AETERNI
PATRIS
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII
ON THE RESTORATION OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY
To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and
Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.
The only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father,
who came on earth to bring salvation and the light of divine wisdom
to men, conferred a great and wonderful blessing on the world
when, about to ascend again into heaven, He commanded the Apostles
to go and teach all nations,(1) and left the Church which He had
founded to be the common and supreme teacher of the peoples. For
men whom the truth had set free were to be preserved by the truth;
nor would the fruits of heavenly doctrines by which salvation
comes to men have long remained had not the Lord Christ appointed
an unfailing teaching authority to train the minds to faith. And
the Church built upon the promises of its own divine Author, whose
charity it imitated, so faithfully followed out His commands that
its constant aim and chief wish was this: to teach religion and
contend forever against errors. To this end assuredly have tended
the incessant labors of individual bishops; to this end also the
published laws and decrees of councils, and especially the constant
watchfulness of the Roman Pontiffs, to whom, as successors of
the blessed Peter in the primacy of the Apostles, belongs the
right and office of teaching and confirming their brethren in
the faith. Since, then, according to the warning of the apostle,
the minds of Christ's faithful are apt to be deceived and the
integrity of the faith to be corrupted among men by philosophy
and vain deceit,(2) the supreme pastors of the Church have always
thought it their duty to advance, by every means in their power,
science truly so called, and at the same time to provide with
special care that all studies should accord with the Catholic
faith, especially philosophy, on which a right interpretation
of the other sciences in great part depends. Indeed, venerable
brethren, on this very subject among others, We briefly admonished
you in Our first encyclical letter; but now, both by reason of
the gravity of the subject and the condition of the time, we are
again compelled to speak to you on the mode of taking up the study
of philosophy which shall respond most fitly to the excellence
of faith, and at the same time be consonant with the dignity of
human science.
2. Whoso turns his attention to the bitter strifes
of these days and seeks a reason for the troubles that vex public
and private life must come to the conclusion that a fruitful cause
of the evils which now afflict, as well as those which threaten,
us lies in this: that false conclusions concerning divine and
human things, which originated in the schools of philosophy, have
now crept into all the orders of the State, and have been accepted
by the common consent of the masses. For, since it is in the very
nature of man to follow the guide of reason in his actions, if
his intellect sins at all his will soon follows; and thus it happens
that false opinions, whose seat is in the understanding, influence
human actions and pervert them. Whereas, on the other hand, if
men be of sound mind and take their stand on true and solid principles,
there will result a vast amount of benefits for the public and
private good. We do not, indeed, attribute such force and authority
to philosophy as to esteem it equal to the task of combating and
rooting out all errors; for, when the Christian religion was first
constituted, it came upon earth to restore it to its primeval
dignity by the admirable light of faith, diffused "not by
persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the manifestation of
spirit and of power",(3) so also at the present time we look
above all things to the powerful help of Almighty God to bring
back to a right understanding the minds of man and dispel the
darkness of error.(4) But the natural helps with which the grace
of the divine wisdom, strongly and sweetly disposing all things,
has supplied the human race are neither to be despised nor neglected,
chief among which is evidently the right use of philosophy. For,
not in vain did God set the light of reason in the human mind;
and so far is the super-added light of faith from extinguishing
or lessening the power of the intelligence that it completes it
rather, and by adding to its strength renders it capable of greater
things.
3. Therefore, Divine Providence itself requires
that, in calling back the people to the paths of faith and salvation,
advantage should be taken of human science also-an approved and
wise practice which history testifies was observed by the most
illustrious Fathers of the Church. They, indeed, were wont neither
to belittle nor undervalue the part that reason had to play, as
is summed up by the great Augustine when he attributes to this
science "that by which the most wholesome faith is begotten
. . . is nourished, defended, and made strong."(5)
4. In the first place, philosophy, if rightly
made use of by the wise, in a certain way tends to smooth and
fortify the road to true faith, and to prepare the souls of its
disciples for the fit reception of revelation; for which reason
it is well called by ancient writers sometimes a steppingstone
to the Christian faith,(6) sometimes the prelude and help of Christianity,(7)
sometimes the Gospel teacher.(8) And, assuredly, the God of all
goodness, in all that pertains to divine things, has not only
manifested by the light of faith those truths which human intelligence
could not attain of itself, but others, also, not altogether unattainable
by reason, that by the help of divine authority they may be made
known to all at once and without any admixture of error. Hence
it is that certain truths which were either divinely proposed
for belief, or were bound by the closest chains to the doctrine
of faith, were discovered by pagan sages with nothing but their
natural reason to guide them, were demonstrated and proved by
becoming arguments. For, as the Apostle says, the invisible things
of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made: His eternal power also
and divinity;(9) and the Gentiles who have not the Law show, nevertheless,
the work of the Law written in their hearts.(10) But it is most
fitting to turn these truths, which have been discovered by the
pagan sages even, to the use and purposes of revealed doctrine,
in order to show that both human wisdom and the very testimony
of our adversaries serve to support the Christian faith-a method
which is not of recent introduction, but of established use, and
has often been adopted by the holy Fathers of the Church. What
is more, those venerable men, the witnesses and guardians of religious
traditions, recognize a certain form and figure of this in the
action of the Hebrews, who, when about to depart out of Egypt,
were commanded to take with them the gold and silver vessels and
precious robes of the Egyptians, that by a change of use the things
might be dedicated to the service of the true God which had formerly
been the instruments of ignoble and superstitious rites. Gregory
of NeoCaesarea(11) praises Origen expressly because, with singular
dexterity, as one snatches weapons from the enemy, he turned to
the defense of Christian wisdom and to the destruction of superstition
many arguments drawn from the writings of the pagans. And both
Gregory of Nazianzen(12) and Gregory of Nyssa(13)praise and commend
a like mode of disputation in Basil the Great; while Jerome(14)
especially commends it in Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles,
in Aristides, Justin, Irenaeus, and very many others. Augustine
says: "Do we not see Cyprian, that mildest of doctors and
most blessed of martyrs, going out of Egypt laden with gold and
silver and vestments? And Lactantius, also and Victorinus, Optatus
and Hilary? And, not to speak of the living, how many Greeks have
done likewise?"(15) But if natural reason first sowed this
rich field of doctrine before it was rendered fruitful by the
power of Christ, it must assuredly become more prolific after
the grace of the Saviour has renewed and added to the native faculties
of the human mind. And who does not see that a plain and easy
road is opened up to faith by such a method of philosophic study?
