or modern philosophy. Catholic philosophy is essentially the philosophy of an institution, namely
the Catholic Church; modern philosophy, even when it is far from orthodox, is largely concerned
with problems, especially in ethics and political theory, which are derived from Christian views of
the moral law and from Catholic doctrines as to the relations of Church and State. In Græco-
Roman paganism there is no such dual loyalty as the Christian, from the very beginning, has owed
to God and Caesar, or, in political terms, to Church and State.
The problems raised by this dual loyalty were, for the most part, worked out in practice before the
philosophers supplied the necessary theory. In this process there were two very distinct stages: one
before the fall of the Western Empire, and one after it. The practice of a long line of bishops,
culminating in Saint Ambrose, supplied the basis for Saint Augustine's political philosophy. Then
came the barbarian invasion, followed by a long time of confusion and increasing ignorance.
Between Boethius and Saint Anselm, a period of over five centuries, there is only one eminent
philosopher, John the Scot, and he, as an Irishman, had largely escaped the various processes that
were moulding the rest of the Western world. But this period, in spite of the absence of
philosophers, was not one during which there was no intellectual development. Chaos raised
urgent practical problems, which were dealt with by means of institutions and modes of thought
that dominated scholastic philosophy, and are, to a great extent, still important at the present day.
These institutions and modes of thought were not introduced to the world by theorists, but by
practical men in the stress of conflict. The moral reform of the Church in the eleventh century,
which was the immediate prelude to the scholastic philosophy, was a reaction against the
increasing absorption of the Church into the feudal system. To understand the scholastics we must
understand Hildebrand, and to understand Hildebrand we must know something of the evils
against which he contended. Nor can we ignore the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire and its
effect upon European thought.
For these reasons, the reader will find in the following pages much ecclesiastical and political
history of which the relevance to the development of philosophic thought may not be immediately
evident. It is the more necessary to relate something of this history as the period
-306-concerned is obscure, and is unfamiliar to many who are at home with both ancient and modern
history. Few technical philosophers have had as much influence on philosophic thought as Saint
Ambrose, Charlemagne, and Hildebrand. To relate what is essential concerning these men and
their times is therefore indispensable in any adequate treatment of our subject.
-307-Part I. The FathersCHAPTER I The Religious Development of the JewsTHE Christian religion, as it was handed over by the late Roman Empire to the barbarians,
consisted of three elements: first, certain philosophical beliefs, derived mainly from Plato and
the Neoplatonists, but also in part from the Stoics; second, a conception of morals and history
derived from the Jews; and thirdly, certain theories, more especially as to salvation, which were
on the whole new in Christianity, though in part traceable to Orphism, and to kindred cults of
the Near East.The most important Jewish elements in Christianity appear to me to be the
following:- A sacred history, beginning with the Creation, leading to a consummation in the future,
and justifying the ways of God to man.