Note 84 — LETTER I.

The Thomists were so called after Thomas Aquinas, the celebrated “Angelic Doctor” of the schools. He flourished in the thirteenth century, and was opposed in the following century, by Duns Scotus, a British, some say a Scottish, monk of the order of St. Francis. This gave rise to a fierce and protracted controversy, in the course of which the Franciscans took the side of Duns Scotus, and were called Scotists; while the Dominicans espoused the cause of Thomas Aquinas, and were sometimes called Thomists.