1.
John Scotus Eriugena
–
John Scotus Eriugena, or Johannes Scotus Erigena was an Irish theologian, neoplatonist philosopher, and poet. Erigena argued on behalf of something like a pantheistic definition of nature and he translated and made commentaries upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius, and was one of the few European philosophers of his day that knew Greek, having studied in Athens. Famously, he is said to have been stabbed to death by his students at Malmesbury with their pens, the form Eriugena of his byname is used by John Scotus to describe himself in one manuscript. Scottus in the Middle Ages was the Latin term for Irish or Gaelic, so his name translates as John, scotti was the name that the Romans called the Irish. The spelling Scottus has the authority of the early manuscripts until perhaps the 11th century, occasionally he is also named Scottigena in the manuscripts. He is not to be confused with the later philosopher John Duns Scotus, Johannes Scotus Eriugena was an Irishman, educated in Ireland. He moved to France and took over the Palatine Academy at the invitation of Carolingian King Charles the Bald and he succeeded Alcuin of York as head of the Palace School. The reputation of this school, part of the Carolingian Renaissance, seems to have increased greatly under Eriugenas leadership, and he remained in France for at least thirty years, and it was almost certainly during this period that he wrote his various works. The latter part of his life is unclear, there is a story that in 882 he was invited to Oxford by Alfred the Great, laboured there for many years, became abbot at Malmesbury, and was stabbed to death by his pupils with their styli. Whether this is to be literally or figuratively is not clear. He probably never left France, and the date of his death is given as 877. From the evidence available, it is impossible to determine whether he was a cleric or a layman and his work is largely based upon Saint Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, and the Cappadocian Fathers, and is clearly Neoplatonist. He revived the transcendentalist standpoint of Neoplatonism with its graded hierarchy approach, by going back to Plato, he revived the nominalist-realist debate. The first of the known to have been written by Eriugena during this period was a treatise on the Eucharist. In it he seems to have advanced the doctrine that the Eucharist was merely symbolical or commemorative, as a part of his penance, Berengarius is said to have been compelled to burn publicly Eriugenas treatise. Many in the Church opposed Gottschalks position because it denied the inherent value of good works, the treatise De divina praedestinatione composed for this occasion has been preserved, and it was probably from its content that Eriugenas orthodoxy became suspect. Eriugena argues the question of predestination entirely on speculative grounds, and starts with the affirmation that philosophy and religion are fundamentally one. Even more significant is his handling of authority and reason, Eriugena offered a skilled proof that there can be predestination only to the good, for all folk are summoned to be saints
John Scotus Eriugena
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Johannes Scotus Eriugena
John Scotus Eriugena
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Eriugena commemorated on the
Irish £5 banknote, issued 1976–93.
2.
Duns
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It was introduced in 1963 to support D&Bs credit reporting practice. It is standard worldwide, although only a small fraction of companies actually use it. DUNS users include the European Commission, the United Nations, more than 50 global industry and trade associations recognize, recommend, or require DUNS. The DUNS database contains over 250 million entries for businesses throughout the world, the DUNS number is a nine-digit number, issued by D&B, assigned to each business location in the D&B database, having a unique, separate, and distinct operation for the purpose of identifying them. The DUNS number is random, and the digits have no apparent significance, until approximately December 2006, the DUNS number contained a mod-10 check digit to support error detection. Discontinuing the check digit increased the inventory of available DUNS numbers by 800 million. When purchasing the Small Business Starter from Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp the wait time reduces to 5 business days or less. )Unlike national employer identification numbers, certain U. S. government agencies require that a vendor have a DUNS number as well as a U. S. Other agencies, such as some United Nations offices and Australian government agencies, DUNS numbers are now also available to individuals, previously, DUNS numbers could only be obtained by corporations or other organizations. The DUNS number is a supplement to other identifiers, such as the EIN, a DUNS number is sometimes formatted with embedded dashes to promote readability, such as 15-048-3782. Modern usage typically omits dashes, and shows the number as in the form 150483782, the dashes are not part of D&Bs official definition of the DUNS number. Businesses may choose to append four extra alphanumeric characters to their DUNS number and this is called a DUNS+4 number. The suffix is for the use of the business and it has no significance otherwise and is not tracked by Dun & Bradstreet. Numerous other business-numbering systems exist independent of DUNS—for example, the International Suppliers Network system, however, few, if any, register as many international businesses as with DUNS. The DUNS number replaced another coding system known as ACASS, the ACASS number was abolished on October 5,2005, when a modernized platform replaced the ACASS system. The ACASS system now uses the DUNS number, rather than the former ACASS number. S
Duns
3.
Berwickshire
–
Berwickshire is a lieutenancy area and historic county in the Scottish Borders. It takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was part of Scotland at the time of the countys formation, formerly the county was often called the Merse, from Old English mǣres border. From 1596 to 1890 the county town was Greenlaw, however, this was changed to Duns by the Local Government Act 1889, the act which established the system of county councils in Scotland. Beriwckshire District Council remained based in Duns, the old county town, the system of regions and districts was in turn abolished in 1996 in favour of unitary councils. Berwickshire is now governed by the unitary Scottish Borders Council, the county council of Berwickshire was formed in 1890 by the Local Government Act 1889, and applied for a grant of arms the same year. The grant, by Lord Lyon King of Arms was made on 10 October, the coat of arms shows a bear chained to a wych elm tree, a pun on the countys name, bear + wych = Berwick. In heraldry, this is known as a canting arms, upon the abolition of Berwickshire County Council, the arms were regranted to Berwickshire District Council. When the district council was abolished the arms reverted to the Crown, the coat of arms is featured on Berwickshire High School badge Refer to the List of civil parishes in Scotland Other places in Berwickshire include, St. Abbs or Coldingham Shore. Allanton Clintmains Dryburgh Oxton Paxton The Berwickshire News is published weekly, the High school west of Duns is named Berwickshire High School, it has been open since 1896. Together with Eyemouth High School they run a Rugby team under the name of Berwickshire schools, the Berwickshire Coastal Path runs from Cockburnspath to Berwick-upon-Tweed. List of places in the Scottish Borders Subdivisions of Scotland
Berwickshire
–
BERWICKSHIRE Civil Parish map. The Imperial gazetteer of Scotland. Vol.I. by Rev.
John Marius Wilson Boundaries outlined in red. http://archive.org/stream/imperialgazettee01wils#page/n259/mode/1up
Berwickshire
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Berwickshire
4.
Kingdom of Scotland
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The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843, which joined with the Kingdom of England to form a unified Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the third of the island of Great Britain. It suffered many invasions by the English, but under Robert I it fought a war of independence. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, in 1707, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union. The Crown was the most important element of government, the Scottish monarchy in the Middle Ages was a largely itinerant institution, before Edinburgh developed as a capital city in the second half of the 15th century. The Scottish Crown adopted the conventional offices of western European courts, Parliament also emerged as a major legal institution, gaining an oversight of taxation and policy, but was never as central to the national life as its counterpart in England. In the 17th century, the creation of Justices of Peace, the continued existence of courts baron and the introduction of kirk sessions helped consolidate the power of local lairds. Scots law developed into a system in the Middle Ages and was reformed and codified in the 16th and 17th centuries. Under James IV the legal functions of the council were rationalised, in 1532, the College of Justice was founded, leading to the training and professionalisation of lawyers. David I is the first Scottish king known to have produced his own coinage, Early Scottish coins were virtually identical in silver content to English ones, but from about 1300 their silver content began to depreciate more rapidly than the English coins. At the union of the Crowns in 1603 the Scottish pound was fixed at only one-twelfth the value of the English pound, the Bank of Scotland issued pound notes from 1704. Scottish currency was abolished by the Act of Union, Scotland is half the size of England and Wales in area, but has roughly the same length of coastline. Geographically Scotland is divided between the Highlands and Islands and the Lowlands, the Highlands had a relatively short growing season, which was further shortened during the Little Ice Age. From Scotlands foundation to the inception of the Black Death, the population had grown to a million, following the plague and it expanded in the first half of the 16th century, reaching roughly 1.2 million by the 1690s. Significant languages in the kingdom included Gaelic, Old English, Norse and French. Christianity was introduced into Scotland from the 6th century, in the Norman period the Scottish church underwent a series of changes that led to new monastic orders and organisation. During the 16th century, Scotland underwent a Protestant Reformation that created a predominately Calvinist national kirk, there were a series of religious controversies that resulted in divisions and persecutions. The Scottish Crown developed naval forces at various points in its history, Land forces centred around the large common army, but adopted European innovations from the 16th century, and many Scots took service as mercenaries and as soldiers for the English Crown
Kingdom of Scotland
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James VI, whose inheritance of the thrones of England and Ireland created a dynastic union in 1603
Kingdom of Scotland
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Flag
Kingdom of Scotland
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Coronation of
Alexander III of Scotland at
Scone Abbey; beside him are the
Mormaers of Strathearn and
Fife while his genealogy is recited by a royal poet.
Kingdom of Scotland
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The
Regiam Majestatem is the oldest surviving written digest of Scots law.
5.
Cologne
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Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres from Belgium. The citys famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, the University of Cologne is one of Europes oldest and largest universities. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the first century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Cologne, the French version of the citys name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, during the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval. Up until World War II the city had several occupations by the French. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many buildings as possible. Cologne is a cultural centre for the Rhineland, it hosts more than thirty museums. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics, the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom, and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, in 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD, considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900-year-old Roman boat was made in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius, in 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it one of the most important trade. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map, maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462, parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire, Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period, under Charlemagne, in 795, bishop Hildebold was promoted to archbishop
Cologne
–
From top to bottom, left to right:
Hohenzollern Bridge by night,
Great St. Martin Church,
Colonius TV-tower,
Cologne Cathedral,
Kranhaus buildings in
Rheinauhafen,
MediaPark
Cologne
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Cologne around 1411
Cologne
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Hängebrücke
Cologne
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The devastation of Cologne, 1945
6.
Electorate of Cologne
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The Electorate of Cologne, sometimes referred to as Electoral Cologne, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire and existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of the Hochstift — the temporal possessions — of the Archbishop of Cologne, the Electorate should not be confused with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, which was larger and over which the Elector-Archbishop exercised only spiritual authority. There were only two other ecclesiastical prince-electors in the Empire, the Electorate of Mainz and the Electorate of Trier, the capital of the electorate was Cologne. Conflicts with the citizens of Cologne caused the Elector to move to Bonn, the Free Imperial City of Cologne was recognized after 1475, thus removing it from even the nominal secular authority of the Elector. Cologne and Bonn were occupied by France in 1794, the right bank territories of the Electorate were secularized in 1803 during the German mediatization. The territory of the Electorate of Cologne was smaller than the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cologne was the ancient Roman city of Colonia Agrippina in the province of Germania Inferior, and has been a bishops see since Roman times. In 953, the archbishops of Cologne first gained noteworthy secular power, to weaken the secular nobility, who threatened his power, Otto endowed Bruno and his successors in the bishops see with the prerogatives of secular princes. This was the beginning of the state of Cologne. By the end of the 12th century, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor, besides being prince-elector, he was Arch-chancellor of Italy as well, technically from 1238 and permanently from 1263 until 1803. In the Battle of Worringen, the archbishop was captured by soldiers of the city, eventually, the archbishop moved to Bonn to escape jurisdiction conflicts with the city government. In 1475, Cologne became a Free Imperial City, independent from the archbishop, the first pogrom against the Jews was in 1349, when they were used as scapegoats for the Black Death, and therefore burnt in an auto-da-fé. Political tensions arose from issues of taxation, public spending, regulation of business, long-distance trade in the Baltic grew, as the major trading towns came together in the Hanseatic League, under the leadership of Lübeck. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine River, Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, during the 16th century, two Archbishops of Cologne converted to Protestantism. The first, Hermann von Wied, resigned the archbishopric on converting, but Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, the war ruined most of the Electoral economy, and many villages and towns were besieged and destroyed. The Siege of Godesberg in November–December 1583 ended with the destruction of Godesberg Castle, after several more sieges, von Waldburg gave up his claim to the see and retired to Strasbourg with his wife. Ernst became archbishop–the first major success of the Counter-Reformation in Germany, under Ernsts direction, Jesuits supervised the reintroduction of Catholicism in the Electorate. From 1583 to 1761, the archbishopric was effectively a secundogeniture of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach, as the archbishop in this period usually also held the Bishopric of Münster, he was one of the most important princes of northwestern Germany. From 1597 until 1794, Bonn was the residence the Elector, after 1795, the electorates territories on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied by France, and were formally annexed in 1801
Electorate of Cologne
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Cologne Cathedral
Electorate of Cologne
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Flag
Electorate of Cologne
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The Electorate of Cologne and neighboring states in the mid-18th century
Electorate of Cologne
–
The Electoral Palace at
Bonn
7.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire at its maximal extent, in the 13th century
Holy Roman Empire
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Imperial Banner
Holy Roman Empire
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An illustration from
Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his left are three ecclesiastics; on his right are four secular electors.
