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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Two — the heavens and the stars

QUESTION VI. Whether after the day of judgment the motion of the heaven will cease

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QUESTION VI. Whether after the day of judgment the motion of the heaven will cease.1

QUAESTIO VI. An post diem iudicii cessaturus sit caeli motus.

VERUMENIMVERO dignum est perscrutatione an, quod usurpatur a Theologis et in scholis iactatur, cessaturus sit caeli motus post diem iudicii. Equidem non memini legere usquam in sacris litteris hoc aperte et proprie tradi; arbitror tamen id nec obscure nec uno loco in illis indicari. Hoc enim significavit Isaias cum capite 60 sic ait, Non occidet ultra Sol tuus, et Luna tua non minuetur: quod, nisi illis astris immotis, evenire non potest. Idem licet argumentari ex verbis Ioannis quae sunt in Apocalypsi cap. 10, quo loco Angelus iurat per viventem in saecula saeculorum Quia post diem iudicii et resurrectionem hominum tempus non erit amplius: atqui tempus cessare non potest nisi cessante motu caeli — loquor de tempore quod est connatum ipsi caelo, et communiter omnibus gentibus notum et usitatum, quodque in annos, menses diesque atque noctes distinguitur. Nam tempus universe et absolute sumptum, quod in quocumque motu et in successione cuiuslibet durationis signari notarique potest, non pen[det]...
BUT IN TRUTH it is worthy of inquiry whether—what is taken up by the Theologians and bandied about in the schools—the motion of the heaven will cease after the day of judgment. For my part I do not remember to have read this anywhere in the sacred writings as openly and properly delivered; yet I think it is indicated in them, neither obscurely nor in one place only. For this Isaiah signified, when in chapter 60 he says thus, Thy Sun shall go down no more, and thy Moon shall not decrease: which cannot come to pass unless those heavenly bodies are unmoved. The same one may argue from the words of John in the Apocalypse, chapter 10, where the Angel swears by Him that lives forever and ever That after the day of judgment and the resurrection of men time shall be no more: but time cannot cease unless the motion of the heaven ceases—I speak of the time which is connatural to the heaven itself, and commonly known and used by all nations, and which is distinguished into years, months, days, and nights. For time taken universally and absolutely, which can be marked and noted in any motion and in the succession of any duration whatever, does not depen[d]...2
...[pen]det ex motu caeli, eoque sublato vel in motu humanorum corporum post resurrectionem, vel in sola mora et successione cogitationum humanarum versari et permanere potest. Ad hoc, Paulus disertis verbis docet in cap. 8 epistolae ad Romanos omnem creaturam corpoream et rationis expertem vanitati esse subiectam et servituti corruptionis addictam, non tam sua sponte quam propter hominem cuius usibus a Deo est accommodata, quoad homo exuens mortalitatem induatur immortalitate, ministeriis creaturarum nequaquam indigens. Quaenam autem sit vanitas cui subiecta est creatura corporea, praesertim autem caelum et sydera, initio libri Ecclesiastae declarat Salomon affirmans eiusmodi vanitatem non esse aliud quam vicissitudinem et mutabilitatem: Vanitas, inquit, vanitatum, et omnia vanitas: quam vanitatem exemplis demonstrans non inesse modo in rebus sublunaribus sed etiam caelestibus, mox subiungit, Oritur sol et occidit, et ad locum suum revertitur; ibique renascens gyrat per Meridiem et flectitur ad Aquilonem. Sed Paulus eodem loco epist. ad Romanos confirmat omnem creaturam ad exemplum et similitudinem hominis esse renovandam, et ab omni vanitate et servitute corruptionis liberandam. Ergo caeli post diem iudicii et resurrectionem communem ab omni motu et ministerio quo deserviunt huic vitae corruptibili vacationem habebunt. Huc pertinet quod supra ex 4 capite Deuteronomii adduximus, Solem, lunam et astra esse creata in ministerium cunctis gentibus: sed post diem iudicii non indigebit homo caelestis motus ministerio, ergo tunc nullus erit motus eorum usus.
