In the middle ages 161

and engage himself with theology. It is the inten-

sity of this Catholic life which makes us understand

how Robert of Sorbonne, founder of the famous

college of that name, could compare the Last Judg-

ment, — in his short treatise De Conscientia^^ — to

the examination for the degree at Paris, and pursue

the comparison into a thousand details. In that

"supreme trial" for the Doctorate, for example,

the judge will not be accessible to recommendations

or presents, and all will pass or fail strictly in at-

cordance with the requirements of justice. It is,

moreover, the intensity of religious life at that

epoch which alone can explain certain controversies

among theologians which contravene our modern

ideas, — such as that on the subject of Christian

perfection. While ordinary people are enthusiastic

for a religion that is simple and sturdy, the learned

at Paris sought to determine whether the life of the

regulars is nearer to perfection than that of the

seculars. Between 1255 and 1275 all doctors in

theology were obliged to declare themselves on this

question. Certain secular masters treated it with

an asperity and a passion which served as an outlet

for their ill-humor against the Dominicans and

Franciscans, whom they never forgave for having

taken the three chairs in the Faculty of Theology.'^

lobis (T-y J3enifle, Die Universitaten des Mittelalters bis I4OO, Bd.

I, pp. 99-100.

11 Edited by F. Chambon, Robert de Sorbon, Paris, 1903.

12 Cf. above, p. 76.

162 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

If, for all these reasons both social and religious,

more credit or honor or importance was attached to

theology and to religious discussion than to phi-

losophy, this fact could in no wise change the posi-

tion of philosophy, which remained what it is and

must be — a synthetic study of the world by mean s

of the reason alone.

The second class of ties results from the penetra-

tion of philosophy into speculative theology, and

from its being constituted an apology for Chris-

tianity, — the penetration affecting theology alone,

and philosophy not at all. This method which was

so dear to the masters of Paris, has been commonly

called by modern authors the dialectic method in

theology. We already know that speculative the-

ology, which achieved its greatest renown in the

thirteenth century, aimed at the co-ordination of

Catholic dogma; therefore its chief method was

necessarily based upon the authority of the sacred

books. But by the side of this principal method,

the theologians employed another one, as accessory

and secondary. In order to make dogmas intelligi-

ble, they sought to show their well-founded reason-

ableness, — just as Jewish theologians had done in

the days of Philo, or Arabian theologians had done

with tlie Koran. In the twelfth century, Abaelard,

and Hugo of St. Victor, and Gilbert de la Porree,

had founded this apologetic method; and in the

thirteenth century it had attained the widest ex-

tension. The same Thomas Aquinas who taught