or the
willow and others like them, seem to bear no obvious seed: but if you will
look closely at them you will find a seed. Under their leaves is found a
grain which is usually called [lia%0[i, mischum, by those who take care of
the composition of words, and this has the power of a seed. For those trees
that are born from the planting of branches usually sink roots from
themselves. Perhaps, too, the buds that grow out of their trunks have the
nature of seeds to some extent. Farmers are thought to pull these off and dig
them in in order to make good the kind."3
3. Or we could say, something that Basil touches on, that the trees
which are of greater benefit and which preserve and nourish our life are
mentioned here expressly by the lawgiver, as being more worthy of
remembrance4.
Chapter XXVII
1. A question here has to do with thorns and thistles and poisonous
herbs: when and why did they arise? There can be three kinds of reply to
this.
2. The first is that they were made after the sin of man, so that by them
man might be convinced of his crime, and might learn from them their
punishment. Hence Augustine, in his On the book of Genesis against the
Manichees, says: "The earth was cursed to bring forth thorns after the sin
of man in the following way: not so that it might feel the penalty, since it
has no senses, but rather that the crime of human beings should always be
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, III, 18 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 83)

CHAPTERS XXVI-XXVII 151
before human eyes, and that by this they might be warned away from sin
and turned back to the commands of God. Poisonous herbs were created as
a punishment, or as a training for mortals: and this is only because of sin,
because we became mortal after sin. The fruitless herbs are an affront to
human beings, so that they may understand how shameful it is to be
without the fruit of good works in the field of God, that is, in the
church, and so that they might be afraid lest God should abandon them,
as they abandon fruitless trees in their fields and give them no cultivation.
Before the sin of the human being it is written only that the earth brought
forth herbs for food and fruitful trees. But after sin we see that many things
are born wild and fruitless.1"
3. Or it might be that they were born before the sin of the human being,
but they were not a cause of toil or of any harm to it: after sin they were
made a cause of toil and of punishment. That is why the Scripture does not
just say, when speaking of the cursing of the earth in human work: "Thorns
and thistles shall it bring forth" but adds "to thee"2. It is as if it said: "It is
for your punishment and for your toil that there will be brought forth what
otherwise, before, simply was brought forth." This view is suggested by
Augustine rather more in his Literal commentary. He says: "We can reply
without hesitation that the earth brought forth thorns and thistles after the
sin of the human being, for human toil: not that that they were born
elsewhere beforehand and afterwards grew in the fields that the human
being cultivated, but rather that both before and after they grew in the same
places. But before they were not there for the human being, only after
wards. Hence 'it will bring forth to thee': that is, things that before grew
only for feeding other animals will now grow for your toil.3" If, according
to this view of Augustine, [212B] these kinds of plants existed before the
sin of the human being, we can divide this two ways. One way is that these
kinds had the same rough shapes and harmful qualities as they have now,
but could not, before human sin, hurt the human being, because of the
strength of health in the human body. But after sin, the human body was
weakened, and these same kinds became hurtful and harmful, in virtue of
the same shapes and qualities which they had had before. In the same way
we can see that one and the same shining light is pleasing to a healthy eye,
but is harmful and a punishment to a sick eye. This seems to be the opinion
of Augustine, that these things became a punishment and became harmful
to man through a weakening of the human being, and not by a change to the
things themselves.
1 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, I, xiii, 19 (PL, XXXIV, 182)

2 Genesis, 3: 18
3 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram. III, 18 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 83-84)
152 PART FOUR
4. Or it may be that the same kinds that existed before human sin did
not have the rough shapes and harmful qualities that they now have: when
the human being sinned they underwent a change of shape and quality.
Hence Basil says that "At that time the rose had no thorn. Afterwards the
thorn was joined to the beauty, so that care should be beside pleasure, and
we should remember the sin for the sake of which the earth was condemned
to bear thorn-bushes and brambles for us.1" Which is the truest of these
three accounts, I could not easily say. In any case the authorities do not put
any one of them forward as a definite assertion, but only as a way of
showing what is possible. Any of the three ways of the origins of thorns
and thistles and suchlike is possible.
Chapter XXVIII
1 . We should consider, too, that the plants are divided in two ways
here: that is, into herbs and trees. Hence we should ask here, what are the
distinctive differences between them. It seems from the translation of the
Seventy that they differ as follows: herbs come into existence in order to be
by nature the food of animals, but trees are not born to be by nature the
food of animals, but rather to bear fruit to be the food of human beings and
of irrational animals. This is even though the tender shoots of some trees
are like herbs and are often eaten by animals.
2. It seems, too, that herbs are properly those plants that in one period
of the sun's approach and removal come to their complete natural age, and
to their natural increase and decrease, and which also produce seed only
once from one stock — even though perhaps a seeding herb can break out
more than once from the same root. But a tree is a plant that remains
through several periods of the sun and bears fruit several times from the
same stock.
3. But we should not understand one period of the sun, according to its
approach and removal, to be the same as one year, without qualification:
though this period is the same as a year for all the areas that lie between the
tropic and the pole. But in the areas below the equator, or nearly below it,
the sun passes overhead twice in the year, and twice is removed from
overhead: once towards the north, once towards the south. Also it twice
comes back overhead. Hence in those areas, e.g. in parts of India, there are
two summers in the one year, once when the sun is at the spring equinox,
and again when it is at the autumn equinox. At those times it passes
overhead at midday. And in the same parts there are two winters a year,
once when the sun is near its point at the summer solstice, and again when
it reaches the region of the winter solstice. Hence in those areas [212C]

CHAPTERS XXVII-XXIX 153
they sow and they reap twice in one year, and there is a double renewal of
plants, since the sun makes a double period of its approach and removal.
Chapter XXIX
1 . In a spiritual sense we can understand the earth that brings forth the
green herbs and the fruitbearing trees to be the church, both triumphant and
militant, and the heart of any of the faithful. This earth brings forth the
green herb of good will under the nourishment of spiritual grace. This herb
brings forth seed, when it desires that the good that has come to be and now
exists in itself may come to be and exist in another, and, in so far as it can,
strives and toils so that the same good may come to be and exist in another
as it possesses in itself. For a seed naturally tends to generate a nature that
is like to it. Do you want to know what is the herb that bears seed according
to its kind? Listen to what Paul has to say: "For I would that all men were
even as myself"1. And again: "Who is weak, and I am not weak?"2. And
again he says the same: "For I wished myself to be an anathema from
Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh"3.
2. Therefore, the burning desire of Paul, that his brethren and all others
should be in the faith of Christ such as he was, was the seed, that sprouted
in the minds of many into a herb of good will, which itself in its turn
brought forth a seed of the same kind. Just as the will in Paul was that
others should be as he was, so is it in the church triumphant and the church
militant: but more effective. And so it is also in some of the saints and of
the faithful, though it is more lukewarm in many of them. The good will,
then, that is strong and green and wishes well in itself, is like a herb. But
the will that burns for others to be like it, is like seed. This seed was ripe in
Moses when he said: "Who will grant me that all the people might
prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit!"4. And again
when he said: "Either forgive them this trespass, or strike me out of the
book that thou hast written"5. The Lord conferred the power of bearing this
seed when he said: "All things therefore whatsoever you would that men
should do to you, do you also to them"6.
3. The trees, strictly speaking, mean the virtues that are placed within
fortitude, which is the considered undertaking of danger and the bearing of
toil, i.e. magnificence, faithfulness, patience, and perseverance. These,
among the other virtues, are like oak trees that stand out for height and
1 l Corinthians, 7: 7
3 Romans, 9: 3
4 Numbers, 11: 29
5 Exodus, 32: 31-32
6 Matthew, 7: 12
154 PART FOUR
strength among the lower and softer plants. These trees bring forth fruit
according to their kind, in the same way as we said above that the herb
brings forth its seed according to its kind. It brings forth fruit according to
its kind, when it protects and raises the poor from the hands of the mighty,
as if it wanted to snatch them from the hand of those who are stronger and
are tearing them apart. In a general way, bearing fruit means good actions
issuing from a virtue, and the eternal reward of this active virtue.
4. Also the green herbs are the sciences of piety, that bear their seed in
the word of doctrine, which once sown in the mind of the hearer germinates
something that is like that which gives the seed. And in an analogous sense
the trees are the sciences that give order to the virtue of fortitude. And just
as the plants are divided into two groups, i.e. into the herbs and the trees, so
all the virtues are divided into two groups: into those virtues that are placed
in the concupiscible part of the rational mind, and those that are placed in
its irascible part. According to Gregory the church bears the food of the
word, which gives strength as herbs do, and offers the shade [21 2D] and the
protection of its patronage, as does a leafy tree1.
5. The greenness of the herb could also mean the manner of life of
holiness while it is still young and tender, while the strength of the tree
means the same manner of life when it has grown to solid perfection. And
the active life is like the food for the animals, that is, of the senses of the
flesh; while the contemplative life is, as it were, something that grows into
the tree of perfection. Each of us bears seed and fruit according to our own
kind, when we do not slide away from the supreme goodness in whose
image and likeness we were made, but live according to the generation and
the renewal of the image of our Creator. And we have seed in ourselves,
when what we do according to God's will is nothing different from our
natural good, but make it all one indivisible whole through the natural free
will that God works in us through grace. We bring forth seed on the earth,
when the desire2 of flesh is subject to the spirit.
6. "Earth" can also mean the literal sense of Scripture, which feeds the
simple with the humble simplicity of a moral interpretation, just as animals
are fed by some herbs. The lofty heights of the allegorical and anagogical
interpretation give fruit to the wise, and are like great trees that give food to
rational human beings. This spiritual sprouting from the spiritual earth is
seen by God with a gaze3 of good pleasure: he sees that it is good. He also
sees the natural sprouting from the natural earth and sees that this is good,
as signifying the spiritual sprouting in all its natural properties and benefits.
1 Gregory, Moralia in Job, XIX, xix, 29 (PL, LXXVI, 117A)

2 Affectus
3 Aspectus
CHAPTERS XXIX-XXX 155
Chapter XXX
1 . Some of the natural properties of the vegetables that sprout naturally
from the earth are as follows. Every vegetable has a vegetative soul and
vegetative power, which is the moving force of the matter of the body that
shows these vegetative activities, spreading out by swelling from its middle
into every part. The vegetative life does not bring about this swelling
movement only in the way in which a rarefying power moves its matter
in all directions to a greater extension, but also in the way of forming and
shaping the body (that is the subject of this vegetating activity) internally
and externally into organs that are fitted for nutrition and generation. It
leads on the matter by increase in size to the perfection and the size that fits
its species. The vegetative life begins to form and shape the body that is the
subject of vegetating action from within, in the middle — as if from the
centre of the heart — and then shapes and forms the parts that follow
afterwards. Thus it affects the nearer parts first, and the farther parts
afterwards, until it brings about form and shape in the whole of the
matter. Then it makes what has been formed, by increase of size, into its
due size. For though vegetables have no heart, they have something
analogous to the heart, from which the action of the vegetative power
principally begins. And perhaps the vegetative life and the vegetative
power act in the forming of the body that is the subject of vegetating
action as if by a first active organ, once the light of the heavens is gathered
together and embodied in the centre of the heart, or of that which is
analogous to the heart.
2. For all the heavens, even when the lights of heaven are left out of
account, transmit their light downwards, and, as was said above, concen
trate in greatest power at points near to the centre of the world, i.e. at the
earth1. When the meeting point of all the lights of heaven is embodied with
some matter that is fit for the support of vegetable life, that same meeting
of the lights, through the guidance of the vegetable life, from the meeting
point of the lights in matter, [2 13A] moves that matter with many circular
and regular movements. The sum of these makes a single motion that is
irregular in a regular way, which forms and shapes the body that is the
subject of vegetating activity according to forms and shapes that are
irregular in a regular way. For the light of any of the heavens is of the
same nature as is the heaven whose light it is. Hence it naturally has a
circular motion that is like to the motion of the heaven whose light it is.
Thus, once it is embodied in matter, it strives to bring the matter to its
natural circulation: and it succeeds in doing so more or less according to
whether it is stronger or weaker in initiating motion, and according to
1 See above, III, xvi, 6

156 PART FOUR
whether the matter is more or less obedient to its action. Since, then, in the
one matter there are many lights of this kind embodied, each of which has
its own natural circulation, and since, moreover, the lower heavens receive
modes of moving from the higher heavens, over and above their own
motions (and hence turn round in many different ways, so that the lights
of the lower heavens, when embodied in matter, receive many different
ways of turning round from the higher heavens): given all this, it is possible
that since there is the mixture of lights in one and the same matter, that
matter can be led in a most regular way to an irregular shape, according to
its varying level of obedience to the motion, and according to the turnings
of the lights themselves.
3. And if someone should examine the bodies of vegetables carefully,
he would find that all their shaping and moulding is complete according to
rotatory motions. But since the vegetative power cannot form the matter in
the way mentioned above, by expanding, nor bring something so formed to
its perfect size, it could not, either, keep it in existence, on account of the
continuous flowing away of matter, except by some material assistance
coming from outside, so that it can increase the quantity of the thing that is
to be increased, and restore what is lost by the flowing away of matter.
Hence the vegetative life stands in need, of necessity, of the power of
attracting nourishment, of the power of retaining what has been drawn in,
and of the power of digesting what is held on to, that prepares what is held
and separates what is pure in it from what is impure, and assimilates what is
separated as pure for the nourishment of the body, and at last joins to the
body in substance what had previously been assimilated to it according to
the weaving together of its quality. And the vegetative life needs a fourth
power, that is, that of expelling what is impure or superfluous, so that the
body may not be corrupted by the rottenness of this stuff, and prevented
from drawing in new nourishment. These four powers that serve the
vegetable and nutritive life carry out their actions through the four primary
natural qualities. The attractive power draws in by the hot and the dry, and
the retentive power retains by the cold and the dry. The digestive power
prepares and digests by the hot and the moist, and the expulsive power
expels by the cold and the moist. For the cold contracts, the moist
lubricates and softens, the hot expands and bakes (it joins together things
of one nature and separates things of different natures), and the dry settles,
fixes, and lays to rest. Also the attractive power attracts through long
itudinal fibres, the retentive power retains through latitudinal fibres, and the
expulsive power expels through transverse fibres. These fibres can be seen
by anyone who looks at a cut tree or at the cooked flesh of animals.
4. Vegetable life always nourishes for the sake of the well-being of the
individual and for its own existence in itself. It [213B] grows for the sake
CHAPTER XXX 157
of its completion in size. And it generates for the sake of perpetuating itself
in its kind. Vegetables germinate in the order and manner described above
by St Basil. Moreover, as Basil also says: "The plants whose tops are
highest have the most and the deepest roots, and they are so spread out that
nature has put them there as a foundation, to be able to bear the mass that is
placed on top of them.1" There is no mind or wit that is strong enough to
investigate or understand or express "how one and the same moisture,
drawn in through the roots of bushes, is scattered to its different tasks:
some feeds the root, some the bark, some the trunk, some the pith; or how it
at one time turns into leaves, at another forms twigs and branches, and at
another gives food for the fruit to grow on. From one and the same
moisture the vine makes wine, the olive tree makes oil: in one case it
turns sweet, in another it turns fat. And in the fruits themselves there are
clearly very many ways of changing taste. And the same matter pours
distillations of a sort of moisture through the branches: and the great
difference among these distillations of beauty and benefit no-one could
explain. Here we find the distillations of cinnamon, here the juice of balm,
here too the beauty of amber, hardened like a stone.2" These are the
different resins: and each different kind is a different medicine.
5. All plants have an appetite: not an appetite moved by sensing, but
an appetite moved by vital motion. By this they are more fertile, and bear
richer fruit, and they shun what is contrary to it. They grow better, too, by
drinking in rain water than by drinking in the water of rivers or springs, and
they receive food from the earth that is made complete by their roots. For
this reason trees do not have any gross or obvious deformity, since it is the
earth and its heat that do for them what animals' bellies do for them. Plants
also have few organic members, since their nature is fixed: and when
operations are few, organs will be few as well. The operations of plants
consist in the putting out of fruit and seed. Many plants, after they are cut
up, are of complete nature: hence from one tree come many trees. Also
their strength is greater lower down, and the lower part of their stem is
greater than the upper part: except for the palm tree. The palm tree is
different from all other kinds of tree, in some way. For every tree is of
greatest strength next to the ground, but gets thinner as it grows up. And the
higher it gets, the thinner it gets. But the palm tree begins at the bottom
with less width, and rises up to greater strength up near the branches and
fruits: and what started small at the bottom grows greater at the top. Trees
grow barren with too much food, and their fruits decay and diminish. Also
trees that bear much fruit dry up quickly. Those which have a thick sap do
Basil, Hexaemeron, V, 7, 2 (ed. cit. p. 64)

158 PART FOUR
not lose their leaves, and a lessening of hot and thick sap makes them lose
their leaves.
6. The root of a plant is an intermediary between the plant and its food.
That is why the Greeks call it the root and cause of the life of plants, since
it brings the cause of life to the plants. Riza is the Greek word for what we
call a root in Latin: and it comes from rio, that is, I flow, and zoe, which is
life. Hence it means: "influx of life"
7. Wild trees give more fruit than garden trees, but the fruit of garden
trees is better than that of wild trees. The best kind of grafting is of like on
to analogously like. A good plant does not easily come from a bad seed, nor
a bad tree from a good seed: but the opposite is very often found in
animals. A hard-barked tree that has become barren: if you split its root
and put a stone in the split, it will become fertile again. Trees are of
different sexes: the male is thicker, harder, less sappy, and it bears fruit
for less time. The bushes that take longest to grow live longest: those which
grow up quickly wither quickly. It is as if they were in a hurry to exist and
thus tend to non-existence. A tree is made to grow tall if it is stopped from
spreading into branches.
8. The special benefit and end of vegetables is that they, or their seeds,
or their fruits, are the food of things with senses. Hence: "Behold I have
given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in
themselves seed of their own kind to be your meat; and to all beasts of the
earth". Nor would they have been of any other benefit to human beings for
the needs of this life, except for food, if the human being had not sinned.
But now that the human being is corrupted by sin, apart from this benefit,
they are of benefit as medicine, and many of them are of benefit as clothes,
e.g. flax and other such of which clothes are woven. And the more solid
plants are of benefit to the human being for buildings, and fortifications,
and instruments of war and of the different mechanical arts. They are also
of benefit for vehicles, and for bridges and ships.
Part Five
Chapter I
1 . Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the
day and the night. On the fourth day the luminaries in the firmament of
heaven shine out, the fairest of all bodies in this sensible world. And
perhaps because of the eminence of their beauty among bodily things,
they are placed in the middle of the order of creation. For in the seven
days that belong to the establishment of the world, the fourth day, on which
the lights were established, has the middle place: for fourth is the mid-point
of an order of seven parts. It is fitting to the beauty of a disposition that
when things are disposed according to an odd number, the first should
match the last, the second the penultimate, and the third the antepenulti
mate, and so on: until one reaches the one in the middle, which has a
special privilege relative to the things that are disposed on either side. In
this way there seems to be a kind of beauty in the disposition of things
created, adding in the seventh day of rest. Even though the rest by which
God rested from his works is not itself one of his works, it can be counted
together with the works, in respect of which it is called a rest, and it can be
part of the disposition that confers on the whole a fitting beauty.
2. It is the light that was made on the first day, the first of the works of
God, and the adornment of creatures, that is compared to the rest with
which God rested on the seventh day from doing his works. And if the light
established on the first day is the mind of the angels turned back to God, it
is clear that there is a very appropriate matching of light and rest: since the
light of the mind of the angels in God's eternity — i.e. in absolute rest — is
in a state of the greatest rest, endlessly. And it is in the rational mind that is
at rest [21 3D] in the enjoyment of God that there is the final rest of all
things that have been established. The firmament that was made on the
second day is compared to the animals and to the human being that were
made on the sixth day. For just as the firmament is the containing and
closing off of bodily things within its enormous enveloping, so is the
human being the containing and closing off of worldly things within the
dominion of its power: for it was told to have dominion over every
creature. The plants that were brought forth on the third day from the
earth that had been dried of the waters are compared to the things begotten
160 PART FIVE
in the waters on the fifth day1. This is because the highest level of life in
vegetable things and the lowest level of life in water creatures are more or
less one thing. There are water creatures that are fixed by being attached to
rocks, as plants are, and they are a sort of mid-point between plants and
animals. So it would be fitting for plants and water creatures to be put
together in their establishment, were it not for the sake of putting in
between them what has a privilege of special beauty for the adornment
of the universe. If someone should say that the things that we have
compared do not match and are not on a level, and that thus they do not
preserve the order of beauty, we can reply to him that at least in one way
the order of beauty is preserved: that just as the first three days go down
from what is greatest in its order, through what is in between, to what is
lowest, so do the second three days go up from the lowest in its order,
through what is in between, to what is highest. It goes down from light,
through the firmament, to the formation of the elements, together with the
plants, and it goes up from the water creatures through animals and man to
God's rest from his works. It is thus a fine matching: going down from each
end to the middle, and going up from the middle to the ends. And in
between comes the form of greater splendour.
3. There can be attributed another reason for the order, i.e. that it is
according to the ordering of the first bodies of this world that the adorn
ment of their bodies comes to be. The first thing made after light is the
firmament, then the waters are gathered, and so at last the dry land appears:
and together with the establishment of the dry land we have the establish
ment of things fixed in it by their roots. Once these things are established in
that order, in a matching order the firmament, to which the ethereal fire
belongs, had first to be adorned with the luminaries. Then the elements of
air and water were to be adorned with birds and with the fish that were
brought forth from the water. In third place the earth was to be adorned
with animals, so that the human being could be brought into its worldly
dwelling place when that dwelling place was complete and adorned. And
perhaps there are better reasons for this ordering. For if plants sprout from
the lights of the heavens, and animals have their causes and seminal
reasons from the lights of the luminaries, it is clear that the order given
has to be preserved in the establishment of things, as we suggested above.
Chapter II
1 . There is in this text a reliable argument against some philosophers
who said, and tried to prove, that the luminaries were established together
with the firmament, and each luminary was of the same creation and of the
1 Cp. Genesis, 1: 26
CHAPTERS I-IV 161
same nature as the heaven whose luminary it is. For if the establishment of
the luminaries was as they say, it would belong to the second day, on which
the firmament was established, with much more reason than the establish
ment of plants (which have a different nature from that of earth) belongs to
the work of the third day, on which the earth was established. The
luminaries, then, are not of one and the same creation as the heavens in
which they are: they belong to another creation, that of the adornment of
the firmament, just as swimming things belong to the adornment of water,
[214A] and animals to that of the earth.
Chapter III
1 . They were placed in the firmament, that is, within the body of the
firmament itself (if we understand the word firmament to mean the whole
of the body that extends from the sub-lunar sphere up to the upper waters).
In this sense the word firmament includes all the heavens in which there are
luminaries. But if the word firmament means only the fixed and starless
sphere — i.e. the sphere which is thought to be above even the fixed stars1
— then the luminaries were placed "in the firmament" in the sense of
"below the firmament": "in it" according to what they appear to the sight
to be, and according to the motion that they follow. For all the luminaries
follow the motion of that highest sphere which is from east to west. But it
seems more plausible that the word firmament means the whole of the body
from the bottom of the sphere of the moon up to the top of that sphere that
touches the upper waters and has the first circular movement.
Chapter IV
1 . In the firmament of heaven, by the word of the one that gave the
command, there were made luminaries. But what they were made of is not
clear from the text of Scripture: that is, whether they were made from the
body of the firmament, which some think is a fifth kind of body, other than
the four elements2, or whether they were made from the four elements,
mixed together by such moderation that the bodies of the luminaries were
made by them to be neither heavy nor light; nor in a state of strife of
contraries, which would make them necessarily destructible. Or they may
have been made out of that first light that, some think, was made in a bodily
way and persisted in that way for the first three days; or maybe they were
made from something else, and were brought forth into existence by the
Creator's command.
1 See above, III, viii, 3

2 Aristotle, De caelo, I, 2 (268b)
162 PART FIVE
Chapter V
1. There seem to be, moreover, varying views on the light of the
luminaries among the expositors of sacred Scripture. Augustine, and
most other Latin expositors, think that the bodies of the luminaries and
their lights are of one and the same nature and one and the same creation1.
But Basil and John Damascene think that the bodies of the luminaries that
were made now, on the fourth day, were the vehicles of the first light that
was established on the first day, in the way that a lamp is the vehicle of
fire2.
2. Basil, expounding the text of the Seventy "Let there be made
luminaries in the firmament of heaven, as a light over the earth, to
divide, etc." — or, as others would translate the Greek into Latin, "as a
shining" or "as an appearing over the earth" — says: "Notice how
Scripture, through nature, plainly shows what it wants to show. For
'illuminating' it says 'appearing', which does not contradict what has
earlier been said about light. For it was earlier that the nature of light
was brought in: here this body of the sun is made to be the vehicle of that
first-born light. In the same way, the fire is one thing, the lamp another: the
one has the power of illuminating, the other was formed for the sake of
bringing the light to those who need it. Thus now the luminaries are made
ready as most clean vehicles for the light, made of the purest of material.3"
And John Damascene, speaking of the luminaries, i.e. of the sun, moon and
stars, says: "Therefore the Creator put in these luminaries the first created
light: not because he was unable to give them another light, or was short of
other light, but so as not to make purposeless that light: he made it remain.
The luminary is not itself light, but the container of light.4"
3. Basil brings a probable argument in favour of his assertion, that the
light is one thing and the subject of light is another. Since we can
distinguish with our reason and understanding between the light and its
subject, [214B] a fortiori God can by his indication separate them in their
act of existing, and then after this separation join them together5. This is
not improbable, if you will notice that it was brought about that Moses saw
the bush burning, which nonetheless was not consumed6. Hence, as the
Psalmist says: "The voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire" . For the
fire in the bush had the power that was active for giving light, but had its
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 15 and IV, 2 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 57, 98)
4 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXI, 3 (ed. cit. pp. 85-86)
5 Basil, Hexaemeron, VI, 3, 5 (ed. cit. p. 73)
6 Exodus, 3: 2
7 Psalms, 28: 7
CHAPTERS V-VI 163
power of burning in a state of vacancy. In the same way, a less well-known

reasoning tells us that in the retribution for sin there will be applied the
nature of the last fire (that the world will burn with before the judgement):
"whose light will be set to give light to the just, but whose heat will be for
the burning of sinners". Basil adds, as an argument for the separability of
natural light from the bodies of the luminaries, that we see this happen in
the phases of the moon: at one time one part of its body shines, and at
another it is deprived of light1. According to the Greek expositors, and
according to the text of the Seventy that they are expounding, then, the
bodies of the luminaries were made as the vehicles of the first light.
Chapter VI
1 . These shining bodies, then, whether they shine in virtue of the first
light, or in virtue of a light co-created with them on the fourth day, as our
authorities hold, were made to divide day and night. But this division of
day and night can be understood in a number of ways.
2. For the luminaries divide day and night between themselves in the
way that a number of rulers divide what they have been given into separate
jurisdictions. It is as if two rulers divided up one region according to
various measures, into separate jurisdictions for each: one exercising
power in one measure and the other in the other. Just as the Psalmist
says: "God made the great lights, the sun to rule the day: the moon and
the stars to rule the night"2. The sun has power over the day in so far as it
makes the day by its presence, and gives an ineffable direction and aid to
the movements and the actions that belong to the daytime. But Basil says
that the sun does not bring about the day, rather that it regulates it: for it
was the first light that was created on the first day that made the day, and
still, properly speaking, makes the day, when it is carried about by the sun3.
The moon and the stars, on the other hand, though they do not make the
night, nevertheless give a direction and aid, as much as is possible, to the
movements and actions that are set out as belonging to the night time. Also
the sun has allotted to it, as it were, the measurements of the periods of
days, and the moon and the stars have allotted to them the measurements of
the periods of nights.
3. When there are several who have had things distributed to them by
allotment or by secret devices, they are said to divide the things: as the
children of Israel divided the Promised Land. Thus the sun divides both,
both the day and the night: to one it gives the favour of light, from the other

2 Psalms, 135: 7-9
164 PART FIVE
it withholds the favour. For someone is said to divide or distinguish two

things, when he gives a favour to one that he withholds from the other: he
distinguishes in retribution. In the same way the moon and the stars divide
day and night, because they give the favour of their light to the night, which
they do not give to the day at all.
4. The sun divides day and night in a special way, because by the
presence of its light it makes the day, while by casting the shadow of the
earth on the opposite side it makes the night. Also, by its motion and its
various stations the sun divides up and distinguishes the day into definite
[214C] measures: halves, quarters, hours, and moments of hours. And
similarly the moon and the stars divide up the night. There are no other
usual senses of division, when several people divide several things: only in
the ways dealt with, where one is allotted one thing, another another thing;
or when each of those who are said to divide separates himself from the
rest; or when one divides one thing into parts, and others divide the rest.
The luminaries were made, then, to divide day and night in these ways.
5. Augustine says that the luminaries were made to give light to the
earth and those who dwell on it, so that the dwelling place into which they
were brought should not be a dark one1. The day, as we have said, is the
presence of the light of the sun on the earth; and Augustine says that the
day was made for wakefulness, and for the movements and actions that fit
with wakefulness. Night, on the other hand, is the shadow of the earth that
is cast by the light of the sun that goes around it, and was made for the sake
of sleep and rest, and for the sake of the restoring of bodies wearied by the
works of the day, so that they can return to their accustomed toil. Hence
night serves the day, as sleep serves wakefulness, and as the recovery of
strength through rest serves action.
Chapter VII
1. It goes on: "Let them be for signs". According to Augustine in his
work To Januarius the luminaries were made to be signs in four ways2.
They are signs of the qualities of the air, the weather, as the Lord himself
showed when he said: "When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather,
for the sky is red. And in the morning: today there will be a storm, for the
sky is red and lowering. You know then how to discern the face of the
sky"3. From the positions of the luminaries, and from their rising and
setting, and from the visible impressions that they cause on things above

2 Augustine, Ad inquisitiones Ianuarii, II, 6-8 = Letters, LV, 11-14 (CSEL, XXXIV.2,
181-186)
3 Matthew, 16: 2-4
CHAPTERS VI-VIII 165
us, we can draw definite signs of the qualities of the air, of winds and of
rains, of hailstorms, of snowfalls and thunderstorms, of storm and of calm.
Also the luminaries are signs for journeys, both for sailors at sea and for
travellers over the sands and in great deserts. For by looking at the stars,
they direct their journey straight to their destination, by comparing the
location of the place they are heading for with the locations and paths of
the luminaries in heaven. Also the luminaries are signs of the distinction
and reckoning of definite measures of time. They are also signs of the
likenesses of spiritual things. But this fourth kind of being a sign, that
Augustine suggests as belonging specifically to the luminaries of heaven, is
common to all creatures1. For as Augustine himself bears witness, we can
draw some spiritual meaning out of every creature by means of some
likeness. But perhaps this can be attributed by a special prerogative to
the luminaries of heaven, among all other bodily things, since their
spiritual meaning is greater and clearer, and more obviously stated in
Scripture, than that of the other bodily things is. Also, in a fifth way, the
luminaries are a sign of the ending of the age. Hence the Lord himself,
when his disciples asked him for a sign of his coming in majesty, reckons
among other signs that: "There will be signs in the sun and the moon and
the stars"2. And Joel the prophet says: "The sun shall be turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of
the Lord doth come"3. And Mark says: "The sun shall be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven shall be falling
down"4. In these five ways, then, the luminaries of heaven were made into
signs.
Chapter VIII
1 . And for this reason, all craftsmen whose works are of value either
suffer damage from the qualities of the air or consider [214D] and accept
the signs that come from the luminaries through their change over time.
Hence Basil says: "You will find the noting and observation of the signs
necessary for human life, as fuller experience teaches, even if you do not
look into them more than you ought. We can say a good deal about future
rain, and yet more about the vapours of the earth, and the movements of the
winds, whether they come from a particular quarter or are blowing about
everywhere in general, or whether they will come violently or gently. We
consider only one of these indications, one that was pointed out to us by the
1 Augustine, Ad inquisitiones lanuarii, II, 6 = Letters, LV, 11 (CSEL, XXXIV.2, 181)

2 Luke, 21: 25
3 Joel, 2: 31
4 Mark, 13: 24
166 PART FIVE
Lord, when he said that there would be a storm when the sky took on a
lowering fiery blush. For when the clouds go up, the rays of light are
obstructed and are seen with a blood-coloured glow. That is to say, the
density of the air shows such an appearance to us as we observe it, and the
air is not yet pushed by greater force, because of the vapours that breathe
upwards. It is made grosser and grosser by the increase of water, and it is
bent on giving a storm in the places where it is so amassed. It is similar,
too, when the moon has a halo, or when there is what is called an "area"
[threshing-floor] around the sun: this foretells a very great amount of water,
or a turmoil of winds. Or when we see, running around the sun, what are
called anti-suns: they foretell an immediate fall of a stretch of ether.
Likewise, those straight rods that appear, of the colours of the rainbow,
under the clouds of morning: they mean violent rain and storms, or at least
some kind of disturbance of the heaven. And there are many indications in
the waxing or the waning moon, which those who have taken pains in this
science are said to have noted. They say that the air that is nearest the earth
is of necessity disturbed for the sake of the phases and qualities of the
moon. For when it is in its third quarter, if it is seen as thin and slight, and
with its horns blunted, it tells of stable and long-lasting calm. But if its
horns are fat and reddish, it threatens heavy rain and a violent south wind.
Who is unaware of how much convenience this observation means for
human beings? Those who wish to sail can keep their fleet in port, if
they foresee coming danger. The traveller who is warned by the lowering
of heaven looks forward to a time of calm. The farmers, too, offer the
greatest care to their seeds and plants, when they do things at the right
moment, of which they are told by the signs we have mentioned. Even the
final dissolution of all things will be seen in the sun, moon and stars, in the
wonders that the Lord spoke of when he said: 'The sun will turn to blood,
and the moon will not give her light'1"2. These signs, then, may licitly be
considered, for they have the solidity of truth. Other signs are full of
emptiness and falsehood, those signs that the mathematicians [astro
logers] claim to be set in the stars, and it is irreligious to consider them.
Even if it were not irreligious, it would be fruitless and vain3.
Chapter IX
1. For even if we suppose that the constellations have some effect
and some meaning for the works of free will, and for what are called
chance events, and for human customs, it would still not be possible for
1 Ezekiel, 32: 7; Joel, 2: 31; Acts, 2: 20

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, VI, 4, 2-20 (ed. cit. pp. 74-5)
3 See above, Proemium, 117
CHAPTERS VIII-IX 167
mathematicians to use them in judicial astrology. For judicial astrology is

done on the basis of the position of the heaven, and the places marked for
the stars, and their "aspects" towards one another, and the parts of the
planets, and the "houses" and the "ascendancies" and an etcetera that can
scarcely be reckoned up. And all these things must be brought together, and
referred to a marked place [2 15 A] on earth, at a marked moment at which
the inquiry is made about something that will be done or will happen in the
future: either at the moment of the birth of a child, or at some moment of
the turning of the year. But it is impossible for astronomical skill and for
astronomical instruments to reach such certainty and so distinguish details
of this sort that the astrologer can say of two children born in one house, or
even in the same city at one and the same moment of the same hour, what is
the difference and diversity of the constellations of the two of them. And
this is particularly clear to those who know the movements of the stars and
know more clearly just what the astronomers are able to do with their
instruments. However learned they are in the art of astronomy, and how
ever experienced and skilled they are in the performances of their art, they
cannot assign any difference to two children thus born in the same sign or
degree, ascending by one minute, or even two or three. The same is true
with regard to the places of the stars and with regard to innumerable other
features which they say are necessary for the certainty of judicial astrology.
Thus judicial astrology cannot distinguish for two such children different
happenings, or natures, or voluntary acts, so as to say that this one will be
such-and-such — e.g. chaste, wise, strong, rich, while the other will be
lustful, stupid, weak, ugly and poor: though it will often be that these two
children will have these different characters. Likewise, if there are two
people in the same city asking at the same moment about the same thing,
they cannot make two definite different predictions, though different, and
very dissimilar, occurrences may happen to them. The two of them asking
the same question will have an indistinguishable constellation, so far as the
science and investigation of judicial astrology is concerned, no matter how
great is the power and preparation of the expert. But in reality the location
of the stars and the signs will be very different, and the power of the tiny
moments of heaven that are next to one another, with regard to the two of
them, will be different: or even with regard to one and the same indivisible
moment, but relative to two different places, no matter how close they are.
2. There is not so much certainty to be found in the stars that we can
learn from the astronomer in what indivisible moment, relative to a marked
place, is, in reality, the turning of the year. Nor do they yet know, in reality,
the places of the planets in a given moment. This is clear to those who have
worked hard on astronomical calculations and tables. Hence, if the stars
had power over, and could give signs of, individual actions of free will, and
168 PART FIVE
individual chance occurrences, certain judicial astrology about these things

would depend on certainty about places and about aspects, and about other
matters to do with stars that we were certain of, in fixed moments we were
certain of, and with regard to fixed places we were certain of; hence it is
clear that it is not possible for the astronomer to judge and pronounce, on
the cases of constellations, on individual chance events, or the characters of
children, or even about their physical constitutions. Jacob and Esau were
very different in character, and also it is clear that their physical constitu
tions were different, one smooth and the other hairy1. Against this vain
attempt at judgement, Augustine gives a fuller argument in the fifth book of
The City of God2. From his argument [215B] it is clear that even if what
happens to individuals depends entirely on the constellations, any assertion
of judicial astrology on this matter would be uncertain and rash.
Chapter X
1 . Nor is it true, though we granted it for the sake of argument, that the
stars have power over free will, or over the characters and voluntary acts of
men. Free will, in the order of natural things, is subject to nothing except
God: rather it is put in authority over all bodily creatures. Hence, since the
agent is nobler that the patient, no bodily nature can imprint any passion on
free will: for if it could impress passions on it, bodily nature would be
nobler and higher than free will. Those who attribute to the stars a power
over free will, then, are subjecting the nature of the rational soul and the
dignity of the human creation to bodily nature. They are enemies of human
nature, since they subject it to what is naturally subject to it, and remove
from it its being the image of God. For an image is the highest and nearest
likeness3. They are also blaspheming against God, because they take from
him his dignity: since they put the rational mind, which they admit is God's
image, lower than bodies. For if a body or something baser than a body
were the image and highest likeness of God, God would not be what he is
but something less than he is, and thus would not be God.
2. But perhaps some mathematicians will say that in the stars there are
incorporeal living and rational spirits, and it is by these spirits that they act
on the spirits of human beings, and by their bodies that they act on human
bodies. But this remark is completely empty. Even if we grant what they so
rashly assert, it is still not in the least true that the spirit of a star would be
of superior nature to the spirit of a human being, since human beings, in
virtue of their spirits, are images of the Trinity. They are convicted of error,
1 Cp. Genesis, 25: 24ff.

2 Augustine, De civitate Dei, V, 3-9 (CSEL, XL.l, 213-228)
3 See below, VIII, i, 1-2
CHAPTERS IX-X 169
as well, by the authority of Scripture which says in Deuteronomy: "The sun

and the moon and all the stars of heaven, which the Lord your God created
for the service of all the nations, that are under heaven" 1 . For if they are
created for the service of human beings, it is more natural that they should
be acted on by, and commanded by, and passive to, the actions of human
beings, than the other way round (that they should act on or command or
make their mark on human beings). This was made clear by Joshua: at his
command the sun stood still. Moreover, the nature of free will is such that it
is in its own power and can act spontaneously, with no more support than
that of God's grace. It cannot be compelled to fail by anything.
3. But perhaps still those who profess this vanity will say that the stars
cause many obvious effects on human bodies, and when the body is
affected necessarily the soul is affected with it. For, as the physicians
would say, the body follows the soul in the actions of the soul, and the
soul follows the body in the passions of the body. That is, when the body is
affected, the soul is affected with it: not because the body acts on the soul,
but because the soul moves itself in matching proportion to the movements
of the body to which it is joined. This is in the way in which when a mirror
is moved, in which a ray of the sun is reflected, the reflected ray is moved
with it: not because the mirror moves the ray, but because the ray by its
nature generates itself in a straight continuous line, or at an equal angle to
that at which it falls on a polished interposed surface. Since the stars
change bodies, then, and when bodies are changed the soul is affected
too, astrologers of this kind will say that it may belong to their judicial
science to judge and pronounce on all the movements and passions of the
soul, which it has through being affected together with the body.
4. But to these, too, we should say that the human body is subject to
two moving forces. It does receive many passions and impressions from the
stars, but it also receives movements and impressions from the actions of
its own soul. And since the soul is, in virtue of its rational power, subject to
God, it is powerful enough, because of this power, to command the lower
forces: and it is more powerful in affecting its own body than are the
heavenly bodies. So however much Saturn or Mars may move the body —
the one by restricting the blood, the other by inflaming it, to produce
sadness or anger in the soul — well-ordered reason is more powerful in
acting in the opposite direction, so that there is joy or meekness in the soul.
For this reason there will be little or no restriction or inflammation in the
blood or in the bodily spirits as a result of the action of Saturn or Mars, or
at least such effects will be diminished. For true meekness of soul is more
powerful in cooling and calming the blood and the spirits than is the power
1 Deuteronomy, 4: 19
170 PART FIVE
of Mars in disturbing them; and true joy is more powerful in expanding the
blood and the spirits than is Saturn in restricting them. We can see this
easily from its contrary: that sadness or anger in the mind does more, more
quickly, to change or restrict, or disturb and inflame the blood and the
spirits, than does the action of any star, or of the air, or of any other body
that is around us. For this reason, since the rational mind which is well
ordered does not fall under judicial astronomy, the soul in its relation to the
lower passions or actions does not fall under it either. Nor, even, does the
body, in so far as those affections of the body are concerned, which can
equally be brought about by the stars and by actions of the soul.
5. But if someone were to say that bad people who follow their lusts
and fleshly passions are subject to judicial astrology, we should say to them
that one who is now bad can soon become good. It does not lie within the
power of the astronomer to predict this, since a human conversion comes
about through the action of God's grace.
6. Moreover, against the dispositions that are impressed by the stars,
medical study and practice can prevail.
7. Moreover, some of the things from which astrologers try to predict
events and the characters of children are highly absurd. As Basil says:
"They predict that he will have curly hair and be active: because his hour
was set in Aries the Ram, and that is what his animal looks like. He will be
powerful, too, because a ram is the chief of the flock. He will be solid and
rich, because that beast, with the help of nature, easily grows again the
wool it has lost. The one who was born under Taurus the Bull will be
tyrannical and hard-working, but also servile, because the Bull puts its neck
under the yoke. The one born under the sign of Scorpio will be said to be
spiteful, since he will be like a scorpion. The one born under Libra, the
Scales, will become just, because of the levelness that the balance has.
What could be more ridiculous than this? The Ram, because of which you
modify a man's geniture, is thought to be a twelfth of the heaven: and if the
sun stands there, that is the sign in the ether. And Libra or Taurus are a
twelfth part of the zodiac. How then do you say that they are principal
causes of the life of mortals, when you form the minds of children from
earthly beasts, and call a generous man a ram? [215D] Not, perhaps,
because that part of the heavens brings to completion that character, but
because a sheep is of that nature. You encourage me that it is because of the
superior dignity of the stars, or rather you try to persuade me, and by dumb
offerings you get agreement. But if a people has properties that are drawn
from animals, then they are subject to the need of bringing in statements,
that do not seem to me to have anything in common. The arguments of such
people are like spiders' webs: if a flea or a fly falls into one, it is entangled
CHAPTERS X XI 171
and caught. But when something stronger falls in, it soon goes through, and
breaks the weak threads."1
8. On this point, if the stars oblige or persuade someone to do evil,
either by their will or by their nature, they are evil. And if they are evil by
nature, their creator, God, would be convicted of being evil, and this is
blasphemy. But if they are evil by will, then there is error and sin among
heavenly things. Also if a constellation had power, as the astronomers
pretend, that would be the end of free will, as was said above. Similarly,
all foresight and management would be pointless, and piety and the
Christian religion, and all things that are done with regard to God, would
be fruitless. We would not be lords of our own actions, and no prudence in
taking counsel would be of any use. That these things, and many like them,
are not consistent with judicial astrology or with fatal constellations, is
clear: not only from the authorities and from the expositors of sacred
Scripture, but also from many pagan philosophers. We do not put in their
proofs here, in order not to burden the reader with much prolixity.
Chapter XI
1 . But at this point we want to warn that judicial astrologers of this
kind are both deceived and deceivers, and that what they teach is both
impious and irreligious, and written at the devil's dictation. Hence their
books should be burned: and not only the astrologers, but also those who
consult them, are lost. Hence Augustine, on the ninety-first psalm:
"Perhaps they seem to be Christians, when their family is not suffering
any evil: but when there is any trouble at home, they run to the soothsayer,
or the fortune-teller, or the astrologer. If you say the name of Christ to them
they mock and make a wry mouth. If you say to them: you are one of the
faithful; why do you consult an astrologer? they answer 'Get away. He
found my property for me. I had lost it and was left to grieve.' 'My good
man, do you not sign yourself with the sign of the cross of Christ? The law
forbids all these things. You are glad because you found your property: but
are you not sad that you have lost yourself? How much better is it to lose a
coat than your soul?'2" Also, Augustine, in his Commentary on the gospel
ofJohn, speaking of astrologers and of those who consult them, says: "One
side gives money, the other takes it, as when men sell themselves to men.
One side gives money, to sell themselves for vanities. They go in to the
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, VI, 6, 1-6 (ed. cit. pp. 77-78). I have found it hard to make sense of
the text of Basil that Grosseteste gives here, in detail: but the main thrust is clear: the
inconsistency between the supposed higher dignity of the stars and the rather ridiculous
qualities attributed to their influence, on the analogy with the earthly things whose names are
given to the signs of the zodiac.
2 Augustine, Enarratio in Psalmum XCI, 7 (PL, XXXVII, 1 175)
172 PART FIVE
astrologer, to buy masters for themselves, whatever masters the astrologer

pleases to give them: Saturn or Jupiter or Mercury or anything else that is a
sacrilege for men. They go in free, to pay money and come out slaves. Or
perhaps they would not have gone in, if they were free: they go in where
their master Error, or their master Greed, takes them." And in the same
homily on John Augustine suggests that he had burnt the books of astro
logers, as was done in the times of the apostles. And in expounding to the
people the sixty-first psalm, Augustine presented before them a repentant
astrologer, to show him to the people: and when he had shown him to them
he spoke in these words to them about him: "The thirst of the Church wants
even him, whom you have seen, to drink. This is so that you may know how
many, in the confusion of Christians, bless with their mouth and curse in
their heart: this man who was a Christian and was one of the faithful has
returned repentant. [216A] He is in fear of the power of the Lord, and has
turned back to the mercy of the Lord. He was deceived by the enemy when
he was faithful, and for a long time was an astrologer. He was deceived,
and he deceived, he was misled and he misled others; he tricked, he
defrauded, he uttered many lies against God, who has given men the
power to do what is good and not do what is bad. This man would say
that it was not one's own will that made one an adulterer, but Venus; not
one's own will that made one a murderer, but Mars; not the Lord that made
one just, but Jupiter: and great and evil blasphemies of this kind. How
many Christians, do you think, gave him money? How many bought a lie
off him?
To them we were saying: Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of
heart? Why will you love vanity, and seek after a lie? Just recently, as we
are to believe of him, he fell into horror at the lie, and knew that he, who
had deceived many, was himself deceived by the devil. He has turned in
repentance to God. We think, brothers, this happened through great fear of
heart. What shall we say? For if a pagan astrologer should be converted, it
would be a great joy to us. But it might occur that if he was converted, he
might seek for an office in the church. This man is a penitent: he is seeking
for nothing but mercy. He must be given, then, to your eyes and hearts. You
see him: love him with your hearts, guard him with your eyes. See him.
Know him. And wherever he goes, point him out to those brothers who are
not here now. This care is mercy, and it is in order that the deceiver may
not return to his heart and attack him. Guard him. Do not be ignorant of his
manner of life, his way: so that by your witness you may confirm that he is
truly turned back to God. Rumour will not be silent about his life, when he
is given to you to see and to have mercy on in this way. You know that in
1 Augustine, In Joannis evangelium, IX, ii, 1 1 (PL, XXXV, 1457)

CHAPTERS XI-XII 173
the Acts of the Apostles it is written that many who were lost, that is, many
who pursued such wicked arts and teachings, brought all their books to the
apostles; and so many books were burnt, that the writer had to make a guess
of their value, and write down an extremely high price1. This was for the
glory of God, so that those who were lost in that way might not despair of
seeking what has been lost from the one who knows. This man was lost:
now he has been sought out and found and brought in. He brings with him
books to be burned, books which used to burn him. They will be put into
the fire so that he may pass to a place of cool repose.2" Also, Augustine, in
dealing with this text, after refuting the astrologers with his arguments,
adds the following: "It must be admitted, then, that when such people say
something true, they say it by some secret influence, which human minds
undergo without knowing it. But since this is in order to deceive men, it is
the action of deceiving spirits. They are allowed to know some true things
about temporal matters, partly because of the sharpness of their under
standing of what is more subtle, partly because they use more subtle
bodies, partly because they are more cunning because they have lived
longer, partly because the holy angels, who learn from almighty God, are
by his command told to reveal themselves to them. This he distributes
according to desert, in the human straightforwardness of secret justice. Or
sometimes the evil spirits predict what they are themselves about to do, as
if they were foreseeing the future. That is why good Christians should
avoid astrologers and those who impiously foretell the future, especially if
they tell the truth: so that their soul [216B] may not be deceived and caught
in the snare of dealing with devils, and make some kind of pact of
fellowship with them.3"
Chapter XII
1. There follows "and for seasons" [literally, and for times]. Here we
see that time now begins, as Augustine hints at in dealing with this text4.
Therefore the three days before this were not days of time, but should be
distinguished in the mind of the angels; the evening and the morning were
the beginning and the end of the thing created, or the formation of the thing
and the privation of its form, or something similar.
2. According to those who say that the first three days were days of
time, we have to distinguish two senses of "time". In one way "time"
means the extent of duration that passes from future expectation, through
1 Acts, 19: 19
2 Augustine, Enarratio in Psalmum LXI, 23 (PL, XXXVI, 746-747)
174 PART FIVE
the present, to the past. This must necessarily have existed even when there
were no stars, provided that some change, either in bodies or in spirits,
preceded the establishment of the luminaries. But "times" also means, as
Augustine says, the times "that come to be through the stars: not only the
extent of duration, but the interweaving of affections in this heaven.1"
These times — i.e. the measurements that are distinct and determinate and
which mark out durations — were first made by the stars as they ran in their
ordered motions.
3. Said without qualification, time is duration and the measure of the
movement of changeable things. The luminaries, then, according to Basil,
are for the sake of the four seasons or times of the year, which are
determined by certain measurements and also certain qualities2. For the
sun by its movement marks out and determines four seasons of the year for
us. These are spring, when the sun moves along the zodiac from the
equinox, i.e. the start of Aries, until the summer solstice, i.e. the start of
Cancer; summer, when it moves from the beginning of Cancer to the
autumn equinox, or the start of Libra; autumn, when it moves from the
start of Libra to the winter solstice, i.e. the start of Capricorn; and winter,
when it moves from the solstice, until the spring equinox. These periods,
marked out in this way by the movement of the sun, are the four seasons of
the year, with regard to the world without qualification.
4. But with regard to the individual parts of the inhabited world spring
is said to be that quarter of the year that is more temperate with regard to
heat and moisture. By the benefit of this the trees and bushes put out leaves,
and all animals, on land or in the water, have their generative heat
stimulated and move to the propagation of offspring, in order to give
succession to their kind. Summer in each place is that part of the year
which, in that place, is fiercer and more burning, with regard to the hot and
the dry. Thus it gives seeds and fruits the opportunity they need to ripen.
The part of the year that in any place is dryer and colder is autumn for that
place: it is the right time for gathering the fruits that summer has brought to
ripeness. That part of the year which in any place is colder and wetter is
winter: it has clouds and congealed vapours and rains and snows and ice,
and is more fit for keeping holiday than for working. These parts of the
year, considered according to these qualities and effects, begin and end at
different times in different places, depending on whether those places are
more or less near to the torrid zone to the south, or farther away from it to
the north. But in relation to the heaven and to the earth without qualifica
tion, as we have said, these four seasons of the year always begin at those

four moments when the sun begins its journey from the four points of
heaven, i.e. the two equinoctial points and the two solstitial points.
5. But since it is said [216C] that the luminaries as a whole are for the
sake of seasons, are the moon and the stars for the sake of these four
seasons? An answer to this could be that the moon and the stars are for
these four seasons too. For if someone were never to see the sun or the light
of day, he would nevertheless see the movements of the moon and the stars
at night time, and could with perfect certainty distinguish the four seasons
of the year, by their movements and appearances and disappearances, by
their rising and setting on the world, by their reflecting the rays of the sun
and by their ceasing to reflect those rays. Also it is clear that there are
different effects of the moon and the stars in the different quarters of the
year, and different operations that correspond to them, in the four quarters
of the year. Moreover, the moon is for the four quarters of the month, just
as the sun is for the four quarters of the year. And the stars have their
circuits in which they go through the zodiac, which are also for the quarters
of their revolving, just as the sun is for the quarters of the year and the
moon for the quarters of the month.
6. "Times" here could also mean the distinction of the hours. Hence
Josephus says: "On the fourth day he adorned the heaven with sun and
moon and the other stars, granting them a motion and a course by which the
distinction of the hours is clearly marked"1. If we use horological instru
ments then by the movement and the height of the sun during the day, and
by those of the moon and the stars at night, we can with certain reason
distinguish the hours: both artificial hours and equinoctial hours, and their
distinct parts. "Times" then in this text means, properly speaking, the parts
of the whole complete temporal revolutions that are carried out by the
luminaries of heaven, parts which are divided and distinguished by the
luminaries.
Chapter XIII
1. There follows "and for days". When it said above "to divide the
day and the night", the "day" no doubt meant the artificial day, which
comes from the presence of the sun on the earth. Here it hints at the natural
day, which is the revolution of the sun from one rising to its next rising:
and the sun is very clearly and obviously the maker and the indicator of
this. But the moon and stars can also be for the marking out of the amount
of time of that same equal day, though not so obviously. For by their
movements and their positions we can know the end and the beginning of
the amount of the day. This is very clear to those who are experienced in
1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 1, i, 1 (31) (ed. Blatt, p. 127)

176 PART FIVE
such matters. Not just the sun, then, but also the moon and stars are for
showing the natural day. Likewise they are all for years.
2. You should know that there are many kinds of year1. There is the
year that is the time of the sun's revolution from one point on the zodiac
back to the same point. There is also the lunar year, that is the time of
twelve equal lunations: that is, all the complete lunations that take place in
the solar year. There is also the year of each star, that is that star's
revolution to its exact crossing of the zodiac. And we speak of the great
year, which is the revolution of all the stars to the same relative point of
heaven at which they were created. Each star, then, makes and marks out its
own year. If we know the motions of the stars and the proportions of their
motions to those of the others, any one of the stars could be for a definite
marking out of the year of any other star. It is fitting, therefore, for all the
luminaries of heaven, taken universally, to be for a certain marking out of
times, that is, their own complete revolutions, and for a certain marking out
of the whole revolutions that are marked out by days and years. Every
complete revolution is included under the name of day or of year.
Chapter XIV
1. It adds the final cause of the luminaries when it says: "To shine in
the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth". For in
themselves they shine in the shining firmament. But they give light to
the dark earth, as their lights pass through the media of transparent
elements, so that the dwellers on earth may have their dwelling place lit.
This is because without light a dwelling place is neither beautiful nor
pleasant, nor a place for living; and human beings could not work, and
many animals could not find their food.
Chapter XV
1 . The sun and the moon are called the great luminaries. But one could
wonder why the moon is called a great luminary, when according to the
astronomers, and according to what is written in Ptolemy's book called the
Almagest, it is smaller by far than the earth, which, relative to the heaven,
occupies a point2; and the important fixed stars are obviously larger than
the earth, and hence larger than the moon. According to them, the moon
seems large and the stars small because the moon is close to the beholder
and the stars are far from the beholder. If this view of theirs is true, then
these two are specifically said to be great luminaries because they provide
1 Cp. Bede, De temporum ratione, XXXV (ed. Jones, pp. 248-249); Isidore, Etymologies, V,
xxxvi, 3
2 Ptolemy, Almagest, V, 16
CHAPTERS XIII-XVI 177
for the earth the greatest and most obvious effect of light. Hence both are
great luminaries, since they provide a great and obvious illumination to the
earth, more than all the other stars. A small body can be a great luminary
because of the greatness of its light and illumination.
2. The sun, however, according to the astronomers, is without quali
fication the greatest of luminaries as far as bodily quantity goes, and it is
many times greater, incalculably greater than the earth. Our authorities,
such as Augustine and Bede and Basil and Ambrose, say that both these
luminaries are great, without qualification, as far as the mass of their bodies
goes. They adduce reasons, too, to prove the size of both of them; but it
would be a long and laborious task to settle their argument with the
philosophers. For this reason we affirm without qualification that according
to the text of Scripture the sun and the moon are two great luminaries: the
sun is the greatest luminary both in its bodily measurement and in the
illumination of its light, while the moon is a luminary that is less in size
and in illumination than the sun, but a greater luminary than any of the stars
in terms of its effect of illumination, whether it is greater or smaller than
the stars in bodily measurement.
Chapter XVI
1 . What follows, about the greater light to rule the day and the lesser
light and the stars to rule the night, can be summed up as follows: "and
God made the stars to rule the night", which is the same as what is written
in the Psalm: "Who made the great lights: the sun to rule the day, the moon
and the stars to rule the night"1. It is also a repetition of what is said above:
"to divide the day and the night". What follows — "and he set them in the
firmament of heaven" — according to the [feminine] agreement in the text
of our translation, refers only to the stars. What follows — "to shine upon
the earth" — though it seems to apply only to the stars, should also be
applied in a common way to the great luminaries as well as to the stars. The
phrase "to rule the day" applies to the sun, and the phrase "and the night"
applies to the moon and the stars. But what follows that — "to divide the
light and the darkness" — fits all the luminaries in common.
2. This phrase can be distinguished and understood in as many ways as
could the phrase used above, "to divide the day and the night". In Greek
the two expressions "luminary" and "stars" are of the masculine gender.
Hence the Greek goes on "and he put them2 in [2 17A] the firmament of
heaven". This version applies just as fittingly to the two luminaries as to
1 Psalms, 135: 7-9

2 In the masculine, as opposed to the feminine in the Latin, which agrees with "stars".
178 PART FIVE
the stars, which were all put together in the firmament of heaven, and
which are fit to shine together on the earth.
Chapter XVII
1. The translation of the Seventy, according to some who have
translated it from Greek into Latin, has it as: "The greater light for the
beginning of day, the lesser light for the beginning of night"1. According to
this text it seems that the moon, when it was created, was made full of light.
For at times other than full moon the rising of the moon does not begin the
period of the night: at the full moon it lasts through the period of the night,
rising as night begins and setting as it ends, as the sun lasts through the
period of the day. The moon, then, when it is full, divides the time equally
with the sun. For this reason some say that the moon was created full of
light, since it would not be fitting for God to make anything imperfect on
that day. Others argue on the other side that at its creation it should not be
at its fourteenth showing, but at its first.
Both these two arguments are very weak. The fullness of the moon and
its disappearing are only relative to our sight. The moon always has one
half facing the sun, which is always illuminated, except in an eclipse. The
numbers that we give to the age of the moon are not reckoned according to
its own reality, but from its first showing of light to us, when it comes out
from beneath the rays of the sun. That is why Augustine's opinion is
between the two given, neither approving nor rejecting either. Moreover,
the text of the translation of the Seventy cited above does not force us to
conclude that the moon was full, for two reasons: because we can under
stand it to mean that the moon is for the beginning of night when it is full,
and it was made at first to be for the beginning of night when it came to be
full; and because the Greek word arche means both beginning and rule. It
means "principium", without qualification, and this can mean both the
beginning of a thing and the rule of power.
Chapter XVIII
1 . Augustine asks, too, on this text, whether these luminaries are just
bodies, or have spirits that govern them; and, if they have, whether they
breathe life into them, as flesh is animated by the souls of animals, or
whether they are separate and without any intermingling. But he gives up
this question here as unsolved2. As we said above, different authorities
have thought different things about it.
1 E.g. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 13 (CSEL. XXVIII. 1, 51)

2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, II, 18 (CSEL. XXVIII. 1, 62)
CHAPTERS XVI-XIX 179
Chapter XIX
1 . We should consider some spiritual understanding of this, and gather
some spiritual fruit. As Boethius says: "Our behaviour and the reason of
our whole life are formed after the exemplar of the order of heaven."1 The
firmament, then, is the divine Scripture. It is of this firmament that Isaiah
says: "The heavens shall be folded together as a book"2. In that heaven is
contained and shines forth the sun of justice and of understanding, Christ
our God, who says of himself "I am the light of the world"3. In it are
contained the church, not shining with its own light, but lit up by Christ the
sun of justice, as regards that part of it that faces that sun, and dressed in his
light as in a garment. In the same firmament [217B] are contained the saints
and the doctors of the church, like stars that are lit by the splendour of that
same sun. This is because, in line with what Daniel says — "They that
instruct many to justice shall shine as stars for all eternity"4 — the stars are
said to shine with the light of the sun. Thus of all it can be said: "For you
were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord"5, that is, light in him
who "illuminates every man coming into the world"6. These luminaries
divide the day and the night, for they distinguish between the light of truth
and the darkness of falsehood, between the light of virtue and the darkness
of vice, between the light of a holy way of life and the darkness of wicked
deeds. There are others who call "evil good, and good evil: that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and
sweet for bitter"7. Isaiah threatened them and said that they confuse day
and night, saying that a lie is the truth and that virtue is vice, and that
iniquity is justice, and vice-versa. Eternal damnation awaits them. The
luminaries spoken of are set as signs, too: for it is written of Christ that
he "is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a
sign which shall be contradicted"8. In a common way all the luminaries
spoken of are set as signs of powers and miracles, both bodily and spiritual.
These luminaries are made for times and days and years, when they
distinguish and mark out the lives of the saints and their conduct as they
follow on in time: and of these the conduct of the whole of their life is like
the period of a year. The conduct that is according to some one virtue is
like the period of one day; and in such conduct the particular distinctions
1 Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, I, prosa 4 (PL, LXIII, 615A)

2 Isaiah, 34: 4
3 John, 8: 12
4 Daniel, 12: 3
5 Ephesians, 5: 8
6 John, 1: 9
7 Isaiah, 5: 20
8 Luke, 2: 34
180 PART FIVE
are like moments of time and distinctions within time. These luminaries
shine in the firmament that has been spoken of, and give light to the earth
of human hearts.
2. But according to Jerome the evangelists are like the sun in this
firmament, while the doctors of sacred Scripture are like the moon1. The
stars are the great number of different virtues in the Church. These
luminaries offer the light of wisdom and of good works in the darkness
of this life, they distinguish people of greater and lesser merit, and they are
for signs and times and days and years, in the way that was said above.
3. And in this firmament the gospel shines like the sun: the historical
books and the prophets are like the moon — dark in itself, but lit up by the
gospel. The moral books offer a splendour like that of the individual stars
in the individual moral precepts.
4. And in this firmament the college of the apostles, to whom it was
said "You are the light of the world"2, shines like the sun. The college of
the prophets and the lawgiver is like the moon; and the college of the
sacred writers, like the stars.
5. Also, in this firmament there shines the sun of wisdom and the moon
of understanding, and the stars of the moral precepts.
6. The firmament can also mean Christ, as was said above, in whom
are fixed the sun, moon and stars, according to all the expositions made
above. For of Christ it was said: "Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right
hand: and upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself."
7. The stability of the church at present and its invincible strength —
the strength of which it was said "Upon this rock I will build my church"4
— is meant by the firmament. In this, likewise, the sun, moon and stars are
set and shine, according to the expositions given above. [217C] And these
luminaries are to be signs in all allegorical senses. They are also for times
and days and years: they indicate past and future things to us and set certain
limits of an express number of days or years or times.
Chapter XX
1 . In a moral sense the firmament is constancy of the mind, discretion
of virtue, and strength of learning, in which there shines like the sun the
contemplation of the unchangeable truth — or the unchangeable truth that
is contemplated. Speculation on nature that is lit up by this sun is a likeness
of the moon. The individual pieces of spiritual understanding are like the
1 Cp. pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in Pentateuchum: Genesis (PL, XCI, 197B-197C)

