608 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
and loves thee."1 Or again, when he exclaims in his tenth meditation, " O benign Jesus, condescending Lord, holy Mas ter, sweet in mouth, sweet in heart, sweet in ear, inscrutably, unutterably gentle, self-sacrificing, merciful, wise, mighty, most sweet and lovely " — valde dulcis et suavis. The soar ing grandeur of Anselm's thoughts may be likened to the mountains of the land of his birth, and the pure abundance of his spiritual feeling to the brooks and meadows of its valleys. He quotes again and again from Scripture, and its language constitutes the chief vehicle of his thoughts.
In the first meditation, Anselm makes the famous compari son of human life to the passage over a slender bridge, spanning a deep, dark abyss whose bed is full of all kinds of foul and ghastly things.2 The bridge is a single foot in width. What anguish would not take hold of one obliged to cross over it, with eyes bandaged and arms tied, so as not to be able even to use a staff to feel one's way ! And how greatly would not the anguish be increased, if great birds were flying in the air, intent on swooping down and defeating the purpose of the traveller ! And how much more anguish would be added if at every step a tile should fall away from behind him ! The ravine is hell, measureless in its depth, horribly dark with black, dismal vapors ! 3 And the perilous bridge is the present life. Whosoever lives ill falls into the abyss. The tiles are the single days of a man's existence here below. The birds are malign spirits. We, the trav ellers, are blinded with ignorance and bound with the iron difficulty of doing well. Shall we not turn our eyes unto the Lord " who is our light and our salvation, of whom shall we be afraid"? Ps. 27. 1.
The Prayers are addressed to the Son and Spirit as well as to the Father. To these are added petitions to the Vir-
1 Jesu bone, quam dulcis es in corde cogitantis de te et diligentis te, Migne, 158. 770.
2 Rule, 1. 48, describes from personal observation the ancient and dizzy bridge, le Pont de T Ael, over a torrent near Aosta, which, as he says, Anselm in making his description may have had in mind.
3 Sine mensura profundum, et tenebrosa caligine horribiliter obscurum, Migne, 158. 719.
§ 99. PETER AB^ELARD. 609
gin, on whom Anselm bestows the most fulsome titles, and to the saints. In this Anselm was fully the child of his age. These devotional exercises, the liturgy of Anselm's soul, are a storehouse of pious thought to which due appreciation has not been accorded. The mystical element gives him a higher place than his theological treatises, elevated and important as they are.1
§ 99. Peter Abcelard.
LITERATURE : Works of ABCELARD: ed. first by DUCHESNE, Paris, 1616. — COUSIN: Ouvragesinedites d'Abelard, Paris, 1836, containing the Dialectica and SicetNon; also the Operaomnia,^ vols. Paris, 1849-1859. Reprod. in Migne, vol. 178. — R. STOLZLE : De imitate et trinitate divina, first ed., Freib. iin Br., 1891.— Ed. of his Letters by R. RAWLINSON, Lond., 1718.— Engl. trans, of Letters of Abcelard and Heloise, in Temple Classics.
BIOGRAPHICAL : Abselard's Autobiography : Hist, calamitatum, in Migne, 178. 113-180. — BERENGAR: Apologeticus contra Bcrnardum, etc., in Migne, 178. 1856-1870. — Bernard's letters as quoted below. — OTTO OF FREISING : De Gestis Frid., 47 sqq. — JOHN OF SALISBURY: Metalog. and Hist. Pon'cficalis. — Modern Lives by A. F. GERVAISE, Paris, 1728 ; COUSIN, in the Ouvrages, 1836; WILKINS, Gottingen, 1855; CH. DE REMUSAT, Paris, 1845, 2 vols., new ed., 1855 ; 0. 1. DE ROCHELY (Abel, et le rationalisnie moderne}, Paris, 1867; BONNIER (Abel, et S. Bernard}, Paris, 1862 ; VACANDARD (P. Abel, et sa lutte avec S. Bernard), Paris, 1881 ; *S. M. DEUTSCH (P. AbceL, ein kritischer Theologe des 12ten Jahrh., the best exposition of Abselard's system, Leip., 1883; A. HAUSRATH, Leip., 1893; JOSEPH McCABE, London, 1901. — E. KAISER : P. Abel. Critique, Freib., 1901. — The story of Abselard and Heloise has been specially told by MAD. GUIZOT, 2 vols., Paris, 1839; JACOBI, Berl., 1850; WRIGHT, New York, 1853 ; KAHNIS, Leip. , 1865, etc. — COMPAYRE, Abel and the Orig. and Early His. of Universities. — R. L. POOLE : P. Abailard in Illustra tions of Med. Thought, Lond., 1884, pp. 136-167.— STOCKL : Phil, des Mittelalters, I. 218-272. — DENIFLE : D. Sentenzen d. Abael. und die Bearbeitungen seiner Theologie vor Mitte des 12ten Jahrh. in Archiv fur Lit. und Kirchengesch., etc., 1885, pp. 402-470, 584-624 ; HEFELE, Coun cils, V. 451-488. — The Histories of Philos. of UEBERWEG-HEINZE and RITTER. — The Lives of St. Bernard by NEANDER, I. 207-297; II. 1-44 ; MORISON, 254-322 ; VACANDARD, II. 120-181. — The Histories of Doctrine of SCHWANE, HARNACK, LOOFS, FISHER, SEEBERG, SHELDON.
1 The later Schoolmen did not lean back upon Anselm's theology as we might have expected them to do. He was, however, often quoted, as by Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus, e.g., Summa, I. 3, 13, etc., Borgnet's ed., XXXI. 60, 69, 326.
2R