In the middle ages 77

speaks of the reactionaries of his order as "stupid

animals who blaspheme philosophy without under-

standing it."' In 1284 the Franciscan John Peck-

ham, — who reminds one of Roger Bacon, in his im-

pulsive character and in his tendency to exagger-

ate — writes to the Chancellor of the University as

follows: "Certain brothers of the Dominican order

boast that the teaching of truth has a higher place

of honor among them than in any other existing

order."'

On the other hand, a certain blind rivalry per-

sists between the "regulars" (those subjects to

Dominican or Franciscan rule), and those who call

themselves "secular" teachers (seculares). The

latter could not conceal their animosity toward

their monkish colleagues : and the University writ-

ings of the period are full of the quarrels which re-

sulted. Thus, as Dominicans and Franciscans op-

posed each other on points of doctrine, the secular.**

reveal their malice by comparing the twin orders to

Jacob and Esau who quarreled in the very womb

of their mother. However, these twin brothers ac-

complished great things, and Roger Bacon, the en-

fant terrible of his time, in spite of his quarrels with

his fellow friars could not refrain from writing in

7 ". . . tanquam bruta animalia blasphemantia in iis quae igno-

rant," In Epist. Beati Dionysii Areopagitae, Epist. VIII, No. 3.

8 "Quidam fratres ejusdem ordinis praedicatorum ausi sunt se

pub lice jactitari doctrinam veritatis plus in sue ordine quam in alio

contemporaneo viguisse." Epistola ad cancellarium. Oxon., Decemb,,

1284.

78 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

1271, with his usual exaggeration, that in forty

years no "secular" had written anything of any

value either in Philosophy or in Theology.''

IV

The extreme fondness for philosophy, however,

which appears in the University of Paris during the

thirteenth century, is explained only in part by the

acquired momentum, the influx of foreigners to

Paris, the place given to philosophy and theology

in the program of studies, and the feverish activity

of the impressive Dominican and Franciscan cor-

porations with their remarkable masters. In addi-

tion, and finally, we must consider the introduction

of new philosophical texts, which served as food

for individual reflection and for discussion and for

writing.

It is hard for us adequately to realize what this

enrichment must have meant at that time. The

great treatises of Aristotle, — his Metaphysics, his

Physics, his Treatise on the Soul, works of which

doctors had spoken for five hundred years, but

which no westerner had read since the days of

Boethius — were brought to them from Greece and

from Spain. Neo-Platonic works were added to

these, — principally the ''Liber de Causis," wi'itten

by a compiler of Proclus, and the "EJementa The-

ologiae'' of Proclus himself. Henceforth the West

knows the best tliat Greek thought had produced,

Compendium Studii, caj). V, od. Brewer p. 428.