LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY RENAISSANCE THOUGHT
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While Thomas Aquinas lived during a period of relative calm and well-being, the century and a half following his death was one of tumult and upheaval. As a part of the often vicious conflict between church and state, Philip IV of France captured Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and soon thereafter moved the papal court to Avignon, France--the so-called Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Beginning in 1347 the Bubonic Plague, or "Black Death," struck Western Europe. Responses to the plague ranged from fanatical anti-intellectual apocalypticism to self- indulgent hedonism. Some even blamed the plague on intellectuals such as Thomas, saying they provoked divine wrath by explaining God's ways rationally; others simply counselled, "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Many turned to superstition or to scapegoating Jews. At the same time England and France were involved in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), which brought enormous casualties. Between the plague and the war, in the years from 1300 to 1450, the population of Western Europe was reduced by half--perhaps by as much as two-thirds. In 1378 the "Great Schism" divided the Catholic Church as the Italians reinstituted the papacy in Rome, while a second pope reigned in Avignon. For over thirty years rival popes condemned and excommunicated one another. In 1409 an attempt to end the schism with a compromise pope led only to a third pope and thus a third claimant to St. Peter's universal chair. Finally, in 1417 the church united around one pope ruling in Rome. But by now the power and prestige of the papacy had been severely diminished, and a hundred years later, in the Protestant Reformation, the Western church split decisively. It is common to view the thought of this period in the light of these social upheavals, and, indeed, there does seem to be some connection. Thomas had harmonized philosophy and theology in a systematic way reflective of the relative peacefulness of the thirteenth century. Just as social stability--particularly in the relationship between church and state--deteriorated in the centuries following Thomas, so also the systems of thought that developed during this period tended to separate reason and faith. In particular, thinkers became more skeptical about natural theology, that is, about the ability of reason to know truths concerning God. John Duns Scotus began this process as he tended to reduce the competence of theology to supernatural revelation alone, dismissing the natural theology of Thomas. William of Ockham took this tendency further, claiming philosophy and theology to be separate realms with separate rules. The transitional thinker Nicholas Cusanas claimed that knowledge was at best mere conjecture and that contradictories are compatible in reality: God, especially, incorporates all contradictions, all opposites, within Himself. Clearly the coherent, rational synthesis of Thomas had unravelled. But as Frederick Copleston has pointed out, there are other ways of understanding this transition. Instead of seeing late medieval/early Renaissance thought as destructive to a grand synthesis or as a reaction to societal chaos, "one can see . . . philosophy being reborn and growing up under the shadow and care of theology, reaching a more or less adult stage and then tending to go its own way and assert its independence" (A History of Medieval Philosophy, p. 314). While acknowledging the disintegration of the peculiarly Thomistic approach to synthesis, this view sees our period as a natural development of Western European thought. MAPS AND TOURS:
General:
Medieval Thought:
By Forrest Baird © 2000 by Prentice Hall from Philosophic Classics, Volume II |