THE Story OF /MAN'S CONTINUING QuésT TO UNDERSTAND His Worip Author of The Discoverers and The Creators_ a TH SEEKERS THE STORY OF MAN’S CONTINUING QUEST TO UNDERSTAND HIS WORLD DANIEL J. BOORSTIN ‘The oad is abays beter than he nnopi © 1996 Dutt Boor Aight seed ur nero i Pa American Capit Comentos ‘dst Unie tte by Rando Howse, ti New York, anes Coma by Rando az of Cana Limited, Teens Crt stove ide ae fling pein American Pile Soi: Een ote T's gl Version TEV) ible, 2a Bon Copyght © 1982 by Ane Bb Soe Repinedby permisinaf the Anascan Bile Socket. Fear Esa Lit xcept A Rlerkgurd Reader te by Rope oa so Hea Stangsryp- Copyright © 198 by Roe Poe and Henk Stage, Reprint pes of orth Ee Lary of Congress Cason n Pact Dats ‘Beatin Daniel (Dail ep) 19 ‘Theses te sy i's contin ot andostand Ms wed ecg ionic efenace sn inde. ISBN DATES 1 hittin itary 2 Meaning Poop) Hie 5, Meaning Phish —Reiows npects—Hisony. 1. Ti Hist H198 osc MbSK0 ita the United Sts of Acerca once paper ‘RTESHD HGH 2MS6TEDThe Discoverer The Creators ‘The Seckre ‘The Americans: The Colonial Experience ‘The Americans: The National Experience ‘The Americans: The Democratic Experience ‘The Mysterious Scien of the Law The Los World of Thomas Jfeson ‘The Genius of American Pos America and the Image of Europe The bmage:A Guide to Pseudo- Evert in America The Decne of Radicalism The Sociology of he Absurd emacracy ond lis Discontents The Republic of Techlogy ‘The Exploring Spire ‘The Republic of Leters Hiden Hisory (Clepara’s Nose ‘The Danie J Boorse Reader “The Landmark History of the American People (its Rot F. Borst) A History of the United Sates (with Brooks M. Kelley)For RUTHTHE SEEKERSCONTENTS A Personal Note tothe Reader xii BOOK ONE: AN ANCIENT HERITAGE PART |. THE WAY OF PROPHETS: A HIGHER AUTHORITY 1. From Seer to Prophet: Moses Test of Obedience $ 2.4 Covenanting God: Isaiah's Test of Faith 8 3. Struggles ofthe Believer: Job 1 4A World Seif Explained: Evilin the Fast 14 PART Il. THE WAY OF PHILOSOPHERS: A WONDROUS INSTRUMENT WITHIN 5, Socrates’ Discovery of Ignorance 21 {6.The Life in the Spoten Word 33 7, Plato's Other World of Ideas 37 8. Paths to Utopia: Virtues Writ Large 43 9, Aristotle: An Outsider in Athens 47 10. On Paths of Common Sense $1 1. Aristotle's God fora Changeful World S7Conteme PART III, THE CHRISTIAN WAY: EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNITY 12, Fellowship ofthe Faithful: The Church 63 13. Islan of Fath: Monasteries 71 14, The Way of Disputation: Universities 8 15.Nlavieties of the Protstan: Way: Frasmus, Luther, Calvin 91 BOOK TWO: COMMUNAL SEARCH PART IV. WAYS OF DISCOVERY: IN SEARCH OF EXPERIENCE 16, The Legacy of Homer: Myth and the Heroic Past 107 17. Herodotus and the Birth of History 111 18, Thucydides Creates a Political Science 119 19, From Myth to Literaure: Virgil 123 20. Thomas More's New Paths to Utopia 129 21. Francis Bacon's Vision of Old Idols and New Dominions 132 22. From the Soul tothe Sef: Descartes's Island Within 139 PART V. THE LIBERAL WAY. 23, Machiavelli’ Reach fora Nation 149 24. John Locke Defines the Limits of Knowledge and of Government 153 25. Voltaire’ Sunomons to Civilization 160 26, Rousseau Seeks Escape 167 27 Jefferson's American Quest 171 28. Hegel's Turn to “The Divine dew on Barth” 174Coments A BOOK THREE: PATHS TO THEFUTURE PART VI, THE MOMENTUM OF HISTORY: WAYS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE 29.A Gospel and a Science of Progress: Condorcet w Comte 183 30. Karl Mars's Pursuit of Destiny 190 31. From Nations to Cultures: Spengler and Toynbee 194 32, AWorld in Revolution? 200 PART VIL. SANCTUARIES OF DOUBT 33, “AIl History Is Biography" : Carlyle and Emerson 207 54, Kierkegaard Turns from History to Existence 213 85. From Teh 1 Sieams of Consciousness with William James 218 36.The Solace and Wonder of Diversity 221 37.The Literature of Bewilderment 28 PART VIIL A WORLD IN PROCESS: THE MEANING IN THE SEEKING 238, Acton’s “Madonna ofthe Future" 235 39. Malraus’s Charms of Anit-Destiny 240 40, Rediscovering Time: Bergson's Creative Bvolution 245 4. Defining she Mystery: Einstein's Search for Unity 280 Some Reference Notes 261 Acknowledgments 279 Index 281A Personal Note to the Reader Ar longa there's no fd, the noble brother wil ae We, when the piles Begin o grow! 8 trae, The Pee ofthe stra Mae ‘Caught between two etemities—the vanished past and the unknown furare— ‘we never cease to seek our bearings and ovr sense of diecton, We inherit oar legacy of the sciences and the ats—works ofthe great Discoverer and Cre- ators, the Columbuses and Leonardos and Shakespeares—recounted in my 10 earlier volumes, We glory in their discoveries and creations. But we are all ‘Seekers. We all vant to know wit. Man is the asking animal. And vie the finding, the belief that ve have found the Answer, can separate us and make us forget our humanity it isthe secking that continues to bring us together, that ‘makes and keeps us human, While this brief volume doesnot aia to survey the history of philosophy or of religion, it does sample ways of seeking by great philosophers and religious leaders inthe West, This is story not of finding but ‘of secking. Ihave chosea those Seekers who stil speak most eloquently to me, and hose pas foward meaning in our tives and in our history stl invite ws ‘on our personal quest. ‘Our Westem culture has seen three grand epochs of seeking, Fist ws the roi Way of Prophets and Philosophers seeking salvation or truth fom the God above or the reason within each of us. Then came an age of communal ‘seeking, pursuing civilization in the iberal piri and then most recenly an age ‘of socialsciences when, oriented toward the future, man seems med by forces ‘of history. We draw on all these ways in our personal seach, They sil speak ‘01s, not so much for their answers as fr their ways of asking the questions. Tn thie ong quest, Wester culture has tured from socking the end or purpose ‘to seeking causes from the Why to the How. Might this empty meaning from ‘our hornan experience? Then how can we recaprure and envich our sense of purpose? ‘The plan ofthis volume as a whole is chronological. But in detail it has a shingle scheme. Each ofthe three books overlaps chronologically with its pre- docessr, a8 the story advances from antiquity t0 the presen. This, t00, is ‘story without end, as we continue fo explore our humanity inthe eternal Why. ‘And we see how we have come from seeking meaning te finding meaning in the seoking,BOOK ONE AN ANCIENT HERITAGE We ave common ky. A common formant compare, What mari | wha nd of lord hry ch man okt othe ah? Ter one Absa Great Seskers never become obvlete. Their answers mye dspace ‘but the questions they posed remain. We ahi and ae enriched by theit ways of asking. The Hetrew prophets andthe ancient Greek philosophers remain alive to challenge us. Their voices resound ares the millenia with power far ut of propection tothe bie ives othe sal comm ties here they lived. Cistnity ought together thei pea the (Gog above an the feason witin—iato churches, monastns, and un ‘eres tha lng stevived hele ounders, Tete woul guide, solace, Confine Seokers forthe Wester cesPART ONE A HIGHER AUTHORITY THE WAY OF PROPHETS:1 From Seer to Prophet: Moses’ Test of Obedience ‘The future has always been the great reasure-house of meaning. People every- Where, dissatisfied with naked experience, have clothe the present with signs ‘of things to come. They have found cues in the lives of sacrificial animals in the flight of bitds in the movements of the planets, in their own dreams and sneezes, The saga of the prophets records efforts to ccase being the victim of ‘the gods whims hy deciphering divine intentions in advance, toward becoming an independent self-conscious self, freely choosing beliefs ‘The Mesopotamians experimented with ways t0 Force from the present the secrets ofthe future. Diviners watched smoke curling up from buming incense, they interpreted the Figures on clay dice to give a mame to the coming year. ‘They answered questions about te future by pouring oi into @ bow of water ‘eld on ther lap ad noting its movement on the surface or toward the rim, ‘The Hebrew scriptures leave traces of how they too sensed the divine inten- toa, and gave today's experince theiridescence of tomorrow: Jacob “dreamed, and behold ladder set upon the earth, andthe top ot reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it And behold the Lord ‘too above it, and said, am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, andthe Goa ‘of Isaac; the land whereon thou lest, to thee wil give it, andtothy seed’ "And ‘the chief priest use the Urin and Thumm, sacred stones carted in his beast plate. These gave the divine answer, by wheter the "yes" or the “no stone was first drawn out David consulted just such an oracle, manipulated by the priest Abiatar, before going into battle against Saul. When the “yes stone appeared, forecasting his victory over the Philistines, he advance in bate “A man who is now called a “prophet (nabi” we readin the Book of Sarnuel, “was formerly called a‘seer"""The “sce” was one wi saw the future, and his influence came from his power to predic. The pies predictor wh smite his Clients int the intentions of the gous was hed in awe when his predictions came ‘rue. The prophet had a diferent kind of power, He was anabi (“procaimee” ot announcer") and spoke with the awesome authority of Gov himself. So, the ancient Hebrew prophess opened the way to belief. °T wil raise thems up a Prophet from among their brethren,” declared the Lord, “and will put my ‘word in his mouth; ad e shall speak unto them all ha sll command im (Deuteronomy 18:18). They used the words “mouth” and “nabi” interchange ably. Our English “prophet” from the Grock: a speaker before, or for) cares ‘the same message. While the seer forecast how eveats would turn out, the prophet prescribed ‘what men should believe, and how they should behave. In ancient Israel the6 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE ‘vo roles a frst were not always easily distinguished. But sers, mere fore casters, came to be displaced by prophets, touched by the divinity for whom they spoke, Tt vas this transformed role that opened the way tothe discovery of belie, toward the self-consciousness that awakened people to their freedom 10 choose, and their responsibilities for choice. The history of ancient Hebrew prophecy is saga ofthis unfolding self, The seers, adept at interpreting signs and omens, sometimes drew on their own dreams aad visions of ghosts and spirits for sighs of the future, The scer could sce things on earth that others could not see, But the prophet caried massages from another world. Ii not surprising, then that dis “Man of the Spirit” heard his message in ecstasy and so seemed “touched?” with madness, His eestsy was commonly a group phe- ‘nomenon, somtimes expressed in song. “This view of the prophet as messenger of God i distinctively biblical, With itcame disiust ofthe techniques and tricks ofthe seer—the ways ofthe pagan Canaanite When you come ito the lth the Lord your God svg yu, don’ follow the disgusting practices of the ations that are there. Dont sacrifice your cir in the fires on your lars: and don't It Your people preticedvinaon or hok for ‘mens tse spells charms, nl don them const the spits ofthe dead In the lant you are about to aocupy, people Follow te avice of thse who practice ivinaon an fo fr omens, bat he Loe your Ged does net alow yout dhs Instead be wl send you a prophet like me [Moses] ftom among Your own pele, and you ue to obey him. (Deuteronomy 189-22) ‘When the founding prophet, Moses, spoke o the Pharaoh he spoke for God! “Thus said Yahweh.” And it was through the prophets that God govemed His people. What proved crucial forthe future of oie inthe West was the Hebraic ‘ideology that came with the Mosaic religion, ‘The single all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent God would impose on ‘mankind the obligation of belief—and eventually of choice. This “ethical monotheism” wold crest its own conundrums. ‘When the prophet brought no mere blueprint of the future but the com smandments of God, he offered anew test ofthe believer, the est of Obedience Moses, who had seen God face-to-face, brought the Ten Commandments direct from God on Sina, The frst ive commandments prohibiting the worship of len gods forbidding idolatry and blasphemy, commanding observance ofthe Sabbath and honor to parets-—afirmed the trations oftheir society. But the remaining five commandments ll cast i the negative—prohiiting munler, ‘adultery theft false testifying, and the coveting of neighbors’ oods—empha- ‘Size the freedom of the hearer to choose a way of right belief and so avoid sin‘The Way of Prophets: A Higher Auarey 7 ‘The Ten Commandments thus made obedience the mark ofthe believer. This ‘dea would become, millennia later, the very heat of Islam (om Arabi, for “resignation” surrendering to God's wil}. ‘But anther distinctive element ofthe Mosaic religion would open the gate- ‘ways of belief. Th intimate God of Moses had mysteriously shared powers ith his creatures. He even treated his people as his equals by covenanting with ‘them, The supreme paradox was that this all-powerful Creator-Go sought & Voluntary relation with is creautes, And the relation berween God and his ‘chosen peop, the Children of Isracl, ws tobe freely chosen om both sides, “IE _you listen o these commands and obey tem faiehully, hen the Lord your God ‘ill continue ro keep his covenant with you and will show you his constant love, as he promised your ancestors.” This peculiar covenant relationship between God and his eeatures proclaimed God's preference fora freely given ‘obedience. This signaled the divine intention that man’s life shouldbe ruled by his choices and was the historic Hebrew: affirmation of fee wll, As the ancient “lebrews were His chosen people, 0 He was their chosen God, About the eighth century. the oracles ofthe Hebrew prophets were writen ‘dow bythe prophets or tei series, Then the prophess assumed a role beyond ‘the community where they lived to whom Cod had Fist addressed His message. ‘The prophets oracles now addressed all who would know his words—even far ‘heyond his own time and pace. So the utterances of prophets became an end ‘ng prophetic literature, And the words ofthe prophets becatne a body of divine teachings vali for people everywhere. Thus writing expanded tribal revelations ‘nto a word religion Such a transformation hud occured before when the uter- ances of Zarathustra (late second millennium 8.) became the Foundations of Zoroastrianism, It would occur later, (09, with the recording of the words of ‘esus and then with the uterances of Mohamuned inthe seventh centr.2 A Covenanting God: Isaiah's Test of Faith ‘The prophetic movement that set Western thought on the path of belief and of choice began around 750 a.c, and would lat for about fve hundged yeas, I brought no mere commandments but a call to faith. And she Hiterature of prophecy collected at various times, would give substance tothe religion of Isracl. The Hebrew prophets were quite diferent from the earlier cut prophets ‘who had lived near the remples and joined in the rites wit the prests—or the court prophets atthe royal sanctuaries who predicted the desire victory forthe king. Those "professionals" had included many who would be stigmatized as false prophets ‘The great Hebrew prophets who opened pats to belief were a varied bred. ‘They could be described as amateurs. For most were not priests, While thet tuterances had no authentic sel ofa sacred profession, each had been called in his own way, and so had his own “vocation,” a personal invitation o speak For God. Bach directed the voice of God toward the peculiar ils of his time and place. All reminded the people of Israel of how they were fling to live upto their covenant with ther chosen God. “The words of the first of ths line of classical Hebrew prophets 0 he pre- served in writing were no longer directed only tothe king. They already aimed ata wider audience. Amos was an orator directly addressing a whole people. “Lam not the kind of prophet who prophesies tor pay." Amos explained, “Lam ‘aberdsman, and Ttake cae of fig tees, But the Lord took me from my work a8 a shepherd. and ordered me to come and prophesy 10 his people Israel” (Amos 7:14-15). He preached in a time of prospeity when the wealthy lived in luxury and the poor were oppressed and overtaxed, Religion, he com- plained, fad become mere ritual. He spoke for socal justice and the simple faith of Yahweh, Tn the Book of Amos we hear God's terifying judgment on Israel, und foresee its destruction by fie and famine if ts people donot repent “here will be wale an eres of somo inthe ety streets. Buen farmers wil he ‘called to mou he de alongwith those wo are paid to mv, There wil be wai ing inal the vineyas, Al his wil ake place teem Tam coming to punish you” ‘The Lord has spoken For you it wil be day of darkness and no ig. wl be liken man who rns rom on and mess hee! Or ike ahha comes home 1nd pats is hand on the wall—only to be bien bya shake! (Amos $:16-19) "The poople of Israel must choose their way. "Make it your aim toda what is right, not what is evil, so that you may Hive. Then the Lord God Almighty really‘The Way of Prophet: Higher Authority ° ‘vil be with you, a8 you claim he is, Hate what is evi, love what is right, and see tha justice prevals in the cours.” The suoceeding prophets, afer their fashion, carried a similar message ta their mes. Hosea, following Amos, preached to the northern kingdom of Isael. He attacked their iofatry and forecast the dine consequences for Irae ithe peo ple di not mend their ways and return to their God. This prophetic lesson was allegrized in bis unfaithful wife, Gomer, who had prostituted herself just as the People Israel had sold themselves tothe Canaanite elit gods, But Hosea too concludes with God's covenant-bound promise to give a new life to a repentant Irv “The Book of Isiah, the longest of the prophetic books, collects the writings ‘of poets of several periods The prophet now is no longer only a preacher of reform inthe ways of Tsrael today; he also reveals God’ rein history. We hear ‘how He punishes some nations and rewards others, The southern kingdom of Judah, Isai warns, is theatened not only by its own sins of disobedience but by the attacks of neighboring Assyria, "the rod of God's wrath” Isaiah's next, Prophecies come from the time when the people of Judah, the southern king- dom, were in exile in Babylon. They have been punished enough for thee sins “Comfort ny people” says ou id. “Comfert her! Encourage the peopl of Jerusalem, “Tell hem they have