I.

Introduction

St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), sometimes called the Angelic Doctor and the Prince of Scholastics, Italian philosopher and theologian, whose works have made him the most important figure in scholastic philosophy and one of the leading Roman Catholic theologians.

Aquinas was born of a noble family in Roccasecca, near Aquino, and was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino and at the University of Naples. He joined the Dominican order while still an undergraduate in 1243, the year of his father’s death. His mother, opposed to Thomas’s affiliation with a mendicant order, confined him to the family castle for more than a year in a vain attempt to make him abandon his chosen course. She released him in 1245, and Aquinas then journeyed to Paris to continue his education. He studied under the German scholastic philosopher Albertus Magnus, following him to Cologne in 1248. Because Aquinas was heavy set and taciturn, his fellow novices called him Dumb Ox, but Albertus Magnus is said to have predicted that “this ox will one day fill the world with his bellowing”.