2 Matthew, 5: 14
3 Psalms, 79: 18
4 Matthew, 16: 18
CHAPTERS XIX-XXI 181
individual stars: these luminaries shine in their inward free will as in a

firmament. They light up the earth when they grant to the body an ordering
and a beauty in its external actions and conduct.
2. Or in this firmament the sun and moon are contemplative virtue and
active virtue. The stars are the particular virtues, and the day is the light of
external works, according to which it shines as an example to others, and
rouses the fragrance of good opinion. The night is a good work in so far as
through it the stink of death is at work, for some, towards death.
3. Also the sun in this firmament is the higher reason; the moon is the
lower reason; the stars are the sensitive powers when they shine with the
light of truth and are moved according to right order. All these are for signs
and miracles, since they show some traces of the virtues, which are not
often found. They divide the day and the night, too, when they distinguish
the interweavings of things to be done and things to be left undone. They
are also for times, when they distinguish and determine according to what
Solomon said: "A time to be born, a time to die. A time to plant, and a time
to pluck up that which is planted" and all the other times as far as "a time
of war, and a time of peace"1. They are for days and years, too, when they
bring to completion the complete revolutions of holy actions. For they do
not abandon the moving of holy action, or cease from actions begun, until
they have brought them to their completion: and when they have completed
them, they begin them again. The earth sprouted first, and then the
luminaries were made, because after good works comes illumination, so
that we can contemplate heavenly things.
Chapter XXI
1. And since the good that God saw in the luminaries that had been
made includes the benefits of them, which they bring to perfection in this
world through their natural properties, we will say a little about these
benefits here.
2. The sun, then, is the light of the world, and gives illumination to all
the stars, as it is thought. It is the greatest of bodies, apart from the heaven
and the elements, and is the brightest of all bodies contained in the heaven.
It is most pure by nature. It comes in the middle, between the three upper
and the three lower planets, and by its regular motion it regulates the
motions of the others. It comes near the three upper planets, when they
come near and approach the three lower ones. It never suffers any defect of
light in itself, though its illumination is here and there shut off, through the
interposition of the earth, or the moon, or a cloud. It stays longer in the
summer signs, less time in the winter signs. It never swerves from the belt
1 Ecclesiastes, 3: 2, 8
182 PART FIVE
in the middle of the zodiac, while other planets wander, and it does not
move with its own motion except progressively, while the others some
times move retrogradely. By its motion it makes the four quarters of the
year and by the participation of the planets it is the cause of the mingling of
the elements and natures, and of the composition of the individuals made of
the elements. It is the cause of all the heat that there is in this world, and
where its heat does not reach [217D], as in the north, the vapours in that
place coagulate and are raised on high: and strong winds blow for ever on
the same place. Nothing is ever in a composed state there, of either animals
or seeded things. It is the sun, too, which by its heat in the places that come
near to it, draws up from the waters of the sea the more subtle parts, and
raises them on high where they gather in rain-bearing clouds that make the
earth fertile. If the sun were to go up to the sphere of the fixed stars, both
the elements and the things made from the elements would be destroyed.
And if it came down to the sphere of the moon, they would also be
destroyed. And in the places which are far from the sun the snow is
greater, and moisture and cold conquer there. The people who live there
have untensed bodies, and their joints are hidden and cannot be seen for the
quantity of their flesh. Their faces are round, their eyes are small, their hair
thin, their colour pale with some redness. The quality of their souls is
sluggishness, and a lack of pity; they are of little wisdom, and they forget
easily. And the sun by day, by its heat, warms the air and makes it subtle
and rarefied. In its absence the air becomes dense, so much so that because
of its density animals could not live by night, were it not for the stars that
make the air subtle with their light and warm it with their motion. And the
motion of all animals, when the sun comes to rise and is on its way up to
the mid-point of their heaven, is greater and stronger. When it goes down
from the mid-point of heaven, their motion is weakened and lessened until
sunset. When the sun sets, their bodies are relaxed for sleep. And this
variation in improvement, deficiency and decline is clearer in some seeds
and flowers that move, grow and openly benefit together with the going up
of the sun, and decline as the sun goes down. And when it sets, they
weaken and fade.
3. About the sun John Chrysostom says: "Look at how in the sun are
the causes of all the things that the roundness of this visible world contains:
they are all there at one and the same time, in a uniform way, in the sun that
is called the greatest luminary of the world. For from it the forms of all
bodies proceed. From it comes the beauty of the colours elsewhere, and all
the other things that can be said to be in sensible nature.1" For this reason it
1 In fact John Scotus Erigena, Homilia in prologum sancti evangelii secundum Ioannem:
"Vox spiritalis aquilae" (PL, CXXII, 288D-289A)
CHAPTERS XXI-XXII 183
was deservedly that Ambrose said that the sun is "the eye of the world, the
joy of the day, the beauty of heaven, the grace of nature. But when you see
it, think of the one who made it. When you wonder at it, praise its creator.
If the sun is so pleasant, which is your sharer and companion in creation,
how good is that sun of justice? If the sun is so swift to light up everywhere
in its course by day and night, how swift is he who is always everywhere
and fills all things with his majesty? If the sun is admirable which orders
you outdoors, how far above admiration is he who 'commandeth the sun
and it riseth not1', as we read?"2
Chapter XXII
1 . But the moon receives its light from the sun, and is always lit up by
it as regards that half which faces the sun. And since the light of the sun
and the sun itself are of the same nature, as Augustine says, it can be
fittingly said that the moon is clad in the sun. The light that the moon
receives from the sun, on the half that faces the earth, it reflects on the
earth, and in some way it returns the presence of the sun to the earth when
it is absent, and, as it were, makes the night time into another day. Hence
even philosophers call it another sun. The nearer the moon gets to the sun,
the more the light diminishes on the part that faces the earth, and the more
it increases on the part that faces the heaven. And the further it gets away
from the sun, the more the light increases on the part that faces the earth
[218A], and the more the light diminishes on the part that faces the heaven.
That is why, when it is in conjunction with the sun, it shows no light to the
earth: it is wholly lit up on the side turned to the heaven. But when it is in
opposition to the sun, it sends light wholly towards the earth and none
towards the heaven.
2. You should know, though, that since the moon is much smaller than
the sun, the sun always lights up more than half its body, and the nearer it is
to the sun the more of the sun's light it receives: not only by intensity of the
light, but also through the quantity of its body that is lit up by the sun. And
the further away from the sun it is, the less of its body is lit up by the sun.
Hence, when the moon is full from our point of view, the moon is in reality
at its least; and when the moon is new as far as we are concerned, it
increases in light in itself. Hence, as is written of it, it is the luminary which
is diminished in light in reaching its completion (i.e. the full moon), and
which grows admirably in reaching its completion (the full moon) when it
begins to wane towards us.
3. The moon is lower than the other heavenly bodies and nearer to the
1 Job, 9: 7
2 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, IV, 1, 2 (CSEL, XXII. 1, 111-112)
184 PART FIVE
earth. If its path were higher than it now is, it would share less in the light
of the sun, when it shows the earth the fullness of its light. Like the sun, it
never moves retrogradely. All the other planets are retrograde. It shows to
the earth different appearances of its light according to all the different
shapes that are contained between the semicircular arc and the arc that is
greater than a semicircle, and also the semicircle and the perfect circle.
When it is half full it shows us the semicircle, and when it is full it shows
us the perfect circle. And, as Ambrose says: "Like the sun it lights up the
darkness, warms up the seeds, increases the fruit. But it has many things
that are different from the sun. When the heat has dried up the moisture of
the earth all day, it sends down dew in a very short time of night. For the
moon is said to give the dew. Certainly, when the night is calm and the
moon shines all night, then a heavier dew spreads over the fields. And the
more that those who often sleep out are under the light of the moon, the
more they feel moisture gather on their heads. Hence in the Song of Songs
Christ says to the church: 'My head is full of dew, and my locks of the
drops of the night'1. In the waning of the moon the elements are affected
with it, and in its waxing the things that were emptied swell up, the brains
of animals and the moist things of sea-beasts2", and the pith of trees and
the white of eggs and the milk in the breast, and other like things. And as
Basil says, "the movement of the air is contained by the changes of the
moon, as its newness is witness to, which after a long deep calm suddenly
raises piles and tumults of clouds.3" But exposed meat, left lying under the
moon, soon corrupts in liquid rottenness. "The reflux of the Euripus stream
shows this, and the returning of the Syrtes, which are thought to be near the
ocean, and are stirred up by the phases of the moon, as the inhabitants of
the places have told."
4. Likewise the sea undergoes a strong increase and decrease under the
influence of some breath from the moon. And the hair of animals, so long
as the moon continues increasing its light, speeds up its growth and is
thickened and increased. When the light wanes, its growth slows and it is
not thick or increased. And the nights of full moon are warmer, as the
philosophers say, because of the light of the moon. When the moon
wanes the air is colder and the bodies of animals are colder: and that
is why women have their periods more [21 8B] at this time. For the moon
in the four quarters of the month acts analogously to the four seasons of
the year.
1 Song of Songs, 5: 2
2 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, IV, 7, 29 (CSEL, XXII. 1, 134-135)
CHAPTERS XXII-XXIII 185
Chapter XXIII
1. It is common to all the stars, Bede tells us, that they borrow their
light from the sun and turn round with the world1. At the coming of day
they are hidden, and at the full moon their shining is seen with less
brightness. In a total eclipse of the sun, they open in heaven in the middle
of the day. And, as Bede says, "Some stars are fertile of a liquid of subtle
moisture; others have it made hard in frost, or piled up in snow, or frozen in
hail. Others of wind, others of warmth, others of dew, others of cold. It is
not only the wandering stars, such as Saturn, whose transit brings rain, but
also some that are fixed to the pole, when they are under pressure from the
approach or from the rays of the wanderers, such as the Succula on the
forehead of the Bull, which they call Hyades from the Greek word for rain.
Not but what some of them do this of their own accord, at fixed times, such
as the rising of the Goats, and of Arcturus, which rise at the ides of
September with stormy hail; and cloudy Orion, and the Dog-star, which
arises with great heat in mid-July."
2. All the stars have a superb and very great beauty, not from the
arrangement of their parts, for they have no parts, but because of the joyful
and merry shining of their light. Hence they are more beautiful on dark
nights than on moonlit nights. And the great stars, because of their size, are
more beautiful than the small stars. Also the stars that are separate and
distinct, because they are divided and distinct, are more beautiful than the
stars that are spread out and joined together; and more beautiful than the
stars of the galaxy, just as separate candles are more beautiful than is a fire.
But they cheat the human sight in estimating their resting-place because
they are so very far away from us. We do not see the stars directly, but in a
reflection, as is shown in the science of perspective. And in the same way
that something seen in water seems bigger than it is because of the
reflection of the sight towards the deeper water, so the stars seen in heaven
seem smaller because of the reflection of the sight in crossing the body of
heaven towards the lesser depth of the body of heaven. Hence the stars
seem small for two reasons: first, because they are far away from the eye,
and secondly because of the reflection of the rays towards the less deep part
of heaven.
3. And the stars all have this in common, that any of them overhead
seems smaller than in any other part of heaven, and the further it is from
overhead, the larger it seems. It seems biggest when it is seen on the
horizon. The cause of this is not only the abundance of vapour near the
horizon, but also the different flexion of the rays of sight when they reach
the body of heaven. And when there are vapours in the way, stars often
1 Bede, De natura rerum, XI (PL, XC, 206A-208A)

186 PART FIVE
seem to change their size and shape and colour and sometimes even their
course. And perhaps these are sometimes changed by the indication of the
Creator, as happened in the portent which, Augustine tells us in the twenty-
first book of the City of God, was recorded by Marcus Varro: "There was,
he said, a remarkable portent in heaven: the most noble star Venus, (which
Plautus calls the Evening Star, and Homer calls Hesperus, meaning most
beautiful, and Castor wrote to have been so great a portent) changed its
colour, size, shape and course. This had never happened before or since.
This happened in the time of king Ogygias, as is recorded by the famous
mathematicians Adrastus of Cyzicus and Dion of Apolis.1"
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XXI, 8 (CSEL, XL.2, 530-531

Part Six
[218C] Chapter I
1. God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creatures
having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of
heaven. Once heaven is adorned and decorated with the luminaries, next
the water is adorned with living things that are brought forth from it. But
why is the order of the elements not followed, and the air not mentioned
and adorned first, then the water, and last the earth? To have this clear, you
should be aware that the air has not been omitted here. For Scripture often
includes the whole arrangement of the world under two names, i.e. heaven
and earth. And the word "heaven" means the upper part of the world,
where the stars are, but also the part of the upper air. To this part the
exhalations of the earth do not reach: it is not disturbed by winds or
contracted into clouds or thickened into rain, but is a place of pure and
serene calm. In that part the birds do not fly, either. This part of the air was
discovered to be as it is by those who used to go up to the peak of Olympus
every year in order to make sacrifices. They made marks in the dust which
were found untouched a year later. This could not be so if that place were
subject to wind or rain or any disturbance. The air up there is so thin that
people who go up there cannot stay there, without putting damp sponges to
their noses, from which they draw in the thicker breath they are used to.
2. The word "earth" embraces the lower part of the world, i.e. from
the bottom — the centre — up to the place in the air that is reached by the
exhalations from this solid, static earth, and from liquid, unstable water.
The earth, in this sense, includes three elements: i.e. earth properly so-
called, water and air. The air is made thick with the exhalations of the other
two, and made gross by watery moisture, and is driven into winds,
thickened into clouds, and condensed into mists. This part of the air,
which is thus made thick by the watery moisture and contains water, is
often included with the heavy liquid of water under the name "water". It is
in this sense of "water" that it is said here: "Let the waters bring forth the
creeping creatures having life". The things that swim are brought forth
from the moist, thicker water, and the flying things from the moist water in
suspension.
3. The elements are adorned, then, in a way that follows the order of
188 PART SIX
the elements: i.e. first the heaven, a word that includes fire and the higher
calm air; then the lower air and the water, that is, the moist nature which is
picked out by the name of water; and last, as was said, the earth. This order
of the elements is followed also in the order of the external senses, as
Augustine says when he expounds this text. The sentient soul acts in the
eyes through pure shining fire "when its heat is suppressed and made into
its pure light. But in hearing the fire penetrates by its heat into the more
liquid air. In smell the pure air comes through and reaches the moist
exhalation, hence this breath is grosser. In taste it comes through and
reaches to the moisture that is more bodily: and it goes into this and
through this when it reaches the heaviness of earth, and makes the last
sense, that of touch. He was not ignorant of the natures of the elements or
of their order, who, when he gave us the creation of visible [218D] things
that are in motion in the elements of nature within the world, told us first of
the luminaries of heaven, then of the living things of the water, and of those
of the earth last.1"
4. Not that he omitted the air, as has been said. The purer part of the air
is counted in with the heaven, and the lower and moister part is counted in
with water, because of the connaturality it has with water. Air is very easily
thickened into water, when compressed by the cold, and water is very
easily rarefied into air, when dissolved by heat. He says, then, "Let the
waters bring forth the creeping creatures having life" . The utterance of this
command is single and slight, and, as Basil says, "It is not an utterance, but
rather the mere moving force and impetus of God's will. But the sense of it
is as manifold as are the distinctions of swimming and flying things among
themselves.2" This brief word infused a common nature into both great and
small: by one moving force both the whale and the frog were brought forth,
and they were born by the power of the same performance. God does not
toil at great things, nor are little things a bother to him. It was no trouble to
him to give birth to dolphins, just as it was no trouble to him to bring forth
little shellfish and snails3. By this one command the springs, lakes, ponds
and rivers, and the seas were filled with their living creatures, and the air
was filled with birds. And this command ran on and propagated them in the
succession of their kind.
Chapter II
1. In what it says, then — "Let the waters bring forth the creeping
creatures having life" — "it showed" says Basil, "how much the swim-
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, III, 5-6 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 67-68)

2 Basil, HexaHmeron, VII, 1, 8 (ed. cit. p. 89)
3 Cp. Ambrose, Hexaemeron, V, 25, (CSEL, XXXII.l, 143)
CHAPTERS I-III 189
ming things are of the same nature with the water. If ever for a short time
fish are taken out on land, they die. He did not give them a windpipe, in
which they can gather the breath of life. For just as air was given to the land
animals, so was water given to the fish. And the reason is clear: that we
have a thin flat lung, which, drawing in air through the split in the breast,
cools the heat inside by ventilation. But they have a folded-up enclosure at
their jaws, which does the task of breathing, now by drawing in water and
now by pushing it out.1"
Chapter III
1. The things that swim are called creeping creatures, because they
have the appearance and nature of creeping when they swim. Hence David
says: "So is this great sea, which stretcheth wide its arms: there are
creeping things without number"2. As Basil says: "All the kinds of
swimming things, whether borne on top of the waves or sunk in the
profound depths, have been allotted the nature of creeping; they drag their
bodies through the water. Some of the swimming things move with their
feet or with steps. And though many of them are thought to be amphibious,
like sea-calves, crocodiles, frogs and crabs, still swimming is more
important for them.3" And while they swim, as was said, they have the
appearance of creeping: since either by curving or contracting they gather
the length of their body into something less. Then stretching out in full
length again they press through the water, putting the water aside with this
pressure, and shoot themselves forward.
2. Or perhaps the general meaning of this word "creeping" is that
"creeps" is said of what moves by dragging its body forward. Walking or
flying is said of that which moves itself forward by a movement of pushing.
And since these two motions are joined in one and the same thing, it is
spoken of rather in terms of what is predominant. Swimming things, then,
drag their bodies through the water rather than pushing them, and hence are
rather called creeping things. For if anyone [219A] should carefully con
sider the modes of swimming things, he will find, I think, that they are all
mostly by dragging. The flight of birds, on the other hand, though it seems
to be similar to swimming with fins, is really quite different. Something
that swims with fins moves them forward first, and then, as if it was holding
with a sort of hands the water that it grasps in front, drags its body forward.
But the bird does not move its wings forward, but upward, and it pushes
outwards the air it has collected in the hollows of its wings, when they are
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, VII, 1, 10-11 (ed. cit. pp. 89-90)

2 Psalms, 103: 25
190 PART SIX
dragged down, through the opening breadth of the wings behind. When the
air leaves there with force, the body of the bird is pushed forward.
Chapter IV
1. It says "having life" [literally, of a living soul]. This is to make a
distinction from the vegetable part of the soul which is in plants. Though
they are said to have life, life is said to be in them in a less proper way. In
animals life is more properly said to be, i.e. the power of giving sense to an
animate body. For in some way the energy of life is shown in apprehension.
Every vegetative motion, rather than apprehensive motion, is a dead kind
of life-giving rather than a living one. The life of plants, therefore, is a kind
of dead life; while the life of sentient things is a kind of living life: as if the
life of the vegetative power were the sense-giving power that is joined to it.
This joining, then, is what is meant when it says "having life". A plant is
something that has a soul or life, but not a living one. But that which has
both vegetative processes and sense processes is something that has a
living soul and living life, so long as the vegetative soul shares in the
power of sentience.
Chapter V
1. There follows: "and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the
firmament of heaven." [Literally, "and the flying thing that may fly . . ."]
Flying things, in so far as they have the tendency to fly and actually do fly,
are ordered above the solidity of earth and of gross water, i.e. in the thicker
air. The grossness of this is sufficient to support the mass of the birds, but
its solidity is not an obstacle for the birds to penetrate it easily in flight.
Flying things, then, qua flying things, have their natural placing above the
earth and below the firmament. We should understand together with this
word "firmament" the calm and tranquil upper air, which has such great
thinness and subtlety that it cannot support the flight of birds. Of that part
of the air Augustine says, on this text, "By virtue of its tranquillity and
calm it rightly belongs to the firmament of heaven.1" From the solidity of
earth, then, up to the thinness of what is here called "firmament", birds can
penetrate the medium of thicker air with their flight. They cannot penetrate
the earthly solidity that is in earth or in water, nor the thinness of the
firmament in the upper air or ether. So it is rightly said: "over the earth,
under the firmament of heaven."
2. Nor is it superfluous to add "under the firmament". For this thicker
air where the birds fly is often called the heaven, as in the Psalm: "The
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram. III, 7 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 70)

CHAPTERS III-VI 191
birds of heaven"1. But it is unusual for the thicker air to be called the
firmament.
3. That the flight of birds reaches right up to something that is called
the firmament, just as it reaches right down to the earth, is made clear by
the translation of the Seventy, which has it thus: "The flying things over
the earth according to the firmament of heaven" or "beside the firmament
of heaven". In the Greek the preposition kata is used here, which means
"according to" or "beside", followed by the accusative. This expression
suggests briefly where the flight of birds is and how far it can reach, and
beyond where it cannot reach, on either side. The flight of every bird
[219B] is known to reach the earth below: above, to the firmament, not
all, but only some, can reach by flight, e.g. perhaps eagles.
Chapter VI
1 . In its usual way, Scripture repeats what is to be brought forth from
the water, adding — as is not usual — the special name of some species to
be brought forth, i.e. whales. Perhaps this is because the bodies of whales
are so huge that they seem to be hills or islands rather than living animals.
For they say, as Isidore tells us, that "Whales are so called from the
hugeness of their bodies. They are huge bodies of sea-monsters, the size
of hills, such as the whale that swallowed Jonah. Its belly was so huge that
it looked like hell, as the prophet said: 'I cried out of the belly of hell'2"3.
These sea monsters, according to Basil, know "that a dwelling-place is
granted to them by nature, which is placed at the ends of the sea, where no
land is seen all around, which is thought to be impossible to sail to. What it
is like, there is no science to tell us, since no-one is sure of getting there. In
this place the sea-monsters we spoke of, that are like hills, dwell, not
frequenting cities or islands. Thus each and every kind is forced to live
in its own home, in the places given to them by nature, just as on land.4"
The whales are called great, not in relation to the fishes, but just big,
without qualification: "For the hugeness of their limbs is equal to the
highest mountains, so that they are often thought to be islands, when
they swim gently along the surface.5" Basil says that these sea-monsters
are made to strike fear into us.
2. Jerome says that the word whales [cete in Latin] in the plural has the
accent on the second syllable, and means all the great beasts of the sea6. In
Latin we rather say "cetus", plural "ceti". "Cete" is a Greek word.
1 Psalms, 8: 9
2 Jonah, 2: 3
3 Isidore, Etymologies, XII, vi, 8
4 Basil, Hexaemeron, VII, 4, 2-4 (ed. cit. pp. 93-94)
6 Not traced
192 PART SIX
Chapter VII
1. When it says "living soul", according to Jerome, the part means the
whole. The author suggests by this figure of speech that the things that have
a sensitive soul are what they are, more in virtue of the soul that gives
sense, than in virtue of the body that has sense given to it. Scripture adds a
third specific difference of soul when he says "and moving". The first
power of the soul is the vegetative power which can be called animation;
secondly, there is the sensitive power, which is what is understood here by
the word "life"; and thirdly there is the power of local movement. For not
all sentient beings have the power of processive change with regard to
place, e.g. many shellfish and the creatures that are attached to stones1.
2. Or this word "moving" could mean the creeping things, as if it said:
"every living soul and creeping thing". Hence the translation of the
Seventy says: "every living soul of the creeping things".
3. There follows: "which the waters brought forth, according to their
kinds". These things, then, God brought out of nothing, as is suggested by
the word of creation, into perfect species, through the medium of matter
which he created from nothing, and through the medium of the waters
which he created out of matter, and on which he impressed, by his word,
the power of bringing them forth in perfect species. Nature tends towards
perfect nature and species, and its tendency does not come to rest in general
or imperfect nature. Hence, when it adds: "and every winged fowl accord
ing to its kind" it should be understood to mean by the word "kind", as we
said above, perfect nature and species, [219C] relative to which the
generative power was placed in it.
4. What is added afterwards — "Increase and multiply" — applies to
both kinds, i.e. fish and birds. What comes below this — "and fill the
waters of the sea" — applies properly to the fish. Hence it adds for the
birds, separately, "and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth". It is
fitting for it to add "upon the earth", because even the birds that live on the
waters, when they breed and multiply, seek the solidity of land to build
nests, lay eggs, and hatch them.
Chapter VIII
1 . But one might ask why it was not said to plants, likewise, "Increase
and multiply", since they have the power of generating and multiplying
according to their kinds. Augustine replies to this that perhaps this was
omitted for plants because "they have no desire2 for generating offspring,
and they breed without any sense3". And so it was not fitting for the
1 Cp. Aristotle, Historia animalium, IV, 6 (531a-531b)

2 Affectus
CHAPTERS VII-IX 193
blessing to be given to them with the words: "Increase and multiply".

Where desire1 is found, then, this is first said, so that it may be understood
for the land animals as well, though these words are not repeated for them.
"But it was necessary for it to be repeated for the human being, for fear that
someone should say that in the task of breeding children was some kind of
sin, as there is in lust, either in the lust of fornication or in the immoderate
abuse of one's spouse".
2. The word "increase", here, I think, suggests not so much the growth
of the body of a particular individual, as the growth of the specific nature in
many individuals: i.e. saying "increase" suggests the unity of the indivi
duals that are to be multiplied in the unity of nature. Saying "multiply"
suggests the multiplication of one nature in many individuals.
3. And it is fitting for the word of blessing to be added here. Goodness
is the desire2 of giving not only one's things, but also oneself, for the ease
and benefit of another. In generation, the generator gives its substance for
the establishment of the substance of that which is generated. Hence the
goodness of the desire of generating into primary natural existence is
supremely natural; the desire of generating into existence as regards the
good, and also gratuitous existence, is the completion of the goodness of
the rational creature. Hence, in order to instil these two desires, Scripture
often uses the word "blessing". A true blessing [benedictio in Latin,
literally, a well-saying] is something which, when said, works the good.
Chapter IX
1. We should consider here that our translation does not make the
triple mention here of the coming to be of animals from the waters. But the
translation of the Seventy, which Augustine expounds, does make this
triple reference. It has it thus: "And God said: let the waters bring forth
the creeping things of living souls, and the fowl that fly over the earth
according to the firmament of heaven. And it was so done. And God made
great whales and every living soul of the creeping things that the waters
brought forth according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to
its kind." And Augustine says that some have thought that it is because of
their slowness of sense that the water-creatures are called "creeping things
of living souls" and not "a living soul"3. But he thinks that it is not so
much for this reason that they are called "creeping things of living souls",
but rather because of the sense according to which we tend to say: " 'The
ignoble things of men', meaning whatever men are ignoble. For though
1 Affectus
2 Affectus
3 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram. III, 8 (CSEL, XXVIII.l, 70-71)
194 PART SIX
there are land animals too that creep on the earth, all the same a much
greater number move on feet: as few creep on land as walk in the water.
Others have thought that the fish are called not 'a living soul' but 'creeping
things of living souls' [219D], because they have no memory, nor any other
form of life that is close to reasoning. But the least experience refutes
them." For it has been discovered by definite experiments that fish keep in
their memory the usual times of feeding. There is no doubt, however, that
water creatures are less intelligent and less teachable than are land animals.
The Author may suggest this when he calls water creatures "creeping
things of living souls". But of the land creatures he says: "let the earth
bring forth the living soul": this is because the water creatures are slower
of sense and of less memory (though they do have some); while land
creatures are of more lively sense and memory. Also, as Basil suggests,
the difference of these words may mark the fact that in water creatures the
soul is more subject to the body, while in land creatures the soul rules the
body more and takes on more of the power of giving life1.
Chapter X
1. But when it says: "Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature
having life", and does not add any other kind of water creature beside the
creeping kind, it looks as if this does not include all the kinds of water
creatures. There are many shellfish and creatures that are attached to rocks
on the shore of the sea, that have no processive motion. Thus they do not
creep, though they are water creature. Perhaps the word "creep" includes
the motion of dilation and contraction. For these water creatures do have
these two motions: they contract themselves to avoid something harmful,
and they dilate themselves towards food and towards other things that give
them pleasure of taste or of touch. Or maybe these water creatures that
have no processive motion are referred to as plants and things with sense:
i.e. as a mid-point between vegetables and sensible things2. They share
with sensible things touch and taste, and the motion of contraction and
dilation. But they share with plants immobility as regards place, and some
of them share fixed attachment. Hence they are a sort of mid-point, as the
philosophers say, between vegetables and things with sense. And so
perhaps they are left by the Lawmaker to be understood as included in
virtue of the inclusion of the extremes.
2. Or perhaps they do have a power of creeping, but an imperfect one.
Because of this imperfect power of creeping they are included under the
name of "creeping things", even though they cannot bring out the act from
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, VIII, 1, 11-12 (ed. cit. p. 100)

2 Cp. Aristotle, Historia animalium, VIII, 1 (588b), and IV, 6 (531a-531b)
CHAPTERS IX-XII 195
this power. In the same way the ostrich is counted among the birds and the
flying things, and has some kind of imperfect power of flying. To this
power its wings bear witness: wings that are like those of the stork, the
heron1 and the hawk. But it cannot perform the act of flying at all. But this
does not mean that the power is always useless in such things. This is
perhaps because the act of a power is the perfect performance of that
power, but resting from the act of that power is an imperfect perfor
mance. And in the ostrich, resting from the act of flying is not useless,
but has some benefit for the good of the universe.
3. Or, perhaps, the imperfect power draws out of itself an imperfect
act, and in a subject of this kind the imperfect act has some benefit, as in
other subjects that perfect act has its benefit.
Chapter XI
1 . Also, there are many water creatures that do not generate anything
that is like them. Then how is it that it is said to all the things begotten from
the water: "Increase and multiply"? Perhaps this was not said to the
individuals, in order for them to multiply through the propagation and
generation of offspring from parents, but rather was said to the nature
and species so that it might increase and multiply, out of the watery
matter, according to the number of individuals. It is as if it were said to
the nature of the oysters: "Thou shalt increase and multiply successively
[220A] through a multitude of individuals that are begotten from watery
matter, and not by the propagation of things brought forth one from
another". For every day the number of this sort of shellfish increases and
multiplies by generation out of watery matter. If this blessing is extended to
this kind of multiplication, which is not by the generation of like from like,
it applies more widely than was expounded above, speaking of the gene
rative power. Or maybe this blessing was said to the water creatures
without qualification: not to all the species, but to most of them.
Chapter XII
1. And since the Lawmaker did not intend to teach us the natures of
water creatures so much as the ordering of the Church and the forming of
good customs, there are a few things to be briefly noted in this passage in a
moral and allegorical way. The waters gathered together in one place
signify, as was said above, the waters of baptism gathered together in
the unity of the sacrament. These waters, then, bring forth into the life
of grace those reborn from them and from the Holy Spirit. Of these some
1 The exact meaning of this bird-name is obscure. The Douai version translates its
occurrence in the Vulgate as "heron".
196 PART SIX
make their way by creeping, when they shrink themselves by humility and
fear, so that they may stretch themselves forward by a knowledge of their
fluid fragility, "forgetting the things that are behind", like the apostle.
Others seek for higher things as if by flying, when they stretch out the two
wings of charity, and move on the breath of life as on the air. They go up
and on, far above the things of earth, but, by obedience, below Christ, and
the ranks of heaven, and the teaching of sacred Scripture, which are like the
firmament. Those creep, then, who are always fearful, of whom it was said:
"Blessed is the man that is always fearful"1, and who, like Job, are in awe
of all God's works. But those fly whose soul has chosen to be in a state of
suspense, and who cry out: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will
fly and be at rest? Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the
wilderness"2.
2. The waters of baptism also bring forth, like creeping things, those of
active life, who are sunk in the flowing things of the world, though they
dispose of them lawfully; and are solicitous of the things of the world, of
how they may please their wives, of how they can provide for their
children, and of how to arrange their households: they are in a state of
division. They also bring forth those of contemplative life, like birds, who
fly to higher things, who are solicitous for how they may please God. One
thing they seek from the Lord, this they desire: to live in the house of the
Lord all the days of their life3. In order to go up there, hoping in the Lord
and renewing their strength, they take wings as eagles; they fly, and are not
wearied4.
3. Also, the sacrament of baptism brings forth some that are like
creeping things: people who, though they are sealed with the character
of baptism, involve themselves unlawfully in the cares of the world and in
worldly business. Against them it was said: "No man, being a soldier to
God, entangleth himself with secular businesses"5. Of them, too,
Habakkuk said: "Thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the
creeping things that have no ruler"6. And they bring forth others, like
flying things, who free themselves from unlawful entanglement in worldly
business through a desire of higher things, and fly in the richness of the
spirit.
4. Also baptism brings forth, like creeping things, those who give
careful examination to themselves, to sacred Scripture, to the works of
1 Proverbs, 28: 14
2 Psalms, 54: 7
3 Psalms, 22: 6
4 Isaiah, 40: 31
5 2 Timothy, 2: 4
6 Habakkuk, 1: 14
CHAPTER XII 197
God, and to the swift passing of the world and of its desire. Their subtle,
painstaking examination is like a creeping through the waters. It also brings
forth, like birds, those who are anxious for heavenly things, as a result of
the knowledge of the things they have found through the examination just
mentioned. Baptism also brings forth like creeping things the little ones
who are not yet exercised in understanding. This kind of creeping thing was
shown to Peter1. It also brings forth flying things, i.e. spiritual men, whose
"conversation [220B] is in heaven"2, who fly over the earth, who bring the
flesh under the yoke of the spirit. Paul showed that he had been himself a
creeping thing when he said: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child"3. He hinted that he was a flying
thing over the earth when he said "But I chastise my body, and bring it into
subjection"4. And also: "But when I became a man, I put away the things
of a child"5.
5. Again, the water gathered in one place is the knowledge of sacred
Scripture, of which it was said: "She shall give them the water of whole
some wisdom to drink"6, and elsewhere: "The earth is filled with the
knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea"7. The whole
of this water is brought together by the unity of charity, and by the unity of
that One that is the subject of theology, which we referred to at the start8.
This water of Scripture brings forth all those kinds of creeping things and
of flying things that the water of baptism brings forth. And, moreover, it
brings forth the creeping things of those who pry too deeply, and the flying
things of the proud, of whom it was said in the Psalm: "The birds of the air
and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea"9.
6. Also the waters gathered in one place signify the human race in a
fluid state of punishment, and of the changeableness of this human life, and
the succession of the race through propagation. Of this is was said: "The
waters which thou sawest are peoples, and nations" 10. This water brings
forth from itself all the aforesaid kinds of creeping things and flying things.
7. This water is also the passing of the world and its desire. This
passing, carefully considered and truly recognised, brings forth from itself,
1 Acts, 11: 6
2 Philippians, 3: 20
4 / Corinthians, 9: 27
7 Isaiah, 11: 9
8 See above, I, i, 1 - I, ii, 1
9 Psalms, 8: 9
10 Apocalypse, 17: 15
198 PART SIX
like water, all the above kinds of good creeping things and flying things.
For who, recognising truly how quickly passes the figure of this world, and
how all things pass away like a shadow, would not despise the world with
humility and fear, examining himself and driving himself to heavenly
things with the wings of love? Also, when the passing of the world is
loved — and hence not properly known — the love of it darkens the glance
of the mind1, and brings forth all kinds of bad creeping things and flying
things.
8. From the waters, also, we are brought forth like fish. While we live
in the flux of this mortal state, we consider our latter end in order that we
may never sin2. This consideration of death which splits into two ways
—one down to hell, the other up to heaven — is like the tail of a fish, which
we generally see has a forked shape, dividing itself upwards and down
wards. The tail of the fish is also like the rudder on a ship, by which the
movement of the whole of the body in front of it is governed . Thus the
consideration of death governs the whole direction of this life, so that it
may not wander into sin to left or to right. But at the general resurrection,
we will be brought forth like birds that fly to the heights, caught up in the
clouds to meet Christ in the air, and thus to be with the Lord for ever.
Chapter XIII
1. In a moral sense the flux of pleasure and of the senses and of the
outward appetites, contained within the boundaries of discipline, is like the
water which is contained within the limits of the shores. It brings forth
from itself, in the faithful soul, the creeping thing of humble fear and the
flying thing of love that seeks the higher things. It also brings forth the
creeping thing of careful examination of self and the flying thing of burning
desire for heaven. It also brings forth the creeping thing of bothersome
activity and the flying thing of peaceful contemplation. It also likewise
brings forth the creeping thing of forethought and the flying thing of the
encouragement of the word of God.
Chapter XIV
1. And it is to be considered that the mystical creeping things and
flying things, understood in the good sense, are brought forth by the
effective word of God who is well pleased. In the bad sense [220C] they
are brought forth by the word of God, at least in so far as they are known
and permitted by it. Nor should anyone think that the exposition of the bad
1 Mentis aspectus
CHAPTERS XII-XV 199
sense is inappropriate because it was said that the creeping things and the
flying things were brought forth from the waters by the word of God, as if
only good things, in a mystical sense, fitted this. Saint Jerome further on
expounds the animals in a bad sense, though they too were brought forth
from the earth by God's word. So every flying thing, in the good sense,
hovers over the earth, because it has put the earth beneath it; and under
the heaven, because it is obediently subject to heaven. The flying thing in
the bad sense, though, which strives upwards through pride, looks down
on the knowledge of humility as on the earth. But against its will it is
subject to the power of heaven.
Chapter XV
1 . The great whales are those who are chiefly, specially and obviously
pre-eminent among creeping things in some mystical meaning or other.
E.g. those who are chiefly, specially and obviously pre-eminent for humi
lity through the fear of the Lord. Likewise, those who are pre-eminent to a
special and notable degree in action and in the ordered government of
temporal things. The great whales are also those who are most greatly tried
and known in the profound examination of themselves and of sacred
scripture, and of the works of God. One great whale was that King
Hezekiah, who said: "I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness
of my soul"1. David was a great whale, who said: "I will meditate on thy
commandments: and I will consider thy ways. I will think of thy justifica
tions: I will not forget thy words. Then I shall not be confounded, when I
shall look into all thy commandments"2. And, again, the same Psalmist
says: "I will meditate on all thy works: and will be employed in thy
inventions"3. Saint Paul too was a great whale, who "heard secret
words, which it is granted to man to utter"4. And, moreover, he preached
and wrote so many and such great mysteries, that not even the sea of this
world is enough to hold it. To this kind of the whales, though they were not
so great, belonged the expositors of sacred scripture, e.g. Augustine,
Jerome, Gregory, and those who are like them. Also, the great whales
are those who are famous and reputable in the wisdom of the world and
in entanglement in worldly businesses. Likewise, those who are famous in
the careful examination of philosophy, such as were Plato and Aristotle,
Pythagoras and Anaxagoras, and others like them.
1 Isaiah, 38: 15
2 Psalms, 118: 15-16, 6
3 Psalms, 76: 13
4 Cp. 2 Corinthians, 12: 4: the usual reading is "which it is not granted to man to utter".
Grosseteste himself uses the usual reading elsewhere, e.g. at XI, vi, 4: probably this place is a
slip of the pen.
200 PART SIX
Chapter XVI
1. The living and moving soul is loving and active understanding, or
the faith that works through love. Animation means the understanding of
faith, which is the first foundation of the spiritual life in the soul; life means
love, and moving means working. When the faithful soul performs good
works through love, it is then brought forth, as it were, into its formed
species. Of this forming Isaiah speaks: "And now saith the Lord, that
formed me from the womb to be his servant"1. Or, any faithful soul is
brought forth to formed species through the love that works, when it is
made perfect according to a specific virtue, according to the act of the
virtue that is specifically proper to it. In this way Abel was brought forth
into his species through innocence, Noah through justice, Moses through
meekness, Joseph by chastity.
2. The "living and moving soul" might also suggest the three parts of
the soul, or the natural powers. The soul that is made up of three parts or
powers is brought forth into its formed species, that is, it is renewed
according to the image and likeness of its Creator, from the waters of
baptism and from the waters of saving wisdom, [220D] and, after falling,
from the waters of the tears of penance. For the tears of penance after a fall
renew those who were first made new by baptism.
Chapter XVII
1. The word of God's blessing, by which it was said, "Increase and
multiply", impresses the desire2 of love by which each good man strives
and struggles to generate the good in another, as it is in him. This is what
Paul wanted, when he said: "I would that all men were even as myself"3.
From this desire4 they give birth to others, in the way that the Apostle
speaks of: "My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ
be formed in you"5. These are generated in Christ in the way that the
Apostle again speaks of: "In Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten
you"6. In this way children are born, and what was written is fulfilled:
"Increase and multiply". It is by this manner of increase and multiplication
that the waters of baptism, of scripture, and of penance, are filled, by the
acts of observing the commandments that are fitted for baptism and
scripture and penance. For as far as outward acts are concerned, one
may not be able to fulfil all the spiritual commandments of scripture:
1 Isaiah, 49: 5
2 Affectus
4 Affectus
5 Galatians, 4: 19
CHAPTERS XVI-XVII 201
e.g. one who has renounced the world does not bring to completion the
outward act of giving alms, because he has nothing of his own from which
he can give. But as far as the interior habits of the virtues are concerned,
any one who is just fulfils all the commandments.
2. The increasing and the multiplying, then, of the just, many as they
are, can fulfil the exterior acts of all the commandments, and in this way the
waters of the sea are filled. This is because the fulfilling of scripture and of
baptism and of penance is the observation of all the commandments, as far
as works are concerned. By this generating the saints increase in the
enlarged body of Christ, which is the church. And since each one in this
body has what is in any other, any has anything that belongs to any other,
that he does not have in himself. Therefore the just grow into the fullness of
the body of Christ. Of this the Apostle says: "Until we all meet into the
unity of faith, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the
fullness of Christ"1. They are multiplied by the multitude of persons that
fill up the body of Christ. Also the rational creature increases in devotion to
its Creator; it is multiplied by the completion of good works; it fills the
waters of the sea by examining the law according to the depth of spiritual
understanding. The birds are multiplied over the earth, when the contem
plative religious, who have contempt for all worldly things, increase in
number. When they have to do with spiritual goods, they do not think at all
of fleshly things. They put before their eyes only spiritual things, and no
fleshly things. They know that they are sojourners and pilgrims, and say
"Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!"2 They long to be dissolved
and to be with Christ. They are forgetful of houses, children, family,
possessions and all things that belong to the present age. They have passed
above piety towards their children and parents, and passed to the love
which is towards God. They hate to put their foot in the public way.
They are at ease from the business of the world, but never at ease in the
spirit. They are joyful in severity, and severe in joyfulness. Nothing is
sadder to them than laughter, nothing is sweeter to them than sorrow. The
paleness of their faces shows their continence, and they give off no whiff of
ostentation. Their speech is silence, and their silence speech. Their going is
neither slow nor fast. Their manner of dress is always the same, and their
mood is never different [221 A], becoming like to the One who is in every
way his own likeness, in so far as is possible for human imitation.
1 Ephesians, 4: 13
2 Psalms, 1 19: 5
Part Seven
Chapter I
1. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its
kind. Observing the disposition of ordering that gives each thing its place,
the Lawgiver brings in last among the works of the six days the adornment
of the lowest and last of the elements. But this element, as we said above, is
more handsomely adorned to the extent that in itself it has less of hand
someness, according to what the Apostle says: "And such as we think to be
the less honourable members of the body, about these we put more
abundant honour"1. Therefore he says: Let the earth bring forth the living
creature. By saying this, God put into the earth the power of bringing forth
living animals, and moved it to the act of bringing forth, by which it
brought forth animals into the act of existence, by the power that was
put in it. And by the power of the same word the species which were then
brought forth from the earth propagated themselves afterwards. And the
earth to this day brings forth many animals, without propagation from seed,
by the power of that first command. Though the earth (from the luminaries
which had already been created, which poured on the earth the powers of
their lights) already, perhaps, had in itself the inclining power and the
seminal reasons for the bringing forth of animals; nonetheless it was by the
power of the single word of God, who speaks once, and in that way does
not repeat himself, that all these things were brought about. If the earth had
not had in itself the seminal reason and the inclining force for the bringing
forth of animals from itself — a power which had been impressed in the
earth before the command of bringing forth, or which was impressed by the
command of bringing forth — it would not be said in the way it was, i.e.
"Let the earth bring forth". In the same way it is not correct for the
craftsman to say: "Let the bronze bring forth a statue", since the bronze
has no inclination to bring out of itself the shape of a statue, even if the
craftsman could shape a statue in the bronze by his word alone, as he now
shapes it by means of a tool. But it would be correct for the craftsman to
say "Let the bronze bring forth a statue" if by his word he had impressed
on the bronze a power of bringing forth, and were moving the power that
had been impressed to the act of bringing forth. Since, then, God by his
CHAPTER I 203
word had impressed the power of bringing forth, and moved the impressed
power to its act, it is correct to say : "Let the earth bring forth".
2. By "living creature" [literally "living soul"] it means the animals,
that is, the animated sensible bodies, according to the figure of speech that
puts a part for the whole. But, were the souls of brute animals brought forth
from earthly or bodily matter? If they are not brought forth from earthly
matter, why does it say: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul"? If the
souls of brute animals were brought forth from something other than the
earth, or if they were created from nothing, how is it that the earth brings
them forth? For it does not bring them forth as a creator or as an efficient
cause, since any soul is beyond comparison more noble than is the earth.
But every efficient cause is prior to its effect in dignity, or is at least of the
same dignity. Perhaps the earth is correctly said to bring forth the living
soul, because it brings forth the organic body which is adequately prepared
and adapted in every way in its material dispositions for receiving the soul,
which the generosity of the Creator at once pours into the appropriate
subject of matter that has been prepared. For the natural inclination
[22 IB] which inclines the matter (which is sufficiently adapted with
regard to all the natural material dispositions) for the reception of its
own form, also extends itself for the sake of the fitting form of the matter
that is disposed, wherever the form for that matter may come from.
Therefore the earth brings forth the whole animal: because it both makes
available the matter for the animal's body, and, following the Creator's
command, extends a bent and an inclination towards the material disposi
tions that are fitting for the full acceptance of the form. This extension of
the inclining bent cannot come to its limit short of the reception of the soul,
but has its end and limit fixed at that point. In this way, following this
extension of the natural inclination, it brings forth the whole animal.
Scripture prefers to suggest this with the name of the part, i.e. the soul,
rather than with the name of the whole. For if it said "Let the earth bring
forth an animal", it could be thought that the name of the whole were used
for the part, i.e. for the body. But what it says is: "Let the earth bring forth
a living soul", and this suggests something more, i.e. that the natural
inclination to bringing forth does not limit its extension at the animal's
body alone, but also extends it through the organic body as far as the
reception of the soul. And this is so even though the earth does not bring
forth the essence of the soul, either as an efficient cause does, or as its
matter does. For God, we believe, creates the souls even of brute animals
from nothing, and infuses them into organic bodies that are adapted for
their reception. Nor do we believe that they are handed on, nor drawn out
from potency to act from some bodily matter. Only what is bodily comes
from bodily matter, which, since it is extended in dimensions, cannot have
204 PART SEVEN
a sensitive power. Nor can they even come to be from non-bodily spiritual
matter. We will take care to show this more fully below, with God's help,
when the occasion arises1. Therefore, "let the earth bring forth the living
creature in its kind": i.e. the complete living animal according to its
specific nature, and according to the power of generating its like according
to that specific nature.
Chapter II
1. There follows: "Cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth,
according to their kinds." This was anticipated in a general way by saying
"Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind". It is now divided
according to three specific differences, i.e. cattle, creeping things, and
beasts. Cattle are mild animals that are made apt for the use of men and
help them: either in their working, such as oxen and horses and the like, or
for producing wool, like sheep, or for eating, like pigs. Creeping things are
those that move by dragging their bodies and project themselves forward,
whether they drag themselves by moving their feet, as do lizards, or
whether, by stretching out the front part of their body, they drag along
their back part, as do snakes. "Beasts" is used in a common sense, in a
proper sense, and in a yet more proper sense. In the general sense all the
brute land animals are called beasts. But in the most proper sense "beast"
is used of all and only those land animals that rage with mouth or claw,
with the exception of serpents.2 In a sense between these two, "beast"
means any brute animal whose wildness is untamed, even if it does not rage
with its mouth or claws, such as deer and buck. It is in this sense that the
word "beasts" is used here. There are included, then, in this three-way
division, all the land animals, since every land animal can move locally.
They are, of necessity, moved either by dragging or by pushing. Also,
every land animal either is born to be tamed, or has an inborn wildness.
Those that are moved by dragging are not apt to be tamed, and are called
creeping things. But of those [221C] that move rather by pushing, those
that are naturally tameable are called cattle, while those that have an
untamed inborn wildness are called beasts.
Chapter III
1 . The translation of the Seventy includes the land animals under four
names. It has it thus: "Let the earth bring forth the live soul in its kind,
four-footed and creeping and the beasts of the earth according to their kind,
and the herds according to their kind. And it was so done. And God made
1 See below, IX, iii. 2-3

2 Cp. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, III, 11 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 76)
CHAPTERS I-IV 205
the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and all the creeping things of
earth according to their kinds." These three names, then, four-footed,
beasts, and herds, are all used in a common and a proper sense. The
four-footed are, in the common sense, all those things that go on four
feet, as the way the name is put together shows. Beasts and herds are said in
the common sense to be all the brute land animals. But these words are
understood here in the proper sense. The four-footed here are those that
have an untamed wildness, but which lack raging cruelty, such as deer and
buck. Beasts, on the other hand, are of untamed wildness, and rage with
tooth or claw. Herds here are what we called cattle above. The word
"creeping thing" keeps the same sense according to either translation.
2. Or as Augustine says, about the translation of the Seventy which he
is expounding: "The scripture three times says: 'according to their kind': it
invites us to pay attention to the three kinds. Firstly, 'according to the
kinds' of the four-footed and the creeping things. I think this means, by
four-footed, those which belong in the kind of creeping things, such as
lizards and newts, and anything else there may be of that kind. That is why
in the repetition it does not name the four-footed, because it is tied up in the
word 'creeping things'. Hence it does not say there just 'creeping things'
but 'all the creeping things of the earth'. Why 'of the earth'? Because there
are creeping things of the waters. And why 'all'? So that we may under
stand there also the things that move with four feet, which were referred to
above under the name of the four-footed. The beasts, about which it also
says 'according to their kind', are all the things that rage with mouth or
claw, except for the serpents. The herds, of which it says a third time
'according to their kind', are those who do no harm with either.1"
Chapter IV
1 . At this point the expositors raise a query about the tiny animals which
rise up everywhere without being propagated, but come from the elements or
from plants or from rottenness. Were they made on the fifth and sixth days,
as those things that multiply through propagation were? Augustine says on
this that the tiny animals that arise, not from propagation, but from the
waters or from the earth, were created in the first establishment of the
world among the works of the six days. "But it would be extremely absurd
to say that the other things that are born from animals — especially from
dead ones — were created together with the animals. Unless, that is, because
there was already present in all animate bodies some natural power, a sort of
pre-sown matter, and a first germ of the animals that were to be: the animals
that were to arise from the corruptions of such bodies according to their

206 PART SEVEN
kind and their differences, through the indescribable administration of the

unchangeable Creator who moves all things.1"
Chapter V
1. But it could be asked whether the things that are bom from
corruptions and purgings or exhalations or the decay of dead bodies, and
especially those things that are born from the corruption of human flesh,
would have arisen if the human being had not sinned. And it is clear that if
they are the species of natural things, and parts of the universe that have
natural specific differences that distinguish them from other species of
things, they would have existed even if the human being had not sinned.
For the universe would not have been incomplete, and the number of
natural species diminished, even if the human being had not sinned. Nor
would these species — if indeed they are species — have been always
distinct from others only in potency; for there is no potency created by God
to be forever vain and idle. If, then, they are and would have been species,
what would they have been born from, if the human being had not sinned?
Can it be that the things that are now born from the corruption of human
flesh would then have been born from the corruption or decay of something
else? Or would they have been born from the human being, but from its
uncorrupted body? Alternatively we might think that such things are not
natural species of things that are naturally distinct from others, but are
rather a sort of degeneration from perfect species, in the way that black
corn is not naturally or specifically different from true, perfect corn, but is a
kind of faulty degeneration of perfect corn. Nothing would be lacking from
the number of natures or from the wholeness of the universe, if this
degeneration of black corn never occurred. But if it were in this way, we
could ask about individuals that are born from corruptions and from
degenerating perfect species: of what perfect species is the louse a
degeneration? and of what is the worm? and like questions for like
things. But I leave this to be determined by wiser people.
Chapter VI
1 . It is also a question here of whether those poisonous and harmful
animals that do not arise from rottenness and corruption were made before
the fall of the human being, or created after the fall. The opinion is rather
that they were made before the human being's sin. But before the human
being's sin they were not harmful to human beings. Clear evidence of this
is that the hungry lions in whose den Daniel was thrown did him no harm2,

2 Cp. Daniel, 6: 7ff
CHAPTERS IV-VIII 207
and that a deadly viper seized on the apostle Paul's hand, but did not harm
him either1. This solution — that before the sin of the human being they
existed, but were not harmful to the human being — can be understood in
two ways: i.e. either that they changed to acquire harmful and poisonous
properties when the human being sinned, or, without such a change in
them, they became harmful because the human being's body was changed
and corrupted because of the sin. Which if these two is true, I could not
easily say.
Chapter VII
1. There are now very many animals that are harmful to the human
being in very many ways, and this is for several reasons. Harmful animals
exist "for the sake of instilling fear and of punishing vices, and for the sake
of trying and perfecting virtue, and for the sake of showing patience for the
good of others, and in order that a man may know himself with more
certainty in temptations, and for the sake of completing justice: that is, so
that the health he has shamefully lost through pleasure, he may recover in
fortitude through suffering.2"
Chapter VIII
1. But since the brute animals do not sin and do not advance in virtue,
why do some brutes harm others? We cannot offer here the reasons why
they harm human beings. This is solved by Augustine when he says: "Nor
is it surprising, that some should be the food of others. It would not be
correct for us to say: 'there should not be any beasts that live off others'.
All things, so long as they exist, have their measures, numbers and orders3.
All these, if duly considered, are a motive for praise, and they do not
change except by shifting from one state to another, with a hidden mod
eration for their kind of temporal beauty. If this is hidden from the foolish,
it can be glimpsed by those more advanced, and it is clear to the perfect.
And certainly all such movements of lower creation offer to human beings
salutary warnings, so that they may see how much they should strive for
their everlasting spiritual health, by which they stand out above all the
irrational animals: when they see how these do whatever they can, be it in
resisting or in avoiding, from the greatest elephants down to the least little
worms [222A] for their temporal bodily health, which has been allotted to
their lower kind by God's ordaining. And when some of them seek the
nourishment of their bodies from other bodies, the others are seen to drive
1 Acts, 28: 3-8

3 Cp. Wisdom, 11: 21
208 PART SEVEN
them off by force, or have recourse to flight, or use the device of hiding
places. For pain of body in any animal gives a great and marvellous
strength to the soul, which it holds as a fellow sharer in an ineffable
way, by a lively mixing together; and it brings it back to a measure of
unity, since it does not suffer corruption and dissolution with indifference,
but rather, if I may say so, with outrage. 1 "
Chapter IX
1. But why should one brute harm another, and one be food for the
other, if the human being had not sinned? It seems that the brutes did not
eat flesh before the sin of the human being, nor would they have eaten it if
the human being had not sinned. That is why God said to the human being:
"Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all
trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: and
to all the beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that
move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed
upon."2 For from these words it is clear that according to the first law of
nature and of the first establishment, all the animals of the earth ate fruits
and seeds or herbs or the tips of trees. It seems from this to be suggested
that they would not have fed themselves by killing one another, or on flesh.
Basil does not agree with this view3.
Chapter X
1. Again, it is asked: "If harmful animals hurt living human beings in
punishment, or to give them salutary exercise, or to try them valuably, or to
teach them in their ignorance, why do they also tear up the bodies of dead
human beings for food?4" This is resolved by Augustine by saying: "This
contains something for our benefit. This now lifeless flesh is to go through
the secret depths of nature by those passages, in which it is kept by the
wonderful almighty power of the Creator, to be again re-formed. Here too
there is a warning for the wise, to commend themselves to the faithful
Creator who governs all things, both great and small, by his secret indica
tion. He has the very hairs of our head numbered: so we should not be
afraid with vain worries for our lifeless bodies, however they die, but have
no hesitation in preparing our nerves with fortitude and piety for
anything.5"
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, III, 16 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 81-82)

2 Genesis, 1: 29-30
3 Basil, Hexaemeron, IX, 5, 4-7 (ed. cit. p. 121)
CHAPTERS VIII-XI 209
Chapter XI
1. In an allegorical sense the earth signifies the flesh of Christ, from
which the manifestation of truth arose. It also signifies the unity and
stability of the church. It also signifies the flesh weakened by abstinence,
and the fragility of our flesh and of earthly things, through the baseness that
hangs over it. The earth, then, in any of these meanings, brings forth the
living soul of charity and grace. For the flesh of Christ, truly believed in
and worthily received in the sacrament of the Eucharist, is the "bread that
comes down from heaven and gives life to the world"1. The unity of the
church, too, every day generates spiritual children and brings them forth
into the life of grace; and it says with Paul "In Christ Jesus by the gospel I
have begotten you"2. Also the weakening of the flesh passes into the
feeding of the spirit. Hence the church fasts as it prays, so that the
punishment of the flesh that it takes on may pass into the feeding of
souls. For the flesh weakened by fasting is the earth. Of this Paul spoke:
"For the earth that drinketh in the rain which cometh often upon it, and
brings forth herbs meet for those by whom it is tilled, receiveth blessing
from God."3 The careful consideration of one's own fragility brings life to
the spirit of the one who considers. Hence the Psalmist says : "I have been
humbled, O Lord, exceedingly: [222B] quicken thou me according to thy
word"4; humbled, I say, from the consideration of his own fragility. And
Isaiah says: "To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite"5. Hence, also, it was said of Saul: "When thou wast a little
one in thy own eyes, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel?"6
In what way was he a little one, if not in the consideration of his own
fragility? In what way was he the head, if not made alive by the spirit that
rules? The consideration of the baseness of earthly things does much, too,
to raise and move forward the spirit into the life of grace. For once it is
considered it is found to be nothing. Hence Jeremiah says: "I beheld the
earth, and lo, it was void and nothing"7. The more this is looked on as
nothing, the more the mind rises up to the desire of those things that truly
are something, and by this desire it lives. Hence Solomon says: "Desire
when it cometh is a tree of life"8.
1 John, 6: 33
3 Hebrews, 6: 7
4 Psalms, 118: 107
5 Isaiah, 57: 15
6 1 Kings, 15: 17
7 Jeremiah, 4: 23
8 Proverbs, 13: 12
210 PART SEVEN
Chapter XII
1. But, of those that the earth thus brings forth as a living soul, some
are cattle: that is, the simple and those who are appointed to work in the
active life, and are of benefit for help in human needs. It was such cattle
that Moses commanded to rest on the sabbath after the labours of the six
days. Some are creeping things, that is, men full of fear of God, who shrink
into the humility of littleness by fear, so that they can stretch themselves
forward. And in the careful examination of themselves and the scriptures
they discuss and they search, as if by the tiny movements and progresses of
creeping things. Others are beasts, that is, those who are wild and raging
against the vices and against the desires1 that are human and bestial. In so
far as they can, they kill, they tear up and they devour whatever is bestial or
human, in themselves and in others, so that there may no longer be either
beasts or human beings, but gods. For men are not only rebuked by being
compared to foolish cattle, and for having become like them, but also for
being human. What does Paul say when he rebukes some people? "For
while one saith, I indeed am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollo; are you
not men?"2 On this text Augustine says: "What would he have them do,
that he reproached them for being human beings? Do you wish to know
what he would have them do? Hear from the Psalms: 'I have said, you are
gods; and all of you the sons of the most high.'3 Paul, then, was a beast of
burden in making the collections for the poor. He was a creeping thing in
worming out the secrets which were scarcely to be penetrated by any
investigation. He was a beast in punishing his own body, and bringing it
into slavery, and in falling sick again, and in confuting the Jews, and in
judging that the fornicator who had violated his father's wife should be
given over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. We are creeping things,
then, in examining wisely what is good and what is bad; we are cattle in
working good for all with meekness; we are beasts in raging strongly
against evil."
2. Jerome says: "The cattle are the faithful who live in simplicity.5"
The creeping things are the saints who live as wisely as serpents, but as
innocently as doves. The beasts are those who are fierce with potential
pride. We can also relate the cattle to the sensitive life; the creeping things
to the investigative rational power; the beast to the desire6 of commanding.
1 Affectus
1 Corinthians, 3: 4
3 Psalms, 81: 6
4 Not traced.
5 Cp. pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in Pentateuchum, Genesis (PL, XCI, 200B) and Isidore,
Quaestiones in Genesim, I, 13 (PL, LXXXIII, 21 1C)
6 Affectus
All of these powers has a triple mode of existing. The first is natural
existence. Since natural existence in these three powers is bent aside into
a threefold will — i.e. the will to pleasure in sensing, and to pleasure in
knowing, and to pleasure in dominating — these three powers become the
three concupiscences. Of these John spoke: "For all that is in the world, is
the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the
pride of life [222C] which is not of the Father"1. These three powers, then,
are the cattle and the creeping things and the beasts, taken in a bad sense.
But when the natural existence of these three powers is informed by
charity, then these three powers are the cattle, the creeping things, and
the beasts, taken in a good sense. They can be taken in this way here. The
cattle mean those who make good use of the liveliness of the outward
senses for their need, not for the pleasure of sensing. The creeping things
mean those who turn their subtle examination of science into the building
up of the spiritual life. The beasts mean those who use dominion, not for
the enjoyment of dominating, but for the profit of those whom they govern,
who rage at the vices and at the bestial desires2 of those who resist the
power and the dominion ordained by God.
3. These kinds of cattle and creeping things and beasts bring forth after
their own kind when they imitate the holy fathers, who were their pre
decessors and begot them in the faith, and likewise are bent on generating
successors to them who are like them. Nor should this bent cease until
those who are to be brought forth are brought forth according to their
species, that is, until they are brought forth in completion, perfection and
beauty3. For the species is the whole substance of the individuals.
4. On the previous day's work, and on the work of this day so far, the
intention of the Lawmaker has had to do with the generation of animals,
which God saw was good: i.e. he saw that they were of benefit to the
universe. So something general should be said about their properties, by
which they preserve the order of benefit for the universe. For the specific
natures of specific animals — water animals, land animals, and flying
animals — have been described by Basil and Ambrose, in discussing this
passage, with great care, for the most part4.
Chapter XIII
1. We can, then, following the very words of Scripture, make a first
general division of animals. Every animal has a living soul, that is, a
1 1 John, 2: 16
2 Affectus
3 There is a play here on "speciosa", meaning "beautiful" and "according to their species".
4 Cp. Basil, Hexaemeron, VII-IX (ed. cit. pp. 88-126), and Ambrose, Hexaemeron, V-IX
(CSEL, XXXII. 1, 140-261)
212 PART SEVEN
vegetative and sentient incorporeal substance. "Animation", as was said

above, means vegetating activity, but the addition of "living" picks out
sense activity. Every sentient being is either capable of movement with
respect to processive local motion, or is immobile with respect to this
movement. The sentient being which is immobile in this way is a kind
of mid-way point between plants, which have only vegetative activity, and
animals, which, without qualification, have sense activity and move1. They
also belong to the kind of water creatures.
2. This is demanded by the order of nature. Speaking without quali
fication, water creatures have a lesser share in the apprehensive and
discretional powers of the soul than do land animals, speaking without
qualification. Hence, speaking without qualification, they are less teach
able, and on account of this they have less life, speaking without qualifica
tion. The least and lowest level of sharing in life is that of the plant, which
only vegetates. Next to this in its share in life is that which has sense
activity, but is lacking in the moving part of the soul. The third degree is
occupied by that which has a moving part as well as a sensitive part. Since,
then, among the animals that move, the land animals are more lively than
the water creatures, it is more fitting that the kind of animals that has least
share in life, i.e. the sensible but immobile animals, should have its place in
the order among the water creatures, rather than among the land animals.
3. Also, it is necessary that the sentient creatures which are immobile
should be water creatures. Since they cannot move locally to get their
nourishment, they have to live in an element [222D] which brings nour
ishment to them. Earth is not such an element, since it is immobile. Air is
not nourishment, and does not bring nourishment with it in its movement.
But water, when it reaches animals of this kind, either is itself a nourish
ment for them or brings their nourishment in itself. These immobile
animals are also lacking in senses that can apprehend their objects at a
distance. This kind of sense would be of no benefit to them: they would be
not so much senses as afflictions, since they would not be able to pursue a
pleasing object of sense nor flee from a harmful object of sense. Since they
are lacking in the power of fleeing what is harmful, nature has armed them
with hard shells against things that might damage them.
4. That which is sensible and mobile moves either by dragging its
body, for the most part, or by pushing its body, for the most part. That
which moves by dragging its body for the most part is called a creeping
thing, without qualification. Also, everything that moves, in its motion,
supports itself on something. The animal that moves either supports itself
on an element that does not give way, or supports itself on an element that

CHAPTER XIII 213
does give way. The only element that does not give way is earth. Water and
air both give way: water less and air more. The animal that supports itself
on earth in its motion, and which drags its body more than it pushes it, is
the creeping thing, the reptile. The animal that supports itself on earth, and
pushes itself more than it drags itself, is the walking animal. The animal
that supports itself on an element that gives way, and which drags its body
more than it pushes it, is a creeping thing. The animal that supports itself
on an element that gives way, and pushes its body more than it drags it, is
the flying thing. According to the conceptual part of this division there
could be either kind — i.e. creeping and flying — in either element that
gives way — i.e. water and air. But the necessity caused by the density of
the water and the subtlety of the air demands that there should be no
creeping things in air and no flying things in water. The moving thing
that drags its body of necessity needs an element which by its density
supports the body of the thing that is moving, either wholly or for the most
part. When it drags itself it attaches itself in front with some part of itself,
and, by dragging what it is attached to backwards, it moves itself forward.
That which is in front, then, to which it attaches itself, has to have some
solidity that does not give way — either not at all or not much. That
solidity has to support it so that it does not fall down, and so that its
movement forward by dragging may not be in vain. It is impossible, for this
reason, that a creeping thing should move itself by supporting itself in the
air, as air lacks this kind of dense solidity. Pushing by supporting itself on
an element that gives way could not be by walking: for it would fall and
move downwards. It is done, however, by collecting the element itself, on
either side of the thing that moves, in a hollow that is stretched out on each
side, and is called a wing. This is easily moved upwards because of its
convex shape on the upper side. In the hollow underneath, when it is
brought downwards, it gathers the element in which it is supported, and
it is difficult to move downwards because of the great gathering in the
hollow. By that movement, then, by which the wings on both sides are
brought downwards, the body between the wings is held up and is carried
upwards. And when the element collected below the wing in the hollow is
strongly pushed downwards it leaves violently through the turned-up wing
behind, which pushes the whole forwards. And this manner of moving
would be very laborious indeed in water, which is so thick.
5. Nature has ordained for each thing its movement and its natural
activities, not as something that is laborious, but as something that it is
fairly easy to bring to completion. For this reason all the movements of
water creatures in the water are creepings: for swimming is a kind of
creeping. Movement in air, on the other hand [223A], which is supported
on the air, is flight. But movement on earth is either creeping or walking.
214 PART SEVEN
And just as half-way between the plants and the animals are the immobile
water animals, so midway between the water creatures and the walking
land animals are the creeping land animals. The water creatures are
connected with the flying things by the fact that they have in common
the element of water from which both are generated; and they are con
nected with the land animals that walk, as has been said, by what they have
in common in the land creeping things. Flying things are connected with
the land animals by the fact that they share a site on the quiet earth, on
whose solid calm they cease from their effort and bring up their young. In
this way all things are woven together, in a highly ordered way, by natural
connections. The nature of heaven and of heavenly things shares with fire
in light; fire shares with air in heat; air shares with water in moisture; water
shares with earth in cold; earth shares with the plants in their matter, and by
the way plants are fixed by their roots in, and get their nourishment from,
the earth; plants share with animals, and different kinds of animals share
with one another, as we have explained1.
Chapter XIV
1. The outward sense of the body is common to all the animals. The
outward sense is a power of receiving and grasping sensible likenesses
without matter; or, as Augustine says, "Sense is a passivity of the body that
is not hidden from the soul"2. The soul is not subject to the body's action,
because what is less noble cannot act on what is more noble than it is. But
when the body is acted on, the soul is more attentive to its action of
governing the body. And when it has become more attentive, and the
passivity that has been inflicted on the body is not hidden from it, it is
said to sense. And when the passivity that has been inflicted on the body is
opposed to the working of the soul that governs the body, and the soul
moves against the opposing passivity (moving also the matter of the body
that is subject to it), and it encounters some difficulty in the ways of its
working, it becomes more attentive because of the difficulty in its action.
This difficulty is not hidden from it, and so the sensing is painful or
troublesome. But when the passion of the body fits with the working of
the soul, it easily brings that passivity — or as much of it as it needs —
within the ways of its working. It then becomes more attentive, because of
the fitting and obedient addition to its working easily. This ease is not
hidden from it, and becomes a pleasant and not troublesome sensing. There
are five known senses that are distinct according to their nature, and
according to their placing and position on the body, in the likeness of
1 Cp. below, IX, viii, 2-3

