he should teach for some time at least at
their own university at Rome. Later he taught also at the University
of Naples.

While here, one of the Popes wishing to confer a supreme mark of favor
on him, his name was selected for the vacant archbishopric of Naples.
The bulls and formal documents creating him Archbishop were already on
the way when Thomas was informed of it, and he asked {326} to be
allowed to continue his studies rather than to have to take up the
unwonted duties of an archbishop. His plea was evidently so sincere
that the Pope relented and respected Thomas's humility and his desire
for leisure to finish his great work, the Summa Theologiae. He
continued to be the great friend of the Popes and their special
counsellor. When the Council of Lyons was summoned, a number of
important questions concerning the most serious theological problems
were to be discussed. Thomas was asked to go to Lyons as the
theologian for the Papacy. It was while fulfilling this duty that he
came to his death, at a comparatively early age, though not until the
Council, consisting of the bishops of all the world, had shown their
respect for him, had listened to his words of wisdom, and had
acknowledged that he was the greatest scholar of his time and worthy
of the respect and admiration of all of them. Because of all that his
kindness to them had meant for their uplift, the workmen of Lyons
craved and obtained the permission to carry his coffin on their
shoulders to his tomb.

Like his great teacher Albert, Thomas was respected even more for his
piety than for his learning. Not long after his death, people began to
speak of him as a saint. Though he was the most learned man of his
time, he was considered to have given an example of heroic virtue. A
careful investigation of his life showed that there was nothing in it
unworthy of the highest ideals as a man and a religious. Accordingly
he was canonized, and has ever since been considered the special
patron, helper and advocate of Catholic students. All down the
centuries his teaching has been looked upon as the most important in
the whole realm of theology. There has never been {327} a time when
his works have not been considered the most authoritative sources of
theological lore. At the end of the nineteenth century Leo XIII.
crowned the tributes which many Popes had conferred upon Thomas by
selecting him as the teacher to whom Catholic schools should ever turn
by formulating the