§ 108. THOMAS AQUINAS. 663
confinement in studying the Bible, the Sentences of the Lom bard, and the works of Aristotle.
We next find him in Cologne under Albertus Magnus. That great Schoolman, recognizing the genius of his pupil, is reported to have said, " He will make such a roaring in theology that he will be heard through all the earth." 1 He accompanied Albertus to Paris and in 1248 returned to Co logne as teacher. He again went to Paris and won the doc tor's degree. William de St. Amour's attack upon the monastic orders drew from him a defence as it also did from Bonaventura. Thomas was called to Anagni to represent the case of the orders. His address called forth the commenda tion of Alexander IV., who, in a letter to the chancellor of the University of Paris, spoke of Thomas as a man conspicuous by his virtues and of encyclopaedic learning. In 1261, Thomas left the teacher's chair in Paris and taught successively in Bologna, Rome, and other Italian cities. Urban IV. and Clement IV. honored him with their confidence. The years 1272-1274 he spent at Naples. He died on his way to the oecumenical coun cil of Lyons, March 7, 1274, only forty-eight years of age, in the Cistercian convent of Fossa Nuova near Terracina. Dante and Villani report he was poisoned by order of Charles of Anjou, but the earliest accounts know nothing of this. The great teacher's body was taken to Toulouse, except the right arm which was sent to the Dominican house of Saint Jacques, Paris, whence, at a later date, it was removed to Rome.
The genuine writings of Thomas Aquinas number more than sixty, and fall into four classes. The philosophical works are commentaries on Aristotle's Ethics, Metaphysics, Politics, and other treatises. His exegetical works include commentaries on Job, the first fifty-one Psalms, Canticles, Isaiah, the Lamentations, the Gospels, and the Epistles of Paul. The exposition of the Gospels, known as the Gol den Chain, — aurea catena? — consists of excerpts from the
1 William of Thoco, ipse talem dabit in doctrina mugitum quod in toto mundo sonabit.
2 This title was given to the work after Thomas' death. Thomas, in his dedication to Urban IV., calls it expositio continua. The Catena is so con-
664 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1040-1294.
Fathers. A number of Thomas' sermons are also extant. The apologetic works are of more importance. The chief among them are works design ed to convince the Mohammedans and other unbelievers,1 and to promote the union of the Greeks and Latins, and a treatise against the disciples of Averrhoes.2
Thomas' works on dogmatic theology and ethics are the most important of his writings. The earliest was a commen tary on the Sentences of Peter the Lombard. Here belong Expositions of the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the the decalogue, the Angelic salutation, and the sacraments. Thomas gave his first independent systematic treatment of the entire realm of theology in his Compendium tJieologice. The subject was presented under the heads of the three car dinal virtues, — faith, hope, and charity. His master- work is his Summa tlieologica which he did not live to finish and which is supplemented by compilations from the author's commen tary on the Lombard. Thomas also made important contri butions to the liturgy and to hymnology. In 1264, at the request of Urban IV., he prepared the office for the festival of Corpus Cliristi, in which were incorporated the Pange lingua, Lauda Sion, and other hymns.3
With Augustine and John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas shares the distinction of being one of the three master theological minds of the Western world. What John of Damascus did for the theology of the Greek Church, that Thomas did for the theology of the mediseval Church. He gave to it its most perfect form. His commanding eminence rests upon his clearness of method and his well-balanced judgment
trived that it reads like a running commentary, the several extracts being dovetailed together. The compiler introduced nothing of his own but connecting particles. See Preface to Oxford ed., p. iv.
1 Summa de veritate Catholicce fidei contra Gentiles. The first three books include the arguments from reason, the fourth the argument from rev elation.
2 Contra errores Grcecorum and de imitate intellectus contra Averrhoistas.
3 See Koch, Kirchenlied, I. 137; Wackernagel, Kirchenlied, t 143 sqq.; Werner, I. 791 sqq.