To the
Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and
Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.
The only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, who came on earth to bring
salvation and the light of divine wisdom to men, conferred a great and
wonderful blessing on the world when, about to ascend again into
heaven, He commanded the Apostles to go and teach all nations,(1) and
left the Church which He had founded to be the common and supreme
teacher of the peoples. For men whom the truth had set free were to be
preserved by the truth; nor would the fruits of heavenly doctrines by
which salvation comes to men have long remained had not the Lord Christ
appointed an unfailing teaching authority to train the minds to faith.
And the Church built upon the promises of its own divine Author, whose
charity it imitated, so faithfully followed out His commands that its
constant aim and chief wish was this: to teach religion and contend
forever against errors. To this end assuredly have tended the incessant
labors of individual bishops; to this end also the published laws and
decrees of councils, and especially the constant watchfulness of the
Roman Pontiffs, to whom, as successors of the blessed Peter in the
primacy of the Apostles, belongs the right and office of teaching and
confirming their brethren in the faith. Since, then, according to the
warning of the apostle, the minds of Christ's faithful are apt to be
deceived and the integrity of the faith to be corrupted among men by
philosophy and vain deceit,(2) the supreme pastors of the Church have
always thought it their duty to advance, by every means in their power,
science truly so called, and at the same time to provide with special
care that all studies should accord with the Catholic faith, especially
philosophy, on which a right interpretation of the other sciences in
great part depends. Indeed, venerable brethren, on this very subject
among others, We briefly admonished you in Our first encyclical letter;
but now, both by reason of the gravity of the subject and the condition
of the time, we are again compelled to speak to you on the mode of
taking up the study of philosophy which shall respond most fitly to the
excellence of faith, and at the same time be consonant with the dignity
of human science.
2. Whoso turns his attention to the bitter strifes of these days and
seeks a reason for the troubles that vex public and private life must
come to the conclusion that a fruitful cause of the evils which now
afflict, as well as those which threaten, us lies in this: that false
conclusions concerning divine and human things, which originated in the
schools of philosophy, have now crept into all the orders of the State,
and have been accepted by the common consent of the masses. For, since
it is in the very nature of man to follow the guide of reason in his
actions, if his intellect sins at all his will soon follows; and thus
it happens that false opinions, whose seat is in the understanding,
influence human actions and pervert them. Whereas, on the other hand,
if men be of sound mind and take their stand on true and solid
principles, there will result a vast amount of benefits for the public
and private good. We do not, indeed, attribute such force and authority
to philosophy as to esteem it equal to the task of combating and
rooting out all errors; for, when the Christian religion was first
constituted, it came upon earth to restore it to its primeval dignity
by the admirable light of faith, diffused "not by persuasive words of
human wisdom, but in the manifestation of spirit and of power",(3) so
also at the present time we look above all things to the powerful help
of Almighty God to bring back to a right understanding the minds of man
and dispel the darkness of error.(4) But the natural helps with which
the grace of the divine wisdom, strongly and sweetly disposing all
things, has supplied the human race are neither to be despised nor
neglected, chief among which is evidently the right use of philosophy.
For, not in vain did God set the light of reason in the human mind; and
so far is the super-added light of faith from extinguishing or
lessening the power of the intelligence that it completes it rather,
and by adding to its strength renders it capable of greater things.
3. Therefore, Divine Providence itself requires that, in calling back
the people to the paths of faith and salvation, advantage should be
taken of human science also-an approved and wise practice which history
testifies was observed by the most illustrious Fathers of the Church.
They, indeed, were wont neither to belittle nor undervalue the part
that reason had to play, as is summed up by the great Augustine when he
attributes to this science "that by which the most wholesome faith is
begotten . . . is nourished, defended, and made strong."(5)
4. In the first place, philosophy, if rightly made use of by the wise,
in a certain way tends to smooth and fortify the road to true faith,
and to prepare the souls of its disciples for the fit reception of
revelation; for which reason it is well called by ancient writers
sometimes a steppingstone to the Christian faith,(6) sometimes the
prelude and help of Christianity,(7) sometimes the Gospel teacher.(8)
And, assuredly, the God of all goodness, in all that pertains to divine
things, has not only manifested by the light of faith those truths
which human intelligence could not attain of itself, but others, also,
not altogether unattainable by reason, that by the help of divine
authority they may be made known to all at once and without any
admixture of error. Hence it is that certain truths which were either
divinely proposed for belief, or were bound by the closest chains to
the doctrine of faith, were discovered by pagan sages with nothing but
their natural reason to guide them, were demonstrated and proved by
becoming arguments. For, as the Apostle says, the invisible things of
Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made: His eternal power also and divinity;(9)
and the Gentiles who have not the Law show, nevertheless, the work of
the Law written in their hearts.(10) But it is most fitting to turn
these truths, which have been discovered by the pagan sages even, to
the use and purposes of revealed doctrine, in order to show that both
human wisdom and the very testimony of our adversaries serve to support
the Christian faith-a method which is not of recent introduction, but
of established use, and has often been adopted by the holy Fathers of
the Church. What is more, those venerable men, the witnesses and
guardians of religious traditions, recognize a certain form and figure
of this in the action of the Hebrews, who, when about to depart out of
Egypt, were commanded to take with them the gold and silver vessels and
precious robes of the Egyptians, that by a change of use the things
might be dedicated to the service of the true God which had formerly
been the instruments of ignoble and superstitious rites. Gregory of
NeoCaesarea(11) praises Origen expressly because, with singular
dexterity, as one snatches weapons from the enemy, he turned to the
defense of Christian wisdom and to the destruction of superstition many
arguments drawn from the writings of the pagans. And both Gregory of
Nazianzen(12) and Gregory of Nyssa(13)praise and commend a like mode of
disputation in Basil the Great; while Jerome(14) especially commends it
in Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, in Aristides, Justin,
Irenaeus, and very many others. Augustine says: "Do we not see Cyprian,
that mildest of doctors and most blessed of martyrs, going out of Egypt
laden with gold and silver and vestments? And Lactantius, also and
Victorinus, Optatus and Hilary? And, not to speak of the living, how
many Greeks have done likewise?"(15) But if natural reason first sowed
this rich field of doctrine before it was rendered fruitful by the
power of Christ, it must assuredly become more prolific after the grace
of the Saviour has renewed and added to the native faculties of the
human mind. And who does not see that a plain and easy road is opened
up to faith by such a method of philosophic study?
