The life of Thomas Aquinas : a dissertation of the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages

THE

LIFE OF THOMAS AQUINAS:

A DISSERTATION

SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY

MIDDLE AGES.

REV. RENN DICKSON HAMPDEN, D.D.,

u

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

FORMING A PORTION OF THE THIRD DIVISION OF

THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA METROPOLITAN A.

IJSHED IN 1833.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

OF

T(I

JOHN J. GRIFFIN & CO., 53, BAKER STREET,
AND RICHARD GRIFFIN & CO., GLASGOW.

1848.

13 y

T5H

CONTENTS.

THOMAS AQUINAS.

Page

Uniformity of Scholastic Biography 9

Peculiar Interest of that Uniformity . . . .11

Aquinas pre-eminent among the Schoolmen . . 12
Nobility of his Family — Educated at Monte Casino ;
afterwards at Naples . . . . . .14

Cessation of inducements to active life at this Period . 15
Social Importance of the Church . . . .18

Aquinas won to the Dominican Profession by John de

St. Julian — Enters a Monastery at Naples . . 21
Indignation of his Mother — He is rescued by his Brothers,
and confined at his own Home . . . .22

Expedients tried by his Family to reclaim him - . 24
He is Imprisoned for Two Years ; relieves his Solitude
by Prayer and Study . . . . . .26

His Escape connived at by his Mother— Returns to

Naples, and becomes the Disciple of Albert of Cologne 27
He holds the Office of Master of the Students under

Albert 30

Extreme Reserve and Diffidence of Aquinas . . 31
He Lectures at Paris — Is created Master in Theology . 33

He settles finally at Naples 34

His Mental Abstractedness 34

rt o o r: A

VI CONTENTS.

Page

General View of the Scholastic Religious Life . . 35
Censures of the Monastic System at that time . . 39
Real bases of the Monastic Institutions . . .41
Peculiar Claims of the Dominican and Franciscan

Orders ........ 41

Aquinas refuses all worldly dignity .... 42

His perspicuous Method of Instruction . . .43
His vast Labours in Composition .... 44

His Sickness, and Death . .... 46

His Character — Description of his Person ... 48

His Reputed Sayings 49

Extent of his Fame — The Friendship between Aquinas

and Albert 51

Miracles attributed to Aquinas ..... 52

His Canonization ....... 54

Triumph of his Doctrines in the Church ... 55

PHILOSOPHY OF AQUINAS AND THE
SCHOOLMEN.

Uniform Character of the Scholastic Philosophy w . 56

This uniformity the general idea of the System . . 57
Constitution of the Latin Schools . . . .59

Transition of the Schools into the hands of Ecclesiastics 62
Effects of Studies confined to Books . . . .63

Increasing Ignorance of the Greek Language . . 65

Effect of Translations 66

Effect of Commentaries 68

Unphilosophical Nature of the Latin Language . . 69

Scholasticism the result of this Method of Education . 70
cholasticism an inversion of the Natural Progress of

Knowledge 70

CONTENTS. Vll

Page

Logic studied as an Art of Polemics .... 73
An Eclectic Logical Philosophy the result . . 75
Platonism first cherished in the Church . . .75
Insufficiency of Platonism — Aristotle's Philosophy sup-
plies the defect 76

Objections of Platonizing Christians to Aristotle . .79
Logical Treatises of Aristotle exclusively studied. . 80
Union of Mysticism with an Argumentative Spirit the

result 81

Augustine and Boethius the Leaders in forming the

System — John Scotus Erigena .... 84
Influence of Arabian Literature — Gerbert . . .87
Importance of the Treatise of the Categories . . 89
Maturity of Scholasticism seen in Aquinas — John Duns

Scotus — William Ockam . . . . .91
Character of Peter Lombard's Book of the Sentences . 95 ^
Contrast of Albert with Aquinas . . . .96
Literary Spirit of Aquinas — Improved versions of Aris-
totle— Imperfect Method of Translation ... 99
Scholasticism confounds the Method and the Principles

of Philosophy 104

Source of this Confusion in the Nature of the General

Terms 105

Coincidence of Idealism and Realism the result . .107
Distinction of Nominalist and Realist . . .109
Conceptualism the prevalent Doctrine . . .111
Importance of the Theory of Universals . . .112
Theology becomes the Universal Science . . .113
Union of the Theory of Ideas with that of Matter and

Form 115

Accommodation of Aristotle's notion of the Deity . 118
Inconsistency of this notion with Christianity . .119

Vlll CONTENTS.

Page

Profane Sciences studied as Instruments of Theology . 121
Consequent Theological Character of all Science . .123
Speculative Theology multiplied by Refutations of He-
resy 125

Sketch of the Summa of Aquinas . . . .127

Threefold Division of the Summa— Prima Pars . . 128
Prima Secundce . . . . . . .130

Secunda Secundce . . . . . . .131

Tertia Pars . . . . . . . .133

Close Connection of Questions throughout the Summa . 135
Real Theological importance of Scholastic Discussions . 136
Futile Character of the Scholastic Physics . . .138
Doctrine of Four Universal Causes . . . .140

Doctrine of Contrarieties . . . . • .142

Principles of Transmutation and Privation — Generation
and Corruption — Doctrine of Motion — Potential and

Actual Being 143

Notion of the Deity as Pure Act . . . .145

Scholastic Philosophy of Mind 146

Logic confounded with Metaphysics . . . . 148
Importance of Aristotle's Ethics — Moral Theology . 1 49
No proper distinction of Sciences in Scholastic Method

— Importunate use of the Syllogism . . .151
The Reason the only principle addressed . . .154
Influence of the Schoolmen on the Reformation of Re-
ligion and Philosophy ... . 154

OF THE

I UNIVERSITY I

OF

THOMAS AQUINAS.

BORN A.D. 1224, DIED A.D. 1274.

1. Uniformity of Scholastic Biography.

THE Biography of the Schoolmen of the Middle
Age presents, at the first view, little to interest
the general reader, who seeks to be led through
a series of incidents various in character and
striking in effect. A prospect seems stretched
before him of wild plains or barren sea, without
any landmarks to arrest the eye, or irregularities
to break the dull level. But it is only at the
first vague glance of the subject that it appears
in this uninteresting form. The level which,
whilst we viewed it from a distance, seemed
nothing but uniformity, on the nearer approach
discloses the variety of hill and valley, which its
broad surface had concealed from the distant
survey. And so the life of the Schoolmen, when

B

10 THOMAS AQUINAS.

closely studied, is by no means devoid of the
interest naturally to be expected from an account
of any one among men, whose name has attracted
the admiration of Ages, and thus obtained an
historical importance.

But the interest here is of a different kind
from that which an unreflecting prejudice may
suggest to our wishes. It is true, that there is
something of that uniformity which repels and
disappoints both the imagination and the feelings.
There are no vicissitudes of fortunes like those
which diversify the story of the more busy agent
in the History of the world. For the most part,
the life of the Philosopher of the Schools of the
Middle Age was drawn out in even tenour,
amidst the still shades of the cloister, or the
wrangling but still innocuous tumults of the
Schools. We may single out, indeed, the in-
stance of the celebrated Abelard in the XHth
Century ; whose calamities, the effects of the
vicious system of the Age more than the fault of
the individual, have rendered him notorious in
the page of Ecclesiastical and Literary History,

THOMAS AQUINAS. 11

no less than his labours as a Philosopher and a
Theologian. But with this exception, one uni-
form character seems to prevail over the whole
assemblage of illustrious names which the annals
of the Schools present.

2. Peculiar Interest of that Uniformity. '

Is there, however, no interest even in this very
uniformity ? Is variety of incident all that cap-
tivates the reader of Biography ? If the deve-
lopement of human character be a principal object
in the record of human actions and events, then
is the very uniformity of the Scholastic Biogra-
phy an important feature in it, demanding our
attention and close examination. For the same-
ness of character, which we thus observe diffused
over so large a surface of human life, is clearly
not a fortuitous desultory effect ; but is an index
to the philosophical eye, of the force of circum-
stances in influencing and modifying the human
mind. Men born in different conditions of life,
of different tempers and talents, have been found
to be acted on by the discipline of circumstances

B 2

12 THOMAS AQUINAS.

in the Middle Age, nearly in the same manner,
and to have yielded to the same impressions. It
is an interesting inquiry, then, to trace these
dominant influences in the life of any of those
distinguished individuals who shone as the lumi-
naries of their own dark Age. It is the Philo-
sophy of Man that we are unconsciously searching
into : and even the scanty fragments of incident
which we may be able to collect, are valuable :
for they give us some instruction in the elements
of which our nature is compounded, some illus-
tration of what it is susceptible of under the
varied action of society and education.

3. Aquinas pre-eminent among the Schoolmen.

The life of Aquinas may be particularly se-
lected as a type of the Scholastic Biography.
His name is familiar to every one, as the repre-
sentative of the class to which he belongs. That
very familiarity is an evidence of the conspicuous
place which he holds among the Theological
Philosophers of the Middle Age. But we have
been taught at the same time to associate his

THOMAS AQUINAS. 13

name with all that is dark in Religion or in
Philosophy : and we are apt, therefore, to think
of him with some degree of ridicule or contempt,
as unworthy of the serious inquiry of enlightened
times. In truth, however, Aquinas, when impar-
tially examined, will be found not to shrink from
a comparison with the Philosophers of the bright-
est period of Literature. If we are to judge of
the Philosopher from the intrinsic powers of mind
displayed, independently of the results attained
by him, which chiefly depend on the concourse of
favourable circumstances, then may Aquinas be
placed in the first rank of Philosophy. If pene-
tration of thought, comprehensiveness of views,
exactness the most minute, an ardour of inquiry
the most keen, a patience of pursuit the most
unwearied, are among the merits of the Philoso-
pher, then may Aquinas dispute even the first
place among the candidates for the supremacy in
speculative science.

14 THOMAS AQUINAS.

4. Nobility of his Family. — Educated at Monte Cassino ;
afterwards at Naples.

Descended from a noble ancestry on both sides ;
his father Lodolph being Count of Aquino, and
his mother Theodora, daughter of the Count
of Theate, the future Saint and Doctor of the
Church seemed destined for a fortune of life
very different from that, to which his own temper
subsequently directed his choice. He was born
at the castle of Roccasicca at Aquino, in the year
1224,* being, as it seems, the youngest of seve-
ral sons. Whilst his brothers, however, pursued
the military profession, the circumstances of his
early life soon marked him out for another path
of employment and distinction. Being sent at
the age of five years to the monastery of Monte
Cassino, one of the usual places of education
for the children of Italian Nobles, during the five
years spent there, he gave indication, even at
this early period, of that seriousness and abstract-
edness of mind, which characterised his maturity.
The thoughtful manner of the child attracted,

* Sub initium anni 1225. Oudiii, in Vit.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 15

indeed, the notice of the Abbot of the Convent ;
by whose recommendation his parents sent him to
Naples, which was then established as a flourish-
ing School of Philosophy under the patronage of
the Emperor Frederic II. The six years which
he passed at Naples tended only to foster and
develope this contemplative disposition : and it
was a natural result when, at the age of seventeen
years, he passionately devoted himself to the
monastic life ; embracing the profession of a
Dominican, and adhering to his resolution, in spite
of the remonstrances and opposition of his family.

5. Cessation of inducements to active Life at this

P Period.

We may, perhaps, at first be at a loss to con-
ceive the inducement to a young man of rank,
thus to relinquish his hereditary pretensions, and
to embark on a scheme of life, in which distinc-
tion was to be sought by dint of personal exertion.
We might wonder the less, had we heard of his
leaving his father's home on some romantic pro-
ject of adventure, suggested by the enthusiasm of
a young and ardent mind ; such as would be fur-

16 THOMAS AQUINAS.

nished by the occasion of the Holy Wars. But
our surprise will be removed, when we reflect on
the general condition of the Western, or Latin
World in those times, and the relation in which
the Church then stood to the community at large.
The Crusades of the XHth Century had supplied
the cravings of the public mind for some matter
of interest and excitement, to vary and relieve the
listlessness which had spread over the whole face
of society. The spontaneous impulse and blind
obedience, with which the spiritual call to fight
the battles of the Lord in a distant land, was an-
swered throughout the length and breadth of
Christendom, show the existence of that demand
by which they were so readily met. But by those
very events, the cause which had stimulated, and
in a great measure indeed occasioned them, was
removed ; and the public mind found employment
in a new direction. The fact is evidenced in the
little interest taken in the Crusades of the follow-
ing century. Infidels were yet to be exterminated
from the land of the Holy Sepulchre ; the sacred
duty of waging interminable war against the
Infidel still continued to be preached. But the

THOMAS AQUINAS. 17

call was no longer heard with alacrity : the in-
terest was gone : and the change of circumstance
was not a state of inaction, as of exhaustion after
violent exertion, but of employment, as we have
said, in a new direction. We may characterise
the activity which then began to develope itself,
in general terms, as an expansion of intellect, as
a reaching towards larger and more diversified
means of learning and information. The efforts
made in this direction were indeed feeble in their
result : they were those of persons ignorant of the
true grounds of mental cultivation, of the right
method of applying any existing resources to that
end. But still there was a vigour about them ; a
spirit of enterprise, which, in more felicitous cir-
cumstances, would undoubtedly have produced
more fruitful results. There was enough cer-
tainly in the intellectual labours of the Xlllth
Century, however, in the pride of modern improve-
ments in Literature, we may look back on them
with contempt, to engage the elevated and aspirant
mind. Little really worthy of such minds was to
be accomplished by the adventures of a military
life, the only other existing resource besides the

18 THOMAS AQUINAS.

pursuit of Literature, to those endued with any
energy of character. The spirit of Chivalry, as
it is called, had its charms for those cast in a
rougher mould ; to whom the busy stillness of the
intellectual life would in any Age have seemed
no better than torpor and stupidity. But to the
gentler, more thoughtful disposition of mind, the
diversion into the quiet paths of Philosophy, would
be eagerly hailed as a refuge from the storms of
the world, where it might freely exert its strength,
and come back from its excursions, loaded with
the spoils of bloodless victories.

6. Social Importance of the Church.

To those, however, who were duly susceptible
of the refinement begun at that period, the Church
of the XHIth Century presented the only oppor-
tunity for indulgence of the sentiment awakened
in their minds. The great Society of the Church
itself, and the several subordinate associations
into which it was divided, the Monastic Orders,
and the Schools of Theology, presented means of
combination, and opportunities for the display

THOMAS AQUINAS. 19

of personal talent and influence, which could
be found nowhere else. The Church in fact, as
it then was constituted, was the great centre
of power. Men who looked on what passed
around them with any shrewdness of discernment,
could not but observe that, whilst kings and
armies were the ostensible agents in the affairs of
the world, it was the power of the Church which
actuated the whole machine, and guided, if it did
not always originate, the complex movements of
the social mass. If there was ambition then in
the breast of any one, here was the theatre on
which it might act ; if there was the love of
Literature, here it might find opportunities for its
gratification ; if there was concern for the public
good, the high-born wish to be among the bene-
factors of the human race, here were the means
provided by which either good or evil might be
achieved on the greatest scale. Nor was the
simple circumstance of the fellowship subsisting
between members of the Church as such, — and
more particularly of that intimate connexion be-
tween individuals of the same Religious fraternity,
— an inconsiderable attraction to men of sensibility

20 THOMAS AQUINAS.

and refinement, in those days when society scarcely
existed in the world at large. In these associa-
tions, the artificial distinctions which separated
man from man, disappeared. Men met together
on a principle independent of the passions or the
vicissitudes of the world, the principle of equality
in the sight of Him who is no respecter of per-
sons. At the same time, there was enough in
them to solicit and reward the candidates for the
spiritual Society, who entered it with higher pre-
tensions of birth, or talent, or character. The
dignities of Bishop, or Abbot, or General of an
Order, held out to such persons a rank analogous
to the aristocracy of worldly station ; or where a
more refined and spiritual ambition might be
superior to such attractions, the loftier, more
abstract honours of saintly reputation, or the re-
fined luxury of a profession of piety, maintained
to superior merit its due relative situation in the
community.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 21

7. Aquinas won to the Dominican profession by John de
St. Julian.— Enters a Monastery at Naples.

Probably indeed the adoption of the monastic
profession by Aquinas, in the first instance, was
not altogether voluntary. The first step may
have been taken with little reflection on the mo-
mentous change of life consequent on it ; from
the mere enthusiasm of a youthful mind, and an
ardent compliance with the example and wishes
of a revered instructor. The Dominican and
Franciscan Orders, themselves in great measure
an effect of the peculiar circumstances of the
times, were but recently established in the early
part of the XHIth Century. The spirit of pro-
selytism consequently was actively exerting itself
at this period, to obtain for each its respective
votaries, and raise it to an ascendancy over the
rival institution. The Dominican Order espe-
cially, as framed in a more worldly spirit of
fanaticism, had its clever and active partisans
dispersed every where, who, by the fame of their
erudition and piety, and by their tact, won the
hearts of devout hearers to their cause. It was

22 THOMAS AQUINAS.

by the addresses of a preacher at Naples, a
Dominican, by name John of St. Julian, that
Aquinas was induced to take up the monastic
profession. He had imbibed the teaching of the
Monk with an eager attention, and anxiously
sought an opportunity of personal conference with
his spiritual instructor. A conversation with St.
Julian decided his purpose. His religious wish
was communicated to the brothers, and readily
approved by them ; on which he immediately
assumed the habit of a Dominican, and immured
himself within a Monastery of the Order at
Naples.