Holy Roman Empire
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Double-headed eagle with coats of arms of individual states, symbol of the Holy Roman Empire (painting from 1510)
8.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
University of Oxford
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Balliol College – one of the university's oldest constituent colleges
University of Oxford
–
University of Oxford
seal
University of Oxford
–
Aerial view of
Merton College 's
Mob Quad, the oldest
quadrangle of the university, constructed in the years from 1288 to 1378
University of Oxford
–
In 1605 Oxford was still a walled city, but several colleges had been built outside the city walls (north is at the bottom on this map)
9.
Medieval philosophy
–
Modern historians consider the medieval era to be one of philosophical development, heavily influenced by Christian theology. However, their theology used the methods and logical techniques of the ancient philosophers to address theological questions. Thomas Aquinas, following Peter Damian, argued that philosophy is the handmaiden of theology, the two principles that underlie all their work are, The use of logic, dialectic, and analysis to discover the truth, known as ratio. Respect for the insights of ancient philosophers, in particular Aristotle, the obligation to co-ordinate the insights of philosophy with theological teaching and revelation. One of the most heavily debated topics of the period was that of faith versus reason, avicenna and Averroes both leaned more on the side of reason. Augustine stated that he would never allow his philosophical investigations to go beyond the authority of God, Anselm attempted to defend against what he saw as partly an assault on faith, with an approach allowing for both faith and reason. The Augustinian solution to the problem is to believe. The boundaries of the medieval period are a matter of controversy. After the collapse of the Roman empire, Western Europe lapsed into the so-called Dark Ages, in later periods, monks were used for training administrators and churchmen. Early Christian thought, in particular in the period, tends to be intuitional and mystical. It also places emphasis on the sometimes-mystical doctrines of Plato. Much of the work of Aristotle was unknown in the West in this period, two Roman philosophers had a great influence on the development of medieval philosophy, Augustine and Boethius. Augustine is regarded as the greatest of the Church Fathers and he is primarily a theologian and a devotional writer, but much of his writing is philosophical. His themes are truth, God, the soul, the meaning of history, the state, sin. For over a thousand years, there was hardly a Latin work of theology or philosophy that did not quote his writing, some of his writing had an influence on the development of early modern philosophy, such as that of Descartes. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was a Christian philosopher born in Rome to an ancient and he became consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. His influence on the medieval period was also marked. He intended to translate all the works of Aristotle and Plato from the original Greek into Latin, and translated many of Aristotle’s logical works, such as On Interpretation, and he wrote commentaries on these works, and on the Isagoge by Porphyry
Medieval philosophy
–
Philosophy seated between the seven
liberal arts – Picture from the
Hortus deliciarum of
Herrad von Landsberg (12th century)
Medieval philosophy
–
History of
Western philosophy
Medieval philosophy
–
Abbo of Fleury
Medieval philosophy
–
Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle from Devotional and Philosophical Writings, c. 1330
10.
Scholasticism
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It originated as an outgrowth of and a departure from Christian monastic schools at the earliest European universities. The Scholastic thought is known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to other fields of study. Some of the figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure. Important work in the tradition has been carried on well past Aquinass time, for instance by Francisco Suárez and Luis de Molina. The terms scholastic and scholasticism derive from the Latin word scholasticus and the latter from the Greek σχολαστικός, forerunners of Christian scholasticism were Islamic Ilm al-Kalām, literally science of discourse, and Jewish philosophy, especially Jewish Kalam. The first significant renewal of learning in the West came with the Carolingian Renaissance of the Early Middle Ages, charlemagne, advised by Peter of Pisa and Alcuin of York, attracted the scholars of England and Ireland. By decree in AD787, he established schools in every abbey in his empire and these schools, from which the name scholasticism is derived, became centers of medieval learning. During this period, knowledge of Ancient Greek had vanished in the west except in Ireland, Irish scholars had a considerable presence in the Frankish court, where they were renowned for their learning. Among them was Johannes Scotus Eriugena, one of the founders of scholasticism, Eriugena was the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period and an outstanding philosopher in terms of originality. He had considerable familiarity with the Greek language and translated works into Latin, affording access to the Cappadocian Fathers. The other three founders of scholasticism were the 11th-century scholars Peter Abelard, Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury and Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury and this period saw the beginning of the rediscovery of many Greek works which had been lost to the Latin West. As early as the 10th century, scholars in Spain had begun to gather translated texts and, in the half of that century. After a successful burst of Reconquista in the 12th century, Spain opened even further for Christian scholars, as these Europeans encountered Islamic philosophy, they opened a wealth of Arab knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. Scholars such as Adelard of Bath traveled to Spain and Sicily, translating works on astronomy and mathematics, at the same time, Anselm of Laon systematized the production of the gloss on Scripture, followed by the rise to prominence of dialectic in the work of Abelard. Peter Lombard produced a collection of Sentences, or opinions of the Church Fathers and other authorities The 13th, the early 13th century witnessed the culmination of the recovery of Greek philosophy. Schools of translation grew up in Italy and Sicily, and eventually in the rest of Europe, powerful Norman kings gathered men of knowledge from Italy and other areas into their courts as a sign of their prestige. His work formed the basis of the commentaries that followed
Scholasticism
–
14th-century image of a university lecture
Scholasticism
11.
Metaphysics
–
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy exploring the fundamental nature of reality. In this vein, metaphysics seeks to answer two questions, Ultimately, what is there. Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, a central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to one another. Another branch is metaphysical cosmology, which seeks to understand the origin, there are two broad conceptions about what world is studied by metaphysics. The strong, classical view assumes that the objects studied by metaphysics exist independently of any observer, the weaker, more modern view assumes that the objects studied by metaphysics exist inside the mind of an observer, so the subject becomes a form of introspection and conceptual analysis. Some philosophers, notably Kant, discuss both of these worlds and what can be inferred about each one, some philosophers and scientists, such as the logical positivists, reject the entire subject of metaphysics as meaningless, while others disagree and think that it is legitimate. Ontology deals with the determination whether categories of being are fundamental and it is the inquiry into being in so much as it is being, or into beings insofar as they exist—and not insofar as particular facts may be obtained about them or particular properties belong to them. Most ontologies assume or assert the existence of categories including objects, properties, space, immediate questions arising from this include the nature of objects. Only properties can be observed directly, so what does it mean for an object to exist, how can we be sure that such objects exist at all. The word is has two uses in English, separated out in ontology. It can denote existence as in there is an elephant in the room, some philosophers also include sub-classing as a third form of is-ness or being, as in the elephant is a mammal. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that all refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, between these poles of realism and nominalism, stand a variety of other positions. An ontology may give an account of which refer to entities, which do not, why. Other controversial categories of objects and properties which may be argued to exist or not include aesthetic and moral properties, stances about the status of such things may form the foundation for other branches of philosophy such as aesthetics, ethics and political philosophy. Identity is a fundamental metaphysical issue, metaphysicians investigating identity are tasked with the question of what, exactly, it means for something to be identical to itself. Other issues of identity arise in the context of time, what does it mean for something to be itself across two moments in time, how do we account for this. Another question of identity arises when we ask what our criteria ought to be for determining identity, and how does the reality of identity interface with linguistic expressions
Metaphysics
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
12.
Theology
–
Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as a discipline, typically in universities, seminaries. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity, the term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, explain, test, critique, the English equivalent theology had evolved by 1362. Greek theologia was used with the discourse on god in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii. Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of discourse, mythical, rational and civil. Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some manuscripts, in the heading to the book of Revelation, apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy. The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of study, dealing with the motionless. Boethius definition influenced medieval Latin usage, Theology can also now be used in a derived sense to mean a system of theoretical principles, an ideology. They suggest the term is appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently. Kalam. does not hold the place in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for theology in the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul al-fiqh as much as to kalam. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of theology is appropriate, can only do so, he says, I take theology not to be restricted to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion of God, within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God and of the Atman. The Sanskrit word for the schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been active and highly significant for Christian. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law, the history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves. Modern Western universities evolved from the institutions and cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages
Theology
–
Augustine of Hippo (354–430),
Latin theologian. His writing on
free will and
original sin remains influential in Western Christendom.
Theology
–
Albert the Great (1193/1206–1280),
patron saint of
Roman Catholic theologians
Theology
–
Tommaso D'aquino was the greatest Western theologist of the Middle Ages.
Theology
–
Allamah Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi was the most influential Islamic theologist of the 20th century.
13.
Logic
–
Logic, originally meaning the word or what is spoken, is generally held to consist of the systematic study of the form of arguments. A valid argument is one where there is a relation of logical support between the assumptions of the argument and its conclusion. Historically, logic has been studied in philosophy and mathematics, and recently logic has been studied in science, linguistics, psychology. The concept of form is central to logic. The validity of an argument is determined by its logical form, traditional Aristotelian syllogistic logic and modern symbolic logic are examples of formal logic. Informal logic is the study of natural language arguments, the study of fallacies is an important branch of informal logic. Since much informal argument is not strictly speaking deductive, on some conceptions of logic, formal logic is the study of inference with purely formal content. An inference possesses a purely formal content if it can be expressed as an application of a wholly abstract rule, that is. The works of Aristotle contain the earliest known study of logic. Modern formal logic follows and expands on Aristotle, in many definitions of logic, logical inference and inference with purely formal content are the same. This does not render the notion of informal logic vacuous, because no formal logic captures all of the nuances of natural language, Symbolic logic is the study of symbolic abstractions that capture the formal features of logical inference. Symbolic logic is divided into two main branches, propositional logic and predicate logic. Mathematical logic is an extension of logic into other areas, in particular to the study of model theory, proof theory, set theory. Logic is generally considered formal when it analyzes and represents the form of any valid argument type, the form of an argument is displayed by representing its sentences in the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical language to make its content usable in formal inference. Simply put, formalising simply means translating English sentences into the language of logic and this is called showing the logical form of the argument. It is necessary because indicative sentences of ordinary language show a variety of form. Second, certain parts of the sentence must be replaced with schematic letters, thus, for example, the expression all Ps are Qs shows the logical form common to the sentences all men are mortals, all cats are carnivores, all Greeks are philosophers, and so on. The schema can further be condensed into the formula A, where the letter A indicates the judgement all - are -, the importance of form was recognised from ancient times
Logic
–
Aristotle, 384–322 BCE.
14.
Epistemology
–
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief, the term Epistemology was first used by Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier in 1854. However, according to Brett Warren, King James VI of Scotland had previously personified this philosophical concept as the character Epistemon in 1591 and this philosophical approach signified a Philomath seeking to obtain greater knowledge through epistemology with the use of theology. The dialogue was used by King James to educate society on various concepts including the history, the word epistemology is derived from the ancient Greek epistēmē meaning knowledge and the suffix -logy, meaning a logical discourse to. J. F. Ferrier coined epistemology on the model of ontology, to designate that branch of philosophy which aims to discover the meaning of knowledge, and called it the true beginning of philosophy. The word is equivalent to the concept Wissenschaftslehre, which was used by German philosophers Johann Fichte, French philosophers then gave the term épistémologie a narrower meaning as theory of knowledge. Émile Meyerson opened his Identity and Reality, written in 1908, in mathematics, it is known that 2 +2 =4, but there is also knowing how to add two numbers, and knowing a person, place, thing, or activity. Some philosophers think there is an important distinction between knowing that, knowing how, and acquaintance-knowledge, with epistemology being primarily concerned with the first of these, while these distinctions are not explicit in English, they are defined explicitly in other languages. In French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch to know is translated using connaître, conhecer, conocer, modern Greek has the verbs γνωρίζω and ξέρω. Italian has the verbs conoscere and sapere and the nouns for knowledge are conoscenza and sapienza, German has the verbs wissen and kennen. The verb itself implies a process, you have to go from one state to another and this verb seems to be the most appropriate in terms of describing the episteme in one of the modern European languages, hence the German name Erkenntnistheorie. The theoretical interpretation and significance of linguistic issues remains controversial. In his paper On Denoting and his later book Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell stressed the distinction between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance, gilbert Ryle is also credited with stressing the distinction between knowing how and knowing that in The Concept of Mind. This position is essentially Ryles, who argued that a failure to acknowledge the distinction between knowledge that and knowledge how leads to infinite regress and this includes the truth, and everything else we accept as true for ourselves from a cognitive point of view. Whether someones belief is true is not a prerequisite for belief, on the other hand, if something is actually known, then it categorically cannot be false. It would not be accurate to say that he knew that the bridge was safe, because plainly it was not. By contrast, if the bridge actually supported his weight, then he might say that he had believed that the bridge was safe, whereas now, after proving it to himself, epistemologists argue over whether belief is the proper truth-bearer. Some would rather describe knowledge as a system of justified true propositions, plato, in his Gorgias, argues that belief is the most commonly invoked truth-bearer
Epistemology
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
15.
