Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

340 A Q U
Aquinas. Tuscan army, were directed to intercept the passage of the
' travellers, who had proceeded no farther than Acquapen-
dente, when the young friar was suddenly seized while re¬
posing by a wayside fountain, and carried back to Rocca
Sicca. Here he was kept for two years in close confinement,
while his relatives exhausted in vain every argument and
temptation which could have moved a less resolute spirit from
its steadfastness. He employed his solitude profitably in
meditation and study, having procured through his sisters a
Bible, the Logic of Aristotle, and the Sentences of Lombard.
Having at length succeeded in making his escape, he at once
joined the Dominicans at Naples, and was soon after sent
to study under Albert the Great, at Cologne. Here his taci¬
turn and meditative deportment excited the contempt of his
more loquacious fellow-students, who bestowed on him the
title of the Dumb Ox of Sicily. His great teacher discern¬
ing better the profound genius of his silent pupil, told them
that “ When the dumb ox began to bellow', he would fill the
world with the sound of his voice.”
In 1245, Aquinas followed his master to Paris, returning
with him at the end of three years to Cologne. In 1253
he again went to Paris, to fulfil the customary term of three
years for obtaining his degree as doctor of theology. His
lectures during that time were attended by crowds of en¬
thusiastic scholars. The reception of his degree was ob¬
structed by the contest of his order with the University of
Paris, headed by William of St Amour. Both parties were
summoned to plead their cause at Rome. Aquinas appeared
as the champion of the mendicant orders, and the result of
his powerful pleading was the condemnation of his adver¬
sary. In October 1257, he received his degree on the same
day with his saintly friend Bonaventura.
For three years longer he continued at Paris, assiduous
in teaching, preaching, and writing. His relative Louis IX.
invited him frequently to the court, and sought his counsel
on state affairs. The story of his one day startling the com¬
pany at the royal table by exclaiming, out of an absorbing fit
of meditation, “ Conclusum, est contra Manichceos !” is per¬
haps more generally familiar than his pointed reply to Pope
Innocent IV. Aquinas found the Holy Father seated by a
table covered with piles of indulgence-money. “ You see,”
said the Pontiff, “ the church is no longer in the days when
she could say, ‘ Silver and gold have I none.’” “ True, Holy
Father,” said Aquinas, “ and she is therefore as little able to
say to the sick of the palsy ‘ Hise up and walk.’ ”
In 1261 Aquinas w as summoned to Rome by Urban IV.,
and for several years lectured there and in the principal cities
of Italy. In 1263 he attended the Dominican chapter held
in London. Two years after he declined the offer made to
him by Clement IV. of the archbishopric of Naples, as well
as the more congenial office of Abbot of Monte Cassino.
In 1269 he again visited Paris ; and in 1272 was recalled to
Naples. In January 1274 he was summoned by Pope Gre¬
gory X. to attend the council convoked at Lyons to settle the
differences between the Greek and Latin churches. Though
suffering fi om illness, he at once set out on the journey. Find¬
ing his strength failing on the way, he was carried to the Cis¬
tercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, in the diocese of Terra-
cina, quoting, as he entered the cloister, the words of the
psalm “Hsecrequies meain saeculasaeculorum!” After linger¬
ing for some weeks, he expired on the 7th of March 1274.
About a century after, his body, for the possession of which
many cities had eagerly contested, was removed to Toulouse,
and buried with much pomp in the Dominican Church.
The highest honours which the church could bestow were
awarded to the memory of Aquinas. The Angelic and Uni¬
versal Doctor, the Angel of the Schools, and the Eagle of
Theologians, were among the admiring titles conferred on
the greatest of the schoolmen. He was canonized in 1323
by Pope John XXII.; and in 1567 Pius V. ranked the
A R A
festival of St Thomas with those of the four great Latin Aquino \
doctors, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. Still ||
higher is the honour implied in the fact that the repeated Aral)esqu
testimony of the church has stamped the authority of Aquinas Vs“v**
with a kind of minor infallibility.
Any just estimate of his character and works would in¬
volve a view of the whole scholastic system, which attained
in him its highest and most comprehensive development.
The most philosophical of all the schoolmen, as his master
Albert was the most learned, he consummated the harmony
of the Aristotelic philosophy with the doctrines of the church;
and to him mainly was due their all but exclusive empire till
the era of the Reformation. With reference solely to his
ethical system, Sir James Mackintosh ^Prelim. Diss., p. 328)
speaks of Aquinas as “ the moral master of Christendom for
three centuries.” Those, indeed, who are accustomed to re¬
gard the scholastic philosophy indiscriminately as a system of
mere laborious trifling, may find some scope for ridicule in the
endless divisions and subtle questions of the Angelic Doctor
on the nature and properties of angels and other impractical
themes ; but if the unvarying dialectical force and the occa¬
sional profound suggestiveness arouse no sympathy with the
mediaeval admiration of “ friar Thomas and his goodly lore,”
it is to be feared that the fault is not wholly with the writer.
The mental fecundity which in so brief and interrupted a
lifetime produced a mass of writings so voluminous, is in
itself wonderful, but more remarkable is the power of con¬
tinuous thinking which left its impress upon them all. The
striking harmony of thought between Aquinas and Augus¬
tine, suggested the fanciful conception that the soul of the
African bishop had reappeared after seven centuries in the
body of the Italian monk. In him was again seen the union
of the highest philosophical power with the most simple and
fervent piety, the vigour and acuteness of a master-intellect,
with the unearthly humility and devotion of the saint.
The best edition of the works of Aquinas (Rome, 1570-71)
is in 17 vols. (18 tom.) folio. These consist of commen¬
taries on Aristotle ; commentaries on the Scriptures; the
Summa Theologice, his greatest work, and the most complete
and extensive body of theological and moral science ever at¬
tempted ; his Summa adversus Gentiles ; and miscellaneous
pieces {Opuscula). They include also several Latin hymns.
The followers of Aquinas were called Thomists. Their
fruitless contentions with the Scotists or disciples of the great
Franciscan Duns Scotus, long divided the schools.
AQUINO, the ancient Aquinum, a town and bishop’s
see of Naples, in Terra di Lavoro. It was one of the chief
cities of the Volsci, but has now only 1100 inhabitants. It
contains numerous Roman remains, including an amphi¬
theatre and a triumphal arch. Here Juvenal was born ;
and, according to some, Thomas Aquinas.
Aquino, Carlo d% an Italian writer, born at Naples in
1654. He was long professor of rhetoric at Rome. His
principal works are poems and dictionaries. He translated
Dante into Latin verse, but his version has little merit. He
died at Rome in 1737.
AQUI TANIA, one of Caesar’s great divisions of Gaul.
It was not subdued until the reign of Augustus, who ex¬
tended its limits to the Loire and Cevennes range. In the
reign of Honorius it was conquered by the Visigoths, from
whom it was wrested by Clovis. Thenceforth it was con¬
sidered as part of France, until it fell by marriage into the
hands of Henry II. of England. It was an apanage of the
English monarchs, until Charles VII. finally united it to the
French crown, by the capture of Bordeaux in 1452.
ARABESQUE, Grotesque, and Moresque, are terms ap¬
plied to paintings and ornaments which consist wholly of
foliage, plants, stalks, &c.—the Moors, Arabs, and other
Mahometans being forbidden by their religion from making
any images or figures of men or animals.