Question 212. Whether the Blessed Virgin had any heaviness in carrying?

Latin (Borgnet)English

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QUAESTIO CCXII. Utrum aliquam gravitatem habuerit B. Virgo in portando?

Quaerendum etiam dignum esse videtur, Utrum aliquam gravitatem habuerit beata Virgo in portando?

Et videtur, quod sic:

1. Grossum et grave additum corpori grosso et gravi, necessario trahit ipsum secundum suam inclinationem deorsum, et sic gravat necessario aliquantulum.

2. Item, Hoc non videtur repugnare beatitudini beatae Virginis, sed magis est ad meritum, cum gravari sit poenale: unde, II Machab. VII, 27, mater quaedam ad memoriam revocat filio suo, quae et quanta sustinuerit pro ipso in utero. Videtur igitur, quod beata Virgo debuit gravari in portando.

Sed contra:

1. In statu ante peccatum non fuisset hujusmodi gravitas in portatione: ergo nec in ista portatione cujus conceptio fuit sine peccato.

2. Item, Hoc est pure naturale: ergo non fuit poenale.

3. Item, Habere in se et apud se dilectum non est poenale, sed delectabile: ergo beata Virgo non habuit gravitatem in portando ¹.

QUESTION 212. Whether the Blessed Virgin had any heaviness in carrying?

It also seems worthy to be asked whether the blessed Virgin had any heaviness in carrying.

And it seems that she did:

1. A gross and heavy thing added to a gross and heavy body necessarily draws it downward according to its inclination, and thus necessarily weighs it down somewhat.

2. Likewise, this does not seem to be repugnant to the blessedness of the blessed Virgin, but rather to be toward merit, since to be weighed down is penal. Whence, 2 Maccabees 7:27, a certain mother recalls to the memory of her son what and how much she had sustained for him in the womb. Therefore it seems that the blessed Virgin ought to have been weighed down in carrying.

But to the contrary:

1. In the state before sin there would not have been heaviness of this sort in carrying; therefore neither in this carrying, whose conception was without sin.

2. Likewise, this is purely natural; therefore it was not penal.

3. Likewise, to have the beloved in oneself and with oneself is not penal, but delightful; therefore the blessed Virgin did not have heaviness in carrying ¹.

Notes

In the same place. (Ibidem.) ↩