Peter Abelard
"By doubting, we come to inquire and by inquiry we arrive at truth".
The church has never understood Abelard to the fullest, or known what to do with him. Should the church condemn his writings or revere him as a saint? He was a man of spectacular gifts and intellectual talent but the fundamentalists of today despises his intellectualism, appeal to reason and philosophic attitude. He possessed like passions as other men and his view of the trinity bordered on tri-theism. Calvin would have had him burned at the stake in his day.
Abelard's teaching was condemned at Soursouns in 1121 and his first theological work had been burned as heretical. He followed Plato in theology and his best teachings emphasized Aristotle's dialectic, holding that the system of logic and dialectical method of intellectual reflection could be applied to the truths of faith and pre-dated Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics by a century. His concept of ethics maintained that an act is to be judged by the intention of the doer.
In his most influential and controversial book, Sic et Non (yes and no) in 1123, Abelard maintained that truth must be arrived at by carefully weighing all sides of any issue. In those days, theologians tended to prove their points chiefly by quoting statements from the Church Fathers. In his book he collected a list of 158 philosophical and theological questions and produced quotations from the Fathers on one side, next to contradictory quotations from the Fathers on the other side. He then proceeded to harmonize the contradictions, pointing out that language is vague and depends on the context. Abelard pointed out the foolishness of relying on authorities and showed the most respected theological authorities to be hopelessly at odds with each other. Abelard left these questions open for discussion and thereby left himself open to charges of heresy. For quite some time the church had included his writings in the Index of Forbidden Books.
For many years, intellectual pursuits and debate would consume the passions of Abelard, but soon a new fondness would arrive. In 1117 Abelard managed to get accepted as a boarder at the house of Canon Fulbert of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris who was the uncle and guardian of Heloise and a great admirer of Abelard. Abelard began tutoring Heloise, he saw her, they fell in love and she became pregnant. She had been entrusted to him as a private student and by becoming physically intimate he abused his position. No matter what fascination this has inspired in the minds of romantics since, it is still the story of a middle-aged man seducing his teen-age student. Abelard was not a priest or monk and was not sworn to celibacy, but he was a canon of Notre Dame Cathedral. If he got married he would lose his job and his privileged position. He wanted to marry her, but she argued that his work as a great philosopher destined to change the intellectual history of the world was far too important to be jeopardized by the restraints of marriage. Abelard went on to persuade Heloise to take holy vows. Eventually, they did marry, secretly after Heloise gave birth to a son and over Heloise's objections - she would rather have been a lover than a wife, because of the lessening of his reputation. Now the problem was how to tell her uncle. To keep Fulbert happy, Abelard must tell him that they were married, but to keep his job, Abelard had to keep it a secret.
In due course, Heloise's enraged uncle decided that Abelard had lied to him, ruined his niece and was preparing to abandon her. Despite the marriage, her uncle took his revenge by hiring some thugs who broke into Abelard's lodgings at night and castrated him. Humiliated and remorseful, Abelard retreated to a monastery at the Abbey of St. Denis and became a monk: "It was, I confess, confusion springing from shame rather than devotion or the result of conversion which drove me to the refuge of the monastic cloister". He admonished Heloise to enter a convent and become a nun, which she did under protest. She eventually ended in the abbess and became one of the most literate women of her time, living an exemplary and pure life as an able administrator. For some time she continued to protest and at about 1132 Abelard and Heloise began their famous correspondence that stands as a pillar of romantic classics.
Abelard was unhappy in the role of monk, and because he and his fellow monks could not agree he parted company and resumed lecturing. Abelard founded a chapel and oratory, which he called the Paraclete, and which he later presented to Heloise where she became abbess. In 1125 he became abbot of the monastery at Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuis. Abelard's sister adopted Astrolabe.
Abelard opposed St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard Fought for the primacy of the heart while Abelard fought for the primacy of reason. This controversy still rages on to this day, many sides never acknowledging that reason and faith are both important and must work together to validate revelation. Abelard and Bernard were to create a hellhole over this argument which later theologians were to enlarge by vain and endless arguments. Faithful reason is just as important as reasonable faith. Mis-interpretations have come when one or the other is not practiced. In 1140 a Church council and Pope Innocent II condemned Abelard for his writings. The prosecutor at Abelard's heresy trial was Bernard.
Abelard alienated several church councils, abbots, bishops, his own monks, and most notably St. Bernard. The last months of his life were spent under the protection of Peter the Venerable of Cluny, where he died. Abelard's body was taken to the Paraclete and upon Heloise's death, she was buried next to him. They now lie together in a single tomb in the Père Lachaise
Cemetery in Paris.
Abelard's influence on his own generation was minimal. The traditional conservatism of the church, his quarrels with the church leaders and his own arrogance stifled the spirit of his message. It has been said that he valued victory over truth, a humbling lesson for us all. His influence in the church of the 13th century was, however, very great. Many regard Abelard as the first modern and an important pioneer in the scholastic method; it is no small thing to be regarded as the founder of the University of Paris. And never forget the importance of reason and that faith might not be enough. Even cult leaders and false religions have faith.
1079-1142. Abelard was a French philosopher and theologian whose fame as a teacher and intellectual made him one of the most renowned figures of the 12th century. Born in Le Pallet, Brittany, his French name was Pierre Abélard. The scandalous romance of Abelard and Heloise is better known these days than his writings. He was a magnificent and popular lecturer and because of his distinction as a dialectician (using rational argument to discover truth) drawing so many students, he is considered the founder of the University of Paris. He saw theology as the "handmaiden" of knowledge, and believed that through reason man could gain a greater knowledge of God. Abelard has to his merit having solved the centuries old philosophical question of universals and the resolution of the debate between the realists and the nominalists. In the 19th century he was hailed as a forerunner of Protestantism.
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