Saints or Philosophers?
Was it the saints or the philosophers that mostly influenced society?. It could be one or the other, depending on the press. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the movable type machine was invented. There were four cities in this period with financial means to print (with the printing press) the writings of any author: London, Paris, Frankfort and Venice.
These cities could have chosen to make available to the public, the writings of all the saints that had lived up to that period. If they had done so, the world would have entered into a period of a golden religious renaissance. They would have avoided a Protestant Reformation. However, the only city that did print anything of a Catholic nature was Venice (and only some scanty stuff). The only real substantial saint's book published was St. Thomas' "Summa Theologica" (and this explains why he did finally have some kind of influence on society).
The other cities, with their newly discovered technology of the printed word, were more interested in reproducing the works of the lost Greek culture and philosophers. They would publish these manuscripts in the form of books and sell them to professors and students at all the chief universities of Europe. These men were really the ones responsible for the beginning of the humanist spirit in Europe and eventually the Protestant Reformation (since they also published Luther's works and his version of the German Bible). With their publications, they determined the psychological climate that opened the way to molding our modern society. Because of them and their technological power, the saints remained buried in oblivion and the pagan philosophers were brought back to life. Before all this, the Church did nothing and lost the opportunity to invest in something that could have benefited her greatly (as she today also repeats the same error).
Anthony Mellace
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