MORAL THEOLOGY
676
MORAL THEOLOGY
tioned above, the following are especially worthy of note : Enchiridion ad Laurentium s. de fide, spe et ca- ritnte; JJe fide et operibus ; De vita beata ; Be agone Christiano ; De mendacio ; De bono conjuf)ali ; De sancta viryinilale ; De continerida; De patient ia. Sec, how- ever, the article Aiglstine. Iu tlie further lapse of this period a number of men, partly of the Greek, part- ly of the Latin Church, have rendered service to ethics. Among these is Isidore of Pelusium, whose moral writ- ings breathe the spirit of Chrysostora, and plainly show the love devoted by him to this great master, so influ- ential in the Greek Church. Nilus also must be con- sidered as being in spiritual coiniection with this illus- trious exemplar. Both clothed their ethic definitions, precepts, counsels, and casuistic decisions in epistolary form. Even in the Occident we meet with a disci|)le of the " Gold-mouthed," John Cassian, who was actively engaged in the Pelagian movement by an attempt at mediation, which, however, miscarried. For ethics, not only his De octo capit. vitiis is worthy of mention, but also his Cultationes Putruin, and his twelve books, De institutis coemibiorum. Among the moralistic authors of the Greek Church, the series of the fathers hitherto enu- merated is wortliih- concluded by John the Scholastic, author of that moral-ascetic treatise. Climax Paradisi, and by Anastasius Sinaita, whose writings are mainly of an ascetic description. In the Western Church, Gregory tlie Great closes the period by his Moralia, a work wliich he skilfully introduces by some passages from Job, disseminating many suggestive thoughts, the abundant fruits of which will not escape the attentive observer in subsequent periods of ethic history.
3. Scholastic Peiiud. — The men whom we meet from the beginning of the 7th until the end of the 11th centurj', with few exceptions, made it their main task to collect from the patristic mines all moralistic material, and to distribute and group it under definite rubrics and titles. Among these collectors arclibisliop Isidore of Hispalis deserves first mention. His princi- pal ethical work is Sententiarum s. de siunmo bono libri Hi. The maxims gathered from older fathers treat of virtue and sin in general, the auxiliaries of virtue, and particular duties. The main source from which he draws are Augustine and Gregory the (ircat. In his De Differentiis Spiritualibm also a moralistic tendency predominates, wliile his Symmymu and Soliloquia are entirely pervaded by it. With perspicuity he devel- ops in tlicm etymologically moral ideas, and reduces them to logical connection. He is surpassed, if not in learning, in mental productiveness by the abbot jNIaxi- mus (the Confessor), whose Kt^dAoia on love contain the most profound ideas, and are extremely valuable for scientific ethics. He besides has well deserved by the interpretation of the mj'stic writings of the Areopagita. Maximus enunciates the proposition that the incarna- tion of the Aoyof had to be renewed in us spirituall}' ; the human and divine must penetrate vitally. He distinguishes between tlie law of nature, the writ- ten law, and the law of grace, and attcm[)ts to develop the three elements in tlieir single and in tlieir inter- changing relations. The collections of moral maxims by the Palestinian monk Antiochus in his Pandects of Holy Writ, antl IJeda tlie venerable in his ScintilUe Pu- trum, are surpassed by John of Damascus in his exten- sive work Ta \ipa. This ample collection of materials, surpassing all previous ones as regards com])leteness, is arranged alpliabetically ; the single articles are di- vided into a Biblical and a Patristic part. Also his still more renowned work, "JiKOomf aicpi/j'/e "H' op^ocu£,ov TritTTiw^, contains moral sections, the more significant the higher they stand in a scientific point of view. Al- cuin's writing, De Atrimw Ratione, is allied to Platonic doctrines, as they are stated by Augustine. It descants on virtue in general, and the cardinal virtues and prin- cipal vices. His other work, ])e Virtu te el ]'itiis, is less scientific, and more remarkable for diligence in collect- ing. The thread of ethical writings, without enriching
