rfection of learning, in every branch; for purity of the heart,
and the disengagement of the affections from all irregular passions,
render the understanding clear, qualify the mind to judge impartially of
truth in its researches, divest it of many prejudices, the fatal sources
of errors, and inspire a modest distrust to a person's own abilities and
lights. Thus virtue and learning mutually assist and improve each other.

Footnotes:
1. St. Thomas was born at Belcastro: on his ancient illustrious
pedigree and its branches, which still flourish in Calabria, see
Barrius, de Antiquitate et Situ Calabriae, with the notes of Thomas
Aceti, l. 4, c. 2, p. 288, &c, where he refutes the Bollandists, who
place his birth at Aquino in Campania, on the border of that
province.
2. L. 1, Conf. c. 7.
3. Conf. l. 5, c. 3.
4. Gul. Tocco. Bern. Guid. Antonin. Malvend.
5. Footnote: 2. 2dae, q. 188, a. 5.
6. The manner of teaching then was not, as it is generally at present,
by dictating lessons, which the scholars write, but it was according
to the practice that still obtains in some public schools, as in
Padua, &c. The master delivered his explanation like an harangue;
the scholars retained what they could, and often privately took down
short notes to help their memory. Academical degrees were then also
very different from what they now are; being conferred on none but
those who taught. To be Master of Arts, a man must have studied six
years at least, and be twenty-one years old. And to be qualified for
teaching divinity, he must have studied eight years more, and be at
least thirty-five years old. Nevertheless, St. Thomas, by a
dispensation of the university, on account of his distinguished
merit, was allowed to teach at twenty-five. The usual way was for
one named bachelor to explain the Master of the Sentences for a year
in the school of some doctor, upon whose testimony, after certain
rigorous public examinations, and other formalities, the bachelor
was admitted in the degree of licentiate; which gave him the license
of a doctor, to teach or hold a school himself. Another year, which
was likewise employed in expounding the Master of the Sentences,
completed the degree of doctor, which the candidate received from
the chancel for of the university, and then opened a school in form,
with a bachelor to teach under him. In 1253, S