The Summa was written at the command of Pope In- nocent IV, and enjoined by his successor, Alexander IV, to be used by all professors and students of theol- ogy in Christendom. Alexander gave the doctrines of the Church a more rigorously syllogistic form than they had previously had, and may thus be considered as the author of the scholastic theology. He answer- ed the question whether theology is a science in the following manner : he made a distinction in the appli- cation of the idea of science ; science relates either to the completion of the knowledge of truth (in which case it has to do with knowledge as such — that is, the- oretical) ; or the knowledge relates to religious expe- rience, and of the latter kind is theological knowledge. This knowledge can only proceed from the disposition. Theology demands the human soul, since it rouses the affections, the tendencies of the disposition, by the principles of goodness, the fear of God, and love. The relation of knowledge to faith is therefore the reverse of what it is in the other sciences, since theology first of all produces faith, and, after the soul has been puri- fied through faith working by love, the result is the understanding of theology. In logical science, on the contrary, rational knowledge produces faith. If the former have produced faith, then the internal grounds for such conviction will appear. Faith is then the light of the soul ; and the more any one is enlighten- ed by this light, so much more will he apprehend* the reasons by which his faith is proved. There is, in- deed, a faith which does not rise so high as knowledge, which satisfies itself witli probabilities; but Christian faith is different. It proceeds from experience, ap- peals to the revelation of the highest truths, and hence stands above all knowledge (Neander, History of Doymas, ii, 550). As to our knowledge of God, Alex- ander taught that " the idea of God is a habitus natu- raliter impressus primie reritatis, and is founded on the connection subsisting between eternal truth and the moral nature of man. But we must distinguish be- tween a coguitio in habitu and in actv. The habitual lies at the basis of human consciousness ; the actual is the developed idea. In reference to the former, the idea of God is undeniable ; in reference to the second, a twofold tendency of the soul is possible — in proportion as it either turns to the revelation of the highest truth,
or allows worldliness and the lower powers of the soul to govern it. In the latter case, the consciousness of God may be wanting, and the fool will say, There is no God." He distinguishes also between the idea of God in general (ratio communis) and the particular ap- plication of it {ratio propria). "The former is true
; even in idolatry, for that testifies of an idea of God as its foundation, though the application of it is errone- ous." As to grace, he "defines the gratia gratis date
| as the gift which is communicated to rational crea-
, tures, in order to make them capable, as far as de- pends on this gift, to labor for the eternal salvation and improvement of others. It is the more remote preparation for salvation, mere dead faith, knowledge without life. Through the gratia g rat inn facie ns sal- vation itself is added." He "supposed man to be created first in his puris naiuralibus, and then the higher development of nature follows by the informa- tio per gratiam. According to this view man needed grace from the beginning, but it was to be attained by the determination of his will. The original relation of the latter to nature is distinguished from the pres- ent in this respect, that it required grace only for its higher culture, not for its transformation. Man, in relation to grace, was informis negative, without the higher form of life, but not informis privative, as he was after the Fall. Hence gratia is informans, not refur- mans" (Neander, Hist, of Dogmas, ii, 574, 587). In ecclesiastical matters he advocates the strongest pa- pal doctrines, being especially in favor of the prerog- atives of the papacy. He refuses any toleration to
i heretics, and would have them deprived of all prop- erty ; he absolves subjects from all obligations to obey a prince that is not obedient to the Church. The spiritual power, which blesses and consecrates kings, is, by that very fact, above all temporal powers, to say nothing of the essential dignity of its nature. It has the right to appoint and to judge th"se powers, while the pope has no judge but God. In ecclesiastical affairs also he maintains the pope's authority to be full, absolute, and superior to all laws and customs. The points on which Alexander exercises his dialec- tics are sometimes simply ludicrous ; as when he dis- cusses the question whether a mouse that should nib- Lie a consecrated wafer would thereby eat the body of Christ. He arrives at the conclusion that it would. He thinks Adam died at three o'clock, because that was the hour of Christ's death. — Neander, Ch. Hist. vol. iv. 420 et al. ; Gieseler, Ch. Hist. vol. iii, 324, 358 ; Cave, Hist. Lit. ann. 1230; Haureau, Philosophie Scho* last! que, ch. xv.