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Peter Abelard |
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During the 1100s, when universities started all over Christendom and learning grew, one of the most popular and eager scholars was Peter Abelard. He began to question every thing, even Church doctrine, as the selection below from his famous book Sic et Non (Yes and No) shows. There are many seeming contradictions and even obscurities in the innumerable writings of the Church fathers. Our respect for their authority should not stand in the way of an effort on our part to come at the truth. The obscurity and contradictions in ancient writings may be explained upon many grounds, and may be discussed without impugning the good faith and insight of the fathers.... In view of these considerations, I have ventured to bring together various dicta [comments] of the holy fathers, as they came to mind, and to formulate certain questions which were suggested by the seeming contradictions in the statements. These questions ought to serve to excite tender readers to zealous inquiry into truth and so sharpen their wits. The master key of knowledge is indeed, a persistent and frequent questioning. Aristotle, the most clear- sighted of all the philosophers, was desirous above all things else to arouse this questioning spirits for in his Categories he exhorts a student as follows: "It may well be difficult to reach a positive conclusion in these matters unless they be frequently discussed. It is by no means fruit- less to be doubtful on particular points." By doubting we come to examine, and by examining we reach the truth. [Abelard then presented 158 problems to which he provided the arguments for (yes) and against (no). Here are just a few examples:]
[Needless to say, Abelard soon came under attack by many of the elders of the Church. His most famous and powerful critic was St. Bernard. He devoted his life to setting a pious example to others, ministering to the poor, writing letters of advice to rulers, and defending the Church from the threat of new ideas such as Abe lard's. Here is Bernard's attack on Abe lard. ] We have in France an old teacher turned into a new theologian, who in his early days amused himself with dialectics and who now gives utterance to wild imaginations upon the Holy Scriptures.... I know not what there is in heaven above and in the earth beneath which he deigns to confess ignorance of' he raises his eyes to heaven and searches the deep things of God and . . . brings back unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter, while he is . . . prepared to give a reason for everything, even or those things which are above reason; he presumes against reason and against faith. For what is more against reason than by reason to attempt to transcend reason? And what is more against faith than to be unwilling to believe what reason cannot attain? . . . And so he promises understanding to his hearers, even on those most sublime and sacred truths which are hidden in the very bosom of our holy faith; and he places degrees in the Trinity, modes in the Majesty, numbers in the Eternity . . . Who does not shudder at such novel profanities of words and ideas?
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David Herlihy, Medieval Culture
and Society. New York : Harper & Row, 1968; pp. 205-207. |