ik, Stuttgart, 1882, vol. i,
pp. 179 et seq.

The next great man of that age whom the theological and ecclesiastical
forces of the time turned from the right path was Vincent of Beauvais.
During the first half of the twelfth century he devoted himself to the
study of Nature in several of her most interesting fields. To astronomy,
botany, and zoology he gave special attention, but in a larger way
he made a general study of the universe, and in a series of treatises
undertook to reveal the whole field of science. But his work simply
became a vast commentary on the account of creation given in the book of
Genesis. Beginning with the work of the Trinity at the creation, he
goes on to detail the work of angels in all their fields, and makes
excursions into every part of creation, visible and invisible, but
always with the most complete subordination of his thought to the
literal statements of Scripture. Could he have taken the path of
experimental research, the world would have been enriched with most
precious discoveries; but the force which had given wrong direction to
Albert of Bollstadt, backed as it was by the whole ecclesiastical power
of his time, was too strong, and in all the life labour of Vincent
nothing appears of any permanent value. He reared a structure which
the adaptation of facts to literal interpretations of Scripture and the
application of theological subtleties to nature combine to make one of
the most striking monuments of human error.(271)

(271) For Vincent de Beauvais, see Etudes sur Vincent de Beauvais, par
l'Abbe Bourgeat, chaps. xii, xiii, and xiv; also Pouchet, Histoire des
Sciences Naturelles au Moyen Age, Paris, 1853, pp. 470 et seq; also
other histories cited hereafter.

But the theological spirit of the thirteenth century gained its greatest
victory in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. In him was the theological
spirit of his age incarnate. Although he yielded somewhat at one period
to love of natural science, it was he who finally made that great treaty
or compromise which for ages subjected science entirely to theology. He
it was who reared the most enduring barrier against those who in that
age and in succeeding ages laboured to open for science the path by its
own methods toward its own ends.

He had been the pupil of Albert the Great, and had gained much from him.
Through the earlier systems of philosophy, as they were then known, and
through the earlier theologic thought, h