CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
THE "LUMEN EXTERIUS" — THE MECHANICAL ARTS
Since the end and aim of all human pursuits and studies should be either the reparation of the integrity of our nature or the alleviation of the needs of life, let us consider in detail the three divisions of knowledge by which this twofold purpose is accom plished. Theoretical and practical knowledge repair the integrity of our nature; the former by securing Wisdom, the latter by repelling vice and, consequently, strengthening virtue. Mechanical knowledge provides against penury and tempers the infirmities of the present life; it attends, therefore, to all the temporalities by which need is alleviated. In the material foundation of the world, we see the symbol of the Mechanical Arts which are occupied with fleeting things and strive to provide for the needs of the body. This phase of the subject, then, demands our first con sideration.
It need not surprise us that the Seraphic Doctor should assign the Ars Mechanica to an academic conference. In the first place it fits beautifully into his thesis, and in the second place this subject had long been drawn into the range of philosophical investigation. When Hugh of St. Victor discusses philosophia, scientia and ars, he sums up as follows: Philosophia dividitur in theoricam, practicam, mechanicam et logicam. Haec quattuor omnem constituunt scientiam1. In the same passage he calls mechanica adulterina, because circa humana opera versatur. According to the general scheme of classification of human knowledge resulting from the intellectual life of the Thirteenth Century, we find listed in addition to the theoretical and practical sciences a group of sciences which study the order achieved by man externally through the guidance of reason2. Here man becomes at once the 1 Eruditio Didascalica I, 5. Migne, P. L., t. 176, col. 744.
2 "Extrema sunt primum et ultimum alpha et omega, principium et finis. Medium inter haec est operatio, per quam efficiens pervenit in finem. Ilia ergo virtus recta est, cuius operatio est a principio primo et ad finem ultimum. Quoniam ergo divina virtus omnia operatur et propter Deum, hinc est, quod rectissima est in operando. Nihil autem continuatur recto nisi rectum; cum ergo virtus nostra summae potestati continuatur, absque dubio rectificatur: et ex hoc homo non solum
THE ''LUMEN EXTERIUS" — THE MECHANICAL ARTS
spectator and maker of an order which he creates. The order, however, is outside himself, in matter. The philosophers of the Thirteenth Century placed the productive activity of the artisan — the maker of furniture or the builder of houses, on the same level with the human creative activity which inspires epics and finds expression in gorgeous cathedrals and marble statues. The mechanical arts as well as the liberal arts were possessed of the ratio artis, and the distinction between them did not consist in the superiority of the artistic activity as such but upon the dif ference in the processes employed* * 3.
Nature is the expression of the Divine, but Art is the expression of the human. All the matter that is in the world has been placed there by God and man cannot add to its store. He may, however, combine what is already there and this is what is meant by the Latin root ar which signifies "to put or to fit things together".
Art came into the world when man began to work at "putting things together" and these things were put together for one of two reasons — utility or pleasure4 5. Man wanted things which he could use or things which would delight himself and others. The useful arts, such as the art of agriculture, the art of weaving, and every other art which produced things for use grew out of man's ambition to perfect the practical aims of life, as life with all its wonderful possibilities began to spread out before him.
The Mechanical Arts enable man to dominate the pitiless grind ing forces of nature. On this subject, Aristotle in his Mechanical says: "Our wonder is excited, firstly, by phenomena which occur first in accordance with nature but of which we do not know the cause, and, secondly, by those which are produced by art despite nature for the benefit of mankind. Nature often operates contrary to human expediency, for she always follows the same course without deviation, whereas human expediency is always changing.
When, therefore, we have to do something contrary to nature, the difficulty of it causes us perplexity and art has to be called to our aid. The kind of art which helps us in such perplexities we call
Mechanical Skill. The words of the poet Antiphon are quite true:
'Mastered by Nature, we o'ercome by Art'." rectus sed etiam rector et rex efficitur." Prooemium in secundum librum
Sententiarum, t. II. p. 4.
3 Cf. M. De Wulf, Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages, Princeton, 1922, pp. 94-95.
4 ''Quoniam omnis ars mechanica aut est ad solatium, aut ad mm mod 11m; sive aut est excludendam tristitiam, aut indigentiam; sive aut prodest, aut delectat." De Reduc. art. ad theol., n. 2, t. V, p. 319.
Cf. supra p. 20.
5 Cf. Works of Aristotle translated into English under the editorship of W. D. Ross, Oxford, 1931. Cf. Ch. 1, 847 a.
DE REDUCTIONE ARTIUM AD THEOLOGIAM
In the intellectual development of the Middle Ages there was a noticeable decline of interest in Augustinian philosophy and a tendency toward more practical and concrete thinking. This trend is manifested in the ablest writers of the times. Even Hugh of St. Victor, the supreme mystic of the Twelfth Century, was not so engrossed in spiritual things that he was indifferent to the changes taking place in the material world about him. Living at a time when the free craftsman was coming up out of serfdom, when gilds were forming and when the Crusades were giving an impetus to commerce, these new activities held a deep interest for him as is evident from a study of the Eruditio Didascalica.
