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Church history 路 Module 106

馃摐 Summa Germanica, Catherine and Francis

Four medieval voices read in their own words: Thomas Aquinas and how the Summa Theologiae is built (the Five Ways, law, happiness and the virtues, faith, grace and works), the anonymous Theologia Germanica that Martin Luther printed in 1516 and 1518, Catherine of Siena's Dialogue and letters and her part in the papacy's return to Rome, and Francis of Assisi's Rule, Canticle of the Creatures and the early lives. Quoted from public domain translations, with what Catholic and Protestant readers each take from them.

14 lessons 路 about 14 hours 路 about 200,200 words 路 Updated November 5, 2026 路

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How to read this module

This module reads four medieval sources in their own words: the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas in the English Dominican Fathers' translation (second edition, 1920), the Theologia Germanica in Susanna Winkworth's translation (1854), Catherine of Siena's Dialogue and letters, and the writings of Francis of Assisi with the early lives and the Little Flowers, all in public domain translations named in the footnotes. Summa citations give part, question and article (for example ST I-II, q. 94, a. 2) so every quotation can be checked.

Catholic and Protestant readers both use this module. Each position is stated in its own writers' words: Aquinas, the Council of Trent, Luther, the Augsburg Confession, Calvin and the 1999 Joint Declaration. What the earliest records show is kept apart from later legend, and popular claims are rated in each lesson's "Claims checked" section.

Status: built and fact checked November 5, 2026. Every lesson was checked by an independent checker against primary sources; quotations were matched word for word against the editions named. Each lesson ends with a short "Still being checked" list of points not yet confirmed. The medieval church in outline is in Church History, Part A; natural law from Cicero to Aquinas is in Principles of Liberty.