5. But the advantage to be derived from such
a school of philosophy is not to be confined within these limits.
The foolishness of those men who "by these good things that
are seen could not understand Him, that is, neither by attending
to the works could have acknowledged who was the workman,"(16)
is gravely reproved in the words of Divine Wisdom. In the first
place, then, this great and noble fruit is gathered from human
reason, that it demonstrates that God is; for the greatness of
the beauty and of the creature the Creator of them may be seen
so as to be known thereby.(17) Again, it shows God to excel in
the height of all perfections, especially in infinite wisdom before
which nothing lies hidden, and in absolute justice which no depraved
affection could possibly shake; and that God, therefore, is not
only true but truth itself, which can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Whence it clearly follows that human reason finds the fullest
faith and authority united in the word of God. In like manner,
reason declares that the doctrine of the Gospel has even from
its very beginning been made manifest by certain wonderful signs,
the established proofs, as it were, of unshaken truth; and that
all, therefore, who set faith in the Gospel do not believe rashly
as though following cunningly devised fables,(18) but, by a most
reasonable consent, subject their intelligence and judgment to
an authority which is divine. And of no less importance is it
that reason most clearly sets forth that the Church instituted
by Christ (as laid down in the Vatican Council), on account of
its wonderful spread, its marvellous sanctity, and its inexhaustible
fecundity in all places, as well as of its Catholic unity and
unshaken stability, is in itself a great and perpetual motive
of belief and an irrefragable testimony of its own divine mission.(19)
6. Its solid foundations having been thus laid,
a perpetual and varied service is further required of philosophy,
in order that sacred theology may receive and assume the nature,
form, and genius of a true science. For in this, the most noble
of studies, it is of the greatest necessity to bind together,
as it were, in one body the many and various parts of the heavenly
doctrines, that, each being allotted to its own proper place and
derived from its own proper principles, the whole may join together
in a complete union; in order, in fine, that all and each part
may be strengthened by its own and the others' invincible arguments.
Nor is that more accurate or fuller knowledge of the things that
are believed, and somewhat more lucid understanding, as far as
it can go, of the very mysteries of faith which Augustine and
the other fathers commended and strove to reach, and which the
Vatican Council itself(20) declared to be most fruitful, to be
passed over in silence or belittled. Those will certainly more
fully and more easily attain that knowledge and understanding
who to integrity of life and love of faith join a mind rounded
and finished by philosophic studies, as the same Vatican Council
teaches that the knowledge of such sacred dogmas ought to be sought
as well from analogy of the things that are naturally known as
from the connection of those mysteries one with another and with
the final end of man.(21)
7. Lastly, the duty of religiously defending
the truths divinely delivered, and of resisting those who dare
oppose them, pertains to philosophic pursuits. Wherefore, it is
the glory of philosophy to be esteemed as the bulwark of faith
and the strong defense of religion. As Clement of Alexandria testifies,
the doctrine of the Saviour is indeed perfect in itself and wanteth
naught, since it is the power and wisdom of God. And the assistance
of the Greek philosophy maketh not the truth more powerful; but,
inasmuch as it weakens the contrary arguments of the sophists
and repels the veiled attacks against the truth, it has been fitly
called the hedge and fence of the vine.(22) For, as the enemies
of the Catholic name, when about to attack religion, are in the
habit of borrowing their weapons from the arguments of philosophers,
so the defenders of sacred science draw many arguments from the
store of philosophy which may serve to uphold revealed dogmas.
Nor is the triumph of the Christian faith a small one in using
human reason to repel powerfully and speedily the attacks of its
adversaries by the hostile arms which human reason itself supplied.
