Abélard, Peter

b. 1079; d. 1142

French scholastic philosopher and theologian, born at Pallet, near Nantes; studied under Roscelin and William of Champeaux in Paris.

Having scored some success over the latter in debate, he was obliged to leave Paris and subsequently opened a school of his own, finally becoming head of the school at St Geneviève. Abélard next went to Laon where he attended the theological lectures of St Anselm. He returned to Paris, was made a canon of Nôtre-Dame (1115) and set up another school. He then had the misfortune to fall in love with Héloïse, the niece of the Canon Fulbert; a son was born, and the pair were secretly married soon afterwards. When this fact became known, Héloïse retired to a convent at Argenteuil. Fulbert revenged himself by having Abélard castrated by a band of ruffians. The victim recovered and became a monk at St Denis, while Héloïse took the veil at Argenteuil.

In 1120 Abélard was persuaded to open a theological school at Maisoncelle, but it was not long before his Introduction to Theology raised suspicions of unorthodoxy. A provincial synod (1121) condemned his teaching, ordered the work to be burned and confined him in the Abbey of St Médard. On his release Abélard returned to St Denis and infuriated the community by denying the tradition that their monastery had been founded by Dionysius the Areopagite. He withdrew to the countryside near Nogent-sur-Seine and founded an oratory, where students flocked to him in thousands, and rebuilt the chapel in stone. This was the famous Paraclete, so named in gratitude for the comfort given by his friends. Driven from here by relentless enemies, Abélard spent ten years as superior of the monastery of St Gildas de Rhuys in Brittany, establishing Héloïse as head of a new convent at the now deserted Paraclete.

After leaving St Gildas, he wrote a number of works, including Historia Calamitatum, which drew from Héloïse three famous letters. His theological writings, however, were denounced by St Bernard of Clairvaux at the Council of Sens (1141). Abélard appealed to Rome; but the council condemned his works notwithstanding, and the Holy See confirmed its judgement. He set out to plead his cause before the pope in person. Sickness, however, obliged him to abandon his journey at Cluny, where he was received by the abbot, Peter the Venerable. When his suffering increased he was moved to the priory of St Marcel near Châlon-sur-Saône, where he died.

Héloïse lived until 1164, and was buried at Abelard's side. In philosophy Abélard is noted for his approach to the problem of universals. He was opposed to the realist view, that universals are things, but equally rejected the extreme nominalist position of his teacher, Roscelin, that universals are a mere 'breath of the voice'. His own view, sometimes called conceptualism, was that although universals are not things with a separate existence of their own, the abstractive powers of the mind can consider them separately.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com

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