In this treatise, Hugh enumerates the seven mechanical arts: namely, weaving, metal-working and architecture, agriculture, hunting, navigation, medicine, and dramatic art which he divides after the manner of the liberal arts into the trivium and quadrivium6. In the Redudio, St. Bonaventure follows Hugh's enume ration, but he bases his classification not upon the nature of the arts but rather upon their purpose — either utility or pleasure.
Dramatic art is the only one in the second division; all the others supply man with the necessities of life7.
Whatever path of history we tread backward for nine or ten centuries, we always find that the bishop's house, and later the monastery, was the great nucleus of social life in the Middle Ages, the germ and origin of a multitude of European cities. Here were gathered all kinds of workmen — tillers of the soil, weavers of cloth, builders of homes, decorators of the cathedral, workers in linen and embroidery, in bronze, iron, and stone — every artificer of which the little community had need.
Many a village, too, clustered about a castle to which the inhabitants could flee in time of peril. Though, as a rule, these manors were self sufficing, still their products were limited in kind and, in many parts of Europe, needs were developing which the immediate neighborhood could not supply. For this reason, castles which were important strongholds on a frontier attracted
6 That is, agriculture, hunting or food-science, and medicine in the former; weaving, metal-working and architecture, commerce and dramatic art in the latter. He says: "Mechanica septem scientias continet: lanificium, armatura, navigationem, agriculturam, venationem, medicinam, theatricam. Ex quibus tres ad extrinsecum vestimentum naturae pertinent, quo seipsa natura ab incommodis protegit, quatuor ad intrinsecum, quo se alendo et fovendo nutrit, ad similitudinem quidem trivii et quadrivii, quia trivium de vocibus quae extrinsecus sunt et quadrivium de intellectibus qui intrinsecus concepti sunt pertractat." Lib. II, c. 21, Migne, P. L., t. 176. 760.
7 "Theatrica autem est unica." De Reduc. art. ad theol., n. 2, t. V, p. 320. Cf. supra p. 22.
THE "LUMEN EXTERIUS" — THE MECHANICAL ARTS 57
merchants both from within and without the kingdom and soon became important centers of trade.
In the Middle Ages all life was organized. As religion was largely carried on by the monks and friars, so were civic life and its duties everywhere in the hands of corporations. It was a kind of government in which men shared authority and power in proportion to the measure of their personal intelligence and skill and of their utility and serviceableness to the community.
Manufacture was carried on entirely by hand labor and the tools were those which had been used from times immemorial.
Each trade was organized into a gild which laid down rules and had the power to inspect goods and confiscate inferior products.
The gildsmen were divided into three classes: the apprentices, who served from three to thirteen years, and paid considerable sums for their instruction; the workmen, or journeymen, who had finished their apprenticeship and received wages; and the masters, who had risen in the trade and become employers. Gilds formed of members pursuing the same trade, such as weaving or dyeing, were called craft gilds; those who engaged in commerce were the merchant gilds.
Among the crafts, weaving played a very important role especially in Flanders where almost every town had its own particular weave, pattern, and dye. In the twelfth century, Sicily and Italy became important centers for the production of the finest woven stuffs, all executed with the highest decorative skill in a wide variety of pattern. A very interesting survival of the medieval style of weaving still exists in Sweden and other Scan dinavian countries. There are articles of dress, counterpanes, table-covers, and the like woven there by the peasantry in a highly artistic way with patterns which have altered little during the last three or four centuries.
The art armatura seems to have derived its nomenclature from only one phase of the art, namely, the manufacture of military equipment, a need created by long-protracted private warfare and the tournaments and jousts for which the knights demanded finely wrought armor and weapons. Besides metal-working, however, which consisted in the reduction of the metal to form by hammering and molding, the art included architecture with its subdivisions of carpentry and masonry8. Of this art, which seeks expression through material media of every kind — stone, wood, metals, sand, and clay — the Church made use in the construction and adornment of her immense cathedrals — eloquent manifestations not only of great engineering skill but 8 Eruditio Didascalica, Lib. II, c. 23, Migne, P. L., t. 176, col. 761.
DE REDUCTIONE ARTIUM AD THEOLOGIAM
of the high ideals and deep faith of the builders. These nameless bands of men, — masons and carpenters, wood-carvers and sculptors, goldsmiths and silversmiths, workers in glass, bronze, and iron, — all performed their allotted task with the utmost care and per fection. We marvel at the combination of the useful and the beautiful in the latches and bolts, the handsome gates and the hinges; at the exquisite design and artistic finish of the ciborium, the pyx, the monstrance, the chalices of gold and silver, the crucifix, the candelabra, and the Mass bells; at the rich beauty of the great glass windows, shining tapestries which tone down the light of day and enshroud the temple in an air of religious mystery.
