In the middle ages 107

has begun to develop, and the unity of precision

had made its appearance in their work. Thus, the

jurists compiled the various theories of Roman law.

The most famous of these jurists, Accursius who

died in 1252, united in an enormous compilation

(the Glossa Ordinaria) all the works of his prede-

cessors. About the same time, the legistes of

Philip Augustus translated the corpus juris into

French; Edward I had a collection made of the

decisions of his courts of justice; and James I of

Aragon had a codification made of laws, called the

Canellas. Furthermore, the canonists, at the wish

of the Popes, continued the work of codification

begun by Gratian in his Decretum, and brought

together the decisions of the Popes (Decretales)

and the decisions of the councils.

But in comparison with the philosophers, the

encyclopedists, jurists, and canonists are as dwarfs

by the side of giants. The philosophers, as we have

seen,^В° created that vast classification of human

knowledge, in which each kind of thinking found

its place, — and in doing so they showed themselves

to be, as lovers of order and clarity, in intimate sym-

pathy with the demands of their time. Thus, all the

particular sciences in existence at the time, and all

those that might arise through a closer study of in-

organic matter, or of the moral and social activities

of man, occupy a place in the plan, marked out in

advance.

10 See above, ch. Ill, ii.

108 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

But the shining example of this urgent need for

universahty and unity appears in that massive sys-

tem of thought which dominates and obscures all

its rivals, — namely, the scholastic philosophy.

Monumental Siimmae, collections of public lectures

called Quaestiones Disputatae, and monographs of

all kinds, display an integral conception of the

physical and moral world wherein no philosophi-

cal problems are omitted. Questions in psychol-

ogy, ideology, and epistemology ; on the constitu-

tion of matter and corporeal bodies ; on being, unity,

efficiency, act, potency, essence, existence; on the

logical construction of the sciences; on individual

and social ethics; on general aesthetics; on specula-

tive grammar and the philosophy of language — all

of these vital philosophical questions receive their

answer. The particular sciences are all pressed in-

to service for philosophy, and they supply it with

the facts and observations of concrete experience.

Even the intellectual activities of the jurists and

the canonists are also drawn within the scholastic

synthesis. The scholastics of Paris especially, in

their lectures and in their books, treat from their

specific standpoint certain questions which the jur-

ists treat by reference to their technical demands.

For example, they commonly discuss and study

questions of private property, of biu'ial, of the right

to make war, of the relations between Church and

State; but such questions are approached not from

the point of view of positive law, but rather from