Monologium, on the Being of God37 Chapter XXXVII. Whatever his relation to his creatures, this relation his Word also sustains: yet both do not simultaneously sustain this relation as more than one being.

St Anselm († 1109) · Monologion · 1075-1076

Chapter XXXVII. Whatever his relation to his creatures, this relation his Word also sustains: yet both do not simultaneously sustain this relation as more than one being.

But since it has already been clearly demonstrated that the supreme Spirit created all things through his Word, did not the Word itself also create all things? For, since it is consubstantial with him, it must be the supreme essence of that of which it is the Word. But there is no supreme Essence, except one, which is the only creator and the only beginning of all things which have been created. For this Essence, through no other than itself, alone created all things from nothing. Hence, whatever the supreme Spirit creates, the same his Word also creates, and in the same way.

Whatever relation, then, the supreme Spirit bears to what he creates, this relation his Word also bears, and in the same way. And yet, both do not bear it simultaneously, as more than one, since there are not more supreme creative essences than one. Therefore, just as he is the creator and the beginning of the world, so is his Word also; and yet there are not two, but one creator and one beginning.

Verum cum manifeste rationes superiores doceant summum Spiritum per Verbum suum fecisse omnia, nunquid non et ipsum Verbum fecit eadem omnia? Quoniam enim illi est consubstantiale, cujus est Verbum, necesse est ut sit summa essentia. Summa autem essentia non est nisi una, quae sola creatrix et solum principium est omnium quae facta sunt. Ipsa namque sola fecit, non per aliud quam per se, omnia ex nihilo. Quare quaecunque summus Spiritus facit, eadem et Verbum ejus facit, et similiter. Quidquid igitur summus spiritus est ad creaturam; hoc et Verbum ejus est et similiter. Nec tamen ambo simul pluraliter, quia non sunt plures creatrices summae essentiae. Sicut igitur ille creator est rerum et principium; sic et Verbum ejus: nec tamen sunt duo, sed unus creator, et unum principium.

Sidney Norton Deane (1878–1943), Chicago: Open Court, 1903. Digital text: English Wikisource transcription of the 1903 edition (each chapter checked against the OCR of the Internet Archive scan stanselmeproslog00anseuoft). Original text: Corpus Corporum (University of Zurich) TEI of the Patrologia Latina, via the CatholicCorpus mirror. Public domain in the US and Canada: published 1903; translator died 1943. Latin: Migne, PL 158 (1853), public domain.

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