Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/353

 ARISTOTLE. trine of Ariftotle in the reigns of the twelve Cxfur?, and their numbers increafed much under Adrian and Antoninus : Alexander Aphrodinus was tlu- lult profefibr of the Peripatetic pbilofophy at Rome, being appointed by the emperois Marcus Aurclius and Lucius Verus ; and in fucceeding jes> the doctrine of Arittotle prevailed almolr. among; all men of letters, and many commentaries were wrote upon his works. The fiift doctors of the church difapproved of the doctrine of Ariftotle. as allowing too much to reafon and fenfe ; but Anatolius bifnop of Laodicea, Didytnus of Alexandria, St. Jerom, St. Auguftin, and feveral others, at length wrote and /poke in favour of it. In the fixth age, Boethius made him known in the weft, and tranflated fomeof his pieces into Latin. But from the time of Boethius to the eighth age, Jo- annes Damafcenus was the only man who made an abridge- ment of his philofophy, or wrote any thing concerning him. The Grecians, who took great pains to rcftore learning in the eleventh and following ages, applied much to the works of this philofopher, and many learned men wrote commen- taries on his writings : amongft thefe were Aifarabius, Alna- zel, Avicenna, and Averroes. They taught his dextrine in Africa, and afterwards at Cordova in Spain. The Spaniards introduced his dodirine into France, with the commentaries of Averroes and Avicenna ; and ic was taught in the univer- fity of Paris : but Amauri having fupported fome particular tenets on the principles of this philofopher, and being con- demned of herefy in a council held there in 1210, all the works of Arifiode that could be found were burnt, and the reading of them were forbidden under pain of excommunication. This prohibition was confirmed, as to the Phyfics and Me- taphyfics, in 1215, by the pope's legate; thoug at the fame time he gave leave for his Logic to be read, inftead of St. Auguftin's ufed at that time in the univerfity. In 1265, Simon, ca)J ; nal of St. Cecil, and legate from the holy fee, prohibited tin- reading of the Phyfics end iVietJph ,iics of Anitotle. All i< -fe prohibitions, however, were taken off in 1366 ; for the cardinals of St. Mark and St. Martin, who vtre deputed by pope Urban V. to reform the univeility of Paii?, permitted the reading of thofe books, which had been prohibited : und in 1448, pope Stephen approved of all his works, and took care to have a new translation of them into Latin. Fabricius reckons many editions of Ariftotle's works in Greek, and many in Greek and Latin: the beft is thst of Du Val at Paris, 1629; in two volumes, folio. AR1US,