- Thomas Aquinas was born in 1224/25 in the family castle of Roccasecca in southern Italy between Rome and Naples. Of minor nobility, his family was related to that of the counts of Aquino, from which he would be given his name. At the age of fi ve or six years, being the youngest son of a large family, he was offered as an oblate to the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. His biographers agree that his parents cherished the wish that he would someday be the Abbot. Aside from a good formation in Latin letters, the child acquired at the abbey a profound understanding of the Bible and a solid initiation in the study of Augustine and Gregory, whose infl uence is apparent in all of his works. He maintained above all a contemplative orientation that remains the distinctive mark of his theology. See (William of Tocco. Ystoria sancti Thome de Aquino de Guillaume de Tocco (1323) , ed. Claire le BrunGouanvic (Toronto: Pontifi cal Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1996) ; see also Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. , Saint Thomas Aquinas , vol. 1, The Person and His Work , rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2005) ; Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. , Saint Thomas Aquinas , vol. 2, Spiritual Master (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2003) ; Simon Tugwell, O.P. , Albert and Thomas: Selected Writings (New York and Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1988) ; and James A. Weisheipl, O.P. , Friar Thomas d’Aquino: His Life, Thought and Works (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974; 2d ed. with Corrigenda and Addenda, 1983).
- Due to troubles caused by the war between Pope Gregory IX and Frederick II, the young monk was sent to Naples in 1239 at the age of fourteen or fi fteen to begin there his studies at the studium generale founded fi fteen years earlier by Frederick II. Sicily and the south of Italy were, at that time, the seat of an intense intellectual life that was encouraged by the emperor. Thanks to the numerous translations of Michel Scot and his school, Aristotelian science, Arabic astronomy, and Greek philosophy and medicine were fl ourishing at Palermo, Salerno, and Naples. Little is known precisely on these years of Aquinas’s studies at Naples except the names of two of his professors: Master Martin and Peter of Ireland. They are known well enough that we can deduce that Aquinas could have familiarized himself very early with the natural philosophy of Aristotle and his metaphysics, as well as with the work of the Arabic commentator Averroës and probably also with that of the Jew Maimonides (Aquinas , Opera omnia , iussu Leonis XIII P. M. edita (Roma: Commissio Leonina, 1882– ), I* 1 (1989), 67–68).
- At Naples, Aquinas made the acquaintance of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) who had been there since 1231; he took their habit in the spring of 1244. This initiative on his part was met with strong family opposition that was manifested by the kidnapping of the novice and his imprisonment at Roccasecca for about fifteen months (spring 1244 to summer 1245). The historical reality of this episode cannot be doubted (cf. A. Tilatti , “La cattura di Tommaso d’Aquino da parte dei parenti,” in M. C. De Matteis , ed., Ovidio Capitani: Quaranta anni per la storia medioevale (Bologna: Patron Editore, 2003), 345–57). Tocco reports that he turned the forced leisure to profit by praying, reading the Bible in its entirety, and studying the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Tocco, Ystoria 10:110–11). Two shorts treatises that have long been attributed to this period, De fallaciis and De propositionibus modalibus , are now known to be inauthentic. The persistence of Aquinas in his choice succeeded in convincing his obstinate family. This episode highlights a spiritual characteristic of Aquinas that would mark him profoundly in his life and his work. In his writings on religious life, his attachment to the intellectual ideal (study, teaching, preaching) and to the mendicant poverty of his order is evident (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:1–17).
- Having been released by his family, the young Dominican was sent to Paris (1245–48), to the convent of St. James, to continue his studies under the direction of Albert the Great, who introduced him, most notably, to the work of PseudoDionysius. He deepened his knowledge of the Ethics of Aristotle and appropriated the methods of the masters of the arts, whose courses he appears to have frequented. Sent with Albert to Cologne to found a new Dominican studium , Aquinas completed his formation as an assistant to his teacher (1248–52). At the end of that time (or shortly thereafter) (Prof A. Oliva argues that the first biblical commentaries must be situated in Paris instead of Cologne), he taught Super Isaiam and Super Ieremiam , the first and precious witnesses of his spiritual approach to the Bible (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:18–35; Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. , and D. Bouthillier , “Quand saint Thomas méditait sur le prophète Isaïe,” Revue Thomiste 90 (1990): 5–47).