2 Augustine, De quantitate animae, XXV, 48 (PL, XXXII, 1063)
CHAPTERS XIII-XIV 215
the elements of the world in the sensible world, as we noted above,

following Augustine.
2. And there is one thing that is the mark of all the irrational animals.
Hence Basil says: "There is one soul of irrational things, one thing is their
mark: it is irrationality. Each animal makes use of different properties: the
ox is heavy and solid, the donkey is active and stupid, the horse is hot in its
lust for the females. The wolf is untamed, the fox is crafty, the deer is
timid, the ant is hardworking, the dog is a scratcher and remembers its
friends1": and so on. The irrational animals also have this in common, that
their life does not exist before their bodies, and it does not remain after the
body is broken up. Hence Basil says: "Do not think that the soul of cattle is
older than their substance, nor that it remains after the dissolution of their
flesh.2"
3. And as Augustine says in the eleventh book of The City of God:
"Though there is no kind of knowledge in the senses of irrational animals,
yet there is a kind of likeness of knowledge.3" For many of them have an
admirable sagacity in the bringing up of their young, in the building of their
dwellings, in their seeking of their food, in their fleeing from and defending
themselves against what would harm them, [223B] in the treatment of their
wounds and diseases, and in foreseeing future changes in the air. As, for
example: "When the bear has been pierced by a lethal wound, it staunches
its wounds with a herb of a dryish nature. The fox cures itself with pine-
juice. When the tortoise has eaten the entrails of a viper, it rids itself of the
illness of poisonous food with oregano; the snake gets rid of serious pains
in the eyes by eating fennel.4" There are many wonderful and amusing
things of this kind that the sagacity of irrational animals performs. They
have this in common, too, that even the most savage of wild beasts keep
their own kind in some kind of peace, especially in mating, in breeding, in
giving birth, in keeping the young warm and feeding them.
4. They also have this in common, that since they are lacking in free
will, they are rather acted on by nature than act on it. Thus, as John
Damascene says, "They do not go against their natural appetite, but as
soon as they desire something, dash into action. But human beings, on the
other hand, who are rational, rather act on their nature than are acted on by
it.5" As St James says: "For every nature of beasts is tamed"6. Aristotle
says that those animals are more teachable which have better hearing and a

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, VIII, 2, 3 (ed. cit. p. 101)
3 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XI, 27 (CSEL, XL.l, 553)
4 Basil, Hexaemeron, IX, 3, 8-9 (ed. cit. pp. 1 16-7)
5 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XLI, 1 (ed. cit. p. 153)
6 James, 3: 7
216 PART SEVEN
complete sensitive apparatus: also, that those which have blood which is
warm, subtle and clean, are more intelligent than the others and better1.
Also, every irrational creature, as Augustine says, desires "an ordered
tempering of the parts of its body, satisfaction of its desires, quiet of its
flesh, and a good deal of pleasure, so that the peace of the body may serve
the peace of the soul. If there is no peace of the body, the peace of the soul
— even of the irrational soul — is obstructed, since it cannot obtain the
satisfaction of its desires.2" And, as Aristotle says: "Desire for and
pleasure in mating is found in animals. At the mating season the males
are filled with jealousy and fight, and even those that went about together
before the mating season separate. And some animals take trouble at that
time to harden their bodies for fighting. E.g. wild pigs rub themselves
against trees, and then roll in the mud and dry it. Then they fight to the
death — of one or of both.3"
5. In all animals there is one organ that is the radical originating
principle of sense and of motion and of all the powers, natural, vital and
sensitive: i.e. the heart, or something analogous to the heart.4 From this
root begins, too, the creation and forming and shaping of animals. When
they are complete according to form and shape, they all have their faces
downwards, not lifted upwards. An erect stature is reserved for human
beings alone. Other animals have their faces turned downwards, as Basil
says, looking at the ground: and they pursue what pleases their lust5. For
this reason if human beings make truce with the pleasure of the body by
obeying the whims of the belly, and the lower parts, they are compared to
irrational cattle, and they become like them. And, as Basil says elsewhere,
all the animals of land or of water, when spurred on by genital heat, move
to the propagation of offspring in the succession of their kind. This occurs
especially in the spring time, when the sun reaches the northern parts, and
heat and moisture are in full force, and the light of day becomes longer than
the darkness of night. "The weaker beasts are more fertile, too, such as
buck and hares and wild sheep, so that their kind may not easily be
destroyed through the ravages of carnivorous beasts. Those which eat
other animals are less fertile.6"
6. Thus [223C] there is nothing in creation which is unprovided for,
and no lessening of the care that each thing has for providing what is right
for it: the Creator gave nothing superfluous, but did not keep anything
1 Aristotle, Historia animalium, IX, 1 (608a)

2 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XIX, 14 (CSEL, XL.2, 398)
3 Aristotle, Historia animalium, VI, 18 (571b)
4 Aristotle, Partibus animalium, IV, 5 (681b)
5 Basil, Hexaemeron, IX, 2, 1 (ed. cit. p. 1 15)
CHAPTER XIV 217
needful back even from beasts. All animals were brought forth in the
beginning from earth or from water, as Scripture says. But now some
things are always generated by propagation, as cattle are always from
cattle; others, always from earth or water, as they were in the beginning.
As Basil says: "That eels are born only from mud is very certain. Their
kind is not begun from the hatching of an egg or from a giving birth: their
lot is to have their origin from slime.1" But there are some things that are
sometimes generated by propagation and sometimes from earth or water,
without being begotten by parents that propagate them. E.g. cicadas, frogs,
mice. For as Basil says: "We see that mice and frogs are born from the
earth. That is why in Thebes in Egypt, if the air has poured down more rain
than usual in summer, the whole territory is soon filled with innumerable
mice ". Augustine, too, in The City of God states that some animals are
born from some things without mating, but then are able to mate and to
generate: e.g. some flies. He says in the same book, too: "In Cappadocia,
too, mares conceive with the wind, but their young do not live more than
about three years.3" The things that are born from their mothers' wombs
have all a quicker generation, and, as Aristotle says, they are born head
first4. "The movement of all animals that move is on four or more limbs.5"
And every animal that can be harmed by another has some way of
protecting and defending itself against harm. Common to all animals,
too, is a natural moisture, and when this fails they get old and die. This
is either the moisture of the blood or a moisture that is analogously similar
to blood. "And all the animals that are lacking in blood have smaller bodies
than those that have blood: except for sea-creatures, because there is a sea
animal that is bigger than any animal that has blood.6" The more perfect
animal is the one that has, by nature, a greater heat and a greater moisture7.
And any animal has a determinate quantity, as far as bigness and smallness
are concerned. "Animals feed in different ways according to the difference
of their matters, from which their substance comes. Each is fed by a food
that is like the matter that it was made from. All their food is what they find
naturally pleasant. For they all have a natural pleasure in what is like them
and connatural with them.8" "All the animals have a gestation period
which fits them proportionately: the gestation period of a long-lived
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, IX, 2, 7 (ed. cit. p. 115)

3 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XXI, 5 (CSEL, XL.2, 522)
4 Aristotle, Generatione animalium, IV, 9 (777a)
5 Aristotle, Historia animalium, I, 5 (490a)
6 Aristotle, Historia animalium, I, 5 (490a)
7 Aristotle, Generatione animalium, II, 6 (745a)
218 PART SEVEN
animal is longer1", and that of a shorter-lived animal is shorter. And there

is no element in which there is not some kind of animal that can live. For
the salamander, as Augustine and many others bear witness, lives in the
midst of the fire2. And there is a kind of worm that lives in the waters of hot
springs, which are so hot that no-one can draw them without being hurt.
But those little worms not only live in them without any harm, but cannot
live outside them. Pliny says that "Aristotle confirms that no animal dies
except when the tide of the sea is ebbing. This has often been observed on
the ocean-coast of Gaul, and even of human beings.3"
7. And, as those who have examined such matters say, nature distin
guishes between male and female in every kind that has a male and a
female. "The females are universally weaker than the males, except for the
bear and the leopard: their females are thought [223D] to be stronger and
more daring. And the females in other kinds are easier to train and more
intelligent, and quieter, and they take more care for the nourishment of
their young. The males are the contrary: they are more bad-tempered and
wilder, less intelligent. The passions of these dispositions are especially
obvious in human beings, since human beings have, among all things, the
perfect nature. For this reason a woman is more pitiful than a man, and
weeps more easily. She is more envious and is proner to quarrelling and
punishing. Malice of soul is greater in women than in men. Women are less
hopeful, and lie more: they are more shameless and are easily deceived.
The female, universally, moves more ponderously. The male is more
daring than the female and of greater benefit.4"
8. And, as the Philosopher says, "in every animal there is something
noteworthy, since none of them received their nature in vain, or by chance.
Whatever comes from the working of nature will be for some purpose.5"
For as John Damascene says: "All kinds of animals and creeping things
and wild beasts and cattle, are for the greatest benefit of the human race.
But of these, some are for food, e.g. deer, sheep, buck, etc.; others to serve,
e.g. camels, oxen, horse, donkeys, etc; others to entertain us, e.g. monkeys,
and, among the birds, parrots, magpies, etc.6" Even the wild beasts are of
benefit: they frighten us and bring us to recognise and call on the God who
made us. Augustine, in On Genesis against the Manichees says: "I admit
that I do not know why mice and frogs were created, or flies and worms.
But I see that all are beautiful after their kind. I do not consider the body
1 Aristotle, Generatione animalium, IV, 9 (777a-777b)

2 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XXI, 4 (CSEL, XL.2, 517)
3 Pliny, Natural history, II, xcviii, 101, 220 (ed. Sillig, I, 192)
4 Aristotle, Historia animalium, IX, 1 (608a-608b)
5 Aristotle, Partibus animalium, I, 5 (645a)
6 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXIV, 2 (ed. cit. pp. 103-104)
CHAPTER XIV 219
and the limbs of any animal, without finding its measures, number and
order to belong to the unity of harmony. I do not understand where all these
come from, if it is not from the supreme measure and number and order,
which are to be found unchangeable and eternal in the sublimity of God. By
the harmful animals we are punished, or exercised, or scared, so that we
may love and desire, not this life which is subject to many dangers and
toils, but another, better, where there is full security; and so that we may
obtain it by the merits of piety. Whenever you see something with
measures and numbers and order, look for the craftsman. You will not
find one, except where the supreme measure, the supreme number, and the
supreme order are: that is with God, of whom it was most truly said that he
disposed all things with measure, number and weight1. Thus you may be
able to pluck a richer fruit when you praise God for the lowly ant, than
when you ride high on some great mount across a river.2" Gregory of
Nyssa says: "We should come to understand the Giver from the things that
are for our benefit. We should trace the ineffable power of their Maker in
the fair and magnificent things we gaze on"3. As Jerome says, "Beasts, fish
and birds were created not just for eating but for medicine. Therefore the
physicians know how many things the flesh of vipers is good for, from
which they make an antidote. Slices of ivory are used in several remedies.
The gall of the sole restores clarity to the eyes: the shed skin of a snake
boiled in oil lessens ear-ache wonderfully. What would seem so useless to
the ignorant as bugs? If a leech is stuck in the throat, breathe the smoke of a
burning bug, and the leech will be vomited out at once. By applying this a
difficulty in urinating is lessened. How useful the fat of pigs and geese and
chickens and wild fowl is, all the books of the physicians make clear. If you
read them you will find that the vulture gives as many remedies as it has
parts. Peacock's droppings lessen the torment of gout.4" In this way there
is no kind of animal that does not have many wonderful kinds of benefit,
even if we do not know what they are. It was in these benefits of animals,
and in others like them, that God saw that they were good.
9. We will refrain from saying any more about these matters at present,
in order not to burden the reader with the annoyance of prolixity. And, for
the same reason, we will put off speaking specifically about water-creatures
and birds, until a later occasion offers itself elsewhere, when a discussion
of such matters will be more acceptable. And since the discussion of the
1 Wisdom, 11: 21
2 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, I, xvi, 26 (PL, XXXIV, 185-186)
3 Gregory of Nyssa, De opificio hominis, II, 1 (ed. Forbes, p. 123)
4 Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, II, 6 (PL, XXIII, 305B-306A)
220 PART SEVEN
creation of the human race cannot be dealt with briefly, we will keep it for
the next part, and put an end to this part before this day ends.
Added in some manuscripts (CRPH):

"The ray of God's brightness that lights up those who shine in the spirit,
though it is one thing in itself, is made many in several ways by participation and
distribution of gifts: since it is distributed to many in different ways, and thus is
made many. This multiplication and variation of all things is beauty, because
unless different things were beautiful in different ways the whole together would
not be supremely beautiful. For there is no one thing that could hold the beauty of
the whole, receiving it from each thing: hence the supreme beauty is distributed
into individuals, so that it may be perfect together in all of them together. This
distribution is multiplied most excellently and most beautifully: most excellently in
all together, most beautifully in all separately.1" Nothing so saddens and upsets the
eye of the soul as the swarm of the cares of this life and the multitude of desires.
These things are the smokes and the fuel of this world: and just as when fire has a
wet, soaked fuel it puts out a great smoke, so it is with vehement desire. When the
flame of desire meets a moist and broken-up soul, it gives rise to a great smoke.
Thus there is need of the dew and the wind of the spirit, to quench the fire and
dissolve the smoke and blow it away, for light to come to us. No-one weighed
down by such great evils can fly to heaven.
1 Hugh of St Victor, Expositio in hierarchiam caelestem, II (PL, CLXXV, 943-944)

Part Eight
Chapter I
1 . Let us make man to our image and likeness. This expression is very
brief, but it is also extremely profound, and extremely fertile of extremely
broad senses. If this fertility had to be explained and written down piece by
piece I think that the world would not have room for the books that would
have to be written1. It includes the most secret thing of God and the most
sacred thing of the human being. It shows the trinity of the one God and the
supreme dignity of the creation of human beings: for it says that human
beings were made in the image of the supreme Trinity. An image, as
Augustine says in his book On the Trinity, is the highest of likenesses2.
A likeness is of two kinds: either a likeness of equality and parity, or a
likeness of imparity and resemblance. Hence there are two kinds of image,
either the highest likeness in respect of parity, or the highest likeness in
respect of resemblance. In the first sense of "image", only the Son is the
image of God the Father. For everything that the Father has, the Son has
equally. And whatever the Father does, the Son works likewise. "For as the
Father hath life in himself, so he hath given to the Son also to have life in
himself"3: the life, I say — that is, the full and whole substance of the
divinity — which is not multiplied nor divided nor diminished. Therefore
the Son is the likeness of the Father according to equality. But human
beings are the likeness of the divine Trinity by resemblance. For the
creature cannot be equated to its maker, nor be given the same name as
him in any respect: but it can in some way resemble him.
2. Since, then, human beings, as Scripture bears witness, are the image
of the divine Trinity, and thus the highest likeness in resemblance of the
divine Trinity — they would not be the highest likeness in resemblance,
unless they could in every way resemble him whose highest likeness they
are, i.e. in such a way that they have in resemblance and, as it were, in the
impression of a trace, the things which he has in substantial possession
— since this is so, the unravelling of this expression demands that we
1 Cp. John, 21: 25

2 In fact this expression is not found in the De Trinitate. But cp. De Trinitate, XI, v, 8 (PL,
XLII, 991) or XV, x, 17 (PL, XLII, 1070)
3 John, 5: 26
222 PART EIGHT
should unfold everything that the Divine Trinity has in itself, and that we
should find each and every thing in human beings that is fitted, in a way of
resemblance, to the things that are in God. God is all things in all things:
the life of living things, the form of things with forms, the species of things
with species1: and human beings are in all things God's closest likeness in
resemblance. For this reason human beings, in so far as they are the image
of God, are also in some way all things. For this reason the unravelling of
the expression given is more demanding than the unravelling of forms, of
species, and of all things: because it requires also the unravelling of God
and of human beings, and their relating to each other. The unravelling of
this, then, is not to be expected from a human being. How much the less
can it be expected from me, an unlearned person? For however much one
may unravel of this, it is not so much as is a point in relation to a line, or a
single pebble in relation to the sand of the sea, or one drop of water in
relation to the water of the sea, or one speck of dust [224B] to the whole
frame of the universe. But whatever God deigns to grant me in this matter, I
will speak out, in a summary fashion, stammering with whatever words I
can find.
Chapter II
1. In the consignification of the plural number of this verb "let us
make" and of the pronoun "our", we have suggested to us the plural
number of persons in the one God. For it is God who is speaking. Therefore
there is one who is speaking, and another, or others, to whom (singular or
plural) he says "let us make" and "our". That "another" or those "others"
will be either the creator or a creature. But it cannot be a creature, since
there cannot be a single image of both creator and creature. But he says "Let
us make man to our image and likeness." The creator and the creature
cannot have anything said of them in common in a univocal way. Therefore
nothing can be, in the same respect, the highest likeness of both: hence,
nothing can be their image. Nor can one creature even be the image and
highest likeness of creator and of creature in different respects. Let the
human being be A in so far as it is the highest likeness of the creator, and
let it be B in so far as it is the highest likeness of a creature, which we can
call C. In the first place, then, the human being will be two images, i.e. an
image of God and an image of the creature C, in respect of A and B, rather
than one image. For we do not have to do with one highest likeness of two
things, but rather with two highest likenesses. Moreover, if this sentence is,
in its own right "Let us make man, etc.", then the human being is not an
image in different respects, but solely in respect of the true and perfect
1 Or, the beauty of beautiful things.

CHAPTERS I-II 223
human quiddity and nature: and in respect of this it cannot naturally and
substantially be the image of different things.
2. Moreover, the person or persons to whom (singular or plural) God is
speaking, create the human being in the image of God who speaks, together
with God who speaks. If, therefore, the utterance were addressed to a
creature, that creature would create the human being, together with God,
in the image of God who speaks. But in so far as human beings are the
image and highest likeness of God, they do not have any creature superior
to them: for if any creature were superior, it would also be a greater
likeness of God. For that which creates is greater than that which it
creates. That co-creating creature, then, would be greater than the human
being and not greater1.
3. Moreover, Scripture says lower down, in repeating the action of
this consultation, as it were, expressed by "let us make": "And God
created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him". The
utterance, then, of "let us make" and "our" is not addressed to any
creature. Therefore it is addressed to the creator, i.e. the one and only God.
4. It is also necessarily addressed to another, or others, other than the
speaker. Therefore the one God, the Creator is the speaker here, and there
is another, or others, to whom (singular or plural) the utterance is
addressed. But what is this plurality? There is not a plurality of Gods,
there is not a plurality of substances, there is not a plurality of essences,
there is not a plurality of accidents, there is not a plurality of substance and
accident, there is not a plurality of universals. The only thing that can be
found or thought of here is a plurality of persons: i.e. a plurality, as can be
said of them, of singular things of which each is an individual substance of
rational nature2, yet all of them one undivided substance. Thus, a plurality
of persons, since a person is an individual substance of rational nature.
5. From the consignification of plural number in the expressions "let
us make" and "our", then, we have a plurality of persons. The expositors
on this passage bear witness to this. Augustine says: "We should not think
that it makes no difference that in his other works God said "Let there be",
but here says "Let us make man to our image and likeness". It is to suggest
that there is a plurality of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.3" Basil,
too, in expounding this passage, says that in the plural number in these
words is marked the plurality of persons and, at the same time, the unity of
the deity4. Hence this passage refutes the Jew who refuses to accept a
1 Cp. Augustine, De trinitate, XI, v, 8 (PL, XLII, 991)

2 Boethius, De persona et duabus naturis, III (PL, LXIV, 1343C)
224 PART EIGHT
plurality of persons, and also refutes the pagan who believes in a plurality
of Gods. The Jew is convicted of falsehood, when he says that it is one who
speaks to himself, and not to another, saying, "Let us make", and "our".
For no craftsman — smith or carpenter — standing alone at his workbench
with no fellow in his craft present says to himself "Let us make a sword"
or "let us put together a plough". Once he is convicted of error by this
example the Jew has recourse to another falsehood, [224C] i.e. that God
spoke to the angels and said "Let us make man to our image and likeness".
He is again refuted, because there cannot be one image of creator and of
creature.
Chapter III
1 . From the fact that God is a trinity of persons, it follows that God is
light: not bodily light but non-bodily light. Or rather, perhaps, neither
bodily nor non-bodily, but beyond either. Every light has by nature and
essence this characteristic, that it begets its splendour from itself. The light
that begets and the splendour that is begotten necessarily are locked in a
mutual embrace, and breathe out their mutual warmth. The begetter and the
begotten are either something different and someone different, or not
something different but someone different, or neither someone different
nor something different but in some way different, or neither someone
different nor something different nor in some way different. Of the five
parts of this division four cannot occur in God, and some cannot occur
either in God or in anything else. It is not possible in any case that the
begotten is not someone different, nor something different, nor in some
way different, from the begetter. Nor is it ever possible for the begotten to
be something different from the begetter, but not someone different. It is
not possible in God that the begotten should be in some way different from
the begetter, since "in some way different" means "different according to
some accidental difference". Nor, again, is it possible in God that the
begotten1 should be something different from the begetter, since there is
no multiplicity of substances in God. There remains, then, that the begotten
is not something different from the begetter, but only someone different;
and the same argument applies to the breather and the breathed. There is in
God, then, someone, and someone else, and a third someone, each of whom
is an individual substance of rational nature: thus, three persons. Nor can
there be, or even conceived of, a fourth there. For what fourth could be
added to the begetting light and the begotten splendour and the mutual
warmth proceeding from both?
1 The text as we have it in fact translates literally as "Nor, again, is it possible in God that
the begetter should be something different from the begetter". This must be a slip of the pen.
CHAPTERS II-III 225
2. Moreover, it follows from this that the trinity of persons that God is,
is eternal and always remembering in memory. For God is the retaining of
all knowledge, not receiving it from elsewhere, and not forgetting any part
of it. But the memory that is actually remembering cannot fail to beget
from itself an understanding that is in every way like to it. For this act of
remembering is the generation of an understanding of itself, which is like
to itself. The memory that begets and the understanding that is begotten
cannot fail to turn back on each other their mutual love. There is, then, in
God someone who is the begetting memory, someone else who is the
understanding that is begotten, and a third someone who is the love
proceeding from both. Nor can a fourth be added to them.
3. Perhaps by this means we can prove that God is the Father, the Son,
and consequently the Holy Spirit, from the fact that God makes others give
birth. As it says in Isaiah: "Shall not I that make others to bring forth
children, myself bring forth, saith the Lord? Shall I, that give generation to
others, be barren, saith the Lord thy God" 1 . For whatever confers some
thing as its efficient cause, either has in itself that which it confers, or has it
in itself in a more excellent manner. Therefore, since giving birth and
generating mean to pass on one's substance to another, either it passes
on its whole substance to another — when it could not do so in part,
because this would be a diminution of power — or it does something
analogous to the other which is more excellent than this. But there is
nothing that could be more wonderful, or greater, or that could more truly
be said to be giving birth or generating, than this: to transfer one's
substance wholly to another while keeping it wholly oneself.
4. To do this seems to be something that belongs to the supreme
power. The greatest power which was attributed to God by some of the
best pagan philosophers was that God, from an unbegotten matter which he
did not create, formed the world in the way that a craftsman or workman
does. But of incomparably greater power is to create matter out of nothing
at all, and from this to form the world: and thus, from pure non-being to
make the greatest of all beings after himself. But incomparably greater than
this is to beget, not from another, not from nothing, [224D] but from his
own substance, another who is as great in all things as he is. It is the
supreme power, then, that does this: otherwise, it would not be the supreme
power, since another could be conceived of which would be greater.
5. Moreover, goodness is that which shares with others not only one's
property but one's self. The highest and greatest of sharings is this: that one
shares the same thing, not by division of time or quantity or multiplication,
but wholly, at the same time, undividedly, not sharing by a participation
1 Isaiah, 66: 9
226 PART EIGHT
but substantially. The supreme goodness, then, i.e. the divinity, is shared in
this way: i.e. the whole is shared at the same time, undividedly, without
multiplication, not only by participation, but shared substantially with
those others. But there cannot be such a sharing with creatures, for
whoever shares in this way is himself God. There are several, then, of
whom none is a creature, who share the supreme goodness, i.e. divinity, in
this way. If it were not so, it would not be the supreme goodness, as a
greater goodness could be conceived of. It is fitting, too, that the number of
persons should be three, since the number three is the first perfect number
that has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is also the first number that
brings back again in a circle. For one expresses the second from itself; the
second reflects on the first and expresses from itself its reflection on the
first. Also the first reflects on itself through the second, and this reflection
proceeds at the same time from the first and the second.
Chapter IV
1. Let us be content for the present with these arguments that prove
there to be a trinity in the unity. But to help us form an image of what has
been proved, let us bring in some illustrations. For a grasp of the Trinity is
supremely needful for us. The love of the Trinity is the health of the soul,
and there is no health of soul without this love. And it is loved to the degree
in which it is grasped by the understanding or by faith. For it is the beauty
that catches up the grasp that the believer or the understander has, into love
of itself.
2. The illustrations of the supreme Trinity which are usually offered
are the following. (They are not only illustrations: they are clearly argu
ments for the supreme Trinity brought to prove effectively the supreme
Trinity. But to avoid prolixity we do not bring them in here as arguments
but as illustrations that help the imagination.)
3. One illustration, then, which occurs in any composite thing, is the
matter, the form, and the composition from them. The first leads us to a
grasp of the power of the Father, because he created it from nothing by
infinite power, since matter, when created, is infinitely superior to nothing.
The second leads to a grasp of the wisdom of the Son, since in any form,
whether bodily or non-bodily, the infinite wisdom is described and shines
forth. The third leads to a grasp of the Holy Spirit who is the love and union
of the Father and the Son.
4. The second illustration is found in any thing: the thing's size, shape,
and ordering. Size leads the understanding to the power of the Father;
shape leads it to the Son who is the splendour of the Father and the figure of
his substance; order leads it to the kindness of the Holy Spirit, that orders
each thing to be beautiful and to be of benefit for some other thing.
CHAPTERS III-IV 227
5. The third illustration is found in any thing: number, weight and

measure. Measure leads the understanding to the power that contains all
things; number to wisdom, since according to Augustine number and
wisdom are the same thing1; weight is a tendency of a thing to its own
proper place, and thus to its proper ordering, that leaves the thing at rest in
its proper place and its proper ordering. It suggest the kindness of the Spirit
that preserves in order.
6. Matter and size and measure show the power that creates, forms and
contains. Form and shape and number show the wisdom that creates, forms,
and contains. Composition and order and weight show the goodness that
creates, forms, and contains.
7. These three illustrations of the Trinity can be found in everything
universally. Among bodily things the most obvious illustration of the
Trinity is fire, or light, which necessarily begets its splendour from
itself; and these two reflect on each other a mutual warmth. In the union
of the bodily with the non-bodily, the first illustrations are in sensible
forms, and the species of sensible forms that are generated in the senses,
and the inclination of the mind that connects the species that is begotten in
the sense with the begetting form that is outside the sense. The clearest case
of this is in sight. For the colour of the coloured thing begets from itself a
species that is like it in the eye of the seer; and the inclination of the soul of
the seer connects the species of colour that is begotten in the eye with the
begetting colour outside it. Thus it unites the begetter and the begotten,
since the apprehension of sight does not distinguish between the begotten
species and the begetting colour. And there is one seeing that comes from
the begetter, the begotten, and the inclination that connects the begotten
with the begetter. And likewise this trinity is found in any of the outward
senses.
8. As a result, the species that is begotten in the particular sense begets
from itself a species that is like to it in the common sense: and again there
is the inclination of the soul that connects and unites this begotten species
with the begetting species in one act of imaging. And this is a closer
illustration of the Trinity than the last one.
9. Thirdly, the species begotten in the fantasy of the common sense
begets of itself a species that is like it in the memory; and there is an
inclination of the soul that connects the begotten with the begetting. And
the three of them make one fixing of memory.
10. Likewise, we can see an illustration of the Trinity in the intellec
tual apprehensions that are proper to the rational soul. The species that can
be apprehended by the reason, intellect or understanding begets its likeness
1 See above, Proemium, 57

228 PART EIGHT
in the power that corresponds to it. This begotten likeness is connected by

the inclination of the mind with the species that begot it. And these three
make an effective apprehension. This apprehension that is both three and
one is an illustration and a statement of the one divine substance in a
Trinity of persons.
11. Also, any species that is first begotten in any power of the
apprehending rational soul, begets its likeness in the retentive memory
that is proportionate to that intellective power. And the inclination of the
soul unites the begetting species with the begotten retained likeness in one
memory.
12. Our memory, when it has received and retained a memory form, is
not always actually remembering: but when it passes from not actually
remembering to actually remembering, it begets and expresses from itself
the actual intellection or understanding that is in every way like to itself1 .
The begetting memory and the understanding that is begotten reflect on
each other a mutual and connecting love. And this is the illustration of the
Trinity that is closer to it than any of the others which have been given2.
But all of the illustrations have some point of unlikeness with the supreme
Trinity.
Chapter V
1. Within the general kind of the last example — i.e. that of the
begetting memory, the begotten likeness, and the connecting love — the
closest illustration of the Trinity of God is the memory, understanding and
love in the highest aspect of reason, in which God the Trinity alone, by
supreme power, without any clouding of phantasmata, and without any
bodily instrument, is remembered, understood and loved. The memory of
this supreme power, then, which remembers with an eternal memory, is the
highest and closest created likeness to God the Father. The understanding
of this supreme power that is begotten from the above memory of the same
power, that understands the eternally begotten wisdom of the Father, is the
highest created likeness of God the Son. And the love of that same supreme
power, that proceeds from the above memory and understanding of the
same power, loving the uncreated kindness that proceeds from the Father
and the Son, is the highest created likeness of the Holy Spirit. And thus, in
virtue of this supreme, one and simple power, remembering, understanding
[225B] and loving, the human being is the highest likeness, and hence
image, of the Trinity of the one God. And according to its natural power of
thus remembering, understanding and loving the human being is by nature
1 Cp. Augustine, De Trinitate, XIV, vi, 8 (PL, XLII, 1042)

2 Cp. Augustine, De Trinitate, XV, xx, 39 (PL, XLII, 1088)
CHAPTERS IV-V 229
an image of the Trinity of God1. And when the human being has the habit
and act of this power, then it is a renewed image of the divine Trinity, made
in God's form, that is to say, and renewed in the spirit of its mind, a new
creation2.
2. And this highest part of the soul, thus renewed and made in God's
form, brings along each of the lower powers of the soul into a likeness and
resemblance, according to the receptive ability of their faculties. As a
result, it makes their acts, and the active organic body, like it, and brings
them to resemble itself and to be in some way conformed to itself. This
supreme part of the soul, then, impresses and seals and shapes the whole
human being that is subject to it, with the trace of the Trinity. It does so
principally and primarily, with no medium in between or expressed in
itself. By its own means it impresses this trace in a more formed way on
what is more closely subject to it, and in a less formed way on what is
further from it. But it pours out into the whole of the human being what it
has immediately received.
3. In the same way we see that the ether that first receives the
illumination of the sun is most brightly illuminated, and then passes on
the illumination it has received to the pure, subtle upper air, and then to the
lower and thicker air down here, and last into water. And the pure upper air,
that is nearer the ether, is more illuminated than the lower and thicker air
here. And the lower air is more illuminated than the water which is grosser.
But the whole of the transparent body that reaches from the earth to the sun
is illuminated with one illumination, and the whole is one shining body
which is made to be of the same form as the shining sun by receiving the
illumination from the sun, through the mediation of the ether that receives
the first illumination. Take away the ether, and the body next below it
would not be made to be of the same form as the sun (i.e. shining), by
reception: for it only receives the illumination of the sun through the
mediation of the ether. And even if we imagine that if the ether were
taken away the air reached all the way to the sun, not even thus would the
shining transparent body be impressed with this extremely clear trace of the
shining sun. For air, no matter how pure it is, cannot receive an illumina
tion that is equal to that of the ether. The sun would not have, then, in the
transparent body that is beneath it, its highest imitation or conformity of
resemblance. But if you put the ether back and take away the rest, there
would be the highest conformity of resemblance to the sun in the ether
through the shining quality that it had received.
4. In this way, too, the highest likeness of resemblance — i.e. the
1 Cp. Augustine, De Trinitate, XV, xxiii, 43 (PL, XLII, 1090)

2 Ephesians, 4: 23, Galatians, 6: 15
230 PART EIGHT
image — of God the Trinity is impressed and sealed on the supreme aspect
of the human mind, without any medium coming between them. And
through the mediation of this part the sealing of this likeness is passed
on to the whole of the human being, and the whole human being becomes
the image of the supreme Trinity. But if the supreme aspect of reason is cut
off, there cannot remain in the rest of the human being the nature1 of an
image; but if you suppose only this part, the nature2 of the image can
remain in it in perfection .
5. Nothing, then, that you can mention in the human being that is
below the supreme aspect of reason is the image of the Trinity: whether
you mention the body, or the senses, or the imagination. But if you mention
the reason alone, you have expressed the image of the Trinity. If you say
the body or the senses or the imagination, and consider them in so far as
they bear the imprint of the reason, then you have considered the image of
the Trinity. For the reason, in itself, and hence the reason in the powers that
are subject to it, and in the body, is an image of the Trinity. Hence
Augustine says, on this passage: "We understand that the human being
was made in the image of God in virtue of that in which the human being
surpasses the irrational animals. And this is reason itself, or the mind, or
the understanding, or whatever other word that is more familiar to call it
by. Hence the Apostle says: 'And be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new man, who is renewed [225C] unto the knowledge of
God, according to the image of him that created him'4, showing clearly in
what way the human being was created in the image of God: not by the
shape of the body but by the form, that is in some way intelligible, of the
mind that is illuminated.5"
6. Basil, too, says that we are not in the image of God according to the
form of the body, nor according to anything changeable or corruptible, but
are in the image of God according to the soul and according to the reason6.
And, according to Basil, the "inward man" is referred to when it says: "Let
us make man in our image". Of this the Apostle speaks: "But though our
outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day"7. As
Basil says, we recognise two men in this saying of the Apostle: "One
obvious, one hidden from appearing, the invisible inward man. And it is
1 Ratio: an extremely difficult word to translate, corresponding to the Greek logos: definition,
description, idea, concept, or sometimes, as here, roughly nature.
2 Ratio
3 Cp. Augustine, De Trinitate, XII, iv, 4, and XII, vii, 10 (PL, XLII, 1000, 1003)
4 Ephesians, 4: 23, Colossians, 3: 10
6 Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 6-7 (eds. Smets and van Estbroeck, CLX, 178-182)
CHAPTERS V-VI 231
truly said that we are the inward man. For I exist in virtue of the inward
man: the things that are outward are not myself but my property. I am not
my hand: I am my rational soul. The hand is a part of a man, and so is the
organic body a part of the soul: a man is what he is, properly speaking, in
virtue of the soul itself. 'Let us make man to our image': that is, let us give
him the substance of reason.1" Therefore, as it was said, according to Basil
the inward man is referred to here as what properly and primarily bears the
image of the Creator.
7. But since the whole human being is compacted out of the inward
and the outward man, the whole human being can be understood here,
whether we consider the inward man as making the outward to be of his
form, as has been said, or the outward man as making the inward to be of
his. Augustine in Against the Manichees says: "The human being is said to
be made in the image of God in virtue of the inward man, where there is
reason and intellect. Hence it goes on at once to say: 'Let him have
dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air', so that we
should understand that it is not because of the body that the human being is
said to be made in the image of God, but because of that power which
overcomes all the cattle. For all the other animals are subject to human
beings, not because of the body, but because of the intellect, that we have
and they do not have; even though our body is so made as to show that we
are better than the beasts, and for this reason like to God. For the bodies of
all the animals, whether they live in the waters or on the earth or fly in the
air, are bent down to the ground. They are not raised up as is the human
body. This means that our soul, too, should be raised up to the things that
are above it, and the eternal things of the spirit. Thus it is understood, also
from the witness of the raised-up form of the body, that the human being is
made in the image and likeness of God principally through the soul.2"
Chapter VI
1 . And we should notice that we can consider in three ways the reason
and the free will, in virtue of which the human being is made in the image
of God. It can be considered in the substance of the natural good which the
human being receives from its natural establishment. It can be considered
according to the way the human being is raised above the good of its
creation to a sharing of the form of God, by being turned back to the
enjoyment of the Creator, by which it is renewed and adorned in the spirit
of its mind. And it can also be considered as being turned away from the
highest good and turned to lower things, and thus deformed. Hence the
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 7 (ed. cit., p. 182)

2 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, I, xvii, 28 (PL, XXXIV, 186-187)
232 PART EIGHT
image is understood in three ways: i.e. in the natural image, in the renewed
image, and in the deformed image. The natural image is never lost; the
renewed image is lost through sin; and the deformed image is taken away
by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
2. Hence if elsewhere we find it said that the human being lost the
image of God through sin and recovered it through grace, it is to be
understood of the reformed image. That the natural image always
remains, Jerome teaches when he says, against Origen, "Among many
other evil things he dared to say this: that Adam lost the image of God.
This is not what Scripture says anywhere. If it were so, all the things that
are in the world would never serve the seed of Adam, i.e. the whole
human race, as the Apostle James bears witness: 'For everything is
tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man'1. How could
[225D] all things be subject to human beings, if they did not have the
image of God in virtue of which they have dominion over all things?2"
Augustine suggests the natural and the reformed image in what we quoted
from him above.
3. Both are suggested also by St Bernard when he says: "what an
image is an image of, has to be like its image, and it does not share vainly
in the name of image. Let us represent in ourselves his image in our desire
for peace, in our glimpse of the truth, in our love of charity. Let us hold it
in our memory, let us carry it in our conscience, and let us venerate it as
present everywhere.3" In these words, you see, the reformed image is
obviously described.
4. On the natural image he adds: "Our mind is his image in this, that it
is capable of grasping him and can have a share in him. The mind is not his
image because it does in fact remember him, understand him and love him,
but rather because it can remember, love and understand the one who made
it." In these words, you see, you have the natural image expressed. To
these words he adds others, saying: "Nothing is so much like the highest
wisdom as is the rational mind, which by memory, understanding and will
is set on that ineffable Trinity. It could not be set on it if it did not
remember it, understand it and love it."
Chapter VII
1 . As Augustine teaches us, God made us according to his image in the
following way, too: that "Just as God is always one whole in all places, and
gives life, movement, and government to all things — as the Apostle
1 James, 3: 7
2 Jerome, Letters, LI, 6 (CSEL, LIV, 407)
3 Pseudo-Bernard, De cognitione humanae conditions, I, 2 (PL, CLXXXIV, 486A)
CHAPTERS VI-VII 233
confirms: 'In him we live, and move, and are' — so the soul in the
body gives strength to all, gives life, governs and moves it. Even in the
greatest bodies it is not more in the larger parts and less in the smaller
parts: it is whole in the smallest and whole in the greatest. And this is the
image of the unity of almighty God, that the soul has in itself.2" The human
being is the image of the Trinity in so far as the human being exists and
lives and knows.
2. According to Jerome, the human being is the image of God in its
participation in eternity, and is his likeness in its way of behaving3. For
eternity is an unchangeableness of essence, or an unchangeable essence.
God's most proper name is essence. For whatever you may say of God that
is signified by another name, that name contains essence. Hence by
participation in the unchangeableness of essence the human being is the
closest image of God.
3. Gregory of Nyssa says: "If you should be arguing about other
things, on account of which the divine beauty shines out, you will find
that they too are surely enough an image to his likeness. For the supreme
divinity is mind and word. For 'in the beginning was the word', and those
who benefit from Paul's teaching, are said to have the mind of Christ that
speaks in them. Do not think, then, that these things are far from human
nature. For in you there is the word and the understanding which imitate the
word and the mind of God. Also, God is charity and the source of charity.
The great John says this: 'For charity is of God and God is charity'4. And
this, as in the person of Christ, was conferred on us by the one who formed
our substance when he said 'In this shall all men know that you are my
disciples, that you have love for one another.5' If we were lacking in this
love, the appearance and shape of the whole of the image would dissolve.
Also, the godhead sees all things, hears all things, looks into all things.
You too really have this power through your eyes and ears, a power that
gives life to and examines the things you know that can be in your
understanding.6"
4. From these authoritative words you can gather that whatever is said
of God also fits the human being in some way of resemblance, and it does
not fit the irrational creature by such closeness of resemblance. Hence,
even if a likeness of God shines out in other creatures, the image of God
does not shine out there: for an image [226A] is the highest and closest of
1 Acts, 17: 28
2 Pseudo-Augustine, Liber de spiritu et anima, XXXV (PL, 805)
3 Pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in Pentateuchum, Genesis (PL, XCI, 201B-201C)
4 1 John, 4: 7, 8
5 John, 13: 35
6 Gregory of Nyssa, De opificio hominis, V, 2 (ed. Forbes, p. 131)
234 PART EIGHT
likenesses. The natural image of God in the human being is its being
capable of all things that are in God, through the greatest near resem
blance. When it receives those things according to the resemblance that is
possible for it, then it is the reformed image. When it moves away from
their resemblance, it becomes the deformed image, and the appearance and
shape of the reformed image is dissolved, as Gregory of Nyssa says in the
words we quoted above.
Chapter VIII
1. The human being is said to be made in the likeness of God by
participation in gratuitously given goods. Hence, as Basil says: "That we
are in God's image we have from our creation; but we are directed to being
his likeness by choice. In our first creation there coexists with us that we
are in God's image, but it is by choice that we are directed to be in God's
likeness. The power for this is in us by choice, but we bring it to act in
ourselves." That is why it says first "Let us make man in our image and
likeness" and only repeats one of these, i.e. "in the image". For it is
recapitulated lower down: "And God created man to his own image: to
the image of God he created him". Unless both were said, we would not
have the natural power of coming to be in his likeness. But because it is left
to us to complete this in act and by our choice, it is omitted in the
recapitulation. When he says, then, "Let us make in our likeness" "he
gave us the power of being in his likeness, and left us to be the workers of
this likeness in act, so that the reward of this working might be ours, and so
that we might not be like statues made by the artist that lie there point-
lessly, so that they may not pointlessly carry off the praise of being made
like to us. For when you see a statue carefully made in the form of its
original, you do not praise the statue: you admire the artist. And so that I
and not another may be admired, it is left to me to make myself into the
likeness of God. I am in God's image in that I am rational: I am made in
God's likeness in that I am made a Christian. 'Be ye perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.'1 Can you see in what God has granted that
we are in his likeness? It is if you come to hate evil, and forget enmity. If
you come to be compassionate with your brother, you are made like to God.
If you are to your brother who offends you as God is to you, a sinner, in the
compassion of mercy, then you are made like to God. You are in his image
because you are rational; you come to be in his likeness through receiving
goodness. Take on yourself the pure bowels of mercy, in order to put on
Christ. You put on Christ through the things in which you receive compas
sion. If he made you to be a likeness, why do you crown yourself? But he
1 Matthew, 5: 28
CHAPTERS VII-IX 235
left you imperfect, so that you might perfect yourself with the help of
grace, and become worthy of a reward from God. We are made like to God,
then, through being Christians. And what is being a Christian? The likeness
of God, in so far as this can naturally be received by a human being.1"
"But what is a human being? From what we have learnt and heard we give
this definition. We do not need to borrow the definitions of others. The
human being is the rational creature made in the image of its Creator.2"
2. Gregory of Nyssa says of this likeness: "Just as artists transfer the
shapes of men on to boards by means of certain colours, mixing the right
and proper paints, so as to carry across from the beauty of the original form
to the likeness by very careful shifting, so, you must understand, the one
who formed our substance by some powers conferred a wonderful beauty
on his image, by impressing on us his dominion. But there are many shapes
and kinds of colour in this image by which the likeness of his form is
depicted. Not with white and red, though, not even mixed with another
shade, nor by adding some black did he draw in our eyes and eyelashes: not
by pressing in some medium or by a hollow seal-mark [226B] did he make
us like, nor by any of such skills that the hand of the craftsman or artist
uses. Instead of these he used purity, impassibility, blessedness, the turning
away from evil altogether, and whatever other things there may be of this
kind that impress on human beings the divine likeness. By these elegances
and by these wonders the creator adorned his own image, that is, the nature
with which we were created.3"
3. From these authorities the difference between image and likeness
becomes clear. The likeness is understood under the name of the reformed
image. For a likeness is a reformation of an image.
Chapter IX
1. And it is to be considered that Scripture says that the human being
was made "to the image", as if to suggest by that preposition that the
image is according to resemblance, and that there is a difference between
the way in which the Son is an image and the way in which the human
being is an image. For the Apostle says that the human being is the image
of God, when he says: "The man indeed ought not to cover his head,
because he is the image and glory of God"4.
2. The human being is not the image of God as the only-begotten Son
of God is, because the Son is an image in that he is what the Father is, the
1 Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 16-17 (ed. cit., 206-210)

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 11 (ed. cit., 194)
3 Gregory of Nyssa, De opiflcio hominis, V, 1 (ed. Forbes, p. 129)
236 PART EIGHT
same in nature, the same in substance, but another in person. And thus the
Son, as Augustine bears witness in his book of the Retractations, is not to
the image of the Father, but is the image of the Father1. But the human
being is the image of God in such a way as to be also to the image of God:
not made equal to that whose image it is, but following, by resemblance,
that whose image it is.
3. Hence Augustine also says in the book On true religion: "The
wisdom of the Father, who is in no way unlike him, is his likeness, and
is called his image, because he comes from him. Thus, also, the Son is
rightly said to come from him, and other things come through him. For he
comes before all things, as their form, supremely filling the one from whom
he is, so that the other things that are, in so far as they are, may be like that
one in virtue of that form.
4. Of these other things some are through this form and to this form, as
are all rational and intellectual creatures, among which the human being is
most correctly said to be made to the image and likeness of God. If it were
not so, we could not catch sight of the unchangeable truth with our minds.
5. But other things are made through this form, but not to this form.
And thus if the rational creature serves its Creator by whom it was made,
and through whom it was made, and to whom it was made, all other things
will serve it.2"
Chapter X
1 . Moreover, when it says "to our image" and afterwards adds "And
God made man to the image of God", it makes very clear that the human
being is one image of the one Trinity of God, and represents in itself the
trinity of the unity and the unity of the trinity. It is not that God made the
human being to the image of the Son, in the way that the Son is the image
of the Father: the one God the Trinity made the human being to the image
of the God who is one and three.
2. Thus it was fitting that when the human being was to be created to
the image of the Trinity in virtue of its reason, that had the power to grasp
that same Trinity, the faith of the Trinity should have been expressly
revealed. That this is taught here shines out very clearly. Earlier the
proclaiming of the Trinity was hidden in the depth, as it were: but here
it begins to shine with light from that dark hiding-place.
Chapter XI
1. Nor should it be omitted that, as Augustine says, not only "by the
word of command, as in the works of the other six days, was the human
1 Augustine, Retractationes, I, 25 (CSEL, XXXVI, 122)

2 Augustine, De vera religione, XLIII, 81-XLIV, 82 (PL, XXXIV, 159)
CHAPTERS IX-XI 237
being created, but by the consultation of the holy Trinity and by the work
of the Lord's majesty. This was so that we might understand from the
honour of its first establishment how much we owe to our Creator, since the
Creator had put us in a privilege of dignity in our establishment; and so that
we might love our Creator the more ardently, since we understood that we
had been more wonderfully established by him. 1 "
2. Gregory, too, in the ninth book of the Moralia says: "Although all
things were created by the co-eternal word of the Father, it is shown in the
account of the creation how much the human being is put above all the
animals, the things of heaven or the things without sense. For all these
things 'he said and they were made'2. But when he comes to make the
human being, he puts first this, that must be thought of with reverence: 'Let
us make man to our image and likeness'. It is not written of the human
being as it is of other things, 'Let it be; and it was made'. Nor did the earth
bring forth the human being, as the water brought forth the things that fly.
Before the [226C] human being was made, it says 'Let us make', so that the
creation of the rational creature should be seen to be performed by some
kind of consultation. It is, as it were, carefully shaped from the earth, and
raised up by the inbreathing of the Creator and by the power of the living
spirit, so that the one who was made to the image of the Creator should
exist, not by the utterance of an order, but by the dignity of working.3"
3. And Gregory of Nyssa says: "The construction of this great globe,
and of its parts in which all things are contained in their elements, was
immediately brought to perfection by the power of God, and existed as
soon as the command was given. But the formation of the human being by
so great a craftsman was preceded by a consultation, and by a prior
description in words of what was to be: of how it should be, and of what
original form it should bear the likeness; also, why it should be, and what it
should do once made, and what dominion it should bear. All these things
were looked at before it existed, so that the human being should be allotted
an older dignity before being generated, and possess dominion over all
things before existing. For God said: 'Let us make man to our image and
likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the
beasts of the earth, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole
earth'. Oh, how great a marvel is this! The Sun is made, and there is no
previous consultation. The heaven, too, which none of the visible creatures
is found to be like, is made by the word alone. So marvellous a work and
we are not told where it comes from nor how it comes. So with each of
1 Pseudo-Augustine, De spiritu et anima, XXXV (PL, XL, 805)

2 Psalms, 148: 5
3 Gregory, Moralia in Job, IX, xlix, 75 (PL, LXXV, 900A-B)
238 PART EIGHT
the creatures: ether, the stars and the air, that hold the place in between, the
sea, the land, the animals and all the plants are brought into being by the
word alone. It is to the establishment of the human being alone that the
Creator of the universe comes with a kind of consultation, and he prepares
the matter necessary for its construction, and he adapts it to the likeness of
the form of original and primary beauty. He suggests what the human being
is being made for, and bestows on it a nature that fits its effects, which
would be proved to be most well fitted for its purpose."1
4. This consultation, which is the name used by the expositors on this
passage, is not a consultation in the strict sense, since, as John Damascene
says, "God does not consult, since consulting belongs to ignorance. No one
consults on something that he knows. God, then, who knows all things
without qualification, does not consult.2" What is suggested by the word
"consultation" here, and by the consultative way of talking, when it says:
"Let us make man to our image" is the privilege of dignity of the creation
of the human being, i.e. that the most honoured of animals is being brought
to life. It also suggests the special care and providence of the Creator in
making this perfect work of his, that is most precious and most dear to him,
the work that is done with most wisdom and most craft and is admirable
among all his other works for the exceptional skill with which it is made.
For in the human being we find joined in the unity of a person both the
supreme creature — i.e. the rational understanding that has free will — and
the lowest creature, i.e. earth. And not just any earth, but dust taken from
the earth. As it says lower down in the translation of the Seventy, "God
formed man taking dust from the earth". What could be conceived of that
would be more wonderful or more skilful than the union of things that are
so distant from each other?
5. The consultative manner of speaking also hints at the special care
God has for the human being, in that this is recorded in the establishment
of the human being and left unrecorded in the establishment of the other
creatures, as both the Gregories suggest above in what we quoted from
them. This special care that God has for the human being is what the
Apostle wants to distinguish from God's general care for the other
creatures, when, in the first letter to the Corinthians, he says: "For it is
written in the law of Moses: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth
out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [226D] Or doth he say this
indeed for our sakes? For these things are written for our sakes"3. But of
1 Gregory of Nyssa, De opificio hominis. III, 1-2 (ed. Forbes, pp. 125-127)
2 John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, XXXVI, 13 (ed. cit. pp. 138-139)
3 1 Corinthians, 9: 9-10
CHAPTERS XI-XII 239
the general care it is written in the book of Wisdom that God has care of
all things1.
6. The consultative manner of this saying also suggests the high and
incomprehensible secret of God's providence, with regard to the manner of
reparation of the human race, by the dispensation of the incarnation of the
Son of God. And it suggests the secret and incomprehensible mystery of
the incarnation of the Word. For the making of the first Adam to be "a
living soul", signifies the second Adam who was made "into a quickening
spirit of the seed of David, according to the flesh, who was predestinated
the Son of God in power"2. It also signifies the reparation made for us by
the incarnate Word and the renewal in the spirit of our mind to the image
and likeness of the one who created us.
Chapter XII
1 . And since the human being is so great a thing, so precious a thing, it
is reasonable that it should be the last of creatures to be created. For it is the
lord of creation, "Nor was it fitting", as Gregory of Nyssa says, "that the
prince should exist before the things over which he was to have dominion.
But when all things that were to be made subject to him were prepared,
then, afterwards, the governor was to appear. And just as the host does not
first welcome his guest and then prepare the dinner, but makes ready
everything that is needed and decorates the house fittingly, the couches
and the table and the rest, and only then welcomes in the guest to the
dainties he has prepared for him: just in this way our rich and generous
Creator, the one who drew out our substance, filled the room of this world
with all good things, and laid out this great and varied feast. Then he
brought in the human being, giving him the special task of keeping it, so
that he might rejoice, not in the desire of things that did not yet exist, but in
the possession of things that were present. For this reason, too, he wove
into the human being the causes of a twofold composition, mixing in the
earthly with the spiritual, so that he might have a taste of both through his
two properties, and might enjoy God in the spirit, and see the good things
of the earth in springtime for his bodily benefit.3"
2. The human being was also made last because the order of nature
demanded that it should be so. Hence the same Gregory of Nyssa says:
"The creator made lifeless matter first, as a kind of foundation for this
germinating substance, and then, after that, began the generation of things
that have sense alone. And, according to the same sequence, of the things
1 Wisdom, 6: 8 and 13: 13

2 1 Corinthians, 15: 45; Romans, 1: 3-4
240 PART EIGHT
that are allotted a life in flesh, those which have sense but no reason seem
to be able to exist on their own, while a rational substance cannot be held
except in a sensible body. Hence after the plants and the animals the human
being was made, as nature went forward on its way in a kind of sequence
towards perfection. For this rational animal, the human being, participates
in all the species of things that grow and seed, and of animals that sense.
For it is nourished like the substance of the soul of plants, and it is allotted
strength for the service of its sensitive power. It is in some way in between
the intellectual and the material substances: grosser by comparison with the
former, yet it seems to be nobler by this promotion than the latter. Then
that which is finest of sensible things is joined to that which is intellectual,
and there is a kind of fitting mixture of nature, so that the human being can
be seen to exist in all these three ways. We know that the Apostle suggests
such a thing, when he prays for the Thessalonians as follows: 'And may the
God of peace himself sanctify you in all things; that your whole spirit, and
soul, and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ'1. He says 'body' for the vegetative part, 'soul' for the
sensitive part, and 'spirit' for the intellectual part. Also, let me say, in
the Gospel, the Lord puts before all the commandments that of the love of
the Lord, which is [227A] performed with the whole heart, the whole soul,
and the whole understanding. And at present it seems to me that this saying
offers the same difference of interpretation: it calls the grosser power the
heart, signifies what has the middle place by soul, and uses the word
'understanding' to suggest the higher substance of the rational and intelli
gent power. Hence also the Apostle was aware of three different wills: the
fleshly, which gives over the belly and the parts below it to vicious
pleasures alone; the animal which has to do with what is between virtue
and vice, above vice, but not at all a sharer in the simplicity that is achieved
as a spiritual effect of a way of life that is pleasing to God; and the spiritual
will that judges all things, 'but is judged by no-one'. Lastly, just as the
animal is superior to the fleshly, in the same measure the spiritual surpasses
the animal. That the Scripture records the making of the human being last
of all, informs us in a hidden way that we should do philosophy on the
status of the soul, since it suggests that what is perfect at the end follows on
from some necessary things before. Moreover, rational nature also contains
the others, both the growth of what is vegetative and the sense of what is
animate. For sensitive nature is beyond a doubt interwoven with the nature
of plants: and the latter, in so far as it is material, is seen in itself. The
sequence of nature, then, goes up by a sort of series of steps, I mean by the
properties of life, from lower things to more perfect things.2"
1 / Thessalonians, 5: 23
Chapter XIII
1. There follows: "And let him have dominion over the fishes of the
sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and the whole of
creation, and everything that creepeth on the earth". Jerome offers a reason
for the dominion of the human being over the animals: "God gave
dominion to the human being, who was in need of nothing, before sin.
For he foresaw that the human being would need the help of the animals
after the fall.1" We should not understand from these words of Jerome that
the human being would not have dominion over the animals if it had not
fallen. Rather he means that the original dominion was given before sin, to
be, as it now is, a help after sin. For from that original dominion the human
being still has the power to tame the other animals and make use of them
for support in this life of punishment, and the human being would not have
needed to make use of them in this way if it had not sinned.
2. God preordained that this help for the fallen human being should
come from animals in the future. For he disposed the ordering of things by
his wisdom in such a way that whether the human being fell or whether it
persevered without sinning, all things would be subject to it and serve it
with a fitting service. However, if the human being had not fallen, the other
things would have served it with an easy and obedient service. After the sin
of the human being, creation caught fire for the tormenting of the wicked:
but it does not cease to serve, though it torments. As was said above, the
things that are called harmful harm us "for punishment" as is just, "or
work on us for salvation, or make trial of the innocent, or teach the
ignorant.2" Thus they always have some benefit for human beings. Since
they harm, in punishment, those that it is just to harm — for no-one is
harmed unjustly though many do harm unjustly — and since everything
that is just is good and everything that is good is of benefit, by their
harming in punishment they perform a valuable service to the human
race. For when a wicked man is punished, he is better off, because he is
more justly off, than when he gets away without punishment. Therefore
punishment is of benefit even to the one who is punished, because it causes
him to be in a better and juster state.
3. Before sin, then, the human being had a dominion of power over the
other creatures of this sensible world. In virtue of the part that is made to
the image of God, the human being surpasses all the others. For it was just
that while the human being was perfectly obedient, according to reason, to
its Creator, and never turned away from its obedience, by being disturbed
by anything or by irrational movement, it should keep all the things that
1 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 31C-31D)

2 See above, VII, x, 1, and Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, III, 17 (CSEL, XXVIII.l, 82)
242 PART EIGHT
lack reason under its [227B] powerful, undisturbed and peaceful rule.
Hence John the bishop of Constantinople says that before sin all the
animals were subject to the human being; the fact that some now harm
people is a punishment for the first sin1. This we can consider and think
about without any doubting from the things that we now see in the human
being who is condemned to the mortality of this life on account of sin. If
even when in this state of condemnation the human being is so strong that it
has command over all the kinds of cattle that we see in use every day, many
as they are — for though there are many animals that can kill the human
being because of the fragility of its body, there are none that can tame the
human being, as the human being can tame so many, almost all of them —
what should we think of the power of the human being? Will not the human
being's power of taming have been as much greater as its state then was
freer and higher than this state of condemnation? In the paradise of
happiness, then, all the animals lived under the rule of the human being,
at peace with one another and in obedience to the human being.
4. But when the human being by sin abandoned and threw off its
obedience towards God, it was just for the natural ordering that was subject
to the human being to feel a rebellion against it through that disobedience.
Through this justice the flesh came to rebel against the spirit, and the things
outside that lack reason came to revolt against the human being. It is not
that the human being lost its natural power of dominion, i.e. the power of
reason to command. But this power was weakened and vitiated by sin, and
so irrational things, at the fall of the human being, were made worse, and
less able to obey the command of reason. Hence the human being cannot
naturally exercise its task of peaceful and undisturbed dominion over its
subjects. Not that the human being is wholly lacking in the act of wielding
power. But, as was said, this act is not brought to completion wholly and
perfectly, since the power of dominion is weakened and the subjection of
the governed is less able to be obedient.
5. In just the same way, one day you might see the father of a family,
of sound mind and body, supported by every kind of prosperity. His whole
household obeys his indication at once, and there is in the household no
rebellion, either one against another or against the master: all serve the
command of the master in a most ordered peace, in harmony. And every
thing that he commands is done by them without rebellion or grumbling,
pleasantly and with the greatest of ease. But then you might also see that
father of a family, the next day, by his own vice being made sick in body
and seriously weakened in the rightness of his reason: the household would
usually be likewise made ill. They will be less ready to do the actions
1 John Chysostom, In Genesim homilia, IX, 4-5 (PG, LIII, 78-80)

CHAPTER XIII 243
which used to be carried out pleasantly and easily. The whole tranquillity
of peace and order which it is very pleasing to consider in the household
one day, the next day becomes a confused and upset tumult. Nevertheless
the father of the family, though corrupt and in error, would still have his
power to rule, and the household would still have a natural duty to obey,
even though the difficulty of obeying would obstruct them, and justice
would demand that they should not obey their master when he abuses his
power. And though they may disobey their master the obedient duty of
serving would not be dissolved. That is what happened to the human race in
the first human being.
6. In this way, if the human being had not sinned, all its apprehensions
and all its animal appetites would have submitted perfectly and obediently
to the command of reason, without any rebellion against reason and with
out any uproar or quarrelling among themselves. But when the human
being sins, they do not obey the command of reason except by being
forced and coerced, and they are in a state of uproar and of quarrelling
with one another. And it is the same for the animals outside the human
being: if the human being had not sinned, they would have been perfectly
obedient to it and peaceful towards one another, [227C] those very same
animals who now, after the sin of the human being, only obey the human
being when they are forced to, in general. And they do not keep the peace
among themselves, but live in a state of uproar and strife. To illustrate what
happens inside the human being, who is a microcosm, it is fitting for the
macrocosm, which was made for the sake of the human being, to have the
order or lack of order that there is in the human being.
7. It comes from the power conferred in the beginning on the human
being that what it cannot dominate by force, it can dominate and subject by
reason. However, this is something that costs the human being effort, and
what is dominated and subjected is in rebellion, and does not obey the
indication of the dominator, nor give itself over for the benefit which it
once did. For the monsters of the sea, enormous though they are, the human
being entangles in nets, or tricks with bait, or overcomes by some device of
the reason. The lion, too, whose roaring and rushing no animal can with
stand, is caught by the human being in a little net by the skilful device of
the reason. Birds, likewise, the human being can fly above — not with the
human's own body, but with the device of reason. The human being brings
them all down and catches them and dominates them by the device of
reason. Hence James says: "For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of
serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of
man"1.
1 James, 3: 7
244 PART EIGHT
8. It is right that it says "to have dominion over the fishes of the sea",
etc. For before sin, when they perfectly obeyed their lord and he did not
abuse his power, he was in command of all things by the whole, perfect
and natural power of dominion, and by the act of perfect control. All
things perfectly obeyed the indication of the reasonable and just rule of
the one with power. But after sin he still has the natural power of
dominion, but it is lessened, vitiated, and corrupted, and the act of
control is obstructed, and the subjects do not give obedient service to
the pleasure of their master, but are held by force or by some device
under the yoke of the one with power.
Chapter XIV
1 . And you should notice that the animals are subjected to the power of
the human being in the same serial order as they were described above as
being created. For first it says: "Let the waters bring forth the creeping
creatures having life", which means the race of fish; then it adds "and the
fowl that may fly over the earth"; and then, in the third place, it speaks of
the bringing forth of the land animals from the earth. First, then, is
conferred dominion over the animals that are most remote from us, then
the ones in the middle, and then the nearest. For the water creatures are
farthest from us, the flying things are nearer, and the nearest are the land
animals. It puts first the animals that are least capable of being taught;
secondly, those who are more capable of being taught; thirdly, those which
are most capable of being taught. The word "beasts" here must be taken to
mean all the land animals in common, except the creeping things. All the
land animals are here included under the name of creeping things of earth
and beasts. In this order is suggested the majesty of the human dominion:
putting first the dominion over the things that are farthest, and less apt to
obey, is a clear sign of the excellence and power of the dominion.
Chapter XV
1. But what does it mean when it says: "And over every creature"?
Are angels not creatures? Or does the human being have dominion over the
angels? We cannot say here that the word "creatures" here means human
beings, as it does in the phrase "and preach the gospel to every creature"1.
Here it means those that the human being is given natural dominion over.
As Jerome says, "Here one gathers that it is not by nature, but as a
consequence of sin, that one human being has dominion over another.2"
2. But perhaps it was said that the human being would have dominion
1 Mark, 16: 15
2 Not traced.
CHAPTERS XIII-XV 245
over the whole of creation, and therefore even over the angels, since the
one who sits at table is greater than the one who ministers1. All the angels,
as the Apostle says to the Hebrews, are "ministering spirits, sent to
minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation"2. For
though an angel is greater than a human being in virtue of its incorrupt
ibility, and of its actually enjoying God, and of its confirmation from the
beginning in the good command of happiness, nevertheless, because it
ministers [227D] to human beings it takes the place of one who is lesser
and subject. The minister qua minister, according to what our Lord said, is
less than the one he ministers to. This lessening is the more fitting for each
one, the more the one who is so lessened is greater in himself, according to
what is written: "The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all
things"3.
3. Or perhaps it is not said here that the human being is to have
universal power over all creatures, but rather all the creatures of earth.
Hence the sense would be "And let him have dominion over the beasts of
the earth, and over every creature" i.e. of the earth, "and over every
creeping thing that moves upon the earth". This seems to match the
translation of the Seventy, which has it thus: "And let him have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of heaven, and the beasts of the earth,
and the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that
creep upon the earth." Or "over every creature", in the sense of "of this
sensible world that does not share with human beings reason and intellect":
the human being would have dominion over the rest in virtue of the dignity
of reason. For the human being, through its rational intellect that is
obediently subject to its Creator, has a natural and dominating power of
command over all the elements of this world and over every material and
bodily thing.
4. Or perhaps, by the dominion of the human being over every creature
is suggested in a disguised way the mystery of the future incarnation of the
Word of God. For Christ, in so far as he is a human being, is universal Lord
of every creature. For the Father has placed everything under his feet, and
"in him that subjected all things to him, he left nothing unsubjected". And
he says of himself. "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to
me"4. And it is right for this to be attributed to the human being, without
qualification, because it is fitting for Christ in so far as he is a human being,
and the highest head of human beings. And it is not in the human being
1 Cp. Luke, 22: 27

