596 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
The starting-point for this dialectical distinction may have been a passage in Porphyry's Isagoge, as transmitted by Boethius. Declining to enter into a discussion of the ques tion, Porphyry asks whether the universals are to be regarded as having distinct substantial existence apart from tangible things or whether they were only conceptions of the mind, having substantial existence only in tangible things.1 The distinction assumed practical importance when it was applied to such theological doctrines as the Trinity, the atonement, and original sin.
The theory of Realism was called in question in the eleventh century by Roscellinus, a contemporary of Anselm and the teacher of Abselard, who, as it would seem, advocated Nomi nalism.2 Our knowledge of his views is derived almost ex clusively from the statements of his two opponents, Anselm and Abselard. He was serving as canon of Compiegne in the diocese of Soissons, 1092, when he was obliged to recant his alleged tritheism, which he substituted for the doctrine of the Trinity.
The views of this theologian called forth Anselm's treatise on the Trinity, and Abielard despised him as a quack dialec tician.3 Anselm affirmed that Roscellinus' heretical views on the Trinity were the immediate product of his false philo sophical principle, the denial that universals have real exist ence. Roscellinus called the three persons of the Godhead three substances, as Scotus Erigena had done before. These persons were three distinct beings equal in power and will,
lrrhe passage from Porphyry runs — mox de generibus et speciebus illud quidem sive subsistant, sine in soils nudis intellectibus posita sint, sive subsistentia corporalia sint an incorporalia, et utrum separata a sensibilibus, an insensibilibus posita et circa hcec consistentia, dicere rec.usabo. Altissimum enim negotium est hujusmodi et majoris egens inquisitionis. See Gieseler, Ch. Hist., Germ, ed., III. 384.
2 Otto of Freising, de gest. Frid., I. 47, spoke of him as the originator of Nominalism in that age, qui primus nostris temporibus in logica sententiam vocum instituit. According to John of Salisbury, nominalism almost wholly vanished with Roscellinus, Metalog., II. 17.
3 Pseudo-Dialectic ns. Ep., 21. De Jide trin. 8. tres personoe sunt tres res sicuttres angeli auttres animw, ita tamen ut voluntas <'t potextas omnino sunt idem. Also Ep., II. 41,
§ 98. ANSELM OF CANTERBURY. 597
but each separate from the other and complete in himself, like three men or angels. These three could not be one God in the sense of being of the same essence, for then the Father and the Holy Spirit would have had to become incarnate as well as the Son.
Defending the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, Anselm proceeded on the basis of strict realism and declared that the three persons represented three relations and not three substances. Fountain, brook, and pond are three ; yet the same water is in each one and we could not say the brook is the fountain or the fountain is the pond. The water of the brook may be carried through a pipe, but in that case it would not be the fountain which was carried through, nor the pond. So in the same way, the Godhead became incar nate without involving the incarnation of the Father and Holy Spirit.
The decision of the synod of Soissons and Anselm's argument drove Nominalism from the field and it was not again publicly avowed till the fourteenth century when it was revived by the energetic and practical mind of Ockam, by Durandus and others. It was for a time fiercely combated by councils and King Louis XI., but was then adopted by many of the great teachers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
§ 98. Anselm of Canterbury.
LITERATURE : The Works of Anselm. First complete ed. by GERBERON, Paris, 1675, reprinted in Migne, vols. 158, 159. — Anselm's opuscula, trans. Chi cago, 1903, pp. 288. — Anselm's Devotions, trans, by Pusey, Oxf., 1856, London, 1872, and by C. C. J. Webb., London, 1903.— Trans, of Cur Deus homo in Anc. and Mod. Library, London. — The Life of Anselm by his secretary and devoted friend EADMER : de vita Anselmi and Historia novorum in Migne, and ed. by RULE in Rolls series, London, 1884. — JOHN OF SALISBURY'S Life, written to further Anselm's canonization by Alex ander III., Migne, 199 : 1009-1040, is based upon Eadmer. — WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY in Gesta Pontificum adds some materials. — Modern Lives, by * F. R. HASSE, 2 vols. Leip., 1843-1852, Abrdg. trans, by * W .TURNER, London, 1850. One of the best of hist, monographs. — *C. DE REMUSAT : Paris, 1853, last ed., 1868. — * DEAN R. W. CHURCH (d. 1890) : London, new ed., 1877 (good account of Anselm's career, but pays little attention to his philosophy and theology). — M. RULE: 2 vols. London, 1883,