the centre of learned and learning Christendom, the idol of several thousand eager scholars.  Nor, finally, were these thousands the “horde of barbarians” that jealous Master Roscelin called them.  It has been estimated that a pope, nineteen cardinals, and more than fifty bishops and archbishops were at one time among his pupils.[7]

Abelard’s fame as a teacher, with the consequent increase of masters and students at Paris, undoubtedly paved the way for the formation of the University later in the century.  This is not however his greatest distinction in the history of education.  His most enduring influences came from (1) his independence in thinking, (2) his novel method of dealing with debatable questions, and (3) his contributions to scholastic philosophy and theology.  The first two of these are considered below; the last belongs more properly to the history of philosophy.

(1) Nothing singles Abelard out more clearly among the teachers of his time than his intellectual independence.  Most of his contemporaries accepted unquestioningly the view that in religious matters faith precedes reason.  One might seek to justify one’s faith by reason, but preliminary doubt as to what should be the specific articles of one’s faith was inadmissible.  As they supposed, these articles had been determined by the church fathers—­Augustine, Jerome, and others—­and by the Bible.  Their view had been formulated by Anselm of Canterbury in the preceding century: 

“I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may know.”  “The Christian ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not come to faith through knowledge.”  “The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of Christian faith before we presume to reason about them.”

With his keenly critical, questioning mind Abelard found a flaw in this position:  on many questions of faith the authorities themselves disagreed.  “In such cases,”—­he said in effect,—­“how shall I come to any definite belief unless I first reason it out?” “By doubting we are led to inquiry, and by inquiry we attain the truth.”  His attitude—­as contrasted with that of Anselm, given above—­is set forth in the prologue to his Sic et Non (Yes and No): 

In truth, constant or frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom; and it is, indeed, to the acquiring of this [habit of] questioning with absorbing eagerness that the famous philosopher, Aristotle, the most clear sighted of all, urges the studious when he says:  “It is perhaps difficult to speak confidently in matters of this sort unless they have often been investigated.  Indeed, to doubt in special cases will not be without advantage.”  For through doubting we come to inquiry and through inquiry we perceive the truth.  As the Truth Himself says:  “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”  And He also, instructing us by His own example, about the twelfth year of His