THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and the Aristotelian philosophy. He begins (book i.) with the doctrine of God and finds his dialectics applicable and sufficient to prove that God exists, that he can have had no beginning, and that there can not be more gods than one. When he comes to the Trinity, however, he quotes I John v. 7, as the ultimate proof; and all his fine-spun reasoning merely confirms the truth of an incidental remark at the beginning — that the dialectician accomplishes nothing, since he explains " the obscure by the obscure and that which is to be believed by the incredible." The omnipresence of God Robert illustrates by the soul in the body. God's relation to evil is not explained as purely permissive, and thus God is not the originator of evil in the world; to be able to do evil is not evil, but actually to do evil. Predestination is expounded in Augustinian fashion. The discussion of limits upon the divine omnipotence is characteristic of Robert's method. Abelard had asserted that God can do no more than he does and wills; others that everything is included in the omnipotence of God. Robert explains that what would be against reason and evil if it were done, God can not do, since if he could it would be impotence, the ability to do evil would eclipse the ability to do good. Nevertheless God could do much which he does not because he does not purpose it, although it could be done without injury to his goodness. Book ii. proceeds to the creation of the world, with many curious speculations. The doctrine of angels is expounded minutely, a subject to which Robert returns in the sixth book. Books iii. and iv. treat in the main of Christology. The succeeding books are much less systematic. Book v. takes up the resurrection, and then the treatment of the sacraments begins and lasts into the eighth book, with much discursive material. Like Alger of Liege Robert knows of five sacraments. The treatment of marriage and divorce (book vii.) is of much importance for the history of the canon law before Gratian. Book viii. opens with the Lord's Supper and closes with the last things. All elect heathen will be converted and all Jews by Enoch and Elias, and then Antichrist will come. For three and a half years he will rule and oppress the elect, will seduce many from the Roman Church, rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, will be worshiped by many as God, but finally will be killed by the archangel Michael on the Mount of Olives. Then the elect who have been misled by Antichrist will be given forty days for repentance. A great fire will break out and consume the world, burning till all believers are purified. The general resurrection will follow, at which all men will receive back all parts of the body, even the most minute. Finally the last trumpet will sound, the living will be caught up in the air, the judge will come, and the souls which still have need of purification will be cleansed by fire. Many fantastic ideas concerning the order in which the good and wicked will rise, the place of judgment, the separation of the pious from the godless, and the like, are interwoven, with curious and naive discussions. (Ferdinand Cohrs.)
Bibliography: The earlier reports are collected in MPL, clxxxvi. 633 sqq. Consult further: L. E. Dupin, Nouvelle bibliothique des auteurs ecclesiastiques, ix. 213 sqq.,
Paris, 1689-1711, abridged Eng. transl., 3 vols., Dublin, 1723-24; C. Oudin, Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, ii. 1118 sqq., Leipsic, 1732; B. Haureau, Hist, de la pldlosophie scolastique, i. 483 sqq., Paris, 1872; J. Bach, Die Dogmengeschichte des Mittelalters, ii. 216 sqq., Vienna, 1875; T. E. Holland, in The Historical Review, vi (1891), 238 sqq.; J. E. Erdmann, Geschichte der Philosophic i. 309 sqq., 4th ed., Berlin, 1896, Eng. transl. of earlier ed., 3 vols., London, 1893; DNB, xlvii. 19-20.
PULLMAN, JAMES MINTON: Universalist ; b. at Portland, Chautauqua County, N. Y., Aug. 21, 1836; d. at Lynn, Mass., Nov. 23, 1903. He graduated at St. Lawrence Divinity School, Canton, N. Y., 1860; was pastor at Troy, N. Y., 1861-68; of Sixth Universalist Church (Our Savior), New York, 1868-85; and at Lynn, Mass., 1885-1903. He was interested in various philanthropic movements, being a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Charities; of the National Civil Service League from its inception; director of the State Prison Association; counselor of the American Institute of Civics; and other bodies with similar aims.
PULPIT: The platform in a church from which the speaker addresses the audience. In primitive Christendom the preacher's position was regularly inside the railing (cancelli) which separated choir and nave, an arrangement still further emphasized in the metropolitan cathedral, where the bishop was the preacher. At the same time personal considerations, questions of room, and other influences came to lend their weight in ever greater degree to the reservation of the Ambo (q.v.), which had originally been set apart for the lections, for the homiletic discourse whether inside or outside the railing. A development thus took shape which found its expression in the pulpit, although not until centuries later; the German designation Kanzel still reechoes a more primitive connection with cancelli (" chancel," or crossbars).
The growing centralization of the entire worship upon the mass, and the more ceremonial decoration of the choir in consequence, no longer allowed place for the sermon in these hallowed precincts, quite apart from the fact that the decline of preaching in the first half of the medieval era took away all interest in the matter (see Preaching, History of). Not until after the sermon had again Developed attained some significance in public
from the worship, did the practical question of Ambo. the preacher's place in the sanctuary once more come urgently to the front. The historical connection of the same with the ambo, whether in the form of an isolated construction, or accessory to the rood-loft, was still an extant fact; and this was the starting point. The ambo, however, came to be more or less projected into the central nave, to face the congregation. None the less during this transition period and even much later, movable " preaching chairs " of wood continued in use in all Western Christendom. This device was promoted especially through the mendicant orders' habit of delivering sermons abroad in the public squares. Indeed, in the early Middle Ages these movable stands hardly went out of fashion. In Germany, as commonly in the North of Europe, the sermon's place adhered longer to the modified rood-loft that was fitted up for this purpose and for