III. Theological Science and its Controversies.§ 99. Scholasticism in General.290The scientific activity of the Middle Ages received the name ofScholasticismfrom the cathedral and cloister schools in which it originated (§ 90, 8). The Schoolmen, with their enthusiasm and devotion, their fidelity and perseverance, their courage and love of combat, may be called the knights of theology. Instead of sword and spear they used logic, dialectic and speculation; and profound scholarship was their breastplate and helmet. Ecclesiastical orthodoxy was their glory and pride. Aristotle, and also to some extent Plato, afforded them their philosophical basis and method. The Fathers in their utterances,sententiæ, the Councils in their dogmas and canons, the popes in their decretals, yielded to this Dialectic Scholasticism theological material which it could use for the systematising, demonstrating, and illustrating of the Church doctrine. If we follow another intellectual current, we find the Mystical Scholasticism taking up, as the highest task of theology, the investigating and describing of the hidden life of the pious thinker in and with God according to its nature, course, and results by means of spiritual contemplation on the basis of one’s individual experience. Dogmatics (including Ethics) and the Canon Law constituted the peculiar field of the Dialectic Theology of the Schoolmen. The standard of dogmatic theology during the 12th century was the Book of the Sentences of the Lombard (§102, 5); that of the Canon Law the Decree of Gratian. Biblical Exegesis as an independent department of scientific study stood, indeed, far behind these two, but was diligently prosecuted by the leading representatives of Scholasticism. The examination of the simple literal sense, however, was always regarded as a secondary consideration; while it was esteemed of primary importance to determine the allegorical, tropological, and anagogical signification of the text (§ 90, 9).
The scientific activity of the Middle Ages received the name ofScholasticismfrom the cathedral and cloister schools in which it originated (§ 90, 8). The Schoolmen, with their enthusiasm and devotion, their fidelity and perseverance, their courage and love of combat, may be called the knights of theology. Instead of sword and spear they used logic, dialectic and speculation; and profound scholarship was their breastplate and helmet. Ecclesiastical orthodoxy was their glory and pride. Aristotle, and also to some extent Plato, afforded them their philosophical basis and method. The Fathers in their utterances,sententiæ, the Councils in their dogmas and canons, the popes in their decretals, yielded to this Dialectic Scholasticism theological material which it could use for the systematising, demonstrating, and illustrating of the Church doctrine. If we follow another intellectual current, we find the Mystical Scholasticism taking up, as the highest task of theology, the investigating and describing of the hidden life of the pious thinker in and with God according to its nature, course, and results by means of spiritual contemplation on the basis of one’s individual experience. Dogmatics (including Ethics) and the Canon Law constituted the peculiar field of the Dialectic Theology of the Schoolmen. The standard of dogmatic theology during the 12th century was the Book of the Sentences of the Lombard (§102, 5); that of the Canon Law the Decree of Gratian. Biblical Exegesis as an independent department of scientific study stood, indeed, far behind these two, but was diligently prosecuted by the leading representatives of Scholasticism. The examination of the simple literal sense, however, was always regarded as a secondary consideration; while it was esteemed of primary importance to determine the allegorical, tropological, and anagogical signification of the text (§ 90, 9).
