hers said that all spiritual
substances proceeded from God in a certain degree and order; and
Dionysius (Coel. Hier. x) seems to have thought so, when he said that
among spiritual substances there are the first, the middle and the
last; even in one order of angels. Now according to the first opinion,
it must be said that there are many aeviternities as there are many
aeviternal things of first degree. But according to the second
opinion, it would be necessary to say that there is one aeviternity
only; because since each thing is measured by the most simple element
of its genus, it must be that the existence of all aeviternal things
should be measured by the existence of the first aeviternal thing,
which is all the more simple the nearer it is to the first. Wherefore
because the second opinion is truer, as will be shown later
(Q. 47, A. 2); we concede at present that there is only one
aeviternity.

Reply Obj. 1: Aeviternity is sometimes taken for age, that is, a
space of a thing's duration; and thus we say many aeviternities when
we mean ages.

Reply Obj. 2: Although the heavenly bodies and spiritual things
differ in the genus of their nature, still they agree in having a
changeless being, and are thus measured by aeviternity.

Reply Obj. 3: All temporal things did not begin together;
nevertheless there is one time for all of them, by reason of the
first measured by time; and thus all aeviternal things have one
aeviternity by reason of the first, though all did not begin together.

Reply Obj. 4: For things to be measured by one, it is not necessary
that the one should be the cause of all, but that it be more simple
than the rest.
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QUESTION 11

THE UNITY OF GOD
(In Four Articles)

After the foregoing, we consider the divine unity; concerning which
there are four points of inquiry:

(1) Whether "one" adds anything to "being"?

(2) Whether "one" and "many" are opposed to each other?

(3) Whether God is one?

(4) Whether He is in the highest degree one?
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FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 11, Art. 1]

Whether "One" Adds Anything to "Being"?

Objection 1: It seems that "one" adds something to "being." For
everything is in a determinate genus by addition to being, which
penetrates all _genera._ But "one" is a determinate genus, for it is
the principle of number, which is a species of quantity. Therefore
"one" adds something to "being."

Obj. 2: Further, what divides a t