Whether the Accidents Remain in This Sacrament Without a Subject?
Objection 1: It seems that the accidents do not remain in this
sacrament without a subject, because there ought not to be anything
disorderly or deceitful in this sacrament of truth. But for accidents
to be without a subject is contrary to the order which God
established in nature; and furthermore it seems to savor of deceit,
since accidents are naturally the signs of the nature of the subject.
Therefore the accidents are not without a subject in this sacrament.
Obj. 2: Further, not even by miracle can the definition of a thing be
severed from it, or the definition of another thing be applied to it;
for instance, that, while man remains a man, he can be an irrational
animal. For it would follow that contradictories can exist at the one
time: for the "definition of a thing is what its name expresses," as
is said in _Metaph._ iv. But it belongs to the definition of an
accident for it to be in a subject, while the definition of substance
is that it must subsist of itself, and not in another. Therefore it
cannot come to pass, even by miracle, that the accidents exist
without a subject in this sacrament.
Obj. 3: Further, an accident is individuated by its subject. If
therefore the accidents remain in this sacrament without a subject,
they will not be individual, but general, which is clearly false,
because thus they would not be sensible, but merely intelligible.
Obj. 4: Further, the accidents after the consecration of this
sacrament do not obtain any composition. But before the consecration
they were not composed either of matter and form, nor of existence
(_quo est_) and essence (_quod est_). Therefore, even after
consecration they are not composite in either of these ways. But this
is unreasonable, for thus they would be simpler than angels, whereas
at the same time these accidents are perceptible to the senses.
Therefore, in this sacrament the accidents do not remain without a
subject.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says in an Easter Homily (Lanfranc, De
Corp. et Sang. Dom. xx) that "the sacramental species are the names
of those things which were there before, namely, of the bread and
wine." Therefore since the substance of the bread and the wine does
not remain, it seems that these species remain without a subject.
_I answer that,_ The species of the bread and wine, which are
perceived by our senses to remain in this sacrament after
consecration, are not subjected in the substance of the bread and
wine, for that does not remain, as stated above (Q. 75, A. 2); nor in
the substantial form, for that does not remain (Q. 75, A. 6), and if
it did remain, "it could not be a subject," as Boethius declares (De
Trin. i). Furthermore it is manifest that these accidents are not
subjected in the substance of Christ's body and blood, because the
substance of the human body cannot in any way be affected by such
accidents; nor is it possible for Christ's glorious and impassible
body to be altered so as to receive these qualities.
Now there are some who say that they are in the surrounding
atmosphere as in a subject. But even this cannot be: in the first
place, because atmosphere is not susceptive of such accidents.
Secondly, because these accidents are not where the atmosphere is,
nay more, the atmosphere is displaced by the motion of these species.
Thirdly, because accidents do not pass from subject to subject, so
that the same identical accident which was first in one subject be
afterwards in another; because an accident is individuated by the
subject; hence it cannot come to pass for an accident remaining
identically the same to be at one time in one subject, and at another
time in another. Fourthly, since the atmosphere is not deprived of
its own accidents, it would have at the one time its own accidents
and others foreign to it. Nor can it be maintained that this is done
miraculously in virtue of the consecration, because the words of
consecration do not signify this, and they effect only what they
signify.
Therefore it follows that the accidents continue in this sacrament
without a subject. This can be done by Divine power: for since an
effect depends more upon the first cause than on the second, God Who
is the first cause both of substance and accident, can by His
unlimited power preserve an accident in existence when the substance
is withdrawn whereby it was preserved in existence as by its proper
cause, just as without natural causes He can produce other effects of
natural causes, even as He formed a human body in the Virgin's womb,
"without the seed of man" (Hymn for Christmas, First Vespers).
Reply Obj. 1: There is nothing to hinder the common law of nature
from ordaining a thing, the contrary of which is nevertheless
ordained by a special privilege of grace, as is evident in the
raising of the dead, and in the restoring of sight to the blind: even
thus in human affairs, to some individuals some things are granted by
special privilege which are outside the common law. And so, even
though it be according to the common law of nature for an accident to
be in a subject, still for a special reason, according to the order
of grace, the accidents exist in this sacrament without a subject, on
account of the reasons given above (Q. 75, A. 5).
Reply Obj. 2: Since being is not a genus, then being cannot be of
itself the essence of either substance or accident. Consequently, the
definition of substance is not--"a being of itself without a
subject," nor is the definition of accident--"a being in a subject";
but it belongs to the quiddity or essence of substance "to have
existence not in a subject"; while it belongs to the quiddity or
essence of accident "to have existence in a subject." But in this
sacrament it is not in virtue of their essence that accidents are not
in a subject, but through the Divine power sustaining them; and
consequently they do not cease to be accidents, because neither is
the definition of accident withdrawn from them, nor does the
definition of substance apply to them.
Reply Obj. 3: These accidents acquired individual being in the
substance of the bread and wine; and when this substance is changed
into the body and blood of Christ, they remain in that individuated
being which they possessed before, hence they are individual and
sensible.
Reply Obj. 4: These accidents had no being of their own nor other
accidents, so long as the substance of the bread and wine remained;
but their subjects had _such_ being through them, just as snow is
_white_ through whiteness. But after the consecration the accidents
which remain have being; hence they are compounded of existence and
essence, as was said of the angels, in the First Part (Q. 50, A. 2,
ad 3); and besides they have composition of quantitative parts.
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