In the middle ages 73

centre of the West, the international "rendez-vous"

for all those who were interested in speculative

thought, — and their name was legion. By way of

glorifying this philosophical speculation at the

University, the documents refer to Paris in the

most pompous terms : parens scientiarum, the alma

mater of the sciences; sapientiae fons, fountain of

wisdom, that is, the fovmtain of philosophy.

Paris drew to itself an endless stream of

strangers interested in these subjects. During the

thirteenth century all of those who have a name in

philosophy or in theology come here, sooner or

later, for a more or less prolonged sojourn. Ital-

ians such as Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Peter

of Tarantaise, Gilles of Rome, James of Viterbo,

meet with masters from German provinces such as

Albert the Great, Ulric of atrasburg, Thierry of

Freiburg. From the region of Flanders or from

the Walloon country come Gauthier of Bruges,

Siger of Brabant, Henry of Ghent, Godfrey of

Fontaines, and they meet Danes, such as Boethius

the Dacian, and especially * the English masters,

such as Stephen Langton, Michael Scot, Alfred

Anglicus (of Sereshel), William of Meliton, Alex-

ander of Hales, Richard of Middleton, Roger

Bacon, Robert Kilwardby, Walter. Burleigh, Duns

Scotus and William of Occam. Spain also is rep-

resented by notable men, such as Peter of Spain,

Cardinal Ximenes of Toledo, and Raymond Lully.

Indeed, one can count on one's fingers the philoso-

74 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

phers of the thirteenth century who were not trained

at Paris, such as the Silesian Witelo or Robert

Grosseteste, the organizer of the Universitj'^ of Ox

ford, — and even the latter was indirectly influenced

by Paris. All of these strangers mingle with the

masters of French origin, William of Auxerre,

Bernard of Auvergne, William of St. Amour, Wil-

liam of Auvergne, bishop of Paris, John of La

Rochelle, and Vincent of Beauvais. From their

midst are recruited the artificers of that great cos-

mopolitan philosophy which is to mould the minds

of the educated classes.

Ill

The vigorous growth of the philosophical and

theological schools of Paris was singularly quick-

ened by the rise of the two new religious orders, —

the Dominicans and the Franciscans — and by their

incorporation in the University. This stimulus

was so important that it justifies treating these or-

ders as a further cause of the rapid development of

philosophy in the thirteenth century.

The Benedictine monasteries had fallen into de-

cline, chiefly through excess of wealth which had

finally weakened their austerity. Francis of Assisi

and Dominic, who founded the two celebrated or-

ders of Franciscans and Dominicans at about the

same time, effected a return to evangelical poverty

by forbidding the possession of this world's goods, —

not only to each of their disciples, but also to the