its particular sphere, was continued through the dark- est times of the Middle Ages by Smaragdus {Via Rer/ia and Diadema Monachoruni), by bishop Hahtgar of Cambray {De J'anitentia libri r), by Jonas, bi^liop of Orleans {Libri Hi de Jnstilutione Laicali and Libri de Lnstitutioiie Jier/ia), by Kabaiuis Maurus {De I'iliis, De L'aiiite/itia, De Lnstitutioiie Cltricorum'), by I'ascharius Kadpertus {Tract, de Fide, Spe et Caritate), by Ilinc- mar {Epp. de Cunendis Vitiis ft Virtut. Exercend.), by Katherius {}[edit. Cordis libri vi), and by Peter Uaroi- ani. The next writer, Anselm of Canterburj', really opens up the most auspicious outlook of the scholastic field. His WTitings, which in greater part belong to the department of morals, indicate a decided advance in a well-cultured spirit ; and there are foreshadowed in them the tendencies of the moralists of the latter part of the Middle Ages, by whom were brought forth those ^ extravagances which successively lield sway in the the- ; ((logical world under the name of mysticism, scholas- ticism, and casuistry. We come here upon Bernard of Clairvaux and Hugo of St. Victor, who were truly the corypha-i of Middle Age ethics, and the leading repre- sentatives of mvsticism (sec Helfferich, Die Chnstl. Mystik [Gotha, i842], i, 349 sq., 430 sq.). Bernard is j sur[)assed by no author in his delineations of the worth and power of love. From him proceeded that passion- ate inspiration which the monastery of St. Victor per- petuated through the Middle Ages, and whicli remains embodied in the Lmitution of Christ. The two pre-em- i inent Christian sentiments, according to liim, are hu- mility and love; both spring from the knowledge of I ourselves. A sense of humiliation is the first exjierience ' when we duly regard ourselves, and this prepares for intensity of love, which in its highest degree is felt only in reference to God. We come next to the great masters of scholastic theological ethics. These are Pe- ter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. Their aim is to harmonize Aristotclianism and Christianity. ; The first completed, in his Mayister Sentmtiarum, the I list of the seven cardinal virtues by adding faith, hope, I and charity to the ancient series of justice, fortitude, I temperance, and wisdom. His scholars, Alexander of Hales and Albert the Great, still further perfected his system. Tliomas's task is to fully develop, in his Sum- ma Theol. pt. ii, the mediaeval pliilosophy of virtue. He makes the intellect the highest principle, and distin- guishes between universal and special ethics, tlie former being that of perfect beings in heaven, the latter that of imperfect beings on earth. This work is by all crit- ics conceded to be the most magnificent of all etliical structures of the Middle Ages. Duns Scotus, in his Qwestiones in iv libb. sentf., opposes the primacy of the will to that of the intellect, and thus introduces a sub- jective element in place of the objective knowledge to which Aquinas has given prominence. Besides these great writers of this period, there are many others who liavc greatly distinguished themselves as contributors to the department of ethics. Among these, above all others of the Christian writers of these times whom we have just passed in review, towers the revered Bonaven- tura, the conciliatoj- of the dialectico-scholastic and mys- tical forms of the ^Middle Age spirit. He commented upon Lombard's writings, and wrote in a scholastic maip ner his Jlnvilixjiiiinn and his Cetitiloquium ; in a mysti- cal tendency he composed his Itinerarium nntitis in De- um, and smaller works. A pretty exhaustive eiiitome of Christian ethics was furnislied by William Perault (Peraldus) in his Siimma de I'irtutibn.t tt ]'iliis. A still richer and more thorough treatise of moral theology came from the pen of the Dominican Antoninus, arch- bishop of Florence, who, after Tliomas, performed the greatest service in this field. He (Userves to stand by the side of Bonaventura, as the authi(r of Smnma Theo- logia in ic paites distributa. Tlie SjHcnhim Monde of Vincenee of Beauvais stands in intimate relation to Thomas's writings, many regarding Thomas as its au- thor even, because of the similarity to the Sccunda Se-