II. The Middle Age (seventh century to the Refor- mation).— In this period we find little to note for the first four centuries. In the Dark Ages, the public mind and thought were nominally Christian, or, at least, were not sufficiently educated to admit of doubts that might create a demand for apoloj;etic;il works. The external conflict now was only with Judaism and Mohammedanism. Against the Jews, Agobard (f 840) wrote his treatise De Insolentia Juekeorum ; at a later period Gislebert, or Gilbert, of Westminster (f 1117), wrote Disp. Judei cum Christiano de fide Christiana, in Anselmi Opera; Abelard (f 1142), Dialogus inter Philos. Jndieum et Christ ianum (Rheinwald, Anecdota, Berlin, 1835, t. i). Against the Mohammedans, Eu- thymius Zigabenus (t 1118). Panoplia (in Sylburgii Saracenicis, Heidelli. 1595); Richardi Covfitatio (1210, edited by Bibliander) ; Raimund Martini (f 1286), Pugio Fidei; Peter of Clugny, Ade. Nefand. Sectam Sarazenorum (Martene, Monumenta, ix). See Ilagen- bach, Hist, of Doctrines, § 144 ; Farrar, Critical History of Free Thought, p. 387 sq. In the ninth century, Sco- tus Eri^cna (f 875) treated of the relations of revela- tion and philosophy in his De Divisume Xaturas (ed. by Gale, 1681, Oxford, and again in 1838, Munster) ; but the seeds of Pantheism lay in his teaching. The strife between Nominalism and Realism in the 11th century led to a more thorough discussion of fundamental prin- ciples as to the relations between faith and reason, and between God and nature; and the orthodox theo- logians, especially Anselm of Canterbury (f 1109), as- serted as a fundamental axiom the precept of St. Au- gustine, non epurro inteiligere, ut credam, sed credo, ut intelligam. Aquinas's De veritate fidei contra Gentiles was directed against the Jews and Mohammedans. Abelard, having given to reason a greater share in his arguments, and gone so far as to point out the contra- dictions contained in the fathers, was persecuted by the church, although he did not, in principle, differ from the scholastics. As to the grounds of Christian- ity, he distinguished between credere, inteiligere, and cognoscere ; "through doubt we come to inquiry, by inquiry to truth ;" in this anticipating Descartes. Ber- nard of Clairvaux held that Abelard's rationalism was in contradiction not only with faith, but also with rea- son. The newly- learned system of Aristotle began, in the Middle Age, to be applied to the sciences, and
among them to theology. Alexander de Hales (f 1245) was the first to give regular theological prolegome- na, in which he considered the question whether the- ology can properly be called a science, and how it is contained in the Bible ; he ascribed to it experi- mental, not speculative certainty. The same line was followed by Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aqui- nas, and Duns Scotus. The latter recognises eh:ht grounds of certainty : pronunciatio prophetica, scrip- turarum Concordia, auctoritas scribentium, diligentia reci- pientium, rationabilitas contentorum, irrationabilitas sin- gulorum errorum, ecclesice stabilitas, and miraculorum claritas. Among the. later scholastics we find Durand de St. Pourcain (f 1336) ; Gerson, who wrote against the Hussites his ProposiHones de sensu literati S. Scr. et de causis errantium ; Raymond de Sabunde (f 1434), who, in his Liber creaturarum sen theolcgia naturalis, and Viola animal (often reprinted, as, for instance, at Lyons, 1648, Svo), asserted that the love of God is the highest knowledge. The controversy with the Moslems produced in the 14th century John Cantacu- zenus (f 1375), Orationes et assertiones pro fide Christi- ana contra Saracenos et Alcoranum (ed. Rob. Gualter, Basil, 1543, fol.). In the Western Church more im- portant works appeared, such as Nicholas de Cusa's Cribratio Alcorani, in which he sought to prove the divinity of Christ by the Koran itself, and Zelus Christi contra Judceos, Saraeenos, et Infideles, written about 1450 by the Spaniard Petrus de Cavalleria. About the same time appeared a system of Christian philos- ophy due to the thought of the Middle Age, and which we find already foreshadowed in Anselm and Hugo de St. Victor. Its principal object was to establish the relation and differences between faith and reason, as well as to reconcile them. In the first rank of these, so to say, philosophical apologies, we find the De Chris- tiana religione et fidei pietate (Paris, 1641) of Marsilius Ficinus (f 1499), in which the same views originally advanced by Thomas Aquinas in De veritate Catholicce fidei contra Gentiles are easily recognised. To the same class belong the Triumjhus cruets seu de veritate religionis Christiana; of Savonarola (f 1498), and the Solatium itineris inei of the same author. A sentence we find in his works may be considered as the distin- guishing principle of that whole school of philosoph- ical apologists: gratia prwsupponit naturam (Pelt, The- ologische Eneyklopddie, § 65).
III. From the Reformation to the Present Time. — The era of modern speculation followed the discovery of printing, the revival of letters, and the Reforma- tion. Europe was filled with a spirit of restless inqui- ry. The Romish corruptions of Christianity led many to doubt Christianity itself. Leo X, himself a sceptic, fortified the pride of letters and of freethinkinir. Cul- tivated men seemed likely, on the one hand, to go back to classical paganism, or, on the other, to fall into philosophical pantheism. In the early times of the Reformation the difficulties in the church itself en- grossed the attention of the Christian writers. But soon after apologetics received a new impulse from the spirit of free inquiry which became so general. The fundamental questions of Christianity were again ex- amined. This is the time when appeared the clear and comprehensive De veritate Religionis Christiana (1543) of the Spaniard Ludovicus Vives (f 1540). Among the Protestants, the evidence derived from the Testimonium Sp. Sancti internum led to a new class of arguments, which we find in Philippe de Mornay du Plessis's Traite de la verite de la Religion ChrMienme (1567, 1651 ; and a Latin trans, by Breithaupt, Jena, 1698, 4to), and Hugo Grotius's De veritate Religionis Christianm (1627, etc. ; last edit. Amsterdam, 1831). Among Roman Catholic apologists wc notice Mclchior Canus (f 1560), whose Loci Tkeologici is more a work on theological logic th*an dogmatics ; it enumerates the different grounds of evidence recognised by his church. The differences between the Lutheran and