Table Of ContentOn Spiritual Creatures : (De Spiritualibus
title: Creaturis) Medieval Philosophical Texts in
Translation ; No. 5
Thomas.; FitzPatrick, Mary C.; Wellmuth,
author:
John James.
publisher: Marquette University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0874622050
print isbn13: 9780874622058
ebook isbn13: 9780585197883
language: English
subject Soul.
publication date: 1949
lcc: B765.T53.D6 1949eb
ddc: 235
subject: Soul.
Page i
St. Thomas Aquinas on Spiritual Creatures
(De Spiritualibus Creaturis)
Page ii
MEDIAEVAL PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS IN TRANSLATION NO.
5
EDITORIAL BOARD
James H. Robb, L.S.M., Ph.D., Chairman
The Rev. Gerard Smith, S.J., Ph.D.
The Rev. Michael V. Murray, S.J., Ph.D.
The Rev. Richard E. Arnold, S.J., Ph.D.
Paul M. Byrne, L.S.M., Ph.D.
The Rev. John Sheets, S.J., S.T.D.
Page iii
St. Thomas Aquinas on Spiritual Creatures
(De Spiritualibus Creaturis)
Translated from the Latin
with an introduction
by
Mary C. FitzPatrick, Ph.D.
in collaboration with
John J. Wellmuth, Ph.D.
M U P
ARQUETTE NIVERSITY RESS
M , W
ILWAUKEE ISCONSIN
Page iv
Nihil Obstat
Gerard Smith, S.J., censor deputatus
Milwaukiae, die 25 mensis Martii, 1949
Imprimi Potest
Leo D. Sullivan, S.J., Praep. Provinc. Prov.
Chicagiensis, die 28 mensis Martii, 1949
Imprimatur
+Moyses E. Kiley
Archiepiscopus Milwaukiensis
Milwaukiae, die 5 mensis Aprilis, 1949
ISBN-087462-205-0
© Copyright, 1949, The Marquette University Press
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Printed in the United States of America
Page v
Contents
Prefatory Remarks 1
Translator's Introduction
I. The Mediaeval Disputation 3
II. The Structural Form of a Disputed Question 5
III. Date and Place of composition of De Spiritualibus 5
Creaturis
IV. The value of the Disputed Questions 10
V. Bibliography 12
Article I 15
Whether a spiritual substance is composed of matter and
form.
Article II 30
Can a spiritual substance be united to a body?
Article III 41
Is the spiritual substance, which is the human soul, united
to the body through a medium?
Article IV 56
Is the whole soul in every part of the body?
Article V 65
Is there any created spiritual substance that is not united to
a body?
Article VI 73
Is a spiritual substance united to a heavenly body?
Article VII 83
Is a spiritual substance united to an ethereal body?
Article VIII 86
Do all angels differ in species from one another?
Article IX 98
Is the possible intellect one in all men?
Article X 111
Is the agent intellect one intellect belonging to all men?
Article XI 125
Are the powers of the soul the same as the essence of the
soul?
Page 1
Prefatory Remarks
This translation was originally undertaken at the request of Mother
Margaret Reilly, R.S.C.J., president of Barat College of the Sacred
Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois. Its completion is due in great part to her
kind encouragement but most of all to the unfailing and unstinted
work of my collaborator, Father John J. Wellmuth, S.J., formerly
chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Loyola University in
Chicago and now filling a like post at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
To him I am greatly indebted for numerous elucidations of the thought
of St. Thomas, much helpful criticism, and innumerable suggestions
for more felicitous turns of phrase. During the time of our work
together the entire manuscript was revised and every effort was made
to keep the style of the translation as close to that of the original as the
exigencies of the English language permit.
The translation has been made from the critical text of Father Leo
Keeler.1 That editor's notes have also been incorporated. The
arrangement of these has been faithfully preserved, including the
references at the beginning of the notes on each Article to other works
of St. Thomas as well as to those of other Christian writers and
ancient or mediaeval philosophers where the same problems as are
handled in the Articles are also discussed. All other references, after
being carefully checked and corrected occasionally where
typographical errors had occurred in the Keeler text, have been left
within brackets in the body of the translation. English words within
parentheses owe their presence to the parentheses used in Father
Keeler's text. Wherever Latin words occur in the body of the
translation, they have been taken from the Latin text to clarify the
translation where that seemed advisable.
1 Sancti Thomae Aquinatis Tractatus De Spiritualibus Creaturis (Rome,
1937).
Page 3
St. Thomas Aquinas
On Spiritual Creatures
Translator's Introduction
I. The Mediaeval Disputation
Since De Spiritualibus Creaturis belongs to that form to which the
Scholastic philosophers applied the name disputation, it would seem
well to examine in some detail the origin, the nature and the use of the
disputation as a teaching device in the mediaeval universities.
During the Middle Ages methods of teaching were largely
conditioned by a paucity of texts, for printing was as yet unknown and
the only available books were in the form of manuscripts that had
been laboriously copied by hand. These could only be obtained with
the greatest difficulty either through purchase or rental. Consequently
the master was forced to read (legere)2 those texts he wanted his
students to know. During the course of such reading not all the
thoughts or the implications of the passage were clearly understood.
In order that he might insure his pupil's having a firm grasp of the
thought, the master frequently made explanations of difficult passages
either by a paraphrase or by still further exposition of the thought. At
times the passage that was being read might raise a problem in a
student's mind. In that case the student was led to ask questions or,
failing that, the master himself might raise the issue that he wanted
discussed, guide the pupil toward the desired solution or, if a pupil
utterly failed to grasp the point, himself give the explanation or proof.
As students advanced in knowledge and attainments, a capable master
would often pose questions on dogmatic or moral theology, canon
law, or liturgy. These could take the simplest form, that of question
and answer, or the form of question that was known as a disputation
