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ABELARD, PETER (1079-1142)
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See also:ABELARD, See also:PETER (1079-1142) , scholastic philosopher, was See also:born at Pallet (Palais), not far from See also:Nantes, in 1079. He was the elde§t son of a See also:noble See also:Breton See also:house. The name Abaelardus (also written Abaelardus, Abaielardus, and in many other ways) is said to be a corruption of Habelardus, substituted by himself for a See also:nickname Bajolardus given to him when a student. As a boy, he showed an extraordinary quickness of See also:apprehension, and, choosing a learned See also:life instead of the knightly career natural to a youth of his See also:birth, See also:early became an See also:adept in the See also:art of See also:dialectic, under which name See also:philosophy, meaning at that See also:time chiefly the See also:logic of See also:Aristotle transmitted through. Latin chanxlels, was the See also:great subject of liberal study in the episcopal See also:schools. See also:Roscellinus., the famous See also:canon of See also:Compiegne, is mentioned by himself as his teacher; but whether he heard this See also:champion of extreme See also:Nominalism in early youth, when he wandered about from school to school for instruction and exercise, or some years later, after he had already begun to See also:teach for himself, remains uncertain. His wanderings finally brought him to See also:Paris, still under the See also:age of twenty. There, in the great See also:cathedral school of Notre-See also:Dame, he sat for a while under the teaching of See also: His discomfited See also:rival still had See also:power to keep him from lecturing in Paris, but soon failed in this last effort also. From Melun, where he had resumed teaching, Abelard passed to the See also:capital, and set up his school on the heights of St See also:Genevieve, looking over Notre-Dame. From his success in dialectic, he next turned to See also:theology and attended the lectures of Anselm at See also:Laon. His See also:triumph over the theologian was See also:complete; the See also:pupil was able to give lectures, without previous training or See also:special study, which were acknowledged See also:superior to those of the master. Abelard was now at the height of his fame. He stepped into the See also:chair at Notre-Dame, being also nominated canon, about the See also:year 1115. Few teachers ever held such sway as Abelard now did for a time. Distinguished in figure and See also:manners, he was seen surrounded by crowds—it is said thousands—of students, See also:drawn from all countries by the fame of his teaching, in which acuteness of thought was relieved by simplicity and See also:grace of exposition. Enriched by the offerings of his pupils, and feasted with universal admiration, he came, as ' he says, to think himself the only philosopher See also:standing in the See also:world. But a change in his fortunes was at See also:hand. In his devotion to See also:science, he had hitherto lived a very See also:regular life, varied only by the excitement of conflict: now, at the height of his fame, other passions began to stir within him. There lived at that time, within the precincts of Notre Dame, under the care of her See also:uncle, the canon Fulbert, a See also:young girl named Heloise, of noble extraction, and born about irot. See also:Fair, but still more remarkable for her knowledge, which extended beyond Latin, it is said, to See also:Greek and See also:Hebrew, she awoke a feeling of love in the See also:breast of Abelard; and with See also:intent to win her, he sought and gained a footing in Fulbert's house as a regular inmate. Becoming also See also:tutor to the See also:maiden, he used the unlimited power which he thus obtained over her for the purpose of See also:seduction, though not without cherishing a real See also:affection which she returned in unparalleled devotion. Their relation interfering with his public See also:work, and being, moreover, ostentatiously sung by himself, soon became known to all the world except the too-confiding Fulbert; and, when at last if could not See also:escape even his See also:vision, they were separated only to meet in See also:secret. Thereupon Heloise found herself pregnant, and was carried off by her See also:lover to See also:Brittany, where she gave birth to a son. To appease her furious uncle, Abelard now proposed a See also:marriage, under the See also:condition that it should be kept secret, in See also:order not to See also:mar his prospects of See also:advancement in the See also: 
It was in the See also:abbey of St See also:Denis that Abelard, now aged See also:forty, sought to See also:bury himself with his woes out of sight. Finding, however, in the See also:cloister neither See also:calm 'nor solitude, and having gradually turned again to study, he yielded after a year to urgent entreaties from without and within, and went forth to reopen his school at the priory of Maisoncelle (112o). His lectures, now framed in a devotional spirit, were heard again by crowds of students, and all his old See also:influence seemed to have returned; but old enmities were revived also, against which he was no longer able as before to make See also:head. No sooner had he put in See also:writing his theological lectures (apparently the Introductio ad Theologiam that has come down to us), than his adversaries See also:fell: foul of his rationalistic See also:interpretation of the Trinitarian See also:dogma. Charging him with the See also:heresy of See also:Sabellius in a provincial See also:synod held at See also:Soissons in 1121, they procured by irregular practices a condemnation of his teaching, whereby he was made to throw his See also:book into the flames and then was shut up in the convent of St Medard at Soissons. After the other, it was the bitterest possible experience that could befall him, nor, in the See also:state of See also:mental desolation into which it plunged him, could he find any comfort from being soon again set See also:free. The life in his own monastery proved no more congenial than formerly. For this Abelard himself was partly responsible. He took a sort of malicious See also:pleasure in irritating the monks. Quasi jocando, he
cited See also:Bede to prove that See also:Dionysius the Areopagite had been See also:bishop of See also:Corinth, while they relied upon the statement of the See also: In a See also:desert See also:place near Nogent-sur-See also:Seine, he built himself a See also:cabin of stubble and reeds, and turned See also:hermit. But there See also:fortune came back to him with a new surprise. His retreat becoming known, students flocked from Paris, and covered the See also:wilderness around him with their tents and huts. When he began to teach again he found See also:consolation, and in gratitude he consecrated the new See also:oratory they built for him by the name of the Paraclete.
