that constitutes an impediment, fully possesses will and power; these are positive realities (1), and He Himself gives rise to them, either directly or through something proceeding from Him. Thus, no existent thing comes into being except from Him and through Him.

As for these men (2), they say that the First Agent has [no] (3) attribute or act subsisting in Him; rather, He is a bare, simple essence, and different temporally originated events continually proceed from that essence without anything new arising from Him. This plainly contradicts reason, whether they call Him (4) an intrinsically necessitating cause (5) or an agent acting by choice. For effects to change and differ (6) without any corresponding change or difference in their cause is plainly contrary to reason. Likewise, for an agent acting by choice to produce various temporally originated things without a will—indeed, without diverse acts of will (7)—subsisting in him is plainly contrary to reason.

These men say that the originating principle of all temporally originated events is the movement of the celestial sphere, and that above it there are no temporally originated factors necessitating its motion—even though the sphere’s motions occur one after another with no temporally originated causes bringing them about. Yet according to them, the movements of the celestial spheres (8) are the causes of all temporally originated events. If those movements have no originator, the true import of their doctrine is that no temporally originated event has any originator—even if, in their view, the celestial sphere has a rational soul (9),