THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and concessions to the old, slowly and surely reason gained its position alongside of authority. Then, of a sudden, the silent development was precipitated by the wide-spread sensation caused by Berengar of Tours' (q.v.) impassioned criticism of the doctrine of the Eucharist, in which reason and dialectic alone were to be the arbiters of truth. The defense of authority itself employed such dialectic subtleties as the distinction between the permanent accidents of the bread and its temporary substance. The more and more flourishing school system of cathedral and cloister, the itinerant restlessness of scholars, the attraction of brilliant teachers— all combined speedily to disseminate scientific theology.
At this point two mighty spirits entered the current, creating two methods that governed scientific work for a long time to come. These 2. Anselm were Anselm of Canterbury and Abeand lard (qq.v.). Anselm's method is
Abelard. marked by the following points: (1) he was a realist, i.e., the champion of the reality of the universal; of species and genus, of concept and idea. These universals are objective realities, not merely a, flatus vocis, " blast of sound," or pure subjective images. Upon this hinged the battle throughout the Middle Ages. Upon its vindication depended the right and merit of speculation in theology; to inquire into the realities at the basis of church doctrine, and to create if necessary new formulas. Anselm's problems (2) arose from the consideration of the thing itself. They are of a practical, religious importance, and their solution aims at clear expression and forms intelligible to the times. Witness in Cur deus homo? the practical idea of God as the sovereign Lord and the work of Christ in forms derived from the sacrament of penance. The pious daring and religious tendency of Anselms intellectual work betray the spirit of Augustine. From him also (3) descended Anselm's voluntarism. God's sovereign will rules the world and the nature of will is freedom. Anselm, with his maxim Credo ut intelligam, also (4) starts out from belief in the traditional doctrines. But this is only in order to gain experientia of the matter described by the formulas. The existence of God, the Trinity, and the incarnation can be proved by " reason alone." Anselm means that the positive faith of the Church is for him who obtains inner experience of its content the rational truth. The significance of Anselm is that he regenerated the formulas of Augustine in the spirit and mode of thought of the latter. In sharp contrast is the thought of Abelard. Starting with the contradictions in tradition, he held (1) that the task of science is to reconcile them by dialectic (in his work, Sic et nan). He does not contemplate experience by himself of the truths of religion, but a rational formulation of the articles of belief. Thereby (2) he by no means aimed to shake the faith as handed down in the Athanasian formulas. He would only set limits to the belief in authority. That which was believed must be inwardly understood, and the truths of religion must be made probable and clear to reason. (3) The writings of the Fathers were to be read not " with the necessity of believing," but with " the liberty of judgment," or reason. (4) The canonical
authority of the Old and New Testament Scri ptures consists in their inherent superiority. Abelard, believing that the substance of church doctrine was in harmony with the Bible, did not mean to attack it. (5) On the question of the reality of the universal, he combated the realism of his teacher William of Champeaux (q.v.), yet seemed to have represented a moderate realistic position himself. His interest was preoccupied by the dialectical treatment of theology, and therefore abstracted from an intimate interest in realism. Pure nominalism, on the other hand, would have reduced his dialectic to a mere word-battle, and, being already disreputable, it was little adapted to his mediating tendency, which sought the harmony of " authority and reason." (6) Abelard proved his constructive talent by reforming the Augustinian division of theology from faith, love, and hope, to faith, sacrament, and love, in correspondence with the historical situation in the Church of his time.
The method of Anselm was the more tedious; no one without speculative endowments could employ it. Abelard's method seemed made to order for scholastic practise. It afforded the 3. Influence use of the reason when the time was of Anselm eager and ripe. It drove through the and Abelard land like a storm-burst. It introduced to the scholars a mass of information and a formal discipline of thought, but in the final result it was fruitless. In the preparation of his Sentences (c. 1150), Peter Lombard (q.v.), prudent in judgment, moderate in the application of reason, fortunate in the classification of his materials, at once orthodox and scientific, followed the method of Abelard. The foundation for dogmatics which he laid and Abelard's method became through this text-book the standard for all the Middle Ages, just as his commentary on the Pauline Epistles made its way as a standard " glossary." Strict traditionalism still prevailed and impassioned attacks were made on the new theology by Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St. Thierry, John of Salisbury, Walter of St. Victor, and the brothers Gerhoh and Arno of Reichersberg (qq.v.); yet men like Gerhoh, from a genuine religious interest, began to deal with the substance of doctrine itself. The spiritual independence at the root of the dialectic of Abelard stirred also in the older orthodoxy. Rupert of Deutz (q.v.) worked out his themes in dependence upon Scripture. Honorius of Autun (q.v.) followed the footsteps of Anselm, his master in thought and method, in Octo qucestiones and in Elucidarium, in which he treated Christian theology entire. More important are the two works of Hugo of St. Victor (q.v.), De sacramentis and Summa sentenliarum, in which he partly depended on Anselm, and made the sacraments his main topic. Although disavowing " reason " and " experience," yet professing to depend on Scripture, he betrays evidence of some thinking for himself. On the whole and individually, although strict orthodox development continued, the leaven of Anselm's spirit and Abelard's method worked into the orthodox continuity; thought was promulgated; and the Fathers, particularly Augustine, were read in a new light. The spiritual upheaval of which the liberation