Science,Reason and Faith in the Twelfth Century : The Cosmologists' Attack on Tradition

C.H. Haskins , The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, Mass, 1927); G. Paré , A. Brunet , P. Tremblay , La renaissance du douzième siècle (Paris, 1933); C. Brooke , The Twelfth Century Renaissance (Norwich, 1969). See also R.W. Southern. "The Place of England in the Twelfth Century Renaissance", History, xlv (1960).

See J.B. Russell , Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages (Berkeley , 1965); C. Thouzellier . Catharisme et Valdeisme en Languedoc (Paris, 1966).

See T. Gregory , La filosofia della natura nel medioevo (Milan, 1966). For the new literary interest in nature see Brian Stock, Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century, A Study of Bernard Silvester (Princeton, 1972), 63 ff.; see also Winthrop Wetherbee, Platonism and Poetry) in the Twelfth Century (Princeton, 1972), 158 ff.

R.W. Southern , Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages ( Harmondsworth , 1970), 33.

See C.H. Haskins , Studies in the History, of Medieval Science (New York, 1927), 42. See also Richard Lemay , Abu Ma'shar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth Century ( Beirut, 1962), 8.

See R. Klibansky , The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages ( London, 1950), 28. I.M. Crombie says : "The Timaeus is a rationalist manifesto ... it undertakes to show that the belief that the world is rationally ordered is tenable." In An Examination of Plato's Doctrines, ii (London , 1967), 209.

"Everything that becomes or changes must do so owing to some cause, for nothing can come to be without a cause" (Timaeus, 40P). It was Plato, not Aristotle, who was the first to introduce the principle of causality, a fact that is often overlooked.

Sic et Non, Prol. in Opera Abelardi, ed. Cousin (Paris, 1859).

Quaestiones Naturales, ed. M. Miiller, Beiträge , etc. (Munich, 1934). " Quid est, quod ipsum totum usque adeo admirieris? Quid stupes ... ?" The following works form the basis of this study (all translations are mine unless otherwise noted): Adelard of Bath: Quaestiones Naturales , ed. M. Müller , Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, xxxi (Münster , 1903). William of Conches: De philosophia mundi, PL clxxii, 39-102 under Honorius Augustodunensis (Paris, 1844-1864). Glossae super Platonem, ed. E. Jeauneau in Textes Philosophiques du Moyen Age, xiii (Paris, 1965). Glossa in Boetium, ed. C. Jourdain in Notices et Extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Imperiale, Tome xx, 2e partie (Paris, 1862 ). Dragmaticon, I. , ed. G. Gratarolus. Rikelius ( Strasbourg, 1567). Thierry of Chartres: De septem diebus et sex operibus, Commentaries on Boethius, by Thierry of Chartres and his school, ed. N. M. Haring (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies . Toronto, 1971), 553-75.

R.R. Bolgar , The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries (New York , 1964), 154. Berengar of Tours (d. 1088) wrote: "Dialectics is the art of arts, and it is a sign of the eminent mind that it turns in all things to dialectic."

R.W. Southern . Medieval Humanism (New York . 1970), 37.

Quaestiones, 20. "Tamen nec arma sibi innasci convenit nec levissima fuga aptari. Habet enim id, quod longe melius digniusque est, rationem dica. qua etenim adeo ipsa bruta excellit, ut per eandem domentur .... Vides igitur, rationis donum corporeis instrumentis quantum praecellet."

Philosophia xxxiv. "Huius animae diversae sunt potentiae, scilicet : intelligentia, ratio, memoria; et est intelligentia vis animae quae percipit homo incorporalia, cum certa ratione quare ita sit. Ratio est vis animae, qua percipit homo quid sit, in quo conveniant cum aliis, in quo differant. Memoria vero est vis, qua firme retinet homo ante cognita."

E.J. Dijksterhuis in The Mechanization of the World Picture (Oxford , 1961) points out: "... we have to appreciate the awe for the authority of tradition in which the medieval thinkers had been brought up, and to realize that this dominated the sphere of natural knowledge just as strongly as that of religion .... Natural science was not viewed as something which constantly has to be acquired anew, which incessantly has to be elaborated further: men were convinced that it already existed like the medieval view of law as found, not made, or, at any rate, had once existed, and that the problem was to recover it" (116, 117).

Quaestiones, prolog., p.I. "Habet enim haec generatio ingenitum vitium, ut nihil, quod a modernis reperiatur, putet esse recipiendum. Unde fit, ut si quando inventum proprium publicare voluerim, personae id alienae imponens inquam: 'Quidam dixit, non ego'."

Ibid. "... [Auctoritas] ipsa vero sola nec fidem philosopho facere potest, nec ad hoc adducenda est. Unde et logici locum ab auctoritate probabilem, non necessarium esse consenserunt."

