poverty as a means to this end. He was present throughout the Albigensian war, though he is said
to have deplored some of its more extreme atrocities. The Dominican Order was founded in 1215
by Innocent III, and won quick success. The only human trait known to me in Saint Dominic is his
confession to Jordan of Saxony that he liked talking to young women better than to old ones. In
1242, the order solemnly decreed that this passage should be deleted from Jordan's life of the
founder.
The Dominicans were even more active than the Franciscans in the work of the Inquisition. They
performed, however, a valuable service to mankind by their devotion to learning. This was no part
of Saint Dominic's intention; he had decreed that his friars were "not to learn secular sciences or
liberal arts except by dispensation." This rule was abrogated in 1259, after which date everything
was done to make a studious life easy for Dominicans. Manual labour was no part of their duties,
and the hours of devotion were shortened to give them more time for study. They devoted
themselves to reconciling Aristotle and Christ; Alberrus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, both
Dominicans, accomplished this task as well as it is capable of being accomplished. The authority
of Thomas Aquinas was so overwhelming that subsequent Dominicans did not achieve much in
philosophy; though Francis, even more than Dominic, had disliked learning, the greatest names in
the immediately following period are Franciscan: Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of
Occam were all Franciscans. What the friars accomplished for philosophy will be the subject of
the following chapters.
-451-CHAPTER XIII Saint Thomas AquinasTHOMAS AQUINAS (b. 1225 or 1226, d. 1274) is regarded as the greatest of scholastic
philosophers. In all Catholic educational institutions that teach philosophy his system has to be
taught as the only right one; this has been the rule since a rescript of 1879 by Leo XIII. Saint
Thomas, therefore, is not only of historical interest, but is a living influence, like Plato,
Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel --more, in fact, than the latter two. In most respects, he follows
Aristotle so closely that the Stagyrite has, among Catholics, almost the authority of one of the
Fathers; to criticize him in matters of pure philosophy has come to be thought almost impious. *
This was not always the case. In the time of Aquinas, the battle for Aristotle, as against Plato,
still had to be fought. The influence of Aquinas secured the victory until the Renaissance; then
Plato, who became better known than in the Middle Ages, again acquired supremacy in the
opinion of most philosophers. In the seventeenth century, it was possible to be orthodox and a
Cartesian; Malebranche, though a priest, was never censured. But in our day such freedoms are
a thing of the past; Catholic ecclesiastics must accept Saint Thomas if they concern themselves
with philosophy.Saint Thomas was the son of the Count of Aquino, whose castle, in the kingdom of Naples, was
close to Monte Cassino, where the education of the "angelic doctor" began. He was for six years
at Frederick II's university of Naples; then he became a Dominican, and went to Cologne, to
study under Albertus Magnus, who was the leading Aristotelian among the philosophers of the
time. After a period in Cologne and Paris, he returned to Italy in 1259, where he spent the rest
of his life except for the three years 1269-72. During these three years he was in Paris, where
the Dominicans, on account of their Aristotelian-____________________* When I did so in a broadcast, very many protests from Catholics resulted.