PART II.

CENT. XI. Writings. But all these expositors, in compliance with the prevailing custom of the times, either copied the explanations of the ancient commentators, or made such whimsical applications of certain passages of scripture, both in explaining the doctrines, and in inculcating the duties of religion, that it is often difficult to peruse them without indignation or disgust. The most eminent of the Grecian expositors was Theophylact, a native of Bulgaria; though he also is indebted to the ancients, and in a particular manner, to St. Chrysostom, for the greatest part of his most judicious observations." Nor must we pass in silence the commentary upon the Book of Psalms and the Song of Solomon, that was composed by the learned Michael Psellus; nor the chain of commentaries upon the Book of Job, which we owe to the industry of Nicetas. Scholastic the v. All the Latin doctors, if we except a few Hibernian divines, who blended with the beautiful simplicity of the gospel, the perplexing subtilties of an obscure philosophy, had hitherto derived their system of religion, and their explications of divine truth, either from the holy scriptures alone, or from these sacred oracles explained by the illustrations, and compared with the theology of the ancient doctors. But in this century certain writers, and among others the famous Berenger, went much farther, and employed the rules of logic and

ology.

For an account of Theophylact, see Rich. Simon. Hist. Critique des principaux Commentuteurs du N. T. ch. xxviii. p. 390, et Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, par Du Pin, tom. i. p. 310, where he also speaks largely concerning Nicetas and Oecumenius.

Otherwise called Berengarius, and famous for the noble opposi tion he made to the doctrine of transubstantiation, which Lanfranc so absurdly pretended to support upon philosophical princip les. The attempt of this latter to introduce the rules of logic into religious controversy would have been highly laudable, had not he perverted this respectable science to the defence of the most monstrous absurdities,

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the subtilties of metaphysical discussions, both in CENT. XI. explaining the doctrines of scripture, and in proving the truth of their own particular opinions. Hence Lanfranc, the antagonist of Berenger, and afterward archbishop of Canterbury, introduced into the field of religious controversy the same philosophical arms, and seemed in general desirous of employing the dictates of reason to illustrate and confirm the truths of religion. His example in this respect was followed by Anselm, his disciple and successor in the see of Canterbury, a man of a truly metaphysical genius, and capable of giving the greatest air of dignity and importance to the first philosophy. Such were the beginnings of that philosophical theology, which grew afterward, by degrees, into a cloudy and enormous system, and from the public schools in which it was cultivated, acquired the name of scholastic divinity. It is however necessary to observe, that the eminent divines, who first set on foot this new species of theology, and thus laudably maintained that most noble and natural connection of faith with reason, and of religion with philosophy, were much more prudent and moderate than their followers, in the use and application of this conciliatory scheme. They kept, for the most part, within bounds, and wisely reflected upon the limits of reason; their language was clear; the questions they proposed were instructive and interesting; they avoided all discussions that were only proper to satisfy a vain and idle curiosity; and in their disputes and demonstrations, they made, generally speaking, a wise and sober use of the rules of logic, and of the

b See Chr. August. Heumanni Præf. ad Tribbechovii Librum'de Doc. toribus Scholasticis, p. 14. The sentiments of the learned, concerning the first author or inventor of the scholastic divinity, are collected by Jo Franc. Buddeus, in his Isagoge ad Theolog. tom. i. p. 38.

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[Their

CENT. XI. dictates of philosophy. [ Their followers, on the contrary, ran with a metaphysical phrenzy into the greatest abuses, and by the most unjustifiable perversion of a wise and excellent method of searching after, and confirming truth, they banished evidence out of religion, common sense out of philosophy, and erected a dark and enormous mass of pretended science, in which words passed for ideas and sound for sense.]

