Thomas Aquinas’s Quodlibetal Questions

Translated and Introduced by

Turner Nevitt and Brian Davies

Oxford University Press

New York, 2019

Contents
Preface
Note on the Translation
Introduction
Quodlibet VII
Question 1: The Knowledge of Spiritual Substances
Article 1: Can a created intellect see the divine essence directly?
Article 2: Can a created intellect think about more than one thing at a time?
Article 3: Can an angelic intellect know about singulars?
Article 4: Is the knowledge that Augustine calls the mind’s “offspring” an accident or not?
Question 2: The Enjoyment of Christ’s Soul During the Passion
Article 1: Did Christ’s enjoyment extend to the essence of his soul?
Question 3: The Plurality of Spiritual Substances
Article 1: Is divine immeasurability incompatible with a plurality of divine persons?
Article 2: Is angelic simplicity compatible with angels being composed of accident and subject?
Question 4: The Sacrament of the Altar
Article 1: Is the whole quantity of Christ’s body contained under the outward appearances of
bread?
Article 2: Are the body of Christ and the bread both there in the same instant?
Article 3: Can God make whiteness and other qualities exist without any quantity, as God makes
quantity exist without a subject in the sacrament of the altar?
Question 5: The Bodies of the Damned
Article 1: Will the bodies of the damned be incorruptible?
Article 2: Will they rise with their deformities?
Article 3: Will they be punished in hell with bodily weeping and bodily worms?
Question 6: The Senses of Sacred Scripture
Article 1: Do the words of sacred scripture have other hidden spiritual senses in addition to their
literal sense?
Article 2: How many senses of sacred scripture are there?
Article 3: Are these senses found in other writings?
Question 7: Manual Labor
Article 1: Is working with your hands a commandment?
Article 2: Are people who keep their time free for spiritual works excused from this
commandment?
Quodlibet VIII
Question 1: The Divine Ideas
 Article 1: Is the number six (by reference to which all creatures are said to be perfected) the
creator or a creature?
Article 2: Do the ideas in God’s mind apply to what they exemplify (viz. creatures) first by reason
of their singularity or by reason of their specific nature?
Question 2: The Human Soul
Article 1: Does the soul receive the species by which it knows from things outside the soul?
Article 2: How is charity or any other disposition known about by those who lack it?
Question 3: The Human Body
Article 1: Is food converted into true human nature?
Question 4: Matters of Grace Related to Prelates
Article 1: Is it always necessary to choose the best man to be a prelate or is it sufficient to choose a
good one?
Article 2: Should evil prelates be honored or not?
Question 5: Matters of Grace Related to Everyone
Article 1: Is praying for someone else as valuable as praying for yourself?
Article 2: Are suffrages of greater benefit to the poor whose merit is greater than to the rich for
whom they are specifically offered?
Article 3: Does a simple vow dissolve a marriage contract?
Question 6: Sin
Article 1: Is it a sin for a man to go to church for the stipends, when he would not go otherwise,
even if he initially accepted the prebend in order to serve God?
Article 2: Is it a sin not to give to a poor beggar if one has a surplus?
Article 3: When opinions differ about an action, as they do about having more than one prebend, is
it a sin to follow the riskier opinion?
Article 4: Is lying always a sin?
Article 5: Does one sin as much as one intends to sin?
Question 7: The Spiritual Punishment of the Damned
Article 1: Do the damned see the glory of the saints, particularly after judgment day?
Article 2: Do the damned want their own relatives to be damned?
Question 8: The Bodily Punishment of the Damned
Article 1: Will the damned only be punished with fire or also with water?
Question 9: The Glory of the Blessed
Article 1: Does the blessedness of the saints consist of thought before feeling, or the reverse?
Article 2: Do the blessed see the humanity of Christ before his divinity?
Quodlibet IX
Question 1: Christ’s Divine Nature
Article 1: Can God make an actual infinity of things?
 Question 2: The Union of Christ’s Human and Divine Natures
Article 1: Is Christ only one subsisting individual?
Article 2: Does Christ have only one existence?
Article 3: Does Christ have only one sonship?
Question 3: The Outward Appearances Containing Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar
Article 1: Do those accidents exist there without a subject?
