172 JAMES A. WEISHEIPL 



reason for Albert's view is clearly stated in the reply to John 

 of Vercelli's questionnaire: the separated intelligence known 

 to philosophers is entirely immobile locally, nee mittitur nee 

 venit nee reeedit^- This is entirely contrary to what we know 

 of Gabriel, Raphael and Michael according to the Scriptures. 

 Further, the separated intelligence is known to philosophers 

 solely as the cause of celestial motion and of inferior forms, 

 while the angels of Scripture are the messengers of God, a 

 function which cannot be proved by natural reason.*^' 



To understand St. Albert better, we must consider celestial 

 motion itself and its three distinct causes, namely the body, the 

 soul-like mover, and the separated intelligence. 



St. Albert clearly insists throughout all his writings that 

 celestial motion cannot be accounted for by the nature of the 

 celestial body. That is to say, perpetual motion of the spheres 

 cannot originate spontaneously from " nature " as from a 

 formal principle. Scholastic philosophy, following Aristotle, 

 distinguished two uses of the technical term " nature." ®* The 

 primary and principal use of the term was to designate an 

 intrinsic active source of regular, teleological activity and at- 

 tainment; nature in this sense was called a formal principle, 

 since form is the ultimate source of these activities. In a 

 secondary and analogical sense the innate, passive receptivity 

 for the form could also be called " nature," since potency is a 

 true principle of change; nature in this sense was called a 

 material or passive principle. For St. Albert none of the char- 

 acteristics of nature as a formal principle could be verified in 



vulis." Theodoric of Freiberg, De intellectu et intelligibili, P. I,cap. 12, ed. E. Krebs 

 in Beitrdge z. Gesch. d. Phil. d. M.-A., Bd. V, heft 5-6 (Miinster, 1906), pp. 132*- 

 133*. Cf. ibid., P. II, cap. 34, pp. 164-165*. I am grateful to Fr. William A. 

 Wallace, O. P., for allowing me to utilize his transcription of Theodoric's De intelli- 

 genciis et motoribus celorum and De corporibus celestibus quoad naturam eorum 

 corporalem from MS Vat. lat. 2183. 



^'^ St. Albert, Problemata determinata, q. 2, ed. cit., p. 323. 



"^ Ibid., q. 5, ed. cit., p. 328. 



'* Cf. J. A. Weisheipl, " The Concept of Nature," loc. cit. above in note 51 and 

 reprinted in Nature and Gravitation (River Forest: Albertus Magnus Lyceum, 

 1955), pp. 1-32. 



