138 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



Aquinas 



and 



Avicenna 



may some day fall to the lot of some fortunate 

 investigator to announce such a discovery and 

 to have his discovery recognised by a scientific 

 jury. And if this were to be the case we may 

 be quite sure that there would be hosts of 

 persons prepared once more to announce the 

 annihilation of all religion by the last great 

 scientific discovery. 



Such persons would be forgetful if not 

 ignorant of the fact that the theory of spon- 

 taneous generation was held by many, perhaps 

 by "all the Fathers of the Church, and that 

 St Thomas Aquinas himself when rebuking 

 Avicenna for teaching spontaneous generation 

 did so because Avicenna held the thesis that 

 it was by the power of matter alone that life 

 arose, whereas, as St Thomas says, if matter 

 does produce life it is because the Creator has 

 given it the power to do so * ; in fact, the 

 age-long controversy which we have been occu- 

 pied with in the preceding pages. 



If we consider the matter, such a transition 

 from non-living to living matter at some period 

 is far the most likely thing to have occurred. 

 What we claim is that, if it occurred, it did so 

 at the will of the Creator and by virtue of the 

 powers which He gave to it, nor do we deny 

 that it is possible that that power is still in- 



* Summa Theol. 1. p. q. 71 art. 1, ad 1 urn. 



