De Moor I:26: Scholastic Theology

Nevertheless, the name of Scholastic Theology is wont to be taken in an inferior sense, for that which was delivered in the Schools of the Papists in particular, after the twelfth century, according the institution of Peter Lombard;[1] those Masters of Philosophical and Theological Schools that follow it, hence are called, by an ancient term, but with new significance, Scholastics.

SPANHEIM’S Historia Ecclesiastica Novi Testamenti, Century V, chapter III, column 964:  “In this age also, the name of Scholastics was common, yet in a sense diverse from today’s.  At most thus were called experts in Law, Advocates, Defenders, Ἔκδικοι/Attorneys, who were taught the art of speaking, and the Statutes or Laws, in the great Schools, which sort were in Rome and Constantinople, like Socrates Scholasticus,[2] Agathias Scholasticus,[3] Evagrius,[4] and the like.  The name Scholastic was also used for the erudite, the wise; for the Master in Schools, in Monasteries; likewise for the scholar or student, in Augustine’s Confessions, and elsewhere.  Then, after the times of Charlemagne,[5] it was a name partly of Dignity, and he was called a Scholastic who was in charge Scholars; partly of profession, and the same was called a Scholastic and Professor of liberal arts, as in Launoius’[6] de Scholis celebrioribus, chapter XXIII; partly of office, and he was called a Scholastic that was of the School of Cantors; partly of doctrine, like those that taught unpolished Philosophy and Theology from the times of Lombard.”  Again, SPANHEIM’S Historia Ecclesiastica Novi Testamenti, Century XII, chapter X, § 3, column 1617, 1618:  “From this time, however many followed the method, doctrine, and authority of Lombard were called Scholastics, an ancient name, but with a new significance.  For originally public Edifices, into which men were gathering, whether for the sake of studying, or of observing or waiting, in which a strict Discipline was observed, were called Schools.  Hence the Schools, some Imperial, others of Civil Magistrates, then others of Bishops, Priests, Cantors, Monks, etc.  Also, they were called Scholastics, that were pleading cases in court, that were making speeches concerning lawsuits; hence that were eloquent and articulate; then that were wise, erudite, experts in Law:  Afterwards that were presiding in Schools by right of Dignity, Patronage, whence the title of Dignity, Scholastic; Finally that were teaching in the Schools, the Masters of Schools, whether these were erected in Monasteries or elsewhere, Philosophical or Theological; specifically that teach Philosophy and Theology, which they then called Scholastic.”  Concerning the term Scholasticus, Σχολαστικὸς, see also MEURSIUS’[7] Glossarium græco-barbarum; VOSSIUS’ Etymologicon Linguæ Latinæ; MARTINIUS’[8] Lexicon philologicum; DU FRESNE Lord du Cange’s[9] Glossarium mediæ et infimæ Latinitatis; PITISCUS’[10] Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum.

One may observe a threefold period of this Theology:

α.  Dawning, in the Twelfth Century, when Peter the Lombard, so called from his ancestral land, Bishop of Paris from 1159 onward, called Master of the Sentences from his principal writing, according to the pattern of John Damascenus’ books Concerning the Orthodox Faith wrote Four Books of Sentences, in which he reduced the Theology of that time into a compendium, by Distinctions and Sentences drawn from Hilary, Ambrose, especially Augustine, etc., with the sentences of the Fathers brought together in nearly equal authority with the Sacred Scriptures.  In the first book he treasts of the Unity and Trinity of God:  in the second, of the creation, especially of angels and men, free will, divine grace, original and actual sin:  in the third, of the Economy of the Incarnation, redemption through Christ, faith, hope, love, the commandments of both tables:  in the fourth, of the Roman Church’s Sacraments, both true and false; of the Last Things, namely, the resurrection, judgment, and eternal life and death.  Nevertheless, some relate that Lombard’s work of Sentences plagiarized from just so many books of Theological Sentences of a certain Bandinus, an obscure and almost unknown Theologian, with others holding the completely opposite opinion; see THOMASIUS’[11] de Plagio literario, § 493 and following; KÖNIG’S[12] Bibliothecam Veterem et Novam; OLEARIUS’[13] Bibliothecam Ecclesiasticam.  Now, at this time and after which the Scholastic Doctors arose, the Scriptures began to be neglected to a greater extent, and the Fathers to be regarded as equal to them, and all Theology, as AVENTINUS[14] say in his Annalibus Bojorum, book VI, to be mixed up with the mud of questions and the rivulets of opinions.