Ibid. "Quare si quid amplius a me audire desideras, rationem refer et recipe. Non enim ego ille sum, quem pellis pictura pascere possit."

Ibid, p. 6. "Sed eadem [natura] sine ratione non est."

Quaestiones, p.66. "Qui vero rerum ordinem tollit, insipiens est .... Rerum vero dispositor sapientissimus est."

Glossa in Timaeum, p.125. "Et est mundus ordinata collectio creaturarum."

De septem diebus, p.172. "Causas ex quibus habeat mundus existere et temporum ordinem in quibus idem mundus conditus et ordinatus est rationabiliter ostendit ...."

Quaestiones, p.12. "Omnis quippe littera meretrix est, nunc ad hoc ad illos affectus exposita."

Contra Haereticos, I. 30. "Sed quia auctoritas cereum habet nasum, i.e. in diversum potest flecti sensum, rationibus roborandum est."

Quaestiones, pp. 11,12. "Ego enim aliud a magistris Arabicis ratione duce didici, tu vero auctoritatis pictura captus capistrum sequeris. Quid enim aliud auctoritas dicenda est quam capistrum? Ut bruta quippe animalia capistro quolibet ducuntur, nec quo aut quare ducantur, discernunt restemque, quo tenentur, solum sequuntur ...."

Ibid. So did Peter Abelard, who wrote: "Authority is inferior to reason because it deals with opinions about the truth rather than the truth itself." He goes on to explain that faith based on credulity is not firm enough, without the solid basis of reason: this does not, of course, rule , out authority but it does eliminate the simple, unquestioned acceptance of it. Introductio ad Theologiam, ed Cousin , ii, Opera Abelardi ( Paris, 1859).

Dragmaticon, 65.66. "In eis quae ad fidem catholicam vel ad morum institutionem pertinent, non est fas Bedae vel alicui alio sanctorum patrum (contra Scripturae Sacrae auctoritatem) contradicere: in eis tamen quae ad philosophiam pertinent, si in aliquo errant, licet diversum adfirmare. Etsi enim maiores nobis, homines tamen fuere."

Glossa in Boetium, p. 12. "Sed dum moderni divini hoc audiunt, quia in Libris ita scriptum non inveniunt, obstrepunt statim, hoc ignorantes quod auctores veritatis philosophiam rerum tacuerunt, non quia contra fidem, sed quia aedificationem fidei, de qua laborant, non multum pertinebat ; nec volunt quod aliquid supra id quod scriptum est inquiramus, sed ut rusticus ita simpliciter credamus."

"The primary interest in natural facts during the Middle Ages was to find illustrations for the truth of morality and religion. The study of nature was not expected to lead to hypotheses and generalizations of science but to provide vivid symbols of moral realities." A.C. Crombie , in his authoritative Medieval and Early Modern Science, i, rev. 2nd edn (New York, 1959), 15. Before the eleventh century the sciences in western Europe consisted in scraps of Greek geometry, medicine, arithmetics, astronomy and music compiled by Isidore of Seville (d. 636), with later versions by Bede (d. 735), Alcuin of York (d. 804) and Hrabanus Maurus (d. 856). Boethius's treatises on music and Pythagorean mathematics also were read. In the late eleventh century translations of Arabic and Greek scientific works began to appear. For details on early mediaeval science see Crombie, 5-12: also see E. Grant , Physical Science in the Middle Ages (New York, 1971), chaps I, II.

William of Conches and Thierry of Chartres are sometimes called cosmologists because of their mechanistic conception of the universe: they sought to explain natural phenomena by natural causation rather than magical or supernatural causes. Dijksterhuis, 4.

Philosophia, Lib. I, XXIII. "Sed dicet aliquis ... hoc esse divinae potestati derogare, sic esse hominem factum dicere; quibus respondemus e contrario, id ei conferre, quia ei atribuimus, et talem rebus naturam dedisse, et sic per naturam operantem, corpus humanum creasse."

De septem diebus, p. 172. "De septem diebus et sex operum distinctionibus primam Geneseos partem secundum physicam et ad litteram ego expositurus ...."

Ibid, p. 184. "Quibus instrumentis in hac theologia breviter utendum est, ut et artificium creatoris in rebus appareat et, quod proposuimus, rationabiliter ostendatur."

Philosophia, Lib. 2, 1. "... divina pagina quae ait: Divisit .... Sed quoniam istud contra rationem est, quare sic esse non possit ostendamus ...."

Ibid., Lib. I, XXIII. "Et hoc est, quod divina pagina dicit: 'Deum ....' Non enim credendum est, animam quasi spiritus et levis, et munda, ex luto factam esse."

Ibid. "... quod divina pagina dicit: 'Deum fecisse mulierem ex latere Adae.' Non enim ad litteram credendus est, constasse primum hominem. Sed dicit aliquis: eadem ratione plures homines et feminas esse creatos, et adhuc posse?"

