De natura, specie, usu quae omnibus creaturis communiter collata sunt.
The Common Gifts of Creation
God, who is supremely and unchangingly being, beauty, and goodness, has bestowed upon all creatures the common gifts of nature, beauty, and purpose, so that all things exist, are lovely, and are well ordered to the splendor of the universe.
Our God, after all, possesses supreme and unchanging being; his being is forever the same, as David declares: "You are forever the same" (Ps. To all his creatures alike he has distributed these three things — nature, beauty, and purpose.1 Nature, by which they are good; beauty, by which they are lovely; purpose, by which they are well ordered to serve some good end.2 The one who made them exist also made them to be good, to be beautiful, to be well ordered. Because all things come from him who supremely and unchangeably is, they exist at all; because he from whom they come is supremely and unchangeably beautiful, all things are beautiful; from him who is supremely and unchangeably good, all things are good; from him who is supremely and unchangeably wise, all things are well ordered.3 They are, then, good by their nature, beautiful by their form, and well ordered to the splendor of the whole universe.4 "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Gen.✦ 1).
The Fitting Order of All Things
Each creature occupies its proper place, time, and manner within the cosmic order—angels in heaven, irrational creatures on earth, humanity in paradise—and each receives the fitting measure of existence suited to its nature, whether blessedness, misery, or service.
Therefore, insofar as they exist, they are good; insofar as each part fits the whole to which it belongs, they are beautiful; and insofar as each thing, within the universe itself, takes on the place, time, and manner that suits it, they are ordered in the best way. Each thing has the place that suits it: for example, the angel has heaven, irrational creatures have the earth, and the human being, as a middle being, has the middle ground of paradise.5 Likewise with time: when or how long things exist, or rather, in the beauty of the universe itself, one kind begins as a whole all at once and yet never ceases, as the angelic nature; another, so that all things by no means begin at once, yet once begun they by no not even cease themselves, as human beings; and another, so that they neither begin all at once, and at some point cease to be, as irrational creatures.6 Furthermore, so that we may not seem to have passed over in silence the question of the manner in which each creature subsists and what fitting measure all things obtain — what is more fitting for a rational creature than happiness, if it is just?7 And what is more suited to it than misery, if it is unjust? Finally, what manner of existence is more fitting for an irrational and insensible creature than this: since it itself can be neither blessed nor wretched, it may serve the salvation of those beings and heap up the unhappiness of these?8 Most truly, as a certain wise person says: 'Water, fire, and iron; milk, and bread, and honey; a cluster of grapes, oil, and a garment — all these things will be turned into good for the holy, and so into evil for the impious and sinners' (Eccli. 39).9 39).
Human Dignity Lost and Divine Wisdom Vindicated
Though humanity was placed in honor, it failed to understand its dignity and sank to the level of brute beasts; yet the Creator's wisdom is not shaken, for He wisely orders even evils, bringing forth greater manifestations of His power, wisdom, and mercy.
And let no one complain that man already shares a common lot with the beasts, since he was placed in honor and did not understand it; and so he has been compared to brute animals and made like them — and not in rank alone. For who could easily say how great the likeness to irrational beasts of burden has grown up in the rational mind — even if the divine image has not been destroyed, the divine likeness has? But we will treat this another time. Now the wisdom of the Creator must be both observed and proclaimed at the same time: although he is not the Creator or instigator of evils, he is nevertheless the most wise orderer of those very evils. Why, then, would my Lord — who is at once most gentle and most almighty — not permit an evil that could not in the least shake his eternal purpose? Through this very purpose his omnipotence would appear all the more manifest, his wisdom more wonderful, his mercy more sweet — since from evils he would bring about good things with all his power, would wisely order what is disordered, and would mercifully grant blessedness to the wretched.
Read the original Latin
Deus enim noster, cui est summum et incommutabile esse; cui est semper idem esse, dicente David: Tu semper idem ipse es (Psal. ci): omnibus creaturis suis communiter haec tria distribuit, naturam, speciem, usum. Naturam, qua bona sunt; speciem, qua pulchra sunt; usum, ut bene ordinata alicui rei proficiant. Qui enim fecit ut essent, fecit etiam ut bona essent, ut pulchra, ut bene ordinata. Quoniam enim ab ipso sunt, qui summe et incommutabiliter est, ideo sunt omnia; quoniam ipse a quo sunt, summe et incommutabiliter pulcher est, pulchra sunt omnia; ab ipso qui summe et incommutabiliter bonus est, bona sunt omnia; ab ipso qui summe et incommutabiliter sapiens est, bene ordinata sunt omnia. Sunt ergo bona per naturam; pulchra per speciem; bene ordinata ad ipsius universitatis decorem. Vidit, inquit, Deus cuncta quae fecerat; et erant valde bona (Gen. 1).
