stated the argument in its naked logical purity. In gaining purity, it loses plausibility; but this also
is to Anselm's credit.
For the rest, Anselm's philosophy is mainly derived from Saint Augustine, from whom it acquires
many Platonic elements. He believes in Platonic ideas, from which he derives another proof of the
existence of God. By Neoplatonic arguments he professes to prove not only God, but the Trinity.
(It will be remembered that Plotinus has a Trinity, though not one that a Christian can accept as
orthodox.) Anselm considers reason subordinate to faith. "I believe in order to understand," he
says; following Augustine, he holds that without belief it is impossible to understand. God, he
says, is not just, but justice. It will be remembered that John the Scot says similar things. The
common origin is in Plato.
Saint Anselm, like his predecessors in Christian philosophy, is in the Platonic rather than the
Aristotelian tradition. For this reason, he has not the distinctive characteristics of the philosophy
which is called "scholastic," which culminated in Thomas Aquinas. This kind of philosophy may
be reckoned as beginning with Roscelin, who was Anselm's contemporary, being seventeen years
younger than Anselm. Roscelin marks a new beginning, and will be considered in the next
chapter.
When it is said that medieval philosophy, until the thirteenth century, was mainly Platonic, it must
be remembered that Plato, except for a fragment of the Timaeus, was known only at second or
third hand. John the Scot, for example, could not have held the views which he did hold but for
Plato, but most of what is Platonic in him comes from the pseudo-Dionysius. The date of this
author is uncertain, but it seems probable that he was a disciple of Proclus the Neoplatonist. It is
probable, also, that John the Scot had never heard of Proclus or read a line of Plotinus. Apart from
the pseudo-Dionysius, the other source of Platonism in the Middle Ages was Boethius. This
Platonism was in many ways different from that which a modern student derives from Plato's own
writings. It omitted almost everything that had no obvious bearing on religion, and in religious
philosophy it enlarged and emphasized certain aspects at the expense of others. This change in the
conception of Plato had already been effected by Plotinus. The knowledge of Aristotle was also
fragmentary, but in an opposite direction: all that was known of him until the twelfth