middle ages who have been given the highest place in the literary history of France, was not a Frenchman. He was born[1] in Brittany, at Palais, or Le Pallet, in the neighbourhood of Nantes. Although the eldest son of a good house, he early abandoned his birthright to his brothers and resolved to make himself a name in learning. He became a pupil, discipulorum minimus, of Roscelin, the daring nominalist whose doctrine was condemned in its theological issues by the council of Soissons in 1092, but who appears to have submitted to the sentence and to have been allowed to hold a scholastic post at the church of Saint Mary of Loches in Touraine.[2] Roscelin, if we are to give credit to an old legend, soon excited a spirit
- ↑ For the biography my principal guide has been Abailard's own correspondence, though this has necessarily to be taken with reserve. Besides the contemporary literature, I have derived very great help from the biography of Charles de Rémusat, the first piece of genuine scholarly work ever devoted to Abailard. Still it should be observed that Bayle, in the article above referred to, has the credit of introducing order into the narrative of Abailard's life; in which respect Milman, for instance, History of Latin Christianity 4. 342-365, is not seldom far less trustworthy. From all the authorities – Cousin, Ritter, Hauréau, and Prantl should be added – I have ventured to differ seriously in my general estimate of Abailard's character. While preparing this and the following chapters for the press I have had the advantage of reading Dr. S. M. Deutsch's Peter Abälard, ein kritischer Theolog des zwölften Jahrhunderts; 1883.
- ↑ Dr. von Prantl identifies this ecclesia Locensis with Locmenach, now Locminé, near Vannes, in Brittany: Geschichte der Logik im Abendlande 2, 77 [78] n. 314.
well as in Otto of Freising (ed. Pertz) and John of Salisbury (in his Historia pontificalis), although the former alternates with Abaiolardus. Of the Paris manuscripts of the thirteenth century, edited by Cousin in the Ouvrages inédits d'Abélard, one gives Abailardus (intr. p. viii.), the other two Abaelardus (see the facsimile facing p. 4.34). Other rare forms need not be quoted, some of them are uncouth enough; but the fact that the initial a was frequently dropped (see an instance below, Appendix viii.) may be taken as evidence of where the accent lay. It was natural that the word should become softened in common use; and Abailardus and Abalaërdus were no doubt practically undistinguishable in pronunciation. I adopt the former, partly because it approaches nearest to the original (though it needs no apology even to the French, since it is accepted in Firmin-Didot's Nouvelle Biographie générale), partly because it avoids those associations with eighteenth-century sentimentalism which surround the name of Abélard and obscure the philosopher's true significance. The popularity of this last spelling seems to date from, its selection by Pierre Bayle in his Dictionnaire historique et critique, s. v.
