Little Question Two of Principal Question Three
What fate is, and what must be ascribed to fate
It is doubted what fate is according to the philosophers, Stoics, and astrologers, and what the philosophers, astrologers, and Stoics themselves ascribe to fate.
To this it is answered that the philosophers first define fate thus: Fate is the disposition, order, or series of secondary causes—that is, of the stars and planets—and the influence of the heavens when each person is born or conceived, decreeing laws and necessities for all inferior effects with respect to the good or evil things which befall human beings.
And Hermes Trismegistus and Apuleius define fate thus: Fate is a certain inflection of secondary causes dependent upon the providence of the first cause.
Ptolemy and the astronomers, however, define it thus: Fate is a certain binding together of causes, drawing its power and effect from the motions of the stars.
And Seneca says: Fate is a certain necessity of all things and actions which no thing can sever, dependent upon the disposition of Jupiter and the most worthy counsel of the gods.
Democritus and Epicurus, however, say: Fate is a certain celestial virtue and force, existing in the motions of the celestial bodies and in their movements, containing under itself and necessarily connecting all the effects which occur below the sphere of active and passive things—that is, below the Moon.
And Chrysippus the Stoic, as Aulus Gellius reports in Book VI of the Attic Nights, says: “Fate is a certain everlasting and unavoidable series and chain of things, rolling itself and entangling itself through the eternal orders of consequence of which it is fitted and linked.”
The aforesaid philosophers, astrologers, and Stoics ascribe to this disposition of secondary causes and influence of the heavens, which they call fate, all natural and voluntary effects; all inclinations toward vices or virtues; all passions and desires of souls; future events of good or bad fortune; and the thoughts and temptations of human beings. They do so according to the error of Empedocles, who says—as the Philosopher recounts in Book II On the Soul—that the wills and minds in human beings are such as the father of living beings and of the gods, that is, the Sun or Jupiter, sends into them during the day.
They affirm that all these things come about and are disposed immovably and necessarily by fate, even apart from the wills of God and human beings, maintaining that nothing lies within the power of our free choice.
These things are from Albert and Henry.