Monologium, on the Being of God48 Chapter XLVIII. How the Son is the intelligence or wisdom of memory or the memory of the Father and of memory.
Chapter XLVIII. How the Son is the intelligence or wisdom of memory or the memory of the Father and of memory.
But what is to be our notion of memory? Is the Son to be regarded as the intelligence conceiving of memory, or as the memory of the Father, or as the memory of memory? Indeed, since it cannot be denied that the supreme Wisdom remembers itself, nothing can be more consistent than to regard the Father as memory, just as the Son is the Word; because the Word is apparently born of memory, a fact that is more clearly seen in the case of the human mind.
For, since the human mind is not always thinking of itself, though it ever remembers itself, it is clear that, when it thinks of itself, the word corresponding to it is born of memory. Hence, it appears that, if it always thought of itself, its word would be always born of memory. For, to think of an object of which we have remembrance, this is to express it mentally; while the word corresponding to the object is the thought itself, formed after the likeness of that object from memory.
Hence, it may be clearly apprehended in the supreme Wisdom, which always thinks of itself, just as it remembers itself, that, of the eternal remembrance of it, its coeternal Word is born. Therefore, as the Word is properly conceived of as the child, the memory most appropriately takes the name of parent. If, then, the child which is born of the supreme Spirit alone is the child of his memory, there can be no more logical conclusion than that his memory is himself. For not in respect of the fact that he remembers himself does he exist in his own memory, like ideas that exist in the human memory, without being the memory itself; but he so remembers himself that he is his own memory.
It therefore follows that, just as the Son is the intelligence or wisdom of the Father, so he is that of the memory of the Father. But, regarding whatever the Son has wisdom or understanding, this he likewise remembers. The Son is, therefore, the memory of the Father, and the memory of memory, that is, the memory that remembers the Father, who is memory, just as he is the wisdom of the Father, and the wisdom of wisdom, that is, the wisdom wise regarding the wisdom of the Father; and the Son is indeed memory, born of memory, as he is wisdom, born of wisdom, while the Father is memory and wisdom born of none.
De memoria vero quid sentiendum est? an aestimandus est Filius intelligentia memoriae, sive memoria Patris, aut memoria memoriae? Equidem cum summa sapientia sui memor esse negari non possit, nihil competentius quam in memoria Pater, sicut in Verbo Filius intelligitur; quoniam de memoria nasci Verbum videtur, quod clarius in nostra mente percipitur. Quoniam namque mens humana non semper se cogitat, sicut sui semper meminit, liquet, cum se cogitat, quia verbum ejus nascitur de memoria. Unde apparet quia si semper se cogitaret, semper verbum ejus de memoria nasceretur. Rem etenim cogitare, cujus memoriam habemus, hoc est mente eam dicere; verbum vero rei, est ipsa cogitatio ad ejus similitudinem ex memoria formata. Hinc itaque liquido animadverti potest de summa sapientia, quae sic semper se dicit, sicut semper sui memor est, quia de aeterna memoria ejus coaeternum Verbum nascitur. Sicut igitur Verbum congrue intelligitur proles; ita memoria, parentis nomen aptissime suscipit. Si ergo proles, quae omnino de solo summo Spiritu nata est, proles est memoriae ejus; nihil consequentius, quam quia memoria sua est idem ipse. Quippe non in eo quod sui memor est, sic est in sua memoria, velut alia res in alia; quemadmodum ea quae sic sunt in humanae mentis memoria, ut non sint ipsa nostra memoria; sed sic est memor sui, ut ipse memoria sua sit. Consequitur itaque ut quomodo Filius est intelligentia sive sapientia Patris, ita sit et paternae memoriae. At quidquid Filius sapit, aut intelligit; ejus similiter et meminit. Est igitur Filius memoria Patris, et memoria memoriae, id est, memoria memor Patris, qui est memoria, sicut est sapientia Patris, et sapientia sapientiae, id est, sapientia sapiens Patrem sapientiam: et Filius quidem memoria nata de memoria, sicut sapientia nata de sapientia; Pater vero de nullo nata memoria vel sapientia.