University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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10 THE REDWOOD are indebted for what precision and an- alytical subtlety they possess. The Universities developed a well proportioned intellect. The studies of Latin grammar, rhetoric, logic, arith- metic, astronomy, and music i resented as broad a course as is given by any Modern University. It should be not- ed that music included besides what the term implies, history, literature and similar things. When the student had finished this course it was a safe con- clusion that he was quite capable of undertaldng professional studies. This is a significant utterance by such an eminent man as Huxley, The scholars of the Mediaeval Universities seem to have studied grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, theol- ogy and music. Thus their work, how- ever imperfect and faulty, judged by modern lights, it may have been, brought them face to face with all lead- ing aspects of the many-sided mind of man. And I doubt if the curriculum of any Modern University shows so clear and generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture as this old Trivium and Quadrivium does. What have these old Universities contributed to man ' s store of knowl- edge? Without doubt their greatest and most important contribution is scho- lastic philosophy, much despised by those who are ignorant of it. But it is slowly coming into its own. Whom- soever reads St. Thomas changes his ideas concerning scholasticism. His works have been for years the stand- ard philosophical writings of the Church. Scholastic philosophy is distinctly a product of the old Universities ; Albert- us Magnus, the first of the great school- men, did much to shape it. But the largest part of the work was done by his pupil St. Thomas Aquinas. His great achievement was the demonstra- tion of the reasonableness of the Church ' s doctrines, and to do it, he called to his aid Aristotlean philosophy and supplied proofs of his own. Father Vaughn says of him, ' ' He had the intel- lectual honesty of Socrates, the keen- ness of Aristotle, the yearning after wisdom of Plato. The amount of work he accomplished was incredible. Though he died at the age of forty-two, his works would fill twenty large folio volumes of matter so deep that it would take a lifetime to comprehend it; and all this was accomplished in spite of his sacerdotal duties, incessant teaching, and physical ailments. What Professor Saintsbury of Edin- borough University writes of Scholasti- cism will prove a revelation to many, And there have been in these latter days certain graceless ones who have asked whether the Science of the nine- teenth century after an equal interval, will be of any more positive value, whether it will not have even less com- parative interest than that Avhieh ap- pertains to the scholasticism of the thir- teenth century? It is quite certain that in time to come improvements mil render the in- ventions of the nineteenth century and

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THE REDWOOD included Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, Portuguese and Orientals. The Eng- lish, Scotch, Irish Germans Polish and Scandinavean students. Each nation had its own teachers and accommoda- tions. Teaching was almost exclusively carried on by lecture, owing to the scar- city of books. The course consisted of a trivium, of Latin grammar, rhetoric and logic, and a quadrivium of arith- metic, geometry, astronomy and music. After these studies came the higher courses in law, philosophy, theology and medicine. Modern times have been ac- customed to sneer at the old school- men, as they are called, as eccentric and breath-wasting disputers on the number of angels that could rest on a pin-point, and similar foibles. This is mainly because pains to investigate have not been taken. Another popular idea is that they studied only theology and philosophy. It is true that these studies were given prominence and reached a high degree of perfection. But it can be seen from the Trivium and Quadrivium mentioned above, that the other subjects were studied. The great scholars of that day were not wholly devoted to theology. Albertus Magnus was an astute student of nature, and has received praise from such a great naturalist as Humboldt. Roger Bacon, one of the most brilliant minds of the thirteenth century, had an idea of gun- powder, predicted that vehicles would be propelled by explosives and that men would some day fly. Bacon and Albert emphasized the ne- cessity of experience and observation to acquire sound knowledge. Yet we find numerous volumes, purporting to be histories, declaring that the Mediae- val schoolmen distrusted observation and thought it possible to derive all knowledge from their syllogisms. What they have accomplished is, however, a sufficient refutation for this charge. Had they not observed very keenly, neither Bacon nor Albertus Magnus could have learned what they did. Without keen and accurate observation St. Thomas Aquinas would never have gained his great knowledge of human passions, nature and motives, revealed in his works. The schoolmen cultivated and re- quired a precision of thought which characterized their work. Their preci- sion led to the much criticized hair- splitting at the end of the Middle Ages and later, but generally they discussed important theological and social prob- lems with an exactness unknown to the ancients themselves. This precision had a salutary effect on the modern languages then in form- ation. Had they been shaped exclus- ively by the masses we would have had fewer words of Latin and Greek deriv- ation. The modes, tenses and cases would have been increased greatly, as philogists notice is the result of doing little writing, and exact thought in a language. On the whole the Modern languages, without the schoolmen, would have been quite inferior to what they are now. Condorcet, an eminent French scholar says: It is to the schoolmen that the vulgar langi

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THE REDWOOD 11 even of the present time obscure and interesting only to the history student. Eight centuries have rolled by since scholasticism flourished, and we are still to find a system equal to it. ' ' Certainly the age which has given us a philosophy unimproved by eight cen- turies ' efforts, which has given us so great an educational force as the Uni- versity is not a Dark one. To elevate workers from slaves to free men, to make labor respectable, where it was dishonorable, is an achievement which would reflect credit on any age. This is exactly what was done during the Middle Ages. In the fourth century nearly all workers were slaves, the freemen that worked were looked upon with utmost contempt. Persons who labored were, according to the times ' opinion, worthy of no con- sideration whatever. The Church ex- erted her whole influence against this injustice. She taught a doctrine, quite u.nheard of before, that the rich were in duty bound to care for and aid their poorer brethren in case of need. She taught that all men were equal before God ; she did as much as possible to pre- vent the oppression of the workers. By the sixth century the rural work- ers had risen from serfdom to slavery. This was not an insignificant advance. Though bound to the soil they were no longer mere chattels, they could not be sold as domestic animals. The condi- tion of serfdom gradually became less intolerable and the serfs made substan- tial advances as the time passed. The Crusades gave them material as- sistance in their struggle upward. Many rallied under the standard of the Cross and thereby gained freedom. Accord- ing to a Protestant historian, the reli- gious enthusiasm caused not a few no- bles to grant freedom to their serfs. Also, as I have mentioned before, the Federal barons, weakened by the cost of the campaigns, could not keep the workers in subjection. A calamity that befell Europe in the fourteenth century, indirectly helped the cause of labor. In 1350, the Black Death, similar to the Bubonic plague, entered Europe from Asia and spread over the whole continent. The devas- tation and damage it wrought, can scarcely be imagined. A third of Eu- rope ' s population died. Such a great decrease in population, naturally made labor scarce and much sought for. In addition, an unsettled state, caused by the dread disease, gave the peasants more liberty. Consequently, instead of staying and working in one place, as they had to do before, they sought new places in which to work, and either re- ceived wages for their labor, or rented lands for themselves. As a result, a system of free labor set in, which de- veloped unfolded, and produced the pre sent wage system. The division of the profits in the Middle Ages, was more just than at present. The laborer received a greater percentage of the wealth that came from his hands than does the Modern worker. The Catholic Encj clopedia is authority for the statement that the poorest one-tenth of the population in