Ensoulment

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Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 1274)

What Did St. Thomas Aquinas Believe about “Ensoulment?”

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Aquinas did say an unborn baby receives a soul 40 or 80 days after conception, depending on gender.

Just noticed this in a 15th century source, ca. 1420, the oldest manuscript of the Aurora Consurgens, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., p.29 = f.14r:

... in 40 die[bus] formatur in formam hominis, in 40 die apparet in eo anima et a 40 die incipit nutriri sanguine menstruali per cursum eius ad umbilicum.

... in 40 days it is formed into the human form, on the 40th day the soul appears in it, and from the 40th day it begins to be nourished by the menstrual blood through its course to the navel.

Why this in an alchemy treatise? Because alchemists, reasoning by analogy, endeavored to imitate nature. On the same page: "in omnibus naturam imitari".