steed long enough td tee sins ee now fee [save punished hem in ful fo al hee sins (sai 401-2) “Arise Jerusalem, and shiek the sur; ‘The slr of the Loa is shining on yout Oter nations wil te covered hy darkness, But on you the ight of the Lord will shine...” (sah 0:1-2) Now God promises victory to Isat “ave ramped the naons ike grapes, nd noone cme to elp ms {ramped them in my ange, nd thir blood tas tine sl my cling 1 decid thatthe tine wo save my peopl had come: ‘as time punish ee enemies” (saiah 633-4) [And He announces a New Creation, sm making new earth and new heavens. The events ofthe pus wll be comm letely forgot... The new Jerslem rake wll be fill of jo, and er people Willbe apy.” aia 6817-18),AN ANCIENT HERITAGE Isaiah's God then, ithe God not only of Tsrael but ofall history, “Heaven is yy throne, and the earth is my foostoo” (Isaiah 66:1). “Tam coming to gather the people ofall the nations. When they come together, they will ee what my power can do and will know that Tam the one who punishes them (Isaiah (66:18-19),Jeremuah’s warnings (ate seventh century-early sixth century Bc) that Israel would be punished for idolatry were drastically Fulfilled bythe fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian king Nebuchasnezzar, by the destruction ofthe ‘Temple, and by the Babylonian exile of the people of Judah. But a change of heart, God promises, wil ave the people. “Twill make & ‘new covenant withthe people of Israel and withthe poople of Juda til not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I tok them by the hand and ed them out of Egypt. Although was like a husband other they Aid not keep that covenant... T will put my law within them and waite it oa their heats 1 will be dheir God, and they willbe my people, None of them wil have to teach his fellow countryman to know the Lord, because all will know ‘me, from the Teast ro she greatest” (Jeremiah 31:31~34), ‘The ast ofthe grea prophets, Ezekiel, deported by the conquerors, had carried the message of fit in Yawn an personal responsiilty. Tefal of Ferusalern| in $87 9. andthe destruction ofthe Teraple were the fate of idolatry ‘The ont spoke to man sid, “What is this prover people keep repeting inthe land of Ie? “The pense the sour grapes, Butte children othe sortase” As suey as Tam te living God" says the Sovereign Ld "you wil nt repeat his prover in fel any more. The life of every person belongs tom, the life ofthe pat~ ‘ntas well as thatthe child, The persan who sis ste ane who will die" (Ezekel 18-4) Only the choice of Yahweh and not the merit of the people made Tae a spe: cial people. And since Yahweh i everywhere, the duties ofthe believer go with him wherever he may be Ezekiel too sees Israel redeemed in a New Covenant, akind of new creation, ‘This he foresees inthe famous figure ofthe Valley of Dry Bones, when the Lord commands: “Prophesy othe bones. Tell these dey hones ine tothe wor he Loe ell ‘hem ht the Sovereign Lord am saying othe Lam going o put breath ato you tnd bring you tock to fe, wil give you snes and muses, ard cover you with sin. wil put rea no you and bring you bask tie, Then you wll now th 1 smthe Lord" Ezekiel 374-6) ‘The survival ofthe fith of Yahweh didnot require fixed sanctuary. Tat faith could live in the heat ofa believer anywhere.3 Struggles of the Believer: Job ‘While Moses with his commandments posed the test of obedience and the Tebrew prophets pose the ts of futh, the search for meaning was not so sim pile. The Seeker would not be merely a receptive audience. He woul put fait othe tes of experience. The classi raval ofthis test isin the tale of Job. ‘And his struggles would foreshadow the problems ofall later Seekers. “The Book of Job inthe Old Testament embroiders an old folk ale ofa just man who suffers unaccouttably and seeks explanation trom his God, Yahweh ‘Himself had boasted to Satan (the Accuset in his heavenly council. "Did you noice my servant Job? There is no one on ea a failful and good ashe is. He worships me and is careful not to do anything evil” And Satan replied, “Would Job worship you if he got nothing out of it?” Satan sugests shat Job's virtue and piety ae explained only by his desire forthe reward of ros- perity. Job has already received the reward of his virtue in ich farm, a beau tiful family, and the respect of all his neighbors. "You bless everyting he does," Satan insists, “and you have given him enough cattle to fill the whole country. But now suppose you take everything he has—he will eurse you to your fice! ‘Yahweh then alfows Satan to put the man’ fit tothe test, Job’ cattle are ‘sfolen, his sheep ae struck by lighning. His children are all killed in a desert, ‘storm. And, finaly, Satan covers Job's body with sores. Sill Job does nt curse God, but he does curse the day he was born, And he asks, “Why et men go on living in misery? Why give light so men in gre? Instead of eating, I mourn, and Tcan never stop groaning” ‘Three friends then come to Job, and cach in turn gives his reasons for Job's suffering, Each has another vay of saying that Job is being punished, “Can anyone be righteous in the sight of God or pure before his Crestor?” ‘asks Eliphaz, "God does not trust his heavenly servants; he Finds fault even with his angels. Do you think he will rus a creature of clay, a thing ‘of dust that can be crushed like a moth?” Bildad suggests that Job's ci «ren must have sinned and so God only punished them as they deserved Zophar insists that Job must have sinned even when he did not know it “God is punishing you less than you deserve.” Job himself does not admit to sin, and does not curse God but only complains of God's capricious ress. There ssems to be no understanding of the ways of God, Ina second round of dialogues, these friends recite the punishment of the wicked, ‘while Job retorts that on the contrary the wicked do. prosper. Tn still2 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE another round, the friends once again accuse Job of sins he had not ree~ fognized. But Job demands an opportunity to present his case directly to God. Still Job does not curse Gad but extols the Wisdom “not to be found among men.” ‘When God finally responds to Job's complaint of God's eaprcionsness i is not by assertions of His power, but by reminders of Tis plory and tbe wonders of is ereation. He sppels nt to revelation but to experience. And He reminds Job that be is aldressing the Crestor Go ‘Who are you to question ay wis with your gnrant emp word? Stand up now ikea ma ad anser th questions Lak you, Were you there whe I made the work? Tryon know so much, el me boat ‘Who decided how large it woul be? ‘Who stretched the measring line over it? Do you know all the answers? Gab 382-9) Jo. have you ever inal your ite ‘commanded day to dava? Hace you ordered the dawn seize the earth and shake the wicked from thei bidng places? Bob 38:12-13) ‘Unashiamedly God boasts the shythms and glories of nature along with the bizare miscellany of his creatures: ‘Whi that foods the ravens ‘wen they wander about hungry ‘When their young ey 10 me for fod? Bo you know when moun goats are ben? Have you watcha wild dat ive it? Job 38:11-32) Wasit you, Joh who ma horses 0 sone ‘au gave them heir lowing anes? a you make then leap ke cuss su fghten men wit their snorting? (ob 3198) Lock athe monster Beheret; Teret him and Teed 90, Heats gras like aco. but what scength there sin is body, lob 40:5) ‘Can yu catch Leviathan wit a fishook erties tongue down with a ope? {Can you put rope th his spout 10 put a ok Uuough his uv? (lb 4:10) “Touch him ese and you'll ever ty again Job 1:18)The Way of Prophet: Higher Authority B Finatly Job confesses thatthe Lord is “all powerful ‘thing that you want tha you can do every- ‘raked about things didnt understand, shout marvels too grat fr me to kos. In the pst Fine only what others had od ne, ‘but now The seen you with my own eyes. So fan ashamed ofall have sid adept i dus an ashes. Job 42:20) “The Lord finally accepts Job's confession, arvet than the words of his friends, And blesses Job with a greater prosperity than he hal ever known befone— fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, wo thousund head of cattle and ‘thousand donkeys. Now he has seven sons and thee daughters, and no other ‘omen inthe word areas beauifil as Job's daughters He lived a hundred and forty years, enjoying his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Why is Job not punished for questioning God's ways? Nor is be ever told ‘why he ad suffered. Was God now rewarding his Fith—or only his indopen- dent spice? Could God have adeired Job's courage in challenging his maker? ‘Or was God only reminding Job that God's ways were beyond his understand ing? Did God enjoy wrestling with his creatures? ‘This problem that haunted Wester thought--Why would a good God allow evil in the world He hil crested?—wes one that Judeo-Christian man had ‘made for himself Tt was plainly a by-product of ethical monotheism: a “ilemma” created by the three indisputable qualities of an all-enowing, all- powerful, and al-henevolent God, "If God were good” observed C, S. Lewis, “He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not nappy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both,” Some have ‘chosen a more radical solution. “The oy exeuse for God,” sad Stendhal," that he doesnot exist” ‘Reluctant to abandon belief in their God, Western Seekers have exercised Togenuity and imagination, Not unl the seventeenth century dd the philoso- her Leibniz give a name to this troublesome problem, “Theodey” (from Greek theos, Gd, und dit, justice), he called the study aimed to justify God's ‘ways to man. And ever since Job, thoughtial men and women have been tanta- lized by the meaning of evil They would deny neither their God nor the Fats ‘of ther suffering lives. Where would they torn?4 A World Self-Explained: Evil in the East But this problem of justifying God's ways to man did not haunt all the world sully, ther world religions were not especially troubled by how to acount for the suffering ofthe innocent ofthe existence of evil, The Muslims (rom {slan, surrender to divine will) believed that God owed no explanations to His insignificant creature, and it was blasphemy for man Job-lke to demand one. Sil, Mustim thinkers volunteered explanations of their own. One was that everyting was predestined by God for His own insertable reasons ‘whomever God desires o guide, expands is breast las \Whomaerer be desires ed ast, "He makes his breast narow, ight (Koran, Sur 6:128) So God's ways need no further goss, for “He leads none astray save the ungodly" And "Whatever good visits thee, it is of God; whatever evil visits thee is oftyselE.” For the Muslim, wrong-worsip, flue 9 surender the one God, was te sum of all evil, for which man alone must bear esponsibility. ‘This was the paradox of Islam. For every man must bear the consequences of failure to surrender to “the Lord of the Lord of the worlds” Yet any an insertable God could puide man tothe true worship. Inthe Koran, "the Book in which thee is no doubt.” Muslims dissolved the “problems of seri” in the unchallengeable sovereignty of God. Who was man to make suffering a “problem” when it was simply a fact of Allah's creation? Hindus and Buddhists, who had not committed themselves ta single Cre- ‘or God, a so ha not the burden of ethical monotheism, found their ove ‘ways of explaining evil and suffering. “For Hindu though,” Alan Wats observes, “there is no Problem of Evil. The conventional, eatve world is nec essarily a world of opposites. Lightis inconceivable apat from darkness, order ismeaningless without disoeder, and, ike wise, up without down, sound without silence, pleasure without pun.” The fertile Indian imagination enjoyed enrich- ing their populous celestial pantheon and embroidering their prolific mythot- ‘ony. They even imagined some gods who created evil against their own will. Pajapas created the golden egg of the universe. He crested the gos, and there was ‘daylight Then, by his downward behing, he created the deo, a they were -darknes fri, He new that he had created ei for himself he seuck the demons ‘with evil and they were overcome, Therefore, the Igend which tells ofthe Bae ecveen gods snl demons ik not eve foe they were overcome becuse Pray struck them with evi (Sta 11.0111)‘The Way of Prophets: A Higher Auarey 18 ‘Other gods created evil willingly. When a wise man asks why Brhaspati the ‘Bur ofthe gods, told aie he replies, “A creatures, even gods, are subject to passions. Otherwise the univers, composed ast sof good and evil, could not continue to develop." The gods themselves were pleased atthe variety and mix- ‘ue and plenitude of tho creation, which would have been incomplete without «vil. This mixture was revealed inthe paradoxes of good demons and evil xs. ‘The wonderful plenitude appeared in the birth of death, i the overpopulation ‘of the heavens with gods, inthe appearance of heretical gods, and every con- cy finally produces Tyranny. Procreation at the wrong seasons avceleates this process by intermingling the races of gold silver, brass, and iron. Tnciden- tally Plato offers a whimsical Pythagorean formula, improved by the Muses, for finding the best seasons of procreation. The Republic was no the last stp in Plato's move from the Socratic Way of Dialogue tothe way of dogma. After The Republi and probably ater his last Scifian venture in 360, Plato wrote another work of similar length, The Laws. COscensibly this, too, isin the form of s dialogue, But long monologues Fl, ‘whole Books offering Plato's views as those of “an Athenian Stranger” Here dialogue ceases tobe a lively intellectual encounter and becomes mere frame for the Athenian Stranger’ opinion, The Laws’ Twelve Books begin with sill another exposition ofthe origins of goverment and the lessons of history, the kinds of constitutions, schemes of education, and the nature of virtue. Along the way are sententious observations om the pleasures and perils of strong tink, on crime and punishment, sex, slavery, property, and the family. While The Republic was fora community “ofa size to which itcan grow without los ing its unity? the Laws are designed fora community of §,040 households. To ensure that the Laws willbe “reversible,” Plato prescribes Nocturnal Coun- cil of specially educated Guardians, Most of te ideas in The Laws are beter explained in other dialogues. But the hopes for the rule ofthe wise found in The Republic, a city “id up in the heavens,” have become demands for the rule of earthly laws. And so Pato has displaced the question by the answer.9 Aristotle: An Outsider in Athens ‘Who would have guesced that Plato's most famous disciple would be (in words tributed to Pato) “the foal tha kicks is mother"? Or thatthe iheritor of the mantle of the man sent this death for exposing the pretensions of his time ‘would be the Wests frst eneyelopeis? Or that it was possible to build phi osophy on a faith that “What everyone believes str” (Consensus ommiun)? (Or that this Aristotle, a prize pupil in Plato's Academy for twenty years, Tostructed inthe Theory of Fons denying the reality ofthe sensible word, ‘would produce a grand omaiua-gatherum of facts on everything in the heav= ens and on the earth—from the ways of bees and horses tothe form of the ‘human heart and brain and he lw of ations civilized and harharic? ‘Yet precisely such a prodigy emerged from classical Athens. Seekers found Tues in he successes, failures, and confusions of predecessors, who became their inspiration, tei targets, their resource. rom Socrates, Plat learned both ‘caution and the nood for bold patterns of meaning of his own, From Plato, Aris- tose learned the perils of deserting the word of the sonses, Sill the later some- ‘how lid not make the earlier ielevant. Seekers, lke artists, never wholly clisplaced those who had tried before, They all enlarged and enriched the mem, [Aste isthe colossus whose works both illuminate and cast a shadow on European thought in the next ‘wo thousand years. Though thoroughly im= mersed in fourth century 8.C. Athens, he Was an outsider. “The Stagrite.” his nickname in the Middle Ages, underlined his non-Athenian origins. Born in ‘Stagira town in northeastern Greece in 384 8, he did not come ro Athens “ul he was seventeen, His father, Ncomachus, was the personal physician to the king of Macedonia, Amyntas, who was the father of Philip of Macedon and [grandfather of Alexander the Great, Aristotle’ family had long tation in the practice of madicine, then the most practically minded of the Greek sei ences. Affer he was left an orphan, he was sent to Athens for his education. ‘There he joined Plato’s Academy, as a student. But he never ceased to be a ranger. As a “metic resident foreigner—he could ot own real estate in Athens, “In Athens," Arstce recalled in a lester writen just before his death, “the ‘same things are not proper fr a tanger as fora etizen: iis dificult co stayin Athoas:" He is teported to have observed acily thar the enly honor the city of| [Athoas ever gave hia was the accusation of impiety, in 323 a.c, Pato was away on his second Sicilian frlie when Aristotle fist came to Athens. But despite Plato's occasional absences Plato's spirit dominated the Academy.