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INTRODUCTION The “Unknown” Thomas The philosophical and theological works of St. Thomas Aquinas are held in universal esteem, and there is also an increasing attention to his commentaries on Scripture and the role of Scripture in his theological works. Over the years, however , Thomas’s sermons have been widely neglected. The Latin texts of some of Thomas’s occasional academic sermons are not even published and so not available yet.1 It is remarkable that in the past hardly any attention has been given to these occasional academic sermons.2 After all, Thomas was a Dominican, a member of the Ordo Praedicatorum, the Order of Preachers. Preaching was and is their core business, so to speak. And although for magistri, professors at the universities like Thomas, the spreading of God’s good news was also done by teaching and by giving the good example in everyday life,3 preaching as such remained an important aspect of their 3 1. The Sermons 01 Veniet desideratus, 02 Lauda et letare, 04 Osanna filio Dauid (complete version), 06 Celum et terra in manuscript “P” (Paris), 11 Emitte Spiritum , 12 Seraphim stabant, and 16 Inueni Dauid are not yet published. 2. In the 19th century some sermons were published by P. A. Uccelli (Sermons 08, 14, 17, and 18) in 1869, by J. B. Raulx (Sermons 03, 06, 07, 08, 10 [attributed to Thomas], 14, 15, 17, 20, and 21) in 1881, and by B. Hauréau (two sermons attributed to Thomas: Sermon 10 and Omnia parata sunt, “All things are ready” [Mt 22:4]) in 1892. Note that none of the sermons in the collection Sermones dominicales et Sermones festivi (schemes or summaries of sermons, translated into English by John M. Ashley in London in 1873 and reissued in Washington in 1996) attributed to Thomas is his. In 1943 Th. Käppeli published his versions of Sermons 04, 09, and 19. Three years later J. Leclercq published Sermon 05. L. J. Bataillon published a part of Sermon 13 in 1974. He has been working on the critical Latin edition of all authentic occasional academic sermons by Thomas for the Commissio Leonina. 3. Cf. Thomas’s golden rule, as it were, in Sermon 09 Exiit qui seminat: “It must not be so that a preacher preaches to others what he is not doing himself.” According to his biographers Thomas put into practice what he preached. 4. In this book we follow L. J. Bataillon, O.P., Les sermons attribués à Saint Thomas : questions d’authenticité, in: Miscellanea Mediaevalia 19 (1988): 325–41. He finds 19 authentic sermons, which are also listed in J.-P. Torrell, O.P., Saint Thomas lives. For, not only was preaching part of Thomas’s life as a Dominican friar, but it was also one of his three tasks as a Magister in Sacra Pagina. The task of a Magister in Sacra Pagina was described as legere, disputare, and predicare. Legere (“reading”) means reading and explaining the Scriptures in class. It was done consecutively, verse by verse. His commentaries, for instance , on Job, on the Psalms, and on Paul’s letter to the Christians of Rome, are a result of this, as are the reportationes (written by a secretary as he was teaching) on the Gospels according to Matthew and John. Disputare (“discussing”) is a dialectical form of teaching, not on the basis of a text but on a certain topic . The magister examined arguments in order to come to the solution of a certain problem. The Quaestiones disputatae De Veritate (On the Truth) and De Potentia (On Power) are examples of the fruit of this type of teaching. Furthermore, twice a year, during Advent and Lent, discussions were organized at the university during which anyone present (other magistri, students, interested people) could pose a question on any topic. The Quaestiones quodlibetales (On Whatever You Want: Various Subjects) find their origin in these events. The third task of a magister was predicare (“preaching”). This third task was taken as seriously as the other two. In order to be appointed as a Bachelor, a theologian first had to deliver two sermons (that is, two Sermones or a Sermo and a Collatio in sero; see below), as a test. Yet, interestingly enough, the work that made Thomas famous, the Summa Theologiae (ST), a work in the style of the quaestiones disputatae, was not part of his duty as a magister; he wrote it in his spare time. Why, then, were Thomas’s...

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