Dear List members,
I am editing the *Sermones feriales et communes* of Jacques de Vitry.
There is a section in the last of these 25 sermons which discusses the
Incarnation and the assumption of the flesh and the soul. I have
provided the section below in Latin with a rough English translation. I
would be ever so grateful if anyone out there knows if there is any
secondary material written on the subject. Also if they could clarify
particularly the bracketed sentences I would be thrilled. In advance,
thanks for your help.
Extract of Sermon 25 from Jacques de Vitry's Sermones feriales et
communes:
Et quia principio corruit homo in anima et postea in corpore, Dominus
primo reparauit animam in primo aduentu, et postmodum ueniet reparare
corpora in secundo. [Assumpsit igitur carnem et animam, sed carnem anima
mediante.] [Tante enim simplicitatis et subtilitatis est diuina essencia
ut corpori de limo terre formato uniri non congruerit, nisi essencia
rationali mediante.] [Animam autem assumpsit per spiritum, id est
inferiorem partem per superiorem.] Assumpsit autem animam, et de femina
nasci uoluit ut utriusque sexus liberacionem demonstraret. (Lige 347, f.
144va)
And since humanity was first corrupted in the soul and then afterwards
in the body, the Lord at first repaired the soul in the first coming,
and afterwards he will repair the body in the second. [Therefore, he
assumed the flesh and the soul, but the flesh with the soul mediating.]
[The divine essence is of such simplicity and subtlety that it does not
suit it to be united to the body formed from the earth's mud except with
a rational essence mediating.1] [He assumed the soul through the spirit,
that is the inferior part through the superior part.] Indeed he assumed
the soul, and wished to be born from woman so that both sexes could
claim redemption.2
1. Petrus Lombardus, Sententiae in IV Libris Distinctae, vol. 2
(Gottaferrate, 1971), Liber III, dist. 2, cap. 2, par. 1; cfr Ioannes
Damascene, De fide orthodoxia, PG 94, 1006B, c.50, n. 3, 189, 400.
2. This argument dates back to Augustines Quaestiones (see 84
Quaestionum, PL 40, 14) who argued that humanitys redemption must be in
both sexes. Therefore, a man had to be assumed because manhood is
superior to womanhood; moreover it was fitting that the redemption of
women should be made apparent by a man being born of a woman. This
argument was reiteriated in various theological works, including Peter
Lombards Sentences. Cfr Sententiae, vol. 2, p. 83, Liber III, Dist. XII,
Cap. IV, and Thomas Aquinass Summa Theologiae, 3a.31,4.
Dr Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
phone: +44(0)117-928-8168
fax: +44(0)117-929-7850
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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