β.  A greater augment of this Theology follows in the Thirteenth Century, when they proceeded to deliver Theology according to the method of Lombard, but with this difference; that in this Age the Metaphysics of Aristotle, such as they understood it at that time, and all his Philosophy, delivered in several volumes by Albert Magnus,[15] they took up also as a principium of Theological demonstrations:  to such an extent that the propositions and axioms of this Philosophy were regarded far before the sayings of the Fathers, indeed even the proclamations of Sacred Scripture.  Now, the originator of this stage of the Scholastic method was the excellent Albert Suevus,[16] with the cognomen of Magnus, the Great, even while he was living, of the Order of Preachers,[17] after being Master of Cologne made Bishop of Regensburg after 1259, but who returned after two years, with the Episcopate abdicated, to the Monastery of Cologne.  He was the first to write Commentaries upon all the works of Aristotle, and then also of Peter Lombard.  He died in 1280, after his memory had completely failed.  His Works, divided into twenty-one Tomes, were published in 1651.  Now, besides Albert, in this age, the most celebrated men were, 1.  Thomas Aquinas, whose father was Count of Aquino,[18] who in turn was born of the blood of Sicilian Kings.  He would come to be called the Angelic Doctor, to whom, in the writing of his books, Peter and Paul would sometimes be present:  “This opinion of him arose,” as SPANHEIM narrates in his Historia Ecclesiastica, Century XIII, chapter XII, § 3, page 1711, “from his metaphysical acumen and subtlety in disputation, from his industry in building the tenets of the Roman Chuch and in daubing its errors; from his fervor in opposing the so-called Manichæans,[19] that is, the Albigensians;[20] indeed, also from the multitude of his books, with the fullest submission toward the Roman chair until the year of his death, 1274.”  2.  Bonaventure,[21] contemporary of Thomas, of the Order of Friars Minor,[22] called the Seraphic Doctor, virtually the director of the Second Council of Lyon in 1274,[23] with which not yet finished he met his death; promoted to the purple by Gregory X,[24] to the Saints by Sixtus IV.[25]

Durandus of Saint-Pourcain

γ.  The last era of the Scholastics is referred to the Fourteenth Century, when yet greater curiosity and impurity was introduced.  In this age are remember above the rest, Durandus of Saint-Pourçain, the Most Resolute Doctor, Bishop of Meaux, who died in 1333 in Meaux:  But also John Duns Scotus,[26] who in 1307 began to peddle a doctrine, previously unheard of in the Church, concerning the Immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin, and who, stricken with apoplexy, or seized with coma, may have been interred in the grave while yet living, from which he vainly endeavored to get out, with his hands worn away.  The Fifteenth Century was no less prolific with respect to Scholastics, even unto the times of Thomas Cajetan,[27] that is, of Luther and Zwingli, when the age of the Scholastics comes to an end.  The long series of Scholastic Doctors is given by the Most Illustrious PICTET in his Præfatione Theologiæ Christianæ.  A history of Scholastic Theology and of the Scholastics worth reading is set forth by BUDDEUS, Isagoge ad Theologiam universam, book II, chapter I, § 9, 10, tome 1, pages 357-369, with whom compare SPANHEIM, Historia Ecclesiastica, Century XII, chapter X, § 1-4, Century XIII, chapter XII, Century XIV, chapter XI, § I, columns 1616-1618, 1710-1712, 1796, 1797.

In a few words, our AUTHOR comprehends many things, when he observes concerning this Theology, that the same is displeasing and hateful in four principal things for these reasons:

α.  With respect to the Principium, on account of the authority of the Fathers and Philosopher introduced, and the same made equal, indeed even preferred, to the Sacred Scripture.

