IntroductionCATHOLIC philosophy, in the sense in which I shall use the term, is that which dominated
European thought from Augustine to the Renaissance. There have been philosophers, before and
after this period of ten centuries, who belonged to the same general school. Before Augustine
there were the early Fathers, especially Origen; after the Renaissance there are many, including, at
the present day, all orthodox Catholic teachers of philosophy, who adhere to some medieval
system, especially that of Thomas Aquinas. But it is only from Augustine to the Renaissance that
the greatest philosophers of the age are concerned in building up or perfecting the Catholic
synthesis. In the Christian centuries before Augustine, Stoics and Neoplatonists outshine the
Fathers in philosophic ability; after the Renaissance, none of the outstanding philosophers, even
among those who were orthodox Catholics, were concerned to carry on the Scholastic or the
Augustinian tradition.
The period with which we shall be concerned in this book differs from earlier and later times not
only in philosophy, but in many other ways. The most notable of these is the power of the Church.
The Church brought philosophic beliefs into a closer relation to social and political circumstances
than they have ever had before or since the medieval period, which we may reckon from about
A.D. 400 to about A.D. 1400. The Church is a social institution built upon a creed, partly
philosophic, partly concerned with sacred history. It achieved power