8. Indignation of his Mother. — He is rescued by his
Brothers, and confined at his own Home.

Intelligence of this proceeding on his part was
received by his family with the greatest concern
and indignation. Theodora, his mother, espe-
cially, remonstrated with passionate vehemence
against the act, and strove to reclaim him to his
family. The writer of the Life prefixed to his
Works, in his partiality to the sacred Order,
would have us believe that the resentment of

THOMAS AQUINAS. 23

the mother was an after-thought ; and that at
first she expressed the piety of her heart in
devout thankfulness to God at the event. But
with what probability this statement is made, we
may judge from the active measures taken to
frustrate the purpose of her son. The recovery
of such a step was not easily to be effected, or
rather was impracticable. The victim of the
cloister was bound by a spell which no entreaties
or menaces could unsay. In this difficulty, force
was resorted to as the only expedient. But the
Dominicans were on the alert. To prevent the
effect of an interview with his mother, they
conveyed their novice to Rome, intending to
transmit him thence to Paris. His mother fol-
lowed him to Rome, and disappointed of seeing
him there, instructed his brothers to watch the
roads, and intercept him on his way. They suc-
ceeded in surprising him as he was drinking at a
spring after the fatigues and heat of his journey,
forcibly seized him, and struggling in vain to
strip him of his monastic habit, carried him away
to his home. His mother received him with
tears, and provided for his future security, by

24 THOMAS AQUINAS.

confining him within their own castle. The Do-
minicans complained to the Pope of the sacri-
lege : but though the Pope was disposed to
favour the new Religious Orders, as the great
bulwarks of his authority, the power of the Em-
peror, who was in the interest of the brothers of
Aquinas, was then in collision with that of the
Apostolic See, and could not be boldly opposed.
His family was left for the present, therefore, in
undisturbed possession of their recovered prize.

9. Expedients tried by his Family to reclaim him.

Aquinas being once more in the bosom of his
own family, every argument of kindness was
tried by his mother and sisters to alter his un-
welcome purpose. He was proof against these,
and even against the severities of angry rebuke ;
expressing his readiness to submit to the closest
confinement, but never to abandon the Religious
profession which he had assumed. To complete
the trial of the future Saint, by an experiment
usual in the legends of Saints, the biographer
adds, that the brothers of Aquinas next assailed

THOMAS AQUINAS. 25

him with the blandishments of female society;
thinking that the resolution which had proved
inexorable under stern trials, might at length
yield to softer impressions. They introduced
accordingly a female visitant to his apartment.
Consolation was made the ostensible pretext of
the visit ; whilst under this cover all the winning
arts of womanly endearment were plied to solicit
his affections. His firmness had nearly failed
him under this ordeal, when suddenly collecting
himself, . with a rude indignation, he abruptly
dismissed his fair assailant, scaring her from his
presence with such arms as were ministered by
the fury of the moment, a burning stick snatched
from the hearth. He then threw himself, as the
story proceeds, before the sign of the Cross,
which the random force of the stick had traced
on the wall; and praying for strength to resist
the temptations of the flesh, and for an entire
devotedness, he at length fell asleep from ex-
haustion. The scene is closed by a vision of two
angels, appearing to him as he slept, girding
him, and strengthening his chaste determination.

26 THOMAS AQUINAS.

10. He is Imprisoned for Two Years; relieves his
Solitude by Prayer and Study.

Aquinas patiently endured this imprisonment
at his own home for two whole years, relieving
his stubborn solitude only by prayer, and reli-
gious contemplation, and literary studies. To-
gether with the Scriptures, the Book of the Sen-
tences, the celebrated Digest of Theology com-
piled by Peter Lombard, a Bishop of Paris in
the preceding Century, now engaged his atten-
tion. At the same time he employed himself in
writing a Commentary on Aristotle's Book of
Fallacies. The art of disputation was cultivated
at this period with the most intense interest, as
we shall presently show more fully, being re-
i garded as an essential part of the education and
business of the Theologian. The writings of
Aristotle in particular, being more known to the
Christians of the West about the same time,
attracted extraordinary curiosity : and both the
Dominicans and Franciscans dexterously availed
themselves of the course which the fashion of the
Age had taken ; establishing Chairs of Philo-

THOMAS AQUINAS. 27

sophy at the various Schools and Universities,
for the express purpose of expounding the doc-
trines of Aristotle. We find accordingly a Lo-
gical Work of that Philosopher occupying the
leisure of the secluded devotee, no less than
studies of a strictly Theological character.

11. His Escape connived at by his Mother. — Returns to
Naples, and becomes the disciple of Albert of Cologne.

The tenderness of a mother was no match for
the implacable resolve of an enthusiastic self-
devotion. The mother of Aquinas, who had all
along been the chief agent in these measures of
restraint, finding all endeavour to turn him from
his purpose utterly unavailing, at length gave
up the unequal contest, and connived at his
escape ; preferring probably making the con-
cession in that way to openly surrendering him
to the demands of the Dominicans. The Monks
were apprized that his escape might be effected
by night. Accordingly, they were in attendance
at the stated time, at the well-known window of
his apartment, through which they had been

c 2

28 THOMAS AQUINAS.

used secretly to convey to him the woollen habit
of the Order. He let himself down from the
window, was received by them, and conducted to
Naples, and then to Rome, to John the Teu-
tonic, the General of the Order. This took
place in the year 1244, when he was in the
twentieth year of his age.

He was immediately placed by the General
of the Order under the charge of Albert of
Cologne, also a Dominican by profession, and
whose fame for science and erudition, then dif-
fused throughout Europe, had obtained for him
the distinctive appellation of the Great. The
School of Albert, indeed, like that of Plato at
Athens, (if we may venture to compare the
degenerate Philosophy of the Middle Age with
the high thoughts and animated eloquence of the
classic Age of Science,) appears to have been
the great seminary from which the chief Philo-
sophers of the subsequent period were propa-
gated. Plato combined the traditions of ancient
wisdom extant at his time, and moulded them
into a whole by the force of his genius : and it

THOMAS AQUINAS. 29

is to that spirit which he breathed over the
whole, and which his disciples imbibed, that we
may trace both the acute vigour of the Aristo-
telic Logic, and the masculine dignity of the
Stoic Ethics. So to Albert of Cologne the epi-
thet of the Great appears to be not unworthily
attached, if we look to the effects of his influence
on the Philosophy of the Schools of the Middle
Age. Before him there hardly existed any Phi-
losophy that might properly be called Scholastic.
There had been many who had taught the like
principles, and had reasoned in the same man-
ner :' particularly we may notice Anselm, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury ; who in the century pre-
ceding composed several Treatises which display
an astonishing power of metaphysical reasoning.
So, again, Abelard, though inferior to Anselm,
might be mentioned as an eminent instance at
the same period, of the same kind of metaphy-
sical acuteness. And perhaps but for him, —
but for that popularity which Abelard attained,
and for the disciples of his School, who after-
wards filled influential stations in the Church, —
the School of Albert, would not have been fre-

30 THOMAS AQUINAS.

quented, or his method of philosophizing have
been so generally adopted. Still Albert must
have the praise of having systematized the Scho-
lastic discussions ; of having perfectly accom-
plished what Anselm had only partially exe-
cuted ; the drawing to one point the mass of
reasonings which had hitherto existed in dis-
persed portions, and combining the various prin-
ciples employed in those reasonings into one
peculiar Philosophy, to which we give the pecu-
liar name of Scholasticism.

12. He holds the Office of Master of the Students
under Albert.

In Aquinas, Albert had a pupil exactly quali-
fied for maturing the instructions received in his
School. To carry on the analogy just men-
tioned, Aquinas was to Albert what Aristotle
was to Plato. Aquinas digested the rude plan
of Albert, and elaborated the system in its
minutest parts. Under Albert, indeed, at Co-
logne, he exercised the functions of " Master of
the Students ;" collecting and reducing to writing
the lectures of his master ; so that his mind was

THOMAS AQUINAS. 31

in fact completely formed by the training of
Albert.* He had not that taste for physical
pursuits, or that various knowledge for which
Albert was distinguished : but his attention was
more concentrated on the pure theories of Scho-
lasticism in itself, and their application to The-
ology. And here he may be said to have sur-
passed his master. The wonderful perspicuity
which, amidst all the subtilties and abstruseness
of metaphysical speculation, pervades his cele-
brated Work entitled the Sum of Theology, is
enough to establish his superiority in the con-
trast, as well with Albert, as with any other
Scholastic writer, on this particular ground.

1 3. Extreme Reserve and Diffidence of Aquinas.

Whilst a hearer of Albert, Aquinas was con-
tent to listen and learn in silence, leaving the

* Prater Thomas magister lecturam studiose collegit, et
redegit in scriptis opus, stylo disertum, subtilitate profundum,
sicut afonte tanti doctoris haurire potuit, qui in scientid omnem
hominem in sui temporis atate prcecessit. Vita S. Th. ap.
Act. SS. Mens. Martii, torn. i. p. 603. Jourdain, Rech.
Crit. sur I' Age et I'Origine des Trad. Lat. d'Aristote, p. 436.
Paris, 1819.

32 THOMAS AQUINAS.

exercise of disputation to others ; both from an
extreme reserve and shyness of disposition, and
from his devotional employment, which led him
to avoid all conversation and concern in affairs
of the world. He carried his reserve so far as
to incur the reproach of stupidity from some,
and even the humorous appellation of " the
mute ox," which the massy frame of his limbs
rendered the more apposite. But he had an op-
portunity of showing how little the reproach was
merited, when Albert, having heard how he had
convinced and silenced some individuals who
had presumed to instruct him, called on him to
defend a particular opinion on the following day.
The dexterity with which he executed this task,
reluctant as he was to undertake it, from an
excess of diffidence in himself, astonished all
present, and extorted from Albert the honourable
and characteristic eulogy ; that " the mute ox,
as he was called, would one day make the world
resound with his roaring."

THOMAS AQUINAS. 33

14. He Lectures at Paris. — Is created Master in
Theology.

The great Professors of that day did not
confine their instructions to one particular place,
but went from School to School, as their services
might be required. During three years, from
1245 to 1248, Albert filled the Chair of The-
ology at the College of St. James at Paris.
There accordingly he was attended by Aquinas.
On the return of Albert to Cologne in 1248,
Aquinas accompanied him ; and appears to have
resided there until 1253, when he returned once
more to Paris, and commenced the office of a
public lecturer. At the commencement of his
lecture, which consisted of an exposition of the
Book of the Sentences, he had only the degree of
Bachelor ; but the talent which he displayed so
excited the admiration of all, that at the close
of his course, he was created Master in The-
ology ; an honour which he accepted, it is said,
not without a modest reluctance.*

* There is some difficulty in ascertaining the dates of these
circumstances. According to the biography prefixed to his
Works, he was twenty-five years of age when he went to

34 THOMAS AQUINAS.

15. He settles finally at Naples.

In 1260 he left Paris, and appeared as a Pro-
fessor of Theology and Philosophy in his native
Country ; accompanying the Court of Rome in
its successive changes of residence, and teaching
at Rome, Bologna, Pisa, and other cities of
Italy. At length, in 1272, he proceeded to
Naples, where he continued the same course of
laborious employment during the remainder of
his life.

16. His Mental abstractedness.

In the midst of these active labours, his mind,
it is said, was still incessantly engaged in reli-
gious contemplation, which he regarded as the
most real mode of prayer. To such excess did
he carry these silent contemplations, that in the
midst of society he would sometimes be entirely

Paris, and obtained the Theological degree. This may have
preceded his formal commencement of the duty of a lecturer
in Theology. Oudin, in his Life of Aquinas, assigns the year
1256 as that in which the degree of Doctor was conferred on
him at Paris : a date which is confirmed by the observations
of Brucker also, Hist. Crit. Philos. torn. iii. p. 800.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 35

lost in mental abstractedness. An instance of
this, it is said, occurred in the presence of the
King of France ; when, from the vehemence of
his interest in an argument pursued in the
silence of his own thoughts, he struck the table
with his hand, exclaiming. " that the argument
was now conclusive against the Manichees." The
ambitious style of Saintly biography has ap-
pended also several miraculous stories to the
account of his mystical devotion ; such as, that
by intensity of contemplation he was, on some
occasions so transported out of the world of
matter, that his very body, sympathizing with
the elevation of his mind, was raised into the
air.

17. General View of the Scholastic Religious Life.

In order, indeed, ' to arrive at a just estimate
of the Religious and Philosophical character of
Aquinas, and, in him, of the whole class of
Theologians to which he belongs, we should
observe him under this point of view more par-
ticularly. It is the practical exemplification of
the Scholastic Philosophy. As that Philosophy

/*\>*

/ ^ c.

36 THOMAS AQUINAS.

was a mixture of Heathen and Scriptural truth,
so the Religion of the Schoolman was a mixture
of two systems of life — the perfect life of the
Heathen Philosopher and that of the Christian.
From Heathenism were derived all those austeri-
ties and privations, and sequestrations of the
thoughts and affections from the concerns and
sympathies of humanity, so fondly regarded as
the highest credentials of purity and sanctity ;
whilst the more excellent parts of that scheme
of life, the devotion to the glory of God, the
imitation of the life of Christ, and the fixing of
the mind on the things of Eternity, were, as
taken in themselves, real constituents of Chris-
tian profession. But Christianity nowhere gives
the preference to the contemplative life over the
practical : on the contrary, it lays its stress on
the duty of practical exertion ; presenting to us,
for our example, one of eminently social dispo-
sition and social habits, and who went about
doing good, conversing and acting amidst the
scenes of human life. But Heathenism has ex-
alted the contemplative life in comparison with
the practical. And it naturally did so : its

THOMAS AQUINAS. 37

theory of human happiness required such a view.
In that theory, the life of contemplation was the
substitute for the Future State which Christianity
reveals. The Philosopher beheld in that life the
nearest approach to a condition in which the
soul is at rest, and where the wicked cease from
troubling. Exemption from the active engage-
ments of an evil world, where the force of irre-
gular passions and depraved customs is continu-
ally disturbing the tenour of happiness, promised
a repose and security which could be found in no
other way. The Philosopher, therefore, living
entirely in theory, and having no further concern
with the world than that which the actual neces-
sities of nature required, was the most truly vir-
tuous, the most truly happy man, according to
Heathen views. It followed, too, from this esti-
mate of human happiness, that the peculiarly
social affections would sink in importance. At
first they would lose their relative force in con-
nexion with the other principles of human na-
ture, in consequence of their not being propor-
tionably exercised. Their indulgence would next
come to be regarded as positively sinful; and

38 THOMAS AQUINAS.

then would be created those imaginary virtues of
ascetic continence and passive obedience — the
living among men, as not a man — as a living
instrument, actuated, not by Feeling, but by
pure unimpassioned Reason. Such then were
the principles engrafted on the Christian self-
denial. There is something attractive to the
imagination, it must be confessed, in thus living
and dying, as it is said, in " the odour of sanc-
tity." But it is only an illusion of the imagina-
tion, which pleases itself, without dwelling on the
thought of what is morally right or wrong in -the
concrete being, man, with the ideal beauty of a
superhuman purity and of a heroic, romantic
virtue. The mass of human misery which has
really been produced by the indulgence in this
fond illusion, who can duly estimate ? Half of
human nature has thus been left without cultiva-
tion, and consequently more than half of human
happiness has been sacrificed. A penalty not
ordained by God has been affixed to certain
acts, and a false susceptibility communicated to
the conscience. Whilst, therefore, much positive
happiness has been missed, from the want of a

THOMAS AQUINAS. 39

due exertion of all the active principles of human
nature, much positive misery also has been in-
flicted, in the waverings and searchings of heart
which an unreal code of moral offences has occa-
sioned.

18. Censures of the Monastic System at that time.

The real evils covered under the snow-white
mantle of the angelic life of devotional contem-
plation, did not escape the notice or the censure
of some even in that Age, when the fashion of
piety was entirely set that way. Indeed, the
disregard of parental authority, the breaking of
ties of blood and of friendship, wjiich this inhu-
man Religion produced; the neglect of social
duties, the proud humility involved in it ; could
not pass unobserved. For who, in his heart,
could justify the renunciation of family, the fana-
tical self-devotedness of the young Aquinas, when
once he had given himself over to the Religious
fraternity? If the constancy and pious feeling
of the individual be admired, yet who could
approve the spirit of an institution which could
so control and pervert the best principles, shaping

40 THOMAS AQUINAS.

the immutable law of right and wrong according
to its own arbitrary will. The biographer of
Aquinas, in order to magnify the virtue of his
hero, has introduced his mother and sisters pa-
thetically remonstrating with him on the act of
desertion, and asking whether those could be
preachers of peace who could produce so much
discord in the bosom of families ? The speeches,
however, which he puts in their mouths, are
the real expressions of the popular indignation
against the Monastic Orders. Nor were these
complaints without their organs among the Clergy
themselves. A Work appears to have been pre-
sented to the Pope Clement IV., in which the
author freely discussed the merits of the Monas-
tic life, complaining of its inertness and its oppo-
sition to the precepts of Scripture. This Work,
indeed, Aquinas was called upon to answer ; and
he succeeded, as we might expect from an effort
thus made under the command of the sovereign
authority of the Church, in suppressing the ob-
noxious publication.*

* Vit. S. Thorn. Opera, ed. Antuerp. 1612.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 41

19. Real Bases of the Monastic Institutions.

In truth, the cause of the Monastic institutions
did not rest on argument, however ingeniously
Aquinas may have defended it. They were a
requisition of the times. They were aristocrati-
cal, as opening to the higher orders a resource of
power and influence ; but there was also a demo-
cratical leaven in them, so far as the lowest of
the people might be admitted into them, and all
as brothers were on a footing of equality. They
had, therefore, in their constitution, a principle
of conservation. All classes in some measure
felt it to be their interest that these Societies
should exist. Their vices would sometimes at-
tract indignation, or their follies excite a laugh :
but these were transient expressions : the institu-
tions themselves survived these attacks unshaken,
at least so long as they rested on the demands
of social life.

