sb. (a.) Eccl. [ad. med.L. Thōmista (Wyclif, 1359), f. Thōm-ās: see below. Cf. F. thomiste (Pascal).] A follower of Thomas Aquinas (known as ‘The Angelical Doctor’), a scholastic philosopher and theologian of the 13th c. (Cf. SCOTIST.)
[1359. Wyclif, Wks. (1905), 127. Thomiste qui sanctum Thomam secuntur.]
1533. Tindale, Supper of Lord, B iij, margin. Thomistes be the schole docters.
1669. T. Gale. True Idea Jansenisme, 58. No doubt there are such small Graces, as the Thomists call sufficient.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 444. Scotists and Thomists now in peace remain Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sc., etc. s.v., The Thomists continued as a sect to the commencement of the 17th century.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., I. 658. The controversy between Thomists and Scotists … concerning the exemption of Mary from hereditary sin.
b. attrib. or as adj.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 485. She was that same thomist aristotelic church, with which he was engaged in a mortal struggle.
1884. Mind, IX. 159. The Thomist philosophy, now again authoritatively proclaimed to be the sheet-anchor of Catholic doctrine.
