Works of John Duns Scotus, Volume 19: Questions on the Fourth Book of the Sentences, from Distinction 23 to Distinction 42

Joannis Duns Scoti Opera Omnia, Tomus XIX: Quaestiones in quartum librum Sententiarum a distinctione vigesima tertia usque ad quadragesimam secundam

1894·Latin·584 pages PDF (56.2MB) Source

Volume XIX of the Vivès edition of Duns Scotus's Opera Omnia, published in Paris in 1894 — a reprint, "accurately revised by the Franciscan Friars of the Observance," of Luke Wadding's 1639 Lyon edition. This volume contains the second half of Scotus's commentary on the fourth book of Peter Lombard's Sentences, distinctions 23 through 42, with the commentary of Antonius Hiquaeus (Antoine Hickey, OFM). Simony is treated in distinction 25. The "Wadding edition" remains the standard reference for those portions of Scotus's work that the modern Vatican critical edition has not yet reached.

Author

John Duns Scotus

Joannes Duns Scotus

1265–1308

Readings

Distinction 25: On Those Ordained by Heretics and on Simony

Distinctio Vigesima Quinta: De Ordinatis ab Haereticis et de Simonia

Duns Scotus's commentary on Distinction 25 of Book IV of Peter Lombard's Sentences, which treats the validity of orders conferred by heretics and the question of simony. Taking up Lombard's opening question on whether heretics cut off from the Church can validly confer the sacrament of orders, Scotus distinguishes the validity of the sacrament (which depends on the character of the minister and the form of the rite, not on his sanctity or orthodoxy) from the licit exercise of the power conferred. He then turns to simony, defining it as the deliberate will to buy or sell something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual for a temporal price, and examines its species, the three "gifts" (of hand, tongue, and service) by which it is committed, the validity of simoniacal ordinations, the penalties incurred, and special cases involving prelates and the pope. The Vivès edition prints the text with the marginal annotations of the Irish Franciscan Antonius Hiquaeus (Antoine Hickey, d. 1641), who supplies references to canon law, Suárez, and the Council of Trent.

John Duns Scotus·1304·Latin·Liber IV, Distinctio XXV·p. 106a–143b