20. Peculiar Claims of the Dominican and Franciscan
Orders.

Add to this, that the institution of the Domi-
nican and Franciscan Orders was an effort of

D

42 THOMAS AQUINAS.

reformation. The world was scandalized at the
luxurious habits and pomp and wealth of the
ancient Orders. It occurred to the thoughtful
observers of the state of public opinion, that new
institutions, professing poverty, and devoted to
the active duties of preaching, and the cultivation
of Learning and Philosophy, were wanted at
such a crisis. And the truth of their calcula-
tions was shown in the great popularity which
the institutions so framed immediately obtained.
It was an infusion of new blood and new life into
the decayed body of Monasticism ; and men for-
got the innate deformity of the system, in the re-
novation of energy and active usefulness which it
exhibited in its revival.

21. Aquinas refuses all Worldly Dignity.

The situation in which Aquinas now stood was
so congenial to his temper, that no offers of pro-
motion to the dignities of his Order or of the
Church, could induce him to quit it. Clement
IV. would have advanced him to the Archbishopric
of Naples. But though his own town of Aquino

THOMAS AQUINAS. 43

had been sacked by the Imperial forces, and his
relatives, who had espoused the cause of the Pope,
were slain or driven into exile, he could not be
prevailed on to receive any accession to his
worldly fortunes. Nor would he even accept the
station of Abbot of Monte Cassino, which was also
offered to him, and which might have seemed
more accordant with the tenour of his life. He
showed his contempt of all earthly honours and
wealth, when on a visit at Paris, his pupils having
jocosely observed that the Kingdom of the Gauls
was what they wished for him, he replied, " For
my part I would rather have the Commentaries
of Chrysostom on Matthew." It was no little
complacency in his own peculiar pursuits, which
could have dictated such an answer.

22. His perspicuous Method of Instruction.

Rome, Paris, and Naples appear to have been
the principal scenes of his labours. His lectures
were crowded not only with doctors and dignitaries
of the Church, but with persons of every class.
His teaching is characterised as eminently perspi-

D 2

44 THOMAS AQUINAS.

cuous, though proceeding in the established
Scholastic method of disputation. For though,
as it is observed, he had spent much study on
Cicero and other classical writers, he did not
think it becoming his modesty to depart from the
established method, and adopt a more easy, open
style. Such, at least, is the statement of his
biographer. But we must express our doubts
whether any other form of teaching than that ge-
nerally adopted in the Schools of the Middle Age
would have appeared at all proper, or even have
suggested itself, to a mind trained in the Philo-
sophy of that period. The method itself is so
closely connected with the Philosophy, that for a
writer or lecturer to have followed any other,
would surely have appeared a departure from his
principles.

23. His vast Labours in Composition.

The whole period of his life was included with-
in fifty years, the latter half of which was unin-
terruptedly devoted to these intellectual labours.
How incessantly his mind was occupied in them

THOMAS AQUINAS. 45

is sufficiently evident from the voluminous monu-
ments of them which are yet extant. The mass
of accumulated Commentary on various Treatises
of Aristotle, of discussion of questions of Philo-
sophy and exposition of Scripture, which compose
his Works, is truly astonishing. The printed
edition of his Works extends to eighteen volumes
in folio. Of these, the first five consist of Com-
mentaries on Aristotle, the remaining volumes
being occupied by his Sum of Theology r, his prin-
cipal Work, which fills three of the volumes, his
Commentary on the Book of the Sentences, Com-
mentaries on various Books of Scripture, Ser-
mons, and some smaller Theological tracts. Nor
are these the whole of his writings.* If we may
believe his panegyrists, his facility of composition
was so great, that he constantly employed four
persons to write by his dictation, which was even
too rapid for their united labours. Or, if we
would follow them in the still greater marvel of

* Considerable deduction must be made for the Commen-
taries of the Cardinal Caietan, appended to his text, for
translations of Aristotle accompanying the exposition, and
for some additions of writings which are not his. The
Antwerp edition of 1612 is the one referred to here.

46 THOMAS AQUINAS.

the story, he could compose himself to rest when
exhausted, and still carry on the connexion of
his argument unbroken. An ambition seems to
actuate the biographer of a Philosopher-Saint,
like that of the panegyrists of Mahomet, of mag-
nifying the literary labours of his hero into
miraculous effects.

24. His Sickness and Death.

This restless working of the mind at length
exhausted the powers of his constitution. He
had been invited by Gregory X. to attend the
Hd Council of Lyons in 1274, in which the dis-
putes constantly agitated with the Greek Church
were to be debated, with a view to their settle-
ment. By command of the preceding Pope, he
had composed a Work against the Greeks, which
he intended to have presented at the Council.
But he did not live to attend the Council. He
was seized with illness on his journey, and imme-
diately feeling that his end was near, observed to
his companion Reginald, who was in constant
waiting on him, when, after long reverie, he re-

THOMAS AQUINAS. 47

turned to himself, that " soon he should write no
more." Afterwards he became more languid,
but rallied again a little, sufficiently to be con-
veyed on a mule to an adjacent Monastery of
the Cistercians. There, on entering the Church,
he observed, in the same strain of melancholy
anticipation, to Reginald : " Here is my resting-
place for ever and ever." The Monks were de-
lighted to receive so distinguished an inmate, and
waited on his dying bed with sedulous kindness.
He lingered for several days ; but they were days
in unison with the tenour of his life. He con-
tinued conversing with the Monks, and instruct-
ing them to the last, and even, at their request,
composed, in that extremity, Commentaries on
the Canticles of Solomon. He received the
Eucharist, prostrating himself on the ground,
and exerting his feeble strength to meet the
Host. After receiving also the rite of extreme
unction with the same devoutness, he calmly ex-
pired with a serene countenance ; replying just
before his departure, to an inquiry from his
sister, "whether he had any wish to express,"
that " soon he should have every wish gratified."

48 THOMAS AQUINAS.

25. His Character.— Description of his Person.

Thus died this extraordinary man ; a martyr,
we may say, to the spirit of the times in which
he lived ; and affording in himself a striking
picture of the state of Christianity in that Age.
There was in him the gentleness, the modesty,
the piety of the Christian character ; but these
graceful outlines were dashed with the hard
touches of Monastic austerity. He stands forth
to our view like the sculptured image of the
form of Christianity, executed after the true
model, hut by some rude hand, ignorant of the
principles of taste, and unable to subdue the
stubborn marble to a conformity with the living
original. His mental endowments and character
are not inaptly represented by the description
given of his person. His body, it is said, was
" almost vast, tall, and massy in the bones, to
which the spare flesh scarcely gave a complete
covering." For so was there something gigantic
in his mind and his scheme of life, whilst there
was a nakedness and dreariness in his studies and
contemplative pursuits — a want of substance and

THOMAS AQUINAS. 49

vitality, — truly characteristic of the scholastic
Theologian and Philosopher. Nor is the re-
mainder of the portrait out of keeping with the
above. " The expression of his eyes," continues
his biographer, " was most modest ; his face ob-
long ; his complexion inclined to sallowness ; his
forehead more depressed than the profoundness
of his intellect might seem to require ; his head
large and round, and partly bald; his person
erect." *

26. His reputed Sayings.

Some of his sayings have been thought worthy
of being recorded. Being asked why he had
kept silence so long under Albert, he answered,
" Because as yet I knew nothing to say worthy
of Albert." Being asked again what was the
most agreeable thing that could happen to him,
he answered, "To understand all that I have
read." Some one observed that he was not as
learned as he was thought ; " It is for that reason
I study," he said, " that men may not be de-

* Life prefixed to the edition of his Works. Antwerp,
1612.

50 THOMAS AQUINAS.

ceived." Being reproached for the size of his
body ; " The cucumber," he said, " also grows
without food." Being blamed by a certain
matron for avoiding women, when he was himself
born of a woman; " This is the very reason/'
he answered, " because I was born of a woman."
To his sister, inquiring what and where Paradise
was : " You will know both/' he said, " if you
only merit it." To persons consulting him how
they might escape error : " By doing every-
thing," he said, " so as to be able to give a
reason for the action." Going to visit Bonaven-
tura, and finding his friend employed in writing
the Life of St. Francis ; " Let us leave," he
said, " the Saint to labour for the Saint ;" and
retired.* Being led by an importunate brother
about the streets of Bologna, until he was ex-
hausted with fatigue, he replied to one who won-
dered at his patient submission ; "By nothing
else is Religion perfected but by obedience."

* The proper name of Bonaventura was John de Fidanza.
He- was a native of Tuscany, born in 1221. He became a
Cardinal, and died in 1274, during the holding of the lid
Council of Lyons.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 51

27. Extent of his Fame. — The Friendship between
Aquinas and Albert.

His great reputation during his lifetime at-
tracted to him the notice and favour of the several
Pontiffs under whom he flourished. He enjoyed
also the patronage of the chivalrous and sainted
King of France, Louis IX., who highly esteemed
him both for his learning and his counsels. A
Work addressed by him to the King of Cyprus
on the Government of Princes, shows still further
the extent of his fame. He was frequently
applied to for counsel in difficulties by various
persons throughout Europe. So much was the
recluse Monk, living out of the world by pro-
fession, familiarly known to the world of his
day : and so great must have been the influence
really exercised by him, amidst his formal re-
nunciation of all human concerns. Amongst
his friends, of whom he had several warmly
attached to him, he particularly honoured Albert,
whose name from a feeling of respect, it is said,
he would never expressly mention in any dis-
cussion of his opinions. The legend says, that

OZ THOMAS AQUINAS.

so great was the union of friendship between
these two, that Albert being at dinner at Cologne
at the time when Aquinas expired, felt a secret
intimation of the event; for that rising with
tears in his eyes from the table, and being asked
by the persons present the cause of his distress,
he informed them that Thomas Aquinas, the
light of the Church, and his dearest friend,, was
dead. Albert too, it is added, so approved the
doctrines of his favourite disciple, and felt so
great an interest in his reputation, as to have
undertaken a journey to Paris, in his eightieth
year, to defend Aquinas from the attacks of Theo-
logical opponents.*

28. Miracles attributed to Aquinas.

But great as his reputation was during life, it
was increased ten-fold after his death. It was
then cherished as the property of a rival party

* In 1277. Albert died at Cologne, Nov. 15, 1280, at the
age of eighty-seven. He was also, like Aquinas, of noble
family. Jourdain, Rech. Crit. sur VAge et V Origine des
Trad. Lat. d'Arist. p. 332.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 53

in the Church. The interest of the Dominican
Order was engaged in setting forth the heroism
and the Philosophy of their own brother to the
greatest advantage. Hence the miraculous at-
testations which are alleged to have been given
to his sanctity and the truth of his doctrines.
The question of the Immaculate Conception
which divided the Dominicans and Franciscans,
made each party solicitous about maintaining
their ground in the popular favour. Arguments
might suffice, as addressed to each other, to
learned and philosophising Theologians ; but
other means of persuasion were required with the
mass of believers. This is evident in the in-
troduction of accounts of miracles confirmatory
of their doctrines, both in the Life of Aquinas,
and in the counterpart on the Franciscan side,
the Life of John Duns Scotus. They are not
merely the miracles of the ordinary legend, but
miracles intended to bear on the truth of their
doctrines. To John Duns Scotus, the marble
statue of the Virgin bows it head, as he offers a
prayer before it, on his way to the place where
he is to hold his triumphant disputation in favour

54 THOMAS AQUINAS.

of the Immaculate Conception.* To Thomas
Aquinas, not only the Apostle Paul gives an ex-
press sanction to the Saint's interpretation of his
Epistles, but the Virgin and even Jesus Christ
himself, speaking through the mouth of their
images, confirm the Saint's exposition of doctrine,
by the declaration, Bern scripsisti de me Thoma.

29. His Canonization.

The honours of canonization conferred by
John XXII. in the year 1323, and the assignment
to him of the rank of Vth Doctor of the Church,
were the fruits of the same struggle. The ho-
nours given to a Dominican were paralleled on
the other side by the like declarations in favour
of Bona ventura, a Franciscan. And as Aquinas
was styled in the phraseology of those days, the
Angelic Doctor, so, on the other hand, the title
of the Seraphic Doctor was assigned to Bona-
ventura.

* J. Duns Scoti Vit. a Luc. Wadding. Scoti Oper. torn. i.

THOMAS AQUINAS. 55

30. Triumph of his Doctrines in the Church.

But the Theology of Aquinas triumphed in
the end. The repeated declarations of Popes
that his writings were perfect, without any error
whatever, gave a sanction to them which per-
petuated their authority in the Church and in
the Schools. The intrinsic merits, indeed, of
his Sum of Theology, in comparison with every
other composition of the Scholastic Age, secured
for that Work the high estimation in which it
has been constantly held. But the fact of his
having represented more closely the doctrines of
Augustine, the great authority of the Latin
Church, on the questions of Grace and Predes-
tination, than the rival Philosopher of the Fran-
ciscans, John Duns Scotus, is quite reason enough
to account for his more extensive and permanent
popularity in the Church.

PHILOSOPHY OF AQUINAS

THE SCHOOLMEN.

1. Uniform Character of the Scholastic Philosophy.

As we remarked, at the commencement of our
observations on the Life of Aquinas, the invaria-
bleness of character in the different Philosophers
of the Schools is the point to which we would
first direct attention, in order to arrive at just
views of the nature of the Scholastic Philosophy.
The uniform aspect of their biography and their
Philosophy is equally remarkable, when we com-
pare them with the eminent men of any other
period of Literary History. Take, for instance,
Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, all, we may
say, trained in the same method, and nearly con-
temporary : and yet how different is the character
both of their lives and of their Philosophy ! We
see in them all the variety of original minds ; the
later, indeed, versed in the systems of the former,

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 57

but yet striking out a path for themselves, and
throwing into their speculations the peculiarities
of their own turn of thought and of their re-
spective condition of life. But compare Albert
the Great, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus,
William Ockam, the four most eminent in the
annals of Scholasticism, and to whom we may
most properly refer as illustrations of its spirit
and form, and we observe only an expansion and
working out of the same ideas, in Ockam the last
in the succession, which we find in Albert the
first. There may be minor differences in parts ;
the conclusions at which they arrive are some-
times directly opposed. But still it is one note
that we hear sounding through all. One might
think that it was some mechanical process by
which the several elaborate systems of these
authors had been constructed : so little evidence
is there in them of the vitality of human nature ;
of their Works having been composed by men
each of whom had his own feelings, his own views,
his own temper and prejudices.

58 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

2. This Uniformity the general idea of the System.

Proceeding then from the uniformity of Scholas-
ticism as the most general idea of its nature, we
shall the more easily fall into that train of specu-
lation which the Philosophy of the Schools exhibits.
We commonly hear this Philosophy spoken of as
dark and subtle, and intricate ; and indeed the
words " Scholastic subtilty," " Scholastic trifling,"
are in the mouths of every one. But these are
merely declamatory expressions, and give us no
proper general description of its character. They
denote qualities which accidentally belong to
Scholasticism, and which are the consequences of
its fundamental idea ; modes of proceeding to
which it was led by the principle on which it took
its rise. The uniformity which pervades it, is, as
we have said, the most faithful representation of
that principle. This is its real characteristic as
it is distinguished from all other scientific methods
which have engaged the attention of mankind.
The explanation and account of that uniformity
will be the great object of our present inquiry.
This will lead us to just notions of the method

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 59

pursued by Aquinas and his brother Philosophers,
and of the nature of that system in itself.

3. Constitution of the Latin Schools.

If we revert to the character of the Schools of
the Middle Ages, we shall find a tendency in those
institutions to impress one unvarying form on the
mental constitution of those educated in them.
They were not founded with a view to the enlarge-
ment of the mind, to the cultivation and improve-
ment of the intellectual and moral principles, for
their own sake, in order to the perfect develope-
ment of the human being. But they were de-
signed for a particular object ; to render those

trained in them more fit instruments for the Civil
or Ecclesiastical power. We have only to read
the regulations of the Theodosian Code concern-
ing the students at Rome, in A. D. 370, to form
an idea of the spirit of those institutions. The
strictest supervision, we find, was exercised in re-
gard to the studies pursued and the disposal of
their time ; the Emperor requiring a report to be
sent to him every year of those admitted, that he
might know the merits of each, and employ them

E2

60 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

in offices of public business suitable to their
talents.* Nor were they permitted to remain
at Rome beyond a certain age : the object being,
probably, to disperse them through the Provinces
of the empire, and diffuse the benefits of Roman
civilization. The Latin language, by a wise
policy, being retained throughout the Empire, as
the language of public business, the institution of
the Schools was directed to the cultivation of a
knowledge of that Language, and a study, con-
sequently, of Latin authors. Provision, indeed,
was made for the study of Greek Literature, but
it appears to have formed only a subordinate
object of the schools of the Western Empire, more
as the accomplishment, than as the business, of
the Student. In the East, where Greek civiliza-
tion was in action at the time of the Roman con-
quests, Greek continued to be spoken and studied,
both as a vernacular Tongue, and as the sacred
idiom of Poetic and Philosophic inspiration. But
in the West, the legions of Rome had to carry
the civilization of Rome into barbarian regions.

