1. Lecture 18 Anselm, Aquinas and Bonaventure
Dr. Ann T. Orlando
2 November 2017

2. Introduction
Predecessors
Anselm
Lombard
Albert
Aquinas
Bonaventure

3. Anselm (1033-1109) Born in northern Italy
Studied and became abbot at a Benedictine monastery in Normandy
Went to (recently conquered) England in 1092
Became Archbishop of Canterbury
Among his most important works:
Proslogion: Ontological proofs for existence of God
Cur Deus Homo: Christology of satisfaction
Monologion

4. Anselm’s Reliance on Augustine
Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith seeking understanding, which he gets from Augustine)
Monologion Written 1076, a type of soliloquy or meditation
Attempt to understand the Trinity without recourse to Scripture or other authority
Anselm knows he has the ‘right’ answer because he is consistent with Augustine

5. Preface to Monologion
After frequently re-examining this treatise, I have not been able to find that I said in it anything inconsistent with the writings of the Catholic Fathers—especially with Blessed Augustine's writings. Therefore, if it shall seem to anyone that in this work I have set forth some [doctrine] which either is altogether new or else departs from the truth, then I make the following request: let him not immediately declare me to be one who presumes to new [doctrines] or who teaches falsehood, but let him first look carefully at the books of On the Trinity by the aforementioned teacher, viz., Augustine, and then let him judge my work in the light of these books.

6. Cur Deus Homo Based on Athanasius On the Incarnation
Addresses objections of ‘infidels’
Structure of a dialog
Advanced theory of satisfaction for Jesus’ death
Based on feudal notion of honor, justice and social status
Only God-man can satisfy the affront to God’s honor due to original sin; as man he has the obligation to satisfy; as God he is able to satisfy

7. Early Paris Paris started as a Roman town, Lutetium
Renamed Paris in 3rd C after local Celtic tribe
First Christian missionaries probably sent by Pope Fabian in 3rd C
First bishop was Dionysius, or Denis
St. Denis and his companions were martyred by the Romans on Montmarte (Mont of the martyrs)
There may have been a pagan temple where Notre Dame now stands
After Constantine the Great, several churches were built in Paris, including one on the site of Notre Dame

8. Building the Cathedral of Notre Dame
By tradition, the first stone was laid in 1163
But not completed until 1250, with additional work after that for the next several centuries
Built in the ‘Gothic’ style that became the standard for grand church architecture throughout Europe in the Middle Ages
As the primary cathedral of Paris, Notre Dame assumed an important role in Church and French political history

9. Importance of Paris in Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, Paris was transformed from a small fishing and trading town to an important political capital
Center for many trade guilds
With this transformation, Church in Paris also became very important
A place of learning

10. Beginning of University System
Churches, especially cathedrals and monasteries were primary sources of education for nearly 1,000 years in Europe
Recall that Alcuin of York under Charlemagne had began system of schools throughout kingdom
During 11th C, Pope Gregory VII initiated many reforms, including requirements for education of secular clergy
Bishops established cathedral schools
Education focused on Canon law, administration, higher learning
Enrollment not limited to clergy

11. Universities and the Church
The university system as we know it today grew out of the Cathedral schools of the Middle Ages
Most famous and important was the Cathedral School of Notre Dame
Became the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne
Students from all over Europe sought to enter the most prestigious schools
To be an universitas an institution had to recognized as such by the Pope
‘Nation’ was a fraternal group of students at the major universities who came from the same region and spoke the same local language

12. Medieval University Degrees
Bachelors degree
Six years to obtain
Study of seven liberal arts
Masters degree
Four to six more years
Specialization in law, medicine or theology
Theology was most important and prestigious
Holder of masters degree could teach others
Doctorate
Several more years of study
Holder could teach at most prestigious universities

13. Evolution of Modern University System
During Renaissance
City-state and national courts develop their own ‘cultural’ centers
Development of vernacular language and literature
Eventually universities become more secular
Seminaries are formally established at Council of Trent

14. St. Peter Lombard ( )
Professor of theology of Cathedral School of Notre Dame and Archbishop of Paris
Wrote Sentences (1150) as a way to organize teaching of the Church Fathers to explicate Catholic teaching
Most influential text in Middle Ages
Required that all Masters of Theology write a commentary on Sentences
Lombard became was known as the Magister

15. Sentences Organized in four Books
God and the Trinity
Creation
Incarnation and Redemption
Sacraments
In 13th C Books subdivided into “distinctiones” (breaks in reading)

16. St. Albert the Great (1200 – 1280) and Aristotle
Born in Germany, study in Italy, entered the Dominicans, taught at University of Paris
Life-long study of Aristotle, including development of paraphrases of Aristotle's major works
Keenly interested in natural world and natural theology using Aristotelian methods
Detailed translation and commentary on Aristotle’s Organum
Advanced theory of universals as existing in themselves but also as constructs of human mind
Anthropology and Ethics based on Aristotle
Teacher of Thomas Aquinas

17. St. Thomas Aquinas ( )
Born in Italy, studied in Italy and Paris
Dominican
Student and professor at University of Paris
Key Influences
Albert the Great
Church Fathers
Aristotle
Earlier Aristotelian commentators, especially Averroes and Maimonides

