When, in the first decades of the thirteenth century, the Greek text of
Aristotle was introduced into the schools and the Christian
philosophers began to compose commentaries on the Latin translations
made from it, the followers of the Arabian commentators commenced to
give a more decidedly Anti-Christian direction to their interpretation
of Aristotle. In this way there sprang up two hostile schools of
Aristotelianism, -- the orthodox Aristotelianism of the schoolmen and
the heterodox Aristotelianism of the Averroists. The unity of the
active intellect, the immortality of the individual soul, the freedom
of the will, and the question of fatalism were some of the points on
which the schoolmen and the Averroists differed in their interpretation
of the philosopher. But the most characteristic doctrine of the
Averroists, a doctrine which involved the denial of the most vital
principle of Scholasticism, was that what is true in philosophy may
be false in theology, and vice versa.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century Averroism appeared in the
University of Paris, and was made the subject of several ecclesiastical
inquiries and condemnations. Its chief representatives were Siger of
Brabant [1] (died 1282 or 1288), Boetius the Daclan, and
Bernier of Nivelles.
[1] Cf. Baeumker, Die Impossibilia des Siger von Brabant
(München, 1898); Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et
l'Averroïsme latin au XIIIme
Siècle (Fribourg Suisse, 1899); Archiv f. Gesch. d.
Phil., 1899, p. 74.
Among the opponents of Averroism are to be reckoned the great
schoolmen, who, like Albert and St. Thomas, composed treatises for the
express purpose of refuting the doctrines of the Averroists, and
controversialists, like Raymond Lully, who undertook an
extensive campaign against the errors of the Arabians.
RAYMOND LULLY
Life. Raymond Lully, Doctor Illuminatus, is in some
respects one of the most remarkable figures in the history of mediaeval
philosophy. His whole life was dominated by the idea of converting the
Moorish world to Christianity. This he hoped to accomplish by the
preaching of the gospel, by the refutation of the errors of the
Arabians, and by the scientific demonstration of the revealed truths of
the Christian religion. He was an apostle, a controversialist, and a
theosophist. He was also an inventor, having contrived, among other
things, a logical machine by means of which he hoped to prove all
truth.
Raymond was born at Majorca in 1234 or 1235. After spending some years
at the court of Aragon, he entered the order of St. Francis [2] and
devoted the remainder of his life to the conversion of the Moors. He
was stoned by the Mussulmans at Tunis in 1315.
[2] A different account is given by Figuier, op. cit., pp. 256
ff.
Sources. Raymond's works occupy eleven folio volumes in the
Mainz edition (1721-1742). The most important of his treatises, Ars
Brevis, Duodecim Principia Philosophiae, and Ars Magna, were
published at Strasburg in 1651.
DOCTRINES
Raymond's theosophy appears in the doctrine that all truths,
including the mysteries of faith, are demonstrable by human reason. The
doctrine, however, is not to be understood in the rationalistic sense:
for Raymond maintains that reason, in order to attain the highest
truths, must be aided by faith:
Et sicut voluntas non posset amare objectum primum sine charitate, sic
intellectus non potest intelligere primum objectum sine fide. [3]
Qui bene scit cognoscere et intelligere res quae consistunt in
intellectu et sensibiles, optime potest intelligere et cognoscere si
voluerit, quod sicut esset dissonum rationi quod tres Dii essent, sic
esset dissonum quod tres persona divinae non essent. [4]
[3] Ars Magna, P. IX, C. 63; Strasburg edition, p. 455.
[4] Liber Contemplationis, I, Dist. V, Q. II.
The logical machine which Raymond invented seems to have been contrived
and constructed on the principle that not only are ideas
representations of realities but the combinations of ideas are
representations of the truth existing in real things. The machine was
made up of letters, which symbolized the elements of thought, and of
different geometrical figures, such as circles, squares, triangles,
etc., along which the letters could be moved so as to form different
combinations, each resultant combination representing a conclusion and
each process of movement representing a proof. It is possible that
Raymond was led to the idea of constructing a logical machine by his
study of the cabalistic philosophy of the Jews. He frequently expresses
his great admiration for what he calls the superabundans
sapientia, the mystic doctrine of Jewish philosophy:
Est igitur Kabbala habitus animae rationalis ex recta ratione divinarum
rerum cognitivus; propter quod est de maximo etiam divino, consequutive
divina scientia vocari debet. [5]
[5] De Auditu Kabbalistico, Prol., Strasburg edition, p. 44.