In quantum itaque sunt, bona sunt; in quantum unaquaeque pars toti suo congruit, pulchra sunt: in quantum in ipsa universitate unaquaeque res convenientem sibi et locum, et tempus, et modum obtinet, optime ordinata sunt. Locum quippe, qui sibi congruat, quaeque res habet, in qua sit, verbi gratia, angelus coelum, irrationabilia solum; homo medius medium paradisum. Tempus itidem, quando, vel quandiu sint, vel videlicet in ipsius universitatis pulchritudine aliud quidem simul totum incipiat, sed nunquam desinat, ut natura angelica; alia, ut simul omnia nequaquam incipiant, coepta tamen nequaquam vel ipsa desinant, ut homines; alia, ut nec simul incipiant, et esse quandoque desinant, ut irrationabilia. Porro, ne de modo quemadmodum quaeque creatura subsistat, quam congruentem sibi modum sortiantur omnia, tacuisse videamur, quid rationali creaturae magis congruum, quam beatitudo, si justa est? quid ei magis convenit quam miseria, si iniqua? Denique irrationali, itemque insensibili creaturae quis modus aptior, quam quod, cum ipsa nec beata, nec misera esse possit, illorum saluti subserviat; horum infelicitatem accumulet? Verissime quidem a quodam sapiente dicitur: Aqua, ignis et ferrum; lac, et panis, et mel; botrus uvae, oleum, et vestimentum; haec omnia sanctis in bona; sic impiis et peccatoribus in mala convertentur (Eccli. xxxix).
Nec causetur homo, quod jam communem locum sortiatur cum belluis, qui in honore positus non intellexit: et ideo comparatus est jumentis, et similis factus est illis, nec loco solum. Quis enim facile dixerit, abolita in mente rationali, etsi non imagine, divina tamen similitudine, quanta irrationabilium jumentorum similitudo succreverit? Sed hinc alias. Nunc animadvertenda simul et praedicanda Creatoris sapientia: qui cum non sit malorum Creator aut incentor, est tamen ipsorum malorum prudentissimus ordinator. Cur ergo non sineret dulcissimus simul et omnipotentissimus Dominus meus malum esse, quod nequiret vel modice aeternum suum labefactare propositum; quo insuper manifestior appareret ipsa ejus omnipotentia, sapientia mirabilior, suavior misericordia, cum de malis bona faceret omnipotenter; inordinata ordinaret sapienter, miseris conferret beatitudinem misericorditer?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Notes
- 1 ↩Species rendered as 'beauty' rather than 'form' or 'appearance' to capture the aesthetic sense in context (creatures are 'pulchra' through their species). Usus rendered as 'purpose' to convey the teleological sense of use/function within the created order.
- 2 ↩Pulchra rendered as 'lovely' for natural contemporary resonance; 'beauty' was already used for species in s2, so 'lovely' avoids repetition while preserving the aesthetic sense. Proficiant rendered as 'to serve' to capture the sense of contributing to or advancing some good.
- 3 ↩The fourfold causal structure (being, beauty, goodness, wisdom) reflects the Neoplatonic participation scheme common in medieval theology. Each 'quoniam' clause grounds a transcendental property of creatures in the corresponding divine attribute.
- 4 ↩Species rendered here as 'form' (contrast with 'beauty' in s2) to avoid repeating 'beauty' in close proximity and to capture the structural/aesthetic sense. Universitas rendered as 'the whole universe' for natural English. Decorem rendered as 'splendor' to convey the aesthetic weight.
- 5 ↩'medius medium paradisum' — the human being occupies a middle rank in the order of creation, and 'paradisum' here likely refers to the earthly or lower paradise, reflecting the traditional hierarchical cosmology.
- 6 ↩The three categories of duration correspond to the three ranks of being: angelic nature (eternal, without beginning or end), human nature (begins but does not cease — likely referring to the soul's immortality), and irrational creatures (both begin and cease). The Latin syntax is compressed; the rendering unpacks the three parallel 'alia' clauses.
- 7 ↩'modo quemadmodum quaeque creatura subsistat' — the phrase concerns the mode or manner of each creature's subsistence, i.e., how it holds its being. The indirect question structure is rendered as a natural English rhetorical question.
- 8 ↩'illorum' and 'horum' are ambiguous without further context; likely 'illorum' refers to rational beings (whose salvation is served) and 'horum' refers to the wicked or unhappy. The rendering follows the most natural reading in context.
- 9 ↩The quotation is attributed to Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 39. The exact wording does not correspond precisely to standard Vulgate text of Sirach 39; the candidate allusion is preserved pending Moses resolution.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
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