This species of religious strife St. Jerome, writing to Magnus,
notices as having been adopted by the Apostle of the Gentiles
himself; Paul, the leader of the Christian army and the invincible
orator, battling for the cause of Christ, skillfully turns even
a chance inscription into an argument for the faith; for he had
learned from the true David to wrest the sword from the hands
of the enemy and to cut off the head of the boastful Goliath with
his own weapon.(23) Moreover, the Church herself not only urges,
but even commands, Christian teachers to seek help from philosophy.
For, the fifth Lateran Council, after it had decided that "every
assertion contrary to the truth of revealed faith is altogether
false, for the reason that it contradicts, however slightly, the
truth,"(24) advises teachers of philosophy to pay close attention
to the exposition of fallacious arguments; since, as Augustine
testifies, "if reason is turned against the authority of
sacred Scripture, no matter how specious it may seem, it errs
in the likeness of truth; for true it cannot be."(25)
8. But in order that philosophy may be bound
equal to the gathering of those precious fruits which we have
indicated, it behooves it above all things never to turn aside
from that path which the Fathers have entered upon from a venerable
antiquity, and which the Vatican Council solemnly and authoritatively
approved. As it is evident that very many truths of the supernatural
order which are far beyond the reach of the keenest intellect
must be accepted, human reason, conscious of its own infirmity,
dare not affect to itself too great powers, nor deny those truths,
nor measure them by its own standard, nor interpret them at will;
but receive them, rather, with a full and humble faith, and esteem
it the highest honor to be allowed to wait upon heavenly doctrines
like a handmaid and attendant, and by God's goodness attain to
them in any way whatsoever. But in the case of such doctrines
as the human intelligence may perceive, it is equally just that
philosophy should make use of its own method, principles, and
arguments-not, indeed, in such fashion as to seem rashly to withdraw
from the divine authority. But, since it is established that those
things which become known by revelation have the force of certain
truth, and that those things which war against faith war equally
against right reason, the Catholic philosopher will know that
he violates at once faith and the laws of reason if he accepts
any conclusion which he understands to be opposed to revealed
doctrine.
9. We know that there are some who, in their
overestimate of the human faculties, maintain that as soon as
man's intellect becomes subject to divine authority it falls from
its native dignity, and hampered by the yoke of this species of
slavery, is much retarded and hindered in its progress toward
the supreme truth and excellence. Such an idea is most false and
deceptive, and its sole tendency is to induce foolish and ungrateful
men wilfully to repudiate the most sublime truths, and reject
the divine gift of faith, from which the fountains of all good
things flow out upon civil society. For the human mind, being
confined within certain limits, and those narrow enough, is exposed
to many errors and is ignorant of many things; whereas the Christian
faith, reposing on the authority of God, is the unfailing mistress
of truth, whom whoso followeth he will be neither enmeshed in
the snares of error nor tossed hither and thither on the waves
of fluctuating opinion. Those, therefore, who to the study of
philosophy unite obedience to the Christian faith, are philosophizing
in the best possible way; for the splendor of the divine truths,
received into the mind, helps the understanding, and not only
detracts in nowise from its dignity, but adds greatly to its nobility,
keenness, and stability. For surely that is a worthy and most
useful exercise of reason when men give their minds to disproving
those things which are repugnant to faith and proving the things
which conform to faith. In the first case they cut the ground
from under the feet of error and expose the viciousness of the
arguments on which error rests; while in the second case they
make themselves masters of weighty reasons for the sound demonstration
of truth and the satisfactory instruction of any reasonable person.
Whoever denies that such study and practice tend to add to the
resources and expand the faculties of the mind must necessarily
and absurdly hold that the mind gains nothing from discriminating
between the true and the false. Justly, therefore, does the Vatican
Council commemorate in these words the great benefits which faith
has conferred upon reason: Faith frees and saves reason from error,
and endows it with manifold knowledge.(26) A wise man, therefore,
would not accuse faith and look upon it as opposed to reason and
natural truths, but would rather offer heartfelt thanks to God,
and sincerely rejoice that, in the density of ignorance and in
the flood-tide of error, holy faith, like a friendly star, shines
down upon his path and points out to him the fair gate of truth
beyond all danger of wandering.
10. If, venerable brethren, you open the history
of philosophy, you will find all We have just said proved by experience.
The philosophers of old who lacked the gift of faith, yet were
esteemed so wise, fell into many appalling errors. You know how
often among some truths they taught false and incongruous things;
what vague and doubtful opinions they held concerning the nature
of the Divinity, the first origin of things, the government of
the world, the divine knowledge of the future, the cause and principle
of evil, the ultimate end of man, the eternal beatitude, concerning
virtue and vice, and other matters, a true and certain knowledge
of which is most necessary to the human race; while, on the other
hand, the early Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who well understood
that, according to the divine plan, the restorer of human science
is Christ, who is the power and the wisdom of God,(27) and in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,(28) took
up and investigated the books of the ancient philosophers, and
compared their teachings with the doctrines of revelation, and,
carefully sifting them, they cherished what was true and wise
in them and amended or rejected all else. For, as the all-seeing
God against the cruelty of tyrants raised up mighty martyrs to
the defense of the Church, men prodigal of their great lives,
in like manner to false philosophers and heretics He opposed men
of great wisdom, to defend, even by the aid of human reason, the
treasure of revealed truths. Thus, from the very first ages of
the Church, the Catholic doctrine has encountered a multitude
of most bitter adversaries, who, deriding the Christian dogmas
and institutions, maintained that there were many gods, that the
material world never had a beginning or cause, and that the course
of events was one of blind and fatal necessity, not regulated
by the will of Divine Providence.
