622 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
are contradictory. The compiler does not offer a recon ciliation. The subjects on which the divergent opinions are collated range from the abstruse problem of the Trinity and the person of Christ to the questions whether Eve alone was seduced or Adam with her, whether Adam was buried on Calvary (the view taken by Ambrose and Jerome) or not (Isidore of Seville), and whether Adam was saved or not. His chief writing on Ethics was the Scito te ipsum, "Know thyself."
In some of his theological conceptions Abaelard was in advance of his age. The new seeds of thought which he let fall have germinated in recent times. His writings show that, in the twelfth century also, the critical sense had a rep resentative.
1. In the conflict over Realism and Nominalism Abselard occupied an intermediate position. On the one hand he ridi culed the nominalism of Roscellinus, and on the other he controverted the severe realism of William of Champeaux. He taught that the universal is more than a word, vox. It is an affirmation, sermo.1 That which our thinking finds to be common, he declared to be real, and the forms of things existed in the divine mind before the creation.
2. Of much more interest are AbaelarcTs views of the ultimate seat of religious authority and of inspiration. Although his statements at times seem to be contradictory, the conclusion is justified that he was an advocate of a cer tain freedom of criticism and inquiry, even though its results contradicted the authority of the Church. He recognized the principle of inspiration, but by this he did not mean what Gregory the Great taught, that the biblical authors were altogether passive. They exercised a measure of independence, and they were kept from all mistakes.
1 The French writers designate Abaelard's theory Conceptualism, and hold that he substituted conceptus for voces. Deutsch, p. 105. Walter Map, writing in the second half of the twelfth century, speaks of Abaelard as 4 'the leader of the Nominalists, princeps nominalism^ who sinned more in dialectics than he did in his treatment of Scripture." Wright's ed., I. 24, p. 41.
§ 100. AB^ELARD'S TEACHINGS AND THEOLOGY. 623
The rule upon which he treated the Fathers and the Scriptures is set forth in the Prologue of the Sic et Non.1 In presenting the contradictory opinions of the Fathers he shows his intellectual freedom, for the accredited belief was that their statements were invariably consistent. Abselard pronounced this a mistake. Did not Augustine retract some of his statements ? Their mistakes, however, and the sup posed mistakes of the Scriptures may be only imaginary, due to our failure to understand what they say. Paul, in say ing that Melchisedek has neither father nor mother, only meant that the names of his parents were not given in the Old Testament. The appearance of Samuel to Saul at the interview with the witch of Endor was only a fancy, not a reality. Prophets did not always speak with the Spirit of God, and Peter made mistakes. Why should not the Fathers also have made mistakes ? The authority of Scripture and the Fathers does not preclude critical investigation. On the contrary, the critical spirit is the proper spirit in which to approach them. " In the spirit of doubt we approach in quiry, and by inquiry we find out the truth, as He, who was the Truth said, c Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' "2
The mystical and the philosophical elements, united in Anselm, were separated in Abselard. But Abselard fol lowed the philosophical principle further than Anselm. He was a born critic, restless of mind, and anxious to make an innovation. In him the inquisitive temper was in the ascendant over the fiducial. Some writers even treat him as the forerunner of modern rationalism. In appearance, at least, he started from a principle the opposite of Anselnrs, namely, " nothing is to be believed, until it has been underderstood." 3 His definition of faith as a presumption of
1 See also Introd. ad TheoL, Migne, 178. 980.
2 Dubitando ad inquisitionem venimus, inquirendo veritatem percipimus. Sic et Non, Migne, p. 1349. Deutsch, pp. 159 sq., speaks of this spirit of free inquiry, Die Freiheit der Forschung, as the note running through all Abaelard's writings.
3 Hist. Calam., Migne, 178. 142, Nee credi posse aliquid nisi primitus intellectus, etc.