Tut Tut

This weekend I picked up a used copy of A. A. Milne's classic Winnie ille Pooh - that's Winnie the Pooh in Latin - thinking that it might lift my spirits during another rainy weekend in Paris. As I flipped to the page most relevant to my current woes, where Pooh utters that most profound adage, "tut tut, pluvia impendat" - that's "tut tut, it looks like rain" - a folded sheet of old parchment fell out of the book and onto the floor. I picked it up and began to read, flabbergasted and amazed at what I had found. The parchment seemed to be a long lost question from St. Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, the "doctoral dissertation" which he composed while living in Paris between 1252 and 1256. I have little doubt about the authenticity of the text, since it is written in Aquinas's famous littera illegibilia - that's "illegible handwriting" - and addresses a topic which he must have thought about often while living and working in Paris. What a find!

I've gone through the trouble of translating the text from Latin into English for you, but first I should say something about its style. The text is written in the high-medieval disputatio style, which follows this form: first a question is raised for dispute; then arguments are presented for the opposing side of the dispute; then a contrary opinion is cited either from an accepted authority or from reason; then the author gives his own answer to the question; and finally he responds to each of the arguments presented for the opposing side. That's it. Enjoy!

Utrum Parisius semper pluat: Whether it is always raining in Paris.

1. And it seems that it is not. For Paris is the “city of light.” Yet as light is to sunshine, so is darkness to rain. Therefore, it is not always raining in Paris.

2. Moreover, at least some sinful people live in Paris, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Yet in his Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Augustine makes it clear that the sinful are represented by the vineyard of which the Lord says, “I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” (Is. 5:6). Therefore, it is not always raining in Paris.

3. Moreover, after the flood God promised Noah that “the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Gen. 8:15). Yet it only took forty days and forty nights of rain to cover the whole face of the earth with water. And so if it were always raining in Paris, there would be a second flood and God’s promise would be broken. Therefore, it is not always raining in Paris.

But on the contrary, it is said in the book of Job, “For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’, and to the shower and the rain, ‘be strong’,” (Job 37:6) and again in the book of Matthew, “he sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat. 5:45).

I respond that it must be known that rain is said in many ways. In one sense rain is meant to refer to precipitation, that is, any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapour that falls under the force of gravity. It is of rain in this sense that the poet speaks who says, “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.” In another sense rain is meant to refer metaphorically to the effects of a superior cause, as when it is said in the book of Isaiah, “let the skies rain down righteousness” (Is. 45:8). And there are as many different types of rain in this sense as there are different types of effects of a superior cause. Now, in the first sense of rain, that is, precipitation, it must be said that it is always raining in Paris, for there is always some kind of precipitation in Paris, whether dew, mist, rain, snow, sleet, hail, or (as is usual from January to March) all of them at once. And this is clear even from the etymology of the name Parisius (Paris), which derives from the words pluvia (rain) and semper (always). Moreover, even in the second sense of rain, that is, the effects of a superior cause, it must be said that it is always raining in Paris. For as was proved above in a previous question, God is the first cause of all that exists, not only insofar as he causes all things to begin to exist, but even insofar as he causes all things to continue to exist at every moment at which they exist. Therefore, since there is always something (other than God) existing in Paris, it is always raining in Paris. Moreover, as will be shown in a later question below, God always bestows grace upon the elect, according to the promise of Christ, “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mat. 28:20), and especially to the lowly, as it says in many places, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Therefore, insofar as there are always some elect in Paris upon whom God bestows grace, it is always raining in Paris.

1. To the first I say that the analogy fails, since light and darkness are mutually exclusive, as black and white, but sunshine and rain are not, since rain can fall while the sun shines.

2. To the second I say that Augustine makes it clear in that passage that he means rain in the second sense and not in the first. And nothing prevents there always being one type of rain in this sense but not another type.

3. To the third I say that God’s promise to Noah pertains to rain in the first sense, but not in the second. Yet rain in this sense admits of diverse quantities, as is clear from the difference between a light shower and a torrential downpour. Therefore, since the flood was caused by forty days and forty nights of torrential downpour, it is clear that God could not cause it always to rain that much in Paris without breaking his promise. Nevertheless, nothing prevents God from causing it always to rain in Paris in some quantity less than a torrential downpour, or in some mixture of more and less, day in and day out, as in fact it does. Moreover, it is particularly fitting that God should cause it always to rain in Paris, for the sign of his covenant with Noah, the rainbow, is only naturally manifest in the presence of precipitation. Therefore, since God remains always faithful to his promises, and that even in Paris, it is fitting that he should cause it to rain always in Paris at least enough that there always be a rainbow in the sky, as in fact there is.

If this little gem has piqued your interest in long lost texts of Aquinas, here's another one on a pressing question for our times: whether sermons are always boring!