Question 4: Angels
Article 1: Are they composed of matter and form?
Article 2: Can they actually have morning and evening knowledge simultaneously, i.e. can they
know things in their own specific nature and in the Word simultaneously?
Article 3: Can they merit the enjoyment of God and enjoy God by one and the same act of charity?
Article 4: Do they move in an instant?
Article 5: Can they affect or do anything to bodies here below?
Question 5: Human Nature
Article 1: Are vegetative and sensitive souls a result of creation?
Article 2: Is commanding an act of will or of reason?
Question 6: Grace
Article 1: Is charity increased in essence?
Question 7: Sin
Article 1: Did Peter sin mortally by denying Christ?
Article 2: Without a dispensation, is it a mortal sin to have more than one prebend without the
responsibility to care for souls?
Question 8: Glory
Article 1: Are all the saints canonized by the Church in glory or are some of them in hell?
Quodlibet X
Question 1: God
Article 1: Does “oneness” indicate something affirmative about God, or merely a negation?
Article 2: Will Christ come down to earth to judge?
Article 3: Can the outward appearances of wine that remain in the sacrament after the consecration
be mixed with another liquid?
Question 2: Angels
Article 1: Does an angel’s duration have a before and after?
Question 3: The Soul’s Substance
Article 1: Is the soul its powers?
Article 2: Is the substance of the soul incorruptible?
Question 4: The Soul’s Activity
Article 1: Does the intellective soul know everything it knows in the First Truth?
 Article 2: Does the soul perform acts with its sensitive powers while separated from the body?
Question 5: Matters of Grace Related to Commandments and Counsels
Article 1: If a son could only support his father with a dowry from a marriage contract, is he
obligated to contract marriage to support his father?
Article 2: Is a religious who has made a vow of obedience bound to obey his superior in all things,
even matters of indifference?
Article 3: Can a man who contracts marriage after a simple vow of chastity pay or exact the
marriage debt?
Question 6: Sins Opposed to Right Action
Article 1: Is it a sin to honor rich people because of their wealth?
Article 2: Is it a sin not to fend off a bad reputation?
Article 3: Is it always a sin to wear expensive clothing?
Question 7: Sins Opposed to Right Faith
Article 1: Should we consort with heretics?
Article 2: Should heretics who return to the Church be readmitted?
Question 8: Glory
Article 1: Can a created intellect see God’s essence?
Quodlibet XI
Question 1: God’s Infinity
Article 1: Is being everywhere proper to God alone?
Question 2: God’s Knowledge
Article 1: Does God know evil by means of good?
Question 3: God’s Predestination
Article 1: Does predestination impose necessity?
Question 4: Angels
Article 1: Do they move in an instant?
Question 5: The Human Soul
Article 1: Are the sensitive and intellective soul one and the same substance?
Question 6: The Human Body
Article 1: Will the numerically same body rise again?
Question 7: The Sacrament of Confirmation
Article 1: Should only a bishop confer the sacrament of confirmation, or should someone else do
so as well?
Question 8: The Sacrament of the Eucharist
Article 1: Can one attend the mass of a priest who is a fornicator without sinning mortally?
Article 2: Is it a mortal sin to speak, eat, or associate with excommunicated people?
Question 9: The Sacrament of Marriage
 Article 1: Does bewitchment impede marriage?
Article 2: Does impotence impede marriage?
Question 10: Fraternal Correction
Article 1: Should you correct your brother or neighbor in public or in private?
Article 2: If you know your neighbor has sinned, is it a mortal sin for you to report him to his
superior immediately?
Quodlibet I
Question 1: God’s Divine Nature
Article 1: Did blessed Benedict see the divine nature in his vision of the whole world?
Question 2: God’s Assumed Human Nature
Article 1: Was Christ related to the Father and to his mother by one sonship or two?
Article 2: Did Christ die on the cross?
Question 3: Angels
Article 1: Does an angel’s essence depend upon a bodily place, or is an angel only in a place by
virtue of its activity?
Article 2: Can an angel move from place to place without passing through the space in between?
Question 4: Human Nature
Article 1: When the soul comes to exist in the body, are all the body’s previous forms (both
substantial and accidental) destroyed?