5. But the advantage to be derived from such a school of philosophy is
not to be confined within these limits. The foolishness of those men
who "by these good things that are seen could not understand Him, that
is, neither by attending to the works could have acknowledged who was
the workman,"(16) is gravely reproved in the words of Divine Wisdom. In
the first place, then, this great and noble fruit is gathered from
human reason, that it demonstrates that God is; for the greatness of
the beauty and of the creature the Creator of them may be seen so as to
be known thereby.(17) Again, it shows God to excel in the height of all
perfections, especially in infinite wisdom before which nothing lies
hidden, and in absolute justice which no depraved affection could
possibly shake; and that God, therefore, is not only true but truth
itself, which can neither deceive nor be deceived. Whence it clearly
follows that human reason finds the fullest faith and authority united
in the word of God. In like manner, reason declares that the doctrine
of the Gospel has even from its very beginning been made manifest by
certain wonderful signs, the established proofs, as it were, of
unshaken truth; and that all, therefore, who set faith in the Gospel do
not believe rashly as though following cunningly devised fables,(18)
but, by a most reasonable consent, subject their intelligence and
judgment to an authority which is divine. And of no less importance is
it that reason most clearly sets forth that the Church instituted by
Christ (as laid down in the Vatican Council), on account of its
wonderful spread, its marvellous sanctity, and its inexhaustible
fecundity in all places, as well as of its Catholic unity and unshaken
stability, is in itself a great and perpetual motive of belief and an
irrefragable testimony of its own divine mission.(19)
6. Its solid foundations having been thus laid, a perpetual and varied
service is further required of philosophy, in order that sacred
theology may receive and assume the nature, form, and genius of a true
science. For in this, the most noble of studies, it is of the greatest
necessity to bind together, as it were, in one body the many and
various parts of the heavenly doctrines, that, each being allotted to
its own proper place and derived from its own proper principles, the
whole may join together in a complete union; in order, in fine, that
all and each part may be strengthened by its own and the others'
invincible arguments. Nor is that more accurate or fuller knowledge of
the things that are believed, and somewhat more lucid understanding, as
far as it can go, of the very mysteries of faith which Augustine and
the other fathers commended and strove to reach, and which the Vatican
Council itself(20) declared to be most fruitful, to be passed over in
silence or belittled. Those will certainly more fully and more easily
attain that knowledge and understanding who to integrity of life and
love of faith join a mind rounded and finished by philosophic studies,
as the same Vatican Council teaches that the knowledge of such sacred
dogmas ought to be sought as well from analogy of the things that are
naturally known as from the connection of those mysteries one with
another and with the final end of man.(21)
7. Lastly, the duty of religiously defending the truths divinely
delivered, and of resisting those who dare oppose them, pertains to
philosophic pursuits. Wherefore, it is the glory of philosophy to be
esteemed as the bulwark of faith and the strong defense of religion. As
Clement of Alexandria testifies, the doctrine of the Saviour is indeed
perfect in itself and wanteth naught, since it is the power and wisdom
of God. And the assistance of the Greek philosophy maketh not the truth
more powerful; but, inasmuch as it weakens the contrary arguments of
the sophists and repels the veiled attacks against the truth, it has
been fitly called the hedge and fence of the vine.(22) For, as the
enemies of the Catholic name, when about to attack religion, are in the
habit of borrowing their weapons from the arguments of philosophers, so
the defenders of sacred science draw many arguments from the store of
philosophy which may serve to uphold revealed dogmas. Nor is the
triumph of the Christian faith a small one in using human reason to
repel powerfully and speedily the attacks of its adversaries by the
hostile arms which human reason itself supplied. This species of
religious strife St. Jerome, writing to Magnus, notices as having been
adopted by the Apostle of the Gentiles himself; Paul, the leader of the
Christian army and the invincible orator, battling for the cause of
Christ, skillfully turns even a chance inscription into an argument for
the faith; for he had learned from the true David to wrest the sword
from the hands of the enemy and to cut off the head of the boastful
Goliath with his own weapon.(23) Moreover, the Church herself not only
urges, but even commands, Christian teachers to seek help from
philosophy. For, the fifth Lateran Council, after it had decided that
"every assertion contrary to the truth of revealed faith is altogether
false, for the reason that it contradicts, however slightly, the
truth,"(24) advises teachers of philosophy to pay close attention to
the exposition of fallacious arguments; since, as Augustine testifies,
"if reason is turned against the authority of sacred Scripture, no
matter how specious it may seem, it errs in the likeness of truth; for
true it cannot be."(25)
8. But in order that philosophy may be bound equal to the gathering of
those precious fruits which we have indicated, it behooves it above all
things never to turn aside from that path which the Fathers have
