The Religious State: The Episcopate and the Priestly Office

Book excerpt: Amongst the seventy-two Opuscula, or minor works, of St. Thomas Aquinas there are three which treat of the religious life and calling. The first of these is now offered to the English reader. The two others have a special interest of their own. They were the outcome of the historic controversy on the religious orders, raised, in St. Thomas’s day, by a powerful and influential anti-regular party, of which William of St. Amour was the recognised and indomitable champion and leader. These two Opuscula will appear in English in a subsequent volume. I venture to predict that they will not fail to attract the attention of many readers in the English-speaking world. They are more than old enough to have made history, yet they are singularly appropriate and apposite to-day—more than six hundred years after they were written—when, as in the thirteenth century, the religious orders are again on their trial in several countries in Europe. Aeterna Press