The influence which Aristotle exerted in this form, was decidedly injurious. But after a just discrimination was observed between his own writings and the numerous glosses of his Arabian translators, this unfavorable prejudice faded from his name, and he began to exercise unlimited influence.

The mendicant orders of Europe aided powerfully in placing Aristotle upon an undisputed throne. All these orders espoused the cause either of Aristotle or his great teacher and rival, Plato. The doctors of the schools, of course, enlisted in behalf either of one or the other, and thus they were borne forward by the combined influence of conviction and rivalry. While Aquinas flourished he silenced every scruple against Aristotle. Yet the Scholastics did not possess a clear idea of his doctrines, as is apparent from their conflicting interpretations of him. They sometimes united with his system, some of the doctrines of the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria. Their metaphysics were injurious to their Theology. Accordingly some of them were censured by the Holy See as heretical. This was the fate of Roscelin, Lombard, Abelard and Occam.

By this union of philosophy and theology, these writers may be said to have invested the doctrines of the Scriptures with an impenetrable wrappage of dialectical quibbling, so that the truth could not be discerned amid its interminable folds. Besides, their discussions had assumed the form, in many cases, of theological trifling. They possessed a one-sided subjectivism, without any practical development or tendency, nor proceeding forth in any objective direction. It was time to tear from this theology, the mask which it had so long worn, and stamp upon it its real character of sanctimonious trifling, into which it had hopelessly degenerated. For atheistic and heterodox opinions were beginning to prevail among them. The Nominalists were charged with reducing the persons of the Trinity to modal distinctions. The Realists incurred the accusation of using terms betokening a tritheism. Their erratic adventures were beginning to lead to those extravagances which usually result from a morbid rationalism.

Nevertheless, Papal authority moulded the Scholastic Theology, to a considerable extent, during its whole career. Most of these writers were able champions of the hierarchy, and subservient to its interests. Their acute understandings humbly submitted to the authority of the successors of St. Peter; and as they must needs maintain some system, they selected that one to which interest and ambition allured them. Thus, for instance, in reference to that absurdest of all dogmas, heathen, Mohammedan or Christian, transubstantiation, Scotus himself affirms :-"That which chiefly sways me is, that we must maintain concerning the sacraments as the holy Church of Rome maintains. But she now holds, that the bread becomes the body, and the wine, the blood of

Christ; therefore, we firmly believe it." Whenever the free opinions of enlightened reason are prohibited, erroneous views and dark superstitions will infest religion. It is only necessary that reason should be guided, not fettered, in order to produce the most desirable results. No one who attempts to discuss the doctrines of the Bible under Romish auspices and influence, can expect to escape the contagions of that superstition, which thoroughly infests the whole establishment, and will thus wander afar into the gloomy regions of error and delusion.

Whatever ser

Such eventually was the fate of Scholasticism. vices it might have rendered, in developing truth, and urging on the revival of literature throughout Europe, it failed to accomplish such an illustrious task. No fruits of great and permanent value were produced by it. The uplifted arm of papal authority hovered over the heads of learned and able men, constantly threatening to descend with obliterating fury on any adventurous Doctor who should adventure a dogma which the Church had not approved. Thus Scholasticism identified itself with Romanism. It flourished, therefore, while the tiara soared in its supremacy, but has shared the declining fortunes and increasing contempt of its memorable patron.

The characteristic language of Carlyle is appropriate in this connection. Says he :-"Consider the old Schoolmen and their pilgrimage toward truth-the faithfulest endeavor, incessant, unwearied motion, often great natural vigor, only no progress; nothing but antic feats of one limb poised against the other. There they balanced, somersetted, made postures; at best, gyrated swiftly, with some pleasure, like spinning Dervishes, and ended where they began. The Irrefragable Doctor, with his chains of induction, his corollaries, dilemmas, and other cunning logical diagrams and apparatus, will cast you a beautiful horoscope, and speak reasonable things; nevertheless, your stolen jewel, which you wanted him to find, is not forthcoming. Often by some winged word, winged as a thunderbolt, as of a Luther, a Napoleon, a Göthe, shall we see the difficulty split asunder, and its secret laid bare; while the Irrefragable, with all his logical tools, hews at it, and hovers round it, and finds it on all hands too hard for him." The truth is, the Papal court, with all its indices expurgatorii, its preventions, its circumvallations, its fearful caveats, its mysterious tribunals, its terrific bulls, and its threats of excommunication and infernal curses, had effectually obstructed the free endeavors of the mind, and successfully baffled its manly struggles after truth.

There were several favorable features connected with the Scholastic Theologians which deserve attention. They excited, to some degree, a literary spirit throughout the dreary waste of the Middle Ages. They fostered a degree of mental activity which would otherwise have not existed to break the universal lethargy. No

change, it would seem, could have been for the worse at that period; for the human intellect had generally sunk into the last abyss of ignorance. Rather than perfect darkness, a few glimmering rays are preferable. Rather than fatal slumbers, it is better to awake, though it be in bewilderment. The rising importance of the Universities must, in a great degree, be attributed to the influence of the Scholastic Theology. It served powerfully to draw out the mental energies of those ages, by the attention which it directed to logic and kindred studies. It prepared the mind of Europe, gradually, by the culture of these sciences, for those investigations which accompanied the great Ecclesiastical Renovation of the sixteenth century. The Universities, thus kept alive, were a necessary nucleus, around which were assembled men of learning; and this state of things was perpetuated until better days had dawned. The revival of the Canon Law was a fortunate event in its influence upon literature. But the impulse produced by it would never have been as extensive as that produced by Scholasticism; for it was not so intimately connected with the Church, whose influence was rapidly extending over Europe; nor was it so closely associated with the present and future spiritual interests of men.

