54 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



mind, exhorted the leaders of the Roman Catholic 

 Church to restore the golden wisdom of St. Thomas 

 and to propagate it as widely as possible for the good 

 of society and the advancement of all the sciences. 

 Certainly the genius of St. Thomas Aquinas seems 

 comprehensive enough to embrace all science as well 

 as all philosophy from the Christian point of view. 

 According to him there are two sources of knowl- 

 edge, reason and revelation. These are not irrecon- 

 cilably opposed. The Greek philosophers speak with 

 the voice of reason. It is the duty of theology to 

 bring all knowledge into harmony with the truths of 

 revelation imparted by God for the salvation of the 

 human race. Averroes is in error when he argues 

 the impossibility of something being created from 

 nothing, and again when he implies that the individ- 

 ual intellect becomes merged in a transcendental in- 

 tellect ; for such teaching would be the contrary of 

 what has been revealed in reference to the creation 

 of the world and the immortality of the individual 

 soul. In the accompanying illustration we see St. 

 Thomas inspired by Christ in glory, guided by Moses, 

 St. Peter, and the Evangelists, and instructed by 

 Aristotle and Plato. He has overcome the heathen 

 philosopher Averroes, who lies below discomfited. 



The English Franciscan Roger Bacon (1214- 

 1294) deserves to be mentioned with the two great 

 Dominicans. He was acquainted with the works of 

 the Greek and Arabian scientists. He transmitted 

 in a treatise that fell under the eye of Columbus the 

 view of Aristotle in reference to the proximity of an- 

 other continent on the other side of the Atlantic ; he 

 anticipated the principle on which the telescope was 



