Works of Dionysius

There, therefore, neither intellect, nor life, nor essence exists by itself. For the intellect requires life in a certain manner as precedent, and life requires essence. And essence, imperfect in itself, while proceeding into life and intellect, is perfected; it becomes better and indeed best, not from itself, but from the gift of the supereminent Good itself. This referring to the Good, when it first gave existence, immediately gave life, and subsequently gave intellect. This essence, therefore, is the first mind, perfected within by an intellectual form supernaturally; it imparts intelligence to fewer things, and life to fewer, and essence to fewer still. But the Good itself, through itself, imparts these three, and through itself bestows the good upon each one. These things, indeed, are told according to the Platonic view; however they may be accepted, it pleases the Christians.

¶ The empire of the Good itself is truly marvelous. For it joins incredible facility with immense power. Although it could force all things absolutely by its infinity, it exerts force on no one. It leads the very smallest things easily, as if by a certain hidden persuasion; it moves things that are willing to be moved of their own accord. And since all things by their own nature desire nothing but the Good, there is no empire more voluntary, more merciful, and more sweet than the empire of the Good. Hence it comes about that we might hate infinite power and wisdom, but we could by no means hate goodness. For where there is natural love, there hatred is exiled far away.

Since, therefore, we have at last attained the Good, we will not attain it through the intellect, as the intellect is superior to the senses, nor can the intelligible be attained by sense. But we will finally touch the Good itself—the intellect now being at rest—with that same hidden nature by which we have persistently sought and do seek it naturally from the beginning, and before and beyond intelligence. Just as fire seeks the concavity of the moon by its lightness, it touches and possesses it. The possession of the Good will not be a certain imaginary attainment, such as usually happens through cognition, but a substantial and intimate one, made through the unity of the soul, which is superior and more excellent than the intellect. But since enjoyment is finally perfected beyond intelligence, it cannot in any way be expressed to us what it will be like. Yet, in the meantime, it is tasted by a certain inestimable love and joy. By which, finally, the possession of the Good is completed—not becoming vacant, as intelligence does, but increasing. And just as it is attributed to love, so it is constantly attributed to love. Hence, the Apostle Paul says that our knowledge ceases in the homeland referring to Heaven, but charity does not.

¶ Those who do not think that God is above essence and intellect are profane; those who construct God from an inferior essence and seek Him through imagination are most profane. ¶ Dionysius.

b

How a profane person hears. I call those profane who are occupied only with those things that are, or are called, beings; they do not think that there is anything superior to beings—if I may say so—that is super-essential. But they think they apprehend Him with their own cognition, and he has made darkness His hiding place. Now if divine mysteries transcend us, what could anyone say about them? Those who are far more profane fashion that supreme cause of all things even from the lowest things, and think nothing surpasses it—impious images or imaginations fabricated for themselves in various forms.

And beware lest

¶ How affirmations and negations of all things are made concerning God, and concerning prime matter. ¶ Marsilius.

d

How many things proceed from there

We think commonly

about certain most powerful things concerning the principle of all things: they are indeed one, eternal, and dependent. But the other, as it is in the meantime, is most eminently segregated from all things. By the first reason, therefore, we can affirm of God all things that have been divinely effected, insofar as they are seen to emerge from there; for they could not have come from there unless they had existed there first. Thus, you will affirm that God is essence, substance, life, intellect, soul, nature, heaven, elements, stars, and also the forms of things, beautiful everywhere. But by the second reason, we must again deny these individual things of God. For in what way is something marvelously segregated? ¶ It is, however, safer and truer to deny things of God than to affirm them. For that which is separated from God is far greater than what is communicated as if it were of things. For this is entirely finite, while that is absolutely immense. Finally, I can deceive more easily by affirming than by denying. For affirmation seems to limit to the boundaries of our intellect that which is incomparably immense.