AQUINAS, Thomas, a celebrated scholas tic theologian, related by birth to several of the royal families of Europe: b. near Aquino in 1227; d. Fossanora, 7 March 1274. He stud ied at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Casino and the University of Naples. About the age of 17 he entered a convent of Domini cans, much against the wishes of his family. Partly to evade the endeavors Of his family to recover him, and partly on account of the ex traordinary aptitude he displayed for theolog ical studies, his superiors sent him to Cologne to hear the lectures of the famous Albertus Magnus. He was so remarkable for taci turnity, and the assiduity and apparent stolid ity with which he pursued his studies, that he was known among his fellow-students as '
to his memory were prodigious; beside the title of Angelic Doctor, bestowed on him after the fashion of the times, he was called the Angel of the Schools, the Eagle of Divines and the Fifth Doctor of the Church; in 1286 he was made by the Dominicans the doctor of their order (doctor ordixis); at the request of the Doniini cans he was, in 1323, canonized by John XXII, his tomb supplying the necessary testimony of miracles; and 1567 was declared hy Pius V the "Fifth Doctor of the Church.° The numerous works of Aquinas are all written in Latin. The most important of them is the (Summa The
which, although only professing to treat of theology, is in reality designed to form a complete and systematic summary of the knowledge of the time. All the minor works of Aquinas may be looked upon as preparatory to this great one. These are
Commentary on the Four Books of Sentences of Peter Lom
(Quodlibeta Disputata et Qumstiones Disputatz) ; the