§ 2. THE THOMIST SCHOOL

452. The Thomist School. -- The line of Thomists who faithfully interpreted the master's teachings grew rich in numbers from the fifteenth into the sixteenth century. JOHANNES VERSOR (fl. 1480) interpreted the principal works of Aristotle in the spirit of Thomism (Quaestiones super Veterem Artem; Super Omnes Libros Novae Logicae; commentaries on the De Ente et Essentia and on Petrus Hispanus). PETRUS NIGRI compiled a treatise, Clipeus Thomistarum. Groups of professors at Cologne defended St. Thomas and Albert the Great -- against each other. Among the Thomists, the most noteworthy are HEIMERIC DE CAMPO (fl. 1460), HENRY OF GORKUM (fl. 1460), GERHARDUS DE MONTE (1480, wrote commentaries on the De Ente et Essentia and an Apologetica . . . qua ostensorem concordiae inter S. Thomam et venerab. Albertum Magnum impugnat opprobriis, auctoritatibus et rationibus omissis) and LAMBERTUS DE MONTE (fl. 1499, wrote commentaries on Aristotle in the spirit of St. Thomas). The principal protagonists of Albertus were GERHARD HARDERWIJK (fl. 1503, wrote commentaries on the Nova Logica and on Petrus Hispanus) and ARNOLD DE LUYDE (or of Tongres, fl. 1540, wrote commentaries on the Organon and on Petrus Hispanus). Echoes of this Albertino-Thomistic controversy were heard outside Cologne.

BARBUS PAULUS SONCINAS (fl. 1494) summarized Capreolus, wrote commentaries on the Isagoge and the Categories and composed Quaestiones Metaphysicae. JOHANNES A LAPIDE (fl. 1494) taught successively at Paris, Basle and Tübingen: wrote commentaries on the Organon, a treatise De Exponibilibus and Sophist. Argumentationes. FRANCISCUS TAEGIUS wrote a commentary on St. Thomas's Opusculum De Fallaciis. MICHAEL SARAVETIUS undertook to defend Thomism against Scotism (Quaest. de Analogia contra Scotistas; Q. de Universalibus; De Prima et Secunda Intentione). DOMINICUS OF FLANDERS (fl. 1500) taught at Bologna (1470) and wrote on Aristotle's Metaphysics, Posterior Analytics and De Anima. CONRAD KÖLLIN, one of the ablest Thomists of this period, expounded St. Thomas at Heidelberg (1507) and Cologne, and published Quodlibeta. MARTIN POLLICH at Wittenberg (fl. 1513) and ERASMUS WONSIDEL at Leipzig wrote on the Thomistic Logic. The Dominican, BARTHOLOMAEUS MANZOLUS, attacked the logic of Paul of Venice with arguments drawn from Thomism (Dubia super Logicam P. Veneti). JAVELLUS, in the opening decade of the sixteenth century, opened a long controversy with Antonius Trombeta. PETER OF BRUSSELS, or Peter Crockaert, after an ardent defence of Ockamism, which had been taught him by Johannes Major (461), joined the Dominicans and went over to Thomism. With a sound judgment he combined an elegant literary style, thus communicating to his pupil, Vittoria, a taste for literary form. Besides commentaries on various treatises of Aristotle and on the De Ente et Essentia of St. Thomas, he wrote some Quodlibeta.

Of greater importance than those are the two famous commentators on St. Thomas, Sylvester Ferrariensis and Cajetan.