...depend on the motion of the heaven, and, this being taken away, it can be engaged and continue either in the motion of human bodies after the resurrection, or in the mere duration and succession of human thoughts. To this, Paul teaches in plain words, in chapter 8 of the epistle to the Romans, that every bodily creature, devoid of reason, is made subject to vanity and given over to the bondage of corruption—not so much of its own accord as for the sake of man, to whose uses it is fitted by God—until man, putting off mortality, is clothed with immortality, no longer needing the ministries of creatures. And what the vanity is to which the bodily creature is subject—especially the heaven and the stars—Solomon declares at the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes, affirming that this vanity is nothing else than vicissitude and changeableness: Vanity, he says, of vanities, and all is vanity; and, demonstrating by examples that this vanity is present not only in sublunary things but also in celestial, he straightway adds, The sun rises and sets, and returns to its place; and there, rising again, it wheels through the South and bends toward the North. But Paul in the same passage of the epistle to the Romans confirms that every creature is to be renewed after the example and likeness of man, and to be freed from all vanity and bondage of corruption. Therefore the heavens, after the day of judgment and the common resurrection, will have rest from all the motion and ministry by which they serve this corruptible life. To this belongs what we adduced above from the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, that the sun, moon, and stars were created for the service of all nations: but after the day of judgment man will not need the ministry of celestial motion; therefore then there will be no use of their motion.3
VERUM, Philosophi urgent nos eo maxime argumento, quod motus circularis est proprius et naturalis caelo, sicut multis rationibus argumentatur Aristoteles in primo libro de Caelo: nam si non est naturalis caelo, quis alius motus erit caelo naturalis? non enim dici potest caelum nullum habere motum sibi proprium et secundum naturam sibi convenientem, quippe cum natura definiatur esse principium motus in eo in quo est, nullumque corpus naturale esse possit cuius non sit aliquis motus naturalis. Si igitur motus circularis est naturalis caelo, habet utique caelum naturalem propensionem ad ipsum; quare privatio eius erit caelo violenta, auferens ei naturalem ipsius perfectionem. Hanc obiectionem B. Thomas in quarto sententiarum, distinctione quadragesimaoctava (cuius loci doctrina eadem posita est in additionibus ad tertiam partem, quaestione nonagesimaprima, articulo secundo), ita dissolvit: In praesenti statu generationis et corruptionis motum circularem pertinere ad perfectionem caeli, quod per ipsum sit causa generationis et conservationis rerum omnium sublunarium, propter quam efficientiam assimilatur Deo; post diem autem iudicii, sublato hoc mundi statu et inducto altero statu immutabili et incorruptibili, motus circularis non pertinebit ad perfectionem caeli, immo esset supervacuus et illi statui [maxime alienus]...
BUT the Philosophers press us most of all with this argument, that circular motion is proper and natural to the heaven, as Aristotle argues by many reasons in the first book On the Heaven: for if it is not natural to the heaven, what other motion will be natural to the heaven? for it cannot be said that the heaven has no motion proper to it and fitting to it according to nature, since nature is defined as the principle of motion in that in which it is, and no natural body can exist of which there is not some natural motion. If, then, circular motion is natural to the heaven, the heaven assuredly has a natural propensity to it; wherefore its privation will be violent to the heaven, taking away from it its natural perfection. This objection the blessed Thomas, in the fourth book of the Sentences, distinction 48 (the same doctrine of which place is set down in the additions to the Third Part, question 91, article 2), thus resolves: that in the present state of generation and corruption circular motion belongs to the perfection of the heaven, because through it the heaven is the cause of the generation and conservation of all sublunary things, by which efficiency it is likened to God; but after the day of judgment, this state of the world being taken away and another, unchangeable and incorruptible state brought in, circular motion will not belong to the perfection of the heaven—nay, it would be superfluous, and [most alien] to that state...4
...[sta]tui maxime alienus. Sicut etiam generare et generari, nutriri et augeri secundum naturam hominis nunc agentis vitam corruptibilem censentur; at naturae hominis post resurrectionem factae immortali et impassibili eadem non modo non essent consentanea, sed etiam maxime repugnantia. Proditum est ab aliis motum circularem ante diem iudicii esse naturalem caelo, post diem autem iudicii non motum sed quietem caelo fore naturalem. Verum aegre inducet in animum credere hoc qui Philosophiae decretis et doctrinis vel mediocriter fuerit institutus. Si enim una eademque est ante et post iudicii diem caeli natura, non potest ea nisi unam naturalem inclinationem et ad unum habere, nec potest, manente eadem natura, non manere eadem quoque propensio et perfectio naturalis.