Ethics
–
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The term ethics derives from the Ancient Greek word ἠθικός ethikos, the branch of philosophy axiology comprises the sub-branches of ethics and aesthetics, each concerned with values. As a branch of philosophy, ethics investigates the questions What is the best way for people to live, and What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances. In practice, ethics seeks to resolve questions of morality by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice. As a field of enquiry, moral philosophy also is related to the fields of moral psychology, descriptive ethics. Richard William Paul and Linda Elder define ethics as a set of concepts, the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy states that the word ethics is commonly used interchangeably with morality. And sometimes it is used narrowly to mean the moral principles of a particular tradition. Paul and Elder state that most people confuse ethics with behaving in accordance with social conventions, religious beliefs, the word ethics in English refers to several things. It can refer to philosophical ethics or moral philosophy—a project that attempts to use reason in order to various kinds of ethical questions. As bioethicist Larry Churchill has written, Ethics, understood as the capacity to think critically about moral values, Ethics can also be used to describe a particular persons own idiosyncratic principles or habits. For example, Joe has strange ethics, the English word ethics is derived from an Ancient Greek word êthikos, which means relating to ones character. The Ancient Greek adjective êthikos is itself derived from another Greek word, meta-ethics asks how we understand, know about, and what we mean when we talk about what is right and what is wrong. An ethical question fixed on some particular practical question—such as, Should I eat this particular piece of chocolate cake. —cannot be a meta-ethical question, a meta-ethical question is abstract and relates to a wide range of more specific practical questions. For example, Is it ever possible to have knowledge of what is right. Meta-ethics has always accompanied philosophical ethics, meta-ethics is also important in G. E. In it he first wrote about what he called the naturalistic fallacy, moore was seen to reject naturalism in ethics, in his Open Question Argument. This made thinkers look again at second order questions about ethics, earlier, the Scottish philosopher David Hume had put forward a similar view on the difference between facts and values. Studies of how we know in ethics divide into cognitivism and non-cognitivism, non-cognitivism is the claim that when we judge something as right or wrong, this is neither true nor false
Ethics
–
Socrates
Ethics
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
Ethics
–
Immanuel Kant
16.
Univocity of being
–
Univocity of being is the idea that words describing the properties of God mean the same thing as when they apply to people or things, even if God is vastly different in kind. In medieval disputes over the nature of God, many theologians and philosophers held that one says that God is good. John Duns Scotus argued to the contrary that when one says that God is good, the goodness in question is exactly the same sort of goodness that is meant when one says Jane is good. That is, God only differs from us in degree, and properties such as goodness, power, reason, and so forth are univocally applied, regardless of one is talking about God. Gilles Deleuze borrowed the doctrine of ontological univocity from Scotus and he claimed that being is univocal, i. e. that all of its senses are affirmed in one voice. Deleuze adapts the doctrine of univocity to claim that being is, univocally, with univocity, however, it is not the differences which are and must be, it is being which is Difference, in the sense that it is said of difference. Moreover, it is not we who are univocal in a Being which is not, it is we and our individuality which remains equivocal in and for a univocal Being. Deleuze at once echoes and inverts Spinoza, who maintained that everything that exists is a modification of the one substance and he claims that it is the organizing principle of the Dutchmans philosophy, despite the absence of the term from any of Spinozas works. For Deleuze, there is no one substance, only an always-differentiating process, Deleuze and Guattari summarize this ontology in the paradoxical formula pluralism = monism. Fundamental ontology Henology Law of noncontradiction
Univocity of being
17.
Haecceity
–
Haecceity is a persons or objects thisness, the individualising difference between the concept a man and the concept Socrates. Haecceity is a translation of the equivalent term in Aristotles Greek to ti esti or the what is. Charles Sanders Peirce later used the term as a reference to an individual. Haecceity may be defined in some dictionaries as simply the essence of a thing, however, such a definition deprives the term of its subtle distinctiveness and utility. While terms such as haecceity, quiddity, noumenon and hypokeimenon all evoke the essence of a thing, they each have subtle differences, haecceity thus enabled Scotus to find a middle ground in the debate over universals between Nominalism and Realism. Harold Garfinkel is the founder of ethnomethodology, and teacher of Harvey Sacks and he used the word haecceity in his seminal Studies in Ethnomethodology, to enhance the indexical inevitable character of any expression, behavior or situation. According to him, the display the social order they refer to within the settings of the situation they contribute to define. In his famous paper generally referred to as Parsons Plenum, Garfinkel used the term Haecceities to indicate the importance of the infinite contingencies in both situations and practices, Garfinkel was drawing on phenomenology and Edmund Husserl, logic and Bertrand Russell, and perception theory and Nelson Goodman. Phenomenology is the field of studying the phenomena as such, Gilles Deleuze uses the term to denote entities that exist on the Plane of Immanence. The usage was likely chosen in line with his concept of difference and individuation. Gerard Manley Hopkins drew on Scotus — whom he described as “of reality the rarest-veined unraveller” — to construct his theory of inscape. James Joyce made similar use of the concept of haecceitas to develop his idea of the secular epiphany, james Wood refers extensively to haecceitas in developing an argument about conspicuous detail in aesthetic literary criticism. E. Gilson, The Philosophy of the Middle Ages A. Heuser, The Shaping Vision of Gerald Manley Hopkins E. Longpre, duns Scotus Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. London and New York, Continuum,2004, vol.2 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. ISBN Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, New York, Columbia University Press,1994. Harold Garfinkel, Evidence for Locally Produced, Naturally Accountable Phenomena of Order, Logic, Meaning, Method, etc
Haecceity
18.
Immaculate Conception
–
The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was conceived by normal biological means in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, but God acted upon her soul, keeping it immaculate. The Immaculate Conception is commonly confused with the Virgin Birth of Jesus, jesuss birth is covered by the Doctrine of Incarnation, while the Immaculate Conception deals with the conception of Mary, not that of her son. The defined dogma of the Immaculate Conception regards original sin only, therefore, being always free from original sin, the doctrine teaches that from her conception Mary received the sanctifying grace that would normally come with baptism after birth. The definition makes no declaration about the Churchs belief that the Blessed Virgin was sinless in the sense of freedom from actual or personal sin, however, the Church holds that Mary was also sinless personally, free from all sin, original or personal. The doctrine of the conception is not to be confused with the virginal conception of her son Jesus. This misunderstanding of the immaculate conception is frequently met in the mass media. Catholics believe that Mary was not the product of a virginal conception herself but was the daughter of a father and mother, traditionally known by the names of Saint Joachim. In 1677, the Holy See condemned the belief that Mary was virginally conceived, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December, exactly nine months before celebrating the Nativity of Mary. The feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on 25 March, nine months before Christmas Day, another misunderstanding is that, by her immaculate conception, Mary did not need a saviour. When defining the dogma in Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX explicitly affirmed that Mary was redeemed in a more sublime. He stated that Mary, rather than being cleansed after sin, was prevented from contracting Original Sin in view of the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ. In Luke 1,47, Mary proclaims, My spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour and this is referred to as Marys pre-redemption by Christ. A feast of the Conception of the Most Holy and All Pure Mother of God was celebrated in Syria on 8 December perhaps as early as the 5th century, note that the title of achrantos refers to the holiness of Mary, not specifically to the holiness of her conception. Marys complete sinlessness and concomitant exemption from any taint from the first moment of her existence was a familiar to Greek theologians of Byzantium. Beginning with St. St. Gregory Nazianzen designated Mary as prokathartheisa, gregorys doctrines surrounding Marys purification were likely related to the burgeoning commemoration of the Mother of God in and around Constantinople very close to the date of Christmas. Nazianzens title of Mary at the Annunciation as prepurified was subsequently adopted by all interested in his Mariology to justify the Byzantine equivalent of the Immaculate Conception. This is especially apparent in the Fathers St. Sophronios of Jerusalem and St. John Damascene, about the time of Damascene, the public celebration of the Conception of St. Ann was becoming popular. It is admitted that the doctrine as defined by Pius IX was not explicitly mooted before the 12th century and it is also agreed that no direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture
Immaculate Conception
–
La Purísima Inmaculada Concepción by
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1678, now in
Museo del Prado, Spain.
Immaculate Conception
–
An 11th-century
Eastern Orthodox icon of the
Theotokos Panachranta, i.e. the "all immaculate" Mary
Immaculate Conception
–
Altar of the Immaculata by
Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony's Church,
Urtijëi, Italy.
Immaculate Conception
–
A series of articles on
19.
Aristotle
–
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
Aristotle
–
Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by
Lysippus,
c. 330 BC. The
alabaster mantle is modern.
Aristotle
–
Aristotelianism
Aristotle
–
School of Aristotle in
Mieza,
Macedonia, Greece
Aristotle
–
"Aristotle" by
Francesco Hayez (1791–1882)
20.
Augustine of Hippo
–
Augustine of Hippo was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia, Augustine is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, according to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine established anew the ancient Faith. In his early years, he was influenced by Manichaeism. After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin, when the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview, the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustines On the Trinity. Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Christian Church, and he is also the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death, Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him to be one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation. Lutherans, and Martin Luther in particular, have held Augustine in preeminence, Luther himself was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites. In the East, some of his teachings are disputed and have in the 20th century in particular come under attack by such theologians as John Romanides, but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant appropriation of his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky. The most controversial doctrine surrounding his name is the filioque, which has been rejected by the Orthodox Church, other disputed teachings include his views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination. Nevertheless, though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is considered a saint. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is celebrated on 28 August and he was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, Augustine was born in the year 354 AD in the municipium of Thagaste in Roman Africa. His mother, Monica or Monnica, was a devout Christian, in his writings, Augustine leaves some information as to the consciousness of his African heritage
Augustine of Hippo
–
Saint Augustine from a 19th-century engraving
Augustine of Hippo
–
The Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica. by
Niccolò di Pietro 1413-15
Augustine of Hippo
–
The earliest known portrait of Saint Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome.
Augustine of Hippo
–
Angelico, Fra. "The Conversion of St. Augustine" (painting).
21.
