intellect. These grades in the main resemble those
given by Avicenna. But beyond these, Averroes claims as the highest
bliss of the soul a union in this life with the actual intellect. The
intellect, therefore, is one and continuous in all individuals, who
differ only in the degree which their illumination has attained. Such
was the Averroist doctrine of the unity of intellect--the eternal and
universal nature of true intellectual life. By his interpreters it was
transformed into a theory of one soul common to all mankind, and when
thus corrupted conflicted not unreasonably with the doctrines of a
future life, common to Islam and Christendom.

Opponents of Averoism.

Averroes, rejected by his Moslem countrymen, found a hearing among the
Jews, to whom Maimonides had shown the free paths of Greek speculation.
In the cities of Languedoc and of Provence to which they had been driven
by Spanish fanaticism, the Jews no longer used the learned Arabic, and
translations of the works of Averroes became necessary. His writings
became the text-book of Levi ben Gerson at Perpignan, and of Moses of
Narbonne. Meanwhile, before 1250, Averroes became accessible to the
Latin Schoolmen by means of versions, accredited by the names of Michael
Scot and others. William of Auvergne is the first Schoolman who
criticizes the doctrines of Averroes, not, however, by name. Albertus
Magnus and St Thomas devote special treatises to an examination of the
Averroist theory of the unity of intellect, which they labour to confute
in order to establish the orthodoxy of Aristotle. But as early as
Aegidius Romanus (1247-1316). Averroes had been stamped as the patron of
indifference to theological dogmas, and credited with the emancipation
which was equally due to wider experience and the lessons of the
Crusades. There had never been an absence of protest against the
hierarchical doctrine. Berengar of Tours (11th century) had struggled in
that interest, and with Abelard, in the 12th century, the revolt against
authority in belief grew loud. The dialogue between a Christian, a Jew
and a philosopher suggested a comparative estimate of religions, and
placed the natural religion of the moral law above all positive
revelations. Nihilists and naturalists, who deified logic and science at
the expense of faith, were not unknown at Paris in the days of John of
Salisbury. In such a critical generation the words of Averroism found
willing ears, and pupils who outr