...most alien to that state. Just as also to generate and be generated, to be nourished and to grow, are reckoned to be according to the nature of man now leading a corruptible life; but to the nature of man, made after the resurrection immortal and impassible, these same things would not only not be consonant, but even most repugnant. Others have given out that circular motion before the day of judgment is natural to the heaven, but after the day of judgment not motion but rest will be natural to the heaven. But anyone even moderately schooled in the maxims and doctrines of Philosophy will hardly bring himself to believe this. For if the nature of the heaven is one and the same before and after the day of judgment, it cannot have but one natural inclination, and toward one thing; nor can it be that, the same nature remaining, the same natural propensity and perfection do not also remain.5
EGO ita sentio: proposita renovatione mundi, eaque mutatione quam post diem iudicii futuram Theologia docet, valde consentaneum esse rationi caelum ex se et intrinsece nullam habere naturalem propensionem ad motum circularem: nam si haberet, non video equidem quemadmodum, eo motu privatum, non careat perfectione sibi naturaliter convenienti, et imperfecte ac violente se habeat. Quid ergo? Existimo caelum habere tantum aptitudinem quandam naturalem ad eiusmodi motum: tum quia propter rotundam figuram quam habet naturaliter est idoneum ad motum circularem, sicut apparet in globis lapideis, ligneis seu aereis; tum quia nihil ex se habet repugnans motui circulari, quam repugnantiam habent omnia corpora sublunaria etiam rotunda, sunt enim omnia vel gravia vel levia, caelum autem naturaliter omni gravitate et levitate caret. Quocirca, tum propter naturalem rotunditatem caeli, tum propter naturam eius omnino expertem gravitatis atque levitatis, vere dicitur caelum habere naturalem aptitudinem ad motum circularem, et eiusmodi motus quodam modo naturalis caelo appellari potest: qua etiam ratione colligi et concludi potest, si caelum nullam habeat naturalem repugnantiam ad motum circularem, naturam eius esse longe diversam a natura quatuor elementorum cunctarumque rerum sublunarium, quae non modo non habent naturalem propensionem ad motum circularem, sed propter insitam eis aut gravitatem aut levitatem habent etiam naturalem repugnantiam. Nec discordare a nobis videntur Avicenna, Albertus, Scotus et Durandus, quorum sententia fuit motum circularem nec naturalem nec violentum esse caelo, sed sicut superficies se habet ad colorem et privationem eius, ita se habere caelum ad motum circularem et eius privationem. Certe cum inter movens et mobile sit naturalis proportio, si motus circularis respectu Angeli moventis caelum non est naturalis sed voluntarius, et, ut in scholis loquuntur, contingens et ad utrumlibet, non conveniebat eum respectu caeli esse necessarium et naturalem. Hoc etiam optima ratio Divinae sapientiae ac providentiae deposcit: ut, quia Deus ab omni aeternitate constituerat ut caelum durante gene[ratione]...
