Scholasticism

1. Scholasticism • With all changes in Western Europe, there were several themes pertinent to our study. • Islamic influence though very great in Iberia (Spain) was finally expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella (Castille and Aragon) • The original foothold of Islamic Caliphates in Cordoba became weakened.

2. The reconquista was launched 8th century—stalled until Sancho I of Navarre. • Long war with Islam to regain lost Spanish lands from the Moors. • It was a blended richness of Christian, Islam, and Jewish cultures. • Military success was advanced by Rodrigo Dias de Vivar, “El Cid.” This went on for 400 yrs before total success.

3. Because of early victories, Portugal became a nation or kingdom of its own in 1139. • After Toledo and Portugal, the issue of reconquista was no longer in doubt—just time. • Ireland will be somewhat different: Ireland early being as ferocious fighters as the Vikings united early to beat back and incorporate the Viking hordes.

4. Brian Boru (976-1014) began to exert influence and a cohesive following, at least in the South of Ireland; • 1100 the Church reformers were able to create a national Church organized on a strict territorail basis; • By the 12 century, Rory O’Connor turned to England for mercenaries—fatal victory—sparked the interest of Henry II (issues with the French)—invaded Ireland in 1171.

5. Concerning Eastern Europe, always issues. The Polish kingdom waxed and waned on Germany’s eastern frontier. • Poland was a western entity due to its embrasure and strong affiliation with the catholic Church. • King Boleslave divided his kingdom between his three sons (connection to the fall of the Carolingian empire)—they squabbled and fought—sught help from the German Dukes and eastern Rus—disunited and Poland has since been fragmented and partitioned over time.

6. Rus, the ancestor of Russia and a Viking establishment since the creation of Kiev in 862—huge trading and commerce. • Once Rus expanded and entered into a commercial and economic alliance with the Byzantines, it slowly grew influence; • Russia filled the eastern power vacuum when Byzantium collapsed; it accepted eastern Greek Orthodoxy—always be suspicious of the west. • Very much influenced by Byzantium and Mongol culture.

7. Italy on the other hand did not exist as a large cohesive connection of culture and tradition. • Three very different geographical zones: South, Center, and the North. • South under constant invasion and intrusion by the Byzantines, North African Muslims, and Normans—followed by French and Germens. • Then there was contention from the Aragonese from Spain.

8. The center zone, dominated by the Popes and the Catholic Church; Popish wars and expansion and constant haranguing from the Lombards; • North dominated by the Carolingians; after 932, the Germans dominated the northern zone; • Italy was never a unified country in purpose, philosophy and true traditional culture—which may explain a lot—not unified (politically or socially) until Garibaldi in the 1870s.

9. The Germans fought and won wars against the Magyars, Slavic and even Hun intrusions; • Tightly controlled the Catholic Church in Germany; • They used marriage alliances, diplomacy, and military intimidation to control the Dukes in Germany and on their borders (The Ottonian Rulers, the Duke of Saxony—over 100yrs).

10. Same old issue—no Capetian line in Saxony—Influenced waned after 1002, military fell into squabbling with one another—loss of unification and prestige; • Rulers after Saxony never found the formula of gaining control over more than 1 or 2 Duchies; there were five big Duchies in Germany. • Gravest problem was the Popes and the Ottonianum—power over the successor—Popes wanted to re-instill Papal Primacy—Popes won.

11. By 11th century, German Kings and Emperors usurped the divinity of the title Holy Roman Emperor—not just in name, but in actual Holy Powers; • Control of the church and all domestic powers were ordained to be placed in their hands—Popes just a bunch of human meddlers—(The Anti-Christs)—Popes chief impediment to moral and true religious reform. • However, when authoritative ideology battles with ecclesiastical ideology—Popes, Holy Trinity, and Heaven will most time win over human egos.

12. Speaking of the Church, it was at this time it became a very formidable spiritual, economic and social organization. • Developed a very sophisticated legal system (see Scholasticism); Curia—central court—expanded in power and influence; • College of Cardinals emerged as a “Senate” for the Church; Lateran Councils became church wide Parliaments—system of Legates connected Popes with Parliaments, Nations and Kingdoms

13. Church now began to meddle in every day affairs (personal and public); • Disciplinary measures put in place for people control; • Excommunication—exclusion from the sacraments(individual or nation)—a social death—inevitable Hell! • Inquisition—a formal judicial procedure to smoke out and eliminate heresy

14. All this is the social and spiritual make up and political structure developed during the Medieval development toward the Renaissance and modernity. • Rather than look for winners and losers we need to look at what they developed into and wonder— • These are the very real traditions we live with today.

15. This segues nicely into Scholasticism—based on scholarly methodology—not just a call from God, but true study and research—of course based solely on religious dogmatic research; • Based solely on the authority of the early Church fathers—Aquinas was the most famous for us; • Scholasticism is a catchall phrase for the dominant Latin intellectual culture developed during the High Middle Ages

16. Not all Latin literature was scholastic—much of Latin was in literary composition and letters, even poetry and much was bureaucratic; • Government writings, correspondence and recordings of government functions; • Much of the correspondence was written by Scholastic scholars—they worked for the government;

17. There also were many mystical writers—not real researched scholarship—these guys included the Bernard of Clairvaux of St. Victor in Paris. • Satire was a very notable form of literary expression—and in many cases opposed and caricatured scholasticism; • Example: The Gospel According to the Silver Marks 12th century diatribe of the excesses of the Church to gain wealth.

