In the middle ages 159

Art, in all of its forms, shows the unfailing bonds

between religion and beauty.

The religious spirit that penetrated everything

was bound t^ be felt also in the domain of sci^ce,

and notably philosophy . We shall see this ques-

tion — so complicated and so badly understood —

under new aspects, in seeking to understand the

precise relations of scholastic philosophy and the

Catholic religion. In what does the bond between

philosophy and the religious medium consist? How

can one reconcile it with that doctrinal indepen-

dence which philosophers so fiercely claim?

IV

It is easy to make the reconciliation for a certain

group of ties, which I shall call external, and which

therefore cannot really affect philosophical doctrine.

They are not less suggestive of the mentality of

the time, and they show the perfect harmony ex-

isting between scholastic philosophy and mediaeval

civilization. One can, it seems to me, reduce these

extra-doctrinal relations to three classes, which we

must examine briefly.

The first class results from the social superiority

of the theologians; and this indicates that philos-

ophy is for the most part a preparation for theo-

logical studies. That theology holds the place of

honor in the complete cycle of studies, and that it

is the topmost in the pyramid of knowledge ought

not to surprise us; for all study whatever was sub-

160 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

servient to the clerical estate. The thirteenth cen-

tury in this only continued the traditions of the

earlier Middle Ages. The University of Paris, is-

suing from the schools at Notre Dame, counted

only clerics among its professors, and these profes-

sors had the closest relations with the Chancellor

of Notre Dame and with the Papacy. Many were

themselves canons, either of Paris or of the prov-

inces or from abroad. Not to mention the Fran-

ciscans or Dominicans, who were the most brilliant

masters in the University, the translation of Greek

and Arabic works — so momentous for the West-

was due to clerks of Toledo or monks of Greece

and Sicily. In short, all the co-workers in the great

awakening of the thirteenth century are ecclesi-

astics.

It is natural that the masters in the Faculty of

Theology (sacrae paginae) took precedence of all

other masters, and notably of philosophers. In

this, University discipline was only the reflection

of social life. The intensity of Catholic life makes

intelligible why so many of these "artists," or phi-

losophers, desired to undertake the study of theol-

ogy, after taking their degrees in the lower faculty.

So much was this the case that the mastership of

arts was a direct preparation for the grades of the

Theological Faculty. The documents make this

clear: "Non est consenescendum in artibus sed a

liminihus mmt salutandae "^'^'''^ — One does not grow

old in philosophy; one must take leave of it finally