Theological Tractates-Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

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 trample 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 one there are many who claim as theirs the dignity of the christian religion but that form of faith is valid and only valid which both on account of the universal character of the rules and doctrines affirming its authority and because the worship in which they are expressed as spread throughout the world is called catholic or universal The belief of this religion concerning the unity of the Trinity is as follows.

The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, not three gods.

The principle of this union is absence of difference.

Difference cannot be avoided by those who add to or take from the unity, as for instance the Arians, who by graduating the Trinity according to merit, break it up and convert it into plurality.

for the essence of plurality is otherness.

Apart from otherness, plurality is unintelligible.

In fact, the difference between three or more things lies in genus or species or number.

Difference is the necessary correlative of sameness.

Sameness is predicated in three ways.

By genus, for example, a man and a horse, because of their common genus, animal.

By species, for example, Cato and Cicero, because of their common species, man.

by number for example tully and cicero because they are numerically one similarly difference is expressed by genus species and number now numerical difference is caused by variety of accidents three men differ neither by genus nor species but by their accidents for if we mentally remove from them all other accidents still each one occupies a different place which cannot possibly be regarded as the same for each since two bodies cannot occupy the same place and place is an accident wherefore it is because men are plural by their accidents that they are plural in number two we will now begin a careful consideration of each several point as far as they can be grasped and understood for it has been wisely said in my opinion that it is a scholar's duty to formulate his belief about anything according to its real nature Speculative science may be divided into three kinds, physics, mathematics, and theology.

Physics deals with motion, and is not abstract or separable, for it is connected with the forms of bodies, together with their constituent matter, which forms cannot be separated in reality from their bodies.

As the bodies are in motion, the earth, for instance, tending downwards, and fire tending upwards, form takes on the movement of the particular thing to which it is annexed.

mathematics does not deal with motion and is not abstract for it investigates forms of bodies apart from matter and therefore apart from movement which forms however being connected with matter cannot be really separated from bodies theology does not deal with motion and is abstract and separable for the divine substance is without either matter or motion in physics then we are bound to use scientific in mathematics systematical in theology intellectual concepts and in theology we will not let ourselves be devoted to play with imaginations but will simply apprehend that form which is pure form and no image which is very being and the source of being for everything owes its being to form.

Thus a statue is not a statue on account of the brass which is its matter, but on account of the form whereby the likeness of a living thing is impressed upon it.

The brass itself is not brass because of the earth which is its matter, but because of its form.

Likewise, earth is not earth by reason of unqualified matter, but by reason of dryness and weight which are forms.

So nothing is said to be because it has matter, but because it has a distinctive form.

but the divine substance is form without matter and is therefore one and is its own essence but other things are not simply their own essences for each thing has its being from the things of which it is composed that is from its parts it is this and that i e it is the totality of its parts in conjunction it is not this or that taken apart earthly man for instance since he consists of soul and body is soul and body not soul or body separately therefore he is not his own essence That, on the other hand, which does not consist of this and that, but is only this, is really its own essence, and is altogether beautiful and stable, because it is not grounded in anything.