[Illustration: INTERIOR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE. The chief architectural ornament of King's College, founded by King Henry VI, is the chapel in the Gothic perpendicular style.* This building was begun in 1446 A.D., but was not completed until nearly seventy years later. The finest features of the interior are the fan vaulting which extends throughout the chapel, the stained-glass windows, and the wooden organ screen.]
ABELARD AND FREEDOM OF THOUGHT
The scholastics were loyal children of the Church and did not presume to question her teaching in matters of religion. They held that faith precedes reason. "The Christian," it was said, "ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not come to faith through knowledge." The brilliant Abelard, with his keenly critical mind, found what he considered a flaw in this position: on many subjects the authorities themselves disagreed. To show this he wrote a little book called Sic et Non ("Yes and No"), setting forth the conflicting opinions of the Church Fathers on one hundred and fifty-eight points of theology. In such cases how could truth be reached unless one reasoned it out for oneself? "Constant questioning," he declared, "is the key to wisdom…. Through doubting we come to inquiry and through inquiry we perceive the truth." But this reliance on the unaided human reason as a means of obtaining knowledge did not meet with approval, and Abelard's views were condemned as unsound. Abelard, indeed, was a man in advance of his age. Freedom of thought had to wait many centuries before its rights should be acknowledged.
STUDY OF ARISTOTLE
The philosophy on which the scholastics relied was chiefly that of Aristotle. [24] Christian Europe read him at first in Latin translations from the Arabic, but versions were later made from Greek copies found in Constantinople and elsewhere in the East. This revival of Aristotle, though it broadened men's minds by acquainting them with the ideas of the greatest of Greek thinkers, had serious drawbacks. It discouraged rather than favored the search for fresh truth. Many scholastics were satisfied to appeal to Aristotle's authority, rather than take the trouble of finding out things for themselves. The story is told of a medieval student who, having detected spots in the sun, announced his discovery to a learned man. "My son," said the latter, "I have read Aristotle many times, and I assure you there is nothing of the kind mentioned by him. Be certain that the spots which you have seen are in your eyes and not in the sun."
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, 1227-1274 A.D.
There were many famous scholastics, or "schoolmen," but easily the foremost among them was the Italian monk, Thomas Aquinas. He taught at Paris, Cologne, Rome, and Bologna, and became so celebrated for learning as to be known as the "Angelic Doctor." Though Aquinas died at an early age, he left behind him no less than eighteen folio volumes. His Summa Theologiae ("Compendium of Theology"), as the name indicates, gathered up all that the Middle Ages believed of the relations between God and man. The Roman Church has placed him among her saints and still recommends the study of his writings as the foundation of all sound theology.
THE SCHOLASTIC METHOD
Enough has been said to show that the method of study in medieval universities was not that which generally obtains to-day. There was almost no original research. Law students memorized the Justinian code. Medical students learned anatomy and physiology from old Greek books, instead of in the dissecting room. Theologians and philosophers went to the Bible, the Church Fathers, or Aristotle for the solution of all problems. They often debated the most subtle questions, for instance, "Can God ever know more than He knows that He knows?" Mental gymnastics of this sort furnished a good training in logic, but added nothing to the sum of human knowledge. Scholasticism, accordingly, fell into disrepute, in proportion as men began to substitute scientific observation and experiment for speculation.