* Codex Theodos. lib. xiv. tit. 9. Bulsei Hist, Acad. Pan's,
torn. i. p. 76, 77.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. Gl

They had to mould and refine the rough materials
which the sword had carved out. This part of the
Empire, therefore,was more completely assimilated
to Rome. It exhibited, consequently, what we
may call a Latin nationality ; and the Eastern and
Western portions of the Empire became contra-
distinguished as the Greek and Latin Worlds. A
Roman policy has hence been impressed on the
Schools of the West, and has survived with that
durability which characterises the conceptions of
Roman genius, through the long night of the
Middle Ages of European History. The Latin
Language and Literature, and a limited practical
subserviency of the studies pursued, are the pro-
minent features of those schools, wherever they
may have flourished, whether in France, or Italy,
or Spain, or Africa, or the British Islands. The
great regeneration of the human mind consum-
mated in the reform of Religion, has, in fact, only
modified and improved these fundamental cha-
racteristics of the education of the Western
World. The original Scholastic form has not
been obliterated ; as we may see in the circum-
stance alone of the importance which the Latin

62 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

Language still holds in the Schools and Universi-
ties of Modern Europe.

4. Transition of the Schools into the hands of
Ecclesiastics.

But why do we direct attention to the original
constitution of the Schools of the West ? It is
because it contains in it the germ of that principle,
which afterwards developed itself in the system
of Philosophy called Scholasticism. The Latin
Church, growing over the ruins of the Roman
Empire, succeeded to the policy and power of
the Civil ruler. The maintenance of the Latin
Theology became accordingly the immediate
limited object to which the Schools, now passed
into the hands of Ecclesiastics, would be directed.
Men expert in fighting the battles of the Lord,
skilful in defending each disputed point, and in
parrying the assaults of the Heretic, were the
kind of persons which the method of teaching
pursued in the Schools would particularly con-
template. There would be no desire on the part
of the Latin Churchmen to encourage a freedom
of inquiry, or a wide range over the field of

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 63

Literature ; the adventurer in such a track might
be dangerous to the repose of the Church ; might
break that chain of dependence which bound
the subject-people to the chair of spiritual autho-
rity. Only such a discipline of the intellect
would be provided as should sharpen and
strengthen without emboldening it ; render it apt
to object, to discuss, to infer, without tempting it
to spread forth Daedalean wings, and soar above
the labyrinth in which it was immured.

5. Effects of Studies confined to Books.

A commenting Literature, and a second-hand
Philosophy, naturally became the burthen of the
lessons taught in Schools so constituted, both
under their Heathen and their Christian adminis-
tration. The invention of Works of original
genius was foreign to their purpose. The Ro-
man Literature, indeed, was essentially derivative.
The spirit of the Republic in the busy period
when it was occupied in the acquisition of its
Empire, was averse to the soft influence of let-
ters : and a great people found itself the mis-
tress of the World, and in a high state of civili-

64 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

zation, with no domestic Philosophy, and scarcely
any domestic Literature. In this state of the
case, when the leisure of the people demanded
the gratification of Literature, recourse was ne-
cessarily had to the stores of a foreign Tongue :
and the learned Greek was sought by the studious
Roman as the interpreter of the Language and
Philosophy of Greece. Thus the learning from
books was the expedient to which the literary
Roman was necessarily driven. And this led
further to the rise and employment of Commen-
tators ; to the study, in short, of the instrument
of knowledge in combination with the subject ex-
plored, and at length to the use of the mere
books as an end of study in themselves. When
the Schools assumed an Ecclesiastical character,
this restricted mode of teaching would only be
more fully established. The very low estimation
in which all Heathen Literature was held by
some of the primitive Fathers, the reprobation,
indeed, often cast on it, and the mistaken jea-
lousy with which it was regarded as a rival to
Christianity, would contract, instead of extending,
the range of studies. Further, Christianity im-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 65

posing on its disciples the study of a -book,* the
sacred records in which its own truths are depo-
sited, the Christian student would be led to seek
his instruction analogously in other subjects from
books also ; and his Learning, consequently,
would consist principally of an interpretation of
books.

6. Increasing Ignorance of the Greek Language.

The same reason which induced the Emperors
to make the Latin the Language of Government
and of Civil intercourse throughout the Empire,
would operate no less strongly with the leaders
of the Church. The Scriptures being at an early
period translated into Latin, were in that form as
an original to the Latin world : the knowledge of
Greek declining more and more in the West ; to
such a degree that, at the close of the IVth
Century of the Christian Era, Jerome was per-
haps a single exception of a Latin Father com-
petently acquainted with the Greek Language. It
would evidently be an important point with the
Church leaders, to obtain from all parts of their
communion a confession of the same doctrines in

66 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

the same words. We know what opening is af-
forded by the translation of expressions of one
Language into the corresponding ones of another
to vary the sense ; or rather how impossible it is
to transfuse precisely the same ideas without any
addition or diminution, from the terms of one
Language into those of another. This, indeed,
was felt particularly during the agitation of the
early controversies of the Church. The Greek
would insist that the Latin should confess in his
phraseology, and the Latin was peremptory in
resisting, on finding that the terms imposed by
the Greek conveyed to his ear a sense which he
could not admit. The desire, therefore, of pre-
serving a uniformity of doctrine suggested the
necessity of keeping up a knowledge of the Latin
Language, as the idiom of Theology, and, with
a view to Theology, of all Literature in the
Church, wherever the spiritual power had the
rule.

7. Effect of Translations.

Translations into Latin of the works of Greek
authors were accordingly the principal, if not the

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 67

only methods by which those authors were
studied in the Schools of the West. It is
obvious that such a method would lower the
standard of knowledge. It brought the range of
studies immediately under the control of the
heads of the Church. Those who from their
superior learning or talent in governing, were
called to the station of command in the Church,
were enabled to select those portions of the
Greek Literature which might answer their own
confined views, and detain the mind of the
student on these exclusively. The consequence
was that many valuable Treatises of the Greek
Philosophy were neglected, and some were for-
gotten in the Western Schools. Nothing appears
to have contributed more than this circumstance
to that desolate, barren state, in which we find
the Latin Schools in the Centuries subsequent
to the IVth, which have proverbially obtained
the name of the Dark Ages. The irrup-
tion of Barbarians and the miserable state of
society, doubtless aggravated the darkness which
then spread over Europe, But the seeds of
ignorance were sown in the system itself. The

68 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

wildness and fury of the elements raging with-
out, will not account for that jejune and frivolous
erudition, which overran the very soil itself of
the fields of knowledge during this period.
We see, however, a sufficient reason for it, in
the intrinsic narrowness of the mode of educa-
tion subsisting in the Schools, in the circum-
stances of there being no proper Latin Literature,
amidst the neglect of the study of the Greek,
and the restriction of the attention of thinking
men to certain Works existing in Latin trans-
lations.

8. Effect of Commentaries.

Besides this, the need of Commentaries to
explain the text of an author, when he is read as
the writer of another Age and another Country,
gave occasion for further limiting the views of
students. For soon the original text of the
author would scarcely be read : the labour would
be spent on the Commentary : and only such
Works would be read as were illustrated by
Commentaries. And thus in process of time an
artificial, microscopic Literature would grow up,

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 69

wanting entirely the raciness and spirit of ori-
ginal composition, and encumbering the under-
standing with its molecular accumulations. Such
was the result, in fact ; as a glance over any
page of the Scholastic Literature will readily
make appear to every one. The explanation of
the sense of the author commented upon is
the utmost aim of the expositor : his highest
ambition is to show what his author means
under every possible light, or to elicit out of
his assertions a multiplicity of subordinate pro-
positions.

9. Unphilosophical Nature of the Latin Language.

The unphilosophical nature of the Latin Lan-
guage was in itself a fatal impediment to the
vigour of philosophical studies, when that Lan-
guage came to be employed as the sole medium
of intellectual cultivation. Its utter inadequacy
to express the subtle abstractions of the Greek
Philosopher was the means of perverting in
great measure the truth of Science ; and not
unfrequently indeed of engrafting materialism on

70 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

the metaphysical ideas of the Greek, when they
came to be represented in Latin phraseology.

10. Scholasticism the result of this Method of Education.

The same method of education, carried to its
full extent, developed itself at length in the
proper form of Scholasticism. Nothing was
wanting for this result but to direct the atten-
tion of the student to certain subjects, and
certain Treatises on those subjects. And this
was naturally the next step taken. It is by
observing the stages of this progress, that we
shall arrive at correct views of the peculiar
Philosophy of the Schools.

.11. Scholasticism an inversion of the Natural Progress
of Knowledge.

But first it becomes matter of inquiry, why it
should have resulted in establishing a particular
philosophical system, rather than in forming a
particular School of Literature in general. Now
this will appear, if we consider that Philosophy
is the ultimate growth of a people's intellectual -
progress. Where a people passes through the

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 71

regular transitions from an infancy to a maturity
of intellectual cultivation, Poetry and the Fine
Arts at first engage their attention : the taste is
formed before the powers of judgment and rea-
soning are wrought to their severe perfection.
This appears from the case of Greece, where we
have the instance of a people forming for them-
selves, by successive original efforts, their own
intellectual character. Their genius threw itself
forth in its native Poetry: and their Temples,
their Statues, and their Pictures, proclaimed its
graceful vigour, before the bowers of Academus
or the Lyceum resounded with the hum of their
Philosophy. This then is the natural progress
of things ; the natural course of the education of
a people. But in the case of the Latin World,
as we here designate that part of the Roman
Empire which was united into a social mass by
Roman civilization, the intellectual character
first developed itself in Philosophy : the first
great movement was to that which is the last
properly in the order of Nature. But the fact
explains itself when we look into it more closely.
The Schools of the Middle Age received in a

72 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

mass the accumulated treasures of antiquity.
They invented nothing for themselves : the riches
of Poetry, Eloquence, and Philosophy were
poured out on them in lavish profusion. At the
same time, there was no capacity for appreciating
the relative value of the several acquisitions of
knowledge. At this crisis, however, polemical
disputation called upon the Heads of the Chris-
tian Church, to acquaint themselves with the
theories of that Philosophy, from which the
Infidel or the Heretic drew his attacks on Chris-
tianity. The necessity was felt of opposing Phi-
losophy with Philosophy. Hence, from the ear-
liest Ages, Christianity is spoken of by the
Fathers, as a Philosophy ; and is strenuously
maintained to be the only true Philosophy of
life, as contrasted with that of Heathen Sages.
Whilst the. Poetry, therefore, and History, and
Eloquence of the Classic Authors were held in
contempt, as comparatively unworthy of attention
from the Christian, the pages of the Philosopher
were eagerly explored, in order to an acquaint-
ance with those principles which were brought
into competition with Christianity. And thus,

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 73

unhappily, the Christian Schools reversed the
natural order of the education of the human
mind, rushing all at once to an end, legitimately
attainable only by the fruit of matured habits of
thought, and the discipline of all the faculties of
the mind. Their Philosophy consequently was
an insincere, unreal system ; a collection of
principles, the data not of investigation and ex-
perience, but of a prescriptive authority ; the
results of the labour and ingenuity of others
taken in their concrete form without analysis,
and applied as oracular texts for the deduction
of truths.

12. Logic studied as an Art of Polemics.
But not only were Works of Philosophy the
principal objects of attention to the Christian
student, as containing theories of Science, but
also, and more especially, as an instruction in
the method of polemical defence. The disputers
against Christianity were found to possess an
acute science of argument, by which they could
give a plausibility either to their objections or
their heretical speculations. The multitude of

74 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

believers was open to seduction from the true
Faith through the arts of the skilful dialectician,
who could often make the worse appear the
better view of an opinion or doctrine. The pos-
sibility of converting the same instrument to the
support of the sacred cause of Christianity and
Christian orthodoxy, was obvious. The ques-
tionings indeed of the Faithful themselves, which
we know from Ecclesiastical History to have
arisen on almost every point of doctrine on
various occasions, admitting often of no direct
answer, required an ingenious solution, so that
the difficulty might at least be staved off, (if we
may so express it,) might be removed a step
beyond that at which the questionist had taken
his stand. Thus the necessity of combating the
Infidel or Heretic with his own arms, and of
providing the Christian advocate with a casuisti-
cal Theology, such as should meet all the emer-
gencies of doubt and difficulty in the Christian
community, made the study of works of dialecti-
cal Science, — the Logic of the ancient Schools, —
imperative in the course of Christian education.
Hence recourse was had to the great master of

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 75

that Science among the Philosophers of Greece ;
and the Works of Aristotle, at first reprobated
as atheistical and impious, obtained a practical
value, which soon bore down all speculative
opposition to them, and exalted that Philosopher
to the pre-eminence in the Scholastic system.

13. An Eclectic, Logical Philosophy the result.

The combination of these two objects, — the
necessity of an acquaintance with the theories
of ancient Philosophy in themselves, and of ac-
quiring an art of polemical defence, — produced
in the result an Eclectic, Logical Philosophy, as
the peculiar system of the Schools of the Middle
Age. To explain the nature of this Logical
Philosophy will be to develope the fundamental
principles of Scholasticism.

14. Platonism first cherished in the Church.

We must observe, then, that Platonism was
the established Philosophy of the "Church in the
primitive Ages of Christianity. The first con-
verts to the Gospel from the class of Philosophers

F2

76 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

appear to have been of that Sect ; and these
brought with them into their new professions, a
predilection for the theories which they had only
formally renounced in embracing the Gospel.
Though the accommodation then attempted to
be made between truths of Religion and theories
of Philosophy awakened a just alarm in the
minds of many, yet the devout and sublime tone
of Platonism softened down the opposition of the
pious, and won them over as by a syren-song in
despite of themselves. Thus we find Augustine,
the great Father of Latin orthodoxy, commend-
ing and approving the Platonists, as the only
Philosophers who had spoken fitly of divine things
and of human nature ; and in describing his own
conversion to Christianity, mentioning the advan-
tages he had derived from reading their writings.

15. Insufficiency of Platonisra. — Aristotle's Philosophy
supplies the Defect.

Platonism, accordingly, we may say, was the
original orthodox Philosophy of the Church, so
far as the Church owned itself philosophical.
We see this very strikingly in the early contro-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 77

versies of the Church, when the speculations,
both of the Heretic and of the Orthodox, drawn
fundamentally from the theories of Platonism,
corrupted the pure truth of the Trinitarian doc-
trine with the subtle alloy of a refined material-
ism. So firm was the hold which Platonism had
on the Church, from the veneration paid to the
great men of its early history who had professed
their admiration of that system, and from its
having been incorporated with various expositions
of Christian Truth, that it was impossible to sub-
stitute any other Philosophy in its place, even
had any such design existed in the Schools of
the Middle Age. Still that Philosophy did not
suffice for the whole state of the case. It pre-
sented, indeed, the means of speculating on the
truths of Christianity, and explaining them to
the satisfaction of speculative men : but it was
deficient as a method of investigation and argu-
ment. It was only a vast collection of theories.
Such, however, was not the case with the Phi-
losophy of Aristotle. This was essentially a
science of methods. Aristotle had analyzed the
principles of human knowledge, examining into

78 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

the nature of Language, as the instrument of
communicating knowledge, and delivering with
accuracy and fulness the means of producing
persuasion and conviction. This was observed
to be eminently the characteristic of a large
portion of Aristotle's Works, that collection of
Logical Treatises to which Moderns have given
the name of the Organon ; whilst throughout his
Works a methodical character marks them in
contrast with the rhetorical diifuseness and ir-
regularity of Plato. Thus was the Christian
student invited to the study of the Logic of
Aristotle ; and thus too has the name of Aris-
totle been identified with that of Logical Phi-
losopher. An imperfect Logic, indeed, was
already taught, drawn from the Stoic School,
which being more accordant with the degenerate
Philosophy of the later days of Greece, had su-
perseded that of Aristotle. But the Heretics of
the Hnd and Hlrd Centuries had infested the
citadel of Orthodoxy with missiles furnished from
the dialectical armoury of Aristotle himself.
And this circumstance, whilst it excited a strong
prejudice against the Philosophy of Aristotle in

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 79

general, — for the heresy of his readers was im-
puted to the system of the Philosopher, — pointed
out to the Orthodox, at the same time, the re-
sources for improving their own argumentative
power.

16. Objections of Platonizing Christians to Aristotle.

The disciples of Plato in the Church strenu-
ously opposed the introduction of Aristotle's
Philosophy, not only as Churchmen, but as Phi-
losophers. They had carried to an extreme the
very doctrine in the system of Plato, which
Aristotle had impugned with the severity of his
powerful reasoning. They were, therefore, still
more strongly opposed to Aristotle than the ori-
ginal School of the Academy. The theory of
Ideas was, according to Plato, the cardinal point
of all Truth ; so far as the Ideas were the ab-
stract intellectual realities from which all objects
of the sensible universe derived their existence.
But according to the interpretation of his doc-
trines adopted by his Alexandrian followers, and
through them current in the Christian Church,
the Ideas were the eternal reasons of things as

80 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

they are contemplated by the Divine Intellect.
The Philosophy of Aristotle, entirely destitute of
anything like enthusiasm, possessing no attraction
for the imaginative and the mystic, seemed to
those already enamoured of the pleasing reveries
of Platonism, a cold, atheistical system that
tied down the intellect to the mere things of
sense, depriving it of its high and ennobling con-
templations of the Divine Being.*

17. Logical Treatises of Aristotle exclusively Studied.

Hence we may account for the entire neglect
into which all other portions of Aristotle fell,
except the Logical Treatises. These were neu-
tral in the matter of Theology. They contained
the rules of a universal method, equally applica-
ble to all subjects. They coincided, however,
with the system of the Platonists, inasmuch as
that was in itself an application of the Philosophy
of Language to the interpretation of Nature.
Plato, indeed, had assigned the name of Dialectic

* The existence of a Work attributed to Justin Martyr,
entitled JEversio Aristotelicorum Dogmatum, is an evidence to
this point.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 81

to the highest Philosophy, a description which
prepared the way for the transformation of it into
the Logical Philosophy of the Schools. Thus
were the two systems, the Platonic and the Aris-
totelic, imperceptibly blended together. The
Aristotelic, repulsive in its dryness of methodical
discussion, and disappointing to the religious
feelings of the heart, obtained a support in the
enthusiasm of Platonism : whilst Platonism, too
imaginative in its own unmixed nature, too evan-
escent in its abstractions for the herd of Philoso-
phers, descended to conversation with men of
humble genius, and combated the religious dis-
putant with reasonings drawn from the practical
Philosophy of the Peripatetic School.