Anselm of Canterbury
–
Anselm of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. After his death, he was canonized as a saint, his feast day is 21 April, beginning at Bec, Anselm composed dialogues and treatises with a rational and philosophical approach, sometimes causing him to be credited as the founder of Scholasticism. Despite his lack of recognition in this field in his own time, Anselm is now famed as the originator of the argument for the existence of God. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by a bull of Pope Clement XI in 1720, as archbishop, he defended the churchs interests in England amid the Investiture Controversy. For his resistance to the English kings William II and Henry I, he was exiled twice, once from 1097 to 1100, while in exile, he helped guide the Greek bishops of southern Italy to adopt Roman rites at the Council of Bari. Anselm was born in or around Aosta in Upper Burgundy sometime between April 1033 and April 1034, the area now forms part of the Republic of Italy, but Aosta had been part of the Carolingian Kingdom of Arles until the death of the childless Rudolph III in 1032. The Emperor and the Count of Blois then went to war over his succession, humbert the White-Handed, count of Maurienne, so distinguished himself that he was granted a new county carved out of the secular holdings of the less helpful bishop of Aosta. Otto and Adelaides unified lands then controlled the most important passes in the western Alps and formed the county of Savoy whose dynasty would rule the kingdoms of Sardinia. Records during this period are scanty, but both sides of Anselms immediate family appear to have been dispossessed by these decisions in favour of their extended relations. The marriage was probably arranged for political reasons but was incapable of resisting Conrads decrees after his successful annexation of Burgundy on 1 August 1034. Ermenberga appears to have been the wealthier of the two, Gundulph moved to his wifes town, where she held a palace, likely near the cathedral, along with a villa in the valley. In later life, there are records of three relations who visited Bec, Folceraldus, Haimo, and Rainaldus. The first repeatedly attempted to impose on Anselms success but was rebuffed owing to his ties to another monastery, at the age of fifteen, Anselm desired to enter a monastery but, failing to obtain his fathers consent, he was refused by the abbot. The illness he then suffered has been considered a psychosomatic effect of his disappointment, once Gundulph had entered a convent, Anselm, at age 23, left home with a single attendant, crossed the Alps, and wandered through Burgundy and France for three years. His countryman Lanfranc of Pavia was then prior of the Benedictine abbey of Bec, attracted by the fame of his fellow countryman, after spending some time in Avranches, he returned the next year. His father having died, he consulted with Lanfranc as to whether to return to his estates and employ their income in providing alms or to renounce them, becoming a hermit or a monk at Bec or Cluny. Professing to fear his own bias, Lanfranc sent him to Maurilius, the archbishop of Rouen, probably in his first year, he wrote his first work on philosophy, a treatment of Latin paradoxes called the Grammarian. Over the next decade, the Rule of Saint Benedict reshaped his thought, a notable opponent was a young monk named Osborne
Anselm of Canterbury
–
A French plaque commemorating the supposed birthplace of Anselm in
Aosta. (The identification is probably spurious.)
Anselm of Canterbury
–
Anselm depicted in his personal seal
Anselm of Canterbury
–
Becca di Nona south of
Aosta, the sight of a supposed mystical vision during Anselm's childhood.
Anselm of Canterbury
–
A cross at
Bec Abbey commemorating the connection between it and
Canterbury.
Lanfranc, Anselm, and
Theobald were all priors at Bec before serving as
primates over
England.
22.
Thomas Aquinas
–
Saint Thomas Aquinas O. P. was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio and he was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism, of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, the works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle form an important part of his body of work, furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Churchs liturgy. Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Churchs greatest theologians, Pope Benedict XV declared, This Order. Acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the praises of the Pontiffs. The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Aquinas to be one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world, Thomas was most probably born in the castle of Roccasecca, located in Aquino, old county of the Kingdom of Sicily, c.1225. According to some authors, he was born in the castle of his father, though he did not belong to the most powerful branch of the family, Landulf of Aquino was a man of means. As a knight in the service of King Roger II, he held the title miles, Thomass mother, Theodora, belonged to the Rossi branch of the Neapolitan Caracciolo family. Landulfs brother Sinibald was abbot of the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino and it was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy. There his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia, at the age of nineteen Thomas resolved to join the recently founded Dominican Order. Thomass change of heart did not please his family, in an attempt to prevent Theodoras interference in Thomass choice, the Dominicans arranged to move Thomas to Rome, and from Rome, to Paris. Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomass release, which had the effect of extending Thomass detention, Thomas passed this time of trial tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order. Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans, at one point, two of his brothers resorted to the measure of hiring a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend Thomas drove her away wielding a fire iron and that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate. By 1244, seeing all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the familys dignity. In her mind, an escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans
Thomas Aquinas
–
An altarpiece in
Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by
Carlo Crivelli (15th century)
Thomas Aquinas
–
Detail from
Valle Romita Polyptych by
Gentile da Fabriano (circa 1400)
Thomas Aquinas
–
The Castle of
Monte San Giovanni Campano
Thomas Aquinas
–
Diego Velázquez, Aquinas is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his
proof of chastity
23.
William of Ockham
–
William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the fourteenth century. He is commonly known for Occams razor, the principle that bears his name, and also produced significant works on logic, physics. In the Church of England, his day of commemoration is 10 April, William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey in 1285 and joined the Franciscan order at an early age. It is believed that he studied theology at the University of Oxford from 1309 to 1321, because of this, he acquired the honorific title Venerabilis Inceptor, or Venerable Beginner. During the Middle Ages, theologian Peter Lombards Sentences had become a work of theology. William of Ockham was among these scholarly commentators, however, Ockhams commentary was not well received by his colleagues, or by the Church authorities. In 1324, his commentary was condemned as unorthodox by a synod of bishops and it is generally believed that these charges were levied by Oxford chancellor John Lutterell. The Franciscan Minister General, Michael of Cesena, had summoned to Avignon. A theological commission had been asked to review his Commentary on the Sentences, Michael of Cesena had asked Ockham to review arguments surrounding Apostolic poverty. The Franciscans believed that Jesus and his apostles owned no property either individually or in common, and this brought them into conflict with Pope John XXII. After studying the works of John XXII and previous papal statements, in return for protection and patronage Ockham wrote treatises that argued for emperor Louis to have supreme control over church and state in the Holy Roman Empire. However it should be noted that Ockhams philosophy was never officially condemned as heretical and he spent much of the remainder of his life writing about political issues, including the relative authority and rights of the spiritual and temporal powers. After Michael of Cesenas death in 1342, William became the leader of the band of Franciscan dissidents living in exile with Louis IV. Ockham died on 9 April 1347 and he was officially rehabilitated by Innocent VI in 1359. William of Ockham believed only faith gives us access to theological truths, Ockhams theism was based solely on private revelation and faith. He believed that science was a matter of discovery and saw God as the ontological necessity. His importance is as a theologian with a strongly developed interest in logical method, in scholasticism, Ockham advocated reform in both method and content, the aim of which was simplification
William of Ockham
–
William of Ockham – Sketch labelled "frater Occham iste", from a manuscript of Ockham's Summa Logicae, 1341
William of Ockham
–
William of Ockham
William of Ockham
–
Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum
24.
Alvin Plantinga
–
Plantinga is widely known for his work in philosophy of religion, epistemology, metaphysics and Christian apologetics. He is the author of books including God and Other Minds, The Nature of Necessity. He has delivered the Gifford Lectures two times and was described by TIME magazine as Americas leading orthodox Protestant philosopher of God, Plantinga is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Plantinga was born on November 15,1932, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Cornelius A. Plantinga, Plantingas father was a first-generation immigrant, born in the Netherlands. His family is from the Dutch province of Friesland, plantinga’s father earned a Ph. D. in philosophy from Duke University and a masters degree in psychology, and taught several academic subjects at different colleges over the years. One of Plantingas brothers, Cornelius Neal Plantinga, Jr. is a theologian, another of his brothers, Leon, is an emeritus professor of musicology at Yale University. His brother Terrell worked for CBS News, in 1955, Plantinga married Kathleen De Boer. Plantinga and his wife have four children, Carl, Jane, Harry, both of his sons are professors at Calvin College, Carl in Film Studies and Harry in computer science. Harry is also the director of the colleges Christian Classics Ethereal Library, at the end of 11th grade, Plantingas father urged Plantinga to skip his last year of high school and immediately enroll in college. Plantinga reluctantly followed his fathers advice and in 1949, a few months before his 17th birthday, he enrolled in Jamestown College, in Jamestown, during that same year, his father accepted a teaching job at Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In January 1950, Plantinga moved to Grand Rapids with his family, during his first semester at Calvin, Plantinga was awarded a scholarship to attend Harvard University. Beginning in the fall of 1950, Plantinga spent two semesters at Harvard, in 1954, Plantinga began his graduate studies at the University of Michigan where he studied under William Alston, William Frankena, and Richard Cartwright, among others. A year later, in 1955, he transferred to Yale University where he received his Ph. D. in 1958, in 1963, he accepted a teaching job at Calvin College, where he replaced the retiring Jellema. He then spent the next 19 years at Calvin before moving to the University of Notre Dame in 1982 and he retired from the University of Notre Dame in 2010 and returned to Calvin College, where he serves as the first holder of the William Harry Jellema Chair in Philosophy. Plantinga served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Western Division, 1981–1982. and he has honorary degrees from Glasgow University, Calvin College, North Park College, the Free University of Amsterdam, Brigham Young University, and Valparaiso University. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, 1971–1972, and elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts, in 2006, the University of Notre Dames Center for Philosophy of Religion renamed its Distinguished Scholar Fellowship as the Alvin Plantinga Fellowship. The fellowship includes a lecture by the current Plantinga Fellow. Plantinga has argued that people can know that God exists as a basic belief
Alvin Plantinga
–
Plantinga in 2009
25.
Martin Heidegger
–
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the Continental tradition and philosophical hermeneutics. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he is acknowledged to be one of the most original. His first and best known book, Being and Time, though unfinished, is one of the philosophical works of the 20th century. Heidegger approached the question through an inquiry into the being that has an understanding of Being, and asks the question about it, namely, Human being, for Heidegger thinking is thinking about things originally discovered in our everyday practical engagements. The consequence of this is that our capacity to think cannot be the most central quality of our being because thinking is a reflecting upon this more original way of discovering the world. Heideggers later work includes criticisms of technologys instrumentalist understanding in the Western tradition as enframing, treating all of Nature as a reserve on call for human purposes. Heidegger was born in rural Meßkirch, Germany, the son of Johanna, raised a Roman Catholic, he was the son of the sexton of the village church that adhered to the First Vatican Council of 1870, which was observed mainly by the poorer class of Meßkirch. Heidegger was short and sinewy, with piercing eyes. He enjoyed outdoor pursuits, being proficient at skiing. In the two following, he worked first as an unsalaried Privatdozent. He served as a soldier during the year of World War I, working behind a desk. During the 1930s, critics of Heideggers espousal of a Nazi-style rhetoric of martial manliness noted the unheroic nature of his service in WWI, in 1923, Heidegger was elected to an extraordinary Professorship in Philosophy at the University of Marburg. His colleagues there included Rudolf Bultmann, Nicolai Hartmann, and Paul Natorp, Heideggers students at Marburg included Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Gerhard Krüger, Leo Strauss, Jacob Klein, Gunther Anders, and Hans Jonas. Following on from Aristotle, he began to develop in his lectures the main theme of his philosophy, the question of the sense of being. He extended the concept of subject to the dimension of history and concrete existence, which he found prefigured in such Christian thinkers as Saint Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Luther and he also read the works of Dilthey, Husserl, and Max Scheler. In 1927, Heidegger published his main work Sein und Zeit, when Husserl retired as Professor of Philosophy in 1928, Heidegger accepted Freiburgs election to be his successor, in spite of a counter-offer by Marburg. Heidegger remained at Freiburg im Breisgau for the rest of his life, declining a number of later offers and his students at Freiburg included Arendt, Günther Anders, Hans Jonas, Karl Löwith, Charles Malik, Herbert Marcuse and Ernst Nolte. Emmanuel Levinas attended his lecture courses during his stay in Freiburg in 1928, Heidegger was elected rector of the University on 21 April 1933, and joined the National Socialist German Workers Party on 1 May
Martin Heidegger
–
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
–
The Mesnerhaus in
Meßkirch, where Heidegger grew up
Martin Heidegger
–
Heidegger's stone-and-tile chalet clustered among others at Todtnauberg
Martin Heidegger
–
Heidegger's grave in Meßkirch
26.
