or 1223, and began the systematic study of theology. "He may pass for the most fertile writer in the world." He reproduced the whole philosophy of Aristotle in a form adapted to the Christian faith. He felt it to be his task to give every branch of human learning its proper place and its proper work, and then to show that it depends upon theology for its very life.

He wrote a Commentary on the Sentences of PETER LOMBARD, and also arranged the Sentences in a systematic work called a Summary of Theology. His scientific researches were gathered up into a Summary of Natural Philosophy, commonly known as The Philosophy of the Mendicants. Some of his minor works e.g. On Holding to God, and his commentaries on the writings of the pseudo-DIONYSIUS, show his religious affinities to the mystics. His hold on the popular mind however was gained by his interest in alchemy whereby he was supposed to be in touch with the supernatural world.

In his pupil THOMAS AQUINAS, 1227-1274, "a finer, even if not a more powerful intellect than ALBERT," Scholasticism reached the zenith of its perfection and power. His belief that reason and faith agree, even though the truths of reason and the mysteries of faith spring from different sources, made him the incarnation of the Scholastic spirit.

He published a Discussion of Peter Lombard's Sentences; prepared a Commentary on the Gospels-The Golden Collection-by summarising the teaching of the Fathers; and discussed the religious questions of the day in Twelve various Discussions, and in a work called Disputed Questions. He had also to his credit an Exposition of all the Epistles of the Holy Apostles, and some elucidations of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Psalter.

After these immense preparations AQUINAS undertook the stupendous task of arranging the world of knowledge into a

rational system ruled by the Catholic faith. The result was the Summa Theologiae, The Sum of the Catholic Faith against the Heathen, one of the most remarkable achievements of the human mind.

The method of the work is to state a proposition, to assail it with every objection, then to defend it, and to reach a conclusion by the help of the accepted standards of the Church. "From first to last" AQUINAS "was thinking of all that could be said on both sides of the question he was discussing; chiefly of what might be said in favour of the opinion which he did not hold, and which he was ultimately to annihilate. . . . The reasoner against almost any tenet of the Catholic faith may be furnished at a short notice with almost any kind of weapons out of the armoury of the great Catholic doctor."

The method of this monumental classic may be illustrated from the reply given to the mystical theory of JOACHIM of Floris (cf. p. 210):

It seems that the New Law will not last till the end of the world. . . . . I Cor. xiii. 10; John xvi. 13.... I answer that The state of the world may change in two ways. In one way, according to a change of law and thus no other state will succeed this state of the New Law. . . . Heb. x. 19-22.

In another way the state of mankind may change according as man stands in relation to one and the same law more or less perfectly. . .

Nevertheless we are not to look forward to a state wherein man is to possess the grace of the Holy Ghost more perfectly than he has possessed it hitherto, especially the Apostles who received the first fruits of the Spirit.

The Old Law corresponded not only to the Father • F. D. Maurice, Mediaeval Philosophy (1870), p. 188.

but also to the Son, because Christ was foreshadowed in the Old Law. Hence our Lord said, 'For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me' (John v.46). In like manner the New Law corresponds not only to Christ but also to the Holy Ghost according to Romans viii. 2.

Hence we are not to look forward to another law corresponding to the Holy Ghost."

The Dominicans and the Augustinians accepted the Summa as the authoritative statement of theology, but the Franciscans demurred. WILLIAM LAMARRE published Refutations of Brother Thomas, 1285, but the chief critic was JOHN DUNS SCOTUS, 1270-1308. His strength lay rather in acute negative criticism of the teaching of others, than in the positive elaboration of his own. "In many respects DUNS SCOTUS is the most important Christian thinker of the Middle Ages. . it has been said with much truth that "in Scotus, great Schoolman as he was, Scholasticism overreached itself, and entered upon a subtlety which was the beginning of its decline!" He won the title of "the subtle Doctor." His works were A Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and Questions of Sorts; they belong to the literature of philosophy rather than to that of Christianity. With him began the division of the later scholastics into the rival camps of Thomists and Scotists.

7 The Summa Theologica (1915), literally trans. by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Part II., First Part, Third Number. Q. Q. xc-cxiv. pp. 287-290.

8 Ency. of Religion and Ethics, Vol. XI.,

p. 247.

CHAPTER XXVI

PRE-REFORMATION MYSTICISM

Reaction from the formal dialectics of Scholasticism to the emotionalism of the Mystics was almost inevitable. When the Scholastic philosphy had exhausted its original impulse, it was bound to give way to the enthusiasm that tried to grasp reality by intuition, and to gain an immediate experience of God by direct vision.

"Mysticism is religion in its most concentrated and exclusive form; it is that attitude of mind in which all other relations are swallowed up in the relation of the soul to God."1

Neo-Platonic mysticism exercised an early influence on Christian thought. VICTORINUS, converted from neoPlatonism in 360, carried his mysticism into his new found faith. All his writings are intensely obscure. JEROME says of them, "He wrote in a dialectical style some very obscure books, intelligible only to the learned." These books are treatises of controversial theology, On the Generation of the Divine Word, Against Arius, Three Hymns on the Trinity, To Justin the Manichaean against the Two Principles of the Manichaeans and of the True Body of Christ, and a curious work entitled The Morning and Evening Make One Day.

For his use of neo-Platonic ideas as moulds in which to cast his Christian thought, VICTORINUS deserves credit as a pioneer in claiming for Christianity the products of philosophy.

1 Edward Caird, Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers (1904), Vol. II., p. 210.

MAXIMUS the Confessor, 580-622, wrote a Commentary on Dionysius, as a disciple of the school of Proclus, the neoPlatonist; but he was at the same time a fairly orthodox representative of the speculative activity of the Greek Church. His Expositions of the Lord's Prayer and of the Sermon on the Mount are rich in practical theology, as is also the collection of Aphorisms gathered from his writings. In his Thoughts concerning Charity he says:

He who has genuine faith in Christ, has within him all the charismata collectively. But since, by reason of our inactivity we are far from that active love towards him, which unveils to us the divine treasures which we bear within our own souls, so we justly believe that we are without the divine charismata. If, according to St. Paul, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, then all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in our hearts. But they reveal themselvs to the heart in proportion as the heart becomes pure, through obedience to the divine commands.

GREGORY THE GREAT showed a mystical tendency in many scattered passages of his writings; so also did JOHN CLIMASUS, d. 605, in his Ladder of Paradise, which records his own experiences of the spiritual life, and gives guidance to those who seek the higher degrees of holiness. The book was dedicated to JOHN of Raithu who composed a Commentary on it.

The really creative impulse towards Christian mysticism was given when JOHN SCOTUS ERIGENA translated the works of the pseudo-DIONYSIUS of Areopagus into Latin. This was by far his most notable and influential piece of work.

The first mention of the Areopagite's works occurs in a defence of Monophysitism by some Severian sectaries in Con