18. Union of Mysticism with an Argumentative Spirit
the result.

This union of the two systems was never indeed
completely effected until the mature period of the
Scholastic Philosophy which was the result of it ;
until the period, that is, of Albert the Great and
Aquinas, in the middle of the XHIth Century.
In the mean time, we may see the two streams

82 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

running together, sometimes joined in one chan-
nel, sometimes receding from each other. We
clearly recognise, as we cast the eye over the
^ page of Ecclesiastical History, two classes of
[/ Theologians, the Mystic and the Argumentative ;
the representatives of each of the two Tiombmed
Philosophies, and each representing that com-
bination in process. For the Mystic is Argumenta-
tive ; and the Argumentative betrays a tendency
to mysticism : both, in fact, working on partial,
undeveloped views of one and the same prin-
ciple— that very Scholasticism to which their
labours separately tended. The Mystic, indeed,
as the representative of the original Church
Philosophy, is found continually charging on the
argumentative Theologian the heresy of his
Logic ; but the Logician, on the other hand, as
the innovator, so far from retorting the censure of
mysticism on his opponent, is anxious to show his
own contemplative spirit amidst all the rigour
and homeliness of his reasonings. These strug-
gles for ascendency between the Platonic and
Aristotelic systems, antecedently to their perfect
union in Scholasticism, identified themselves with

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 83

the conflicts which have ever existed in the hu-
man mind, and which the condition of the Church
in the Middle Age greatly fomented, between
Faith and Reason, and Authority and Reason.
Soon the Mystics arrogated to themselves the
dignity and merit of supporting the Faith as
handed down by the Fathers in its divine sim-
plicity, whilst the Logicians were characterised
as the impugners of authority and asserters of
Reason against Revelation. Both however were,
as we have said, urging forward the same prin-
ciple, the construction of a divine Philosophy, in
which Faith and Reason, Authority and Reason,
should meet together and coalesce. The Mys-
tics accomplished this by internal processes of the
intellect, pursuing the Ideas of Divine truth by
an imaginary spiritualization of the thoughts
to the utmost abstractedness from the world.
The Logical Theologian only more avowedly
trod the same path, pursuing the same ideas by
the scientific methods of definition, analysis, and
argument.

84 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

. 19. Augustine and Boethius the Leaders in forming the
System. — John Scotus Erigena.

The two great leaders in the formation of this
system were Augustine, at the close of the IVth
Century and commencement of the Vth, and
Boethius about a century afterwards. Augus-
tine, as a venerated head of the Church, whose
voice was received as decisive of all points of
controversy, set the example in his own writings
of a speculative Theology, in which the truths of
Revelation were subjected to argumentative dis-
cussion. Whilst his authority overruled the re-
fractory reasonings of heresy, he established by
the course of his own disputations, orthodox
principles of religious speculation. Still in
Augustine the Theologian prevailed over the
Philosopher. In Boethius, on the contrary, Phi-
losophy was supreme. This may be seen in his
well-known Treatise On the Consolation of Phi-
losophy / in which it is not Christianity, but
Philosophy, that whispers peace to the troubled
soul, and pours the balm into its wounds. This
excellent and great man formed the patriotic de-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 85

sign of laying a broad basis of Latin Philosophy,
by transfusing the stores of Greek wisdom into
the Latin Language. His project was vast be-
yond the powers of any single agent, however
energetic. Though, however, he accomplished
but little in the way of translation, his exertions
were fully instrumental in introducing to the
Latin world that Eclectic method of Philosophy,
which afterwards ripened into Scholasticism.
This Eclectic method, having for its express ob-
ject, to establish a concord between Plato and
Aristotle,* was the ultimate form which the
Greek Philosophy had received in the School of
Athens, where Boethius himself had imbibed it.

* Ego omne Aristotelis opus quodcumque in manus venerit,
in Romanum stylum vertens, eorum omnium commenta Latino,
oratione prcescribam ; ut si quid ex Logicce Artis subtilitate,
et ex moralis gravitate peritice, et ex naturalis acumine veri-
tatis, ab Aristotele conscriptum est, id omne ordinatum trans-
feram ; atque id quodam lumine commentationis illustrem ;
omnesque Platonis Dialogos vertendo, vel etiam commentando,
in Latinam redigam formam. His paratis, non equidem con-
tempserim Aristotelis Platonisque sententias in unam quodam^
modo revocare concordiam, et in his eos, non ut plerique
dissentire in omnibus, sed in plerisque quce sunt in Philosophid
maxime consentire, demonstremt fyc. Boethius, Comment, in
lib. de Interpretatione.

86 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

It was, however, but imperfectly maintained
through the centuries intermediate to the Age
of Boethius and that of Albert and Aquinas.
During this period, when Philosophy began at
length once more to emerge from the pressure of
Ecclesiastical authority, speculative men were en-
gaged in endeavouring to resume the thread of
their lost Philosophy, and in making desultory
experimental efforts. The first great effort was
that of the celebrated John Scotus Erigena in the
IXth Century. And this is characterised, as we
might have expected, by a wild metaphysical
mysticism ; such as the religious spirit of the pre-
ceding Ages would have suggested to a philoso-
phic mind, anxiously seeking to think for itself,

yet encumbered with the heavy armour of a se-

m

vere ecclesiastical authority. A mind so cir-
cumstanced finds its relief in explaining away, by
principles of Philosophy, the opinions imposed on
its passive belief ; and instead of simply making
Reason subservient to the defence and exposition
of doctrines, overwhelms the sacred truth with
the officiousness of its speculation. The mixed
system accordingly, compounded of the Philoso-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 87

phies of Plato and Aristotle^ degenerated, in the
hands of Erigena, from the more sober method
of the Athenian School, into the wild enthusiasm
of the Platonism of Alexandria. Others again,!
as Anselm of Canterbury in the Xlth Century,
exemplified more of the Aristotelic character :
whilst Abelard seems to vibrate between the two
elements of the combination, — a Platonist where
he professedly teaches Theology ; a disciple of the
Aristotelic School in the rigour and positiveness
of his abstract reasonings.

20. Influence of Arabian Literature. — Gerbert.

The confusion and misery prevailing in the
West during the Xth Century produced a retro-
grade movement in the condition of Literature.
The feudal anarchy which then desolated a large
portion of Christendom, threw the labourer in the
field of Science on the resources supplied by the
Arabian Literature of those times. The only
conspicuous name which emerges out of the
storms and clouds of this period, to preserve the
tradition of Latin Philosophy, is that of Gerbert,
whose reputation for learning cast a lustre on the

88 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

Papal throne to which he was elevated under the
title of Sylvester II. He, it appears, was chiefly
indebted to the Arabian Philosophers of Spain
for that Learning which rendered him the pro-
digy of his Age. The Arabians, studious of
physical and mathematical Science, had cultivated
an acquaintance with portions of Aristotle's Phi-
losophy, which had been neglected in the West,
— the physical and metaphysical Treatises. By
the aid of these they had elaborated an artificial
Theurgic system, subsidiary to the imaginary pro-
cesses of Magic and Alchemy. From them the
Christian Schools in the West derived that bias
towards notions of Pantheism which is shown in
the speculations of the Xlth and XHth Centu-
ties. A system drawn from Commentators on
Aristotle was naturally confounded, in the igno-
rance of those times, with the Philosophy of
Aristotle himself. Hence was occasioned a still
greater opposition to the reception of his writings.
We find in the Xllth Century "the books of
David de Dinant, and Amalric, and Maurice the
Spaniard," which taught the Pantheistic system
of the Arabians, expressly reprobated by Papal

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 89

decrees, and with them, in the same sentence, the
physical and metaphysical writings of Aristotle.*
But Albert and Aquinas, by a more enlarged
study of the Works of Aristotle, removed that
prejudice which the association of Arabian no-
tions with his system of Nature had engendered.
They laboured against that sequaciousness of the
Arabian Science, which speculating Christians had
displayed. Aquinas more particularly, as the
less addicted to physical inquiry, tended to give
right views of the nature of Aristotle's Philoso-
phy, and by his exposition of it to establish it in
the Church, and thus restore that original Eclec-
tic Philosophy of which Boethius had set the ex-
ample to the Latins.

21. Importance of the Treatise of the Categories.

At first then, we should observe, when Aristotle
was united with Plato in the Church system, it

* Non legantur libri Aristotelis de Metaphysicd et de Na-
turali Philosophid, nee summce de iisdem, aut de doctrind
magistri David de Dinant, aut Amalrici hceretici, aut Mau-
ricii Hispani. Launoii de Var. Aristot. Fortund in Acad.
Paris. Bulsei Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 82.

90 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

was only the Logical treatises of Aristotle that
were studied. Of these, that entitled The Cate-
gories, or the Predica, was the chief object of at-
tention, and soon the exclusive one. Logic, in-
deed, being studied with a view to polemics, was
necessarily very imperfectly studied. The ele-
mentary theory of the Science, that which lays the
foundation of it in the nature of Language, prin-
cipally attracted notice. For that which engaged
the attention of controversialists was the extent
of signification of terms, the differences of the
several notions included in them, and their exact
definition. This was the kind of Science chiefly
required in order to Theological disputation. It
was important to be able to defend certain ex-
pressions in the enunciation of doctrines, or to
exclude others brought forward by the heretic, —
to remove alleged consequences by distinctions,
— and to state in explicit terms the notions em-
braced in any particular dogmatic expression.
Hence we find that portion of the Organon of
Aristotle, which was most applicable to this pur-
pose, principally, or rather exclusively, studied
until the XIHth Century. Other Logical Trea-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 91

tises of Aristotle besides the Categories existed
in Latin translations. But these, as John of
Salisbury, writing in the Xllth Century, indig-
nantly complains, were quite disused in his
time ;* and no Logic was tolerated in the Schools,
but such as was conversant about the mere tech-
nicalities of the sterile Art then professed. To
state the truth, indeed, Aristotle himself, though
the name of Aristotle was in the mouths of all
the reasoners of the Middle Age as that of the
great Master of their Art, was absolutely un-
known to them. Abstracts drawn from transla-
tions and comments of the IVth, Vth, and Vlth
Centuries had superseded the originals, even on
the narrow ground to which his Logical Science
had been reduced.

22. Maturity of Scholasticism seen in Aquinas —
John Duns Scotus — William Ockam.

To judge then of the true internal character
of Scholasticism, we must view it at that point
of its progress where those principles which

Metalogicus, lib. iii. c. 5, p. 859.
G2

92 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

presided over its formation were at length fully
developed ; at the period, that is, of Thomas
Aquinas, who is eminently the Philosopher of the
Schools, the creature of the system which had
then obtained its full strength. We see in him
that acuteness which the polemical spirit had
fostered in the Church ; that narrowness which
the limited range of studies had necessarily en-
gendered ; that servility to authority which the
magisterial power of the Latin Church had en-
graved on the mind of the pious votary ; that
boldness of speculation at the same time, which
Philosophical talents, pent up within the barriers
of a technical Logic and Metaphysics, would
naturally acquire, and by which they would,
however imperfectly, assert their conscious dig-
nity and vigour. After Aquinas there is evidently
a decline in the character of Scholasticism.
There were not wanting men of considerable
power of mind to carry on the system. It is
enough to mention the names of John Duns
Scotus and William Ockam ; names indeed well
nigh forgotten in these days, particularly in this
Country, from the darkness which the reforma-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 93

tion of Philosophy and Religion has spread over
their volumes, but by no means meriting that
silence into which they have fallen. Hooker
indeed has honoured Scotus with the appellation
of " the wittiest of the School Divines."* But
Ockam especially ought never to be forgotten
among those who prepared the way for the
improved Science of the XVIIth and XVIIIth
Centuries ; as having inculcated by his Logical
theory the unjustly vilified doctrine of the Nomi-
nalists, and so far led men from that exclusive
devotion to mere abstractions which Scholasticism
had taught, to look also to experience for in-
formation and science. But in depicting the
form of Scholasticism, we must pronounce both
these eminent men far inferior to Aquinas, as
representatives of its genuine features at its
maturity. They present its features rather under
distortion and caricature ; the less graceful cha-
racteristics being magnified to an undue propor-
tion, though but slightly varied from the original
outlines. In them and in the later Schoolmen

* EccL Polity, book i. c. 11.

94 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

generally, down to the period of the Reforma-
tion, there is more of the parade of Logic, a
more formal enumeration of arguments, a more
burthensome importunity of syllogizing, with
less of the philosophical power of arrangement
and distribution of the subject discussed. The
dryness again inseparable from the Scholastic
method is carried to excess in the later writers ;
and perspicuity of style is altogether neglected.
The patient Schoolman of the latter Age, plods his
way through the desert sands of his journey, with
all the alacrity of a traveller through the most
picturesque country ; careless, as it would seem,
who may follow him, so he may himself reach
the given point. The same faults exist in Aqui-
nas : but in him they are rendered less offensive
by his greater art in the management of the
method of disputation. It is not, perhaps, saying
too much, to give him the praise of even exciting
interest in his reader ; — no small merit, when we
think of the intrinsic repulsiveness of the method
itself. To refer more particularly to his greatest
Work, his Sum of Theology, the admirable order
which reigns throughout it, the regular sue-

THE SCHOLA§TIQ .PHILOSOPHY. 95

V^£fO^^

cession of the several Questions adduced for dis-
cussion, and the combination of the mass of
particulars into one whole, — certainly impart an
attractiveness to the Work, of which, on the first
superficial examination of its contents, it would
seem utterly incapable.

23. Character of Peter Lombard's Book of the Sentences.

These remarks should be extended, on the
other side, to the immediate predecessors of
Aquinas, Peter Lombard and Albert. If we
assign to Lombard the merit of having laid the
literary groundwork of Scholasticism by his Book
of the Sentences, we must at the same time deny
him any other merit in the comparison with
Aquinas. Nothing can be more meagre than
the Work itself in point of thought. This ab-
sence, indeed, of all purely intellectual merit is
the great cause of that Ecclesiastical sanction
which the Book of the Sentences obtained. The
timidity of the speculation charmed to rest the
jealous feeling of spiritual authority : and with
some passing slight objections, it was allowed to
descend into the Schools as a manual of Ortho-

i)6 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

dox Theology. It thus gave a licence for Theo-
logical speculation, whilst it marked out exactly
the lists within which the Religious tournament
should be held. It embodied in itself, that is,
those narrow, exclusive principles on which the
system of education in the Latin world had been
all along proceeding; reducing them to these
two general ones : first, that no authority sanc-
tioned by the Church should be questioned;
secondly, that nothing should be attempted to be
established, independently of those authorities,
or which could not be reconciled with them. The
discernment of Lombard appears in his having
seized the spirit of his Age, and with a pro-
phetic sagacity laid a foundation on which the
shrewder genius of his successors in Scholas-
ticism might build securely. But his Work is
nothing more than a rough foundation as com-
pared with the fabric of the Summa of Aquinas.

24. Contrast of Albert with Aquinas.

Nor again can we consider the Works of
Albert, though more closely resembling those of
Aquinas, as presenting an equally comprehensive

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 97

and masterly display of the character of Scho-
lasticism. Albert had in view rather to imitate
the method of Aristotle, following throughout the
Physical Treatises, supplying, as he himself says,
parts either omitted or lost, and elucidating by
digressions what was obscure or doubtful in the
Greek Philosopher.* He affects more the cha-
racter of the Philosopher than of the Theologian ;
though, in the Schoolman, as we shall have oc-
casion to remark more particularly presently,
the two functions were almost coincident, as in
Aquinas, indeed, they are completely. Employ-
ment strictly Ecclesiastical was uncongenial to
his taste. For a time he was drawn from his
Philosophic seclusion to the more busy station of
the Bishopric of Ratisbon : but a restless hank-
ering after his loved studies, and an impatience
of the detail of official duties, very soon induced
him to renounce the incompatible charge. His
devotion to Physical studies especially is evident,
from the title of Magician, by which an ignorant
and superstitious Age characterised his myste-

* Albert. Mag. Physic, lib. i. tract. 1. torn. xi. p. 1.

98 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

rious operations on Nature. Alchymy and As-
trology found in him an ardent devotee ; and
such was the repute which he obtained for his
mystic science, that, in fact, he is more known in
modern times for these pursuits than for his
Scholastic disputations.* Aquinas, on the other
hand, followed the proper path of the Scholastic

* The following passage from Albert sufficiently testifies
to his enthusiasm in Alchemy. Having spoken of his labo-
rious travels, and the inquiries he had pursued for ascertain-
ing the truth of the Science, but for a long time without any
satisfactory result; he adds: Ego vero non desperavi, quin
facerem labores et expensas infinitas, vigilans, et de loco ad
locum migrans omni tempore, ac meditans, sicut dicit Avicena ;
si hcec res est, quomodo est ? et si non est, quomodo non est ?
Tandem perseveravi studendo, meditando, laborando in operibus
ejusdem, quousque quod qucerebam inveni, non ex meet scientid,
sed ex Spiritus Sancti gratid. Unde quum saperem et intelli-
gerem, quod naturam superaret, diligentius vigilare ccepi in
decoctionibus et sublimationibus, solutionibus et di&illationibus,
cerationibus, et calcinationibus, atque coagulationibus alchimice,
et in multis aliis laboribus, donee inveni, esse possibilem trans-
mutationem in solem et lunam. Albert. Mag. libell. de Alchim.
prcefat.

