*

or essence. This higher principle is a Greater Unity, i.e. the principle of Individuation (hæccity). In Psychology he combated the real difference of the Soul's Faculties, and maintained an undetermined Freedom. The object of Philosophy was, in his opinion, to become cognizant of the nature of things, or what is. Although human philosophy teaches the sufficiency of reason, and that supernatural disclosures are superfluous, the theologian regards a certain supernatural revelation as necessary; because man can never attain to certain truth by inspecting effects or secondary causes, whether Ideas or Sensations.

The object of theology is God, an Infinite Being, and the first principle of all things. Yet He is not to be regarded in the light of his Infinity but of his Divinity, the latter idea being more perfect than the former, because God cannot be conceived apart from Infinity, though Infinity can be conceived without God. He attributed indeterminate Freedom to God, and hence regarded the subjective will of God as the principle of Morality. Sometimes he expressed doubts as to the possibility of a rational Theology.

Duns Scotus was the founder of a school, the Scotists, who distinguished themselves for subtlety of disputation, and for incessant disputes with the Thomists. These disputes were so frequently mixed up with human passions, that Science derived from them little benefit; and it very frequently happened that the points in question, instead of being elucidated, were obscured through their controversies.

Disciples of Thomas; or Thomists.

269. Among the Thomists of the thirteenth century we may remark: 1. Egidius Colonna, a Roman,1 a consistent Realist; according to whom, Truth resides in the understanding as well as the object. His principal merit was that he unravelled with perspicuity certain metaphysical problems, and endeavoured to reconcile discordant opinions respecting the questions of Being, Form, Matter, and Indi

* The subtle nature of this argument, and the peculiar structure of the German tongue, render this passage necessarily obscure. The idea to be conveyed is, that there is an Absolute principle determining both the universal and particular nature of things.-ED.

Ægidius Columna Romanus, surnamed Doctor Fundatissimus 8. Theologorum Princeps: born 1247, died 1316.

viduality. 2. Hervaus, whose learned but abstruse logic was even yet more unintelligible than that of his prede

cessors.

Scotists.

270. The most celebrated contemporary disciples of Scot were Fr. Mayronis, a Franciscan, who first set the example of disputes in the Sorbonne (Actus Sorbonici), and wrote esteemed commentaries on Aristotle, St. Augustin, St. Anselm, Lombardus, etc. :—. -Hieron. de Ferrariis, Antonius Andrea, Walter Burleigh (§ 274). To these may be added the Franciscan Pet. Tartaretus (in the fifteenth century), J. B. Monlorius (flourished about 1569) and Major.

271. At this period also appeared two men highly remarkable for the reformation which they attempted, but were not able to effect, in the philosophy of the age. The first of these, Roger Bacon, a Franciscan, was born at Ilchester, 1214; and acquired some celebrity by his knowledge of Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, and Languages, as well as by the fertility of his original ideas and inventions. He was surnamed in consequence Doctor Mirabilis; but unhappily, also, was accused of witchcraft, and imprisoned by command of the general of his order. He had the perspicacity to detect the false principles of the philosophical system of his time, and instead of the frivolous distinctions then established, was desirous of opening new paths to inquiry through the study of Nature and the Languages. Unfortunately the monkish spirit of the time repressed his investigations, and the influence they would have insured to him. He taught at Oxford, A.D, 1240, and died 1292 or 1294. Raymond Lulli (Lullus or Lullius, born at Palma in the isle of Majorca, 1234), was as distinguished in his

Hervé Noel, or Hervæus Natalis, born in Bretagne; at first a monk, then general of the order of the Preachers; professor of Theology and rector of the university of Paris. Died at Narbonne, 1323.

2 Franciscus de Mayronis, Doctor Illuminatus et Acutus, Magister 1bstractionum. Died at Placentia, 1325.

3 Doctor Dulcifluus, born in Arragon. Died about 1320.

4 See his Opus Majus ad Clementem IV, SAM. JEBB, Lond. 1733, fol.; Epistolæ de secretis operibus Artis et Naturæ, et de Nullitate Magiæ. Opera J. DEE castigata et restituta, 8vo. Hamb. 1618; and the Biographia Britannica, IV, 616, sqq.

R

mature days for a devout piety, as he had been notorious in youth for his love of pleasure. He devoted himself to the conversion of the Mahometans and Pagans, asserting to this intent illumination from above, and the gift of the Great Art (Ars Magna1). His endeavours not being as successful as he had hoped, he devoted this Great Art to the reformation of Philosophy and the Sciences. His art was nothing more than a Mechanical Logic, calculated to solve all questions without any study or reflection on the part of him who should use it. He added thereto some hints borrowed from the philosophy of the Arabians and the Cabbala, which he appears to have been the first Christian author to cultivate. In his numerous works and those of his School we frequently discover more clear and elevated views of Morality, though he was not able to escape canonical censure on this head. He died 1315. His followers (Lullists), disseminated a superstitious enthusiasm, together with the belief he entertained in the possibility of making gold; but occasionally struck out new and valuable ideas. Long after his death the Ars Magna of Raymond Lulli found admirers among men of talent, (e. g. Giordano Bruno).

At this period also appeared Petrus ab Apono (or Abano), near Padua, born 1250, died 1315 or 1316; a physician, attached to the Arabian doctrines, and author of a book entitled, Conciliator Differentiarum Philosophicarum et præcipue Medicorum -and Arnold de Villanova, who died in 1312, a zealous fellow-labourer with the former, and inclined to the opinions of Raymond Lulli.3

1 JACOBI CUSTERER, De Raimundo Lullio Dissertatio in Actis SS. Antwerp. tom. V, p. 697. PERROQUET, Life of Raymond Lullé, Vendôme, 1667, 8vo.

