This book is a faithful transcription of a 1922 edition. The language of the book hasn´t been updated.
BRIEF OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XV.
To our well-beloved son Thomas Pègues of the Order of Friars Preachers.
Beloved Son,
Greeting and Apostolic Benediction.
The manifold honours paid by the Holy See to St. Thomas Aquinas exclude for ever any doubt from the mind of Catholics with regard to his being raised up by God as the Master of Doctrine to be followed by the Church through all ages. It was therefore fitting that the singular wisdom of the Holy Doctor should be made accessible not only to the clergy but to the faithful in general, and to whomsoever desired to make a deeper study of the things of religion; for in very truth, the nearer one approaches to the light, so much the more is one enlightened.
Much praise is therefore due to you first of all because you have undertaken to write a commentary in your mother tongue upon the greatest work of the Angelic Doctor, viz., the Summa Theologica (the volumes already published of this work show what success has attended your labours); and, secondly, because you have recently published the Summa Theologica in the form of a catechism. Therein you have aptly accommodated the riches of the great genius to the understanding of the less instructed as well as of the learned; briefly and succinctly you have expounded the doctrine, and in the same luminous order as that of the Angelic Doctor whose treatise is more lengthy and more detailed.
We congratulate you sincerely on this fruit of your labours which shows your masterly knowledge of St. Thomas' doctrine. We hope, therefore, through your love of Holy Church that this work will bring many souls to a sound knowledge of Christian doctrine.
As a mark of the divine largess and in testimony of our own special good will we impart in all affection to you and to your pupils the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at Rome at St. Peter's the fifth day of February, 1919, in the fifth year of our Pontificate,
POPE BENEDICT XV.
BRIEF OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XV.
To our well-beloved son Thomas Pègues of the Order of Friars Preachers.
Beloved Son,
Greeting and Apostolic Benediction.
The manifold honours paid by the Holy See to St. Thomas Aquinas exclude for ever any doubt from the mind of Catholics with regard to his being raised up by God as the Master of Doctrine to be followed by the Church through all ages. It was therefore fitting that the singular wisdom of the Holy Doctor should be made accessible not only to the clergy but to the faithful in general, and to whomsoever desired to make a deeper study of the things of religion; for in very truth, the nearer one approaches to the light, so much the more is one enlightened.
Much praise is therefore due to you first of all because you have undertaken to write a commentary in your mother tongue upon the greatest work of the Angelic Doctor, viz., the Summa Theologica (the volumes already published of this work show what success has attended your labours); and, secondly, because you have recently published the Summa Theologica in the form of a catechism. Therein you have aptly accommodated the riches of the great genius to the understanding of the less instructed as well as of the learned; briefly and succinctly you have expounded the doctrine, and in the same luminous order as that of the Angelic Doctor whose treatise is more lengthy and more detailed.
We congratulate you sincerely on this fruit of your labours which shows your masterly knowledge of St. Thomas' doctrine. We hope, therefore, through your love of Holy Church that this work will bring many souls to a sound knowledge of Christian doctrine.
As a mark of the divine largess and in testimony of our own special good will we impart in all affection to you and to your pupils the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at Rome at St. Peter's the fifth day of February, 1919, in the fifth year of our Pontificate,
POPE BENEDICT XV.