Hannah Arendt
–
Johanna Hannah Arendt was a German-born Jewish American political theorist. She escaped Europe during the Holocaust, becoming an American citizen and her works deal with the nature of power and the subjects of politics, direct democracy, authority, and totalitarianism. The Hannah Arendt Prize is named in her honor, Arendt was born into a secular family of German Jews in Linden, the daughter of Martha and Paul Arendt. She grew up in Königsberg and Berlin, at the University of Marburg, she studied philosophy with Martin Heidegger. Arendts family was assimilated and she later remembered, With us from Germany. You can hardly realize how serious we were about it, Arendt came to define her Jewish identity negatively after encountering antisemitism as an adult. Arendt later wrote about Varnhagen that she was my very closest woman friend, during the philosophy course taught by Heidegger, she fell in love with her married professor, and a relationship began. In 1929, when Heidegger failed to recognize her at a station, Arendt was devastated, writing, When I was a small child. I had read the tale about Dwarf Nose, whose nose gets so long nobody recognizes him anymore. My mother pretended that had happened to me, I still vividly recall the blind terror with which I kept crying, but I am your child, I am your Hannah. —That is what it was like today. In 1929, in Berlin, she married Günther Stern, later known as Günther Anders, the dissertation was published in 1929. In 1932, Arendt was deeply troubled by reports that Heidegger was speaking at National Socialist meetings, Heidegger wrote back to her and in his letter did not seek to deny the rumors, and merely assured her that his feelings for her were unchanged. Arendt was prevented from habilitating because she was Jewish and she researched antisemitism for some time before being arrested and briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo in 1933. While in France, she worked to support and aid Jewish refugees, in 1937, she was stripped of her German citizenship. In 1940, she married the German poet and Marxist philosopher Heinrich Blücher, like many others, Arendt was able to leave Gurs after a few weeks, and left France in 1941 with her husband and her mother, traveling via Portugal to the United States. They relied on visas illegally issued by the American diplomat Hiram Bingham, varian Fry, another American humanitarian, paid for their travel and helped obtain the visas. Upon arriving in New York, Arendt became active in the German-Jewish community, from 1941 to 1945, she wrote a column for the German-language Jewish newspaper Aufbau. From 1944, she directed research for the Commission of European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, during World War II, Arendt worked for Youth Aliyah, a Zionist organization, which saved thousands of children from the Holocaust and settled them in the British Mandate of Palestine
Hannah Arendt
–
Hannah Arendt from a 1988 German stamp among the
Women in German history series
27.
Charles Sanders Peirce
–
Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist who is sometimes known as the father of pragmatism. He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years, today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his founding of pragmatism. An innovator in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, research methodology, and various sciences, Peirce considered himself, first and foremost and he made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, in 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce the most original and versatile of American philosophers and Americas greatest logician. Websters Biographical Dictionary said in 1943 that Peirce was now regarded as the most original thinker, keith Devlin similarly referred to Peirce as one of the greatest philosophers ever. Peirce was born at 3 Phillips Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts and he was the son of Sarah Hunt Mills and Benjamin Peirce, himself a professor of astronomy and mathematics at Harvard University and perhaps the first serious research mathematician in America. At age 12, Charles read his older brothers copy of Richard Whatelys Elements of Logic, so began his lifelong fascination with logic and reasoning. At Harvard, he began lifelong friendships with Francis Ellingwood Abbot, Chauncey Wright, one of his Harvard instructors, Charles William Eliot, formed an unfavorable opinion of Peirce. This opinion proved fateful, because Eliot, while President of Harvard 1869–1909—a period encompassing nearly all of Peirces working life—repeatedly vetoed Harvards employing Peirce in any capacity. Peirce suffered from his late teens onward from a condition then known as facial neuralgia. Its consequences may have led to the isolation which made his lifes later years so tragic. That employment exempted Peirce from having to part in the Civil War, it would have been very awkward for him to do so. At the Survey, he worked mainly in geodesy and gravimetry and he was elected a resident fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in January 1867. From 1869 to 1872, he was employed as an Assistant in Harvards astronomical observatory, doing important work on determining the brightness of stars, on April 20,1877 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Also in 1877, he proposed measuring the meter as so many wavelengths of light of a certain frequency, during the 1880s, Peirces indifference to bureaucratic detail waxed while his Survey works quality and timeliness waned. Peirce took years to write reports that he should have completed in months, meanwhile, he wrote entries, ultimately thousands during 1883–1909, on philosophy, logic, science, and other subjects for the encyclopedic Century Dictionary. In 1885, an investigation by the Allison Commission exonerated Peirce, in 1891, Peirce resigned from the Coast Survey at Superintendent Thomas Corwin Mendenhalls request. He never again held regular employment, in 1879, Peirce was appointed Lecturer in logic at Johns Hopkins University, which had strong departments in a number of areas that interested him, such as philosophy, psychology, and mathematics
Charles Sanders Peirce
–
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
–
Peirce's birthplace. Now part of
Lesley University 's Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences
Charles Sanders Peirce
–
Juliette and Charles by a well at their home Arisbe in 1907
Charles Sanders Peirce
–
Arisbe in 2011
28.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
–
Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ was an English poet, convert to Catholicism, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame established him among the leading Victorian poets. His manipulation of prosody and his use of imagery established him after his death as a writer of verse. Nature and religion were the two themes in his poetic works. Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford, Essex, as the first of nine children to Manley and he was christened at the Anglican church of St Johns, Stratford. His father founded an insurance firm and, at one time. He was also, for a time, the warden at St John-at-Hampstead. His grandfather was the physician John Simm Smith, university colleague of John Keats, a poet, Hopkins father published works including A Philosophers Stone and Other Poems, Pietas Metrica, and Spicelegium Poeticum, A Gathering of Verses by Manley Hopkins. He reviewed poetry for The Times and wrote one novel, Catherine Hopkins was the daughter of a London physician, particularly fond of music and of reading, especially German philosophy, literature and the novels of Dickens. Both parents were deeply religious High Church Anglicans, catherines sister, Maria Smith Giberne, taught her nephew Gerard to sketch. The interest was supported by his uncle, Edward Smith, his great-uncle Richard James Lane, a professional artist, and many other family members. Hopkinss first ambitions were to be a painter, and he would continue to sketch throughout his life, inspired, as an adult, by the work of John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites. Hopkins became a draughtsman and found that his early training in visual art supported his later work as a poet. His siblings were greatly inspired by language, religion and the creative arts, milicent joined an Anglican sisterhood in 1878. Kate would go on to help Hopkins publish the first edition of his poetry, Hopkinss youngest sister Grace set many of his poems to music. Lionel became an expert on archaic and colloquial Chinese. Arthur and Everard were both successful artists. Cyril would join his fathers insurance firm, Manley Hopkins moved his family to Hampstead in 1852, near to where John Keats had lived thirty years before and close to the wide green spaces of Hampstead Heath. When ten years old, Gerard Manley Hopkins was sent to board at Highgate School, while studying Keatss poetry, he wrote The Escorial, his earliest poem extant
Gerard Manley Hopkins
–
Father Gerard Manley Hopkins
S.J.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
–
Hopkins, painted 24 July 1866
Gerard Manley Hopkins
–
Alfred William Garrett, William Alexander Comyn Macfarlane and Gerard Manley Hopkins (left to right) by Thomas C. Bayfield 1866 Shown in the
National Portrait Gallery
Gerard Manley Hopkins
–
Blue plaque commemorating Hopkins in Roehampton, London
29.
Franciscans
–
The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
Franciscans
–
Francis of Assisi, founder of the Order of Friars Minor; oldest known portrait in existence of the saint, dating back to St. Francis' retreat to
Subiaco (1223–1224)
Franciscans
–
Regula bullata, the Rule confirmed by
Honorius III
Franciscans
–
"The Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule" by
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), Capella Sassetti,
Florence.
Franciscans
–
Anthony of Padua (c1195-1231) with the
Infant Christ, painting by
Antonio de Pereda (c1611-1678)
30.
Beatification
–
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead persons entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name. Local bishops had the power of beatifying until 1634, when Pope Urban VIII, in the apostolic constitution Cœlestis Jerusalem of 6 July, reserved the power of beatifying to the Apostolic See. The requirement of a miracle is not relevant to the canonization of those who died in martyrdom, the feast day for a Blessed person is not universal, but is celebrated only in regions where the person receives particular veneration. For instance, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was especially honored in the United States, the person may also be honored in a particular religious order, diocese, or organization, such as John Duns Scotus among the Franciscans, the Archdiocese of Cologne and other places. Pope John Paul II markedly changed previous Catholic practice of beatification, by October 2004, he had beatified 1,340 people, more than the sum of all of his predecessors since Pope Sixtus V, who established a beatification procedure similar to that used today. The Pope himself still can preside, as happened on 19 September 2010, cultus confirmation is a somewhat different procedure, wherein the church recognizes a local cult of a person, asserting that veneration of that person is acceptable. Such a confirmation is more an official sanctioning of folk Catholicism than a step in a canonization procedure. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Juris Canonici et Juris Canonico-Civilis Compendium Nova Editio, Tomus Tertius, Pars Secunda List of all Blesseds in the Catholic Church by GCatholic. org
Beatification
–
Pope John Paul II beatified more people than all his predecessors combined, and was himself beatified six years after his death, on the
Divine Mercy Sunday 2011.
31.
Vatican City
–
Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
Vatican City
–
View of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome
Vatican City
–
Flag
Vatican City
–
The Vatican
obelisk was originally taken from Egypt by
Caligula.
Vatican City
–
Bands of the British army's 38th Brigade playing in front of St Peter's Basilica, June 1944
32.
Pope John Paul II
–
Pope Saint John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, was Pope from 1978 to 2005. He is called by some Catholics Saint John Paul the Great and he was elected by the second Papal conclave of 1978, which was called after Pope John Paul I, who had been elected in August after the death of Pope Paul VI, died after thirty-three days. Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the day of the conclave. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland, John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Churchs relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He upheld the Churchs teachings on such matters as artificial contraception and the ordination of women and he was one of the most travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. By the time of his death, he had named most of the College of Cardinals, consecrated or co-consecrated a large number of the worlds bishops, a key goal of his papacy was to transform and reposition the Catholic Church. His wish was to place his Church at the heart of a new alliance that would bring together Jews, Muslims. He was the second longest-serving pope in history after Pope Pius IX. Born in Poland, John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI, John Paul IIs cause for canonisation commenced in 2005 one month after his death with the traditional five-year waiting period waived. A second miracle attributed to John Paul IIs intercession was approved on 2 July 2013, John Paul II was canonised on 27 April 2014, together with Pope John XXIII. On 11 September 2014, Pope Francis added John Paul IIs optional memorial feast day to the worldwide General Roman Calendar of saints, in response to worldwide requests. It is traditional to celebrate saints feast days on the anniversary of their deaths, Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in the Polish town of Wadowice. He was the youngest of three born to Karol Wojtyła, an ethnic Pole, and Emilia Kaczorowska, whose mothers maiden surname was Scholz. Emilia, who was a schoolteacher, died in childbirth in 1929 when Wojtyła was eight years old and his elder sister Olga had died before his birth, but he was close to his brother Edmund, nicknamed Mundek, who was 13 years his senior. Edmunds work as a physician led to his death from scarlet fever. As a boy, Wojtyła was athletic, often playing football as goalkeeper, during his childhood, Wojtyła had contact with Wadowices large Jewish community. School football games were organised between teams of Jews and Catholics, and Wojtyła often played on the Jewish side. I remember that at least a third of my classmates at school in Wadowice were Jews
Pope John Paul II
–
John Paul II in 1993
Pope John Paul II
–
The wedding portrait of John Paul II's parents, Emilia and Karol Wojtyła Snr
Pope John Paul II
–
The courtyard within the
family home of the Wojtyłas in
Wadowice,
Poland
Pope John Paul II
–
The tomb of the parents of John Paul II at
Rakowicki Cemetery in
Kraków,
Poland
33.
Shrine
–
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which offerings are made is called an altar. Shrines can be found in various settings, such as churches, temples, cemeteries, or in the home, a shrine may become a focus of a cult image. Many shrines are located buildings and in the temples designed specifically for worship, such as a church in Christianity. A shrine here is usually the centre of attention in the building, in such cases, adherents of the faith assemble within the building in order to venerate the deity at the shrine. In classical temple architecture, the shrine may be synonymous with the cella, historically, in Hinduism, Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, and also in modern faiths, such as Neopaganism, a shrine can commonly be found within the home or shop. This shrine is usually a structure or a setup of pictures and figurines dedicated to a deity that is part of the official religion. Small household shrines are common among the Chinese and people from South and Southeast Asia, whether Hindu. Usually a small lamp and small offerings are kept daily by the shrine, Buddhist household shrines must be on a shelf above the head, Chinese shrines must stand directly on the floor. Small outdoor yard shrines are found at the bottom of many gardens, following various religions, including historically. Shrines are found in most, though not all, religions, Shrines therefore attract the practice of pilgrimage. Shrines are found in many, though not all, forms of Christianity, Roman Catholicism, the largest denomination of Christianity, has many shrines, as do Orthodox Christianity and Anglicanism. For a shrine to be described as national, the approval of the Episcopal Conference is necessary, for it to be described as international, the approval of the Holy See is required. Another use of the shrine in colloquial Catholic terminology is a niche or alcove in most – especially larger – churches used by parishioners when praying privately in the church. They were also called Devotional Altars, since they could look like small Side Altars or bye-altars, Shrines were always centered on some image of Christ or a saint – for instance, a statue, painting, mural or mosaic, and may have had a reredos behind them. However, Mass would not be celebrated at them, they were used to aid or give a visual focus for prayers. Side altars, where Mass could actually be celebrated, were used in a way to shrines by parishioners
Shrine
–
The shrine of the
Hodegetria at the
Assumption Cathedral in Smolensk,
Russia, photographed by
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1912).