entered upon from a venerable antiquity, and which the Vatican Council
solemnly and authoritatively approved. As it is evident that very many
truths of the supernatural order which are far beyond the reach of the
keenest intellect must be accepted, human reason, conscious of its own
infirmity, dare not affect to itself too great powers, nor deny those
truths, nor measure them by its own standard, nor interpret them at
will; but receive them, rather, with a full and humble faith, and
esteem it the highest honor to be allowed to wait upon heavenly
doctrines like a handmaid and attendant, and by God's goodness attain
to them in any way whatsoever. But in the case of such doctrines as the
human intelligence may perceive, it is equally just that philosophy
should make use of its own method, principles, and arguments-not,
indeed, in such fashion as to seem rashly to withdraw from the divine
authority. But, since it is established that those things which become
known by revelation have the force of certain truth, and that those
things which war against faith war equally against right reason, the
Catholic philosopher will know that he violates at once faith and the
laws of reason if he accepts any conclusion which he understands to be
opposed to revealed doctrine.
9. We know that there are some who, in their overestimate of the human
faculties, maintain that as soon as man's intellect becomes subject to
divine authority it falls from its native dignity, and hampered by the
yoke of this species of slavery, is much retarded and hindered in its
progress toward the supreme truth and excellence. Such an idea is most
false and deceptive, and its sole tendency is to induce foolish and
ungrateful men wilfully to repudiate the most sublime truths, and
reject the divine gift of faith, from which the fountains of all good
things flow out upon civil society. For the human mind, being confined
within certain limits, and those narrow enough, is exposed to many
errors and is ignorant of many things; whereas the Christian faith,
reposing on the authority of God, is the unfailing mistress of truth,
whom whoso followeth he will be neither enmeshed in the snares of error
nor tossed hither and thither on the waves of fluctuating opinion.
Those, therefore, who to the study of philosophy unite obedience to the
Christian faith, are philosophizing in the best possible way; for the
splendor of the divine truths, received into the mind, helps the
understanding, and not only detracts in nowise from its dignity, but
adds greatly to its nobility, keenness, and stability. For surely that
is a worthy and most useful exercise of reason when men give their
minds to disproving those things which are repugnant to faith and
proving the things which conform to faith. In the first case they cut
the ground from under the feet of error and expose the viciousness of
the arguments on which error rests; while in the second case they make
themselves masters of weighty reasons for the sound demonstration of
truth and the satisfactory instruction of any reasonable person.
Whoever denies that such study and practice tend to add to the
resources and expand the faculties of the mind must necessarily and
absurdly hold that the mind gains nothing from discriminating between
the true and the false. Justly, therefore, does the Vatican Council
commemorate in these words the great benefits which faith has conferred
upon reason: Faith frees and saves reason from error, and endows it
with manifold knowledge.(26) A wise man, therefore, would not accuse
faith and look upon it as opposed to reason and natural truths, but
would rather offer heartfelt thanks to God, and sincerely rejoice that,
in the density of ignorance and in the flood-tide of error, holy faith,
like a friendly star, shines down upon his path and points out to him
the fair gate of truth beyond all danger of wandering.
10. If, venerable brethren, you open the history of philosophy, you
will find all We have just said proved by experience. The philosophers
of old who lacked the gift of faith, yet were esteemed so wise, fell
into many appalling errors. You know how often among some truths they
taught false and incongruous things; what vague and doubtful opinions
they held concerning the nature of the Divinity, the first origin of
things, the government of the world, the divine knowledge of the
future, the cause and principle of evil, the ultimate end of man, the
eternal beatitude, concerning virtue and vice, and other matters, a
true and certain knowledge of which is most necessary to the human
race; while, on the other hand, the early Fathers and Doctors of the
Church, who well understood that, according to the divine plan, the
restorer of human science is Christ, who is the power and the wisdom of
God,(27) and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge,(28) took up and investigated the books of the ancient
philosophers, and compared their teachings with the doctrines of
revelation, and, carefully sifting them, they cherished what was true
and wise in them and amended or rejected all else. For, as the
all-seeing God against the cruelty of tyrants raised up mighty martyrs
to the defense of the Church, men prodigal of their great lives, in
like manner to false philosophers and heretics He opposed men of great
wisdom, to defend, even by the aid of human reason, the treasure of
revealed truths. Thus, from the very first ages of the Church, the
Catholic doctrine has encountered a multitude of most bitter
adversaries, who, deriding the Christian dogmas and institutions,
maintained that there were many gods, that the material world never had
a beginning or cause, and that the course of events was one of blind
and fatal necessity, not regulated by the will of Divine Providence.
