Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/192

 Libros Sententiarum," to which were attached some miscellaneous papers on Philosophy and Medicine. The book was published in folio at Paris, in 1517. Bassol was known by the title, Doctor Ordinatissimus, or the most Methodical Doctor, on account of the clear and accurate method in which he lectured and composed. The fashion of giving such titles to the great masters of the schools was then in its prime. Thus, Duns Scotus himself was styled Doctor Subtilis, or the Subtle Doctor. St Francis of Assis was called the Seraphic Doctor; Alexander Hales the Irrefragable Doctor; Thomas Aquinas the Angelical Doctor; Hendricus Bonicollius the Solemn Doctor; Richard Middleton the Solid Doctor; Francis Mayron the Acute Doctor; Durandus à S. Portiano the most Resolute Doctor; Thomas Bredwardin the Profound Doctor; Joannes Ruysbrokius the Divine Doctor, and so forth; the title being in every case founded upon some extravagant conception of the merit of the particular individual, adopted by his contemporaries and disciples. In this extraordinary class of literati, John Bassol, as implied by his soubriquet, shines conspicuous for order and method; yet we are told that his works contain most of the faults which are generally laid to the charge of the schoolmen. The chief of these is an irrational devotion to the philosophy of Aristotle, as expounded by Thomas Aquinas. In the early ages of modern philosophy, this most splendid exertion of the human mind was believed to be irreconcileable [sic] to the Christian doctrines; and at the very time when the Angelical Doctor wrote his commentary, it stood prohibited by a decree of Pope Gregory IX. The illustrious Thomas not only restored Aristotle to favour, but inspired his followers with an admiration of his precepts, which, as already mentioned, was not rational. Not less was their admiration of the "angelical" commentator, to whom it was long the fashion among them to offer an incense little short of blasphemy. A commentator upon an original work of Thomas Aquinas, endeavours, in a prefatory discourse, to prove, in so many chapters, that he wrote his books not without the special infusion of the spirit of God Almighty; that, in writing them, he received many things by revelation; and, that Christ had given anticipatory testimony to his writings. By way of bringing the works of St Thomas into direct comparison with the Holy Scriptures, the same writer remarks, "that, as in the first General Councils of the church, it was common to have the Bible unfolded upon the Altar, so, in the last General Council (that of Trent), St Thomas' 'Sum' was placed beside the Bible, as an inferior rule of Christian doctrine." Peter Labbé, a learned Jesuit, with scarcely less daring flattery, styles St Thomas an angel, and says that, as he learned many things from the angels, so he taught the angels some things; that St Thomas had said what St Paul was not permitted to utter; and that he speaks of God as if he had seen him, and of Christ as if he had been his voice. One might almost suppose that these learned gentlemen, disregarding the sentiment afterwards embodied by Gray, that flattery soothes not the cold ear of death, endeavoured by their praises to make interest with the "angelical" shade, not doubting that he was able to obtain for them a larger share of paradise than they could otherwise hope for. In the words of the author of the Reflections on Learning, "the sainted Thomas, if capable of hearing these inordinate flatteries, must have blushed to receive them."

Bassol was also characterised, in common with all the rest of the schoolmen, by a ridiculous nicety in starting questions and objections. Overlooking the great moral aim of what they were expounding, he and his fellows lost themselves in minute and subtle inquiries after physical exactness, started at every straw which lay upon their path, and measured the powers of the mind by grains and scruples. It must be acknowledged, in favour of this singular class of men, that they improved natural reason to a great height, and that much of what