Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/249

Rh A Q U A Q U 231 traced back to the 3d century separated from the Church of Rome, and took the title of Patriarch, which was recog nised by Pope Sergius I. at the council of 698, when the schism was brought to a close. By 924, under the rule of its patriarchs, it was strong enough to extend its autho rity over Friuli ; aud it continued to enjoy considerable prosperity, until it was at length deprived of most of its possessions by Venice in 1420. Its patriarchs had indeed already removed their residence to the castle of Udine, aud the Venetian conquest only hastened the decay that had previously begun. The patriarchate was abolished in 1758, and the territory divided into the two bishoprics of Udine and Gorizia. It is now a small fishing village of 1956 inhabitants, containing a number of interesting remains of its ancient splendour, and often rewarding the researches of the antiquary with relics of value. (Gian. Dom. Bertoli, Le Antichite di Aquileja, profane e sacre, Ven. 1739.) AQUILLIUS, MAXIUS, was Roman consul in 101 B.C., and successfully reduced a revolt of slaves in Sicily. He was afterwards accused of receiving money illegally, but was acquitted by an artifice of his counsel, who exhibited to the people the scars of wounds received by his client in war. In 88 B.C. he acted as legate against Mithridates, by whom he was defeated and taken prisoner. Mithridates treated him with great cruelty, and finally put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat. AQUINAS, THOMAS [THOMAS OF AQUIX OR AQUINO], was of noble descent, and nearly allied to several of the royal houses of Europe. He was born in 1225 or 1227, at Rocca Sicca, the castle of his father Landulf, count of Aquino, in the territories of Naples. Having received his elementary education at the monastery of Monte Cassino, he studied for six years at the University of Naples, leaving it in his sixteenth year. While there he in all probability came under the influence of the Dominicans, who were then the rising order in the church, and were doing their utmost to enlist within their ranks the ablest young scholars of the age, for in spite of the opposition of his family, and especially of his mother (an opposition which was over come only by the intervention of Pope Innocent IV.), he assumed the habit of St Dominic in his seventeenth year. His superiors, seeing his great aptitude for theological study sent him to the Dominican School in Cologne, where Albertus Magnus, the most famous thinker of his age, lectured on philosophy and theology. In 1245 Albertus was called to Paris, and there Aquinas followed him, and remained with him for three years, at the end of which he graduated as bachelor of theology. In 1248 he returned to Cologne with Albertus, and was appointed second lecturer and magister studentium. This year may be taken as the beginning of his literary activity and public life. Ere he left Paris he had thrown himself with ardour into the controversy raging between the University and the Begging Friars respecting the liberty of teaching, resisting both by speeches and pamphlets the authorities of the University ; and when the dispute was referred to the Pope, the youthful Aquinas was chosen to defend his order, which he did with such success as to overcome the arguments of the celebrated William of St Amour, the champion of the University, and one of the most celebrated men of the day. In the year 1257, along with his friend Bonaventura, he was created doctor of theology, and began to give courses of lectures upon this science in Paris, and also in Rome and other towns in Italy. From this time onwards his life was one of incessant toil, and we marvel at the amount of literary work he was able to do, when we remember that during his short public life he was con- tinunlly engaged in the active service of his order, was fre quently travelling upon long and tedious journeys, and was constantly consulted oh affairs of state by the reigning pontiff. In 1263 we find him at the chapter of the Dominican order held in London. In 1268 he was lecturing now in Rome and now in Bologna, all the while engaged in the public business of the church. In 1271 he was again in Paris, lecturing to the students, managing the affairs of the church, and consulted by the king, Louis VIII., his kinsman, on affairs of state. In 1272 the commands of the chief of his order and the request of King Charles brought him back to the professor s chair at Naples. All this time he was preaching every day, writing homilies, disputations, lectures, and finding time to work hard at his great work the Summa Theologies. Such rewards as the church could bestow had been offered to him. He refused the archbishopric of Naples and the abbacy of Monte Cassino. In January 1274 he was summoned by Pope Gregory X. to attend the council con vened at Lyons, to investigate and if possible settle the differences between the Greek and Latin churches. Though suffering from illness, he at once set out on the journey; finding his strength failing on the way, he was carried to the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, in the diocese of Terracina, where, after a lingering illness of seven weeks, he died on the 7th of March 1274. After his death the highest honours which the church could bestow were awarded to the memory of Thomas. He was canonised in 1323 by Pope John XXII., and in 1567 Pius V. ranked the festival of St Thomas with those of the four great Latin fathers, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. Still higher is the honour implied in the fact, that no theologian save Augustine has had the same influence on the theological thought and language of the Western Church, and that no man has better fulfilled the ideal of the monkish Life than Thomas of Aquin. The writings of Thomas are of very great importance for philosophy as well as for theology, for he is the spirit of scholasticism incarnate, and has done more than any other writer save Augustine to fashion the theological language of the AVestcru Church. The mediaeval spirit, in all its various manifestations, aimed at universal empire by way of external and visible rule. Its idea of the State was the Holy Roman Empire actually embracing and dominating over all the countries in Europe ; its idea of the Church, that visible and tangible catholicity which existed before the great Reformation ; and in the department of know ledge it showed its characteristic quality in its desire to embrace in one system, under one science, the whole of human thought. It so happened that, in the break between the old world and the new, the sole institution which survived was the church, and the only science which was preserved was philosophy. Hence, when scholasticism arose, the science which it found ready to its hand was theology, and its task became that of bringing all departments of knowledge under the dominion of this one sovereign science. All through the period of scholas ticism, from its beginning under Scotus Erigena clown to its decline under Gabriel Biel, this aim of establishing an empire of science was kept in view, and no fresh advance in knowledge in any fresh field of investigation was ever held to be made or taken possession of until its results had been brought under the influence of the master science, and made to occupy their proper and subordinate place. Aquinas occupies the central point in the history of scholasticism, because he, more than any other, was trained by nature and education to do the most that could be done to realise the scholastic ideal, and present a con densed summary of all known science, under the title of Summa Theologice. The principles on which the system of Aquinas rested were these. He held that there were two sources of know ledge the mysteries of Christian faith and the truths uf