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C. Third Opinion
1. Statement of the Opinion
30. In another way [William of Ware] it is said that a supernatural power was conferred on Mary whereby she was able to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in an instant.
2. Rejection of the Opinion
31. On the contrary: this supernatural force would be an ‘accident in an accident’ [cf. Metaphysics 4.4.10007a31-b13] of Mary’s nature; but if she acted in the formation of Christ’s body only by this accident, then she did not thus per se and truly and naturally act in the formation of this body as other mothers do, who act of their own nature in the formation of their offspring’s bodies; for it does not as truly belong to a stone to diffuse sight48 (which belongs to it through its whiteness, and this is an accident in an accident in it) as it belongs to a stone to go downwards (which belongs to it through its nature as a natural accident).
32. Similarly, where will the supernatural accident be? If in the intellect or will then it does not seem to be a reason for acting in the generation of her Son, which is an action that belongs principally to the vegetative power; but if it is placed in the vegetative power, then it seems a wonder how that force should be capable of a supernatural accident.
33. Further third, how will this force, from the fact it is created, be able to cooperate or be the idea of cooperating in an instant with the Holy Spirit, when it is, however, unable to be anything in Mary’s nature?
34. Further, how is an accident the formal idea of producing a substance, which is the term of generation?
35. But if it be said [William of Ware] that the supernatural power is as it were an intrinsic perfection conferred on the vegetative power in Mary, then it seems wonderful how this force would have been made more intense than it would be if she had generated naturally, because then she would be more than mother.
36. Likewise, how will this intense force be able to act in an instant and yet the non-intense force [sc. the natural power to generate] is not able then to act? For forms of the same idea, even if one is more perfect than another, seem to be similarly disposed for acting in an instant or in time, though one of them may produce something more perfectly than another (as is plain in the case of a more perfect and less perfect light, each of which illumines equally instantaneously though one illumines more perfectly than the other).