Article 2: Can people without grace prepare themselves for grace?
Article 3: Did human beings in the state of innocence love God more than everything else,
including themselves?
Question 5: Contrition
Article 1: Should a contrite person prefer being in hell to sinning?
Question 6: Confession
Article 1: Is it sufficient for people to make a written confession or is a spoken confession
required?
Article 2: Do people have to confess at the first opportunity or can they wait until Lent?
Article 3: Should a parish priest believe his parishioners who claim to have confessed to another
priest, and give them the Eucharist, or not?
Question 7: Relating to Clerics
Article 1: If a cleric has prebends in two churches with different offices on the same day, is he
bound to say each office?
Article 2: Should a man forgo the study of theology to pursue the salvation of souls, even if he has
an aptitude for teaching others?
Question 8: Relating to Religious
 Article 1: Is a religious bound to obey his superior by revealing a secret entrusted to him in
confidence?
Article 2: Is he bound to obey him by revealing his knowledge of a brother’s secret fault?
Question 9: Sin
Article 1: Is sin some sort of entity?
Article 2: Is swearing falsely by God a more serious sin than murder?
Article 3: Is it a sin to violate a papal decree out of ignorance?
Article 4: Is it a mortal sin for a monk to eat meat?
Question 10: Glory
Article 1: Is it naturally possible for a glorified body to be with another body in the exact same
place?
Article 2: Could that happen miraculously?
Quodlibet II
Question 1: Christ
Article 1: Was Christ numerically the same human being during the three days he was dead?
Article 2: Would any of Christ’s suffering have been enough to redeem the human race without his
death?
Question 2: The Composition of Angels
Article 1: Is an angel substantially composed of essence and existence?
Article 2: Is there a difference between an angelic subject and its nature?
Question 3: The Time of the Movement of Angels
Article 1: Does God move spiritual creatures through the same time that measures the movement
of bodily things?
Question 4: Virtues Related to Divine Matters
Article 1: Would people have been bound to believe Christ if he had not performed visible
miracles?
Article 2: Should the children of Jews be baptized against their parents’ will?
Article 3: Can custom excuse people from having to pay tithes?
Question 5: Virtues Related to Human Matters
Article 1: Are children bound to obey their natural parents even in matters of indifference?
Article 2: Is a seller bound to tell a buyer about a defect in the item sold?
Question 6: Sins
Article 1: Is it a sin to want to be a superior?
Article 2: Is it a sin for a preacher to have his eye on temporal things?
Question 7: Punishments for Sins
Article 1: Can the separated soul be affected by bodily fire?
 Article 2: If two individuals deserve the same amount of punishment, can one remain in purgatory
longer than the other?
Question 8: Forgiveness of Sins
Article 1: Is a sin against the Holy Spirit unforgiveable?
Article 2: Does a vowed crusader who dies before going on crusade still receive the full
forgiveness of sins?
Quodlibet III
Question 1: God’s Divine Nature
Article 1: Can God make matter exist without form?
Article 2: Can God make the same body to be located in two places at once?
Question 2: God’s Assumed Human Nature
Article 1: Does Christ’s soul know infinite things?
Article 2: After his death, was Christ’s eye called an eye equivocally or univocally?
Article 3: After his resurrection, did Christ truly eat by incorporating food into himself?
Question 3: Angels
Article 1: Does an angel cause the rational soul?
Article 2: Does an angel influence the human soul?
Article 3: Does an evil angel (i.e., the devil) substantially inhabit human beings during each of
their mortal sins?
Question 4: Teachers of Sacred Scripture
Article 1: Is it permissible for a man to seek his own license to teach theology?
Article 2: When people hear different masters of theology with contrary opinions, are they
excused from sin if they follow the false opinions of their masters?
Question 5: Becoming a Religious
Article 1: Is it permissible to lead young people to enter the religious life through the obligation of
an oath or vow?
Article 2: Can people obligated by such an oath or vow remain in the world without thereby
sinning?
Article 3: Is it permissible to lead sinners into the religious life?
Article 4: Is it a sin to make a person swear an oath not to enter the religious life?
