The Mediaeval Mind (Volume 2 of 2) A History of the Development of Thought and Emotion in the Middle Ages

It lies before us to draw the lines of mediaeval development together. We have been considering the Middle Ages very largely, endeavouring to fix in mind the more interesting of...

With Albert it seemed most illuminating to outline the masses of his work of Aristotelian purveyorship and inchoate reconstruction of the Christian encyclopaedia in conformity w...

[226] Hildeberti, _Ep._ ii. 12 (Migne 171, col. 172-177). Compare _Ep._ i. 17, consoling a friend on loss of place and dignities. Hildebert’s works are in vol. 171 of Migne’s _P...

Classical studies, and the gradual development of mediaeval prose and verse, discussed in the preceding chapters, illustrate modes of mediaeval progress. But of all examples of...

During all the mediaeval centuries, men approached the Classics expecting to learn from them. The usual attitude toward the classical heritage was that of docile pupils looking...

From the somewhat elaborate general considerations which have occupied the last two chapters, we turn to the representative manifestations of mediaeval thought in the twelfth ce...

In mediaeval Latin poetry the endeavour to preserve a classical style and the irresistible tendency to evolve new forms are more palpably distinguishable than in the prose. For...

Classical antiquity lay far back of the mediaeval period, while in the nearer background pressed the centuries of transition, the time of the Church Fathers. The patristic mater...

The romantic growth and imaginative shaping of chivalric love having been followed in the fortunes of its great exemplars, Tristan, Iseult, Lancelot, Guinevere, Parzival, a diff...

Under sanction of Scriptural interpretation and the sacraments, allegory and symbolism became accepted principles of spiritual verity, sources of political argument, and modes o...

Intellectually, the thirteenth century in western Europe is marked by three closely connected phenomena: the growth of Universities, the discovery and appropriation of Aristotle...

The religious philosophy or theology of the Middle Ages is commonly called scholasticism, and its exponents are called the scholastics. The name applies most properly to the res...

Words, pictures, and other vehicles of expression are symbols of whatever they are intended to designate. A certain unavoidable symbolism also inheres in human mental processes;...

Of all mediaeval men, Thomas Aquinas achieved the most organic and comprehensive union of the results of human reasoning and the data of Christian theology. He may be regarded a...

The thirteenth century was a time of potent Church unity, when the papacy, triumphant over emperors and kings, was drawing further strength from the devotion of the two Orders,...

Just as the Middle Ages followed the allegorical interpretation of Scripture elaborated by the Church Fathers, so they also accepted, and even made more precise, the patristic i...

The range and character of the ultimate intellectual interests of the thirteenth century may be studied in the works of four men: St. Bonaventura, Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas...

mathematica_, treats of arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy, and metaphysics cursorily. Book XVII. likewise thins out in a somewhat slight discussion of Theology, which was t...

Philosophy, scholastic: Completeness of, in Aquinas, ii. 395 Divisions of, ii. 312 _seqq._ Importance of, as intellectual interest, ii. 287-8 Physical sciences included in, _see...

Albert the Great was prodigious in the mass of his accomplishment. Therein lay his importance for the age he lived in; therein lies his interest for us. For him, substantial phi...

[44] It was the way of Bede in his commentaries to speak briefly of the literal or historic meaning of the text, and then give the usual symbolical interpretations, paying speci...

Having considered the spirit, the field, and the dual method, of mediaeval thought, there remain its classifications of topics. The problem of classification presented itself to...

A criticism of the world of feudalism, chivalry, and love may be had from the impressions and temperamental reactions of a certain thinking atom revolving in the same. The atom...

“But beyond these sciences is one more perfect than all, which all serve, and which in a wonderful way certifies them all: this is called the experimental science, which neglect...

Mediaeval thought: Abstractions, genius for, ii. 280 Characteristics of, i. 13 Commentaries characteristic of, ii. 390, 553 _n. 4_ Conflict inherent in, i. 22; ii. =293-4= Defer...

the thoughts of Hugo of St. Victor. The second chapter is on the “Contemplation of God in His Footprints in the Sensible World.” This is the next grade of speculation, because w...

interpreter errs, or thou dost not understand.’ But in the works of the later ones (_posteriorum_, Abaelard’s inclusive designation of the Fathers), which are contained in books...

[174] For a successor or friendly rival to Chartres, in the interest taken in grammar and classical literature, one should properly look to Orleans, where apparently those studi...

_Anticlaudianus_, and his _cantafable_, _De planctu naturae_. He showed himself a man of might, and insight too, in his _Contra haereticos_. His suggestive pithiness of diction...

[197] The _Eptateuchon_ exists in manuscript. I have taken the above from Clerval, _Les Écoles de Chartres au moyen âge_ (Chartres, 1895), p. 221 _sqq._ Thierry appears to have...