Authors of the Middle Ages, Volume II, Nos 5–6

Historical and Religious Writers of the Latin West

Constant J. Mews, Patrick J. Geary

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780860784883
• eBook ISBN: 9781351956475
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Volume II of the AUTHORS OF THE MIDDLE AGES series contains nos. 5-6 in the series: 'Peter Abelard' by Constant J. Mews and 'Honorius Augustodunensis' by V.I.J. Flint. PETER ABELARD (1079-1142) was one of the most creative and controversial thinkers of the 12th century. This study traces his life as a logician and theologian, paying particular attention to the many scholarly debates provoked by the Historia calamitatum and the celebrated exchange of letters with Heloise. It contains a full survey of his writings, listing the manuscripts in which they occur. HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS, c. 1098-c. 1140, one of the most prolific and widely read authors of the early 12th century, was a passionate proselytiser on behalf of the Benedictines. This study sets out the extraordinary features of his career and the nature of the battle he fought through his writings. Few of his works have appeared in modern editions, this study gives short accounts of each and their manuscripts.

Peter Abelard

AUTHORS OF THE MIDDLE AGES · 5

Historical and Religious Writers of the Latin West

Peter Abelard

Constant J. Mews

AUTHORS OF THE MIDDLE AGES · 5

Historical and Religious Writers of the Latin West: General Editor, Patrick J. Geary

Copyright © 1995 by Constant J. Mews

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

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First published in Authors of the Middle Ages Volume II, Nos. 5–6 (Historical and Religious Writers of the Latin West), ed. Patrick J. Geary. Copyright © 1995 by Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-86078-488-6 ISSN 1353–7202

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Printed and bound in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear

CONTENTS

PETER ABELARD

1. The life of Peter Abelard

2. The writings of Peter Abelard

3. The influence of Peter Abelard

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Sources relating to Peter Abelard

