[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
beginning of the great new thing: the nation of France, which was to pierce and overpower the old
quarrel of Pope and Emperor in the lands from which Thomas came. But Thomas came very
unwillingly, and, if we may say it of so kindly a man, rather sulkily. As he entered Paris they showed
him from the hill that splendour of new spires beginning, and somebody said something like, "How
grand it must be to own all this." And Thomas Aquinas only muttered, "I would rather have that
Chrysostom MS. I can't get hold of."
Somehow they steered that reluctant bulk of reflection to a seat in the royal banquet hall; and all that we
know of Thomas tells us that he was perfectly courteous to those who spoke to him, but spoke little, and
was soon forgotten in the most brilliant and noisy clatter in the world: the noise of French talking. What
the Frenchmen were talking about we do not know; but they forgot all about the large fat Italian in their
midst, and it seems only too possible that he forgot all about them. Sudden silences will occur even in
French conversation; and in one of these the interruption came. There had long been no word or motion
in that huge heap of black and white weeds, like motley in mourning, which marked him as a mendicant
friar out of the streets, and contrasted with all the colours and patterns and quarterings of that first and
freshest dawn of chivalry and heraldry. The triangular shields and pennons and pointed spears, the
triangular swords of the Crusade, the pointed windows and the conical hoods, repeated everywhere that
fresh French medieval spirit that did, in every sense, come to the point. But the colours of the coats were
gay and varied, with little to rebuke their richness; for St. Louis, who had himself a special quality of
coming to the point, had said to his courtiers, "Vanity should be avoided; but every man should dress
well, in the manner of his rank, that his wife may the more easily love him."
And then suddenly the goblets leapt and rattled on the board and the great table shook, for the friar had
brought down his huge fist like a club of stone, with a crash that startled everyone like an explosion; and
http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/aquinas.html (36 of 77)17/07/2005 15:10:01
St. Thomas Aquinas
had cried out in a strong voice, but like a man in the grip of a dream, "And that will settle the
Manichees!"
The palace of a king, even when it is the palace of a saint, has it conventions. A shock thrilled through
the court, and every one felt as if the fat friar from Italy had thrown a plate at King Louis, or knocked his
crown sideways. They all looked timidly at the terrible seat, that was for a thousand years the throne of
the Capets: and many there were presumably prepared to pitch the big black-robed beggarman out of the
window. But St. Louis, simple as he seemed, was no mere medieval fountain of honour or even fountain
of mercy but also the fountain of two eternal rivers: the irony and the courtesy of France. And he turned
to his secretaries, asking them in a low voice to take their tablets round to the sear of the absent-minded
controversialist, and take a note of the argument that had just occurred to him; because it must be a very
good one and he might forget it. I have paused upon this anecdote, first, as has been said, because it is
the one which gives us the most vivid snapshot of a great medieval character; indeed of two great
medieval characters. But it also specially fitted to be taken as a type or a turning-point, because of the
glimpse it gives of the man's main preoccupation; and the sort of thing that might have been found in his
thoughts, if they had been thus surprised at any moment by a philosophical eavesdropper or through a
psychological keyhole. It was not for nothing that he was still brooding, even in the white court of St.
Louis, upon the dark cloud of the Manichees.
This book is meant only to be the sketch of a man; but it must at least lightly touch, later on, upon a
method and a meaning; or what our journalism has an annoying way of calling a message. A few very
inadequate pages must be given to the man in relation to his theology and his philosophy; but the thing
of which I mean to speak here is something at once more general and more personal even than his
philosophy. I have therefore introduced it here, before we come to anything like technical talk about his
philosophy. It was something that might alternatively be called his moral attitude, or his temperamental
predisposition, or the purpose of his life so far as social and human effects were concerned: for he knew
better than most of us that there is but one purpose in this life, and it is one that is beyond this life. But if
we wanted to put in a picturesque and simplified form what he wanted for the world, and what was his
work in history, apart from theoretical and theological definitions, we might well say that it really was to
strike a blow and settle the Manichees.
The full meaning of this may not be apparent to those who do not study theological history and perhaps
even less apparent to those who do. Indeed it may seem equally irrelevant to the history and the
theology. In history St. Dominic and Simon de Montfort between them had already pretty well settled
the Manichees. And in theology of course an encyclopaedic doctor like Aquinas dealt with a thousand
other heresies besides the Manichean heresy. Nevertheless, it does represent his main position and the
turn he gave to the whole history of Christendom.
