This is even more impossible than saying: “A thing does not exist until it brings itself into existence,” for that would entail its being its own cause and preceding itself. Although this is impossible according to clear reason, being the cause of its own cause, and preceding that which precedes it, is even more impossible.

If, then, it is impossible for a single being to be incapable until it makes itself capable, it is all the more impossible for each of two beings to be incapable until the other makes it capable. For it cannot make itself capable until it is itself capable, which would entail its being both capable and incapable at the same time. Likewise, if neither were capable unless the other made it so, each would necessarily be both capable and incapable on two occasions: when it empowers the one it has made capable, and when that one empowers it.

Since this is among the self-evident, necessary truths for anyone who understands it, it requires no further demonstration. Now, since that god must be capable of acting independently, his independence in acting precludes another from either performing that same act or sharing in it. It necessarily follows that each god would act alone in creating what he creates, without needing another.

It would then follow that what one creates must have no need of what the other creates. Otherwise, each would necessarily need the other and be unable to act unless the other acted. Each one’s action would necessarily entail the other’s action and be entailed by it; and that which entails something cannot exist