Question 6: Being a Religious
Article 1: Can religious (who ought not to have anything of their own either alone or together)
give alms from the things that other people give them as alms?
Article 2: If a religious knows that his father is in grave need, can he leave without his superior’s
permission in order to help his father?
Article 3: Is the religious state more perfect than the state of parish priests and archdeacons?
Question 7: Relating to the Laity
 Article 1: Can a woman who has contracted marriage in the Church after making a vow of
continence unite in the flesh with her husband without sinning?
Article 2: Are people allowed to keep things acquired by doing legitimate business with money
made by usury?
Question 8: The Soul’s Substance
Article 1: Is it composed of matter and form?
Question 9: The Soul’s Knowledge
Article 1: Does the soul separated from the body know about any other separated soul?
Article 2: Is it permissible to ask a dying person to disclose their state after death?
Question 10: The Soul’s Punishment
Article 1: Can the soul be affected by bodily fire?
Article 2: Do the damned in hell rejoice at the punishments of their enemies, who they see being
punished along with them?
Question 11: The Body
Article 1: If the first human being had not sinned, would an equal number of males and females
have been born?
Question 12: Conscience
Article 1: Can conscience be mistaken?
Article 2: Does a mistaken conscience bind?
Question 13: Penance
Article 1: If a priest says to a penitent, “Whatever good you do will be for the forgiveness of your
sins,” is that satisfaction sacramental?
Article 2: If a man fails to say the divine office when he is obligated to do so, can another penance
be imposed on him for such an omission, or should he be required to redo what he failed
to do?
Question 14: Purely Bodily Creatures
Article 1: Is a rainbow in the clouds a sign that there will not be a flood?
Article 2: Is it possible to prove demonstratively that the world is not eternal?
Quodlibet VI
Question 1: God
Article 1: Is the one divine essence counted in addition to each one of the divine persons?
Question 2: Angels
Article 1: Do they do whatever they do by a command of their will?
Article 2: Can they be on the top of the empyrean heaven (which was also asked about glorified
bodies)?
Question 3: The Sacrament of Baptism
 Article 1: If a boy is born in a waterless desert, and dies without being baptized, can he be saved
by his mother’s faith?
Article 2: If a Christian man baptizes a Jewish woman, whom he had promised to marry if she
were baptized, does he then consummate marriage if he knows her in the flesh afterward?
Question 4: Faith
Article 1: Is the certain adherence of a heretic or of a bad Catholic an act of the virtue of faith?
Question 5: Relating to Religion or Worship
Article 1: Are we allowed to celebrate the feast of our Lady’s conception?
Article 2: If a cleric at a school has a benefice with or without the responsibility to care for souls,
is he bound to say the office of the dead?
Article 3: Is a bishop bound to give a benefice to the better man?
Article 4: Is a poor person bound to give tithes to a rich priest?
Question 6: Obedience
Article 1: Is it more meritorious to obey a religious superior or to do something at a brother’s
request?
Question 7: Alms Given by Clerics
Article 1: Is it a mortal sin for clerics not to generously give away their superfluous things as
alms?
Question 8: Alms Given on Behalf of the Dead
Article 1: Do the dead suffer any loss if the alms required in their wills are delayed by their
executors?
Article 2: Are executors allowed to delay the distribution of such alms so that the belongings of
the deceased can be sold at a greater price in the future?
Question 9: Sins
Article 1: Do baptized people transmit original sin to their offspring?
Article 2: What comes first, turning away from God or turning toward a changeable good?
Article 3: Which is worse, lying with words or with deeds?
Question 10: Bodily Things
Article 1: Can a man naturally or miraculously be a virgin and a father at the same time?
Question 11: Purely Bodily Creatures
Article 1: Does the empyrean heaven have an influence on other bodies?
Quodlibet IV
Question 1: God’s Knowledge
Article 1: Does God have multiple ideas?
Question 2: God’s Power
Article 1: Does God have power?
Article 2: Are there waters above the heavens?
Question 3: The Extent of God’s Power
Article 1: Can God reduce something to nothing?
Article 2: If something were reduced to nothing, could God bring the numerically same thing back
into existence?
Question 4: The Son’s Divine Nature
Article 1: Does the Father utter himself and creation by the same word?
