System of Sacred Theology · §3.32.1 · Ludwig Crocius

Chapter 32: On Fate

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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO. On Fate.

FATE is the great influx of divine wisdom granting things a mode by which in causing they are ordered toward one another. Therefore the SECOND great influx put into things is Fate, differing from necessity — which seems chiefly to consist in simple things considered alone — inasmuch as fate itself seems to be in the concurrence of many things and to pertain to ordering wisdom, as necessity pertains to power giving each thing to be according to its mode.

Whence fate is said from speaking (fari), as Blessed Augustine witnesses, as if the things that happen by fate were ordered and decreed by someone speaking and commanding. Yet he thinks the name of fate ought to be exploded, because he says this was given to the stars by the Astrologers — in which Doctor Gregory agrees with him. Moreover even the more ancient philosophers who gave God the world's generation and the distinction and regimen of things say the name of fate is vain and false, as Anaxagoras, Alexander witnessing in the book On Fate and the second On the Soul; and in sacred Scripture you will not find the name Fate, even if lot, chance, and fortune are sometimes found there.

Latin

CAPUT TRICESIMUM SECUNDUM, De Fato. FATUM est magnus divinae sapientiae influxus largiens rebus modum, quo in causando ad se invicem ordinantur. SECUNDUS ergo magnus influxus rebus inditus est Fatum, differens a necessitate, quae potissimum consistere videtur in rebus simplicibus et solitarie consideratis, eo quod ipsum fatum videtur esse in rerum multarum concursu, et pertinere ad sapientiam ordinantem, sicuti necessitas ad potentiam dantem unicuique esse iuxta modum suum. Unde fatum dicitur a fando, teste B. Augustino, quasi quae fato fiunt, ab aliquo dicente ac iubente ordinata ac decreta sint. Sed tamen nomen fati explodendum putat, quia dicit hoc datum esse sideribus ab Astrologis, in quo ei adstipulatur D. Gregorius. Quin etiam philosophi antiquiores, qui Deo generationem mundi et distinctionem regimenque rerum dederunt, fati nomen vanum esse falsumque dicunt, ut Anaxagoras, teste Alexandro libro de Fato et secundo de anima; et in sacra Scriptura non invenies nomen Fati, etiamsi sors, casus et fortuna inibi interdum inveniatur.

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Ludwig Crocius's System of Sacred Theology (Bremen, 1636), all four books: theology and its rule in Scripture; man's last end, death and the resurrection; God, the Trinity, creation, providence and sin; and the grace of Christ, the Word and sacraments, faith, the Christian life and prayer.

Ludwig Crocius (1586–1655) taught theology and philosophy at Bremen and sat as a delegate at the Synod of Dort (1618–1619). A Calvinist of the irenic school, he spent his career seeking common ground between the Reformed and Lutheran churches.

His System of Sacred Theology (Bremen, 1636) is a full Reformed dogmatics in the high-orthodox style: precise definitions, ordered questions, objections raised and answered.

Date1636 AD (Bremen; Reformed professor)

EditionSyntagma sacrae theologiae (Bremen: Berthold Villerian, 1636)

English follows the 1636 Bremen Latin (Berthold Villerian), read chapter by chapter from the SLUB Dresden page images, with a machine reading of the same pages as a check. No modern English was copied. The author index at the end of the volume is not translated.

Reference

VD17 14:684303C. SLUB id335860389.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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