Albert the Great, St (c. 1200–80), Bishop of Ratisbon, was a distinguished Dominican Master of Theology, who taught at both Paris and Cologne, and counted Thomas Aquinas among his pupils. He had a brilliant and versatile mind and was a prolific writer. He is known as the Doctor universalis. With Aquinas and William of Moerbeke he was one of the three Dominicans commissioned by the papacy to examine the works of Aristotle and to assimilate their principles into Christian thought. As a result his great Summa theologiae applied Aristotelian methods and principles to theology. His contributions to economic thought occur in the Summa and in his commentaries on Aristotle's works, especially the Ethics and the Politics.

Alexander of Hales (c. 1186–1245) was born at Halesowen (West Midlands). He studied and taught theology at Paris, returning briefly to England in 1231–2, when he was Archdeacon of Coventry, but soon returned to Paris, where in 1236 he became a Franciscan. He continued to hold his chair of theology, which became a Franciscan one. Bonaventure was his pupil. The Summa theologica which bears his name is important because it was one of the first works to be based on a knowledge of all Aristotle's philosophical works, but it is not known how much was written by him and how much by his followers.