Raymundi Lulli Opera Omnia, ed. SALZINGER, Mogunt. 1721-42, 10 vols. fol. Et: Opera ea quæ ad Inventam ab ipso Artem Universalem pertinent, Argent. 1598, 8vo.

See also J. H. ALSTADTII Clavis Artis Lullianæ et Vera Logicæ, Argent. 1609, 8vo.; and, BRUCK, Hist. Phil. p. 1353, sqq.

He obtained the appellation of Doctor Illuminatissimus.

2 Ven. 1471-1483, fol. His life is to be found in the Quartalschrift of CANZLER and MEISSNER, Second year, No. IV, fasc. 1.

3 Opera Omnia cum NIC. TAURELLII Annotat. Bas. 1585, fol.

FOURTH PERIOD OF THE SCHOLASTIC

DOCTRINE.

III. Disputes between the Nominalists and Realists renewed by Occam, in which the former gain ground. (From the Fourteenth Century to the end of the Fifteenth.)

272. About the close of this century a man of great merit contributed much to the downfal of Realism, and the cessation of those endless logical disputes, by removing difficulties after a clearer and more precise manner, and establishing the foundations of a more exact knowledge of the properties of the Object and Subject. This was G. Durand de St. Pourçain. He was at first a Thomist, but subsequently became a candid adversary of that School."

Оссат.

JOH. SALABERTI Philosophia Nominalium vindicata; or, Logica in Nominalium Viâ, Lut. Par. 1651, 8vo. (very scarce). Some extracts are to be found in CRAMER, Continuation of Bossuet, VII, p. 867. Ars Rationis ad Mentem Nominalium, Oxf. 1673, 12mo.

GUIL. OCCAM, Quæstiones et Decisiones in IV libb. Sententiar. Lugd. 1495-6-7, fol. Centiloquium Theologicum, ibid. 1494-5-6, fol. Summa Totius Logicæ, fol. Par. 1488; Bonon. 1498; Oxf. 1675, 8vo. Opus nonaginta dierum, folio, Lov. 1481; Lugd. 1495-6. Dialogorum Libri VII advers. Hereticos, et de Dogmatt. Johannis Papæ XXII, folio, Par. 1476; Lugd. 1495—8.

Quodlibeta VII, una cum Tract. de Sacram. Altaris, folio, Par. 1487; Arg. 1491.

Compendium Errorum Johannis Papæ XXII, folio, Lov. 1481; Lugd.

1496.

Commentum in I Librum Sententiarum, 1483.

Summulæ in Physic. Aristotelis, Bon. 1494.

Decisiones octo quæstion. de Potestate summi Pontificis, Lug. 1496. Disputatio inter Clericum et Militem super Potestate Prelatis atq. Principib. terrar. commissa, Par. 1498.

273. William of Occam (or Ockham), an Englishman, born in Surrey, and surnamed Doctor Singularis, Invicibilis et Venerablis Inceptor, a disciple of Scot, and, like him a Franciscan, began a new era in philosophy and history by his talents, and the courage with which he opposed himself most 1 Durandus de Sancto Porciano, bishop of Meaux, named Doctor Resolutissimus, was born at Auvergne. Died 1332.

LAUNOII Syllabus Rationum, quibus durandi causa Defenditur, in Cpp., tom I, p. 1. See his Comment. in Magistr. Sentent. Par. 1508.

zealously to the despotism of the prevailing dogmata. He was a teacher at Paris at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and having defended the rights of the king of France and the emperor against the usurpations of the pope, died, persecuted but not subdued, at Munich, 1347 or 1353. He proposed to effect no more by his Logic than a better demonstration of common opinions; refused to submit implicitly to authority; and closely following the principles of more rational Dialectics, and in particular the dictum that -Entia non sunt multiplicanda præter necessitatem: he demonstrated the absurdity of Realism; refuted it in a variety of particulars, and directed the attention of others to the doctrine of the Nominalists. He denied that universal conceptions had any other objective existence than what they possess in the understanding; because such an hypothesis is not necessary either for the purposes of the possibility of judgment, or of a real science, and because it leads to extravagant consequences: on the contrary, such notions have only an objective being in the mind itself, are a product of Abstraction, and either images (figmenta) of the same, or qualities subjectively present in the Soul, which it employs to designate classes of external objects.1 He did but sketch the principles of a philosophy afterwards completed; but his labours sufficed to withdraw the attention of his followers from the all-engrossing question of the principle of Individuality, and directed them rather to the acquirement of fresh knowledge. In his theory of knowledge, Occam receded still farther from the opinions of the Realists, and by maintaining that Thought was Subjective, afforded a greater handle to Seepticism and Empiricism than possibly he himself might have intended. Though too absolutely laid down, such a proposition, was, nevertheless, in the circumstances of the times, serviceable to the cause of philosophy. William of Occam, by controverting established dogmata, by his Scepticism, and by the new ideas he started, impaired the authority of existing principles, and gave occasion to more extended inquiries. On the same ground, he endeavoured, in Theology, to circumscribe the subjects of investigation, and rejected the established Scholastic proofs of the Existence, Unity, and Omnipotence of the Divinity; as also of His Wisdom, and that he is an Intelligence and the Free Cause 1 Comment. in Lib. I, 2; Quæst. 4 and 8.