Ad majorem Dei gloriam, in honorem Beatae Virginis Mariae atque Sancti Thomae Mori patroni

Latin 202: The Five Ways to Prove the Existence of God of St. Thomas Aquinas
Spring 2017
Professor Evan Simpkins M.A., Ph.L.
Rome Campus

St. Thomas is the essential guide in the intellectual life of an educated Catholic. Though the thought of Aquinas
often has to do with very difficult topics, he expresses himself with simplicity and clarity. This makes his Latin ideal
for intermediate students. A student can improve his proficiency in the language while becoming familiar with the
basic ideas of perhaps the most profound thinker and important theologian to have ever lived. Learning the anatomy
of a thomistic article or commentary and how to analyze them will facilitate the student’s intellectual formation. For
students who have only studied classical Latin, reading St. Thomas also acts as an introduction to Medieval Latin,
which has its own rhythms and vocabulary to be mastered.

Class Schedule

Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 11:30 to 1:00

Required Texts

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, a beautiful single volume edition of the entire text, worth the investment,
may be available in some roman bookstores
A Latin dictionary
A Latin grammar

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. Students are expected to be at all classes on time. As stated in “Attendance and
Procedures”: “No exemptions may be given from classes, laboratories, or examinations. Excessive absences (two in
a row or more than two a semester) may be reported to the Dean by the instructor. The student may be dropped from
any course for excessive absences, regardless of cause.”

Course Requirements

Participation: 50% (quality counts)

Essays and tests: 25%
Final exam: 25%
Students may request research projects if they feel it may be fruitful (e.g., the differences between medieval and
classical Latin or Thomas’s use of the subjunctive mood…).

Guideline for Class Participation

Classes will involve a communal effort to understand, in its subtleties, both linguistic and theological, the text
assigned for that day. Individual students will be called upon to translate a part of the text, without the aid of
prepared translations, attempting to express as completely as possible the meaning of the Latin. They will be asked
by the rest of the students to defend, through their grasp of vocabulary and grammar, their translation. In this way,
the class as a whole will arrive at a precise understanding of Thomas’s text. Once an understanding of the Latin text
is achieved, students will be asked to reflect upon and discuss its significance.

Statement of Outcomes
The course demands students apply themselves to the unique vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure of
Thomas’s Latin. The student will be expected to come to class with a sense of the text assigned both as a whole, in
its intended meaning, and of the mechanics of its use of words, their cases and conjugations. Students will also be
asked to pay special attention to the differences between classical and medieval Latin and to articulate their
understanding of the Latin text intelligently in class.

By the end of the course successful students will be able to read the greatest of theologians, the Angelic Doctor,
Thomas Aquinas. They will attain the skills and the confidence to read any of the works of the great master. The
Latin of Thomas is among the easiest to tackle though his thought itself requires and is worthy of a lifetime of effort.
His Latin, like the Greek of his philosophical mentor, Aristotle, is quite simple and straightforward. Having learned
his basic vocabulary and syntax, the door will be opened to one of the greatest of minds.

Schedule of Assignments

Week I
W Introduction
Th Prayer and 1st Proemium
Week II
Tu 2nd Proemium, (start A.1)
Th Ia Pars Q. 1, A. 1
Week III
Tu A. 2
Th A. 3
Week IV
Tu A. 4
Th A. 5
Week V
Tu A. 6
Th A. 7
Week VI
Tu A. 8
Th A. 9
Week VII
Tu A. 10
Th Q. 2, prooemium, A. 1
Week VIII
Tu A. 2
Th A. 3
Week IX
Tu A. 3
Th A. 3
Week X
Tu A. 3
Th Summary and Conclusion
Week XI

Final Exam

Translation of Ia Pars Q. 2, A. 3, Thomas’s use of the subjunctive, principal parts of verbs

The students may have to take the national Latin exam at a date to be determined.
Thomas, perhaps the greatest mind of the middle ages, was born in 1225 in the town of Roccasecca about an hour
south of Rome. The soil of this area which is known as the Cioccaria, in the next town over, Arpino, also gave birth
to perhaps the greatest mind of ancient Rome, Marcus Tullius Cicero. On the other side of the mountain from
Thomas’s family castle, the ruins of which you can still visit today, stands the monastery of Montecassino, where St.
Benedict spent his final days, and where he and his sister, St. Scholastica are buried. Thomas was educated by the
monks (from the age of 6 to 15 years old) in the hopes that he would one day, being of a noble family, cousin of the
Holy Roman Emperor, and nephew of the abbot, become himself the abbot of the prestigious monastery. He,
however, rejected this plan for his life and decided to live the greater holiness of a poor friar, devoting himself to
prayer, study, and writing. On the feast of St. Nicholas, 1273, before a crucifix which is exhibited in the Dominican
House of Naples, he had a mystical vision which brought an end to his writing. He died on March, 7 th, 1274, while
on his way to the Council of Lyon. As he lay dying, reflecting upon the Song of Songs, he was taken in by a
monastery in Fossanova, also about an hour south of Rome, on the coast, near where his countryman, Cicero, met
his end at the hands of Marc Antony’s henchmen. The monastery still stands and his relics lie in the nearby
cathedral. His authority as both a philosopher and theologian is without parallel in the West.

First Assignment

Prooemium
Quia Catholicae veritatis doctor non solum provectos debet instruere, sed ad eum pertinet etiam incipientes erudire,
secundum illud apostoli I ad Corinth. III, tanquam parvulis in Christo, lac vobis potum dedi, non escam; propositum
nostrae intentionis in hoc opere est, ea quae ad Christianam religionem pertinent, eo modo tradere, secundum quod
congruit ad eruditionem incipientium. Consideravimus namque huius doctrinae novitios, in his quae a diversis
conscripta sunt, plurimum impediri, partim quidem propter multiplicationem inutilium quaestionum, articulorum et
argumentorum; partim etiam quia ea quae sunt necessaria talibus ad sciendum, non traduntur secundum ordinem
disciplinae, sed secundum quod requirebat librorum expositio, vel secundum quod se praebebat occasio disputandi;
partim quidem quia eorundem frequens repetitio et fastidium et confusionem generabat in animis auditorum. Haec
igitur et alia huiusmodi evitare studentes, tentabimus, cum confidentia divini auxilii, ea quae ad sacram doctrinam
pertinent, breviter ac dilucide prosequi, secundum quod materia patietur.

St. Thomas’s prayer for students

Creator ineffabilis, qui de thesauris sapientiae tuae tres Angelorum hierchias designasti et eas super caelum
empyreum miro ordine collocasti atque universi partes elegantissime distribuisti, Tu, inquam, qui verus fons luminis
et sapientiae diceris ac superminens principium, infondere digneris super intellectus mei tenebras tuae radium
claritatis, duplices, in quibus natus sum, a me removens tenebras, peccatum scilicet et ignorantiam. Tu qui linguas
infantium facis disertas, linguam meam erudias atque in labiis meis gratiam tuae benedictionis infundas. Da mihi
intelligendi acumen, retinendi capacitatem, adiscendi modum et facilitatem, interpretandi subtilitatem, loquendi
gratiam copiosam. Ingressum instruas, progressum dirigas, egressum compleas. Tu qui es verus Deus et homo, qui
vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum. Amen.