Benedictines beckoned, and kept him prisoner, fruitlessly, in Roccasecca for fifteen
months. In April 1244, he joined the Dominicans and was sent to Paris (1245–48) to
study theology with Albert the Great. In 1248, he accompanied Albert to the new
Dominican studium at Cologne, but by 1252 he was back in Paris as lecturer at Saint-
Jacques, the Dominican convent. Here he defended mendicant poverty against the attacks
of William of Saint-Amour and his followers, writing Contra impugnantes Dei cultum.
He became master of theology (his formal degree having been delayed by the dispute) in
- From 1259 to 1269, he taught at Dominican houses in Italy: Anagni, Orvieto, Santa
Sabina and the studium generale in Rome, and Viterbo. In 1269, just before the
condemnation of Aristotelian errors by Étienne Tempier, he returned to Paris but was
moved once more, to establish a Dominican studium in Naples, in 1272. He was traveling
again, to the Second Council of Lyon, when he died at Fossanuova, on March 7, 1274.
Thomas, known as Doctor angelicus and Doctor communis, is renowned for his
massive output, which was remarked upon in the evidence for his canonization. He was
said to dictate seamlessly to several secretaries at once, each writing a different work. He
wrote biblical commentaries, at least one commentary on the Sententiae of Peter
Lombard, commentaries on much of Aristotle and the liber de causis, disputed and
quodlibetal questions, and other works common to a Paris master, as well as short tracts
in answer to specific questions, whether in opposition to the Averroists or Avicebron, for
instance, or in reply to the duchess of Brabant on government. Aware of the inadequacy
of western knowledge of Aristotle, he had William of Moerbecke (1215–1286) translate
or retranslate many of his works, leaving a valuable legacy for later scholars. But
Thomas’s name is almost synonymous with his Summa theologica (or Summa
theologiae), which, together with the earlier Summa contra Gentiles, is a massive
statement of the whole of Christian theology. The Summa is in three parts, the first
(prima) dealing with God in se, the second dealing first (prima secundae) with God’s
relations with humanity and second (secunda secundae) with humanity’s relations with
God, and the third (tertia) with Christ and the sacraments as the path for the human return
to God. (The plan is similar to Peter Lombard’s Sententiae but in three unequal books
rather than four.)
Although Thomas’s place in the hierarchy of medieval philosopher-theologians is
secure, he is perhaps recognized today more for his system and clarity than for his
originality of thought. As we learn more about earlier 13th-century scholastics, we see
Thomistic ideas in prototype or isolation. His gift was in a synthesis of what had
previously tended to the imposition of Aristotelian categories of thought within a
Platonist Christian worldview. He brought the so-called scholastic method of argument
and truth seeking to its finest 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
unassuming, 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 positions 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 officially imposed on the Dominican order in
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