FOUR QUESTIONS ON MARY - Franciscan Institute Publications

John Duns Scotus: Four Questions on Mary
opposition, the last instant of forward motion coincides with
the first instant of reverse movement and the reversal of direction
takes on the time-characteristics of continuous rectilinear
motion.
Henry sees this as proof that there is an intermediate position
between Aristotle’s opposites of continuous and discontinuous
change, and because of his great devotion to Mary,
he sees a way to shrink the interval between her contracting
original sin and her subsequent sanctification to an absolute
zero time-wise. For at one and the same instant of time, there
can be two distinct “signs of nature.” 41 In one Mary’s soul contracts
original sin, but in the other, she is sanctified and continues
to remain in that state for her entire life. Henry maps
his time-distinction on linear co-ordinates, since the flow of
time is analogous to that spatial movement. Let the millstone
represent the bodily flesh and the bean the spiritual soul;
and let the moment the bean touches the millstone represent
the instant Mary’s soul was created and infused in her body.
The downward movement of the bean represents the time
secundum rem, differenti solum secundum esse et rationem, ut est finis
temporis mensurantis motum praecedente et principium temporis mensurantis
motum sequentem. Secundo modo cum faba movetur superius motu
violento, et obviat fortius moto, puta lapidi molari descendenti naturaliter
inferius, in contactu lapidis subito in instanti mutata est in spatium sibi
aequale per motum eius violentum sursum, et in eodem instanti ipsam faba
mutatur ab illo per motum naturale lapidis deorsum fabam impellentem,
ut non sit possibile eam in illo spatio sibi aequali quiscere, sicut quisceret
si sibi relinqueretur, secundum aliam quandam demonstrationem Philosophi
in eodem VIII, nec esse aut manere nisi per istas medium inter tempora
illorum motuum in quo tamen spatio est per illud instans secundum
veritatem, nec fuit in tempore praecedenti, nec tempore sequenti, et est illud
instans signum commune utriusque temporis et primo et posteriori et idem
et unum numero, ratione autem non idem, ut dicit Philosophus in eodem
VIII. Quod si spatium illud sibi aequale et totum residuum spatii sursum
obscurus esset et tenebrosum, et totum residuum spatii deorsum esset clarum
et illuminatum , superficies fabae superior in illo instanti in quo esse
in spatio sibi aequali esset obscura et in toto tempore sui ascensus fuisset
clara et illuminata, et similiter in toto tempore sui descensus. Et valet sicut
mihi videtur hoc exemplum secundum ad nostrum propositum.
41 “Signum” or “sign” has the technical sense of a non-dimensional unit
such as a “point” in space, or a point in time. And a distinction of signs
is used to express some conceptual distinction or non-mutual implication
that can be used to order things conceptually that coincide temporally.
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