Pierre Abelard was a French philosopher. He was born in 1079, at Le Pallet and died in 1142. He founded scholastic theology.
As a young man Pierre Abelard made extraordinary progress with his studies, and, ultimately eclipsing his teachers, he opened a school of scholastic philosophy near Paris, which attracted crowds of students from the neighbouring city. His success in the fiery debates which were then the fashion in the schools made him many enemies, among whom was Guillaume de Champeaux, his former teacher, chief of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame, and the most advanced of the Realists. Abelard succeeded his adversary in this school in 1113, and under him were trained many men who afterwards rose to eminence, among them being the future Pope Celestin II., Peter Lombard, and Arnold of Brescia.
While he was at the height of his popularity, and in his fortieth year, he became infatuated with a passion for Heloise - then only eighteen years of age - niece of Fulbert, a canon of Paris. Obtaining a home in Fulbert's house under the pretext of teaching Heloise philosophy, their intercourse at length became apparent, and Abelard, who had retired to Brittany, was followed by Heloise, who there gave birth to a son. A private marriage took place, and Heloise returned to her uncle's house, but refusing to make public her marriage (as likely to spoil Abelard's career), she was subjected to severe treatment at the hands of her uncle. To save her from this Abelard carried her off and placed her in a convent at Argenteuil, a proceeding which so incensed Fulbert that he hired ruffians who broke into Abelard's chamber and subjected him to a shameful mutilation.
Abelard, filled with grief and shame, became a monk in the abbey of St Denis, and Heloise took the veil. When time had somewhat moderated his grief he resumed his lectures; but trouble after trouble overtook him. His theological writings were condemned by the Council of Soissons, and he retired to an oratory called the Paraclete, subsequently becoming head of the abbey of St. Gildas-de-Rhuys in Brittany.
For a short time he again lectured at Paris in 1136, but his doctrines again brought persecution on him, and St Bernard had him condemned by the council of Sens and afterwards by the pope. Abelard did not long survive this, dying at St. Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saone in 1142. Heloise, who had become abbess of the Paraclete, had him buried there, where she herself was afterwards laid by his side. Their ashes were removed to Paris in 1800, and in 1817 they were finally deposited beneath a mausoleum in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise.
Abelard is credited with the invention of a new philosophical system, midway between Realism and Nominalism. A complete edition of his works was published by Cousin in two volumes at Paris, 1849-59, and the letters of Abelard and Heloise have been often published in the original and in translations. Research Pierre Abelard
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