§ 99.1.Dialectic and Mysticism.—With the exception of the speculative Scotus Erigena, the Schoolmen of the Carlovingian Age were of a practical turn. This was changed on the introduction of Dialectic in the 11th century. Practical interests gave way to pure love of science, and it was now the aim of scholars to give scientific shape and perfect logical form to the doctrines of the church. The method of thisDialectic Scholasticismconsisted in resolving all church doctrines into their elementary ideas, in the arranging and demonstrating of them under all possible categories and in the repelling of all possible objections of the sceptical reason. The end aimed at was the proof of the reasonableness of the doctrine. This Dialectic, therefore, was not concerned with exegetical investigations or Scripture proof, but rather with rational demonstration. Generally speaking, theological Dialectic attached itself to the ecclesiastical system of the day as positivism or dogmatism; for, appropriating Augustine’sCredo ut intelligam, it made faith the principal starting point of its theological thinking and the raising of faith to knowledge the end toward which it laboured. On the other hand, however, scepticism often made its appearance, taking not faith but doubt as the starting point for its inquiries, with the avowed intention, indeed, of raising faith to knowledge, but only acknowledging as worthy of belief what survived the purifying fire of doubt.—Alongside of this double-edged Dialectic, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in alliance with it, we meet with theMystical Scholasticism, which appealed not to the reason but to the heart, and sought by spiritual contemplation rather than by Dialectic to advance at once theological science and the Christian life. Its object is not Dogmatics as such, not the development ofFides quæ creditur, but life in fellowship with God, the development ofFides qua creditur. By contemplative absorption of the soul into the depth of the Divine life it seeks an immediate vision, experience and enjoyment of the Divine, and as an indispensable condition thereto requires purity of heart, the love of God in the soul and thorough abnegation of self. What is gained by contemplation is made the subject of scientific statement, and thus it rises to speculative mysticism. Both contemplation and speculative mysticism in so far as their scientific procedure is concerned are embraced under the name of scholastic mysticism. The practical endeavour, however, after a deepening and enhancing of the Christian life in the direction of a real and personal fellowship with God was found more important and soon out-distanced the scientific attempt at tabulating and formulating the facts of inner experience. Practical mysticism thus gained the ascendency during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, and formed the favourite pursuit of the numerous inmates of the nunneries (§107).§ 99.2.The Philosophical Basis of Dialectic Scholasticismwas obtained mainly from the Aristotelian philosophy, which, down to the end of the 12th century, was known at first only from Latin renderings of Arabic and even Hebrew translations, and afterwards from Latin renderings of the Greek originals (§103, 1). Besides Aristotle, however, Plato also had his enthusiastic admirers during the Middle Ages. The study of the writings of Augustine and the Areopagite (§ 90, 7) led back again to him, and the speculative mystics vigorously opposed the supremacy of Aristotle.—At the outset of the philosophical career of scholasticism in the 11th century we meet with the controversy of Anselm and Roscellinus [Roscelin] about the relations of thinking and being or of the idea and the substance of things (§101, 3).The Nominalists, following the principles of the Stoics, maintained that General Notions,Universalia, are mere abstractions of the understanding,Nomina, which as such have no reality outside the human mind,Universaliapostres.The Realists, on the contrary, affirmed the reality of General Notions, regarding them as objective existences before and apart from human thinking. But there were two kinds of realism. The one, based on the Platonic doctrine of ideas, taught that General Notions are really existent before the origin of the several things as archetypes in the Divine reason, and then also in the human mind before the contemplation of the things empirically given,Universaliaanteres. The other, resting on Aristotle’s doctrine, considered them as lying in the things themselves and as first getting entrance into the human mind through experience,Universaliainrebus. The Platonic Realism thought to reach a knowledge of things by pure thought from the ideas latent in the human mind; the Aristotelian, on the other hand, thought to gain a knowledge of things only through experience and thinking upon the things themselves.—Continuation, §103, 1.§ 99.3.The Nurseries of Scholasticism.