β.  With respect to the Argument, on account of the curiosity and falsehood of the same.  For example, it was disputed by those Acute Doctors, Of what sort of nature was Mary, fleshy or lean?  Whether it were possible that Mary had more children by that singular Generation, by which she begat the Word?  Whether Mary while sleeping had the use of reason?  Whether she was the Apostle of the Apostles and an expert in all mechanical arts?  Whether in the state of innocence there were going to be an equal number of men and women?  Whether it is permissible to excommunicate sparrows and other brutes that defile the Church?  Whether anyone is able to be baptized in lye, honey-wine, the gravy of meats, the broth of fish, or urine?  Whether baptism is valid, if it be conferred in the name of the Devil?  Whether Christ was obliged or able to assume the nature of a woman, an ass, a serpent, or a dove?  Whether these and similar propositions, God is a hoopoe, God is a scarab, are equally possible with this, God is a man?  Whether the Roman Pontiff be God, or man, or one from both?  The Most Illustrious PICTET, Præfatione Theologiæ Christianæ, also sets forth these Scholastic questions.

γ.  With respect to the Mode of delivery, on account of the barbarous terms and obscure distinctions, and disputes upon both sides in an academic and subtle manner.

δ.  With respect to the End and Effect, namely, the obscuring of true and scriptural Theology and the neglect of the Scriptures.

Nevertheless, it also has some things by which it commends itself, namely; α.  βραχυλογίας, concise forms of expression, so that by this or that term a thing is signified briefly and vigorously, which without a Scholastic term of this sort would require a long periphrasis.  β.  It has certain laudable Philosophical Principles:  and, γ.  shining testimonies of heavenly truth; so that from the Scholastics many things are able to be fetched, which make for the piercing of the errors of Papal Religion; just as from the beginning in Lombard himself many more sensible things are observed, in those things, for example, which have regard to the Corruption of man and divine Grace, borrowed principally from Augustine.  And thus JOHANN GERHARD published in four volumes, quarto, Confessionem Catholicam, in which distinguished work he confirmed the Catholic truth with distinguished testimonies out of Popish authors, for the most part out of the Scholastics.

And thus far this Theology is of some good use also, neither does it come to be altogether rejected.  Some care of the Theologian deserves to be spent upon it also, although not the first or principal care, but almost the last; after the likeness of those that, visiting royal palaces, after the magnificence of the bed chambers and dining rooms, disdain even to look upon the latrines, except in passing, on account of the odor:  just as CHAMIER, in his Epistolis Jesuiticis ad Cottonum, writes that he himself had done.

If one be a complete stranger to the Scholastics, he shall by no means be able to dispute with the Papists; nor with the Socinians, since these also draw their objections in great part from the Scholastics; and these would buy at great price, if from hatred of Scholastic Theology we all should determine to cast away the technical terms from Theology, a great number of which are actually owed to the Scholastics, and should bind the Theologian to make use only of terms found αὐτολεξεὶ, in express words, in Sacred Scripture.  Therefore, thus the terms Trinity, Consubstantial, ὁμοουσίου/homoousios, Christ’s Satisfaction, etc., also should be banished.  But there are technical terms of this sort in Theology, just as there are numeric signs in Arithmetic, and individual letters in Algebra.  No less absurdly would you require from a Theologian and Doctor in an Academy, that he send all Theological terms into eternal exile, than if you would require from a Preacher, that in the explanation of the sacred text he make use of no other word than what stands in the Sacred Books.  Therefore, Scholastic Theology is to be called into use as far as it or its terms are able to be useful; but all abuse of it is to be avoided:  here, as in all things, the limit is to be observed, and precautions are to be taken lest anything exceed:  consult VOETIUS’ Disputationem de Theologia Scholastica, volume I, Disputationum theologicarum, pages 12-29; GERHARD’S Confessionem catholicam, tome I, book I, generalis, posteriorem partem, chapter XV, which is de Scholasticis, pages 743-762; HEINRICH ALTING’S Theologiam problematicam novam, locus I, problem XIII, pages 53-58.  Especially concerning the Philosophy of the Scholastics see BUDDEUS and those whom he recommends in Isagoge ad Theologiam universam, book I, chapter IV, § 22, tome 1, pages 230b, 231a, who also discusses the defects of Scholastic Theology, on account of which, nevertheless, he does not will that Systematic Theology be rejected, Isagoge ad Theologiam universam, book II, chapter I, § 16, tome 1, pages 423-426; and particularly the Moral doctrine of the Scholastics, Isagoge ad Theologiam universam, book II, chapter IV, § 10, tome 1, pages 710, 711a.