11. But the learned men whom We call apologists
speedily encountered these teachers of foolish doctrine and, under
the guidance of faith, found arguments in human wisdom also to
prove that one God, who stands pre-eminent in every kind of perfection,
is to be worshiped; that all things were created from nothing
by His omnipotent power; that by His wisdom they flourish and
serve each their own special purposes. Among these St. Justin
Martyr claims the chief place.After having tried the most celebrated
academies of the Greeks, he saw clearly, as he himself confesses,
that he could only draw truths in their fullness from the doctrine
of revelation. These he embraced with all the ardor of his soul,
purged of calumny, courageously and fully defended before the
Roman emperors, and reconciled with them not a few of the sayings
of the Greek philosophers.
12. Quadratus, also, and Aristides, Hermias,
and Athenagoras stood nobly forth in that time. Nor did Irenaeus,
the invincible martyr and Bishop of Lyons, win less glory in the
same cause when, forcibly refuting the perverse opinions of the
Orientals, the work of the Gnostics, scattered broadcast over
the territories of the Roman Empire, he explained (according to
Jerome) the origin of each heresy and in what philosophic source
it took its rise.(29) But who knows not the disputations of Clement
of Alexandria, which the same Jerome thus honorably commemorates:
"What is there in them that is not learned, and what that
is not of the very heart of philosophy?"(30) He himself,
indeed, with marvellous versatility treated of many things of
the greatest utility for preparing a history of philosophy, for
the exercise of the dialectic art, and for showing the agreement
between reason and faith. After him came Origen, who graced the
chair of the school of Alexandria, and was most learned in the
teachings of the Greeks and Orientals. He published many volumes,
involving great labor, which were wonderfully adapted to explain
the divine writings and illustrate the sacred dogmas; which, though,
as they now stand, not altogether free from error, contain nevertheless
a wealth of knowledge tending to the growth and advance of natural
truths. Tertullian opposes heretics with the authority of the
sacred writings; with the philosophers he changes his fence and
disputes philosophically; but so learnedly and accurately did
he confute them that he made bold to say: "Neither in science
nor in schooling are we equals, as you imagine."(31) Arnobius,
also, in his works against the pagans, and Lactantius in the divine
Institutions especially, with equal eloquence and strength strenuously
strive to move men to accept the dogmas and precepts of Catholic
wisdom, not by philosophic juggling, after the fashion of the
Academicians, but vanquishing them partly by their own arms, and
partly by arguments drawn from the mutual contentions of the philosophers.(32)
But the writings on the human soul, the divine attributes, and
other questions of mighty moment which the great Athanasius and
Chrysostom, the prince of orators, have left behind them are,
by common consent, so supremely excellent that it seems scarcely
anything could be added to their subtlety and fulness. And, not
to cover too wide a range, we add to the number of the great men
of whom mention has been made the names of Basil the Great and
of the two Gregories, who, on going forth from Athens, that home
of all learning, thoroughly equipped with all the harness of philosophy,
turned the wealth of knowledge which each had gathered up in a
course of zealous study to the work of refuting heretics and preparing
Christians.
13. But Augustine would seem to have wrested
the palm from all. Of a most powerful genius and thoroughly saturated
with sacred and profane learning, with the loftiest faith and
with equal knowledge, he combated most vigorously all the errors
of his age. What topic of philosophy did he not investigate? What
region of it did he not diligently explore, either in expounding
the loftiest mysteries of the faith to the faithful, or defending
them against the full onslaught of adversaries, or again when,
in demolishing the fables of the Academicians or the Manichaeans,
he laid the safe foundations and sure structure of human science,
or followed up the reason, origin, and causes of the evils that
afflict man? How subtly he reasoned on the angels, the soul, the
human mind, the will and free choice, on religion and the life
of the blessed, on time and eternity, and even on the very nature
of changeable bodies. Afterwards, in the East, John Damascene,
treading in the footsteps of Basil and of Gregory of Nazianzen,
and in the West, Boethius and Anselm following the doctrines of
Augustine, added largely to the patrimony of philosophy.
14. Later on, the doctors of the middle ages,
who are called Scholastics, addressed themselves to a great work-that
of diligently collecting, and sifting, and storing up, as it were,
in one place, for the use and convenience of posterity the rich
and fertile harvests of Christian learning scattered abroad in
the voluminous works of the holy Fathers. And with regard, venerable
brethren, to the origin, drift, and excellence of this scholastic
learning, it may be well here to speak more fully in the words
of one of the wisest of Our predecessors, Sixtus V: "By the
divine favor of Him who alone gives the spirit of science wisdom,
and understanding, and who thou ages, as there may be need, enriches
His Church with new blessings and strengthens it with safeguards,
there was founded by Our fathers, men of eminent wisdom, the scholastic
theology, which two glorious doctors in particular angelic St.
