St. Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274)

Accomplishments:

- Created synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity - changed direction of Christian theology; His theology is still the cornerstone of Catholicism.

- Separated faith from reason

- allowed two ways of seeking truth

- destroyed stranglehold of religion on intellectual pursuits

- made the study of nature respectable

- Wrote extensively about human psychology and the nature of the soul, much of it derived from Aristotle

- opened the door for the development of science, but the growth of scholasticism would also be a problem for it later on.