  Nevertheless, this theory raises a problem. In every transmutation, what changes cannot strictly coincide with the terms themselves of the change. If essence is possibile esse and non esse, and passes from non-being to being through creation, it must be different both from non-being (the state before creation) as well as from being (the state after creation). If, on the other hand, essence were identical to one of the two terms (being, in the case in question), then there would be no change, since essence would never be in non-being. To obviate this problem, Henry seeks to refine further, especially in his later Quodlibeta, the distinction between possibile subiective and possibile obiective, so that, within certain limits (that is, from a logical rather than from an ontological perspective), essence can figure as the subiectum, and not just the terminus, of creation. Even though the passage of essence from non-being to being happens in a single, indivisible instant, it can nevertheless be subdivided logically (secundum rationem) into three different “signs” (signa); an ante litteram example of the theoretical model defined by Kretzmann and Spade as “Quasi-Aristotelianism”, especially in reference to 14th century writers such as Landolph Caracciolo and John of Baconthorpe (Kretzmann 1982, Spade 1982). In the first signum, essence loses its non-being; in the second, essence occupies an intermediate position between the non-being it is abandoning and the being it is acquiring, and in this sense it is the subiectum of the transmutation; finally, in the third, essence has acquired its being, and as such it is the terminus of the change (Summa, art. 59, q. 2, ed. 1520, f. 138vR).