Christian Cyclopedia

(1079–1142; Pierre Abélard). B. Le Pallet (Palais), near Nantes, Fr.; studied under Roscellinus,* William* of Champeaux, Anselm* of Laon; lectured at Melun, Corbeil, and Paris; m. Héloïse secretly; mutilated by her uncle's hirelings; contributed to flowering of scholasticism by using logical analysis to arrive at religious realities; emphasized exemplary love manifested in Christ's death. Works include Sic et non (in which he shows the fathers to be contradictory, ambiguous, or both, thus arousing a critical attitude); Logica ingredientibus; Theologia Christiana; Historia calamitatum. See also Bruys, Pierre de; Conceptualism; Dogmatics, B 2; France, 2; Gottfried, 2; Nominalism; Peter the Venerable; Philosophy; Scholasticism, 3; Tradition; Walter of St. Victor; Wilkens, Cornelius August; William of Saint-Thierry.

J. G. Sikes, Peter Abaelard (Cambridge, 1932); D. W. Robertson, Abelard and Heloise (New York, 1972); MPL, 178.