| Albert the Great by Sr. M. Albert Hughes, O.P.
2 Friar Preacher |
  Autumn 1987 Vol. 39 Supplement |
THE Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 endeavored to find remedies for the evils by which the Church was beset in the High Middle Ages. Two of its canons ordained that suitable men should be chosen to assist bishops in the task of preaching and that every cathedral and conventual church should have a staff of priests who could administer the sacraments and labor generally for the salvation of souls. The bishops also decreed that while every church should, where possible, have some one to give free instruction in grammar, each metropolitan church should possess a theologian who could instruct the clergy and advise and guide them in matters of doctrine and in their pastoral cares.
The creation of such a preaching militia which should also be learned in sacred doctrine, was the basis of the religious order for which St. Dominic came to Rome in 1216 to seek papal approbation. So obvious was it that the designs of divine Providence, expressed through the voice of the Council, were here reproduced in concrete form, that despite that same Council's opposition to the creation of new religious orders, Innocent III gladly gave the desired approbation. Dominic, preacher and doctor, was the living realization of the two canons of the Lateran Council.
St. Dominic decreed, however, that a life of severe penance should be joined to his
sons' intellectual and preaching activities, so that by putting to death the carnal life the
friars would be ready to receive strength and enlightenment from God and to pass on to
others the fruits of their contemplation. Albert was not only a shining example of this
ideal, but a great master, and exerted a strong influence in impressing it on his disciples,
his brethren, and popularizing it through his writings.
From his clothing in 1223 until his return to Germany in 1228, Albert remained at
Padua, rapidly outstripping his companions in every branch of knowledge; both secular,
so that he became known as "the Philosopher," i.e. scientist and naturalist, and
religious, to which he applied himself with special ardor. And his virtue was even more
striking than his learning. He is described as being "humble, chaste, affable, studious,
completely given up to and lost in God."
Theological training in the order was still similar to that of St. Dominic's day. Owing to
the scarcity of manuscripts, accurate copies of what books were existing and an
accurate memory in the preacher were essentials. The novice, therefore, was obliged to
transcribe the breviary and to learn by heart the Epistles of St. Paul. It was this training,
coupled with the recitation of the Divine Office and the continual silence which allowed
for meditation, which inspired St. Albert with that deep love and reverence for the
sacred scriptures to which he frequently gives expression in his writings. Each convent
had a course in Scripture given by the Lector, which each religious was bound to
attend. But, since many of the novices were young and insufficiently educated, a more
complete course of study was necessary. Thus the conventual school was instituted,
called studium or collegium, where a more detailed course of theology could be
pursued -- theology being, as yet, the beginning and end of a friar's education. Profane
studies were forbidden unless the provincial or Master should dispense an individual for
some special course. Reference to pagan and philosophical writers was to be as rare
and as brief as possible.
The theological course consisted of the sacred scriptures with commentaries, the Book
of Sentences of Peter Lombard, and the History of Peter Comestor. The students also
engaged in disputations according to the scholastic method under the direction of their
master. Such was the form of study to which Albert the scientist, naturalist, and
philosopher subjected himself on his entrance into the order, and to which, to all
appearances, he would in future confine his intellectual activities. He could have had
little thought that Providence designed him to effect the synthesis of Greek philosophy
with Christian theology, and to be the oracle of his age, the outstanding educator of his
order in the thirteenth century.
Of his life at this time, as Pope Pius XI wrote in the Bull of Canonization, "he
assiduously trained both his mind and heart in a holy eagerness.... Mingling and
seasoning study with prayer, he fashioned his mind and shaped his whole manner of life
so as to fit himself for preaching and for the salvation of souls, and to make himself a
useful and capable Friar Preacher."
In 1228, having completed his course at Padua, Albert was sent as lector to the convent
in Cologne which had been founded after the Chapter at Bologna in 1221. There he
was to spend much of his time until about 1240 when he went to Paris to obtain his
Mastership in theology (during this period he was probably lector at other convents
including Hildesheim, Freiburg, Regensburg, and Strassburg) and to be the guide,
example, and inspiration of his brethren; a living exemplification of wisdom and
sanctity. His lessons in theology and philosophy immediately attracted widemaspread
attention and applause, and in addition to his scholastic activities he preached, heard
confessions, and was wholly at the disposal of all who sought his help. His gentleness
equalled his wisdom and was second only to his sanctity. The universality of his
knowledge was sanctified by an equally universal love. The whole secret of the success
of his external activity lay in its being inspired by an internal force, the fruit of his
intimate union with God. He enlightened others with the light of truth which he himself
culled from his contemplation of the eternal light of the Godhead.
