a man
intending to dig a grave finds a treasure. Now it is manifest that a
acts after the manner of a natural principle: wherefore its effects
in this world are natural. It is therefore impossible that any active
power of a heavenly body be the cause of what happens by accident
here below, whether by luck or by chance.

We must therefore say that what happens here by accident, both in
natural things and in human affairs, is reduced to a preordaining
cause, which is Divine Providence. For nothing hinders that which
happens by accident being considered as one by an intellect:
otherwise the intellect could not form this proposition: "The digger
of a grave found a treasure." And just as an intellect can apprehend
this so can it effect it; for instance, someone who knows a place
where a treasure is hidden, might instigate a rustic, ignorant of
this, to dig a grave there. Consequently, nothing hinders what
happens here by accident, by luck or by chance, being reduced to some
ordering cause which acts by the intellect, especially the Divine
intellect. For God alone can change the will, as shown above (Q. 105,
A. 4). Consequently the ordering of human actions, the principle of
which is the will, must be ascribed to God alone.

So therefore inasmuch as all that happens here below is subject to
Divine Providence, as being pre-ordained, and as it were
"fore-spoken," we can admit the existence of fate: although the holy
doctors avoided the use of this word, on account of those who twisted
its application to a certain force in the position of the stars.
Hence Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 1): "If anyone ascribes human
affairs to fate, meaning thereby the will or power of God, let him
keep to his opinion, but hold his tongue." For this reason Gregory
denies the existence of fate: wherefore the first objection's
solution is manifest.

Reply Obj. 2: Nothing hinders certain things happening by luck or by
chance, if compared to their proximate causes: but not if compared to
Divine Providence, whereby "nothing happens at random in the world,"
as Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 24).
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 116, Art. 2]

Whether Fate Is in Created Things?

Objection 1: It would seem that fate is not in created things. For
Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 1) that the "Divine will or power is
called fate." But the Divine will or power is not in creatures, but
in God. Therefore fate is not in creatures but in God.