Aristotle
was a Greek who studied in Athens under Plato and became the tutor to the
future Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia and the most powerful leader of
his time. Aristotle returned to Athens
to found his own school. When Alexander
the Great died in 323 BC, Aristotle totally fell out of favour, fled Athens and
died the following year. Most of his
writings were found in the lecture notes of his students. They cover many fields of knowledge – logic,
metaphysics, ethics, politics, biology, zoology, physics and psychology. But when civilisation in the West was
threatened by the so-called Barbarian Invasions in the fifth century, many of
Aristotle’s writings were taken out of the Empire. Many pagan philosophers who treasured
Aristotle fled the Christian Empire.
When trade blossomed with Islamic lands in the twelfth century, the
works of Aristotle re-emerged in the West together with sugar and silk and
spices. So about fourteen years after
his death his writings on so many branches of science that had been preserved
by the Muslim scholars and newly translated became accessible.
The
Church immediately banned these books but the Dominican theologian saw great
wisdom in the works of Aristotle and he set about wedding Aristotelian
philosophy to Christian theology. As a
student Thomas Aquinas seems to have been underestimated. He was nicknamed the ‘Dumb Ox’. He went on to teach in Orvieto, Paris and
Cologne. When the feast of Corpus
Christi was established in 1264, seven hundred and fifty years ago, Pope Urban
IV asked him to compose liturgical texts and Eucharistic hymns for the feast.
Processions of the Blessed Sacrament date from this time (we had a procession
over the Carpet of Flowers at Arundel Cathedral last Thursday) as does
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. So
the hymns composed by Thomas Aquinas were sung all over the Western Church – as
they continue to be to this day either in the Latin that Thomas used or in
translation. Many of you are familiar
with the ‘O Salutaris hostia; Tantum ergo Sacramentum, Adoro te devote (Godhead
here in hiding). He is given the title
‘the Angelic Doctor’. He used the
insights of Aristotelian philosophy to help him develop his thinking and
teaching on the concepts of the Incarnation, the Trinity and
Transubstantiation. The other great
scholastic theologian was the Franciscan Duns Scotus and many Western
theologians favoured him. Both camps –
the Thomists and the Scotists – are now seen as rather dated by modern theologians.
After
his death the writings of Thomas Aquinas became suspect and some accused him of
heresy. The Universities of Oxford and
Paris banned his teaching. But fifty
years after his death he was declared a Saint and his theology was
re-instated. He had been assisted in the
composition of his writings by several secretaries, notably his confrere
Reginald of Piperno. Some months before
he died he informed Reginald that he was giving up his writing. It seems that he had a spiritual experience
while saying Mass in which he was given to understand that everything that he
had written was worthless. No one really
knows what happened. He is reputed to
have said: ‘I can write no more. After
what I have seen, everything I ever wrote seems like straw.’ He died while on his way to take part in the
Ecumenical Council at Lyons convoked by Pope Gregory X. He died in the Cistercian Abbey of
Fossanova. His fervent faith and piety are
expressed in his beautiful hymns and prayers such as the one which asks: ‘Grant
me, O Lord, my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find
you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you and a
hope of finally embracing you.’
