Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/725

* SCHOLASTICISM. 655 SCHOLASTICISM. multiplied. These abuses were furthered by the proyrissive advance of an e.vaggerated dialectic. The thiiteenth century looked upon dialectics in theory and practice as a mental discipline pre- paratory to the study of physics, nicla|)hysics, and morals. The alterin;; of tliis relation inev- itably led to the despotism of fonnalisni. There were some symptoms of this intellectual malady at the beainning of the fourteenth ecnlury; it proiircsscd gradually until it had undermined the vitality of scholasticism. Jlental enervation became apparent in the in- tellectual centres of the time — the religious Orders and the imiversities. The former re- mained for the time the principal nurseries of science; but zeal for study lessened as discipline relaxed. Among the many teachers eager for quick results there were comparatively few who by ])ersonal and persevering ell'ort rose above the prevailing mediociit}-. The University of Paris fell rapidly from its grandeur, and scholasticism, which had risen with it, was dragged down in its fall. Yielding to intrigue, the Faculty of The- ology trilled with academic rules; the}" facilitated the 'actus scholastici.' shortened the years of study, and made examinations matters of form. The Faculty of Arts fell into a like condition and thus brought on its own ruin. The arts being an obligatory stage to theolog}-. men with money and ambition had an obvious interest in abridging their study as much as possible. While scholasticism as a movement was pass- ing through these days of storm and stress its synthesis was preserved intact, ilen of mental breadth and insight like Cajetan (149lil5.34), Franciscus Svlvestris Ferrariensis (1474-1528). Banez (1528-'l604), Vasquez (1551-1004), Tole- tus (15.32-159G), and above all Suarez (1548- 1617), preserved and developed the scholastic or- ganism. During the nineteenth century philosojjhers like Kleutgen and Stiickl in Germany: Ozanam, De Broglie. Farges. Blanc, Gardair, and many others in France : Liberatore. Sanseverino, Cor- noldi, and Zigliara, in Italy; Balmes and Cortes, in Spain ; Yard and Harper, in England, have been bearers of the scholastic teachings to the present age. A strong impulse to the Xeoscho- lastic movement was given by Leo XIII. in many public utterances, notably by his encyclical ^-Etcrni Patris (1870), in which he urges a re- turn to the study of the great schoolmen, es- pecially Saint Tliomas, not, indeed, with a view to a wholesale reimportation of scholasticism in its full medifpval content, but with an eye to its extension, completion, and adaptation to the in- tellectual requirements and modes of thought of the present age, A valuable aid in this direction is the critical edition of the works of Saint Thomas now being published at Rome under the Papal auspices. The establishment at Louvain of the 'Institut Superieur de Philosophic' under the presidency of M. Mercier was also largely due to the broad policy of Leo XIII. ' A sys- tematic series of works on Neoscholasticism em- anates from the Institute, as does likewise the Revue N<^osclwlristi(iup. a quarterly now in its tenth year. The Rerue dp Philosophie (Paris), the Philosophi.ichcs Jnhrbuch (Fulda). the An- nalcs de Philosophie Chritienne (Paris), and Di- _ rtis Thomn.t (Piacenza) arc among the well- known periodicals devoted to the .same movement. The Scholastic Synthesis. So much for the history of scholasticism as a movement. The result, the synthesis, can be here barely touched upon. The schola.stic sees the worlil of reality with the triple eye of sense, reason, and faith. These orgaiin arc Ui^liucl, an<l each is in its lim- ited sphere independent. They are all necessary to a complete survey of reality, and. under nor- mal conditions critically discernil)li are mutually corroljorativc. Under their harmonious interac- tion the world of reality is seen to embrace Crea- tor and creature, the latter emanating from the former as from its primary archetypal and elfi- cieut cause. The irrational world is synthesized in the rational, and by it, through a rea.sonable service active and passive, referred to its first principle and final end. The method, way, and means to this return of the creature to the Crea- tor is manifest in the synthesis of both, the Incarnate Word and His organized economy. These are the broad lines of the scholastic syn- thesis. Sejiarated from the elements derived from reve- lation, the purely rational lines of the synthesis are the following. It is the aim of philosophy to interpret the universal order of things in its constituent, efficient, and final causes. That order is made up of four departments as manifested under as" many ascending degrees of intellectual abstraction: (I) The real order which the mind considers but does not make, and which falls under the scrutiny of physics, mathematics, and metaphysics; (2) the mciitdl. order which the mind makes by reflectively considering its own acts, the sphere of logic; (.S) the vwnil order which the mind makes by rellective consider;ition of the acts of the will, the domain of ethics; (4) the external order which the mind makes in con- sidering man's external productive acts, the order of the arts liberal and mechanical. The supreme synthetic ideas of the metaphys- ical order are art (perfect determination) and potencif (determinability) . On these rests the distinction between the infinite — whosi; existence is demonstrated a posteriori — as actus pxirus, imalloyed perfection, and the finite being com- bining act with potency. The relations of God, the Infinite, to the finite are inferred from His intelligence and will, and are summed up under three : ( 1 ) Exemplarism : The divine ideas, or the difterent phases of God's essence perceived hy His intellect as imitable outwardly, are the ulti- mate ontological basis of all finite realities and the ultimate basis of their cognoscibility and our rational certitude. (2) Creationism: The finite proceeds from the Infinite as the term of the creative act. God's creative etficiency terminates at the very substance of the finite; in this con- ception the scholastic transcends the .Aristotelian concept of the causa inotrix. (3) Providence: The Creator is necessarily conserver and pro- vider. The finality immanent in creation and di- rected to an ultimate rational purpose is con- ceived by the scholastics in a higher and more consistent light than it was by the ancient Greeks. The mingling of potency and act. the determin- able and the detennincd. shows itself in the finite by a triple composition — (1) that of matter and form: (2) the individual and the general essence; (.3) essence and existence. (1) The duality of matter and form was derived from the .-Vris- totelian theory of physical processes and trans-