37 



established his supremacy 1 . Indispensable then 

 as realism was for the Church, its creed, and 



1 With every allowance for the phases of church and school 

 in successive academical generations it seems strange that in 

 1209 Aristotle should have been forbidden under excommu- 

 nication, and in 1231 restored to such favour that for the dis- 

 ciples of Albert and St Thomas the master almost attained the 

 authority of a father of the church ; the explanation probably 

 is that " Aristotle " meant for a time the paynim interpretations 

 of Toledo, particularly of the Physics (the Metaphysics were 

 not translated from the Greek till about 1220) ; and meant 

 not this only, but also liberal quotation and incorporation of the 

 writings of Arab philosophers. To show how learning, even 

 in the University of Paris, lay under ecclesiastical control, 

 some extracts from the Edicts of the Synod of Paris and of 

 Gregory the Ninth may be cited in illustration : After direct- 

 ing that "Corpus magistri Amaurici extrahatur e cimiterio, et 

 projiciatur in terram non benedictam " the Synod farther orders 

 that the " Quaternuli [" Quaternuli " is translated by Ducange, 

 Quatuor quartse chartae, sen octo folia : i.e. the octavos] 



magistri David de Dinant, afferantur et comburantur; nee 



libri Aristotelis de naturali philosophia, nee Commenta legan- 

 tur Parisiis, publice vel secreto. Et hoc sub pcena excom- 



municationis inhibemus De libris theologicis scriptis in 



romano, praecipimus quod episcopis diocesanis tradautur, et 

 Credo in Deum et Pater noster in romano, praeter vitas 

 sanctorum." The order two years later confirming these 

 prohibitions differs but in form. Even the Bull of Gregory in 

 1231, relieving the schools of this proscription, says, "Ad haec 

 jubemus ut magistri artium unam lectionem de Prisciano et 

 unarn post aliam ordinarie semper legant, et libris illis natura- 

 libus, qui in concilio provincial! ex certa causa prohibit! fuere, 

 Parisiis non utantur, quousque examinati fuerint, et ab omni 

 errorum suspicione purgati." The pope adds paternally, 

 "Magistri vero et scholares theologiae, in facultate quara 