I myself think thus: granting the renovation of the world, and that change which Theology teaches will be after the day of judgment, it is very agreeable to reason that the heaven of itself and intrinsically has no natural propensity to circular motion; for if it had, I for my part do not see how, deprived of that motion, it would not lack a perfection naturally fitting to it, and be in an imperfect and violent condition. What then? I judge that the heaven has only a certain natural aptitude for such motion: both because, on account of the round figure which it has, it is naturally fit for circular motion, as appears in spheres of stone, of wood, or of bronze; and because it has nothing in itself repugnant to circular motion—which repugnance all sublunary bodies have, even round ones, for all are either heavy or light, whereas the heaven by nature lacks all gravity and levity. Wherefore, both on account of the natural roundness of the heaven, and on account of its nature wholly devoid of gravity and levity, the heaven is truly said to have a natural aptitude for circular motion, and such motion can in a manner be called natural to the heaven; by which reasoning, too, it can be gathered and concluded that, if the heaven has no natural repugnance to circular motion, its nature is far different from the nature of the four elements and of all sublunary things, which not only have no natural propensity to circular motion, but, on account of the gravity or levity implanted in them, have even a natural repugnance to it. Nor do Avicenna, Albert, Scotus, and Durandus seem to disagree with us, whose opinion was that circular motion is neither natural nor violent to the heaven, but that, as a surface stands to color and its privation, so the heaven stands to circular motion and its privation. Certainly, since between the mover and the thing moved there is a natural proportion, if circular motion, in respect of the Angel that moves the heaven, is not natural but voluntary, and, as they say in the schools, contingent and indifferent to either alternative, it was not fitting that it should be necessary and natural in respect of the heaven. This too the best reasoning of the Divine wisdom and providence demands: that, since God had from all eternity determined that the heaven should, during the gene[ration]...6
...[ge]neratione hominum moveretur in orbem, facta autem resurrectione ab omni motu in perpetuum vacaret, ea natura fieret et constaret caelum ut aequaliter aptum esset ad motum et ad quietem accipiendam, nec ei violentum esset aut in orbem agitari aut eo motu privari. QUOD autem nonnulli dixerunt non prius fore consummationem mundi quam, propriis omnium caelorum conversionibus absolutis, ad eandem sydera omnia positionem redeant quam habuere olim in exordio mundi cum sunt a Deo creata, duplici argumento refellitur. Nam compluribus viris doctis fit admodum verisimile, et Nicolaus mathematicis nec dubiis, ut credit ipse, rationibus probavit motus orbium caelestium esse inter se prorsus incommensurabiles, ut nec simul omnes unquam perfici, nec ad eandem positionem quam semel tenuerunt astra reverti queant. Deinde, proprius octavi caeli ab occasu ad ortum motus non ante sex et triginta annorum milia, si quidem creditur Ptolomaeo, compleri potest: non est autem credibile, nec dum exactis ab orbe condito usque adhuc sex mille annis, restare etiamnum ad diem usque iudicii triginta annorum millia: praesertim cum manifeste doceat sacra Scriptura Dominum nostrum esse incarnatum extrema mundi aetate et in novissimis diebus, atque Paulus ait, In fine saeculorum, quin etiam, sicut loquitur Ioannes, In novissima hora. Neque vero absurdum videri debet in die iudicii abruptum iri motum octavi caeli priusquam totus eius orbis circuitus semel peragatur: non enim motus caeli, ut paulo superius ostendimus, attingit eius perfectionem, nec ad eum habet caelum naturalem et propriam propensionem; nec est propter caelum praecipue a Deo institutus, videlicet ut per eum aut quod deest caelo acquiratur aut quod inest conservetur, sed propter generationem hominum, potissime autem electorum, qua in die iudicii completa, esset profecto caelestis motus plane inanis et supervacaneus si ulterius produceretur.
