Albertus Magnus (AKA St.
Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne) (c. 1200 - 1280)
was a 13th Century German philosopher, theologian and
scientist of the Medieval period. He is mainly associated
with the dominant Medieval movement of Scholasticism, and his influence on
the development ofScholastic philosophy in the 13th Century
was enormous, especially his incorporation of Aristotelianism into the Christian
west. He is also known as an early advocate for the
peaceful coexistence of science and religion.
Albertus was born, sometime between 1193 and 1206, to
the knightly family of the Count of Bollstädt in Lauingen in
Bavaria, Germany. He was educated principally at Padua in
Italy, where he received instruction inAristotle's writings. In 1223 he became a
member of the Dominican Order, against the wishes of his family,
and studied theology at Bologna in Italy and
elsewhere. Later, he returned to Germany to teach at Cologne,
Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg and Hildesheim.
In 1245 Albertus went to Paris to
receive his doctorate and to becomeprovincial of the Dominican
Order. He taught for some time as a master of theology in
Paris with great success, and it was during this period that his most famous
student St. Thomas Aquinas began to study under
him. He fulfilled duties as Bishop of Regensburg from 1260 to
1263, walking rather than riding across his huge diocese, and then spent the
reminder of his life in semi-retirement, studying and preaching
throughout southern Germany.
He died in 1280 in Cologne,
Germany, after two years of ill health. Contemporaries such as Roger Bacon and Dante Alighieri(1265
- 1321) applied the term "Magnus" ("the Great") to Albertus
during his own lifetime, referring to his immense reputation as
a scholar and philosopher, and he remained steadfast in his defence of
the orthodoxy of his former pupil, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose death in 1274
greatly grieved Albertus. He was beatified in 1622, and
honoured by the Catholic Church as a Doctor of the Church in
1931.
Albertus wrote prolifically (his
collected writings were collected into 38 volumes in 1899), and was perhaps the
most widely read author of his time. He was famed for his
literally encyclopedic knowledge of topics as diverse as
logic, theology, psychology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology,
mineralogy, chemistry, zoology, physiology, phrenology and others.
Most modern western knowledge of the works of Aristotle was preserved and presented by
Albertus, and he digested, interpreted and systematized the
whole of Aristotle's works (from the Latin
translations and notes of Arabian commentators such
asAverroës and Avicenna) in accordance with church
doctrine, and with occasional divergences from the
opinions of the master. His approach to this task, however,
was clearly influenced by Neo-Platonism. His principal theological
works are a commentary in three volumes on the "Books
of the Sentences" of Peter Lombard (c. 1100
- 1160), and his "Summa Theologiae" in two
volumes.
Albertus's knowledge of physical science was
considerable and (for the age) remarkably accurate, aided by his
protracted study of Aristotle, which gave him great powers of systematic
thought and exposition. He is credited with the discovery of the
elementarsenic, and there is much speculation on his work as an alchemist.
He was certainly deeply interested in astrology, as were many
scientists of the time, arguing that an understanding of the celestial
influences affecting us could help us to live our lives more in accord
with Christian precepts.
Albertus is also known for his enlightening commentary
on the musical practice of his times, and wrote extensively onproportions in
music, on the ways in which music worked on the human soul, and on
his categorical rejection of the popular notion of the "music of
the spheres".
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