Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) was a Dominican scholastic who lived during the Middle Ages. He is most remembered for his philosophical works, and some consider him the greatest and most influential medieval philosopher. Two of his most remembered works are Summa Theologica and Summa Cuma Gentiles. In Summa Cuma Gentiles, Aquinas lays down five logical arguments for the existence of God that do not use biblical proof. As a scholastic, he believed logic was not contrary to biblical faith, and if logic seemingly disagreed with the Bible, it was faulty logic. However, he took it a step further by saying the existence of God could be proved with only logic. Theologians throughout history have debated the merits of Aquinas’ five arguments in Summa Cuma Gentiles. Regardless of whether he was right, Saint Thomas Aquinas left an undeniably huge cultural imprint on Western civilization, and his life was fascinating.
Aquinas was born to a wealthy aristocratic family. His father was Knight Landulf of Aquino. All his brothers pursued careers in the military like their father. However, Aquinas’ family wanted him to become a wealthy bishop. At the age of five, he enrolled in the abbey in Monte Cassino, along with his uncle, Sinibald. Unfortunately, the abbey was split up during a conflict between Emperor Fredrick II and Pope Gregory IX, and Aquinas had to leave the abbey.
When he was fourteen, he resumed his studies at the University of Naples, where he was introduced to the Dominican friars. The celibate and poor lifestyle of those in the Dominican Order captivated Aquinas. They pulled him in. By nineteen, he was deadset on becoming a Dominican, but his family disapproved. They wanted him to pursue theology and become a bishop because it was a comfortable lifestyle. Embracing celibacy and living off donations was hardly the life they envisioned for Thomas. Despite his family’s objections, he left for Rome to become Dominican, anyway. But his mother embraced foul play. She hired mercenaries to kidnap Thomas and put him in custody in the family castle. He was held there for a year but was unwavering in his commitment to the Dominicans. Finally, in a last effort to persuade him otherwise, his family attacked his commitment to celibacy, part of the oath for becoming a Dominican. His brothers hired a prostitute and sent the whore into his room. She was there for hours, trying to tempt him. The idea was that if he gave in and engaged in intercourse with her, he would see how horrible celibacy was and give up on becoming a Dominican. However, he did not give in. He stood strong and resisted, grabbing a brand from the fire in his room and waving it at the whore anytime she approached him. After hours of failing to tempt him, the prostitute and Aquinas’ family gave up. In 1244, he was freed from confinement in the castle and allowed to become a Dominican.
He then studied at the University of Paris, before the Dominicans sent him as an assistant professor to study under Albert the Great in Cologne. His colleagues called nicknamed him the “dumb ox” because he was allegedly slow in learning. However, Albert recognized his brilliance and famously said, “The bellowings of this ox will be heard around the globe.”
Alber the Great was correct. In his life, Thomas Aquinas wrote over eight million words and made almost fifty thousand citations in his manuscripts. At one point, the Pope offered to make Aquinas the archbishop of Naples, but Aquinas thought being archbishop would distract from his intellectual studies, what he considered to be his calling. Unfortunately, he had a vision towards the end of life before finishing Summa Theologica. After the vision, he refused to finish the book, saying, “The end of my labors has come. Everything I have written appears to be straw after the things that have been revealed to me.” He was so overwhelmed by what he saw that he refused to finish the book.
Aquinas spent most of his life synthesizing philosophy with faith and Aristotle with the Bible. Despite his sympathies with Aristotle, he vehemently opposed Averroism, which stated that where there was a contradiction between philosophy and the Bible, philosophy was correct. In a way, Averroism was the opposite of what Aquinas believed because he thought the Bible and logical reasoning were entirely agreed.
Asher Sisneros 