The Metaphysics of the Trinity in Some Fourteenth Century Franciscans

Thirteenth and fourteenth century philosophical theologians approached the doctrine of God with a double weight of tradition behind them. Philosophically, they were mindful of Aristotle’s Categories as handled by Augustine in De Trinitate, as filtered through Boethius, and as developed by their own subsequent metaphysical interpretations. Fundamental to Categories metaphysics is the thesis that substance is the first category on which all the items in the other categories depend. Recall how substance itself divides into second substances (genera and species) and first substances or individuals. Second substances are defined by genus and differentia. Those here below are in principle sharable by