2 Hebrews, 1: 14
4 Matthew, 28: 18
246 PART EIGHT
Christ alone that the human being has dominion over all the angels; also in
the blessed Virgin, the mother of God and of human beings, a human being
has this prerogative, of having dominion even over all the angels. For she is
exalted above the choirs of angels, because she gave birth to the Lord of all
the angels.
Chapter XVI
1. It is added at the end that the human being will have dominion
"over every creeping thing that moves upon the earth", in order to suggest
the dominion of the human being not only over the greater and more
obvious things, but also over the lowest and basest things, no matter
how hidden they may be. For what is more base, to human judgement, or
more hidden from the human senses, than the little worms that creep
through the hidden places of the earth? For it is believed that there are
such little worms in the hidden places of the earth, which are not perceived
by human senses: as Seneca says in his book On natural questions,
"Animals are born deep down in the earth, slow and shapeless, conceived
in sightless and gross air and in sluggish waters. Many of them are blind,
like moles and the mice that live underground.1" For sight would be a
superfluity for them, since they have no light.
Chapter XVII
1. In its usual way Scripture repeats what it had given a foretaste of,
when it says "And God created man to his own image: to the image of God
he created him: male and female he created them". In this repetition, then,
it shows that we must understand that the Trinity suggested above is a unity
in so far as the substance of the deity is concerned. "Now it says 'to his
image' and 'to the image of God', whereas above it said 'to our image'.
This means" Augustine says, "that the plurality of persons does not do this
in such a way that we should believe or think that there are several gods.
We accept that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity for whose sake it
was said 'to our image', is one God, for whose sake it is said 'to the image
of God.'2"
2. When it has said "to his image" it repeats "to the image of God",
so that a reminder of the dignity of its creation may be more carefully
imprinted on the human mind.
3. But perhaps, once this has been made clear, that the human being is
the image of God, that is, that it bears the supreme resemblance to the
divinity itself, someone might think that the human being is made to the
1 Seneca, Natural questions, III, 16, 5

2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram. III, 19 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 85-86)
CHAPTERS XV-XVIII 247
image of the incarnate Word, i.e. bearing the image of the humanity of the
Son of God, not that of his divinity. This would be to take the sense as
follows: "God the Word created the human being to his image, i.e. to the
image of himself as [228A] a human being"; i.e. that the human being was
a mere image of the God-man in so far as his humanity is concerned; not in
so far as his divinity was concerned, but in so far as the humanity that he
was to assume was concerned. To remove the possibility of understanding
it in this way it says "to the image of God". For some understood what was
said above, "Let us make man to our image", as if the Father were saying
to the Son, "let us make the human being to be a resemblance of you, who
are my image, and it may thus resemble me through you." In this it could
be understood that the human being is the image of the Son in so far as his
humanity is concerned, and that the Son, in so far as he is the Word, is the
existent image and figure of the substance of the Father; and that thus the
human being would not be an immediate image of resemblance of God. But
all this falls down, when it is said that the human being was created to the
image of God.
4. For in all things that belong to the divinity, the human being
resembles God, as has been said, by the closest of all resemblances. No
irrational creature does this. It is true that every creature has in it some
likeness of resemblance to God, but no irrational creature has such a
likeness in all the things that belong to God, nor in virtue of a very close
trace. Even though many things are said of God that are not said of the
human being, e.g. being a creator, being eternal, and the like, nonetheless
the human being has a participation in eternity and in creation, by a kind of
resemblance that is closer and more like than is that of any creature that is
lacking in reason. For when, by the inspiration of the grace of God, we are
made a new creature, and when we are helpers and co-workers with God in
this, we are a kind of origin of this creation and we bear a very clear trace
of resemblance to the operation that is creation. Likewise, the human being
bears a very clear and very obvious trace of all the other things which are
said of God, even though there are some things that are said of God that
cannot be said of a human being under the same use of the words.
Chapter XVIII
1 . And since the human being is the image of God in virtue of reason
and intellect, and not in virtue of body or of bodily things, some have
suspected that Scripture means to recount in this passage the creation of the
human being only in so far as the soul is concerned, recounting the
moulding of the human being in so far as the body is concerned further
on, where it says that the human being was formed from the slime of the
earth. To confirm this view of theirs they bring in evidence the peculiarities
248 PART EIGHT
of the words used. Here it says "He created man", or, according to the text
of the Seventy, "He made man". Further on it says, "he formed man of the
slime of the earth", or, according to another translation, "God shaped" or
"God moulded the man taking dust from the earth". Making and creation,
they say, belong properly to the soul, which was created from nothing.
Moulding or shaping properly belong to the body, which was formed from
dust or slime. And this difference between making or moulding is sug
gested, they say, by the Psalmist, when he says: "Thy hands have made me
and formed me"1. It is as if he said "made me" as regards the inward man,
and "formed me" as regards the outward man. Forming or moulding
properly belongs to earthenware vessels that are shaped from clay. But
this opinion is rejected by Augustine: though Basil does not regard it as
absurd, even though he agrees with Augustine that it is better to take it that
the making up of the whole human being is recounted here.
2. Against those who hold this view, Augustine says: "They do not
notice that male and female cannot be made except with reference to the
body. Though one might tell some extremely subtle story about the human
mind, in virtue of which the human being is made to the image of God, and
about how rational life is divided between the truth of eternal contempla
tion and the administration of temporal things. This would be a sort of male
and female: one part would advise, the other would follow. But in such a
division the only part that would rightly be said to be the image of God
would be the part that has the contemplation of the unchangeable truth. As
a figure of this Paul says that the man alone is the image and the glory of
God: 'The woman' he said, 'is the glory of the man'2. And though the
figure is given in terms of two human beings of different bodily sexes
outwardly, it means something that is in the one mind of the inwardness of
a human being. And this is something that is in a woman too: [228B]
though her body is a woman's she too is renewed in the spirit of her mind
through the knowledge of God, according to the image of the one who
created her, where there is no male or female. Women are not excluded
from this grace of renewal and reformation of the image of God, even
though there is an image used drawn from their bodily sex, according to
which image the man alone is said to be the image and glory of God. And it
was in this way — without separation — that the human being was at its
first establishment, as regards being a woman. A woman's mind has the
same reason, in virtue of which she too is made in the image of God. But it
was on account of the unity of conjunction that God made the human being
to the image of God. And it was so that no-one should think that it was only
1 Psalms, 118: 73
CHAPTERS XVIII-XIX 249
the human spirit that was made (even though it is only in virtue of the spirit
that the human being was made to the image of God) that it says: 'Male and
female he made him', so that we should understand that the body was made
too. And again, no-one should think that both sexes were put into one
individual human being — as are occasionally bora those who are called
androgynes. It gives the singular number for the sake of making clear the
unity of conjunction. But since the woman was made from the man, as is
made clear later when what is here briefly stated begins to be more
carefully explained, immediately afterwards the plural number is put:
'He made them and he blessed them'1".
3. From these words of Augustine it is clear that what is added
afterwards, "male and female he created them" is to show that here
the human being was made not only as regards the soul, but also as
regards the body. It is only with regard to the body that there is a
distinction of the sexes. And so that we do not think that there were two
sexes in the one body, it adds in the plural, "he created them", i.e. one
male and one female. For here Scripture tells us of the establishment of our
two first parents. Later on it tells us about the way in which the two were
established, when it says that the man was made from the slime of the
earth, and one of the man's ribs was built up into the woman.
4. The same plural means that we have to understand that the woman
too was made to the image of God. What is distinguished should be applied
to both, since it is applied in the last sentence to the human being without
qualification, i.e. being made to the image of God. Hence Basil says: "The
woman comes to be according to the image of God as much as does the
man. For their natures are of the same dignity, their virtues are equal, their
struggles are equal, and their rewards are equal. The woman should not say
'I am weak'. Weakness is in the flesh, but power is in the soul. Since, then,
an image of the same dignity is in them, the image of God, their virtue is
equal and so is their right to good deeds.2" For in all things that have to do
with true virtues the woman can be equal to the man, if she wants.
Chapter XIX
1 . The blessing which follows can be understood in the same way as
was expounded at the blessing of the water creatures. But Basil applies the
word "increase" to mean bodily increase, and the word "multiply" to
mean propagation3. But against this interpretation is, that it was not said
to our first parents that they should increase in themselves, but only in their

2 Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 18 (ed. cit., 212-214)
3 Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 12-14 (ed. cit., 196-200)
250 PART EIGHT
offspring. For, according to Jerome, they were created with perfect

stature1. Therefore it is said to the human race without qualification that
it should increase by bodily growth, even though this manner of growth does
not fit all the individuals of the human race. In the same way, according to
Augustine, the blessing of the multiplication of offspring is given to the
human race without qualification, even though some have the act of multi
plying taken away from them. For Augustine says in book twenty-two of
The City of God that "God created the human being in such a way that he
added to them the fertility by which human beings propagate others. He
brought forth, together with them, the ability of propagating, not the
necessity of doing so. From some, as was his will, God took away this
ability, leaving them barren: but he did not take away from the human race
the blessing of breeding that he had once given to the first two spouses.
Chapter XX
1 . "This propagation, then, though not taken away by sin, is not what
it would have been if no-one had sinned. For that reason, the human being,
that was set up in honour, after sinning was made like to the beasts, and
breeds like them.2" In these words, then, Augustine suggests that in this
[228C] blessing the ability of propagating was given to the human race, but
the necessity of breeding was not imposed. Also, that many have this power
of propagating taken away from them, and that the action by which
propagation is brought about is done in a different way from that in which
it would have been done if the human being had not sinned. For now it is
shameful, because of the burning heat of lust and the movements of the
genital organs contrary to the command of reason. In the bliss of paradise,
if the human being had not sinned, propagation would be without lust and
without the shameful movements of the genitals.
2. Hence Augustine in his book On marriage and desire says: "There
would be no shameful desire if the human being had not first sinned. But
there would be marriages, even if no-one had sinned. But the sowing of
children in that body of life would be without the distemper which it cannot
escape in the body of this death"3. The disorder in the genital organs arose
after sin, which is where that unseemly motion had its origin, the unseemly
motion which unions, beyond doubt, would not have had if human beings
had not sinned4. For it is not fair that one who does not obey his master
should be obeyed by his servant — his body5.
Glossa ordinaria, on Genesis, 2: 7, attributes this saying to Jerome.

2 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XXII, 24 (CSEL, XL.2, 643)
3 Augustine, De nuptiis et concupiscentia, I, 1 (CSEL, XLII, 212)
4 Augustine, De nuptiis et concupiscentia, I, 6 (CSEL, XLII, 216-217)
CHAPTERS XIX-XXIII 251
Chapter XXI
1. "There is nowhere that human nature is more fittingly shown as
depraved — and justly so — by disobedience, than in those places where
nature exists by succession. For those parts of the body are even specially
called 'nature'1". This motion, then, is unseemly because it is disobedient.
And this distemper takes its origin from sin, not from union. And in the
book Hypomnesticon Augustine says: "We reply that lust is not a natural
good, but something shameful and evil that came after, through the sin of
the first human beings. It is not God who brought it into being but the
devil.2"
2. This blessing, then, to increase by bodily growth and to multiply in
offspring, is made to water creatures, flying things, and brute animals, as
well as to human beings.
Chapter XXII
1 . Animals do not all grow so long as they live, as trees do, so long as
they are green, but grow till a determinate time and to a determinate size
that fits each species of animal. For plants were made to be a continuous
supply of nourishment for animals; hence the end of plants goes together
with their being continually consumed. For this reason it is fitting that since
in virtue of their end they go along with being continually consumed, they
should also have a continual restoration of their being consumed and
lessened. For since it is the tender fringes of trees and of other plants
that are eaten and nibbled, if these did not grow again, the plants would
occupy the earth without perfect benefit to their chief end. But the activity
that is an end for animals is not accompanied by reduction in size, so they
do not need to grow continuously.
Chapter XXIII
1 . But what follows — "Fill the earth and subdue it" — is proper to
the human being alone, and not common to the other kinds of animals. But
how are human beings to fill the earth, since only a quarter of the earth is
inhabited, i.e. not the whole? Basil's reply to this is that human beings fill
the earth not by inhabitation but by power3. For God gave to the human
being dominion over all the earth. This dominion is fulfilled by reason,
when the human being examines and gets to know the dimensions and the
dispositions of the earthly globe; when it comes to know that the northern
clime is uninhabitable through cold, and that the excess of heat means that

2 Pseudo-Augustine, Hypomnesticon, IV, 1 {PL, XLV, 1639)
252 PART EIGHT
the torrid zone cannot be inhabited; when it chooses what is good for living
in, and abandons what is not fitted for living in. Just as if someone buys
corn, the whole measure of the corn that has been bought belongs to the
buyer. Stones and other things that are mixed in with it, that are no good to
eat, he throws away, but he chooses the corn as being good to eat. This is
how the human being has dominion over all the earth, choosing part as
good to live in, part as good to till, part as good for feeding animals, other
parts for other purposes; rejecting parts by the power of reason, because
they are not fitted for the necessary purposes of this life. The part that is
rejected is no less in the power of the human being than is the part that is
chosen, since one could, if one wished, enter the part that was rejected as
useless for living in and live [228D] there. The human being has the power
to choose the torrid zone or the frozen zone for a dwelling place, and to go
there, to live there; even though the human being could not continue to live
there as things now are because of the intemperate conditions. In the same
way, if one gathers together different foods, some good for one and some
that make one sick, both kinds are in one's power, to eat or to throw away.
But if one eats the foods that generate ill-health one suffers for it. But if
one is intelligent, one chooses the good for one's food and throws away the
bad, and thus exercises one's dominion fittingly over both kinds. And
perhaps before sin the human being could have lived in any part of the
earth, had it wished to, without bodily damage. The whole earth, then, is in
the natural power of the human being, and the human being makes good
use even of those parts which it does not use of its own free will: for by not
using them for the necessary purposes of this life, one makes some kind of
good use of them, by avoiding the damage which living in their intemperate
conditions could cause.
2. The human being has, too, from all the parts of the earth, the
inhabitable and the uninhabitable, this most valuable of benefits: matter
for the praise of the most wise Creator, who from the intemperate condi
tions — intemperate in opposite ways — of the extreme parts of the earth
has tempered the middle part and made it fit for dwelling in. Hence the
parts that human beings do not inhabit because of their intemperate
conditions, partly serve them by generating the temperateness of the part
they do inhabit.
3. Moreover, if the uninhabitable parts of the earth were cut off the
solidity of the earth, the inhabited part could not stay in its place. Hence the
uninhabited parts serve the human being, who is the inhabitant of the earth,
speaking without qualification, by being a sort of support of the inhabited
part.
4. The human being, then, fills the whole of the earth and subdues the
whole, by using the whole well by the power of reason and having
CHAPTERS XXIII-XXIV 253
dominion over the whole. This was done the more perfectly in the state
of paradise, as life there was purer without sin.
Chapter XXIV
1. When the human being was made, then, and it was granted the
blessing of multiplying offspring and dominion over all the animals and
over the whole earth, in order that nothing might be lacking, God gave it
the food which is necessary for supporting this life, with the words:
"Behold, I have given you every herb", etc., down as far as "that they
may have to feed upon" . It is clear from these words, Bede and Jerome say,
that before the sin of the human being the earth did not bring forth anything
harmful or anything that was barren, since every herb and every tree was
given to the human being and to every living soul upon the earth, for their
food1. Hence it is clear that at that time animals did not live by eating other
animals, but that they fed on herbs and fruits in harmony.
2. Also, Augustine in the fourth book of Against Julian says: "These
words of Scripture are to be taken in no other sense than that the first
human beings of both sexes used those foods for their bodies which other
animals use. From this food they derived fitting support that was necessary
for their immortal animal body, so that it might not suffer from want. They
ate from the tree of life, so that old age should not bring them to death.2"
3. He also says in the first book of the Retractations: "It does not
follow, from the fact that there are quadrupeds and birds that seem to live
on flesh alone, that when it says in the book of Genesis that the green herbs
and the fruit-bearing trees were given to beasts of all kinds, and to all the
birds, and to all creeping things for their food, this should be understood as
a mere allegory. It could be that the human beings fed them from the fruits
of the earth as well, since by their obedience, by which they served God
without any wickedness, they deserved to have the service of all the beasts
and of every kind of birds.3"
4. It is clear from these authorities that the human being and all the
animals of the earth would have lived only on seed-bearing plants and on
fruits of the trees, all in common and all in harmony, if the human being
had not sinned. No animal would have been an enemy of others [229A], nor
would have eaten the flesh of others; nor would the human being who was
put over them. Hence, as Basil says, the consumption of fruits was granted
by God in the first setting up of the law4. And though we see now that many
1 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 32A-32B), and Glossa ordinaria, on Genesis, 1: 29

2 Augustine, Contra Julianum, IV, 69 (PL, XLIV, 772)
3 Augustine, Retractationes, I, ix, 4 (CSEL, XXXVI, 49)
4 Basil, Hexaemeron, XI, 6 (ed. cit., 240)
254 PART EIGHT
beasts do not eat fruits, nonetheless when they were subject to the law of
nature they did nourish themselves on fruits. But when the human being
was weakened after the flood the Lord granted the consumption of every
thing, with the words, "They shall be meat to you even as the green
herbs"1. And when this was granted the other animals plucked up courage
to consume animals as well, so that some were fed by the deaths of others.
But had the animals observed that first law of eating, as human beings are
thought to have done, right down to the flood? I would not like to
pronounce on this, though Basil in his eleventh homily seems to suggest
clearly, commenting on this passage, that the animals kept this first law
right up to the flood2.
Chapter XXV
1 . We are taught clearly by this passage, also, that eating meat was not
granted to nature in a state of health by the law of nature, but in virtue of
weakness, as a medicinal remedy. Those who are sick have a remedial diet,
and feel sorry because they are not able to eat the food of those who are
healthy: so they make the effort to eat a remedial diet, so that they may
need it less and less and in the end eat only healthy food. In just the same
way we should eat meat as a kind of remedy for weakness, and feel sorry
that we are sick, and cure it with great care, so that little by little we may
recover from our sickness and may be able to do without this remedial diet
more and more, and may be content at last with the natural foods that were
granted to us in paradise by the law of nature.
2. Let not the rich, then, boast of their tables, laden with different
kinds of meat. They should feel sorry for this, as if they were the remedies
of the sick, and they should sigh for the board of those who are healthy, for
whom the foods granted by the law of nature are the support of healthy
nature, and for a healthy palate that is not corrupted by dainties. For as John
Chrysostom says, "The tables of the rich are foul and horrible, full of
contamination, and, as a sensible man once said, the things that look
pleasant there are harmful.3"
3. On the other hand, "More simple food, the table of the modest man,
has more entertainment and pleasure at it". The table of the rich breeds
sicknesses, the table of the modest man breeds health. Hence John also
says: "The quantity of food and drink that is enough to drive off hunger
and thirst: that is what nature teaches. So that is where health is to be
found, where reason dwells, where decency and sobriety remain. The body
1 Genesis, 9: 3
2 Basil, Hexaemeron, XI, 7 (ed. cit., 244-246)
3 John Chrysostom, Quod nemo laeditur nisi a seipso, 7-8 (ed. Paris, 1588, p. 649)
CHAPTERS XXIV-XXVI 255
is not raised from the banquet laden down and oppressed: it is rather
helped, increased in strength, and supported by full activeness. Those
who lead a life of pleasures and debaucheries drag their bodies around in
a state of decomposition, softer than wax, filled with a swarm of illnesses:
and to this heap of evils is added the gout and premature old age. They live
their life among doctors and medicines. Their senses are slow, they are
heavy and dull and in some way in their graves already. What is there of
entertainment in this? Who would call this entertaining or pleasing, who
knows what entertainment and pleasure are? The wise tell us that pleasure
is to have your desires met. But when desires cannot be met, when illness
will not allow it, or satiety removes desire, and superfluity makes it a
burden, then no doubt but that pleasure and entertainment perish
together. 1 "
4. Hence, as Basil warns, "Now if we want to lead a life that resembles
that of paradise, let us avoid this consumption of many kinds of food. Let
us lead ourselves to that life, so far as we can, [229B] and eat fruits and
seeds and the shoots of trees. What goes beyond these things, let us reject,
as not needful to those who have their health. We should not hate them,
because of the one who created them, but we should not choose them for
the sake of the passion of pleasing our flesh.2"
Chapter XXVI
1. There follows: "And it was so done". As Augustine says, comment
ing on the passage just before, "This means the power and faculty that was
granted to human nature, of taking for food the foodstuffs of the field and
the fruits of the tree. This is why it says 'and it was so done', i.e. what was
introduced when it was said 'And God said: behold, I have given you the
food of seeds', etc. For if we take 'and it was so done' as referring to
everything that was said above, the consequence will be that we should say
also that they increased and multiplied and filled the earth on that same
sixth day; and this, according to the witness of the same Scripture, we
find to have happened many years afterwards. So it is because this faculty
of eating was given, and the human being recognised this from God's
utterance, that it is said 'and it was so done' . In this, then, God spoke and
the human being came to know it. For if the human being had started doing
it then, i.e. had started consuming as food the things given for food, then
according to the custom of Scripture, after saying 'and it was so done',
which has to do with the expression of the knowledge, the activity itself
would be brought in, and it would say, 'and they took and ate'. This could
1 John Chrysostom, Quod nemo laeditur nisi a seipso, 7-8 (ed. Paris, 1588, p. 648)
2 Basil, Hexaemeron, XI, 7 (ed. cit., 244-246)
256 PART EIGHT
be said even without mentioning God again: just as above, after it says 'Let
the waters under heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land
appear' it says 'and it was so done', but after that does not say 'and God did
this', but says it again in this way: 'and the water was gathered into its
gatherings,' etc.1"
Chapter XXVII
1. There follows: "And God saw all the things that he had made, and
they were very good." On this passage Augustine says: "It might be good
to ask why it does not say individually of the human being, as it does for
other things, 'and God saw that it was good', but instead says, after the
creation of the human being, and after its being given power to rule or to
eat of everything, that 'God saw all the things that he had made, and
behold, they were very good.' For it could have first been said individually
of the human being, as it was of the other individual things that were made
before, and then have been said of all the things that God made, 'and
behold they were very good', not individually of the things that were made
that day. Why is it said of the cattle and the beasts and the creeping things
of the earth, that belong to the same sixth day? Did they not perhaps
deserve to be said to be good individually according to their kinds, and
universally with the other things as well? And the human being, made in
the image of God, did it only deserve to have this said of it together with
the others? Was it because the human being was not yet established in
perfection in the paradise? But after the human being is established there, it
does not say what is missed out here. What are we to say, then? That God
foresaw that the human being would sin and not remain in the perfection of
his image, and so does not want to call it good together with the other
things, as if hinting at what was to happen. After all, the things that were
made that remained as they were made, with what they had received, the
things that did not sin, or could not sin, are each of them good, and are all
of them together very good. The word 'very' which is added is not super
fluous, for the members of the body, even if each of them is beautiful, are
all of them much more beautiful when put together in the whole body. An
eye, for example, which is of gentle and praiseworthy appearance, we
would not call so beautiful if we saw it separated from the body, as we
would call it in the interrelation of the parts, and if it were seen put in its
place in the whole body. But those things that by sinning lost their own
beauty do not act so: they are not rightly ordered themselves and so are not
good together with the whole. The human being, then, before sin, in its own
kind [229C] was indeed good: but the Scripture omits to say this, so that it

CHAPTERS XXVI-XXIX 257
may rather say something that foretells what is to be. But it is not false to
say it of the human being. What is good individually, is yet better together
with all. But it does not follow, that what is good together with all, is also
good individually. Scripture has adjusted things, then, to say what is true at
the present moment and to indicate a foreknowledge of the future. For God,
the best Creator of natures, is also the most just orderer of those who sin.
So even if individually they become ugly by their crimes, the whole is
forever beautiful with them in it.1" Any creature, then, so long as it
preserves the good in which it was created, is good in itself, without
qualification. In its relation to the ordering of the whole, it is better. The
whole is very good. And the Creator of the whole is the highest good.
Chapter XXVIII
1. You should consider that the other animals, according to their
species, were created in plural number. But there is only one human being
first created, and from him a single woman was made. And from these two
the whole human race was bred. This was done so that, as Augustine says,
"God might bind together the human race in a firmer bond, by remember
ing that it was sprung from one individual. Hence when it says 'male and
female he made them' he wanted to add: 'to the image of God', which
makes it clear that the unity of conjunction is in the woman too.2" God
wanted, then, to establish all human beings as coming from one, so that
human society should be held together not only by a likeness of kind but
also by a bond of kinship.
Chapter XXIX
1 . You should notice too that in the establishment of the human being
there is not observed the custom of Scripture which, according to the
translation of the Seventy, is observed in the other creatures, namely,
that it says "Let there be; and it was so done", and then adds "And God
made". The reason for these words is given by Augustine when he says:
"For that first light — if that word correctly means the created intellectual
light that shares in the eternal and unchangeable wisdom of God — it does
not say 'and it was so done' and then add 'and God made'. This is because,
as we have already explained, so far as we could, there did not come to be
any knowledge of the Word of God in the first creature, in order that after
that knowledge, later on, there might be created what was created in that
Word. Rather, that light was created first, in which the knowledge of the

2 Glossa ordinaria, on Genesis, 1: 27; cp. Augustine, De civitate Dei, XII, 21-27 and
XIV, 1.
258 PART EIGHT
Word of God would come to be, the Word of God through which it was
created. And that knowledge had to be converted from its formlessness to
the God that formed it, and had to be created and formed. But afterwards,
in the other creatures, it says 'and it was so done': this means the know
ledge of the Word in the light that was first made, that is, in the intellectual
creature. And then, when it says, 'and God made', the coming to be of that
kind of creature is shown, the coming to be that was said to come to be in
the Word of God. This is observed also in the establishment of the human
being. 'For God said: let us make man to our image and likeness', etc. And
then it does not say: 'and it was so done'. For it says after this: 'And God
made man to the image of God': because the intellectual nature [of the
human being] is like that light, and hence to come to be, for the human
being, is to recognise the Word of God through whom it comes into being.
For if it said, 'and it was so done' and then went on to 'and God made', it
would be as if it meant: it was first made in the knowledge of the rational
creature, and then in some creature that is not rational. But this is a rational
creature, and it is perfect in respect of that recognition. For just as after the
fall of sin the human being is renewed in the recognition of God, according
to the image of him who created it, so it was created in that recognition,
before it grew old with its crime, to be renewed again in that same
recognition. The things that were not created in that knowledge, whether
they are bodies or irrational souls, had the knowledge of them first made in
the intellectual creature through the word [229D] that said that they should
be made. And it is because of this knowledge that it was said first 'and so it
was done', to show that the knowledge of them came to be in that nature
that could know this beforehand in the Word of God. Only then were the
bodily and irrational creatures made; and that is why, afterwards, it adds
the words 'and God made'1".
Chapter XXX
1 . We have dealt with this, then, as far as we could, according to the
literal sense. Now to make some remark on the allegorical and moral senses
of it, that fit with faith and morals.
2. You should know, then, that the six days draw attention to the six
ages of the world. The first is from Adam to Noah, in which age, as on the
first day, the human race, which is, as a whole, compared to one human
being, began to enjoy the light of this life. And this age is like the infancy
of the human race, and its evening comes at the flood: since the things that
we did in infancy are wiped out from the memory by forgetfulness, as if by
a flood.

CHAPTERS XXIX-XXX 259
3. The second age, which lasts from Noah to Abraham, is compared to

the second day, and this is like the childhood of the human race. In that age,
as on the second day, the firmament was made, i.e. Noah's ark, through
which all living flesh was made firm so that the flood would not take it
away. It was placed between the waters beneath, on which it floated, and
the waters above, which rained down on it. This age is not destroyed by the
flood, nor is any after it, because the downpour of forgetfulness scarcely
removes anything from our memory other than the things we did in
infancy. The evening of this day is the confusion of tongues of the builders
of the tower of Babel.
4. The third age was from Abraham to David, like the third day, and
this age is like adolescence, which is the first age fit for reproduction. This
age brought forth the people of God by divine worship. Hence it was said to
Abraham: "I have made you the father of many nations.1" In this age the
land was separated from the waters, as it were, since the people of God, like
a dry land that thirsts for the rain of doctrine, were separated through
Abraham from all the pagan peoples, whose error is unstable and in a
state of flux of vain doctrines. This dry land was watered by God's work
and teaching, and put forth green herbs of virtues and trees of mighty
deeds. The evening of this day was in the sins of the people, who broke
God's commands, up to the wickedness of Saul.
5. The fourth age, which is from David up to the deportation to
Babylon, is compared to the fourth day. Its morning was the glory and
the worship of God in the kingdom of David. This age was like the youth of
the human race. For youth is the strength and the firmament of the other
ages. In this age of the world the strength of the kingdom of God's people
was in full vigour, and in it, as in a firmament, was placed the excellence of
the king like the splendour of the sun, and the obedience of the people and
the gathering of the synagogue like the splendour of the moon, and the
princes were like the stars in the firmament, i.e. in the stability of the
kingdom. The evening of this day was in the sins of the kings, by which the
people deserved the yoke of captivity.
6. The fifth age, like the fifth day, stretches from the deportation to
John the Baptist, or to Christ's coming. And this is the age that slides away
from youth into old age, because this age slipped away from the strength of
the kingdom and was broken among the people of the Jews. The morning of
this day was in the ease and prosperity that the people enjoyed under a mild
dominion in their captivity. And this age is well compared to the fifth day,
on which were made the animals in the water and the flying things of the
air, because in this age the people of the Jews began to live among the
1 Genesis, 17: 5
260 PART EIGHT
pagan peoples, as if among the waters, and began to have uncertain and
unstable dwelling-places, like the birds that fly. But also there were in that
time the whales, i.e. the great men, who [230A] rather had dominion over
the waves of the world than served in that captivity, since they could not be
corrupted to the worship of idols by any terror or any error. Hence it is to
be noticed that God blessed those animals saying: "Increase and multiply",
since indeed the people of the Jews, through being scattered among the
peoples, was greatly multiplied. The evening of this day, as it were, was the
multiplication of sins among the people of the Jews, by which they were so
blinded, that they could not recognise the sun of justice, our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he was among them.
7. The sixth age, like the sixth day, begins from Christ and stretches
out to the end of the world. And this age is like old age, since in this time
the kingdom of the Jews was fiercely ground down, because the temple was
overthrown and sacrifices ceased, and because the strength of the kingdom
of that people reached its last life. The morning of this day was the
preaching of the Gospel, and its evening will be the persecution of the
Antichrist, when charity will grow cold and iniquity will abound1. In this
age the new man, Christ, was born from the old age of the Jewish people, as
Isaac was born from the old age of Abraham. In this age the new Adam was
born to be a life-giving spirit, just as on the sixth day the first Adam was
born as a living soul2. On this day woman was formed from the side of
man, as the Church was formed from the side of Christ and joined to him in
marriage. The creeping things brought forth on the fifth day signify the
people of the Jews, who served God with a bodily circumcision and with
sacrifices among the sea of the nations. But on the sixth day a living soul is
produced from the earth, because in this time there is a more fervent desire
for eternal life. The creeping things and the cattle that the earth brings forth
signify the peoples who were to believe firmly in the gospel. Of them it was
said to Peter: "Kill and eat"3. On this day the human being is put over the
cattle, the creeping things, and the flying things of heaven, because in this
age Christ governs the souls that obey him, who come partly from the
nations and partly from the Jews, so that they may grow meek when they
are tamed by the same master, whether before they were given to fleshly
lust like cattle, or were fierce in cruelty like the beasts, or in the shadow of
dark curiosity like the fish and the snakes, or raised up in pride like the
birds. On this day the human being and the animals that are with it feed
on the seed-bearing herbs, the fruit-bearing trees, and the green herbs,
1 Cp. Matthew, 24: 12

2 Cp. / Corinthians, 15: 45
3 Acts, 10: 13, 11: 7
CHAPTERS XXX-XXXII 261
because in this age the spiritual man, who imitates Christ as much as he
can, with the animal people, feeds on the food of Scripture. This is partly
for the sake of conceiving the fertility of arguments and utterances, as if
eating seed-bearing herbs; partly for the sake of the benefit of customs and
of the human way of life, as if eating from fruit-bearing trees; partly for the
sake of the vigour of faith, hope and charity, towards eternal life, as if
eating the green herbs that never dry up in the worst oppression of summer.
But the spiritual man feeds thus in order to understand many things; the
animal man is like the herd of God's pasturing, and feeds in order to
believe.
Chapter XXXI
1 . And it must be considered that the first two ages are developed in
ten generations, the next three in fourteen each, but there is no number laid
down for the sixth age. The reason for this as regards each human being is
easily shown. In infancy and childhood the five senses are fixed in the
body. Five is multiplied by two, because there are two human sexes from
which such generations come; this makes ten. But from adolescence, at
which time the reason comes to be strong in human beings, knowledge and
action are added to the five senses. By these life is ruled and governed. This
gives us seven; double this because there are two sexes and we are left with
fourteen generations. There are three ages like this, adolescence, youth, and
seniority. Old age is not defined by any limit of years, but whatever one
lives after the five ages is allotted to old age. In this old age there are no
generations given, as the last day is still hidden from us, which, as the Lord
showed us, is hidden for our benefit.
2. This is how the sacred expositors compare the first six days and their
works [230B] to the six ages of the world and the works done in them,
which were most fitting for our reparation either by their signification or by
their effectiveness. The sacred expositors also suggest in making this
comparison that the ages of the world are compared to the natural ages
of each and every human being, that one runs through up to one's death.
Chapter XXXII
1. From this it is clear, too, that the six natural ages of any human
being can be fitted to the first six days. For when the infant is born, it comes
into the light of this life, and the light of life and the light of this world rise
upon it and illuminate its outward senses. And just as, according to the
literal interpretation of Jerome and Bede, when light was made on the first
day the whole space from the heaven at the top down to the earth at the
bottom was occupied by the waters, the whole of what is in the infant, from
the intelligence at the top, which does not act through the body, down to the
262 PART EIGHT
material stuff of the body, which stays fixed and unmovable under bodily
changes, is occupied and filled by an abundance of moisture and fluid . The
pressure of this moisture brings it about that neither the moving powers of
the body, nor the moving or apprehensive powers of the soul that act
through the body, are strong enough to be able to act.
2. Childhood follows this, as the second day, in which the memory
begins to gain strength, and the parts of the body begin to be consolidated
for their natural actions: thus there is a sort of firmament, that is in between
the natural changeableness of the body, which is like the waters beneath,
and the changeableness of the mind, which is like the waters above.
3. There follows this the third day, adolescence, in which the change
ableness of the natural increase of the body is completed. And this comple
tion puts a stop to the movement of increase, and gathers its flowing nature,
so to speak, in one gathering, constraining it within the limits of size of
one's complete stature. And the dry land appears, i.e. the flesh fixed in the
completion of its fixed stature. This is an age already suited to the propaga
tion of offspring, and for the germination of good customs and for the
knowledge of the sciences and for the strength of mighty deeds.
4. The fourth age, like the fourth day, is youth, or, as some call it,
manhood. In this age the strength of the body is made firm and there break
forth in light the splendour of wisdom and doctrine like the sun, and the
splendour of understanding and knowledge like the moon, and the light of
moral actions like the stars.
5. There follows this the age of seniority, in which there is generated
from the natural changeableness of the body, with regard to decrease and
deterioration, a weakness in the action of the outward senses, and the living
soul, i.e. the sensibility of the soul, begins to creep through the interior
powers of the soul as the body seeps away through the weakening of action.
The interior powers, like birds, grow stronger, as it were, for the freedom of
contemplation. Thus as the outward man decays, the interior man is more
and more renewed2.
6. At last old age follows, like the sixth day, in which the age of the
body deteriorates till death, and is faded and more prone to illness; and for
this reason the mind grows wiser and more beautiful and stronger, as the
Apostle says: "When I am weak, then I am strong"3. For this reason, in this
age the earth of human nature brings forth the living soul, and becomes a
human being to God's image and likeness. For the flesh with its desires is
1 Bede, Hexaemeron, I, (PL, XCI, 20A-20B) and pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in

Pentateuchum, Genesis, (195D-196A). See also above, IV, ii, 3.
2 Cp. 2 Corinthians, 4: 16
CHAPTERS XXXII-XXXIII 263
now mortified, and more obvious in this age are the acts of reason alone,
and the power of dominion over every bestial passion by one's merest
indication.
Chapter XXXIII
1. These six days can also signify the six ages of the new man, i.e. of
one regenerated through the sacrament of baptism1. These ages are distin
guished not by years but by the progress made. The new man lives his first
age at the breasts of profitable history, which feeds him with examples. In
that age what was darkness, through the absence of faith or through
infidelity, becomes light in the Lord through the faith received in the
sacrament, according to what the Apostle says: "For you were heretofore
darkness, but now light in the Lord"2.
2. He lives the second age when he has forgotten human things and is
bent on the things of God. He is not held in the lap of human authority,
[230C] but strives on to the supreme, unchangeable law with the strides of
reason, and through the habit of acting well he is confirmed in goodness.
Once this firmament has been made solid, he restrains his lower carnal
motions like the waters beneath, and supports the higher movement of his
reason to God, like the waters above.
3. He lives the third age, which is more confident, and gives his carnal
appetite in marriage to the strength of his reason. It is an age that delights
inwardly in some of the sweetness of married life, since the sense of his
flesh is joined to his mind and wears the bridal veil of modesty, and he is
not forced to live well, but would not want to sin even if everyone should
let him. The water, as it were, of desire, is contained within the limits of
divine teaching, and the dry land of flesh appears, rid in every way of the
motions of desire.
4. He lives the fourth age when he does what is said above in a firmer
and more ordered way, and shines out as the perfect man, fit and ready to
bear and withstand all persecutions and all the storms of the world. He
shows in this firmament the lights and the undisturbed courses of the
virtues, just as the lights are undisturbed in the firmament of heaven,
however much the elements of this lower world are disturbed.
5. He lives the fifth age, which is at peace and almost wholly tranquil,
living in the unchangeable riches of the kingdom of his supreme and
ineffable wisdom. He lives his life in that wisdom as in the water of which
it was said "He gave them the water of wisdom to drink"3. And in the
1 Cp. Augustine, De vera religione, XXXVI, 49 (PL, XXIV, 143-144)

2 Ephesians, 5: 8
264 PART EIGHT
serene, tranquil and bright contemplation of that same wisdom he takes

flight as if in the tranquil, serene and pure upper air.
6. The sixth age is wholly one of changing into the eternal life, and to a
complete forgetfulness of the temporal life, passing into the perfect form
which was made to the image and likeness of God.
Chapter XXXIV
1. The light of the first day can also be understood to mean free will,
when it is in darkness in the deeps of ignorance which still overshadow the
soul. The light of the second day is the knowledge of firm truth. That of the
third is the love of known truth, which restrains the movements of con
cupiscence. On the fourth day there shines out the light of works, like the
light of the luminaries. On the fifth day there shines the light of teaching:
for Jesus began first to do, then to teach1. In this teaching the examination
of the truth creeps, and flies through the air. The words of the teacher are
like the flying things. On the sixth day there shines the light and the
completion of the contemplative light, by which the renewal of the
rational creature in the image of God is brought about in the higher reason.
Chapter XXXV
1. Besides the allegory we touched on earlier, of Christ and his
Church, according to Jerome the making of the man signifies those in
office in the church, and the woman signifies their obedient subjects2.
2. Also, as Augustine says in his ninth homily On the gospel of John:
"On the sixth day God made the human being to his image, since in this
sixth age there is made manifest the reformation of our mind through the
gospel, according to the image of the one who made us.3" The formation of
the first human being, then, signifies our reformation. And in the reformed
mind the higher reason is like the man, and the lower part of reason like the
woman. Or, speaking without qualification, the reason or the inner man is
like the man, the sensuality and the outward man are like the woman.
3. The blessing of increasing and multiplying mean the growth and
multiplication of gratuitously given good things, and the progress and
multiplication of the faithful according to the gathering together of the
good things gratuitously given.
4. The earth is filled, when every part of the body is filled with divine
action and holy deeds: i.e. when the eye is filled with chaste vision, the
hand with pious deeds, the foot with progress towards things of profit, and
1 Cp. Acts, 1: 1
2 Cp. Glossa interlinealis, on Genesis, 1 : 27
3 Augustine, In loannis Evangelium Tractatus, IX, 11, 6 (PL, XXXV, 1461)
CHAPTERS XXXIII-XXXV 265
in this way the other parts exercise their own operations according to the
commandments of God. The earth is subdued when the flesh is subjected to
the spirit and is crucified with its vices and desires. Christ and the church,
too, like man and woman (and likewise the order of prelates and their
subjects) [230D] fill the earth, when the church expands and the faithful are
multiplied, both prelates and subjects. The sound of the preaching of the
gospel has gone out in the whole earth1. And the Father says to Christ "Ask
of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost
parts of the earth for thy possession"2. The church and the faithful subdue
the earth in Christ, to the extent that for Christ's sake they despise temporal
things, according to what is written in the book of Joshua: "The land which
thy foot hath trodden upon shall be thy possession"3.
5. The fish of the sea, and the flying things of heaven, and the living
things of the earth, signify the appetite for examining the sciences, and the
appetite for rising above others in power, and the appetite for sensing the
things that are pleasing to the senses. These three appetites can be con
sidered in three ways: in so far as they are natural appetites of the soul, or
in so far as they are corrupted by the lustful desire of pleasure, or in so far
as they are ordered by the law of charity. Reason has dominion over these
affections as the human being, when it restrains them to stop them slipping
into the corruption of lustful pleasure. It has dominion over the corrupted
affections when it overthrows their corruption with the sharpness of the
fear of Gehenna, and the bitterness and harshness of penance. It has
dominion over the ordered affections when it dictates to them the laws
of justice which they freely obey and obediently keep. It has dominion over
the corrupt affections, then, like a judge does, by just punishment. And it
has dominion over the natural affections like a master, by powerful
coercion and direction. It has dominion over the ordered affections like a
wise lawgiver over good citizens, who are very quick to fulfil what the law
commands by spontaneous obedience and for love of justice, not for fear of
the punishment. But when reason is perverse and does not hold the strong
place of its lordship, it is subdued by the irrational animals, i.e. by the
corrupt affections we mentioned. For every passion of the irrational soul is
likened to one of the beasts: e.g. the untamed fierceness that is confident of
putting down others is like the lion, graspingness is like the wolf, craftiness
is like the fox, fearfulness is like the deer, wrathfulness is like the dog,
wantonness is like the goat, greediness is like the pig, and so on. The
perverse reason, and the human being whose reason is perverse, are
1 Cp. Psalms, 18: 5

2 Psalms, 2: 8
3 Joshua, 14: 9
266 PART EIGHT
subdued by its lowest and worse servants, who are not even fit to live
because of their wickedness. It gives life to those it should put to death. It is
brought to death and condemnation by those that it should condemn with
its power as a judge. It despises the idea of being subdued by one who is by
nature a mild man, and is subdued by the cruelty of pride. Basil addresses
one who is thus perverse by saying "Are you the prince among animals, O
man, or do you serve your passions? Why have you put off your dignity,
and become a slave of sin? Why have you made yourself a slave of the
devil? You were made the ruler of creation: have you thrown away the
honour of your nature? If you are what is called a slave, why does the
servitude of your body make you sad? Why do you not take more care of
the dominion that God has given you? For you have a reason that has
lordship over your passions. When you see your master living as a slave of
pleasures, and yourself a slave in body, know that you are a slave in name
alone, while he has the lordship in name alone, but in reality is in a
hardened slavery. You see him in the arms of a whore, but you despise
her. Are you not then a master of your passion, while he is the slave of
pleasures that you trample beneath you?1" Let a man be ashamed, then, to
serve the passions, to serve beastly affections. Let him aspire to his original
dignity, and to have dominion "over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the
air and over all living things that move upon the earth.2"
6. There is also signified in this passage not only that the reason of
each human being has dominion, in the above way, over the affections
mentioned, [231 A] but also that Christ and the prelates and the church have
dominion, of a similar kind, over human beings who are affected by this
sort of affections. For they slay the bestial habits of human beings, they
restrain and direct the human proneness to evil, but they dictate the laws of
justice to those who obey willingly. It was not God's will that one human
being should by coercive power have dominion over another who, being
rational, voluntarily obeys the laws of reason. Hence Augustine in the
nineteenth book of The City of God says: "God made the human being
rational, to his image, and did not wish it to have dominion over any but
irrational creatures. His will was not that one human being should have
dominion over another, but that the human being should have dominion
over cattle. Hence the first just men were established as herdsmen over
animals rather than kings over human beings, so that God might hint at
what the order of creation demanded, and what was a necessity of the
desert of sinners. The law understands the state of servitude to be some
thing imposed on sinners. For this reason we find no-one called a slave in

2 Genesis, 1: 28
CHAPTER XXXV 267
the Scriptures, until Noah the just punished the sin of his son with this
word. Therefore it was sin that deserved this title, not nature.1"
7. To the human being and to the animals of the earth are given green
herbs and their seeds and the fruits of the trees, as their food. This is because
Christ, and the prelates of the church, and Mother Church herself — like the
man and the woman — with all those that obey them — like the animals
subject to the human being — renew themselves with pleasure with the
green shoots of the virtues, and the seeds of words of teaching, and the fruit
of good works. For Christ himself says: "My food is to do the will of him
who sent me, to perfect his work"2. It is on that, then, that Christ feeds, and
hence he in himself or in us, and we in him, may perfect the work and will of
the Father. And we who are his members should not feed on anything but
what he, who is our head, feeds on. As Jerome says: "The herb bearing seed
and the fruitful trees are the faithful, sharing in the need of the saints by their
offerings. The offerings of the faithful, then, are given for the food of the
saints and of the prelates of the church, in such a way that those of the
subjects who are in need may share in that food. For it was not to the
human being alone, but to all the living things of the earth, that the herbs
and the trees were given as food: that is, the offerings of the faithful.3"
8. Moreover, the reason is like the human being, in that it subdues the
apprehensive powers as the human being does animate nature, and feeds on
the species of creatures. For wisdom takes great pleasure in the species of
every thing. Wisdom is like the food of the soul. Hence Wisdom says:
"Those that eat me shall hunger again, those that drink me shall thirst
again"4. Wisdom renews not only the reason, but also the lower senses that
obey reason. It feeds the sense on reason, and feeds the reason on sense,
and feeds reason on itself. The herb, then, and the seed, and the fruitbearing
tree, are their food when they enjoy the wisdom that they derive from
these visible things, in such a way as by them to make progress in the
contemplation of invisible things.
9. We can also understand the green strength and the flowering of the
herb to mean the strength of persistence, and the beauty of the species of
each thing; the seed means the operative power, and the fruit means the
fruitful operation. And there is included in these things the fullness of each
thing, since the completion of each thing is the essence of its species and its
power and its operation, as we can gather from Dionysius5. Since, then, the
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XIX, 15 (CSEL, XL.2, 400)

2 John, 4: 34
3 Cp. Glossa interlinearis, on Genesis 1 : 29; also Glossa ordinaria, ditto, and Pseudo-Bede,
Commentarium in Pentateuchum, I (PL, XCI, 202A)
5 Pseudo-Dionysius, De caelesti hierarchia cum expositione Hugonis de S. Victore, IX (PL,
CLXXV, 1105-6)
268 PART EIGHT
reason gathers the renewal of wisdom from the beauty of the species that
exist, or from its operative power, or from its fruitful operation, the human
being feeds, as it were, on the flourishing green of the herbs, or on the seed
that is moving towards benefit, or on the fruit that is brought forth by the
strength of the trees. And note that it says: "To be their food", and later
"To have to feed upon". This is as if it said, so that they may be the
supplement of need and the support of nature, not to be for superfluity and
for the pleasure of gluttony. "To be their food", not for the lust of their
gluttony. "To have to feed upon", not for stuffing themselves. Those who
use food as anything other than medicines, then, go against the ends given
by this original law. [23 IB]
Part Nine
Chapter I
1 . So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the adornment of
them. This brings in as a conclusion to all that has gone before the
perfection of heaven and earth and of all their adornment. For their
perfection follows from the perfection of the number six, in which number
[of days] they were made. As Augustine says, it is not that the number six
is perfect because God completed his works in six days, but rather that he
completed his works in six days because the number six is perfect1. The
perfection of the number six consists in that it is equal to its multiplicative
parts added together. For it is obtained by multiplication of one times six,
two times three, and three times two. But one and two and three added
together make six. This addition is neither more by superfluity, nor less by
diminution, than six. Primarily, then, and in its own right, the number six
has the property of being equal to its parts and of lacking superfluity and
diminution. Once six alone is supposed, necessarily this perfection is
supposed. Take away six, and this perfection is necessarily taken away.
Everything that is superfluous overflows itself, and everything that is
diminished shrinks within itself. The universality of creation, the world,
demands this perfection, i.e. its equality to itself and the absence of
superfluity or diminution. If it overflowed itself, there would be something
outside the universe, which is impossible. Or if it shrank within itself, it
would not yet be the universe. The universe, then, i.e. the world, cannot be
superfluous or diminished, but must be equal to itself. And since this
property of equality, and of lacking superfluity and diminution, belongs
in its own right and primarily to the number six, the world had to receive
this perfection from the number six. This could not happen otherwise than
by the universe being made and divided up according to a six-way
distinction.
2. The perfection of the world follows from the perfection of the
number six as an effect from its cause. One should consider, moreover,
that taking the number six step by step according to its parts it builds up a
triangle, fixing one at the vertex, then two arranged in a line, and then three
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XI, 30 (CSEL, XL.l, 557) and De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 7
(CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 103)
270 PART NINE
arranged in a line equidistant relative to the two, in such a way that from
the one first placed a perpendicular line can be drawn down to the middle
unit of the three. Thus, according to Augustine, the construction of this
world arises in a similar laying down of a triangle1. On the first day, as if in
the first and highest place, light was made, like the first unit. In the two
following days the firmament and the earth were made, like the two-unit
line put after the unit. On the three following days the adornments of the
fabric of the world were made, and ordered in a three-unit line, since on the
fourth day the heaven was adorned with stars, on the fifth day the liquid
elements, i.e. air and water, were adorned with fish and birds (though both
were brought forth from the water) and on the sixth day the earth was
adorned with the earthly animals that rose from the earth.
3. And though the shape of the world, speaking absolutely, is
spherical, if we are willing to understand that the part played by the bodily
light made on the first day is now played by the sun, in its place, we could
see a triangular shape, both in body and in dimension, in the spherical
framing of the world. Let us imagine the sun half-way between its rising
and midday, and suppose it is the first unit in the triangle. Then let us
imagine the firmament above and the earth beneath, and a line drawn from
top to bottom. This would be from near the midday point in the firmament
to the surface of the earth. At the extremities of this line we can imagine
two units of a pair, i.e. the earth beneath and the firmament above: but we
should imagine the upper extremity of this line terminating at the sphere of
Saturn, this side of the fixed stars. Let us also imagine a third line drawn
from the topmost fixed stars down as deep in the earth as the earthly
creeping things penetrate. At the top of this line, as the first unit, let us
place the fixed stars, and in the midpoint of this line, as the second unit, let
us place the animals that adorn the air and the water. (These are the
elements whose natural place is between the heaven and the earth.) And
at the bottom of this line let us put the living things of the earth, as the third
unit. Now, even though the wandering stars are this side of the fixed stars,
and the living things of the earth mostly dwell on the surface of the earth,
we can, nonetheless, not unfittingly imagine, speaking without qualifica
tion, that the place of the stars is where the fixed stars are, and at the upper
limit of where the place for stars ends; and likewise we can fix the place of
the earthly animals, speaking without qualification, down towards where
their place ends.
4. This triangular disposition could thus be made clear in a visible
figure if the firmament and the earth were drawn as circles, and the two
sides of the world were marked, east and west, and south between them,
1 Cp. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 2 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 97-98)

CHAPTER I 271
Figure to illustrate chapter I, 3^1
and the sun put in the place we said, in the middle of the breadth of the
thickness of the firmament. The arrangement of them is as follows. [See
figure above] If the triangle which is drawn in the way described is
revolved, so that any of its angles holds the place relative to the centre
of the earth on which it is placed, and it draws a circle around the centre of
the earth, it completes in its revolution the circuit of the world, and will at
all points mark and draw how the construction of the world, through the
number six, produces a triangle.
5. Also the conclusion given above, of the perfection of heaven and
earth with their adornments, follows from the establishment of the human
being: as was shown above, it was not fitting that the human being should
come to be until after the world had been completed in its substance and in
its adornment. The establishment of the human being, then, is a firm
argument for worldly perfection.
6. You should notice also that our translation says in the plural: "So
the heavens [23 ID] were perfect". The translation of the Seventy, though,
gives the word "heaven" in the singular: "And the heaven and the earth
were finished". By comparing these two translations we can conjecture that
the one heaven is many heavens, as the opinion of the philosophers has it.
There is one heaven, from the lowest place that the moon reaches, up to the
waters that are spread out above the firmament. In this heaven there are, as
272 PART NINE
the philosophers think they can prove, as many distinct heavens as there are
wandering stars and fixed stars of unlike and differently formed motions. If,
then, what human philosophy believes is true, that there are many heavens
in the one heaven, then divine wisdom, speaking through the various
translators, has not left the matter wholly in silence.
Chapter II
1. There follows: "And on the seventh day God ended the work which
he had made". The translation of the Seventy seems to be contrary to our
translation on this point. The Seventy say: "And God finished on the sixth
day the works he had made". And the text above, which clearly suggests
that all the works of God were finished in six days, agrees with the Seventy.
For God made no nature after the sixth day, or after establishing the human
being, and this can be seen very clearly also from the matters written
above, to do with the perfection of the number six and the order in which
it was right for the human being to be established. God ended his works on
the seventh day, then, not by making a new nature, but by completing the
nature that he had made before by the numerical completion of time and of
the day. For on the seventh day he made that seventh day, and by doing this
he completed the number of days. Hence Bede says that on the seventh day
God did not create anything new — unless one should say that he then
made the seventh day itself — and completed the work by making it1. This
would be because when the seventh day was made he perfected the
measure and number of the days, in whose circling all the ages revolve:
for in that revolution the eighth is the same as the first. [232A]
2. On the seventh day, then, he completed his work, by adding the
seventh which is called the sabbath. Moreover, as Bede again says: "It can
be said that God completed his work on the seventh day, because he
blessed it and made it holy. For blessing and making holy is a work. For
Solomon did some work when he dedicated the temple.2" And we should
consider that the first six days belong to the measure of the drawing of all
natures into existence: but he who gives existence to natures, gives them
also permanence in existence. Hence, just as the six days belong to the
measure of the drawing of things into existence, so the seventh day belongs
to the measure of the setting of things in permanence in existence. In six
days, then, all things were made according to the nature of existence, but
on the seventh day they were made firm in the constancy of permanence.
On the sixth day God completed all things, so that they should exist; but on
the seventh day, completed them so that they should remain.
1 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 33D)

2 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 34B)
CHAPTERS I-II 273
3. Hence there is no opposition between the translation of the Seventy

and our translation. It is just that through the Holy Spirit there is heard a
verbal disagreement among the different translators, so that we may seek
out and find their real and intellectual agreement, and so that through the
comparison of interpretations we may understand that first was the com
pletion of the work, with respect to the integrity of its parts, so that it might
exist; and second was the completion so that the work might remain in
what had been made. In six days, then, the created universe was finished as
regards existence, but on the seventh the universe was made firm as regards
permanence. But in this second completion no new nature was added.
4. There is another way, too, of harmonizing this disagreement of the
translations. We say in the present tense that a craftsman is completing his
work when he puts the last touch to his work, and is still doing it. But at the
limit of operation and motion we do not say of the craftsman, in the present
tense, "He is completing" or "He is moving" or "He is working": instead,
at the limit of motion and operation we say "It has been completed" or "It
has been moved" or "It has been worked". Hence, by this verb in the past
tense "He completed" could be meant that the present "He is completing"
is past. Hence the sense would be: "The presentness of 'he is completing'
is past". In this sense, when it is said of a craftsman that he has completed
his work, and a determination of time is added, it suggests a measure of the
present that is now past: and that this was the limit of the working, when
the craftsman was still in the movement of the working. In this sense, then,
it is understood that God did not complete his work on the seventh day but
on the sixth day, since it was not on the seventh day but on the sixth day
that the following was true in the present: "God is completing his work":
i.e. he is making, is putting the last touch to his work. If the past tense "he
completed" is taken in the sense of "it has been completed", which can
first be said at the limit of the work, when for the first time the work is not
in movement, then in that sense he completed all his work not on the sixth
day but on the seventh day. This is because on the sixth day it could not be
truly said "it has been completed", since there was work being done on the
whole of the sixth day. But at the start of the seventh day, which was the
limit of the sixth day, it could first be truly said "it has been completed".
Thus he completed his work on the seventh day in the sense that on the
seventh day "His work has been completed" was first true. But he also
completed his work on the sixth day in the sense that on the sixth day "God
is completing his work" was last true.
5. Whether we say that the first days were days of time or that they
existed all together in the knowledge of the mind of the angels, the
exposition just given still stands, so long as God was working right up to
the end of the sixth day, if these days were days of time. But if they were
274 PART NINE
days of time, God was working through the whole sixth day, at least in
making the sixth day, even if he finished making other creatures before the
end of the sixth day. But if we give this as a reason for saying that he did
not finish his works before the end of the sixth day, and did not rest on the
sixth day, [232B] by parity of reason it would seem that he did not rest
from his work on the seventh day either. For the whole of the seventh day
he was at work on making the seventh day. But perhaps, since time is the
measure of movement and of operation, and time has no existence except in
movement, and movement has no existence except in what is moved, there
will be natural differences of movements according to the natural differ
ences of things that are moved, and natural differences of times according
to the natural differences of the movements that are measured. Hence, since
the universe of created things was naturally divided up according to the
number six, it seems that there are six naturally different movements in
which the six parts of the universe were brought into existence; hence, that
there are six natural differences of the days that measure the six original
movements. But a thing's resting in existence, though it is different from
the motion that brings a thing into existence, is not different by nature; nor
does any new thing come to be when a thing is at rest in existence through
having been completed by movement. Just as the resting of a thing, then,
does not add any new nature or natural difference, so also the measure that
is proper to rest will not be of a new nature, or different by the addition of
some natural difference. The six original movements bring a six-way
natural division of creatures, but the rest of creatures in existence, which
came seventh, does not bring in a new nature. This rest is, however,
something that is by nature fit to be numbered as seventh together with
the six movements, and the movements seek for their completion in that
rest. In the same way God seems to have made something new on each of
the six days, by creating or by co-creating; but when he added the seventh
he does not seem to have added anything else that was new. It was right,
then, to add the seventh day to the number of six days, and to reckon it as in
some way different from them, since the rest of a thing follows on the
movement of operation and is both reckoned as different from movement
and counted together with movement.
6. But I want the reader to know that I say this not so much as an
assertion, but rather to arouse the ingenuity of the reader, so that he may
look more closely and more carefully into the matter, and explain it more
clearly when he has made his discovery. Since there are only six original
movements that bring the universe into being, and these divide up six ways,
and the seventh is the rest of the universe in existence, and since time is
nothing other than the measure of movement and of rest, there could only
be seven original days. And since there now occurs no movement or rest
CHAPTERS II-III 275
that does not derive from the six original movements and the seventh rest,
like branches that are proportionate to the roots, there can occur no times
that are not the turning back and revolution of those first seven days,
repeated.
Chapter III
1. There follows: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his
work which he had done." Against this some bring up what is said by the
Lord in the gospel of John: "My Father worketh until now; and I work"1.
They also object that every day God creates new souls from nothing. The
answer to these is that God the Father, with the Son and the Holy Spirit,
works until now in preserving in existence the natures that were made and
brought into existence in the first six days, and in the successive multiplied
renewal of the individuals among them that are corruptible, whether by
propagation from male and female, or by seeds according to their kinds, or
by raising them in some other way. He works by giving increase, by
moving, by governing, by making reparation and by calling back to
himself. "Therefore neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that water-
eth, but God that giveth the increase"2: in whom, as St Paul again says,
"we live, and move, and are"3. God did not establish any species or nature
after the first six days. Hence on the seventh day he rested, and ceased from
establishing new species or natures. But he did not cease [232C] from
conserving and fostering and governing the natures or species he had made.
When he creates new souls from nothing every day, he does not establish a
new nature or species: rather, he fills up the nature of the soul that was
originally created on the sixth day to the number of individuals that fits that
nature.
2. But some, from this text of Genesis, have tried to argue that all the
individuals of each nature were also made on the first six days, either
perfectly or according to their matter. Hence they believe that souls are
either drawn out of pre-existing matter, or pre-exist in a perfect way before
they are put into bodies; or that there is one soul common to all things.
Jerome answers these by saying: "It is believed that souls do not come
from the one soul of the first human being, but rather that just as that one
had one soul, so each one has one soul. The different things that are said
against this opinion, I think I can resolve easily. For example, some want to
press that God could not have completed all his works on the sixth day, and
rested on the seventh, if he still creates new souls. To them we can say what
1 John, 5: 17
3 Acts, 17: 28
276 PART NINE
I quoted in the letter mentioned above, from the gospel: 'My Father
worketh until now'1. They would answer to this that 'working' here
means taking care of the things that were established, not establishing
new natures. Otherwise it would contradict what is written in Genesis,
where it is very clearly stated that God finished all his works. What is
written there, that he rested, is to be understood as meaning that he rested
from the creation of new creatures, not from governing them. [On the first
six days] he made the things that previously did not exist, and then rested
from making them, because he had finished all the things that he had before
seen were to be made. But afterwards he did not make things that pre
viously did not exist, but created and made what he made out of things that
already existed. So both are shown to be true: both 'He rested from his
works' and 'He works until now', since the gospel cannot contradict
Genesis. But perhaps those who say this will now refuse to believe that
God makes new souls that previously did not exist, as he made that one, but
will rather believe that he creates them from that one that already existed;
or that he sends them out from some kind of a fountain or from a treasury
where he keeps the souls he then made. It is easy to answer them that even
during the six days God made many things from the natures that he had
already created, for example, birds and fish from the waters, trees, herbs
and animals from the earth. But it is clear that he then made what
previously did not exist. For before that there were no birds, no fish, no
trees, no animals. And it is clear that he rested from the creation of these
things that had not existed and then were created; that is, that he ceased to
create what had not previously existed. But now it is as I say: he does not
put the souls that already exist in who knows what kind of fountain, nor
does he sprinkle them from himself like drops, nor draw them out of one
soul that originally existed, nor bind them in bonds of flesh for crimes
committed before they joined the body. What he does is create a separate
soul for each separate child that is born: but I do not say that he makes
anything that he did not make before. For already on the sixth day he made
the human being to his image, which means that he made it with a rational
soul. He does this now, not by establishing what did not exist before, but by
multiplying what did exist before. Hence it is true that he rested from
establishing things that did not exist before; and it is also true that he works
until now, not only by governing the things that he made, but also by
creating: not by creating something that did not exist before, but by
creating in greater number something that he had already created. In this
way, or in some other way, we avoid the objection made to us about God's
rest from his works, so that we may not have to believe, because of this
1 John, 5: 17
CHAPTER III 277
objection, that to this day new souls do not come to be, not drawn from that
one soul, but each one made as that one was.1"
3. From these words of Jerome, then, [232D] it is clear that just as the
individual soul was established in the first human being, at the beginning,
from nothing, so in every child that is born there is established its
individual soul, from nothing. It cannot be made from pre-existing mat
ter, since, being a substance, it cannot come to be from an accident. And
since it is subject to change, it cannot come to be from God as from a kind
of matter. And since it is a non-bodily spirit, it cannot come to be from
bodily matter. And since it is a rational spirit and life, it cannot come to be
from irrational life, i.e. from sensitive or vegetative life. Nor can it come to
be from rational life, since every rational life is either a human being or an
angel. Nor is there any non-bodily substance that is not either a rational or a
non-rational life. Nor is there one individual soul of all human beings, for
otherwise one and the same soul would be both just and unjust. All that is
left, then, is that in each child that is born its individual soul is created from
no pre-existing matter. This does not mean, as has been said, that when
God creates new souls he performs a new work. A work is called a work
relative to others, when they are different in species and nature. The
individuals of the same species and nature do not differ by species and
nature: they only differ accidentally. Hence when the individuals of one
and the same species are multiplied to a greater number, there is no new or
different work performed: rather, the work which has been completed is
stretched and widened.
4. God rested, then, as was said, on the seventh day: i.e. he ceased
thenceforth from establishing new natures. And the expression used — that
God rested from all his works on the seventh day — means that God rested
in himself, not in his works. For other craftsmen are in need of their works,
and perform their works so that in them they may find something to meet
their need: and when they get what meets their need they rest in that. But
God, the craftsman of everything, is in no need of having anything outside
himself. He did not do his works so that when they were done he might get
something which made him better off. He made his works so that the works
made might be well off in him, through him, and for him. Therefore he did
not rest in the works he had made, as other craftsmen do, but rested in
himself after they were made, just as he had rested in himself before they
were made. He does not derive any rest from them. This is signified by the
presence of the preposition "from", which means "afterwards" and
"separately", so that we understand that God rested in himself after his
works, and did not derive his rest from his works at all; and that this rest is
1 Not traced
278 PART NINE
not in the least connected with being derived from his works. Also, rest is
not to need anything that one does not yet have, and not to incline towards
having anything that one does not already have. God rests in this way
eternally, since he needs nothing outside himself, and does not incline
towards anything that he has in himself potentially but not actually. Thus
when he had established all the natures over six days and did not incline
towards the establishment of more natures, he is correctly said to have
rested on the seventh day: i.e. he did not incline in his intention to
establishing any more.
5. Moreover, God is said in the Scripture to do what we do in him and
what he does in us. Hence he says: "It is not you that speak, but the spirit of
your Father that speaketh in you" V And Paul says: "Do you seek a proof of
Christ that speaketh in me?"2. And he says to Abraham: "Now I know that
thou fearest God"3, i.e. now I have made you know, i.e., I have known in
you and you have known in me. It is in this way, also, that God is here said
to have rested from his works. This means that he made the rational
creature rest from its works. For by his illumination we ascend as regards
the inward mind from the visible works to the invisible things of God, in
which we rest by contemplation and enjoyment, [233A] in need of nothing
outside God, not inclining towards anything outside him, but having all
desirable things in him. We say, with the Psalmist "But it is good for me to
adhere to God"4. He leads us by the hand from all his works to the
knowledge and enjoyment of his rest, to give us rest in them. As a result
all his works were done for the sake of the human being, so that they might
gently serve us, and so that he might call them back to him through human
beings, and give them rest in himself. For all things, in their own way,
strive after the highest good, and in their own way share in that good, and
rest in it.
Chapter IV
1. Moses adds: "From all his work which he had done". This seems to
have been sufficiently said with "He rested from all his work", without
adding "which he had done". But perhaps the extra words suggest the
perfection of the works. For some craftsmen cease and rest from their
works when they are not yet perfect. These can be said to rest from their
works, but not from the works that they have done. Also, other craftsmen
do their work by bringing a form into a matter: they do not make the matter
1 Matthew, 10: 20
3 Genesis, 22: 12
4 Psalms, 72: 28
CHAPTERS III-V 279
which they put a form into. Thus, though they perfect their work it is not
altogether their work that they perfect: rather, they have finished off
someone else's work. Nor have they performed the work that they have
done, but rather performed the work of the one who gave them the nature,
who laboured at it before them, and whose labour they took over. But God
made a material beginning of his work from nothing, and thus completed
what was not diminished in any way. Hence it was only he who brought to
perfection a work that was his alone, and no-one else's in any way: it was
he who did it, no-one else, and once it was completed, he rested. Also,
some people make the parts of a whole, which they do not bring together
into one complete whole. But God made each and every one of the things
he made on the each of the six days, and ceased from them: and on the
seventh day he gave them united permanence in existence, and completed
from all of them one complete whole universe.
2. This is perhaps why it says above that God completed his work on
the seventh day: i.e. the individual things he had completed on the six days,
he brought together, in himself, in one united universe, on the seventh day.
That is why it says, with significance, that he rested from all his works,
because he had completed their united whole in themselves. In this unity
the universe is joined together, exists and remains. The perfection of each
of the parts of the universe is suggested on each of the six days, but on the
seventh day is suggested the bringing together of the one universe from all
its parts. In this bringing together, the individual parts, that were already
perfect in themselves, have a fuller and more perfect completion, and a
firmer fixing in permanence and rest. This is in the same way as the parts
of one body, besides the completion that each has in itself, receive a
more perfect completion through being joined together in unity, and being
co-ordered with the other parts for the sake of the whole.
Chapter V
1. There follows: "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it:
because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made".
The time is said to be blessed and sanctified because of the good and holy
action of which it is the measure, just as days are said to be bad, contrari
wise, because of the movements, actions and passions of punishment that
they measure. Jacob says: "The days of my life's pilgrimage are few and
evil"1. The sabbath day, then, is said to be blessed and sanctified because it
measured God's holy and blessed rest and his ceasing from the works he
had established; it measured the rest of the human being and other creatures
in God, and it measured the calling back of all things into the unity of one
1 Genesis, 47: 9
280 PART NINE
whole universe in God, and into the sharing in the divine goodness in the
way that is possible for each one. This sharing is sanctification and
blessing. The sanctification of the sabbath day, then, is its being ordered
[233B] to the measuring of the aforesaid holy actions and sanctifications.
Hence he sanctified it because he ceased from all his works on it. It is for
this reason that the sabbath is holy, that it measures this holy ceasing and
holy rest. God blesses a creature when with his Word he calls that creature
back to him and to a share in him. He sanctifies a creature, by giving
himself, pouring himself into that creature for it to share in him. Jerome
says that God blessed the seventh day by saying that there should be no
servile work on it. He blessed it, then, by summoning his older people to
worship him on that day. He sanctified it by giving his worshippers a share
in him on that day.
Chapter VI
1. "God created his work to make"1: that is, he created it in the eternal
Word to make in deed, and he created it in matter to make in form. The
translation of the Seventy has: "And God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it, because on that day he rested from all his works that God had
begun to make". The expression "begun to make" may mean that in God's
work nothing is in vain. Everything that he begins he finishes, and he
leaves nothing unfinished.
2. These words also indicate, as do others above, that it is one and the
same God who gives to things their beginning in matter and their comple
tion in form. And it overthrows the two-fold error of the philosophers.
Some said that God was the craftsman and moulder of things out of
unbegotten matter that was co-eternal with him, which he had not
created. Others said that he formed the first substances of the heavens
and entrusted to them the formation of the things of the lower world.
Hence Plato represents the supreme God as making lesser gods in his
own right, and, once these gods are made by him, not playing any part
in the bother of forming the bodies of mortals2.
Chapter VII
1. In an allegorical sense the heaven and the earth are the church
triumphant and the church militant. The adornment of heaven, i.e. of the
church triumphant, is the angels: the adornment of the earth, i.e. of the
church militant, is the diversity of virtues and of religious orders. Also, the
1 This is the literal and not very enlightening translation of the Vulgate. The Douai version
has: "all his work which God created and made".
2 Cp. Timaeus, XIII, 41A-41D
CHAPTERS V-VII 281
heaven and the earth are Christ and the church: the adornment of heaven is
the virtues of Christ and the miraculous deeds that he did in the flesh; the
adornment of the earth is the seeds of virtue in the church, and the deeds of
virtue. Also the heaven and the earth are the new and the old testaments;
and in the two testaments, the spiritual sense is like the heaven, and the
historical and literal sense is like the earth. The adornment of either is the
exposition of either testament or of either sense by the saints, who bloom
with the colouring of their knowledge and their words. Also the heaven and
the earth are the two natures of Christ; and though the divine nature is not
in itself something made, the union of the two natures is something made,
when human nature was taken on. Hence a perfect union of heaven and
earth was made when the Word of God took on flesh; and though the Word
was not made the Word, he was made flesh and, as Paul says, was the
Father's "Son, who was made to him of the seed of David, according to the
flesh"1. The adornment of heaven means the eternal and immortal concepts
of all things in the eternal wisdom of the Father. But the adornment of earth
in Christ as a human being is his created wisdom as a human being, he who
from the moment of his conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the
Virgin knew all things. Or the adornment of heaven is all the human things
predicated of the Word of God, e.g. when one says "God was born in time,
he suffered, died, and was buried", and the like. The adornment of earth are
the divine things predicated of Christ as a human being, as when one says,
"This human being created the stars" or "This human being is the son of
God by nature", and the like. Also the heaven and the earth are the prelates
and the subjects in the church. The adornment of heaven is the right and
ordered rule of prelates over their subjects. The adornment of the earth is
the willing and ordered obedience of subjects to their prelates.
2. In a moral sense the heaven and the earth are the inward and the
outward man. The adornment of heaven is the beauty of the natural powers
of the rational part of the soul. The adornments of the earth are the senses
of the body and the animal powers. Also the adornments of heaven are the
natural powers of the rational part of the soul, when it is formed by grace
and by the light of eternal wisdom; or the grace, full of light, that orders
and illuminates the natural powers. The adornments of the earth are the
bodily senses, and the powers of the sensible soul, in so far as they are
ruled and ordered by the reason, which is illuminated and ordered by the
light of wisdom and of grace. Also heaven and earth are spiritual men and
animal men. The adornment of heaven, that is, of spiritual men, is cleanli
ness of heart; the adornment of earth, that is, of animal men, is their
promptness to dispose of human affairs in a lawful way. Also, heaven
1 Romans, 1: 3
282 PART NINE
and earth are the good and the bad. The adornments of heaven, that is, of
the good, are the virtues and the deeds of the virtues. The adornments of the
earth are the vices and their deeds. For though these are foul in themselves,
they are beautiful when ordered by God for the sake of the whole. As
Augustine says: "God foresees what good he will do with what is bad, and
orders foul things in a way which is not foul"1. Hence, in The City of God
Augustine says again: "The evil will bears a great witness to good nature.
And just as God is the best Creator of good natures, he is also the most just
orderer of evil wills. When they make evil use of good natures, he makes
good use even of evil wills. Nor would God have created any human being,
let alone angel, that he could foresee would be evil, unless he had equally
known what good uses he would put them to, and how he would make good
the order of the ages, making it like a most beautiful poem by means of
these contrasting phrases.2"
Chapter VIII
1. "And on the seventh day God ended his work". The text of the
Seventy, as we said, has it thus: "And on the sixth day God finished his
works that he had made". This text can be understood allegorically to mean
that Christ took on flesh in the sixth age and completed and finished
everything. For he brought back all natures as if into the unity of a
circle, which before the incarnation had not fully returned into a circle.
2. For God, in so far as he is God, does not have any nature that is
common to any creature, or which is said of him and of them in a univocal
way. But when God became a human being, the God-man shared in a
nature with the rational creature in a univocal way, and the making of the
circle was perfect, and the circular return to God was joined up. For the
soul and the angels are one in the nature of rationality and intelligence. The
soul and human flesh are joined in the unity of the person in every single
human being. And human flesh has in itself, as its matter, all the elements
of this world. Also the human soul has a share, by virtue of its unity, in the
vegetable soul, that the plants have, and in the sensitive soul, that the brute
animals have.
3. Now, when the Son of God took on flesh, God and the human being
are joined in the unity of a person. There is one Christ, the Son of God, who
is both God and a human being, and is one God with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, sharing the same undivided nature of divinity with them. And
the same Christ is one in nature with the human being. And as a human
being he has, on the side of his body, a unity and a natural sharing with all
1 Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, I, xxiv, 52 (PL, XLII, 636)

