QUESTION V.
Whether the soul of Christ was wise only by uncreated wisdom, or also by created wisdom together with uncreated.
After having treated of the wisdom of Christ insofar as He is the Word, the question concerns the wisdom of the soul of Christ. And first it is asked whether the soul of Christ was wise by uncreated wisdom only, or also by created wisdom together with uncreated. And that it was wise by uncreated wisdom only seems to be the case.
1. Sirach 1: All wisdom is from the Lord God and was always with Him and is before all time; but everything that is before all time is eternal: therefore all wisdom is eternal: therefore if the soul of Christ is not wise except by some wisdom, it is not wise except by eternal wisdom.
If you say that wisdom is said to have been with God as in its cause; by the same reasoning this could be said of any creature, and this does not greatly render wisdom itself praiseworthy.
If you say that all wisdom, that is, perfect wisdom: the following text does not agree with this, because it speaks of that wisdom to the acquisition of which it invites, as is clearly gathered from what follows.
2. Likewise, Augustine, in the second book of On Free Choice: "By truth and wisdom, which is common to all, all become wise by adhering to it; but one does not become blessed by the blessedness of another, nor does one become just by the justice of another, but by conforming the mind to those unchangeable rules and lights of the virtues, which live unchangeably in that common truth and wisdom." If therefore the wisdom of all the wise is one, and the blessedness of all the blessed is not one: since, speaking causally, unity can be found in both cases, it is necessary to hold that formally and properly there is one wisdom by which all are wise: and this cannot be created wisdom: therefore if the soul of Christ is wise, it is wise by uncreated wisdom.
3. Likewise, Augustine, in the book of Eighty-Three Questions, in the question on modes of having: "Wisdom, when it comes to a man, is not itself changed, but changes the man, whom it makes wise from being foolish"; but if wisdom designated a created habit, then it would certainly be changed, because it would be brought from non-being into being: therefore it designates only something uncreated: therefore the same conclusion as before.
4. Likewise, Hugh, in the treatise On the Wisdom of the Soul of Christ: "There is one wisdom by which all are wise, and yet they are not wise in one way: much more did that soul, which was united to wisdom itself, know by this wisdom, which flourished not by the lot of participation from it, but possessed the fullness by the privilege of union": therefore if the fullness of wisdom is nothing other than uncreated wisdom, it seems etc.
5. Likewise, Hugh argues thus: If wisdom is an accident: since wisdom is that by which the wise become blessed, our blessedness would consist in an accident: but accidents are changeable: therefore our blessedness too would be most changeable.
6. Furthermore, that which gives something to someone in some way possesses it; but wisdom gives the wise person to be wise: therefore wisdom is wise. But if it is wise, it is wise by nothing other than itself: therefore all wisdom by which the wise person is wise is a wisdom that is wise by itself. But such wisdom is nothing other than uncreated wisdom: therefore if the soul of Christ is wise by such wisdom, it is manifest, etc.
7. Furthermore, a perfection is nobler than the perfectible, and the wise is nobler than the non-wise, and the intelligent than the non-intelligent: therefore since wisdom is the perfection of the wise, and a wise wisdom has savor and understands: it is therefore necessary that wisdom be wise and understand. But it cannot be wise except by itself, and such is uncreated wisdom: therefore, etc.
By these reasons and authorities it is shown that the soul of Christ is wise only by uncreated wisdom, and not only it, but also any other that possesses wisdom.
But it is shown more specifically concerning the soul of Christ as follows.
8. Wisdom makes the one to whom it is applied wise: but uncreated wisdom is united to the soul of Christ: therefore the soul of Christ is made wise by uncreated wisdom.
If you say that it is not united except through the mediation of created wisdom, which disposes the soul itself for the union: to the contrary: an intermediate disposition is prior, more immediate, and more essential than that for which it disposes, because it holds the character of an introductive medium: but the soul of Christ is compared more primarily, more immediately, and more essentially to the hypostasis than to any accident that is in it: therefore if the eternal Word and the wisdom of God is the hypostasis and person with respect to the divine and human nature, the soul of Christ has a prior, more immediate, and more essential relation to uncreated wisdom than to created wisdom: therefore, etc.
9. Furthermore, the greater a wisdom is, the more it is knowable and makes one know: but created wisdom is less than uncreated wisdom and makes the soul, to which it is present, to be knowing: therefore much more so uncreated wisdom. But such wisdom was most present to the soul of Christ: therefore, etc.
10. Furthermore, nothing more is required for cognition than the knower, the knowable, and the present ground of knowing; but all of this was in that soul, insofar as it was united to the eternal Word: therefore it was wise by uncreated wisdom, with all created wisdom set aside.
11. Furthermore, "just as the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul," and much more excellently: but the soul by itself can vivify the body: therefore much more so God himself by himself will vivify the soul, and especially that soul to which he is most united: but such was the soul of Christ: therefore, etc.
12. Likewise, if God were to know through something other than himself, his cognition would be degraded, because the ground of knowing would either be nobler or less noble; but on either supposition, the divine cognition would be debased. Therefore, if the soul of Christ knows through something other than itself that is created, its cognition is debased: because that thing is either less noble, and thus it is perfected by what is less noble; or it is more noble, and then the soul of Christ is not the noblest of all creatures. If, therefore, it is the noblest at the summit of all created nobility, it is impossible that it should know anything except through itself or through uncreated wisdom.
13. Likewise, the more immediately any intellect approaches the font of wisdom, the wiser it is. But the soul of Christ is the wisest. Therefore it approaches uncreated wisdom most immediately. Therefore, with every other wisdom set aside, it is wise by that eternal wisdom.
14. Likewise, the soul of Christ is so united to the eternal majesty that it is to be honored with the same honor with which the eternal majesty is honored. Therefore, by parity of reasoning, it is so united to the eternal light that it is wise with the same wisdom by which the everlasting light is wise. But this is uncreated wisdom only. Therefore the soul of Christ is wise only by uncreated wisdom.
15. Likewise, where there is fullness of wisdom, it is superfluous to posit what is partial. But in Christ there is fullness of wisdom, because in him it pleased all fullness to dwell, Colossians 1. Therefore, if all created wisdom is partial, it is superfluous to posit created wisdom in Christ or in his soul.
16. Likewise, nature does not do through many what it can do through few, and this pertains to the praise of created nature. Therefore, if whatever praise is attributed to created nature can be attributed to uncreated nature, since uncreated wisdom is of itself most sufficient, because complete and full in every respect, then it seems that created wisdom in Christ would be superfluous. But nothing of this kind should be posited in Christ. Therefore, etc.
17. Likewise, whenever material lights converge upon the same medium such that one exceeds the other, the one obscures the other, not on account of opposition but on account of surpassing excellence. Therefore, if uncreated wisdom surpasses created wisdom far more than any material light exceeds any other however small, uncreated wisdom will obscure the other. But no obscured wisdom should be posited in Christ. Therefore, etc.