Ibid. "Nos dicimus, verum esse, si divina voluntas esset, quia ut aliquid sit natura operante, necesse est divinam praecedere voluntatem."

Ibid. "Nam in quo divinae Scripturae contrarii sumus, si quod in illa dictum est esse factum, qualiter factum sit explicemus?"

Ibid. "Sed quoniam ipsi nesciunt vires naturae, ut ignorantiae suae omnes socios habeant, nolunt eos aliquid inquirere, sed ut rusticos nos credere, nec rationem quaerere ... maluntque nescire, quam ab alio quaerere: et si inquirentem aliquem sciant, illum esse haereticum clamant, plus de suo caputio praesumentes, quam sapientae suae confidentes." William is referring to the fact that teachers were clerics too.

Quaestiones, p. 8. "Deo non detraho. Quidquid enim est, ab ipso et per ipsum est. Id ipsum tamen confuse et absque discretione non est ...."

Philosophia, III. "Sed scio quid dicent: Nos nescimus qualiter hoc sit, scimus Deum posse facere. Miseri Quid miserius quam dicere istud est? quia Deus illud facere potest, nec videre sic esse, nec rationem habere quare sic sit, nec utilitatem ostendere ad quam hoc sit. Non enim quidquid potest Deus facere, hoc facit. Ut autem verbis rustici utar, potest Deus facere de trunco vitulum: facitne unquam? Vel igitur ostendant rationem, vel utilitatem ad quam hoc sit, vel sic esse iudicare desinant."

Glosae super Platonem, p. 104. "Ostenso quod nihil est sine causa, sub iungit quid contrahat effectus ex efficiente. Et sciendum quod omne opus Creatoris, nature, vel artificis imitantis naturam. Et est opus creatoris prima creatio sine preiacente materia ut est creatio elementorum et spiritum vel ea que videmus fieri contra consuetum cursum naturae ut partus virginis, etcetera." Dijksterhuis sees William's view of the working relationship between God and Nature as more rational and direct than the later Averroist theory and its "corrected" form in the thirteenth century (op. cit, 121). Had his contemporaries accepted it, it is reasonable to suppose that a wider interest in science would have been the result.

Quaestiones, p. 66.

"Nemo atque impie cogitet sicut quidam impii cogitaverunt nihil contra naturam scilicet contra solitum cursum nature provenire posse ...." Anon., "Liber de eodem secundus", quoted in J.M. Parent , La Doctrine de la Création dans l'Ecole de Chartres (Paris, 1938), 213.

"De erroribus Guilielmi de Conchis", PL xlxxx, 339. Father Chenu reminds us that all kinds of errors were included in the term heresy, and that the word did not acquire a narrow definition until the sixteenth century. See M.-D. Chenu , Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century, translated by Taylor and Little (Chicago, 1968 ), 276, fn. 18.

Ibid. "Etenim post theologiam Petri Abaelardi, Guilelmus de Conchis novam affert philosophiam, confirmans et multiplicans quaecunque ille dixit, et impudentius addens adhuc de suo plurima, quae ille non dixit cuius novitatum vanitates ...."

Quoted by N. Haring in "Thierry of Chartres and Dominicus Gundissalinus", Medieval Studies, xxvi (1964), 278.

A. Victor Murray , Abelard and St Bernard ( Manchester, 1967).

In 1210 the Council of Paris forbade the teaching of Aristotelian science just as it was being assimilated by the West. This interdict effectively discouraged men from the study of natural philosophy and turned them, instead, towards metaphysics—philosophy studied "in view of theology" as Gilson puts it. For an account of the Church's disapproval of science at this time, see E. Gilson , The History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages ( New York, 1955). 315 ff, 244-6.

For the trend towards centralized, bureaucratic monarchies in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, see J.B. Morall. Political Thought in Medieval Times (New York, 1962), 48 ff. Also see W. Ullmann , The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages (London, 1955). 100 ff.

Aquinas, in Summa Contra Gentiles (IV,7) stressed the doctrine of degrees of perfection descending in a fixed order from the highest—God—down. Gilson summarizes this idea: "The order according to which this descent is effected is the very law which regulates the intimate constitution of the universe: all creatures are ordered according to a hierarchical scale of perfection ... in such a way that the lowest degree of each superior species borders on the highest degree of each inferior species" (Gilson, 375). The notion of a fixed order with gradations of authority is central to the functioning of a bureaucratic government. I am indebted to Pro fessor Bernard Stambler for pointing out a fact commonly overlooked: Aquinas, although aware of the application of this doctrine to political practice did, in fact, teach that all souls are equal and that it is improper to maintain that some intellects are more noble than others. But these doctrines were condemned by the Church in 1277 and were thereafter ignored.