11. But the learned men whom We call apologists speedily encountered
these teachers of foolish doctrine and, under the guidance of faith,
found arguments in human wisdom also to prove that one God, who stands
pre-eminent in every kind of perfection, is to be worshiped; that all
things were created from nothing by His omnipotent power; that by His
wisdom they flourish and serve each their own special purposes. Among
these St. Justin Martyr claims the chief place.
After having tried the most celebrated academies of the Greeks, he saw
clearly, as he himself confesses, that he could only draw truths in
their fullness from the doctrine of revelation. These he embraced with
all the ardor of his soul, purged of calumny, courageously and fully
defended before the Roman emperors, and reconciled with them not a few
of the sayings of the Greek philosophers.
12. Quadratus, also, and Aristides, Hermias, and Athenagoras stood
nobly forth in that time. Nor did Irenaeus, the invincible martyr and
Bishop of Lyons, win less glory in the same cause when, forcibly
refuting the perverse opinions of the Orientals, the work of the
Gnostics, scattered broadcast over the territories of the Roman Empire,
he explained (according to Jerome) the origin of each heresy and in
what philosophic source it took its rise.(29) But who knows not the
disputations of Clement of Alexandria, which the same Jerome thus
honorably commemorates: "What is there in them that is not learned, and
what that is not of the very heart of philosophy?"(30) He himself,
indeed, with marvellous versatility treated of many things of the
greatest utility for preparing a history of philosophy, for the
exercise of the dialectic art, and for showing the agreement between
reason and faith. After him came Origen, who graced the chair of the
school of Alexandria, and was most learned in the teachings of the
Greeks and Orientals. He published many volumes, involving great labor,
which were wonderfully adapted to explain the divine writings and
illustrate the sacred dogmas; which, though, as they now stand, not
altogether free from error, contain nevertheless a wealth of knowledge
tending to the growth and advance of natural truths. Tertullian opposes
heretics with the authority of the sacred writings; with the
philosophers he changes his fence and disputes philosophically; but so
learnedly and accurately did he confute them that he made bold to say:
"Neither in science nor in schooling are we equals, as you
imagine."(31) Arnobius, also, in his works against the pagans, and
Lactantius in the divine Institutions especially, with equal eloquence
and strength strenuously strive to move men to accept the dogmas and
precepts of Catholic wisdom, not by philosophic juggling, after the
fashion of the Academicians, but vanquishing them partly by their own
arms, and partly by arguments drawn from the mutual contentions of the
philosophers.(32) But the writings on the human soul, the divine
attributes, and other questions of mighty moment which the great
Athanasius and Chrysostom, the prince of orators, have left behind them
are, by common consent, so supremely excellent that it seems scarcely
anything could be added to their subtlety and fulness. And, not to
cover too wide a range, we add to the number of the great men of whom
mention has been made the names of Basil the Great and of the two
Gregories, who, on going forth from Athens, that home of all learning,
thoroughly equipped with all the harness of philosophy, turned the
wealth of knowledge which each had gathered up in a course of zealous
study to the work of refuting heretics and preparing Christians.
13. But Augustine would seem to have wrested the palm from all. Of a
most powerful genius and thoroughly saturated with sacred and profane
learning, with the loftiest faith and with equal knowledge, he combated
most vigorously all the errors of his age. What topic of philosophy did
he not investigate? What region of it did he not diligently explore,
either in expounding the loftiest mysteries of the faith to the
faithful, or defending them against the full onslaught of adversaries,
or again when, in demolishing the fables of the Academicians or the
Manichaeans, he laid the safe foundations and sure structure of human
science, or followed up the reason, origin, and causes of the evils
that afflict man? How subtly he reasoned on the angels, the soul, the
human mind, the will and free choice, on religion and the life of the
blessed, on time and eternity, and even on the very nature of
changeable bodies. Afterwards, in the East, John Damascene, treading in
the footsteps of Basil and of Gregory of Nazianzen, and in the West,
Boethius and Anselm following the doctrines of Augustine, added largely
to the patrimony of philosophy.