* AN ANCIENT HERITAGE ‘The impressionable young Aristotle was only one among many Foreigners satracted to the Academy by Plato’s fume in norte Greece. He seems to have read Plato's dialogues during these years, And he was especially impressed by te Phaedo, which became his model for his own commemoration ofa friend ‘many years later. Even his works atacking Plato's theory of ideas reveal how deeply Plat had influenced him, But he was not sympathetic tothe emphasis ‘on mathemati n the Academy, signaled by the legendary inscription over the entrance: "Only geometers may enter” “The moderns have turned philosophy {nto mathematies, Aristotle would later complain inthe Metaphysics, “though ‘hey pretend that one should study them for further ends." Plato provided a shining target for the young and increasingly independent outsider. Plato's rand otherworldly theme that denied the reality ofthe sensible world proved the perfect challenge, for Aristotle's practical spirit was obsessed with the range and variety of experience, Stil, he was sympathetic enough to Plato's {ntellectul sales to remain in the Academy For twenty years. He didnot leave the Academy until Plato's death in 347 a. and even then went to join another cite of Plato's followers In retraspect we might wonder why Aristotle, reputedly Plato's most beil- Tiant pupil, was not shen named ead of the Academy. But be had probably already spoken out against Plato's theory of forms. A more eligible candidate ‘vas Speusippus, son of Plato's sister. As a “metic"—a resident alien—Aris ‘ofl could not have inherited the property without x special dispensation, The rising Demosthenes was at this very time string Athenian fears ofthe perils from Macedonia, where Aristode had been bom and raised. Nor could Aristole retuen to Stara t had just heen destroyed (348 8.) by Philip as one of the last obstacles this expansion of his Macedonian empire and the Athenians hha not been able to rescue it All this provided the opportunity for Aristotle to set out on his own version of Plato's Sicilian adventure, Joined by Xenocrates, a friend from the Acad- femy, he weat in search ofa site fora new academy, and was artracted by an ‘adventurous king, Hermias, ofa small kingdom in Asia Minor, whose capital was Atarseus, Heras may have visited the Academy in Athens, and seems to have welcomed the enlightened guidance of Platonic philosophers. He as- signed a city, Assos, for their new Academy, and gave his niece and adopted daughter to Aristotle in martiage. At Assos the philosophers met and conversed ina peripaas, a covered walk, the protosype of Aristotle's later more famous academy. And there Aristotle pursued his lifelong imerest in nature, recorded in numerous references in his Natural History t places and creatures in tis prt of Asia Minor. Bur Hermias meta violent death at the hands of the Per sans before he could become a Platonic philosopher-king. Aristotle would pase his lost patron in a eulogy to Arete, Virwe. After oaly three years at‘The Way of Philosophers: WondiousInstramene Wihin ~ lrmias" academy, Aristotle moved to the nearby island of Mytelene, where he as when Philip of Macedon weut seeking a tutor for his son Alexander. Ta historic coincidence the West's most influential philosopher was instructing the furare conqueror ofthe most far-flung empire ofthe West before Roman times. Plutarch reports on Philip’s search for the world’s greatest philosopher tortor his thirteen-year-old son. The reasons for Philip's choice ‘of Aristole are not clear, for Aristotle had not yet a grand reputation, Perhaps iste himself hil sought the post to ensure the rebuilding of his hometown ‘of Stagira, We do know that Arstote was handsomely rewarded for his tutor. ial services, and that he died a rich man. It also appears that Philip and Alexan- der subsidized Aristotle's research in natural history by assigning pamekeepers 1 tag the wild animals of Macedonia, Unfortunately, she drama ends ini climax, for there i itl evidence of Aristotle's lasting influence on Alexander the Great, Aristotle never mentions Alexander in his surviving works, nor refers directly to his ime as tutor in Macedonia. Nor do we have a report fom Alexander himself of his impressions of the world’s greatest philosopher. ‘Bertrand Russell unchartably speculates tha the ambitious young Alexander ‘must have been bored by “the prosy old pedant set over him by his father to keep him out of mischief. “The young man is not a proper audience for political science,” Avstole complained, "he has no experience of lf, and because he sil follows his ‘emotions, e will only listen no purpose, uslessly” Still, Aristrle seems to ‘nave written some pamphlets especially forthe young Alexander, among them ‘On Kingship, In Praise of Colonies, aud possibly The Glories of Riches. For the practical minded Aristotle the Platonic philosopher-king ideal most have seemed pure fantasy He was more impressed by the posible tha resided inthe actual character of the Hellenic race," which was intermediate between the Europeans, who were "fll of spirit, but wanting in inteigence and ski, and therefore they retain comparative feedom, but have no politcal organiza tion, and ae incapable of ruling over others.” and he natives of Asia. intel- Tigent and inventive, but... wanting in spirit, and therefore they are always in state of subjection and slavery.” By happy chance, the Hellenic race, sivated Dbewween them, was “intermediate in character, being high-spirited and also intelligent. Hence it continues fee, ands the best governed of any nation, and, if it could be formed ino one state, would be able to rule the work.” But by ‘including barbarians with Greoks, Alexander's grandiose scheme failed to reap the special benefits ofthe Hellenic characte. [Aer thre years, when Alexander was only sixteen, his father, Philip, went ‘on campaign against Byzantions and lft is son as regent. This ended Aris- torle’s term as tor but was only the beginning of a Macedonian friendship ‘vith the general Antipatr that would shape his life, When the twenty- year-old0 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE Alexander came to the throne in 336 and set out on his ambitious Asian cam. paign, he left Antipater as his regent for Greece, Aristotle benefited from his ‘developing friendship, an he named Antiater asthe executor of his wil, All {his helps explain Aristotle's pean to friendship in his Eves. “Without fiends 1 one would choose to go on living, though he possessed every other good thing” Macedonia was dominating Greece, and the Macedonian power over {he peninsula would be helpful to Aristotle on his retum to Athens. But the ‘Macedonian connection would eventually be bis doom,10 On Paths of Common Sense [Returning to Athens and finding the Academy under less tren auspices, Aristotle setup is own teaching center inthe Lyceum, a grove and gymnasium near Atheas, which Soerates himself had enjoyed. There Aristotle would stroll ‘onthe publie walk (peripats) talking philosophy with his students uni it was time for their rubbing with ol. Following th plan ofthe Academy, the Lyceum too was a cult of the Muses along with Jecture rooms and a library. Legend «tes Aristotle with collecting here the fis extensive systematically arranged Tibeary. Symposia, o festive meals, were conducted by rales that Aristale him self composed. [At the Lyceum, Aristotle lectured, pursued scientific research, supervised and collated the research of disciples. The mornings he gave to lectures for serious scholars, his evenings to any who wanted to come. He walked a8 he talked and so became the “peripatetic” philosopher. The atmosphere was quite lifleren rom that of Plato's Academy with its Way of de Dialogue, where the Tight came from sparks struck by conversing minds, Here Aristotle sought the Fight of experience of the sensible worl, ro which Plato gave no dignity. Ars- totle was closer to the pre-SocraticTonian philosapher-scientiss who asked ‘what the world was made of and how it worked, He collected his own note- books on all subjects, and made them avaiable wo students. Assigning each sta- dent different topic, he encouraged students to make their own observations ‘and draw conclusions from what they found. When pupils found the odorous lissection of some of Nature's minor works repulsive, Aristrle epic, "The consideration of the Tower forms of fife ought not to excite childish repug- ‘nance. In all natural things there i something to move wonder.” “The most conspicuous contrast to Plato's Way was in polities, While Plato's Republic painted & glowing picture of an ideal commonweath, Aristotle's speculations were solidly based on his assistants” descriptions of 158 different ‘operating Greck politcal systems, A surviving example isthe recenlydiscov- cred Constitution of Athens, the fist book of the series, pechaps written by Aristotle himself. The lost 157, probably by his students, covered the Mediter ‘raean world from Marseilles in the west to Crete, Rhodes, and Cypnis, com ‘munities on the Aegean Tonian, and Tyrrhenian seas, elsewhere in Europe and in Asia and Africa. Yet Aristotle sensibly cautioned that in political science we ‘should be content with “the truth roughly and in outline" "Tis the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things jst as far asthe ature ofthe subject admits; itis evidently equally foolish to accept probablest AN ANCIENT HERITAGE reasoning ftom a mathemticien and © demand fom a retrisian scientific proofs” During hese twelve yearsat his Lyceum Arist rounded off he works that ‘ade him ou ist encyclopedit andthe shaper ofthe Westem vocabulary on all subjects fom loge and poetry polities and biology. We cannot know for sore how much of this legacy was influenced by Plato, and how mach was a reaction aginst Plo, Nor do we know for sure the order of his surviving ‘works, The very “writings” of Aristtlo—ohich in the late Middle Ages became kindof sacred serie for Westem Chistanity and tho basis of "Scholas is” and interpreted with eens textual podanty by modem hisorians— ane shrondedin miss of uncensiny Surprisingly, the works of Arse that have survived are not the works that he had “published.” Ie is no is aemoon ad evening talks ol comers, his popular or lrary works, bu bis moming lectures 1 serous scholars atthe {Lyceum that remain fru. Wit his fellow philosophers at the Lyceum he was continually revising these “Tetare-mannscrpts” The surviving "works" of ‘Asis, then, probably iclide some of Aristotle's own notes, amplified or explana by the notes a his students or his fellow teachers. Besides, thee are research reports compiting fs gathered by members ofthe Lyceum on every conceivable suject—foo the shape of animals tthe laws and const- tations of every known tat. His Work On the Parts of Animals an the reds covered Constition of Athos ate samples Aristotle's boundles curiosity and hiseffectvenesasa teacher appear in his collections of questions amanged by subject, each begining with « “Why...” and then offering alternative answers, "Ts because.” Oddly enough, it as this collection of gots fom many hunks that became the revered “works” of Aristotle in later centuries And while the writings of caer great hinkers have commonly been designed fr an auience—leared cor popular—the surviving works of Astle ate diferent They econd work in Progress, the Secker at work with himself, retecting end emending as he went slong. While they lack the wit and poety of Plato's dialogues, they have a pedesan momentum of ter ovn, Reading Aristo, we joina mind ying 10 sort othe trivia of experience and relate them to the grandest questions. ‘The slective survival of Aristotle’ encyclopedic miscellany its asa ‘The paneer Greek geographer Strabo (© 63 B.-A. 19), who had seed in Rome (. 200.) tls the story. Ar his death Arse Ft his rary and write ‘ngs—along withthe directorship of the Lyeeum—to his veil frend and colleague Theophrastus (,371~c.287 8c), whe had eared his leadership of the Peripatetic Schoo! by his writings on otany and his Metaphsie, and marked new paths for esas by his witty “Characters.” At Theophrasts' death he left Aristotle's trary remains to a younger philosopher Neeus, whom he‘The Way of Philosophers: WondiousInstramene Wihin 88 ‘expected to be his suecessor atthe Lyceum, Neleus came from a town called ‘Skepsis in Anatolia, in dhe area where Aristotle had enjoyed the patronage of “rerias, Neleus then lft them to his own heirs who were not philosophers. ‘When the Atal kings of Pergamam invaded Skepss seeking works for theit Iibray, these heirs had buted the books in an underground cellar, where they ‘vere left to mold and moth, Stil, they eventually found a buyer forthe disnte- ring aks an apes Hophile Apelicon made and published new, careless copies. The pax epi he Renn sgn pone y Pian, When Sul (138-78 0.c), the Roman general, captured Athens in 86 a. in his campaign ‘against Mithridates, he seized Apelticon’s library, including the books and Papers of Aristotle, and brought i€ 10 Rome, There, luckily a disciple and al mie of Aristotle, the grammarian Tyranno, friend of Cicero and Caesar, secured dhe confidence of dhe librarian, worked on the books, organized the ‘papers, and made new copies, Cicera himself so admired Aristotle's “golden ‘low of speech” in his dialogues now Tost) that he said he had ied to write “in ‘the Aristotelian manner.” Happily, Tyrannio supplied his copies to Andronicus ‘of Rhodes, also an adier of Aristotle And it was this Andronicus who opened a newly informed era inthe fame of Aristo. About 40 a.c. he arranged the works inthe order in Which they have ‘survived, and on which Iter ists rely. He wrote his own treatise onthe Works, ‘rote a life of Aristotle, and provided a transcript of Aristotle's will, Before Andronicus, Plutarch observes, "the cartier Peripatetcs were clearly clever and scholaely men in themselves, but had no extensive of accurate aequaintance ‘vith the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus” Andronicus had unwittingly _sven shape to the philosophic and scientific vocabulary of Christan Europe. “The fate of Aristotle's works again dramatized the diference between his ‘way of seeking and Plato's forthe influence of Plato's Way was continuous, through small groups of friends and disciples. The dialogues tht Pato himself Ina written and recited in the Academy were soon collected. By contrast Aris- tosl's influence was interrupted or perhaps not fully launched uni three cen- turies after his dea, when finally some coherent version of his writings ‘became available. Plato's Academy, formally organized as a religious guild, tna the aura ofa great spirit reaching out tall isteners. But Aristotle's legacy ‘vas a body of knowledge, marking the path of modem Fearing-accumulat- ng the facts ofthe workd and human experience with an explanation of causes. Aristode's legacy, then, was not the power of a charismatic personality of ‘grand poetic gifts, bu athe the accumulation ofa bifetime of scholarly obser- vation, And before Aristotle's writings weee recovered by Andronicus, hore were centuries of opportunity for his ideas tobe distorted. Plato's was an une broken tradition, Aristotle's was a series of renaissances,st AN ANCIENT HERITAGE Aristrle was in Athens in the summer of 323 a. when news came ofthe eath of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great. Alexander was only thirty-two, and many doubted that he could be dead. This was the signal forthe Athenian Assembly to declare war against Antpater, Aristotle's patron, who bel the garisons for Macedonia, The Macedonian prodigy Aristo, Antipa- ters friend, was also naturally suspect. He became another victim of the fami far charge of “impiety.” The rumpe-up charge was based now onan accusation that Aristo had writen a pucan to his old patron, the pro-Macedonian Hee- mas, aif be were a god, He fled to Chalkis, Macedonian stonghold to pre vent the Athenians frm “sinning twice against philesop.” Aste died in (Cakes in 322, a sinty-thre years of age. His wll made generous provisions for his family and for emaneipating some of his slaves. ‘The philosopher Aristotle, Berrand Russell observes, was “the frst to write like a professor... professional teacher, not an inspired prophet"—"Plato ailted by common sense.” Aristotle's success as a professional teacher is ‘nowhere better proven than by the decisive and enduring shape he has given to every subject he interpreted. Yet he avoided the narrowness of the pedan. ‘There was no subject, question, or Feld of knowledge that this Seeker filed 10 encompass The amazing scope of his curiosity and knowledge would nove be ‘matched in Western thought, The next such effort we shall see was Dideror's Encyclopédie (1751-1756), which required the collaboration of the great thinkers of the age in thity-five volumes, In retrospect, as amazing as the scope of Aristotle's writings was their succinetness, for he managed fo com press his universal survey into only fifteen hundred pages Later eneyetopedias| have used the crutch of alphabetical arrangement of articles to give an appear- ance of order. But Aristotle created an order that derived from the subjects themselves, While the obviousness of some of these ideas might embarrass the subile philosopher, i is this commonsense view of experience that has given Avistotle his perennial appeal or the heart of Aristotle's secking i the way of common sense. By starting philosophic teatses with common sense, Aristotle gives his ideas a plausbit- lity that puts opponents—especially subde philosophers—on the defensive. ‘The order that he finds then does not seem imposed by the philosopher, but seems rather progressive classification of everyone's experience. ‘Aistose's treatises commonly begin with what everyone seems to agree on, ‘And he i not afraid of appearing banal. “Every at and every inguiy, and sim larly every action and pursuit” his Eehics bepins, “is thought to aime at some good...” “Every state isa community of some kind,” opens the Politics, "and every community is established with a view to some good.” Even the Meta- pilysis takes off From a commonplace: AN] men by nature desire to know. An indication ofthis isthe delight we take in our senses” Aristotle sets out from‘The Way of Philosophers: WondiousInstramene Wihin 8s ‘the assomption “that what everyone believes is tme. Whoever destroys this faith wil aed find a more redible one.” And he follows Hesiod (eighth cen- tury m..), the father of Greek didactic poetry, who said that “No word is ever lost that many peoples speak" “Aristot’s deference to common sense, the common opinion, woud help _sve im the insight o his God and served him in other areas too, The genera ‘experience made his Nicomachean Ethics, with is emphasis on the mean, seem eminently sensible, And he commonseasically insisted (against Plato) ‘thatthe virtues are multiple, tha they are fostered less by contemplation of some changeless Idea than by a “habit of choice.” And his Politics, too, as we hhave soon, rests on the common political experience of his tim. ‘But Aristotle's deference to the intittions of his own time also channeled and confined his social eas and explains the obsolescence of some of bis works in modem times. The conspicuous example is his view of slavery [Nowhere does he more clearly reveal his immersion inthe customs of his age ‘ois reluctance to defy what “everyone” believed. Atthe beginning of his Po “es, he explains thatthe state is made up of households “and the fist and fewest possible parts ofa family are master and stave, husband and wife, father and children." "He who is by nature not his own butanother’s man is by nature ‘slave; and he may be said to be another's man who, being a human being, i abo a possession.” He concedes that some deny such a natural distinction and insist “that the distinction between slave and freeman exits by law only, and not by nature; and being an interference with nature is therefore unjust” He concedes, 100, that slavery by mere right of conquests unjust. The ehild of a “natural slave” he says, may not always be a natural slave, and Greeks should not enslave