140 DANIEL A. CALLUS 



to it, as though he had never heard of the AristoteHan distinc- 

 tion of the vegetative, the sensitive and the rational. 



Alfredus Anglicus, or Alfred of Sareshel, well versed in medi- 

 cine and in the natural sciences, was one of the very first to 

 make extensive use of the new Aristotelian learning. His De 

 motu cordis, dedicated to Alexander Nequam (d. 1217) , was 

 introduced in the university curriculum of studies as pars in- 

 ferior fhilosophiae naturalis. It contains in a curious mixture 

 a large body of doctrine common to Neo-Platonic metaphysics 

 and Aristotelian biological and natural philosophy. The re- 

 peated assertion that the soul is one only in every living being, 

 seems to suggest that Alfred had some inkling of the question. 

 He teaches with Aristotle that no living being is without the 

 vegetative soul, since nutrition is indispensable for every thing 

 that grows and decays: a living being must therefore have 

 within itself a principle by which it acquires growth and under- 

 goes decay, that is, soul. Animals are not only living but also 

 sentient beings. But since one and the same principle, not a 

 distinct one, produces life and sensibility, in every living being 

 there must be one soul only. Consequently animals have not 

 two distinct souls, one vegetative and the other sensitive, for 

 from the same soul the operations of life and sensibility arise. 

 By one single principle an animal is a living and a sentient 

 being .■'^ 



Obviously, this is not an ordered exposition or a thorough 

 treatment of the question, which is rather touched upon occa- 

 sionally and only in passing; it is more presupposed than ex- 

 plicitly and directly stated. The principles upon which the 

 structure of the doctrine is built are laid down, the conclusion 

 inferred is there; but it is referred to only incidentally insofar 

 as it is raised in connection with the general subject matter. 



*^ Des Alfred von Sareshel (Alfredus Anglicus) Schrift De Motu Cordis, ed. 

 C. Baeumker (B. G. P. M., XXIII, 1-2), Munster i. Westf.. 1923. " Hanc (animam) 

 in quolibet animate unam esse constans est " cap. 13, p. 65; " unius autem una 

 est anima " cap. 8, p. 31; " aninia enim animalis simplex et una est; ex ea autem 

 tantum vivit et sentit animal; ex una igitur causa. Ex ea igitur animal est. A 

 causa igitur uniformi vivit et sentit " cap. 10, p. 43. 