...generation of men, be moved round in a circle, but, the resurrection having taken place, should rest forever from all motion, the heaven should be made and constituted of such a nature that it was equally fit to receive motion and rest, and that it was violent to it neither to be driven round in a circle nor to be deprived of that motion. But as for what some have said—that the consummation of the world will not be until, the proper revolutions of all the heavens being completed, all the stars return to the same position which they once had at the beginning of the world, when they were created by God—this is refuted by a twofold argument. For to very many learned men it is made highly probable, and Copernicus proved by mathematical and (as he himself believes) indubitable reasons, that the motions of the celestial orbs are utterly incommensurable with one another, so that they can neither all ever be completed at once, nor can the stars return to the same position which they once held. Next, the proper motion of the eighth heaven from west to east cannot be completed in less than thirty-six thousand years, if indeed Ptolemy is to be believed: but it is not credible that, scarcely six thousand years having been completed from the founding of the world until now, there should still remain, even now, up to the day of judgment, thirty thousand years—especially since sacred Scripture plainly teaches that our Lord was made incarnate in the last age of the world and in the last days, and Paul says, In the end of the ages, and even, as John says, In the last hour. Nor indeed ought it to seem absurd that on the day of judgment the motion of the eighth heaven should be cut short before its whole orb-circuit is once completed: for the motion of the heaven, as we showed a little above, does not attain its perfection, nor has the heaven a natural and proper propensity to it; nor was it instituted by God chiefly for the heaven's sake—namely, that through it either what the heaven lacks might be acquired or what is in it preserved—but for the sake of the generation of men, and especially of the elect, which being completed on the day of judgment, celestial motion would surely be plainly idle and superfluous if it were prolonged further.7

Translator’s notes

  1. The sixth question of Book II. ↩
  2. Isaiah 60:20 (‘thy Sun shall go down no more, neither shall thy Moon decrease’); Apocalypse 10:6 (the Angel swears that ‘time shall be no longer’). Pererius distinguishes the time connatural to the heaven (years/months/days/nights) from time taken universally/absolutely. Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘det’). ↩
  3. Romans 8:20–21; Ecclesiastes 1:2,5–6 (vanity = changeableness; the sun rising and setting); Deuteronomy 4:19. After the Judgment, the heavens rest from all the motion and ministry that served this corruptible life. ↩
  4. Marginal glosses: "Argumentatio Philosophorum, qua illi probari putaverunt motum caeli nunquam cessaturum"; "Solutio praedictae argumentationis secundum Sanctum Thomam." Aristotle, De Caelo 1 (circular motion proper and natural to the heaven). Aquinas, In IV Sent. dist. 48 (= Supplementum q.91 a.2). The print reads ‘immutabili et corruptibili,’ evidently an error for ‘incorruptibili.’ Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘tui’). ↩
  5. Aquinas's answer, compared to generation/nutrition (natural to man now, repugnant to the risen impassible body). The view that motion is natural before and rest natural after the Judgment is hard to accept, since one and the same nature has but one natural inclination. ↩
  6. Marginal gloss: "Probabilior solutio ex Auctoris sententia, quod caelum re vera non habeat intrinsecam et naturalem propensionem ad motum tanquam ad suam perfectionem." Pererius's own view: the heaven has only a natural aptitude for circular motion (from its round figure and its lack of gravity/levity), not a natural propensity to it as to its perfection; the motion is, with respect to the moving Angel, voluntary and contingent. Avicenna, Albert, Scotus, Durandus agreed. Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘neratio’). ↩
  7. Marginal glosses: "An omnium caelorum proprii motus ante diem iudicii absolvendi sint"; "Copernici opinio de motu orbium caelestium"; "1.Corin.10"; "1.Ioan.2." Against the view that the world will not end until all the heavens complete their revolutions and the stars return to their original positions: (1) Copernicus proved by sure mathematical reasons that the orbs' motions are utterly incommensurable; (2) the eighth heaven's proper W→E motion takes 36,000 years (Ptolemy), and barely 6,000 have passed since creation, whereas Scripture says Christ came in the world's last age (1 Corinthians 10:11, ‘in the end of the ages’; 1 John 2:18, ‘in the last hour’). The heaven's motion exists for the sake of human generation, especially of the elect; once complete, it would be idle. ↩