and then disagreement between them would be possible. If they disagreed, it would follow that neither of them could do anything, that they would both be powerless, and that each one (1) of them would be both preventing and prevented.

Thus, the impossibility of two Lords is established, whether they are presumed to agree or disagree. If, however, they are presumed to be independent, with each independently creating the world, this is even more obviously impossible. For the independence of either one precludes his having a partner in its creation; how much more so when the other (2) is also independently responsible for it? Supposing each of them to be independent entails that each of them did all of it and that neither of them did any part of it. This would entail combining two contradictories twice over.

For this reason, two complete and independent causal agents cannot jointly produce one and the same effect. An example would be to say:

“This person alone sewed the garment, and that person alone sewed that (3) very same garment”; or (4) to say: “This person ate all the food,” and then say: “That person ate all that very same food.” (5)

Once properly conceived, all of this is intuitively known by reason to be impossible. Some people, however, fail to conceive it properly. Instead, what first comes to mind is two people collaborating in performing some action. Yet when two people collaborate, neither one performs (6) the whole action, nor was his power produced by their collaboration. Rather, their collaboration increased his power, and each one