of Imitation of Christ has far transcended the author’s time
and place. A devotionalist rather than a theologian, Thomas
has had a continuing appeal to persons of similar disposition.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hyma, Albert. The Brethren of the Common Life. Grand Rapids,
Mich., 1950.
Hyma, Albert. The Christian Renaissance: A History of “Devotio
Moderna.” 2d ed. Hamden, Conn., 1965.
Post, R. R. The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation
and Humanism. Leiden, 1968.
Schaff, David S. The Middle Ages from Boniface VIII, 1294, to the
Protestant Reformation, 1517, vol. 5, pt. 2, of History of the
Christian Church. New York, 1910.
HOWARD G. HAGEMAN (1987)
THOMAS AQUINAS (Tommaso d’Aquino, 1225–
1274), Italian Dominican theologian, doctor of the church,
patron of Roman Catholic schools, and Christian saint. One
of the most important and influential scholastic theologians,
Thomas is seen by the Roman Catholic church as uniquely
“her very own” (Pius XI). He has been honored with the
scholastic titles Doctor Communis (thirteenth century) and
Doctor Angelicus (fifteenth century), among others.
LIFE AND WORKS. The youngest son of Landolfo d’Aquino,
lord of Roccasecca and Montesangiovanni and justiciary of
Emperor Frederick II, and his second wife, Teodora of Chie-
ti, Thomas had five sisters, three older brothers, and at least
three half brothers. The family castle of Roccasecca, where
Thomas was born, midway between Rome and Naples, was
on a mountain in the northwest corner of the kingdom of
Sicily. Sicily was ruled by the Hohenstaufen emperor Freder-
ic II (1194–1250), who was in almost continual warfare with
the papal armies of Honorius III (1216–1227), Gregory IX
(1227–1241), and Innocent IV (1243–1254). Divided polit-
ical and religious loyalties rendered the position of the
d’Aquino family precarious.
Thomas spent his first five years at the family castle
under the care of his mother and a nurse. As the youngest
son of the family, Thomas was given (oblatus, “offered”) to
the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino by his parents at
the age of five or six in the firm hope that he would eventual-
ly choose the monastic life and become abbot. His earliest
training was in the spiritual life, mainly through the Latin
psalter, and in the rudiments of reading, writing, and mathe-
matics. The struggle between the pope and the emperor
reached a climax in 1239, when Frederick was excommuni-
cated a second time. The imperial troops occupied the abbey,
foreigners were expelled, and the young students were sent
to one of the Benedictine houses in Naples to attend the im-
perial university founded in 1224 as a rival to Bologna. At
the university, where Thomas remained until 1244, he stud-
ied under Master Martin (grammar and logic) and Peter of
Ireland (natural philosophy). It was there that he was intro-
duced to Aristotle’s philosophy.
By 1243 Thomas was attracted to the Dominicans liv-
ing nearby at the priory of San Domenico. This order of
mendicant friars, founded by Dominic (1170–1221) and
confirmed by Pope Honorius III in 1216, was devoted to
preaching, study, and the common life. Impressed by their
apostolic zeal, poverty, and simplicity and free from obliga-
tion, Thomas received the habit in April 1244 at the age of
nineteen. Under normal circumstances he would have made
his novitiate at San Domenico, but because the friars feared
that Thomas’s family might intervene forcibly to prevent his
entrance to the order, he was sent to Rome. At Rome it was
decided that he should go to Paris, and so early in May 1244
he left Rome in the company of John of Wildeshausen, third
master of the order, and John’s companions, who were trav-
eling to Bologna for the general chapter that met annually
at Pentecost.Learning of her son’s entry into a begging order, Teo-
dora, now head of the family, hastened to Naples, then to
Rome, only to learn that her son had departed for Bologna.
She sent orders to her older son Rinaldo, who was with Fred-
erick’s army north of Rome, to intercept Thomas and bring
him home by force if necessary. Rinaldo and his escort inter-
cepted the travelers near Acquapendente, north of papal ter-
ritory, and forced Thomas to return on horseback. Stopping
for the night at the family castle of Montesangiovanni in
papal territory, the soldiers secured the services of a local
prostitute to seduce Thomas, but to no avail. The next day
the group rode to Roccasecca, where Thomas was restricted
to the castle until Frederick II was excommunicated and de-
posed by the Council of Lyons on July 17, 1245. By then
Teodora and her daughters saw that further attempts to
change Thomas’s resolve were useless and allowed him to re-
join the friars in Naples, from whence he was sent to Paris.
Arriving at the priory of Saint-Jacques by October
1245, Thomas began his studies at the University of Paris
under Albertus Magnus, who was then lecturing on the writ-
ings of Dionysius the Areopagite. After three years of study
in Paris, Thomas and others accompanied Albertus to Co-
logne, where a new studium generale was to be established,
as decreed by the general chapter of Paris in 1248. For the
next four years Thomas continued to attend and write down
Albert’s lectures on Dionysius and his questions on Aristot-
le’s Ethics. As Albert’s junior bachelor (1250–1252), Thomas
lectured cursorily on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations.
The position of the mendicant friars at the University
of Paris came under increasingly severe attack from secular
masters, particularly William of Saint-Amour. By 1252 the
Dominican master general was eager to send promising
young men to the university to prepare for inception as mas-
ter (full professor). Albert convinced the master general to
send Thomas, despite his young age, to study for the univer-
sity chair for non-Parisians. Thomas began his studies under
Elias Brunet de Bergerac in the fall of 1252, lecturing on
Peter Lombard’s Sentences for four years. His originality and
clarity of thought were conspicuous in his teaching and writ-9160 THOMAS AQUINAS