Medieval philosophy a new history of western philosophy volume 2 ( PDFDrive ) 84

THE SCHOOLMEN In 1244 Thomas became a Dominican friar, to the irritation of his family, who had hoped he would follow the more socially acceptable vocation of a Benedictine monk He hoped to escape from family pressure by migrating to Paris, but was kidnapped on the way and kept under house arrest for more than a year in one or other family castle He employed his time in prison composing two brief logical treatises, a handbook on fallacies, and a fragment on modal propositions The Aquino family failed to dent his resolve to be a friar An attempt to seduce him by placing a prostitute in his cell only reinforced his determination to live a life of chastity: henceforth, his biographer tells us, he avoided women as a man avoids snakes At length he was released, and he continued his journey to Paris There he became a student of Albert the Great The family made one more attempt to set him on a career path of their choice: they procured an oVer from the Pope to allow him to be abbot of Monte Cassino while remaining a Dominican Thomas refused and followed Albert to Cologne, where he listened to his lectures on Aristotle As a student his taciturnity and corpulence earned him the nickname ‘the dumb ox’ Albert quickly appreciated his astonishing talents, and predicted that the dumb ox would Wll the whole world with his bellowing In 1252 Aquinas moved to Paris and began studying for the mastership in theology As a bachelor he lectured on the Bible and on the Sentences of Peter Lombard His commentary on the Sentences is the Wrst of his major surviving works, and already displays his original genius In the same period he wrote a pamphlet on Aristotelian metaphysics, much inXuenced by Avicenna, with the title De Ente et Essentia (‘On Being and Essence’), which was to have an inXuence quite out of proportion to its size He proceeded as master in theology in the year 1256 The Dominican order controlled two of the twelve chairs of theology in Paris Friars were unpopular with the traditional clergy, and the university had tried to suppress one of their chairs in 1252 In the ensuing controversy many professors went on strike, and Aquinas’ Wrst lectures as bachelor were given as a blackleg But the chair survived, and Aquinas was appointed to it shortly after becoming master At the time of his inaugural lecture anti-Dominican feeling was so high that the priory needed a permanent guard of royal troops St Bonaventure and his Franciscans suVered similarly during the same period 65