Dist. 8, Part 2, 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-p2-divisio
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## COMMENTARY ON DISTINCTION VIII

### Part II.
### *On the Simplicity of God.*

**And the same alone is properly and truly simple, etc.**

FOR THE TEXT OF THE MASTER SEE ABOVE, P. 147.

### DIVISION OF THE TEXT

Above the Master showed two properties of the divine essence, namely truth and incommutability; here he shows the simplicity of the divine essence or nature. And this part has three parts. In the first he shows that [God] is properly simple; in the second, that [he is] truly [simple], there: *Here it is to be diligently noted, since*

*Augustine says, etc.* In the third, that [he is] supremely [simple], there: *But of this purity and simplicity.*

The first part again has three parts. First he proposes that [God] is properly simple; secondly he shows that [this] does not befit corporeal nature, there: *But that you may know how [God is] simple, etc.* In the third [part], that [it] does not befit spiritual nature, there: *Also a spiritual creature, etc.*

Likewise the part in which he shows that [God] is truly simple has three parts. In the first he shows that in God there is purely a multiplicity of names; in the second he shows that in him there is no diversity of categories, there: *But that in the nature of divinity there is no [diversity] of accidents, etc.* In the third he concludes that the names of the categories cannot properly be said in divine matters, and likewise the name of the first category, there: *Whence neither is "substance" properly said.*

Likewise the part in which he shows that [God] is supremely simple has three [parts]. For first he shows that so great is the simplicity there, that there is no diversity of things there; secondly, that with this simplicity there stands a plurality of persons, there: *And since of so great a simplicity, etc.* Third and last, he sums up that a threefold property has been shown in the divine essence, there: *Behold how great an identity.*

### TREATMENT OF THE QUESTIONS

For the understanding of the things which the Master says in the text, four [questions] are asked in this part.

First it is asked whether in God there is supreme simplicity.

Second, whether simplicity is a property of God.

Third, on account of what is said in the text concerning the rational soul, it is asked whether the rational soul is in the whole body, in such a way that [it is] in each part.

Fourth it is asked whether God is in any determinate genus.

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