in the modern sense—that is, an ideology or system of
belief—but a method for dealing with a wide range of
questions in theology, philosophy, ethics, and the nat-
ural sciences. It relied almost exclusively on the system
of linguistic logic adopted from Aristotle and, by the
mid-thirteenth century, had evolved a standard form of
argumentation. A question was posed, an answer was
suggested, and all possible objections to the answers
were analyzed before a final resolution was achieved.
Authorities were cited in support of theses and objec-
tions alike. The final appeal was to reason unless a clear
statement on the issue could be drawn from Scripture
or the authority of the church. Even then, some of the
more radical thinkers were prepared to venture forward
on the basis of logic alone. It was a method of extraor-
dinary power, and in the universities of thirteenth-
century Europe it created an unparalleled flowering of
creative thought.
Much of this effort was initially based on the need
to confute the followers of Averroes. Some of them,
such as Siger of Brabant (d.c. 1281), held that faith
could not be supported by reason and adopted a view
that was essentially skeptical. Others developed ideas
that could be described as pantheistic.
Early attempts to suppress the Arabic commenta-
tors failed, though the teachings of the Averroists were
finally condemned by the University of Paris in
1269–70. In the meantime, an effective synthesis of
Aristotelianism and Christian doctrine was developed
by two Dominicans, Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280)
and his pupil St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–74).
Aquinas is generally regarded as one of the world’s
greatest thinkers. His approach to philosophy and the-
ology, known as Thomism, has had a profound influ-
ence on Western thought and underlies much of
Roman Catholic theology to this day. At the same time,
he was a man of his times. His condemnation of Jews
and homosexuals and his belief in the natural inferiority
of women, though commonplace in the thirteenth cen-
tury, had a disproportionate effect on Western attitudes
as well.
Born to a noble family in the marches between
Naples and Rome, Thomas spent most of his life at the
University of Paris and at Rome, where he was theolog-
ical adviser to the papal curia. In his student days his
massive physique and natural reticence caused him to
be nicknamed “the dumb ox,” but his gentleness and
courtesy, unique among the cantankerous academics of
his day, endeared him even to opponents. His best
known works, the Summa contra Gentilesand the unfin-
ished Summa Theologica,reveal his purpose. They are
comprehensive summations on practically every subject
of contemporary theological and philosophical interest,
and for all his insistence that learning is done even from
errors, their intent is polemical.
An Aristotelian to his fingertips, Aquinas believed
that God’s universe was both rational and intelligible.
On the question of universals he was a moderate realist
whose views were reminiscent of Abelard’s. Knowledge
must be based on the experience of the senses; thought
enables the universal to be isolated in the particular.
Both substance and accident are real, but substance pro-
vides the limits within which accidents may exist. This
position was the basis of equally moderate conclusions
on subjects ranging from the nature of the soul to the
origins of evil and the problem of time, and it sets
Aquinas firmly in the tradition of Aristotelian human-
ism. The intellect, though sustained by God, is a part of
every human being. The soul is the form or essence of
the body, of sensation, and of thought. In thinking, the
soul transcends this form and becomes independent of
matter.
These ideas were eventually adopted by a majority
of Aquinas’s fellow Dominicans. They were disputed by
the Franciscans, including his friend St. Bonaventura
(c. 1217–74). Franciscan thought generally followed
the tradition of St. Augustine and emphasized the im-
portance of love and will as opposed to intellect. The
gulf that separates human beings from God cannot be
minimized or forgotten, and the intellect should not be
identified too closely with the soul.
Several aspects of this Franciscan approach crystal-
lized in the work of John Duns Scotus (1265–1308). A
Scot who studied and taught at Paris, Oxford, Cam-
bridge, and Cologne, he sought to preserve the con-
cerns of St. Bonaventura without doing violence to
Aristotle. To Scotus, everything had a reality of its own
that existed independently of any universal. Universals
existed only in the mind. This view enabled him to em-
phasize the uniqueness both of God and of individuals,
but by denying the connection between human and di-
vine intellect, he opened a gulf so vast that it could be
bridged only by extraordinary means. To Scotus and
many of his contemporaries, the majesty and isolation
of God were so great that special intercession was re-
quired. It could be provided only by the Virgin Mary,
whose veneration became a central feature of their
piety. The Marian cult that emerged around the begin-
ning of the fourteenth century would have a profound
influence on Catholic spirituality. Scotus was its early
advocate and one of the first to formulate the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary
was preserved from all taint of original sin when she
was conceived.174Chapter 9