Chapter 2
325 | Text and Translation Chapter 2 That God truly is Therefore, lord, you who give understanding to faith, grant me that I might understand, to the extent you know to be beneficial, that you are as we believe and that you are that which we believe. And we believe that you are something than which nothing greater can be thought.
Or is there, then, not something of such a nature, since the fool said in his heart that there is no God? But certainly this same fool, when he hears what I say, namely, something than which nothing greater can be thought, understands what he hears; and what is understood is in his understanding, even if he does not understand it to be.
For it is different for a thing to be in the understanding than for that thing to be understood to be. When, for example, a painter preconceives of what he is to make, he indeed has in his understanding what he has not yet made, but he does not yet understand it to be.
Once he has painted it, however, he both has in his understanding and understands to be that which he has now made.
Even the fool, then, is convinced that something than which nothing greater can be thought at least is in his understanding, since he understands this when he hears it, and whatever is understood is in the understanding.
But certainly that than which a greater cannot be thought cannot be in the understanding alone. For if it is in the understanding alone even, it can be thought to be in reality also—which is greater.
If, therefore, that than which a greater cannot be thought is in the understanding alone, that than which a greater cannot be thought is itself that than which a greater can be thought. But certainly this cannot be. Therefore, without doubt, something than which a greater cannot be thought exists both in the understanding and in reality.
326 | PROSLOGION
CAPITULUM III
Quod non possit cogitari non esse Quod utique sic vere est, ut nec cogitari possit non esse.
Nam potest cogitari esse aliquid, quod non possit cogitari non esse; quod maius est quam quod non esse cogitari potest. Quare si id quo maius nequit cogitari, potest cogitari non esse: id ipsum quo maius cogitari nequit, non est id quo maius cogitari nequit; quod convenire non potest. Sic ergo vere est aliquid quo maius cogitari non potest, ut nec cogitarl possit non esse.
Et hoc es tu, Domine Deus noster. Sic ergo vere es, Domine, Deus meus, ut nec cogitari possis non esse. Et merito. Si enim aliqua mens posset cogitare aliquid melius te, ascenderet creatura super creatorem et judicaret de creatore; quod valde est absurdum. Et quidem quidquid est aliud praeter te solum, potest cogitari non esse. Solus igitur verissime omnium et ideo maxime omnium habes esse, quia quidquid aliud est, non sic vere, et idcirco minus habet esse.
Cur itaque dixit insipiens in corde suo: non est Deus, cum tam in promptu sit rationali menti te maxime omnium esse? Cur, nisi quia stultus et insipiens?
Psat:
52:1