Peter Abelard

Lore & Background

Abelard, originally called "Pierre le Pallet", was born c. 1079 in Le Pallet, about 10 miles east of Nantes, in Brittany, the eldest son of a minor noble French family. His father, a knight called Berenger, encouraged his son to study the liberal arts, wherein he excelled at the art of dialectic. Instead of entering a military career, Abelard became an academic. During his early academic pursuits, he wandered throughout France, debating and learning, so as (in his own words) "he became such a one as the Peripatetics." He first studied in the Loire area, where the nominalist Roscellinus of Compiègne was his teacher. Around 1100, his travels brought him to Paris. In the great cathedral school of Notre-Dame de Paris, he studied under Paris archdeacon and Notre Dame master William of Champeaux, a leading proponent of philosophical realism. Abelard portrays William as having turned from approval to hostility when Abelard proved soon able to defeat his master in argument, resulting in a long duel that ended in the downfall of the theory of realism, replaced by Abelard's theory of conceptualism/nominalism. Against opposition, Abelard set up his own school, first at Melun, then around 1102–4 moved to Corbeil. His teaching was notably successful, but the stress led to a nervous breakdown and a trip home to Brittany for several years of recovery. After 1108, he returned and once again challenged William over his theory of universals, and was almost able to attain the position of master at Notre Dame. He was forced to resume his school at Melun, then from c. 1110-12 moved it to Paris itself on the heights of Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. From his success in dialectic, he turned to theology and in 1113 moved to Laon to attend the lectures of Anselm of Laon. Unimpressed, Abelard began to offer his own lectures on the book of Ezekiel, but Anselm forbade him to continue. Abelard returned to Paris where, around 1115, he became master of the cathedral school of Notre Dame and a canon of Sens.

Reader's Guide

Abelard's significance spans philosophy, theology, and literature. In philosophy, he is celebrated for his logical solution to the problem of universals via nominalism and conceptualism and his pioneering of intent in ethics. Often referred to as the "Descartes of the twelfth century", he is considered a forerunner of Rousseau, Kant, and Spinoza, and is sometimes credited as a chief forerunner of modern empiricism. In Catholic theology, he is best known for his development of the concept of limbo and his introduction of the moral influence theory of atonement. He is considered (alongside Augustine) to be the most significant forerunner of the modern self-reflective autobiographer, paving the way for later epistolary novels and celebrity tell-alls with his publicly distributed letter, The History of My Calamities, and public correspondence. In history and popular culture he is best known for his love affair and philosophical exchange with his student and eventual wife, Héloïse d'Argenteuil. His life was marked by controversy: after publishing his theological lectures (the Theologia Summi Boni), two pupils of Anselm of Laon instigated proceedings, and at a provincial synod held at Soissons in 1121, Abelard was made to burn the Theologia himself and was sentenced to perpetual confinement, though this was revoked almost immediately. Later, at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, he cited Bede to prove that the believed founder, Dionysius the Areopagite, had been Bishop of Corinth, leading to persecution. He was allowed to leave and built a cabin near Nogent-sur-Seine, where students flocked and he taught again. He accepted an invitation to preside over the Abbey of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys, but the region was inhospitable and his relations with the community deteriorated. He later returned to Paris and resumed teaching on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, where John of Salisbury heard him lecture on dialectic in 1136.

Did You Know?

• Abelard, originally called 'Pierre le Pallet', was born c. 1079 in Le Pallet, about 10 miles east of Nantes, in Brittany.
• He is sometimes credited as a chief forerunner of modern empiricism.
• At the Synod of Soissons in 1121, Abelard was made to burn his own Theologia Summi Boni.
• He built a cabin of stubble and reeds near Nogent-sur-Seine and became a hermit, but students flocked from Paris and covered the wilderness with their tents and huts.
• John of Salisbury heard Abelard lecture on dialectic in 1136.