Page i Saint Thomas Aquinas: Volume 1 Page iii Saint Thomas Aquinas: Volume 1 The Person and His Work translated by Robert Royal JEAN­PIERRE TORRELL, O.P. Page iv Originally published as L'Initiation à Saint Thomas d'Aquin: Sa personne et son oeuvre by Editions Universitaires Fribourg Suisse and Editions Cerf, Paris. Copyright © 1993 Editions Cerf Paris. Copyright © 1996 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library materials, ANSI Z39.48­1984. Library of Congress Cataloging­in­Publication Data Torrell, Jean­Pierre. [Initiation à Saint Thomas d'Aquin. English] Saint Thomas Aquinas, Volume 1 : the person and his work/ Jean­Pierre Torrell ; translated by Robert Royal. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?–1274. 2. Christian saints—Italy— Biography. 3. Theology, Doctrinal—History—Middle Ages. 600–1500. 4. Catholic Church—Doctrines—History. I. Title. BX4700.T6T5713 1996 230'.2'092—dc20 95­42079 ISBN 0­8132­0852­1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0­8132­0853­X (pbk. : alk. paper) Page v Contents Foreword ix Translator's Preface xiii Preface xv Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works xxiii I. An Eventful Youth 1 The D'Aquino Family 1 Oblate at Cassino—Studies in Naples 4 Taking the Habit and Its Consequences 8 First Sketch for a Portrait 12 II. Disciple of Albertus Magnus (1245–1252) 18 Paris (1245–1248) 19 Cologne (1248–1252) 24 The Bible and Spirituality: The Super Isaiam 27 III. First Teaching Years in Paris (1252–1256) 36 The Bachelor of the Sentences 39 Alia Lectura Fratris Thome 45 Two Opuscula 47 The Inaugural Lecture 50 IV. Magister in Sacra Pagina (1256–1259) 54 Legere: To Comment on the Bible 55 Disputare: The De ueritate 59 Praedicare: Theology and Pastoral Practice 69 V. Defender of Mendicant Religious Life 75 History of a Quarrel 76 The Contra impugnantes 79 The Deperfectione and the Contra retrahentes 84 The Polemicist 90 VI. Return to Italy: The Summa contra Gentiles 96 To Promote Study 96 The Uncertainties of 1259–1261 98 Page vi The Date of the Summa contra Gentiles 101 The Purpose of the Contra Gentiles 104 The Summa contra Gentiles: Method and Plan 107 The Contents of the Summa contra Gentiles 111 VII. The Stay in Orvieto (1261–1265) 117 Conventual Lector in Orvieto 118 Commentary on the Book of Job 120 A Theologian Much in Demand 122 De divinis nominibus 127 The Office of Corpus Christi 129 The Catena aurea 136 VIII. The Roman Years (1265–1268): The Beginning of the Summa 142 The Studium at Rome 142 The Summa theologiae 145 The Contents of the Summa 148 The Plan of the Summa theologiae 150 The Place of the Mystery of the Incarnation 153 Theology, Life, and Prayer 156 IX. The Other Writings from the Roman Period 160 The De potentia "cum annexis" 161 The Compendium theologiae 164 Expert Opinions on Some Contemporary Questions 167 The De regno ad regem Cypri 169 The Sententia Libri De anima 171 William of Moerbeke 174 X. The New Sojourn in Paris: Doctrinal Confrontations 179 Date and Place of Thomas's Departure for Paris 179 The Motives for Thomas's Return to Paris 182 The De aeternitate mundi 184 The Unicity of Substantial Form 187 The De unitate intellectus 191 XI. The Second Period of Teaching at Paris (1268–1272) 197 I. Scriptural Commentaries and Disputed Questions 197 The Lectura super Ioannem 198 Disputed Questions: De malo and Others 201 The Quodlibetal Disputes 207 II. Consultations and Diverse Works 212 De Mixtione elementorum; De motu cordis 213 De operationibus occultis naturae 214 De iudiciis astrorum 215 De sortibus 215 De secreto 217 The Letter to the Countess of Flanders 218 Page vii The De substantiis separatis 220 The Super Librum De causis 222 XII. The Commentator on Aristotle 224 The Expositio Libri Peryermenias 224 The Expositio Libri Posteriorum 226 The Sententia Libri Ethicorum 227 The Tabula Libri Ethicorum 229 Commentaries on the Physics and the Metaphysics 231 Uncompleted Works 233 Thomas and Aristotle 236 Thomas and His Secretaries 239 XIII. Last Period of Teaching: Naples (1272–1273) 247 The Course on the Pauline Letters 250 The Course on the Psalms 257 The "Life of Jesus" 261 XIV. The Last Months and Death 267 The People Who Knew Thomas 267 Reginald of Piperno 272 Thomas and His Family 275 A Preliminary Portrait 278 A Man of Great Contemplation 283 The Final Illness and Death 289 XV. Difficult Sequels: Cult, Process, Disputes 296 The Beginnings of the Cult 296 March 1277 in Paris 298 Dominicans and Franciscans 303 Defense of Thomas by the Dominican Order 308 Disciples and Confreres 310 XVI. Epilogue: The Canonization in Avignon 317 A Well­Conducted Development 317 The Canonization and Its Consequences 321 Doctor Ecclesiae 324 Brief Chronology 327 Brief Catalogue of the Works of Saint Thomas Aquinas 330 Abbreviations 362 Bibliography 364 Index of the Works of Saint Thomas Aquinas 