vogue in the Middle Ages. They were as earnest believers in astrology (with the exception of Maimonides) as their Christian contemporaries, though it is difficult to point out any particular astrological work which they either transmitted to Europe or impressed upon it by original contributions. One of the earliest Arabic astrologers, however, was the Jew Mashallah. So, too, in alchemy there are traces in Hebrew manuscripts of participation of Jews in this foster-father of modern chemistry. Vincent of Beauvais quotes as his chief master in alchemy the Jew Jacob Aranicus.2 One of the instruments still used among chemical apparatus is known as the "bain marie," and is stated to have originated with one Maria Judæa; but it is extremely doubtful whether such a lady ever existed, the probability being that one of the early treatises on alchemy was attributed to Miriam, the sister of Moses,3 just as other treatises were attributed to Solomon and other biblical heroes. How far mediæval magic, white and black, was connected with the

3

1Steinschneider, Arabische Literatur der Juden, pp. 15-23.

2 Spec. nat., vii, 107; Spec. doctr., xi, 107.

Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. 58, pp. 300-309.

Jews is again difficult to ascertain or appraise. The influence of the Kabbalah can certainly be traced in the amulets and abracadabras of the mediæval magicians, but from the nature of the case the whole affiliation is difficult to trace, nor would much credit come to Jews by their participation in these blind strivings to control the unknown.

CHAPTER V

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT IN MIDDLE AGES

THE main influence, however, of me Jews on the civilization of Christendom by means of their chief thinkers, Ibn G and Maimonides. Their philosophical were translated into Latin, that of the f by Dominic Gundisalvi1 at Toledo, with th of the convert Johannes Hispalensis, about under the title Fons Vita, and the latter, the title Dux Neutrorum, by an anonymous lator, who used the Hebrew translation of al-Harizi instead of that of Moses ibn Ti Both thinkers are quoted by name and wit spect by all the chief scholastics of the thirt the greatest of the centuries: William Auvergne, bishop of Paris (1228-49); Alexa

1 Called Domingo Gonzalez in the Spanish translation Fons Vitæ.

of Hales (died 1245); Albertus Magnus, count of Bollstädt (1193-1280); and Thomas Aquinas (1225-70). The last three wrote encyclopedias of theology, each entitled Summa, culminating in the Summa Theologia of Aquinas, which has ruled Catholic theology down to the present day, having been declared authoritative by the penultimate Pope Leo XIII. In so far as these Jewish thinkers had an influence on Aquinas, either in the form of adoption or opposition, they have thus helped to shape the thought of Catholic Europe and, indirectly, of Protestantism even down to the present day.1

The reason why these Jewish thinkers, especially Maimonides, had so great an effect upon their Christian colleagues in the thirteenth century was because the relations between faith and reason had passed approximately through the same phases in Judaism and Christianity, and had

1 In what follows I am much indebted to the two chief scholars who have studied the relations of Jewish philosophy to scholasticism: M. Joel, Beitraege zur Geschichte der Philosophie, Breslau, 1878; and J. Guttmann, Die Scholastik des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts in ihren Beziehungen zum Judenthum und zur jüdischen Literatur, Breslau, 1902; and Das Verhältniss des Thomas von Aquina zum Jadenthum und zur jüdischen Literatur, Göttingen, 1891.

reached an eirenicon by Maimonides early enough to afford the same solution to the great scholastics. The earliest representatives of Jewish philosophy, Saadya, Bahya, Abraham bar Hiyya, Solomon ibn Gabirol, and Joseph ibn Zaddik, were mainly influenced by the Neo-Platonism of the Kalam, current among the Arabic thinkers. But, with Abraham ibn Daud (1110-1180), the Aristotelianism, which had been made predominant in Arabic thought by Avicenna and Averroes, became predominant also in Jewish thought and brought into prominence the fundamental contradictions between a philosophy founded, like that of Aristotle, on pure reason and a faith based upon a written scripture. The chief points of contradiction were three: How can the God of philosophy-the divine Substance of the universe-possess such attributes as are implied in the Bible; how can He create a world in time as implied in the first chapters of Genesis; and how can His Providence apply to the individual acts of man and

1

1Judah ha-Levi, who, in his al-Khazari (1140), recognized this contradiction, is outside the general development of Jewish thought, taking a position corresponding to that in Arabic philosophy of al-Ghazali, by whom indeed he was strongly influenced. Both thinkers are opposed altogether to the application of philosophy to theology.