2 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XI, 17-18 (CSEL, XL.l, 536-537)
CHAPTERS VII-IX 283
the elements, and with the bodies that are made up of the elements. On the
side of his soul he has a sharing in vegetative nature with the plants, in
sensitive nature with the brute animals, and in rational nature with the
angels. For the angels and Christ, in so far as he is a human being, share in
rationality. Hence in Christ, who is both God and a human being, all things
are gathered together and brought into unity: and this completion in nature
would not have happened if God had not become a human being. In Christ,
therefore, all things are made perfect and completed by some kind of
natural perfection and completion.
4. Also, on the sixth day God completed his works, because it was on
the sixth day, Friday, that Christ completed everything, suffering on the
Cross, when he said "It is consummated"1 and gave up his spirit, and by
reconciling the human race with the Father brought [223 D] all things back
to their ancient dignity. Hence Rabanus in his book On the Cross, making
the points of the cross into the number six in a triangular figure, says "The
number six, that the holy cross marks by laying down the number six three
times over, signifies the perfection of the passion of Christ and of our
redemption. For just as the perfect creation of the world is signified by the
number six, so the perfect reparation of the world is suggested by the
number six in Christ, who was crucified on the sixth day. It was a great
day on which the Creator perfected his work; no less a great day is this day
on which the Creator sanctified his work by restoring it. On the one day the
creator completed his creation by his work: and now he fills it with
heavenly blessing by making reparation.2"
Chapter IX
1. In a moral sense, the work of God towards the justice that is
sufficient for salvation is fulfilled in the six works of mercy that the
Lord counts off in Matthew when he says: "I was hungry, and you gave
me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you
took me in; naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in
prison, and you came to me."3 In these six the perfection of the work of
God is so great, that in them is the reward of the kingdom of heaven, and
the eternal possession of that kingdom. Also, in a moral sense, the work of
God is completed in six days, when the mind ascends to the contemplation
of the Trinity and brings back a light of fear from the power of the Father, a
light of knowledge from the wisdom of the Son, and a light of love from the
kindness of the Holy Spirit. With these three lights it destroys the darkness
1 John, 19: 30
2 Rabanus, De laudibus sanctae crucis, II, 23 (PL, CVII, 288)
3 Matthew, 25: 35-36
284 PART NINE
of the lust of the flesh, and of the lust of the eyes, and of the pride of life,
putting a form with these lights into the three parts of the soul, i.e. the
irascible, the rational, and the concupiscible. These three lights thus
become three days, poured down from the Father of lights above. And
the three other days are the informing and the raising on high of the three
powers of the soul by the lights that are poured into them. The text that says
"on the seventh day", means, in an allegorical sense, that on the seventh
day God finished his work, i.e. his work of the human being for which all
the others were made. The human being is also called in the Gospel "every
creature"1. This he does when he carries the human being over from the
toil of this corruptible life to the seventh age, the state of those who are at
rest, and confirms it in incapability of sinning. For when the faithful are
carried across from this life to a state of rest, there is put on them the
necessity of not falling again into sin: for in this life all have the possibility
of sinning, no matter how holy they may be. In relation to this necessity of
not falling back into sin, any perfection of this life that is still capable of
falling into sin is an imperfection.
2. Also, according to some expositors, the seventh day signifies the
day of judgement. And on this interpretation the allegory is obvious: on
that day all things will be most perfectly completed, when the saints take
up their immortal and glorious bodies, and the number of the angels that
was diminished by the fall of the devil will be made up again by holy
human beings, and this sensible world will be renewed in incorruptible
qualities, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And this is the
highest and last perfection, which cannot be increased again, since it is the
highest. Nor will it be able to be diminished, since it will receive incorrupt
ibility in that completion. Hence Isaiah says, "For as the new heavens, and
the new earth, which I make to stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall
your seed stand"2. They would not stand if they were subject to any
change.
3. In the moral sense God completes his work, i.e. the human being, in
the number seven. This is because the human being is made up by nature
according to the number seven, i.e. of four elements as regards the body
and of three powers of the soul. Also the human being is completed by the
freely given seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that Isaiah lists3, and the seven
virtues that flow from those seven gifts. While the human being is still a
wayfarer it is completed by the seven petitions of the Lord's prayer; and
when it is in its heavenly homeland it is completed by the seven [234A]
1 Cp. Mark, 16: 15

2 Isaiah, 66: 22
3 Isaiah, 11: 2-3
CHAPTER IX 285
beatitudes promised in Matthew by the Lord to those who ask for them with
devotion1, and to those who act according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit
from the motive of the virtues.
4. The rest of God on the seventh day signifies allegorically the rest of
Christ in the tomb on the sabbath, after he had made reparation for all by
the toil of his passion on the Cross. It also signifies our rest in God after the
works of perfection that are signified by the number six. It also signifies the
rest of the saints who are at rest in the seventh age: an age, Bede tells us,
which began with Abel, the first to die, and is to be completed at the
resurrection of all the dead. Hence Bede says: "On the seventh day, when
all his works were completed, God rested, and sanctified that day, com
manding that it should be called the sabbath. We do not read that it had any
evening. The souls of the just rest from their most excellent toils of this
life, in the seventh age, in another life for ever, which will never be spotted
by any sadness, but will be increased by greater glory at the resurrection.
This age began for human beings when the first martyr Abel entered the
tomb as regards his body, but the sabbath of everlasting rest as regards his
soul. It will be completed when the saints will recover their bodies on the
earth a second time, and will have everlasting joy.2" And according to
Augustine that seventh age will not end, but will be taken up by the eighth
that will last without end. Hence he says, in the second book of Against
Januarius: "Read the book of Genesisl You will find that the seventh day
has no evening: this means rest without end. The first life was not ever
lasting on account of sin. But the last rest is everlasting, and by this the
eighth day too will have everlasting rest, for that everlasting rest is not
ended by the eighth age but taken up in it.3" The sabbath, also, as
Augustine says in the last book of The City of God, signifies how we
will be in our homeland, when we will be at ease for ever. He says:
"There the words will be fulfilled: 'Be still, and see that I am God'4. It
will truly be the great sabbath that has no evening, that God laid down in
the first works of the world, where we read 'And God rested on the seventh
day from all the works he had made' . We too will be the seventh day, when
we are filled and renewed with his blessing. There we will be still and will
see that he is God.5" Also, according to Basil, the seventh day is the day of
judgment, which will follow at once on the succession of the six ages of
this world6. Now, indeed, God truly rests from all his works that were
1 Matthew, 5: 3-11
2 Bede, De temporum ratione, X (ed. Jones, p. 202)
3 Augustine, Ad inquisitiones Januarii, II, 9 = Letters, LV, 17 (CSEL, XXXIV. 1, 188)
4 Psalms, 45: 1 1
5 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XXII, 30 (CSEL, XL.2, 668)
6 Basil, Hexaemeron, XI, 11 (ed. cit., pp. 256-258)
286 PART NINE
perfectly completed on that day, as we expounded it above; but then he will

make us rest in him from our toilsome works and from the needs of this
life. Then they will not marry nor give in marriage, there will be no
exchange of trade, nor tilling of the ground, nor building of houses.
Then there will be a rest from all the methods of the logicians, and on
that day there will be no desire for this life, but they will then be as holy as
are the angels of God in heaven.
5. This sabbath rest also signifies our ceasing from the slave-work of
sin. Hence it is commanded by Moses: "You shall do no servile work on
it"1. Keeping the sabbath is also everything that we do in the hope of
eternal rest. Hence Augustine in On the ten strings says: "This seventh day,
on which God sanctified rest, has no evening. It says there: 'The morning
came', for the day to begin; it does not say, 'the evening came' for the day
to end. It says 'the morning came', for it to be a day without an end. In this
way, then, our rest begins, as with a morning; but it does not end, because
we will live for ever. If we do whatever we do in this hope, we are keeping
the sabbath.2" Since, then, by our works done in hope we make progress
towards our rest, on the seventh day we rest from all of our works. And
since God does this in us, in us he rests from his works on the seventh day.
Also God rests in us when he is pleased with us. He is pleased with us when
we are informed by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and by the seven
petitions for the seven chief virtues, that lead to the seven beatitudes. And
when our outward works correspond to these inward goods, then they are
accepted by God, and they are his works in us. He rests, then, in us, from
his works done through us, on the seventh day, that is, in completing the
seven gifts and the seven petitions and the seven virtues and the seven
beatitudes. We are also taught, in a moral sense, to hope for rest after our
good works by God's resting after his good works. Hence Augustine says
in On the gospel of John: "Scripture calls it a rest to tell us that after our
good works we will rest. For we find it written in Genesis: 'And God made
all things very good, and God rested on the seventh day'. This was so that
you, a human being, when you hear that God rested after his good works,
might not hope to rest until you have done good works. And just as God,
after making the human being to his image and likeness and completing all
his works and making them very good on the sixth day, rested on the
seventh, you should not hope for rest until you have returned to the likeness
in which you were made, and which you lost by sinning.3"
6. All the things that, as we have said above, are signified by the
1 At e.g. Leviticus, 23: 7

2 Augustine, Sermo XI: De decem chordis, V (PL, XXXVIII, 80)
3 Augustine, In Joannis evangelium, XX, 2 (PL, XXXV, 1556-1557)
CHAPTERS IX-X 287
seventh day in moral and allegorical senses, clearly belong to holiness and
blessing now or hereafter. And therefore according to the moral and
allegorical senses this day is deservedly called blessed and sanctified:
that is, in so far as it is that to which the measure and manner of blessing
and sanctification truly belong. According to Augustine the seventh day is
the seventh awareness of the angels, by which afterwards the rest of their
Creator is represented, as he rests in himself from all his works1. This day,
which has no evening, deserved to be blessed and sanctified for this reason.
For in this perfect, permanent and loving awareness the angels are blessed
and sanctified.
Chapter X
1. The number seven is treated as worthy of respect in Scripture for
many mysterious reasons, and it is raised up by philosophers among the
other numbers by a special privilege of dignity. For it has, beyond all the
others, more privileged aspects, of the perfection of which more can be
said, as Augustine says in the eleventh book of The City of God2. In the
first place, it is perfect because it is made up from three and four. Three is
the odd number which first and essentially has the property of wholeness,
and four is the first whole among the even numbers. For a whole and a
complete thing is something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end,
which is a property that the number three is the first odd number to have in
an essential way, and the number four is the first even number to have in an
essential way. In the indivisibility of the odd numbers is the nature of
activity; and in the divisibility of the even numbers is the nature of
passivity. The true perfection of each thing, and its rest in perfection, is
when it has a beginning, a middle and an end, in respect of activity and in
respect of passivity. And when it is so, it fits the proportion of seven, which
is made up of three and four, and thus has a wholeness made up of an active
and a passive that have a beginning, a middle and an end. So this kind of
perfection, which comes from being made up of the first wholes, one active
and one passive, belongs primarily and in its own right to the number
seven.
2. Also, form, matter and their harmonious composition complete all
things and put them to rest. Since, therefore, every harmony is found
primarily in the number four, as is clear from the rules of music, and
since the composition of matter and form can first be seen in three
(because the middle unit of three joins the last to the first, as the end to
the beginning, and as the form to the matter) the completion and rest
1 Cp. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, IV, 25 (CSEL, XXVII. 1, 124)

2 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XI, 31 (CSEL, XL.l, 559)
288 PART NINE
through the fullness of existence in things that are harmonically composed

of matter and form are first found in the number seven.
3. Also, no multiplication [234C] of seven by any prime number or
composite number produces an articulate number [number divisible by
ten]: only its multiplication by an articulate number produces an articulate
number. It first produces an articulate number when it is multiplied by ten.
Ten is the completion of the numbers, since beyond ten there are no more
numbers, just replication of numbers. The number seven, therefore, first
reaches the completion of an articulate number when it is applied to the
completion of ten. Therefore seven is completed only by being applied to
completion. Likewise, when the rest of a thing in permanence of existence
is applied to the perfection of the completeness of the parts of the thing,
then the thing has its completed completion, which comes from the
application of rest to wholeness, in the way that seven is applied to the
perfection of ten.
4. Seven is also made up of one and six. Unity is the primary attribute
of the simplicity of divinity. Six is perfect, because it consists in middling-
ness and lacks superfluity and diminution. Hence this way of making up
seven is the joining of middlingness, and the perfection that has no super
fluity or diminution, to simplicity. This is the best perfection, since some
thing that lacks superfluity and diminution attaches itself and is joined, in
its way, to the primary and supreme simplicity. It is in seven that this kind
of perfection first appears, i.e. that the equality that lacks superfluity and
diminution is applied to the first simplicity, and hence to rest.
5. Seven is also made up, obviously, of two and five. Ten is generated
by applying two to five, and cannot be brought about by multiplication in
any other way. The making whole of this seven, then, makes ten. Seven,
then, is what makes completion by being made whole. Ten, as we said, is
the completion of the numbers.
6. And you should notice that it is possible to find in all creatures the
said modes of perfection if they are circumscribed with the number given;
and it cannot be found in things circumscribed by other numbers. For this
reason things draw their modes of perfection from numbers: it is not that
numbers draw their perfection from the things numbered. Therefore,
because of the completion of the number seven, a great number of the
creatures of this world are ordered and ranked by seven: especially those
that have an order and proportion of perfecting. For this reason the planets
that order and move and change this lower world are believed to be seven.
The course of the moon, too, which, they say, applies the powers of the
higher heavenly bodies to this lower world, is arranged by sevens. For
starting from the ecliptic line it wanders for seven days to the northern
extremity of the zodiac, and then, for another seven days, comes back to
CHAPTER X 289
the mid-line of the zodiac, i.e. to the ecliptic. For a third set of seven days it
wanders to the southern extremity of the zodiac: and then for seven days
comes back again to the mid-line of the zodiac. By similar arrangements of
weeks it arranges the variations of its lights by turn, by an eternal law. For
in the first seven days it grows to the half or split globe, and then is called
dichotomous. In the next seven days it fills its whole globe with light, and
then is called panselenous. In the third it wanes and becomes dichotomous.
And in the fourth seven days it returns to hiding its light, and then it is
called synodous. /
7. There are also seven figures distinguished in its light, not only by
philosophers, but also by the sacred expositors. For John Damascene says
"The figures of the moon are: the synod, i.e. the council, when it arrives at
the part where the sun is; the generation, when it stands away fifteen
degrees from the sun; the rising, when it appears; two menoids, [234D]
when it stands away sixty degrees; two dichotomies, when it stands away
ninety degrees; two amphicirts, when it stands away a hundred and twenty
degrees; the two plisiselenes and plisiphes, when it stands away one
hundred and fifty degrees; and the panselene, when it stands away one
hundred and eighty degrees."1 The figures of the moon, then, are: genera
tion, synod, menoid, dichotomy, amphicirt, plisiselene, panselene. For the
synod is not properly called a figure of the luminary, since the part that is
seen is devoid of all light.
8. Others distinguish the seven figures of the moon differently: the first
would be when it is new, the second at the dichotomy, the third when it
becomes amphicirt, the fourth when it is panselene, the fifth when it is
amphicirt again, the sixth when it is at the dichotomy again, and the
seventh when all light towards us is cut off. Also there are three rota
tions, of the day, the month and the year, which are each divided four ways,
and have a relationship to the four primary qualities of the elements and the
four elements. Hence the bodily order is laid out according to the number
seven on account of the three kinds of rotation and the four modes of the
qualities that are in each rotation. Also the progress of the formation of a
human being in its mother's womb goes by weeks.
9. Also the ages of the human being once born go by sevens2. The first
seven years are infancy, and at the end of it the milk teeth are lost and new
teeth grow. From then on is childhood, till the age of fourteen, and then
there is puberty, when the generative force begins to move in men and
menstruation begins in women. The third is adolescence, up to the age of
twenty-one, and then growth is complete as regards the length of the body.

2 Cp. Basil, Hexaemeron, X, 13 (ed. cit., p. 198)
290 PART NINE
The fourth age reaches up to the age of twenty-eight, and then growth as
regards width is complete. The fifth age is up to thirty-five, and then the
human being is complete in the powers and the strength of the body. The
sixth age is up to forty-two, and during this whole age the fullness of
strength that was made perfect in the previous age is kept. The seventh age
reaches to forty-nine, which is seven times seven, and in this age there is a
hidden diminution of the powers of the body. This is the most perfect age,
because the powers of the body have not yet failed, and at this age the
wisdom of the mind is greatest. But through the eighth and ninth periods of
seven years there is an obvious decline in the powers of the body.
10. And when ten times seven years are completed, the natural age of
the human being is completed, because the time of generation and of
progress is equal by nature to the time of decline and return to corrup
tion. The time of progress, as we said, is up to thirty-five, and hence this
number of years, doubled, puts a natural term to the age of the human
being, though a good constitution and the help of medicine take some
through to the years beyond this. The completion of this age is suggested
by the Psalmist when he says: "The days of our years in them are three
score and ten years"1. And the composition of the whole human body, and
the numbering of the parts, goes by sevens. And in the five senses there are
seven apertures: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth. And if we
number the two apertures of one sense as one, because there is only one
sense, there are seven apertures in the whole body, the eye, the ear, the
nose, the mouth, the navel and the two apertures for the emission of the two
superfluities. All the regular movements, too, are seven: up, down, forward,
back, right, left, around.
11. And there are many orderings of nature by sevens of this kind,
because seven is completion. But I cannot number them all here because it
would take too long, and because the matter is difficult, and my knowledge
is slight. But I have reminded you of these few out of many [235A] to
stimulate your wit to admire and to examine the perfection of seven. Even
the very word used attests to it. In Greek it is eptas, originally septas,
which means "worshipfulness" in Latin. And this number is worshipful
and honoured in Scripture. In the old law the seventh day was held as
worshipful, on which there was holiday from servile work. And seven
times seven days were reckoned from the Passover to the time of the
offering of the first-fruits, when a new sacrifice was offered, of bread
baked from the first-fruits, and of the other things which are listed in
Leviticus2. The seventh month was worshipful to the Jews, too, in which
1 Psalms, 89: 10
2 Leviticus, 23: 15-21
CHAPTER X 291
there was the day of atonement and the blowing of the ram's horn and the
setting up of the tabernacles. The seventh year, too, was worshipful among
the Jews, and was called the year of remission, when they took holiday
from tilling the ground, and lived on what grew spontaneously, and Hebrew
bondsmen were set free. They also celebrated the seventh week of years:
when this was over, i.e. the fiftieth year was beginning, the trumpets rang
out loudly and all possession reverted according to the law. Also in the
prophet Daniel the seventieth week of years is worshipful, at which time
appears eternal justice: and it is filled with vision and prophecy and
anointed with the Holy Spirit1. In the seventieth year, too, according to
the prophet Jeremiah, the captivity in Babylon was ended2. The seventh
generation from the first did not see death. Moses was the seventh to
receive the law from Abraham, and there was made a change of life, an
ending of iniquity, a beginning of justice, a good ordering of the world and
a good direction of actions through the law. Christ appeared in the seventy-
seventh generation from Adam. Peter was fully aware of the mystery of
seven when he asked the Lord "How many times shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive him?" adding "Unto seven times?"3. Unless
Peter had understood that this number was a mystical one, he would not
have fitted forgiveness to it more than to another number. And the Lord
commended the mystery of seven yet more fully when he replied that one
should forgive one's brother unto seventy times seven times. Sins are
punished by sevens, as well. Hence we read further on in Genesis according
to the text of the Seventy, "Anyone who kills Cain will pay a seven-fold
punishment", and further on that "Cain took vengeance sevenfold: Lamech
will take it seventy times seven"4. Or, as our text has it, "Sevenfold
vengeance will be taken for Cain; for Lamech, seventy times sevenfold" .
And in Isaiah Tyre is told: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that thou,
O Tyre, shalt be forgotten, seventy years, according to the days of one king:
but after seventy years, there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot"5.
12. There are many more such things in Scripture which prove the
worshipfulness of the number seven, but let this brief reminder suffice to
commend the seven with which God sanctified the sabbath of rest.
1 Daniel, 9: 24
2 Jeremiah, 25: 1 1
3 Matthew, 18: 21
4 Genesis, 4: 15; 4: 24
5 Isaiah, 23: 15
Part Ten
Chapter I
1 . "These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they
were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the earth:
and every plant of the field before it sprang up in the earth, and every herb
of the ground." The generation of creatures was spoken of above, and
under the six-fold division the things that were brought into existence by
generation were listed. Here it suggests the manner of their generation and
bringing forth into being, especially because the way they are now gener
ated and brought into existence is different from the way they were
generated at their first establishment. When it says, then, "These are the
generations of the heaven and the earth", it wants to point to and to signify
the aforesaid bringing forth of things into existence, and afterwards their
modes of generation. Hence the demonstrative force of this pronoun
"These" is directed to what was said before and to what is to be said
afterwards.
2. Now, when these two words, heaven and earth, are connected in
scripture, and nothing else is added, [235B] they include all bodily things,
i.e. heaven and its adornment, and the earth and the water and whatever is
grosser than air, which are all together included under the name of earth,
together with the adornments of those elements, i.e. animals and plants. But
when there is something added to these words which expresses the adorn
ment of the world, as when it says "heaven and earth and all that is in
them", then these words properly signify the two foundational parts of the
world. Here, then, by the words "heaven" and "earth" put in the first
place, we should understand all bodily things.
3. But these expressions added, "when they were created", suggest
some kind of a manner and circumstance of the generation of all things, i.e.
that they were not drawn out into existence from matter that was co-eternal
with God, but were made from nothing, since creation is a bringing into
existence from what is wholly non-existent. That the world is not co-eternal
with God, but created in time and together with the beginning of time, is
suggested by the adverb "when". This avoids the error of the philosophers
who thought that the world was made, not from nothing, but from matter
that was co-eternal with God, and who thought that the world, though made
CHAPTER I 293
from matter, did not have a beginning in time. This would be in the way
that a footprint, though made, would be without a beginning in time if the
foot had been pressed into the dust without a beginning1. And because it
could be imagined that time and movement existed without light and day,
in order that no-one should think that the heaven and the earth, which were
made together with the beginning of time from nothing, preceded light and
day in time, it adds: "in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the
earth", as if to say: "these generations were together with the beginning of
time, and from nothing". The beginning of time was also the beginning of
day. Also, heaven and earth and light were created all together: the light
which began the day of time. And whether or not the establishment of the
parts of the world in their perfect species was successive, and whether or
not the drawing out of the world was successive, at the beginning of time
and of day all things were brought from nothing, at least into material
existence. Thus they then were created in their matter, even if they did not
yet receive their formation by species.
4. Therefore the creation of the world began from nothing and at the
beginning of daily time. Many philosophers deny this mode of generation.
Daily time, then, from which the world began according to its first instant,
is the measure of the establishment of the highest heaven and of the earth,
according to the perfection of its species. And the establishment of the
creatures that followed was successive: it was light alone that made the day
that was perfect in the same first instant and became day, i.e. became daily
time. Then, once this was begun and continued by rotation until the
completion of six or seven days, in which the nature of the day was
complete according to its most specific differences, all the other things
were made as a consequence, each one on its own day.
5. But there are some things that are not corrupted and do not renew
themselves by propagation or by another generation, e.g. the firmament,
and the sun, moon and stars. They have only one manner of being
generated, the manner in which they were generated at the beginning of
time from matter that was created from nothing. This manner is already
sufficiently described above. Therefore it does not add anything here about
their generation. But it does repeat and add something about the generation
of plants and of the human being: this is because these now have a different
manner of being generated from the one they had in the beginning. It does
this to distinguish the manner of generation which is current now from the
manner of generation that there was then, to prevent us from thinking that
there is only one manner of generation which there was then and is now.
1 Cp. Augustine, De civitate Dei, X, 31 (CSEL, XL.l, 502-503). See also above, I, viii, 3
and 5.
294 PART TEN
This was the opinion of some who were wise with the wisdom of the world,
that only the manner of generation that there is now was always shown, and
there was never any other manner. They argued in this way that there never
were any first human beings or first animals or first plants: these things,
they thought, had been generated since forever in the way that they are now
generated, from others before them. It suggests the difference between the
first generation [235C] and the generation that is current now, by saying
"and every plant of the field before it sprang up in the earth". For now
every plant of the field is born from the seeds of its kind, seeds which
receive germination and quickening from the earth before they break out
through the earth by sprouting and increasing. All plants, then, now first
rise from seeds of their kind in the earth, and afterwards have their second
growth above the earth. In the same way animals are first conceived: they
have their first growth, as it were, when they quicken in the wombs of their
mothers, and the second when they are brought forth into this light from
their mothers' wombs. But the first generation of plants was not like this: it
proceeded to the perfect and visible act and form, either all at once or
successively, and the growth did not begin in the earth from a seed of the
same nature. In a similar way, every herb of the ground appeared complete
above the earth, and was not preceded by its germination in the earth, from
a seed of its kind. Hence it says: "every plant of the field" was made by
God according to its perfect form, visibly, above the earth "before it sprang
up in the earth": that is, it was not preceded by its growth in the earth from
a seed of the same nature, as now growth in the earth precedes growth
above the earth.
6. Likewise, "every herb of the ground before it grew". I.e. this was
not preceded by its germination from some seed of its own kind. The
generation of plants, also, is now helped by the watering of the rains,
since the rain seeps into the ground and "makes it germinate, and gives
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater"1. Their germination is also now
helped by tilling, but at the beginning the generation of plants was without
the help of rains and of tilling. That is why it adds: "For the Lord had not
rained upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the earth." It is as if it
said: "In the beginning the plants rose up above the earth without having
previously sprouted from seeds in the earth", since this kind of growth,
from seeds in the earth, and then above the earth, needs the help of tilling
and of rains. But there were, as yet, no rains nor tilling, and for that reason
that first generation could not be as the second generation now is, which is
helped by the rains and by tilling. And you should consider that for the
growth of plants, as it now is, the seed in the earth needs to die and
1 Isaiah, 55: 10
CHAPTER I 295
quicken, needs the co-operation of tilling, needs the pouring down of rains
from heaven, and, moreover, the watering which comes from below through
the channels of the earth, which rises from the root and the womb of waters,
that is, the depths of the sea. At the growth of plants in the beginning there
was no seed, no rains, no tilling: there was only the watering that comes
from below, from the depths of the sea. This watering held the dust of the
earth together to make it a matter fit for plants. That is why it adds: "a
spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth".
7. This, then, is the manner of generation of plants in the beginning.
They were brought into existence by the word of the one who commanded
without seeds of their kind, without the watering of the rains, without the
work of tillers, from earthly matter alone that was watered and moistened
from the depths of the sea through underground channels. The word of
command and the earthly matter are expressed above, where it says: "God
said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit". But the land which had been bared of the first waters was dry. Hence
the spring of the sea at once poured back the watering with moisture which
is here spoken of.
8. The manner of the generation of animals, which in the beginning
was different from the manner which we now see, is sufficiently well
expressed by the manner of generation of plants which has just been
given, and the manner of generation of the human being which is to
follow. It is sufficiently well supported by these two [235D] extremes, as
it were, as something between the two. The manner of the first generation
of animals was that they were all made by the word of the one who
commands alone, some from water as their matter and some from earth
as their matter, without being preceded by the seed of their kind, and
without the union of male and female, without being conceived or warmed
in the womb, and without the fostering and attention which are now given
to one new born from the womb.
9. Nor should anyone object that we said above that the growth of
plants, as it now is, requires the help of the rains, but that it is not in
Scripture that it rained before the flood. For even if there were no rains
pouring down from the clouds before the flood, I do not believe that at that
time the fertility of the earth was deprived of the benefit of dew by night.
Dew is rain, differing slightly in the size of the drops and the place of its
generation. And perhaps it is included under the word "rain" where it says:
"The Lord had not rained upon the earth". The word "spring" comes from
the pouring of waters1. Hence, according to the origin of the word the sea is
1 Isidore, Etymologies, XIII, xxi, 5. The etymology suggested is "fons", spring, from
"fundendo", pouring.
296 PART TEN
appropriately called a spring, since it is the first root of waters, pouring

them from below through hidden channels, and watering over the surface
of the earth, not by a flood, but by a tiny sprinkling of moisture within. In a
similar way the liver is the spring that waters the whole of the human flesh
with the moisture of blood, pouring it in everywhere through the tiny
channels of the veins. When the word "spring" is said without qualifica
tion, it is not understood more fittingly than as the sea, since the sea is in a
principal, primary and outstanding way what pours the waters through the
whole body of the earth. Also because the springs that break out here or
there have their origin in the sea. It is a result of the inward watering of this
great spring that the dust of the earth holds together and stays together, as
the Psalmist suggests when he says "Who hast founded the earth upon the
waters"1. And thus it becomes a fit matter for bringing things forth from
the earth. The watering of rain, which comes from above and is moved by
the power and the action of the luminaries of heaven, is an active and
motive force for the germination and the bringing forth of plants from the
earth, as things now are. This is suggested by Isaiah when he says: "And as
the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more thither,
but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the
sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be, which shall go forth
from my mouth"2.
Chapter II
1. "And God formed man of the slime of the ground, and breathed into
his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." On this passage
Josephus says: "God made a man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed
into him spirit and soul. This man was called Adam, a name which means
"red" in Hebrew, because he was made with damp red earth. Such is true
virgin earth.3" The translation of the Seventy has it thus: "God made a
man, taking dust from the earth". By comparing this translation with ours
and with the words of Josephus, it is clear enough what was the manner of
the establishment of the human being in so far as the body is concerned:
that God, by his word, formed the body of the first human being from red
dust, that is to say, from natural earth not infected or corrupted by any
extraneous accident. This dust was dampened to cling together as slime.
2. This moisture seems probably to have come from the spring which
welled up and watered all the surface of the earth. What is said by "a spring
rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth" should not be
1 Psalms, 105: 6
2 Isaiah, 55: 10-11
3 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 2, 34 (ed. Blatt, p. 128)
CHAPTERS I-II 297
taken to have to do only with what was said above about the first manner of
generation of plants, but also with what now follows about the manner of
formation of the human being, as far as the body is concerned. The sacred
author means to suggest that the watering of that spring dampened the
ground and made slime, from which God formed the human being in so far
as the body is concerned. The translation of the Seventy has it "God made
a man taking dust from the earth": but, as Josephus suggests, it was dust
"dampened" with moisture, to make "slime", as our translation has it.
This dampening is suggested by Moses when he says that "a spring rose
out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth".
3. He joins to this also the establishment of the human being on the
side of the soul when he says: "and breathed into his face the breath of
life": that is, the breath of life of his good pleasure, by his word. That is, he
created the rational soul, and infused it into the body he had formed in
order to make one person. And since the soul which is infused shows and
exercises its power principally in the face of the human being, it does not
say "he breathed on him", but "into his face". This manner of speaking
was noticed also by Augustine, who says: "The front part of the brain,
where all the senses are distributed, is put at the forehead. Also the organs
of the senses are in the face, except for that of the sense of touch, which is
spread throughout the body. Nonetheless it clearly has a channel that
connects it to the front part of the brain, which leads back from there
down the neck into the marrow of the spine. For this reason the face too has
the sense of touch, as does the whole body. But the senses of sight, hearing,
smell, and taste, are all located in the face. That, I think, is why Scripture
says that God blew the breath of life into the human being by breathing in
his face, when he became a living soul. The front part is appropriately put
before the back part: the front leads, the back follows, and the front senses,
the back is moved, just as consultation precedes action.1"
4. The whole human being, therefore, was made into a living soul, that
is, into a vegetable soul that lives by a sensitive power, and a sensitive soul
that lives by a rational power. Also, perhaps, there could be marked here in
quite a fitting way the triple power of the human soul in another way.
Perhaps the breath of life marks the power of the vegetative soul, and the
moving power of the heart, for the cooling of breath. The word "soul"
might mark the sensitive soul and the moving power that derives from the
sense appetite. The word "living" added to soul might mark the rational
power which is like the life of the sensitive life. You should notice also,
that the human being is said to be from the beginning "made into a living
soul". For natural creation does not stretch the human being out so far
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VII, 17 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 214-215)

298 PART TEN
above the sense of the flesh, the sense that lives by reason: it is only the
creation of grace that does that. Of this it was said: "A new heart create in
me, O God" , and of this James says: "For of his own will hath he begotten
us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature"2.
Of this Paul says: "If then any be in Christ a new creature"3. This stretches
out the human being as far as the life of the spirit and the life that has life
given to it, and the life in one spirit with God, according to what it says in
the gospel: "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit"4.
5. The establishment of nature, then, makes the human being a living
soul. The re-creation through grace makes for the human being a life in the
spirit, a life that is given life by the life of grace. The union of the Word of
God with the human nature he took up makes him, in so far as he is a
human being, "The new Adam, made a life-giving spirit"5. Also the order
of words here — that the human being, formed from the slime of the earth,
was made a living soul through the inbreathing of the breath of life —
could mean that the human being was so established, by nature, that the
body tends towards the rational soul, in such a way that the flesh should
serve and obey the body: and not vice-versa, in such a way that the reason
should succumb to fleshly appetite. And you should consider that God
made the human being into a living soul. The human being, by sinning,
made itself into a soul living in the flesh: and not only in the flesh, but in
the earth from which it was made. That is why it says below: "My spirit
shall not remain in man forever, for he is flesh"6. And to Adam, after his
sin, it is said: "Thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return"7. In the
translation of the Seventy this is said as follows: "You are earth, and
you will return to the earth".
6. We can mark from the fact that it says the human being was made
into a living soul, that the inward man is the true man. And when the
outward man decays, nonetheless [236B] the truth and the personality of
each human being remains in the continued existence of the inner man.
This is suggested clearly enough by the words of the Lord when he said: "I
am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: he is not
the God of the dead, but of the living.8" The order of the words mentioned
also marks the undivided work of the Trinity, and in the same words there
1 Psalms, 50: 12
2 James, 1: 18
4 J Corinthians, 6: 17
6 Genesis, 6: 3
7 Genesis, 3: 9
8 Matthew, 22: 32
CHAPTER II 299
is a clear suggestion of the Trinity. For the name "God" is taken to refer to
the Father. But "breathing" refers as much to the breath that is breathed as
to the mouth that breathes. Hence when it says "God breathed" it suggests
that God the Father through his mouth — i.e. through his Word — breathed
the Holy Spirit. And when it says that God breathed a breath of life, it
suggests that God the Father, with his Word and with the Spirit breathed by
the Father and by the Word, acted on the soul, by a divided work. The soul
is called the breath of life, because it gives life by breathing in and
breathing out. Without breathing in and breathing out the human being
does not live.
7. Together with this sense, too, a higher sense could be understood.
The soul, in so far as reason and intelligence are concerned, is a glance1
that is straight, but reflected on itself. And life is defined by some as being a
reciprocal spirit. For this reason the vital motion of the whole soul is a kind
of spiritual egress from itself and a reciprocal return into itself. This perfect
circling exists all at one and the same time in the non-bodily spirit. But
since the substance of the soul is united to the body in the unity of the
person, the human body necessarily follows the soul, in the manner which
is possible for it in its natural motions. From the reciprocal spiritual motion
of the soul in itself, there follow the movements of the heart which are
reciprocal one to another. For the heart moves continuously by expansion
and contraction. In this way it imitates, as far as it can, by bodily expan
sion, the stretching out of the vital power of the soul; and by bodily
contraction, it imitates the reciprocation of the spirit. And from the move
ment of the heart there follows, by nature, the movement of breathing in
and breathing out; and perhaps even all the movements of an animal that
move in a straight line come from the movements of sinews and muscles, a
movement that works by contraction or expansion, and that movement
comes from the circular movements of the bodily spirits, and those move
ments from the movement of the non-bodily spirit, that goes round in a
circle in a non-bodily way.
8. The soul, then, in so far as it is a soul, is a whole; and in so far as it
is life — rational, sensitive or vegetative — it is a kind of breathing that
bends back on itself. It moves the body in a way that is proportionate to it,
the body that it is joined to, according to the manner in which the body is
receptive of the action of the soul. Hence it is fitting for the soul to be
called the breath of life. Some have understood the slime from which the
human being was made to mean the union of the soul with the body: for just
as slime is made by mixing dust with liquid, so the soul lives by giving life
to the matter of the body. It cannot be dissolved. But when the soul
1 Aspectus
300 PART TEN
separates from the body, like liquid separated from dust, the body returns to
dust. Just as it says in Ecclesiastes "And the dust return into its earth, from
whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it"1.
Chapter III
1 . The text of this passage, as given and expounded by Augustine, is as
follows: "This is the book of the creature of heaven and earth. When day
was made, God made the heaven and the earth and every green thing of the
field, before they were upon the earth, and every grass of the field, before it
grew up." And some Greek texts have: "This is the book of the generation
of heaven and earth, when the day was made in which God made the
heaven and the earth," etc., as Augustine has it. Augustine tries, in dealing
with this passage, to draw from the sequence of this text support for the
view of his which we expounded above, that the seven days mean the
knowledge of the angels repeated seven times. And he expounds this text in
conformity with this view2. The sense of this text, then, is as follows: Here
is the book of the creature or of generation, that is, the book that recounts
the creation or generation of heaven and earth, that is, of the upper and
lower parts of the world with their contents. Then the creation of all things,
thus sketched out, is explained step by step, when it goes on to say "When
the day was made, God made the heaven and the earth and every green
thing of the field", etc.
2. Or when it says: "This is the book of the creature of heaven and
earth" it may suggest the creation of the heaven and the earth in so far as
matter is concerned, the matter which was formless, with regard to being
able to receive a form. [236C] This matter was afterwards to be formed by
the Word of God, and its existence was prior to its being formed: prior not
in time, but in origination. According to this exposition, that is why there is
added the second part of the conjunction, when it adds "When the day was
made, God made the heaven and the earth", etc. The sense of the text that
follows, then, is that the day was made first: that is, the angels were turned
back to God. Their establishment was expressed above, where God said: let
there be light. Then, once this day was made in itself, on the first day, on
the second day God made the heaven, that is, the firmament, that divides
the waters above from the waters beneath. And on the third day he made
the earth, gathering the waters beneath the heaven together so that the earth
might appear. On that day, together with the earth, and within the earth, he
made all the green things of the field and all the grasses of the field. He
2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, V (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 137-169)
CHAPTERS II-III 301
made them, I mean to say, in the earth in a causal and potential way, before
they rose above the earth in their visible bodily shape and form.
3. This, then, is the order of creation which, Augustine thinks, is
suggested here: that in the beginning and in the first instant of time was
made the matter of spirit and of body: it was formless and capable of
receiving a form. And then, at the same moment of time, but afterwards
according to nature, the angels were made, who were called back to their
maker by the Word of God. In this way they were made light and day in the
Lord: they could only have remained as night and darkness in themselves.
And then, in the same indivisible time, at the beginning, heaven and earth
and the sea and the other elements were made, together with the sun and
the moon and the other luminaries of heaven, perfect according to their
species and form and size. And then, at the same time as these, were made
the plants and the animals, from the earth and the water. They were made, I
mean to say, not yet according to their forms, but in undeveloped and
invisible shapes. They were not yet made according to their perfect species
but only in their causes and their potentialities. And as time ran on after
this, they came into existence in time.
4. In this way, then, they were made in their causal and potential origin
in the first instant of time, before they were made perfect in form and
species and visible size. This, then, is what it says: the plants were made
when day was made, before they rose up above the earth, because they
were made in their causal and potential origin at the beginning of time,
before they came up above the earth through their perfect reception of
form. Afterwards, in time, they came to their perfect reception of form.
According to this view, which Augustine agrees with most, all things were
created in their matter at one and the same time. The things which do not
corrupt and are not renewed, such as the heaven and the luminaries of
heaven and all the four elements, were created according to their forms at
that time, too. But the things that corrupt and are renewed were created at
that time only in their matter and their causes, not yet according to their
forms. This came afterwards.
5. And those first seven days were completed at the same time in the
minds of the angels: the awareness of the angelic minds of the distinctions
of the creatures, and the resting of these distinctions in God was seven-fold.
That the manner of the plants' being made was different then from what it
now is, is suggested later when it says: "For God had not yet rained upon
the earth" . This is as if it said: Do not think that that first making was like
the generation which occurs nowadays, as the worldly philosophers
believed that there was never any other manner of generation of plants.
The generation which occurs nowadays needs the help of rain, and often
needs tilling too. From this it is clear that that first generation was not like
302 PART TEN
this generation, because "God had not yet rained upon the earth, nor was
there any man to till the earth."
Chapter IV
1 . That the sense just expounded fits the order of this text is something
that Augustine tries to show in many ways. In this passage we have to
understand by "heaven and earth", that come first and second, the firma
ment which we have heard told was made on the second day, and the dry
land that appeared on the third day. This will be so even if you read "This
is the book of the creature of heaven and earth", and then bring in "When
day was made, God made the heaven and the earth". Either way, the text
says that after the making of day God made heaven and earth. But the
"heaven and earth" [236D] that were made after day was made can only
mean the firmament and the earth that were made on the second and third
days, not the spiritual and bodily matter that it suggests were made before
the day when it says: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth". This text, then, clearly suggests that the firmament and the dry land
were made together with the day that was first made. The expression
"When day was made" signifies association in the same time and order:
hence, the firmament and the dry land were made after the day according to
natural order, but together with it in time. The other translation which we
gave above makes this clearer, when it says: "This is the book of the
generation of heaven and earth, when the day was made on which God
made the heaven and the earth." The firmament, then, which was described
as being made on the second day, and the dry land and the plants which
were described as being made on the third day, were made then, when the
first day was made.
2. Therefore the second day of the establishment of the firmament, and
the third day, of the establishment of plants, occurred at one and the same
time, together with the first day that was established. This could never be
true if they were days of time. The remaining possibility is that they were
days of the spirit, that existed together, and all were, in substance, one day.
This could not be, unless they were in the light of the awareness of the
mind of the angels. That "heaven" and "earth" are to be understood in the
sense of the firmament and the dry land is supported by the fact that there is
added: "and every green thing of the field", which certainly showed itself
on the third day, that was made after the first. From this addition it is even
more clear that the heaven and the earth are to be understood as the things
made after the first day.
3. It is clear too that the making of plants, which is recorded here,
means their being made in their created causes and material reasons, before
they came to be in their species. For things have three ways of coming to
CHAPTERS III-IV 303
be. The first way is the way they come to be in the eternal uncreated
reasons, where all things are life, according to the Scripture: "What was
made was life in him"1. The second way is the way they come to be in
created causes. The third way is the way they are made perfect in form and
species. What is said here — "he made every green thing of the field and
every grass of the field" — cannot be understood to mean that "being
made" by which things come to be in the eternal reasons in the Word of
God, for this way of being made is prior to every creature and to the day
that was first made.
4. The serial order of this text says that when the day was made, God
made every green thing of the field and every grass of the field. The making
of the plants, that is recorded here, cannot be understood as having been
their perfect establishment according to their species, because the order of
the text says that they were made before the plants were grown up upon the
earth. But their rising up above the earth cannot possibly come after their
being made in perfection of form and species, since it is their being made in
perfection that completes their rising up above the earth. What is left, then,
is that the "being made" which is recorded here is the being made by
which things come to be in their causes and created reasons, before they
come into their species. Nor can it be understood that the plants were then
made in a causal and potential way in some seeds of their kind, because the
first seeds were born from plants which pre-existed them: it was not that the
first plants were born from pre-existing seeds. This is made perfectly clear
in the serial order of the text given above, which according to the Seventy
runs: "Let the earth germinate the herb of food that seeds a seed according
to its kind", and not: "Let the seed germinate a herb of food". Rather, the
first seeding is attributed to this herb. The text of the Seventy further on
supports this view, when it says "And the Lord God planted a paradise in
Eden, in the east, and put in it the man he had formed. And the Lord God
now put out of the earth every tree that is fair to look upon and good to
eat."
5. It is clear that on the third day, when the Word of God brought forth
from the earth the green herb and the fruit-bearing tree, God also planted
the trees of paradise. For all the original creatures were made in the first six
days. He did not make the trees of paradise on any day other than the third
[237A], nor can it be said that the trees of paradise are not of the original
creation, since our translation clearly says: "The Lord God planted a
paradise of pleasure from the beginning". Therefore, on the third day
God planted the paradise, but after that planting he put forth from the
earth every tree that was fair to see and good to eat, and the tree of life in
1 John, 1: 4
304 PART TEN
the middle of paradise, and the tree of knowledge, to discern good and evil.
Thus, according to the ordering of this text, after the planting of the third
day there is another further making of plants to follow, which completed
the plants after the six first days. This further making was not done on any
of the six days after the planting on the third. For each day has a different
work that is fitting to it. On the third day, then, the plants were made only
in their matter and in their causes: and after the six or seven days were
completed — which, according to this exposition, took place all together in
the indivisible beginning of time — then, in time, God put forth from the
earth every tree according to its perfect form and species.
6. By a similar ordering of the text it is possible to show in a similar
way that all the animals that were made on the fifth and sixth days were
made only in their matter and in their causes, and then afterwards were
brought forth into their perfect species. For the text of the Seventy has it
thus, further on: "And God made from the earth all the beasts of the field
and all the flying things of heaven", and brought them to Adam to see what
he would call them.
Chapter V
1. There follows: "A spring arose from the ground", etc. In this place,
according to Augustine, there begins the communication of the things that
came to be, according to intervals of time, from the things that were made
all together in their matter. And this manner of things' being brought forth
rightly begins from water, according to Augustine, when he says: "And it
is right for it to begin with that element from which all kinds of things are
born, be they animals or herbs or trees, in order to draw out the temporal
numbers that are properly distributed in their natures. For all the original
seeds, whether they be seeds from which flesh arises, or seeds from which
fruiting things arise, are moist, and hold together by moisture. There are in
them most effective numbers that bring in their train the powers that come
from the perfect works of God, the works from which he rested on the
seventh day.1"
2. We should not understand that this spring covered all the surface of
the earth by inundation: this would make it like the great Flood. All the
earth would be one pool, and this would not promote but impede the
fruitfulness of the earth. Unless, indeed, the story were that this spring
watered the whole earth by alternate flowing out and flowing back, in the
way that the Nile now waters Egypt. It flows out in a flood to give the earth
the moisture it needs, to make it fruitful after the flood has gone back down.
But much more likely is the opinion we gave above, that the spring means
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, V, 7 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 150)

CHAPTERS IV-VI 305
the depth of the sea, which spreads moisture through the hidden channels of
the earth in the way that the liver spreads blood through the body, through
the veins. Or if there is some other root and originating principle of waters
in the hidden places of the earth, a reservoir from which springs break out
from place to place, and rivers take their rise, and from which pools and
marshes come — all of which spread moisture thinly through the earth so
that fruit may be generated — that root is called by the name of "a spring"
here.
3. Or perhaps "because it does not say, 'one spring arose from the
earth' but just 'a spring arose from the earth', it is using the singular for the
plural. Thus we can understand it to mean the springs that water, each of
them, their own place or region. This would be just as one says 'the horse'
and you understand many of them. [237B] In the same way it speaks of the
locust and the frog in the plagues with which Egypt was stricken, though
there were innumerable locusts and frogs.1"
4. According to Augustine, too, what we are told of here is the
establishment of the human being according to the complete and comple
tely visible form, which was done when time began to run after the first
seven days (which were all together in the indivisible beginning of time,
and were completed in the knowledge of the angels). The establishment of
the human being was recounted on the sixth day, as the exposition of
Augustine goes on to say, in its cause and its material potentiality, as
was the establishment of plants and grasses that was recounted as being
done on the third day. Let us say that Adam was made perfect on the sixth
day according to the visible form of his body, that is to say, in the first
instant and at the indivisible beginning of the flow of time.
Chapter VI
1 . It follows, therefore, as is clear from the order of the text above, that
at the same time the woman was made perfect from the side of the man. For
it is written in the work of the sixth day: "God made man to his image; to
the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." In
one way, then, the woman and the man were created on the sixth day, i.e.
either both of them according to their perfect form, or both of them in their
causes and potentialities only. But the woman was perfected as time went
on, and not in the indivisible beginning of time: thus, not even on the sixth
day, according to this manner of expounding the six or seven days as being
something in the knowledge of the angels. Therefore Adam, too, was not
made perfect on the sixth day according to the visible form of his body.
That the woman was made in the course of time according to the perfect
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, V, 10 (CSEL, XXVIIU, 154)

306 PART TEN
form of her body is clear from the order of the text further on, which shows
that she was made from the side of the man who was asleep. The sleep of
one who is awake can only come after some interval. Some interval of
time, then, passed before the perfect forming of the woman from the side of
the man, who was asleep after having been awake: for the man was not
made in a state of sleep. For the text says: "The Lord cast Adam into a deep
sleep", and only those who are awake are put to sleep. Also, before the
woman was formed from the rib of the man as he slept, Adam is said to
have been brought into and placed in paradise, and all the animals and the
birds of the air are said to have been brought before him, for him to put
appropriate names to them. This cannot take place except over an interval
of time. And Adam gave a name to his wife, when she had been made and
brought to him, and he adds other words that speak of the woman being
made from him, and of the sacrament of marriage. Words cannot be uttered
except over time. Therefore these words were not uttered on the sixth day,
that was not a day of time. For this reason, the woman was not made
perfectly on the sixth day, because just after she was made, as the order of
the text shows, the man is recorded as having uttered words in time.
2. On the sixth day, then, as we touched on above, the man and the
woman were made only in their causes. Then when time was flowing, they
were made formally and perfectly according to the visible form of their
bodies. It is recounted, then, in the work of the sixth day, that God said to
the man and the woman he had made: "Behold, I have given you every
herb that beareth seed", and the rest which follows there. This should not
be understood to mean that they were perfectly established at that time and
that these words were spoken to people who could hear and understand
them: it means that God put into the things he had made the causes of
things that were to be made, by his eternal Word, and made them so that
they would be in the future by his almighty power. And on the sixth day he
made the human being such as to be formed at the right time, like a seed or
a root. And from that root there begin the ages that were made by him who
is before the ages.
Chapter VII
1. It will be seen that it follows from Augustine's view on the
establishment of the human being, which we have given, that he holds
that the human being was made on the sixth day in such a way that the
causal reason of the human body was in the elements of the world. [237C]
The soul would have been already created, as the day is first established,
and, once created, was hidden in the works of God, until the time came for
God to put it into the body by breathing, that is, by putting breath into the
body that was moulded from slime. For on the sixth day the soul was
CHAPTERS VI-VII 307
created, either in form and in perfection, or in its causes and its matter,
because after the six days no new nature was established that was not
established on any of the six days, either perfectly or in matter. But the
soul, as Augustine shows, is from God in such a way that it is not of the
substance of God. But it is non-bodily, i.e., it is not a body, but it is a spirit
that is not begotten from the substance of God, nor proceeds from the
substance of God, but is made by God. And it was so made that the nature
of the body, or of the irrational soul, could not turn into its nature. Hence it
was made from nothing. Therefore it was not made in its matter on the sixth
day, but was made perfectly. It is bent by its natural appetite towards
managing the body, in which it can live justly or wickedly, so that it
may have the reward for its justice or the punishment for its wickedness.
According to this manner of exposition, then, the inbreathing or inblowing,
by which God breathed or blew into the face of the human being the breath
or spirit of life, does not mean that the soul was created after the forming of
the human body, but means that though it was made first it was afterwards
infused into the body, after that was made.
2. But Augustine does not insist on any of these points. He puts them
forward as part of a discussion, and is not rash enough to state them
categorically. Some translations have: "He breathed into his face a spirit
of life". From this some have wanted to infer that this means that the Holy
Spirit was given to the first human being: not that the soul was at that time
given to the first human being, but that it already had a soul and was given
life by the Holy Spirit. But Augustine in the thirteenth book of The City of
God shows that this interpretation is false, according to the usual way of
talking that Scripture has1. In Greek the Holy Spirit is always referred to by
the word pneuma, and not by the word pnoe. And when it speaks, not of the
Holy Spirit, but of the created spirit or breathing, Scripture usually has the
word pnoe. (Though a created spirit is sometimes also called pneuma as
well as pnoe.) The Greek text here has not pneuma but pnoen. Thus the
literal and historical sense here cannot mean the Holy Spirit, but rather a
created spirit. Hence some of the Latin translators have preferred to
translate not as "spirit" but as "breath", to make clear that the soul is to
be understood. Compare Isaiah, who says "I have made every breath",
where our text says "And I will make breaths"2. This means every soul,
beyond all doubt. Cassiodorus says that here "It is said 'he breathed in'
to express the dignity of the work, so that we could recognise it as
something excellent that comes from the mouth of God"3.
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XIII, 24 (CSEL, XL, 653-660)

