Hugh Fraser Stewart

End of Treatise 2 treatise three of the

theological tractates by boethius translated by h f stewart and e k rand this librivox recording is in the public domain how substances can be good in virtue of their existence without being absolute goods from the same to the same how substances can be good in virtue of their existence without being absolute goods you ask me to state and explain somewhat more clearly that obscure question in my heptamats concerning the manner in which substances can be good in virtue of existence without being absolute goods you urge that this demonstration is necessary because the method of this kind of treatise is not clear to all i can bear witness with what eagerness you have already attacked the subject but i confess i like to expound my heptamads to myself and would rather bury my speculations in my own memory than share them with any of those poet and frivolous persons who will not tolerate an argument unless it is made amusing wherefore do not you take objection to the obscurity that waits on brevity for obscurity is the sure treasure-house of secret doctrine and has the further advantage that it speaks a language understood only of those who deserve to understand i have therefore followed the example of the mathematical and cognate sciences and laid down bounds and rules according to which i shall develop all that follows first a common conception is a statement generally accepted as soon as it is made of these there are two kinds one is universally intelligible as for instance if equals be taken from equals the remainders are equal nobody who grasps that proposition will deny it the other kind is intelligible only to the learned but it is derived from the same class of common conceptions as incorporeals cannot occupy space and the like this is obvious to the learned but not to the common herd second being and a concrete thing are different simple being awaits manifestation but a thing is and exists as soon as it has received the form which gives it being third a concrete thing can participate in something else but absolute being can in no wise participate in anything else for participation is effected when a thing already is but it is something after it has acquired being Fourth, that which exists can possess something beside itself, but absolute being has no admixture of what beside itself.

Fifth, merely to be something and to be something absolutely are different.

The former implies accidents, the latter connotes a substance.

The Theological Tractates by Boethius.

Translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand.

the trinity is one god not three gods a treatise by annisius manlius severinus boethius most honourable of the illustrious order of ex consuls patrician to his father-in-law quintus aurelius memmius simarchus most honourable of the illustrious order of ex consuls patrician i have long pondered this problem with such mind as i have and all the light that god has lent me now having set it forth in logical order and cast it into literary form i venture to submit it to your judgment for which i care as much as for the results of my own research you will readily understand what i feel whenever i try to write down what i think if you consider the difficulty of the topic and the fact that i discuss it only with the few i may say with no one but yourself it is indeed no desire for fame or empty popular applause that prompts my pen if there be any external reward we may not look for more warmth in the verdict than the subject itself arouses for apart from yourself wherever i turn my eyes they fall on either the apathy of the dullard or the jealousy of the shrewd and a man who casts his thought before the common herd i will not say to consider but to tremble under foot would seem to bring discredit on the study of divinity so purposely i use brevity and wrap up the ideas i draw from the deep questionings of philosophy in new and unaccustomed words which speak only to you and to myself that is if you deign to look at them the rest of the world i simply disregard they cannot understand and therefore do not deserve to read we should not of course press our inquiry further than man's wit and reason are allowed to climb the height of heavenly knowledge in all the liberal arts we see the same limits set beyond which reason may not reach medicine for instance does not always bring health to the sick though the doctor will not be to blame if he has left nothing undone which he ought to do so with the other arts in the present case the very difficulty of the quest claims a lenient judgment You must, however, examine whether the seeds sown in my mind by St. Augustine's writings have borne fruit, and now let us begin our inquiry.

1.

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The Theological Tractates by Boethius Translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand the trinity is one god not three gods a treatise by annisius manlius severinus boethius most honourable of the illustrious order of ex consuls patrician to his father-in-law quintus aurelius memmius simarchus most honourable of the illustrious order of ex consuls patrician i have long pondered this problem with such mind as i have and all the light that god has lent me now having set it forth in logical order and cast it into literary form i venture to submit it to your judgment for which i care as much as for the results of my own research you will readily understand what i feel whenever i try to write down what i think if you consider the difficulty of the topic and the fact that i discuss it only with the few i may say with no one but yourself it is indeed no desire for fame or empty popular applause that prompts my pen if there be any external reward we may not look for more warmth in the verdict than the subject itself arouses for apart from yourself wherever i turn my eyes they fall on either the apathy of the dullard or the jealousy of the shrewd and a man who casts his thought before the common herd i will not say to consider but to tremble under foot would seem to bring discredit on the study of divinity so purposely i use brevity and wrap up the ideas i draw from the deep questionings of philosophy in new and unaccustomed words which speak only to you and to myself that is if you deign to look at them the rest of the world i simply disregard they cannot understand and therefore do not deserve to read We should not, of course, press our inquiry further than man's wit and reason are allowed to climb the height of heavenly knowledge.

In all the liberal arts we see the same limits set, beyond which reason may not reach.

Medicine, for instance, does not always bring health to the sick, though the doctor will not be to blame if he has left nothing undone which he ought to do.

End

of Treatise 2 Treatise

3 of the Theological Tractates by Boethius, translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand.

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The Theological Tractates by Boethius Translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand the trinity is one god not three gods a treatise by annisius manlius severinus boethius most honourable of the illustrious order of ex consuls patrician to his father-in-law quintus aurelius memmius simarchus most honourable of the illustrious order of ex consuls patrician i have long pondered this problem with such mind as i have and all the light that god has lent me now having set it forth in logical order and cast it into literary form i venture to submit it to your judgment for which i care as much as for the results of my own research you will readily understand what i feel whenever i try to write down what i think if you consider the difficulty of the topic and the fact that i discuss it only with the few i may say with no one but yourself it is indeed no desire for fame or empty popular applause that prompts my pen if there be any external reward we may not look for more warmth in the verdict than the subject itself arouses for apart from yourself wherever i turn my eyes they fall on either the apathy of the dullard or the jealousy of the shrewd and a man who casts his thought before the common herd i will not say to consider but to tremble under foot would seem to bring discredit on the study of divinity so purposely i use brevity and wrap up the ideas i draw from the deep questionings of philosophy in new and unaccustomed words which speak only to you and to myself that is if you deign to look at them the rest of the world i simply disregard they cannot understand and therefore do not deserve to read We should not, of course, press our inquiry further than man's wit and reason are allowed to climb the height of heavenly knowledge.

In all the liberal arts we see the same limits set, beyond which reason may not reach.

Medicine, for instance, does not always bring health to the sick, though the doctor will not be to blame if he has left nothing undone which he ought to do.

If I am right and speak in accordance with the faith, I pray you confirm me, but if you are in any point of another opinion, examine carefully what I have said, and if possible reconcile faith and reason.

End of Treatise 2 Treatise 3

of the Theological Tractates by Boethius, translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand.

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The Theological Tractates by Boethius, translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand.

The Trinity is One God, Not Three Gods.

A treatise by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Most Honourable of the Illustrious Order of Ex-Consuls, Patrician, to his father-in-law, Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, Most Honourable of the Illustrious Order of Ex-Consuls, Patrician.

Finally, good is a general, but just is a species, and this species does not apply to all.

Wherefore some things are just, others are something else; but all things are good.

End of Treatise 3 Treatise Four of the Theological Tractates By Boethius Translated by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

On the Catholic Faith The Christian faith is proclaimed by the authority of the New Testament and of the Old, but although the Old Scripture contains within its pages the name of Christ and constantly gives token that He will come who we believe has already come by the birth of the Virgin, yet the diffusion of that faith throughout the world dates from the actual miraculous coming of our Saviour.