Whether in This Sacrament the Dimensive Quantity of the Bread or Wine
Is the Subject of the Other Accidents?
Objection 1: It seems that in this sacrament the dimensive quantity
of the bread or wine is not the subject of the other accidents. For
accident is not the subject of accident; because no form can be a
subject, since to be a subject is a property of matter. But dimensive
quantity is an accident. Therefore dimensive quantity cannot be the
subject of the other accidents.
Obj. 2: Further, just as quantity is individuated by substance, so
also are the other accidents. If, then, the dimensive quantity of the
bread or wine remains individuated according to the being it had
before, in which it is preserved, for like reason the other accidents
remain individuated according to the existence which they had before
in the substance. Therefore they are not in dimensive quantity as in
a subject, since every accident is individuated by its own subject.
Obj. 3: Further, among the other accidents that remain, of the bread
and wine, the senses perceive also rarity and density, which cannot
be in dimensive quantity existing outside matter; because a thing is
rare which has little matter under great dimensions, while a thing is
dense which has much matter under small dimensions, as is said in
_Phys._ iv. It does not seem, then, that dimensive quantity can be
the subject of the accidents which remain in this sacrament.
Obj. 4: Further, quantity abstract from matter seems to be
mathematical quantity, which is not the subject of sensible
qualities. Since, then, the remaining accidents in this sacrament are
sensible, it seems that in this sacrament they cannot be subjected in
the dimensive quantity of the bread and wine that remains after
consecration.
_On the contrary,_ Qualities are divisible only accidentally, that
is, by reason of the subject. But the qualities remaining in this
sacrament are divided by the division of dimensive quantity, as is
evident through our senses. Therefore, dimensive quantity is the
subject of the accidents which remain in this sacrament.
_I answer that,_ It is necessary to say that the other accidents
which remain in this sacrament are subjected in the dimensive
quantity of the bread and wine that remains: first of all, because
something having quantity and color and affected by other accidents
is perceived by the senses; nor is sense deceived in such. Secondly,
because the first disposition of matter is dimensive quantity, hence
Plato also assigned "great" and "small" as the first differences of
matter (Aristotle, _Metaph._ iv). And because the first subject is
matter, the consequence is that all other accidents are related to
their subject through the medium of dimensive quantity; just as the
first subject of color is said to be the surface, on which account
some have maintained that dimensions are the substances of bodies, as
is said in _Metaph._ iii. And since, when the subject is withdrawn,
the accidents remain according to the being which they had before, it
follows that all accidents remain founded upon dimensive quantity.
Thirdly, because, since the subject is the principle of individuation
of the accidents, it is necessary for what is admitted as the subject
of some accidents to be somehow the principle of individuation: for
it is of the very notion of an individual that it cannot be in
several; and this happens in two ways. First, because it is not
natural to it to be in any one; and in this way immaterial separated
forms, subsisting of themselves, are also individuals of themselves.
Secondly, because a form, be it substantial or accidental, is
naturally in someone indeed, not in several, as this whiteness, which
is in this body. As to the first, matter is the principle of
individuation of all inherent forms, because, since these forms,
considered in themselves, are naturally in something as in a subject,
from the very fact that one of them is received in matter, which is
not in another, it follows that neither can the form itself thus
existing be in another. As to the second, it must be maintained that
the principle of individuation is dimensive quantity. For that
something is naturally in another one solely, is due to the fact that
that other is undivided in itself, and distinct from all others. But
it is on account of quantity that substance can be divided, as is
said in _Phys._ i. And therefore dimensive quantity itself is a
particular principle of individuation in forms of this kind, namely,
inasmuch as forms numerically distinct are in different parts of the
matter. Hence also dimensive quantity has of itself a kind of
individuation, so that we can imagine several lines of the same
species, differing in position, which is included in the notion of
this quantity; for it belongs to dimension for it to be "quantity
having position" (Aristotle, Categor. iv), and therefore dimensive
quantity can be the subject of the other accidents, rather than the
other way about.
Reply Obj. 1: One accident cannot of itself be the subject of
another, because it does not exist of itself. But inasmuch as an
accident is received in another thing, one is said to be the subject
of the other, inasmuch as one is received in a subject through
another, as the surface is said to be the subject of color. Hence
when God makes an accident to exist of itself, it can also be of
itself the subject of another.
Reply Obj. 2: The other accidents, even as they were in the substance
of the bread, were individuated by means of dimensive quantity, as
stated above. And therefore dimensive quantity is the subject of the
other accidents remaining in this sacrament, rather than conversely.
Reply Obj. 3: Rarity and density are particular qualities
accompanying bodies, by reason of their having much or little matter
under dimensions; just as all other accidents likewise follow from
the principles of substance. And consequently, as the accidents are
preserved by Divine power when the substance is withdrawn, so, when
matter is withdrawn, the qualities which go with matter, such as
rarity and density, are preserved by Divine power.
Reply Obj. 4: Mathematical quantity abstracts not from intelligible
matter, but from sensible matter, as is said in _Metaph._ vii. But
matter is termed sensible because it underlies sensible qualities.
And therefore it is manifest that the dimensive quantity, which
remains in this sacrament without a subject, is not mathematical
quantity.
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