SCHOLASTICS SCHOMBERG. 



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doctrines were connected with those of the New 

 Platonic system. The name scholastic philosophy 

 is derived from the circumstance that it originated 

 in the schools instituted by and after Charlemagne, 

 for the education of the clergy. (See Schools.) 

 The philosophy therein taught consisted in a col- 

 lection of logical rules and^metaphysical notions, 

 drawn from the Latin commentators on Aristotle, 

 especially the Pseudo- Augustine and Boethius, and 

 from the introduction of Porphyry to the writings 

 of Aristotle. These, under the name of dialectics, 

 composed the theoretical philosophy in general, and 

 were connected with the later Alexandrian ideas of 

 God, and of his nature and relations to the world. 

 The original aim of the scholastic philosophy was 

 only to establish and defend the dogmas of the 

 church. Buhle makes three periods: The first 

 extends to Roscellinus in 1089, or to the contest 

 of the Realists and Nominalists ; the second to Al- 

 bertus Magnus, 'who died in 1280, when the meta- 

 physical works of Aristotle were more generally 

 known and commented on; the third to the revival 

 of ancient learning, in the middle of the fifteenth 

 century, and the consequent improvement in philo- 

 sophy. Tiedemann explained the scholastic system 

 as a mode of treating subjects a priori, in which, 

 after a statement of the reasons, on both sides, in 

 the form of syllogisms, the decision was made con- 

 formable to the opinions of Aristotle, and the 

 church fathers, and the prevailing theological doc- 

 trines. According to him, its history begins with 

 the Franciscan Alexander of Hales (a monastery in 

 Gloucestershire), who first made a considerable use 

 of the writings of Aristotle. He died in 1245. 

 This Alexander of Hales was the first complete 

 commentator on the sentences of Peter of Lom- 

 bardy ; was an instructor at Paris, and received the 

 name of doctor irrefragabilis. He also wrote com- 

 mentaries on the psychology of Aristotle. He is 

 not an independent thinker, but decides every case 

 on reasons drawn from other theological writers 

 and philosophers. The second period of the school- 

 men, according to Tiedemann, begins with Albert 

 the Great, who wrote commentaries on the physical 

 and philosophical writings of Aristotle, and on 

 several books of the Scriptures. Still greater is 

 the reputation of his pupil, Thomas Aquinas (q. v.), 

 the father of ethics, and a strict adherent of Aris- 

 totle, on whose works he left fifty-two commenta- 

 ries. His opponent was the Franciscan John Duns 

 (q.v.) Scotus, who is not to be confounded with John 

 Scotus Erigena, before mentioned. Duns Scotus 

 is one of the most hair-splitting logicians, and 

 known by his scholastic or barbarous Latin. His 

 opposition to Thomas gave rise to the parties called 

 Thomists and Scotists, whose controversies became 

 peculiarly warm, when Scotus declared himself op- 

 posed to the strict Augustine doctrines of grace 

 defended by Thomas, and which had maintained 

 their place in the church for centuries. Another 

 acute scholastic of this age was the Franciscan 

 mystic Bonaventura, the pupil of Alexander of Hales ; 

 Hervey, a general of the Dominicans ; Francis 

 Mairon, a Franciscan, pupil of Duns Scotus, and 

 founder of the Sorbonne disputation in Paris, at 

 which the respondent was obliged to defend the 

 controverted positions from six o'clock in the morn- 

 in'g to six in the evening, and was only permitted 

 to take a short meal, without leaving the room. 

 The third period of the scholastic philosophy some 

 begin with William of St Pourcain or Durandus 

 de Sancto Porciano (who died at Meaux, in 1332); 



though, more properly, the third period of scholas- 

 tic theology may be considered as commencing with 

 him. From his skill in solving difficult questions, 

 he received the name of doctor resolutissimus. He 

 made a distinction between theological truth, which 

 rests on the authority of the church, and philoso- 

 phical truth, which is established, independently of 

 the church, on private conviction, and affirmed that 

 many things were theologically true, and yet philo- 

 sophically false. Others begin the third period of 

 the scholastics with William Ocham, or Occam, 

 (who died in 1347), a Franciscan, who revived 

 again the nearly forgotten disputes of the Nomin- 

 alists, and distinguished himself as a fearless de- 

 fender of Christian liberty against the assumptions 

 of the popes. One of the last scholastics of this 

 period was Gabriel Biel (who died in 1495), a mo- 

 derate Nominalist, and active in founding the uni- 

 versity of Tiibingen in 1477. 



Tennemann makes four periods of the scholastic 

 philosophy: I. The first, to the twelfth century, 

 is characterized by blind Realism, and filled by de- 

 tached philosophical essays on doctrinal theology. 

 To this period belong John Scotus Erigena, Beren- 

 garius of Tours, and his opponent Lanfranc, Dami- 

 anus, Hildebert of Lavardin, and the great Anselm 

 of Canterbury. II. Separation of Nominalism and 

 Realism. This period extends from Roscellinus to 

 Albertus Magnus, in the beginning of the thirteenth 

 century, and can boast of Roscellinus, Abelard, 

 William of Champeaux, Hugh de St Victor, Richard 

 de St Victor, Gilbert Porretanus, Peter Lombard, 

 Peter of Poitiers, Alanus Insulensis, John of Sa- 

 lisbury. III. Exclusive prevalence of Realism. 

 Complete union of the doctrines of the church and 

 the Aristotelian philosophy, from Albertus Magnus, 

 to Occam, in the fourteenth century. To this 

 period belong Alex, of Hales, Vincent of Beauvais, 

 Bonaventura, Thomas Aquinas, Peter Hispanus, 

 Henry Goethals, Rich. Middleton, Duns Scotus, 



Francis Mairon, St Pou^ain IV. A renewal of 



the contest between Nominalism and Realism, in 

 which the former was victorious, and a separation of 

 theology and philosophy gradually took place. In 

 this period we find William Occam, Marsilius 

 Ingenuus, Robert Holcot, Gabriel Biel, John Buri- 

 dan, &c. See Tennemann's Sketch of a History of 

 Philosophy, 4th ed., or 2d rifacimento by Wendt. 



On account of the excessive subtilty which pre- 

 vailed in the scholastic philosophy, the expression 

 scholastic has come to denote the extreme of sub- 

 tilty. After the reformation and the revival of let- 

 ters, the scholastic system gradually declined. 

 From that time we find but few distinguished scho- 

 lastics, ate the Spanish Jesuit Suarez, who died in 

 1617. With lord Bacon and Descartes, a more 

 enlightened and independent philosophy commences. 



SCHOLIA; explanations annexed to Greek or 

 Latin authors, by the early grammarians, who taught 

 the practical part of philology. The writer of 

 such scholia is called a scholiast. There are many 

 scholia to Greek authors extant, fewer to Latin. 

 The names of the scholiasts are mostly unknown. 

 Those, however, of Didymus, John Tzetzes, and 

 Eustathius, the famous scholiast of Homer, have 

 been preserved. The two last belong to the twelfth 

 century. 



SCHOMBERG, FREDERIC HERMANN, duke of, 

 a distinguished military officer, a native of Ger- 

 many, born about 1619, was the son of count 

 Schomberg, by the daughter of lord Dudley. He 

 began his military career under Frederic, prince of 



