Santo Tomás: Medieval Historical and Philosophical Context

Santo Tomás: Medieval Historical Context

1. Late Middle Ages (mid-11th century - late 15th century)

Powerful Europe. European expansion and progress in agriculture (plow, windmill, crop rotation) resulted in better nutrition and an increased population. Crisis: famine, plague and war.

2. Formation of Modern States

This period helped shape the modern European states. The Christian union fractured. France: villages were the main settlement pattern.

3. Politics and Conflicts

• Two great powers: emperor and pope.
• Struggles including the Investiture Controversy and the Concordat of Worms (1122).
• Avignon: exile of the papacy (Avignon Papacy).
• Rise of hereditary monarchies; the idea of the nation emerges: Castile, Aragon, England, France.
• Development of parliamentary assemblies.
• City-states in Italy.

Socio-Cultural Framework

1. Urban Revival and Trade

Reappearance of urban life: traders and boroughs. Trade and migration created major cities such as Milan, Florence, Paris, London, Cologne, and Bruges.

2. Economy and Industry

Textile industry; economy based on banking and exchange.

3. Letters and Social Groups

Letters (literacy and written culture). Social groups: nobility, burghers, peasants, and the excluded.

4. Social Conflicts and Communes

Social conflicts included peasant revolts and urban uprisings. The rise of communes as new urban political forms.

5. The Problem of Natural Law

The problem of natural law: the project of creating a more equal society grounded in the Christian idea of brotherhood and dependence on a single Deus (God).

6. Architecture and Translation Work

The cathedral (Gothic) is a central cultural achievement. Also important is the work of translators who transmitted classical and Arabic texts into Latin.

Philosophical Framework

1. Church and Christian Foundations

The Church and Christianity founded much of European thought. New forms of religious life appeared in monasteries and mendicant orders: the Dominicans and Franciscans. Important figures include St. Bonaventure and William of Ockham, whose work provided bases for later thinkers such as Galileo, Newton, and Descartes.

2. Schools and Universities

11th century: monastic schools developed and universities arose in cities; 12th–13th centuries saw intense creativity, sometimes leading to charges of heresy. Paris was a central intellectual hub.

3. Scholastic Thought

Universities fostered scholastic theology and philosophy. There was a common core of ideas based on the Bible, the Church Fathers, and classical philosophers. The Summae attempted to understand the content of dogma rationally and to relate reason and faith.

4. Reason and Greek Philosophy

Greek philosophy—Plato and Aristotle—reached Europe (notably in the 13th century) through Arabic transmission. The assimilation of this philosophy was undertaken by figures such as St. Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas. The School of Toledo was a key translation center. There were significant problems and debates surrounding translators of Aristotelian philosophy, especially the reconciliation of Aristotelian metaphysics with Christian doctrine.