14. Later on, the doctors of the middle ages, who are called
Scholastics, addressed themselves to a great work-that of diligently
collecting, and sifting, and storing up, as it were, in one place, for
the use and convenience of posterity the rich and fertile harvests of
Christian learning scattered abroad in the voluminous works of the holy
Fathers. And with regard, venerable brethren, to the origin, drift, and
excellence of this scholastic learning, it may be well here to speak
more fully in the words of one of the wisest of Our predecessors,
Sixtus V: "By the divine favor of Him who alone gives the spirit of
science wisdom, and understanding, and who thou ages, as there may be
need, enriches His Church with new blessings and strengthens it with
safeguards, there was founded by Our fathers, men of eminent wisdom,
the scholastic theology, which two glorious doctors in particular
angelic St. Thomas and the seraphic St. Bonaventure, illustrious
teachers of this faculty, . . .with surpassing genius, by unwearied
diligence, and at the cost of long labors and vigils, set in order and
beautified, and when skilfuly arranged and clearly explained in a
variety of ways, handed down to posterity.
15. "And, indeed, the knowledge and use of so salutary a science, which
flows from the fertilizing founts of the sacred writings, the sovereign
Pontiffs, the holy Fathers and the councils, must always be of the
greatest assistance to the Church, whether with the view of really and
soundly understanding and interpreting the Scriptures, or more safely
and to better purpose reading and explaining the Fathers, or for
exposing and refuting the various errors and heresies; and in these
late days, when those dangerous times described by the Apostle are
already upon us, when the blasphemers, the proud, and the seducers go
from bad to worse, erring themselves and causing others to err, there
is surely a very great need of confirming the dogmas of Catholic faith
and confuting heresies."
16. Although these words seem to bear reference solely to Scholastic
theology, nevertheless they may plainly be accepted as equally true of
philosophy and its praises. For, the noble endowments which make the
Scholastic theology so formidable to the enemies of truth-to wit, as
the same Pontiff adds, "that ready and close coherence of cause and
effect, that order and array as of a disciplined army in battle, those
clear definitions and distinctions, that strength of argument and those
keen discussions, by which light is distinguished from darkness, the
true from the false, expose and strip naked, as it were, the falsehoods
of heretics wrapped around by a cloud of subterfuges and fallacies"(33)
- those noble and admirable endowments, We say, are only to be found in
a right use of that philosophy which the Scholastic teachers have been
accustomed carefully and prudently to make use of even in theological
disputations. Moreover, since it is the proper and special office of
the Scholastic theologians to bind together by the fastest chain human
and divine science, surely the theology in which they excelled would
not have gained such honor and commendation among men if they had made
use of a lame and imperfect or vain philosophy.
17. Among the Scholastic Doctors, the chief and master of all towers
Thomas Aquinas, who, as Cajetan observes, because "he most venerated
the ancient doctors of the Church, in a certain way seems to have
inherited the intellect of all."(34) The doctrines of those illustrious
men, like the scattered members of a body, Thomas collected together
and cemented, distributed in wonderful order, and so increased with
important additions that he is rightly and deservedly esteemed the
special bulwark and glory of the Catholic faith. With his spirit at
once humble and swift, his memory ready and tenacious, his life
spotless throughout, a lover of truth for its own sake, richly endowed
with human and divine science, like the sun he heated the world with
the warmth of his virtues and filled it with the splendor of his
teaching. Philosophy has no part which he did not touch finely at once
and thoroughly; on the laws of reasoning, on God and incorporeal
substances, on man and other sensible things, on human actions and
their principles, he reasoned in such a manner that in him there is
wanting neither a full array of questions, nor an apt disposal of the
various parts, nor the best method of proceeding, nor soundness of
principles or strength of argument, nor clearness and elegance of
style, nor a facility for explaining what is abstruse.
18. Moreover, the Angelic Doctor pushed his philosophic inquiry into
the reasons and principles of things, which because they are most
comprehensive and contain in their bosom, so to say, the seeds of
almost infinite truths, were to be unfolded in good time by later
masters and with a goodly yield. And as he also used this philosophic
method in the refutation of error, he won this title to distinction for
himself: that, single-handed, he victoriously combated the errors of
former times, and supplied invincible arms to put those to rout which
might in after-times spring up. Again, clearly distinguishing, as is
fitting, reason from faith, while happily associating the one with the
other, he both preserved the rights and had regard for the dignity of
each; so much so, indeed, that reason, borne on the wings of Thomas to
its human height, can scarcely rise higher, while faith could scarcely
expect more or stronger aids from reason than those which she has
already obtained through Thomas.
19. For these reasons most learned men, in former ages especially, of
the highest repute in theology and philosophy, after mastering with
infinite pains the immortal works of Thomas, gave themselves up not so
much to be instructed in his angelic wisdom as to be nourished upon it.
It is known that nearly all the founders and lawgivers of the religious
orders commanded their members to study and religiously adhere to the
teachings of St. Thomas, fearful least any of them should swerve even
in the slightest degree from the footsteps of so great a man. To say
nothing of the family of St. Dominic, which rightly claims this great
teacher for its own glory, the statutes of the Benedictines, the
Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Society of Jesus, and many others all
testify that they are bound by this law.