Greeks. He argues oo, that master and slave share the same inter- fests, The master should reason with his slave, and “itis expedient that liberty ‘should be abvays held out to them a the reward oftheir vervices.” ‘So be sms to justify slavery as a reflection of the unity of nature. “For in all things which form a composite whole and which are made up of pars... adic: tinction between the ruling snd he subject element comes co Tight Suc a dual ity exits ving creatures, but ot in them only; i originates in the constitution of the universe” Having feed himself from Platonic abstraction, he sil has confined his thinking in forms of hie (and is community's) making. The broad empirical spirit that governed his comparison of alien contusions somehow did ‘ot liberate him from the ait of his own household ‘Starting from the wholesale—the gross common experience —Aristotle then proceeds tothe retail, breaking down experience into many lasses. As Aristo- te isa master of she unites of experince, so he is a master—and a pioneer— in sensing the diversities and classifying experience into manageable parts. “The Metaphysics begins by distinguishing man from the other animals, the56 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE Ethics by distinguishing the ends of different actions, the Poites by classify ing the diferent coramunites and kinds of governments. The Poetics, tating from “the primary facts," then distinguishes the different forms of imitation — Epic Poetry and Tragedy from Comedy and Dithyrambic Poetry. Ditferent kinds of tragic plots are described and the kinds of characters defined, Whether lornot the reader agrees with Aristotle, he has from the outset a feeling of grasp (on the subject, its extent and varieties Avistie’s bent for classifying would have a lasting, an also inhibiting, intluence on biological thought for following centuries. He was so dominated by the reality and distinctiveness of every individ in nature that e gave cur rency and authority to the idea of species, the existing forms of nature. In a revised, empirical version of Plato's forms or ideas, Aristotle saw the species in nature as fixed and unalterable, each reproducing after is kind. Then there could be no such thing as anew species. Thus he idea of original and unchang- ing species was his way of showing the constancy and uniformity of nature, and its constant, challenging variety. Aciscile explained the intriguing seala nauurae (luder of nature) with a sophistication that engages the modem biologist [atu adsances frm the inanimate to animals with sich sibroken contin that there re borer eases an nlermediate forms of which en cannol sy 10 wick ‘les the Belong Fist afer the inanimate come plats. These ifr fromeach ht inthe depeetowhic they appr to have fe, nd in comparison wi ter hoes 'pgear anime tn comparison with anima inanimate And the transition from. them to animals. is continous, there ae cers inthe se shout which one ‘might well be in doubt whether they are animals ex plants. (Historia Anim) "The medical tradition in his family and his interest inthe specifies of expert ence made Aristotle an industrious and serupulous observer of plants and an mals and their parts and functions. What Aristotle's “ladder of nature” lacked inorder to become a theory of evolution was the dimension of time. If he had seen the lade in time as wel a in space he might have glimpsed the poss bility of emerging and disappearing species. Perhaps he was discouraged from {his by a notion inherited from Plato that Forms were permanent and preceded ‘matter, And Aristole's obsession with the vivid and specific units in the cosmic confer encouraged him to believe that the species hl always existed and were indestructible, Every place in the ladder had been filled in nature andthe loss of any spocies would eave an unnatural gap.11 Aristotle's God for a Changeful World ‘Only the simplest explanation can acount for the uncanny commanding appeal of Aristoce's works inthe Westem ensures. For he was a Seeker who Inada wondrous capacity tose the contrary and contradictory features of expe ‘rience without giving in t the tempration to philosophical oversmplitication. Yet he was not afraid of seeming obvious. To attempt to summarize his work ‘would be no more useful than to summarize an encyclopedia. We can only hope to capture his spirit, He beloved in the unity and continuity of nature and atthe sume time in the primacy ofthe particular in human experience: “The ‘observed facts show that nature isnot a series of episodes, lke a bad tragedy. As forbelieversi the Meas, this dificult misses them; for they construct pu ‘ial magnitudes out of mater and number” (Metaphysics). "Nature to Aristotle, showed continual motion and change—"So, goodbye to the Forms, They at ile pratt, and if they do exist are wholly eleva.” No Platonic simplices! For Plato sensible objects existed only as they were ‘elated to changeless intelligible objects. Not for Aristotle, for whom the par- ticular sensible abject—example of a species—was the only real existence. "Thus the reality of musicians didnot depend on some Ide called Music, The very existence ofthe abstraction depended on the individuals: “Musicianship ‘cannot exist unless there are musicians.” Musicalness cannot exist unless there is some one who is musica Everywhere Aristotle saw purpose, and every species in nature was the Ful ‘iment of « unique potentiality. And potentiality meant growth and mosion within the limits ofthe species. His powers of observation, anu even his teleol ‘; led him to some insights. Charles Darwin, whose “two gods" Were Linnueus ‘and Cuvier, found thm "mere schoolboys to ok Arist," In the troubled field ‘of embryology, the kading moder historian Joseph Needham finds “the depth ‘of Aristotle's insights into the generation of animals” unsurpassed by any later cembryologist and never equaled, For teleology, Needham shrewdly observed, “is, ike other varieties of common sense, useful frm time tote.” Arison’ overs of observation and his talent at recording made him the giant of ancient biology. Neoplutoist philosophers criticized him for neglecting theology and paying foo much attention to physical matters, But Aristode prefered the insights of “those who have spent more ime among physical phenomena.” They ‘are “better able o posit the kind of principles which can bold together over a ‘vide area,” while “those who theough much abstract discussion hve lst sight “ofthe fats are more likely to dograatize on the bass of Few observations.”se AN ANCIENT HERITAGE tis suprising in view of Aristotle's commonsense preference for observa- ‘son and wo “losing sight of the facts” that he spread himself across the whole world of experience and aspiration. But for Aristotle the meaning was hidden inthe particular of experience. The scape of his work was itself witness to his belle inthe unity of experience and his confidence that it could somehow be encompassed by the human mind. And soe confinns his axiom that “the atu ality of thought is life.” He divides all knowledge into practical, productive, or theoretical, And the theoretical sciences are three: Physics (the science of nature), Mathematics (the science of the quantitative aspect of things), and ‘Theology (fist philosophy” othe science of being), ‘Another stud, preliminary and basic to all the others, is Logic. Aristotle calls it Analyties, Is noe self a science but an essential tool to all the sek ences. Analytics isa suggestive name fori, frit is devoted to analyzing the processes of thought. The need for this science is plain, since knowledge is of the universal. But the realities that need explaining are only of individuals, of \which, strictly speaking, there ean be no “knowledge.” How, then, make the leap ftom the specific experience to the general iru? Logie (for Aristotle, Analytics) was the science ofthat eap. Acistole pioneered in making the ways of expressing our though into the subject of a science—which meant dealing withthe forms of thought apart, from subject matter. So Aristotle is commonly said 10 be the Founder of Jogi. And his vocabulary and his framework for this sience have dominated the West until the last century. The syllogism with its three parts (major premise, minor premise, conclusion) was Aristotle's idea, For him it de- scribed the technique of drawing conclusions from premises, or deductive reasoning, His loge included not only the technique of drawing conclusions from premises (the formal syllogism), but also the science of demonstration (ow fo use reason to serve science) and “dialect,” the technique of using reason to win a dchate, His several treatises on logic came to be called the (Organon (or Instrument), which he considered necessary for understanding any subject Some see Aristotle as pioneer not only in philosophic sef-conscfousness but in historical sel-consciousness. He was, according to Werner Jaeger, the fist thinker to setup along with his own philosophy a conception of his own place in history, He presents his ow ideas as coming from his criticism of Paco and others before him. So Jaeger would make him “the inventor ofthe notion of intellectual development in ime.” In the customary arrangement of the two-hundred-odd tes atributed to ‘Aristotle in ancient catalogs, est come the treatises on logic, the Organon, fot lowed by dhe physical treatises (Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, Meieorotogy) the Metaphysics, On Psychology (On the Soul,‘The Way of Philosophers: WondiousInstramene Wihin 8 ‘hort physical weatises (On she Sensible, On Memory, On Sleep and Sleepless- ness, On Dreams, On Prophesying. Longevity, Youtk and Age). biological te tises (On the History and Parts of Animals, On the Motion, On the Gait, and (On the Generation of Animals), Ethic, Politics, The Athenian Constitution, Rhetorie, and Poetics. OF this stiggering encyclopedic aray of teases none ‘vas without influence on Wester thought, and several (for example, the (Organon. the Eshies, the Politics, and Poetics) provided the dominant Western framework and vocabulary uni recent times, Aistoe's overwhelming isTuence was due not only’ tothe amazing int sivencssof his surviving works but also to his emphasis. While Plato had fist ‘at him on the paths of philosophy, it was his reaction against Plato that gave Drm his distinctive appeal and explsined how he suited the future ofthe West. Plato's appeal had been the charm ofthe idea, the ending, and the change less, But Aristotle's interest in nature and experience led him to focus on a ‘world of motion, change, and time. It was the changefl variety of nature that fascinated Aristotle the biologist For Arstte, then, there was no real world of the static. When he saw the chicken, he imagined its coming from the egg. When he saw an egg he imagined a chicken, "Nature for him was a realm of unfolding purposes. He repeatedly sai that ‘nature does nothing in vain. Which le him to his teleology, his emphasis on ends. The biologist in him also encouraged his search for purpose, wich has never ceased to obsess biologists, Why isthe plant or animal shaped asi is? ‘Which means, for what purpose? The search forthe rationale of living plants ‘and animals, their generation and their motion, dominated bis thinking about nature and led him, too, to the idea of potentiality, the power to become the fulfilled individual ofthe species—which awed and fascinated him, “This obsession with the changeful world of motion also drew him to the idea that gave im his potent roe in Christian Europe. He, too, was unable to scape the yeuming for changelessness in a world of change, which Plato ad 0 elegantly embodied in his theory of forms. The concluding Book of his Physics aims to show that motion, like time, “always was and always will ‘be"-—“an immortal never failing property of things that are, a sort of fife as it were to all naturally consttued things.” Which set the stage for Aristotle's God—the Unmoved Mover. This may have been as much a deference to ‘common sense—the prevalent views of his commonity—as to loge or evi= ‘dence, The Unmoved Mover was his name for the most divine being accessi= ble to man. Since the activity of God was thought, it was also man’s highest faculty. ‘That which i capable of receiving the object of thought, i mind, and is active ‘when it possesses This weit therefore ater bun the capably appears the vine elemoat in mind, and contemplation the plesatas and best sti. I thenAN ANCIENT HERITAGE God is fr ever in that good state which we reach occasionally ii u wondedl thing—it na beter state, more wonder ul sl Yet itis 0. Life to be hs, forthe tht ofthe mind site, and hes that activity. His essntial activity is is ifthe est se a cera We Sa the hat Goi an eternal living bing, thebestof al ibs obi consis and teal fe That is God Even in describing the Unmoved Mover, Aristotle makes activity his dea,BO PART THREE THE CHRISTIAN WAY: EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNITY eginning that fed td new intone12 Fellowship of the Faithful: The Church ‘Westem history woukd be dominated by the birth and Tite ofa Galilean Jew, who died before the age of thirty-five. Son of a woman married to an obscure curpenter, this overwhelming figure was not political leader nora warrior nor anexplocer nor an att. He left no writing, His if and teachings were even ‘ually reported by disciples inthe four Gospels of Matthew: Matk, Luke, and John. The first Christians had no writen Gospels, but were held together by ‘oral tradition, the Holy Spiet, and faith in theie Savior. Writen Gospels responded to the needs ofa growing community of disciples. This widening circle would create fellowship of the faithful and a momentous new institu toa of Seekers, the Church ‘The special appeal of Christianity came fom the fact shat it was @ voluntary religion of those who adored its founder, Jesus of Nazareth. Grand couse ‘quences followed from being “founded” religion, whose members had chosen two puttheir faith in a new Savior. By contast, Judaism was the religion of aCho- ‘sen People, and the Hebrew Prophets spoke for God, After the destruction of the ‘Temple in Jerusalem (587 8.€) and the Babylonian exile, Jewish communities ‘vere organize around synagogues, where rabbis expounded and interpreted ‘the la that had been given to this people. Hindsm, co, was an ethnic region ‘among people no fre to reject its claims, an the priesthood was inherited by a ‘Brahmin caste. While Judaism vas the religion of a Chosen People, Cristian ity would be a chosen religion. Since there were no buriers of birth, case, oF ‘blood to joining the fh, Christianity could hope to become universal. And the rule of celibacy forthe Christian priesthood, in akon co its other benefits, ‘would assure the voluntary nonhereditary priestly commitment Allthese features that made Christianity preeminent religion of choice— 4 religion of Seekers—were the seeds of anosher uncelebrated innovation of the new rligion—the creation of a Church. Ironically, the religion that had ‘advanced asthe way of futh and choice for the poor andthe oppressed would become the core of a powerful new institution, The Church would become an independent coqporation organized in a hierarchy with its own profes ‘ional priesthood, And in tm i too would become an instrument fo imposing beef and ritual on the unwilling. Other religious institutions, ike Hinduism ‘or Judaism, with an ethnic base either were difused throughout the society or -were auxiliary tothe state Tn the Athens ofthe great ge of Socrates and Plato, the citadel ofthe ety fai, the Parthenon, was built forthe eult of Athena Pathenos (Athena the Vi6 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE in). The cty-godkless was the godess of all Athenians. Similarly, the religion of Rome was only the religious aspect of the empire AC the height of the Roman Empite the state religion was supervised and its rites conducted by & college of pontities (priests of the state cut), headed by the pontifex max- mus. “Judge and arbiter of things divine and human.” he survived as the rel ious spokesman ofthe ancient kings of Rome. In the Republic he sat i the Regia, the royal palace ofthe ancient kings near the Forum, He supervised the sacrifices and nazned she Vestal Virgins. For many years te college of ponif- {ves also fixed the state calendar, versaw rituals, snd kept the official records ofthe state cult, Emperor Augustus, following the example of Julius Caosar, ‘declared himself ponifex maximus in 12 8c, and the sueceeding emperors did ot give up te ie. ‘The fervent Catholic emperor Gratian (367-383), under the influence of Saint Ambrose, was the frst to abundon the te. The rise of Christianity in the ‘West, hen, is saga of how an unpretentious and persecuted fellowship ofthe faithful followers of Fesus of Nazareth became transformed in thee centuries {no an autonomous institution challenging the ancient imperial power. [isnot surprising that the fellowship that accomplished this fea claimed and was credited with miracles, ‘The Church, the fellowship of the faithful, was made theologically real by Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) as it hd been made policcally real by Emperor Constantine the Great (¢. 