Westward empire

by Elias Lyman Magoon

The scholasticism which was so marked a peculiarity of the age of Leo X., was the labor of intellect in the service of faith, and we know its starting point, its progress, and its end. It arose with the new society of that formative era, and arrived at perfect dominion after having been delivered from all the ruins of the ancient civilization, when the soil of Europe had become more firm and capable of receiving the foundations upon which a nobler and broader social compact might arise. Charlemagne, who with one hand arrested the Saracens in the South, and with the other resisted the barbarians of the North, became the type and leader of western civilization in the dawn of the third great period; and, succeeded by Charles the Bald and Alfred the Great, carefully fanned the sparks of ancient culture, in order to rekindle the flame of progressive science. It was he who first opened the schools, and originated scholasticism. As the Mysteries of olden times had been the primary source of Greek philosophy, so the convents of the eighth century were the cradle of the ethical systems we still possess and desire to improve.

Scholasticism commenced in the absolute submission of philosophy to theology, advanced to the separation of these two spheres of mental exercise, and culminated in the entire independence of thought. The first epoch comprised, with the inspired Scriptures, the Christian fathers generally, and especially those of the Latin church, of whom Augustine was the chief. The little knowledge in this department that had escaped barbarism was then principally contained in the meagre writings of Boethius, born in 470, and senator of Theodoric; of Capella, born at Madaura, in Africa, about 474; of Mamert, at Vienna, who died in the year 477; of Cassiodorus, who flourished in the first half of the sixth century; of the Venerable Bede, who opened the chief sources of British civilization at the end of the seventh century; and of that other Anglo-Saxon, Alcuin, born at York, 726, and whom Charlemagne placed on the heights of mediæval culture, at the head of the regeneration of mind at large. John Scot, or Johannes Scotus Erigena, as he was called because an Irishman, lived long at the court of Charles the Bald, and afterward returned to England at the invitation of Alfred the Great, to teach at Oxford, where he died in 886, expressed the great text of his cotemporaries which they all labored to expound and exemplify: "There are not two studies, one of philosophy, and the other of religion; true philosophy is true religion, and true religion is true philosophy."

Anselm, born in Piedmont in 1034, Prior of Bec in Normandy, and, at the time of his death, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the true metaphysician of this epoch. He was called the second Saint Augustine, and his writings achieved a remarkable progress. To him is accredited the argument, which draws from the idea alone of an absolute maximum of greatness, of beauty, and of goodness, the demonstration of the existence of its object, which can be only God. This was doubtless inspired by the genius of Christian idealism, and was so effectively elaborated by Saint Anselm that it is supposed to have extended its influence even down to Leibnitz and Descartes.

Another beautiful classic spirit, who struggled and triumphed in the midst of mediæval gloom was Abelard. Born near Nantes, in 1079, and having acquired all the strength that could be furnished by provincial knowledge, he went to Paris, where from a pupil he soon became a rival of the most renowned masters, and thenceforth for a long time in dialectics ruled supreme. He attracted such multitudes of scholars from all parts of Europe, that, as himself said, the hotels were neither sufficient to contain them, nor the ground to nourish them. He moved the church and the state, eclipsed Roscellinus and Champeaux, having Arnold of Brescia among his friendly disciples, and a powerful adversary in the great Bernard. We are told that this "Bossuet of the twelfth century" was handsome, was a poet, and musician. He wrote songs which amused the refined, gave lectures which absorbed the profound, and both as canon and professor, was regarded with the most absolute devotion by that noble creature, Heloise, who loved like Theresa the saint. As a hero who was active to reform abuses and wise to enlighten barbarism, the chief of an advancing school, and the martyr of exalted opinions, Abelard was indeed an extraordinary personage.

Nominalism and Realism found a new competitor on the philosophic stage when the advanced and victorious system of Conceptualism was established by Abelard. Of this school, John of Salisbury was an enlightened and polished disciple. To him and his co-laborer in the same faith and age, Peter Lombard, succeeded the three great masters who represented the succeeding epoch. Albert the Great, born in Suabia, was by turns professor at Cologne and Paris. In 1260 he was bishop of Ratisbon, but soon withdrew from that post to devote himself exclusively to his philosophical pursuits at Cologne, where he died in 1280. Thomas Aquinas was of a rich and illustrious family, who wished to give him a good position in the world. But he declined all secular honors, and became a Dominican, that he might devote himself entirely to philosophy. He is said to have been an incomparable teacher, and was called the Angel of the School. His birth occurred near Naples, in 1225; he studied under Albert, both at Cologne and Paris, died in 1274, and was canonized in 1323. He was not so scientific as his master, nor so mystical as his compatriot, Bonaventura. He could not dream of modern equality; but, as a Christian philosopher he recommended humanity toward the persecuted, and exemplified the high morality he taught. The English Duns Scotus, born at Dunston, in Northumberland, according to others at Duns, in Ireland, near 1275, possessed a mind of uncommon firmness and powerful action. Physics and mathematics were his forte, while more spiritual themes won the preference and exercised the skill of Albert and Thomas. Cotemporaries named the first the seraphic Doctor, and the second the angelic Doctor, but the third was characterized by another epithet more descriptive of his genius, namely, the subtile, Doctor subtilis.

