SOURCE: Trout, John M. “Alan and the Social Orders.” In The Voyage of Prudence: The World View of Alan of Lille, pp. 151-69. Washington D. C.: University Press of America, 1979.

In the following essay, Trout examines Alan's writings and sermons in order to construct a picture of his views of social classes and professions.

Master Alan lived in a feudal society. He was a contemporary of Bertrand de Born, Chrétien de Troyes, and Richard the Lion Hearted. Knights visited his classroom for instruction in chivalry.¹ We know that Alan's thought was not entirely taken up with Platonic form. In his Liber poenitentialis, Summa de arte praedicatoria, and even the Anticlaudianus he commented on the life going on beyond the lecture hall and cloister. In the final chapter of our study of Alan we shall examine these observations, which will finally bring us back to the passage from...