SCHOLASTICS, or SCHOOLMEN, originally the name given to the teachers of rhetoric at the public schools under the Roman empire, but now used almost exclusively to denote the so-called philosophers of the middle ages. After the fall of the old classic civilization there ensued a long anarchy of barbarism, lasting from the Pith to the 8th c.; but from the time of Charlemagne a visible improvement took place. That great monarch encouraged learning; and the monasteries as well as the schools which he estab lished, became subsequently the seats of a revived culture of philosophy. Conformably, however, to the spirit of a time in which and literary skill were confined to churchmen, philosophical activity showed itself chiefly in the domain of theology. This preparatory period of scholasticism—say front the Oth to the 11th c.—embraces the dis tinguished names of Johannes Erigeua Scotus (see ERIGENA), who cannot, however,. be propeHy classed among the scholastics; Gerbert of Audible, afterward pope Sylvester II. (q.v.); Berengarius (q.v.) of Tours; and Lanfranc (q.v.), Archbishop of Canterbury. A further development of scholasticism occurred toward the middle of the 12th c., when Roscelinus opened up the question concerning the nature of universal conceptions, which led to the great struggle between the Xonthadists (q.v.)and Realists (q.v.). This struggle terminated in the triumph of the latter; and henceforth, during the golden age of scholasti cism (the 12th and 13th centuries), it continued to be the prevalent mode of thought in philosophy. Still, however, scholasticism regarded philosophy as dependent on theology. No one dreamed of doubting, or at least of disputing, the truth of any of the church doctrines. These were alike too sacred and too certain to he so handled, and the only thing left for a humble philosopher to do was, in fact, to sort and systematize them; hence the expression philmophia theologice ancilla (philosophy is the handmaid of theology), which has found its way down to times. Whatever did not directly belong to ecclesiastical dogma was either neglected or treated in accordance with the vague tradi tions of Platonic or Aristotelian thought handed down from antiquity. Hence sprung
that vast array of artificial subleties and distinctions which had no better foundation to rest On than gross ignorance of the matters discussed, combined with a restless tivennss. The formulas of logic were abused through an irrational realism, which regarded them not only as a means to the attainment of philosophical knowledge, but as the material organen of philosophy itself. At first the dialectic treatment of dogma was only fragmentary, as we see it in the principal scholastics of the 12th c., Gilbert de la Pollee, Alanus ab Insulis, and Petrus Lombardns (q.v.). During the 12th c., how ever, the increased intercourse of the west with the Arabs and Greeks-led to a more definite acquaintance with the physical and metaphysical writings of Aristotle, though still only through the medium of incomplete translations, and in this way the circle of vision of the scholastics at least widened, if it did not become clearer. Flom this period dates the almost papal authority of the great Stagirite in philosophy, and the rise of the vast and elaborate systems of medimval theology. The three chiefs of scholasticism in. this, its highest development, were Albertus Magnus (q.v.). Thomas Aquinas (q.v.), and Duns Scotus (q.v.); around each of whom stand groups of more or less scholars and followers. The celebrity of such teachers was largely increased by the want of books. which compelled their pupils to rely upon their oral communications, and necessitated those extraordinary public disputations which were the only means "philosophers" had of advertising their wams in the middle ages. The honor paid to them by their admirers is visible in the epithets attached to their names; thus Alanus is the doctor vniver8rdix; Alexander Hales (q.v.), the doctor irrefragabilis; Duns Scotus, the doctor ,catblilt'ssiantg; Thomas Aquinas, the doctor angelicas; Guillaume Durand of St. the doctor resolutiRsinru8, etc.