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knowledge, and that the fdriner is the impersonal mind in the state of actual and perennial thought. In order Vhat the mind acquire ideas, the Passive Intellect must come into contact with the Active Intellect. A\icenna, however, insists most emphati- cally that a contact of that kind does not interfere with the independent substantiality of the Passive Intellect, and does not imply that it is merged with the Active Intellect. He explicitly maintains that the individual mind retains its individuality and that, because it is spiritual and immaterial, it is endowed with personal immortality. At the same time, he is enough of a mystic to maintain that certain choice souls are capable of arriving at a very special kind of union with the Universal, Active, Intellect, and of attaining thereby the gift of prophecy. Metaphysics he defines as the science of supernatural (ultra- physical) being and of God. It is, as Aristotle says, the theological science. It treats of the existence of God, which is proved from the necessity of a First Cause; it treats of the Providence of God, which, as all the Arabians taught, is restricted to the universal laws of nature, the Divine Agency being too e.xalted to deal with singular and contingent events; it treats of the hierarchy of mediators between God and material things, all of which emanated from God, the Source of all sources, and Principle of all principles. The first emanation from God is the world of ideas. This is made up of pure forms, free from change, composition, or imperfection; it is akin to the In- telligible world of Plato, and is, in fact, a Platonic concept. Next to the world of ideas is the world of souls, made up of forms which are, indeed, in- telligible, but not entirely separated from matter. It is these souls that animate and energize the heavenly spheres. Next to the world of souls is tlie world of physical forces, which are more or less com- pletely emljedded in terrestrial matter and obey its laws; they are, however, to some extent amenable to the power of intelligence in so far as they may be influenced by magic art. Lastly comes the world of corporeal matter; this, according to the Neo-Platonic conception which dominates Avicenna's thought in this theory of emanation, is of itself wholly inert, not capable of acting but merely of being acted upon (Occasionalism). In this hierarchical arrangement of beings, the Active Intellect, which, as was pointed out above, plays a necessary role in the genesis of human knowledge, belongs to the world of Ideas, ind is of the same nature as tlie spirits which animate the heavenly spheres. From all this it is apparent that .\vicenna is no exception to the general de- scription of the Arabian Aristoteleans as neo-Platonic interpreters of Aristotle. There remain two other doctrines of a general metaphysical nature which exhibit him in the character of an original, or rather an Arabian, and not a neo-Platonic, interpreter. The first is his division of being into three classes: (a) wliat is merely possible, including all sublunary things; (b) what is itself merely possible but endowed by the First Cause with necessity; such are the ideas that rule the heavenly spheres; (c' what is of its own nature necessary, namely, the First Cause. This clas.'iilication is mentioned and refuted by Averroes. The second doctrine, to which also Averroes alludes, is a fairly outspoken system of pantheism, which Aviccnna is said to have elaborated in a work, now- lost, entitled " Philosophia Orientalis ". The Scholas- tics, apparently, know nothing of the special work on pantheism; they were, however, aware of the pantheistic tendencies of Avicenna's other works on philosophy, and were, according!}', reluctant to tnist to his exposition of Aristotle.
Aru'cntKe Peripatetici . . . Opera (Venice. 14951; MrxK in Diet, des sciences phil. (Paris. 1844-52), art. Ibn-Sina; Cahra de Vacx, Avicentif (Paris, 1900): Ueberweg-Heixze, Gesch. der PhU.. 9th ed, (Berlin. 1903). II, 247, 248; tr. Morris <New York. 1890), 412. 413; Stockl, Lekrb. der Gesch. der
AVIGNON
Phil, i Mainz, 18881, I. 329 sqq.. tr. Finlav (Dublin. 1903. 293 sqq.; Turner, Hist, of Phil. (Boston, 1903). 312. 313. WiLLi.vM Turner.
Avi^on. — City. — Avignon, written in the form of Ax'cnnio in the ancient texts and. inscriptions, takes its name from the House, or Clan, Avennius [d'Arbois de Jubainville, "Recherches sur I'origine de la propri^te fonciere et des noms des lieux habitus en France" (Paris, 1890), 51S]. Founded by the Cavari, who were of Celtic origin, it became the centre of an important Phoctean colony from Mar- seilles. Under the Roman occupation, it was one of the most flourishing cities of Gallia Narbonensis; later, and during the inroads of the barbarians, it belonged in turn to the Goths, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, and to the Prankish kings of Austrasia. In 736 it fell into the hands of the Saracens, who were driven out by Charles Martel. Boso having been proclaimed King of Provence, or of Aries, by the SjTiod of Mantaille, at the death of Louis the Stam- merer (879), Avignon ceased to belong to the Prank- ish kings. In 1033, when Conrad II fell heir to the Kingdom of Aries, Avignon passed to the empire. The German rulers, however, being at a distance,' Avignon took advantage of their absence to set up as a republic with a consular form of go\ernment, between 113.5 and 1146. In addition to the em- peror, the Counts of Forcalquier, Toulouse, and Provence exercised a purely nominal sway over the city; on two occasions, in 1125, and in 12.51, the two latter divided their rights in regard to it, while the Count of Forcalquier resigned any that he pos- sessed to the bishops and consuls in 113.5. During the crusade against the Albigenses the citizens re- fused to open the gates of Avignon to Louis VIII and the legate, but capitulated after a three months' siege (10 June — 13 September, 1226) and were forced to pull down the ramparts and fill up the moat of their city. Philip the Fair, who had inherited from his father all the rights of Alphonse de Poitiers, last Count of Toulouse, made them over to Charles II, King of Naples and Count of Provence (1290); it was on the strength of this donation that Queen Joan sold the city to Clement VI for 80,000 florins (9 June, 1348).
Avignon, which at the beginning of the fourteenth centurj' was a tovm of no great importance, under- went a wonderful develo]iment during the residence there of nine popes, Clement V — Benedict XIII, in- clusivelj-. To the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop's Palace, which had been enlarged by John XXII, rose the Palace of the Popes, in the form of an imposing fortress made up of towers, linked one to another, and named as follows: De la Campane, de Trouillas, de la Glacicre, de Saint-Jean, des Saints-Anges (Benedict XII), de la Gache, de la Garde-Robe (Clement VI), de Saint-Laurent (Innocent VI). The Palace of the Popes belongs, by its severe architecture, to the Gothic art of the South of France; other noble examples are to be .seen in the churches of St. Didier, St. Peter, and St. Agricola, in the Clock Tower, and in the fortifications built between 1349 and 1368 for a distance of some three miles, and flanked by thirty-nine towers, all of which were erected or re- stored by popes, cardinals, and great dignitaries of the court. On the other hand, the execution of the frescoes which adorn the interiors of the papal palace and of the churches of Avignon was en- trusted almost exclusively to artists from Sienna.
The popes were followed to Avignon by agents (Jactores) of the great Italian banking-houses, who settled in the city. They acted as money-changers, as intermediaries between the Apostolic Chamber and its debtors, living in the most prosperous quarters of the city, which was known as the Exchange. A crowd of traders of all kinds brought to market the
