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T8O THE MIDDLE AGES.
Christian schools of the Middle Ages, AvERROES attained
to a pantheistic naturalism, which, on account of its rationalistic
character, was not only condemned by the Christian
Churches but also raised him up many adversaries among
his own countrymen and co-religionists. When AVERROES
declared that religion existed only for the benefit of the
weaker intellect, that man could by his reason alone and
without any revelation arrive at a knowledge of the essence
of things ; when in the place of a creation brought about,
by the^almighty will of the Godhead, he set up Nature,
which, by a kind of Aristotelian ivrekfyeui, he conceived
to have been promoted from potentiality to actuality; when
finally he preached the permanency of the world' and of
matter, the mingling of God with Nature, and the consubstantiality
of reason—in all this he shook the foundations
of a monotheistic system of religion and was bound to
expect bitter opposition from its'adherents*
His pupil and disciple the Jewish doctor MOSES MAIMO-
NIDES experienced this too when he made the attempt to
reconcile the precepts of the Talmud with the demands of
reason. He opened broader paths of intellectual activity
for the Jews. As MUNK says: "From SPINOZA down
to MENDELSSOHN, the Jews have produced no advanced
thinker who has not received the first sanction for his
philosophy in MAIMONIDES."
A relio-ious toleration towards people of other faiths
prevailed in the countries under Islam during the first
centuries of its existence, such as was not found anywhere
at that period among the Christians. The high teaching
institutions and medical schools numbered among their
teachers and students many Jews, Christians and followers
of other religions. Not only Muhammedan, but Christian
and Jewish doctors also were appointed to their hospitals,
and patients who did not hold the prevailing belief found
at them nevertheless welcome admittance and- kind
attention. Even the prophet MUHAMMED himself had re-
* E. RENAN : AVerroes et l'Averroisme, Paris i860.