might see in him how much it is possible for man to know." Averroës devoted a great portion of his life to literary pursuits, but chiefly to his chosen task of expounding the doctrines of his favorite author. A printed edition of his works, in ten large folio volumes, furnishes ample testimony of the extent of his labors, and fully justifies the cognomen of "The Commentator," and of Dante's expression "that commentary vast." He was also styled "the soul of Aristotle."
It has been said that he wrote his medical treatises for the purpose of reconciling the doctrines of Galen with the philosophy of Aristotle; for it is evident that his estimation of the medical philosopher of Pergamus was only second in degree to the almost veneration which he entertained for the philosopher of Alexandria.
It is not within the compass or purpose of this sketch to furnish the reader with even a brief summary of the peculiar characteristics of the metaphysical doctrines which constitute what has been termed Averroism, or to give an account of its wide-spread influence throughout Europe, and particularly during three entire centuries in the universities of Northern Italy. I will merely state that Padua became the seat and center of "Averroist Aristotelianism," and that Petrus de Apono, about the year 1300, became a famous expositor of these doctrines in their relation to medicine, and an equally noted example of heterodoxy in matters of faith; so much so that his effigy was burned in the public market-place by the executioner, at the command of the Inquisitors. Though for ages both Aristotle and Averroës were regarded as the supreme masters of the science of proof, yet their teachings were considered inimical to the requirements of religious faith; their disciples were called derisively "the people of demonstration." Later on, Erasmus and others poured out the vials of their contempt on scholastic barbarism with its "impious and thrice-accursed Averroës."
To return to his personal history. Averroës lived not long after Avenzoar, whom he calls "admirable, glorious, the treasure of all knowledge," and the most supreme in physic from Galen to his own time. Averroës was personally acquainted with the sons of Avenzoar. He was a great student. It is said that, under the most approved teachers of his time, he mastered theology, jurisprudence, mathematics, philosophy, and medicine. He flourished at a time when the Moslem caliphate in Spain had attained its maximum splendor, and such as had only been excelled by the ancient Oriental glories of Arabia and Persia. Cordova was the Bagdad of the Occident. Averroës worshiped in great and magnificent mosques, attended schools and colleges of erudition and renown, consulted libraries vast in extent, rich and rare in quality; walked large hospitals, whose cases supplied ample illustrations of all the mortal ills to which our poor humanity is subject; and, having been introduced by Ibn-Tofail, the philosophic vizier of Jusuf, to that prince, he possessed every requisite qualification and influence to insure success and distinction in life. Averroës,