I think it well to interpose this chapter, though its scope may seem more vague than the rest; because
there is a sort of big blunder about St. Thomas and his creed, which is an obstacle for most modern
people in even beginning to understand them. It arises roughly thus. St. Thomas, like other monks, and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
beginning of the great new thing: the nation of France, which was to pierce and overpower the old
quarrel of Pope and Emperor in the lands from which Thomas came. But Thomas came very
unwillingly, and, if we may say it of so kindly a man, rather sulkily. As he entered Paris they showed
him from the hill that splendour of new spires beginning, and somebody said something like, "How
grand it must be to own all this." And Thomas Aquinas only muttered, "I would rather have that
Chrysostom MS. I can't get hold of."
Somehow they steered that reluctant bulk of reflection to a seat in the royal banquet hall; and all that we
know of Thomas tells us that he was perfectly courteous to those who spoke to him, but spoke little, and
was soon forgotten in the most brilliant and noisy clatter in the world: the noise of French talking. What
the Frenchmen were talking about we do not know; but they forgot all about the large fat Italian in their
midst, and it seems only too possible that he forgot all about them. Sudden silences will occur even in
French conversation; and in one of these the interruption came. There had long been no word or motion
in that huge heap of black and white weeds, like motley in mourning, which marked him as a mendicant
friar out of the streets, and contrasted with all the colours and patterns and quarterings of that first and
freshest dawn of chivalry and heraldry. The triangular shields and pennons and pointed spears, the
triangular swords of the Crusade, the pointed windows and the conical hoods, repeated everywhere that
fresh French medieval spirit that did, in every sense, come to the point. But the colours of the coats were
gay and varied, with little to rebuke their richness; for St. Louis, who had himself a special quality of
coming to the point, had said to his courtiers, "Vanity should be avoided; but every man should dress
well, in the manner of his rank, that his wife may the more easily love him."
And then suddenly the goblets leapt and rattled on the board and the great table shook, for the friar had
brought down his huge fist like a club of stone, with a crash that startled everyone like an explosion; and
http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/aquinas.html (36 of 77)17/07/2005 15:10:01
St. Thomas Aquinas
had cried out in a strong voice, but like a man in the grip of a dream, "And that will settle the
Manichees!"
The palace of a king, even when it is the palace of a saint, has it conventions. A shock thrilled through
the court, and every one felt as if the fat friar from Italy had thrown a plate at King Louis, or knocked his
crown sideways. They all looked timidly at the terrible seat, that was for a thousand years the throne of
the Capets: and many there were presumably prepared to pitch the big black-robed beggarman out of the
window. But St. Louis, simple as he seemed, was no mere medieval fountain of honour or even fountain
of mercy but also the fountain of two eternal rivers: the irony and the courtesy of France. And he turned
to his secretaries, asking them in a low voice to take their tablets round to the sear of the absent-minded
controversialist, and take a note of the argument that had just occurred to him; because it must be a very
good one and he might forget it. I have paused upon this anecdote, first, as has been said, because it is
the one which gives us the most vivid snapshot of a great medieval character; indeed of two great
medieval characters. But it also specially fitted to be taken as a type or a turning-point, because of the
glimpse it gives of the man's main preoccupation; and the sort of thing that might have been found in his
thoughts, if they had been thus surprised at any moment by a philosophical eavesdropper or through a
psychological keyhole. It was not for nothing that he was still brooding, even in the white court of St.
Louis, upon the dark cloud of the Manichees.
This book is meant only to be the sketch of a man; but it must at least lightly touch, later on, upon a
method and a meaning; or what our journalism has an annoying way of calling a message. A few very
inadequate pages must be given to the man in relation to his theology and his philosophy; but the thing
of which I mean to speak here is something at once more general and more personal even than his
philosophy. I have therefore introduced it here, before we come to anything like technical talk about his
philosophy. It was something that might alternatively be called his moral attitude, or his temperamental
predisposition, or the purpose of his life so far as social and human effects were concerned: for he knew
better than most of us that there is but one purpose in this life, and it is one that is beyond this life. But if
we wanted to put in a picturesque and simplified form what he wanted for the world, and what was his
work in history, apart from theoretical and theological definitions, we might well say that it really was to
strike a blow and settle the Manichees.
The full meaning of this may not be apparent to those who do not study theological history and perhaps
even less apparent to those who do. Indeed it may seem equally irrelevant to the history and the
theology. In history St. Dominic and Simon de Montfort between them had already pretty well settled
the Manichees. And in theology of course an encyclopaedic doctor like Aquinas dealt with a thousand
other heresies besides the Manichean heresy. Nevertheless, it does represent his main position and the
turn he gave to the whole history of Christendom.
I think it well to interpose this chapter, though its scope may seem more vague than the rest; because
there is a sort of big blunder about St. Thomas and his creed, which is an obstacle for most modern
people in even beginning to understand them. It arises roughly thus. St. Thomas, like other monks, and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]