  Here there seems to be nothing special about the intellect’s need for illumination. The intellect, like all of nature, needs God as its first mover. If you like, think of this as divine illumination. But viewed under this aspect, it is no wonder the theory was controversial. While his Franciscan contemporaries were insisting on a special role for God in human cognition, Aquinas seems to move as far in the opposite direction as his theism would permit. 