In the middle ages 51

declarations. A codex of Regensburg of the

twelfth century clearly distinguishes philosophers,

"humanae videlicet sapientiae amatores!' from the-

ologians, "divinae scripturae doctoresJ"^^

I am of course aware that besides these texts

there are others in which philosophy is abused or

misunderstood; that reactionary minds, narrow the-

ologians or disdainful mystics, condemned profane

knowledge as useless, or if they admitted philoso-

phy, they reduced it to the rank of a vassal and a

serf of theology. In the eleventh century Otloh

of St. Emmeram forbade monks the study of it;

they, he said, having renounced the world, must

occupy themselves only with divine things. Peter

Damien wrote concerning dialectics, that even

though sometimes (quando), by way of exception,

it is allowed to occupy itself with theological mat-

ters and with mysteries of divine power {mysteria

divinae virtutis), it should nevertheless renounce all

spirit of independence (for that would be arro-

gance), and like a servant place itself at the ser-

vice of its mistress, theology: Velut ancilla domi-

nae quodmn famulatus ohsequio suhservire.^'

Here for the first time this famous phrase ap-

pears. It is repeated in the twelfth century by a

united group of so-called "rigorist theologians" —

Peter of Blois, Stephen of Tournai, Michael of

Corbeil, and many others. The lofty mystics of the

11 Grabmann, op. ciL, I, 191. cod. Clm. No. 14401.

12 De divina omnipotentia, c. 5 Patr. lat. vol. 14, c. 603.

52 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

convent of St. Victor at Paris — Walter and Absa-

lon of St. Victor — went so far as to say that phi-

losophy is the devil's art, and that certain theolo-

gians who used it were "the labyrinths" of France.

But one must not forget that these detractors of

philosophy were a minority, just as the quibbling

dialecticians formed an exceptional class also, and

that already in the eleventh and the twelfth century

the best minds rejected the unhappy phrase of

Damien. St. Anselm had disavowed it. The Char-

trains, Jolin of Salisbury, Alan of Lille, either ex-

pressly oppose it or show by their writings that they

reject it. Moreover, the speculative theologians

who appeared at the beginning of the twelfth cen-

tury and almost immediately formed three great

schools — Abaelard, Gilbert de la Porree, Hugo "of

St. Victor — condemned the timidity of the "rigor-

ists," and the apologetic which they created (of

which we shall speak further on)" is an effectual

counterpoise to the tendencies of Damien. Peter

Lombard himself, in spite of his practical point of

view, protests against such excessive pretensions.

The formula is condemned by the majority of intel-

lectual philosophers and theologians. Hence it is

very unfair to judge the philosophers of the Mid-

dle Ages by the doctrines of a minority — and that

in the twelfth century — against which the best

openly rebel. To make clear the origin of the

formula, that philosoj^hy is the handmaiden of the-

13 See ch. VII, iv.