Page:AManualOfCatholicTheology.djvu/38

 one hand, and of Mysticism on the other, led to a divorce between the two, so that mystical writers broke off from Scholasticism, to their gain, no doubt, as far as Scholasticism had degenerated, but to their loss so far as it had remained sound. As Nominalism by its superficiality and arbitrariness had stripped the doctrines of grace and morals of their inward and living character, and had made grace merely an external ornament of the soul: so did false mysticism by its sentimentality destroy the supernatural character of grace and the organic connection and development of sound doctrine concerning morals; and as both Nominalism and pseudo-mysticism endangered the right notion of the constitution of the Church, they may with reason be looked upon as the forerunners of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. It does not fall within our province to speak of the anti-scholastic tendencies of the Renaissance which were found partly among the Platonists as opponents of Aristotle, and partly among the Humanists as opposed to what was considered “Scholastic barbarism.” There was, as we have seen, some reason for a reaction against the degenerate philosophy and theology of the day. But instead of returning to the genuine teaching of the earlier period, the cultivators of the New Learning contented themselves with a vague Platonic mysticism or a sort of Nominalism disguised under a new and classical phraseology.

About the end of the fifteenth century and the opening of the sixteenth, three events produced a new epoch in the history of theology, and determined its characteristic tendencies: the invention of printing, the revival of the study of the ancient classics, and the attacks of the Reformers on the whole historical position of the Church. These circumstances facilitated, and at the same time necessitated, more careful study of the biblical and historical side of theology, and thus prepared the way for a more comprehensive treatment of speculative theology. This new and splendid development had its seat in Spain,