Thomas Aquinas was born in Italy, in a small town between Rome and Naples, at the grand Roccasecca castle of his father, the rich and powerful count of Aquino. He was educated at the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino until the age of 14, when he went to the University of Naples. Like Anselm, he rejected his father's plans for the aristocratic life of a nobleman and instead, in 1244, to his father's horror, he joined the Dominican Order of mendicant friars whose ideal was complete poverty. He traveled through the countryside, begging for food and money for the Dominicans, while spreading the Gospel of Jesus. His father was appalled. He in turn begged Thomas to join, instead, the Benedictines; if you're going to live the religious life, his father pleaded, then do so not with the poor Dominican beggars but with the rich, powerful, and prestigious order of the Benedictines, backed by corporate wealth. When Thomas wouldn't listen, his father had him locked up in the family castle, where he offered him all sorts of bribes, including a very beautiful prostitute. Thomas refused and instead, with her help, escaped to France. There he studied philosophy and theology with one of the greatest Scholastic thinkers, fellow Dominican Albertus Magnus (1200-1280), called 'Doctor Universalis,' and 'Albert the Great' because of his vast knowledge both of Greek and Islamic philosophy. Like his Islamic nemesis Averroës, Aquinas spent his formative philosophical years primarily in the study and interpretation of the works of Aristotle, and writing scholarly commentaries on those works. In his later, more mature, philosophical works, he develops a full-blown metaphysics involving both a theory of being and of essence that incorporates Aristotelian principles of cause and change, arguing against the Averroist doctrine of the unity of all souls. Aquinas became regent master (full professor) at the University of Paris, and taught there and in Italy for the rest of his life.
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