THE SCHOLASTIC POSITION 41 



with and scholastic teachings, no attempt will 

 be made to prove these teachings which will be 

 briefly stated below.* 



The Thomistic philosophy, founded on that 

 of Aristotle, regards all bodies as units, but 

 units in which we must recognise two aspects, 

 the substrate or " Matter," and the deter- Matter and 

 mining factor or"^Form." Matter (Materia * orm 

 prima; Prothyle) cannot exist by itself. On 

 this point in the early days of scholasticism 

 there was some dispute, as more than one of 

 St Thomas' predecessors held that it was cap- 

 able of independent existence. Albertus Magnus 

 and his pupil St Thomas took the opposite 

 view, and it is that view which has held the 

 fidd ever since, and still holds it. Matter, 

 accordingly, is passive, homogeneous, incom- 

 plete, the principle of change; it is neither 

 " being " nor " not-being," for " being " con- 

 notes the principle of actuality. It is not 

 eternal, though in some sense Aristotle had held 

 that it was. St Thomas taught that reason 

 alone could not disprove the possibility of the 

 creation by God from all eternity of some kind 



1 Full discussion of these teachings will be found in the 

 different manuals of the Stonyhurst Series; in the different 

 articles appropriate to the various divisions of the subject 

 in the Catholic Encyclopedia, and in the Manual of Modern 

 Sciolastic Philosophy, edited by Cardinal Mercier, pub- 

 lished by Kegan Paul, in an English translation by Frs. 

 T. L. and S. A. Parker, to which the attention of readers 

 may be specially directed. 



