1 Objection 1: It would seem that this term person cannot be common to the three persons. For nothing is common to the three persons but the essence. But this term person does not signify the essence directly. Therefore it is not common to all three.
1 Ad quartum sic proceditur. Videtur quod hoc nomen persona non possit esse commune tribus personis. Nihil enim est commune tribus personis nisi essentia. Sed hoc nomen persona non significat essentiam in recto. Ergo non est commune tribus.
2 Objection 2: Further, the common is the opposite to the incommunicable. But the very meaning of person is that it is incommunicable; as appears from the definition given by Richard of St. Victor Question 29, Article 3, ad 4). Therefore this term person is not common to all the three persons.
2 Praeterea, commune opponitur incommunicabili. Sed de ratione personae est quod sit incommunicabilis, ut patet ex definitione Ricardi de s. Victore supra posita. Ergo hoc nomen persona non est commune tribus.
3 Objection 3: Further, if the name person is common to the three, it is common either really, or logically. But it is not so really; otherwise the three persons would be one person; nor again is it so logically; otherwise person would be a universal. But in God there is neither universal nor particular; neither genus nor species, as we proved above Question 3, Article 5). Therefore this term person' is not common to the three.
3 Praeterea, si est commune tribus, aut ista communitas attenditur secundum rem, aut secundum rationem. Sed non secundum rem, quia sic tres personae essent una persona. Nec iterum secundum rationem tantum, quia sic persona esset universale, in divinis autem non est universale et particulare, neque genus neque species, ut supra ostensum est. Non ergo hoc nomen persona est commune tribus.
4 On the contrary, Augustine says De Trin. vii, 4) that when we ask, Three what? we say, Three persons, because what a person is, is common to them.
4 Sed contra est quod dicit Augustinus, VII de Trin., quod cum quaereretur, quid tres? Responsum est, tres personae; quia commune est eis id quod est persona.
5 I answer that, The very mode of expression itself shows that this term person is common to the three when we say three persons; for when we say three men we show that man is common to the three. Now it is clear that this is not community of a real thing, as if one essence were common to the three; otherwise there would be only one person of the three, as also one essence. What is meant by such a community has been variously determined by those who have examined the subject.
Some have called it a community of exclusion, forasmuch as the definition of person contains the word incommunicable. Others thought it to be a community of intention, as the definition of person contains the word individual; as we say that to be a species is common to horse and ox. Both of these explanations, however, are excluded by the fact that person is not a name of exclusion nor of intention, but the name of a reality. We must therefore resolve that even in human affairs this name person is common by a community of idea, not as genus or species, but as a vague individual thing.
The names of genera and species, as man or animal, are given to signify the common natures themselves, but not the intentions of those common natures, signified by the terms genus or species. The vague individual thing, as some man, signifies the common nature with the determinate mode of existence of singular things, that is, something self-subsisting, as distinct from others. But the name of a designated singular thing signifies that which distinguishes the determinate thing; as the name Socrates signifies this flesh and this bone.
But there is this difference, that the term some man signifies the nature, or the individual on the part of its nature, with the mode of existence of singular things; while this name person is not given to signify the individual on the part of the nature, but the subsistent reality in that nature. Now this is common in idea to the divine persons, that each of them subsists distinctly from the others in the divine nature. Thus this name person is common in idea to the three divine persons.
5 Respondeo dicendum quod ipse modus loquendi ostendit hoc nomen persona tribus esse commune, cum dicimus tres personas, sicut cum dicimus tres homines, ostendimus hominem esse commune tribus. Manifestum est autem quod non est communitas rei, sicut una essentia communis est tribus, quia sic sequeretur unam esse personam trium, sicut essentia est una. Qualis autem sit communitas, investigantes diversimode locuti sunt. Quidam enim dixerunt quod est communitas negationis; propter hoc, quod in definitione personae ponitur incommunicabile. Quidam autem dixerunt quod est communitas intentionis, eo quod in definitione personae ponitur individuum; sicut si dicatur quod esse speciem est commune equo et bovi.
Sed utrumque horum excluditur per hoc, quod hoc nomen persona non est nomen negationis neque intentionis, sed est nomen rei. Et ideo dicendum est quod etiam in rebus humanis hoc nomen persona est commune communitate rationis, non sicut genus vel species, sed sicut individuum vagum. Nomina enim generum vel specierum, ut homo vel animal, sunt imposita ad significandum ipsas naturas communes; non autem intentiones naturarum communium, quae significantur his nominibus genus vel species. Sed individuum vagum, ut aliquis homo, significat naturam communem cum determinato modo existendi qui competit singularibus, ut scilicet sit per se subsistens distinctum ab aliis.
Sed in nomine singularis designati, significatur determinatum distinguens, sicut in nomine Socratis haec caro et hoc os. Hoc tamen interest, quod aliquis homo significat naturam, vel individuum ex parte naturae, cum modo existendi qui competit singularibus, hoc autem nomen persona non est impositum ad significandum individuum ex parte naturae, sed ad significandum rem subsistentem in tali natura. Hoc autem est commune secundum rationem omnibus personis divinis, ut unaquaeque earum subsistat in natura divina distincta ab aliis. Et sic hoc nomen persona, secundum rationem, est commune tribus personis divinis.
6 Reply to Objection 1: This argument is founded on a real community.
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod ratio illa procedit de communitate rei.
7 Reply to Objection 2: Although person is incommunicable, yet the mode itself of incommunicable existence can be common to many.
7 Ad secundum dicendum quod, licet persona sit incommunicabilis, tamen ipse modus existendi incommunicabiliter, potest esse pluribus communis.
8 Reply to Objection 3: Although this community is logical and not real, yet it does not follow that in God there is universal or particular, or genus, or species; both because neither in human affairs is the community of person the same as community of genus or species; and because the divine persons have one being; whereas genus and species and every other universal are predicated of many which differ in being.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod, licet sit communitas rationis et non rei tamen non sequitur quod in divinis sit universale et particulare, vel genus vel species. Tum quia neque in rebus humanis communitas personae est communitas generis vel speciei. Tum quia personae divinae habent unum esse, genus autem et species, et quodlibet universale, praedicatur de pluribus secundum esse differentibus.