Nor can it be denied that this theology had something directly to do, negatively, with the introduction of the Reformation. If that glorious event was the product of the age in which it occurred -if it was the inevitable result of certain influences then pervading the social and religious atmosphere of Europe, as it undoubtedly was, then Scholasticism had thoroughly moulded these influences, and produced the elements which became thus afterward transformed. It had given tone to the public mind for ages. It had infused into it its predominating characteristics. It had preserved, for ages, the spirit and capacity for literary toil; yet, by its own unprofitableness, it had taught the necessity of something higher and better than itself. It pointed to her glorious Reformation; and imparted strength to the intellectual arm of that age, to stretch forth and grasp something beyond and nobler than itself. Without this training, the system of truth proclaimed in the Reformation would have been of a much slower development. Like a worn-out musical instrument, which has served to complete the skill of the musician, though it be now itself unfit for use, it has yet served a great and important purpose, in preparing the artist to draw forth the most enrapturing harmony from a better in

strument.

Hence the Scholastic Theology was not lost in the progress and development of the Church. On the contrary, its influence was indispensable. The language of an esteemed theologian of our own country is appropriate here. "The true Church historian leaves to every age its own peculiar advantages. He does not con

struct history after the measure of some poor conceptions of his own; he does not correct it by the standard of the times in which he himself lives; but he takes it up and re-produces it, as God has allowed it to occur, in the progressive explication of his plan of redemption. With all his respect for the reformation as a true work of God, he is not rendered insensible by it, to what was excellent and beautiful in earlier times!"* Thus the reasonings of the Scholastics on these points, in reference to which the Romish Church entertained orthodox views, are still important and valuable. Such, for instance, are the articles on God, the trinity, etc., which are treated by them with much ability. Additional illustrations of this point are found in St. Anselm's ontological proof of the existence of God, drawn from the idea of the most perfect being; as well as Abelard's argument for the Divine unity, based on the inseparable connection between unity and perfection.

All the scholastic writers are divided into the three following schools. I. The Sententiarii, from Peter Lombard, the author of the Book of Sentences (Magister Sententiarum), which was for ages the text-book in the schools. II. Summistæ, from Aquinas, whose chief production was his Summa Theologica. III. Quodlibetarii, or Eclectici, from Scotus, whose most important work was termed Quodlibita in Libros IV. Sententiarum. These three writers may be said to represent the three great eras in the history of the Scholastic Theology. They were also successively the

founders of three great and distinct systems.

IV. THE GRADUAL DECLINE OF SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY.

The glory of the Scholastic doctors has long since passed away. An occasional allusion to their works is found in the writings of the modern Romish theologians, such as Moehler, Ken, Goerves, and Wiseman. But excepting this last faint echo of expiring authority, they are unregarded. They now serve sometimes to assuage the ardor of bibliomaniacs. The introduction of the Reformation tended powerfully to throw these antiquated authorities into the background. Luther, whose energetic words were half battles, hurled his theological vengeance against them, and employed his great talents and influence to bring them into disrepute. In the fearful theological battles which were fought during the sixteenth century, the heroes of Scholasticism were driven from one post to another, compelled to relinquish one fortress after another, which had been held in secure possession for ages, until now they have retreated

*See Dr. Schaf's Prin. of Protes., p. 138. This work contains much original matter, new and interesting to American readers. The same may also be affirmed of his later tract," What is Church History?" Whatever we may think of some of his views, transported hither from the land of speculation, and strongly characterized as they are, by the "German depth" and "German development," we must admit the learning and originality of his productions.

into the obscurities of monastic libraries, and are even there allowed but a precarious peace.

case.

The causes of these reverses may be easily assigned. The contests which had commenced between the Nominalists and Realists, raged with unmitigated intensity for two centuries previous to the Reformation. But soon these strifes subsided from sheer exhaustion. These fires burned less intensely from deficiency of materials. This result might have been inferred from the nature of the Such profitless discussions could not for ever impose upon the common sense of nations. It may do for a while to wrangle about the immaculate conception. Learned doctors and august councils may for a time dispute concerning such questions as the unity of form in man; whether one angel illumines another; whether angels know each other's will; whether they speak to each other; whether a lower angel dare speak to a higher one; whether the language of one angel is known to another; whether the secretions of the body will arise in the resurrection; whether the risen bodies will all have the same magnitude; whether the hair and nails of the dead will also arise; utrum capilli et ungues in homine resurgent. Thom. Sum. Sup. Pars. Ter. Quæs. LXXX., Art II.) and thousands more, equally frivolous. But the waste of time, the perversion of talents, the neglect of more important pursuits, which were inevitably connected with such despicable discussions, will eventually produce their due impression on the mind. They might serve to occupy the mental activity of the monk Gunzo, who aided in first directing attention to some of these inquiries; but the advance of ages developed other themes of inquiry, of greater consequence to the intellectual and spiritual interests of men, which soon forced themselves upon general attention.

One of the most important of these was the newly awakened zeal for the theological tenets of the Mystics, who endeavored to reach the heart, instead of merely convincing the intellect, as was too much the case with the rival system. Such a change was much needed. Men had forgotten, amid their theological wrangles, to put searching questions to their consciences. Eminent among the mystic writers, were Thomas a Kempis and Jerome Savonarola. Their writings seem to have been but little tainted with those egregious errors which afterward disgraced the Mystics. While this gradual transition was taking place, some theologians were disposed to assume an intermediate position. They proposed that the scholastic subtlety should be tempered with mystic simplicity, that the former should be thoroughly purged of its trifling character, and be thus permitted to enter upon a new and improved Of this class were the distinguished Romish theologians, John Gerson and Nicholas Cusanus.

career.

But it was in vain. The want of experimental studies had long