Article 2: Does his sonship distinguish the Son from the Holy Spirit?
Question 5: The Son’s Assumed Nature
Article 1: Was the body of Christ nailed to the cross numerically the same as the one lying in the
tomb?
Question 6: Grace
Article 1: Is God always making new grace?
Question 7: The Sacraments of Grace
Article 1: Is guilt forgiven by the absolution of a priest?
Article 2: Can a man go on crusade if his wife cannot go with him and he is afraid that she will not
remain continent?
Question 8: Human Acts Related to Superiors and Prelates
Article 1: Is a religious bound to obey a superior who commands him to reveal a brother’s secret
fault to him out of obedience?
Article 2: Can the pope grant a dispensation for bigamy?
Article 3: Are we bound to avoid excommunicated people if opinions on their excommunication
differ even among experts, some of whom say that they are excommunicated and others
that they are not?
Article 4: Is a prelate of the Church allowed to give a benefice to his own suitable relative if a
more suitable man occurs to him just as easily?
Question 9: Human Acts Related to the Intellect
Article 1: Can a person desire to know magic without sinning?
Article 2: Is a proposition that is once true, always true?
Article 3: Should a master make more use of reason or of authority when settling theological
questions?
Question 10: The Act of Martyrdom
Article 1: Can one offer oneself up to be martyred without perfect charity?
Article 2: Is suffering martyrdom for Christ a commandment?
Question 11: Evil Acts
Article 1: Are impulses always sins?
Article 2: Are they mortal sins for nonbelievers?
Question 12: The Religious Life
 Article 1: Should children without experience keeping the commandments be received into the
religious life, or obligated to enter it by taking an oath or vow, or encouraged to enter it
by means of benefits?
Article 2: Are the counsels aimed at the commandments?
Quodlibet V
Question 1: God’s Knowledge
Article 1: Does God know the first instant the world could have been created?
Article 2: Can people foreknown by God merit punishment?
Question 2: God’s Power
Article 1: Can God restore a fallen virgin?
Article 2: Can God sin, if God wants to?
Question 3: God’s Assumed Nature
Article 1: Did all the blood that Christ shed during the passion return to his body at the
resurrection?
Article 2: Which is the greater sign of Christ’s love for us: suffering for us, or giving us his body
as food in the sacrament?
Question 4: Angels
Article 1: Is Lucifer the subject of the aevum?
Question 5: Human Nature
Article 1: If Adam had not sinned, would all the same people that are saved now still have been
saved?
Article 2: Is a mental word an intelligible species?
Article 3: Are things done out of fear voluntary?
Question 6: The Sacrament of the Eucharist
Article 1: Is the form of bread annihilated?
Article 2: Should a priest give an unconsecrated host to an unexposed sinner who asks him to do
so?
Question 7: The Sacrament of Penance
Article 1: Should a superior remove a subordinate from his position because of something he
heard from him in confession?
Article 2: Does a man who dies while going on crusade die in a better state than a man who dies
while coming back?
Question 8: The Sacrament of Marriage
Article 1: If a man promises to marry a woman using words in the future tense, and then knows
her in the flesh, not meaning to consent to the marriage, but only wanting to have sexual
intercourse with her, and then later contracts marriage with another woman using words
in the present tense, is the second woman his wife?
 Article 2: If a man accuses his wife of committing adultery in secret, is the woman bound to
confess her sin in court?
Question 9: Relating to the Virtues
Article 1: If a man is ambushed by thieves and promises them money for his release, which he
borrows from a friend, is he bound to repay it?
Article 2: Can one sin by fasting or keeping vigil too much?
Question 10: Relating to the Commandments
Article 1: Are the commandments prior to the counsels in the order of nature?
Article 2: Are sins against the commandments of the second tablet more serious than sins against
the commandments of the first tablet?
Question 11: Relating to Prelates
Article 1: Was blessed Matthew called immediately from tax collecting to the state of apostleship
and perfection?
Article 2: If a man is canonically elected to the episcopacy, is it better for him to accept his
election or to decline it?
Article 3: If a prelate gives an ecclesiastical benefice to one of his relatives in hopes of elevating
and enriching his family, does he commit simony?