So extensive was the fame of Albert, that William of Hol-
land, passing by the way of Cologne, paid a visit to the great
Professor of the day. On this occasion, Albert astonished
his Royal visiter by producing in the depth of Winter from
the garden of the cloister the flowers and fruits of Spring.
The artificial skill of the hot-house was interpreted as an
evidence of the magic art of the Philosopher.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 99

Theologian with an undivided attention. He
regarded the attempt to explore the secrets of
Nature with a superstitious dread ; so far that,
on seeing the speaking automaton which the art
of Albert had constructed, in a paroxysm of
pious horror he dashed it to pieces, dissolving
the demon-spell to which he attributed the
wonder.

The voice of fame, indeed, has not unreason-
ably discriminated between the master and the
disciple, in awarding to the one the title of the
Great, expressive of the prodigy of his Learning
and Science ; to the other, that of the Saint, and
the Angelic, characteristic of the devout, theolo-
gical Philosopher.

25. Literary spirit of Aquinas — Improved versions
of Aristotle — Imperfect method of translation.

There is yet another important circumstance
by which Aquinas is distinguished, not only from
Albert, but from all other Scholastics. There
is more of the literary spirit about him. We
can scarcely call it Criticism : — for the Critical

100 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

Art could not have lived in such days, when ex-
amination of principles was forbidden ground to
the Religionist and the Philosopher : — still there
are attempts at Criticism to be seen in his
writings. He ventures to question the correct-
ness of the translation of passages of Aristotle,
to compare different versions, and to qualify his
own exposition by examination of conflicting
authorities. But we see nothing of this in Albert,
who is content to follow his text with an unscru-
pulous and servile docility. A still greater test
of the literary spirit of Aquinas is given, in the
care expended by him on a new translation of
Aristotle. At his desire, a Dominican, by name
Henry or William of Brabant, made a new trans-
lation of the Treatises of Aristotle from the
Greek original.* Hitherto the versions used

* Wilhelmus de Brdbantid Ordinis Prcedicatorum transtulit
omnes libros Aristotelis, de Grceco in Latinum, verbum e verbo,
qua translations scholares adhuc hodiernd die utuntur in scholis
ad instantiam S. Thomce. de Aquino Doctoris. Auct. Anonym.
Chron. Slav, apud Lindenbrog. p. 206.

Eodem autem tempore, anno nimirum Christi 1271, Henricus
Brabantinus, Dominicanus, rogatu D. Thomce, e Grceco in
linguam Latinam, de verbo ad verbum, transfert omnes libros

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 101

were principally drawn, not immediately from
the Greek, but indirectly from the Arabic, or
Hebrew, or Syriac, or Persian ; and sometimes
from versions that had passed through several of
these secondary channels. For it was but a
small portion of the Organon that Boethius had
translated, and in this century many Treatises of
Aristotle, which, if not unknown before among
the Christians of the West, had at any rate
fallen into disuse, were brought into the Schools,
either from the Arabians of Spain, or directly
from Constantinople and the East. Many of
these were brought in that form, in which the
successive transfusion from Language to Lan-
guage only imperfectly represented the sense of
the Philosopher. It argues no little vigour of
mind in Aquinas at such a time, to have pro-
vided for a more genuine acquaintance with the
Philosophy, which was destined to hold a per-
manent dominion in the Church and to absorb

Aristotelis. Albertus usus est veteri translatione quam Boe-
thianam vacant. Aventin. Annal. Boior. lib. vii. c. 7.

Jourdain, Eech. Crit. sur I Age et I' Origine des Trad. Lat.
d'dristote, p. 26G.

102 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

into its vortex the whole of Christian Theology.
By some, indeed, the work of translation has
been attributed to Aquinas himself. But besides
the express testimonies on the other side, there
is no ground to think that he was at all acquainted
with the Greek Language. References to Greek
words occur in his writings : but these are evi-
dently drawn from second-hand authorities* In-
deed, the business of translation may be regarded
as properly a professional one. The Philosopher
superintended the task ; whilst the learned Jew,
or Saracen, conversant with the Greek, the Latin,
and the Arabic Languages, was engaged in the
actual process of translation. The Christian
Philosopher resorting to Toledo, had the Greek
text interpreted to him in the vulgar idiom, the
Moorish, or Spanish Language spoken there ;
and then himself rendered the interpretation so
given into Latin.* The new translations, indeed,

* This appears to have been the mode in which Michael
Scot, like Albert, also, more known for Magic than for Phi-
losophy, performed his translations of Aristotle. He was at
Toledo, engaged in this work, in 1217. Christian students
used to learn at Toledo the necromancy of the Arabians. See
Jourdain, Bech. Critiques, fyc. p. 139, 235.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 103

which Aquinas was instrumental in producing,
were probably little more than collations of those
already extant, with a view to ascertain their va-
riations ; and not original versions founded on a
simple study of the original Greek.

In setting forth then a general view of the
Philosophy of Aquinas, we may fairly assume,
that we are taking a survey of Scholasticism in
its most general form, the proper characteristic of
its nature, independently of individual peculiari-
ties which may have accidentally modified it in
part.*

/
In examining into any Philosophy, there are /

two leading points to which we naturally advert : / ,
1, the substance itself of the Philosophy ; or the / /
principles in the different departments of human
knowledge, of which it actually consists : 2, the j
method on which it proceeds ; what data it as-
sumes, and in what order it applies these for the
construction of its system.

* Aquinas is particularly selected by Dante to represent
the Philosophers of the Schools.

104 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

26. Scholasticism confounds the Method and the Principles
of Philosophy.

Now in the Philosophy of the Schoolmen these
two points of view meet in one. We have shown
how the method of Aristotle was gradually super-
induced on the established Platonism of the
Church. The introduction of so powerful an
ally was the means of revolutionizing the system
to whose aid it was brought. The Philosophy so
constantly engaged in the field with the heretical
disputant, obtained a practical ascendancy founded
on its actual services in the emergencies of the
Faith. Not that we are to suppose that Pla-
tonism was extinct in the Church, even when the
Aristotelic Philosophy triumphed. This would
be to mistake the true character of Scholasticism,
which, as we have pointed out, never abandoned
its first attachment to the Platonic mysticism.
But Platonism was the strong under-current.
The Aristotelic Philosophy was the tide that
flowed on the surface, propelled by every wind
and storm that vexed the Church.

The Aristotelic Philosophy, accordingly, being

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 105

cultivated only as a Science of defence, and con-
sequently established as a Logical Philosophy,
what was in its proper nature simply a method of
discussion, became in the result an organ of in-
vestigation, and a Science also of the first prin-
ciples of every other Science. This was in direct
opposition to the views of Aristotle himself : for
the great service rendered by him to the cause of
Scientific Truth, was, that he separated Logic
from the Metaphysics with which it had been
confounded in all former systems. But the
Church Philosophers, cleaving to the original
misconceptions of the Platonic Schools, brought
back that confusion, and perpetuated it in their
own artificial mode of philosophizing.

27. Source of this Confusion in the nature of General
Terms.

The Science of Logic, leading us to consider
the manner in which general principles are ap-
plied to the deduction and communication of
knowledge, is apt on that account to give the de-
lusive idea of its power to interpret the secrets of
Nature. The universality of the terms of Lan-

H

106 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

guage is mistaken for the generalization of facts.
Because, as we may explain this more fully, we
discover by reasoning from words as the signs of
our ideas, a vast variety of particulars involved
in general notions, (every argument being in fact
a deduction of some particular out of a more
general principle,) we seem to have occasion only
to study the abstractions denoted by words, to
obtain a universal Science. Plato's Philosophy
carried this notion to the utmost point, stating it
in the form of his well-known theory-— that know-
ledge is nothing but reminiscence. And the
same theory has been expressed by Moderns
under a still more paradoxical form — that Science
is nothing but a Language well arranged. The
most abstract ideas become, according to such a
view, the most adequate and true conceptions of
things as comprehending under the most scientific
form the infinite variety of subordinate particulars.
Such a Philosophy resolves itself into a system of
Idealism. By realizing the mere abstractions of
the Mind, and at once converting Metaphysical
Truth into Physical, and Physical into Meta-
physical, it results in a refined Materialism, or

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 107

Idealism, a system in which Metaphysical Truth
is all in all.

28. Coincidence of Idealism and Realism the result.

Such then, in the general view of its nature,
was the Philosophy of the Schools. It was pure
Idealism, so far as Platonism predominated in it :
it was Realism, so far as the Logical or pecu-
liarly Aristotelic character pervaded the whole
system. Idealism describes the system itself as
to the nature of the principles on which it was
founded ; Realism describes the method of in-
vestigation pursued, the action of those Logical
processes by which it explored the Truth. We
may characterise Scholasticism truly, by one or
the other of these two designations, according as
we look to its internal nature, or to its Logical
method of proceeding.

The Scholastic Philosophy is the only system
in which Idealism and Realism have completely
coincided. Plato gave the name indeed of Dia-
lectic to the Supreme Science : for the train of
thought by which he arrived at his theory of

H2

108 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

Ideas, naturally suggested that name as the
designation of the Science of Ideas. But still
the Ideal or Metaphysical character predomi-
nates over his whole Philosophy. He argues
strenuously, but as if argument, as such, was not
his concern ; as if he wanted only to clear away
by discussion the obstructions of the human in-
tellect, and to present the realities of the invisible
world — the "Ideas" of his system — clearly be-
fore the eye of abstract contemplation. In Aris-
totle there is a great deal of Realism, especially
in his Physical Philosophy, which is, for the most
part, an assumed Science of Nature, deduced
from the abstractions of Language. At the same
time his general views are entirely adverse to
Idealism, and no Philosopher of antiquity has
displayed so fully throughout his writings the
scientific value of experience and observation.
But in the Schoolmen, Idealism and Realism go
hand in hand. In them, there is no proper,
direct appeal to experience and observation. The
visible world is to them only a shadow and type
of the Metaphysical ; a writing, as it were, in
cipher, to be read by the key of those recondite

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 109

truths which exist in the secret chambers of the
intellect. But their very business is argumenta-
tion. And thus conclusions, indicating nothing
more than connexions of thought in the mind,
are continually realized in their mode of specu-
lation ; applied, that is, as if they were indica-
tions of real connexions in Nature. This Ideal-
ism and this Realism correspond with the mystical
and the argumentative character, which, as has
been already observed, were combined in the
system.

29. Distinction of Nominalist and Realist.

We find, indeed, the different Schoolmen, es-
pecially after the Xlllth Century, distinguished
from each other as Nominalists or Realists. The
Logical question which had attracted particular
notice in the Xlth Century, respecting the na-
ture of Universals, as the phrase then was, or as
to the existence of objects corresponding to the
general Ideas denoted by abstract terms, having
been silenced for a while by the authority of
Anselm of Canterbury, was again agitated with
renewed vigour in the XI Vth Century, and from

110 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

that time ostensibly divided the Schools into the
two great parties of Nominalists and Realists.
These two classes included under them a great
variety of shades of opinion ; of which we may
state the two extremes to be : on the one hand,
the opinion that regarded abstract terms as
mere sounds ; on the other hand, that which
supposed a Physical Being corresponding to
every abstract term. Still Nominalism, as it
existed in the Scholastic Ages, was rather a
modification of Realism, or the exception from
the general system. It certainly preluded to a
more liberal method of philosophizing : and this
tendency appears to have been foreseen, though
indistinctly, in the jealous opposition which it
excited. But the Scholastic Nominalists were
practically Realists, so far as they pursued the
same mode of 'establishing truths by syllogistic
processes, as those who were Realists in theory.
Albert and Aquinas, to whom we have attributed
the formation of the Scholastic system, were
- is avowed Realists.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. Ill

30. Conceptualism the prevalent Doctrine.

The truth appears to be, that an intermediate
opinion, — that denoted in modern Philosophy by
Conceptualism, the Ideal theory of Locke, — was
the notion most generally adopted in the subject.
This was the neutral ground on which the con-
trovertists on each side seem to have retired
when pressed by argument on the other. The
ambiguity of the word res, from its extensive
application to the objects of thought as well as
to those of sense, gave a facility to the arguer
for sliding from the notion of Physical existence
to Metaphysical, and again from Metaphysical
to Physical. An abstraction so vague, indeed,
it is hardly possible to hold distinctly in the
mind : so that the theorist on a question in
which this term is so essentially involved, is apt
to be led astray even in the processes of his own
mind in forming his view of the subject. It is
no wonder, therefore, that the Scholastic dis-
putant should have found such matter of alter-
cation on this speculative question.

112 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

31. Importance of the Theory of Universals.

Nor was the question by any means so trifling
as we are apt to suppose it at this day. The
whole system of Scholasticism depending on ab-
stract general notions, whatever touched the
character of these first principles of the Science,
affected the whole nature of the Science deduced
from them. It raised a question whether the
speculative Theology so deduced were sound or
not ; and each party, therefore, had to justify his
view on this ground. About the same period
too, or rather just before the agitation of the
question concerning Universals, the discussions
relative to the presence of Christ, which had
arisen in the IXth Century, began to be revived.
And these, turning principally on the notions at-
tached to the words really and truly > were inti-
mately connected with the theory of general
notions. The presence of Christ, indeed, in the
Sacrament, as asserted in the speculations of the
Schools, was that of the abstract nature of
Christ : the divinity and manhood conjoined in
His person being regarded as that real Being,

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 113

which, truly existing in itself, was capable of
communicating itself to the forms of bread and
wine, and of being thus infinitely multiplied and
infinitely present without multiplication of its
own essence. So that any question as to the
nature of abstract existences was a question also
bearing on the doctrine of the Eucharist.

32. Theology becomes the Universal Science.

The mixed character of Scholasticism devel-
opes itself to our view more fully when we look
closely into its internal nature. A universal a
priori system of speculative Truth would be the
natural produce of such a combination ; or, in
other words, a Theological Philosophy, compre-
hending in it all knowledge. Consistently to
follow out such a method of philosophizing, there
could be no pause to the speculatist, until he
had reached the fountain of all Truth, and
seized the primary principles existing in the
mind of the Deity himself. The Schoolmen,
indeed, as disciples of Christianity, felt them-
selves bound by the double tie of Religion and
Church-authority, to uphold that Divine know-

114 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

ledge, which the Scriptures and the dogmas of
the Church had delivered, as the ultimate highest
knowledge of Man. They thought it necessary
therefore to show, that in this were contained
the elements of all Truth whatever ; not only in
matters of Religion, — in what concerns the rela-
tions of Man to his Creator, — but generally, in
every department of human speculation. This
mistaken notion of revealed Truth was engen-
dered and fostered by that Ideal and Logical
theory of the nature of Science, which they had
adopted. Had they simply regarded Science as
the generalization of facts, they could not have
incurred this error in regard to revealed Truth.
They must then have seen the propriety of suf-
fering each Science to rest on its proper prin-
ciples obtained from the study of its own facts,
without endeavouring to bring all together within
the limits of a universal method. But an essen-
tially Logical Philosophy is not satisfied with
this simple Historical method. It must lay
down its theorems as universals, and from them
deduce synthetically all other truths as necessary
consequences of these first principles. In that

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 115

case only would the requisitions of a Logical
method of Philosophy be fully satisfied. Hence
we find Aquinas condemning as false whatever
may be found in any other Science contrary to
the principles of Theology. And we know from
the History of Philosophy how extensively such
a maxim has operated to the prejudice of scien-
tific Truth : the authorities of the Latin Church
having constantly opposed all improvements in
Natural Science, from the fear of contradicting
some doctrine of Theology.*

33. Union of the Theory of Ideas with that of Matter
and Form.

The later Platonists had prepared the
this universal Theological Science in assigning to

3 way for
isninsf to /

* Witness the persecutions of Roger Bacon and of Galileo.
The instance which has been often cited, of the declaration
of the Jesuits in their edition of Newton's Principia, that
they 'assume the motion of the earth in order to the demon-
strations, but comply at the same time with the papal decrees
against its motion, is in itself enough to illustrate the point.
Their words are : Newtonus in hoc tertio libro telluris motes
hypothesim assumit. Autoris propositiones aliter explicari non
poterant, nisi eddem quoque factd hypothesi. Hinc alienam
coacti sumus gerere personam. Cceterum latis a summis Pon-
tificibus contra telluris motum decretis nos obsequi projitemur.
Tom. iii. ed. 1742.

