1. Thomas Aquinas Mrs. Tucker 7 th Grade World History Honors Cobalt Institute of Math and Science

2. Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in his family’s castle between Rome and Naples, Italy. His parents, Countess Theodora and Count Landulf of Aquino, were from noble families. At age five, Aquinas began school at Monte Cassino, a Benedictine monastery where his uncle was the abbot. Monastic schools required students to learn many subjects, including grammar, speech, mathematics, science, and music. When he was older, Aquinas studied at the University of Naples. Aquinas joined the Dominican friars around 1244, against the wishes of his family. As a new Dominican, he studied in Paris under Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great). Both Aquinas and Albertus greatly admired the ideas of Aristotle. Who was Thomas Aquinas? Beginning in the 1100s, a new way of thinking called scholasticism began to change the study of theology. Followers used reason to explore questions of faith. A Dominican friar and priest named Thomas Aquinas was scholasticism’s greatest champion. He is best known for combining Church teachings with the ideas of Aristotle. Europeans had forgotten about Aristotle after Rome fell and his works had been lost. In the 1100s, however, Muslim and Jewish scholars reintroduced Aristotle to Europe using copies of his books that had been preserved in Muslim libraries. Aristotle’s ideas upset many Christian thinkers because he used reason, not faith, to arrive at his conclusions about the meaning of life. In the 1200s, Thomas Aquinas wrote several works explaining that Aristotle would have agreed with many Christian teachings. About 1267, Aquinas began writing Summa Theologica, or a summary of knowledge on theology. In this book, Aquinas asked hard questions such as “Does God exist?” Aquinas wrote about government as well as theology, with an emphasis on the idea of natural law. People who believe in natural law think that some laws are part of human nature. These laws do not have to be made by governments. Aquinas claimed that natural law gave people certain rights that the government should not take away. These included the right to live, to learn, to worship, and to reproduce. Aquinas’s writings on natural law have influenced governments to the present day. His ideas have contributed in part to our belief that people have rights that government cannot take away. Aquinas spent the next few decades studying, teaching, and writing. He lived in Paris, Rome, and other cities in France and Italy and taught theology. He wrote about the Bible, groups within the Church, and the ideas of philosophers. Summa Theologica best explains how Aquinas combines Aristotle’s ideas with those of the Church. He began writing his Summa Theologica around 1267 and worked on it until his death. In 1274 the pope asked Aquinas to travel to France to attend the Council of Lyons. Even though he was not in good health, he set out for the French city. He became very sick along the way. Aquinas wanted to live out his last days in a monastery, so he was taken to a Cistercian abbey in the town of Fossanova, where he died on March 7, 1274. Aquinas’s ideas were respected during his lifetime, and as time passed they became even more important. His writings influenced governments and the Roman Catholic Church. He was made a saint in 1323.