The complexity of the tradition, the variety of the strands to be woven together in the mid-thirteenth century, demanded a synthesist of genius. One such was found in St. Thomas Aquinas. Here there is no question of expounding once again his doctrine of the natural law — although some elements in such an exposition will be appealed to later in this book, as part of the argument that the profile of the natural law sketched by Aquinas can be restored and, indeed, must be, if the natural law is to continue to be man's moral court of appeal. At present it will be instructive to examine Aquinas's thought on the natural law with the aim of seeing what he made of the tradition. Such treatment will necessarily be selective. One may begin with an excellent example, both of his indebtedness and of his independence, in his approach to synderesis.