285-357), Saint Augustine's City of God (iten 413-426) defended the new religion from responsibilty for the fal of Rome to the barbarians. His figure of “10 cites,” the “city of God” (cvitas Dei and the “earthly city” (cvtasterrena), had been familiar in both Hebrew biblical and Greek philosophical wisdom. Now he brought shem together in his (Cusian classe inthe Latin anguage of Europe tha dominated earning forthe next centuries. The Psalms had spoken of a city of God and Plato's Republic ‘mado a similar division, Saint Augustine now provided a thoological base for the dogma of predestination. And his Confessions eecounted te painfl tages by which he personally was overcome by the revelation of a heavenly city ‘The making of a Church, the transformation of Christianity fom a perse- cuted sect into the dominant force in a Christianized empire, was to be the ‘work ofa troubled and ambivalent emperor in one ofthe empice’s most urb- Tent eras. It was an age of civil war, of endless batles between Eastern and ‘Wester emperors and among climnts forthe throne. Constantine the Great ‘was no sant, but a master of military strategy and command, unbesten in provincial batles, conqueror of the Franks and the Goths. A vigorous and effective administrator, reforming the coinage and the tax system, he made Byzantium into a “Second Rome,” to be called Constantinople. He eared his ‘le of Constantine the Great by his secular achievernents, The Christznizing‘The Chetan Way Esperimerts ia Commanity 6s ‘of the empire was accomplished not by crusading zeal but by gradual stages of de-paganizing. Perhaps the spectacle and frustration of the Roman emperor Dioctetian’s terrible ten-year persecution of the Cristians (303-313) hal inc ‘lated Constantine against draconian measures in religion. ‘Bom into the military governing class, the son of Constantius, who was appointed Caesar, or deputy emperor, under Diocletian, Constantine served in ‘the army against Persia, Raised inthe Eastern Empire atthe cour of Diocletian ‘at Nicomedia (modern Tami in Turkey), he was a riliant solder n Egypt. His ‘wn military career spanned the empire—from Surmata near the Black Sea to ‘the northern reaches ofthe British sles, He joined his Father, who had assumed the tes of Caesar and Augustus onan expedition to pacity the barbarians of ‘Scotland. When his father died at York, Constantine succeeded to his father’s titles by the acclaim ofthe array. And when his val emperor Gaerius allowed him only the tile of Caesar, Constantine fabricated a claim to the imperial ‘throne, marched actoss Gaul in 312, won victories in northern taly and marched on Rome, There Maxentns, son ofthe old Wester emperor Max- ian, had rebelled. At she Milvian Bridge, in 312, Constantine won his impe- ‘al power inthe name ofthe Christian God, The Christan apologist Lactantus reports that Constantine had been instructed in a dream to punt the Christian ‘monograin on the shields of his woops. According to Eusebius of Caesarea (26077340), "the tater of ecclesiastical history." Constantine had seen inthe sky a eross with the words “In hoe signo vinees” (In this sign you will con quer). Constantine claimed that God had brought him from remote Britain across Gaul to overcome impiety and bring peace. ‘Dil Constantine become a Christan any to secure the support ofthe Chris- tian God in bate? If so, he was ina well-established tradition. The ancient Greeks and Romans had assumed that piety would be rewarded by success in bute. I no wonder, then, that Constintine should have engaged the power ‘ofthe new Christan Godin bate, nor that he should have boon grateful othe ‘God in whose name he had won the decisive bate a the Milvian Beige, What ‘requires explaining is that Constantine should have become conamitted to the new religion and have used the imperial power to suppress the strong pagan ‘opposition, "The public stages ae clear in Constantine's movement from pious follower ‘of the old Roman gods toa pious Christian banning paganism. The personal ‘stages in his movement of conscience are not so clear. And the mystery of Con= stantine’s motives has made him a favorite figure for ether the admiration or the malice of historians. After the Christian God had helped him to victory in 312, be ceased to take part in pagan ceremonies, but retained the tile of pon- tex maximus. The triumphal arch erected in bis honor ater his defeat of Max- cents, which we can sil seein Reme, shows Constantin holding across with6 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE the legend “By this saving sign Thave delivered your city from the tyrant and restored liberty tothe Senate and people of Rome." He had the name of Jupiter erased from the arch-—a hodgepodge of earlier Roman sculpture and (in Gib bon’s words) “a melancholy proof ofthe decline ofthe arts and of the meanest vanity” Sul Constantine kept the old gods on his new gold coin, the solidus, ‘which would survive for centuries asthe unit of Byzantine curency. And be continued to associate himself with the Roman sun-god. His political adept ‘ness was proved by his ability for many yeas to give guarantees o both ofthe conflicting eizions, After the Bute of Milvian Bridge, Constantine sil tolerated paganism. But he restored the confiscated property of Christian communities, Christians were favored for public positions and their proselytizing was supported. By 320 Constantine was openly attacking polytheism. Perhaps, as Jacob Burckhardt suggests, Constantine himself was simply a deist hoping to enlist the common devotion of al religions, including even the ancient sun-god and Mithras. So he proposed rituals that both pagans and Christians coukd conscientiously ‘observe, One wat his prayer forthe ames “lo honor the Lord's Day, which is also calle the day of light and ofthe sua.” Constantine brought an epochal change inthe relation of religion to the state. A new instttion—the Church—was conjured up by his ats of toler ‘on, the Bets of Milan (313), The first edict recognized the Chistian clergy a8 class or corporation (eric. He granted equal righ tol religions at the same time that he estred the confiscated property of the Christians. What was plied was even more significant dhan what was declared. For che very idew of state religion, which had dominated ancient Greece and Rome, was abot ‘shed, “until Christianity clocbed itself withthe shell that paganism had dis- carded,” as Jacob Burchard elegantly observes, ‘As Constantine's suppor of Christianity solidified, and his opposition to [paganism grew, he was increasingly concemed by divisions within the Church tnd took measures fo heal them. He tried to suppress the “Donatist” schism in Noth Aftica over whether priests and bishops who had lapsed from the Church could be readmitted. ‘Then he intervened to sett the division over the two natures of Jesus, Which ‘would long trouble the fellowship of the fitful. The Christian Gospel inthe ‘West had responded both to the need fora superhuman authority, in the tradi sion ofthe Hebrew prophets, and tothe need of each believer to reach within himself, in the tradion of the Greek philosophers. This dual appeal was expressed inthe two titles of Jesus—Son of God, Son of Man, And the Gospels tell bow the Son of God brought salvation tothe world by the sacrifice ofthe Son of Man, But what was th relation herween these wo natures of Jesus?‘The Chetan Way Esperimerts ia Commanity o Disciples of Jesus, from the earliest time, were troubled and divided by efforts to define this duality, It Jesus had been created by God, then he was not ofthe same substance as God, fut if he sas Begotten by Ged, then he must be of God's same substance. Constantine saw Christan unity threatened by biter ‘exchanges on this theological issue, The fllowers of Arius (bom ¢. 280) believed that Christ, being the most perfect creature inthe material word, had ‘been “adopted” by God asa son. And the view had been spread by Arius" pop- ular poe work, Talla ("Banquet") which led to Arius” condemnation by the bishops as @ heretic, and his exile fom his post as pres in Alexandria. Con ‘stantine betrayed his own theological innocence when he called this dispute “a Fight over wiling and Foolish verbal dtferences.” Without calculating the consequences of this act of theological goodwill, Constantine unwittingly gave a new independent reality to the Church—and a ‘ew institutional reality to the fellowship of the faithful that would enable ito challenge the age-old imperial authority. Before this time there had been synod meetings of representatives of local churches. But the Council of Nicaea that Constantine convened would be something new, and newly menacing t0 the secilar power, Por the first time this council would be ecumenical (fom the Greek oifoumene, the inhabited workd)—and hence speak for a univers church, Such a commonity ofall believers could hardly have seemed feasible before there was a Christian empire ofthe Roman world. The Church would speak fora new power inthe world—a fellowship of the futhfl, which before Jong would consider itsel the equal a superior of the imperial power that con- ened it ‘Constantine himself opened this frst Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in Asia Minor in May 328, with an address. He had already writen to Arius observing that the dispute Aras had fostered was product of too much leisure and wor- ‘ied a rival issue that could easily be settled. For this council, Coastantne ha ‘brought together some 318 bishops, including delegates even from Armonia. and Seythia outside the empire, But he did not sense the theoogical hatred {adi theologicum) he had oiled nor did he imagine the Frankenstein he aa crested Afier three months’ discussion, the assembled bishops agreed upon a creod—the Nicene Creed—which would become the dogma of Christian ‘orthodoxy for seceeding centuries. Was Jesus the Son of God identical in sub- stance with God or merely a demigod? The Council declared that Jesus was “begotten not created, one in being (homoousios) with the Father" Eusebius of ‘Caesarea was thee and reported the decisive intervention by Emperor Con- stantine himself. “Our emperor, most beloved by God, began (0 reason [in Latin, with a Greek translation supplied by an interpreter] concerning [Chris's] divine origin, and His existence before all ages: He was virtually ino* AN ANCIENT HERITAGE the Father without generation, even before he was actually begotten, the Father having always been the Father just as (the Son] has always been a King and a Savior” To enforce this dogma, all books by Arius or his followers were to be bumed “that not a single record of it should be et to posterity.” and anyone ‘who possessed such a work and refused to burn i should be put co deat. ‘This search for agreement on the two natures of ests the Crist did not se- seed in enforcing orthodoxy. For fory years after Constantine, Arianism Femained the doctrine of the Fasiem Empire, But tt ad drawn Chaistians| {ogether and brought an ominovs new institution into being, The Church Would be governed by the bishops ofthe whole Christian world. By 324 Constantine Ind seen himself, he explained tothe bishops, as"a bishop established by God of those outside {the Church)” even as a “thirteenth apostle.” The seeking ‘would unite, while the finding and defining would divide, Succeeding Church councils would elaborate the dogma as they continued to redefine the nature, oF ‘wonatures, ofthe Christ, Each new definition provided new targets for objec ‘ion, more ammunition for dissent. Fates between Church and state would punctuate all Westem history and leave fertile ambiguities even in the New Worl, But Constantine had created a new relation between the state and religion, The religion ofthe state would no longer be a stat religion. Yet Constantine's name would be given (othe policy of establishing a Christian Church asthe religion ofthe state, signing a spe- cial close alliance between the state and a particular Christian Church, “Con- staatiism” troubled Europe for centuries, Ironically too this lose association of the state with the independent Chris- tian forces of vrtwe provided a classic example of the historic powers of forgery. The sowalled Donation of Constantine was a supposed grant by [Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester I 314-285) in Rome of spiritual sov- eigaty over all the other great patriarchs and overall matters of faith and Wor ship, as well as temporal sovereignty over Rome and the entire Westera Empite. This was sid 1 have been Constantine's thank-you gif to Sylvester for miraculously healing his leprosy and converting him to Christianity. bit Fant example ofthe independent Renaissance spirit was the demonstration in 1440 by the vigorous Kalian humanist Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) that the “donation” was only a forgery designed to empower the papacy. This was a foetasie too of the spirit ofthe Protestant Reformation. For centuries Consian- fine's supposed Donation remained the basis for the expansive powers of ‘medieval popes over kings, prince, bishops, and patarchs (Christianity, we must not forget, id not come into eigious vacuum. Tr eame ‘na Roman scone adorned bya vivid and sumptuoes state religion, headed, as| ‘we have seen, by the college of ponds and a pontifex maximus, now the‘The Chetan Way Esperimerts ia Commanity « emperor himself, Even when Gratian became emperor in 375, six decades after ‘Constantine's victory a the Milvian Bridge, most senators were pagans—still being sworn into office on the altar ofthe ancient Roman godess of Victory in ‘the Senate Hal, with libations of wine and incense. This was only one sign of 4 sill- powerful pagan religion that commanded the loyalty of most of the rul- ing nobles of Rome. Edward Gibon’s famous “Five Cases ofthe Growth of| Christianity," which aroused the ite of fitful and credulous Christians, s not ‘often enough seen as & catalog also of the powers of the dying but stl prevalent and revered pagan religion. “While that great body [ofthe Roman Enpire} was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and homble religion gently insinuated itself ino the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the cross onthe ruins ofthe Capito.” ‘The affair ofthe Altar of Victory in 382 dramatized the power ofthe ancient Roma religion, Fortunately, the words of she heroes on both sides have been reserved. This affair actually offers us one ofthe most vivid and eloquent dea ‘mas of appeal othe spirit of tolerance and the force of tradition, The fortunes ‘ofthe Altar of the ancient godless of Victory inthe Senate Hall had varied with ‘the tastes ofthe emperors. Constantius had removed it, Julian the Apostate aa ‘restored it, but the Christian zealot Gratin removed it again in 382, In Rome atthe time there were some 424 pagan temples, so that, as Gibbon observes, “in every quater of Rome the delicacy ofthe Christians was offended by the umes of idolatrous sacrifice” ‘Four respectble pagan deputations begged Gratian’s suocessor, Emperor ‘Vleatinian I, to restore the Altar of Victory, symbol ofthe gods under whom Rome had flourished. They set the stage fora classic confrontation between the ‘old religion of the greatness of Rome and she new religion of Christ and Con- ‘stantine. Spokesman for restoring the pagan altar was the eloquent Sy ‘machus, a wealthy and noble senator, prefect ofthe city, a pontiff and augue, And proconsul of Africa, who reported onthe affair to Enyperoe Valentinian TL His moving plea for tradition was also a surprisingly liberal disribe against ideology. “Grant, Timplore you," urged Symmachos, “that we who are old men ‘may leave to posterity that which we rceived as boys.” The ancestral Roman polytheism had kept people honest, and would continue to do so. “Al things.” Ihe declared, “are full of God, and no place is safe for perjurers, bu the fear of tcansgression is greally spured by the consciousness of the very presence of| deity" Then Symmachus quoted the Eternal City herself (acterna Roma) beg- ‘ing the emperors: etme we my ancesta ceremonies, she says, for [donot repent mec them. Let neve aor my own was for Fa ee. Ths Ws the cul that dove Hania fom ‘he wal of Rome andthe Gaus fom the Capitola, Ar hep fr thst be cas tied in my od age? Tdo butusk pace forthe gods of our faer the ative ods” AN ANCIENT HERITAGE ‘of Roms. srg tat what all adore should be deed one Weal lok up athe Same srs. We have common sky. A commen firmament encompasses us What mater thy What kind of learned theory each man looks forthe wut? There no ‘ane way that wil take wet 30 ghty a cere Al is is mater of discussion for ren of enue, We ofr your mijestes nota dete bt a plea ‘The answer to Symmachs is also eloquent, but more surprising. Is given by Saint Ambrose (340-397, wi had brought Saint Augustine to Christianity. Apologizng for his homely words, Ambrose deals respeetfully with Symm- sachus” arguments ina simple paean to progress, translation of the Gospel message of Good News tothe people of Rome: Why cite me the examples of the ancient Ic no dgrace wo pas on to beter things nds pudor es ad meora sans) Take the ancient day of chaos when lenncs were ying about in an unorgtied mas, Thik how tht url sted into the new onder of world an how the wor has developed since then, with the rad ivenion of the rts andthe advance fhm history. suppose thst hack inte godoldimes of choos, te consenative particles objected tothe advent ofthe novel and vulgar sueht which aosompanied the inredvtion of onder. But fo all thatthe work move. And we Chrno ave groin, Trova wrong, trou oven. though pesceution, we have grown: and the great diference Between us {tn you isthat what you sek in surmiss, we know How caput fh in you when you confess that you donot know what yu worship?13 Islands of Faith: Monasteries (Of il the institutions created by Christan Seekers, none was more influential in it time nor more obscured in the curents of later history than the monasteries. All the great world religions have found place forthe monk, Monasticism is ‘generally ase ona belie thatthe world is evil and shat withdrawal wil some- show open the way to higher truth. Withdrawal has commonly included celibacy {scape from physical passions and family tes), obedience to a superior (escape from the selfish will) and poverty (escape from the material world), The Hin- «us from earliest times had monasteries where monks share a ie of moe cation and study of sacred fexs. The Gautama Buddha elevated the Hindu doctrine of deliverance and withdrawal into the only path to Nirvana, and pro= ‘vided more than two hundred rates for his monks In Tibet afer the seventeenth ‘century Buddhist monasteries became major state instiutions. Before the Com ‘munis conquest there, monks were said o forma fit of the population and the ‘government was controlled bythe chief abbot, the Dalai Lama. ‘The Old Testament sligions—Judsism, Christianity, and Islam-—give mo- Dastcism a lesser role. In Judaism, withdrawal from the work fo seek union ‘vith Jehovah would be blasphemous, Stil, the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to record "ules forthe monastic life of the Essenes, Mohammed declared that there were ‘no monks in Islam, and did not mention them in the Koran, Not does monssi= ism seem to have been essential to Christian practice. We know of no Chris- tian monks until at least wo centuries after the death of Jesus, And withdrawal never became as integral to Christianity ast was to Buddhism, But Chrstian- ity develope its own fertile monastic institutions, Although only one form of (Christian life, dhe monastic way attracted some of the most eloquent, pes sive, and constructive ofthe faithful, and it became a vehicle and catalyst of ‘Wosiem culture, ‘The story of Christian efforts at withdrasal dramaties the problems man ‘makes for himself by efforts to separate the quest for meaning from experience ‘of the world, The monasteries tht would shape Christian life in Europe inthe ‘Mide Ages found thei unlikely origins in the Eeyprian desert. The Church, ich, as we have seen, organiged and had given power to the Faithful created