2 Isaiah, 67: 16
3 Cassiodorus, De anima, VII (PL, LXX, 1292)
308 PART TEN
Chapter VIII
1. In a mystical sense, according to the mystical expositions given
above, the generations of the heaven and the earth are clearly enough the
mystical generations of heaven and earth, either those by which they
generate or those by which they are generated, in a mystical manner.
The mystical creation of the spiritual heaven and the spiritual earth, taking
"earth" in the good sense, are their re-creation by prevenient grace. And in
the light of prevenient grace, as in the light of day, God makes the spiritual
heaven and the spiritual earth by subsequent grace, or by the following up
of the prevenient grace. For the grace which goes before and the grace
which follows after are one in substance. They come to be in the day, when
they come forth from the light of grace into the light of good deeds.
2. The plants and herbs signify the stronger and the less strong among
the virtues, and the harsher and gentler among them: those which have to
do with meeting the onrush of fearful things, and those which have to do
with works that are not fearful. These, in some people, have their perfect
growth, growing, as it were, without seeds before they grow from seeds,
just as the first plants and herbs had their growth, but not from pre-existing
seeds.
3. The seed, in a spiritual sense, is the word of preaching and of
doctrine, and of the visible example of good works, from which the shoots
of the virtues tend to spring. Those who bring forth plants and the shoots of
virtues, and bear the fruit of mighty and good works without the word of
preaching or the example of deeds [237D] are like the earth that in the
beginning brought forth plants and shoots that did not rise from any seeds
of their kind. An earth of this sort was the blessed virgin Mary, who
without any teaching from outside, and without any example, remained
in her resolution of virginity. On this understanding it is fitting that there
should follow: "For God had not yet rained upon the earth; and there was
no man to till the earth", since such people have not received the rains of
teaching from the clouds of preachers, nor any showing of example that is
put into deeds in this earthly life.
4. Good works, which shine as an example in the earth of flesh that
works them, and the earth of flesh that sees them, are a kind of tilling. But
in those who sprout without any teaching from outside or any example of
virtue, the spring of the natural law and the spring of the instinct of the
Holy Spirit rise up from the earth of their hearts and water them all over,
right to the surface, that is right as far as their outer men. That is to say,
from the good will within, they bring forth the fruit of good works from the
earth of flesh, outwardly.
5. This mystery can also be understood in agreement with the other
literal exposition, of the text of the Seventy, and of Augustine. This would
CHAPTER VIII 309
say that the spiritual goods, which are understood by the plants and herbs,
first arise in a hidden way, as if in the earth, in the inward deliberation of
the mind, before they come forth in actions, like coming forth in visible
species on the earth. For in one who is wise the eyes of deliberation go
before the outward steps of action, and the eyes of the wise man are in his
head1, i.e. he has prudent foresight in a provident mind. He wants to build
by outward actions, but he first sits down to reckon the cost in prudent
forethought. The hidden garden of the inward virtues — like the plants and
herbs in the earth in their material causes, before they break out into
outward act in the way that the plants and herbs break out above the earth
— can be full and perfect with regard to merit, even though it never gives
rise to an act. For if there is no outward occasion for someone to act
outwardly, the inward virtue is enough for them, both for merit and for
reward. For faith without works is dead, if there is an opportunity for
working. But if there is no opportunity, the just man is justified from his
inner faith alone. Every occasion of acting outwardly from an inward virtue
is either an active assistance, like rain, or something that prepares and
provides the passive material, like the tiller. And so that it may suggest that
this inward garden of the virtues may be hidden before it rises into view
through outward works, it says that it had not yet rained on the earth, and
there was as yet no-one to till the ground. This is as if it said: the inner
garden of virtues is full, though there is as yet no help from outside, either
active or passive: and without this help it does not come forth into the
outward act of good works. But in order that the virtues may grow
inwardly, a spring rises from the earth: that is, the will which is instilled
by the Holy Spirit is always ready and always strives to come forth in
outward act. And this striving stretches itself as far as the virtues that act
through the outward parts of the flesh, as if over the whole surface of the
earth.
6. Also in the human being, as first established, there were generated a
spiritual heaven and a spiritual earth: i.e. wisdom and knowledge, the
speculative and the contemplative virtues. Also the plants and herbs, i.e.
the fullness of virtues, before these things arose successively as they do
now, by the co-operation of the rain of doctrine and the showing of outward
example.
7. Also, all the virtues and all the sciences were there in the state of
paradise: but not in act as we have them now, in the way that they now help
us and make good the needs of this wearisome life. For in the state of
paradise there was no wearisome life that needed to be helped and relieved
in the outward acts of the virtues. There rose, then, the sprouts of the
1 Proverbs, 17: 24
310 PART TEN
virtues in a hidden way, inside the earth of the heart, before they rose up
outwardly above the earth of flesh to help the needs of the flesh by outward
works. [238A] For there were no rains of doctrine at that time either: we
would be in paradise, if human beings had not sinned, "all taught of
God"1. Nor was there any tilling in the state of paradise, that is, there
was no relief of fleshly need through works of mercy, since there was
nothing of wretchedness there.
8. Also, in the first human being, all the goods of nature were complete
and informed by the goods of grace, which are indicated by the heaven and
the earth and the green things before they rose up above the earth, i.e.
before these good things turned the human being towards earthly greed. A
sign of this is that there was then no need of the rains of doctrine, as there is
now. Nor was there imposed on the human being the need of tilling the
earth, that was inflicted on it after sin as a penalty for sin. The spring of the
law of nature and of grace, and the flooding of truth that gushed out, rose
from the earth of the heart, that is, from the inner part of the mind, and
watered the whole of it, as far as the limits of the senses and the appetite of
the flesh. For human flesh was subject and obedient to the spirit, and there
was not yet in the members the law of the flesh that wars against the law of
the mind.
9. Also the heaven and the earth can be understood as the two natures
in Christ, in whom were restored all things in heaven and in earth. In him,
also, are all the hidden treasuries of wisdom and knowledge, and all the
fullness of virtue. And all these things, like the green things of the field,
were in him from the moment of his conception in the womb of the Virgin,
before they came forth on earth through his being born of the womb of the
Virgin, and before they came forth to show themselves when he grew and
waxed strong in age and in grace before God and men2. And evidence of
this is the fact that he knew letters without being taught them3. This is
suggested when it says "The Lord had not yet rained upon the earth" : the
rain of teaching had not yet rained down on him from the cloud of someone
teaching him from outside.
10. More evidence of this comes from the fact that he was conceived
and born from the earth of the flesh of a virgin, without the union of the
operation of a man: "a spring arose from the earth" of the Virgin's heart
and watered "all the surface of the earth", that is, all the Virgin's flesh,
because the Holy Spirit came upon her, and the power of the most High
overshadowed her. "The Lord God formed a man", that is Christ, "from
1 John, 6: 45
2 Luke, 2: 52
3 John, 7: 15
the slime of the earth", that is from the flesh of the Virgin watered by the
dew of the Holy Spirit, "and breathed into his face a breath of life" a life-
giving life, because "The first Adam was made into a living soul; the last
Adam into a quickening spirit"1.
Chapter IX
1. In a moral sense the human being is formed from the slime of the
earth, or from the dust, as the translation of the Seventy has it, in order to
remind us that "he is dust and will return to dust", when this dust is
watered with the dew of grace, or by the flowing tears of penance. Thus
it mixes into slime. For the knowledge of one's own fragility, in the
presence of the moistening of grace, humbles a human being. And
humility reforms us into a new man.
2. And the historical reading of the formation of the human being is of
no small moral value to us. The human being was made from the highest
creation in the universe and from the lowest, from that which is most noble
and that which is most vile, i.e. from the rational mind and the dust or the
slime. This is so that by remembering our more worthy part we may not
despise ourselves as something base, nor throw ourselves away as a useless
growth, either into the fire of greed and anger, or into the mud and filth of
gluttony or lust, or into the corruption of envy, or anything like that. By
remembering our lower part we are restrained from being lifted up into
pride, ambition and vain glory, and the presumption of doing things as if by
our own strength. True knowledge of oneself directs and balances us in the
middle, between the lifting of ourselves above ourselves through pride, and
the casting ourselves down beneath ourselves through littleness of spirit.
Remembering our earthly origin can soften and temper our spirit so that it
is not provoked by insult, for no insult can lower us to something less or
lower than we are, as a result of our earthly origin. For if someone were to
say: "You are a thief!", in saying this he calls you a human being, and
therefore something more than the slime and dust of earth. Likewise,
whatever vice he may insult you with, even by accusing you he makes
you something more noble than your origin. Even if in insult he calls you
by the name of an ass or a pig, or a stock [238B] or a stone, by each of these
he calls you something greater and more noble than dust, since there is no
creature lower than the dust of the earth. Even if he calls you dust, he calls
you what you are: "For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return"2. If
in insult he says you are nothing, still he in some way calls you what you
are: for according to your first origin you are nothing, since you were made
2 Genesis, 3: 19
312 PART TEN
from nothing. Moreover, he would not call you nothing, if you were not
something: so by calling you nothing, he says that you are something, and
thus gives you more honour than belongs to your first origin. There is no
reason, then, for you to get angry from insult being thrown at you, if you
remember what is your true and first origin.
Part Eleven
Chapter I
1. "And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the
beginning", etc. After recording the manner of the forming of the first
human being, and of the generation of those things that are now generated
in a different way from that in which they were generated in the beginning,
Moses describes the place which God gave to the human being he had
formed to dwell in and to keep. This place, though it signifies many
spiritual types, is also to be understood as a bodily place. Of this bodily
place Josephus says: "He says that God also planted a paradise in the east,
blooming with every kind of growth. In this he planted the tree of existence
and of life, and another of wisdom, by which what is good and what is evil
was to be known. And into this garden he brought Adam and his wife,
ordering them to care for what had been planted. " Also Isidore in the
Etymologies describes paradise as follows: "Paradise is a place established
in the east. The Greek word translated into Latin means a garden. In
Hebrew it is called Eden, which means 'delights' in our language. These
two together mean a garden of delights: for it was set with every kind of
tree that bears fruit, and also the tree of life. There was no cold or heat
there, but it was always temperate. In the middle a spring broke out which
watered all the garden, and divided into four rivers that were born there.
After the fall of the human being entry to this place was cut off, for it was
fenced in on all sides with a fiery sword, that is, it was enclosed with a wall
of fire, so that to the punishment of heaven should be added fire. Also the
Cherubim, that is, a guard of angels, were stationed above the fire of the
sword to keep back the evil spirits. In this way human beings were checked
by the flames, and bad angels by the good angels, and neither flesh nor
spirit had a chance to break through into paradise.2" Strabus3 and Bede4
add that this place, that was fixed in the east, and separated from the places
that human beings dwell in by the ocean and by mountains, is hidden away
and very remote. It reaches up to the circle of the moon, and so the waters
1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 3, 37-38 (ed. Blatt, p. 128)

2 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, iii, 2-5
3 Cp. Glossa ordinaria, (PL, CXIII, 86C)
4 Cp. Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 43-44)
314 PART ELEVEN
of the flood did not reach it at all. The sense of the text in our translation is
that "from the beginning", i.e. from the third day, when he commanded the
earth, that was bared of the waters, to bring forth herbs and trees, "God had
planted a paradise of pleasure", i.e. a place that was most delightful to the
human senses because of the loveliness of the plants. And into this place he
brought the human being, and placed it there to live there. He made it
outside paradise, they say, because he foresaw that it would sin, and would
thus be driven out to that land where he had established it.
Chapter II
1 . But according to the view of those who say that the first seven days
ran in time through the period of twenty-four hours, we should understand
that this planting was the perfect drawing out of the trees of paradise from
the earth, and their forming in their obvious visible species on the third day
of time. The "beginning" referred to here means that first revolution of
seven days, by the repetition of which all the time that follows is measured.
But according to the view of Augustine we should understand the word
"beginning" here to mean the first instant and the indivisible beginning of
time, in which the first seven [238C] days were made perfect in a non-
temporal way in the minds of the angels. That is when God planted the
paradise in a causal and potential way. This planting, according to
Augustine's view, brought forth in time the complete formation according
to the visible species.
2. Therefore, according to the view of those who say that the first
seven days happened in time, the text that follows, in which the Lord is said
to have brought forth "all manner of trees fair to behold, and pleasant to eat
of, is a repetition of what was done on the third day of time, a repetition
made in order that what paradise was like may be specially described; also,
in order to say something of the tree of life and of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, which had to be said. But according to the view of
Augustine, these words add the drawing out of plants into their perfect
visible form: what was described above was their establishment in potency
and in their causes1.
Chapter III
1 . But one might wonder whether this passage records the drawing out
of all trees everywhere over the whole earth, adding something about the
tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in paradise; or
whether it just mentions the trees drawn out from the earth in paradise, and
says that all of them were fair to look on and pleasant to eat from. God
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VI, 4 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 173)

CHAPTERS I-IV 315
would not say lower down that they might eat of every tree of paradise,
except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; he would not tell
them to eat, in that blessed state, what was not pleasant for them to eat. And
something that does not look fair to the eye is not wholly pleasant to eat,
since the imagination of the eater is upset by the appearance of what he
desires because of its pleasantness to the taste. If there is recorded here the
bringing forth of all the trees throughout the earth, it follows that all kinds
of trees, when first established, were fair to see and pleasant to eat from,
and that the bitterness and harmfulness of some when eaten arose from the
sin of the human being. The form of the words in the translation of the
Seventy, as we touched on above, seems to suggest that Scripture here
records the bringing forth of all the trees into their perfect species over all
the earth. For the form of those words is: "And the Lord God drew out
from the earth again every tree that is fair to see and good to eat; and the
tree of life in the middle of paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of
discerning good and evil." It does not say "He drew out every tree in
paradise" but "from the earth", without qualification. And it says "again",
as if referring to the repetition of the drawing out from the earth all the
trees, which had been drawn forth from the ground already in some way.
Chapter IV
1 . The expositors say that what is called the tree of life was the tree of
life for the following reason: "By nature it had the power that those who
ate of its fruit would be made firm in everlasting solidity, and clothed in a
blessed immortality: they would be made weary by no illness or anxiety, no
weakness of old age, no senility.1" They would not slip down into any
deterioration by any decline. Nor is it surprising that that bodily tree should
have this power of giving health by some secret inbreathing, when, though
he was used to bread, Elijah the prophet was kept from the need of hunger
for forty days by one cake2. And as Augustine says: "You should not
hesitate to believe that by the food which came from one tree God should
give this most important grace to human beings, that their bodies should
not change for the worse through illness or old age, nor fall down into
death; after all, he gave to ordinary human food such a power that when oil
and flour were running out in the vessels they were in, they should not run
out but should be renewed.3" Rabanus says that the tree of life was not
such by nature that by eating it human beings would be immortal4: but this
1 Glossa ordinaria, (PL, CXIII, 86D-87A)

2 / Kings, 19: 6-8
4 In fact Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, I, 6 (PL, CXX, 1272A)
316 PART ELEVEN
seems to disagree with what was said above, which says that it did have this
power naturally.
2. But I think that the different authorities understood different things
by this word "naturally" . The tree did not have this by the nature that was
common [238D] to it with other trees, nor was this power a specific
difference that followed naturally from the general nature of trees. But,
as Augustine suggests, it had this power from the secret inbreathing of
healthfulness: and since this power inhered in that tree in an inseparable
way, it could be said to be in that tree naturally1.
3. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Augustine says: "That
it was a tree is not to be doubted: but we need to ask why it had that name.
It seems to me, on consideration, that I do not like the view that that tree
was harmful to eat. The one who made all things good surely did not put
something harmful in paradise: what was evil was the human being's
disobedience of the command. For the human being was placed under
the Lord God; and it was good that the human being should be forbidden
from doing something, so that it should have the virtue of obeying, and so
deserve well of its Lord. The virtue of obedience I can truly say is the sole
virtue of the rational creature acting under the power of God, and the first
and greatest vice of pride that can be used to its ruin is the vice whose name
is disobedience. There would be no way, then, for the human being to think
and understand that the Lord was its Lord, unless some command were
given. So that tree was not bad. It is called the tree of the knowledge of
discerning good and evil, because if the human being had not eaten of it
after being forbidden to, there would have been no transgression of God's
command, by which the human being would have learnt, by the experience
of punishment, what is the difference between the good of obedience and
the evil of disobedience. So this is not said figuratively: it should be taken
as a real tree, and is named not in virtue of the fruit that grew on it, but
from the reality that was to follow from touching it in spite of the
prohibition.2"
4. There are two kinds of knowledge: a knowledge through wisdom
and a knowledge through experience. The physician through wisdom
knows the diseases that he perhaps does not know through experience, if
he has had good health of body from his birth. The sick man knows the
diseases through experience and perhaps does not know them through
science, if he is not instructed in the art of medicine. So the Lord Jesus
Christ knew all things by wisdom, but did not know sin, since he had never
had experience of committing it. This is just in the same way, then, as if the
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 5 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 238-239)

2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 5 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 239-40)
CHAPTERS IV-V 317
physician forbids us to take some food because he knows that if we do take

it we will be sick; that food could be called, for that reason, the food of the
discernment of good and evil, or of health and of sickness, since the person
who takes it, on falling ill, will discern by experience what the difference is
between limited poor health and lost health. Would it not be better for such
a person not to know this, and to keep the health that was lost, and to
believe the physician through obedience and not the disease through
experience? In the same way the forbidden tree is called the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil because by eating it the human being knew by
experience what was the difference between the evil it incurred by dis
obedience and the good that it lost. But it would have been much better not
to know the evil and to stay in the good that was lost.
5. Augustine says in the thirteenth book of The City of God: "The first
human beings, though they were not to die unless they sinned, used food as
human beings do, since they did not have spiritual bodies, but earthly animal
bodies. They did not grow old, so as to be led to death by necessity: this was
given to them by a wonderful grace of God through the tree of life, that
stood in the middle of paradise with the forbidden tree. But they ate other
foods from other trees besides that one that was forbidden them: it was
forbidden not because it was bad, but in order to commend to them the good
of pure and simple obedience, which is the great virtue of the rational
creature that is established under its Lord, the Creator. No evil touched
them there: but if they touched what was forbidden, they would sin by
disobedience alone. They were fed, therefore, by the fruits of other trees
which they consumed, in order that their animal bodies might not suffer
any distress from hunger or thirst. But they ate of the tree of life, in order
that death might not creep up on them from somewhere, or that, by being
infected [2382A] by old age, the passage of the periods of time might not
kill them. The others were for food, this was a sacrament.1"
6. And you should notice that the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil did not take its name from the knowledge that the human being already
discerned by experience, nor from the knowledge that it would have if it
did not sin, but from the knowledge that could come if it sinned. It is as if a
tree were called the tree of fullness because a human being could be filled
by eating from it, even if no human being were ever to reach it and be filled
from it.
Chapter V
1 . This, according to the sacred expositors, is the literal understanding
of paradise, which, as has been said, should be understood as something
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, XIII, 20 (CSEL, XL.l, 644)

318 PART ELEVEN
bodily. And this also means the spiritual paradise, though some, as
Augustine records, take the paradise to mean only intelligible things, and
think that this text is to be expounded only in an allegorical and spiritual
sense1. They are moved to think so because this passage says some things
that do not occur, they think, in the accustomed course of nature.
2. But they admit that history, that is, the recounting of things that
really occurred, begins at the point when, driven out of paradise, Adam and
Eve came together and had children. But they admit that the number of
years that people lived before the flood is to be taken literally and not
figuratively. And they accept that Enoch was not taken away in a figurative
sense, but truly; and that the barren Sarah really bore a son. This admission
of theirs should convince them. These things are unusual: they do not
usually occur in the course of nature. They should say either that they
should be taken in a figurative sense, or, if they accept them historically,
they should accept what we are told about paradise. They should not deny a
historical sense to unusual stories, if unusual things can be true in history.
3. Moreover, you should consider that the first things have to be
unusual: nothing can be so lacking in precedent or parallel in the whole
world, as is the world itself. One should not believe that God did not make
the world merely because he does not make worlds now, or that he did not
make the sun because he does not make suns now.
4. Moreover, if paradise is to be understood merely in a figurative
sense, then the establishment of the human being should be understood
figuratively, by parity of reasoning. Who then begot Cain and Abel, and the
others who are said to have been generated from the first human being? For
they were not human beings in a merely figurative sense. And as Augustine
says, the fact that the paradise can be understood in a spiritual way does not
mean that it was not bodily as well, any more than there were not two
wives, Hagar and Sarah, and two sons of Abraham born from them, one
from the free and one from the bond-woman, merely because the Apostle
turns them into figures of the two testaments2. Nor does it mean that Moses
never struck a rock and brought water from it, just because this means
Christ in a figurative sense, as the Apostle again says: "The rock was
Christ3"4.
5. Augustine, to prove this, says: "It is only if the truth of faith can not
be preserved if we say that things which are named in a bodily way are to

2 Galatians, 4: 22-24
4 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 4 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 235), and Quaestiones de
Genesi, I, 70 (CSEL, XXXVIII.2, 37)
CHAPTERS V-VI 319
be understood in a bodily way, that the only thing left for us to say is that
they should be understood figuratively, rather than throw impious blame on
the Scripture. But these things do not obstruct the faith: they even make the
account given by the divine speaker more solid. When these things are
understood in a bodily way, I think no-one will be so stubborn in his lack of
faith when he sees them properly expounded according to the rule of faith,
as to prefer to stay with his old view.1" Paradise, then, is not to be
understood either solely in a literal way, nor solely in a figurative way:
it is to be understood in a literal and a figurative way at one and the same
time, as the reasons given by Augustine above prove.
Chapter VI
1 . The paradise, then, signifies in a figurative way the present church
on earth and the future church in heaven, or both together: the whole city of
God which is made up of holy people and blessed spirits, according to what
is said in the Song of Songs: "Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates
with the fruits of the orchard", and again "My sister, my spouse is a garden
enclosed, a fountain sealed up"2.
2. Paradise also means the faithful soul, according to the words of
Isaiah 58, speaking to the penitent soul: "Thou shalt be like a watered
garden, and like a fountain of water whose [2382B] waters shall not fail."3
And in Jeremiah 31 it says "Their soul shall be as a watered garden, and
they shall be hungry no more"4.
3. Also, as Augustine says, paradise means the blessedness and
delightful rest of the human being5. In this sense it was said to the thief:
"This day thou shalt be with me in paradise"6.
4. Paradise also, according to Augustine, means intellectual vision, by
which vision the truth is seen, not by the likenesses of temporal things, but
in the purity of the mind without the use of any bodily organ or bodily
likeness7. This paradise, according to Augustine, is the paradise and third
heaven to which Paul was caught up, to see there secret words that it is not
permitted to speak8.
5. Paradise can also mean sacred Scripture, in which are to be found all
the delights, and from which there flows a spring that divides into four

2 Song of Songs, 4: 13 and 4: 12
3 Isaiah, 58: 1 1
4 Jeremiah, 31: 12
5 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, ix, 12 (PL, XXXIV, 202)
6 Luke, 23: 43
7 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, XII, 28 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 422)
320 PART ELEVEN
streams, as will be shown below. In all these senses of Paradise, it is God

who planted it and founded it through Christ who is the Beginning and in
Christ who is the Beginning. Jesus Christ is put as the foundation of this
planting because outside him no man can make any foundation. And of this
planting it was written: "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not
planted, shall be rooted up"1.
6. Paradise is planted, too, in all the above senses, in charity, accord
ing to what the Apostle says "Rooted and founded in charity"2.
7. It is also planted in pleasure, or in delights, or in feasting, as the
order of the text has it according to the translation of the Seventy, which
says: "And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden, in the east, and put
there the man he formed". For "Eden" means delight or pleasure or
feasting. Hence David says: "Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent
of thy pleasure"3. This planting was done at the beginning, that is, it was
foreseen in the wisdom of God from the beginning. And it was done by
Christ, who says of himself: "I, the beginning, who also speak to you"4.
Hence it was not unfitting that Mary Magdalen should think he was the
gardener5. It is planted in the east, that is, at the rising of the light of
wisdom: both rising eternally from the Father and rising in time from his
mother.
8. In this paradise, according to all the senses of paradise given above,
any human being among the faithful is placed: in the church of the present
by faith, and in the church of the future by desire and hope. And since the
flesh is subject to the spirit, the dwelling place of the whole human being is
in its soul and spirit. To this dwelling place Scripture recalls us with the
words: "Return, ye transgressors, to the heart"6. The faithful also dwell in
the hope of blessedness and of intellectual vision, by which God will be
seen, not as in a glass, in an enigma, but face to face7. In that vision we
shall know as we are known, and we shall see God as he is. The faithful
also dwell in the Scripture, meditating on the law of God day and night. We
are born outside this paradise, in whatever sense, because we are born the
children of wrath: but we are brought into this paradise through our
regeneration in baptism and through the contrition of penance. In para
dise, then, the human being is placed by God exactly as it was formed
outside paradise, before it was driven out, when it had changed its form for
1 Matthew, 15: 13
2 Ephesians, 3: 17
3 Psalms, 35: 9
4 John, 8: 25. This reading, that of the Vulgate, is now generally rejected.
3 John, 20: 15
6 Isaiah, 46: 8
7 Cp. J Corinthians, 13: 12
CHAPTERS VI-VIII 321
the worse by sin. It is significant, then, that it says "in which he placed the
man that he had formed". It is as if it said: "The forming given by God
makes the human being a dweller in paradise: its deformation by sin drives
it from paradise."
Chapter VII
1 . The fruit-bearing trees in paradise, which is the church at present,
are the individual saints who are green with the virtues, flowering in hope,
leafy with holy utterances, fruitful of good works. Of these the Song of
Songs says: "As the apple-tree among the trees of the woods, so is my
beloved among the sons."1 Of them, also the Psalm says: "Then shall all
the trees of the woods rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he
cometh"2. And as Ambrose says, the angels, too, who are citizens of that
heavenly city, are signified by the trees. "It is said that the saints will be
under the fig tree and the vine in that time of peace: this is a type of the
angels.3" In the soul the different trees are the different virtues of fortitude.
In blessedness the different trees are the varying [2382C] differences of
beatitude: "for one star differeth from another in brightness"4. In the
paradise of intellectual vision the different trees are the different forms of
knowledge of the different natures in their eternal reasons, or the different
virtues which will, in our homeland, have grown from the exemplary virtues
in God to unfading greenness. In the paradise of Scripture the different
trees are the different teachings of the virtues. These trees are said to be
drawn out from the ground, because they receive all this vital power of
nourishment from the humanity of Jesus Christ. They are also fair to the
glance5 of the intelligence and sweet to the taste of the desire6 of the mind;
they are fair to knowledge, and sweet to the one who imitates them freely.
Chapter VIII
1. The tree of life in the middle of paradise means the Lord Jesus
Christ, set in the middle of the church. For he is the strength and the
wisdom of God, as Paul says7. And as Solomon says in Wisdom 3: "She is a
tree of life to them that lay hold of her"8. And John in the Apocalypse says
1 Song of songs, 2: 3
2 Psalms, 95: 12-13
3 Ambrose, De paradiso, I, 2 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 266); Micah, 4: 4
5 Aspectus
6 Affectus
8 In fact Proverbs, 3: 18
322 PART ELEVEN
"To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, that is in the
paradise of my God.1"
2. The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is also signified by the tree of
life, as Rabanus says in his book On the Cross: "When first this greatest
frame of things was made by the invisible and impenetrable depth of the
counsel of God, and paradise appeared, sprouting, in flower, and full of
joy, then at once was prefigured the cross, in the tree of life that was in
the midst of paradise. The cross was set up in the midst of the peoples,
and sanctifies and gives life to the generations that came before it and
come after it. Whatever men are good and holy are re-created by it, and
bear the fruit of spiritual and vital virtues.2" And it is right for the
blessed cross to be called the tree of life, because by the fruit of that
tree of paradise the human being, if it had not sinned, would have been
able to make its life everlasting. So, by the fruit of the tree of the cross
the life of grace is made everlasting. The fruit of the tree of the cross is
Christ, who says: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath
life everlasting"3. Other trees, though they bear fruit from which one may
live, do not bear the fruit which is life. The tree of the cross not only
bore fruit one could live on, but the fruit which is life. For Christ, who is
the fruit of this tree, says of himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the
life"4. And on this tree of life he put death to death and gave life to the
dead.
3. The tree of life also signifies the life-giving sacrament of the
Eucharist. Hence Rabanus in his book On the body and blood of the
Lord says: "It is clear in every way that just as in paradise there stood
the tree of life, by whose fruit the immortal state of the human being might
be preserved, if it kept the commandments, so there was set up in the
church this mystery of salvation: not to be the same in nature as this tree,
but to work the invisible inward power in a visible thing. Thus in this
visible sacrament of communion is the divine strength to work immortality
by its invisible power, and, just like the fruit of the tree of paradise, the
sacrament sustains us with the taste and the power of wisdom. In so far as
we eat of this worthily, we are changed to something better, and borne to
immortal things.5"
4. Also, as Augustine says, the tree planted in the midst of paradise
signifies that wisdom by which the soul should understand that it is ordered
in the midst of things: it should understand that while all of bodily nature is
1 Apocalypse, 2: 7
2 Rabanus, De laudibus sanctae cruris, II, xi (PL, CVII, 276)
3 John, 6: 57
4 John, 14: 6
5 In fact Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, I, 6 (PL, CXX, 1272A)
subject to it, above it is the nature of God1. And let it not lean to the right
by claiming to be what it is not, nor to the left by despising through
negligence what it is. And this is the tree of life planted in the midst of
paradise. For rational animals live off [2382D] wisdom, and foolishness is
their death, and it was to show this that the tree of life in paradise, by its
fruit, would not allow the human being to die even in the body.
Chapter IX
1 . The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as Augustine says, "is
the evenness of the soul and its ordered integrity. This tree was planted in
the middle of paradise, and was called the tree of the discernment of good
and evil. For the soul ought to fix its attention on the things before it, and
forget the things behind it: that is, the bodily pleasures. But if instead of
doing this it turns away from God and to itself, and wishes to enjoy its
power as if God did not exist, then it swells up with pride which is the
beginning of all sin. And since with this sin punishment is gained, it learns
by experience how much difference there is between the good it abandoned
and the evil that it has fallen into. And this, for it, will be tasting the fruit of
the tree of the discernment of good and evil. It is commanded to eat of all
the trees that are in paradise, except the tree of the discernment of good and
evil. That is, not to enjoy it so much that the ordered integrity of its nature
is outraged and corrupted as if by eating it.2"
2. In an allegorical sense the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
signifies the law of Moses. For it is by the law that there is knowledge of
sin, as the Apostle says3, and by it the human being knows the good which
is owed to the Creator through the commandments. People eat of this
culpably if they understand the fleshly sacrifices and ceremonial command
ments in a fleshly way, and attribute them to the uses and lusts of the flesh,
or let them be observed after the coming of Christ. Also, according to
Jerome, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies human free
will, which is a kind of mid-point between the choice of the good and the
avoidance of the bad, because if a man should want to enjoy it and work
with it leaving grace on one side, then tasting this he will die the death of
■ 4
sin .
3. The breaking of the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil signifies that those who taste it for love of transgression and for the
1 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 4 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 236) and De Genesi contra
Manichaeos, II, ix, 12 (PL, XXXIV, 203)
3 Romans, 3: 20
4 Pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in Pentateuchum, (PL, XCI, 208D)
324 PART ELEVEN
pleasure of working transgression die the death. And the experience of just
punishment that follows this teaches them the difference between the good
they abandoned and the evil they achieved.
4. In the other trees of paradise there was food for the human being,
but in these two trees was a sacrament. In one was the sign to the human
being of the obedience that it owed; in the other was the sacrament of
eternal life that it would have deserved by obedience.
Chapter X
1. There follows: "And a river went out of the place of pleasure to
water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads. The name of
the one is Phison: that is which compasseth all the land of Hevilath, where
gold groweth. And the gold of that land is very good: there is found
bdellium, and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is
Gehon: the same is it that compasseth all the land of Ethiopia. And the
name of the third river is Tigris: the same passeth along by the Assyrians.
And the fourth river is Euphrates".
2. The translation of the Seventy has it thus: "And a river goes out of
Eden to water paradise, and from thence it is divided into four origins. The
name of one is Phison. That compasseth all the land of Hevilath. There
gold groweth. And the gold of that land is very good. And there is the
carbuncle and the prase stone. And the name of the second river is Gehon.
It compasseth all the land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is
Tigris. This floweth against the Assyrians. And the fourth river is
Euphrates". Josephus says of these four rivers: "This spring waters the
whole earth in one river that flows round everywhere. It is divided into four
parts. The name of the one is Phison, which means flooding. It falls into the
Indian ocean and spreads wide: it is called Geta by the Greeks. The
Euphrates and the Tigris fall into the Red Sea. The Euphrates is also
called the Foras, which means the scattering or the flower. The Tigris is
also called the Diglath, which means the sharp or the narrow. The Gehon
which flows through Egypt means the one that returns to us from the east.
The Greeks call it the Nile.1"
Chapter XI
1 . Isidore says that the river [239A] Ganges is the one "called Phison
by sacred Scripture, which, when it leaves paradise, flows to India. It is
called Phison, that is, the troop, because it is filled by ten great rivers that
join it and make one. It is called the Ganges after Gangarus, king of India. It
is said to rise near the mouth of the Nile, and to spread into Eastern lands.2"
1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 3, 38-39 (ed. Blatt, p. 128)

2 Isidore, Etymologies, XIII, xxi, 8
CHAPTERS IX-XII 325
Jerome says that the river Ganges is the one called Phison by sacred
Scripture, "which compasseth all the land of Hevilath"1. And many kinds
of jewels are said to be drawn from the spring of paradise. That is where the
carbuncle comes from, and the emerald and the bright white pearls and
"the large pearls for which the ambition of our noble women burns. And
there are mountains of gold which it is impossible for human beings to
approach because of dragons and griffins and monsters with immense
bodies.2" This is to show us what are the guards of avarice. But Pliny
says that some say that the Ganges rises from unknown sources, others
from the mountains of Scythia, and that it bursts from its source with a
great noise, and "falling through rocks and cliffs it reaches the gentle plain,
and there is received in a lake. Then it flows off smoothly: at its narrowest,
eight paces wide, where it is middling a hundred stades wide, never of less
than fifty feet in depth.3"
Chapter XII
1. Likewise, "Gehon flows out of paradise and goes around the whole
of Ethiopia. It has this name because by rising in flood it waters the land of
Egypt. For ge in Greek means "land" in Latin. This is called the Nile by
the Egyptians because of the mud it brings. Hence Nile: i.e. veav i\vv
[new mud]: for the Nile used to be called Melo in Latin. It also appears in
the lake of the Nile, which cuts off Egypt to the south, where the blowing
of the north wind swells the waters it blows on and pushes them back to
make the flooding of the Nile.4"
2. Bede says that the river Nile "rises between the east and the south.
Egypt uses it for water, because the heat drives rain and clouds away. For
in the month of May, while its mouths through which it reaches the sea are
blocked by the heap of sands thrown up as the west wind blows, it rises
little by little, and, as it is forced back, waters the plains of Egypt. But
when the wind ceases and the heaps of sand are broken through, it returns
to its channel.5"
3. Seneca, in his book On questions of nature says "The Nile is
swollen from before the rising of the Dog-star through the summer, until
the equinox. Nature has put this most noble of streams before the eyes of
the human race and has so disposed things that it floods Egypt at the time
when the land is most burnt up by heat, and brings a sufficient increase of
1 Jerome, De situ et nominibus locorum hebraicorum, 199 (PL, XXIII, 938C)

2 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, iii, 7
3 Pliny, Natural history, VI, xviii, 22, 65 (ed. Sillig, I, 426)
5 Bede, De rerum natura, XLIII (PL, XC, 262A-262B)
326 PART ELEVEN
water to make up for the dryness of the year. For in the part that is near to
Ethiopia, there is no rain or very little, and the waters of heaven are of no
help to the land that is not used to them. Egypt has its hope placed wholly
in this one thing: for the year is barren or fertile, depending on whether it
floods more or less. 'None of the ploughmen look to heaven.'1 Around
Memphis it is free at last and wanders over the countryside, and it is split
into many streams and artificial canals, so that they can have power to
direct its course, and it runs through the whole of Egypt. At the beginning it
is brought down, then as the waters flow on to the broad and billowy sea it
forms a lake. The breadth of the land breaks up its course and its violence,
and it stretches to left and right, enclosing the whole of Egypt. The more
the Nile grows, the more hope for the year there is. The farmer is not
deceived by his calculation: the measure of the river determines the fertility
that the Nile brings. It brings water and earth to the sandy and thirsty soil.
When it is stirred up it leaves its deposits on all the dry and gasping places,
and smears the arid places with the good things it brings in its deposits. It is
thus of double benefit to the fields: it waters [239B] and it manures. What it
does not reach is left barren and uncultivated. If it grows more than it
should, it is harmful. How wonderful is the nature of this river! Other rivers
wash away the land and take away their strength, but the Nile, that is so
much greater than the others, does not take or rub away at all, but rather
gives strength and goes so far as to prepare the soil. For it brings mud that
soaks into the sand and joins with it. Egypt owes to it not only the fertility
of its lands but also its barrenness. It is most beautiful to see when it has
entered on the fields. The fields are hidden, the valleys are covered, the
fenced woods alone stand out. In the middle of the country there is no
business conducted except by boat. People are happier the less they see of
their lands. When the Nile returns to its course, it flows into the sea through
seven mouths. Whichever of these you choose, it is a sea, though many
other less noble branches reach another shore. It breeds monsters that are
equal to those of the sea for size or for viciousness: and from this you can
gather how great it is, since it has enough food and enough room for
wandering for huge animals.2" This river contains crocodiles.
4. And as we are told by Balbillus,3 a man famous in all kinds of
literature, at one time at the Heracleon mouth of the Nile, which is the
biggest, dolphins coming from the sea and crocodiles from the river drew
up ranks against each other, and fought a battle. The crocodiles were
1 Seneca, Naturales quaestiones, IVa, i, 2-ii, 2. Grosseteste's text in these lengthy quota
tions from Seneca is corrupt in several places.
2 Seneca, Naturales quaestiones, IVa, ii, 8-12
3 Quoted in Seneca, Naturales quaestiones, IVa, ii, 8-12
CHAPTERS XII-XIV 327
defeated by the animals that are quiet and do not bite. But this is how
they won: the upper part of the crocodile's body is hard and impenetrable,
but its lower part is soft and tender, so the dolphins drove against these
parts the spines that grow out of their backs, and wounded them from
underwater, and they split the ranks of the crocodiles against them. The
others turned tail and ran.
5. There are, they say, three causes of the flooding of the Nile. The first
is, that there are places through which it runs with less force. The second is
the Etesian winds blowing and holding up its flow. The third, they say, is
heat in the winter and cold in summer below the ground. "The Etesian
winds are northerly winds, which take their name from the fact that they
begin to blow at a particular time of year. Eniautos in Greek is "year" in
Latin1. They blow straight from the north towards Egypt. The South wind
Auster is opposite to them.2"
Chapter XIII
1. Tigris, Isidore says, is a river of Mesopotamia that "flows towards
the Assyrians, and after many windings falls into the Dead Sea. It is called
by this name because of its speed, which is like that of a beast rushing on
its prey.3" For the tiger is a beast so called for its swift running. They call it
this for its own sake, and also from the Median for arrow. From this name
the name of the Tigris is drawn, since it is the swiftest of all rivers.
2. Pliny says that the Tigris "has a different temperature in its course
and carries on till it reaches the Taurus mountains, where it sinks into a
cave, and goes underneath them until it breaks out at the other side. They
call the lake Zoroanda. And it is clear that it sinks down and comes out the
other side. Then it crosses the region called the topics and then sinks into
holes again. And after twenty-five miles it comes back near
Nymphaeum.4"
Chapter XIV
1 . "The river Euphrates is a river of Mesopotamia that rises in paradise,
very rich in gem-stones, which flows through the middle of Babylon. This
takes its name from crops or fertility, since in Hebrew Eufrata means
"fertility". It waters some places in Mesopotamia in the way that the
Nile waters Alexandria. Sallust, a most reliable authority, says that the
1 This scarcely seems relevant. Perhaps Isidore meant to point out that etos, the Greek for
summer, from which Etesian is derived, also means "year".
2 Isidore, Etymologies, XIII, xi, 15
4 Pliny, Natural history, VI, xxvii, 31, 128 (ed. Sillig, I, 447^48)
328 PART ELEVEN
Tigris and the Euphrates rise from one source in Armenia, then follow
different courses [239C], and are for a very long way divided by a space of
very many miles1. The land that lies between them is called Mesopotamia2"
because it is enclosed between two rivers, from mesos, the middle, and
potamos, a river.
2. Jerome: The places through which the Euphrates flows are omitted
because the people of Israel, who were to read this Scripture, could know
this by their own experience, and for this reason it is left aside. Just as "the
spirit bloweth where he listeth, and thou nearest his voice, but knowest not
whence he comes nor whither he goes"3, so also is the water which is those
that the spirit wishes to sanctify. It comes by ways that are unknown to us
and it goes from us to unknown places4.
Chapter XV
1. These four rivers, then, are born from one stream in paradise, the
stream that waters paradise, as Bede says, as the Nile waters the lowlands
of Egypt5. This watering could also be understood to occur, not by flooding,
but by a sprinkling of the earth through moisture being scattered through
hidden small channels. These rivers have sources in places known to us,
where they break through the earth. Phison, which is called the Ganges,
rises in places in the Caucasus mountains. Gehon, also called the Nile, rises
not far from Mt Atlas, which is the eastern limit of Africa6. The Tigris and
the Euphrates rise in one source in Armenia and soon separate their waters.
Hence we can gather that these four rivers that leave paradise in four
divisions, after a short course above the earth are swallowed up by the
earth again, and then after some course under the earth break out a second
and perhaps a third time, some of them, or even more, in places and springs
that are unknown to us.
Chapter XVI
1 . Hevilath is a part of India, which after the flood was held by Hevila,
the son of Ethan, the son of Heber the patriarch of the Hebrews. But this
Ethan, in Genesis 10 and in Chronicles 1 is called Jectan7. Hevilath is
written with the consonantal "v" followed by the vowel "i". This is clear
1 Sallust, Histories, IV, 77

3 John, 3: 8
4 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 46D-47A)
5 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 41C)
6 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 45C-46A). Mt Atlas was well known to be at the western
limit of Africa, surely?
7 Genesis, 10: 25, 26, 29; 1 Chronicles, 1: 19, 20, 23
CHAPTERS XIV-XIX 329
from the Greek spelling and from the testimony of Jerome, who in his
translations puts this name Hevilath among those which have the conso
nantal "v" followed by the vowel "i". "Gold groweth" in the course of
that river because, as Pliny says, "the parts of India are more abundant than
any others in veins of gold"1. And according to the authority of Jerome
mentioned above, in the course of this river are mountains of gold.
Chapter XVII
1. Bdellium, according to Pliny, is an aromatic tree, dark in colour,
with a great quantity of oil, with a fruit that is like the wild fig2. It gives a
gum which some call procon, others malachan, others maldichon. It is
transparent, pale, of a similar smell; greasy when rubbed, bitter to the taste,
smelling more strongly in an infusion. This tree grows in Arabia, India and
Babylon. This tree is mentioned in the book of Numbers: "the manna was
like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium"3, i.e. transparent and pale.
Chapter XVIII
1. "The onyx is so called because it is of a mixed pale colour like
human nails. The Greeks call the nail the onyx. This is found in India or
Arabia, but of different kinds: the Indian has a fiery colour, ribbed with
white bands; the Arabian is dark with light bands.4" They say that wearing
an onyx around your neck or on your finger makes images of ghosts and all
kinds of sad things in dreams, multiplies quarrels, and breeds brawling
everywhere. Another translation has, as was said above, "There are the
carbuncle and the prase"5.
Chapter XIX
1 . The carbuncle is a jewel that, they say, shines in the dark. Hence it
is called the carbuncle, "because it is on fire [239D] like a coal. Its
brightness is not defeated even by night. It shines in the dark so as to
make flames dance in the eyes. There are twelve kinds of them, but the best
are the kind that seem to shine and to pour out fire. The carbuncle is called
the anthrax in Greek. It has its origin in Libya among the Troglodytes.6"
And, Pliny says, there are said to be male carbuncles, that shine more
brightly, and female carbuncles, that shine more gently. They are found
mostly by the sun striking on them7. One kind of carbuncle looks purple
1 Glossa ordinaria, Genesis 2: 10-14 (PL, CXIII, 87C)

2 Pliny, Natural history, XII, ix, 19, 35 (ed. Sillig, II, 339)
3 Numbers, 11: 7
4 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 46B-46C)
5 See below, XI, xxiv, 4
6 Isidore, Etymologies, XVI, xiv, 1
7 Pliny, Natural history, XXXVII, vii, 25-27, 92-99 (ed. Sillig, V, 416-419)
330 PART ELEVEN
indoors, but under the open sky has flaming and sparkling rays, capable of
leaving their mark on a wax writing-tablet.This kind shines even in the dark.
One kind of carbuncle, called the anthracitis, which has a pale vein around
it, is of the colour of fire. But it has this peculiarity, that when it is thrown
into fire it goes out and seems to die, but sprinkled with water it flames out.
Chapter XX
1. The prase is a green stone, since prassos is the Greek for what is
called "leek" in Latin. It is called the prase because it looks like the juice
of the leek.
Chapter XXI
1 . I think that by the prase it means the emerald, as is clearly suggested
by the words of Jerome quoted above. The emerald is of a deep green colour,
greener than green plants or any stone, infecting the air around it that it
strikes on with greenness, and put into oil or wine turns them green though
they have their natural colour. There are many kinds, but the most noble are
the Scythian ones. The next best are the Bactrian; third the Egyptian.
"Those who carve stones make no stone more graceful to the eyes than
this. If its body is extended, it gives back images like a looking-glass. Nero
Caesar used to watch the fights of gladiators in an emerald. They are
gathered in cracks in the fields when the north wind blows: they shine out
at that time when the earth uncovers them, because these are the winds that
move the sand more than any other." This stone, it is believed, increases
wealth, confers wit, drives away nourishment1, heals the sick, averts storms,
confers chastity. "Theophrastus says that in the chronicles of the Egyptians
he found that there was sent to one of their kings by the king of Babylon,
as a gift, an emerald four cubits long, three wide.2" Theophrastus said
that in the temple of Hercules there was a pillar of emerald. This was jasper
rather than emerald. But there are some of this kind found in Cyprus, half
emerald and half stone, the moisture not yet transformed over the whole.
Apion, surnamed Plistonices, left it in writing that there was in the
labyrinth of Egypt a colossus of Serapis made of emerald nine cubits high.
Chapter XXII
1 . The river flowing out of paradise means the Lord Jesus Christ, who
says in John: "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink"3. For he is
1 I can make no other sense of the Latin here, but it seems to be inappropriate in context.
Below, in Chapter XXIV, 4, Grosseteste speaks of this stone driving away unnatural colour.
2 Pliny, Natural history, XXXVII, v, 19, 74-75 (ed. Sillig, V, 407)
3 John, 7: 37
CHAPTERS XIX-XXII 331
the fountain of life, of whom the Psalmist said to the Father "For in thy
presence is the fountain of life"1. This fountain splits into four divisions,
because the life and teaching of Jesus Christ is split up in the four writings
of the four evangelists.
2. Holy Scripture is likewise meant by the fountain of paradise. The
whole of Scripture in the end is split up in the fourfold teaching of the
Evangelists, and to that tends all that is contained in the whole of Scripture.
As Rabanus says, then, the four rivers named here "signify the four gospels
that the four evangelists composed. The river Gehon, which means the
breast [240A] or the snatched away, means the gospel of Matthew, which
was first written by its author in Hebrew. It begins with the genealogy of
the Saviour, briefly mentions the birth of the Lord, the coming of great
men2 to the Saviour, and the killing of the children by Herod. Then it
records his baptism, his fasting and temptations by the devil in the desert,
and then passes at once to the preaching of the gospel and the working of
miracles. Thus it comes to his passion and shows that he rose from the
dead: then he appeared to his disciples in Galilee, and sent them to preach
the gospel. It waters the land of Ethiopia and of the spiritual Egypt with the
flow of its teachings, in so far as it puts forth the fruit of faith and of good
works. Hence the evangelist himself, in the history of the church, is said to
have preached this gospel in parts of Ethiopia and to have ended there as a
martyr.
3. "The Ganges, i.e. the Phison, which means "a troop" or "the
change of the mouth" means the gospel of Mark, which gives little of
the genealogy of the Saviour according to the flesh. But it gathers together
in a band in one volume his teachings and his miracles, which the other
evangelists tell more fully. Thus it comes to the passion of Christ, and
shows his resurrection from the dead, his ascension into heaven, and the
preaching of the apostles to the world after his ascension.
4. "The Tigris seems to fit well with the gospel of Luke. This begins
from the priesthood of Zachary and the birth of John, and tells of the
annunciation of the angel to the Virgin Mary, and the birth of the Saviour
that followed it. It records his genealogy at his baptism, and passes on to
expound his preaching and working of miracles. Running through this
rapidly it describes the passion and resurrection of the Lord, and his
ascension into heaven, and his disciples gathering to give praise in the
temple. It includes everything briefly and succinctly.
5. "The river Euphrates, which means the "fruitful' or the 'growing'
fits extremely well with the gospel of John. This begins with the divine
1 Psalms, 35: 10
2 The text as we have it says "magni", great men, but "Magi" seems more likely.
332 PART ELEVEN
generation of the saviour, and mostly describes what has to do with his
divine nature. It waters the earth of the church so that it may bring forth
spiritual shoots and the fruit of virtue, and confers on it the riches of
spiritual knowledge.1"
Chapter XXIII
1. This spring also signifies, in an allegorical sense, baptism, which
waters the church as a paradise; and it is divided into four parts, since it
washes and regenerates the believers through the four quarters of the world.
This river is split four ways when sacred Scripture is expounded in a
fourfold way, i.e. historically, allegorically, tropologically and anagogi-
cally. In a moral sense the spring of paradise means the Holy Spirit, or
charity, according to what is written in John: "And the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life"2.
And again: "He that believeth in me, rivers of living water shall flow from
his breast.3" He said this of the spirit that those who believed in him were
to receive. This spring also means the inflowing of inward joy and pleasure,
which is what Eden means. Of this the Psalmist said "Thou wilt make them
to drink from the torrent of pleasure"4. This spring is split into four parts,
i.e. into the four cardinal virtues.
Chapter XXIV
1. Phison means prudence5. For the meaning of "Phison" is "the
change of the mouth", and prudence changes its words to fit the capacity
of the hearer. And according to the words of the Apostles it becomes all
things to all men. Hence in Greek it is called panurgia, i.e. "doing all
[240B] things", since by prudence all works are moderated and ordered.
Also, they say, "Phison" means "the mouth of the pupil"6, because
whatever prudence says comes from the pupil of the inner eye, i.e. from
understanding.
2. This river goes around the whole land of Hevilath. Hevilath means
"in pain" or "giving birth"7, and prudence, in so far as it always "adds
knowledge" also, according to Ecclesiastes "adds pain" . For it considers
in pain what are the earthly things that it has lost and finds a saving
temporal counsel to despise what it has gone through. And the more the
1 Rabanus, De universo, XI, 10 (PL, CXI, 320B-321A)

2 John, 4: 14
3 John, 7: 38
4 Psalms, 35: 9
5 Cp. Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 10 (PL, XXIII, 823)
CHAPTERS XXII-XXIV 333
knowledge of counsel increases, to abandon things that will perish, the more
the pain increases that it has not yet reached lasting things. The highest work
of prudence is to seek out its own weakness, and once prudence has sought
this out and found it, it can do no other than mourn. It is in pain for this
reason, and strives to give birth to the things that lead to salvation.
3. Also, it goes around the land of Hevilath by striving "towards the
contemplation of the truth that is far from any human mouth; for it is
ineffable, and, should you wish to speak it out, you will find it a question of
bringing it to birth rather than speaking. In this contemplation the Apostle
heard 'ineffable words that it is not lawful for man to speak'1"2. In the
course of this river there grows gold "that is, the discipline of right living
that shines out clean of all earthly soiling, as if it were smelted.3" The gold
of this river is the best, because the discipline of life that true prudence
brings (that is, the teaching of Jesus Christ) which goes around its own
weakness until it gives birth to a saving spirit, is incomparably superior to
all other disciplines of life that are handed down by the philosophers and
those who are wise in this world. And where prudence goes around in pain
and groaning for its own weaknesses, bdellium grows, an aromatic tree:
that is, the tree of good works grows there according to the norm of
prudence, spreading out the fragrance of good reputation on all sides,
stretching out its hand to give mercy: this is what the great quantity of
oil suggests.
4. Hence Wisdom, which is the same as prudence, says of herself: "As
a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane-tree by the waters in the streets,
was I exalted"4, hiding it from the shining of human favour, as in the
shade. Also, in the course of prudence is found the onyx, since the minds of
people who have prudence put on a snowy whiteness through the cleanli
ness of their thoughts, and their throats burn with the fire of the love of
things above. Also, prudence, in meditation, conversation and works that
are done with prudence and foresight shapes and forms in the mind all
kinds of sadness that might occur: hence, if they do occur, they do less
harm because they are foreseen. It multiplies quarrels and breeds brawling
on all sides against the soothing words of the world, and will not make
peace on any account with the vices. Beside this river, also, is found the
carbuncle, that is, the light of truth, which is not overcome by any darkness
of falsehood, and is found by the reflection of the sun of understanding5. It
2 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, x, 14 (PL, XXXIV, 203-204)
3 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, x, 14 (PL, XXXIV, 203-204)
5 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, x, 14 (PL, XXXIV, 204)
334 PART ELEVEN
also reaches the greenness of everlasting life, which is signified by the

greenness of the prase. Prudence also increases the riches of the spirit, of
which the Psalmist says: "I have been delighted in the ways of thy
testimonies, as in all riches"1. The Apostle also speaks of them to the
Corinthians: "I give thanks to God . . . that in all things you are made rich
in him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you"2. It also confers wit in speaking the words of God. It
drives away every unnatural colour of avarice and wrathfulness. It heals
those who have fallen by sin. It averts storms, since prudence has the mild
answer that, as Solomon says, breaks [240C] wrath. "A mild answer
breaketh wrath; but a harsh word stirreth up fury"3. It confers chastity,
that chastity of which the Apostle speaks: "For I have espoused you to
one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ"4. Since
these properties of the prase are found, spiritually, in prudence, the river
which signifies prudence is well said to have the prase. That Phison
means prudence, which is the same as wisdom, is clearly suggested in
Ecclesiasticus, where it says "Who filleth wisdom like Phison"5.
5. Also what Josephus says, that the name "Phison" means a flooding,
fits with prudence and wisdom6. Wisdom says: "I wisdom have poured out
rivers" and, a little after "I like an aqueduct came out of paradise. I said: I
will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my
meadow", and after that "I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will
leave it to them that seek wisdom, and will not cease to instruct their
offspring even to the holy age. See ye that I have not laboured for myself
only, but for all that seek out the truth"7. This is a great flood, then, that
extends to every benefit. And it fits with prudence that Phison means "a
troop", from the fact that "it is joined by ten great rivers and makes them
one"8. For prudence is the knowledge of things that should be done and the
things that should be left undone, and this knowledge is gathered and
completed from the ten commandments of the Decalogue that are con
nected one with another. For whatever is to be done or left undone is
suggested in the ten commandments of the Decalogue.
6. Gehon signifies temperance. For it means "the gaping of the earth"9.
1 Psalms, 118: 14
2 1 Corinthians, 1: 4-5
3 Proverbs, 15: 1
4 2 Corinthians, 11:2
6 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 3, 38 (ed. Blatt, p. 128)
7 Ecclesiasticus, 24: 40; 41-2; 46-7
9 Cp. Ambrose, De paradiso, 3, 16 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 275)
CHAPTER XXIV 335
And temperance absorbs the unlawful movements of all flesh and swallows
up their earthliness. It goes around the land of Ethiopia, where people are
of a dark colour because of the great burning of the sun, because temper
ance swallows up and devours all the spurs of the lusts, and all the
unseemly customs. But Augustine says that this river "which goes around
Ethiopia signifies the heat and warmth of fortitude, that is swift and prompt
in the heat of action"1. Gehon also means "the breast" or "the broken"2,
and this meaning fits either virtue quite well. For temperance brings back
all lascivious motions to the counsel of the breast, and puts the obstacle of
the breast to break the onrush of the concupiscences. Likewise fortitude
bravely puts its breast before all the adversities that rush on it, and receives
on the shield of its breast the assaults of all adversities.
7. The Tigris, by its great swiftness, means fortitude, and "floweth
against the Assyrians", that is, against enemies and those who govern
themselves by pride. This river, according to Augustine, "means temper
ance, that resists the great opposition of lust with the counsels of
prudence.3"
8. The Euphrates means justice. For the word means "the fruitful" or
"fertility" or "the recent"4, and it is not said towards or against whom this
river flows, or what land it goes around. This is because, as Augustine says,
"Justice has to do with all the parts of the soul, for it is the order and the
equity of the soul, by which these three things are joined together in
harmony: prudence, temperance and fortitude. And by this being joined
together and ordering they make up justice.5"
9. If we take the Gehon, i.e. the Nile, to mean temperance, then the
properties of this river fit well. By its flooding it besmears and waters the
land of Egypt, and makes it fertile. Without temperance human flesh is
burnt up with the heat of lust and becomes sandy and barren. When it is
watered by temperance, the flesh becomes fruitful, because, as Seneca
says6, temperance makes health good and governs the pleasures. Some it
loathes and drives [240D] away, others it arranges and brings back to a
healthy way of life. But it never comes to pleasure for the sake of pleasure,
and knows that the best way with them is not to take what you want, but
what you should. It settles hunger with food, quenches thirst with drink,
guards against cold with clothing, and builds itself a house to protect the
body. It does not care whether it is built with turf or with stone, and

2 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 1 1 (PL, XXIII, 823)
6 Cp. Seneca, Letters, VIII, 4-5
336 PART ELEVEN
despises everything that wasteful labour puts there as adornment or

decoration. This is the fertility of crops that the river of temperance
makes to sprout by its flooding from the land of the flesh of pity.
Chapter XXV
1. Ambrose, in his book On paradise expounds in a similar way these
four rivers as signifying the four cardinal virtues. He adds some matters
beyond what we have given, and adds a historical reason for the meaning of
the second river. "The second river is Gehon, beside which the Israelites,
when they were in Egypt, were ordered to leave Egypt and eat the lamb
with loins girt. This is as a sign of temperance: for they had to eat the
Passover of the Lord in chastity and in holiness. For this reason the first
observance of the law was commanded beside this river, since the name
means 'a gaping of the earth'. For just as a gaping swallows up the earth
and all dirt or all plants on it, chastity is accustomed to abolish all the
passions of the body. And it was right for the first observance to be
commanded there, because the law swallows up fleshly sin. It is right,
too, that the Gehon, which is a figure of chastity, is said to go around the
land of Ethiopia, so that it may wash the body that is cast down and restrict
the fire of the extremely base flesh. For 'Ethiopia' means in Latin what is
cast down and base. What could be more cast down than our flesh? What
could be so like Ethiopia as our flesh, that is black with the darkness of
sin?" And he says in the same book, of the fourth river: "The fourth river is
the Euphrates, which is called in Latin 'fertility' or 'richness of fruits'. It is
some kind of a sign of justice, which feeds every soul. For no virtue seems
to have more abundant fruit than equity and justice, which is good for
others rather than for oneself, and neglects one's own benefit, preferring
what is an increase for all. Many think that the Euphrates is so called arco
tou e6(ppev£aai, that is, from joy, since there is nothing that brings so
much joy to the human race as justice and equity. And the reason why the
lands that the other rivers go around are mentioned, while the lands that the
Euphrates goes around are not, we take to be this: that its water is said to
give life and warmth and increase. That is why the wise among the
Hebrews and the Assyrians call it Auxes, the increase, and it is said that
against it the water of other rivers flows. Where there is prudence there is
cunning, where there is fortitude there is wrathfulness, where there is
temperance there is intemperance, and many other vices: but where there
is justice, there is the harmony of the other virtues. Hence it is not known
from the places it flows through, that is, it is known not to be partial. Justice
is not a virtue in itself, but rather the mother of all virtues. In these four
rivers, then, are signified the four principal virtues, which have enclosed, as
it were, the times of this world.
CHAPTERS XXIV-XXV 337
2. "The first time, then, from the beginning of the world to the flood,
was the time of prudence. In that time the following are reckoned just:
Abel, from God saying: this is a man made to the image of God; Enos, who
hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God, and Enoch, a name which in
Latin means 'the grace of God', who was taken up to heaven; Noah, who
was himself [241 A] just, and also the government of rest. The second time
is that of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the patriarchs, in
which a kind of chaste and pure temperance of religion shone out. Isaac
was given as an unblemished son through the promise made to Abraham,
not so much by bodily birth as by the gift of God that brought favour, and
in this he was a figure of the Unblemished one. This the Apostle teaches
when he says 'to Abraham were the promises made and to his seed. He
saith not: and to his seeds, as of many: but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ'1. The third time was the law of Moses and the other prophets:
'For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, Barak, Samson,' Solomon,
'David, Samuel, and the other prophets,' Ananiah, Azariah, Misael, Daniel,
Elijah, Elisha, 'who by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, recovered strength from weakness,
became valiant in battle, put to flight the armies of foreigners'2. It is fitting
for these to be a figure of fortitude. As you read below, 'They were cut
asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they
wandered about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins, being in want, distressed,
afflicted. Of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts, in
mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth'3. Rightly, then, do we put
them as a figure of fortitude.
3. "The age of the gospel is a fitting figure of justice, for this virtue is
'for the salvation of every believer'4. And the Lord himself says: 'Let us
fulfil all justice'5. Justice is like a fertile mother of the other virtues. And
though in some way that we have said one of the virtues may be the
principal, they are all connected and massed together. For Abel was also
just, and Abraham was extremely brave and patient. The prophets were
extremely prudent, and Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians; but he reckoned of greater worth than the treasures of the
Egyptians the reproach of Christ. And who was wiser than Daniel?
Solomon, too, asked for wisdom and was worthy to be given it. It is also
1 Galatians, 3: 16
2 Hebrews, 11: 32-34
3 Hebrews, 11: 37
4 Romans, 1: 16
5 Matthew, 3: 15
338 PART ELEVEN
said of the four rivers, that drinking from them is of benefit. Phison is said
to have good gold of the earth and the carbuncle and the prase: let us
consider what this is. Enos seems to us to be like good gold, who in
prudence wanted to know the name of God. Enoch, who was taken away
and did not see death, is the carbuncle, a stone of sweet fragrance: for the
holy Enoch obtained from God by his good works the grace of breathing
out his deeds and his customs. Noah is like the prase, showing the colour of
life: for he alone at the time of the flood was kept safe in the ark as a living
seed of the future re-establishment. It is good, then, that paradise, which is
watered by many streams, should be 'towards the Orient', not 'against the
Orient': that is, towards Christ who is called the Orient, the Rising one,
who pours out a radiance of eternal light, and in Eden, that is, in
pleasure.1"
Chapter XXVI
1. There follows: "And the Lord God took man, and put him into the
paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it". The text of the Seventy
says: "And the Lord God took the man that he had made, and put him into
the paradise, to work on it and keep it." Others, translating the translation
of the Seventy into Latin, have not "to work on it" but only "to work and
to keep". Jerome says that "in this passage the Hebrew, for 'pleasure' has
Eden. The [24 IB] Seventy translated Eden as 'pleasure', but Symmachus,
who earlier translated 'paradise' as 'flowering' here has 'pleasantness' or
'delight'2". Moses recapitulates here the placing of the human being in
paradise, and adds why he was placed there, i.e. for working the land, and
what commandment he had to keep there. "He took the man", then, that is,
he took the human being that was made outside paradise, from the earth
from which it had been formed, and took it to paradise. And, as Josephus
says, he ordered it to take care of what was planted there3. That is why it
says "to work on the paradise".
Chapter XXVII
1. But was the human being condemned to toil before sinning?
Certainly not. As Augustine says, "We see some go to till the soil with
such good will that it would be the greatest of punishments for them to be
taken from this to some other task.4" In this way pleasure and delight were
given to the human being in the task of tilling paradise. "What kind of
1 Ambrose, De paradiso, 3, 16-23 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 276-280)