Appendix II: Writings of Peter Abelard

1. The letters of Abelard and Heloise

2. Writings on logic

3. Writings on theology

4. Two philosophical dialogues

5.1 Writings on scripture and ethics

5.2 Summaries of the theology, exegesis and ethics of Abelard

6. Poetic and musical compositions

7. Love poems and letters of Abelard and Heloise?

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING

1.1 Abelard in his context

1.2 The Historia calamitatum

1.3 Abelard’s later career and the controversy with St Bernard

2.1 The letters of Abelard and Heloise and the ‘authenticity’ debate

2.2 Writings on logic

2.3 Writings on theology

2.4 The Collationes

2.5 Writings on scripture and ethics, and summaries of his teaching

2.6 Poetic and musical compositions

3. The influence of Abelard

ABBREVIATIONS

AHDLMA	Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge
BGPTMA	Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie [und der Theologie] des Mittelalters
BM	Bibliothèque Municipale
BN	Bibliothèque Nationale
Bouquet	Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, 24 vols (Paris 1738–1904)
CCCM	Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaeualis
Checklist	Barrow, J., C.S.F. Burnett, D.E. Luscombe, ‘A Checklist of the manuscripts containing the writings of Peter Abelard and Heloise and Other Works Closely Associated with Abelard and his School’, Revue d’histoire des textes 14–15 (1984–85), 183–302.
Clm	Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Codex latinus monacensis
Cousin	Cousin, V., Petri Abaelardi Opera 2 vols (Paris 1849, 1859)
CSS	Cistercian Studies Series
DSB	Deutsche Staatsbibliothek
Duchesne	A. Duchesne (Quercetanus), Petri Abaelardi Sancti Gildasii in Britannia Abbatis, et Heloise Coniugis eius... Opera... (Paris 1616); also printed as F. d’Amboise (Amboesius) Petri Abaelardi Filosofi et Theologia... et Heloisae Coniugis eius... Opera... (Paris 1616)
HC	Abélard. Historia calamitatum, ed. Jacques Monfrin (Paris 1959, 1974^4)
LI	Logica ‘Ingredientibus’, ed. B. Geyer, Peter Abaelards Philosophische Schriften, BGPTMA 21.1–3 (1919–27)
LNp	Logica ‘Nostrorum petitioni sociorum’, ed. B. Geyer, Peter Abaelards Philosophische Schriften, BGPTMA 21.4 (1973^2)
MGH.SS	Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores
ÖNB	Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
PA Louvain	Peter Abelard: Proceedings of the International Conference, Louvain May 10–12, 1971, ed. E.M. Buytaert, Mediaevalia Lovaniensia Series I, Studia ii (Louvain, The Hague 1974)
PA–PV	Pierre Abélard—Pierre le Vénérable. Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en occident au milieu du XII^e siède. Abbaye de Cluny 2 au 9 juillet 1972, ed. J. Jolivet and R. Louis, Colloques internationaux du CNRS (Paris 1975)
PA Trier	Petrus Abaelardus (1079–1142): Person, Werk und Wirkung, ed. R. Thomas, Trierer Theologische Studien Bd 38 (Trier 1980)
PA Paris	Abélard en son temps. Actes du colloque international organisé à l’occasion du 9^e centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Abélard (14–19 mai 1979), ed. J. Jolivet (Paris 1981) PL J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Latina
RTAM	Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale
SBO	Sancti Bernardi Opera, ed. J. Leclercq 8 vols (Rome 1957–77)
Tchr	Theologia christiana, ed. E.M. Buytaert, CCCM 12 (Turnhose 1969)
tsch/TSch	Theologia ‘Scholarium’, ed. E.M. Buytaert and C.J. Mews, CCCM 13 (Turnhout 1987) [tsch: recensiones breuiores; TSch: recensiones longiores]
TSum	Theologia ‘Summi boni’, ed. E.M. Buytaert and C.J. Mews, CCCM 13 (Turnhout 1987)

PETER ABELARD

1 The Life of Peter Abelard

1.1 Abelard in his context (1079–1117)

Peter Abelard was born c. 1079 at Le Pallet, near Nantes, to a Poitevin father, Berengar, and a Breton mother, Lucia.¹ At a time of friction between Breton and French speaking factions around the ducal court at Nantes, Abelard was sent by his father to the Loire valley for his education.² Roscelin of Compiègne (d. 1120/25) supplies some detail about these early years within a long letter to Abelard c. 1118–20 rebuking him for being ‘forgetful of the many and great benefits which I have showered on you, from being a boy to being a young man in the name and activity of being a teacher’.³ Roscelin also comments: ‘Neither the Church of Tours nor of Loches, where you sat for so long at my feet as the least of the disciples of your teacher, nor the Church of Besançon, in which I am a canon, are outside the world, which all revere and honour me, and I say, accept me willingly with a desire to learn’.⁴ From this, we may deduce that it was at Loches, a palace of the Counts of Anjou, that Abelard decided, under Roscelin’s influence, ‘to turn away from the court of Mars to the cradle of Minerva’; in other words to renounce the family estate due to him as the eldest son and pursue his studies as a cleric.⁵ Roscelin must have come to Loches around 1093, after being accused of heresy at a council at Soissons and having spent a short time in England (c. 1090–92). This visit had provoked Anselm (1033–1108), newly appointed as archbishop of Canterbury, to re-issue his refutation of Roscelin’s theological opinions, the De incarnatione Verbi, bemoaning the influence of ‘heretics of dialectic’ of his ilk, who taught that subject by focusing on voces, words, rather than enduring truths.⁶

Abelard’s failure to mention Roscelin in the Historia calamitatum conceals an important intellectual debt to the teacher who exerted such an influence on him in his youth. In that narrative, Abelard created an image of himself as a self-educated, lone hero, unjustly criticized by hostile rivals.⁷ His phrase ‘wandering through different provinces disputing wherever the art of dialectic flourished, I imitated the peripatetics’ has often been taken to refer to travels before he came to Paris. However, as he had spent a long tutelage under Roscelin, he may have gone directly from Loches to Paris c. 1100. The statement about ‘wandering through different provinces’, a formula of chivalric literature, may refer...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Publisher’S Note
• Peter Abelard
• Honorius Augustodunensis of Regensburg