  1. 1Why Read the Medieval Church: The World of Aquinas, the Friend of God, Catherine and FrancisFour medieval texts, read in their own words, open this module: the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, the anonymous Theologia Germanica that Luther printed in 1516 and 1518, Catherine of Siena's Dialogue and letters, and the writings of Francis of Assisi. This lesson sets out the Europe they came from, from Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 through the universities, the friars, the beguines, Avignon, the Black Death and the Western Schism, places the four writers on a timeline and a map, and rates the popular claims about that world.45 min
  2. 2Thomas Aquinas: His Life, the Dominican Order and the University of ParisThomas Aquinas went from boy oblate at Monte Cassino to Dominican friar against his family's will, pupil of Albert the Great, master of theology at Paris and author of the Summa, and died at Fossanova in 1274. This lesson follows his life place by place from the sworn testimony of 1319 and the early lives, explains the Order of Preachers he joined, and rates the famous stories, from the temptress and the dumb ox to the straw.60 min
  3. 3How the Summa Theologiae Is Built: Questions, Objections, "On the Contrary" and "I Answer That"The Summa Theologiae is a huge book made of thousands of small, identical debates. This lesson lays out its three parts and the Supplement, counts its 512 questions and 2,669 articles, takes two articles of ST I, q. 1 apart line by line, names the authorities Aquinas quotes and how often, and shows how to check any citation in English and Latin.50 min
  4. 4The Five Ways: Aquinas on Whether God Exists (Summa, First Part, Question 2)Summa Theologiae I, question 2, read in full in the 1920 English Dominican translation: why "God exists" is not self-evident to us, why it can be shown from effects, and the Five Ways themselves, each set beside the Aristotle behind it. The lesson separates the per se causal series of the Five Ways from a series in time, quotes Aquinas's own denial that the world's beginning can be proved, and gives the objections of Hume and Kant and the answers of Thomists, Calvin, Van Til and classical apologists, each in their own words or attributed.55 min
  5. 5Aquinas on Law: Eternal, Natural, Human and Divine LawA question-by-question reading of the Treatise on Law in the Summa Theologiae (I-II, qq. 90 to 108) in the English Dominican translation: the definition of law, the eternal law, the natural law and its first precept, human law and unjust laws, and the Old and New Law. It follows the treatise to Hooker, Grotius, Blackstone, the Declaration of Independence, Leo XIII and Martin Luther King Jr., sets out what Luther, Calvin, the Westminster Confession and Karl Barth said about natural law, and rates the popular claims.75 min
  6. 6Happiness, the Virtues and the Moral Life in the SummaAquinas opens the moral part of the Summa by asking what a human life is for, rejects wealth, honor, fame, power, pleasure and every created good, and answers: the vision of God. This lesson reads the Prima Secundae on happiness, acts, passions, habits, the virtues, the gifts and the capital vices, then the Secunda Secundae virtue by virtue, beside Aristotle's Ethics and the words of Luther, the Augsburg Confession, Calvin and the Westminster Confession.60 min
  7. 7Faith, Grace and Works: What Catholics and Protestants Each Take from AquinasAquinas's treatise on grace (Summa Theologiae I-II, questions 109 to 114) read article by article: why grace is needed, operating and cooperating grace, the four things required for justification, faith formed by charity, and merit. The same questions are then traced, each in its own documents' words, through Luther's 1517 and 1518 theses, the Augsburg Confession, the Council of Trent's Decree on Justification (1547), Calvin's Institutes, the Westminster Confession and the 1999 Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration, whose Annex quotes Aquinas.55 min
  8. 8The Theologia Germanica: The Unknown Frankfurt Author, Luther's Two Editions and Winkworth's TranslationA short German treatise by an unnamed priest of the Teutonic Order at Frankfurt, written about 1350 to 1400, became famous when Martin Luther printed part of it in 1516 and the whole in 1518. This lesson traces the book from the Friends of God through the 1497 manuscript, Luther's prefaces, Castellio's Latin, Calvin's warning, the Roman Index and the Pietists to Susanna Winkworth's English translation of 1854, separating what the documents show from what later readers claimed.65 min
  9. 9Reading the Theologia Germanica: The False Light, the True Light and Union with GodA close reading of the Theologia Germanica in Susanna Winkworth's 1854 translation, chapter by chapter: the Perfect and the part, sin as "I and Me and Mine," "nothing burneth in hell but self-will," the True Light and the False Light, the old man and the new, the life of Christ as the pattern and union with God. Ten long passages are quoted with Winkworth's chapter numbers, set beside Aquinas and Luther, and weighed against the charges of pantheism, antinomianism and quietism that later readers made.60 min
  10. 10Catherine of Siena: Her Life, Her Letters and the Return of the Papacy to RomeCatherine Benincasa (1347 to 1380), a dyer's daughter of Siena and a laywoman of the Dominican third order, nursed the plague sick, gathered a circle of disciples, went to Avignon in 1376 and pressed Gregory XI to return to Rome, and spent her last years writing for Urban VI in the Western Schism. This lesson tells her life from her confessor Raymond of Capua's Legenda and her own letters in Vida Scudder's translation, separates what she wrote and what witnesses saw from what Raymond reports of her visions, and rates the popular claims about her.55 min
  11. 11Reading Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, Selected Passages and Her Use of ScriptureCatherine of Siena read in her own words: the Dialogue her secretaries took down in 1377 and 1378, with its picture of Christ as a Bridge of three steps, the cell of self-knowledge, the five kinds of tears, prayer and obedience; her letters to Gregory XI ("sweet Christ on earth"), the King of France, the mercenary John Hawkwood and her confessor about the execution of Niccolo di Toldo; and her last prayers. The lesson lists the Scripture she uses, and sets out how Protestant historians and Catholic teaching have each read her.60 min
  12. 12Francis of Assisi: His Life, the Rule and the Canticle of the CreaturesFrancis of Assisi (1181 or 1182 to 1226) read from his own writings and the earliest records: the conversion among the lepers, the brotherhood approved by Innocent III, the mission to the sultan at Damietta, the Rule of 1223, the Canticle of the Creatures and the Testament. The lesson quotes the Rule, the Canticle and the Testament at length in Paschal Robinson's 1906 translation and follows the century-long quarrel over poverty from Quo elongati (1230) to Cum inter nonnullos (1323).75 min
  13. 13Francis in the Early Lives and the Little Flowers: Legend and RecordMost of what people know about Francis of Assisi comes from lives and story collections written after his death in 1226: Thomas of Celano's two Lives, the companions' collections, Bonaventure's official Life of the 1260s and the fourteenth-century Little Flowers. This lesson puts those sources in order (the "Franciscan question") and reads the famous stories in their earliest forms: the birds, the wolf of Gubbio, perfect joy, Greccio, the stigmata and the Sultan. It also traces the Peace Prayer to 1912 and checks the saying "if necessary use words."55 min
  14. 14Review and Reading Guide: How to Read These Texts, Timeline and TermsThe module in one place: a timeline from Francis's birth (1181 or 1182) to the Joint Declaration of 1999, a chart comparing the Summa Theologiae, the Theologia Germanica, Catherine of Siena's writings and Francis's, a who-is-who of everyone the lessons name, and a reading plan for each text. It sets out, in each church's own documents, where Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed readers agree and disagree on grace, merit, the saints, the papacy, mysticism and Scripture and tradition, and rates the popular claims about all four sources.55 min

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