134 DANIEL A. CALLUS 



man is a soul using a body. In all these cases the resultant 

 union would not be essential but accidental. Now in things 

 accidentally united there may be plurality of forms without 

 any incongruity. 



Nevertheless, the main true source from which the pluralist 

 theory has come down to the Schoolmen is undoubtedly Avice- 

 bron.-° The keystone of his system is his doctrine of the ' uni- 

 versal matter ' (materia universalis) and ' universal form ' 

 (fonna universalis) : the two roots from which every thing, 

 save God, comes forth and into which it is ultimately resolved. ^^ 

 Universal matter is one and the same, and is necessarily devoid 

 of every form; it becomes substance by its composition with 

 universal form. Substances are essentially different because 

 they have diverse forms; each form conferring a special degree 

 of being corresponding to its own nature, independently of the 

 other. Since every thing possesses its special matter and its 

 special form of which it is never stripped, and, at the same time, 

 the new added form remains with the previous form or forms, it 

 logically follows that in one and the same individual we must 

 posit as many substantial forms as there are perfections or 

 degrees of being," " It must be taken for granted," he says, 

 " that man owes his humanity to the human form, his animality 

 to the animal form, his life to the vegetative form, his body 

 to the form of corporeity, and his substance to the universal 

 form." '' 



^° " Circa ordinem formarum est duplex opinio: una est Avicebron et quorumdam 

 sequacium eius." St. Thomas, Quodl. XI, a. 5. Cf. Comm. in 11 De anima, lect. 1 

 (ed. Pirotta, n. 225); In 1 Dc gen. et corrup., lect. 10 (ed. Leonina, n. 8); De 

 spirit, creat., a. 1 ad 9; a. 3, etc. See M. Wittmann, Die Stellung des hi. Thomas 

 von Aquin zu Avencebrol (Ibn Gebirol) , (B. G.P.M., III, 3) Miinster i. Westf., 

 1900. 



Materia universalis et forma universalis . . . haec duo sunt radix omnium et 

 ex his generatum est quicquid est, . . . haec natura praecedunt omnia, et in ea 

 etiam resolvuntur omnia." Avencebrolis, Fans Vitae ex Arabico in Latinum trans- 

 latus ab lohanne llispano et Dominico Gundissalino, primum edidit C. Baeumker 

 (B.G.P.M., I, 2-4) Munster i. Westf., 1892-95. I, 5, p. 7. 

 '"' Fons vitae, II, 2 (ed. cit., pp. 26-27) . 



Tanquam certum . . . quod forma naturae est aliud a forma animae vege- 

 tabilis, et quod forma animae vegetabilis alia est a forma animae sensibilis, et 



