c. About another Peculiar Possible Solution

343. In another way it is said [opinion reported and rejected by Bonaventure and Aquinas] that it is in the fourth species of quality, because it is a certain spiritual figure.

344. But this is nothing, because nothing is placed in a genus through metaphorical properties, otherwise Christ would truly be in the genus of inanimate substance (for he is metaphorically called ‘rock’ [I Corinthians 10.4]), and in the genus of irrational animal (because he is said metaphorically to be a ‘lion’ [Revelation 5.5]), and in the genus of quality (because he is said to be ‘light’, “I am the light of the world,” [John 8.12]). But from metaphors is to be collected the proper condition of a thing in itself, and according to this condition must it be placed in genus and species; for in this way could ‘intelligible species’ be put in the fourth species of quality, because it configures the soul to the very subject [sc. of thought].