1079–1142

Peter Abelard: 'Sic et Non' and His Condemnation

Abelard was born in Brittany in 1079. He made enemies by criticizing his teachers, the nominalist Roscelin and the realist William of Champeaux, and became a celebrated Paris teacher. After falling in love with his pupil Héloïse he was castrated on her uncle's orders and became a monk; he later recounted this in "The Story of My Calamities". In "Sic et Non" (1122) he assembled 158 contradictory authoritative opinions from the Bible and the Fathers, laying down the scholastic method.

Bernard of Clairvaux accused him of creating a "fifth gospel" and secured the condemnation of his work at the Council of Soissons (1121) and of Abelard himself at the Council of Sens (1140/1141). His appeal to Rome was rejected. Abelard died in 1142, reconciled with the church.