- First Assignment to Paris (1252–1259)
- Sent back to Paris by his superiors to take his masters in sacra doctrina , Aquinas stayed there seven years (1252–59). At fi rst as a bachelor of the sentences under the master Eli Brunet, he spent two years (1252–54) commenting on the Sentences of Peter Lombard but did not manage to write his text until 1256. This “manual,” which had been used in Paris since Alexander of Hales, groups into four books the divers opinions ( sententiae ) of the Fathers of the Church and of the medieval theologians according to the major subjects of sacred doctrine: (1) the triune God is indivisible in His essence and in His three Persons; (2) God considered as Creator and His works; (3) the Incarnation and the Redemption; and (4) the sacraments and the last things. The commentary of Aquinas is shot through with his personal views and he does not hesitate to distance himself from Lombard or to disagree with him. Still a young theologian, he had borrowed a good deal from his master, Albert, and from his contemporary, the Franciscan Bonaventure. His concern for documentation, however, can already be observed by the frequency of his quotations. Aquinas does not think in a closed box but rather maintains a dialogue with all of the thinkers available to him. De principiis naturae and especially De ente et essentia must be attributed to this period. They both display a strong Avicennian influence (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:36–53; cf. Alain de Libera and Cyrille Michon , ed. and trans., Thomas Aquinas–Dietrich de Freiberg, L’Etre et l’essence, Le vocabulaire médiéval de l’ontologie ; commentary by Alain de Libera and Cyrille Michon, “Point: Essais”).
- Once a master in theology (1256), Aquinas found himself engaged in the quarrel with the secular masters at Paris (William of Saint-Amour and his partisans), who were opposed to allowing mendicant religious into the university (M.-M. Dufeil , Guillaume de Saint-Amour et la polémique universitaire parisienne, 1250–1259). Aquinas refuted their arguments in Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem (1256), where he takes up the defense of his order and reclaims for religious the rights to study and to teach. This confl ict was prolonged for a while with new adversaries (Gerard of Abbeville and Nicolas of Lisieux) under different aspects and provoked the publication of two other works: De perfectione spiritualis vitae (1269–70) and Contra doctrinam retrahentium a religione (1270–71). Little known, these books uncover the doctrine of the religious life of the author and throw some light on the combative character of his personality (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:75–95).
- Stay in italy: Orvieto (end 1259–1265)
- The date of the Summa contra Gentiles ( SCG ) has been the object of extended research of specialists (Cf. R.-A. Gauthier , “ Introduction ” à Saint Thomas d’Aquin, Somme contre les Gentils (Paris: Editions universitaires, 1993). It is certain that the fifty-three first chapters were written before he left Paris, that Book I was finished in Italy between 1259 and 1261, Book II in Orvieto in 1261–62, Book III in 1263–64, Book IV in 1264–65 (Leonina 25/2, 486–88). The work proposes to study all that human reason can discover about God:
- I. What is proper to God: His existence and His perfections.
- II. The procession of creatures from God; that is to say, the act of creation and its effects.
- III. The ordering of creatures to God as their end: providence and divine governance.
- IV. The truths inaccessible to reason and known only by faith: God as Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word and redemption, sacraments and the last things.
- Stay in Rome (1265–1268)
- In 1265, Aquinas was sent to Rome by his superiors to found an “experimental” studium at Santa Sabina for some select students of his Order over whom he would have complete authority (Leonard E. Boyle , The Setting of the Summa theologiae of Saint Thomas , Etienne Gilson Series 5). According to Ptolemy of Lucca, Aquinas would have once again commented on Book I of the Sentences ; Ptolemy said he had seen a copy of this work, but he also said that the manuscript had disappeared. Over the course of the twentieth century, the researchers of the Leonine Commission found anonymous annotations in the margins of a commentary on Lombard in a manuscript at Oxford (Lincoln College, lat. 95). L. Boyle was certain that these were the course notes of a student of Aquinas that refl ect the lost commentary on Book I of the Sentences . This fragmentary text, which corresponds to Distinctions 1–18 and 23, was recently edited by John F. Boyle who has no doubt regarding its authenticity (Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Lectura romana , 1–57); other scholars are also of this opinion (M. M. Mulchahey , “First the Bow is Bent in Study . . . .” Dominican Education before 1350 , Studies and Texts 132 (Toronto: P.I.M.S., 1998), 278–306). It is nevertheless permissible to raise a few doubts: many of the annotations are clearly Thomistic, but others are not. Those that are authentic, far from representing a new work and an intermediary stage in the evolution of Aquinas’s thought presuppose rather the prior existence of the works from which they are borrowed. The identifi cation of the marginalia with the lost commentary seems, then, to remain a matter of conjecture.
- Cf. A. Oliva , “La Questione dell’ alia lectura di Tommaso d’Aquino,” Quaestio 6 (2006): 516–21 ; Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., “Lire saint Thomas autrement,” in Boyle, Facing History , xxi–xxiv; Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:45–47 and 413.
- The dates of the writing of the ST were long contested by scholars; here is what seems to be the most certain. Written in Rome between 1265 and 1268, the Prima Pars (ST I) was circulating in Italy by the latter date. The Prima Secundae ( ST I-II) was not begun before the return to Paris (1268); according to an old opinion, its completion was in the summer of 1270 (P. Glorieux , “Pour la chronologie de la Somme,” Mélanges de science religieuse 2 (1945): 59–98 ; I. T. Eschmann , “A Catalogue of St. Thomas’ Works,” in E. Gilson , The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas , trans. L. K. Shook (New York: Random House, 1956), 386–88 ; Weisheipl, Friar Thomas , 221–22), but Gauthier has shown that it was not written until 1271 (Gauthier, Introduction , 80; cf. 65–67; cf. R. A. Gauthier , ed., L’Ethique à Nicomaque , II, Introduction (Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 2d ed., 1970), 128–29 , n. 135). The reason for this date is that the ST I-II relies heavily on the Rhetoric of Aristotle (more than 100 times) according to the translation of Moerbeke, which Aquinas did not have in hand until the end of 1270. Gauthier is in agreement with O. Lottin on this, who placed the Prima Secundae after q.6 of QDM (end 1270).
- As to the Secunda Secundae ( ST II-II), begun shortly afterwards, it was fi nished before December 1272. It was thought until recently that the 20 or 25 fi rst questions of the Tertia Pars had been written in Paris at the end of the winter of 1271–72, but it seems more likely that this part of the Tertia Pars ( ST III) was written in Naples by December 6,1273, the date when Aquinas stopped writing. He had reached the sacrament of penance (ST III q.90 a.4). The rest, known under the name “ Supplementum ,” was written by his disciples and based on his commentary on the Sentences . Aquinas would have, thus, carried with him the burden of this work during the last seven years of his life in spite of the other occupations that he undertook at the same time. Many think that Raynald of Piperno could be the author of the Supplement but others are more reserved (Leonina 12, p. xvi ff.); Eschmann, A Catalogue , 388. The structure of the ST has given rise to numerous discussions (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:50–156; Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 2:101–5).
- [2:51 PM]During his stay in Rome, Aquinas not only completed the writing of the Catena aurea (1265–68), but he also disputed or wrote several Disputed Questions. The series of ten Questions De Potentia (1265–66) brings into view two main subjects. The first six questions are brought together around the theme De Potentia.
- The commentaries on Aristotle are worth mentioning separately. The writing of the following works can be set in Paris: Physica : 1268–70; Peryermenias : 1270–71; Ethica : 1271–72; Politica I–III : 1272 [?]; Posteriora Analytica I 1–26: 1271–72. Begun in Paris, the other works were continued in Naples (1272–73), but left unfi nished: Posteriora Analytica I 27–II 20; Metaphysica; De caelo et mundo ; De generatione et corruptione ; Super Meteora . Although Aquinas was once considered a faithful disciple of Aristotle, contemporary researchers are more reserved with regard to the exactness of his commentaries; Aquinas reads the Stagirite in his own way hoping to stretch him in a Christian direction rather than to recover the Aristotle of history. Added to the other works, these writings represent an extraordinary amount of labor; it is likely that Aquinas was aided by several secretaries (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:224–46).
- In the spring or at the beginning of the summer of 1272, Aquinas was sent back to Italy to found a new Dominican studium in Naples. In addition to the commentaries on Aristotle, he continued working on the Tertia Pars of the ST ( ST III q.1–90) and probably taught a class on the epistle to the Hebrews and on the Psalms (1–54) (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:250–66). He recommenced work on the Compendium theologiae but wrote only a few chapters (II 1–9: De spe ). He preached also to the faithful on the Ten Commandments , the Credo , and on the Pater (1273). Due to repeated mystical experiences and massive physical and nervous fatigue, Aquinas ceased writing and teaching around December 6, 1273. Called by Gregory X to the council of Lyon and victim of an accident along the way, he fell ill and died on March 7,1274, at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova. Canonized by John XXII in 1323, Aquinas would be proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pius V on April 15, 1567 (Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas , 1:267–95).
