And therefore natural philosophers say, that an hermaphrodite is
impotent in the privy parts of a man, as appears by experience.
Q. Is an hermaphrodite accounted a man or a woman? A. It is to be
considered in which member he is fittest for copulation; if he be
fittest in the woman's, then he is a woman; if in a man's, then he is a
man.
Q. Should he be baptized in the name of a man or a woman? A. In the
name of a man, because names are given _ad placitum_, and therefore he
should be baptized, according to the worthiest name, because every agent
is worthier than its patient.
_Of Monsters._
Q. Doth nature make any monsters? A. She doth; if she did not, then
would she be deprived of her end. For of things possible, she doth
always propose to bring forth that which is most perfect and best; but
in the end, through the evil disposition of the matter, not being able
to bring forth that which she intended, she brings forth that which she
can. As it happened in Albertus's time, when in a certain village, a cow
brought forth a calf, half a man; then the countrymen suspecting a
shepherd, would have burnt him with the cow; but Albertus, being skilled
in astronomy, said that this did proceed from a certain constellation,
and so delivered the shepherd from their hands.
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