Responses to Aristotelianism in the Thirteenth Century

1. “Since the other sciences should serve the wisdom of holy Scripture, they are to be appropriated by the faithful insofar as they are known to conform to the good pleasure of the Giver. … the book on natural philosophy that were prohibited in a provincial council at Paris … contain both useful and useless matter. … in order that the useful not be contaminated by the useless, [it is necessary to] eliminate all that is erroneous or that might cause scandal or give offense to readers, so that when the dubious matter has been removed, the remainder may be studied without delay and without offense.”

Pope Gregory IX, from a letter appointing a commission to see to this matter.

2. “ [There is} one perfect wisdom and this is contained in holy Scripture, in which all truth is rooted. I say, therefore, that one discipline is mistress of the others – namely, theology, for which the others are integral necessities and which cannot achieve its end without them. And it lays claim to their virtues and subordinates the to its nod and command.”

Roger Bacon in Opus Majus

3. “Our purpose …is to satisfy as far as we can those brethren of our order who for many years now have begged us to compose for them a book on physics in which they might find a complete exposition of natural science and from which also they might be able to understand correctly the books of Aristotle.”

Albertus Magnus, from the prologue to his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics

4. “ …even though the natural light of the human mind is inadequate to make known what is revealed by faith, nevertheless what is divinely taught to us by faith cannot be contrary to what we are endowed with by nature. One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of them from God, he would be the cause of our error, which is impossible.”

Thomas Aquinas, from the Commentary on De Trinitate of Boethius

5. “It belongs to the philosopher to determine every question which can be disputed by reason; for every question which can be disputed by rational argument falls within some part of being. But the philosopher investigates all being—natural, mathematical, and divine. Therefore it belongs to the philosopher to determine every question which can be disputed by rational arguments.”

Boethius of Dacia (a member of the circle of Siger of Brabant) from On the Eternity of the World

6. “What we have here is a failure to excommunicate.”

Luca IV con il mano disinvolto