During this period St. Albert acquired by observation, study, and contemplation, much
of those treasures of secular and divine knowledge which he was later to hand down to
posterity in his writings, but the only treatise which seems to belong to this phase of his
life is the Tractatus de Bono. The Summa de Creaturis, and his Commentaries on the
Sentences, sometimes attributed to this period, were written in Paris, the fourth book of
the Sentences being completed in Cologne in 1249 after his return from Paris. In the
beginning of his Summa St. Albert declares, as his disciple St. Thomas declared in his
turn, that his knowledge came essentially from above, and was not acquired by his own
efforts:
But the German priories, including Cologne itself, were only provincial convents; the
scholastic center of the order as well as of all Christendom, was Paris. Realizing that
Albert's pre-eminence in philosophy and natural science was accompanied by an equally
great capacity for theological studies, his superiors sent him to Paris about 1240, to
receive the supreme consecration of his doctrine in the form of the doctorate in
theology. Four years later he was joined by the young Neapolitan novice, Thomas
Aquinas, who was escorted there by the Master of the Order, John the Teuton, the
successor to St. Raymund of Pennafort, who had resigned his office only two years
after he had been elected to succeed Blessed Jordan, the second master. Paris, which a
quarter of a century previously had received the early friars, was to be the scene of the
studies, struggles, and triumphs of the order's two greatest doctors.
In the Middle Ages, the University of Paris was the theological center of Christendom.
To have studied there, and still more to have received the bachelors or master's degree,
was the highest distinction in the academic world; and hither resorted all those who
were later to be leaders of the Church, including no less than nine Popes, clerics of
every rank, secular priests as well as religious. Every country of the civilized world
furnished its contingent of students, who formed a strange agglomeration of human
beings, not always distinguished for their good manners or exemplary behavior, and
among whom quarrels and dissensions would appear to have been lamentably frequent.
During the twelfth century, the University of Paris did not form one homogeneous
body, but was composed of a number of schools, of which the oldest and most
important were those of Notre Dame and of the Cloister. The first, situated near the
episcopal palace, was directly subject to the archbishop, and students of every nation
resorted there, but especially those who were destined to occupy ecclesiastical posts in
the city and diocese of Paris. Of the smaller schools, which were usually held as close
to the principal ones as possible, those of St. Victor and St. Genevieve are the best-known, but anyone who had obtained the requisite licence from the chancellor was free
to open his own school. By 1200, however, the corporation or university -- Universitas
Magistrorum et Scholarium -- had already been formed. The qualifications necessary
for teaching philosophy had been laid down in 1215 by the Apostolic Legate, Cardinal
de Courçon. They were: that the candidate must have reached his twenty-first year;
must have attended the lessons of a master for at least six years; must promise to teach
for at least two years unless this period were curtailed by special dispensation; must
enjoy an unsullied reputation; and before he began his course, undergo the examination
prescribed by the Bishop of Paris.
In the same year the cardinal legate had laid down the qualifications for the teaching of
theology, limiting to eight the number of chairs of theology -- but this total was soon
exceeded -- and decreed that those who taught in this school must be thirty-five years
of age and have studied for eight years in the schools and for five years followed a
course in theology. The professors were not to open their classes before the hour of
Terce, when the masters gave their lessons. No one was allowed to teach or to preach
whose morals were not irreproachable and whose learning had not been put to the test.
The members of the faculty of theology were divided into three classes, the students,
bachelors, and masters. The students and bachelors were attached to one master, who
was in some manner responsible for them, but they were allowed to attend other
courses at the same time. After five years, the student could teach as baccalarius
biblicus, i.e. he could expound the Holy Scriptures with the help of the glosses. After
at least two more years of lecturing on the Bible biblice, i.e. without discussing difficult
questions of exegesis, he became baccalarius sententiarius and was allowed to lecture
on the Sentences, the exposition of these being the duty of the bachelors. After three
years of teaching in this capacity, provided that they had reached the age of thirty-five,
the bachelors were at liberty to present themselves before the Chancellor of Notre
Dame to supplicate for faculties to preach and teach as masters, i.e. to obtain their
"licence."
