explanation. There was much difference of opinion among the thinkers
as to the limits to be assigned to such freedom of speculation on the
mysteries of the faith, some starting from the standpoint of idealists
and endeavouring to avoid the logical consequences of their
speculations; while others, adopting so far as possible a position of
pure empiricism, set tradition at defiance, and hoped by the aid of
reason to reach the conclusions of divine revelation.

[Sidenote: Realists and Nominalists.]

The philosophical problem to which the mediaval thinkers addressed
themselves is one that it is essential to the progress of human
thought to solve. Whence do we derive general notions (Universals, as
they were called), and do they correspond to anything which actually
exists? Thus for the purpose of classifying our knowledge we use
certain terms, such as genera, species, and others more technical. Do
these in reality exist independently of particular individuals or
substances? One school of philosophers, basing their reasoning upon
Plato, maintained that such general ideas had a real existence of
their own, and hence gained the name of Realists. But another school,
who took Aristotle as their champion, held that reality can be
asserted of the individual alone, that there is nothing real in the
general idea except the name by which it is designated; while some of
these Nominalists, as they came to be called, even proclaimed that the
parts of an individual whole were mere words, and could not be
considered as having an existence of their own. With the application
of these definitions to theological dogmas we reach the beginning of
Scholastic Theology. Here both sides were soon landed in difficulties.
Nominalism, in its denial of reality to general notions, undermined
the Catholic idea of the Church: in its recognition of none except