The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): MarchBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
The second section is closely allied to the first. It treats of the
conditions of happiness and the moral laws, the three great virtues,
Faith, Hope, and Charity. The impulse given to the soul by these three
theological virtues communicates itself to the moral virtues as well;
in treating of them afresh S. Thomas forms a universal theory of human
duty.
The third part expounds the whole plan of Redemption. After having
studied the work of Redemption in itself, S. Thomas studies it in its
application to each individual. Thus he arrives at the theory of the
Sacraments. But death did not give him time to finish this part of the
work. It is interrupted where he treats on the fourth Sacrament, that
of penance. An attempt has been made to complete it by various extracts
from his other works, but one misses in this compilation the living
hand of genius.
Before quitting this great subject, one word must be added on S.
Thomas's method. It may be defined as geometry applied to theology. S.
Thomas states, first of all, the theorem he is about to develop, or the
problem which he proposes to solve. Then he considers the difficulties
and solves them. He follows this up with a train of sustentations
drawn from holy writ, tradition, and theological reason, and he ends
by a categorical answer to all the objections which were made at the
beginning. This order is invariably observed in every part of the work.
At the Council of Trent, on a table set in the midst of the council
chamber, was placed the "Summa," alongside of the Holy Scriptures and
the decrees of the popes. Well might Dante declare that the doctor
inhabits a sphere above the reach of praise, or, with Lacordaire,
exclaim, that "God alone can praise this great man in the eternal
council of the Saints."
The "Summa Theologiæ" occupied the last nine years of our saint's
life. The world was ignorant of the monument which was being raised in
silence. Thomas preached, lectured, wrote as before.
About this time William of S. Amour republished his attack upon the
religious orders, under the fresh title of "Collectiones S. Scripturæ;"
our saint replied to it by issuing a fresh edition of his defence of
the religious orders, and this silenced his foe.
During these nine years, Thomas visited several towns and convents of
Italy. At Milan he wrote an epitaph on S. Peter Martyr. At Bologna he
lectured with his usual success on theology.
In 1267, he published at Bologna a work on the duties of kings, but his
task was interrupted in the same year by the death of his royal pupil,
Hugo II., king of Cyprus.
Jean de Verceil had just sent to Thomas a famous tract in which the
efficaciousness of the sacrament of penance was denied. He refuted it
in a treatise called "De forma Absolutionis," with so much force and
clearness that the Council of Trent adopted his very words in framing
their canon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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