Second Scholasticism

In philosophy, the term second scholasticism denotes the 16th-century revival of the scholastic system of philosophy, that arose, in part, to counter the Protestant Reformation, by returning to biblical language usage, and to the Fathers of the Church. The scientific culture of second scholasticism surpassed its medieval source (Scholasticism) in the number of its proponents, the breadth of its scope, the analytical complexity, and the volume of editorial production, most of which remains hitherto little explored.

The intellectual influence of second scholasticism was augmented by the establishment of the Society of Jesus (1540), by Ignatius Loyola, per approval of Pope Paul III. The leading school were the Jesuits — Robert Bellarmine, Francisco Suárez, Gabriel Vásquez; and the second school were the Scotists, in the branches of the Franciscan order, such as the Italians Antonius Trombetta, Bartolomeo Mastri, Bonaventura Belluto; the Frenchman Claude Frassen, the Irish emigrants Luke Wadding, John Punch, and Hugh Caughwell; and the Germans Bernhard Sannig and Crescentius Krisper. The third school were the Thomists, usually represented by the Iberians in the Dominican and the Carmelite orders, such as Domingo Báñez, Conimbricenses, João Poinsot and others. There were also many "independent" thinkers like Sebastian Izquierdo, Juan Caramuel y Lobkowicz, Raffael Aversa etc.

The golden age of Second Scholasticism were the first decades of the 17th century; but second scholasticism started to decline with the onset of Enlightenment in the end of the 17th century, although scholastics such as Suarez remained influential for a long period. In some Iberian universities the scholastic culture remained vivid well into the 19th century, providing background for the birth of Neo-Scholasticism.