anew need for escape. Escape from the oppressive powers of the comunity ito the sucrificing Christie self, and from the burdens ofthe material work [And the ascetic spirit took the form of monasticism "The inonies ofthis monastic search for meaning have mae monks in the ‘West an attractive target fr criticism, They provided Edward Gibon with then AN ANCIENT HERITAGE subject for one of his most vivid and acerbic chapters. "The Ascetics fed from ‘profane and degenerate world, to perpetual solitude, o religious society" but “soon acne the respect of the world, which they despised,” The monks with overly and self-denial “rod the steep and thomy path of eternal happy ess... Time continually increased, and accidents could sekdom diminish, the estates ofthe popular monasteries... and inthe fist century oftheir insiu- ‘on, the infidel Zosimus has maliciously observed that forthe benefit ofthe oor, the Christian monks had reduced a great par of mankind to state a beg- gary” For the worldly, Gibbon's monastic history revealed the fusity ofthe effor to flee from the community andthe material world into the security of the st. ‘The legendary founder of Christian monasticism, usually called the fist (Qnistian monk, was a Coptic Chistian, Saint Anthony of Egypt (c. 250-355), ‘who hud inherited wealth. He became an ascetic atthe age of twenty and at thirty-five retired to solitude in the desert. For the aext twenty years he c= ‘mained in retreat in «ruined fortress, then instructed others who followed his example. Soe se the style and suggested dhe mame “hermit (rom the Greek ‘word for desert) for those who (in Gibbon’s phrase) sought “lonely retreat ina natural or artificial dese.” Sint Anthony's own career was a parable ofthe impossibility of retreat, Athanasius’ classe life of Anthony recounted how he had read Fests’ com- ‘mana tothe rich young man to “go an sell tht thou hast, an give othe poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” Son of a ‘wealthy landed peasant, Anthony had chosen the desert for his expetiment| ‘because it was the proverbial habitat of the demons against whom the hess ‘would wage war, The “Demonology” of the New Testament sas a rch and Vivid inberitance from Jewish apocalyprc literature, recounting the many forms that Satan took to seduce mankind, Athanasius reported how Satan, ha- ing filed to tempt Anthony by the joys ofthe family he had given up them took Ingenious guises—monks with bread when he was fasting, women, beats. Al these Anthony repelled with prayer and the sign ofthe exes. These Christian efforts to ward off evil spirits ed the emperor Julian the Apostate (331-363) 0 declare that “the quintessence of their theology {wvas] to hiss at demons and make the sign ofthe crews on their forcheads” The struggles of Saint Anthony ‘would enrich Wester art withthe visions of Hieronymus Bosch, Matthias Grinewad, snd Max Ernst Anthony's fame atacted visitors and disciples. During his lifetime others made ther retreats into the desert, where they followed the tenes of Egyptian ‘monasticisey—manual labor, peayer, and reading Scripture. They favored the region around Luxor in Upper Egypt and areas west ofthe Nile Detain Lower Egypt. Commonly they sted in huts near the cel of a seasoned saintly her-‘The Chistian Way Esperiment ia Commanity * rit, Many were iterate peasants who had to memorize passages of Psalms ‘and the New Testament for recitation an meditation, Bu they managed some= ‘how, assisted by their iterate fellows. ‘The fourth century saw a wide variety of ascetic experiments from Egypt ‘and neighboring regions. The monk (from monachos, Greek for one who lives alone) sought isolation from ordinary social relations, but not necessarily From ‘other ascetics. The retreating monk imposed chastity on himself along with strict routine of prayer and Scripture reading, Scholars speculate that inthe year 1000, when the population ofthe Byzaatine Empire was about 15 milion, the empire may have held more than 150,000 monks and some seven thousand ‘monastic establishments. Emperors aiming to prohibit new monasteries recited the excessive numbers already in existence, ‘The two different styles of asceticism that appeared in late-thid-century Egypt vould mark the traditions of Western monasteries for following centuries. One ‘vas te individualist, the tradition ofthe hermit, oranchorite (from the Greek for withdrawal) of which Saint Anthony was the founder and patoo. The other vas the communal, or cenobitc (from Greek Aainar bias for ivi a common life) of which Saint Pachomius was the father. Pachomiu, bor in Upper Exypt bout 287, when in his twenties was guided by an older man tr the solitary Tite, After seven years asa hermit be ad discovered the rials ofthe sory ie and he founded a community of monks on the right hank ofthe Nile north of ‘Thebes. There the monks lived a “cenobitic™ if grouped in houses (each ol ing thity to forty men) within a circling wall. They gathered for prayer and meals and followed a mule of 194 chapers devised by Pachomi. At his death {346 there were nine of his monasteries fr men with several thousand monks and two for women. Then there developed the lura (or lara), combining fer ‘res ofthe hermitage an the monastery in collection of the ells of invite tal hermits who gathered on regular occasions. Enthusiastic asceic Seekers exhausted their imaginations in quest of per- sonal ways up “the step and thorny path of eferal appines.” With disbol- cal ingemity they devised obstacles on the angelic path, The most famous of these was Suint Simeon Sites « passionate shepherd born about 390 near modem Aleppo in Syria and who died in 459. When his strict ascetic habits made him unwelcome in his monastery, he became a hermit and was soon ven- ‘erated for his miracles, Then what Gibbon called his “singular invention of an ‘eral penance” helped him escape people demanding his blessing, and pun ished him atthe same time that it separated him from maportunate admirers. To purse his divine meditations without interruption, he began living on top of ‘Single columa, snd so sequied the nme of “Styles” from the Greek fr pil- lar dweller) At frst the column was only six feet high but was graduallya AN ANCIENT HERITAGE extended tilt reached about fifty feet, Thee, beginning sbout 420, he is said tw have rernined day and night worl his destin 459, The wareow plaorm sue rounded by a railing was exposed o the elements and too smal fr him to do anything but sand or st, While the naling prevented him from falling, adder communicated with the ground where acolyes browght stall gifts of food. Only occasionally would he descend to give pigsims his blessing o his coun- sel, Awe at his performance converted many visitors to Christianity and was sad to ave persuaded the Basten Roman Emperor Lea Ito the omthodox view ofthe dul naare of Christ Simeon's example inspired other ascatis Simeon Stylites was only the most ingenious and conspicuous of the self- smontfying hermits, Seekers desperate to separate themselves from the com ‘mon life. The Dendrite lived in tres or in hollow tre trunks, The "Browsers" subsisted on roots and grass. Some dwelt in tombs or in huts with rofs so low ‘hat i was impossible co stnd inside, Others Joaded themselves with chains ‘The later history of monasticism reminds us again ad again ofthe moderating {influence of community onthe excesses of slfxegarding viru Sait Basil of (Caesarea (329-379), rare among the Church Fathers in doubting the possibil- ity ofa good solitary life, insisted tht only in community could fallen mankind rep human weakness by the works of charity His "Rules" declared "That it isnecessary with view to pleasing God to lve with ke-minded persons, and that solitude i difficult and dangerous” Quest forthe good monastic Tite produced Suint Benetit’s Rue, one of the ‘most remarkable documents of Seekers in Western Christendom and one ofthe ‘most durable istutions of Wester comnnnal life. The leader and creator of the movement of moderate communal asceticism, Saint Benedict came fom ‘Umbria, nonheast of Reme. Here was aother story, ike that of Saint Anthony and Saint Thomas Aquinas ofa rich man's son seeking through Christian with drawal to escape the meaningless world of dissipation. The transformation of ‘Western monasticism was legacy ofthis Saint Benedict of Nursia(c, 40-547) “Most of what we know of Benedic’s life comes from the Diatogues of his ‘amiting disciple Saint Gregory the Great ($40-604; pope, $90-604). Gregory, himself a rich man’s son, had given away his landed inheritance to establish a half-dozen monasteries and fled int the retreat of « monastery. In $90 he was reluctanly summoned by acclamation ofthe people of Rome from his monas- tie cell othe throne of Sunt Pete. Architect of the medieval papacy, be also let the Gregorian chant as his legacy. His Dialagues report the ie and miracles of Saint Benedict, which would endure in Christan tradition, Benedict lived when Theodoric and his Ostrogoths were conqoering the ‘ities of northern aly. Toil, king of the Goshs, repeatedly besieged Rome and finally took the city in $49, Sent to Rome fora liberal education, Benedict‘The Chistian Way Esperiment ia Commanity 1s ‘as repelled by the dissipation and decadence he saw. "He withdrew the foot ‘he had just placed in the entry tothe word; and despsing the pursuit of leer, and abandoning his father's home and property, desiring to please God alone, he determined 19 ecome a monk.” Benedict tied living in a village (Enfid) bout shiny miles from Rome, There when one day by earnest payer he mise ‘ulously mended an earthenware tray that ad been shattered, he attracted a throng of vistors, To find a more secure retreat, Benedict, under the influence ‘of a oly man nearby, settled into a desolate cave ina rocky cliff, where he remained isolated for thee yeur. He was fed only the bred thatthe holy man slew up in a basket and let down ina rope over the rock. When shepherds dis- covered him, clothed inthe skin of heass, they frst took him fora wild anima As his reputation spread people brought him food and asked his blessing and his advice these years, Gregory reports, Benedict was repeatedly besieged by Satan, “The tempter came inthe form ofa ith blackbird, which began to flatter in front of his face It kept so close that he could easly have canght it with is Inand.Tnstead he made the sign of the Cross and the bird flew aay... The ceil spirit recalled to his mind a woman he had once seen, and before he real- ized this emotions were carying him away... Almost overcome inthe srug- ‘le, he was on the point of abandoning the lonely wilderness when suddenly ‘ith the help of God's grace he came to himself.” To defeat temptation he se nly threw ff his clothes and fling himself into a neathy pach of nets and ‘briars, “There he rolled and rossed rill his whole hedy was in pain and covered ‘with blood. Yer once he ad conquered pleasure through suffering, his tom and bleeding skin served to drain off the poison of temptation from his body” He ‘never again sulfered a temptation ofthis kind ‘Benedict's reputation for holiness brought him the invitation 10 become abbot of nearby rock-hewn monastery. Bat when the monks found his disci pline too strict, they tried to get rid of him by poisoning his wine. “A ghase pitcher containing this poisoned drink." Saint Gregory reports, “was presented to the man of God for customary blessing. As he made the sign ofthe Cross ‘over it with his hand, the pitcher was shattered even though it was well Beyond dns reach a the time. I broke at his blessing as ithe had stuck it witha stone.” le organized the disciples attracted by his “signs and wonders” into twelve ‘monasteries with an abbor and swelve monks in each in the neighborhood of| ‘Subiaco about fy miles east of Rome, 1529, when a jealous local priest drove him away, he moved eighty miles south of Rome to Monte Cassino, where he built his famous monastery onthe site of a pagan temple he destroyed, (Menaced by Lombard and Saracens, and ‘shaken by earthquakes, this was the key point in the German defensive fine in ‘World War I, blocking the Allied advance on Rome, but it was destroyed by16 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE Allied bombing in 1944, Tr hs since been rebuilt.) At first Benedict seems to have lived at Monte Cassino asa hermit, Later he no longer put his disciples in separate houses, but collected them under his supervision, And here he wrote his famous Rule, his prescription forthe communal monastic Tif initially for the monks of Monte Cassino, but eventually to become a norm for monasteries in the Wes. So Benedict’s eood sense attracted many into Christian faith and opened the gates of the Westem Heritage 10 other Seekers. His Benedictine Rale was an inspired treaty of otherworldly faith with the demands of this ‘world, A pact between ascetiesm and common sense, i was the farthest ery from the self lagellating hermits f the Egyptian desert, Benedict’s “title Rul for beginners” we can read today in a pamphlet of seventy-ree chapters, Jess than a hundred pages, “We are about to open Schoo! for God's service.” the Prologue announces, “in which we hope nothing harsh or oppressive willbe directed.” He opposes al self-inflicted pain, assumm- ing thatthe world itself will provide enough. Having heard that a monk in & cave near Monte Cassino had chained his fot tothe rock, Benedict sent him a message, “TT you are tuly a servant of God, chain nos yourself with chain of from bt with the chain of Chis.” Benedictine ascoicism was moderate, Except, pothaps, for the classic ‘monastic nles of poverty, chastity, and obedience, it Was not an unsuitable fe for the devout layman, The Fathers ofthe Egyptian desert who made sleep: lessness a virtue took their rest on bare ground with rocks for pillows, But Benedier’s Rule allowed eight hours of uninterrupted slep for most af the year, with “matress, covert, blanket and pillow.” There was no fetish of bare fet. ‘Shoes were to be provided and “suitable clothing... dependent on the cli smate:” Not starvation, but frugality, was the dietary rule, and wine was drunk sparingly. "Tdleness is an enemy ofthe soul” prescribed Chapter 48. “Thece- fore the brothers should be occupied according to schedule in either manual labor or holy reading.” "The schedule depended on the season andthe hours of daylight, of cours lin- ined by te eruity oftheir simepieees and the problems ofthe water clock. The ‘venty-four hours of a nomal Benedictine day in summer would include about four hours forthe Divine Otfice (Opus Dei, including eight periods of comau- fal prayer throughout day and nigh; four hours for reading all were expected to be or become ttre and to rea; six and half hours for work (which helped ‘make the monasteries self-sufficient); eight and a half hours for sleep and one hour for meals. ll were to read inthe Bible and the writings of the Fathers, ‘whose Latin was no obstacle, since it was the monastery vernacular "There was no privacy inthe monastery. Noe was there any oppressive rule of silence. Again moveration was the rule—not silent but taciturmitas. The vice ‘was pot talking but tlkativeness, witha ban only onal smal talk and jokes.”‘The Chistian Way Esperiment ia Commanity 7 ‘The Benedictine community or community of communities, made & mod ‘of autonomy and self-regulation, There is no evidence that Benedict himself vas ever ordained asa priest Tt seems, t00, that he never intended to found an “order” aimed at one special kind of work. The only preparation, the Bene- ictnes said, was tor Heaven, Unlike the Franciseans and others with a cen- ‘ralized international authority, each Benedictine monastery was independent, keting its own abbot (from Aramaic Abba, Father"), who stood in Christ's place and govemed the community for life, ‘Another distinctive Benedictine contbution 19 monastic life was sabi: [Benedict's Rule begins by distinguishing the kinds of monks. Best were “the Cenobites... who live in a monastery waging their war under a rule and an abbot.” The Anchorites by living in @ monastery “lem (0 fight against the evil” preparing themssves “for the single combat ofthe hermit” "The Sari baits (the worst kind, unschooled by any rule” le tothe world by their n= sured heals, ive together in tes and threes, and whatever they wish the call oly, Finally, there are "the gyratory monks” who wander about staying in var ‘ows monasteries three or four days tate. ‘To Benedict's community, no one was #0 be admit lighily—only after a year of probation. Stability meat that once a novice had taken his wows e was ‘commited until death to the house that had accepted his profession. This was wholesome insurance aginst the tendency, among Beyptian ascetics and others, ‘tomake the monastery only a way station toward the life of a hermit. And it gave cect monk his own Benedictine family to replace what he had fet outside, If ‘merabers of one monastery were commanded by their abbot to Found a new house, thee vows of stability were transferred. ‘Suit Benedict's legacy has survived for ffloen hundred years a «nom for the monastic life af Western Christendom, The ev frm the sith to the rwelth ‘centuries in Burope was christened “The Benedictine Centuries” by Cardinal "Newman, During these years the Benedictines were the chief religious, civiliz- ing, and educating influence in the Western Church. Others have called this the Golden Age of Monasteries. In 817 at the Synod of Aachen, the city that ‘Charlemagne (742-814) had made the capital of Western culture, Benedict’ ale was adopted as the base text forall Westem monks. ‘A tradition of Benedictine mystcism-—Bencdict's way of secking union ‘with God-—inspired Westem Christendom in the Mie Ages, His most nf cntal disciples were Saint Gregory the Grea and Saint Bernard of Claivaux (1091-1153), who fought against the rationalist philosophy of Abelard. Thus Benedict had nourished two disparate tendencies—she inward-eaching “upward-reaching and the love of learning and the book. Ia the Hibeaies ofthe Benedictines the literary treasures of antiguity and of Christianity were pre- served throughout the Mile Ages, and Benedict became the patron saint of*® AN ANCIENT HERITAGE ‘he manuscript book. The Benedictines ypread the belie that “A. monastery without ibrar’ like castle without an armory” and none were more effec tive than the Benedictines in preserving and stengthening that armory. The alliance ofthe monasteries with learning under the patronage ofthe Frankish, ‘Visigothic, and Anglo-Saxon kings kept Wester culture live through turbu- dent times Benedictine scholars also left their indelible marks on the vocabulary’ of ‘Wester learning, especially