Of course, there is much in any thinker that offends. But here a bit of context is necessary. For Thomas, democracy was not our representative government, but some kind of mob rule by the uneducated. Like Aristotle and Polybius before him, and like Machiavelli after him, Thomas preferred a kind of mixed government.
In his view, the best ordering of power within a city or kingdom is one with a virtuous head, a body of wise representatives, and direct involvement by the people. But Thomas was hardly a conservative. However, for Thomas, the election of representatives was part of an aristocratic system of government, not of democracy.
Thomas was canonized by a Catholic Church that has not always been characterised by its tolerance towards other beliefs; but the same intolerance was not characteristic of Aquinas himself.
He was a pragmatist. Thomas Aquinas was not yet fifty years old when he mounted his donkey to ride down the Via Appia to his hometown. Perhaps the philosopher was absent-minded. In any case, a branch hit the tall man and he fell off the ass.
He was immediately taken to Monte Cassino, where he said he felt better. He was wrong. He continued his journey, but fell ill, and stopped at Priverno in present-day Lazio. The philosopher realised that he was soon to meet his maker.
Thomas had eight siblings, and was the youngest child. His mother, Theodora, was countess of Teano. Before Saint Thomas Aquinas was born, a holy hermit shared a prediction with his mother, foretelling that her son would enter the Order of Friars Preachers, become a great learner and achieve unequaled sanctity.
Following the tradition of the period, Saint Thomas Aquinas was sent to the Abbey of Monte Cassino to train among Benedictine monks when he was just 5 years old. In Wisdom , Saint Thomas Aquinas is described as "a witty child" who "had received a good soul. Saint Thomas Aquinas remained at the monastery until he was 13 years old, when the political climate forced him to return to Naples. Saint Thomas Aquinas spent the next five years completing his primary education at a Benedictine house in Naples.
During those years, he studied Aristotle's work, which would later become a major launching point for Saint Thomas Aquinas's own exploration of philosophy. At the Benedictine house, which was closely affiliated with the University of Naples, Thomas also developed an interest in more contemporary monastic orders.
He was particularly drawn to those that emphasized a life of spiritual service, in contrast with the more traditional views and sheltered lifestyle he'd observed at the Abbey of Monte Cassino.
In , he secretly joined an order of Dominican monks, receiving the habit in When his family found out, they felt so betrayed that he had turned his back on the principles to which they subscribed that they decided to kidnap him.
Thomas's family held him captive for an entire year, imprisoned in the fortress of San Giovanni at Rocca Secca. During this time, they attempted to deprogram Thomas of his new beliefs. Thomas held fast to the ideas he had learned at university, however, and went back to the Dominican order following his release in He was ordained in Cologne, Germany, in , and went on to teach theology at the University of Paris.
Wait till I have a few pints in me first. Franciscans in Assisi will soon enjoy a new feature in their habits: cell phone pockets. Some critics consider the innovation inappropriate, but Elisabetta Biancheri, who designed the habits, said, "It is simply a functional item of clothing. Even monks make phone calls. Thomas did not even live to see his fiftieth birthday, but he produced an enormous body of writing: more than 10,, words in some 60 works.
Thomas lacked the time to pen so many words, and if he had written them, no one would be able to read them he had notoriously bad handwriting. Instead, he dictated to secretaries—sometimes several at once. A thirteenth-century source avers that Thomas "used to dictate in his cell to three secretaries, and even occasionally to four, on different subjects at the same time. Because Thomas wrote on just about every subject, he eventually touched on entertainment, but the way he approached it in his Commentary on the Ethics of Aristotle suggests that it wasn't one of his strong suits: "Amusement does have an aspect of good inasmuch as it is useful for human living.
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