But where previous theology only looked askance at the difficulties, Alexander faces up to them. To a great extent, they reflect faithfully the fundamental teachings of Lombard and the different tendencies, the erroneous ones as well as others, that were at work for nearly seventy years. His ideas on the matter are mainly traditional. His ultimate thought has to be gathered from all kinds of occasional remarks, casual statements and small incidental questions, scattered throughout the whole fourth book of his Glossa in Libros Senteitíiarum (before 123O).1 In spite though of these deficiencies at exposition, his teaching is so much superior to all that had been said before diat it may rightly be considered as the first conscious attempt to bring some clarity to a hitherto confusing problem. Alexander of Hales Alexander has not treated the problem in a systematical and exhaustive way. ![]() Cher and his disciples, grant it a strictly universal value and assimilate it to the hylomorphic doctrine of Aristotle. Some, headed by Alexander of Hales, only accept the theory of the bipartite composition of the sacraments in a very broad and analogical sense, which allows of exceptions. Nevertheless, in spite of this common tendency, theologians are sharply divided in two groups. Consequently, theology as a whole tends to consider all sacraments as a compound, in some way or other, of two sensible realities. However, since nobody dreamt of giving up a principle championed by the Master of Sentences and already fixed by tradition, they all try to save it by broadening its original meaning. On the other, they no longer ignore the difficulties inherent in that theory forced to compare Lombard's general principle with its applications, they could not fail to perceive the divergence that separated both. On the one hand, most of the theologians now dismiss the Victorine formula with all the consequences it entails, to concentrate on one single theory, that of Peter Lombard. As on most other matters, the new method had its bearing on the problem of the composition of the sacraments. ![]() As a result, every detail of its terminology and of its doctrine was put under close examination. Gilles, write extensive commentaries on it. At Paris, the faculty of theology adopts it as textbook for the schools, and famous masters, like Alexander of Hales, Hugh of St. Around 1230, the handy summary, issued by Peter Lombard eighty years before, becomes the starting point for all theological teaching. This improvement was chiefly due to the growing authority of the Libri Sententiarum. Whereas previously it made but a scanty contribution to its solution and indulged in a rather confused terminology, from now on it meets us with a simplified vocabulary and with more mature views on the matter. Attempted Solutions Shortly after the publication of the Summa Áurea of William of Auxerre, theology revises its attitude towards the problem of the composition of the sacraments. THE THEORY OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE SACRAMENTS IN EARLY SCHOLASTICISM (1125-1240) (Continued) III. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
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