on the study of history. The Venerable Bede (672— 735), sometimes called the frst Benedictine scholar, “the patom ofa Benedic- tine as is St. Thomas of a Dominican” (in Candinal Newman's phrase), seta Pioncer standard of laborious accuracy in his Historia Bcclesiastica gents Angiorum (Beclesiastieal History ofthe English People) His method of dating events from the birth of Jesus Christ is said t0 have come into general use ‘rough the popularity of his History and his two works of ehronology. A later French Benedictine scholar, Jean Maillon (1632-1707), vote De Re Diplo- ‘marica (1681), founding the modem science of diplomatcs—the critical study of ancient oficial manuscripts and other form sources of history. Benedict's Rule also surprisingly provided a physical model for Westem ‘communities. The plan forthe Benedictine monastery of St. Gall in Switzer- fang, drawa by 4 German cleric about 820, may be the earliest document of ‘Wester urban planning. I displaced the haphszard scheme of Eastern monas- teri by a functional plan, ts axial design conveniently met the needs of a self-conianed monastic community—inclading an infirmary, guest house, kitchens, bakehouse, privies, workshops, housing for lay workers, stables for livestock, and a cemetery. This would become a norm for Western monastic architecture and also suggested the grid scheme of later wean planners, Inc lenge came from the contemporary mystic Saint Bemard of Canvas, Benard ‘became his achenemy, denouncing the setolasties’ “scandalous ciety” that degraded God's mysteries o the level of human reason, Bermird insisted that “We discover with greater facility through prayer than through disputation” But ‘the mystic champions of prayer lacked a feeling beth forthe eal wor and for the needs of the speculative mind. Bemard's sponsorship of the Second Crusade ‘led from his political inpttede. And despite his affable reputation (doctor -melifas) for “sweet as honey” teachings, his influence on the wide community ‘of Christan thought was not comparable with the catalytic appeal of Abela’ Sic et Non, Abelard’s rational Aristotelian instruments would be monumentally produc tive inthe hands of Saint ‘Thomas Aquinas (1224-1275). In this greatest of Catholic theologians we see both the possiblities and the limits of human rea ‘son in support of divine revelation. Saint Thomas's first essential ask was to ‘mark te distinction between philosophy and theology nd so show how reason could serve Christan revelation, yet not menace it His work was the enduring product ofthe new eosmopofian community of Seekers in universities, New institutions (the Church, the monasteries, and the universities) nurtured a6 AN ANCIENT HERITAGE CGnistan synthesis—of the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the Greek phito- sophie tradtion—defined by revelation and defended by reason, Ic is remark- able that a work of Saint Thomas's vast reach could arise from his narrowly academic experience. His achievement demonstrated the distinctive productv~ ity ofthe new community of universities. ‘Thomas was bom at Roceasecca near Aquino on the road from Rome 10 [Naples. From boyhood he experince the battle between the pope and the emperor, Fo is tamily, ofthe minor nobility, had served under Emperor Fred- trick TT against the pope, and held a small feudal domain on the boundary between the two powers. When Thomas was only five his family dep him as an oblate at the nearby Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino “therein to be instrocted in holy matters and to prepare himself for God's ila ination” His family had more worldly motives. They hoped that Thomas sight someday become abbot, and so give the family a share in the evenues of the monastery, besides the power ofa ational feudal londship. After nine years, when Thomas was only fourteen, the emperor expelled the monks for their loyalty to the pope and the family hopes were fasted. Meansshile, Thomas had begun his education nx! made his fist acquain- tance with te Rul of Saint Benedict. At Monte Cassino he learned calligraphy and grammar and read works in Talia (the volgare) as well as Latin, Devout biographers noe his progress “in logicalibus e naturalibus.” At the early age of fourteen Thomas was sent to Naples to study atthe university recently (1224) founded by Emperor Frederick Il, king of Jerusalem, to keep his imtelfectuals| fiom going abroad. There he studied philosophy. which the emperor had ordered to be based on the texts of Aristotle snd his commentators, many ney svaluble in translations from Greck and Arabic At Naples, Thomas was attracted 10 the Dominican order, founded only thirty years before, Inthe rising cities the Dominican Seckers pursued 4 path itferet from that ofthe old monastic orders. Rtreating into the bills (as at ‘Monte Cassino) the monks had pursued personal salvation and perfection in obedience t© their abbot. And some of these monasteries had accumulated reat wealth I¢ was in protest against heir worldliness that Saint Dominic (1170-1221) founded his order of preaching friars (later indicated by “O.P”. ‘Their mission to preach Christan doctrine was formerly assigned to bishops and their delegates. To accomplish their preaching mission, unike the ‘Benedictines, they were nota collection of autonomous houses, but wett wher- ever they were needed, preaching the true doctrine and pursuing their studies. Dominican friars were encouraged tobe scholars. Dominic established houses in lrg cities, favoring those with universitics. They became relentless cham- pions of ortndoxy, and would eventually administer the Inquisition. Required to renounce ll personal or community property, they took vows of poverty and‘The Chistian Way Esperiment ia Commanity w nad to bee to support themselves. So they came to be called mencant fis ‘rom mendicare, “Wo bee"). ‘Thomas's Dominican superiors, assuming that his family would oppose his news interests, asigned him at once to Paris to put im out of the family’s reac, There, in the university center of Europe, he could pursve his Domi ‘can studies, Thomas's ambitious mother, Theodor, not so easily outwtted, enlisted her other sons and soldiers of the emperor to capture the fugitive “Thomas. Trying to strip him of his Dominican habit, they imprisoned him “under strong guard at family eastle near Aquino, whore the family used all their wiles to dissuade hima from his Dominican vows, When they tacked bis chastity by sending a gil into his cll the steadfast Thomas seized a firebrand from the hearth and put her to flight, Then reportedly he used the same fire- ‘rand to trae a large cross on the wal, before fling othe Moor in prayer The family's t0-year effort (1244-45) fo break his faith was unsuccessful. His fel low Dominicans, according to his fst biographer and adoring disciple, aided his midnight escape, like Saint Pauls fight from Damascus, by feting him ‘down fom a window by rope, Now Thomas began his academic odyssey. The master of his order, Jotn the "Teutonic, took him t Paris in October 1245 to the priory of Saine-Yacquos, the ‘reat university center For Dominicans, Thre he became the disciple of Alberts Magnus (c. 12001280), with whom he had a natura kinship. For Albert, 00, ‘had fought his own family © join the Dominicans. Afe thee years Thomas accompanied Albers to Cologne, where new Dominican university comm nity (stadium generale) was being founded for students from lover. At Cologne the remained Alberts’ disciple forfour years [Never vias there a happier coincidence than that which brought Thomas from southem Ialy 19 be the disciple of Albert, Their works would be an ‘enduring monument. the medieval universiy—a forum tor the best restless ‘minds, The temperaments and interests of Albert and Thomas proved wonder fully complementary. With diferent emphasis, they explored the same rich resources that the twelth-century renaissance had providentally offered them. ‘The rediscovered prodigious works of Aristotle and of Greek and Arabic phi losophy and seience provided materials for both these giants of scholasticism. Alberts Magn aimed to make all Aristotle's encyclopedic works “intelligi- ‘le tothe Latin” by paraphrase and explanation, Aer twenty yeas he cont pleted the work thst survives in Forty edited volumes, ‘Thus Albert brought the study of nature (through Aristotelian texts) ino the Christian universities. He introduced his own notion of “experiment” and insisted on the value of observation as a source of knowledge, for he believed ‘reason a fth were inevitably in harmony. Albert made his own observations ‘onthe causes of sound and light and on the thecal effects ofthe sun, Comect-AN ANCIENT HERITAGE {ng Arstre's statement that the Tuna rainbow oceurs only twice in fifty yeas, he noted that he had observed two in a single year. Even without a telescope, he suggested that the Milky Way might be composed of stars and that he dark spots on the moon might be features of its surface, He pioneered ways of cas sifying plants and animals and even hinted atthe mutability of species, Tn 1252 Thomas was sent to Paris, where he became a Master of Theology fn 1256 and was appointed to a chair reserved for mendicant friars, During these years he began his own great work, more original and destined ta be more intluensal than that of his teacher, Aristrl’s work had made the achievement ‘ofboth of them possible, Albert provided forthe Latin Middle Ages a complete paraphrase of Aristotle's encyclopedic works. He was so eager that no part of ature remain uncovered hat he even filled out a botanical work of dubious authorship to ensure that this aspect ofthe Aristotelian work was fully treated Albert has been praised as the greatest “purveyor of a knowledge not his ova,” but Thomas made Aristotle his own. Thomas did more than simply “baptize” Aristotle, He assimilated Aristotle's work into the Christan arsenal, and for fucue generations woul! make Aristile a prop of Christian falth, Albert as an acolyte of Aristotle, Thomas made Aristotle into an acolyte of Christianity. During these years in Paris (1252-89) Thomas began his two great sum marie of Catholic theology, frst his Summa contra gentle, followed by bis Summa theologiae. IF was-anage of faith, twas also an age of ively conto- versy tha stimulated the gret systematic works of theology. Believers became Alert tothe arguments that menaced their doctrine and ingenious at making ‘works of pagan philosophy and science serve thet fit. Thomas's Iietime was 4 simmering eruible, With solvent ideas came & new threat to newly estab- lished Christian institutions, Thomas enlisted both to give a new lle to Cris 'an doctrine. In the early Middle Ages, Aristotle was known asthe author of ‘works on logic tanslted by Boethius, Surprisingly, Plato was then the most cited ancient authority on nature. The Church Fathers had dain heavily on Platonie ideas. But the renaissance of the twelfth century had brought new ‘manuscripts oF Aristotle and his Arab commentator, with the spread of Tsar {no Spain, For the fist time the Church seemed threatened by a body’ of si entific leaning, fabered by Aristdle. The study of nature and te instruments of reason challenged the aticles of faith, which led the Church authorities to tay to stem the Aristotelian ide, Albert tied to encompass the newfound tea- sures of Aristotelian thought, Thomas went further, using Aristotle's emphasis ‘on reason to make his works the ally of revelation, Institutions, to, seemed threatened by new forces, The old monastic orders ‘withdrawn into their monasteries were being challenged by the new oxdors of rmendicant friars. Now Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) and Dominic sought holiness in the world. And thee stack did not go unchallenged, At the Univer- sity of Pars the aggressive William of Saint-Amoor (, 1200-1272), dean of‘he Cheistan Way Esperiments in Commanity » the theology masters, led the attack, His Liber de Anticiristo et elusdum minis- is (Book of Anvichrist and His Ministers, 1255) east the Dominicans asthe vanguard of the catastrophic age to come, Though Popes Alexander TV and ‘Clement IV both defended the new onder, these remained centers of conto ‘versy—for their implied criticism ofthe Church hiearchy and their insistence ‘on preaching and hearing confessions without episcopal consent. Thomas ‘Aquinas, vigorous Aristotelian ind leading Dominican, stood for the new. Teis not suprising den, that ina disputations age in new university comma nites which tived by the arts of disputation, the monumental works of theology should take the form that Thomas gave to his two Suanmae: Questions, Objec- tions, and Replies to the objections. Taking nothing for granted, as we have ‘seen, Thomas opens his Summa rheofogie with the question “Whether, besides ‘the philosophical sciences, any further doctrine i required” The whole rele ‘vance of philosophy (including Aristotle, “The Philosopher”) to Christian doc- twine depends on the distinction between philosophy and theology, at which "Thomas isthe master. He wars agains ying to use philosophy (the agent of reason) to ply the ole of faith, and against testing faith by the rigor of reason, “In arguing with nonbelievers about articles of futh, you shoul not ty to vise nocessary arguments in behalf of fut, since this would derogate from ‘the sublinity of fith whose truth exceeds the capacity not only of human but also of angelic minds” The ancient Greeks hu assumed that philosophy included all knowledge —even knowledge of God, f theology must always gov- ‘em the Christian mind, what then isthe use of philosophy? The human ming ‘needed faith, Thomas answers, even in things that could be discovered by ret ‘son “hecause only a few men come to rationally acquired truth about God, and this after a long time and with the adminsue of eo.” ‘We need theology, Thomas argues, because revelation gives ws tuts that ‘cannot be arrived at by eason, To define the role of theology, Thomas draws ‘also on Aristotle's distinction between the practical and the speculative sci ‘ences. He assigns three rales ta philosophy. First, to demonstrat “the pres ‘les of faith, -. (what Hhings in faith it is nacessary t0 know, those things bout God which can be proved by natural argument, suchas thet God exists, that God is one, and the ke” Second, o find similarities among the articles of faith. And third, 0 combat objections to faith hy showing them either false oF “unnecessary. Since religious belie concems matters not accessible to natural reason, itcannot be replaced by knowledge. Since, for a Christian, philosophy and theology are necessarily compatible, he need not fear using philosophy to ‘expin and reinforce articles of belief. And the sty of philosophy (by which "Thomas moans Aristotle) must precede theology. ‘Thomas's Sunsma theologiae—organized in its Questions, Objections, and [Replies—wvas, of course, not intended to be an alternative to the Bible. It was ‘only an aid to beginners, making clear, explicit, and defensible the doctrines” AN ANCIENT HERITAGE implicit in Sriprre, The Fist Part concerns God and the order of Creation, the ‘Second and Thitd Parts concer the goal of human fife in beatitude and the return ofall hings to God. What is generally considered Thomas's most origi al contribution to theology is his exposition of the vinues and vies, The ‘Thicd Pact deals with Christ and the Sacraments as means 10 salvation. All along the way Thomas draws on Seriptue, the Church Fathers, and Saint Augustine and Aristotle, among others, References ro specific work of Aristo- te provide a framework forhis ideas, On some points ike Aristotle's view that the world is eternal, Thomas takes issue with The Philosopher, while still in sisting thatthe matter could not be decided by philosophy: And he frely dis agrees with commentators. He defends Aristotle's belief in the survival of individual souls after deat against the “unicty” of iwllect, the argument of {he Spanish-Arabic Averros, the Muslim interpreter, that there is only a single ‘mind ia which all souls parseipated. ‘Thomas had bepun his is introdction to theology, his Summa contra ge ‘les (1258-64), in Paris, Then after 1259 he spent some peripatetic years in Tly, stat the papal cour, then in several Dominican houses, and there he began his Summa theologiae, which he continued on his return to Pris in 126. ‘After Thomas's death in 1274, Albert returned to Paris to defend hs disciples" teachings, which wore under attack. Th defense was surely needed, The 219) ‘Propositions condemned by the theology masters of Pats in 1277 included at least twelve of Thomas's own, But after Thomas's canonization in 1323, the condemnation was canceled, and as new generations of Thomists arose his Influence increased with the years. By the time of the Council of Trent (1548-63) the leading Catholic theologians were Thomists. The rentiethcen- tury has seen another revival of Thomist thought witily espoused by G. K, (Chesterton's pais of the “dumb ox.” Thomas has become the Pope's exemplar of Catholic openness to tuts from any source. The first monument of the ‘modern university, our self-styled institution of “free enquiry.” was a defense lof Catholic doctrine. Perhaps, as Bertrnd Russell sugzess, the systematic ‘wholeness of Thomist theology meant that “the yoke of orthodoxy was not so severe ass sometimes suppose man could always write hs book, and then, if necessary, withdraw its heretical potions after full public discussion.”15 Varieties of the Protestant Way Erasmus, Luther, Calvin [As they succeeded, the three thriving insttutions—the Church, the monaster- jes, and the universiies—ahat emerged from the European Middle Ages be- ‘cue aot only communities of Seekers but targets far Christians seeking control oftheir own lives and thought, The Chur, no onger a mere agent of the stat, hocamea competitor for worldly power and forthe treasure of beliv- crs. Monasteries, while claiming the moral superiority of withdrawal from the ‘world and from the bardens of wealth, prospered, acquired the odum of riches, ‘and flouted their vows of poverty, chasiry, and ohedience, And universities, laborating the ways of disputation, developed a pedantic arrogance that over- shadowed the simple messages of faith and Scriptures, is not suprising thatthe passions of Christian Seekers could not remain confined and channeled in these institutions, Ther ardor would be expressed in countless independent ways. Three enduring spokesmen give us clues to their ‘ange and variety: Dosiderius Erasmus (c, 1466-1536), the Dutch apostle of moderation, spokesman of Christian humanise; Martin Luther (1483-1546), ‘outspoken German advocate of "justification by