(1079-1142)

Eldest son of a minor noble of Brittany. Gave up inheritance rights to younger brothers, roamed France to sit at the feet of the great masters. Lectured in Paris. Wrote Sic et Non. A couple quotes:

"By doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at the truth."

And...

"Faith has no merit with God when it is not the testimony of divine authority that leads us to it, but the evidence of human reason."

At the age of 36, Abelard was a leading intellectual in Paris when he began an illicit love affair with one of his students, 17-year-old Heloise. The affair produced a child, Astrolabe. Heloise refused to marry Peter because she knew how precious his genius was and she feared their marriage would hinder his career. Subsequently, Heloise entered a convent but her uncle accused Abelard of denying his responsiblity. Heloise's uncle hired men who attacked Abelard and castrated

One of the earliest voices against the worldliness of the Catholic church. He urged the church to return to poverty. Pope Innocent II banished Arnold from Italy, so he fled to Paris to study under Abelard and aroused the wrath of Bernard of Clairvaux. Returned to Rome, where the people seized power while the Pope was away and placed Arnold into the leadership of the secular government. 10 years later, Pope Hadrian IV placed Rome under interdict and with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa captured Arnold and executed him in 1155.

[tags]Abelard, Arnold, Arnold-Abbot-of-Brescia, Bernard, Bernard-of-Clairvaux, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history[/tags]

In 1147, this mystic called for the Second Crusade while the kingdom of Jerusalem faced its first crisis. As one of Christendom's most influential churchmen and abbot he pursued Peter Abelard as devoutly as he preached the Second Crusade. Felt that faith brooked no dispute and worked to have Abelard condemned at a church council at Sens in 1140.

[tags]Abelard, Bernard, Bernard-of-Clairvaux, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Peter[/tags]

The gothic cathedrals eventually gave birth to medieval universities. The universities revealed an intense hunger to understand the truth of God received from any land, and reason became the servant of faith. This era gave rise to a distinctive method of scholarship and a unique Middle Age theology emerged. The aim of the Schoolmen was twofold: to reconcile Christian doctrine and human reason, and to arrange the teachings of the church in an orderly system. A free search for truth was never in view since the chief doctrines of the Christian faith were regarded as fixed. Scholars sought to "live studiously in a religious way, and religiously in a studious manner".

The event that marked the flowering of the universities was the grouping of students and masters into guilds. Scholars banded together for mutual interest and protection, and called themselves a "universitas", the medieval name for any corporate group.

We can trace the birth of universities to the magnetism of single teachers, whose skill and enthusiasm for learning attracted students wherever they happened to be. After Abelard schools sprouted all around the Continent, the event that marked the flowering of the universities was the grouping of students and masters into guilds for mutual interest and protection, calling themselves a universitas, from the medieval name for any corporate group. At first lectures were given in wayside sheds at Oxford and Cambridge, in the cathedral cloisters in Paris, and in the squares in Italy. In time, teachers rented rooms and the students sat on the floor, which was usually covered with straw against the dampness. Unencumbered with athletic stadiums, libraries or other equipment, universities could pick up and move elsewhere at any time if they found themselves at odds with local citizens.

[tags]Abelard, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Universities[/tags]