Roger Bacon, born in 1214, and whose great scientific capacities were alluded to in the preceding chapter, was a man who stood alone in the thirteenth century on account of his linguistic skill and attainments in philosophy. The poor persecuted Franciscan was three centuries in advance of his age, but, despite all difficulties, he did much to promote a movement of mental independence which, soon after his death made itself rapidly manifest. The separation of philosophy from theology began to be perfected, and the destruction of scholasticism was thus secured. Roscelin, a canon of Compiègne, did not a little toward the attainment of this end, but much more was accomplished by an English pupil of Duns Scotus, at the commencement of the fourteenth century. He was named John Occam, born in the county of Surrey, and is often called simply Occam. He was a successful teacher at Paris, under Philip le Bel, at the epoch when the political powers strove to emancipate themselves from the ecclesiastical power. The monk sided with the sovereign, and wrote against the pretensions of pope Boniface VIII. Afterward he said to the emperor Louis of Bavaria, "Defend me with the sword, and I will defend you with the pen," and in like manner resisted pope John XXII. A man so bold in politics could not have been timid in philosophy, and his persevering courage procured him the name of Doctor invincibilis. The spirit of independence was everywhere aroused under the auspices of Occam, so that the old schools were quickened, and new masters were produced. Walter Burleigh flourished about 1337, and wrote commentaries on Aristotle, Porphyry, etc., while professor at Paris and Oxford. He was author of the first history of philosophy written in the middle age. Marsile of Inghen, founder of the university of Heidelberg, died in 1394. Thomas of Strasburg, author of a Commentary on The Master of Sentences, died in 1357. Thomas of Bradwardin, Archbishop of Canterbury, was not only a mathematician of uncommon power, but a great proficient in the more literary departments of high philosophy. He died in 1439.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, after the heated conflicts between nominalism and realism, another species of philosophy, mysticism, separated itself from all other systems, acquired consciousness of itself, exposed its own theory, and by its own name was called. Near the close of his life, Petrarch abandoned literary pursuits, in order to devote himself to contemplative philosophy, was a mystic in belief, and died in 1374. Most of the remarkable men of this epoch were disciples of the same transcendental faith. Such were John Tauler, the celebrated preacher at Cologne, and the still more illustrious author of the "Imitation of Jesus Christ." Whether that work belongs to Gerson, or to Thomas à Kempis, it may be regarded as the most perfect reflection of philosophy in those foreboding times, when the thoughtful, oppressed with doubt, aspired after relief through reliance on the mercy of God. Scholasticism ceased at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and was succeeded by mysticism, which continued till the opening of the seventeenth century, when modern philosophy, properly so called, began, and is now molding a grander philosophic age. The mystical polemics which brought all learning to a low ebb at the epoch of the decline of ancient literature, long lurked faintly among the cloisters, by the dim lamp of dreaming solitaries, to whom true science was an unfathomable ocean, of which they vainly strove to sound the depths, while their only object should have been to sail across it. But their dogmatical fixedness was overruled for good, since all the great elements of speculative thought were thus conserved, and progressive philosophy, nevertheless, like its type and hero, through night and tempest westward took its course.

The interior of the cathedral at Florence, so imposing from its dim light and great extent, is full of that local interest which connects itself with a mausoleum of greatness and museum of art. Upon the north wall is a portrait of Dantè, and behind the choir is an unfinished Pieta by Michael Angelo, whose fervid and impatient genius designed so much more than it could possibly execute. Under the crowning glory of the dome, that masterpiece and model of renaissant architecture, lie the remains of Giotto and Brunelleschi, in spots marked by commemorative busts; and the same honor is paid to the remains of Facino, the great restorer of the Platonic philosophy. It was this erudite scholar who, at the revival of learning, procured the printing of Plato, performed the same service for the illustrious leaders of the later school, and illustrated his edition of the great master with many commentaries, in which he showed himself an equal adept in the mysteries of Plotinus and Porphyry, as in the sense of Plato. In order to give additional zest to the study of Platonism, Lorenzo and his friends formed the intention of renewing, with extraordinary pomp, the solemn annual feasts to the memory of the great philosopher, which had been celebrated from the time of his death to that of his disciples, Plotinus and Porphyrius, but had been discontinued for twelve hundred years. The day fixed on for this purpose was the 7th of November, the supposed anniversary of both the birth and death of Plato. Francesco Bandini, eminent for rank and learning, was fixed on by Lorenzo to preside over this ceremony at Florence. On the same day another party met at Lorenzo's villa at Careggi, where he presided in person. The new academy of Platonists, in the fifteenth century, embraced a large number of the most eminent men, the greatest part of whom were natives of Florence, a fact that may give us some idea of the surprising attention which was then paid to philosophy, as well as to art, science, and literary pursuits. In this respect, the birthplace of Leo X., and the great mental centre of his age stands unrivaled; a species of praise as indisputable as it is well-deserved.

We have seen that the capacious mind of Aristotle absorbed the whole existing philosophy of his age, and that it was reproduced, digested, and transmitted, in a form still preserved, and of which the spirit early penetrated into the inmost recesses of mediæval mind. Translated in the fifth century into Syriac, and thence into Arabic, four hundred years later, his writings furnished the Mohammedan conquerors of the East with the germs of science which they bore so opportunely to the West, and thus extended the empire of an exacter philosophy from Bagdad to Cordova, from Egypt to Britain's occidental shore.

Platonism took deep root in Germany, and was the favorite of the ablest philosophers; and whether the mystic Reuchlin, or the mathematical Leibnitz, or the recondite Kant, elaborated their respective theories, they equally acknowledged the great Greek master to be the one model of their admiration. Sydenham, Spens, and Taylor, translated him in the bosom of the English race; and among the British admirers of Plato, besides the cabalists Gale and More, and the eloquent pupil of the Alexandrian school, Cudworth, were many of the ablest philosophers and poets. Not to anticipate the new age, on the border of which shone the Platonic minds of Milton and Gray, we allude to Berkeley, whose enthusiastic esteem is well known, and to Bacon, who never speaks of the political or moral works of Plato without marked respect. The mighty architects of the age to come, best understood the worth of those foundations on which they built, and with a noble sadness sometimes bemoaned the obscurity which progress necessarily throws upon the superseded past.