faith” alone, founder of the Protestant Reformation; and John Calvin (1500-1564), French creator of a Reformed Church. They followed divergent paths of classical scholarship, bib- ical exegesis, dogmatic theology, and reforming zeal toward conflicting views ‘of the higher truths and how to each ther, Fueled by the passions and resent ‘meals of others less eloguent and more violent their dissension would make ‘Westem Europe a battleground and cemetery of contesting Christians, How they disagreed over the meaning and contours of Christianity and ways of seeking salvation is aot impossible to recount, What remains puzzling is why 0 many acolytes ofa reputed God of Love should have been willing to kil ‘or be killed-—over a theological nzance. Europe inthe sixteenth and seven- ‘teenth centuries became a chaos of faith and persecution. A Protestant Humanism: Erasmus Moderation, praised by moralists, has seldom had its due from history. Buti the spirit of Erasmus had prevailed, de history of Europe i the early modern cera would have been quite diffrent. “Prince of humanists” and godfather of the Protestant reformation, he renisins a subject for scholars, historians, and nov lists, His contemporaries, Luther and Calvin, would be founders of thriving ‘seats and become household names in the Christan Weston AN ANCIENT HERITAGE ‘The birth of Erasmus in Rosterdam) shout 1466 was clouded by mystery and the stigma of illegitimacy. Erasmus himself reported that his father, Getad, fad fad o secret affair with his mother, Margaret, “in dhe expectation of mar- riage.” When Gera’s parents opposed the marriage, he fled, leaving Margaret to bear his child. Later in Rome, whore Gerard was employed asa copyist he received word from his family that Margaret was dead, Out of grief he became priest, When Gerard etumed home he discovered the deception, but he sill, tid ot marry her and stayed by his priestly vowes. This saga became the ass (of Chaos Reade's popular historical romance, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), The cloud of illegitimacy haunted Erasmus al his life. is mother sent him a a boy with his brother to school in Deventer in east- ern Netherlands dominated by a "Modem Piety” movement ofthe Brethren of the Common Life, The most famous of these brethren, Thomas & Kempis| (1380-1471), had expressed their spvit in his Imitation af Christ when he urged, “Trinity is better pleased by adoration than by speculation.” The sects founder, Gerard Groote, had urged study ofthe ancient clases, such as Seneca and Cicero, as pagan preparations for the Gospel, bur his movement empha- sized inwardness. The lack of printed texts sill encouraged memorizing asthe avenue to literature, and Erasmus leared Horace and Terence by heart. “An ‘occult force of nature drove met the humanities," he wrote. At sixteen, appar- ently attracted by their Hibrar, Erasmus joined the Augustinian Canons at Steyn, and a the end of bis novitiate year, he tok the vows of te strict order. ‘There Erasmus wrote On Contemp of the World, a thetorcal exercise on the Virtues of monastery life, Then, befor he was twenty he wrote his Annbarbari (Asainst the Barbarians) defending the valve of pagan leaning. Just as the (Church had not rejected the Old Testament despite is plea for obedience 10 Jaws that Christians had discarded, so, Erasmus said, the Church should not abandon the classes because they celebrated pagan gods, “You tell me that we should not read Virgil because he isi hell, Do you think tht many Christians are not in hell whose works we read? It not for us ta discuss whether the pagans before Christ were damned. ..either they are saved or no one is saved. Ir you want ro give up everything pagan you will have t0 give up the alphabet and the Latin language, and all the ars and crafts.” So he began his lifelong championing ofthe ancient classics. He was ordained a priest in 1492, ‘The bishop of Cambrai sent Erasmus to Paris to stay theology atthe Colle- ia Pauperum ofthe College de Montagu. This was the Pais of “Stygiandark- ness" that Rabelais ridiculed, and Erasmus too was eoubled by the scholastic dogmas, quibbles and intolerance. The masters of theology were fiercely quar- reling. "You say you do not want tobe called Platonist or a Ciceronian.” he aad argued, “bur you do not mind being called an Alberts or a Thomist.” To support himself as a scholar, Erasmus sought pensions, gifts, and pay forthe‘he Cheistan Way Esperiments in Commanity 98 ‘latering dedications in his books. Despite his Tove of classical moderation in philosophy and theology, he wes an extravagant syophant where it brought hh the money he needed. To draw on the wisdom of the ancients, he made a collection of proverbs from the Bible and Greek and Latin authors. His fist, edition of Acdagia in 1500 offered some eight hundred proverbs, but later edi tons exceeded five thousand, These inclided many expressions that would become familiar in the West—"Leave no stone unrumed,” “Where there is smoke thee is fire." "A necessary evil*The mountaa labors and brings forth ‘4 mouse” His Colloguies used the ancient dlogue form for models of Latin conversational syle, spiced with Erasmus’s own wit First Speaker: Prom what coop or cave did you come? ‘Second: From the College de Montag First; Then T suppose you ar fll of leaming. Second: No, lice. vite to England in 1499 bythe young and charming Lord Mountjoy, Eras- rus formed friendships with aristocrats and leading philosophers and clerics ‘ofthe age, especially Ton Colet and Thoms More. To his own suprise he wis ‘captivated by the English delighs of hunting, and“that most admirable esto ‘of kissing at every turn." He had some knowledge of Grock before going to “England, bot English scholars persuaded him to master the language. While the philosophers were enthusiastic Neoplatonsts, Erastaus was wary of obscura tism, He never clsimed a religious cestasy and remained the steadfast advocate ‘of classical humanism, ‘On leaving England to eur o France, Erasmus was stripped of his meager funds by Henry VIP's agents at Dover enforcing the ban on exporting currency “He fled from the plague in Puris and at Orléans, then in the Netheclands be jmmmersed himself in studying Greek watt 1505, He had stated on an edition ‘of Saint Jerome for which he needed Greek. And he was also editing Cicer, ‘When Erasmus discovered a manuscript of Lorenzo Valla tht annotated the New Testament as if it were by some classical author, it reminded him that Holy Scriptures, like other ancient books, could be given textual srutny. This suggested, of course that Saint Feome’s translation ofthe New Testament into Latin might quire revision, Appealing to Pope Clement V's easier directive to study the ancient lan- _2uages, Erasmus opened the path of mosern biblical scholarship. He had found the perfect convergence of his classical and his Christan interess. Then with his Bnchiidion Mitts Christian! (Handbook of the Christian Soldier) he ‘became a spokesman for Catholic reform. Cautioning against the mere exter- ‘als of religion, he praised the spirit of Suint Paul and “a warm love foe the scriptures.” Anal by discounsing the outwaed forms of religion, Erasmus invited the suspicion of both Cathoies and Reformers,oo AN ANCIENT HERITAGE Inhis Enohiridion he exhorted: ‘Cece no po th cath, my Iota ike an animal Put those wings Which Pato sys ate cathe o grow onthe soul by the ardour of love. Rise above the dy tothe pi. fom the vile ode ibe, fromthe letter tthe mystical meaning, fom the senile wo the ils, rors the involved the sine Rise ashy rang ui you sale the later of Jacob ‘The next years, seeking support and repose for his scholarship, be raversed Europe. In England he secured the patronage of William Wareham, archbishop fof Canterbury (to whom he daicated his translations of Euripides), And he developed an intimacy with Thomas More, then a prominent young Londan barrister. Their shared enthusiasm forte satirical dialogues of Lucian €, L1S— «, 200) would soon bear fruit in More's Utopia and Erasmus’ Praise of Folly (1508). Touring aly as itor to young English aristocrats, he visited Rome, ‘where he was horrified by he corruption of the Church, Inthe counteyside he saw poor peasants multe by papal tax collectors Pioneers ofthe new technology of pring became Erasmus’ intimates. tn ‘Venice he was welcomed into the household of Aldus Manuiius (1430-1515), ‘whose Aline press had published elegant editions of Greek and Latin classics, and who published « much-enlarged edition of Erasmus’ Adages (1508). In [Basel he became the friend and collaborator of Johann Froben (14602-1527), settled in Froben’s household and became his general editor and literary aviser.Froten published Erasmus’ edited version of the Greek New Test- ment and his Colloguies. Done in haste, Erasmus’ New ‘Testament, Erasmus himself said, was "precipitated rater than edited” and failed to use some ofthe best surviving sources, But it was stl the first published version of the printed text, Erasmas reputation, and the book’s low price and convenience, made i the stimulus to New Testament scholarship It became a dominant influence om [Luther's translation into Genman (152) and William Tyndale’ translation into English (1525-26). And it gave Erasmas hs lai tobe the father of New Tes- tament scholarship. From all sides came atacks on his text, on his translation, his orthodoxy, and his omissions. ‘But, Erasmus asked, why be satisfied with the vulgar txt of Sait Jerome? “You ery out that it sa erime to correct the gospels. This i a speech wortier of & coachman than ofa theologian.” An English critic, accusing him of the Arian heresy tor having omitted the words supporting the Trinity, predicted that "ihe workd would sgain be racked by Deresy, schism, faction, tur, brawls, and tempest." Erasmus retried, “My New Testament has been out now for three years. Where are the heresies, schisms. tempess, tumult, brawls, hurricanes, devastation, shipwrecks, foods, general disister, and any ‘ing worse you can think of?” The printing press had now become te collab‘The Chetan Way Esperiments ia Commanity 95 ‘orator and vehicle ofthe Protestant sprit. And so it opened the path roa popu lar scriptural theotogy—and the Reformation. Or 2 it was later said, Erasmus Tai the egg that Luther hatched, The Champion of Simple Faith: Lather 1k would be hard to imagine two more different responses to the challenge of (Catholie Christianity atthe end of the Midle Ages than Erasmus and Martin Lather. In the battle between Faith snd Learning, Erasmus remained the champion of wit and eaming, while Luther became the inspired champion of ‘imple faith, While Erasmus had been raised as an orphan, Luther was the son of domineering father. He was sent to a cathedral school in Magdebure, ‘then had some contact with the Brethren of the Common Life and entered the University of Erfurt to study the seven liberal arts. While Erasmus had centered the Collegia Pauperum in Pats for want of Funds, Luther was denied finanelal aid because of his father’s prosperity. Thea, pursuing his father's Wishes, be began the study of lave, which came to an abrupt end in 1508. After only two months, and without asking his parents, Luther entered the Augustinian order of Hermits in Exfur. "Not feely or desiously did 1 become a monk,” he later wrote in Monastic Vows (1521), "but walled around ‘withthe teror and agony of sudden death, I vowed a constrained and neces- ‘sary vow." The story in is Tale Talk: was that, fearing for hs ite when sud denly overtaken by a horrifying thunderstorm, Lather exclaimed, "Help, St. ‘Anne, and 'l become a monk.” On entering the monastery, he had kept only ‘his Plautus and bis Vigil, and sold all the rest of his books, He was ordained ‘as priest in 1507 ‘Brasmus never reported such a mystic experience, but found his own Chiis- tian faith confirmed by the sober wisdom of antiquity. He had wandered Europe seeking support for his retreat into scholarship, Eres’ Gireok New ‘Testament was search for sources. In contrast, Luther’s translation of the Bible ino German reached out tothe wide andience and helped establish Ger- ‘man as a national literary language. Erasmus wrote with humor, wi, and irony. is favorite literary form was the colloquy or dialogue of venerable classical Tineage. But with no patience for dialogue, Luther asserted his Theses. How Luther came to his reformist enthusiasm isnot clet, On bis trip to Rome be, like Prasmos, was dismayed atthe corrupt and worldly Church. Lathe himself ‘recalled his mystic experience of evangelical discovery ofthe “righteousness of God” By 1517 Luther's ire was roused by the abuse of the Catholic practice of gaming indulgences, These documents issued by authority of the pope% AN ANCIENT HERITAGE claimed tobe part ofthe saramtent of penance. As certificates commating pur of the temporal penalty of the sinner, they were sold through papal agen, ‘Though theoretically they were not supposed to be effective unless the sinner ‘was penitent, his requirement didnot destroy their markt, Indulgences, a wel- ‘ome source of funds fr the costly activites ofthe papacy. were managed by the Fuggers of Augsburg, one ofthe leading Financial agents of the time, Pope Sixtus IV in 1476 had included the souls in purgatory i the saving effect of the indulgences, Lutber's patron, the elector Fredrick, had banned from his test ‘ory the sale ofthe Jubilee Indulgences, which were sid to be sold help the pope rebuild St. Peter's in Rome. What especialy troubled Lather was the extravagant sales tactics of the German Dominican monk Johann ‘Tetzl (14657-1519), who had been authorized by the anabitious Arehbishop Albert of Main, Luther was so provoked by Teze’s vulgar salesmanship tht be put together his Ninety-five Theses araigning the abuses of the Catholic Church on Octo- ber 31, 1517, The appealing ration ofthe outraged Luther “ailing his theses to the door ofthe Wittenberg castle church” gives a legendary vividness to his futrage and his anger. Whether or ot he actually “nailed” his theses t0 a church doc, Luther surely affixed his concerns deep into the hearts of beliov- ing Christians, And his declaration of defiance, even in that age of slow com- ‘nication, soon mad him notorious. “The legend of the “nailing” has not taken account ofthe ambiguities sue- rounding indulgences in Lather’ time, The precise theological meaning had not yet been dogmatically defined by the Church, What actually was remited by an indulgence? How serviceable was an indulgence to relieve a sinful soul from sutfering in purgatory? These ambiguities had opened the opportunity for the extravagant sslesmanship by Tetzel and his lke, and for the extravagant indicaments by Luther and orhers, The uses ofthe indulgences were so ill efined in the theology ofthe time that some Church historians have consid- cred Lather’ Theses tobe litle more than “probing ingires.” Luther himself sade issued them "for the purpose of eliing th.” He did not deny the pope's power to grant indulgences, ut he did attack the abuse of the power, ‘And he insisted on the inwardness ofthe Christian religion Repentance, according to Lather, cold not be attained by ecclesiastical fia, but required a transformation within the believer. The true power and tlory of the Church were not inthe papacy but inthe Gospel. Luther, leetur ing at the new University of Wittenberg, had abandoned the Aristotelian scholastic theology for the study of the Bible inthe original Hebrew and. Grook. But his efforts to cary his message to other universities did not suc- ‘ved, He now believed that salvation came not trough works but through the divine gitt of grace from God and through Christ, He would express this‘The Chetan Way Esperiments ia Commanity 9 dogma in his German translation of the Bible, where he added the word “alone” in the erucial passage “For we hold that a man is justified by faith alone, apart from the works of man.” ‘So Lauer shor-cireuited the power of the Church, she priesthood, and the ‘socraments. His combative theses, broadcast by the new at of printing, against the abuses of indulgence have aricted historians more than his more fundie ‘meatal affirmations of religious futh, autonomy, and the priesthood of all believers, Without the printing pres, Luther’ challenge might have made only local flurry in Witenberg. Luther himself sent copies of his theses tthe ambitious archbishop of Mainz and to his own bishop. The printing press made it possible fo circulate them more widely andl more spec than ever befor, Luther wouk! make the printing press the vehicle also for his reforming ‘ideas. His address “To the Cristian Nobility ofthe German Nation concerning the reformation of the Christian Commonwealth,” published in Wittenberg, offered his argument thatthe spiritual power of Christianity came from the whole body of true believers, all of whom had the power to read and interpret the Scriptres for dhemselves. He attacked the supremacy ofthe pope over the state, the theories of two estates (tmporal and spiritual) and of two swords ‘pope and emperor), He called fora national German Church, abolition of the celibacy of the clergy, and reforms of sehools and universities. This was bis answer to the papal bull excommunicating Lather, published in Rome in Fane 1520, and did more than Luther ever imagined or intended, He ignited the ‘nafonal spirit (not only in Germany) and sparked an overwhelming movement for reform of the Church, Published in mid-August 1520, by the eighteenth of| the month his addres had sold four thousand copies. Inthe sisteeath century it ‘reappeared in seventeen further editions, ‘And Luther provided more than doctrine. He provided the reasure-house of (Christian faith in 8 new form, which came to be called dhe Reformation Bible, ‘Simply by minsating the Bible into German he had committed an act of reform that eanslated doctrine into deed. He democratized the sources of (Christian faith by putting them ito the language ofthe marketplace. By 1522, after some (wo years of work, using the second edition of Erasmus? Gresk text, he had translated the whole New Testament, now illustrated by Lucas (Cranach (1472-1553), whose vivid full-page wondeuts depicted dragons and ‘the Woman of Babylon wearing papal tripe crowns. rom there Luther went ‘onto the Old Testament, and the whole was published by 1534, So he made the Bible a popular eathedral. By this time some eighty editions of his New Test ‘ment hal appeared and became the basis of translations into Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Teetandi. William Tyndale (¢. 1494-1536) used it along with ‘Erasmus’ Greek New Testament for his translation, the frst New Testament to