—The work previously done in cathedrals and cloister schools was, from about the 12th century, taken up in a more comprehensive and thorough way by theUniversities. They were, as to their origin, independent of church and state, emperor and pope. Here and there famous teachers arose in the larger cities or in connection with some celebrated cloister or cathedral school. Youths from all countries gathered around them. Around the teacher who first attracted attention others gradually grouped themselves. Teachers and scholars organized themselves into a corporation, and thus arose the University. By this, however, we are to understand nothing less than aUniversitas litterarum, where attention was given to the whole circle of the sciences. For a long time there was no thought of a distribution into faculties. When the multitude of teachers and students demanded a distribution into several corporations, this was done according to nations. The name signifies theUniversitas magistrorum et scholariumrather than an articulated whole. The study here pursued was calledStudium generaleoruniversale, because the entrance thereto stood open to every one. At first each university pursued exclusively and in later times chiefly some special department of science. Thus,e.g.theology was prosecuted in Paris and Oxford and subsequently also in Cologne, jurisprudence in Bologna, Medicine in Salerno. The first university that expressly made provision for teaching all sciences was founded at Naples inA.D.1224 with imperial munificence by Frederick II. The earliest attempt at a distribution of the sciences among distinct faculties was occasioned by the struggle between the university of Paris and the mendicant monks (§103, 1), who separated themselves from the other theological teachers and as members of a guild formed themselves inA.D.1259 into a theological faculty. The number of the students, among whom were many of ripe years, was immensely great, and in some of the most celebrated universities reached often to ten or even twenty thousand. There was a ten years’ course prescribed for the training of the monks of Clugny: two years’Logicalia, three years’Literæ naturales et philosophicæ, and five years’ Theology.The Council at Tours inA.D.1236 insisted that every priest should have passed through a five years’ course of study.291§ 99.4.The Epochs of Scholasticism.—The intellectual work of the theologians of the Middle Ages during our period ran its course in four epochs, the boundaries of which nearly coincide with the boundaries of the four centuries which make up that period.From the 10th century, almost completely destitute of any scientific movement, the so-calledSæculum obscurum, there sprang forth the first buds of scholarship, without, however, any distinct impress upon them of scholasticism.In the 11th century scholasticism began to show itself, and that in the form of dialectic, both sceptical and dogmatic.In the 12th century mysticism assumed an independent place alongside of dialectic, carried on a war of extermination against the sceptical dialectic, and finally appeared in a more peaceful aspect, contributing material to the positive dogmatic dialectic.In the 13th century dialectic scholasticism gained the complete ascendency, and reached its highest glory in the form of dogmatism in league with mysticism, and never, in the persons of its greatest representatives, in opposition to it.§ 99.5.The Canon Law.—After the Pseudo-Isidore (§ 87, 2) many collections of church laws appeared. They sought to render the material more complete, intentionally or unintentionally enlarging the forgeries and massing together the most contradictory statements without any attempt at comparison or sifting. The most celebrated of these were the collections of bishops Burchard of Worms aboutA.D.1020, Anselm of Lucca, who died inA.D.1086, nephew of the pope of the same name, Alexander II., and Ivo of Chartres, who died inA.D.1116. Then the Camaldolite monkGratianof Bologna undertook not only to gather together the material in a more complete form than had hitherto been done, but also to reconcile contradictory statements by scholastic argumentation. His work appeared aboutA.D.1150 under the titleConcordantia discordantium canonum, and is commonly calledDecretum Gratiani. A great impulse was given to the study of canon law by means of this work, especially at Bologna and Paris. Besides theLegists, who taught the Roman law, there now arose numerousDecretiststeaching the canon law and writing commentaries on Gratian’s work. Gregory IX. had a new collection of Decrees of Councils and Decretals in five books, the so-calledLiber extra Decretum, or shortlyExtraorDecretum Gregorii, drawn up by his confessor and Grand-Penitentiary, the learned Dominican Raimundus [Raimund] de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], and sent it inA.D.1234 to the University of Bologna. Boniface VIII. inA.D.1298 added to this collection in five parts hisLiber Sextus, and Clement V. inA.D.1314 added what are called after him theClementinæ. From that time down toA.D.1483 the decretals of later popes were added as an appendix under the nameExtravagantes, and with these theCorpus juris canoniciwas concluded.An official edition was begun inA.D.1566 by the so-calledCorrectores Romani, which inA.D.1580 received papal sanction as authoritative for all time to come.292§ 99.6. The Schoolmen as such contributed nothing toHistorical Literature. Histories were written not in the halls of the universities but in the cells of the monasteries. Of these there were three kinds as we have already seen in § 90, 9. For workers in the department of Biblical History, see §105, 5; and of Legends of the Saints, §104, 8. For ancient Church History Rufinus and Cassiodorus were the authorities and the common text books (§ 5, 1). An interesting example of the manner in which universal history was treated when mediæval culture had reached its highest point, is afforded by theSpeculum magnum s. quadruplexof the DominicanVincent of Beauvais(Bellovacensis). This treatise was composed about the middle of the 13th century at the command of Louis IX. of France as a hand-book for the instruction of the royal princes. It forms an encyclopædic exposition of all the sciences of that day in four parts,Speculum historiale,naturale,doctrinale, andmorale.TheSpeculum doctrinalebreaks off just at the point where it should have passed over to theology proper, and theSpeculum moraleis a later compilation by an unknown hand.293
