Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/125

UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER CENTRES OF LEARNING 113 which formed the centre of scholarship, received new life in Germany. It counted among its disciples many men of noble and penetrating intellect, who, far from misunderstanding the movements and requirements of the age, did their best to help them on and turn them into the right channels. The most prominent of the scho- lastics, such as Trithemius, Johannes Heynlin, Gregory Eeusch, Gabriel Biel, Geiler von Kaisersberg, and others, were at the same time the men who rendered the most practical services to their age. ' Trithemius considers it one of the greatest blessings of the age,' writes Wimpheling in 1507, ' that in matters of theology we are breaking away from the barren technicalities and hair-splittings of a worn-out scholasticism, and are once more setting up St. Thomas Aquinas, the " Engel der Schule" as he was called, as a beacon light.' To what extent this was the case, and how truly St. Thomas Aquinas became once more the great teacher of theo- logy in the West, are seen from the fact that at least two hundred editions and reprints of his various works are still in existence. 1 The active interest taken by theologians in scientific studies had a very beneficial effect on scholastic learn- ing, by bringing it into rapport with theological studies, and also by the resistance which the theologians offered to the superstitious pursuits of alchemy, astrology, and magic, which were then in vogue. The acquirements of Trithemius in the field of natural science were so extraordinary that, like Albertus Magnus of old, he was believed by many to be a magi- cian and worker of miracles, who could raise the dead 1 Hain, No. 1328 1543. How many more had appeared is not posi- tively known. VOL. I. I