B. Rejection of the Opinion

72. The above [nn.66-71] can well be ‘Bernardican’ objections and subtleties,‘Bernardican’ because Bernard of Pavia [d.1213], a noted glossator, came up with this and many like glosses on the law; see below n.184. ⁴⁰ and asinine enough indeed in their fear lest an ass drink the sacrament; for neither in the water before the speaking of the words, nor in the speaking of them, nor in the last instant, nor in brief is the sacrament ever, without words or with, in the water; but the washing is in the water, and no ass can come along to drink that.

73. Neither is the simultaneity of the last instant in speaking the words and of the washing [n.65] necessary, for when the Apostles baptized 3,000 men in one day, Acts 2.41, they did not sprinkle [the water] always with the last syllable of the form such that the water then touched the one baptized.

74. Also, as to what the glossator himself adduces [n.67], that some virtue is in the last instant in the water and at the same time ceases to be, it is nothing if one understands the words properly; because when a permanent thing ceases to be it is not; and when it begins to be it is, for it has the first moment of its being and not the last; therefore if it begins and ceases at the same time, it is and is not at the same time.

75. Nor is it necessary that, because of this, virtue remain in the water after the act of baptizing [n.74], because neither is there any virtue in the water when the baptizer is actually using it, as was touched on in d.1 n.323.

76. Nor do the legal concordances [nn.69-71] prove that the same thing begins and ceases simultaneously; but they get their meaning in the way a lord begins to have lordship over a slave (who has been given to his wife) in a way other than he had lordship before, and ceases to have it in the way he had it before; for he had the slave before immediately and now he has him mediately, because now he is the slave of his wife [n.70].