Thomas and the seraphic St. Bonaventure, illustrious teachers
of this faculty, . . .with surpassing genius, by unwearied diligence,
and at the cost of long labors and vigils, set in order and beautified,
and when skilfuly arranged and clearly explained in a variety
of ways, handed down to posterity.
15. "And, indeed, the knowledge and use
of so salutary a science, which flows from the fertilizing founts
of the sacred writings, the sovereign Pontiffs, the holy Fathers
and the councils, must always be of the greatest assistance to
the Church, whether with the view of really and soundly understanding
and interpreting the Scriptures, or more safely and to better
purpose reading and explaining the Fathers, or for exposing and
refuting the various errors and heresies; and in these late days,
when those dangerous times described by the Apostle are already
upon us, when the blasphemers, the proud, and the seducers go
from bad to worse, erring themselves and causing others to err,
there is surely a very great need of confirming the dogmas of
Catholic faith and confuting heresies."
16. Although these words seem to bear reference
solely to Scholastic theology, nevertheless they may plainly be
accepted as equally true of philosophy and its praises. For, the
noble endowments which make the Scholastic theology so formidable
to the enemies of truth-to wit, as the same Pontiff adds, "that
ready and close coherence of cause and effect, that order and
array as of a disciplined army in battle, those clear definitions
and distinctions, that strength of argument and those keen discussions,
by which light is distinguished from darkness, the true from the
false, expose and strip naked, as it were, the falsehoods of heretics
wrapped around by a cloud of subterfuges and fallacies"(33)
- those noble and admirable endowments, We say, are only to be
found in a right use of that philosophy which the Scholastic teachers
have been accustomed carefully and prudently to make use of even
in theological disputations. Moreover, since it is the proper
and special office of the Scholastic theologians to bind together
by the fastest chain human and divine science, surely the theology
in which they excelled would not have gained such honor and commendation
among men if they had made use of a lame and imperfect or vain
philosophy.
17. Among the Scholastic Doctors, the chief and
master of all towers Thomas Aquinas, who, as Cajetan observes,
because "he most venerated the ancient doctors of the Church,
in a certain way seems to have inherited the intellect of all."(34)
The doctrines of those illustrious men, like the scattered members
of a body, Thomas collected together and cemented, distributed
in wonderful order, and so increased with important additions
that he is rightly and deservedly esteemed the special bulwark
and glory of the Catholic faith. With his spirit at once humble
and swift, his memory ready and tenacious, his life spotless throughout,
a lover of truth for its own sake, richly endowed with human and
divine science, like the sun he heated the world with the warmth
of his virtues and filled it with the splendor of his teaching.
Philosophy has no part which he did not touch finely at once and
thoroughly; on the laws of reasoning, on God and incorporeal substances,
on man and other sensible things, on human actions and their principles,
he reasoned in such a manner that in him there is wanting neither
a full array of questions, nor an apt disposal of the various
parts, nor the best method of proceeding, nor soundness of principles
or strength of argument, nor clearness and elegance of style,
nor a facility for explaining what is abstruse.
18. Moreover, the Angelic Doctor pushed his philosophic
inquiry into the reasons and principles of things, which because
they are most comprehensive and contain in their bosom, so to
say, the seeds of almost infinite truths, were to be unfolded
in good time by later masters and with a goodly yield. And as
he also used this philosophic method in the refutation of error,
he won this title to distinction for himself: that, single-handed,
he victoriously combated the errors of former times, and supplied
invincible arms to put those to rout which might in after-times
spring up. Again, clearly distinguishing, as is fitting, reason
from faith, while happily associating the one with the other,
he both preserved the rights and had regard for the dignity of
each; so much so, indeed, that reason, borne on the wings of Thomas
to its human height, can scarcely rise higher, while faith could
scarcely expect more or stronger aids from reason than those which
she has already obtained through Thomas.
19. For these reasons most learned men, in former
ages especially, of the highest repute in theology and philosophy,
after mastering with infinite pains the immortal works of Thomas,
gave themselves up not so much to be instructed in his angelic
wisdom as to be nourished upon it. It is known that nearly all
the founders and lawgivers of the religious orders commanded their
members to study and religiously adhere to the teachings of St.
Thomas, fearful least any of them should swerve even in the slightest
degree from the footsteps of so great a man. To say nothing of
the family of St. Dominic, which rightly claims this great teacher
for its own glory, the statutes of the Benedictines, the Carmelites,
the Augustinians, the Society of Jesus, and many others all testify
that they are bound by this law.