Shrine
–
Shrine to
Tin Hau at
Repulse Bay,
Southern District,
Hong Kong.
Shrine
–
The Shrine,
Oil on canvas, by
John William Waterhouse (1895).
Shrine
–
Chinese Taoist household shrine 1850–1860,
Bankfield Museum
34.
Calendar of saints
–
The word feast in this context does not mean a large meal, typically a celebratory one, but instead an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a calendar of saints is called a Menologion, Menologion may also mean a set of icons on which saints are depicted in the order of the dates of their feasts, often made in two panels. As the number of recognized saints increased during Late Antiquity and the first half of the Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. To deal with this increase, some saints were moved to days in some traditions or completely removed. For example, St. Perpetua and Felicity died on 7 March, when the 1969 reform of the Catholic calendar moved him to 28 January, they were moved back to 7 March. Both days can thus be said to be their feast day, the Roman Catholic calendars of saints in their various forms, which list those saints celebrated in the entire church, contains only a selection of the saints for each of its days. A fuller list is found in the Roman Martyrology, and some of the saints there may be celebrated locally, Saint Martin of Tours is said to be the first or at least one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint. The title confessor was used for saints, who had confessed their faith in Christ by their lives rather than by their deaths. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, a broader range of titles was used later, such as, Virgin, Pastor, Bishop, Monk, Priest, Founder, Abbot, Apostle, Doctor of the Church. Pope Pius XII added a common formula for Popes, the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII omitted the common of Apostles, assigning a proper Mass to every feast day of an Apostle. The present Roman Missal has common formulas for the Dedication of Churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martyrs, Pastors, Doctors of the Church, Virgins, some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints days, their works may appear dated as The Feast of Saint Martin. Poets such as John Keats commemorate the importance of The Eve of Saint Agnes, as different Christian jurisdictions parted ways theologically, differing lists of saints began to develop. In the present ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked as solemnities and those who use even earlier forms of the Roman Rite rank feast days as Doubles, Semidoubles, and Simples. See Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite, in the Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts varies from church to church. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are, Great Feasts, middle, each portion of such feasts may also be called feasts as follows, All-Night Vigils, Polyeleos, Great Doxology, Sextuple. There are also distinctions between Simple feasts and Double, in Double Feasts the order of hymns and readings for each feast are rigidly instructed in Typikon, the liturgy book. In the Church of England, there are Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days, Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations. com
Calendar of saints
–
A
medieval manuscript fragment of
Finnish origin, about 1340–60. Utilized by the
Dominican convent at
Turku.
Calendar of saints
–
Excerpt from the Irish
Feastology of Oengus, presenting the entries for 1 and 2 January in the form of quatrains of four six-syllabic lines for each day. In this 16th-century copy (MS G10 at the
National Library of Ireland) we find pairs of two six-syllabic lines combined into bold lines, amended by glosses and notes that were added by later authors.
Calendar of saints
–
A
Welsh calendar of saint days c.1488 - 1498
Calendar of saints
–
Anglican Communion
35.
Catholic ethics
–
Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo, and is also derived from concepts present in the Bible and the cultures of the ancient Near East. According to Pope Benedict XVI, its purpose is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice. Cannot prevail and prosper, According to Pope John Paul II, the principles of Catholic social teaching, though rooted in the Old Testament custom of the Jubilee, first began to be combined together into a system in the late nineteenth century. Since then, successive popes have added to and developed the Churchs body of social teaching, the publication of Leo XIIIs encyclical Rerum novarum in 1891 marked the beginning of the development of a recognizable body of social teaching in the Catholic Church. It dealt with persons, systems and structures, the three co-ordinates of the promotion of justice and peace, now established as integral to the Churchs mission. To mark the 40th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo anno, further development came in the post-World War II period when attention turned to the problems of social and economic development and international relations. On May 15,1961 Pope John XXIII released Mater et magistra, subtitled Christianity and it includes an examination of the threat of global economic imbalances to world peace. On April 11,1963, Pope John expanded further on this in Pacem in terris and this document, issued at the height of the Cold War, also included a denunciation of the nuclear arms race and a call for strengthening the United Nations. Unlike earlier documents, this is an expression of all the bishops, other conciliar documents such as Dignitatis humanae, drafted largely by John Courtney Murray, an American Jesuit, have important applications to the social teachings of the Church on freedom today. Like his predecessor, Pope Paul VI gave attention to the disparities in wealth and it asserts that free international trade alone is not adequate to correct these disparities and supports the role of international organizations in addressing this need. Paul called on nations to meet their moral obligation to poor nations. Experienced in human affairs, the Church, seeks but a solitary goal, to carry forward the work of Christ Himself under the lead of the befriending Spirit. But, since the Church lives in history, she ought to scrutinize the signs of the times, the May 1971 apostolic letter Octogesima adveniens addressed the challenge of urbanization and urban poverty and stressed the personal responsibility of Christians to respond to injustice. For the tenth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, Paul issued Evangelii nuntiandi, in it he asserts that combating injustice is an essential part of evangelizing modern peoples. John Paul II continued his predecessors work of developing the body of Catholic social doctrine, of particular importance were his 1981 encyclical Laborem exercens and Centesimus annus in 1991. On one hand there is a growing moral sensitivity alert to the value of individual as a human being without any distinction of race, nationality, religion, political opinion. On the other hand these proclamations are contradicted in practice, how can these solemn affirmations be reconciled with the widespread attacks on human life and the refusal to accept those who are weak, needy, elderly, or just conceived. While not endorsing any political agenda, the Church holds that this teaching applies in the public realm
Catholic ethics
–
Catholic Social Teaching
36.
Natural law
–
Natural law is a philosophy that certain rights are inherent by virtue of human nature endowed by God or another Divine source, and can be understood universally through human reason. Historically, natural law refers to the use of reason to human nature to deduce binding rules of moral behavior from Gods creation of humans. The law of nature, as determined by nature, is universal, although natural law is often confused with common law, the two are distinct. Natural law is often contrasted with the laws of a given state. In legal theory, the interpretation of a law requires some reference to natural law. On this understanding of law, natural law can be invoked to criticize judicial decisions about what the law says. Some philosophers, jurists and scholars use natural law synonymously with natural justice or natural right, modern natural law theories were further developed during the Era of Enlightenment, while combining inspiration from the Roman law, and alongside philosophies like social contract theory. The use of law, in its various incarnations, has varied widely through history. There are a number of theories of law, that differ from each other with respect to the role that morality plays in determining the authority of legal norms. This article deals with its usages separately rather than attempt to unify them into a single theory, although Plato did not have an explicit theory of natural law, his concept of nature, according to John Wild, contains some of the elements found in many natural law theories. According to Plato, we live in an orderly universe, the basis of this orderly universe or nature are the forms, most fundamentally the Form of the Good, which Plato describes as the brightest region of Being. The Form of the Good is the cause of all things, in the Symposium, the Good is closely identified with the Beautiful. In the Symposium, Plato describes how the experience of the Beautiful by Socrates enabled him to resist the temptations of wealth, in the Republic, the ideal community is. a city which would be established in accordance with nature. Greek philosophy emphasized the distinction between nature on the one hand and law, custom, or convention on the other, what the law commanded would be expected to vary from place to place, but what was by nature should be the same everywhere. A law of nature would therefore have the more of a paradox than something that obviously existed. Of these, Aristotle is often said to be the father of natural law, Aristotles association with natural law may be due to the interpretation given to his works by Thomas Aquinas. But whether Aquinas correctly read Aristotle is in dispute, according to some, Aquinas conflates natural law and natural right, the latter of which Aristotle posits in Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle notes that justice is a species of political justice, viz. Specifically, he quotes Sophocles and Empedocles
Natural law
–
Thomas Aquinas, the leading proponent of natural law.
Natural law
–
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of
The School of Athens, a fresco by
Raphael.
Natural law
–
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Natural law
–
Thomas Hobbes
37.
Virtue ethics
–
Virtue ethics are normative ethical theories which emphasize virtues of mind and character. Virtue ethicists discuss the nature and definition of virtues and other related problems, for example, how are virtues acquired. How are they applied in real life contexts. Are virtues rooted in a human nature or in a plurality of cultures. The western traditions key concepts derive from ancient Greek philosophy and these concepts include arete, phronesis, and eudaimonia. A virtue is generally agreed to be a trait, such as a habitual action or settled sentiment. Specifically, a virtue is a trait that makes its possessor a good human being. A virtue is thus to be distinguished from single actions or feelings and it is concerned with many other actions as well, with emotions and emotional reactions, choices, values, desires, perceptions, attitudes, interests, expectations and sensibilities. To possess a virtue is to be a sort of person with a certain complex mindset. Practical wisdom is a trait that enables its possessor to identify the thing to do in any given situation. Unlike theoretical wisdom, practical results in action or decision. As John McDowell puts it, practical wisdom involves a perceptual sensitivity to what a situation requires, eudaimonia is a state variously translated from Greek as well-being, happiness, blessedness, and in the context of virtue ethics, human flourishing. Eudaimonia in this sense is not a subjective, but an objective, according to Aristotle, the most prominent exponent of eudaimonia in the Western philosophical tradition, eudaimonia is the proper goal of human life. It consists of exercising the human quality -- reason—as the souls most proper. Although eudaimonia was first popularized by Aristotle, it now belongs to the tradition of virtue theories generally, for the virtue theorist, eudaimonia describes that state achieved by the person who lives the proper human life, an outcome that can be reached by practicing the virtues. A virtue is a habit or quality that allows the bearer to succeed at his, her, the virtue of a knife, for example, is sharpness, among the virtues of a racehorse is speed. Thus to identify the virtues for human beings, one must have an account of what the purpose is. Like much of the Western tradition, virtue theory seems to have originated in ancient Greek philosophy, while the theory of virtue ethics was born with Plato and Aristotle, their theories are not the only that are recognized
Virtue ethics
–
Aristotelianism
38.
Catholic social teaching
–
Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo, and is also derived from concepts present in the Bible and the cultures of the ancient Near East. According to Pope Benedict XVI, its purpose is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice. Cannot prevail and prosper, According to Pope John Paul II, the principles of Catholic social teaching, though rooted in the Old Testament custom of the Jubilee, first began to be combined together into a system in the late nineteenth century. Since then, successive popes have added to and developed the Churchs body of social teaching, the publication of Leo XIIIs encyclical Rerum novarum in 1891 marked the beginning of the development of a recognizable body of social teaching in the Catholic Church. It dealt with persons, systems and structures, the three co-ordinates of the promotion of justice and peace, now established as integral to the Churchs mission. To mark the 40th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo anno, further development came in the post-World War II period when attention turned to the problems of social and economic development and international relations. On May 15,1961 Pope John XXIII released Mater et magistra, subtitled Christianity and it includes an examination of the threat of global economic imbalances to world peace. On April 11,1963, Pope John expanded further on this in Pacem in terris and this document, issued at the height of the Cold War, also included a denunciation of the nuclear arms race and a call for strengthening the United Nations. Unlike earlier documents, this is an expression of all the bishops, other conciliar documents such as Dignitatis humanae, drafted largely by John Courtney Murray, an American Jesuit, have important applications to the social teachings of the Church on freedom today. Like his predecessor, Pope Paul VI gave attention to the disparities in wealth and it asserts that free international trade alone is not adequate to correct these disparities and supports the role of international organizations in addressing this need. Paul called on nations to meet their moral obligation to poor nations. Experienced in human affairs, the Church, seeks but a solitary goal, to carry forward the work of Christ Himself under the lead of the befriending Spirit. But, since the Church lives in history, she ought to scrutinize the signs of the times, the May 1971 apostolic letter Octogesima adveniens addressed the challenge of urbanization and urban poverty and stressed the personal responsibility of Christians to respond to injustice. For the tenth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, Paul issued Evangelii nuntiandi, in it he asserts that combating injustice is an essential part of evangelizing modern peoples. John Paul II continued his predecessors work of developing the body of Catholic social doctrine, of particular importance were his 1981 encyclical Laborem exercens and Centesimus annus in 1991. On one hand there is a growing moral sensitivity alert to the value of individual as a human being without any distinction of race, nationality, religion, political opinion. On the other hand these proclamations are contradicted in practice, how can these solemn affirmations be reconciled with the widespread attacks on human life and the refusal to accept those who are weak, needy, elderly, or just conceived. While not endorsing any political agenda, the Church holds that this teaching applies in the public realm
Catholic social teaching
–
Catholic Social Teaching
39.