18. Thomas Aquinas Angelic Doctor
Developed systematic approach to theology using Aristotelian methods (Aristotle as the Philosopher in the Summa)
Relied on newly available Greek works from Jewish and Moslem sources; Moses Maimonides, Averrhoes
Very different from theological approach; Aristotelian rather than neo-Platonic
Emphasis on causes
Emphasis on categories
Needed to show that his theological conclusions were consistent with Augustine;
until he did so he was considered radical and suspect
Two great works: Summa Theologica (theological) or Theologiae (theology); Summa Contra Gentiles
But he also wrote beautiful songs, especially in praise of Eucharist (one of which we sing at Benediction, and another during Holy Thursday)

19. The Structure of the Summa Theologiae
Divided into Three Parts; the Second Part further divided Part I and Part II
Each Part divided into Questions
Each Question divided into Articles
Each Article includes a
Statement,
Objections and
Replies

20. Ia IIae Q90 a1 (In English: First Part of Second Part, Question 90, Article 1)
Whether law is something pertaining to reason?
Objection 1. It would seem that law is not something pertaining to reason. For the Apostle says (Rm. 7:23)…
Objection 2. Further, in the reason there is nothing else but power, habit, and act. But law is not the power itself of reason…
Objection 3. Further, the law moves those who are subject to it to act aright. But it belongs properly to the will to move to act…

21. Ia IIae Q90 a1 (cont.)
On the contrary, It belongs to the law to command and to forbid. But it belongs to reason to command, as stated above (17, 1). Therefore law is something pertaining to reason.
I answer that, Law is a rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting: for "lex" [law] is derived from "ligare" [to bind], because it binds one to act. Now the rule and measure of human acts is the reason, which is the first principle of human acts, as is evident from what has been stated above (1, 1, ad 3); since it belongs to the reason to direct to the end, which is the first principle in all matters of action, according to the Philosopher (Phys. ii). Now that which is the principle in any genus, is the rule and measure of that genus: for instance, unity in the genus of numbers, and the first movement in the genus of movements. Consequently it follows that law is something pertaining to reason.

22. Ia IIae Q90 a1 (cont.)
Reply to Objection 1. Since law is a kind of rule and measure, it may be in something in two ways….
Reply to Objection 2. Just as, in external action, we may consider the work and the work done, for instance the work of building and the house built; so in the acts of reason, we may consider the act itself of reason, i.e. to understand and to reason, and something produced by this act…
Reply to Objection 3. Reason has its power of moving from the will, as stated above (17, 1): for it is due to the fact that one wills the end, that the reason issues its commands as regards things ordained to the end…

23. Example: Definition of Virtue ST Ia IIae Q55
Reconcile two very different definitions of virtue
But both Aristotle and Augustine start their discussion of virtue with how man can be happy
Aristotle: Virtue then is a settled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions and emotions, consisting essentially in the observance of the mean relative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as the prudent man would determine it. Nicomachean Ethics
Virtue is a balance, as determined by a prudent man
Virtues divided into intellectual and moral
Virtue can (with difficulty) be acquired through the practice of good habits
Augustine: Virtue is a good quality of the mind, by which we live righteously, of which no one can make bad use, which God brings about in us, without us. On Free Will
Virtue is a gift of God (grace)
All virtues are derived from Christian charity
Aquinas (see ST Ia IIae 55.4 on definition of virtue)
Infused and acquired virtue ST Iae IIae Q 63
Importance of prudence ST IIa IIae Q 47 – 56

24. Example: Transubstantiation ST IIIa Q75 a 1-8
Relies on Aristotle’s The Categories
Philosophical idea of substance, accidents
Substance: what things really are, their essence
Accidents: how they appear to senses, properties that are incidental, weight, color, taste
Augustine has bad things to say about The Categories in Confessions (IV.28-31)
According to Aquinas Christ becomes fully present in the Eucharist when
the material substance of bread and wine is transformed into His own spiritual substance
only the accidents (color, texture, taste) of the bread and wine remain
Explains doctrine of transubstantiation from Lateran IV (1215)

25. Adoro Te Devote by Thomas Aquinas
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.
From CCC translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins

26. Bonaventure ( )
Student and professor at University of Paris when Aquinas was there
Becomes head of Franciscans shortly after Francis
Describes Franciscan way of life in philosophical terms
Very dependent on Augustine

27. Itinerarium or Journey of the Mind to God
Written for a student retreat
Details steps of spiritual progress
Mimics pilgrimage itinerary
Approach God by leaving world behind
Franciscan spirituality in an apophatic key

28. Later Opposition to Scholasticism
14th and 15th C Nominalism and Linguistics
Philosophical rejection of scholasticism, primarily from Franciscans
Renaissance scholars who want to return to original sources and a study of language over philosophy
16th C Reformation
Rejection of doctrines derived from Scholastic theology
Return to ‘only’ source: Scripture
17th C Scientific Revolution
Reject Aristotle-Ptolemy astronomical model
Reject Aristotelian methods in favor or new methods , Bacon and Novum Organum

29. Assignments
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo,
Aquinas,
Natural Law, Ia IIae Q90 – 97