Dist. 8, Part 1, Divisio Textus
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/1/d/8/q/bon-sent-I-d8-p1-divisio
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# COMMENTARY ON DISTINCTION VIII.

*On the essential properties and conditions of the Trinity and of the Unity.*

## Part I.

*On the truth and immutability of God.*

*Now concerning truth or concerning the property and incommutability etc.*

## DIVISION OF THE TEXT.

The two preceding parts of this principal part — which concerns the Trinity according as it is understood, in which, to prove the Trinity, the Master adduced reasons and removed doubts — having been concluded; in this third part the Master determines the properties and conditions of the Trinity and of the Unity themselves. And since certain properties regard the essence, as truth; certain ones [regard] the persons, as generation; certain ones [regard] both, as equality: therefore this part has three parts. In the first part the Master treats of the essential properties; in the second, of the personal properties, below at distinction nine: *Now to the distinction of persons etc.*; in the third,

of the properties and conditions which are in some manner essential and in some manner personal, such as is the equality of the persons in eternity, magnitude, and power, below at distinction nineteen: *Now after [having treated] the co-eternity of the three persons etc.*

The first part, which contains the present distinction, has three parts according to the three properties which he assigns; and the first is on truth; the second on immutability, and this is placed in the third chapter: *And the essence of God alone is properly called incommutable*; the third on simplicity, which is placed in the fourth chapter: *And the same alone is properly and truly simple etc.*

Likewise the first part has two parts, because first he attributes to God the property of truth; second he removes a doubt having its origin from the aforesaid [matters], in the second chapter: *Here it must be carefully observed.* Similarly the second part has two: in the first he assigns to God the property of incommutability and proves [it] by the authority of Augustine; in the second he confirms [it] through the Apostle, there: *And therefore the Apostle, speaking etc.* The third, on simplicity, will be subdivided below.

## TREATMENT OF THE QUESTIONS.

In this part, for the elucidation of the two first properties which the Master first assigns, namely of truth and of incommutability, two [questions] are principally asked:

First it is asked concerning truth itself.

Second concerning immutability.

Concerning truth two [questions] in turn are asked:

First, whether truth is a property of the divine being.

Second, whether it is its property in the highest degree, that is, to such an extent that it cannot be thought not to be.

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