Older than the craft gilds, richer and more influential in developing the liberties of the towns were the merchant gilds, the members of which engaged in more distant commerce. It was only after the Crusades had stimulated enterprise and created new tastes that commerce played an important part in medieval life. The Italian towns, from their central position in the Medi terranean, were the first to feel this quickening impulse, and by the Thirteenth Century, Italian traders were found well-nigh over the then known world. These merchants from the great marts of Venice, Genoa, Siena and Milan were "birds of passage" who coursed their way along the sea in spring and summer carrying to the golden East slaves and arms, iron and timber and returning home again in the autumm, their ships laden with Oriental luxuries, such as silks, rich woods, spices and unguents, dyes, jewelry, perfumes, and precious stones.
But merchants and artisans did not form the whole population.
The States of the Middle Ages were almost purely agricultural.
Any time remaining after the cultivation of the lord's demesne was used by the peasant in tilling his own small holding in the open fields. This holding usually consisted of about thirty acres, scattered in long, narrow strips in the different fields and inter mixed with the holdings of other tenants. This curious system of intermixed holdings existed over the greater part of western
Europe and lasted far down into modern times. The plows were clumsy wooden affairs drawn by teams of from four to eight oxen and a rude rotation of crops was practiced to avoid ex haustion of the soil.
Closely related to agriculture is venatio, the Latin word for "hunting" or, by metonymy, "game". Hunting and hawking were the favorite diversions of the Middle Ages in the intervals between wars. This outdoor amusement had the double advantage of affording training in the management of horse and weapons and supplying the castle larder with game. Falconry, the flying of trained hawks at small game, became a complicated science
THE "LUMEN EXTERIUS" — THE MECHANICAL ARTS 59
practiced by lords and ladies alike. Though hunting had ceased to be a necessary means of procuring food, it was a very convenient resource on which the wholesomeness and comfort as well as the luxury of the table depended. "Venatio had to do with everything connected with food and drink. It derived its name, however, from only one aspect of the art for the reason, no doubt, that game was a usual food of the time9." The Didascalica gives an interesting account of the different kinds of foods and drinks and emphasizes the point that venatio is food science.
As we review the history of medicine, we find that significant progress in the medical sciences is traceable to the medieval period, and that every century since the twelfth has made distinguished contributions to surgery. Hugh divides the science into medicine which treats of the causes of disease, its internal and external remedies, and surgery ''which deals with incisions, ligatures, cautery of the flesh, and with the hardening and setting of bones"10.
We now come to dramatic art, the last of the category and the only one intended for entertainment. As Roman culture decayed, the highly developed forms of tragedy and comedy as they existed in ancient Greece and Rome became less and less dramatic and more and more immoral until finally they were entirely prohibited by the Christian Church. About three hundred years later the romantic age gave its first indications of existence when dramatic performances called ''entremets" were introduced be tween the services at royal banquets and carousals. These entremets soon became pageants, masks, and mummeries and lasted as a distinct dramatic entertainment up to the period of Shakespeare.
Simultaneously there appeared in the services of the Church bits of drama which developed into Mystery Plays, representations based on the life of our Lord and on episodes in the Bible. These plays are important not only in the history of the English drama but also in the history of the life of the town, for, although the theme is biblical, the setting is medieval and gives us an insight into the daily toil and cares, the witjand humor, the joys and sorrows of the people of that period.
In addition to the entertainment afforded by the theatre, Hugh tells us that there were ''in private homes, choruses and dancing; in the gymnasia, wrestling matches; in the arena, ex hibitions of fighting; in the banquet halls, instrumental music, song, and games of dice; in the temples on the solemn festivals of the gods, hymns of praise"* 11.
9 Ibid. c. 26, col. 761. Cf. supra, p. 22.
10 Ibid. c. 27, col. 762.
11 Ibid. col. 762, 763.
DE REDUCTIONE ARTIUM AD THEOLOGIAM
Thus we see that man, though fallen from his high estate, preserves much of his pristine dignity and dominion over the lower creation. How like his Creator when he extemizes the ideas of his own mind and, giving them form and body, perpetuates them in his works! Under pressure of necessity, observe the adaptation of means to the end, the conformity of purpose secured by the efforts of human genius. How wonderful his mind, capable of converting sense perceptions into ideas and reasoning from them, so that the will can act with a definite object and purpose in view!
The world in its various parts ministers not only to his bodily but also to his spiritual life, to the entertainment of his mind, to the exercise of his reasoning faculties, to the cultivation of his feelings, besides affording scope for the exercise of his will. In this way, the world presents to man a great collection of opportunities for self-realization and self-improvement. It affords him the means by which he can realize not only his origin as a creature of God but also his end and destiny12. Since all things in the world were made for man to help him to the end for which he was created13, it is his prerogative to know the world and to subordinate it to his purposes, using all creatures as far as they help and abstaining from their use as far as they impede him in the attainment of that end.
12 "Omnia corporalia facta sunt ad humanum obsequium, ut ex illis omnibus accendatur homo ad amandum et laudandum factorem universorum." Brevil. II, c. 4, t. V, p. 222 a.
13 "Vide iam, anima mea, et diligenter considera, quod Creator tuus . . . totam machinam mundialem ad tuum ordinavit ministerium."
Solil. c. 1, § 2, n. 7, t. VIII, p. 31 b, 32 a.