2 Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim, 308 (PL, XXIII, 989)
3 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 3, 38 (ed. Blatt, p. 128)
CHAPTERS XXV-XXVII 339
delight does tilling the ground have? Far more did it have in those days,
when there was no opposition from earth or heaven, when there was no
affliction of toil, but a rejoicing in pleasure, when the things that God had
created came forth in joy and vigour with the help of the human body. This
was a reason for the creator to be praised more abundantly, since he had
given to the human soul, set in the human body, a reason for working and
the possibility of working as much as the soul wanted, not as much,
unwanted, as the needs of the body compelled.
2. "For what is a greater or more wonderful sight, where can the
human reason more commune with nature, than when one has sown the
seed, planted the slips, transplanted the young shoots, cut back the weeds?
Than when one asks what is the power of root and shoot? What can it do?
what can it not do? How is it able? How is it not able? What is the inner
invisible power of measuring able to do? What is the outer care that is
given? One can then consider and begin to see that 'Neither he that planteth
is anything, nor he that watereth, but God, that giveth the increase.' And
one understands that the work that comes from outside comes through
oneself, who was created and is ruled and ordered by God, in an unseen
way. The eyes of one's thought see this world like a great tree, and working
on it are found two operations of providence: part is by nature, part by will.
The natural part comes from the hidden management of God, by which he
gives increase even to trees and herbs; the voluntary part by the works of
angels and men. By the former God orders the heavenly things above and
the earthly things beneath, he makes the luminaries and the stars to shine,
he turns about night and day, he washes with water through and around the
earth he founded, he pours out the air on high, he makes plants and animals
be conceived and born, grow and grow old and die; and does all other
things that happen within nature by natural movement. By the latter he
makes signs be given, teaching and learning to take place, fields to be
cultivated, societies to be managed, the arts to be exercised, and whatever
else is done, either in the society above us or in this earthly and mortal
society, through the good advice of the good and the ignorant advice of the
evil.
3. "And in the human being itself there is the strength of this double
providence. The former has to do with the natural body and its movement.
By this it comes to be, by this it grows, by this it grows old. The voluntary
is that by which it is advised as to its feeding, its covering, and its care of
itself.
4. "With regard to the soul, too, natural action is that by which it lives
and senses; voluntary action, that by which it learns and consents.
340 PART ELEVEN
5. "In a tree [241C] the care from without is so that the action from
within may be for its good. In the same way in the human body medicine
from outside serves what nature does within. In the soul, too, doctrine is
applied from outside so that nature within may be made blessed. Careless
ness in tending the tree is the same as negligence in curing the body or
laziness in teaching the soul. Watering that is of no benefit for the tree is
like superfluous food for the body, or persuading the soul to wickedness.
6. "God, then, who made all things, rules all things: he creates all
natures good, and orders all wills in justice. Why then should it seem
repugnant to the truth that we should believe that man was placed in
paradise to work by husbandry, not toiling as a slave does, but with the
willingness of an upright soul? What could be more innocent for those with
nothing to do than this task? What is fuller of great considerations for the
foresighted? But 'to keep' what? Paradise? Against what enemies? There
was no fear of the incursion of a neighbour, or of the shifting of boundaries.
There were no thieves, no aggressors. How then can we understand that man
should have kept the bodily paradise in a bodily way? But it does not say 'to
work and keep the paradise' . It says, that he might work and keep. If you
look carefully at the Greek, it says 'And the Lord God took the man whom
he had made, and put him in the paradise, to work and to keep' . The one who
translated "to work" thought that he put the man there to work. But it is
ambiguous whether it means to work the paradise. It seems more to require
the expression, not 'to work the paradise' but 'to work in the paradise' . But
it does not say 'to work the paradise', in the way that it said above 'there
was no man to work the earth'. 'Work the earth' is the same expression as
'work the paradise': let us take the ambiguous sentence in either sense.
7. "For if we do not need to take it as 'to keep the paradise' but 'to
keep, in the paradise', what was there to be kept in the paradise? What 'to
work in the paradise' is, we have spoken of. Perhaps that which is worked
in the paradise by husbandry is kept in the paradise by discipline: that is,
just as the field was subject to the one that tilled it, so he should be subject
to the command of his Lord, in order to bring forth, by accepting the
command, the fruit of obedience, and not the thorns of disobedience1.
Then, because he was not willing to keep the likeness of the tilled paradise
in him by subjection, he was condemned and received a field that was like
to him: God said, 'it will bear thee thorns and thistles'2.
1 Hitherto the Latin word "homo" has been generally translated "human being", and the
pronoun used anaphorically to refer to the human being has been "it". From here on, in
translating the long quotations from Augustine, this has become impossibly artificial: hence
the translation "man", and the use of the pronoun "he".
2 Genesis, 3: 18
CHAPTER XXVII 341
8. "But if we take it to mean 'to work the paradise and keep the
paradise', he could work the paradise, as we said above, by husbandry. He
could keep it not against wicked men or enemies, for there were none, but
perhaps against beasts. But how or why is this? Would the beasts rage
against man when he had not yet sinned? He put names to all the beasts,
who were brought before him, as is recorded below, and on the sixth day by
the Word of God received the food that was common for all. Or if there
were already some beasts to be feared [24 ID], how could one man protect
paradise against them? It was not a small place that was watered by so great
a spring. He should have kept the paradise, if he could, by such an
enclosure that the serpent could not have entered. But it would be strange
if, before enclosing in this way, he could have shut out all serpents. But
why do we pass over the sense which is before our eyes? The man was put
in paradise to work it, as we argued above, through husbandry that was not
toilsome, but delightful, and that called to his prudent mind great and
valuable things. He had to keep the paradise — the paradise of his prudent
mind, that reminded him of great and valuable things — for himself, not
allowing anything in that would make him worthy to be expelled. He
received the command to keep the paradise for himself, to obey the
command and not be thrown from it. For a man is rightly said not to
have kept a thing, when he acts in such a way as to lose it, even if it
remains safe for another who finds it or deserves to be given it.
9 "There is another sense in these words, which I think is worth
putting forward, that God should work on man and keep him. Just as a
man works on the earth, not to make it earth, but to make it cultivated and
to make it bear fruit, so God much the more worked on the man whom he
had created to be a man, to make him just, so long as man did not abandon
him through pride. For this is falling off from God, which Scripture calls
the beginning of pride. 'The beginning of the pride of man, is to fall off
from God'1. God is unchangeable good, but man is changeable both in
body and in soul, and unless he turns to the unchangeable good, which is
God, he cannot be formed in justice and blessedness. For this reason, the
God who created man, so that he should exist, works on man and keeps
him, so that he may be good and blessed. So by the same turn of phrase
man is said to work the earth, which was already earth, to adorn it and
make it fruitful, and God is said to work man, who was already man, to
make him pious and wise. And he keeps him, since the man who delights in
the power that is in him more than the power of the one above him, and
despises his dominion, cannot be safe.
10. "It is not in vain, then, I think, but is a great warning to us, that
342 PART ELEVEN
right from the beginning of this book, which is 'In the beginning God made
the heaven and the earth', right up to this point, it never says 'the Lord
God', but only 'God'. Now, though, that it comes to the point at which man
is set in paradise, and commanded to work it and keep it, Scripture says:
'And the Lord God took the man he had made and put him in the paradise
to work it and to keep'. It is not that God is not the Lord of the creatures
mentioned already. But this was not written for angels or for any other
creature, but for man, to warn him how much it is for his good to have God
as his Lord, that is, to live obediently under his power, rather than in
licentiousness to abuse his own power. So Scripture did not wish to put
this before, until it came to the placing of man in paradise, to work and to
keep. So it does not say 'and God took the man he had made', but: And the
Lord God took the man he had made, and put him in paradise, to work on
him, so that he might be just, and to keep him, so that he might be safe in
virtue of God's dominion, which is not for his benefit but for ours. [242A]
For he does not need our service, but we do need his dominion, for him to
work on us and keep us.
11. "And therefore he is the true and only Lord, because we serve him
for our own benefit and good, not for his. For if he needed us, that would
make him not to be the true Lord, since through us his need would be
supported: and he would thus serve his own need. Rightly, then, is it said in
the Psalm: 'I have said to the Lord, thou art my God, for thou hast no need
of my goods' '. Nor should we think that we said that we serve him for our
own benefit and good, in such a way that we expect anything from him but
himself. He is our highest benefit and good. In this way we love him freely,
according to what is said: 'But it is good for me to adhere to my God'2.
Man is not such that, once made, and abandoned by the one who made him,
he can do any good as if from himself. All man's good action consists in
turning to the one who made him, and being by him made just, pious, wise,
and blessed for ever. Not, that is, to be made so and then to abandon him, as
the body is made well by the physician whom one then abandons. The
physician worked on the body from outside, serving the nature that worked
from the inside under God, who works all health by the operation of that
twofold providence that we spoke of above. A man should not turn to God
in such a way that when he is made just by him, he can abandon him, but in
such a way as to be always made just by him. For the one who does not
abandon him is by his presence made just, filled with light, and made
blessed, by the working and keeping of God, so long as he is under his
power, subject to him and obedient. It is not in the way, as we learned, that
1 Psalms, 15: 2
2 Psalms, 72: 28
CHAPTERS XXVII-XXVIII 343
a man works the earth to make it cultivated and fruitful: when he has
worked it he can go away, and the earth remains ploughed, or sown, or
watered, or whatever else. The work that was done remains when the
worker is gone. It is not in this way that God works on the just man: not
that once the man is made just, he can go away and remain what he was
made by the one that he is no longer with. It is more like the way in which
the air, in the presence of light, has not been lit up but is lit up. If it had
been lit up, and was not being lit up, then it would remain lit up even when
the light had gone. In the same way when God is present man is lit up, but
when he leaves God he is at once in darkness. He goes away from God, not
by putting an interval of space between them, but by turning away his will.
Therefore the one who is unchangeable good works good in man and keeps
him. We must always be being made by him, we must always be being
made perfect by him, by cleaving to him, and remaining in that turning
back to him; that turning back of which it was said: 'But it is good for me to
adhere to my God'1, and that turning back to him to whom it was said 'I
will keep my strength to thee'2. 'For we are his workmanship'3, not merely
in that we are men, but also in that we are good. For the Apostle, too,
commended the grace by which we are saved to the faithful who had
turned back from impiety, saying 'For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not of works,
that no man may glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in
them.'4 And elsewhere when he says, 'Work out your salvation with fear
and trembling', so that no-one should think to attribute to himself that he
makes himself good and just, he at once adds 'for it is God that worketh in
you'.5"6
Chapter XXVIII
1. According to Jerome, in the mystical sense 'God took the man', i.e.
the Son of God took on human flesh and became the head [242B] of the
church7. And thus he was placed in the paradise to work it, that is, to gather
together the church and fill it up and keep it gathered, as he himself says in
the gospel: "I have kept them in thy name'.8 The text of Ambrose fits this
1 Psalms, 72: 28
2 Psalms, 58: 10
3 Ephesians, 2: 10
4 Ephesians, 2: 8-10
5 Philippians, 2: 12-13
6 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 8-12 (CSEL, XXVIII. 1, 242-250)
7 Pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in Pentateuchum, (PL, XCI, 208D)
8 John, 17: 12
344 PART ELEVEN
allegorical sense more clearly: it has "and God took hold of the man he had
made"1. The taking hold of the man is the taking on of human flesh, which
is what the Apostle suggests in the epistle to the Hebrews: "For nowhere
doth he take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh
hold"2.
2. In the moral sense God took man, by his turning back from guilt to
justice, from unfaithfulness to faith, and so put him in paradise according to
all the aforesaid mystical senses of "paradise", to work on the command
ments and to keep them by persevering in them. He also "keeps" by
holding on to humility, since humility is the keeper of the virtues, as
Augustine says, in order that he might not become proud of his works,
and lose by boasting what he gained by working3.
3. Hence Gregory in the Moralia says: "It must be carefully con
sidered that we cannot come to good if we do not avoid the evil that creeps
in. Everything that is done is lost if it is not kept carefully in humility.
Hence it was well said, too, of our first parent: 'The Lord put him in a
paradise of pleasure, to work and to keep'. A man works when he does the
good that is commanded him, but he does not keep the good he has worked
if there creeps in to him what is forbidden."
4. Or as Ambrose says: "In 'working' is understood some progress in
virtue, in 'keeping', some completion. These two are required from man,
that in his works he may seek what is new and keep what has been born.
The Psalm prophetically teaches this when it says: 'Unless the Lord build
the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord watch the city,
he watcheth in vain that keepeth it'4. You see that those labour who are
making progress in the work of building, and those watch who have taken
on the keeping of the work. That is why the Lord says to his apostles, as to
those who are more perfect 'Watch and pray, that you may not enter into
temptation'5. He taught them that even one who is more perfect should be
sure that he would not keep the gift of an upright nature and the grace of
complete virtue unless he watched.6"
5. God also took the man from hell and the punishment of death and will
justly remove him into life through his resurrection into the life of glory, and
will place him in the tranquillity of a blessed life where there is no death,
and where, as Augustine says, the only work is to keep what you have7.
1 Ambrose, De paradiso, 4, 24 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 280)

2 Hebrews, 2: 16
3 Augustine, In Joannis evangelium, LVII, 2 (PL, XXXV, 1790)
4 Psalms, 126: 2
5 Matthew, 26: 41
6 Ambrose, De paradiso, 4, 25 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 281-282)
7 Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, xi, 15 (PL, XXXIV, 204)
CHAPTERS XXVIII-XXIX 345
From the historical sense of this text we can also draw the moral sense that
no-one should easily presume on the greatness of his task, nor trust himself
to another; and also that one needs to borrow even the weakest of graces,
and that no-one should boast of the nobility of his place or breeding. Hence
Ambrose says: "Notice that the man was made outside paradise, and the
woman inside paradise, so that you may realise that no-one obtains grace by
the nobility of the place he holds or by his breeding, but by the power of
God. The man, who is superior, was made outside paradise, that is, in a
lower place. And she who was made in a better place, in paradise, is found to
be inferior. For the woman was deceived first, and she deceived the man.
That is why the apostle Peter reminded women that they were subject to the
stronger vessel, and to obey their husbands as their lord1. And Paul says
[242C] 'Adam was not seduced; but the woman, being seduced, was in the
transgression'2. It should be seen, then, that no-one should lightly presume
on himself. For she who was made to be a help for man needs her husband's
protection, because the man is the head of the woman. He who thought that
the woman was a help for him, fell through her. Thus no-one ought to trust
another easily, unless he has proved his virtue. Nor should anyone arrogate
to himself what he thinks is a help to him: but if he finds that he is stronger,
then let him lend grace to the one to whom he thinks he is a protection,
just as the apostle Peter commanded husbands to pass on their honour to
their wives when he said 'Ye husbands, likewise dwelling with them
according to knowledge, giving honour to the female as to the weaker
vessel, and as to the co-heirs of grace: that your prayers be not hindered.3'4"
Chapter XXIX
1. There follows: "And he commanded him saying: Of every tree of
paradise thou shalt eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die
the death." The text of the Seventy has it thus: "And the Lord God
commanded Adam saying: from every tree that is in paradise thou shalt
eat", or as others interpret it, "thou shalt eat for food". "But from the tree
of knowing good and evil, thou shalt not eat from it. On the day that you eat
of it, you will die the death." Josephus says: "God commanded Adam and
the woman to taste of all the other things planted. But from the tree of
prudence that was planted he wished them to abstain, foretelling that when
they touched it, destruction would come.5"
1 1 Peter, 3: 1, 7
2 / Timothy, 2: 14
3 1 Peter, 3: 7
4 Ambrose, De paradiso, 4, 24 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 280-281)
5 Josephus, The antiquities of the Jews, I, i, 4, 40 (ed. Blatt, pp. 128-129)
346 PART ELEVEN
Chapter XXX
1. But someone might wonder why our first parent was forbidden to
eat from the tree which is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It was not because that tree was harmful when tasted, since God made all
the trees of paradise good. Rather, the reason for this prohibition was to
show the human being the evil of disobedience and the good of obedience,
which shines out most strongly in the prohibition of an indifferent thing.
Also so that the human being would have something in which to show God
the highest obedience. Also to show that it is of the greatest benefit to the
human being to serve God, and submit his will to him in everything, and to
cleave to him in submission of the will. Also so that in the keeping of this
commandment from the beginning the human being might be found highly
worthy of praise; for this is the greatest of praise, to choose and hold
perseveringly to the good from the beginning, before there is any
experience of evil, and a sense of evil from good having been lost.
2. That is how Augustine assigns reasons for this prohibition, saying:
"He was forbidden that tree, which was not bad, in order that the com
mandment might make its keeping good and its breaking bad. Nothing
could so well or so carefully show how evil disobedience is than this: that
the man became guilty of great wickedness by touching a thing contrary to
the prohibition, though, if he had not been forbidden, he would not have
sinned. For someone says, for example, 'Do not touch this plant' when it is
poisonous, and says that if you touch it you will die; then the one who
spurns the commandment dies. But even if he had not been forbidden, and
had touched it, he would still have died. The plant would have been
dangerous to health and life, whether it was forbidden for this reason or
not. [242D] Again, imagine that someone forbids another to touch a thing
that is dangerous, not to the one that touches, but to the one who forbids:
for example, if someone should put his hand to another's money, having
been forbidden to do so by the one whose money it was, then the prohibi
tion would be a sin, because it could be harmful to the one who forbade.
But take the case where something is touched that does no harm to the
toucher, if it is not forbidden, nor to another, whenever it is touched: why is
it forbidden, except to show the good of obedience in itself, and the evil of
disobedience in itself? The sinner desired nothing other than not being
under the dominion of God, when he did that which he could have avoided
doing only by attending to the command of his Lord. If he had attended
only to that, what thing other than the will of God would he have loved?
What thing other than the will of God should be preferred to the will of
man? The Lord would know why he commanded; the servant had only to
do what the Lord commanded, and perhaps would know from the one who
was obeyed why he commanded. But let us not look further for the reason
CHAPTER XXX 347
for this command. This is the great good of man, that he serves God, and by
commanding God makes whatever he wishes to command good. Hence it is
not to be feared that he will command what cannot be of benefit. And
man's own will must fall in ruin on him in great weight, if he exalts it and
prefers it to the will of his superior. Man experienced this in despising the
command of God, and by this experience learnt the difference between
good and evil, between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience,
of pride and stubbornness, of a perverse resemblance to God, and of
harmful liberty. The evil, which could occur on the occasion of this tree,
is called evil from the deed itself. We cannot know evil except by
experience, because there would be none, if we did not do it. Nothing is
bad by nature: the loss of good is given this name. God is the unchangeable
good; man, according to his nature, in which God established him, belongs
to good, and is good in a way, but not unchangeably good as God is. The
changeable good, which follows the unchangeable good, becomes a better
good when it cleaves to the unchangeable good by loving and serving him
with its own rational will. This, indeed, is the nature of a great good, that
man has received, in order to be able to cleave to the nature of the highest
good. And if he will not, he deprives himself of good, and this is an evil for
him, and hence receives a punishment from the justice of God. What would
be so unjust as that things should be well for the one who has abandoned
good? It cannot be allowed that this should happen. But sometimes a man
loses the higher good, and does not feel it, so long as he has the lower good
that he loved. But the divine justice holds that the one who has thrown
away by his will what he should have loved, should lose with pain what he
loved, while the creator of natures should be praised by all. So it is still
good that he should be in pain for having lost the good. For if some good
remained in nature, there would be no pain for the good lost, in the
punishment.
3. "But when one who has no experience of evil is pleased with the
good, that is, before he feels the loss of good, let him choose not to lose it.
This is something to be preached to all men. But unless this were an
exceptional reason for praise, it would not be attributed to that child,
[243A] who was made from the race of Israel, Emmanuel, the God with
us, who reconciled us with God, the man who is the mediator between God
and men, the Word with God, flesh among us, Word made flesh between
God and us. It was of him the prophet says: 'For before the child know
good and evil, he shall despise the evil, to choose the good' . How shall he
despise or choose what he does not know? Unless, indeed, these two are
known in one way by the foresight of good, and another by the experience
1 Isaiah, 7: 16
348 PART ELEVEN
of evil. Through the foresight of good, the evil is known, but is not felt. Let
the good be held to, then, lest by losing it the evil be felt. Also, by the
experience of evil good is known, for a man feels its loss, when it goes ill
for him when good is lost. So before the child knows by experience either
the good that he would lack, or the evil that he would feel by losing the
good, he despised the evil and chose the good. He was not willing to lose
what he had, lest in that loss he should feel that it was wrong to have lost it.
An exceptional example of obedience! He did not come to do his own will,
but the will of the one who sent him, not like the one who chooses to do his
own will and not the will of the one who made him. Rightly, then, it is that
exactly as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one man many were made just. For as 'in Adam all
died, so in Christ all are justified1'2". May the creator of all things grant us
that justification. Amen.
2 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, VIII, 13-14 (CSEL, XXVIII.l, 251-254)
Bibliography
Abbreviations
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, (Vienna 1 866-)

PG Patrologiae cursus completus . . . series Graeca, ed. J.P. Migne,
161 vols., (Paris 1857-1866)
PL Patrologiae cursus completus . . . series Latina, ed. J.P. Migne,
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Alpetragius (Al-Bitruji), De motibus caelorum, ed. F.J. Carmody, (Berkeley,

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(Vienna,
Confessiones,
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P. Knoll, (Vienna/Prague, Leipzig, 1896), CSEL
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Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, PL XLII
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De libero arbitrio, ed. G.M. Green, (Vienna, 1956), CSEL LXXIV
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De vera religione, ed. G.M. Green, (Vienna, 1961), CSEL LXXVII
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Enarrationes in Psalmos, PL XXXVI-XXXVII
Enchiridion, PL XL
Epistulae, ed. A. Goldbacher, (Vienna, 1898), CSEL XXXIV. 1-2,
XLIV,
In LVIl,
Joannis
LVIII
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Quaestiones in Genesi, ed. J. Zycha, (Vienna, 1895) CSEL

XXXVIII.2
Retractationes, ed. P. Knoll, (Vienna, Leipzig, 1902) CSEL XXXVI
Sermones PL XXXVIII
Pseudo-Augustine, De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae, PL XXXV
Hypomnesticon, PL XLV
Liber de spiritu et anima, PL XL
Principia dialecticae, PL XXXII
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Pseudo-Bede, Commentarium in Pentateuchum, PL XCI
Pseudo-Bernard, De cognitione humanae conditionis, PL CLXXXIV
Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, PL LXJII
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Cassiodorus, De anima, PL LXX
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Pseudo-Dionysius, De caelesti hierarchia cum expositione Hugonis de
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 351
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Glossa interlinearis, printed in Peter Lombard, Commentaria in Psalmos,
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Glossa ordinaria, printed among the works of Walafrid Strabo, PL CXTII
GregoryMoralia
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Horace, Epodes, in Carmina cum epodis, ed. A.Y. Campbell, (London, 1945)
Hugh of St Victor, Expositio in hierarchiam caelestem, PL CLXXV
Isidore, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W.M. Lindsay, (Oxford,
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Quaestiones in vetus testamentum, PL LXXXIII
Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, PL XXIII
Commentarium in Isaiam prophetam, PL XXIV
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LIV-LVI: more conveniently, in St Jerome Lettres, ed./trans. J6r6me
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Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim, PL XXJH
Praefatio in Pentateuchum, in Biblia Sacra juxta latinam vulgatam
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Index
Aaron P68 as sign V vii 1, V viii 1

Abel VI xvi 1 , IX ix 4, XI v 4, XI xxv 2, 3 creation of I vii 2, I xx 1-2
Abraham P39, P43, IV xi 4, VIII xxx 3-4, dark II vii 2, IV xi 3
7, IX iii 5, IX x 1 1, X ii 6, XI v 4, XI xxv heaven and III ii 1
2, 3, XI xxviii 1 light and colour in II x 1-2, VIII v 3
Academy (Plato's school) P16 motion in VI iii 2, VI v 1-2, VII xiii 4-5
Adam IV xxi 2, VIII vi 2, VIII xi 6, VIII mystical significations of VI xii 1, VIII
xxx 2, 7, IX x 1 1, X ii 1, 5, X iv 6, X v 4, xxx 6, VIII xxxiii 5, VIII xxiv 1, 5
X vi 1, X viii 10, XI i 1, XI v 2, XI xxviii place of I xvi 3, I xxii 1 , IV ii 2-3, IV iv
S, XI xxix 1, XI xxx 3 2, IX i 2-4
see also human being — creation of; — upper VI i 1, VIII v 3
male and female Albanians P27, P29
Adar (month of Jewish calendar) Alexander the Great P33-34, P37, P47,
PI 34 P126
Adelphus (husband of Proba) P63 Alexander Polyhistor P95
Adornment of world I iii 1,I vii 2, 1 xii 4, Alexandria P47, XI xiv 1
II x 2, V i-ii passim, IX i 1, IX i 1, 3, 5, Allegorical sense P137, I iii 2, I iv 1, I xii
Xi2 2, I xix 1-2, I ix 2, III xiv passim, IV xxi
of Church IX vii 1 6, V xix 7, VI xii 1-8, VII xi 1-VII xii 4,
of earth I xxi 1-2, IV xv 1-3, IV xvii 1, VIII xxiv 3, VIII xxx-VIII xxxv passim,
VI i 1, 3, VII i 1 IX vii-IX ix passim, XI v 1, XI ix 2-4,
of heaven III v 1, V xii 6, VI i 1, 3 XI xxiii 1, XI xxviii 1
of human being VIII vi 1, VIII viii 2, IX Allophili (name for Philistines) P46
vii 2 Alpetragius (Al-Bitruji) III viii 1-3, III xvi
Adrastus of Cyzicus (astronomer cited by 3-4
Augustine) V xxiii 3 Alps P21
Aegyptus PI 2 Amazons P27, P28
Aeneid P64, PI 19 Ambrose (friend of Jerome) PI, P5
Aeria (old name for Egypt) PI 2 Ambrose, Saint
Aeschines (orator) P2, P53 I vii 2, II vi 1, IV viii 1, V xv 2, VI xii 8n.,
Affectus (inclination, desire) IV xxix 5, VI VII xii 4
xvii 1, VII xii 2 De paradiso, XI vii 1, XI xxiv 6n., XI xxv
of generation VI viii 1, 3 1, XI xxviii 1, 4-5
of mind I xix 1,I xxi 3, II ix 2, III xiv 8, Hexaemeron, I viii 3, I ix 2, I xi 1,I xii 2,
IX vii 1, XI vii 1 II iii 2, II x 4 III iii 5, III x 2, III xiv 6
of soul VIII xxxv 5 IV vi 2, IV xi 4, IV xiv 2n, IV xv 4, IV
cleansing of I v 2, I viii 5 xiv 3n, V xxi 3, V xxii 3-9, VI i 4n.
see also aspectus Amos (prophet) P8 1 , P1 28
Africa P20, XI xv 1 see also Bible, Amos
Africans P44 Anagogical sense I xii 4, IV xxix 6, XI
Agriculture X i 6-7, X iii 5, XI xxvii 1-1 1 xxiii 1
mystical signification of X viii 4-5, 7-8 Ananiah (young man in burning fiery
Air VI i 3-4 furnace) XI xxv 2
adornment of V i 2 Anastron (starless heaven) III viii 1, III viii
and luminaries V xxi 2, V xxii 3-4 3, V iii 1
and water IV xiii 1-2, V i 2, VI ii 1 Anaxagoras (philosopher) I ix 3, VI xv 1
as origin of all, according to Anaximander (philosopher) I ix 3
philosophers I ix 3 Anaximenes (philosopher) I ix 3
354 INDEX
Angels I xvii 1, I xxii 1, II viii passim, III Arabia P45, XI xvii 1, XI xviii 1
xiv 3, VIII xv passim Arabs P45, I vii 2
creation of I iii 1-2, 4, I xix 2, I xxii 1, II Aram (forefather of Syrians) P43
i 1, II viii 1, IV xi 3, V i 2 Archelaus (philosopher) I ix 3
fallen and steadfast angels I xiii 1, II vii Archetypes I ii 2-3, I iv 1, I xii 4
2, III xiv 4, IV xi 2-3 Archytas (Philosopher, friend of Plato,
Heaven and I xvi 1 referred to by Jerome) P8
knowledge of I xii 1, II v 2, 6, II vii 1, Archytas (writer on natural history, cited by
III xi 1, IX ii 5, IX ix 6, X iii 1, X iii 5, Pliny) P13
X v 4, X xi 1 Arcturus (star) V xxiii 1
signified by "firmament" III xiv 1-5 Aries (the Ram)(sign of Zodiac) V x vii, V
Animals VI ix-x passim, VII i 1-2, VII xii 3
iii-xiv passim Aristaeus (patron of translation of
and astrology V x vii Seventy) PI 52
and luminaries V xxi 2-3 Aristotle I viii 1-4, I ix 1-2, III xiv 7, VI
benefits of VII xiv 8-9 xv 1, VIII xiv 4-8
growth VIII xxii 1 De caelo et mundo I xvi 2, III vi 1, V iv 1
harmful kinds VII vii-x passim De Generatione animalium IV xiii 2, IV
human dominion over, VIII v 7, VIII xi 2, xiv 4, VII xiv 6
VIII xiii-xiv De Generatione et corruptione IV xxi 2n.
human kinship with VIII xii 2 De Partibus animalium Vii xiv 5, VII xiv
kinds of VII ii 1-iii 2, VII xiii 7
1-5 Historia animalium IV xiii 2, IV xiv 3-4,
knowledge in VII xiv 1-4 VI vii In., VI x In., VII xiii In., VII
movement of VII xiii 4-5 xiv 4, VII xiv 6n.
mystical significance of VI xiv 1 , VII xii Meteora III viii 3, IV xiv 2
1-5, VIII xxx 7, VIII xxv 5-7 Metaphysics III vii 1
nutrition of IV xxv 2, IV xxvii 2-3, VIII Nicomachean Ethics I v 2
xxiv 1-4 Physics I viii 1
place of IX i 3 Armenia XI xiv 1, XI xv 1
propagated from corruption VII iv-VII Armenians P28
vi passim Arphaxad (son of Shem) P39
properties of VII xiv 1-9 Asia P25, P27
reproduction of IV xxi 2, VI viii 1, VII Aspectus (insight, glance) I xix 1, X ii 7, XI
xiv 6-7, VIII xxi-xxii, X i 8 vii 1
souls of VII i 2, X ii 7-8 cleansing of I v 2, I viii 5
see also beasts, birds, cattle, creeping of good pleasure IV xxix 6
things, fish, herds, living things, of the mind P58, I xxi 3, II ix 2, III xiv
reptiles, swimming things 8, VI xii 7
Anselm, Saint I xxii 1 see also affectus
Antichrist VIII xxx 7 Assur (founder of Assyria) P41
Antilibanus (range of mountains) P45 Assyria P38
Apion Plistonices (author on Egypt) Assyrians P43, PI 26, XI x 1-2, XI xiii I,
XI xxi 1 XI xxiv 7, XI xxv 1
Aplanon (starless heaven) see anastron Asterisks P142
Apocrypha PI48 Astrology P9 n., PI 17, V viii-xi passim
Apollo (Greek god) P15, P16, P50 and animals V x 7
Apollo (collaborator of St Paul) VI xii 1 Astronomy PI 17, II xi 2, III viii 1, V ix I-
Apollonius of Pergamum (author cited by 2, V xv 1-2
Pliny) P22 judicial, see astrology
Apollonius of Tarentum (author cited by Athena (Greek goddess) PI 5
Pliny) P22 Athens PI 1, P15, P40, P53, P63
Apollonius of Tyana (Philosopher, Atlas (mountain) P48, XI xv 1
magician, cited by Jerome, confused by August P35
Grosseteste with the above) P24, P50 Augustine, Saint
Apuleius (cited as believing that world is Ix1,I xxi 1, I xxii 1
animated) I viii 3 0 v 3, 5-6,
Aquila (translator of Bible) I xiii 1 m iii 7, III iv 1, III xiii 1
INDEX 355
IV ix 1 De libero arbitrio, P57, II x 1, m vi 1,
V v 1, V xv 2, V xvii 2, V xxii 1 Vffl iii 1, VIII iv 5
VI viii 1, VI xv 1 De nuptiis et concupiscentia, Vm xx 2,
VII xii 1, VII xiv 1 VIII xxi 1
vm vi 2, Vm vii 1, XVIII ix 2, VIII xi 1, De quantitate animae, VII xiv 2
VIII xviii 1-3 De spiritu et littera, VIII vi 1
VIII xx 1, VIII xxiv 1, VIII xxviii 6, VIII De Trinitate I viii 6 II iii 2 Vffl i 1, VIII ii
xxxv 2 2, VIII iv 7, VIII iv 12, VIII v 1 , VIII v
IX i 2. IX ix 6, IX x 1 4, VIII vi 1, VIII x 1
X i 3, X ii 3, X iii 1, 3-4, X iv 1, X v 1, 3- De vera religione, WO ix 3, VIII xxxiii 1
4, X vii 2, X viii 5 Enarrationes in Psalmos, III vi 1, V xi 1,
XI ii 1-2, XI iii 1, XI iv 1-3, XI v 1, 5, XI VIII iv 5
vi 4, XI ix 1, XI xxiv 7, XI xxvii 1, XI Enchiridion, III vii 1
xxx 2 In Ioannis Evangelium Tractatus, I xxiii 1,
Ad inquisitiones lanuarii, V vii 1, IX ix I xxiv 2, II iii 2, V xi 1, VIII xxxv 2,
4 IX ix 5, XI xxviii 2
The City of God Letters, II x 1, Vffl iv 3
P10, PI 1. P15 On Christian Doctrine, P153, I iv 1, I v 1
I viii 2-3, 1 ix 3, I xx 1 On the gospel of John, see In Ioannis
II xi 4 Evangelium Tractatus
V ix 2, V xxiii 3 Quaestiones de Genesi, XI v 4
VII xiv 3-4, VII xiv 6 Retractationes, III vii 1, VII ix 2, VIII
Vm xix 1, VIII xxviii 1, VIII xxxv 6 xxiv 3
IX i 1, IX vii 2, IX ix 4 Sermons, I xviii 3, III vi 1, VIII x 2, IX ix
X i 2, X vii 1 5
XI iv 5 see also Pseudo-Augustine
Confessiones, see Confessions Auster (south wind) XI xii 5
Confessions, P58, I x 2, I xix 3 Author (Moses) VI ix 1
Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, Auxes (name for Euphrates XI xxv 1
I xv 1, IX vii 2 Avicenna (philosopher) III vii 1
Contra Julianum, VIII xxiv 2 Azariah (young man in burning fiery
De Civitate Dei, see The City of God furnace) XI xxv 2
De Genesi ad litteram
I xiv 1, I xx 2
II i 1-2, II ii 2, II iii 2, II iv 3, II v 2, II v
4-5, II vii 1, II x 1 Babel P38, VIII xxx 3
III ii 1, III iii 1, III iv 1, III viii 1, III xi Babylon P38, VIII xxx 5, IX x 1 1, XI xiv
1, III xiii 2 1, XI xvii 1, XI xxi 1
IV i 1, IV xv 3, IV xvi 1, IV xxvi 1, IV Babylonians P38, P49, P126
xxvii 3 Bactria XI xxi 1
V iv 1, V vi 5, V xi 1, V xii 1, V xvii 1, Balbillus (author cited by Seneca) XI xii 4
V xviii 1 Baptism I iii 7, I vi 2, II ix 3, III xiv 12, IV
VI i 3, VI v 1, VI vii 3, VI ix 1, VI xi 1 xi 4-5, VI xii 1-5, VI xvi 2, VI xvii 1-2,
VII ii 1, VII iii 2, VII iv 1, VII vii 1, VII VIII xxxiii 1, XI vi 8, XI xxxiii 1
viii 1, VII x 1
VIII ii 5, VIII v 3, Vm v 5, VIII x 1, Barak (judge of Israel) XI xxxv 2
VIII xiii 2, VIII xvii 1, VIII xxvi 1, Bardesanes (Babylonian sage/author)
VIII xxvii 1, Vm xxix 1 P49
IX i 1 Barnabas, Saint PI 07
De Genesi contra Manichaeos, Basil the Great, Saint
I xxiii 7 I vi 2, I vii 2, I xii 1, I xviii 1, I xx 2
IV iii 1, IV xxvii 2 II iv 2, II v 1, 4, 6, II vi 1, II x 2, II xi 4
VII xiv 8 III vi 2
VIII v 7, VIII xxx 2-7 IV viii 1, IV xiii 1, IV xiv 3, IV xvii 1-2,
IX iii 1 IV xxi 3, IV xxv 1
XI vi 3, XI vi 7, XI viii 4, XI xxiv 3-4, V v 1, V xv 2
6, 8, XI xxviii 1, 5 VI iii 1
De immortalitate animae, III vii 1 VII ix 1, VII xii 4
356 INDEX
VIII xviii 1, 4, VIII xix 1 Belgic land P21
HexaHmeron Believable things I ii 1-2
I v 1-2, I vi 1, I viii 3, I ix 4, I xii 4, I Benefits III xiii 2, IV xv 4, VIII iv 4
xiii 1-2, I xv 1, I xvi 1-2, I xx 1, I and blessing VI viii 3
xxi 4, I xxii 1, I xxiii 1 and properties IV xii 4, IV xxix 6
II i 2, II x 3-4 human XI xxx 1-3
III iv 1, III v 1, III ix 1, III x 2, III xi 1, imperfect VI X 3
III xiii 2, III xiv 4 of animals VII x 1, VII xii 1, 4, VII xiv
IV iii 3, IV iv 2, IV vi 2, IV ix 1, IV xv 7-8, VIII xiii 2, 7, VIII xxii 1
4, V xviii 1, IV xix 2, IV xxii 1, IV of astronomy PI 17
xxiii 1, IV xxv 2, IV xxvi 2-3, IV of earth IV x 3, VIII xxiii 2,
xxvii 4, IV xxx 4 of fire IV iv 2
V v 2-3, V vi 2, V viii 1, V x 7, V xii 3, of firmament I xvi 2-3
V xxii 3 of light II vi 2
VI i 4, VI ii 1, VI vi 1, VI ix 1 of luminaries V xxi 1-2
VII xiv 2-3, VII xiv 5-6 of plants IV xv 2, IV xxvi 1-2, IV xxx 4,
VIII ii 5, VIII v 3, VIII v 6, VIII viii 8, VIII xxii 1
1, VIII xxiii 1-2 VIII xxiv 4, VIII of Scripture I iv 1
xxv 1, 4, VIII xxxv 5 of seasons V xii 4
IX ix 4, IX x 9, 11 of stars III viii 3
Beasts VII ii-iii passim, VII viii-x passim, of upper waters III x 1
VII xiv passim, VIII xiv 1, VIII xxiv 4-5, of water IV xiii 4, X i 9
XI xxvii 8 Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint see Pseudo-
mystical signification of VII xii Bernard
1-3, VIII xxv 5
see also animals, beasts, birds, cattle, Bible
creeping things, fish, herds, living Genesis
things, reptiles, swimming things (References other than to days of Creation,
Beauty II vi 1-2, II x 2, 4, III xv 4, IV xiii Genesis 1:1-2:17)
3, V i 1-2, V xx 1, V xxi 3, V xxiii 2, VII P31n, P40, P60, P73, I vii In., I xii In., I
xii 3, VII xiv 8-9, VIII i 2n., VIII iv 1, 4, xviii In., II i 2n., II viii 1, 4, III ii In., Ill
VIII xxvii 1, VIII xxxv 9, IX vii 2 xiv 7n., IV xii In., IV xxvii 2n., V i 2n.,
Bede the Venerable, Saint V ix 2n., VII ix 2n., VIII xxiv 3-4n., VIII
I vii 2, I ix 2, I xii 1 xxx 4n., VIII xxxv 5n., IX iii 2, 5n., IX v
II v 1, 3, 6 1, IX ix 4-5, IX x 1 1, X ii 5n., X ix 2n.,
III iii 3, III x 1 XI xvi 1, XI xxvii 7n.
IV ii 2, IV iv 1, IV xvii 1 Exodus P67, I x 2, II v 4n., Ill iii 5n., IV
V xv 2 xxix 2n., V v 3n.
IX ii 2 Leviticus P68, IX ix 5n, IX x 1 1
XI xii 2 Numbers P69, I vi 1, IV xxix 2, XI xvii 1
De orthographia III v 1 Deuteronomy P3, P70, V x 2
De temporum ratione V xiii 2, IX ix 4 Joshua P73-5, V x 2, VIII xxxv 4
De rerum natura I xvi 1, III x 2, V xxiii 1 Judges P73, P75
Hexagmeron (Generally cited by Ruth PI 25
Grosseteste as "Jerome" or as "Bede 1 Samuel P76
and Jerome" or as "Strabus and 2 Samuel P76
Bede") 1 Kings P77, VII xi In., XI iv In.
I xvii 1, I xxii 1 2 Kings P77, P97n.
II i 2, II iv 2 / Chronicles P99, IV xv In., XI xiv 1
III iii 2 2 Chronicles P99
IV ii 3, IV xv 1 Ezra P101
VIII x 2, VIII xiii 1, VIII xxiv 1, VIII Nehemiah P101
xxxii 1 Esther P98, PI 34
IX ii 1 Job P73, P140, I ii 1 , II viii 1 , III xvi 2, IV
XI i 1, XI xiv 2, XI xv 1, XI xvii 1, XI vi 1, IV xi 3, IV xv 1, V xxi 3, VI xii 1
xviii 1 Psalms
see also Pseudo-Bede P4, P96, PI 27
Behemoth II viii 1 I vi 2, I x 4, 6-7, I xiii 2, I xvi 1
INDEX 357
II i 2, II iii 2n., II viii 1 VIII xxxv 7, IX iii 1-2, IX viii 4, X iv 3,
m iii 5n., Ill vii In., Ill xiv 7, III xv 4 X viii 7, 9, XI vi 7, XI viii 2, XI xiv 2, XI
IV vi 1, IV xi 1, 4, IV xii 1 xxii 1, 5, XI xxiii 1, XI xviii 1
V v 3, V vi 2, V xi I, V xvi 1, V xix 6n. Acts P107, P138, I iv 1, IV xii 1, V viii 1,
VI iii In., VI v 2, VI xii 5, VI xii V xi 1, VI xii 4, VII vi 1, VIII vii 1, VIII
l-2n., 5, VI xv 1, VI xvii 2n. xxx 7, VIII xxxiv 1, IX iii 1
VII xi l-2n., VII xii 1 Romans I xii 4, I xiii 1, III xiv 12, III xv 2,
VIII xviii 1, VIII xxxv 4n. IV xii 1, IV xxix 1, VIII xi 6, IX vii 1, XI
IX iii S, IX ix 4n., IX x 10 ix 2, XI xxv 3
X i 9, X ii 4n. / Corinthians P159, I xiii 1, IV xii In.,
XI vi 7n., XI vii 1, XI xxii 1, XI xxiii 1, XI 3n„ IV xxix 1, VI xii 4, VI xvii 1, VII
xxiv 4, XI xxvii 1 1, XI xxviii 4 i 1, VII xi 1, VII xii 1, VIII ix 1, VIII
Proverbs P97, P146, I v 2, 1 x 4, 1 xvi 2, VI xi 5-6, VIII xviii 2, VIII xxx 7n., IX
xii 1, VII xi 1, X viii 5, XI viii 1, XI xxiv iii 1, X ii 4-5, X viii 10. XI v 4, XI vi
4 8 n., XI vii 1, XI xxiv 4, XI xxvii 2,
Ecclesiastes P36, P57, P97, X ii 8, XI xxiv XI xxx 3
2 2 Corinthians PI 38, I xiii 1, III xv 4, IV
Song of songs P97, V xxii 3, XI vi 1, 8 xxix 1, VI xv 1, VIIi v 6, VIII xxxii 5-6,
Wisdom I xv 1, VII viii In., VII xiv 8, VIII IX iii 5, X ii 4, XI vi 4, XI xxiv 3-4
xi 5 Galatians PI 12, I i 1, III xiv 12. VI xvii 1,
Ecclesiasticus II v 5, VI xii 5, 8, VIII xv 2, VIII v 1, XI v 4, XI xxv 2
VIII xxxiii 5, VIII xxxv 8, XI xxiv 4, 5, Ephesians I i 1 (in error), I xiii 1, II viii 2,
XI xxvii 9 V xix 1, VI xvii 2, VIII v 1, 5, VIII xxxiii
Isaiah P91, P125, P130, P144, P146, 1 x 4, 1, XI vi 6, XI xxvii 11
I xiii 1, III xiv 8, IV xi 3-4, IV xii 1, V Philippians I xiii 1, III iii 5. VI xii 4, XI
xix 1, VI xii 2, 5, VI xv 1, VI xvi 1, VII xxvii 11
xi 1, VIII iii 3, IX ix 2-3, IX x 1 1, X i 6, Colossians I xii 4, I xiii 1, I xvi 2, VIII v 5
9, X vii 2, XI vi 2, 8, XI xxx 3 1 Thessalonians III xiii 14n., VIII xii 2
Jeremiah P77, P92, VII xi 1 , IX x 1 1 , XI vi / Timothy P3, XI xxviii 5
2 2 Timothy P3, VI xii 3
Ezekiel P93, III xiv 2, 7, V viii 1 Hebrews I xiii 2, VII xi 1, VIII xv 2, XI
Daniel P3, P94, P133, II viii 1, UI xiv 1 1, xxv 2, XI xxviii 1
IV xii 1, V xix 1, VII vi 1, IX x 11, XI James I xix 1, II iii 1, III ii In., VII xiv 4,
xxv 2-3 VIII vi 2, VIII xiii 7, X ii 4
Hosea P74, P79, P124, P144 / Peter XI xxviii 5
Joel P80, V vii 1, V viii 1 1 John I iii 3, VII xii 2, VIII vii 3
Amos P81, P128 Apocalypse P108, I iv 1, I xiii 1, IV xii 3n.,
Obadiah P82 VI xii 6, XI viii 1
Jonah P83, VI vi 1
Micah P84, XI vii In. Birds VI iii 2, VI v 1-3, VI vii 4, VI x 2,
Nahum P8S VI xii 2, 4, 5, 7-8, VI xiii 1, VI xvii 2
Habakkuk P86, VI xii 3 see also animals, living things, swimming
Zephaniah, P87 things
Haggai P88, P96 Body, bodies X i 2
Zachariah P89 and souls I xxiii 1, IV xxx 1-3, V x 1-4,
Malachi P4, P90 VI iv 1, VI ix 1, VIII vi 1, IX iii 2-3
Matthew P103, P137, P144, I xxi 3 n., II i animal IV xxi 3, VI iii 1-2, VI vi 1, VI
1, II v 4, IV xi 3-4, IV xxix 2, V vii 1, V vii 1, VII ii 1, VII iv 1, VII xiii 4, VII
xix 4, 7, VIII viii 1, VIII xv 4, VIII xxx xiv 1-2, 4-7, VIII v 7
7n., IX iii 5, IX ix 1, 3, IX x 1 1, X ii 6, X corrupted VII v 1, VII viii 1
vi 5, XI xxii 2, XI xxv 3, XI xxviii 4 elemental (first) I xxii 1, III vi 1-2, IV xv
Mark P104, P137, V vii 1, VIII xv 1, IX ix 1-2, V i 3, V iv 1
In., XI xxii 3 eternal I ix 3
Luke P105, I ii 2, III ii 1, V vii 1, V xix 1, heavenly PI 17, II v 2, III vii 1, IV xv 2,
VIII xv In., X viii 9n., XI vi 3, XI xxii 4 V v 1-3, V x passim, V xv 1-2, V xviii
John P56, P58, P106, P145-6, I i 1-2, I iii 1, V xxi 2, V xxii
3, I iv 1, I x 6, I xiii 1, I xxiii 1, III ii In., 2-3, IX x 6
V xix 1, VII xi 1, VII i In., VIII vii 3, see also heavens, luminaries
358 INDEX
human I viii 7, IV iv 1, IV xxi 1-2, IV Cause(s) I ix 3, I x 6, III xi 1
xxvii 3, VIII v 7, VIII xiii 3, VIII complete I viii 5-6, I ix 1-2
xviii 1-4, ViII xix 1, VIII xxi 1, creation "in causes", see Creation
VIII xxiv 2, IX viii 3, IX 9-10, X ii efficient (moving) I x 1, 9, VII i 2, VIII iii
1-5, 7-8, X iii 3, X v 4, X vi 1-2, X 3, IX i 2
vii 1, XI xxv 1 exemplary, see archetypes, exemplar(s)
light as II x 1-2, IV i 2, VIII iii 1, IX i 3 final III ix 1, V xiv 1
luminous III xvi 6-7, IV xiii 3, VIII v 3 first I x 9, IV iii 3
matter and I ix 1, I xii 1 Cecrops (King of Athens) P15, P54
of Christ I i 2, I iv 1, I xvii 1, III xiv 7, Centos P63, P65
IV xi 4, VI xvii 2 Certainty I ii 3, III vi-viii passim, V ix 1-2
see also Church, Eucharist Cesloim (forefather of Philistines)
of devil IV xi 3 P46
of heaven (firmament) I xvi 1-2, I xvii Chaldea P38
1, I xviii 1, m iii 4, III iv 1, III viii-ix, Chaldeans P39, P126, P132
III xvi 2, V iii 1, V xxiii 2 Christ IX vii 1, IX viii 3-4, X viii 9
organic VII i 2, VIII v 2, 6, IX iv 2 as Head I xiii 1
places of III ii 1 as Light V xix 1
resurrection of IV xii 3 as Lord VIII xv 4
Boethius I viii 2, 6, V xix 1, VIII ii 4, VIII as Word, agent of Creation see Word
iii 1 body of I i 2, I iv 1,I xvii 1,III xiv 7, IV
Booz (great-grandfather of David) xi 4, VI xvii 2, VII xi 1
P125 see also Church, Eucharist
Bosra P73 in sacraments II ix 3
Bragman P32 in Scripture I iv 1
Brahmins (Bragmanae, Bragmanes, object of theology I i 1-2
Bragmani) P32-35, P48 unity of creation in IX viii passim
Brevity see wordiness unity of humanity in IX viii passim
Bucolics PI 19 Chrysostom, John, Saint see John
Chrysostom, Saint
Church I i 1-2, I iii 2, 6, I iv 1, I vii 2, I xii
2, I xiiil, I xvii 1, II ix 1-2, II xiv 11, IV
Cadmus (mythical deviser of Greek xi 3-4, IV xxvii 2, IV xix 1-2, 4, V xi 1,
alphabet) P44, P96 V xix 1-2, 7, V xxii 3, VI xii 1, VI xvii 2,
Cain IX x 11, XI v 4 VI xi 1, VIII xxx vii, VIII xxxv 1, 4, 6-7,
Canaan P44 IX vii 1, XI vi 1, 8, XI vii 1, XI viii 1, 3,
Canaanites P44 XI xxii 5, X xxiii 1, XI xxviii 1
Cancer (the Crab)(sign of Zodiac) V xii 3 see also Body of Christ
Canopea (in Egypt) P12 Chus (forefather of Arabs) P45
Canopic mouth of Nile P47 Cicero (Tully) P18, P23, P96, P109, P158
Canopus (helmsman of Menelaus) P12 Circe (witch in Odyssey) P64
Capitulum I xiii 1 Colour II x 2, IV vii 1-2, IV xiii 2, IV xix
Cappadocia VII xiv vi 2, V viii 1, V xxi 2, V xxiii 3, VIII iv 7,
Capricorn (the Goat)(sign of Zodiac) V xii 3 VIII viii 2
Casdeans P39 Comas (composer of centos) P63
Caseth (nephew of Abraham) P39 Commentators
Cassiodorus X vii 1-2 on Aristotle I viii 2, 4,
Castor (author cited by Augustine) V xxiii 3 on Bible I viii 4, I xii 1,I xvi 3, I xxi 1,I
Cattle VII ii 1, VII iii 1, VII xiv 2, xxiv 1, II i 1, III iii 1, 6, III xvi 1, 3, IV
5-6, 8, VIII v 7, VIII xiii 3, VIII xv 3, i 1, IV ii 2, IV iii 2, V v 1, 5, V x 8, VI
VIII xxvii 1, VIII xxxiv 6 xv 1, VII iv 1, VIII ii 5, VIII xi 4, VIII
mystical significations of VII xii xxi 2, IX xi 2, IX x 7, XI iv 1, XI v 1
1-3, VIII xxx 7 see also Ambrose, Augustine, Basil, Bede,
see also animals, herds, living things etc.
Caucasus P26, XI xv 1 Condensation I vii 2, II v 2, III iii 4, IV ii
'Causal reasons' II v 2, III xi 2, IV xvii 1, V 2-3, VI i 2
i 3, X vii 1 see also rarefaction
see also seminal reasons Consignification I ix 1, 4, 1 xi 1, VIII ii 1-5
INDEX 359
Constantinople (diocese of John Croesus (King of Lydia) PI 1 1

Chrysostom) VIII xiii 3 Cross of Christ IX viii 4, XI viii 2
Consultation (within God) VIII ii 3. VIII xi Crotona P10
1-6 Ctesiphon (defended by Demosthenes)
Contemplation P58, P137, I iii 7, 1 xii 2-A, P158
II vii 1, II viii 2, II ix 1, 4, III xi 1, III xiv Cyprus XI xxi 1
11, 14 IV xxix 5, V xx 1-3, VI xii 2, VI Cyrus (founder of Persian empire)
xiii 1, VI xvii 2, VIII xviii 2, VIII xxxii P23, P25
5, VIII xxxiii 5, VIII xxxiv I, VIII xxxv
8, IX iii v, IX ix 1, X viii 6, XI xxiv 3
Conversion I iii 4, 1 xiv 1,I xix 2, II i 1, II
vi 1, II vii 1-2, II viii 2, II xi 4, III xiv 1- Damascene, John, Saint, see John
3, IV xi 1, IV xxvii 2, V i 2, V x v, VIII Damascene, Saint
vi 1, VIII xiii 3, VIII xxix 1, X iii 2, XI Damascus (capital of Syria) P43
xxvii 9, 11, XI xxviii 2 Danaus (mythical ancestor of Greeks) PI 2
Creation I ii 3, I iv 1, I xi 1 Damnation I xvi 2, V xix 1
all at once or successive? I iii 1,I xiv 1 , II Daniel P94, PI 33, VII vi 1, XI xv 2-3
v 1-5, III xi 1-2, IV i 3, IV vii 2, X iii see also Bible, Daniel
3 Darius (King of Persia) P89, IV vi 2
and Creator I ii 1 David, King P76, P81, P96, P125, VI xv 1,
by God's unmediated action II i 1, II i 3, VIII xi 6, VIII xxx 4-5, IX vii 1, XI xxv
II v 3 2
"in causes" X iii-vii passim see also Bible, Psalms
in time I viii 1-7, X i 3, 4 Day(s) I vii 1-2, 1 x 2, II iv 1-2, II v 3, II vi
language used of creation and 2, II vii 1, II ix 1, II xi 1-4, V vi 1-4, V
Creator VII ii 1 xiii 1, V xvi 1-2, V xvii 1, V xix 1, V xx
of angels I iii 1, II viii 1-2, 2-3, IX i-iii passim, X i 3-4, X iii 2, X iv
of human beings VIII i 1, VIII viii 1, 1
VIII xi 1-6, VIII xii 1, VIII xvii 2, 4, of Creation I iii 3-8
VIII xviii 1-4, VIII xxvii 1 1st I iii 3, II i 1
of matter I iii 1-2, II v 5 Mystical significations of I xix 1, II
of woman VIII xviii 1-4, X vi 1-2 ix 1
order of V i, ii passim, X iii 3 2nd I iii 4, III i 1
not out of pre-existing matter I viii 1-7, Mystical significations of II xiv-xv
I xv 1 passim
out of nothing I xi 1 , I xv 1 , X i 3, 4 3rd I iii 5, IV i 1, IV xvi 1
Creator I ii 1,I viii 2-3, 1 ix 2, I xi 1, I xii Mystical significations of IV x-xii
4, I xiv 1, 1 xv 1, 1 xvii 1, I xix 2, II i 1, II passim, IV xxix 1
v 5, II vi 1-2, II vii 1, III xiv 4, 7, IV i 2, 4th I iii 6, V i 1
IV vi 2, IV viii 1, IV xii 1, IV xxix 5, V v Mystical significations of V ix-xx
2, V x 8, V xxi 3, V xxiii 3, VI xvi 2, VI passim
xvii 2, VII i 2, VII iv 1, VII x 1, VII xiv 5th I iii 7, VI i 1
6, VIII ii 1-5, VIII v 6, VIII vi 1, VIII Mystical significations of VI vii 1,
viii 1-2, VIII ix 5, VIII xi 1-4, VIII xii VI xii-xv passim
1-2, VIII xiii 3, VIII xv 3, VIII xvii 4, 6th I iii 8, VII i 1, VIII I 1
VIII xxiii 2, VIII xxvii 1, IX vii 2, IX viii Mystical significations of VII
4, IX ix 6, XI iv 5, XI ix 2, XI xxvii 1, XI xi-xii, passim
xxx 2, 3 7th YK iv-ix passim
Creeping things I vii 2, IV xii 1, VI Mystical significations of IX ix 1
i-iii passim, VI vii 1-2, VI ix 1, VI x 1- Augustine's understanding of XI ii
2, VII ii-iii passim, VII xiii 4-5, VII xiv passim
8, VIII xiii 1, VIII xiv 1, VIII xv 3, VIII Why 6? VIII xxx-xxxv passim, IX i-iii
xvi 1, VIII xxiv 3, VIII xxvii 1, IX i 3 passim
mystical signification of VI xii-xiv Why 7? IX ix-x passim
passim, VII xii 1-3, VIII xxx 7, VIII of judgement PI 22, IV xi 3, V vii 1
xxxii 5, VIII xxxiv 1 Dead Sea XI xiii 1
see also animals, fish, living things, Deiotarus (defended by Cicero) PI 58
reptiles, swimming things Delphi P15, P50
360 INDEX
Deluge see Flood XI x 2, XI xii 1-3, 5, XI xv 1, XI xxi 1,
Demetrius of Phalerum (librarian in XI xxii 2, XI xxiv 9, XI xxv 1
Alexandria) PI 52 Egyptians P9, P71, XI xii 1, XI xxi 1, XI
Democritus (philosopher) III viii 3 xxv 3
Demosthenes (orator) P53, P59, P158 Elamites P37
Desiderius (correspondent of Eleazer (high priest, patron of translation of
Jerome) PI 39 Seventy) PI 52
Desire see affectus Elements I ix 3, I xiii 2, I xvi 1, 3, I xviii 3,
Diana (goddess) PI 5 I xx 1, I xxii 1, III ii 1, III vi 1-2, III xi 2,
Diglath (name for Tigris) XI x 2 III xiv 4, III xvi 4, IV ii 2, IV iv 2, IV vii
"Dindimus" (author on India) P34 1, IV xi 5, IV xiii 1, 4, IV xv 1, IV xvi 1,
Dinocrates (architect, geographer) V i 2-3, V iv 1, V xiv 1, V xxi 2, V xxii
P47 3, VI i 1-3, VII i 1, VII iv 1, VII xiii 3-5,
Diogenes (philosopher) I ix 3 VII xiv 1, 6, VIII xi 3, VIII xv 3, VIII
"Dion of Apolis" (astronomer cited by xxxiii 4, IX i 2-3. IX viii 2-3, IX ix 3, IX
Augustine: more properly, Dion of x 8, X i 2, X iii 3, X v 1
Neapolis, i.e. Naples) V xxiii 3 see also bodies, elementary; air, earth,
Dionysius (tyrant of Syracuse) PI 1 fire, water, fifth body
Dog-star (Sirius) IV xiv 4, V xxiii 1, XI xii 3 Elephants P30, VII viii 1
Dominion Eleutheropolis P84
of men over creation V i 2, VIII v 7, Elijah (prophet) XI iv 1, XI xxv 2
VIII vi 2, VIII xi 3, VIII xii 1, VIII Elisha (prophet) XI xxv 2
xiii-xvi passim, VIII xxiii-iv passim Emmanuel XI xxx 3
of men over men VIII xxxv 6 Enoch (patriarch) XI v 2, XI xxv 2, 3
mystical significations of VIII xxxv Enos (patriarch) XI xxv 2, 3
5-6 Epaphus (mythical king of Egypt) P9
Erapotes (name for Lake Mareotis)
P47
Esau V ix 2
Earth (dry land) IV ix-x passim Esther see Bible, Esther
spiritual significations of IV xi 3 Eternity I viii 2-3, 5-7, I ix 2, 1 xi 1, I xvii
Earth (element) I xviii-xx passim, II v 1-2, 1, III xi 1, V i 2, VIII vii 2, VIII xvii 4
III xi 1, VI i 2-3, Vm xi 4, VIII xviii 1 Etesian winds XI xii 5
benefits of I xxii 1 Ethan (son of Heber) XI xvi 1
motion on VI ix 1, VII xiii 4-5 Ether I xvi 1, I xxii 1, III x 2, IV iv 2, V
mystical significations of I xix 1, I xxi viii 1, V x 7, VI v 1, VIII v 3, VIII xi 3
1-4, VII xi 1 see also air, upper; heavens, lower
place of III ii 1, IV i 3, IV xxx 2 Ethiopia P48, I vi 1, XI x 1-2, XI xxii 2,
properties of III xvi 4, IV i 1,3, IV xiii XI xxiv 6, XI xxv 1
1, VII i 1-2, VII xiii 3 Ethiopians PI 2
Earth (terraqueous globe) I iii 5, I xii 1, II iv Eucharist I i 1, VII xi 1, XI viii 3
1-2, II v 3-5, II xi 1, IV vii 1-2, VIII v 3, Eudochia (composer of centos) P63
VIII xxiii 1-4, IX i Euphrates P38, P41, XI x 1-2, XI xiv 1-2,
3-4 XI xv 1, XI xxii 5, XI xxiv 8, XI xxv 1
creation of I vii 1-2, I x 1-2 Euripus (strait in Greece) V xxii 3
mystical significations of I xii 1-4, II vi Eve XI v 2
1 see also woman
place of I xvi 2, I xvii 1-2, III xvi 5-7, Exemplar(s) I ix 2, V xix 1
IV ii 1, IV v 1 see also archetypes
properties of III iii 3-4, IV viii 1, IV xv Ezekiel (prophet) P93
1-4 see also Bible, Ezekiel
size of V xv 1 Ezra (priest, ruler and historian
Ebro (river) P20, P149 in Israel) P98, P101
Eclipse V xvii 1, V xxiii 1 see also Bible, Ezra
Eden X iv 4, XI i 1, XI vi 7, XI x 2, XI
xxiii 1, XI xxv 3, XI xxvi 1
Egypt P8, P12, P44, P46-8, P69, P144, 1 vi
1-2, II v 4, IV vi 2, VII xiv 6, X v 2-3, Faith PI 18, I ii 1-3, I iii 2, I v 1, II ix 1, III
INDEX 361
xiv 11, IV xi 4, IV xxix 2, VI xvi 1, VII IV xxix 1, 5, IV xxx 3, V x 5, V xviii 1,
xii 3, VIII iv 1, VIII x 2, VIII xxx 2,7, VI xii 4, VI xvii 2, VII v 1, VII ix 1, VII
VIII xxxiii 1, X viii 5, XI v 5, XI vi 8, XI x 1, VII xi 1-2, VII xiv 2, 4, VII xiv 8,
xxii 2, XI xxiv 2, XI xxvii 1 1, XI xxviii 2 VIII xii 2, VIII xiii 4, VIII xviii 4, VIII
Fantasy I viii 5, VIII iv 9 xxiv 1-4, VIII xxv 4, VIII xxx 3, 7, VIII
see also phantasmata xxxii 3, 6, VIII xxxiii 3, 4, IX iii 2, IX ix
Father 1, X i 9, X ii 4-5, X v 1, X viii 4-5, 7-8,
and Christ as man III xiv 7, VIII xv 4, 10, XI i 1, XI vi 8, XI ix 2, XI xxiv 6, 9,
VIII xxxv 4, 7, IX iii 1, IX vii 1, XI vi XI xxv 9
7 of Christ I i 1, I iv 1, I xiii 1, VII xi 1,
and Son I ii 2, I viii 6, VIII i 1, VIII ix VIII xi 6, IX vii 1, IX viii 1-3, XI viii
2-3, VIII x 1, XI vi 7 2, XI xxii 3, XI xxviii 1, XI xxx 3
and Word I x 6, I xiii 1, I xiv 1, II iii 1, Flood I viii 1, I xvi 1, III x 1, VIII xxiv 4,
III i 1 VIII xxx 2-3, X i 9, X v 2, XI i 1, XI v 2,
in Creation X ii 6 XI xvi 1, XI xxv 2-3
in One I i 1-3 Form I ii 2, I vii 1 , I x 1,I xiv 1 , I xviii 2-
in Trinity I xx 2, II i 2, VIII ii 5, VIII iii 3, 1 xix 1-2, 1 xx 2-3, 1 xxi 2, 1 xxiii 1, II
3, VIII iv 3-4, VIII v 1, VIII xvii 1, 3, viii 2, II ix 1, III xii 1, III xvi 5, IV i 1-2,
IX iii 1, IX viii 3, X ii 6 IV x 2, IV xv 1, IV xvii 1, IV xxi 3, IV
of lights I xix 1, IX ix 1 xxx 1, IV xx V i 2, V xii 1, V xxi 3,
utterance of I iii 3, II i 1, II iii 1 VI xvi 1-2, VII xiv 5, VIII xxix 1, IX ix
wisdom of P57, I iii 3, IX vii 1 1, IX x 2, X i 3, 5, X iv 3-5, X v 4, X vi
Fifth (elemental) body III vi 1 , V iv 1 , V vi 1-2, X vii 1, XI ii 1-2
1 and beauty IV xiii 3
Figures and matter I ix 1-2, 1 x 5, 1 xii 1, 1 xv 1,
of bounds of sea IV v 1 II v 2, 5, II vi 1-2, VII i 2, VIII iv 3, IX
of equilateral triangle ( = geometrical iv 1, IX vi 1-2, X iii 2-4
analogue of number 6) in construction creation of I iii 2, 5, I xi 1, II i 1
of world IX i 3-4 God and VIII i 2, VIII iii 4, VIII iv 6-7,
of illumination of place of earth III xvi 6 12, VIII v 1-3, 5-7, VIII vi 1, VIII vii
Fire I vii 2, I xvi 1-2, I xx 1, I xxii 1, II x 3, VIII viii 1-2, VIII ix 3-5, VIII xi 3
2, III ii 1, III vi 1, III x 2, III xvi 4, IV ii Flying things see birds
2, IV iv 2, IV vii 1, IV xi 3, IV xiii 1, V i Foras (name for Euphrates) XI x 2
3, V v 1-3, V xi 1, V xxiii 2, VI i 3, VII Friday IX viii 4
xiii 5, VII xiv 6, 9, VIII iv 7, VIII xiii 2,
XI i 1, XI xix 1
Firmament I iii 4, 1 vii 2, 1 xiv 1, I xvi 1-3,
I xvii 1, II v 1, 5, 1 vii 1, III ii 1-III xiii 1 Galilee XI xxii 2
passim. III xvi 3, IV i 2, IV iii 3, IV xv Gamaliel (master of St Paul) P3
2-3, V i 1-V iv 1 passim, V v 2, V xiv 1, Gangarus (king of India) P31, XI xi 1
V xvi 1-2, VI i 2, VI v 1-3, VI ix 1, IX i Ganges (river) P32, P35, P49, XI xi 1, XI
2-6, X i 5, X iii 2, X iv 1-2 xv 1, XI xxii 3
mystical significations of III xiv-xv Gaul P20, P21, VII xiv 6
passim, V xix-V xx passim, VI xii 1, Gehenna IV xi 3, IV xii 1, VIII xxxv 5
VIII xxx 3, 7, VIII xxxii 2, VIII xxxiii Gehon (name of Nile) XI x 1-2, XI xii 1, XI
2, 3 xv 1, XI xxii 2, XI xxiii 6, 9, XI xxv 1
Fish IV xiii 1, IV xiv 2, V i 2, V ii 1, VI vi Gennadius I xxii 1
1, VI vii 4, VI ix 1, VII xiv 8, VIII v 7, Gentiles P153, III xiv 12, VIII xxxv 4
VIII xi 3, VIII xiii 1, 8, VIII xiv 1, VIII Germany P21
xv 3, IX i 2, IX iii 2 Geta (name of river) XI x 2
mystical significations of VI xii Getae (Scythian people) P29
3-5, 8, VIII xxx 7, VIII xxv 5 Gideon (judge of Israel) XI xxv 2
see also animals, creeping things, living Giver (name for God) VII xiv 8
things, reptiles, swimming things Glossa interlinearis I xvi 1, VIII xxxv 1,
Flaccus, Horatius (Roman poet) P96 VIII xxv 7
Flesh P58, P131, I v 2, I vi 2, I xii 2, I xix Glossa ordinaria I xvi 1, II iv i, VIII xix 1,
1, I xxi 2, I xxiii 1, II ix 2, III xiv 9, 13, VIII xxiv 1, VIII xxviii 1, VIII xxxv 7,
IV xi 4-5, IV xii 1-2, IV xiii 1, IV xxi 2, XI i In., XI iv 1, XI xvi 1
362 INDEX
Goats (constellation) V xxiii 1 ii 1, II iii 1-2, II vii 1, III i 1, III xi 1,
God (very selectively — word occurs 883 VII i 1, VIII xv 4, VIII xvii 3, VIII
times in Hexaemeron) xxix 1, IX vii 1, X ii 5, X iii 1, X iv 3
all things in all things VIII i 2 see also Word
almighty I viii S, I xxiv 2 Word of God, ( = Revelation) I ii 2, III ix
and evil I xxiii-xxiv passim, V x viii, 1, VI xiiil, VI xiv 1
VIII xxi 1, IX vii 2 see also revelation, scripture, utterance
as light I iii 3, I xxiii 1, II vii 1, II x 4, Gomer (wife of prophet Hosea) PI24
VII xiv 9, VIII iii 1 Goshen (home of Israelites in Egypt) II v 4
see also light Gospel(s) P56, P107, P130-1, P137-8, I i
as "principium" I ix 1 1, I iv 1, III ii 1, V xix 3, VI xvii 1, VII xi
see also "principium" 1, VIII xii 2, VIII xv 1, VIII xxx 7, VIII
at rest I xvii 1 xxxv 2, 4, IX iii 1-2, IX ix 1, X ii 4, XI
see also rest xxii 2-5, XI xxv 3, XI xxviii 1
cause I xvii 1 see also Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
Christ as III xiv 7, V xix 1, X ii 5 John
Creator I iii 8, I vii 1 , I x 4, I xii 4, I xv Goths P28
1, II v 2, II v 5, VI vii 3, VIII ii 4 Grace (of God) P 1 06, I iv 1 , I vi 2, I ix 3, II
see also Creator vi 2, II ix 3, II xiv 1, 12, IV xi 5, IV xxix
eternal I viii 6 1, 5, V x 2, 5, VI xii 1, VII xi 1, VIII vi
Father II iii 2, III i 1, VIII i 1, VIII iii 3, 1-2, VIII viii 1, VIII xvii 4, VIII xviii 2,
ViII v 1 IX vii 2, X ii 4-5, X viii 1, 8-9, X ix 1,
see also Father XI iv 1, 5, XI viii 2, XI ix 2, XI xxv 2-3,
Holy Spirit II iii 2, VIII iii 3, VIII v 1 XI xxviii 11, XI xxviii 4-5
image of V x 1, VIII i 2, VIII ii 1-2, ( = beauty) II x 4, V xxi 3
VIII v 5-7, VIII vi 1-2, VIII vii 1-2, 4, Greece P8, P10, P25
VII viii 1-3, VIII ix 1-4, VIII xiii 3, Greek(s)
VIII xvii l-4, VIII xviii 1^*, VIII commentators on scripture I xxi 1, V v 3
xxviii 1 historians, other writers PI 3, P32, P34,
knowledge of I v 2, I xii 4 P109
likeness to II vii 1 , IV xi 1 philosophers P10, I viii 2, I ix 4, III vi 1
see also image text
mind of I iii 2, I xii 4 of Aristotle I viii 4
name of IV i 1, VIII vii 1 of Bible I i 1, X iii 1, X vii 2
One I i 1-3 translations P152-3, P158, P160, IV
power of IV xi 2-3, IV xv 1 xxiv 1, V v 2, V xvi 2, V xvii 1, V xxiii
providence of VIII xi 3-6 1, XI xxvii 6
rest of Vi 1, IX iii 4-5, IX v 1, IX ix 4- words, names P12, P15, P21,
5 P45-6, P49, P51-2, P55, P56-7, P59-
Son II ii 1, II iii 2, II xi 4, VIII i 1, Vm 64, P66-7, P70, P72, P78, P95-7,
iii 3, VIII v 1, VIII xi 6, VIII xvii 3, IX P99-100, P102, P108, PI 10, P142-3,
viii 3 P147-8, P155-6, I xxi 4, III v 1, IV x
see also Son, Word 3, IV xxxi 6, V xvi 2, V xvii 2, V xxiii
Spirit of God I vii 1,I xviii 1, I xx 1-3, 1, VI v 3, VI vi 2, IX x 11, X vii 2, XI i
II ii 1, IV iii 1 1, XI x 2, XI xii 1, 5, XI xiv 1, XI xvi
see also Holy Spirit 1, XI xviii 1, XI xix 1, XI xx 1, XI xxiv
Trinity II ii 1, VIII i 1, VIII ii 1-5, VIII 1
iii 1-5, VIII iv 1-VIII v 5 passim, VIII Green things I iii 5, IV x 3, IV xv 3, IV xvi
x 1-2, X ii 6 1, IV xix 1, IV xxix 1, 4, VIII xxiv 3-4,
Turning back of creatures to II vii 1, II viii VIII xxx 4, 7, VIII xxxv 7, 9, X i 7, X iii
2, II xi 4, III xiv 2-3, V i 2, V xi 1, X iii 1-2, X iv 2-5, X viii 8-9
2-3 see also herbs, plants, trees
Utterance of I vii 2, II i 1-2, II v 3, III i Gregory the Great, Saint III xiv 2, 7, IV xi
1, IV iii 3, VIII xxvi 1 3, IV xii 2, IV xxix 4, VI xv 1, VIII xi 2,
Vision of II vi 1, II viii 1, III xiii 1, IV XI xxviii 3
xxix vi Gregory of Nyssa, Saint I xvi 3, IV i 4, VII
Wisdom of Ix6 xiv 8, VIII vii 3-4, VIII viii 2, VIII xi 3,
Word of God, ( = Son) I xiv 1, II i 1, 3, II VIII xii 1-2
INDEX 363
Grosseteste, Robert includes all places/times I vii 1,I xvi 1-

addresses reader P139, I xix 3, II x 5, III 2
xvi, IV i 4, V x 8, IX ii 6 lights of I vii 2, IV xv 1-2, VI i 1-2
admits ignorance P7, PI 1, P13, P61, see also luminaries
P96, I x 10, I xii 4, I xviii 1, II vi 1, ffl lower I xvi 1, I xviii 1, IV xxx 2, V xxx
vi 1-III ix 1, III xi 2, IV xv 4, IV xxvii 2
4, VII v 1-VII vi 1, VIII xxiv 4, IX x movement(s) of I xvii 1, III iii 2, III viii
11 2, iII xvi 1-4
discusses translations and readings P7, nature of III iii 4, III vi 1, III xvi passim,
P61 VII xiii 5
incorporates earlier work II x 1-5 new heaven I xiii 1, III iv 1, IV xii 3, IX
offers own opinion P65, I ix 2, II v 1, IV ix 2
i 4, VI viii 2, VII iii 2, VIII i 2-3, VIII number of I xvi 1, III vi 1, III viii 1-3,
xiii 2, IX ii 6, IX iii 2, X i 9, XI iv 2, IX i 6
XI xxi 1 starless, see anastron
Gymnosophists (Indian wise men) P49 starry III ii 1, III iii 1
see also bodies, heavenly, firmament,
luminaries
Heber (forefather of Hebrews) P30, XI xvi
Habakkuk (prophet) P86 1
see also Bible, Habakkuk Hebrew language P46, P66-P70, P73-
Hagar (junior wife of Abraham) XI v 5 P75, P77, P96, P144, I xx 2, IV x 3, X
Haggai ( Aggaeus ((prophet ) P88 ii 1, XI i 1, XI xiv 1, XI xxii 2
see also Bible, Haggai Hebrew text, references to P144-6, P153,
Ham (son of Noah) P44 P160, III xiii 1, IV ix 1, XI xxvi 1
Hawk VI x 2 Hebrews P74, P144, PI59, III iii 5, IX x
Heart I xxi 3, I xxii 1, IV xi 5, IV xii 1-2, 11, XI xvi 1, XI xxv 1
IV xxix I, IV xxx 1, V xi 1, V xix I, VII Hell II vii 2, IV xi 2-3, VI vi 1, VI xii 8,
xi 1, VII xiv 5, VIII xii 2, IX vii 2, X ii 4, XI xxviii 5
7, X viii 4, 7-8, 10, XI vi 8 Heracleon (mouth of Nile) XI xii 4
Heaven(s) III v 1, III ix 1, IV i 1 Herb IV xvi 1 , IV xvii 2, IV xix 1, IV xxiii
mystical significations of III xiv-xv 1, IV xxiv 1, IV xxv 2, IV xxvi 1, IV
passim, V xix 1-7 xxvii 1-2, IV xxx 8, VII ix 1, VII xiv 3,
adornment of III v 1, 1 xv 2, V xii 6, VI i VIII xxiv 1 , 3-4, IX iii 2, X i 1, 5-7, X iv
1, 3, IX i 2, IX vii 1-2 4-5, X v 1, X vi 2, X viii 2, 5-6, XI i 1,
see also luminaries XI xxvii 2
and air II ii 1, VI i 1, 4 distinguished from trees IV xxviii 1-3
and angels II vii 2, III xiv 1-6, IV xi 3 mystical significations of IV xxix 1-5,
and earth I iii 1, 8, I vii 1, I x 1, 3-6, 10, VII xi 1, VIII xxx 4, 7, VIII xxxv 7-9
I xi 1, I xiii 2, I xiv 1, I xxii 1, I xxiii 2, Hercules XI xxi 1
IV i 2, VI i 1, IX i 1, X i l^t, X iii 1-4, Herds VII iii 1-2, VIII xxx 7
X iv 1-2, XI xxvii 10 see also animals, beasts, cattle, living things
mystical significations of I xii Hermagoras (orator) PI 09
1-4, I xiii 1, IX vii 1-2, X viii 1, 6, Herod the Great, King XI xxii 2
8-9 Heron VI x 2
and fire I xx 1-2 Hesperia (Spain) P20
and firmament I xvi passim. III v 1 , III Hesperus (Evening Star, Venus) V xxiii 3
vi 2, III xii 1, VI iii 1 Hevila (Indian king) XI xvi 1
and light III xvi 5-7, IV i 2-3, IV ii 3, Hevilath (India) P3 1 , XI x 1-2, XI xi 1 , XI
IV iii 3, IV xxx 1-2 xvi 1, XI xxiv 2-3
animated? I xvii 1, III vii 1, IV xv 2 Hezekiah (King of Judah) VI xv 1
benefits of I xvi 2 Hiberus (River Ebro) P149
first I vii 2, I xvii 1, I xviii 1, II x 4 Hippomenes (Athenian official) PI 7
flying creatures of I vii 2, III ii 1, VI i 1, Hispalis (Seville) P20
VI v 1-3, VI ix 1, X iv 6 Hispania (Spain) P20
mystical significations of VI xiv 1, Historical sense I vi 2, II ix 2, II xi 1, IX
VIII xxx 7, VIII xxxv 5 vii 1, X vii 2, X ix 2, XI v 1-5, XI xxiii 1,
higher i xvi 1 , IV xxx 2 XI xxv 1, XI xxviii v
364 INDEX
Holy Spirit P3, P129, P153, I i 1-2, I xx 2- Hyle I ix 1-2