§ 99.1.Dialectic and Mysticism.—With the exception of the speculative Scotus Erigena, the Schoolmen of the Carlovingian Age were of a practical turn. This was changed on the introduction of Dialectic in the 11th century. Practical interests gave way to pure love of science, and it was now the aim of scholars to give scientific shape and perfect logical form to the doctrines of the church. The method of thisDialectic Scholasticismconsisted in resolving all church doctrines into their elementary ideas, in the arranging and demonstrating of them under all possible categories and in the repelling of all possible objections of the sceptical reason. The end aimed at was the proof of the reasonableness of the doctrine. This Dialectic, therefore, was not concerned with exegetical investigations or Scripture proof, but rather with rational demonstration. Generally speaking, theological Dialectic attached itself to the ecclesiastical system of the day as positivism or dogmatism; for, appropriating Augustine’sCredo ut intelligam, it made faith the principal starting point of its theological thinking and the raising of faith to knowledge the end toward which it laboured. On the other hand, however, scepticism often made its appearance, taking not faith but doubt as the starting point for its inquiries, with the avowed intention, indeed, of raising faith to knowledge, but only acknowledging as worthy of belief what survived the purifying fire of doubt.—Alongside of this double-edged Dialectic, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in alliance with it, we meet with theMystical Scholasticism, which appealed not to the reason but to the heart, and sought by spiritual contemplation rather than by Dialectic to advance at once theological science and the Christian life. Its object is not Dogmatics as such, not the development ofFides quæ creditur, but life in fellowship with God, the development ofFides qua creditur. By contemplative absorption of the soul into the depth of the Divine life it seeks an immediate vision, experience and enjoyment of the Divine, and as an indispensable condition thereto requires purity of heart, the love of God in the soul and thorough abnegation of self. What is gained by contemplation is made the subject of scientific statement, and thus it rises to speculative mysticism. Both contemplation and speculative mysticism in so far as their scientific procedure is concerned are embraced under the name of scholastic mysticism. The practical endeavour, however, after a deepening and enhancing of the Christian life in the direction of a real and personal fellowship with God was found more important and soon out-distanced the scientific attempt at tabulating and formulating the facts of inner experience. Practical mysticism thus gained the ascendency during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, and formed the favourite pursuit of the numerous inmates of the nunneries (§107).
§ 99.2.The Philosophical Basis of Dialectic Scholasticismwas obtained mainly from the Aristotelian philosophy, which, down to the end of the 12th century, was known at first only from Latin renderings of Arabic and even Hebrew translations, and afterwards from Latin renderings of the Greek originals (§103, 1). Besides Aristotle, however, Plato also had his enthusiastic admirers during the Middle Ages. The study of the writings of Augustine and the Areopagite (§ 90, 7) led back again to him, and the speculative mystics vigorously opposed the supremacy of Aristotle.—At the outset of the philosophical career of scholasticism in the 11th century we meet with the controversy of Anselm and Roscellinus [Roscelin] about the relations of thinking and being or of the idea and the substance of things (§101, 3).The Nominalists, following the principles of the Stoics, maintained that General Notions,Universalia, are mere abstractions of the understanding,Nomina, which as such have no reality outside the human mind,Universaliapostres.The Realists, on the contrary, affirmed the reality of General Notions, regarding them as objective existences before and apart from human thinking. But there were two kinds of realism. The one, based on the Platonic doctrine of ideas, taught that General Notions are really existent before the origin of the several things as archetypes in the Divine reason, and then also in the human mind before the contemplation of the things empirically given,Universaliaanteres. The other, resting on Aristotle’s doctrine, considered them as lying in the things themselves and as first getting entrance into the human mind through experience,Universaliainrebus. The Platonic Realism thought to reach a knowledge of things by pure thought from the ideas latent in the human mind; the Aristotelian, on the other hand, thought to gain a knowledge of things only through experience and thinking upon the things themselves.—Continuation, §103, 1.
