Crist, as þe gospel seiþ. And so trowe not to hem þat seien, þat it is six moneþis bifore þat þe soule [That is, the rational or human soul.] be couplid wiþ þe bodi, and bifore it haþ plantid soule [plauntis of soule, E.] , and siþ soule of beeste [The writer appears to repudiate, with Aquinas, the doctrine which held that before the rational soul,—anima intellectiva,—in virtue of which man is man, was joined to the em|bryo, it had been animated suc|cessively by a vegetative and a sen|sitive soul, so as to be conformed to plants during the first, to animals during the second period of gesta|tion. In the treatise De Spirituali Creatione among the Quaest. Dispu|tatae, Aquinas writes (art. 4) 'Quidam vero dixerunt quod a principio inest anima vegetabilis, et illa eadem cum fuerit magis perfecta fit anima sen|sitiva, et tandem fit anima intellec|tiva.' But the Christian philosopher, holding out for the oneness and in|corruptibility of the human soul, will not admit this; he looks upon the embryonic changes as indicating successive stages of the one soul, but no more. 'Sic cum in embrione primo sit anima vegetativa tantum, cum perventum fuerit ad majorem perfectionem tollitur forma imper|fecta, et succedit forma perfectior, quae est anima vegetativa et sensi|tiva simul, et ultimo cedente, suc|cedit ultima forma completissima, quae est anima rationalis.' To these three elementary stages St. Augus|tine, in the De Quantitate Animae, adds four more, that of moral effort, in which the soul is seeking virtue, that of moral perfection and rest, that of spiritual effort or tendency towards God, and that of the soul's union with and rest in God.] ; but as we bileven þe wordis of þe gospel, þat Baptist was glad in comyng of Crist, so we supposen þat he was on lyve a litil bifore þat Jesus was conseyved, but we musen not how muche, siþ it is Goddis privyte.
Of þis gospel mai we take, how it is grete synne to mys|trowe to holi writt, siþ God punishide Zacarie for he trowide not to his aungel; and more ben wordis of God þan wordis of þis aungel. And þus defaute in bileve is bifore alle oþer synnes, and siþ God seiþ al treuþe, no treuþe shulde be denyed; but summe may men doute, and sum trowen wiþ drede, for God seiþ þis treuþe, or ellis God seiþ it not. O how myche ben þei to blame þat seien þat Goddis lawe is fals, for mys|undirstonding of a fool or an heeretik! Certis, bi þe same skile þei myȝten seie þat God is fals, siþ God signifieþ to hem fals undirstonding, in peyne of þer former synne, bi which þei ben blindid, and þus God were þe falseste þing þat evere was in þis world. For þei seien þat falshede is no defaute in a þing, whi seien þei not þat God is fals for perfeccioun of God, siþ God meveþ fals men, for þer former falshede, to undirstonde
