Dionysius the Carthusian against Scotus; Richard on philosophers; Thomas on duplex contemplation of God
Dionysius the Carthusian speaks aptly against Scotus: There is not, he says, the same mode of receiving a natural and acquired form and habit as a supernatural and infused form and habit; nor is the inclination of the created mind to a supernatural form and habit judged natural, but rather supernatural — that is, fitting to a power beyond and above the grade, measure, and limit of its natural condition, namely by respect to a supernatural end. Indeed if it consisted as natural, it could be completed and actuated by a natural cause.
And Richard, whom they call the solid Doctor, holds that philosophers, however excellent in talent, who have not been supernaturally illuminated, have never known nor been able to know true and full beatitude. These are signs of the evangelical light, which in the midst of the darkness of the papacy was not wholly obscured among all.
But also Thomas, whose authority even the scholastic crowd prefers to Scotus: All, he says, who have sensed rightly have placed the end of human life in the contemplation of God.
But the contemplation of God is twofold: one through creatures, which is imperfect, inasmuch as the creature is an effect not proportioned to the Creator but infinitely distant from him. Therefore it leads into an imperfect knowledge of God, in which the philosopher places contemplative happiness — which happiness is nevertheless a way, and to it the whole of philosophical cognition is ordered, proceeding from reasons and considerations of creatures.
The other is the contemplation of God by which he is seen immediately through his essence: this is perfect contemplation, and it is had in the homeland, and is possible for man according to the supposition of faith; whence those things that are toward the end must be proportioned to the end, so that man in the state of the way may be led by the hand to that beatitude not by cognition taken from creatures but by cognition inspired from divine light. And this is the doctrine of theology, whose office it is to command all other sciences and to use them in its service.
Latin
Scite Dionysius Carthusianus adversus Scotum: Non est, inquit, idem modus recipiendi formam & habitum naturalem & acquisitum, atque formam & habitum supernaturalem & infusum, nec inclinatio mentis creatae ad supernaturalem formam & habitum, naturalis, sed supernaturalis potius censetur, id est, conveniens potentiae, ultra & supra gradum, modum ac limitem suae naturalis conditionis, utpote per respectum ad finem supernaturalem. Imo si naturalis consisteret, posset a naturali causa compleri & actuari. Et Richardus, quem solidum Doctorem appellant, statuit, philosophos, quantumcunque excellentis ingenii, qui non fuerint supernaturaliter illuminati, nunquam cognovisse, neque potuisse beatitudinem veram & plenam. Quae sunt indicia lucis Euangelicae, quae in mediis tenebris papatus non fuit plane obscurata apud omnes. Sed & Thomas, cujus auctoritatem etiam turba scholastica Scoto praefert. Omnes, inquit, qui recte senserunt, posuerunt finem vitae humanae Dei contemplatione. Contemplatio autem Dei duplex est, una per creaturas, quae est imperfecta, quantum creatura est effectus non proportionatus creatori, sed distans ab eo in infinitum. Idcirco ducit in cognitionem Dei imperfecte, in qua philosophus felicitatem contemplativam constituit, quae tamen felicitas est via, atque ad hanc ordinatur tota cognitio philosophica, ex rationibus & considerationibus creaturarum procedens. Alia est contemplatio Dei, qua immediate videtur, per suam essentiam, quae est contemplatio perfecta, & habetur in patria, estque possibilis homini secundum fidei suppositionem, unde oportet ut ea, quae sunt ad finem, proportionentur fini, sicut homo in statu viae, ad illam beatitudinem manu ducatur non per cognitionem ex creaturis sumptam, sed ex divino lumine inspiratam. Et haec est doctrina theologiae, cujus est omnibus aliis scientiis imperare, & iis in suum obsequium uti.