20. And, here, how pleasantly one's thoughts fly back to those
celebrated schools and universities which flourished of old in Europe -
to Paris, Salamanca, Alcalá, to Douay, Toulouse, and Louvain, to Padua
and Bologna, to Naples and Coimbra, and to many another! All know how
the fame of these seats of learning grew with their years, and that
their judgment, often asked in matters of grave moment, held great
weight everywhere. And we know how in those great homes of human
wisdom, as in his own kingdom, Thomas reigned supreme; and that the
minds of all, of teachers as well as of taught, rested in wonderful
harmony under the shield and authority of the Angelic Doctor.
21. But, furthermore, Our predecessors in the Roman pontificate have
celebrated the wisdom of Thomas Aquinas by exceptional tributes of
praise and the most ample testimonials. Clement VI in the bull In
Ordine; Nicholas V in his brief to the friars of the Order of
Preachers, 1451; Benedict XIII in the bull Pretiosus, and others bear
witness that the universal Church borrows lustre from his admirable
teaching; while St. Pius V declares in the bull Mirabilis that
heresies, confounded and convicted by the same teaching, were
dissipated, and the whole world daily freed from fatal errors; others,
such as Clement XII in the bull Verbo Dei, affirm that most fruitful
blessings have spread abroad from his writings over the whole Church,
and that he is worthy of the honor which is bestowed on the greatest
Doctors of the Church, on Gregory and Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome;
while others have not hesitated to propose St. Thomas for the exemplar
and master of the universities and great centers of learning whom they
may follow with unfaltering feet. On which point the words of Blessed
Urban V to the University of Toulouse are worthy of recall: "It is our
will, which We hereby enjoin upon you, that ye follow the teaching of
Blessed Thomas as the true and Catholic doctrine and that ye labor with
all your force to profit by the same."(35) Innocent XII, followed the
example of Urban in the case of the University of Louvain, in the
letter in the form of a brief addressed to that university on February
6, 1694, and Benedict XIV in the letter in the form of a brief
addressed on August 26, 1752, to the Dionysian College in Granada;
while to these judgments of great Pontiffs on Thomas Aquinas comes the
crowning testimony of Innocent VI: "His teaching above that of others,
the canonical writings alone excepted, enjoys such a precision of
language, an order of matters, a truth of conclusions, that those who
hold to it are never found swerving from the path of truth, and he who
dare assail it will always be suspected of error."(36)
22. The ecumenical councils, also, where blossoms the flower of all
earthly wisdom, have always been careful to hold Thomas Aquinas in
singular honor. In the Councils of Lyons, Vienna, Florence, and the
Vatican one might almost say that Thomas took part and presided over
the deliberations and decrees of the Fathers, contending against the
errors of the Greeks, of heretics and rationalists, with invincible
force and with the happiest results. But the chief and special glory of
Thomas, one which he has shared with none of the Catholic Doctors, is
that the Fathers of Trent made it part of the order of conclave to lay
upon the altar, together with sacred Scripture and the decrees of the
supreme Pontiffs, the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, whence to seek counsel,
reason, and inspiration.
23. A last triumph was reserved for this incomparable man-namely, to
compel the homage, praise, and admiration of even the very enemies of
the Catholic name. For it has come to light that there were not lacking
among the leaders of heretical sects some who openly declared that, if
the teaching of Thomas Aquinas were only taken away, they could easily
battle with all Catholic teachers, gain the victory, and abolish the
Church.(37) A vain hope, indeed, but no vain testimony.
24. Therefore, venerable brethren, as often as We contemplate the good,
the force, and the singular advantages to be derived from his
philosophic discipline which Our Fathers so dearly loved. We think it
hazardous that its special honor should not always and everywhere
remain, especially when it is established that daily experience, and
the judgment of the greatest men, and, to crown all, the voice of the
Church, have favored the Scholastic philosophy. Moreover, to the old
teaching a novel system of philosophy has succeeded here and there, in
which We fail to perceive those desirable and wholesome fruits which
the Church and civil society itself would prefer. For it pleased the
struggling innovators of the sixteenth century to philosophize without
any respect for faith, the power of inventing in accordance with his
own pleasure and bent being asked and given in turn by each one. Hence,
it was natural that systems of philosophy multiplied beyond measure,
and conclusions differing and clashing one with another arose about
those matters even which are the most important in human knowledge.
From a mass of conclusions men often come to wavering and doubt; and
who knows not how easily the mind slips from doubt to error? But, as
men are apt to follow the lead given them, this new pursuit seems to
have caught the souls of certain Catholic philosophers, who, throwing
aside the patrimony of ancient wisdom, chose rather to build up a new
edifice than to strengthen and complete the old by aid of the
new-ill-advisedly, in sooth, and not without detriment to the sciences.
For, a multiform system of this kind, which depends on the authority
and choice of any professor, has a foundation open to change, and
consequently gives us a philosophy not firm, and stable, and robust
like that of old, but tottering and feeble. And if, perchance, it
sometimes finds itself scarcely equal to sustain the shock of its foes,
it should recognize that the cause and the blame lie in itself. In
saying this We have no intention of discountenancing the learned and
able men who bring their industry and erudition, and, what is more, the
wealth of new discoveries, to the service of philosophy; for, of
course, We understand that this tends to the development of learning.
