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but especially is this to be affirmed of the one truth of the infinite unity, the grand key-note, to which all other truths respond in perfect diapason," each contributing to swell the volume of the sublime symphony of universal harmony.

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ART. V.-1. View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. By HENRY HALLAM.

2. Legende der Heiligan, (Chronicles of the Saints), Art. St. Thomas, von F. X. WENINGER.

3. Euvres complètes de A. F. OZANAM. 8 tomes. 8vo. Paris,

1853.

4. Opera D. Thoma, 17 vols., fol. Roma, 1570.

THE history of the Middle Ages in its bearing on literature and civilization has lately been engaging the earnest attention of some of the best cultivated and untrammelled intellects, and their researches have earned for them fame and honour. In English literature, Hallam, Maitland, and a writer in Blackwood's Magazine have particu larly distinguished themselves in this field; but to German writers is perhaps due the credit of having taken the lead in the enterprise; and foremost among these stand Hurtur,* Voigt, and others of minor reputation. Still the palm of success in mediæval researches, must unquestionably be awarded to a French writer, the late lamented M. Ozanam, whose premature decease in 1853, at the age of about forty years, has deprived literature of one of its best exemplars, and society of one of its brightest orna

ments.

There are some writers who see nothing great or worthy of commendation but in the remote ages of antiquity,Christian or Pagan as their predilection may be,-while there are others who take opposite views, and can see nothing deserving of praise or admiration, but in recent or modern times; and both parties have to a great extent ignored the Middle Ages, as if these ages were devoid of all interest. For our own part we belong to neither school exclusively. We see much to admire, as well as to condemn, in remote antiquity, as well as in the Middle Ages; and we are sorry that we have to say the same in regard to our own times. But let us not be misunder

* Histoire du Pope Innocent III. et de ses Contemporains, traduite de l'Allemand.

stood upon the whole we are well pleased and thankful that our own lot has been cast in the 19th century "with all its faults," yet, this shall not deter us from giving due praise—

"wherever found,

Whether on Heathen or on Christian ground."

The whole period of the Middle Ages extending from the eighth to the thirteenth century, has been by some sciolists called the "dark ages," but if there were any solid foundation for this name, it ought in all fairness and candour to be limited to the first two or three centuries of that period. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries assuredly produced men, and women too, that for their genius and erudition would have merited halos of glory in any age or nation whatever. The names of St. Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Vincent de Beauvais; and of Roger Bacon (sometimes known under the name of Friar Bacon), Alexander of Hales, John Duns Scotis and St. Bonaventure will ever continue to illustrate with an enviable effulgence, the latter centuries of the middle ages.

We design in this article to speak more particularly of St. Thomas and of his writings, and in introducing him to our readers we feel confident that whatever they may think of his religion, they will be much pleased with the man himself, with his moral beauty, his unassuming manners, his amiable disposition, but above all with his gigantic intellect, his penetrating genius, and his vast literary labours. And as they will naturally desire to know something of the history of such a man, we will, before noticing his writings, present them an outline of his life. It may be proper to premise that in the books he has received several names, as Thomas Aquino, Thomas of Aquin, Thomas of Acquin, &c.,* but the name we have given him appears to us the most correct one, and the one by which he is more generally known.

If nobility of birth could have added any thing to the éclat of his personal excellence, Thomas Aquinas was certainly not deficient in this respect. His biographers mention that he was son to Landulph, count of Aquino and lord of Loretto and Belcastro. His mother, Theodora, was daughter to the count of Theate. On the father's side he was nearly related to St. Louis, king of France, and to the last emperors of Germany, and connected with most of the royal houses of Europe; while on the mother's side

* He is also called Doctor Angelicus, Scholoe Angelus, Aquila theologorum.
VOL. XVII.-NO. XXXIII. 6

he was of the house of Caraccioli, descended from the Norman princes who chased the Saracens and the Greeks from Italy.

Thomas was born at Rocca-Secca, in the kingdom of Naples, towards the end of the year 1226. The chroniclers tell us that it was perceived from his tenderest youth that he was destined for something wonderful. He was exempt, we are assured, from the ordinary defects and passions of childhood; the impatience, anger, jealousy, spite, and the like so commonly observable in children, were never noticed in him. "The severity of his countenance," says Alban Butler, "the constant evenness of his temper, his modesty and sweetness were sensible signs that his soul had received largely of the benediction of heaven."