Thomism
–
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his questions and commentaries on Aristotle are perhaps his most well-known works. The Second Vatican Council described Thomass system as the Perennial Philosophy, St. Thomas Aquinas believed that truth is to be accepted no matter where it is found. His doctrines draw from Greek, Roman, Jewish, philosophers and he largely followed Aristotelian terminology and metaphysics, and wrote comprehensive commentaries on Aristotle, often affirming Aristotles views with independent arguments. Thomas respectfully referred to Aristotle simply as the Philosopher and he also adhered to some neoplatonic principles, for example that it is absolutely true that there is first something which is essentially being and essentially good, which we call God. Everything can be called good and a being, inasmuch as it participates in it by way of a certain assimilation, shortly before Thomas died, his friend Reginald of Piperno implored him to finish his works. Thomas replied, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me, with the decree Postquam sanctissimus of 27 July 1914, Pope St. Pius X declared that 24 theses formulated by teachers from various institutions. Clearly contain the principles and more important thoughts of Thomas, potency and Act divide being in such a way that whatever is, is either pure act, or of necessity it is composed of potency and act as primary and intrinsic principles. Since act is perfection, it is not limited except through a potency which itself is a capacity for perfection, hence in any order in which an act is pure act, it will only exist, in that order, as a unique and unlimited act. But whenever it is finite and manifold, it has entered into a composition with potency. Consequently, the one God, unique and simple, alone subsists in absolute being, all other things that participate in being have a nature whereby their being is restricted, they are constituted of essence and being, as really distinct principles. A thing is called a being because of esse, God and creature are not called beings univocally, nor wholly equivocally, but analogically, by an analogy both of attribution and of proportionality. In every creature there is also a composition of the subsisting subject and of added secondary forms. Such composition cannot be understood unless being is really received in a distinct from it. Besides the absolute accidents there is also the accident, relation. Although by reason of its own character relation does not signify anything inhering in another, it often has a cause in things. A spiritual creature is wholly simple in its essence, yet there is still a twofold composition in the spiritual creature, namely, that of the essence with being, and that of the substance with accidents. However, the creature is composed of act and potency even in its very essence
Thomism
–
St. Tommaso D'Aquino (c. 1225–1274)
Thomism
–
Summa Theologiæ, Pars secunda, prima pars. (copy by Peter Schöffer, 1471)
Thomism
–
Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas,
Benozzo Gozzoli,1471. Louvre, Paris
40.
Scotism
–
Scotism is the name given to the philosophical and theological system or school named after Blessed John Duns Scotus. Scotism developed out of the Old Franciscan School, which dominated theology during the Middle Ages and this school of thought initially followed Augustinism which dominated theology at the time. Scotus found the ground already cleared for the conflict with the followers of Aquinas, concerning the relation of these schools to each other, or the relation of Scotus to Alexander of Hales and St. Bonaventure, consult the work of the Flemish Recollect, Mathias Hauzeur. It is notable that, while Thomism became the official philosophy of the Church, Scotist influence prevailed on a number of important points, Nominalism is older than Scotus, but its revival in Occamism may be traced to the one-sided exaggeration of some propositions of Scotus. Scotist Formalism is the direct opposite of Nominalism, and the Scotists were at one with the Thomists in combatting the latter, the Council of Trent defined as dogma a series of doctrines especially emphasized by the Scotists. In other points the canons were intentionally so framed that they do not affect Scotism and this was also done at the Vatican Council. In the Thomistic–Molinistic controversy concerning the foreknowledge of God, predestination, the relation of grace to free will and they either supported one of the parties, or took up a middle position, rejecting both the predetermination of the Thomists and the scientia media of the Molinists. God recognizes the free future acts in His essence, and provides a free decree of His will, which does not predetermine our free will, jesuit philosophers and theologians adopted a series of the Scotist propositions. They also took from Scotism many propositions concerning the doctrine of the angels, in many cases, the differences are mostly in the terminology and a reconciliation is possible if one emphasize certain parts of Scotus or Aquinas and passes over or tones down others. However, some remain on a number of points. Generally speaking, Scotism found its supporters within the Franciscan Order, certainly, opposition to the Dominicans, i. e. to Aquinas, made many members of the order disciples of Scotus. However, this does not mean that the foundation and development of Scotism is to be regarded as a product of the rivalry between the two orders, even Aquinas at first found a few opponents in his order – not all his fellow-Dominicans followed him in every particular. The Scotist doctrines were also supported by many Minorites, furthermore, Scotism found not a few supporters among secular professors and in other religious orders, especially in England, Ireland, and Spain. Of the Minorites who supported Scotist doctrine, the Conventuals seem to have adhered most faithfully to Scotus, particularly at the University of Padua and it is only at the end of the 15th or the beginning of the sixteenth century that a special Scotist School can be spoken of. The works of the master were then collected, brought out in many editions and commentated, and from 1501 we also find numerous regulations of general chapters recommending or directly prescribing Scotism as the teaching of the order. In the eighteenth century it had still an important following, in their Decrees Leo XIII and Pius X have recommended not alone St. Thomas, but also Scholasticism in general, and this includes also the Scotist School. Most Scotists are both philosophers and theologians, Scotists of the fifteenth century included two popes, Alexander V and Sixtus IV, Elector Frederick III of Saxony and Angelus of Chivasso. The latters work on Scotist theology was so notorious that it was burned by Martin Luther
Scotism
–
Blessed
John Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308) the
eponym of Scotism.
Scotism
Scotism
–
Antonio De Fantis, Opus Oxoniense
41.
Augustinians
–
The term Augustinians, named after Augustine of Hippo, applies to two distinct types of Catholic religious orders and some Anglican religious orders. Within Anglicanism the Rule of St Augustine is followed only by women, Augustine, a brief document providing guidelines for living in a religious community. The largest and most familiar, originally known as the Hermits of Saint Augustine, two other Orders, the Order of Augustinian Recollects and the Discalced Augustinians, were once part of the Augustinian Order under a single Prior General. The Recollect friars, founded in 1588 as a movement of the Augustinian friars in Spain, became autonomous in 1612 with their first Prior General. The Discalced friars became an independent congregation with their own Prior General in 1592 and they generally form one large community, which might serve parishes in the vicinity, and are organized into autonomous congregation, which normally are distinct by region. In a religious community, charism is the contribution that each religious order, congregation or family. The teaching and writing of Augustine, the Augustinian Rule, and it does not unduly single out the exceptional, especially favour the gifted, nor exclude the poor or marginalised. Love is not earned through human merit, but received and given freely by Gods free gift of grace and these same imperatives of affection and fairness have driven the order in its international missionary outreach. This balanced pursuit of love and learning has energised the various branches of the order into building communities founded on mutual affection, Augustine spoke passionately of Gods beauty so ancient and so new, and his fascination with beauty extended to music. He taught that to sing once is to pray twice and music is also a key part of the Augustinian ethos, the Canons Regular follow the more ancient form of religious life which developed toward the end of the first millennium and thus predates the founding of the friars. They represent a clerical adaptation of life, as it grew out of an attempt to organize communities of clerics to a more dedicated way of life. Historically it paralleled the lay movement of monasticism or the life from which the friars were later to develop. In their tradition, the added the commitment of religious vows to their primary vocation of pastoral care. As the canons became independent of the structures, they came to form their own monastic communities. The official name of the Order is the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, like the Order of Saint Benedict, it is not one legal body, but a union of various independent congregations. Though they also follow the Rule of St. Augustine, they differ from the friars in not committing themselves to corporate poverty, which is a defining element of the mendicant orders. Unlike the friars and like monks, the canon are generally organized as one community to which they are attached for life with a vow of stability. Their houses are given the title of an abbey, from which the canons then serve various surrounding towns, the religious superior of their major houses is titled an abbot
Augustinians
–
Ruins of
Jasenitz Abbey, a former Augustinian priory in
Police-Jasienica,
Poland (14th century)
Augustinians
–
St.
Stanislaus of Kazimierz, C.R.L. (1433–1489).
Augustinians
–
St.
Peter Fourier, leader of the reform of the canons regular in the former
Duchy of Lorraine, wearing the sarozium
42.
Molinism
–
Molinism, named after 16th Century Spanish Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, is a religious doctrine which attempts to reconcile the providence of God with human free will. William Lane Craig and Alvin Plantinga, despite not being Roman Catholic, are some of its best known today, though other important Molinists include Alfred Freddoso. In basic terms, Molinists hold that in addition to knowing everything that does or will happen, after Luis de Molina, Molinists present God’s knowledge in a sequence of three logical moments. The first is Gods knowledge of necessary truths or natural knowledge and these truths are independent of Gods will and are non-contingent. This knowledge includes the range of logical possibilities. Examples include statements like, All bachelors are unmarried or X cannot be A and non-A at the time, in the same way. The second is called “middle knowledge” and it contains the range of things that would happen given certain circumstances. The third kind of knowledge is Gods free knowledge and this type of knowledge consists of contingent truths that are dependent upon Gods will, or truths that God brings about, that He does not have to bring about. Examples might include statements like God created the earth or something particular about this world which God has actualized and this is called God’s “free knowledge” and it contains the future or what will happen. In between God’s natural and free knowledge is His middle knowledge by which God knows what His free creatures would do under any circumstance and these are truths that do not have to be true, but are true without God being the primary cause of them. If you entered the ice cream shop, you would choose chocolate is an example of a statement God knows via middle knowledge and this is very difficult for some to grasp. Molinists support their case with Christs statement in Matthew 11,23, And you, Capernaum and you will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, Matthew 11,23 contains what is commonly called a counterfactual of creaturely freedom. But counterfactuals are to be distinguished from foreknowledge, the Bible contains many examples of foreknowledge such as Deut 31, 16-17, where God tells Moses that the Israelites will forsake God after they are delivered from Egypt. Some opponents of Molinism claim that Gods foreknowledge and knowledge of counterfactuals are examples of what God is going to bring about. That is, when Christ describes the response of the Sodomites in the aforementioned example, Molinists have responded to this objection by noting that scripture contains examples of Gods foreknowledge of evil acts. For example, the Israelites forsaking God, or Peters denial of Christ, are examples of what one would call overt acts of sin. Yet, according to opponents of Molinism, God is actively bringing about these acts of sin
Molinism
–
Luis de Molina
43.
Albertus Magnus
–
Albertus Magnus, O. P. also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar and Catholic bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his lifetime as doctor universalis and doctor expertus and, late in his life, the term magnus was appended to his name. Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher, the Catholic Church distinguishes him as one of the 36 Doctors of the Church. It seems likely that Albert was born sometime before 1200, given well-attested evidence that he was aged over 80 on his death in 1280. More than one source says that Albert was 87 on his death, Albert was probably born in Lauingen, since he called himself Albert of Lauingen, but this might simply be a family name. Most probably his family was of class, his familiar connection with Bollstädt noble family was a 15th-century misinterpretation that is now completely disproved. Albert was probably educated principally at the University of Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotles writings, a late account by Rudolph de Novamagia refers to Albertus encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, who convinced him to enter Holy Orders. In 1223 he became a member of the Dominican Order, and studied theology at Bologna and elsewhere. Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, Germany, where the Dominicans had a house, he taught for years there, as well as in Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg. During his first tenure as lecturer at Cologne, Albert wrote his Summa de bono after discussion with Philip the Chancellor concerning the properties of being. In 1245, Albert became master of theology under Gueric of Saint-Quentin, following this turn of events, Albert was able to teach theology at the University of Paris as a full-time professor, holding the seat of the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James. During this time Thomas Aquinas began to study under Albertus, Albert was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate. The study of Aristotle brought him to study and comment on the teachings of Muslim academics, notably Avicenna and Averroes, in 1254 Albert was made provincial of the Dominican Order, and fulfilled the duties of the office with great care and efficiency. During the exercise of his duties he enhanced his reputation for humility by refusing to ride a horse, in accord with the dictates of the Order and this earned him the affectionate sobriquet boots the bishop from his parishioners. In 1263 Pope Urban IV relieved him of the duties of bishop, after this, he was especially known for acting as a mediator between conflicting parties. Among the last of his labors was the defense of the orthodoxy of his pupil, Thomas Aquinas. After suffering a collapse of health in 1278, he died on November 15,1280, in the Dominican convent in Cologne, since November 15,1954, his relics are in a Roman sarcophagus in the crypt of the Dominican St. Andreas Church in Cologne. Although his body was discovered to be incorrupt at the first exhumation three years after his death, at the exhumation in 1483 only a skeleton remained
Albertus Magnus
–
Saint Albertus Magnus, a fresco by
Tommaso da Modena (1352), Church of San Nicolò,
Treviso, Italy
Albertus Magnus
–
Bust of Albertus Magnus by
Vincenzo Onofri, c. 1493
Albertus Magnus
–
Roman
sarcophagus containing the relics of Albertus Magnus in the crypt of
St. Andrew's Church, Cologne, Germany
Albertus Magnus
–
Albertus Magnus monument at the
University of Cologne.
