Albert the Great
Dominican master of theology under whom Thomas Aquinas studied at Cologne. He recommended Thomas for Paris and, as an old man, travelled there to defend his pupil’s writings after his death.
William of Tocco says that when Thomas Aquinas was sent to Cologne, the order’s school there flourished under brother Albert, a master in theology who was held to be without equal in every branch of learning. Albert heard the young man answer in a disputation, is reported to have foretold his fame, and later wrote to the master of the order to have him made bachelor at Paris (William of Tocco, Life of Thomas Aquinas chs. 12–14).
Bartholomew of Capua testified in 1319 to what he had heard from a Dominican who was with Albert in his old age. Albert wept when he learned of Thomas’s death. When word came that Thomas’s writings were under attack at Paris, he insisted, against the advice of his brethren, on travelling there, spoke in the Dominican school in their defence, and went back to Cologne (Canonization process of Thomas Aquinas (Naples, 1319), 82). See Thomas Aquinas Writes the Summa Theologiae.
In the timeline
- about 1265 to 1273, estimated dateThomas Aquinas Writes the Summa Theologiae
The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas, pupil of Albert the Great and master at Paris, sets out theology in three parts, in questions and articles, drawing on Scripture, church doctors and philosophers. He stops writing at Naples in December 1273 and dies three months later.