The duty of the masters was to teach, preach, and hold disputations. They usually
expounded one book from the Old Testament, and one from the New Testament each
year -- Holy Scripture always being the text-book. Before the licence was conferred,
the chancellor imposed a three months' delay during which he made inquiries of all the
masters in theology, and others competent to give information concerning the
candidate's morals, ability, eloquence, and possibilities for the future. If the replies were
satisfactory, the candidate was examined. The granting or refusing of the licence lay
with the chancellor. Its possession enabled the licentiate to be enrolled in the ranks of
the Masters' Corporation, on which occasion he swore in the presence of his new
colleagues to observe the statutes of the Corporation, not to divulge its secrets or
details of its deliberations, and to consent to all the laws which might be imposed in
defense of the privileges of the university.
Such was the center of theological learning to which St. Dominic naturally sent his
sons, who were to be the champions and propagators of the Church's doctrine. When
St. Albert went there in 1240 conditions were still very much the same as in the holy
founder's day. Beside being subject to the laws of the university concerning the
obtaining of degrees, candidates from the order had to follow also the prescriptions of
their superiors. These had ordained that candidates who were likely to be capable of
teaching in the schools should be chosen each year from the French and non-French
provinces by the general chapter and the master. During the first of their three years'
course they would expound the Sentences in the school of some master, and at the end
of the year the prior of Paris and the Master would present each candidate before the
chancellor, declaring on oath that he was a fit subject for the honor of master. When
the prescribed examination was passed, the licentiate took part in a solemn disputation
in the Episcopal Hall, in which all the masters also intervened. Having thus earned his
laurels, he was free to teach as master in his own school. During the third year he still
taught, but now chose for himself the questions of which he wished to treat, held
general disputations, and replied to questions. He had with him a bachelor who
expounded the Sentences under his direction and whom he presented for the licence at
the end of the year, vouching for his fitness as others had previously testified to his
own. With this presentation of his pupil the master's course was completed.
It is interesting to note what text-books were in use at the time, and what was the
general type of teaching to which Albert, like all other newcomers, would be expected
to conform. For the School of Theology, the official text-book which was the chief
subject of study for both masters and students was the Bible explained with the help of
the gloss, while the Sentences of Peter Lombard was the manual of theology of the day.
All other "summas" merely served as books of reference.
A special Paris Bible had been edited for the use of the university. It was expounded by
both bachelors and masters, the latter often being honored with the title of Masters of
the Sacred Scriptures, or of the Sacred Page, but the scope of their teaching differed
considerably, as the bachelors were obliged to confine themselves to a literal
interpretation of the sacred text. The student was bound to spend two years as a
"biblical bachelor," either specializing in one book from each Testament, or studying
the whole in a more general fashion, as was the custom in the Dominican Order, before
he could teach the Sentences. They, like every book of theology, every theological
dispute, every master's treatise, and every sermon were based on, steeped in, and
impregnated with the Bible. "The theology of the Middle Ages lived on the sacred
Scriptures," and therefore many of the most famous theological treatises are
commentaries on different parts of the Bible, and were originally the masters' lectures
to their pupils, such as St. Bonaventure's commentary on John's Gospel and those of
St. Thomas on St. Paul, composed while he was teaching in Paris.
Albert's success was immediate and immense. His learning, his eloquence, and his
sanctity drew all to him, his exposition of the Sentences being especially outstanding.
Paris still bears witness to his popularity in its Place Maubert, or Place du Maître
Albert, the square in which he held his classes being named after him, so the legend
goes. He obtained his licence and was raised to the highest honor the university could
offer, the chair of theology. He took part in public disputations, and his name figures in
documents, one of which is a condemnation of the Hebrew Talmud, doctrines from
which were being disseminated by a converted Jew of la Rochelle. This was dated the
14th May 1248, and it is the first time that Albert figures as a doctor in extant records
and the first date in his life which we know with absolute certainty.
Despite his exalted position and overwhelming popularity, Albert retained that humility
which ever had been and was always to remain so marked a characteristic. He
attributed his knowledge to the blessed Mother of God, the Seat of Wisdom, and
showed in all his writings and expositions a diffidence in putting forward an opinion of
his own unequalled in any other doctor of the church. Seldom does he put forward an
opinion without quoting it from some other authority and, if he must acknowledge
authorship, he does so in the most apologetic manner.
In 1248 the general chapter of the Dominican Order met at Paris. Its first task was to
arrange for the completion of that unification of the liturgy which St. Raymund of
Pennafort had initiated. Next it directed the brethren to do all in their power to render
effective the sentence of excommunication pronounced by the pope against the
emperor. Its third great task was that which most intimately concerned Albert, setting
up a studium generale in some of the more important provinces. The Convent of St.
