If they discoursed upon these topics, they either implicitly followed the definition and arrangement of Aristotle, or injudiciously combined with his moral doctrine the precepts of piety and sanctity which the church had prescribed. The correction and improvement of ethics was indeed attempted by John Scotus Erigena, and other followers of the supposed Dionysius; but these enthusiasts having abandoned the humble path of common sense to soar into the regions of mysticism, the remedy proved scarcely less mischievous than the disease to which it was applied; and the simple doctrine of pure morality, taught by Christ and his apostles, which had hitherto been debased by superstition, was now lost in the extravagances of enthusiasm.

The spirit of disputation which so eminently distinguished the Scholastics, gave birth to many sects, which contended against each other with bitter animosity. The disciples of Albert, called Albertists, who mixed the doctrines of religion with the tenets of the Aristotelian philosophy, were vehemently opposed by Peter Lombard and his followers. The dissensions between Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus laid the foundation of the sects of the Thomists and Scotists, who disputed with great warmth on the doctrines of grace and free will, and other theological topics. From the school of Duns Scotus arose Occam, the inventor of new subleties, who became the father of the sect of Occamists. But, among all the sects of the Scholastics, the most memorable, on account of the extent, the violence, and the duration of their contests, are those of the Nominalists and Realists.

To understand the ground of the dispute which gave rise to these sects, it will be necessary to recollect the different tenets of the ancient schools of Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno, concerning Ideas, or the universal forms of things. Ideas, according to Plato, are not the universal notions or conceptions of the mind, arising from the contemplation of external objects, but intelligible natures, having a certain and stable existence, whose origin and seat is the Divine Mind, and which are the immediate objects of contemplation to the human understanding. Universal essences of this kind, external to matter, Aristotle thought

to be the mere fictions of the imagination of Plato, or rather of Pythagoras; but, not daring to deny the exist ence of essential forms, he affirmed that ideas, or forms, were eternally united to matter, and that from this union of matter and form arose existing bodies. Zeno and the Stoic school acknowledged primary principles of material things, but denied their essentiality, and ridiculed those who asserted the substantial existence of ideas or universals, as distinguished from the conceptions of the mind and the words by which they are expressed. This subtle question was pursued by the Eclectic philosophers, who endeavoured to reconcile the Academic, Peripatetic, and Stoic notions concerning it, by supposing, that ideas have a real essentiality, but only in the Divine understanding, where they subsist as models, by means of which, in framing individual bodies, essential characters of things are impressed upon matter, as by one seal similar impressions are made upon innumerable portions of wax; and that these ideas may be contemplated by the human mind, and may be expressed by universal terms. Others left it undetermined whether the universals thus contemplated have a real physical existence. Porphyry, in his introduction to the Aristotelian logic, says, "Concerning genera and species, whether they have a real essence, or are barely conceptions of the mind, and if they subsist whether corporeally or incorporeally, whether spiritually or only in the objects of sense, I give no opinion, because the subject is abstruse, and requires a larger discussion.” This point, which Porphyry left undetermined, was resumed in the schools, and the opinion of Aristotle, that universals subsist not prior to individual bodies, nor after them, but within them, and are the forms eternally united to matter, which makes bodies to be such as they are, universally prevailed, till, in the eleventh century, Rosceline, before mentioned, adopted the Stoic opinion, that Universals have no real existence either before or in individuals, but are mere names and words by which the kinds of individuals are expressed: a tenet which was after

*2 § 2. p. 2. Ed. Jul. Pacii.

wards propagated by Abelard, and produced the sect of the Nominalists.83

This new opinion gave great offence to the philosophers and divines of the eleventh century, perhaps, chiefly because Rosceline, by applying it to the doctrine of the Trinity, brought upon himself a suspicion of heresy. Many young persons, however, strenuously adhered to the side of the Nominalists, and the sect, through the ingenuity and ability of Abelard and others, obtained many followers. Some of these, to avoid censure, changed their ground so far as to maintain, that universals consist in notions and conceptions of the mind, formed by abstraction, whence they were called Conceptualists. The Realists, too, were of different opinions, some leaning towards the doctrine of Plato, and others towards that of Aristotle.

