THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 11
Paris, where he wrote a work in defence of monastic life, and two years after he received from the University of Paris his degree of Doctor in Theology. In 1272 he returned to teach theology at Naples ; and in 1274 he was about to set out for Lyons, whither he had been summoned by the Pope to endeavour to effect a union of the eastern and western Churches ; but before going on this journey, he visited a relative, Frances of Aquino ; and while at her castle, in Campania, he was overtaken by fatal fever, in his forty- eighth year.
Aquinas was celebrated especially for his dialectic skill. He followed Aristotle in method, and for the most part Augustine in doctrine. He was canonized by the Romish Church, and styled "the angelic doctor." His voluminous works are favourites with Roman Catholics. They find in them the argumentative advocacy of priestly efficacy and transubstantiation. Thomas Aquinas was the founder of the Thomists, who were arrayed against the Scotists, or followers of Duns Scotus, on the question concern ing the efficacy of Divine grace.
The talents of Aquinas were various as well as great. His principal prose works were, his " Defence of the Monastic Life ; " his " Summa Theologia) ; " his "Commentary on the Four Books of Peter Lombard;" and his "Commentaries on the Writings of Aristotle." He wrote in poetry as well as in prose.
" Sing, my tongue, the Saviour s glory." No. 878.
This hymn is translated from one of his well-known Latin hymns, " Pange, lingua gloriosi." One verse is omitted in the " New Congregational." Dr. Mason Neale, who gives another rendering of it, notes its high place in Latin poetry, and the difficulty of successfully translating it. Lines three and four in the first verse of the rendering in the "New Congregational Hymn Book" are diffe rent from Aquinas original, but closely resemble two lines in a piece also commencing, " Pange, lingua gloriosi," by Venantius Fortunatus (530 609), the celebrated poet-bishop of Poitiers.
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