20. And, here, how pleasantly one's thoughts
fly back to those celebrated schools and universities which flourished
of old in Europe - to Paris, Salamanca, Alcalá, to Douay,
Toulouse, and Louvain, to Padua and Bologna, to Naples and Coimbra,
and to many another! All know how the fame of these seats of learning
grew with their years, and that their judgment, often asked in
matters of grave moment, held great weight everywhere. And we
know how in those great homes of human wisdom, as in his own kingdom,
Thomas reigned supreme; and that the minds of all, of teachers
as well as of taught, rested in wonderful harmony under the shield
and authority of the Angelic Doctor.
21. But, furthermore, Our predecessors in the
Roman pontificate have celebrated the wisdom of Thomas Aquinas
by exceptional tributes of praise and the most ample testimonials.
Clement VI in the bull In Ordine; Nicholas V in his brief to the
friars of the Order of Preachers, 1451; Benedict XIII in the bull
Pretiosus, and others bear witness that the universal Church borrows
lustre from his admirable teaching; while St. Pius V declares
in the bull Mirabilis that heresies, confounded and convicted
by the same teaching, were dissipated, and the whole world daily
freed from fatal errors; others, such as Clement XII in the bull
Verbo Dei, affirm that most fruitful blessings have spread abroad
from his writings over the whole Church, and that he is worthy
of the honor which is bestowed on the greatest Doctors of the
Church, on Gregory and Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome; while others
have not hesitated to propose St. Thomas for the exemplar and
master of the universities and great centers of learning whom
they may follow with unfaltering feet. On which point the words
of Blessed Urban V to the University of Toulouse are worthy of
recall: "It is our will, which We hereby enjoin upon you,
that ye follow the teaching of Blessed Thomas as the true and
Catholic doctrine and that ye labor with all your force to profit
by the same."(35) Innocent XII, followed the example of Urban
in the case of the University of Louvain, in the letter in the
form of a brief addressed to that university on February 6, 1694,
and Benedict XIV in the letter in the form of a brief addressed
on August 26, 1752, to the Dionysian College in Granada; while
to these judgments of great Pontiffs on Thomas Aquinas comes the
crowning testimony of Innocent VI: "His teaching above that
of others, the canonical writings alone excepted, enjoys such
a precision of language, an order of matters, a truth of conclusions,
that those who hold to it are never found swerving from the path
of truth, and he who dare assail it will always be suspected of
error."(36)
22. The ecumenical councils, also, where blossoms
the flower of all earthly wisdom, have always been careful to
hold Thomas Aquinas in singular honor. In the Councils of Lyons,
Vienna, Florence, and the Vatican one might almost say that Thomas
took part and presided over the deliberations and decrees of the
Fathers, contending against the errors of the Greeks, of heretics
and rationalists, with invincible force and with the happiest
results. But the chief and special glory of Thomas, one which
he has shared with none of the Catholic Doctors, is that the Fathers
of Trent made it part of the order of conclave to lay upon the
altar, together with sacred Scripture and the decrees of the supreme
Pontiffs, the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, whence to seek counsel,
reason, and inspiration.
23. A last triumph was reserved for this incomparable
man-namely, to compel the homage, praise, and admiration of even
the very enemies of the Catholic name. For it has come to light
that there were not lacking among the leaders of heretical sects
some who openly declared that, if the teaching of Thomas Aquinas
were only taken away, they could easily battle with all Catholic
teachers, gain the victory, and abolish the Church.(37) A vain
hope, indeed, but no vain testimony.
24. Therefore, venerable brethren, as often as
We contemplate the good, the force, and the singular advantages
to be derived from his philosophic discipline which Our Fathers
so dearly loved. We think it hazardous that its special honor
should not always and everywhere remain, especially when it is
established that daily experience, and the judgment of the greatest
men, and, to crown all, the voice of the Church, have favored
the Scholastic philosophy. Moreover, to the old teaching a novel
system of philosophy has succeeded here and there, in which We
fail to perceive those desirable and wholesome fruits which the
Church and civil society itself would prefer. For it pleased the
struggling innovators of the sixteenth century to philosophize
without any respect for faith, the power of inventing in accordance
with his own pleasure and bent being asked and given in turn by
each one. Hence, it was natural that systems of philosophy multiplied
beyond measure, and conclusions differing and clashing one with
another arose about those matters even which are the most important
in human knowledge. From a mass of conclusions men often come
to wavering and doubt; and who knows not how easily the mind slips
from doubt to error? But, as men are apt to follow the lead given
them, this new pursuit seems to have caught the souls of certain
Catholic philosophers, who, throwing aside the patrimony of ancient
wisdom, chose rather to build up a new edifice than to strengthen
and complete the old by aid of the new-ill-advisedly, in sooth,
and not without detriment to the sciences. For, a multiform system
of this kind, which depends on the authority and choice of any
professor, has a foundation open to change, and consequently gives
us a philosophy not firm, and stable, and robust like that of
old, but tottering and feeble. And if, perchance, it sometimes
finds itself scarcely equal to sustain the shock of its foes,
it should recognize that the cause and the blame lie in itself.