But one should be very careful lest all or his chief labor be exhausted
in these pursuits and in mere erudition. And the same thing is true of
sacred theology, which, indeed, may be assisted and illustrated by all
kinds of erudition, though it is absolutely necessary to approach it in
the grave manner of the Scholastics, in order that, the forces of
revelation and reason being united in it, it may continue to be "the
invincible bulwark of the faith."(38)
25. With wise forethought, therefore, not a few of the advocates of
philosophic studies, when turning their minds recently to the practical
reform of philosophy, aimed and aim at restoring the renowned teaching
of Thomas Aquinas and winning it back to its ancient beauty.
26. We have learned with great joy that many members of your order,
venerable brethren, have taken this plan to heart; and while We
earnestly commend their efforts, We exhort them to hold fast to their
purpose, and remind each and all of you that Our first and most
cherished idea is that you should all furnish to studious youth a
generous and copious supply of those purest streams of wisdom flowing
inexhaustibly from the precious fountainhead of the Angelic Doctor.
27. Many are the reasons why We are so desirous of this. In the first
place, then, since in the tempest that is on us the Christian faith is
being constantly assailed by the machinations and craft of a certain
false wisdom, all youths, but especially those who are the growing hope
of the Church, should be nourished on the strong and robust food of
doctrine, that so, mighty in strength and armed at all points, they may
become habituated to advance the cause of religion with force and
judgment, "being ready always, according to the apostolic counsel, to
satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in
you,"(39) and that they may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to
convince the gainsayers."(40) Many of those who, with minds alienated
from the faith, hate Catholic institutions, claim reason as their sole
mistress and guide. Now, We think that, apart from the supernatural
help of God, nothing is better calculated to heal those minds and to
bring them into favor with the Catholic faith than the solid doctrine
of the Fathers and the Scholastics, who so clearly and forcibly
demonstrate the firm foundations of the faith, its divine origin, its
certain truth, the arguments that sustain it, the benefits it has
conferred on the human race, and its perfect accord with reason, in a
manner to satisfy completely minds open to persuasion, however
unwilling and repugnant.
28. Domestic and civil society even, which, as all see, is exposed to
great danger from this plague of perverse opinions, would certainly
enjoy a far more peaceful and secure existence if a more wholesome
doctrine were taught in the universities and high schools-one more in
conformity with the teaching of the Church, such as is contained in the
works of Thomas Aquinas.
29. For, the teachings of Thomas on the true meaning of liberty, which
at this time is running into license, on the divine origin of all
authority, on laws and their force, on the paternal and just rule of
princes, on obedience to the higher powers, on mutual charity one
toward another-on all of these and kindred subjects-have very great and
invincible force to overturn those principles of the new order which
are well known to be dangerous to the peaceful order of things and to
public safety. In short, all studies ought to find hope of advancement
and promise of assistance in this restoration of philosophic discipline
which We have proposed. The arts were wont to draw from philosophy, as
from a wise mistress, sound judgment and right method, and from it,
also, their spirit, as from the common fount of life. When philosophy
stood stainless in honor and wise in judgment, then, as facts and
constant experience showed, the liberal arts flourished as never before
or since; but, neglected and almost blotted out, they lay prone, since
philosophy began to lean to error and join hands with folly. Nor will
the physical sciences themselves, which are now in such great repute,
and by the renown of so many inventions draw such universal admiration
to themselves, suffer detriment, but find very great assistance in the
restoration of the ancient philosophy. For, the investigation of facts
and the contemplation of nature is not alone sufficient for their
profitable exercise and advance; but, when facts have been established,
it is necessary to rise and apply ourselves to the study of the nature
of corporeal things, to inquire into the laws which govern them and the
principles whence their order and varied unity and mutual attraction in
diversity arise. To such investigations it is wonderful what force and
light and aid the Scholastic philosophy, if judiciously taught, would
bring.
30. And here it is well to note that our philosophy can only by the
grossest injustice be accused of being opposed to the advance and
development of natural science. For, when the Scholastics, following
the opinion of the holy Fathers, always held in anthropology that the
human intelligence is only led to the knowledge of things without body
and matter by things sensible, they well understood that nothing was of
greater use to the philosopher than diligently to search into the
mysteries of nature and to be earnest and constant in the study of
physical things. And this they confirmed by their own example; for St.
Thomas, Blessed Albertus Magnus, and other leaders of the Scholastics
were never so wholly rapt in the study of philosophy as not to give
large attention to the knowledge of natural things; and, indeed, the
number of their sayings and writings on these subjects, which recent
professors approve of and admit to harmonize with truth, is by no means
small. Moreover, in this very age many illustrious professors of the
physical sciences openly testify that between certain and accepted
conclusions of modern physics and the philosophic principles of the
schools there is no conflict worthy of the name.
