 Although there has never been any doubt among medieval theologians that man ought to love God more than he loves himself, medieval theologians did disagree about whether man can fulfill this obligation by purely natural means or whether he requires grace in order to do so. The consensus in the thirteenth century, shared, among other authors, by Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Rome, and Godfrey of Fontaines, was that although perfect love of God is possible only through grace, man does have the natural capacity to love God more than himself (See Osborne 2005 for discussion of the topic in the thirteenth century, including in James of Viterbo). Many of these authors believed that granting man such a capacity was necessary in order to safeguard the universally accepted principle that “grace perfects, not destroys, nature”. For if man is naturally inclined to love himself more than God and is made to love God more than himself only through grace, then that natural inclination is not so much perfected as replaced by a different one. Against these authors, James of Viterbo in his Quodlibet II, question 20 famously defended the view that man naturally loves himself more than God. Before stating James’ argument in support of this position, it is important to be attentive to the precise way in which he formulated the question, as well as to how he understands the term “love” (diligere). 