Note 90 — PREFATORY NOTE.
Reading edition
For work of Aquinas, see St. Thomas Aquinas, Liber de Cœlo et Mundo, section xx. Also, Life and Labors of St. Thomas of Aquin, by Archbishop Vaughan, pp. 459, et seq. For his labors in natural science, see Hoefer, Histoire de la Chimie, Paris, 1843, vol. i., p. 381. For theological views of science in middle ages, and rejoicing thereat, see Pouchet, Hist. des Sci. Nat. au Moyen Age, ubi supra. Pouchet says: "En général au milieu du moyen âge les sciences sont essentiellement chrétiennes, leur but est tout-à-fait religieux, et elles semblent beaucoup moins s'inquiéter de l'avancement intellectuel de l'homme que de son salut eternel." Pouchet calls this "conciliation" into a "harmonieux ensemble" "la plus glorieuse des conquêtes intellectuelles du moyen âge." Pouchet belongs to Rouen, and the shadow of the Rouen Cathedral seems thrown over all his history. See, also, L'Abbé Rohrbacher, Hist. de l'Église Catholique, Paris, 1858, vol. xviii., pp. 421, et seq. The abbé dilates upon the fact that "the Church organizes the agreement of all the sciences by the labors of St. Thomas of Aquin and his contemporaries." For the theological character of science in middle ages, recognized by a Protestant philosophic historian, see the well-known passage in Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe; and by a noted Protestant ecclesiastic, see Bishop Hampden's Life of Thomas Aquinas, chaps. xxxvi., xxxvii. See, also, Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. ix. For dealings of Pope John XXII., and kings of France and England, and republic of Venice, see Figuier, L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes, pp. 140, 141, where, in a note, the text of the bull Spondent Pariter is given.