In the twelfth century, the controversy still continued ; but the doctrine of the Realists found such able supporters in Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, that it almost became triumphant. But Occam, in the fourteenth century, revived the dying cause of the Nominalists, and gave it such a degree of credit, that after his time it was zealously maintained by Suisset, Buridan, Marsilius ab Inghen, Wessel, and many others. The sect of the Nominalists, enjoying the countenance and favour of Louis the Eleventh, almost universally flourished in Germany; whilst that of the Realists, being patronized by Pope John XXIII. was prevalent in Italy, and other countries; till at length the pope's faction became predominant, and harassed the Nominalists with severe persecutions. Louis XI. king of France, published an edict which, in the year 1474, silenced and banished the Nominalists; ordered their books to be fastened up in the libraries with iron chains, that they might not be read by students; and required the academic youth to renounce their doctrines. Upon this the leaders of the sect fled into Germany and England, where, at the beginning of the Reformation, they

83 Otto Frising. de Gest. Frid. 1. i. c. 42. J. Sarisb. Met. l. ii. c. 17. p. 814. Aventin. Ann. Bor. 1. vi. p. 396.

"Du Chesne Scr. Hist. Fr. t. iv. p. 632. Hist. Crit. Phil. t. iii. p. 906. Abelard. Hist. Cal. c. 3.

met with a strong reinforcement in Luther, Melancthon, and others.85

Nothing could exceed the violence with which these disputes were conducted. Vives, who himself saw these contests, says,86 "that when the contending parties had exhausted their stock of verbal abuse, they often came to blows; and it was not uncommon, in these quarrels about universals, to see the combatants engaging, not only with their fists, but with clubs and swords, so that many have been wounded, and some killed." Such were the blessed fruits of Scholastic philosophy! We cannot more properly take leave of this period of our history, than in the words of Martial:

Turpe est difficiles habere nugas,

Et stultus labor est ineptiarum.87 *

$5 Plessis d'Argen. Collect. t. i. p. 202. 255.302. Bulai Hist. Ac. Par, t. v. p. 678. 739. 747. Baluz. Misc. t. iv. p. 531. Naud. Add. Hist. Launois Hist. Gymn. Navarr. t. iv. p. 201.

Ludov. xi. p. 203.

L. c. I. i. Conf. Erasm. præf. Enchir. Camer. Vit. Melancth. p. 213. Wood. Ant. Oxon. ad Ann. 1343. Patric. Disc. Perip. t. i. c. 13.

87 "Tis a folly to sweat o'er a difficult trifle,
And for silly devices invention to rifle.

* Vidend. Hottinger Hist. Ecc. Sec. xiii. Leyser. Hist. Poet. Med. Ævi. Marnix. Apiar. Rom. Ecc. p. i. c. 10. Flacii Carm. de Corrupt. Eccl. Statu. Mabillon de Stud. Monast. p. ii. c. 7. Dupin Meth. Stud. 1. iv. Salabert. Phil. Nomin. vind. Par. 1651. 8o. Ars Rationis ad Mentem Nomin. Ox. 1673, 12o. Mabillon Analect. t. iv. p. 369.

OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS UPON PHILOSOPHY.

HAVING at length, not without difficulty, cleared our way through the thorns and briars of the Middle Age, we are now arrived at a more open and pleasant country, where we shall see learning and philosophy recovering their ancient honours. This great effect was not produced instantaneously; but, as the twilight precedes the rising sun, so the dawning of literature prepared the way for the revival of science, till, at length, genius was awakened, rational inquiry was resumed, and the night of the Scholastic age was succeeded by a bright day of learning and true philosophy.

In the thirteenth century, a singular but fanciful attempt was made to introduce a new method of philosophizing by Raymund Lully, long famous for an invention which is called his Great Art. Lully was born in the island of Majorca, in the year 1234. After passing his younger days in pleasure, he was on a sudden induced, by a disappointment in love, to give himself up to retirement and devotion. In his retreat he boasted of visions and revelations. Forming a romantic design of converting the Mahometans to the Christian faith, about the year 1287, he visited Pope Honorius the Fourth, and the ecclesiastics in Rome, and endeavoured to prevail upon them to assist him in his enterprise, and for this purpose to institute schools for teaching the Oriental languages. Finding his

1 Bovilli Vit. Lullii. Danat. Hist. Balear.