Historical Position. Raymond's contemporaries did not agree as
to the value of his contributions to philosophy and theology. Some
regarded him not only as orthodox in his teaching but as specially
illumined from on high -- Doctor Illuminatus: they commented on his
works, and provided for the foundation of special chairs to perpetuate
his doctrines in the universities of Barcelona and Valencia. Others, on
the contrary, so vehemently denounced his teachings as heterodox that
the inquisitor of Aragon was instructed to draw up a list of
propositions from the writings of Raymond and forward it to Rome. It is
uncertain whether the propositions were formally condemned: it is,
however, generally admitted that, were it not for the savor of
heterodoxy attaching to his doctrines, Raymond would have been
canonized.
Retrospect. Before passing to the fourth period of Scholastic
philosophy, let us look back at the period which we have just studied.
It is the Golden Age of Scholasticism. During the thirteenth century
Christian revelation and scientific knowledge were harmonized in the
great synthetic systems of Christian philosophy; the dogmatic doctrines
of the Patristic period were welded into a more consistent body of
theological speculation; the whole range of human knowledge was
surveyed, and whatever was found to be true was given its proper place
in systems of constructive thought. It was an age of vast creative
enterprises in the world of speculation. It was an age on which the
Christian philosopher and the Christian historian who have begun to
understand it love to dwell. They realize that it was not a dark age
but an age of enlightened faith, which more than any other understood
the paramount importance of the supernatural element in life, and
which, while it gave to reason its legitimate rights, was more willing
than any other age to give unto God the things that are God's. During
the thirteenth century the Church triumphed in Italy in the temporary
rule of her Visible Head: she triumphed throughout the Holy Roman
Empire in the acknowledgment which emperors made of their dependence on
the Holy See; [6] but it was in the Christian schools of Europe, and
especially of France, that she achieved a still more honorable triumph,
in the recognition of the true value of theological science and in the
universal acknowledgment of the principle that there can exist no
contradiction between the data of revelation and the truths which human
reason discovers. Soon all this was to he changed; the struggles with
the Empire, the exile to Avignon, and the western schism were to
disrupt the external harmony in which sanctity and learning
had thriven, while the growing influence of the Averroists and the
decay of Scholasticism were to bring about the final dissolution of
Scholastic philosophy by establishing the maxim that what is true in
philosophy may be false in theology.
[6] Cf. Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire générale,
etc., II, 279-291, and III, 312.
The thirteenth century was an age of men rather than of schools: it was
dominated by the personality of the great masters of Scholasticism. It
was an age of great intellectual activity. There was not, as is
sometimes asserted, merely one school, and that an uninvitingly
orthodox one. The unanimity with which the greatest of the schoolmen
advocated the fundamental principles of Scholasticism was compatible
with a considerable degree of variety as to the details of method and
doctrine. Roger Bacon and Albert the Great advocated the use of
observation and experiment, and sought to introduce a reform in
scientific method; St. Thomas refuted pantheism, innatism, and other
errors, and gave a positive development to Aristotelian philosophy; St.
Bonaventure formulated a system of Christian mysticism which was
destined to become the inspiration of the orthodox mystics of later
times; Henry of Ghent furnished arguments for the refutation of
scepticism and developed the exemplarism of St. Augustine; and Scotus
inaugurated an age of criticism and formulated a system of voluntarism
which should have stimulated the later Scholastics to enlarge and
strengthen the philosophical synthesis of Scholasticism in presence of
the dangers which were soon to threaten it. Indeed, it is only the
superficial student of the thirteenth century who can fail to recognize
that it was a period of immense intellectual activity.