III. Other Doubts on the Question

57. But must one concede that Mary was the natural Mother of Christ, or that she generated Christ miraculously?

58. Anselm responds On the Virginal Conception ch.11 that this generation was miraculous.

59. And this indeed is true as to the manner of the reducing to act of Mary’s active natural potency, which is only naturally reduced to act by a determinate natural active cause (namely the active force of a natural father).

60. It was also miraculous as to the manner of procedure in this generating, because either it was altogether sudden, in the way that the natural procedure in the generation of a human being is not, or, if it was successive, the motions that preceded the generation took place in as brief a time, insofar as they did not happen naturally; but on the part of Mary’s active power itself there was natural action, because the power by which she was naturally fertile was natural to her, and she could have conceived from a natural father and have acted naturally in the production of her offspring’s body.

61. And because of this natural active power whereby she operated she can be called the natural mother of Christ, although as well, because of the non-natural manner of carrying out the double act of this power, she can be said to have generated not naturally but miraculously.