John Duns Scotus - Four Questions On Mary

Question Four: The Maternity of the Mother of God

QuesTion Four The MaTerniTy oF The MoTher oF god John Duns Scotus: Four Questions on Mary 94 de MaTerniTaTe b. Virginis Mariae1 Circa distinctionem quartam quaero, utrum beata Virgo fuerit vere mater Dei et hominis. [Argumenta Pro et Contra] Quod non: 1. Quia opposita contraria non possunt inesse simul eidem etiam per potentiam divinam, quia tunc Deus possset facere contradictoria simul. Consequenti probatur per Philosophum, IV Metaphysicae V,2 ubi probat quod si contraria essent in eodem, quod etiam contradictoria essent simul de eodem vera; sed virginitas et maternitas sunt opposita contraria, ergo, etc. 2. Praeterea, Damascenus, cap. 58:3 “Genetricem Christi nequaquam dicimus beatam Virginem.” 3. Praeterea, mater se habet active in generatione prolis, quia si tantum passive, Adam esset mater Evae, et limus esset mater Adae; sed beata Virgo non se habuit active in generatione ista, quia haec generatio fuit in instanti; virtus creata non operatur in instanti ad illud quod natum est fieri in tempore. 4. Praeterea, activum et passivum sunt correlativa mutua, ex V Metaphysicae.4 Mater se habet ad patrem sicut passivum ad activum , secundum Philosophum XV De animalibus;5 igitur mutuo correlativa sunt pater et mater; sed nullus est pater Christi hominis : ergo nulla mater. 5. Praeterea, omni generatione generatur aliquod suppositum , VII Metaphysica.6 Non sic ista, quia hic non fuit suppositum nisi increatum; illud non generabatur, quia non fuit in tempore actu generationis. Quod si dicas quod generabatur in natura creata 1 Ordinatio III, dist. 4, q. unica (from the text edited by C. Balić, O.F.M. in Ioannis Duns Scoti, Doctoris Mariani Theologiae Marianae Elementa (Sibenici, 1933), 80-112). 2 Aristotle, Metaphysica III, c. 3-4, 1005b 19-21; 1006a-5. 3 Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, c. 56, n. 5 (Buytaert edition, 210: “Christi genitricem non dicimus Virginem ...” 4 Arist., Metaphysica III, ch. 15, 1020b 29-31. 5 Arist., De animalium generatione I, c. 21, 729b 12–14. 6 Arist., Metaphysica VI, ch. 7, 1032a 13-14. Question Four 95 The MaTerniTy oF The MoTher oF god Regarding this fourth distinction I ask: Was the Blessed Virgin truly the mother of God and of man? [Arguments Pro and Con] [For the negative]: 1. She was not, because contraries cannot exist simultaneously in the same thing, even by divine power, for then God could produce contradictions at the same time. The implication is proved through the Philosopher in IV Metaphysics, where he proves that if contraries were in the same thing, contradictions would also be true at the same time; but virginity and maternity are contrary opposites; therefore, etc. 2. Furthermore, Damascene, ch. 58: “We never call the Blessed Virgin ‘Mother of Christ.’” 3. Furthermore, a mother plays an active role in the generation of offspring, for if she were only passive,Adam would be the mother of Eve, and clay would be the mother of Adam; but the Blessed Virgin did not play an active role in this generation, because this took place in an instant; a created power does not act in an instant with respect to what by nature requires some time to come into being.1 4. Furthermore, active and passive are mutual correlatives, according to V Metaphysics. But according to the Philosopher in XV The Generation of Animals, the mother is related to the father as the passive to the active; therefore , father and mother are correlatives with respect to one another; but there is no father of Christ the man; hence neither is there any mother. 5. Furthermore, some supposit2 [or person] is begotten in every generation, according to VII Metaphysics. But this does not occur here, because there is only an uncreated person; and that person was not generated, because it was not in time by an act of generation . And if you say, that it is a created nature that is generated, 1 See note 16 infra. 2 ‘Supposit’ = an individual autonomous subject or substance; if that subject has a rational nature, the supposit is technically a person. The word itself is a Latin transliteration of the Greek term “hypostasis,” meaning “person.” John Duns Scotus: Four Questions on Mary 96 —contra, primus terminus generationis est per se ens; Verbum homo non est per se ens, quia nec per se unum: ergo, etc. Quod si dicas quod est ibi unitas unionis—contra, relatio non est formalis ratio terminandi generationem; ista unio est relatio: ergo, etc. 6. Praeterea, si generavit Deum hominem, hoc...