immutabilis munitur, nullius auctorltatis adstipulatione roboi-ari indiget.''-^ His philosophy as developed in his work, " De Divisi- one Naturae," is purely pantheistic. There is with him but one being, and everything real is thought. His system, therefore, is nearly identical with the idealistic pantheism of Hegel ; yet he had his trinitarianism, his soteriology, and his eschatology, as a theolo- gian.
The Second Class.
The second and more numerous class of the mediseval theolo- gians took the ground that faith in matters of religion precedes science ; that truths are revealed to us supernaturally by the Spirit of God, which truths are to be received on the authority of the Scriptures and the testimony of the Church. But being believed, then we should endeavor to comprehend and to prove them ; so that our conviction of their truth should rest on rational grounds. It is very evident that everything depends on the spirit with which this principle is applied, and on the extent to which it is carried. In the hands of many of the schoolmen, as of the Fathers, it was merely a form of rationalism. Many taught that while Christian- ity was to be received by the people on authority as a matter of faith, it was to be received by the cultivated as a matter of knowl- edge. The human was substituted for the divine, the authority of reason for the testimony of God. With the better class of the schoolmen the principle in question was held with many limitations. Anselm, for example, taught : (1.) That holiness of heart is the essential condition of true knowledge. It is only so far as the truths of religion enter into our pei'sonal experience, that we are able properly to apprehend them. Faith, therefore, as including spirit- ual discernment, must precede all true knowledge. " Qui secun- dum carnem vivit, carnalis sive animalis est, de quo dicitur : ani-
malis homo non percipit ea, quae sunt Spiritus Dei Qui
non crediderit, non intelliget, nam qui non credidei'it, non expe- rietur, et qui expertus non fuerit, non intelliget." ^ " Neque enim' quaero intelligere, ut credam, sed credo, ut intelligam. Nam et hoc credo, quia, nisi credidero, non intelligam." ^ (2.) He held that rational proof was not needed as a help to faith. It was as absurd, he said, for us to presume to add authority to the testi- mony of God by our reasoning, as for a man to prop up Olympus. (3.) He taugiit that there are doctrines of revelation which tran- scend our reason, which we cannot rationally pretend to compre-
1 De Div. Nut., i. 69 f., Migue, ut supra, p. 513, b.
* De Fide Trinitatis, 2; Ojjera, Paris, 1721, p. 42, B, b, O.
• Proslogium, i.; Ihid. p. 30, B, a.
76 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. IV. — Mysticism.
hend or prove, and which are to be received on the simple testi- mony of God. " Nam Christianus per fidem debet ad intellectum proficere, non per intellectum ad fidem accedere, aut si intelligere non valet, a fide recedere. Sed cum ad intellectum valet pertin- gere, delectatur, cum vero nequit, quod capere non potest, vene- ratur." ^
A third class of the schoolmen, while professing to adhere to the doctrines of the Church, consciously or unconsciously, explained them away.
B. Mediceval Mystics.
Mystics were to be found in all these classes, and therefore they have been divided, as by Dr. Shedd,^ into the heretical, the ortho- dox, and an intermediate class, which he designates as latitudina- rian. Much to the same effect, Neudecker,^ classifies them as The- osophist. Evangelical, and Separatist. Ullmann * makes a somewhat different classification. The characteristic common to these classes, which differed so much from each other, was not that in all there was a protest of the heart against the head, of the feelings against the intellect, a reaction against the subtleties of the scholastic the- ologians, for some of the leading Mystics were among the most subtle dialecticians. Nor was it a common adherence to the Platonic as opposed to the Aristotelian philosophy, or to realism as op- posed to nominalism. But it was the belief, that oneness with God was the great end to be desired and pursued, and that that union was to be sought, not so much tlirough the truth, or the Church, or ordinances, or Christian fellowship ; but by introspec- tion, meditation, intuition. As veiy different views were enter- tained of the nature of the " oneness with God," which was to be sought, so the Mystics differed greatly from each other. Some were extreme pantheists ; others were devout theists and Chris- tians. From its essential nature, however, the tendency of Mys- ticism was to pantheism. And accordingly undisguised pantheism Was not only taught by some of the most prominent Mystics, but prevailed extensively among the people.
Pantheistic tendency of Mysticism. It has already been remarked, that the system of the pseudo- Dionysius, as presented in his " Mystical Theology " and other writ- ings, was essentially pantheistic. Those writings wei'e translated
1 EpistolcB, lib. ii. epis. 41 ; Opera, Paris, 1721, p. 357, B, a.
2 History of Christian Doctrine, vol. i. p. 79.
3 Lexicon, art. "Mystik." * Reformers be/ore the Reformation.