31. While, therefore, We hold that every word of wisdom, every useful
thing by whomsoever discovered or planned, ought to be received with a
willing and grateful mind, We exhort you, venerable brethren, in all
earnestness to restore the golden wisdom of St. Thomas, and to spread
it far and wide for the defense and beauty of the Catholic faith, for
the good of society, and for the advantage of all the sciences. The
wisdom of St. Thomas, We say; for if anything is taken up with too
great subtlety by the Scholastic doctors, or too carelessly stated-if
there be anything that ill agrees with the discoveries of a later age,
or, in a word, improbable in whatever way-it does not enter Our mind to
propose that for imitation to Our age. Let carefully selected teachers
endeavor to implant the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas in the minds of
students, and set forth clearly his solidity and excellence over
others. Let the universities already founded or to be founded by you
illustrate and defend this doctrine, and use it for the refutation of
prevailing errors. But, lest the false for the true or the corrupt for
the pure be drunk in, be ye watchful that the doctrine of Thomas be
drawn from his own fountains, or at least from those rivulets which,
derived from the very fount, have thus far flowed, according to the
established agreement of learned men, pure and clear; be careful to
guard the minds of youth from those which are said to flow thence, but
in reality are gathered from strange and unwholesome streams.
32. But well do We know that vain will be Our efforts unless, venerable
brethren, He helps Our common cause who, in the words of divine
Scripture, is called the God of all knowledge;(41) by which we are also
admonished that "every best gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights",(42) and again: "If any of you
want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly, and
upbraideth not: and it shall be given him."(43)
33. Therefore in this also let us follow the example of the Angelic
Doctor, who never gave himself to reading or writing without first
begging the blessing of God, who modestly confessed that whatever he
knew he had acquired not so much by his own study and labor as by the
divine gift; and therefore let us all, in humble and united prayer,
beseech God to send forth the spirit of knowledge and of understanding
to the children of the Church and open their senses for the
understanding of wisdom. And that we may receive fuller fruits of the
divine goodness, offer up to God the most efficacious patronage of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, who is called the seat of wisdom; having at the
same time as advocates St. Joseph, the most chaste spouse of the
Virgin, and Peter and Paul, the chiefs of the Apostles, whose truth
renewed the earth which had fallen under the impure blight of error,
filling it with the light of heavenly wisdom.
34. In fine, relying on the divine assistance and confiding in your
pastoral zeal, most lovingly We bestow on all of you, venerable
brethren, on all the clergy and the flocks committed to your charge,
the apostolic benediction as a pledge of heavenly gifts and a token of
Our special esteem.
Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, the fourth day of August, 1879, the
second year of our pontificate.
LEO XIII
References:
1. Matt.28:19.
2. Col. 2:8.
3. 1 Cor. 2:4.
4. See Inscrutabili Dei consilio, 78:113.
5. De Trinitate, 14, 1, 3 (PL 42, 1037); quoted by Thomas Aquinas,
Summa theologiae, 1, 1, 2.
6. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 1, 16 (PG 8, 795); 7, 3 (PG 9,
426).
7. Origen, Epistola ad Gregorium (PG 11, 87-91).
8. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 1,5 (PG 8, 718-719).
9. Rom. 1:20.
10. Rom.2:14-15.
11. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea (also called Gregory Thaumaturgus that is
"the miracle worker"), In Origenem oratio panegyrica, 6 (PG 10, 1093A).
12. Carm., 1, Iamb. 3 (PG 37, 1045A-1047A).
13. Vita Moysis (PG 44, 359).
14. Epistola ad Magnum, 4 (PL 22, 667). Quadratus, Justin Irenaeus, are
counted among the early Christian apologists, who devoted their works
to the defence of Christian truth against the pagans.
15. De doctrina christiana, l, 2, 40 (PL 34, 63).
16. Wisd. 13:1.
17. Wisd. 13:5.
18. 2 Peter 1:16.
19. Const. Dogm, de Fid. Cath., c.3.
20. Const. cit., c.4.
21. Loc. cit.
22. Stromata, l, 20 (PG 8, 818).
23. Epistola ad Magnum, 2 (PL 22, 666).
24. Bulla Apostolici regiminis.
25. Epistola 147, ad Marcellinum, 7 (PL 33, 589).
26. Const. Dogm. de Fid. Cath., c.4.
27. 1 Cor. 1:24.
28. Col. 2:3.
29. Epistola ad Magnum, 4 (PL 22, 667).
30. Loc. cit.
31. Tertullian, Apologet., 46 (PL 1, 573).
32. Lactantius, Div. Inst., 7, 7 (PL 6, 759).
33. Bulla Triumphantis, an. 1588.
34. Cajetan's commentary on Sum. theol., IIa-IIae 148, 9. Art. 4;
Leonine edit., Vol. 10, p. 174, n.6.
35. Constitutio 5a, data die 3 Aug. 1368, ad Cancell. Univ. Tolos.
36. Sermo de S. Thoma.
37. Bucer.
38. Sixtus V, Bulla Triumphantis.
39. 1 Peter 3:15.
40. Titus 1:9.
41. 1 Kings 2:3.
42. James 1:17.
43. James 1:5.
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