But now Augustine calls everything ‘accident’ which can or can not be affirmed as true of a thing by virtue of a change in the object, and which can be affirmed as true of a thing according to the various modes. Whence, because the same substance can be larger and can be smaller, and can be great, which before was not great, and conversely; and this by virtue of a change of that substance. By virtue of this Augustine says that magnitudes are accidents in the second mode, not in the first; for the same proper substance through a proper change can be larger sometimes and sometimes can be smaller without any absolute thing really distinct added to it. Magnitude is not such an accident which may be an absolute thing really distinct from a substance inhering in it.
But, perhaps, you may say: how can a substance be changed unless some new thing be added to it? I say that this is the difference between substantial change, and change which is properly alteration, and local change; that through the first two some thing inhering in the changed advenes. But through a local change it is not necessary that a thing inhering in the changed may advene to the changed; but it suffices for it that a thing acquire for itself a place which it did not have before. Whence, from the very statement that a thing is in a place quiescent in which it was not before, but was in another without any other thing intermediate between the place and the thing placed; and there is that thing which is changed. And if you ask: what is it for a thing to be located in a place? It can easily be said that for a thing to be located in a place is for no corporeal thing to be intermediate between a thing placed and a place, so that, when the things themselves have not been changed locally from one place to another, there can not be local motion.
Therefore it is obvious from the previous statements how it can be safely held that magnitude is an accident according to the intention of the blessed Augustine, although magnitude may not be another thing really distinct from substance inhering in it. For as Augustine posits that accidents are in relation to “something,” as “relationships, services, likenesses, equalities and anything else of the kind”; yet according to many Catholics relations of this kind are not certain things really distinct from absolutes. For as the venerable Anselm posits that many relations are accidents which however can advene to something without any change, and consequently are not distinct things inhering in it; thus also the same Anselm posits that some accident is suitable to God, and yet no thing really distinct from God is retained in Him through real inherence or information.
Whence, in short, I have never read in any sacred writer, that he posits that quantity is an accident and is distinguished from substance any more than that he posits that ‘ad aliquid’ and ‘relations’ are accidents and distinct from substance. And, therefore, as according to many Catholics it is not inconsistent with the statements of the Saints to say that ‘relation’ is not a thing other than its fundament, so it is not inconsistent with the Catholic faith to say that some quantity is not another absolute thing really distinct from substance; and at the same time with this I say, that some quantity is another absolute thing really distinct from substance; for some quantity is really the same as quality which is really distinguished from substance.
Through the previous statements another opinion of the same blessed Augustine can be posited; for he does not intend to say that every magnitude may be a certain absolute thing inhering in substance and really distinct from it; but he intends to say that one thing is magnitude, another is that which is great by means of it in proportion to so much, for the thing itself can remain, although it may not be great; which can occur in a two-fold manner.
Whence, it may occur in one mode through condensation; for if a large thing be condensed, so that it become an object of small quantity, through this alone that the parts of the substance, which were locally much separated, become less separate in situation without any new thing having been generated and any old thing having been destroyed; then the thing is not great and yet the thing itself remains. And so it is one thing for a thing to be, and another for a thing to be great; for a thing can be although it may not be great.
This can happen in another way through the omnipotence of God, if He should bring it to pass; as many say, that it is impossible for God to bring it to pass, that a thing formerly great might afterwards come to be somewhere in that mode in which the body of Christ is under the species of bread; and yet would be nowhere locally or circumscriptively; for then, because the thing might not have parts separate in situation, it would not be great; and so it can be a thing, although it may not be great. And Saint Augustine intends this alone, and thus it is obvious that there is no statement of the blessed Augustine contrary to the previous statements.
In another way it can be declared that the blessed Augustine does not contradict the previous statements, for the blessed Augustine speaks of magnitude, which is a relation; for, as for instance, great is relative, a magnitude is relation. But now according to many Catholics it is not contrary to the statements of the Saints, that relation is not another thing really distinct from an absolute; therefore, it is not contrary to the Catholic faith to say that magnitude, of which Augustine speaks, is not a thing other than substance; yet with this it is established that the blessed Augustine says the truth when he says that magnitude is an accident, since it is accidentally predicated of a natural thing; therefore, the blessed Augustine can thus be explained.
In still another way it can be explained that through magnitude, by which created things are great, he does not understand one absolute accident inhering in created things; but through that magnitude he understands an efficient cause making these to be great, of which there is no doubt that there may be a thing other than created things, which are great by the participation of that magnitude, not indeed through information but through real dependence upon it; and that he may hold this opinion, his last words declare, which he adds there in the De Trinitate, V., Chapter X. Whence, he says that “that is true magnitude, by which not only great is a house which is great, and by which, whatever mountain is great, is great; but also by which great is whatever else is called great; as that magnitude may be one thing, another those which are called great from that magnitude; which magnitude certainly is primarily great and in a much more excellent way than those which are great by partaking of it. But since God is not great by this magnitude which is not Himself, so that God may be, as it were, a partaker of it, God is however great; otherwise that will be magnitude greater than God, but there is not anything greater than God; therefore, He is great by this magnitude by which He Himself is the same magnitude.”
From these words it can be gathered that the blessed Augustine speaks of magnitude by which created things are causally great; for however he speaks of magnitude “by which great is whatever else is called great,” whether it be a corporeal thing, or it be a spiritual thing. Whence, he speaks of the magnitude, as he premised before, by which a home is great, by which a mountain is great, by which a mind is great, which is a spiritual thing, although home and mountain may be corporeal things.
But it is manifest that there is no magnitude inhering in a substance as if in a subject, by which every other is great, which is called great, whether it be corporeal or it be spiritual. Therefore, he does not speak of magnitude which inheres in substance; but of magnitude which is the cause of all great things and by which “great is whatever is called great.” For without it no thing great is by far great. However, because the blessed Augustine speaks of magnitude, which is “primarily great and in a much more excellent way than” another, magnitude of such a kind is not any accident inhering in a substance; for as nothing can be before substance, so nothing can naturally be great before substance. Then because he speaks of magnitude which is greater than that which is great when magnitude is not that which is great, it is established that no accident inhering in a substance can be more than the substance of which it is an accident.
Therefore, it is obvious that the blessed Augustine speaks of the magnitude which is the cause why other created things are great. Whence, the blessed Augustine wishes to show in the same place that God is neither causally nor in any mode great by some magnitude which is not God Himself. But creatures are great by some magnitude which makes them to be great; which magnitude is, however, not itself a created object, but “is primarily great and in a much more excellent way than those which are great by participation of that magnitude.”
Whence, this term ‘participation’ is often accepted equivocally in various places by the philosophers as well as by the Saints; yet for the sake of brevity I pass by the discussion of that mode.
And so it is well known that the blessed Augustine can be explained in two modes; and all the passages of the Saints can be explained by the second of those modes, which passages appear to call out loudly, that quantity or magnitude is another thing really distinct from substance and quality; and the expositions can be proved through the processes of the same Saints in other places; yet for the present I refrain from discussing them. Nor is there any inconsistency in explaining the statements of the Saints, since all the writers later than they make this statement, although some may not have the intention of the Saints, and various writers may think differently of the intention of them, although neither may be considered heretical.
← Chapter XXXIII It Declares How Quantity Is an Accident, and How It Obtains With · Contents · Chapter XXXV How Quantity Is a Category Distinct From Quality and Substance →