116 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

the "Ideas" of their master's theory a locality
in the Divine mind. But a difficulty arose to
the Schoolmen, as the disciples of Aristotle, in
reconciling this tenet of the new Platonism with
Aristotle's disavowal of the Ideal theory. The
Eclectic method of Philosophy, established by
the labours of Boethius in the Latin Church,
provided a solution of the difficulty, in the intro-
duction of Aristotle's physical theory of Matter
and Form. Under these two terms Aristotle
had classed all the principles which respect the
Physical constitution of bodies : Matter denoting
all that constitutes them Physical Beings simply ;

all those properties by which they affect the

•

senses, or display to our observation changes in
their composition : Form denoting whatever dis-
tinguishes them as belonging to different classes
of being. Both these terms were of Logical
origin ; being, in truth, heads of classification
under which the Mind ranges its first rough
observations on Nature. The notions of Matter
and Form were therefore readily incorporated
into a Logical Philosophy. By an extension of
the terms, which Aristotle's authority by no

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 117

means warranted, they were applied by his ex-
positors universally. As it was apparent of every
subject of consideration, that it had certain points
of agreement with others, and also certain pecu-
liarities, or points of difference ; it was con-
cluded, that these Logical arrangements might
be applied to every subject indiscriminately.
And thus the Schools resounded throughout
with the technical language of matter and form.
Had these notions been restricted to their true
meaning as subtle abstractions of the mind ; as
practical analysis performed by the Mind for its
own direction in the general survey of Nature ;
it might have been well : though little benefit to
the purpose of sound Philosophy could have re-
sulted from their adoption. But the mischief
was, that they were taken into the Scholastic
system, as expressions denoting Physical consti-
tuents in the different subjects to which they
were applied. Everything was considered ^ as
made up of Matter and Form ; as consisting of
something out of which it was made, and of
something by which it was made what it actually
was. Then it came further to be supposed, that

118 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

these two constituents of things might exist sepa-
rately from each other : and the ingenuity of a
subtle Philosophy was exercised in giving a his-
tory of their conjunction ; or in explaining how
things came to exist as they actually are, by the
descent of Forms into Matter. So that, these
principles of a perverted Aristotelic Philosophy
being adopted, the proper order of philosophical
inquiry was reversed. In the Scholastic system,
the object was, not to rise from individuals to
general principles, but to descend from the
highest abstractions to individual beings. The
only certain real existences given in the system,
were the natures of Matter and Form. The
problem then was, to find the principle of indi-
viduation : to show how these infinite natures
were circumscribed and limited in the various
individual objects which the sensible universe
presents.

j prese

— 34. Accommodation of Arislotle's notion of the Deity.

But Aristotle's Physical Philosophy being un-
derstood in this manner, the difficulty arising from
his rejection of the Ideal theory was easily evaded.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 119

It was only to call these ideas by the name of
Forms, and the objectionable part of the theory
was then removed. For Aristotle had only argued
against the separate sole existence of Ideas, as a
philosophical account of all actual individual
Beings. He had said nothing to exclude the
supposition of the pre-existence of the Forms of
things in the Divine intellect, or rather according
to his view of the Deity, in the universal ener-
gizing, or motive principle of Nature. Indeed,
he might be considered as having invested these
abstract Forms with some such pre-existence, in
assigning them, as the ultimate ends, to which
Nature must be conceived to tend, in all its mani-
fold operations and productions, with instinctive,
unceasing effort.

35. Inconsistency of this notion with Christianity.

... — j

This notion of the Divine principle, evidently,
could not be embraced by a believer in Christianity.
Christianity is expressly opposed to it, inasmuch
as Christianity reveals the Deity to us in the
strictest sense as a personal agent, acting on and
controlling by His will the course of Nature, not

120 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

identified and confounded with that course. It
was necessary, therefore, in the reception of
Aristotle's Philosophy, to modify this view of the
Divine principle. And this was effected by the
alliance formed with the more pious theism of
Plato. The incongruity of the alliance was
indeed continually appearing to view. Some fol-
lowing too closely the language of Aristotle would
relapse into notions of Pantheism, attributing to
Nature itself an instinctive divine vitality ; others,
again, would reduce the whole of Nature to mere
phantom and shadow, asserting in pure Idealism
the sole real existence of the Divine Being.

Thus, however, were the Platonic Ideas re-
instated in their empire over the realms of Phi-
losophy. A basis, accordingly, was laid for a
Theological interpretation of Nature, (if inter-
pretation may be said of a system which was only
a string of mental anticipations,) and at the
same time for rationalizing the truths of Reve-
lation.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 121

36. Profane Sciences studied as Instruments of Theology.

The manner in which the profane Sciences
were brought into the service of Christian Theo-
logy, and blended with it in one system, is a
point particularly to be noticed. The confusion
itself was drawn from Platonism : so also Pla-
tonism furnished the mysterious links between the
worlds of Reason and of Revelation. As the
Ideas of the purely intellectual region were
assumed to be the primary elements of all Truth,
— the principles from which the constitution and
order of the sensible universe were derived, —
they were evidently to be explored in those types
and representations of them which the universe
presents to our observation. Plato had remarked
the great law of Association in the constitution
of the human mind, and applied it to the esta-
blishment of his Ideal theory. From the observed
fact, that one object serves to suggest to the
Mind a variety of other objects, he concluded
that the whole of Nature was to be regarded as
an instrument of suggestion ; as the means of
reviving in the Mind the invisible, recondite

i

122 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

truths of the intellectual world, which had a more
real existence, according to his theory, than the
flowing things of the external world cognizable
by the senses.* He thus bound together Physical
and Metaphysical Truth ; and led the philoso-
phical student through the course of the various
Sciences, as through a necessary initiation, to the
sublime point, where the purified intellect should
ultimately expand itself to the contemplation of
the mysterious Ideas. We may remark, that his
attempt was, in fact, to merge the certainty of
all other Truth in the evidence of consciousness ;
and to counteract the method of the vulgar,
which holds no other Truth so real as that which
is apparent to outward observation. The
Scholastic Theologians proceeded on the same
view. They wished to exalt the spirituality of
the Christian profession above the grossness of
worldly pursuits ; and therefore sank all profane
Science in Theology. In Theology was the reality
and the truth of Science : all other Science was_
instrumental and subsidiary. The world of sense

* See the Phcedo.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 123

and observation, according to their view, lay be-
tween the Divine Mind and the human. The
Mind by the study of the Forms impressed in
that world, under the guidance of the natural
Sciences, penetrates the interposing mass; and
thus at length, rising by the steps of sublime
contemplation, is brought more immediately into
the Divine presence, and enabled more and more
to see God as He is.

37. Consequent Theological character of all Science.

In accomplishing this connection, Theology
was the first and the last of the links. Theology
both natural and revealed was the point of de-
parture, as well as the consummation of all
Science. The principles of Theology were as-
sumed as those by which each Science was to be
interpreted and ascertained. The dominion of
Ideas was carried throughout. Each Science had
its Metaphysical basis ; not being founded on
any conclusions of experience, but on mental ab-
stractions, or definitions of its terms. This is
particularly evidenced in Physics ; where the
Scholastics had the example itself of Aristotle to

i 2

124 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

mislead them, and to increase their fundamental
misconception of the nature of this Science in
particular. Here the Theological character of
the principles assumed is apparent at the first
r view. The doctrine of final causes is the master
principle of the whole inquiry. Instead of look-
ing at phenomena, and examining things in them-
selves, the Schoolman, following Aristotle, is
employed in considering the tendencies or designs
of Nature, and constructing a hypothetical system
on assumptions of what is best and most perfect
in Nature. The whole drift of his inquiry is the
Idea, or abstract Form, which Nature is sup-
posed to be endeavouring to realize. Thus,
therefore, in the pursuit of his lofty Science, his
own mind, as the mirror of the Divine, — the
philosophical synopsis of all that exists without it
in the universe, — becomes the only field of study ;
whilst he neglects that actual Form which things
present to external observation, as accidental, and
, and unscientific.

To examine, however, more particularly into
the influence of this mode of philosophizing on the

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 125

different branches of Science, we will proceed
first to the character of the Theology resulting
from it.

3S. Speculative Theology multiplied by Refutations
of Heresy.

As in the ancient Philosophy there was an
exoteric and esoteric method ; an internal instruc-
tion addressed to the speculative disciple, and a
popular one addressed to the general hearer ; so
in the Philosophical Theology erected by the
Schoolmen, we find a twofold teaching adapted to
corresponding classes in the Christian Church.
Though the habit of reasoning on the truths of
Religion had been formed by the struggles against
Heresy and Infidelity, the practice itself once
acquired could not easily be renounced ; and a
morbid taste for abstract speculation outlived the
occasions by which it was engendered. The con-
tinued conflicts, indeed, with disputatious Theo-
logians, involved the Orthodox in such a mass of
technical doctrines, — of decisions accumulated
upon decisions, — that the business of ratiocina-
tion became indispensable to the Churchman of

126 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

the Middle Age. What may be called an ex-
cess of legislation in matters of doctrine had taken
place, through the mistaken notion on which
Divines had acted, that every variation of opinion
required to be ruled by the coercive judgment of
the Ecclesiastical power. This state of things
naturally led to the creation of a class of expo-
sitors and commentators, who should maintain the
consistency of this vast accumulation of decisions,
— bring to light what was obscure, — defend what
was ambiguous from the perverse constructions of
the Heretic. For this state of things, instead of
resting at any given point, constantly worked its
own aggravation. Repeated declarations on con-
troverted statements of the Religious Truth, only
opened a larger frontier to hostile invasion. With
the conquests of Orthodoxy increased also its
points of attack from Heresy : and thus a more
complex system of speculative defence was neces-
sarily organized ; and all the outposts of doctrine
were fortified and guarded with the subtile arms
of orthodox Metaphysics. It is the collection,
then, and systematic arrangement of these several
points of debate, — these multiplied decisions of

TH

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 127

the Church authorities, — that properly constitutes
the Scholastic Theology. The Logical Philosophy
of the Schools was the cementing principle — that
which gave unity and symmetry to the chaotic
assemblage. But by this elaborate process, this
ceaseless deposition of matter of speculation by
the active current of controversy, a pile of Reli-
gious doctrine rose to view by the side of the
Scriptural Truth — a new land, like the Delta of
the Nile, the creation itself of the busy stream,
which had been constantly flowing, and accumu-
lating soil in its course. And, like that artificial
land, it was the ground on which Priestcraft and
Superstition fixed their peculiar abode ; where a
speculative Fancy erected the shrines and altars
of its Idols ; and whence, as from their proper
home, the mystical symbols of Theological doc-
trine proceeded to diffuse themselves over the
Western world.

^ r

39. Sketch of the Summa of Aquinas.

To judge adequately of the nature of this
Theology, we have only to take a survey of the
celebrated Summa of Aquinas. fe We have there

128 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

a complete Science of Theology, sketched in all
its parts by a master-hand ; the genius, as it
were, of Scholasticism embodied by the mighty
Magician, whose call it was forced to obey. He
did not live, indeed, to work out all the parts of
his system ; but he had cast the whole at once
with a vastness and a minuteness of design, which
more reminds one of the great Philosopher him-
self, whose principles he undertook to expound,
than of any other writer. There is, at least, the
same endeavour shown, to grasp the subject in all
its bearings, and to leave no region of it undis-
tributed or unoccupied, that we find in the most
elaborate Treatises of Aristotle.

40. Threefold division of the Summa. — Prima Pars.

The Work is divided into three great Parts :
1, the Natural; 2, the Moral; 3, the Sacra-
mental. The first, being a speculation concern-
ing the nature of things, lays down and discusses
the principles of the Divine Being, from which
hangs the golden chain of Physical and Moral
Truth in perpetual series. " We have consi-
dered," he says, in his Prologue, " that novices

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 129

in this doctrine are greatly impeded, in conse-
quence of what has been written by different
persons ; partly, indeed, on account of the mul-
tiplication of useless questions, articles, and argu-
ments, partly, also, because the things necessary
for such to know, are not delivered according to
the order of discipline, but according to what the
exposition of books required, or as the occasion
for disputing presented itself; partly, indeed,
because their frequent repetition generated both
disgust and confusion in the minds of the hearers.
Studying, therefore, to avoid these faults and
others of the like kind, we will endeavour, in con-
fidence of Divine aid, briefly and luminously to
pursue, to the extent that the matter will permit,
what belongs to sacred doctrine." He proceeds,
accordingly, to point out the scientific nature of
Christian Theology, that it is strictly a Science
capable of being argumentatively established,
and resting on certain assumptions, themselves
founded in the Divine knowledge, and communi-
cated to Man by Revelation. The questions
discussed in this part respect the existence and
attributes of God, the nature of His intelligence

130 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

and will, His providence and predestination, the
Trinity in Unity. From these he proceeds to the
Divine effects manifested in the works of Crea-
tion, in the existence of Angels, in the material
world, and in the human Being ; dilating more
especially on the subject of Man's nature, and
interweaving a mass of Metaphysical discussion
concerning the soul and its faculties, its connec-
tion with the body, and the primitive condition of
Man in Paradise.

41. Prima Secundce.

The Second Part is divided into two ; which
are commonly distinguished under the titles of
the Prima Secundce and the Secunda Secundce.
The first of these enters more immediately and
strictly on the examination of the nature of Man.
The nature of Man has been considered, indeed,
in the first part, but under a different point of
view ; as it is involved in the history of the
Divine operations. Here Man is viewed as he is
a complex system in himself, having in himself a
principle of operation. The former Part con-
sidered Man as he is a Physical Being, the crea-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 131

tion of the Divine hand ; the Prima SecundcB
regards him under the aspect of a Moral and In-
tellectual agent. Aquinas here takes a survey
of the principles of human nature as they are
exemplified in human sentiments and actions.
Having in the outset examined how Man is
naturally impelled to action, in the sequel he
views the natural principles as they are modified
by the operation of Divine grace. In discussing
these subjects, the comparison of the state of
Man under the systems of Nature and of Grace,
and the doctrines consequently of Free Will,
Original Sin, and Justification, come to be con-
sidered. The various laws also given for the
guidance of Man are minutely examined in this
department of the inquiry.*

42. Secunda Secundce.

The Secunda Secundce takes up the great
Moral argument, where the former part had left
it, and discusses the several Virtues in detail.

* The same kind of abstract speculation into the nature of
Law is pursued, which we find adopted by Hooker in the first
Book of his Ecclesiastical Polity.

132 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

The former part had examined the principles of
human action under their most general form :
this Part considers them as they take the forms
of particular Virtues, whether under the influence
of Divine Grace, or by the operation of Nature.
The Virtues are classed according to the three-
fold arrangement, which he found already re-
ceived in the Church ; as they are Theological
or Ethical, Infused or Acquired, or as they are
the sevenfold Gifts of the Holy Spirit : the Theo-
logical Virtues being Faith, Hope, and Charity ;
the Ethical, the four cardinal Virtues, Justice,
Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance. This portion
of the Work has attracted peculiar notice and
commendation as a systematic exposition of
Christian Ethics. And, certainly for the copious-
ness of its matter, the connection of the points
of discussion, and the ingenuity with which the
Ethical theories of Aristotle are grafted into the
Christian Moral system, it fully merits that high
admiration which successive Ages have bestowed
on it. As for originality of observation, this, of
course, we could not expect to find in the most
gifted Schoolman. But a close examination will

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 133

disclose to the inquirer, that Aquinas has occa-
sionally struck out thoughts, which imply a power
of observation superior to the system within which
he had restricted himself.

43. Tertia Pars.

The Third Part is devoted to the doctrines of
the Incarnation and the Sacraments. According
to the Scholastic Philosophy, these two subjects
were intimately connected. The theories belong-
ing to them were brought into perfect harmony.
For since the Sacraments were regarded as vital
influences of Grace descending immediately from
the sacred person of Christ, it was necessary for
the unity of the system, that an adequate notion
should be settled of the great truth of the Incar-
nation. The traces of this connection are suffi-
ciently evident, in the peculiar importance at-
tached by the practice of the Church of Rome,
to the particular Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
This importance is derived from the idea, that
this Sacrament is the mystical conveyance of the
Passion of Christ, that the act of consecration
brings down to the consecrated elements the

134 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

whole virtue of the priesthood of Christ. The
same idea is extended to all the seven Sacraments
of the Church of Rome, according to the Scho-
lastic view ; the only difference being, that these
are inferior instruments of Grace ; they are par-
ticipations of Christ ; whereas the Eucharist is
the substance itself of Christ. It was necessary,
therefore, that the doctrine of the union of the
divinity and humanity in the person of Christ
should be premised and fully established, in order
that the Sacramental virtue should be repre-
sented as flowing in continuous stream from
Christ to His mystical body, the Church.

This whole Part, indeed, developes with the
utmost precision the complex Philosophy of Ex-
piation,, under the representations of it contained
in the doctrines and ritual of the Church of
- Rome. The latter portion of it is occupied with
a comparison of the two leading modes of life
suggested by Heathen Philosophy and from that
adopted into Christianity, the life of Contem-
plation, and the life of Action ; and in showing,
according to the principles of Aristotle, the supe-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 135

riority of the former, or according to its Christian
representation, the life of Monastic devotion.

44. Close connection of Questions throughout the Summa*

This is a general outline of what is discussed
in this extraordinary Work. What however is
most important to observe in it, is the connection
of the several Parts and questions throughout it.
To observe this, is to seize its proper Scholastic
character. The Deity himself, it will be per-
ceived, agreeably to what we have already stated
as to the general nature of Scholasticism, is the
point of departure : and Theology consequently
furnishes the principles, on which the whole
fabric of the various Science included in the
Work is rested. All the other Sciences are
strictly treated as handmaids and auxiliaries to
Theology. They are employed instrumentally,
as the means of disengaging, if we may so ex-
press it, the principles of the Divine Science,
from the external forms in which they are in-
volved,— whether these forms be the mysteries of
Revelation or of Nature, — and presenting them
as pure matter of intellectual perception to the

136 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

philosophic mind. All other Sciences, that is,
served only as a method of analysis, — as a sym-
bolical Language, analogous to that of Algebra,
by which the connections of Sacred Truth might
be ascertained and systematically deduced. Ac-
cordingly a great part of the discussion is occu-
pied in perfecting this symbolical Language, as
we have called it; in showing, by examination
of doubts and difficulties on various points, the
coherency of the analytical system in itself. This,
of course, was required in such a mode of philo-
sophizing ; just as a method of Algebra must
cohere in all its parts, that the interpretations of
its symbols may throughout be consistent.

