  Thus, even before medieval philosophers had direct access to Aristotle’s Metaphysics they were led to acknowledge the existence of the same type of relational situations mentioned there. Of course, once the relevant texts of Aristotle became available, the medievals worked hard to connect their discussions with these texts.  Indeed, when the issue of God’s relation to his creatures is taken up in the thirteenth century—an issue that becomes one of the foci of medieval discussions of relations generally—medieval philosophers often made direct appeals to Aristotle’s discussion in Metaphysics  V.[34]