Paris as a Cultural Milieu of Thomas Aquinas’s Thought

THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EDITORs: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS oF THE PROVINCE oF ST. JosEPH Publishers: The Thomist Press, Washington, D. C. 20017 VoL. XXXVIII OCTOBER, 1974 No.4 PARIS AS A CULTURAL MILIEU OF THOMAS AQUINAS'S THOUGHT Introduction "A Citadel of Light ..." ~ I am in Paris, in that royal city where abundance of natural wealth not only holds those who live there, but also attracts those from afar. Just as the moon outshines the stars in brilliance, so does this city, the seat of the monarchy, lift her proud head above the rest.... Two suburbs extend to right and left, of which the lesser alone rivals many cities. Each of these suburbia communicates with the island by two bridges of stone; the Grand Pont towards the north, on the side of the English Channel, and the Petit Pont towards the Loire. The first-great, rich, trading, is the scene of seething activity; innumerable ships surround it, filled with merchandise and riches. The Petit Pont belongs to the dialecticians, who walk there deep in argument. In the island, by the side of the King's palace that dominates the whole city, is seen the palace of philosophy, where study reigns as sole sovereign in a citadel of light and immortality.1 1 Quoted in Joan Evans, Life in Medieval France (New York, 1969), pp. 14 f. 689 690 THOMAS F. O'MEARA So writes Gui de Bazoches, shortly before the beginning of that century which would hold the brief life of Thomas Aquinas. It was to Paris that Aquinas would come as student and to which he would return as a young teacher or as theologian back from the papal court. It was to Paris that the discovered manuscripts of Aristotle and the Arabs flowed; it was in Paris that innovative artistic ideas and movements flourished. This cultural world would make imp~essions upon Aquinas, the twenty-year-old student, and be in turn impressed by the magister in his thirties and forties. That scholasticism is one result of a wider, gothic, medieval culture is obvious; it takes no genius to see that there are Summae in stone as well as in parchment.2 Yet, explanations of the precise relationships between cultural media with attention to detail are very few.8 Studies of the aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas are readily available/ but analyses of the work of Albert the Great called Paris " civitas philosophorum"; cf. M. Grabmann, Die Kulturphilosophie des Thomas von Aquinas (Augsburg, 19!'!7), p. 15. •" Gothic is a simple translation of scholastic philosophy into stone." G. Semper, Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Kunsten, cited in A. Hauser, The Social History of Art, I (New York, 1951), p. 280. 8 Chenu observes briefly: " It is, however, indispensable to do some essential reading on the economico-social conditions of the civilization of which Saint Thomas was to be one of the highlights. It is very Thomistic to observe, in the consubstantial union of its body and soul, in which manner human society acts and reacts from the standpoint of its spiritual comportment." Toward Understanding Saint Thomas (Chicago, 1964), p. 69. Harvey Cox's chronology is incorrect when he remarks: " Notre Dame had already been gathering moss for many years when Aquinas moved to Paris as a student." The Seduction of the Spirit (New York, 1973), pp. 265 f. But Cox is making an important point when he observes that popular culture must be studied as well as great chefs d'oeuvre, c. g., movies as well as modem art. The medieval cathedral appreciated popular religions with its representations of the demonic, astrology, the cycles of life and local saints; see W. Abell, "A Psycho-Historical Study of Medieval Western Culture and Its Background," The Collective Dream in Art (New York, 1957); M. Dvorak, Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte (Munich, 1942), pp. 48-147. In recent years text~ in art history have begun to include material from the history of music, philosophy or from other aspects of intellectual history: W. Fleming, Art, Music and Ideas (New York, 1970); H. W. Janson, J. Kerman, A History of Art & Music (New York, 1968). • See M. Grabmann, "Thomas...