Scholasticism did not, however, antagonize the Fathers and early ecclesiastical writers, who, as is well known, had a strong penchant for Plato. Both Plato and Aristotle may be said to lean on their common master, Socrates, who had grasped with rare acumen the fundamentals of natural religion, wherefor Socratic philosophy, despite its incompleteness, has justly been extolled as the “Philosophia perennis.”15 It cannot be denied, however, that theology in its various branches, not excepting dogma,