3II ii 1, II iii 2, III xiv 13, III xiii 2, VI xii see also matter
1, VIIi ii 5, VIII iii 3, VIII iv 3-4, VIII v Hyrcanus (river) P42
1, VIII vi 1, VIII xvii 1, IX ii 3, IX iii 1,
IXvii 1, DCviii 3, IX i 1,3, 5,IXx 11, X
ii 6, X vii 2, X viii 4-5, 10, XI xxiii 1
see also Spirit, Trinity Iberia (Spain) P20
Homer P63, V xxiii 3 Iberians P149-150
Horace (Roman poet) see Flaccus Ideas (of Plato) I ix 1-2
Hosea P74, P79, PI 24 Image(s) I ii 3, I viii 5, I xii 2, II iii 1, II ix 1,
see also under Bible, Hosea II x 4, IV xi 3, IV xiii 3, VIII iv 1, XI
Hugh of St Victor I xix 1, VII xiv 9 xviii 1, XI xxi 1
Human being(s) I xxi 1, II iii 2, II v 3, II vii deformed, reformed, renewed VI xvi 2,
1, IV i 3, IV x 1, IV xv 2, IV xxv 2, V i 1, VIII vi 1-3, VIII vii 4, VIII viii 3, VIII
VII xiv 5, VIII i 1, VIII xxvii 1, IX v 1 ix 1, VIII xxxiii 6, VIII xxxiv 1, IX ix
ages of VIII xxxii 1-6, IX x 8-10 5
all things for benefit of I xvii 1, IV xxv distinguished from likeness VIII i 1-2,
2, IV xxx 8, V viii 1, V xiv 1, VII vii 1, VIII vii 1-4
VII viii 1, VII x 1, IX iii 4, IX ix 1 human being as image of God I iii 8, I
and Christ IX viii 2-3 vii 2, I xvii 1, IV xii 1, IV xxix 5, V x
animals and VII vii 1, VII viii 1, VII x 1, 1-2, VIII i 1-2, VIII ii 1-2, VIII v 1-7,
VIII xiv 1, VIII xvi 1 VIII vi 1-4, VIII vii 1-4 VIII viii 1-3,
creation of II v 2, VIII ii 2, VIII xi 1-4, VIII ix 1-5, VIII x 1-2, VIII xi 2-3, 4-
VIII xviii 1-3, VIII xxix 1, X i 5, X ii 5, VIII xiii 3, VIII xv 1-3, VIII xvii 1-
1-6, X v 4, X vii 1-2 4, VIII xviii 1-3, VIII xxvii 1, VIII
mystical significations of VIII xxxi- xxviii 1, VIII xxix 1, VIII xxxv 2, 6,
xxxv passim, IX ix 2-3, X viii 6-10, IX iii 2, X v 1, XI xxv 2
X ix 1-2 Son as image of Father VIII ix 1-5, VIII
dominion of V x 2, VII xiv 4, VIII v 7, xv 1-3
VIII xiii 1-8, VIII xv 1-4, VIII xvi 1, Imagination I ii 2-3, I iii 1-2, I viii 5, III
VIII xxii 1-4 viii 1, VIII iv 2, 8, VIII v 5, XI iii 1
fall of IV xxvii 2-4, VII v 1, VII vi 1, see also fantasy, phantasmata
VII ix 1, Vm vi 2, VIII xiii 6, VIII Inclination, see affectus
xxvii 1, VIII xxix 1, XI i 1, XI iv 3, XI India P26, P30-3 1 , P41 , P46, P49, I xxviii
xxix 1-3 3, XI xi 1, XI xvi 1, XI xvii 1, XI xviii I
freedom of III xv 1, V x 2, VIII vi 1, Indian Ocean IV vi 2, XI x 2
VIII xxxiv 1 Indians P30
image of God I xvii 1, VIII i 1-2, VIII ii Indus (river) P30
1-2, VIII v 1-5, 7, VIII vi 1^*, VIII vii Intellect, intelligence I iii 1, 3-4, I xii 1, 4,
1-2, 4, VIII viii 1-3, VIII ix 1-5, Vm I xvii 1, I xviii 3, II i 1, II ix 1, III vii 1,
x 1-2, VIII xvii 1-4, IX iii 2 III viii 1, III xi 1, III xiv 5, VIII iv 10-12,
in Paradise XI i 1, XI iv 1-6, XI v 1-5, VIII v 7, VIII ix 4, VIII xii 2, VIII xv 3,
XI ix 1-4, XI xxvi 1, XI xxvii 1-11 VIII xvii 1, VIII xxix 1, VIII xxxii 1, DC
mystical significations of XI xxviii 1- ii 3, IX vii 2, X ii 7, XI vi 4, 8, XI vii 1
5 Ionia P10, P14
male and female VII xiv 7, VIII xvii 1, Isaac VIII xxx 7, X ii 6, XI xxv 2
VIII xviii 2-3, VIII xxviii 1, X vi 1-2 Isaiah P91, P130, P144, P146, V xix 1
nourishment of IV xviii 1, IV xxix 6, see also Bible, Isaiah
VIII xxiv 1^, VIII xxvi 1 Isidore (of Seville) Saint
position in Creation V i 1, V x 2, VIII ii Etymologies, P9, P10, P12, P17, P20, P23,
2, VIII xii 1-2, IX i 5 P25-P31, P37, P39-43, P45-6, P48,
reproduction of VI viii 1, VIII P54, P62-P64, P96, P99, P108, PI 10,
xix-xxi passim, X i 5, XI v 5 P142, P149 IV xiii 1, IV xxx 6, V xiii
senses of II x 1 2, VI vi 1, VII xii 2, VIII iii 5, X i 9, XI
soul of VIII v 1-7, VIII vi l-4, VIII i 1, XI xi 1, 5, XI xii 1, XI xiii 1, XI
xviii 1, IX iii 2-3, X ii 6-8 xiv 1, XI xix 1, XI xxxi 1, XI xxi 1, XI
see also Adam, Eve, woman xxiv 5
Hyades (constellation) V xxiii 1 Israel P46, P67, P77, P79, P8 1 , P90, P 1 29,
INDEX 365
P144, V vi 1, V xix 1, VII xi 1, XI xiv 2, Jobab (king of Bosra) P73

XI xxv 1, XI xxx 3 Joel P80
Italy P8, P10-1 1 see also Bible, Joel
Itida (pseudonym of Solomon) P97 John the Baptist, Saint VIII xxx 6, XI xxii
4
John Chrysostom, Saint I viii 6, V xxi 3,
VIII xiii 3, VIIi xxv 2, 3
Jacob (patriarch) IV xi 4, IV xii 1, V ix 2, IX John Damascene, Saint
v 1, X ii 6, XI xxv 2 De fide Orthodoxa
James, Saint see Bible, James I vii 6, I xvi 1, II iv 2, II v 4, II x 2, III v 1,
Japhet (son of Noah) P28, P40, PI 49 III vi 1-2, III vii 1, III x 2, III xvi 2, IV
Jason (Greek hero) P27, P40 xiii 4, V v 1-2, VII xiv 4, 8, VIII xi 4,
Jectan (son of Heber, forefather of IX x 7
Indians) P30, XI xvi 1 John the Evangelist P106, P145, XI xxii 5
Jeremiah P77, P92, IX x 1 1 see also Bible, John, 1 John
see also Bible, Jeremiah John Scotus Erigena V x 3, VII xxi 3, IX
Jerome, Saint viii 1-4
Pl-«, PI 1, P50, P56-58, P65, PI 17, P125, Jonah P83, VI vi 1
PI 39 see also Bible, Jonah
I vii 2, 1 ix 2„ I xiii 2, 1 xvi 1,I xxii 1 Jordan (river) III iii 5
II 1 2, II iv 1, II v 1, II v 3, II v 6 Joseph (patriarch) VI xvi 1
IV ii 3, IV xvii 1 Josephus
V xix 2 On the Antiquities of the Jews
VI vi 2, VI vii 1, VI xiv 1, VI xv 1 P38, P152, I vii 2, I xii 1, I xiv 3, I xvi 3,
VII xii 2, VIII vii 2, VIII xiii 1, VIII xv 1, III ix 1, III x 1, V xii 6, X ii 1-2, XI i
VIII xix 1, VIII xxiv 1, VIII xxxii 1, 1, XI x 2, XI xxiv 5, XI xxvi 1, XI xxix
VIII xxxv 1, VIII xxxv 7 1
IX iii 2, IX iii 3, IX v 1 Joshua P73-5, V x 2, see also Bible,
XI ix 2, XI xiv 2 XI xvi 1, XI xxi 1, I xxvi Joshua
1 , XI xxviii 1 Judah P77, PI 29
Against Jovinian III xiii 1 July P35, V xxiii 1
Against Jovinian VII xiv 8 Jupiter (Roman god, planet) P9, P15, V xi
Commentary on Hosea P144 1
Commentary on Isaiah P144 Belus (Western name for Babylonian
De hebraicis nominibus P31, P73, P79, god) P38
P81-92, P94, P96-7, P105-107, XI
xxiv 1-2, XI xxiv 6, XI xxiv 8
De situ et nominibus locorum
hebraicorum XI xi 1 Knowledge P 1 1 , I iv 1 , II ix 2-3, III xiv 2,
Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim I xiii III xvi 7, VI xii 1, 4, VI xiv 1, VIII xxvi
1, I xx 2 1, VIII xxiv 1, IX vii 1, X viii 6, 9, X ix
Letters, PI, P3, P56, P58, P61, 1-2, XI vii 1, XI xxii 5, XI xxiv 2, 4-5,
P144-6, III vii 1, VIII vi 2 XI xxviii 5
Jerusalem P63, P125, P132 by experience P61, XI iv 3-5, XI ix 1-4
Jesse (father of David) P125, P144 by wisdom XI iv 3-5
Jesus ( = Joshua) P64 of angels I iii 2, I xii 1, II v 2, II vii 1, II
Jesus Christ P63, P131, I i 1, I ix 3, III xv xi 4, III xi 1, VIII xxix 1, IX ii 5, X iii
2, VI xvii 1, VII xi 1, VIII xii 2, VIII xxx 1, X v 4, X vi 1
6, VIII xxxiv 1, XI iv 4, XI vi 5, XI vii 1, of animals VII xiv 3
XI viii 1-2, XI xxii 1, XI xxiv 3, XI xxvii of God I v 1, I xii 4, II ix 1, VIII iii 2,
11 VIII v 5, VIII xviii 2, VIII xxix 1, IX
Jews P132, P146, P152-3, III iii 5, III xiv iii 5, IX ix 1
12, VII xii 1, VIII ii 5, VIII xxx 6, 7, IX x of good and evil X iv 5, XI ii 2, XI iii 1,
11 XI iv 3-5, XI ix 1-4, XI xxix 1, XI xxx
Jezebel (queen of Israel) P82 1
Jezrael (son of Hosea) PI 23 of human beings III xi 1, VIII xxxi 1,
Job P73, VI xii 1 VIII xxxii 3-4
see also Bible, Job of scripture P2-3, I viii 4, VI xii 5
366 INDEX
Lactantius VIII iii 4 I xxi 1, I xxiii 1-2, I xxiv 2, II i 1, II v 1,
Lagus (ancestor of Ptolemies) P152 II vi 1-2, III xi 1, III xvi 5-7, IV i 1, IV
Lamech (descendant of Cain) IX x 1 1 vii 1, IV xiii 3, IV xxx 1, VIII iv 7, IX i
Latin (language, alphabet) P49, P50, P56, 2, X i 3-4, X iii 2
P66, P67, P75, P77, P96, P107, P108, angels and I xix 2, II i 1, II vi 1, II vii 1-
P143, P144, P155, P158, P160, I viii 4, I 2, II viii 1-2, II xi 4, III xi 1, III xiv 2,
ix 1, IV xxx 6, V v 1-2, V xvii 1, VI vi 2, V i 2, VIII xxix 1, X iv 2
VI viii 3, IX x 11, XI i 1, XI xii 1, 5, XI beauty of II vi 2, II x 4, IV xxvii 3
xx 1, XI xxv 1-2, XI xxvi 1 bodily I vii 1, II i 1, II iv 1-2, II x 1-5,
Law of nature P33, III iii 5, IV xi 6, IV IV i 2-3, IV iii 3, IV xv 1, 3, IV xxx 2
xvii 2, VII ix 1, VIII xxiv 4, VIII xxv 1- first light I iii 3, I vii 1-2, I xxii 1, II i 1,
2, X viii 4, 8 II iv 1-2, II v 1-3, V i 2-3, V iv 1, V v
Lawgiver/Lawmaker (Moses) II viii 1, IV 1-2, V vi 1-2
xxiii 1, IV xxvi 3, V xix 4, VI x 1, VI xii generation of I xvii 1, II vii 1, II x 1-5,
1, VII i 1, VII xii 4 III xvi 6-7, XI xxvii 11
Leech VII xiv 8 God and P58, I iii 3, II iii 1 , II vii 1 , VIII
Leontius (Athenian philosopher) P63 iii 1
Levi, Levites P68 intellectual I xii 4, I xviii 3
Leviticus P68, IX x 1 1 motion of I vii 1-2, II iv 1-2, II v 3-4, II
see also Bible, Leviticus xi 1, IV xxx 2
Libanus (mountains) P4S mystical significations of I xix 1-2, I xxi
Libra (Scales) V x 7, V xii 3 3, II ix 1-5, VIII xxxiii 1, VIII xxiv 1,
Libya P12, XI xix 1 IX ix 1, X viii 1
Life P33, P52, P146, I v 2, I xvi 2, I xx 2, I of luminaries I iii 6, I vii 2, I x 2, II iv 1,
xxiii 1, III xiv 14, IV xii 1, IV xv 2, V xi III vii 1, III ix 1, III xi 1, IV xv 1, IV
1, V xviii 1, VII xiii 2, VIII i 1-2, VIII xxx 2, V i 1, 3, V v 1-3, V vi 1-5, V
vii 1, 3, VIII xii 2, VIII xxxv 5, X iv 3, xiv 1
XI xxii 1, XI xxv 1, 3, XI xxx 2 see also luminaries
active I xii 2, III xiv 14, IV xxix 5, VI Likeness II x 2, IV xix 1, IV xxiii 1, VI
xii 2, VII xii 1 xvii 2, VII xiv 1, VIII iv 10-11, VIII v 1-
animal IV xiii 1, V i 2, VI i 1-2, 4, VI ii 2, 4, XI vi 4, XI xxvii 7
1, VI iv 1, VI vii 1, VI ix 1, VI x 1, VII distinguished from image V x 1, VIII i
ix 1, VII xii 2, VII xiii 2, VIII xii 2, 1-2, VIII vii 1-2, 4
VIII xiv 1 image and I iii 3, I vii 2, IV xii 1, IV
contemplative I xii 2, III xiv 14, IV xxix xxix 5, VI xvi 2, VIII i 1, VIII ii 1, 5,
5, VI xii 2, VIII v 7, VIII viii 1, 3, VIII ix 4, VIII
eternal I viii 2, VIII xxx 7, VIII xxxiii 6, xi 2-3, 6, VIII xxix 1, VIII xxxii 6,
IX i 1, 4, XI ix 4, XI xxiv 4, XI xxviii 5 VIII xxxiii 6, IX ix 5
human P10, IV xiii 1, IV xxvi 3, IV xxx to God P33, I xvii 1, II vii 1, VIII ii 1-2,
8, V viii 1, V x 7, V xix 1, VI xii 7-8, 5, VIII vii 2-3, VIII viii 1, VIII ix 3-4,
VII xiv 8, VIII xi 4, VIII xiii 1, 3, VIII VIII xi 3, VIII xvii 4, VIII xviii 1, IX
xviii 2, VIII xx 2, VIII xxiii 1, 4, VIII ix 5
xxiv 1, VIII xxv 3-4, VIII xxx 2, 7, see also image
VIII xxxi 1, VIII xxxii 1-6, IX iii 3, IX Literal sense I iii 1-2, I vi 2, I vii 1,I xvi 1,
ix 1, 4, X ii 1, 3-4, 6-8, X vii 1-2, X I xxi 1, II iv 1, III xiv 4, IV xxix 6, VIII
vii 3, 7, 10, XI xxiv 3, 9 xxx 1, VIII xxxii 1, IX vii 1, X vii 2, X
of Christ I iv 1, VIII i 1, XI xxii 1 viii 5, XI v 1-2, 5, XI x 1, XI xi-xiv,
spiritual III xiv 8, IV xxix 5, V xix 1, VI passim
xii 1, VI xvi 1, VII xi 1, VII xii 2, VIII Living things I vii 2, IV xiii 1, IV xiv 1, IV
xii 2, X ii 5 xv 1-2, IV xxv 2, VI i 1, 3, VIII i 2, VIII
new I iv 1, I vi 2, VII xiv 8, VIII xxxiii xxxv 5, 7, IX i 3
1-6, X ii 4 see also animals, beasts, birds, cattle,
tree of VIII xxiv 2, X iv 5, XI i 1, XI ii creeping things, fish, herds, plants,
2, XI iii 1, XI iv 1, 5, XI viii 1-4, XI ix reptiles, shellfish, swimming things
4 "Living voice" P2, P52
vegetative IV xv 2, IV xxx 1-4, 6, V i 2, Livy (Roman historian) P19, P29
VII xiii 2 Long-windedness, see wordiness
Light I viii 3, 5, I xiv 1, I xvi 2, I xviii 1-2, Lucan (Roman poet) P9, P23
INDEX 367
Lucifer IV xi 3 and form I iii 5, I ix 1-2, I x 5, I xi 1, I
Luke, Saint P105, PI 38, XI xxii 4 xii 1, I xv 1, I xviii 2-3, II v 2, 5, II vi
see also Bible, Luke 1-2, II viii 2, IV iii 1, IV x 3, VII i 2,
Luminaries VIII iv 3, IX iv 1, IX vi 1-2, IX x 2, X
animated? Ill vii I, IV xv 2, V xviii 1 iii 2-4
as signs V vii-xi, passim see also hyle
see also astrology Matthew, Saint P103, P137, P144, XI xxii
benefits of V vi 1-5, V xii-xiv, xvi-xvii, 2
xxi-xxiii passim, VII i 1 , X i 9, XI see also Bible, Matthew
xxvii 2 Mauretania P48
creation of IV i 1-3, IV xv 1-2, IV xxv May XI xii 2
1, V i 1, 3, V ii-V iv passim, VI i I, 3, Medea (Mother of Medus) P40
X iii 3-4 Medes P25, P40, PI 26, XI xiii 1
light of V v 1-3 Media P40, IV vi 1
mystical significations of V xix-xx Medus (mythical forefather of Medes) P40
passim, VIII xxxiv 1, IX x 7 Melo (old name for Nile) XI xii 1
size of V xv 1-2 Memphis (city of Egypt) P8, P9, XI xii 3
see also heaven — lights of; light — of Menelaus (husband of Helen) PI 2
luminaries; moon, sun, stars Mercury (planet) V xi 1
Lydia Pill Mesopotamia P38, XI xiii 1, XI xiv 1
Micah P84
see also Bible, Micah
"Micilus" P14
McEvoy, James II x In. Milky Way III viii 3
Macrobius III iii 2, III vii 1, III viii 3 Minerva (Roman goddess) PI 5
Madai (son of Japhet, forefather of Mirror P87, II ii 1, V x 3, XI vi 8, XI xxi 1
Medes) P40 Misael (young man in burning fiery furnace)
Magi P23, XI xxii 3n. XI xxv 2
Magic P9 Moon III vi 1 , III vii 1 , III viii 1 , III x 2, III
Magog (ancestor of Scythians) P28 xvi 3, V iii 1, V vi 2-4, V x 2, V xvi 1, IX
Malachi P3, P90 i 6, X i v, X iii 3, XI i 1
see also Bible, Malachi 1 as sign V vii 1, V viii 1
Man see Adam, human being(s), woman benefits of IV xiv 1, V xii 5-6, V xiii 1-
Manichaeism I xxiii-xxiv, passim, IV iii 1 2, V xxii 1-4
see also Augustine, De Genesi contra light of V v 2, V xv 1-2, V xxiii 1
Manichaeos mystical significations of III xiv 8, V xix
Marcion (heretic) I xxiii 1 2-7, V xx 1-3, VIII xxx 5, VIII xxxii 4
Mareotis (lake at mouth of Nile) P47 phases of V v iii, V xvii 1, V xxiii 1, IX
Mark, Saint PI 04, PI 37, XI xxii 3 x 6-8
see also Bible, Mark size of V xv 1-2
Mars (planet) V x 4, V xi 1 Moral sense I xii 3, I xxi 3, III xv 1, IV xii
Mary Magdalen, Saint XI vi 7 1, IV xxix 6, V xx 1, VI xii 1, VI xiii 1,
Mary, Mother of Christ P12, Iii, VIII xv VIII xxx 1, IX vii 2, IX ix 1, 3, 5, X ix 1,
4, IX vii 1, X viii 3, X viii 9-10, XI xxii XI xxiii 1, XI xxviii 2, 5
3 Moses P71, P73, P82, PI 27, I vi 1-2, I
Massagetae (Scythian people) P29 viii 4, 7, I ix 4, I x 2, I xiv 3, IV iii 2,
Matter I vii 1, I ix 1, 5, I xi 1, I xix 2, II IV xxix 2, V v 3, VI xvi 1, VII xii 1,
vi 1, III xi 2, IV i 1-3, IV iii 1, IV xix VIII xi 5, IX ix 5, X ii 2, XI i 1, XI v 4,
2, IV xxii 1, IV xxx 1-4, VI vii 3, VI xi XI xxv 2-3, XI xxvi 1
1, VII i 2, VII xiii 5, VII xiv 1, 6, VIII see also Author, Lawgiver
xi 3, VIII xii 2, IX iii 2-3, IX viii 2, X i Movement, everlastingness of I viii 2
6-9, X ii 8, X iii 2-4, X iv 1, 5-6, X v
1, X vii 1
creation of I iii 2, 5, I ix 1, I x 1, I xii 1, I
xv 1, II v 2-3, 5 Nahum P85
creation not out of pre-existent matter I see also Bible, Nahum
iii 1, I ix 1-3, I xi 1, I xv 1, VIII iii 4, Nave (Nun) father of Joshua P74
IX iv 1, X i 3, 5 Nehemiah P101
368 INDEX
see also Bible, Nehemiah Ostrich VI x 2
Neptune (Roman god) P15-16 Ovid (Roman poet) P14, P36n., IV xv 1
Nero XI xxi 1
Nile, river P12, P31, P48, XI v 2, XI x 2,
XI xi 1, XI xii 1-5, XI xiv 1, XI xv 1, XI
xxiv 9
Nimrod (builder of tower of Babel) P38 Palamedes (reformer of Greek
Nineveh (city) P83 alphabet) P96
Nisan (Jewish month) Ix2 Palladius (author on India) P34n.
Noah P38, III xiii 1, VI xvi 1, VIII xxx 2- Paradise P3 1 , II ix 3, VIII xiii 3, VIII xx 1 ,
3, VIII xxxv 6, X xxv 2-3 VIII xxiii 4, VIII xxv 1, 4, VIII xxvii 1,
Numa Pompilius (King of Rome) P10 X iv 4, X vi 1, X viii 7, XI i 1, XI xxvi-
Numbers, book of P69 xxvii passim
see also Bible, Numbers literal or figurative? XI i 1, XI v 1-5
Numbers P57, I x 1 , 3 VII xiv 8, VIII iv 5- mystical signification of XI vi-ix
6 passim, XI xxviii 1-5
1 P127, I i 1-3, II xi 4, VI xii 5, VIII ii 1, rivers of P31, XI x-xv passim
VIII iv 1, DC i 1-3, IX iv 2, IX viii 1-3, mystical signification of XI
IX x 4 xxii-xxv passim
2 III xiii 1-2, VIII xxxi 1, IX i 1-3, IX x trees of X iv 5, XI ii 1-2, XI iii 1, XI iv
5 1-5, XI xxix-xxx passim
3 VIII iii 1-5, IX i 1, IX ix 3, IX x 1-2 Parthians P42
4 IX ix 3, IX x 1-2 Paschasius Radbertus XI iv In., XI viii 3n.
5 VIII xxxi 1, IX x 5 Patricius (bishop of Jerusalem) P63
6 II xi 4, VIII xxxi 2, VIII xxxii 1, IX i Paulinus of Nola, Saint Pl-6, PI 13
l-4, IX ii 1, 5, IX viii 4, IX ix 4, IX x 4 Paul, Saint P2-3, P107, I xvi 1, III xiv 12,
7 P127, II xi 4, IX ix 3, IX x 1-3 IV xxix 1-2, VI xii 4, VI xv 1, VI xvii 1,
8 P127 VII vi 1, VII xii 1, XI vi 4
10 VIII xxxi 1, IX x 3, 5 see also Bible, Romans; — Timothy
14 VIII xxxi 1 Peacock VII xiv 8
15 P127 Perseus (as mythical forefather
49 IX x 1 1 of Persians) P25
120 P127 Persia P23, P28, P37, PI 10
articulate IX x 3 Persians P25, P126
composite IX x 3 Persius Flaccus P10, P49
even IX x 1 Person(s) III vii 1
odd V i 1 divine P154, II ii 1, VIII ii-VIII iv
perfect VIII iii 5, IX i 1-2, IX ii 1 passim, VIII ix 2, VIII xvii 1
plural VIII ii 1, 5, VIII xviii 2, VIII see also Christ, Father, God, Holy Spirit,
xxviii 1 Son, Trinity, Word
prime IX x 3 human VIII xi 4, IX viii 2, X ii 3, 7
singular VIII xviii 2 see also human being
Nun (Nave) father of Joshua P74 of Christ I i 1-2, VIII vii 3, IX viii 3
Nymphaeum (place of re-surfacing of see also Christ, Son, Word
Tigris) XI xii 2 Perspective III xvi 6, V xxiii 2
Peter, Saint VI xii 4, VIII xxx 7, IX x 1 1,
XI xxviii 5
Peter Lombard I xvi In.
Obadiah P82 Phantasmata VIII v 1
Obed (grandfather of David) PI 25 see also fantasy, imagination
Ogygias (king at time of portent of Venus, Philistines P46
according to Augustine) V xxiii 3 Philosophers P3, P10, PI 1, P16, P24, P33,
Olympus, Mount IV xv 3, VI i 1 P49, P63, P95, PI 16, I vi 1, I xvi 1, I xvii
One (object of theology) I i 1-2, IV viii 1, 1, III iii 4, III vi 1, III viii 1-2, III xvi 3,
VI xii 5, VI xvii 2 V x 8, V xv 2, V xxii 1, 4, VI x 1, VI xv
Onkelos (translator of Bible) I xiii In. 1, VII xiv 8, VIII iii 4, VIII xii 2, IX i 6,
Origen P62, III vii 1, VIII vi 2 IX x 1, 7, XI xxiv 3
Orion (constellation) V xxiii 1 errors of I viii 1-7, I ix 1-4, I xv 1, II i 1,
INDEX 369
III vii 1, IV xxi 1, V ii 1, IX vi 2, X i Principium I ix 1, I x 1, 3-8, 10, I xiii 1, I
3-4, X iii 5 xiv 1,I xxiii 2, V xvii 1
Philosophy I ii 1, I xvii 1, VI xv 1, IX i 6 Priscian (grammarian) P19, P140
Phison (name for Ganges) P31, XI x 1-2, Proba (composer of centones) P63
XI xi 1, XI xv 1, XI xxii 2, XI xxiv 1, 4- Prolixity see wordiness
5, XI xxv 3 Proverbs P97
Phoenicians P44 see also Bible, Proverbs
Pindar (Greek poet) P96 Psalms P3
Place see also Bible, Psalms
natural places of bodies IX i 1-4 Pseudo-Augustine I xviii 3, II v 2, II x i, VIII
of air I vii 2, IV ii 2-3, VI i 1-2 iii 1, VIII vii 1, XVIII x 2, VIII xi 1
of earth I xiii 2, I xvii 1, II v 3, III xvi 5, Pseudo-Bede
7 Commentarium in Pentateuchum (Cited
of fire IV ii 2 by Grosseteste as "Jerome") I xiii 2,
of firmament/heaven I vii 2, I xvi 1,I IV ii 3, V xix 2, VII xii 2, VIII vii 2,
xvii 1 , III xvi 2, 4 VIII xxxii 1, VIII xxxv 7, XI ix 2, XI
of God (figuratively) III xvi 2 xxviii 1
of light II iv 1, II vii 1, II x 1 Pseudo-Bernard VIII vi 3
of luminaries I vii 2, V iii 1 , V xxiii 2 Pseudo-Dionysius I xix 1, VII xiv 9, VIII
of water I vii 2, II v 1 -2, III ii 1 , III vi 1 , xxxv 9
III x I, IV i 1,IV ii 1-3, IV iii 1, V iv Ptolemy (astronomer) III viii 1, V xv 2
1-2, Iv v 1, IV vii 1, IV viii 1, IV ix 1 Ptolemy Philadelphus (king) PI 52
no place outside heaven I viii 5, I xvi 2 Pyrenees P20
Planets I xvi 1, III iii 2, III viii 1, 3, III xvi Pythagoras (philosopher) P8, PI 0-1 1 , P24,
4, V ix 1-2, V xxi 2-3, IX x 6 P157, VI xv 1
see also Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Moon,
Saturn, Sun, Venus
Plants P22, II v 3, IV xiv 4, IV xv
1-2, IV xxviii 1-2, IV xxx 4-7, V i 2-3, Rabanus Maurus III xiv 2, IX viii 4, XI iv
V viii 1, VII iv 1, VII xiii 1-2, 5 1, XI viii 2-3, XI xxii 2
benefits of IV xxv 2, IV xxvii 3, IV xxx Rarefaction I vii 2, III iii 4, III viii 1, IV ii
8, VIII xxiv 4, XI i 1 2-3, IV xxx 1, V xxi 2, VI i 4
creation of II v 2, III xi 1-2, IV i Ratio VIII v 4n.
1-2, IV xvi 1, IV xvii 1-2, IV xxiii 1, Rays ("lines") of light II v 4, II x 1, 4, III
IV xxv 1, V ii 1, VIII xi 4, VIII xii 2, X xvi 6-7, IV xiii 3, V viii 1, V xii 5, V x 3,
i 1, X iii 3-5, X iv V xvii 1, V xxiii 1-3, XI xix 1
1-5, X v 4, XI ii 2 Red Sea P12, P45, P46, III iii 5, IV vi 2,
generation of III xvi 5, 7, IV xxi XI x 2
2-3, IV xxvi 2, IV xxviii 6, V viii 1, X Reptiles VII xiii 4
i 5-8, X ii 2 see also creeping things
growth of IV viii 1, 3, IV xviii 1, VIII Rest IX x l-4, X iii 5,
xxii 1, X i 7, 9 of creatures I xvi 2, I xvii 1, III xvi 4, IV
mystical signification of I iii 5, IV xi 5, xi 2, IV xiii 3, IV xv 1, V vi 5, VII xii
IV xxix 3-4, X viii 2-10 1, VIII iv 5, IX ii 5, IX iii 5, IX ix 1, 4-
nutrition of IV xxii 1, VIII xii 2 5, XI vi 3
souls of VI iv 1, IX viii 2-3 of God I xvii 1, II viii 1, V i 1-2, IX ii
see also green things, herbs, trees 5-6, IX iii 1-2, 4-5, IX iv 1-2, IX v 1,
Plato P8, PI 1, P16, P58, P157, 1 viii 1-3, I IX vi 1, IX ix 4-6, IX x 12, X v 1
ix 1-2, VI xv 1 Resurrection I xiii 1, III xiv 7, IV xii 3, VI
Timaeus I viii 1, III vi 1, III vii 1, IX vi 2 xii 8, IX ix 4, XI xxii 3-4, XI xxviii 5
Plautus (Roman comedian) V xxiii 3n. Reuben (son of Jacob) IV xii 1
Pliny PI 1, P13, P22, P30-31, P38, P44-5, Revelation P108, III viii 3, VIII x 2
P47, P53, 1 viii 3, IV xiii 1, VII xiv 6, XI Rhine (river) P20
xi 1, XI xiii 2, XI xvi 1, XI xvii 1, XI xix Rhinoceros P48
1, XI xxi 1 Rhodes (island) P53-4
Pomponius (composer of centos) P63 Rome, Romans PI 9, P64, PI 26
Prelates P123, II ix 2, III xiv 11, 14, VIII Ruth (great-grandmother of David)
xxxv 4, 6-7, IX vii 1 P125
370 INDEX
Seneca (Roman author) P36, VIII xvi 1 , XI
Sabbath VII xii 1, IX ii 2, IX v 1, IX ix 4- xii 3-5, XI xxiv 9
5, IX x 12 Senses, bodily I ii 2-3, II x 1, II xi 2, III iv
Sacraments P91, I i 1, II ix 1, 3, III xiv 12, 1, III vii 1, IV xii 1, IV xxvii 2, IV xxix
IV xi 5, VI xii 1-3, VII xi 1, VIII xxxiii 5, IV xxx 8. VI i 3, VI iv 1, VI vii 1, VI
1, X vi 1, XI iv 5, XI viii 3, XI ix 4 viii 1, VI ix 1, VI x 1, VI xiii 1, VII xii 2,
Sallust (Roman historian) XI xiv 1 VII xiii 1-3, VII xiv 1, 3, 5, VIII iv 7-9,
Samos P10, P49 VIII v 5, VIII xi 2, VIII xii 2, VIII xvi 1,
Samson (judge of Israel) XI xxv 2 VIII xxv 3, VIII xxxi 1, VIII xxxii 1, 5,
Samuel (prophet) P75, XI xxv 2 VIII xxxiii 3, VIII xxxv 5, 8, IX vii 2, IX
Sarah (wife of Abraham) XI v 2, 4 x 10. X ii 3-4, X viii 8, XI i 1, XI xxvii 4
Satan VII xii 1 Senses of scriptures
Saturn (planet) III iii 2, V x 4, V xi 1, V see allegorical, anagogical, historical,
xxiii 1, IX i 3 literal, spiritual, tropological senses
Saul (king) P76, VII xi 1, VIII xxx 4 September V xxiii 1
Saviour I i 1, I iv 1, IV xi 3, XI xxii Serapis (Egyptian god) XI xxi 1
2-5 Sesostres (king of Egypt) IV vi 2
see also Christ Seven, number, perfection of
Scorpio V x 7 see numbers — 7
Scripture P136, I ii 2-3, I iii 1, 8, I iv 1, I Seventy (version of) P90, P141, P144-
vi 1, I xvi 1, III i 1, m vi 2, III vii 1, iII xi 146, P153, P159, I xi 1, I xxi 1, III xiii 2,
1, III xiii 1, IV vii 1, IV xxvii 3, V iv 1, V III xiv 11, IV vii 1, IV ix 1, IV xix 1-2,
vii 1, V x 2, V xv 2, VI i 1, VI vi 1, VI vii IV xx I, IV xxiii 1, IV xxiv 1, V xxviii 1,
1, VI viii 3, VI xvii 1-2, VII i 2, VII iii 2, V v 2-3, V xviii 1, VI v 3, VI vii 2, VI ix
VII xiii 1, VII xiv 6, VIII i 2, VIII ii 3, 1, VII iii 1-2, VIII xi 4, VIII xv 3, VIII
VIII vi 2, VIII ix 1, ViII xii 2, VIII xvii xviii 1, VUI xxix 1, IX i 6, IX ii 1, 3, IX
1, VIII xviii 1, 3, VIII xxiv 2, VIII xxvi vi 1, IX viii 1, IX x 1 1, X ii 1-2, 5, X iv
1, VIII xxvii 1, VIII xxix 1, VIII xxxv 6, 4, 6, X viii 5, X ix 1, XI iii 1, XI vi 7, XI
Kiii5,IXix5,IXxl, 1 1-12, X i 9, X ii x 2, XI xxvi 1, XI xxix 1
3, X iv 3, X vii 2, XI iii 1, XI vi 5, 8, XI Shellfish Vi 1, VI i 4, VI vii l.VIx 1, VI
xi 1, XI xiv 2, XI xxii 2, XI xxvii 9-10 xi 1, VII xiii 3
interpretations of I v 1-2, I xiii 1, I xx 2, Shem (son of Noah) P37. P39, P41, P43
I xxiii 1, I xxiv 1, II i 1-2, II v 3, 5, II Sibylline Oracles P38
ix 2, III iii 6-7, IV xxix 6, V v 1 , V x 8, Sidon (Phoenician city) P44
X i 2, X vii 2, XI v 5, XI xxiii 1 Sign(s) I iii 6, V vii-viii passim, V xix 1-
knowledge of Pl-6, PI 35, III xiv 8-9, V 2, 7, V xx 3, XI xxvii 2
xix 1, VI xii 1, 4-5, VI xv 1, VII xii 1, see also astrology
VIII xxx 7 Simonides (poet) P96
Scythia P26, P28, P29, P42, XI xi 1 , XI xxi Sin(s) I vi 1-2, II ix 3, III xi 1, IV xi 5, IV
1 xii 1, IV xiii 1, IV xxvii 2-4, IV xxx 8, V
Sea v 3, V x 8, VI viii 1, VI xii 8, VII vi-ix
creatures of VI ii 1, VI iii 1, VI vi 1-2, passim, VIII vi 1-2, VIII xiii 1-3, 6, 8,
VI x 1, VII xiv 6, VUI xiii 7-8 ViII xv 1, VIII xx 1-2, VIII xxi 1, VIII
mystical significations of IV xi-xii xxiii 1, 4, ViIl xxiv 1, Vm xxvii 1, VIII
passim, VI xii-xvii passim xxix 1, VIII xxiii 3, VIII xxxv 5-6, IX ix
place of waters I vii 2, IV iv-vi passim 1, 4-5, X ii 5, X viii 8, XI i 1, XI iii 1, XI
properties of IV xiii 1, IV xiv 1-4, V iv 4-6, XI vi 8, XI ix 1-2, XI xxiv 4, XI
xxii 3-4 xxv 1, XI xxx 2
Seed P85, P144, I vii 2, III xi 2, IV i 2, IV Six, number, perfection of
xv-xxvi passim, IV xxviii 2, IV xxix 1- see numbers — 6
6, IV xxx 6-8, VII ix 1, X i 5-9, X iv 4, Snakes P48, PI 55, VII ii 1, VII iii 2, VII
X v 1, X vi 1, X viii 2-3 xii 2, VII xiv 3, 8, Vm xiii 7, Vm xxx 7,
and seminal power IV xxi 3, IV xxii 1, XI xxvii 8
IV xxvi 2 see also creeping things
seed qua seed V xxi 1-3 Socrates (philosopher) PI 1
Seminal reasons II v 2, III xi 2, IV xvii 1, Solomon P3, P36, P97, I v 2, I xvi 2, V xx
V i 3, VII i 1 3, VII xi 1, IX ii 2, XI viii 1, XI xxiv 4,
see also causal reasons XI xxv 2-3
INDEX 371
see also Bible, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Stars P20, P30, P38, P44, I vii 2, I xvi 1, I
Song of Songs, Wisdom xvii 1, II iv 1, II v 2, II x 4, III iii 1, III v
Solon (Athenian lawgiver) P50 1, III vi 1, III vii 1, III viii 1-3, III x 2, III
Son I i 1-2, I ii 2, I viii 6, I xiii 1, 1 xiv 1 , I xiv 8, 11, iIl xvi 3-4, IV xi 3, IV xiii 1,
xx 2, II i 1, II ii 1, II iii 1-2, II xi 4, VUI i IV xv 2, V iii 1, V v 2, V vi 2-4, V vii 1,
1, VIII ii 5, VIII iii 3, VIII iv 3-4, VIII v V xv 1-2, V xvi 1-2, V xix 1-7, V xx 1-
1, VIII ix 1-3, VIII x 1, VIII xi 6, VIII 3, V xxiii 1-3, VI i 1, VIII xi 3, VIII xxx
xvii 1, 3, IX iii 1, IX vii 1, IX viii 3, IX ix 5, VIII xxxii 4, IX i 2-3, 6, IX vii 1, X i
1, XI xxviii 1 5, XI xxvii 2
see also Christ, Trinity, Word benefits of V xxii 1-3
Soul(s) P10, I xxiii 1, II iii 2, II x 1, III vii as signs V vii-xiii passim
1, VIII xxix 1 see also astrology, astronomy
animal V xviii 1, VI i 3, VI iv 1, VI vii Stork VI x 2
1-2, VI ix 1, VII i 2, VII viii 1, VII xiv "Strabus" I xvi 1, XI i 1
1-2, 4, Vffl xxiv 1 Sun P23, P35, P48, P50, P64, P83, I vii 2, I
human I iii 2, 7, I viii 7, I xii 3-4, I xix x 2, I xxii 1, II iv 1, 3, II v 1-4, II vii 1, II
1, I xxiii 1, II ix 1, III xiv 1 1, III xv 2, xi 2, III v 1, III vii 1, III x 2, III xiv 8, iII
IV xii 1, V x 1, V xxi 2, VI xii 2, VI xvi 3, IV viii 1, IV xiii 1, 3, IV xiv 2, IV
xiii 1, VI xvi 1-2, VII xi 1, VII xii 1-2, xxv 1, IV xxviii 2-3, V v 2, V vi 2-5, V
VII xiv 7, 9, VIII iv 1, 7-11, VIII v 2, vii 1, V viii 1, V ix 2-3, 7, V xii 3-6, V
5-7, VIII vii 1, VIII xxxii 1, 5-6, VIII xiii 1-2, V xv 1-2, V xvi 1, V xvii 1, V
xxiv 1, IX vii 2, IX viii 2-3, IX ix 1, xix 1-7, V xx 1-3, V xxi 1-3, V xxii 1-3,
3^t, XI xxvii 4 V xxiii 1, VII xiv 5, VIII iv 3, VIII xi 3,
creation of VIII xi 6, VIII xii 2, Vffl VIII xxix 5-6, VIII xxxii 4, IX i 3-4, IX
xviii VIII xxx 7, IX iii 1-3, X ii x 7, X i 5, X iii 3, XI v 3, XI xix 1, XI
1, 3-8, X vii 1-2 xxiv 4, 6
powers of P57, I xix 1, VIII xxxv 5 Supplicius (composer of centos) P63
vegetative IV xv 2, IV xxx 1, VI iv 1, Susannah P94
VIII xii 2 Swimming things V ii 1, VI i 2, 4, VI ii 1,
and body V x 1-4, VI ix 1, VIII vii 1, VI iii 1-2, VII xiii 5
VIII xviii 1-*, X ii 7 see also animals, creeping things, fish,
see also animal, human being, plant living things, reptiles, shellfish
Southern, Sir Richard P58n. Sycia P27
Spain P20, P149, P150 Symmachus XI xxvi 1
Species I ii 2-3, I iv 1, I xviii 2, I xxi 2, II Syria PI 2, P43, P44
v 5, IV i 1, IV x 2-3, IV xv 4, IV xix 1-2,
IV xxvi 1, IV xxx 1, VI vi 1, VI vii 3, VI
xi 1, VI xvi 1-2, VII i 1, VII v 1, VII xii
3, VIII i 2, VIII iv 7-11, VIII xii 2, VIII
xxii 1, VIII xxviii 1, VIII xxxv 8-9, IX Tantalus (mythical sinner) P36
iii 1, 3, X i 3-4, X iii 3-4, X iv 3-6, X Tarentum (Greek city in southern
viii 5, XI ii 1, XI iii 1 Italy) P8, P14, P22
Spirit P33, PI 13-4, P131, I i 2, I v 2, I vi Tartarus (Hell) IV xi 2
2, I ix 3, I xvi 2, I xix 1, IV xi 1, 3, IV Taurus (the Bull)(sign of zodiac) V x 7, V
xxix 2, 5, V x 2, VI xii 3, 4, VI xvii 2, xxiii 1
VII xi 1, VII xiv 9, VIII v 1, 5, 7, VIII vi Taurus (mountains) P26, XI xiii 2
1, VIII ix 2, VIII xi 6, VIII xii 1-2, VIII Thales (Philosopher) I ix 3
xiii 4, VIII xviii 2, VIII xxx 7, VIII xxxv Thebes (Egyptian city) P44, VII xiv 6
4, IX iii 3, 5, IX viii 4, X ii 1, 4-8, X iii Theodosius (Emperor) PI
3, X iv 2, X vii 1-2, X viii 8, 10, X ix 2, Theodosius "the lesser" P63
XI i 1, XI vi 8, XI xiv 2, XI xxiii 1, XI Theology I i 1, VI xii 5
xxiv 3-4 Theophrastus (philosopher/naturalist) XI xxi
of God I vii 1, I xviii 1, I xx 1-3, I xxi 1, 1
II ii 1, III xiii 2, IV iii 1 Thessaly (in north Greece) P40
see also Holy Spirit Tigris (river) XI x 1-2, XI xiii 1-2, XI xiv 1,
Spiritual sense I xxi 2, II ix 1-2, IV xi 1, XI xv 1, XI xxii 4, XI xxiv 7
IV xii 4, IV xxix 1, V xix 1, IX vii 1, X Time I iii 6, I vii 2, I xii 4, I xiii 2, I xvi 2,
viii 3, XI v 1, XI xxiii-xxiv passim II iii 2, III xvi 5, V xii 1-6, V xix 1-7, V
372 INDEX
xix 1-2, VIII iii 5, IX ii 1, 4, IX vii I, Vacuum I vii 2, I xvi 2
X iii 2-5, X iv 1, 2, 5 Valentinus (heretic) I xxiii 1
creation in I iii 1, I iii 8, I vii 1-2, I viii Valerius Maximus, Julius P33-4
1-7, I ix 2-3, I x 1-2, II i 2, IV x 1, IV Value, see benefits
xvii 1, X i 3, 5 Varro (author on Roman theology and
succession in I vii 2, II iv 1-3, II v 1-5, agriculture) PI 5, V xxiii 3
II vii 1, II xi 2, III xiv 7, IV xvii 1, IV Venus (planet) V xi 1 , V xxiii 3
xxiii 1, V vii 1, V xii 1-6, V xiii 1-2, Virgil (Roman poet) P63, PI 19, III vii 1,
V xvii 1, IX ii 5-6, X i 4, X v 1, 4, X vi III viii 3
1-2, XI ii 1-2 Virgin, Blessed see Mary, Mother of Christ
everlastingness of I viii 2 Voice P2, P52, P96, PI 13, P153, II i 1-2,
Timothy, Saint P3 II v 5, III ix 1, IV iii 3, IV xi 4, V v 3, XI
Tree(s) P13, P15, P22, P49, P131, I iii 5, xiv 2
III xi 1, IV x 3, IV xiii 1, IV xv 3, IV xvi Vulture VII xiv 8
1, IV xvii 1-2, IV xix 1, IV xx 1-2, IV
xxi 1, 3, IV xxiii 1, IV xxv 2, IV xxvi 1-
3, IV xxvii 2, IV xxx 3-5, 7-8, V xii 4, V
xxii 3, VII ix 1, VII xiv 4, VIII xxii 1, Water P12, P15, P71, I iii 4, 7, I vii 1-2, I
VIII xxiv 1, 3-4, VII xxvi 1, IX iii 2, X i ix 3, I x 1, I xviii 1, 3, I xx 1-3, I xxi 1, 4,
7, X v 1, XI iii 1, XI xvii 1, XI xxiv 3-^t, I xxii 1, II ii 1, II v 5, II vi 1, III vi 1, III
XI xxvii 2, 5 xi 1, III xiii 2, III xvi 4, IV xvi 1, V viii 1,
distinguished from herbs IV xxviii 1-3 V xxi 2, V xxiii 2, VI i 2-3, VI v 1, VIII i
mystical significations of IV xi 1, IV 2, VIII v 3, X i 2, X i 9, X iii 2, XI xxvii
xxix 1, 3-5, VII xi 1, VIII xxx 4, 7, 2
VIII xxxv 7-9, XI vii 1, XI viii 1-4, XI above firmament I iii 4, I vii 2, I xvi 1-3,
ix 1-3 I xvii 1, III ii 1, III iv 1-7, III iv 1, III
of knowledge of good and evil X iv 5, vi 1, III ix 1, III x 1-2, III xvi 3, V iii
XI i 1, XI ii 2, XI iii 1, XI iv 3-6, XI ix 1, IX i 6, X iii 2
5, XI xxix 1, XI xxx 1 benefits of III x 1-3, IV xiii 4, IV xv 1,
of life VIII xxiv 2, X iv 5, XI i 1 , XI ii 2, 4, IV xxx 6
XI iii 1, XI iv 1-2, 5, XI ix 5 creation of II v 5
of Paradise X iv 4-5, XI i 1, XI ii 1-2, creatures of I vii 2, IV xiv 2, 4, V i 2-3,
XI iii 1, XI iv 5, XI ix 5, XI xxix 1 V ii 1, V xii 4, VI i 1-4, VI ii 1, VI vi
Trinity I i 1-2, II ii 1, II ix 1, II x 4, V x 2, 1, VI vii 3, VI ix 1, VI x 1, VI xi 1, VII
VIII i 1-2, VIII iii 1-2, VIII iv 1-2, VIII iii 2, VII iv 1, VII xii 4, VII xiii 1-5,
vi 4, VIII vii 1, VIII x 1-2, VIII xi 1, VIII VII xiv 5-6, 9, VIII v 7, VIII xi 2, VIII
xvii 1, IX ix 1, X ii 6 xiv 1, VIII xvi 1, VIII xix 1, VIII xxi 2,
likenesses of VIII i 1-2, VIII iv IX i 2-3, IX iii 2, X i 2, X i 8, X iii 3,
1-12, ViII v 1-5 Xv 1
see also Father, God, Holy Spirit, Son, mystical significations of VI xii 1-8,
Word VI xiii 1, VI xv 1, VI xvi 1-2, VI
Troglodytes (people of Libya) XI xix 1 xvii 1-2
Tropic(s) P48, IV xxviii 3 gathering of I iii 5, I vii 2, II v 1, II v 1-
Tropological sense I iii 2, I xix 1, XI xxiii 2, IV i 1, 3, IV ii 1-3, IV iii 1, 3, IV ix
1 1, IV x 3, V i 3, VIII xxvi 1, X iii 2, XI
Tubal (son of Japhet, forefather of i 1
Spanish) P149 motion in VI iii 1-2, VI ix 1, VII xiii 4-
Tully P109 5
see also Cicero mystical significations of I xix 1-2, III
Tyre (city of Phoenicians) P46, IX x 1 1 xiv 1-5, 7-12, III xv 3-4, IV xi 1-6,
IV xii 1-4, VIII xxx 3^, 6, VIII xxii
1-2, VIII xxxiii 2-3, 5
place of III ii 1, IV ii 1-3, IV iv-vi
passim, X i 6-7, X v 2
Usefulness, see benefits properties of IV xiii 1-4, IV xiv
Utterance I vii 2, II i 1-2, II v 3, III i 1, IV 1^
iii 3, VIII xxvi 1 Whales VI i 4, VI vi 1-2, VI ix 1
INDEX 373
mystical signification of VI xv 1, VIII see also revelation. Scripture
xxx 6 Wordiness I xix 2, V x 8, VII xiv 9, VIII iv
Will V x 8 2
angelic III xiv 1-2, IV xi 2-3 World I i 1, I ii 2-3, 1 ix 2, I xvi 1-3, 1 xvii
divine P58, I vii 1, 1 viii 3, 5, I xx 2, II i 1, I xx 1-2, II iv 1, II x 4, III viii 3 III xv
2, II vi 2, IV xvi 1, IV xxix 5, VI i 4, 2, 5, III xvi 5-7, I xi 5, IV xii 3, IV xiii 1 ,
VIII xix 1, VIII xxxv 6-7, X ii 4, XI IV xv 1-2, IV xviii 1, IV xxx 2, V i 1, V
xxx 2-3 v 3, V xii 3-5, V xix 1, 4, V xxi 1-3, V
freedom of III xiv 1, III xv 1, IV xxix 5, xxiii 1, VI i 1-3, VI xii 2-4, 7, VI xv 1,
V ix 1, V x 1-2, 8, V xx 1, VII xiv 4, VI xvii 1-2, VII xi 1, VII xii 2, VII xiv 1,
VIII vi 1, VIII xi 4, VIII xxiii 1, VIII VII xiv 9, VIII i 1, VIII vi 2, VIII xii 1,
xxxiv 1, XI ix 2 VIII xiii 3, VIII xv 3, VIII xxii 1, 4, IX
human P58, I xix 1, I xx 2, IV xxix 1-2, viii 2, 4, IX ix 2, 4, IX x 6, 1 1, X i 2, X iii
V xi 1, VI xiv 1, VII xii 2, VIII vi 4, 1, X vii 1, XI xxii 3, XI xxiii 1, XI xxiv
VIII xii 2, IX vii 2, X viii 4-5, XI ix 2, 3-4, XI xxvii 2
XI xxvii 1-2, 6, 11, XI xxx 1-3 ages of IV xii 3, VIII xxx 2-7, VIII xxxi
Winged things, see birds 1-2, XI xxv 1-3
Woman, women PI 5, P28, P33, P35, P60, animated? III vii 1
I xiii 1, IV xiii 4, V xxii 4, VII xiv 7, VIII creation of I iii 1-3, 8, I iv 1, I vii 1-2, I
xxxv 1-2, 4, 7, IX x 9, XI xi 1, XI xxix 1 viii 1-7, I ix 2-3, I x 1-4, I xii 4, I xv
creation of II i 2, VIII xviii l^, VIII 1, I xxii 1, II i 1-3, II v 2-3, 5-6, IV iii
xxviii 1, VIII xxx 7, X vi 1-2, XI 1, 3, IV vii 2, IV xvii 1, VII iv 1, VIII
xxviii S iii 4, IX vi 2, X i 3^, XI v 3
radical equality with man VIII xviii 1-4, perfection of IX i 1-6
VIII xxviii 1, XI xxviii 5 see also heaven and earth
see also Eve; human being — male and
female
Word(s) P33, II i 1, IV xxix 4
of blessing VI viii 1, 3, VI xvii 1, VIII
xx 1, IX v 1 Xenophon (Greek author) P156
of creation II viii 1, IV i 1, IV i 2, IV ii
2, IV iii 3, IV vi 1, IV xvii 1, IV xxiii
1, V iv 1, VI i 3, VI vii 3, VI xiv 1, VII
i 1, VIII xi 1, X i 7-8, X ii 1, X vi 1-2 Year IV xxviii 3, V ix 1, V xii 3-5, V xiii
of God ( = Son) P57, P58, I i 1-2, I ii 2, I 1-2, V xxi 2
iii 3, I x 6, I xiii 1, I xiv 1, II i 1-3, II ii
1, II iii 1-2, II v 3, III i 1, III xi 1, IV i
1, IV i 3, IV iii 3, IV x 1, VI xiii 1, VIII
vii 3, VIII xi 2, 6, VIII xv 4, VIII xvii
3, VIII xxix 1, IX v 1, IX vi 1, IX vii 1, Zachariah (prophet) PI 56
X ii 5-6, X iii 2-3, X iv 3, 5, X vi 2, XI Zachary (father of John the Baptist) XI xxii
xxvii 8, XI xxx 3 3
see also Christ, Son Zephaniah (prophet) P87
of God ( = utterance) P3, I vii 1-2, I xiii Zodiac V x 7, V xii 3, 5, V xiii 2, V xxi 2,
1, II i 1, II iii 2, II v 5, II vi 1, III iii 5, IX x 6
IV x 1, VIII xi 3-4, XI xxiv 4 Zoroanda (lake on Tigris) XI xiii 2
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ON THE SIX DAYS

A TRANSLATION OF THE HEXAEMERON

Published for THE BRITISH ACADEMY

I should like to take this opportunity of thanking Professor D. E. Lus-

A distinguished scholar, of a distinctively English kind; and an effective

It seems possible to call the Hexaemeron a work of Grosseteste's early

Chapter headings marked G below are those of Grosseteste himself: the

Chapter IX. 1-2 G That by signifying individuals he overthrows

Chapter II The utterance of the Word is his generation 85

Chapter XXIX G Spiritually 153

Chapter in G That swimming things are called creeping

Chapter VI Inquiries about the poisonous and harmful

Chapter XII The human being is so great and so valuable a

Chapter XXXIV Another signification of the first six days 264

[190A] 1. Brother Ambrose, etc.1 This letter, which is prefixed to the

1 The so-called proemium to the Hexaemeron consists of a quite independent work, a

1 Isidore, Etymologies, VI, x, 1-2

1 Pliny, Natural histories, VII, xxx, 31, 110

1 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, vii, 2

1 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, ii, 15

1 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, ii, 38

1 Isidore, Etymologies, IX, ii, 49

1 Isidore, Etymologies, XIV, v, 14-16

52. Energia, likewise, is a Greek expression, and means operation. It

1 Pliny, Natural histories, VII, xxx, 31, 110

same wisdom of the Father a reckoning, since according to Augustine this

1 Augustine, On free will, II, 123-5 (CSEL LXXIV, 68)

1 Isidore, Etymologies, VII, viii, 14

1 Cicero, On the nature of the gods, I, 60

1 Jerome, De hebraicis nominibus, 92 (PL, XXIII, 886)

Moses. Or as it is noted in the [fifteen gradual] psalms1 whose addition

1 Jerome, Letter LVII, IX, 6 (CSEL, LIV, 520)

1 Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, II, xv (PL, XXXIV, 46)

1 John, 17: 20-21

1 Job, 28: 12-14

be written in a brief summary, and it was fitting to add to them a clearer

1 Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, II, 42 (PL, XXIV, 65)

1 Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, III, 54 (CSEL, LXXX, 93)

1 Numbers, 12: 6-8

1 Plato, Timaeus, 23B

1 Boethius, On the consolation ofphilosophy, V, prosa 6 {PL, LXIII, 858-9)

1 Augustine, The City of God, X, 31 (CSEL, XL.l, 502-3)

1 Ambrose, Hexaemeron, I, 1, 1 (CSEL, XXXII. 1, 3)

1 Augustine, The City of God. VIII, 2

1 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 2, 2 (ed. cit., p.5)

1 The difficulties Grosseteste found in understanding this text he has managed to

made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled

1 Basil, Hexaemeron, I, 7, 6 (ed. cit. p. 12)

available matter, as a craftsman does, to work on: he would be truly in need

1 Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, I, viii, 1 1 (PL, XLI1, 609-610)

1 Glossa ordinaria. I. 1 (PL. CXIII, 68C)

1 Basil, Hexaemeron, III, 3, 1-2 (ed. cit. p. 33)

1 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 5, 8-10 (ed. cit. p. 25)

that the generation of the human race should be completed up to the

1 Bede, Hexaemeron, I (PL, XCI, 13D-14A)

"earth" means something unformed and imperfect, but which can be

Reading, with some of the manuscripts, "immobilem subsistenciam".

mentioned, something rational in an unformed way — we can understand

1 Pseudo-Dionysius, On the hierarchy of heaven, with the commentary of Hugh of St Victor,

1 Basil, Hexaemeron, II, 2, 9-10 (ed. cit. pp. 20-21)

infinite depth"1. "Deep" translates the Greek noun "abyss". According to