IX of France used to ask his advice in affairs of state. On one occasion he invited him against his will to dinner, when he was occupied with a very difficult in- quiry. During the meal he became quite abstracted, and all at once cried out, 'Now at last I have found it!' His prior reminded him that he Avas seated at the king's table; but the king immediately allowed a secretary to come and write down his thoughts. Aquinas was distinguished among the schoolmen for clearness of development, and the harmony between his thoughts and their expression" (Neandcr, Hist, of Dogmas, ii, 543). "In the year 1274 Pope Gregory
X called him to attend the Council of Lyons, in order that he might read to the assembly the book which he had composed, at the command of Pope Urban, against the claims ofthe Greek Church ; but ho was taken ill and died on the way, near Terracino, March 7, 1274. lie was canonized in 1323 by John XXII, and the rank of fifth Doctor of the Church was assigned to him. His writings at once assumed, and have con-
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tinued to maintain, an immense authority ; the popes have repeatedly declared his works to he perfect, with- out any error (Landon, Eccl. Diet, i, 475).
Of his theological writings, the most famous is his " Summa Theologi^'' (best ed. Antwerp, 1G75, 3 vols. 4to), which is still a favorite authority in the Catholic Church. The Summa Theologke is one of the grandest attempts at a complete science of theology ever planned by a human intellect ; and, as such, it deserves here a brief analysis, which we give from Hardwick (Ch. Hist, of the Middle Age, 1853, 8vo). The Summa is divided into three great parts : (1) the Natural, (2) the Moral, (3) the Sacramental. In the first of these the writer ascertains the nature and the limits of theology, which he esteems a proper science, based upon a supernatu- ral revelation, the contents of which, though far tran- scending all the powers of human thought, are, when communicated, subjects for devout inquiry, and ad- mit of argumentative defence. Accordingly, the writ- er next discusses the existence and the attributes of God, endeavoring to elucidate the nature of his will, his providence, the ground of his predestination, and the constitution of the blessed Trinity in unity — a doctrine which, although he deems it incapable of it, prion demonstration, finds an echo and a counterpart in man. Descending from the cause to the effects, he analyzes the constituent parts of the creation, an- gels, the material world, and men, enlarging more es- pecially upon the functions of the human soul, its close relation to the body, and the state of both before the fall. The second part is subdivided into the Prima Secunda} and the Secunda Secund;?. The former car- ries on the general subject, viewing men no longer from the heavenly, but the earthly side, as moral and responsible agents gifted with a vast complexity of passions, sentiments, and faculties. The way in which these powers would naturally operate, if acting by themselves, is first considered, and the author then proceeds to show how they are modified by supernat- ural agencies or coexistent gifts of grace. This leads him to compare the state or position of mankind in reference to the systems (or economies) in grace and nature, and, as the immediate consequence, to treat of our original righteousness, free-will, original sin, justification, and the original rules of life. In the Secunda Secunda?, the several virtues are discussed in turn, as they exist under the operation of divine grace, or that of nature only. They are seven in number. Three of them are "theological," or super- naturally infused and nourished — viz., faith, hope, and love — while the remainder are the four cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance, and are "ethical," or purely human. The discussion of these virtues forms an admirable work on Christian morals. The third part of the Summa is devoted to an exposition of the mysteries of the Incarnation, and the efficacy of the sacraments — a class of topics which, according to the principles of all the mediaeval writ- ers, are essentially akin. Aquinas traces ever}' su- pernatural influence to the Person of the Word made flesh, who, by the union of our nature with the God- head, has become the Reconstructor of humanity and the Dispenser of new life. This life, together with the aliment by which it is sustained, descends to man through certain outward media, or the sacramental ordinances of the church ; their number being seven, viz., Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penitence, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. In the last division of the work, which develops "the com- plex philosophy of expiation, under the representations of it contained in the doctrines and ritual of the Church of Rome," and in which the Aristotelian philosophy is made to justify all the traditional teachings of that church, we find the grounds of the mighty influence of Aquinas in determining the scientific form of cer- tain doctrines which afterward threatened to obtain I ascendency in all the Western churches. |
But with all the learning, the piety, and the dialectic skill of Aquinas, he did not avoid the puerilities of the so-called scholastic spirit." Some of the questions treat- ed in the Summa are trifling, others scandalous ; e. g. Quare Christus non assumpsit famineum sexum, and oth- ers even worse.