18. A Vast amount of non scholastic writing took n the form of secularism and everyday life; • Such as Abelard’s poem yearning his love for Heloise—a women he loved from afar; • The landscape to assist the expansion of scholasticism and others was the high economic boom for the time. • People traveled more and further—therefore introduced to new forms of intellectualism and history—they imbibed it, disseminated to the west.

19. Crusades aided greatly in these scholastic discoveries; • The West found that the Jewish and Muslim communities had been gathering, disseminating, and debating the great questions of the world for centuries—interestingly enough it was Greek and Roman polemics in literature, math and medicine—and religious dogma; • The West was late, but now voraciously gobbled up these data bases.

20. Between 750 and 900, Persian scholars had translated much of Aristotle and other classical philosophers and wrote follow up commentaries—holy grail of antiquity research; • Brilliant thinker such as IbnSina (Avicenna) developed theories and questions about how and why life is the way it is—school of philosophical thought—Epicureanism and Stoicism etc … Physics and psychology;

21. IbnRushd tried to explain the correlation between reason and spirituality; • Jewish scholars also were asking questions—Solomon ibnGebriol tried to reconcile the earthly world of Aristotle, the in the moment mentality, with the Jewish concept of the next spiritual world—tied to the great teachings of the Talmud; • Moses benMaimon also tried to combine and differentiate faith and reason;

22. Solomon ben Isaac used the ancient texts and scholarly writings of early Rabbis as a form of dialectics and spiritual studies—the faiths of Christianity and Judaism were forever interconnected and part of the same spiritual cycle; • Dialectic—using ones own polemics against him while arriving at the real turth (sophists—lawyers) • Lanfranc used dialectical reasoning to dispute with Berengar whether Christ was a real presence in the Eucharist

23. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)—very gifted logician—devised an ingenious logical proof for the existence of God; • How things exist in the mind and how they are perceived in the world; • Anselm argued that one can think in ones mind of the supernatural or things nonexistence—ie Leprechaun or Unicorn, but the reality there is nothing greater than God, so therefore if one can think of God there must be a God—

24. Peter Abelard—satirist and scholastic—used dialectics in Sic et Non (Yes and No), to marry and coalesce the seeming contradictions between the Old and New Testament; • The turn also began in normal social and legal life—dialectics could be used to determine issues that arose in every day life; • Differences between Canon (Church) and Secular law. Maybe common logic was superior—maybe faith and reason were inseparable and not the same and can exist as stand alone interpretations.

25. Still, caveat here—scholasticism is a difficult to define singularly; it can be attached to an era and a common end of dialectical reasoning; • But Faith and reason were a means to an end foe these scholars—not an end unto itself as we believe today; • Anselm stated, “Faith seeking understanding.” • The end result was to deify and glorify God and use reason and apologetics to do so.

26. Many of the non-Scholastic scholars thought using reason and polemics were sacriligious and a defiance to God—not praise but equity in human exultation; • To study and prove God was to be his equal “Tree of Knowledge” issue. • The correct to know God was through silent reflection and divine intervention

27. Scholasticism can also mean “Schoolism.” A particular school of thought and educational philosophy; • The Bolognese Monk Gratian used logic to systematize Canon Law: Concordance of Discordant Canons (called the Decretum)—what it did was establish scientific Canon Law and legitimized it; • Peter Lombard—wrote Sententia (sentence), Quaestria (poses a problem), Disputatia (forming propositions or scenarios)—they all treated the Trinity, Creation and Sin, Incarnation and Virtues, and the Last Things creating a systematic treatment of the Catholic faith and its Theology.

28. Large scale writings became known as Summas; the greatest scholastic writer and defender was Thomas Aquinas; • Summa Contra Gentiles—assessment of all the knowledge of the Pagans and all things learned through human reason. • Summa Theologiae—major doctrines with commentary concerning Doctrine of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith and the Church itself.

29. Thomas Aquinas—(1225-1274) born south of Rome to nobility; Father wanted him to become an Abbott—Church positions not just for piety, but for political, social, and financial security; • 1244, Naples to study the arts (logic and reasoning and normal curriculum); There he found that he enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of the Dominican Friars and their apostolic teachings—father objected, but joined anyway.

30. He studied in Paris for 3yrs under the tutelage of Albert the Great—studying the texts and commentaries of Aristotle; He followed Albert to Cologne to the new StudiumGenerale (place of learning); • He then taught in Paris, then left for Italy only to return to the stimulating academic environment of Paris (scholarship center of the world); • Prolific writer wrote of his travels, studies, observations and applied Christian commentaries to everything.

31. Highly influenced by Arab and Jewish scholars—he explored roles of the will and the intellect; • Faith is a matter of the will; he would opine that he did not commit an act contrary to reason. He would state, however, concerning faith, “I agree to something that is not demonstrable by reason.” • Things can be known by reason—(2 + 2 = 4) even religious things—for example the existence of God—but other things can only be known by faith (trinity, incarnation (God made man), and creation) …

32. Thomas Aquinas so influential that in the 19th century, it was made the basis by which all Catholic and Church doctrine (Theology) would be taught; • It was called “Thomism.” It remained the basis for Catholic teaching until the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965,