628 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Among Abaelard's younger contemporaries and pupils were Gilbert of Poictiers, John of Salisbury, and Robert Pullen, theologians who were more or less influenced by Abselard's spirit of free inquiry. Peter the Lombard, d. 1164, also shows strong traces of Abaelard's teaching, especially in his Christology.1
Gilbert of Poictiers, 1070-1154, is better known by his public trial than by his writings, or any permanent con tributions to theology. Born at Poictiers, he studied under Bernard of Chartres, William of Champeaux, Anselm of Laon, and Abselard. He stood at the head of the cathe dral school in Chartres for ten years, and in 1137 began teaching in Paris. In 1142 he was made bishop of Poictiers. His two principal works are De sex principiis, an exposition of Aristotle's last six categories, which Aristotle himself left unexplained, and a commentary on the work on the Trinity, ascribed to Boethius. They occupy only a few pages in print.
Gilbert's work on the Trinity involved him in a trial for heresy, in which Bernard was again a leading actor.2 The case was brought before the synods of Paris, 1147, and Rheims, 1148. According to Otto of Freising, Gilbert was a man of earnest purpose. It was his dark and abstruse mode of statement and intense realism that exposed him to the accusation of unorthodoxy.
Some of Gilbert's pupils were ready to testify against him, but sufficient evidence of tritheism were not forthcoming at Paris and the pope, who presided, adjourned the case to Rheims. At Rheims, Bernard who had been appointed prosecutor of fended some of the cardinals by his methods of conducting the prosecution. Both Otto of Freising and John of Salisbury3
1 Denifle includes the Lombard in the theological school of Abselard. See his Abwlard's Sentenzen und d. Searbeitungen seiner Theologie, Archiv, 1885, pp. 613-624.
2 Neander-Deutsch, St. Bernard, II. 131. Poole, p. 181, calls Gilbert's ex position of the Trinity " one of the subtlest and most elaborate contributions to theological metaphysics the Middle Ages produced."
3 Hist, pontif., VIII. ; Migne, pp. 522 sqq. One of the accusers was Adam du Petit Pont, an Englishman, afterwards bishop of St. Asaph. He got
§ 101. YOUNGER CONTEMPORARIES OF AB^ELAKD. 629
state that a schism was threatened and only averted by the good sense of pope Eugenius.
To the pope's question whether Gilbert believed that the highest essence, by virtue of wrhich, as he asserted, each of the three persons of the Trinity was God, was itself God, Gilbert replied in the negative.1 Gilbert won the assem bly by his thorough acquaintance with the Fathers. The charge was declared unproven and Gilbert was en joined to correct the questionable statements in the light of the fourth proposition brought in by Bernard. The accused continued to administer his see till his death. Otto of Freising concludes his account by saying, that either Bernard was deceived as to the nature of Gilbert's teaching as David was deceived by Mephibosheth, 2 Sam. 9: 19 sqq., or that Gilbert covered up his real meaning by an adroit use of words to escape the judgment of the Church. With refer ence to his habit of confusing wisdom with words Walter of St. Victor called Gilbert one of the four labyrinths of France.
John of Salisbury, about 1115-1180, was the chief Literary figure and scholar among the Englishmen of the twelfth cen tury, and exhibits in his works the practical tendency of the later English philosophy.2 He was born at Salisbury and of plebeian origin. He spent ten or twelve years in "divers studies " on the Continent, sat at the feet of Abselard on Mt. Genevieve, 1136, and heard Gilbert of Poictiers, William of Conches, Robert Pullen, and other renowned teachers. A full account of the years spent in study is given in his Metalogicus. Returning to England, he stood in a confidential re lation to archbishop Theobald. At a later time he espoused Becket's cause and was present in the cathedral when the
his name from the school he set up on a little bridge connecting Paris with the Latin quarter. Schaarschmidt, p. 13.
1 Otto of Freising states the four detailed charges as follows: 1. divina essentia non est Deus. 2. proprieties personarum non sunt ipsae personce. 3. theolog. persona in nulla prcedicantur proposition*,. 4. divina natura non est incarnata. Gaufried, Migne, 185. 617, states the first three a little differently.
2 Stephens calls him "by far the most distinguished English scholar of his century." Hist, of the Engl. Ch., pp. 320 sqq.