The Scholastic philosophy failed to justify the doctrines of the
Church to a rapidly expanding world. But it is unjust and ungrateful
to stigmatise its results as barren. In the first place it gave a most
valuable training in logical method to the keenest intellects of the
time. Moreover, the very attempt to establish the Christian faith by
argument was an unconscious homage to the supremacy of reason as the
ultimate guide; while, finally, in the philosophy of St. Thomas, all
nature was regarded as a fit subject for enquiry, and some of the
greatest Schoolmen, as we have just seen, were noted for their
investigations into natural phenomena.




CHAPTER VIII

GUELF AND GHIBELLINE. (I)


[Sidenote: Hadrian IV.]

Hadrian IV is interesting to us as the only Englishman who has ever
sat upon the throne of St. Peter. As Nicholas Brakespeare he had led
the life of a wandering scholar, chiefly in France. He entered the
house of Canons Regular of St. Rufus near Avignon, and when Abbot of
this monastery attracted the attention of Eugenius III, who made him
Cardinal Bishop of Albano, and employed him as papal legate in freeing
the Church in Scandinavia from its dependence on the Bishops in
Germany. The prestige which he acquired in this work marked him out as