James in Paris, being the only such center of higher studies in the order, had grown to
unwieldy and unmanageable proportions, numbering four to five hundred friars, whose
expenses, despite the patronage of Queen Bianca and other benefactors, were more
than the prior could meet.
The idea of separate studia in other provinces had been mooted in 1246, and was now
put into effect, Bologna being chosen for Italy, Montpellier for Provence, Oxford for
England, and Cologne for Germany. Thus was the good seed sown abroad. The friars,
having gone to Paris to gather the fruits of its learning, now disseminated them,
incorporating as it were, the university within the structure of the order.
The growth of the scholastic life of the order had been phenomenal, and presented a
spectacle hitherto unparalleled in the history of the Church. The conventual schools had
been instituted, as we have shown, to meet the need of the moment, when young men
having various degrees of education, but of whom most were wanting in the knowledge
of theology and preaching, were flocking to the Dominicans. Thus each convent was to
have its doctor or lector, who was responsible for the instruction of the whole
community, including the prior. But many of the new recruits were university-trained,
and their intellects could not be satisfied with a simple course in theology, while the
study of the Bible itself raised questions and opened up avenues of study -- history,
linguistics, philosophy, even law -- which could not be neglected if the friars were to be
truly men of culture and adequately fitted for their doctrinal and pastoral mission. Thus
as early as 1228, the qualifications of a professor which have already been mentioned
were laid down by the general chapter. Since many of the new members of the order
were university men, the studies almost automatically molded themselves on those of
Paris. The order had its own masters, bachelors, and students, and when instituted the
studium generale was, as it were, a university in miniature.
There is no positive evidence of the part Albert played in the shaping of the intellectual
life of the order at this critical formative period, but it must have been a vital one. He
was an outstanding scholar himself, and under him Cologne had attained great renown
as a center of learning. He was, too, closely associated with Blessed John the Teuton,
the Master of the order. Thus we can be certain that Albert's influence in the growth of
the structural side of the academic life of the order was proportionate to his influence
over the whole field of speculative thought in the Middle Ages.
Already enjoying an undisputed supremacy in the intellectual life of the order, Albert
returned to Cologne charged with the commission of erecting the priory into a general studium. Even previously to this the convent's scholastic reputation was high and its
geographical situation, on the highway between northern Europe and France, made it
admirably placed for a center of learning. The natural attraction it would hold for
students was powerfully reinforced by Albert's presence, which drew to his side, as if
by some magnetic force, scholars from every corner of Europe, secular as well as
religious, lay as well as clerical. His sanctity, his whole personality, and the force of his
doctrine and example drew everyone to him. A description of his mode of life by one
who was long his disciple helps us to understand this influence:
So wrote Thomas of Chantimpré about St. Albert, who could so devote himself to
prayer despite his academic activities. He also wrote at least twenty volumes in folio,
fulfilled his conventual and pastoral duties in an exemplary manner, and was for a
period burdened with the offices of provincial of his order and Bishop of Regensburg.
His energy of will must have been equal to his piety and learning.
Among Albert's many disciples appear several names of distinction -- Ulrich of
Strassburg (1) John of Friburg, Paul Langio, Arnold of Saragossa, Blessed Ambrose
Sansedonius, and St. Thomas, who outshone them all and surpassed even his master in
the content if not the extent of his learning. The friendship between these two men,
both men of genius and both saints, has many parallels in the history of the order and
the Church, but it will always remain as one of the outstanding refutations of the
theory, obviously erroneous, but held by so many people either consciously or
unconsciously, that human affection is incompatible with sanctity.
1. Who later became provincial of Germany, and used the scientific and mechanical lore he had acquired from his master to build the great organ in Strassburg Cathedral.
In the sacred sciences we profit more from prayer and devotion than from study ... for
knowledge of divine things is imprinted on our minds by union with God, who is
Wisdom itself, just as the wax molds itself to the seal -- not contrariwise (cf. second
Antiphon at lauds of Feast of St. Albert).
I saw with my own eyes -- For I was a long time his disciple -- how that venerated Friar, Master Albert, every day for many years during the period that he held the
professorship, gave himself with such assiduity to prayer day and night, that he recited
the whole Psalter; and when he had said the Hours, and finished the lessons and
disputations, he applied himself with great energy to divine contemplation and
meditation. Is it surprising that a man so virtuous, holy and pure, should surpass all
others in learning? And I can also assert that he was famous for many miracles, which
testify to the merit of his life.
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