Scarcely had he attained the age of five years, when his father took him to the Abbey of Mount Cassino to be instructed by the monks in the first principles of religion and education. His teachers were astonished at the rapidity of his progress, his great talents, and his happy dispositions to virtue. He was but ten years old when the abbot of Mount Cassino told his father it was time to send him to some university. The count of Aquino, before he sent him to Naples, took him for some months to see his mother at their seat at Loretto, the place which at the end of that century became so famous for devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Thomas was the admiration of the whole family. Amidst so much company and so many servants, he was as much occupied with heavenly things as when he was in the monastery. He spoke little, but we are told that what he said was always to the purpose; and he employed all his time in serious and profitable studies and exercises. His great delight was to plead the cause of the poor before his parents, who gave him the means of relieving them.

His mother, who, on account of his good qualities, was passionately attached to him, proposed to her husband

that Thomas should continue his studies at home. She advanced as a reason that his innocence would be too much exposed to danger in the public schools; but the count was of a contrary opinion, and rejected the proposed measure; the advantages of a private education did not appear to him to counterbalance those which emulation and mutual communication in studies, afford to young persons. Accordingly he determined on sending his son to Naples, where the emperor Frederick II. had

founded a university. This prince had at that time forbidden students to resort to any university in Italy, as he was, for some cause, exasperated against Bologna. It therefore happened that great numbers of students resorted to Naples, and that disorder and licentiousness accompanied them.

Thomas soon perceived the danger to which he was exposed at Naples, and more than once regretted his absence from Mount Cassino; but the chroniclers of his time relate of him that by his watchfulness he lived at Naples like Daniel in the midst of Babylon; they tell us also that he guarded his eyes with great caution lest they should rest on any thing dangerous to his soul; that he shunned all conversation with women, and avoided with the greatest care all society with persons whose moral purity was suspected; and whilst his fellowstudents went to profane diversions, he retired to his closet to study and pray, his only pleasures.

Thomas learned rhetoric under the celebrated Peter Martin. As to his course of philosophy, he studied it under Peter of Hibernia, one of the most learned men of the age. His progress was such, we are told, that he repeated the lessons more clearly than his teacher had explained them.

The Order of St. Dominic, who had himself been dead about twenty years, then abounded with men who were the ornament of the Church, by the eminent sanctity of their lives. The frequent conversations Thomas had with one of that body, filled his soul with devotion. The instructions he received from the good monk increased in him the contempt he had already conceived. for the perishable things of this world. Finally, disgusted with the world more than ever, he determined to yield to the ardent desire he had of entering the Order of St. Dominic. His tutor perceived his inclinations, and informed the count, his father, of the matter, who omitted neither threats nor promises to defeat such a design; but all was useless. The young Thomas who knew, as one of his biographers says, that the voice of flesh and blood should not be listened to when God calls, persisted in his first resolution, and took the habit of the Dominicans at Naples in 1243, being then seventeen years old.

The countess, his mother, no sooner learned what had passed, than she hastened to Naples to disengage him if possible from that state of life. Thomas, on learning the object of her visit, begged his superiors to spare him the

conflicts he would have to encounter, by removing him away from Naples. His request was granted, and accordingly he was sent to the convent of St. Sabina in Rome. Afterwards he was sent to Paris, to be out of the reach of his relations, but did not arrive there for the following

reasons:

Two of his brothers, Landulph and Reynold, commanders in the emperor's army in Tuscany, so well guarded all the roads, by their mother's direction, that he fell into their hands near Aqua-pendente. They endeavoured to pull off his habit; but he resisted them with such perseverance, that they conducted him in it to the seat of his parents, at Rocca-Secca. The mother, overjoyed at their success, had no doubt of being able to overcome his resolution. She endeavoured to persuade him that, to join such an order against his parents' advice, could not be the call of heaven-adding all manner of reasons, fond caresses, entreaties, and tears. Nature made her eloquent and pathetic. He was deeply sensible of her affliction; but his resolution was not to be shaken. answers were modest and respectful, but firm. At last, offended at his resistance, the countess expressed her displeasure in very choleric words, and ordered him to be more closely confined and guarded, and that no one should see him or speak to him but his two sisters.

His

The reiterated solicitations of the two young ladies were a long and violent assault. They omitted nothing that flesh and blood could inspire on such an occasion, and represented to him the danger of causing the death of his mother by grief. Thomas, however, remained unshaken in his resolution, and answered them only by touching discourses on contempt for the world, and the love of virtue. He spoke with so much energy that his sisters became much affected; he had even the satisfaction of seeing them enter into his sentiments, and devote themselves with zeal to the practice of piety. The conversion of his sisters did not a little contribute to soften the rigours of his captivity. He employed the greater part of his time in prayer and meditation; the rest of it he employed in reading books which some of the Dominicans conveyed to him through his sisters. These books were a Bible, the Dialectics of Aristotle, and the works of Peter Lombard, called the "Master of the Sentences."

Meanwhile, his two brothers, Landulph and Reynold, returned from the army. They found their mother in the greatest affliction, and the young novice triumphant in

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