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St. Thomas Aquinas Biography

St. Thomas Aquinas Image

AQUINAS THOMAS, or THOMAS or Aquino (c.1226-74). One of the most influential of the scholastic theologians, who bears the honorable titles and epithets of Doctor Communis (‘Universal Doctor,’ fourteenth century); Doctor Angelicus (‘Angelical Doctor,’ sixteenth century); Princeps Scholasticorum. (‘Prince of Scholastics’); Doctor Ecclesiæ (‘Doctor of the Church,’ 1567); "Patron of all Catholic Schools" (1880) . He was of the family of the counts of Aquino, in the kingdom of Naples, and was born in the castle of Roccasecca, directly north of Aquino, about 50 miles northwest of Naples, about 1226. Ile received the rudiments of his education from the Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino, which was only a few miles away, and completed his studies at the University of Naples. A strong inclination to philosophical speculation and theological study determined the young nobleman, against the will of his family, to enter (1243) the Order of Dominicans. In order to frustrate the attempts of his friends, especially his mother, to force him to give up his monastic life and enter the world, his order sent him to Rome and thence to Paris. On his way thither his brothers overtook him at Acquapendente, and by force brought him to the castle of St. John, near Aquino, and there he was closely guarded for a year, and every effort was made to break his resolution to remain a monk. But at length his mother came to his release, and he went, in the company of the General of the Dominicans, to Paris and thence to Cologne, about 1245, where he studied under Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) (q.v.). At Cologne he pursued his studies in such silence that his companions gave him the name of the "Dumb Ox." But Albert is reported to have predicted "that this ox would one day fill the world with his bellowing." He accompanied Albert to Paris in 1245 and back to Cologne in 1248, when he was commissioned by his order, the Dominican, to establish a theological school there. In it Aquinas taught until in 1251 (or 1252) he was sent to Paris to teach in the Dominican monastery of St. Jacques. He defended his order in his Contra Impugnantes Dei Cultum et Religionem. He was already a distinguished scholar and teacher. He continued to lecture with great applause in Paris, till Urban IV, in 1261, called him to Italy to teach philosophy in Rome, Bologna, Pisa, and other places. Finally he came to reside in the convent at Naples (1272-74) , where he declined the offer of the dignity of archbishop, in order to devote himself entirely to study and lecturing. It was while there that the following incident is said to have occurred. One day Christ appeared to him and said: "You have written ably about me. What reward would you like to have?" He said: "Lord, nothing, except thyself." Being summoned by Gregory X to attend the general council at Lyons, he was taken ill on the way in the castle of his niece at Ceccano. Realizing that it was his last illness, he was at his own request transferred to the neighboring Cistercian monastery of Fossanuova, so that he might die in a religious house. He lingered there a month and died on March 7, 1274. Dante held (Purgatorio, xx, 68) that he was poisoned at the instigation of Charles I of Sicily, who dreaded the evidence that Aquinas would give of him at Lyons: but it is probably not true. His relics were fought for and his right arm is now in St. Jacques, Paris, other parts in Salerno and Naples, and the rest of his body in Rome. He was canonized July 18. 1323.

Even during his life Aquinas enjoyed the highest consideration in the Church. His voice carried decisive weight with it. A general chapter of Dominicans in Paris made it obligatory on the members of the order, under pain of punishment, to defend his doctrines. Like most of the other scholastic theologians, he had no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew and was almost equally ignorant of history; but his writings display a great expenditure of diligence and dialectic art, set off with the irresistible eloquence of zeal. His chief works are: A Commentary on the Four Books of Sentences of Peter Lombard, the Summa Theologiæ, Qumstiones Disputæ et Quodlibetales, and Opuscula Theologica. He gave a new and systematic foundation to the doctrine of the Church's treasury of works of supererogation, to that of withholding the cup from the laity in the communion, and to that of transubstantiation. He also treated Christian morals according to an arrangement of his own, and with a comprehensiveness that procured him the title of the "Father of Moral Philosophy." The definiteness, clearness, and completeness of his method of handling the theology of the Church gave his works a superiority over the text-books of the earlier writers on systematic theology. His Summa Theologiæ is the first attempt at a complete theological system, but he died ere he could complete it. In his philosophical writings, the ablest of which is his Summa de Veritate Catholicæ Fidei contra Gentiles. He throws new light upon the most abstract truths. The circumstance of Aquinas being a Dominican, and boasted of by his order as their great ornament excited the jealousy of the Franciscans against him. In the beginning of the fourteenth century Duns Scotus (q.v.), a Franciscan, came forward as the declared opponent of the doctrines of Aquinas, and founded the philosophicotheological school of the Scotists, to whom the Thomists, mostly Dominicans, stood opposed. The Thomists leaned in philosophy to nominalism (q.v.), although they held the abstract form to be the essence of things; they followed the doctrines of Augustine as to grace, and disputed the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin. The Scotists, again, inclined to realism and to views of the Semipelagians and upheld the immaculate conception.

Aquinas's life was spent in such great toil, not only as an author but as a teacher and as the trusted servant of his order and the adviser of popes, that it was comparatively brief. Yet its literary product was enormous. His mind was remarkably clear, so that although he was the very embodiment of the scholastic method of endless analysis and questionings, he wrote in a way intelligible and interesting to the modern reader. One of his great services is the prominence he gives to Aristotle, upon whose works he wrote elaborate commentaries. Plato also was his master, and to the fathers he yielded loyal submission. He also was a profound Bible student, as he showed in his Catena Aurea, which is an exhaustive theological interpretation of the Gospels. In fact, take him all in all, there is no theologian of the past who deserves and rewards study more than be, and the Roman Church does well in accepting him as her great master in theology. Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical, "Æterni patris" (Aug. 4, 1879) . declared that the philosophy and theology of Aquinas was the proper basis for all such teaching in Catholic Christendom.

His works, all written in Latin, were first printed by Pope Pius V (Rome 1570-71, 17 vols., folio; mod. ed., Paris, 1871-80, 34 vols., 8vo; probably final form, sanctioned by Pope Leo VIII, Rome, 1882) . The greatest of the works, the Summa Theologiæ, was reprinted in 8 volumes (Paris, 1869) ; German translation, 12 volumes (Ratisbon, 1886-92) . The Summa de Veritate Catholicæ Fidei has been published in French, with Latin text (Paris, 1864). Modern English translations of parts of all the works have been published as follows: Catena Aurea (8 vols., London, 1841-45); On the Rulers and Members of Christian States, from De Regimine Principum (London, 1860); Homilies upon the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays of the Christian Year, and the Festival Homilies (London, 1873); On the Two Commandments of Charity and the Ten Commandments of the Law (London, 1880); Notes on the Angels (London, 1888); Maxims and Prayers and the Little Office (London, 1890); On the Sacrament (London, 1890); Aquinas Ethicus, or the Moral Teachings of St. Thomas. (London, 1892); The Lord's Prayer, made up of parts of the Summa, in condensed translation (London, 1892).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. I (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 792-794.