The Commentary of Peter of Auvergne on Aristotle’s “Politics” by Gundisalvus M. Grech (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 263 in the collective pastoral of the American hierarchy, The Church in our Day. One of the contributions of this legacy regards the infallibility of the laity. The " infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops, enjoys in virtue of his office " is that " infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining a doctrine of faith and morals " (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, n. Q5; Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, ch. 4) . Thus the Church as a whole, " the holy People of God, . . . spreads abroad a living witness to Him. . . . The body of the faithful as a whole ... cannot err in matters of belief ... it manifests this unerring quality when ' from the bishops down to the last member of the laity,' it shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals" (Luman Gentium, n. IQ) . In what does the infallibility of the laity consist? Father Femiano traces the thought of Newman on this point by the current method of formative years, Anglican years, Catholic years, and special problems, in this case Newman's controversy in the Rambler on "consulting the faithful." For Newman the laity's role in the communication of the truth of the faith is one of bearer of tradition and of witness to the church's doctrine; witnessing, not judging or defining, is the laity's function. From his earliest years Newman had regard for the position of the laity in the Church. Here, as with the broader topics of his reflections, his thought had fundamentally crystallized by the time of his entrance into the Catholic Church. He had always been impressed by the doctrinal steadfastness of the faithful in the Arian crisis. The statements of Pius IX that he had sought the opinion of the faithful regarding the Immaculate Conception weighed heavily with him as an argument in his later writings on the sensus fidelium and in his controversy in the Rambler. This book brings together in a short survey one area of Newman's investigations in which he was in advance of his time, misunderstood and suspected, but which today is the subject of considerable theological and pastoral inquiry. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. NICHOLAS HALLIGAN, 0. P. The Commentary of Peter of Auvergne on Aristotle's "Politics" (The Inedited Part: Book III, less. I-VI). Introduction and critical text by GuNDISALvus M. GRECH, 0. P. Rome: Desclee (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas), 1967. Pp. 137. The value of a commentary on Aristotle's Politics should be gauged on a twofold basis, namely, a finn grasp of the science of politics as the 264 BOOK REVIEWS Stagirite presents it in this work and as much pertinent erudition as possible. This erudition is indispensable, inasmuch as politics demands far more experience than that required for simple ethics, whether this experience is the investigator's own experience or information gleaned from other observers, past or present. In his paraphrase, St. Albert expresses considerable doubt anent many portions of the Politics, probably because he could not get the pertinent information. Thomas Aquinas has penned the most outstanding commentary on the first three books (up to about half of the fifth chapter of Book III [lesson 6]) . The Peter of Auvergne who, a native of Crocq (Auvergne), became a student and master in the Faculty of Arts, and for some time Rector, of the University of Paris, and eventually Bishop of Clermont, has produced what presently seems to be the most fruitful work on the latter portion of the Politics by way of a continuation of the Aquinas commentary. "The [printed] texts, however, of the commentaries of Peter and Thomas are far from reliable. They were produced by humanists who not only removed from them the inelegant, non-classical Latin elements, but also made regrettable changes-interpolations, modifications , additions and omissions-which affected the technical aspect of the text and also betrayed the author's thought." (pp. 10-11) This editorial note suggests the urgency of a critical edition of Peter's Continuation, notably as regards his explanation of Aristotle's teaching about education under its civic aspect (Book VIII) . " Out of twenty-seven extant manuscripts...