As Heymericus reports in a 1458 letter to the University of Cologne (the so-called Invectiva), when he first arrived in the city in 1422 he encountered the same philosophical schools he knew from Paris, including the Albertists and Thomists. When then asked to list the agreements and disagreements between these two schools in an academic dispute, the Thomist Gerardus de Monte reacted ferociously, claiming that it was impossible to find any agreement between Albertism and Thomism or to harmonize their methodologies in any coherent way. The Thomists obviously felt compelled to draw a clear line of demarcation between themselves and Albertism, although the reasons for this attitude remain uncertain. In all probability, however, they were dissatisfied with the way Albert the Great had proceeded in his commentaries on Aristotle. For, as Albert repeatedly stated, he tried to understand Aristotle solely on the basis of the natural principles of Aristotle himself without any reference to miracles or Faith, even if this would lead to conflicts with Revelation - an approach clearly differing from that of Thomas Aquinas. That Albertists, like Johannes de Nova Domo, claimed philosophy should be in harmony with the Christian Faith was for the Thomists in Cologne void and not in accord with the approach taken in Albert’s own commentaries. Heymericus was not taken aback by Gerardus de Monte, however, and in his account of the dispute (the Tractatus problematicus) he described not only the differences between the two schools, but also those points where they were, to his mind, in agreement. Where he observed a disagreement, he added a so-called concordantia in which he tried to bring the two schools together, showing, for example, that a conceptual ambiguity was involved or that the texts of Aristotle were unclear. Obviously he viewed the opposition between the two schools from the perspective to which his training in Paris had accustomed him, one more moderate than that current in Cologne, as manifested by Gerardus de Monte’s uncompromising reaction. From this, an initial conclusion may be drawn - one of paramount importance for an adequate understanding of the early years of Albertism - namely, that its image as a movement fundamentally distinct from Tho-mism, and not merely on individual points but taken as a whole, had its origin in Cologne. It was a product of Thomism and imposed upon the followers of Albert the Great, who were themselves far less radical, even if they also observed a number of clear disagreements.
However the situation changed towards 1456, when Gerardus, by then one of the most important Thomists at Cologne, in his Concordantiae dictorum Thomae Aquinatis et Alberti Magni once again attacked Heymericus, but this time from entirely the opposite angle. Gerardus now claimed that, in the Tractatus problematicus, Heymericus had opposed the views of Albert and Thomas where in fact there is no conflict between their views at all. Gerardus came to this conclusion, according to his own account, after a renewed study of the writings of the two Dominicans. This rereading made it evident to him that both authors operated from exactly the same premises and that Heymericus had fundamentally misunderstood Albert’s and, above all, Thomas’ positions. Heymericus, at that time no longer active in Cologne but teaching in Leuven as professor of theology, reacted immediately and with great ire. He defended his original views, arguing that there are points of both agreement and disagreement in Albert’s and Thomas’ reading of Aristotle, and that while some of these disagreements can be resolved, others definitively cannot. This clash marked the beginning of the second phase of Albertism, which is characterized by the fact that its representatives, much more clearly than before, present the image of a school of thought opposed to Thomism, to the extent that it was now the Albertists themselves who, against the conviction of the Thomists, stressed the opposition of Albert’s and Thomas’ interpretations of Aristotle. This is also the period in which the majority of commentaries secundum viam alberti were composed, and in which new points of doctrinal difference were noted and discussed. Remarkably, the treatises secundum viam thomae much less frequently entered into debate with their Albertist antagonists.
World History