[1] Peter Lombard (c. 1096-c. 1164), although of relatively humble birth, became a renowned theologian in Paris.  His Four Books of Sentences served as a standard theological text at medieval universities.

[2] Socrates of Constantinople, sometimes called Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), was an historian from Constantinople who wrote Historiam Ecclesiasticam, covering the years 305-439, as a continuation of Eusebius’ history.

[3] Agathias Scholasticus (c. 530-c. 590), of Myrina in western Asia Minor, was a student of law in Alexandria, and practiced law in the courts of Constantinople.  However, he had a deep love of literature, composing Greek poems, and a history, picking up where Procopius leaves off, covering a period of Justinian I’s reign (552-558).

[4] Evagrius Scholasticus (sixth century) was a Syrian scholar and lawyer.  He wrote a six-volume Ecclesiastical History, treating the period from the First Council of Ephesus (431) to the author’s time (593) under the reign of Maurice.

[5] Charlemagne (c. 745-814) was King of the Franks (768), King of Italy (774), and the first emperor of the Western Roman Empire (800) in three centuries.  In addition to his many achievements, he did much to revive learning in Europe.

[6] Jean de Launoy (1603-1678) was French, critical historian.  With respect to ecclesiastical politics, he was a Gallican; with respect to theology, a Jansenist.

[7] Johannes van Meurs (1579-1639) was a Dutch classical scholar, Professor of Greek and History at Leiden (1610).  Suspected of Arminianism, he accepted an offer to become Professor of history at Soro in Zealand.

[8] Matthias Martinius (1572-1630) was a German Reformed Theologian and educator.  He was instrumental in the founding of the Gymnasium at Bremen, and taught Johannes Cocceius.

[9] Charles de Fresne, Lord du Cange (1610-1688), was a philologist and historian of Medieval Europe and Byzantium.

[10] Samuel Pitiscus (1637-1727) was a Dutch classicist.

[11] Jakob Thomasius (1622-1684) was a German philosopher and jurist.  He was an important figure in establishing the history of philosophy as a scholarly discipline.

[12] Georg Matthias König (1616-1698) was a German biographer and historian.

[13] Joannes Gottfridus Olearius (1635-1711) was a German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian, and Hymn-writer.

[14] Johannes Aventinus (1477-1534) was Bavarian humanist.  He wrote Annales Bojorum, as Bavaria’s official historian, containing much valuable information on the early history of Germany.  Although he remained in the Roman Church, he was sympathetic to aspects of the Reformation.

[15] Albert the Great (c. 1193-1280) was a German Dominican friar and eventual Bishop of Regensburg (1260).  He is regarded by many as the greatest theologian and philosopher of his age; his publications were instrumental in making the thought of Aristotle much more widely accessible.  He taught Thomas Aquinas.

[16] Albert was born in Bavaria.

[17] That is, the Dominicans.

[18] Aquino was on the west coast of central Italy.

[19] Manichæism, arising in the third century, was form of Gnostic dualism, teaching the co-eternality of good and evil.  Human history is the long process of the separation of spiritual light (the good) from material darkness (the evil).

[20] The Albigensians were dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church, thriving in southern France from the twelfth to the fourteenth century.  They were accused of Manichæan dualism by their Roman prosecutors.

[21] Bonaventure (1221-1274) was an Italian Franciscan theologian and philosopher.

[22] That is, the Franciscans.

[23] This Council met in an endeavor to reunite the Eastern and Western Churches.  Ultimately, the achievements of the Council proved short-lived.

[24] Gregory X (reigning from 1271-1276) granted to Bonaventure the title of Cardinal Bishop.

[25] Sixtus IV (reigning from 1471-1484) canonized Bonaventure in 1482.

[26] John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) was a Scottish Franciscan theologian and philosopher.  He lectured and wrote on Lombard’s Sentences.  He was known as the Subtle Doctor.

[27] Thomas Cajetan (1469-1534) was an Italian cardinal and one of the more able opponents of the Reformation.  He wrote a commentary upon Aquinas’ Summa Theologica.