Question 12: Relating to Teachers
Article 1: Would a teacher who always preached or taught out of vainglory receive a little golden
crown after repenting at death?
Article 2: If a teacher’s teaching draws people away from a greater good, is the teacher required to
recant that teaching?
Question 13: Relating to Religious
Article 1: Do religious have to patiently tolerate the insults directed at them?
Article 2: Is it permissible for a person to enter the religious life after swearing not to do so?
Question 14: Relating to Clerics
Article 1: Is it permissible for a cleric bound to say the canonical hours to say matins for the next
day late at night?
Quodlibet XII
Question 1: God’s Existence
Article 1: Does God only have the one essential existence or a personal existence as well?
Question 2: God’s Power
Article 1: Can God make contradictory things to be the case at the same time?
Article 2: Can God make something actually infinite?
Question 3: God’s Predestination
Article 1: Is predestination certain?
Article 2: Are all things subject to fate?
Question 4: Angels
Article 1: Is an angel’s existence an accident of it?
Article 2: Can a demon know our human thoughts?
Question 5: The Heavens
Article 1: Are the heavens or the world eternal?
Article 2: Do the heavens have souls?
Question 6: The Human Soul
Article 1: Does the soul complete the body alone or by means of corporeity?
Article 2: Is the soul transmitted?
Question 7: Human Knowledge
Article 1: Does the human intellect know singular things?
Question 8: Consequences of Human Knowledge
Article 1: Does all the knowledge we acquire and possess remain after this life?
Article 2: Do human words have the power to move brute animals—e.g., snakes?
Question 9: The Sacrament of Baptism
Article 1: Does water have the power to cleanse sin—i.e., does it cleanse sin by its own power, or
by virtue of some concomitant power?
Question 10: The Sacrament of Penance
Article 1: Can a priest without the responsibility to care for souls give absolution in confession?
Article 2: Is it ever permissible to reveal someone’s confession?
Article 3: Is it permissible to desire to be a bishop?
Question 11: An Effect of the Sacraments
Article 1: Do preparations for the sacraments (e.g., catechesis and the like) give rise to
compaternity?
Question 12: The Identity of the Church
Article 1: Is the Church that exists now the same one that existed in the beginning at the time of
the apostles?
Question 13: The Intellectual Virtue of Truth
Article 1: Is truth stronger than wine, kings, and women?
Article 2: If one learned of a remedy while under oath not to share it, is one bound to keep the
oath?
Question 14: The Moral Virtues
Article 1: Are the moral virtues connected?
Question 15: Restitution
Article 1: Can people expelled because of factions demand their goods back from those who
remain in their city?
 Article 2: Does a person who acquires property by prescription in bad faith have to make
restitution?
Article 3: Does a person who uses up someone else’s property have to make restitution?
Question 16: The Office of Commentators on Sacred Scripture
Article 1: Is everything the saintly doctors said inspired by the Holy Spirit?
Question 17: The Office of Preachers
Article 1: Can a man preach on his own authority—i.e., is he allowed to preach without a prelate’s
permission?
Article 2: Should a man stop preaching when a secular ruler forbids him to preach?
Article 3: Are preachers allowed to accept alms from usurers?
Question 18: The Office of Confessors
Article 1: Can a priest hear confessions on the pope’s authority without his own prelate’s
permission?
Question 19: The Office of Vicars
Article 1: Can a vicar entrust his vicarious power to someone else?
Question 20: Original Sin
Article 1: Is it transmitted by the transmission of seed?
Question 21: Actual Sins of Thought
Article 1: Is it a mortal sin to consent to pleasure?
Article 2: Is it a mortal sin to suspect others of wrongdoing?
Question 22: Actual Sins of Action
Article 1: Is it permissible to make use of lots, particularly by opening books at random?
Article 2: Is it a sin not to give away one’s superfluous things for God’s sake?
Article 3: Is it possible to be left with no permissible options?
Question 23: Punishments
Article 1: Should religious be expelled from the religious life for sinning if they are willing to
change and be punished?
Article 2: Can the soul separated from the body be naturally affected by bodily fire?
Abbreviations
Parallel Passages
Glossary of Terms
Authors and Works Cited
Index