§ 99.3.The Nurseries of Scholasticism.—The work previously done in cathedrals and cloister schools was, from about the 12th century, taken up in a more comprehensive and thorough way by theUniversities. They were, as to their origin, independent of church and state, emperor and pope. Here and there famous teachers arose in the larger cities or in connection with some celebrated cloister or cathedral school. Youths from all countries gathered around them. Around the teacher who first attracted attention others gradually grouped themselves. Teachers and scholars organized themselves into a corporation, and thus arose the University. By this, however, we are to understand nothing less than aUniversitas litterarum, where attention was given to the whole circle of the sciences. For a long time there was no thought of a distribution into faculties. When the multitude of teachers and students demanded a distribution into several corporations, this was done according to nations. The name signifies theUniversitas magistrorum et scholariumrather than an articulated whole. The study here pursued was calledStudium generaleoruniversale, because the entrance thereto stood open to every one. At first each university pursued exclusively and in later times chiefly some special department of science. Thus,e.g.theology was prosecuted in Paris and Oxford and subsequently also in Cologne, jurisprudence in Bologna, Medicine in Salerno. The first university that expressly made provision for teaching all sciences was founded at Naples inA.D.1224 with imperial munificence by Frederick II. The earliest attempt at a distribution of the sciences among distinct faculties was occasioned by the struggle between the university of Paris and the mendicant monks (§103, 1), who separated themselves from the other theological teachers and as members of a guild formed themselves inA.D.1259 into a theological faculty. The number of the students, among whom were many of ripe years, was immensely great, and in some of the most celebrated universities reached often to ten or even twenty thousand. There was a ten years’ course prescribed for the training of the monks of Clugny: two years’Logicalia, three years’Literæ naturales et philosophicæ, and five years’ Theology.The Council at Tours inA.D.1236 insisted that every priest should have passed through a five years’ course of study.291
§ 99.4.The Epochs of Scholasticism.—The intellectual work of the theologians of the Middle Ages during our period ran its course in four epochs, the boundaries of which nearly coincide with the boundaries of the four centuries which make up that period.
§ 99.5.The Canon Law.—After the Pseudo-Isidore (§ 87, 2) many collections of church laws appeared. They sought to render the material more complete, intentionally or unintentionally enlarging the forgeries and massing together the most contradictory statements without any attempt at comparison or sifting. The most celebrated of these were the collections of bishops Burchard of Worms aboutA.D.1020, Anselm of Lucca, who died inA.D.1086, nephew of the pope of the same name, Alexander II., and Ivo of Chartres, who died inA.D.1116. Then the Camaldolite monkGratianof Bologna undertook not only to gather together the material in a more complete form than had hitherto been done, but also to reconcile contradictory statements by scholastic argumentation. His work appeared aboutA.D.1150 under the titleConcordantia discordantium canonum, and is commonly calledDecretum Gratiani. A great impulse was given to the study of canon law by means of this work, especially at Bologna and Paris. Besides theLegists, who taught the Roman law, there now arose numerousDecretiststeaching the canon law and writing commentaries on Gratian’s work. Gregory IX. had a new collection of Decrees of Councils and Decretals in five books, the so-calledLiber extra Decretum, or shortlyExtraorDecretum Gregorii, drawn up by his confessor and Grand-Penitentiary, the learned Dominican Raimundus [Raimund] de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], and sent it inA.D.1234 to the University of Bologna. Boniface VIII. inA.D.1298 added to this collection in five parts hisLiber Sextus, and Clement V. inA.D.1314 added what are called after him theClementinæ. From that time down toA.D.1483 the decretals of later popes were added as an appendix under the nameExtravagantes, and with these theCorpus juris canoniciwas concluded.An official edition was begun inA.D.1566 by the so-calledCorrectores Romani, which inA.D.1580 received papal sanction as authoritative for all time to come.292
§ 99.6. The Schoolmen as such contributed nothing toHistorical Literature. Histories were written not in the halls of the universities but in the cells of the monasteries. Of these there were three kinds as we have already seen in § 90, 9. For workers in the department of Biblical History, see §105, 5; and of Legends of the Saints, §104, 8. For ancient Church History Rufinus and Cassiodorus were the authorities and the common text books (§ 5, 1). An interesting example of the manner in which universal history was treated when mediæval culture had reached its highest point, is afforded by theSpeculum magnum s. quadruplexof the DominicanVincent of Beauvais(Bellovacensis). This treatise was composed about the middle of the 13th century at the command of Louis IX. of France as a hand-book for the instruction of the royal princes. It forms an encyclopædic exposition of all the sciences of that day in four parts,Speculum historiale,naturale,doctrinale, andmorale.TheSpeculum doctrinalebreaks off just at the point where it should have passed over to theology proper, and theSpeculum moraleis a later compilation by an unknown hand.293