397 Index of Names 399 Index of Subjects 405 Page ix Foreword In preparing a study of Thomas Aquinas for the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, Jean­Pierre Torrell found it necessary to review and summarize the most recent data about Aquinas's life and works, because continuing research, including his own and that by members of the Leonine Commission, has modified many points since the major work of James Weisheipl.1 The present volume greatly expands the first section of the article, leaving for another volume, now being prepared, a similar expansion of the second part of the article, which presents Aquinas's spiritual doctrine. Not that Thomas's spirituality is absent from this first volume. On the contrary: as the subtitle and introduction make clear, Torrell's aim is to do more than discuss dating of Aquinas's life and works or summarize his works and doctrine. While presenting the person of Thomas Aquinas in his complete family, social, and intellectual context, Torrell goes considerably beyond Weisheipl's study by ably bringing out the spiritual dimension of Aquinas's life as a Dominican religious dedicated to handing on to others what he had experienced in his faith­rooted contemplation, mystical as well as intellectual. That is, he gives us a picture of Thomas's own lived spirituality together with insights into his spiritual doctrine, which will be presented more fully in the second volume. Thus he follows Thomas's numerous journeys about France and Italy on his Dominican apostolate 1. See J.­P. Torrell, "Thomas d'Aquin," Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 15 (1991) cols. 718–73. Compare J. A. Weisheipl, Friar Thomas d'Aquino: His Life, Thought, and Works, 2d ed. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1983). The second edition did not alter the main text of the original 1974 volume but provided some new material in a brief appendix. Albert & Thomas: Selected Writings, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York­Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1988), trans., ed., introd. Simon Tugwell, is a more recent discussion of questions concerning the dating of Thomas's life and writings. Torrell takes account of these as well as of earlier works in his own study. As will be indicated, his work has a much wider scope than either of these. Page x of intellectual ministry, portraying him as a dedicated religious and scholar nearly overwhelmed by his zealous devotion to this calling, yet vigorous and lively in defense of the faith and of the legitimate role of reason. Through Torrell's eyes we see Thomas as a man of prayer, a warm friend to many confreres and others, a loyal and sometimes deeply involved member of his family. Jean­Pierre Torrell's own intellectual and spiritual apostolate has prepared him well for this. A Dominican of the Toulouse province, his search for a theology flowing from and reflecting a deeply experienced life of faith led him to prepare a thesis for the lectorate in philosophy and theology on the nature and method of theology, a study that incorporated his vision of how theologians should proceed.2 He then went to Le Saulchoir, the studium of the Dominican province of Paris, where he received the doctorate after completing his dissertation on the theology of the episcopate at the First Vatican Council.3 Returning to his province to teach fundamental theology for the next twenty years, he also regularly examined in the Revue Thomiste books and articles on theology and its methodology, adding his own critiques and enriching his reviews with his own insights. A number of his personal writings reveal his deep concern that the theological endeavor should not be restricted to purely intellectual inquiry but should begin with and terminate in a life of living faith and holiness.4 Wishing to pursue the historical background of Thomas Aquinas's theology, Torrell undertook a second doctorate at the Université de Montréal. His dissertation dealt with earlier thirteenth­century discussions of the theology of prophecy, a topic that led him to examine the philosophy of knowledge at that time and eventually helped him to develop important new views about Christ's human knowledge.5 It also led to his fruitful col­ 2. La notion intégrale de Sacra Doctrina chez S. Thomas d'Aquin (Toulouse: Studium Dominicain de la Province de Toulouse, 1959). 3. It has been published as La théologie de l'épiscopat au premier concile du Vatican ("Unam Sanctam," 37; Paris: Cerf, 1961). 4. Too numerous to be listed here, these writings may be found in the bibliography of his publications given in Ordo Sapientiae et Amoris: Image et message de saint Thomas d'Aquin à travers les récentes études historiques, herméneutiques et doctrinales: Hommage au Professeur JeanPierre Torrell OP à l'occasion de son 65e anniversaire, ed.