We shall here transcribe a passage from the works of Lanfrane, whe is considered by many as the father of the scholastic system, that the reader may see how far the first schoolmen surpassed their disciples and followers, in wisdom, modesty, and candour. We take this passage from that prelate's book concerning the body and blood of Christ,* and it is as follows; "Testis mihi Deus est et conscientia mea, quia in tractatu divinarum literarum nec proponere nec ad propositas respondere cuperem dialecticas quæstiones, vel earum solutiones. Et si quando materia disputandi talis est, ut hujus artis regulis valeat enucleatius explicari, in quantum possum, per æquipollentias propositionum tego artem, ne videar magis arte, quam veritate, sanctorumque patrum auctoritate confidere." Lanfranc here declares in the most solemn manner, even by an appeal to God and his conscience, that he was so far from having the least inclination to propose or to answer logical questions in the course of his theological labours, that on the contrary, when he was forced to have recourse to the science of dialectic, in order the better to illustrate his subject, he concealed the succours he derived from thence with all possible care, lest he should seem to place more confidence in the resources of art, than in the simplicity of truth, and the authority of the holy fathers. These last words show plainly the two sources from whence the christian doctors had hitherto derived all their tenets, and the arguments by which they maintained them, viz, from the holy scriptures, which Lanfranc here calls the truth, and from the writings of the ancient fathers of the church. To these two sources of theology and argumentation, a third was added in this century, even the science of logic, which however was only employed by the managers of controversy to repulse their adversaries, who came armed with syllogisms, or to remove diffieulties which were drawn from reason and from the nature of things. But in succeeding times, the two former sources were either entirely neglected or sparingly employed, and philosophical demonstration, or at least something that bore that name, was regarded as a sufficient support to the truths of religion.

* Cap. vii. p. 236, opp. ed. Luc. Dacherii.

535

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VI. No sooner was this new method introduced, CENT. XI. than the Latin doctors began to reduce all the doctrines of religion into one permanent and connected system, and to treat theology as a science; an enterprise which had hitherto been attempted by none but Taio, of Saragossa, a writer of the seventh century, and the learned Damascenas, who flourished among the Greeks in the following age. The Latin doctors had hitherto confined their theological labours to certain branches of the christian religion, which they illustrated only on certain occasions. The first production which looked like a general system of theology, was that of the celebrated Anselm; this however was surpassed by the complete and universal body of divinity, which was composed, toward the conclusion of this century, by Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, who seems to have been regarded both as the first and the best model in this kind of writing, by the innumerable legions of system makers, who arose in succeeding times. This learned prelate demonstrated first the doctrines of his system by proofs drawn from the holy scriptures, and also from the writings of the ancient fathers of the church; and in this he followed the custom that had prevailed in the preceding ages; but he went yet farther, and answered the objections which might be brought against his doctrine, by arguments drawn from reason and philosophy; this part of his method was entirely new, and peculiar to the age in which he lived.

d This body of divinity, which was the first complete theological system that had been composed among the Latins, is inserted in the Works of Hildebert, published by Beaugendre, who shows evidently, in his preface, that Peter Lombard, Pullus, and the other writers of theological systems, did no more than follow servilely the traces of Hildebert.

It may not be improper to place here a passage which is taken from a treatise of Anselm's, entitled Cur Deus homo ? since this passage was respected by the first scholastic divines, as an immutable law in theology;

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VII. The moral writers of this century, who undertook to unfold the obligations of christians, and Moral writers, to delineate the nature, the extent, and the various branches of true virtue and evangelical obedience, treated this most excellent of all sciences in a manner quite unsuitable to its dignity and importance. We find sufficient proofs of this in the moral writings of Peter Damien,f and even of the learned Hildebert. The moralists of this age generally confined themselves to a jejune explication of what are commonly called the four cardinal vir. tues, to which they added the ten commandments, to complete their system. Anselm, the famous prelate of Canterbury, surpassed indeed all the moral writers of his time; the books which he composed, with a design to promote practical religion, and more especially his Book of meditations and prayers, contain many excellent things, several happy thoughts expressed with much energy and unction. Nor did the mystic divines satisfy themselves with piercing, by extatic thought and feeling, into the sublime regions of beauty and love; they conceived and brought forth several productions that were destined to diffuse the pure delights of union and communion through enamoured souls.] Johannes Johannellus, a Latin mystic, wrote a treatise concerning divine contemplation ↳ and Simeon the Younger, who was a Grecian sage of the same visionary class, composed several discourses upon subjects of a like nature.

"Sicut rectus ordo exigit," says the learned prelate, "ut profunda fidei Christianæ credamus, priusquam ea præsumamus ratione discutere; ita negligentia mihi videtur, si, postquam confirmati sumus in fide, non studemus quod credimus intelligere ;" which amounts to this, "That we must first believe without examination, but must afterward endeavour to understand what we believe."

f See Petrus Damianus, De Virtutibus.

See Hildeberti Philosophia Moralis, et Libellus de IV. Virtutibus honestæ vitæ.

See the Histoire Litteraire de la France, tom. viii. p. 48.