Upon the return of new dangers, or at least of fears, Abelard left the Paraclete to make trial of another refuge, accepting an invitation to preside over the abbey of St See also:Gildas-de-Rhuys, on the far-off See also:shore of See also:Lower Brittany. It proved a wretched See also:exchange. The region was inhospitable, the domain a See also:prey to lawless exaction, the house itself See also:savage and disorderly. Yet for nearly ten years he continued to struggle with See also:fate before he fled from his See also:charge, yielding in the end only under peril of violent See also:death. The misery of those years was not, however, unrelieved; for he had been able, on the breaking up of Heloise's convent at Argenteuil, to establish her as head of a new religious house at the deserted Paraclete, and in the capacity of spiritual director he often was called to revisit the spot thus made doubly dear to him. All this time Heloise had lived amid universal esteem for her knowledge and See also:character, uttering no word under the See also:doom that had fallen upon her youth; but now, at last, the occasion came for expressing all the pent-up emotions of her soul. Living on for some time apart (we do not know exactly where), after his flight from St Gildas, Abelard wrote, among other things, his famous Historia Calamitatum, and thus moved her to See also:pen her first Letter, which remains an unsurpassed utterance of human See also:passion and womanly devotion; the first being followed by the two other Letters, in which she finally accepted the See also:part of resignation which, now as a See also:brother to a See also:sister, Abelard commended to her. He not long after was seen once more upon the field of his early triumphs lecturing on See also:Mount St Genevieve in 1136 (when he was heard by See also: As far back as the Paraclete days, he had counted as See also:chief among his foes See also:Bernard of See also:Clairvaux, in whom was incarnated the principle of fervent and unhesitating faith, from which rational inquiry like his was sheer revolt, and now this uncompromising spirit was moving, at the instance of others, to crush the growing evil in the See also:person of the boldest offender. After preliminary negotiations, in which Bernard was roused by Abelard's steadfastness to put forth all his strength, a See also:council met at See also:Sens (1141), before which Abelard, formally arraigned upon a number of heretical charges, was prepared to plead his cause. When, however, Bernard, not without foregone terror in the prospect of See also:meeting the See also:redoubt-able dialectician, had opened the See also:case, suddenly Abelard appealed to See also:Rome. The stroke availed him nothing; for Bernard, who had power, notwithstanding, to get a condemnation passed at the council, did not See also:rest a moment till a second condemnation was procured at Rome in the following year. Meanwhile, on his way thither to urge his plea in person, Abelard had broken down at the abbey of See also:Cluny, and there, an utterly fallen See also:man, with spirit of the humblest, and only not bereft of his intellectual force, he lingered but a few months before the approach of death. Removed by friendly hands, for the See also:relief of his sufferings,to the priory of St See also:Marcel, near Chalon-sur-See also:Saone, he died or the 21St of See also:April 1142. First buried at St Marcel, his remain soon after were carried off in secrecy to the Paraclete, and giver over to the loving care of Heloise, who in time came herself tc rest beside them (1164). The bones of the pair were shifted more than once afterwards, but they were marvellously pre-served even through the vicissitudes of the See also:French Revolution, and now they See also:lie See also:united in the well-known See also:tomb in the See also:cemetery of Pere-la-See also:Chaise at Paris. Great as was the influence exerted by Abelard on the minds of his contemporaries and the course of See also:medieval thought, he has been little known in See also:modern times but for his connexion with Heloise. Indeed, it was not till the 19th See also:century, when See also:Cousin in 1836 issued the collection entitled Ouyrages inedits d'Abelard, that his philosophical performance could he judged at first hand; of his strictly philosophical See also:works only one, the ethical See also:treatise Scito to ipsum, having been published earlier, namely, in 1721. Cousin's collection, besides giving extracts from the theological work Sic et Non (an assemblage of opposite opinions on doctrinal points, culled from the Fathers as a basis for discussion, the See also:main See also:interest in which lies in the fact that there is no See also:attempt to reconcile the different opinions), includes the Dialectica, commentaries on logical works of Aristotle, See also:Porphyry and Boethius, and a fragment, De Generibus et Speciebus. The last-named work, and also the psychological treatise De Intellectibus, published apart by Cousin (in Fragmens Philosophiques, vol. ii.), are now considered upon See also:internal See also:evidence not to be by Abelard himself, but only to.have sprung out of his school. A genuine work, the Glossulae super Porphyrium, from which See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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