Albert was certainly one of the most cultivated men of his age ; but yet he was rather a learned man, and a compiler of the works of others, than an original and profound thinker. He wrote commen- taries on most of the works of Aristotle, in which he makes especial use of the Arabian commentators, and blends the notion of the Neoplatonists with those of his author. Logic, metaphysics, theology, and ethics were rather externally cultivated by his labors than effectually improved. With him began those minute and tedious inquiries and disputes respect- ing matter and form, essence and being (Essentia or Quidditas, and li.ndentia, whence subsequently arose tin- further distinction of Esse Essmtiir and /■>- isti nttCB ). Of the universal, lie assumes that it exists parti; in external things and partly in the understand- ing. Rational psychology aud theology are indebted
to him for many excellent hints. The latter science he treated in his Summa Theologies, as well according to the plan of Lombardus as his own. In the former he described the soul as a totam potestativum. His gen- eral relation to theology is thus stated by Neander History of Dogmas (ii, 552): "Albert defines Chris' ! tianity as practical science ; for although it is occupied j with the investigatien of truth, yet it refers every thing to the life of the soul, and shows how man, by the truths it reveals, must be formed to a divine life. ] It treats of God and his works, not in reference to ab- stract truth, but to God as the supreme good, to the salvation of men, to the production of piety in the in- ner and outer man. He also distinguishes various kinds of certainty : the theoretical, which merely re- lates to knowledge (informatio mentis'), and the certain- ty of immediate consciousness (Jnformatio conscientiai). The knowledge obtained by faith is more certain than that derived from other sources ; but we must distin- guish between the fides in for mis and the fides formata ; the first is only a means to knowledge, but the second is an immediate consciousness. Man is attracted by the object of faith just as moral truth leads him to mo- rality. All knowledge and truth come from God, but they are imparted in different ways ; our reason has the capacity to perceive truth, as the eye possesses the faculty of sight. Natural light is one thing, and the light of grace is another. The latter is a higher stage, an assimilation between him who knows rnd the thing known, a participation of the divine life." In his theology he labored to define our rational knowledge of the nature of God, and enlarged upon i the metaphysical idea of him as a necessary Being (in | whom pure Esse and his determinate or qualified na- ture [Seyn und Wesen~\ are identical), endeavoring to develop in this manner his attributes. These inquiries are often mixed up with idle questions and dialectic absurdities, and involve abundant inconsistencies ; as for instance, when he would account for the creation bj' the doctrine of emanation (eausatio univoea), and nevertheless denies the emanation of souls, he in- sists upon the universal intervention of the Deity in the course of nature, and yet asserts the existence of natural causes defining and limiting his operations. In treating of the Trinity, he traced an analogy be- tween the divine and the human as follows: "There is no excellence among the creatures which is not to be found in a much higher style, and as an archetype, in the Creator; among created beings it exists only in foot-marks and images. This is true also of the Trinity. No artistic spirit can accomplish his work without first forming to himself an outline of it. In the spirit, therefore, first of all, the idea of its work is conceived, which is, as it were, the offspring of the spir- it, in even' feature resembling the spirit, representing it in its acting. (Format ex se rationem operis et spe- ciem, qure est sicut proles ipsius intellectus, intellectui agenti similis in quantum agens est.) Thus, there- fore, the spirit reveals himself in the idea of the spirit. Now, from the acting spirit this idea passes into real- ity, and for this purpose the spirit must find a medium in outward action. This medium must be simple, and of the same substance with him who first acted, if in- deed the latter is so simple that being, nature, and activity are one in him. From this results the idea in reference to God, of the formative spirit, of the planned image, and of the spirit by which the image is realized. (Spiritus rector formse.) The creation in time is a revelation of the eternal acting of Cod, the eternal generation of his Son. The revelation of God in time for the sanctification of nature, is an image of the eternal procession of the spirit from the Father and the Son. Our love is only a reflection of the di- vine love ; the archetype of all love is the Holy Spirit, who, like all love, proceeds from God. The one love spread abroad through all holy souls proceeds from the Holy Spirit. (Una caritas diffusa per omnes ani-
ALBERT
133
ALBIGENSES
mas sanctas per spiritum sanctum, ad quam sicut ex- empla omnia dilectio refertur et comparatione illius et assimilatione caritas dici meretur.) Love in God nei- ther diminishes nor increases, but we diminish or in- crease it in ourselves according as we receive this love into our souls, or withdraw from it." With reference to original sin, he taught that mankind were materially embodied in Adam : Omne genus huma- num secundum corpulentam substaniiam in Adamo fuit. He considered conscience to be the highest law of reason, and distinguished the moral disposition (syn- teresis, <rvvriipt]<ne) from its habitual exercise (conscien- tid). All virtue which is acceptable to God is infused bjr him into the hearts of men. His scholars were distinguished by the name of Albertists. His life is given at length in Quetif and Echard, Script. Orel. Prmlicatorum, i, 171. His works, embracing natural and moral science, metaphysics, and theology, are collected and published under the title Optra Alberti Magni qua; haciemts habcri potuerunt, ed. Pet. Jammy (21 vols. fol. Lyons, 1651). Those which relate to theology are the following: 1. Commentaries on dif- ferent Books of Holy Scripture, contained in the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th vols, of the above edition : — 2. Ser- mons for the whole Year anil Saints' Days; Prayers formed upon the Gospels of all the Sundays in the Year ; thirty-two Sermons on the Eucharist, which are usually contained among the works of St.Thomas ; all contained in vols. 11 and 12 : — 3. Commentaries on the tvorks attributed to Dionysius the Areopagile ; also, An Abridgment of Theology, in seven books; contained in vol. 13 :- — 4. Commentaries on the Four Books of the Master of the Sentences, in vols. 14, 15, 16 : — 5. A Sum- mary of Theology, in vols. 17 and 18 : — 6. Summaries of Creatures, in two parts, the second concerning Mart, in vol. 19 : — 7. A Discourse in honor of the Virgin. A special edition of his "Paradisus animce sive libellus de vbrtutibus" with an appendix, containing De sacro Christi Corporis and Lunguinis Sacramento tractatus xxxii, has been published by Bishop Seiler (new edit., Ratisbon, 1864, 16mo).— Neander, Ch. Hist, iv, 421 ; Mosheim, Ch. Hist. cent, xiii, pt. ii, ch. ii, § 44 ; Hau- reau, Philosophic Scholastique, ii, 1-104; Tennemann, Hist. Phil. § 264 ; Neander, Hist, of Dogmas, ii, 542-593 ; Herzog, Real EncyUopddie, i, 203 ; Hoefer, Biog. Gene- rale, i, 590 sq. (where his services to physical science are fully vindicated) ; Joel, Verhiiltniss A Ibert des Grossen zu Maimonides (Breslau, 1863).