In saying this We have no intention of discountenancing the learned
and able men who bring their industry and erudition, and, what
is more, the wealth of new discoveries, to the service of philosophy;
for, of course, We understand that this tends to the development
of learning. But one should be very careful lest all or his chief
labor be exhausted in these pursuits and in mere erudition. And
the same thing is true of sacred theology, which, indeed, may
be assisted and illustrated by all kinds of erudition, though
it is absolutely necessary to approach it in the grave manner
of the Scholastics, in order that, the forces of revelation and
reason being united in it, it may continue to be "the invincible
bulwark of the faith."(38)
25. With wise forethought, therefore, not a few
of the advocates of philosophic studies, when turning their minds
recently to the practical reform of philosophy, aimed and aim
at restoring the renowned teaching of Thomas Aquinas and winning
it back to its ancient beauty.
26. We have learned with great joy that many
members of your order, venerable brethren, have taken this plan
to heart; and while We earnestly commend their efforts, We exhort
them to hold fast to their purpose, and remind each and all of
you that Our first and most cherished idea is that you should
all furnish to studious youth a generous and copious supply of
those purest streams of wisdom flowing inexhaustibly from the
precious fountainhead of the Angelic Doctor.
27. Many are the reasons why We are so desirous
of this. In the first place, then, since in the tempest that is
on us the Christian faith is being constantly assailed by the
machinations and craft of a certain false wisdom, all youths,
but especially those who are the growing hope of the Church, should
be nourished on the strong and robust food of doctrine, that so,
mighty in strength and armed at all points, they may become habituated
to advance the cause of religion with force and judgment, "being
ready always, according to the apostolic counsel, to satisfy every
one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you,"(39)
and that they may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to convince
the gainsayers."(40) Many of those who, with minds alienated
from the faith, hate Catholic institutions, claim reason as their
sole mistress and guide. Now, We think that, apart from the supernatural
help of God, nothing is better calculated to heal those minds
and to bring them into favor with the Catholic faith than the
solid doctrine of the Fathers and the Scholastics, who so clearly
and forcibly demonstrate the firm foundations of the faith, its
divine origin, its certain truth, the arguments that sustain it,
the benefits it has conferred on the human race, and its perfect
accord with reason, in a manner to satisfy completely minds open
to persuasion, however unwilling and repugnant.
28. Domestic and civil society even, which, as
all see, is exposed to great danger from this plague of perverse
opinions, would certainly enjoy a far more peaceful and secure
existence if a more wholesome doctrine were taught in the universities
and high schools-one more in conformity with the teaching of the
Church, such as is contained in the works of Thomas Aquinas.
29. For, the teachings of Thomas on the true
meaning of liberty, which at this time is running into license,
on the divine origin of all authority, on laws and their force,
on the paternal and just rule of princes, on obedience to the
higher powers, on mutual charity one toward another-on all of
these and kindred subjects-have very great and invincible force
to overturn those principles of the new order which are well known
to be dangerous to the peaceful order of things and to public
safety. In short, all studies ought to find hope of advancement
and promise of assistance in this restoration of philosophic discipline
which We have proposed. The arts were wont to draw from philosophy,
as from a wise mistress, sound judgment and right method, and
from it, also, their spirit, as from the common fount of life.
When philosophy stood stainless in honor and wise in judgment,
then, as facts and constant experience showed, the liberal arts
flourished as never before or since; but, neglected and almost
blotted out, they lay prone, since philosophy began to lean to
error and join hands with folly. Nor will the physical sciences
themselves, which are now in such great repute, and by the renown
of so many inventions draw such universal admiration to themselves,
suffer detriment, but find very great assistance in the restoration
of the ancient philosophy. For, the investigation of facts and
the contemplation of nature is not alone sufficient for their
profitable exercise and advance; but, when facts have been established,
it is necessary to rise and apply ourselves to the study of the
nature of corporeal things, to inquire into the laws which govern
them and the principles whence their order and varied unity and
mutual attraction in diversity arise. To such investigations it
is wonderful what force and light and aid the Scholastic philosophy,
if judiciously taught, would bring.
30. And here it is well to note that our philosophy
can only by the grossest injustice be accused of being opposed
to the advance and development of natural science. For, when the
Scholastics, following the opinion of the holy Fathers, always
held in anthropology that the human intelligence is only led to
the knowledge of things without body and matter by things sensible,
they well understood that nothing was of greater use to the philosopher
than diligently to search into the mysteries of nature and to
be earnest and constant in the study of physical things. And this
they confirmed by their own example; for St. Thomas, Blessed Albertus
Magnus, and other leaders of the Scholastics were never so wholly
rapt in the study of philosophy as not to give large attention
to the knowledge of natural things; and, indeed, the number of
their sayings and writings on these subjects, which recent professors
approve of and admit to harmonize with truth, is by no means small.
Moreover, in this very age many illustrious professors of the
physical sciences openly testify that between certain and accepted
conclusions of modern physics and the philosophic principles of
the schools there is no conflict worthy of the name.
