St. Thomas, considering the Aristotelean idea, writes: “Sapientia est scientia quae considerat causas primas et universales causas; sapientia causas primas omnium causarum considerat”—Wisdom [i.e. philosophy] is the science which considers first and universal causes; wisdom considers the first causes of all causes,” (Metaphysics I, Lecture ii).

Thomas Aquinas lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the Aristotelian Corpus was being translated into Latin, bringing the question of faith versus reason into the dialogue of the philosophers. Thomas was born in 1225 A.D. at Roccasecca, a hilltop castle from which the great Benedictine abbey of Montecassino located midway between Rome and Naples. At the age of five, he was put in the abbey, still in Montecassino. Battles broke out at the location and Thomas was removed by his family to the University of Naples. In Naples, Thomas made contact with the philosophy of Aristotle and the Dominicans. Becoming a Dominican he traveled to Paris to study and then off to Cologne and studied with Albert the Great. Thomas then went back to Paris, to become a Master, and sat in one of the Dominican chairs in the Faculty of Theology. He lived in various places in Italy, including the papal court and Dominican house. He was called back to Paris to debate Latin Averroism and Heterodox Aristotelianism for the next three years before returning to Naples in 1274. Early in this year, while on his way to the Council of Lyon, he became ill and died on March 7th at the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova.