ABELARD, PETER

Philosopher and theologian (Lat. Abaelardus, Abeilardus ); b. Pallet, Brittany, 1079; d. Châlons-sur-Saône, April 21, 1142. One of the greatest philosophers of the 12th century, this peripatetic from Pallet, known as Peripateticus palatinus and Doctor scholasticus, is renowned for his solution of the problem of universals. As a theologian, he outraged his contemporaries by his original use of dialectics. As a man, he is known for his celebrated love affair with hÉloÏse.

Life. Peter's father, Berengar, Lord of Pallet, planned a military career for him, but he chose learning instead. When he was about 15, he began the study of logic, probably under roscelin of compiÈgne. In his autobiographical Historia calamitatum, he says that he traveled to any town where a teacher of logic could be found. Finally arriving in Paris, he studied under william of champeaux, head of the cathedral school of Notre Dame. Prior to William's arrival, Paris had been considered intellectually inferior to the Benedictine Abbey of Bec and the cathedral schools of Laon and Chartres. Through William, Paris acquired great renown. While enrolled as a student, Abelard defeated William in public debate. On the strength of this victory, Abelard set up his own school in nearby Melun, and later in Corbeil. He was then only 25 years old. His youth and rashness in attacking men of established reputation in such a way that they were publicly disgraced earned him celebrity, devoted followers, and persistent enemies. After about two years

as a teacher in the region of Paris, he became ill and returned to his native Brittany. Returning to Paris in 1108, he studied rhetoric under the same man against whom he had previously jousted, William of Champeaux. Public disputations had become a prominent feature of school life; during one of them Abelard forced the master to modify his extreme realist position, according to which there is a separately existent reality corresponding to each of the universal terms in one's vocabulary.

When he was 34, Abelard began to study theology under anselm of laon. He found fault with Anselm's teaching methods, and to show that he could do better he gave a public lecture on the Book of Ezechiel after only one day's preparation. The novelty of his teaching consisted in the forthright raising of questions suggested by his dialectical studies; this was not the traditional method of communicating the patristic tradition with its heavy emphasis on questions that had affective implications. Once more Abelard earned the resentment of his teacher by arousing the interest of Anselm's students, thus showing that they preferred the work of a gifted amateur to Anselm's traditional mode of teaching.

Paris and Héloïse. When Abelard returned to Paris, he was allowed to teach both theology and dialectics, first at the school of Mont Sainte-Geneviève and then, in 1113, at the cathedral school of Notre Dame. Students flocked to him in such numbers that he acquired both wealth and honors. At this time he fell in love with Héloïse, the niece of Fulbert, a canon of Notre Dame. This unwitting man invited Abelard to live in his house and, ironically, to take charge of the further education of his niece. When Héloïse became pregnant, Abelard had her secretly conveyed to his home in Brittany. The whimsical name Astrolabe was given to their son. Later, to mollify Fulbert, Abelard secretly married Héloïse. This was possible since he had not received major orders at the time. When the marriage became known publicly and when students began to sing love songs and lyrics reputed to have been written by Abelard for Héloïse, Abelard tried to safeguard his position by having Héloïse enter the convent of Saint-Argenteuil, where she had been brought up. Fulbert regarded this as an evasion of responsibility and in anger hired men who, with the connivance of Abelard's servant, entered his room at night and emasculated him.

Abelard's personal fame as a man centers not so much on his philosophical and theological work as it does upon this love affair with Héloïse, told in such detail and with such frankness in letters that are still extant. He is the only philosopher in the Middle Ages who left an autobiography and personal letters, in which historians find details that are very illuminating for the study of social and intellectual life in the 12th century. The information supplied in these is invaluable for destroying false stereo-types set up by 19th-century historians, such as Jules Michelet, about intellectual freedom in the Middle Ages.

St. Bernard's Denunciation. After his downfall, Abelard entered the monastery at Saint-Denis to become a Benedictine monk. Characteristically, he aroused opposition by offering proof that the monastery's patron was not identical with Dionysius the Areopagite. He resumed teaching in Paris until 1121, when the Council of Soissons condemned his teaching on the Blessed Trinity. After spending some time in forced residence in a monastic house, he set up a school in what became the town of Nogent-sûr-Seine. In 1125 he was elected abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Gildas in his native Brittany. Finding his life as abbot difficult and complicated because of the monks of Saint-Gildas, he was back teaching in Paris in 1136. His teaching was denounced to St. bernard of clairvaux by william of saint-thierry, who accused him of a rationalist approach that attempted to empty even doctrines such as the Trinity of all mystery. Bernard wrote to Pope Innocent II and to numerous bishops against Abelard and his teaching. Under the illusion that he would have the opportunity of publicly disputing with Bernard, Abelard appeared before the Council of Sens in 1141 only to find that his role was to listen silently while a sentence of condemnation was read to him. He appealed to Pope Innocent, oblivious of the fact that Bernard's letters had closed all doors to him. On his way to Rome, he was received at the monastery of Cluny by peter the venerable, who persuaded him to abandon the struggle, attempt reconciliation with Bernard, and accept a papal authorization to pass his remaining years under the protection of Cluny. He died at a Cluniac priory in 1142.

Writings. Abelard's more important extant works are those that treat of logic and theology. In addition, there are extant sermons, poems, and letters, one of which is an autobiography covering his life until about 1129.

Logic. His Introductiones parvulorum are short glosses on the logical treatises of Porphyry, Aristotle, and Boethius, probably representing the lessons he gave to beginners. Logica ingredientibus contained more elaborate glosses on Porphyry and on the Categories and De interpretatione of Aristotle. Dialectica is his most developed and complete work on logic; the beginning of this work, probably attacking the realist position, has not survived.

Theology. His Tractatus de fide Trinitatis is the surviving record of his theological lectures prior to the Council of Soissons (1121). This work is notable for its lack of reference to the Church Fathers and the substitution of personal and seemingly rationalistic attempts to explain the Blessed Trinity. The compilation Sic et non lists the opinions of the Fathers, often contradictory, on various theological topics raised in scholastic disputations. This is at the same time an answer to those who said that he was not concerned with the Fathers and a proof that some rational approach was needed to reconcile their differences. One version of this work seems to have been written about 1123, and another toward the end of his life in 1136. Theologia Christiana is a reworking of the Tractatus de fide Trinitatis with many citations from the Church Fathers and the Scripture. It seems to have been written in 1124. Books 1 and 2 of Introductio ad theologiam are a reworking of his earlier books on theology. Book 3 represents an advanced form of his thought and was probably written in 1136. His Ethics, or Scito teipsum, probably written in 1137, deals with moral theology. Dialogus inter philosophum, Judaeum et Christianum was written during the last year of his life and gives his final thought on the problem of reason and faith.

Influence. The importance of Abelard in the history of philosophy rests mainly on his proposed solution to the problem of universals. He stood midway between the ultrarealist position of the Platonic tradition and the nominalist views of Roscelin, saying that universals as such exist only in the mind but that they signify the nature that individual things share in common. His place in theology depends mainly on his contribution toward the scholastic method. Historically, he stands close to the origin of the tradition, exemplified by Peter Lombard, that used varying opinions of the Fathers as the starting point for theological synthesis. His speculative pursuit of questions in theology without reference to their affective connotations seems to have outraged William of Saint-Thierry. In a letter to Bernard, the latter accuses Abelard of doing in theology what he had learned to do in dialectics, of being "a censor of the faith, not a disciple; an improver of it, not an imitator." Viewed from the vantage point of the great syntheses of faith and reason established by 13th-century scholasticism, in which Abelardian methods had an important place, his work seems more defensible than it did to his contemporaries. As to the orthodoxy of Abelard's theological opinions there are, on the one hand, the condemnations of Soissons and Sens (the latter formally approved by Innocent II) and the firm, lasting hostility of Bernard. On the other hand, modern scholars such as Jean Cottiaux and J. Rozycki, after a careful study of the development of his doctrine on faith and reason and on the Trinity, have found it possible to give a much more benign interpretation. Two things are certain: (1) Abelard wished to reason in such a way as not to be separated from Christ, and (2) much that was condemned at Sens cannot be found, as such, in his writings. This does not mean that Bernard and the bishops were wrong in condemning what they thought his contemporaries would have drawn from his words. Extant MSS of some of Abelard's immediate disciples indicate that the sense of the errors condemned was the very sense defended by the school of Abelard.

Modern scholarship has shown the existence of a school of Abelard both in theology and in logic. Not all of his disciples, however, were like Adam, a canon of the Lateran, who taught the errors of his master concerning the Incarnation before 1135 and who, being attacked by gerhoh of reichersberg, preferred apostasy to retraction. Direct disciples, such as john of salisbury and peter of poitiers, were orthodox, while others, such as william of conches and gilbert de la porrÉe, were accused of heresy. Bernard, William of Saint-Thierry, and John of Salisbury attest to the vast divulgation of Abelard's writings and influence, even after the condemnation of 1141. This is confirmed by the discovery of numerous MSS of summae of various Sentences, theological treatises, and logical works, many of them anonymous, belonging to the school of Abelard. Even after he was long dead, Peter Abelard was attacked by Walter of Saint-Victor as one of France's evils in Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae. By that time, Abelard's dialectics had taken firm hold in early scholasticism.

See Also: dialectics in the middle ages, sentences and summae.

Bibliography: Works. Opera omnia, Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne, v.178; Ouvrages inédits d'Abélard, ed. v. cousin (Paris 1836); Opera, ed. v. cousin et al., 2 v. (Paris 1849–59); "Peter Abelards Philosophische Schriften," ed. b. geyer, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters 21.1–4 (Münster 1919–33) 1–633; Dialectica, ed. l. m. de rijk (Assen 1956). Studies. Gilson History of Christian Philosophy 153–163. j. g. sikes, Peter Abailard (Cambridge, Eng. 1932). É. h. gilson, Héloise and Abelard, tr. l. k. shook (Chicago 1951). e. portaliÉ, a. vacant et al, ed. Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 1.1:36–55. p. glorieux, a. vacant et al, ed. Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) Tables généraees 1:5–7. e. vacandard, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 1:71–91. g. parÉ et al., La Renaissance du XII ^e siècle: Les Écoles et l'enseignement (Paris 1933). r. e. weingart, The Logic of Divine Love: A Critical Analysis of the Soteriology of Peter Abailard (London 1970). j. marenbon, The Philosophy of Peter Abelard (Cambridge 1997).

[s. r. smith]