44.
Paul the Apostle
–
Paul the Apostle, commonly known as Saint Paul, and also known by his native name Saul of Tarsus was an apostle who taught the gospel of the Christ to the first century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, in the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences, according to writings in the New Testament, Paul was dedicated to the persecution of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem. He was struck blind but, after three days, his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah, approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Pauls life and works. Fourteen of the books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews, but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by scholars to have come from followers writing in his name. Other scholars argue that the idea of an author for the disputed epistles raises many problems. Today, Pauls epistles continue to be roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions of the West. Augustine of Hippo developed Pauls idea that salvation is based on faith, martin Luthers interpretation of Pauls writings influenced Luthers doctrine of sola fide. The main source for information about Pauls life is the material found in his epistles, however, the epistles contain little information about Pauls past. The book of Acts recounts more information but leaves several parts of Pauls life out of its narrative, such as his probable, some scholars believe Acts also contradicts Pauls epistles on multiple accounts, in particular concerning the frequency of Pauls visits to the church in Jerusalem. It has been assumed that Sauls name was changed when he converted from Judaism to Christianity. His Jewish name was Saul, perhaps after the biblical King Saul, a fellow Benjamite, according to the Book of Acts, he inherited Roman citizenship from his father. As a Roman citizen, he bore the Latin name of Paul—in biblical Greek, Παῦλος. It was quite usual for the Jews of that time to have two names, one Hebrew, the other Latin or Greek. Jesus called him Saul, Saul in the Hebrew tongue in the book of Acts, later, in a vision to Ananias of Damascus, the Lord referred to him as Saul, of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle
–
Saint Paul by
Bartolomeo Montagna
Paul the Apostle
–
The Conversion of Saul,
fresco by
Michelangelo, 1542–45
Paul the Apostle
–
Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601), by
Caravaggio
Paul the Apostle
–
Caravaggio (1571–1610), The Conversion of Saint Paul, 1600
45.
Ambrose
–
Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose, was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was the Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia, headquartered in Milan, Ambrose was a staunch opponent of Arianism, and has been accused of fostering persecutions of Arians, Jews, and pagans. Ambrose was one of the four original Doctors of the Church and he is notable for his influence on Augustine of Hippo. Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family about 340 and was raised in Gallia Belgica and his mother was a woman of intellect and piety. Ambroses siblings, Satyrus and Marcellina, are venerated as saints. There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle and his father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees and beehives often appear in the saints symbology, after the early death of his father, Ambrose followed his fathers career. He was educated in Rome, studying literature, law, Ambrose was the Governor of Aemilia-Liguria in northern Italy until 374, when he became the Bishop of Milan. He was a popular political figure, and since he was the Governor in the effective capital in the Roman West. In the late 4th century there was a conflict in the diocese of Milan between the Nicene Church and Arians. In 374 the bishop of Milan, Auxentius, an Arian, died, Ambrose went to the church where the election was to take place, to prevent an uproar, which was probable in this crisis. His address was interrupted by a call Ambrose, bishop, which was taken up by the whole assembly. Ambrose was known to be Nicene Christian in belief, but also acceptable to Arians due to the charity shown in matters in this regard. At first he refused the office, for which he was in no way prepared. Upon his appointment, Ambrose fled to a colleagues home seeking to hide, upon receiving a letter from the Emperor Gratian praising the appropriateness of Rome appointing individuals evidently worthy of holy positions, Ambroses host gave him up. Within a week, he was baptized, ordained and duly consecrated bishop of Milan and this raised his popularity even further, giving him considerable political leverage over even the emperor. Ambrose also wrote a treatise by the name of The Goodness of Death, according to legend, Ambrose immediately and forcefully stopped Arianism in Milan. He studied theology with Simplician, a presbyter of Rome, in the confrontation with Arians, Ambrose sought to theologically refute their propositions, which were contrary to the Nicene creed and thus to the officially defined orthodoxy
Ambrose
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Early mosaic of Ambrose that might be an actual portrait.
Ambrose
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The body of Ambrose (with white vestments) in the crypt of Sant'Ambrogio basilica.
Ambrose
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Saint Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral by
Anthony van Dyck
Ambrose
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Saint Ambrose with
scourge and book, a painting in the church of San Giuseppe alla Lungara, Rome
46.
Jerome
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Jerome was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia and he is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin, and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive, the protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and this focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families. He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and his feast day is 30 September. Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347 A. D and he was of Illyrian ancestry and his native tongue was the Illyrian dialect. He was not baptized until about 360–366 A. D. when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies and he studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek, though not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim to have acquired as a schoolboy. As a student in Rome, he engaged in the superficial escapades and wanton behaviour of students there, to appease his conscience, he would visit on Sundays the sepulchres of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. Jerome used a quote from Virgil—On all sides round horror spread wide, although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once, during one of these illnesses, he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. Seized with a desire for a life of penance, he went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southeast of Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid. During this period, he seems to have time for studying and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew, Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek. Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, he was ordained by Bishop Paulinus, apparently unwillingly, soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent two years there, then left, and the three he was in Rome again, as secretary to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians
Jerome
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Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by
Bernardino Pinturicchio
Jerome
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St. Jerome in His Study (1480), by
Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Jerome
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St. Jerome reading in the countryside, by
Giovanni Bellini
Jerome
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This painting by Antonio da Fabriano II, depicts St. Jerome in study. The writing implements, scrolls, and manuscripts testify to Jerome's scholarly pursuits. The Walters Art Museum.
47.
Pope Gregory I
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Pope Saint Gregory I, commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was pope of the Catholic Church from 3 September 590 to his death in 604. Gregory is famous for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome to convert a pagan people to Christianity, Gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. He is also known as the Great Visionary of Modern Educational System, for his writings, the epithet Saint Gregory the Dialogist has been attached to him in Eastern Christianity because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Eastern texts will sometimes list him as Gregory Dialogos or the Latinized equivalent Dialogus. A senators son and himself the Prefect of Rome at 30, Gregory tried the monastery but soon returned to public life, ending his life. Although he was the first pope from a background, his prior political experiences may have helped him to be a talented administrator. Gregory regained papal authority in Spain and France, and sent missionaries to England, the realignment of barbarian allegiance to Rome from their Arian Christian alliances shaped medieval Europe. Gregory saw Franks, Lombards, and Visigoths align with Rome in religion, throughout the Middle Ages he was known as the Father of Christian Worship because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman worship of his day. His contributions to the development of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers. He is considered a saint in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, immediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by popular acclaim. The Protestant reformer John Calvin admired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory was the last good pope and he is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers. The exact date of Gregorys birth is uncertain, but is estimated to be around the year 540. The medieval writer who provided this etymology did not hesitate to apply it to the life of Gregory, aelfric states, He was very diligent in Gods Commandments. Gregory was born into a wealthy patrician Roman family with connections to the church. Gregorys mother, Silvia, was well-born, and had a sister, Pateria. His mother and two aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints. Gregorys great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III, the nominee of the Gothic king, Gregorys election to the throne of St Peter made his family the most distinguished clerical dynasty of the period. The family owned and resided in a villa suburbana on the Caelian Hill, the north of the street runs into the Colosseum, the south, the Circus Maximus
Pope Gregory I
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Pope Gregory dictating the
Gregorian chant
Pope Gregory I
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Jerome and Gregory.
Pope Gregory I
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Illumination in a 12th-century
manuscript of a letter of Gregory's to
Saint Leander,
bishop of Seville (Bibl. Municipale, MS 2,
Dijon).
Pope Gregory I
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Saint Gregory the Great
48.
Thomas More
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Sir Thomas More, venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532 and he also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther, More also opposed the Kings separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason, of his execution, he was reported to have said, I die the Kings good servant, but Gods first. Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr, Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr, the Soviet Union honoured him for the Communist attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, Morton enthusiastically supported the New Learning, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford, More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek, More left Oxford after only two years—at his fathers insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery. In 1496, More became a student at Lincolns Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, according to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London, although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year. In spite of his choice to pursue a career, More continued ascetic practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin. A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints, More married Jane Colt in 1505. She was five years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured, Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature. The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, going against friends advice and common custom, within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He certainly expected a mother to care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an economic union, he chose a rich widow. More was not viewed as being in haste to remarry for the gratification of sexual pleasure, as Alice was older than he, and their marriage was possibly not consummated. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, Alice More lacked Janes docility, Mores friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a hook-nosed harpy
Thomas More
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Sir Thomas More, by
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527
Thomas More
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Medallion of Thomas More
Thomas More
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Rowland Lockey after
Hans Holbein the Younger, The Family of Sir Thomas More, c. 1594
Thomas More
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Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, c. 1527, by
Hans Holbein the Younger
49.
Benedict of Nursia
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Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint, who is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion and Old Catholic Churches. He is a saint of Europe. Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, Lazio in Italy, the Order of Saint Benedict is of later origin and, moreover, not an order as commonly understood but merely a confederation of autonomous congregations. Benedicts main achievement is his Rule of Saint Benedict, containing precepts for his monks and it is heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian, and shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master. But it also has a spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness. As a result, his Rule became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom, for this reason, Benedict is often called the founder of western monasticism. The authenticity of this work has been disputed, especially by Dr Francis Clarke in his two volume work The Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues. Book Two consists of a prologue and thirty-eight succinct chapters, gregory’s account of this saint’s life is not, however, a biography in the modern sense of the word. It provides instead a spiritual portrait of the gentle, disciplined abbot, in a letter to Bishop Maximilian of Syracuse, Gregory states his intention for his Dialogues, saying they are a kind of floretum of the most striking miracles of Italian holy men. Gregory did not set out to write a chronological, historically anchored story of Saint Benedict, but he did base his anecdotes on direct testimony. These followers, he says, are Constantinus, who succeeded Benedict as Abbot of Monte Cassino, Valentinianus, Simplicius, and Honoratus, who was abbot of Subiaco when St Gregory wrote his Dialogues. Gregory’s Dialogues Book Two, then, a medieval hagiography cast as a conversation between the Pope and his deacon Peter, is designed to teach spiritual lessons. He was the son of a Roman noble of Nursia, the modern Norcia, a tradition which Bede accepts makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica. If 480 is accepted as the year of his birth, the year of his abandonment of his studies, Saint Gregorys narrative makes it impossible to suppose him younger than 19 or 20 at the time. He was at the beginning of life, and he had at his disposal the means to a career as a Roman noble, clearly he was not a child. Benedict does not seem to have left Rome for the purpose of becoming a hermit and he took his old nurse with him as a servant and they settled down to live in Enfide. Enfide, which the tradition of Subiaco identifies with the modern Affile, is in the Simbruini mountains, about forty miles from Rome, a short distance from Enfide is the entrance to a narrow, gloomy valley, penetrating the mountains and leading directly to Subiaco. The cave has a large triangular-shaped opening and is ten feet deep
Benedict of Nursia
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Saint Benedict Detail from a fresco by
Fra Angelico
Benedict of Nursia
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St Benedict orders
Saint Maurus to the rescue of
Saint Placidus, by
Fra Filippo Lippi, 1445 A.D.
Benedict of Nursia
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Totila and
St. Benedict. Painted by
Spinello Aretino
Benedict of Nursia
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Image of Saint Benedict with a cross and a scroll stating
Vade Retro Satana which is abbreviated on the
Saint Benedict Medal
Works related to Duns Scotus at Wikisource
Quotations related to Duns Scotus at Wikiquote
