The leaders and their work

The neo-Scholastic movement was inaugurated by such writers

as Sanseverino (1811-65) and Cornoldi (1822-92) in Italy; Gonzalez (183192) in Spain; Kleutgen (1811-83) and Stckl (1823-95) in Germany; de San
(1832-1904), Dupont, and Lepidi in Belgium; Farges and Dormet de Vorges
(1910) in France, who with other scholars carried on the work of restoration
before the Holy See gave it solemn approval and encouragement. Pius IX, it
istrue, in various letters, recognized its importance; but it was
the encyclical "AEterni Patris" of Leo XIII (4 Aug., 1879) that imparted
to neo-Scholasticism its definitive character and quickened its development.
This document sets forth the principles by which the movement is to be
guided in a progressive spirit, and by which the medievaldoctrine is to take
on new life in its modern environment. "If," says the pope, "there be
anything that theScholastic doctors treated with excessive subtlety or with
insufficient consideration, or that is at variance with well founded teachings
of later date, or is otherwise improbable, we by no means intend that it shall
be proposed to our age for imitation. . . . We certainly do not blame those
learned and energetic men who turn to the profit ofphilosophy their own
assiduous labours and erudition as well as the results of modern
investigation; for we are fully aware that all this goes to the advancement
of knowledge."