Authors/Duns Scotus/Ordinatio/Ordinatio I/Prologus/P3Q1/A5

Translated by Peter Simpson.

Latin	English
Art. 5
169 Sed nunc videndum est de veritatibus theologicis contingentibus, quid sit ibi primum subiectum. Et quoad istas dico quod nullum subiectum continet nisi veritates necessarias de ipso, quia ƿ ad contingentes de ipso aequaliter se habet ex se et ad oppositas. Tamen contingentium est ordo, et aliqua contingens est primo vera; et ita subiectum primum multarum veritatum contingentium potest poni illud de quo primo, id est immediate, dicitur praedicatum primae contingentis (quae est quasi principium in ordine contingentium) vel praedicata plurium primarum contingentium si plures sint primae. Dicitur autem subiectum primum primae veritatis contingentis quod visum ut tale natum est primo videri coniungi cum praedicato illius, quia primum notum in contingentibus nihil est nisi per intuitionem extremorum; igitur primum intuibile cui insit praedicatum primae contingentis est primum subiectum omnium veritatum contingentium ordinatarum.	169. But now we must see in the case of contingent theological truths [n.150] what the prime subject is here. And as to these truths I say that no subject contains anything but necessary truths about itself, because, as to contingent truths about itself, it is of itself related to them and to their opposites equally. There is, however, an order in contingent truths, and some contingent truth is true first; and thus that can be posited as first subject of many contingent truths about which is stated first, that is immediately, the predicate of the first contingent truth (which truth is as it were the principle in the order of contingent truths), or the predicates of several first contingent truths, if several are first. But the first subject of the first contingent truth is said to be that which, when seen as such, is naturally seen first to be conjoined with the predicate of that truth, because the first thing known in contingent truths is only known through intuition of the extremes; therefore the first thing one can intuit in which the predicate of the first contingent truth inheres, that is the first subject of all the contingent truths in order.
170 Ex his ad propositum dico quod essentia divina est primum subiectum theologiae contingentis, et hoc eodem modo sumpta quo praedictum est ipsam esse primum subiectum theologiae necessariae, - et hoc tam illius theologiae contingentis in se quam ut in intellectu divino, quam etiam ut est in intellectu beatorum. Totius igitur theologiae in se, et Dei, et beatorum, primum subiectum est essentia ut haec, cuius visio a beatis est sicut in metaphysica coƿgnitio entis; et ideo beata visio non est theologica, sed est quasi perfecta incomplexa apprehensio subiecti, praecedens naturaliter scientiam.	170. On the basis of these statements I say to the issue in question that the divine essence is the first subject of contingent theology and that, when taken in the very same way as was said before, it is the first subject of necessary theology [n.167]; – and this holds as much of contingent theology in itself the way it is in the divine intellect as it also does of it the way it is in the intellect of the blessed. Of the whole of theology in itself, then, both of God and of the blessed, the first subject is his essence as this essence, the vision of which by the blessed is like what the cognition of being is in metaphysics; and for that reason blissful vision is not theology but a sort of perfect simple apprehension of the subject, which apprehension naturally precedes the science.
171 Theologiae nostrae contingentis videtur idem primum subiectum quod et necessariae, et hoc modo supra exposito, quia non ut continens - etiam si intuitive videtur - sed ut cognoscibile a nobis, proximum illi cui intuitive noto natum esset praedicatum contingentis primae evidentis inesse. Contra: videtur quod Verbum sit obiectum adaequatum theologiae contingentis, tam illius theologiae contingentis in se quam ut est in intellectu divino, quia est primum subiectum omnium articulorum reparationis nostrae. Respondeo: aliquod contingens potest primo dici de Verbo, et aliquod de Spiritu Sancto, et aliquod de Deo trino, ut 'creare'; erunt igitur personae quasi partes subiecti, sicut etiam aliqua necessaria sunt primo vera de diversis personis. ƿ	171. Of our contingent theology the first subject seems to be the same as it is also of necessary theology, and in the way expounded above [n.168], because it is not the subject as containing – even if it is seen in intuition – but as knowable by us, proximate to that in which, when known in intuition, the predicate of the first evident contingent truth naturally inheres [n.169]. On the contrary: it seems that the Word is the adequate object of contingent theology, both of that theology as it is in itself and of it as it is in the divine intellect, because it is the first subject of all the articles about our reparation. I reply: some other contingent thing can be first said of the Word, and some other contingent thing of the Holy Spirit, and some other contingent thing of the triune God, namely ‘to create’; therefore the persons will be as it were parts of the subject, just as some necessary things are also first true of the diverse persons.