31. While, therefore, We hold that every word
of wisdom, every useful thing by whomsoever discovered or planned,
ought to be received with a willing and grateful mind, We exhort
you, venerable brethren, in all earnestness to restore the golden
wisdom of St. Thomas, and to spread it far and wide for the defense
and beauty of the Catholic faith, for the good of society, and
for the advantage of all the sciences. The wisdom of St. Thomas,
We say; for if anything is taken up with too great subtlety by
the Scholastic doctors, or too carelessly stated-if there be anything
that ill agrees with the discoveries of a later age, or, in a
word, improbable in whatever way-it does not enter Our mind to
propose that for imitation to Our age. Let carefully selected
teachers endeavor to implant the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas in
the minds of students, and set forth clearly his solidity and
excellence over others. Let the universities already founded or
to be founded by you illustrate and defend this doctrine, and
use it for the refutation of prevailing errors. But, lest the
false for the true or the corrupt for the pure be drunk in, be
ye watchful that the doctrine of Thomas be drawn from his own
fountains, or at least from those rivulets which, derived from
the very fount, have thus far flowed, according to the established
agreement of learned men, pure and clear; be careful to guard
the minds of youth from those which are said to flow thence, but
in reality are gathered from strange and unwholesome streams.
32. But well do We know that vain will be Our
efforts unless, venerable brethren, He helps Our common cause
who, in the words of divine Scripture, is called the God of all
knowledge;(41) by which we are also admonished that "every
best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of lights",(42) and again: "If any of you
want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly,
and upbraideth not: and it shall be given him."(43)
33. Therefore in this also let us follow the
example of the Angelic Doctor, who never gave himself to reading
or writing without first begging the blessing of God, who modestly
confessed that whatever he knew he had acquired not so much by
his own study and labor as by the divine gift; and therefore let
us all, in humble and united prayer, beseech God to send forth
the spirit of knowledge and of understanding to the children of
the Church and open their senses for the understanding of wisdom.
And that we may receive fuller fruits of the divine goodness,
offer up to God the most efficacious patronage of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, who is called the seat of wisdom; having at the same
time as advocates St. Joseph, the most chaste spouse of the Virgin,
and Peter and Paul, the chiefs of the Apostles, whose truth renewed
the earth which had fallen under the impure blight of error, filling
it with the light of heavenly wisdom.
34. In fine, relying on the divine assistance
and confiding in your pastoral zeal, most lovingly We bestow on
all of you, venerable brethren, on all the clergy and the flocks
committed to your charge, the apostolic benediction as a pledge
of heavenly gifts and a token of Our special esteem.
Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, the fourth day
of August, 1879, the second year of our pontificate.
LEO XIII
________________________________________
REFERENCES:
1. Matt.28:19.
2. Col. 2:8.
3. 1 Cor. 2:4.
4. See Inscrutabili Dei consilio, 78:113.
5. De Trinitate, 14, 1, 3 (PL 42, 1037); quoted by Thomas Aquinas,
Summa theologiae, 1, 1, 2.
6. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 1, 16 (PG 8, 795); 7, 3 (PG
9, 426).
7. Origen, Epistola ad Gregorium (PG 11, 87-91).
8. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 1,5 (PG 8, 718-719).
9. Rom. 1:20.
10. Rom.2:14-15.
11. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea (also called Gregory Thaumaturgus
that is "the miracle worker"), In Origenem oratio panegyrica,
6 (PG 10, 1093A).
12. Carm., 1, Iamb. 3 (PG 37, 1045A-1047A).
13. Vita Moysis (PG 44, 359).
14. Epistola ad Magnum, 4 (PL 22, 667). Quadratus, Justin Irenaeus,
are counted among the early Christian apologists, who devoted
their works to the defence of Christian truth against the pagans.
15. De doctrina christiana, l, 2, 40 (PL 34, 63).
16. Wisd. 13:1.
17. Wisd. 13:5.
18. 2 Peter 1:16.
19. Const. Dogm, de Fid. Cath., c.3.
20. Const. cit., c.4.
21. Loc. cit.
22. Stromata, l, 20 (PG 8, 818).
23. Epistola ad Magnum, 2 (PL 22, 666).
24. Bulla Apostolici regiminis.
25. Epistola 147, ad Marcellinum, 7 (PL 33, 589).
26. Const. Dogm. de Fid. Cath., c.4.
27. 1 Cor. 1:24.
28. Col. 2:3.
29. Epistola ad Magnum, 4 (PL 22, 667).
30. Loc. cit.
31. Tertullian, Apologet., 46 (PL 1, 573).
32. Lactantius, Div. Inst., 7, 7 (PL 6, 759).
33. Bulla Triumphantis, an. 1588.
34. Cajetan's commentary on Sum. theol., IIa-IIae 148, 9. Art.
4; Leonine edit., Vol. 10, p. 174, n.6.
35. Constitutio 5a, data die 3 Aug. 1368, ad Cancell. Univ. Tolos.
36. Sermo de S. Thoma.
37. Bucer.
38. Sixtus V, Bulla Triumphantis.
39. 1 Peter 3:15.
40. Titus 1:9.
41. 1 Kings 2:3.
42. James 1:17.
43. James 1:5.
|