worldview. He brought the so-called scholastic method
of argument and truth seeking to its fi nest honing.
Although Thomas is not generally remembered for
his spirituality and is not a mystical theologian in the
style of Bonaventure, he was nevertheless revered in
his lifetime for his holiness, simplicity, and devotion.
Quiet (he was nicknamed “the dumb ox”) and unas-
suming, he had powers of concentration that took on a
semimiraculous quality for the secretaries who worked
with him. He was canonized in 1323.
Thomas was not without his critics. Some of his po-
sitions were condemned by Bishop Étienne Tempier in
1270 and 1277, by Robert Kilwardby in the latter year,
and by John Peckham in 1284; but his opinions were
offi cially imposed on the Dominican order in 1278.
The Roman Catholic church considers his teaching an
authentic expression of doctrine, and canon law makes
study of his works the accepted basis for theology.
See also Albert the Great; Hugues de Saint-Cher;
Peter Lombard
Further Reading
Thomas Aquinas. Summa theologiae, ed. Dominican Fathers
of the English Province. 60 vols. Cambridge: Blackfriar’s,
1964–76. [Latin text and English translation, introductions,
notes, appendices, and glossaries.]
——. Somme théologique (Summa theologiae). 61 vols. Paris,
1925–72. [Latin-French with commentaries.]
——. Quaestiones quodlibetales 1–2: English Quodlibetal Ques-
tions 1–2, trans. Sandra Edwards. Toronto: Pontifi cal Institute
of Mediaeval Studies, 1983.
——. Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, trans. Anton
Pegis. 2 vols. New York: Random House, 1945.
——. On the Truth of the Catholic Faith (Summa Contra Gen-
tiles), trans. Anton C. Pegis, James Anderson, Vernon J.
Bourke, and Charles J. O’Neil. 5 vols. Garden City: Hanover
House, 1955–57.
Chenu, Marie-Dominique. Toward Understanding Saint Thomas,
trans. Albert M. Landry and Dominic Hughes. Chicago:
Regnery, 1964.
Farrell, Walter. A Companion to the Summa. 4 vols. New York:
Sheed and Ward, 1941–42.
Glorieux, Palémon. Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris
au XIIIe siécle. 2 vols. Paris: Vrin, 1933,Vol. 1, pp. 85–104.
[Complete listing of works.]
Lesley J. Smith
ARCHPOET
The so-called Archpoet (the Latin form Archipoeta is
followed in German), whose real name is unknown,
was probably born around 1130 in Germany or eastern
France. Nothing is known of him except what he reveals
in ten surviving poems. Despite a knightly background,
he disliked martial arts and preferred poetry. His nick-
name, which is found as a subscription in the main
manuscript of his poems, may have been given to him
because of the esteem in which his audience held him,
or it may play upon the “arch-” elements in the titles
of his chief patron, Reinald of Dassel (d. 1167), who
was the archbishop of Cologne and the archchancellor
of Frederick I Barbarossa (ca. 1122–1190). Because
Frederick was king of Germany and Holy Roman Em-
peror, Reinald’s court moved frequently in Germany,
Burgundy, and northern Italy.
The Archpoet’s poems date from the early and mid-
1160s, and all of them can be classed as occasional
poems, relating to the chief concerns and events of
Reinald’s court. In them the Archpoet gives signs of
knowing the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic
as well as the basics of theology, whereas his short-lived
study of medicine leaves almost no marks. He alludes
with apparent ease to the Vulgate Bible and Roman
poets, and he incorporates parody of confessions, ser-
mons, and liturgy. Although his poems often constitute
petitions for food, drink (especially wine), money, and
clothing, and although they seem always to have been
meant for public recitation at the court, the Archpoet
differentiates himself sharply from professional enter-
tainers of a humbler sort.
Two of the poems are in leonine hexameters, but the
rest are based on accentual rhythms. The most famous
of the poems is the Archpoet’s confession to the arch-
chancellor (incipit, or fi rst line, “Aestuans intrinsecus”).
Whereas the other nine poems survive mostly in only a
single manuscript, this one is extant in more than thirty,
most famously in the Carmina burana; Carl Orff set its
fi rst fi ve strophes to musk in his oratorio (1937). The
confession is one of four in the Vagantenstrophe, with
dissyllabic rhyme.
One remarkable aspect of the Archpoet—or of his
persona as a poet, if his name does not in itself indicate
such distancing—is his candor about his shortcomings.
He discusses his proclivity for love affairs, drinking,
gambling, and keeping bad company. Nor is his physical
condition much better than his moral, to judge by his
complaints about his cough and his proximity to death.
The former failings may be little more than a stance
struck by the poet to entertain his audience; the persona
could be as far from the reality as that of Chaucer the
character was from Chaucer the poet or man. Unfortu-
nately the latter defects may well have taken the life of
the Archpoet at a young age, since he disappears from
our view in 1167 at the latest.
See also Frederick I. BarbarossaFurther Reading
Adcock, Fleur, ed. and trans. Hugh Primas and the Archpoet.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Krefeld, Heinrich, ed. and trans. Der Archipoeta, Berlin: Akad-
emie, 1992.
Dronke, Peter. “The Archpoet and the Classics.” In Latin Poetry
and the Classical Tradition. Essays in Medieval and Renais-AQUINAS, THOMAS