45. Real Theological importance of Scholastic Dis-
cussions.

There is still, however, amidst all the specu-
lative matter with which this Work of Aquinas
abounds, a very valuable Theological knowledge
to be extracted from it. It brings into one view
the subtile distinctions and arguments, which
Theologians at various times have employed to
maintain their peculiar doctrines. It enables us

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 137

to ascertain the precise controversial sense of
terms in Theology. We see here the reasons
for their introduction, and their mutual con-
nections. It was, in fact, in the course of the
Scholastic discussions, and by their instrument-
ality, that the exact force of these terms was
positively fixed. Previously, their sense had re-
mained in a fluctuating state ; the early polemical
writers having varied in their use of them. There
had been, at the same time, a constant endea-
vour to reduce the use of them to greater
exactness. Now at length in the proper age of
Scholastic Theology, the scheme of uniformity
was wrought to its perfection. A large induction
of instances was brought from the volumes of
ancient Polemics ; and an acute Reason was
exercised upon them, in rejecting differences of
meaning, and selecting the points of general
agreement. In this office, the Scholastic Divines
have shown a real philosophical power : and to
estimate their merits properly, we must contem-
plate them under this point of view. A study of
Aquinas will convince us that he was not a mere
compiler of authorities, or a mere Logician, but

K

138 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

that he possessed a true perception of the nature
of Philosophy, whilst he was cramped by the
fetters of an artificial method, and was compelled
to exercise that power within the narrow range
of a technical Theology.

46. Futile Character of the Scholastic Physics.

From what has been already observed on the
subject, it is to be expected that the Physical
Philosophy of the Schools should present nothing
but a barren waste to the view. There is nothing
indeed in it of that animation and business which
the Mind expects to contemplate in opening a
volume of the History of Nature. But all is
silent as the page itself, which arrogantly and
vainly attempts to tell of laws unexplored by the
Philosopher. Ideas of power, and motion, and
energy are presented before us : but it is only
in the little laboratory of the Mind itself that all
this activity of Nature is exhibited. We seem
to be standing by as spectators of the construction
of the fabric of the universe ; the laws by which
all the changes of the natural world take place,
appear to be subjected to our survey : but we

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 139

find the whole system only a vast illusion, pro-
duced by the dizzy height to which we have been
carried. The speculation taking its outset from
the great original Causes of things in the Mind
of the Creator, mocks us by the unreal univer-
sality of the principles, which it presents to us as
solutions of the course and constitution of Nature.
As theories of the creative and disposing power
of the Divine Author of Nature, these principles
may possess a speculative truth : they may, that
is, be just, comprehensive views of the objects of
the natural world, as they admit of being men-
tally analyzed into different views of the Divine
agency. But, as Bacon observes, of the whole
Scholastic method of anticipation, " the sub til ty
of Nature far exceeds the subtilty of Sense and
Intellect :"* and these general principles accord-
ingly, specious as they are in promise, are much
too superficial in reality, to give any sound in-
formation concerning the actual processes of
Nature.

* Nov. Organum, lib. i, Aph. 10.
K2

140 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

47. Doctrine of Four Universal Causes.

Thus the Schoolmen, following Aristotle, state
four universal Causes of existing things : 1, the
Material ; 2, the Formal ; 3, the Efficient ; 4,
the Final : the Material Cause being supposed
to be that common substance or nature, out of
which things are made ; the Formal Cause, that
by which one object is made to differ from others
produced out of the same common matter ; the
Efficient or Motive Cause, that which originates
the motion or change from which the particular
thing results ; the Final Cause, the tendency, or
end, to which the whole process of formation has
reference, and in which it is completed and per-
fected. These several Causes (as we have said
before respecting the notions of Matter and Form
in particular) are evidently nothing more .than
certain classifications, the mere creations of the
Mind, under which it arranges its different views
of any object considered as a thing produced.
They are so many different reasons which the
Mind may assign for the existence of a thing ;
and the aggregate of which seems to give a full

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 141

account of its being. For the Material Cause is
the first most general view that we take of it ; that
general resemblance according to which we class
it with certain other objects. The Formal Cause
is a more distinct view of it, exempting it from
that vagueness in which our first rough classifi-
cation had left it. The Efficient Cause is a still
further limitation of it, as the effect of a given
power. The Final Cause again brings it still
more within the grasp of the Mind by assigning
the boundaries to which it is tending, and beyond
which it cannot pass. Now all these Causes or
reasons may be very useful to us logically* — as
principles to guide our investigation into the
nature of any object, — but without experience
and observation they are utterly fruitless. They
are the rules by which our observations are to be

* Take, for example, the familiar instance of Harvey's
discovery of the circulation of the blood from an application
of the doctrine of Final Causes. By appealing to the prin-
ciple according to which the Mind views an object in its
ultimate tendency or end, he was led to consider whether the
structure of the valves in the blood-vessels might be thus
limited and summed up, as it were, in a final result : and by
observation on them according to this principle, discovered the
fact of the circulation.

142 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

conducted, and they of course imply that these
observations should be made. The Schoolmen,
however, used their Logical rules instead of ob-
servation, and set themselves to explain how
each object in Nature was constructed according
to these rules.

48. Doctrine of Contrarieties.

The doctrine of Contrarieties, again, which the
Schoolmen adopted from the ancient Physics, as
an explanation of the changes which took place
in the natural world, what was this but the
realizing of a principle of Logic, and vainly en-
deavouring to make the operations of Nature
submit to a law of the human understanding ?
It is evident that there are certain notions which
mutually exclude one another ; that the same
thing, for instance, cannot be hot and cold at the
same moment ; and that to remove the one idea
therefore is to admit the idea of the other. But
the Schoolmen applied this Logical truth to Phy-
sical existences. They gave an activity, that is,
to these abstract notions, and regarded any two
Contraries, as principles coming and departing in

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 143

perpetual real succession, and which, by their
presence or their absence, constituted Physical
bodies what they are.

49. Principles of Transmutation and Privation — Gene-
ration and Corruption — Doctrine of Motion — Potential
and Actual Being.

With this doctrine of Contrarieties the ancient
Physics connected the principles of Transmuta-
tion of bodies, of Privation, and the distinction
between Potential and Actual being. These
several principles, as flowing out of the same
Logical doctrine of Contrarieties, were readily
taken into their Physical system by the Logical
Philosophers of the Schools. The facility with
which the Mind substitutes one notion for an-
other, and varies at will the forms which it cre-
ates, was converted into a real capacity of transi-
tion in Nature itself from one form of Being into
another. Hence every thing in Nature was con-
ceived capable of being changed into another ;
the same common matter remaining as the sub-
ject of the alteration. And thus in the language
of the Schools was every thing said to be generated

144 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

or corrupted, — the transition from one nature
into another being the generation of that which
resulted, the corruption of that which disap-
peared. Thus, too, the motion of bodies was
said to be of three kinds : since besides locomo-
tion, the changes which occurred, either by the
alteration of the thing, or by its growth and
diminution, were included under the term :
Logical distinctions being here again converted
into Physical forces. The principle of Privation,
clearly part of the same Logical analysis by which
the notions foreign to any subject are excluded
from it, underwent the like Physical adaptation ;
the qualities mentally excluded by any particular
notion, being conceived to be physically removed
from it, when the thing passed from one nature
into another. In like manner, attributing to
every thing a potential and an actual being, re-
alized distinctions which exist only in the Mind :
the former being the object, as it may be sup-
posed to exist in that capable of producing it ; as
the plant, for instance, in the seed ; the latter
being the production into being, of that which
before only existed in such a capacity or power.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 145

Upon this distinction, indeed, it should be ob-
served, the Schoolmen, closely following Aristotle,
founded their philosophical description of the
Deity as " pure act." All created things existed
at one time in power, at another time in act.
But in God, in whom nothing is antecedent,
nothing consequent, all is Action and Energy at
once.

50. Notion of the Deity as Pure Act.
I
This notion of the Deity as " Energy," or

"Act," was the connecting principle of the
Theology and Physics of the Schools. That
the Deity pervaded all things as the ultimate
Sovereign Good, which all things, whether ani-
mate or inanimate, desired to attain, and in at-
taining which the perfection of each consisted, —
was the Theological point of view in their system.
But it was further required to exhibit the Deity,
as the universal Principle of Motion, as the
origin ' of those changes which were observed in
the world. And this was accomplished by the
representation of him under the notion of " pure
operation," or " act." The Divine goodness be-

146 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

came thus, by the realism of the system, a real
vital power impelling the whole course of Nature.
Regarded as an unoriginated, ceaseless energy,
it presented an adequate cause of the perpetuity
of life, and motion, and production throughout
the universe.

51. Scholastic Philosophy of Mind.

/

In noticing the general character of the Scho-
lastic Theology and Physics, we have brought
forward the heaviest charges which lie against
the system. In the Sciences which immediately
belong to the Philosophy of Human Nature,
whether in those purely conversant about the
intellect or the heart, we cannot apply the same
censure to the Scholastic method ; though at the
same time we cannot give, even here, unqualified
praise. A great part of their Metaphysics was
mere Ontology ; a Science, that is, of the ab-
stract nature of Being, meagre in its pursuit and
unfruitful in its result. For they did not extend
the term Metaphysics, according to modern
usage, to the Science of the laws of the human
Mind. The knowledge of the nature of Mind

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 147

was included by Aristotle, and other ancient
Philosophers, under Physics : and the Schoolmen
here, as in other respects, followed the arrange-
ment already prescribed. Nor is there indeed
any fault in such an arrangement ; if we under-
stand by the nature of the Mind, simply the laws
of its operations, as unfolded in the facts of con-
sciousness and observation. And, perhaps, it
would be better if the Science of Metaphysics
were restricted to an investigation of the laws of
Thought ; to an analysis, that is, of the various
notions of the Mind. In this view of the Science,
Language becomes the great medium of obser-
vation : since Language has been formed by that
very analysis which we are formally pursuing in
this method of Metaphysical Science. This is
the view given in the Treatise of Aristotle, to
which modern commentators have assigned the
name of The Metaphysics; and which is conse-
quently adopted by the Schoolmen. So far as
this restricted view of the Science is concerned,
much valuable matter is to be collected from
their writings. No Philosophers have traced
with such patience, and minute exactness, the

148 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

shades by which the Ideas involved in terms of
Language are discriminated from each other, or
more illustrated that secret process by which
Ideas are combined and infinitely diversified.
Their whole Philosophy indeed bears on this
point. But their great error is, as we have
throughout endeavoured to show, that they have
carried principles of this Science into other Sci-
ences, and by a fallacious Realism have made
these principles interpreters of external nature.

52. Logic confounded with Metaphysics.

Further, as studying Metaphysical Science by
the medium of Language, they were led to
overlook the limits which separated it from
Logic. Accordingly, though they have displayed
a wonderful practical acuteness as Logicians,
they have by no means excelled, as scientific ex-
positors of Logical Truth. They cultivated it
chiefly in subservience to Metaphysical Truth,
and therefore comparatively neglected the treat-
ment of that part of it which more strictly relates
to the theory of argument. Paradoxical as it

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 149

may seem, they had properly no Logic strictly
so called. Logic, not being studied by them as
a Science of Language, but as a method of uni-
versal discovery, was in consequence of this mis-
application, stinted of its due proportion as a
Science of reasoning ; whilst it was preposterously
enlarged in its immediate connexion with Meta-
physics.

53. Importance of Aristotle's Ethics— Moral Theology.

In Moral Science they had an admirable guide
in the Ethical system of Aristotle. The exten-
sive and accurate knowledge of human nature
which Aristotle displays throughout his Moral
Treatises, served to his disciples of the Schools
instead of their own experience. Otherwise,
shut out as they were from *the general inter-
course of mankind, and living entirely in the
secret converse of their own thoughts, how could
they have learned the nature of human actions
and sentiments, principles which chiefly depend
on society for their perfect developement ? As it
is, they have merged Moral Philosophy in The-

150 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

ology, by connecting the rules of duty with the
abstract notion of the Deity regarded as the
Chief Good of Man. We feel, indeed, even in
this day, the effect of this confusion, in the vague
opinions commonly held respecting the relation
of Morality to Theology. But the case was
here as in their Logic. Their practice was
superior to their theory. Whilst they con-
structed a system of Moral Theology, as their
Ethical science was termed, they spoke as prac-
tical Moralists with a wisdom far exceeding the
stretch of their technical Philosophy. Much of
this practical excellence must undoubtedly be
attributed to the clear outlines which Revelation
has sketched for those who would " do justly and
love mercy," whilst they also "walk humbly
with their God." Still as the Scriptures refrain
altogether from Moral theory, simply employing
the popular language on Moral subjects ^to ex-
press their precepts ; there is ample room for the
Scriptural Theologian to construct his own sys-
tem of Ethics. And thus have Philosophers, in
some instances, at the same time that they ac-
knowledged the authority of the Scriptures, de-

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 151

viated widely in their conclusions from the prac-
tical spirit of Christianity. This, in fact, is what
has happened in the* case of the Schoolmen. The
pursuit of the principle of the Chief Good, — the
Platonic part of their Ethical doctrine, — led
them to place the excellence of the Christian
life in an estrangement from active duties, and
in an entire abstraction of the thoughts and
affections from all human concerns. Here it
was then, that the Philosophy of Aristotle applied
a salutary check, and prevented the whole system
of Scholastic Ethics from rushing into a theoretic
enthusiasm. How far it acted in this manner
may be judged from those of the Schoolmen,
who, indulging a mystic imagination, felt less of
this control. If we compare Bonaventura with
Aquinas, we shall see the decided superiority
of the Aristotelic Moralist over the tender enthu-
siast of the Platonic School.

54. No proper distinction of Sciences in Scholastic Method —
Importunate use of the Syllogism.

In treating, however, these different Sciences
as distinct, we have done so only by way of illus-

152 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

tration of the influence of the Scholastic method
on the great leading divisions of human know-
ledge. Strictly to speak, Scholasticism was in
itself one absorbing Science, in which all Sciences
were confounded. An evidence of this is, that
no other kinds of knowledge were pursued by the
Scholastic Philosopher, except those which ad-
mitted of being transfused into this promiscuous,
technical system. There subsisted, indeed, a
formal division of the Arts into Grammar, Logic,
and Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy,
Music, the first three named the Trivium, the
four last the Quadrivium : still the Arts were by
no means cultivated in themselves, when Scholas-
ticism had once taken deep root. Its dry and
leafless branches, spreading out with unhappy
luxuriance, withered every thing around them
with their funereal shade. As for Rhetoric, con-
sidered as an Art of eloquence or composition, it
was entirely unknown. An importunate, tech-
nical Logic occupied every place, and effectually
excluded by its presence, any expression that
could strike the imagination or interest the feel-
ings. For it is not only the naked framework of

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 153

argument which is presented in the Scholastic
page. There is an eloquence in the mere force
of argument barely stated, without the least ad-
junct of recommendation from language. But
this is not the mode in which the Scholastic argu-
mentation is exhibited. The parade of the syllo-
gistic process — the anatomy itself of argument —
is forced on our notice. The same fundamental
error, through which the Schoolmen applied rules
of investigation to the solution of Physical facts,
is shown in their application of the technical
principles of Logic. The syllogism, which, pro-
perly considered, is nothing more than a de-
velopement of the latent process in every argu-
ment, becomes in their hands the method of
communicating knowledge, and the instrument by
which conviction is to be produced ; not the
mere analysis of an operation of the Mind. The
office of Rhetoric, of course, was entirely super-
seded by such a method of teaching. There
was no room left for arguments of inducement, —
for enforcing persuasion by appeals to the intel-
lectual and moral principles of human nature.
Nothing could add to the cogency and perspicuity

154 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

of an instrument, conceived to be so efficacious
and infallible.

55. The Reason the only Principle addressed.

The marks, indeed of the origin of the Scho-
lastic Philosophy, accompany it throughout in its
developement. As it arose in the struggles of
Reason against an imperious authority, so Rea-
son is throughout the principle with which it is
concerned, and which alone it endeavours to
satisfy. It had not for its object, to win men to
the Truth : it sought only to justify and secure
an obedience to which the unwilling intellect was
constrained.

56. Influence of the Schoolmen on the Reformation
of Religion and Philosophy.

Its whole tendency, accordingly, was to mag-
nify Reason against the principle of mere autho-
rity. And on this account (though the assertion
may seem strange) the Schoolmen must un-
doubtedly be reckoned among the precursors of
the reformation both of Religion and Philosophy.

THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 155

By the temerity of their speculations, they inured
the minds of men to think boldly : and they
raised doubts and difficulties which sustained the
inquisitive spirit, until at least a better day should
dawn upon its efforts. Unconscious they were
themselves of the benefit, which was slowly and
painfully resulting from their own abortive endea-
vours. But what they were in themselves was
merely accidental, and passed away with them.
The spirit which they had nurtured, survived be-
yond them, to fight against the system within
which it had grown up ; as the system itself had
fought against the arbitrary authority of the
Church, within whose bosom it had been che-
rished. Thus we find some of the early School-
men strenuous opponents of the usurpations of
Rome : as Robert Grossetete, Bishop of Lincoln,
in the XHIth Century, and Ockam in the
XlVth. A reaction, indeed, took place, by
which the conclusions of the Scholastic Theolo-
gians were expressly affirmed in the decrees of
the Church of Rome ; and invested with that
perpetuity, which the dogmatist of that commu-
nion claims for its authoritative declarations.

156 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

This curious effect, consequently, has followed ;
that the same writers live as authorities in Theo-
logical speculation to the Roman Church, who,
as the advocates of Reason against the Church-
system, have raised up its most formidable anta-
gonists, both in Religion and in Philosophy.

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