Read Concerning Being And Essence Online

xiv PREFACE 

from the Latin word for book and the Latin word for free, so 
that as a consequence the liberal arts are book arts which make 
the human spirit free from the body and its association with 
particular things. 

After having joined the Dominican Order at Naples, St. 
Thomas subsequently set out for the Convent at Cologne 
where he came into contact with Albertus Magnus, his doctrinal 
master. It is fairly well authenticated that to Albertus Magnus, 
St. Thomas owes his vocation to philosophy and his Aristotelian 
initiation. This is not the place to discuss what St. Thomas 
derived from his master in detail. But it is often pointed out 
that Albertus Magnus assembled the material and began the 
foundation of what St. Thomas later erected into a cathedral of 
doctrine. It is true that St. Thomas soon began to substitute 
the method of running paraphrase for the metaphrases of 
Albertus Magnus in commenting on the Aristotelian works. His 
thought is free from glosses and digressions, exact and rigorous, 
finely balanced and directed towards its central object with a 
clear vision and great foresight. The two Summae exhibit a re- 
duction to a few simple modes of all the complex modes of 
argument employed by his predecessors. His mind was pri- 
marily architectonic and constructive, attributes which do much 
to account for the almost miraculous organization of doctrine 
which he accomplished. 

St. Thomas accompanied Albert to Paris in 1245, and thence 
back to Cologne in 1248. In 1252 the general of his order 
called him back to teach at Paris. This is the period of his 
public lectures, first as a bachelor and later as a master. The 
date of his mastership corresponds with that of St. Bonaventura 
in 1257. After a removal from Paris and a residence in Rome 
where he delivered at the papal court the truths which he had 
meditated, he again returned to Paris in 1268. While in Rome 
he came into contact with William of Moerbeke who is known