Peter Abelard was the teacher of his generation: preeminent as a philosopher, theologian, poet, and musician, he captured the imagination of almost all with whom he came into contact. His fame as a teacher was unequaled; students traveled from all over Europe to hear him speak, crowds of ordinary people attended his public lectures wherever he went, and it has been said that he was indirectly responsible for the founding of the University of Paris by creating a permanent "deposit" of students in the city. As a philosopher, he brought the investigation of the "old logic" (logica vetus) to its heights; as a theologian, he championed the use of reason and intellect in the investigation of matters of faith, putting the word theology into use with the meaning it still has today. In philosophy and theology, Abelard's constant and unremitting use of the tools of logic or "dialectic...