One is tempted at times to speculate on the probable development of Abélard’s thoughts if that great shadow had not fallen on his life at so early a period. There are two Abélards. The older theologian, who is ever watchful to arrest his thoughts when they approach clear, fundamental dogmas, is not the natural development of the freethinking author of the _Sic et Non_. With the conversion to the ascetic ideal had come a greater awe in approaching truths which were implicitly accepted as divine. Yet we may well doubt if Abélard would ever have advanced much beyond his actual limits. Starting from the world of ideas in which he lived, he would have needed an exceptional strength to proceed to any very defiant and revolutionary conclusions. He was not of the stuff of martyrs, of Scotus Erigena, or Arnold of Brescia. He had no particle of the political ability of Luther. But such as he is, gifted with a penetrating mind, and led by a humanist ideal that touched few of his contemporaries, pathetically irresolute and failing because the fates had made him the hero of a great drama and ironically denied him the hero’s strength, he deserves at least to be drawn forth from the too deep shadow of a crude and unsympathetic tradition.
Adam, Abbot of St. Denis, 126, 129, 134, 154, 168, 170, 174, 175.
Alberic of Rheims, 62, 137, 150, 153, 154, 156, 157, 159, 167, 189, 195.
Antagonism of Abélard and St. Bernard, 260, 261, 277, 330.
Argenteuil, nunnery of, 100, 105, 115, 207.
Arnold of Brescia, 199, 254, 270, 276, 283, 291, 296, 307, 310, 316.
Astrolabe, son of Abélard, 114, 218, 323, 327.
—— pupil of Abélard, 132, 255, 283, 288-90, 310.
—— of Clairvaux, St., 16, 30, 37, 49, 51, 53, 62, 73, 126, 151, 176, 189, 190, 193, 195-96, 214, 257, 259-78, 281, 283-310, 314-18, 320.
Bible, Abélard’s opinion concerning, 335.
Calumniation of Abélard, 85, 116, 292-305.
Cambridge, founding of University of, 199.
_Commentary on Epistle to the Romans_, Abélard’s, 256, 336.
Confession, Abélard’s opinion concerning, 280, 316.
—— —— Augustine, and Rousseau compared, 222.
Conon, Bishop of Praeneste, 150, 152-60, 167.
Corruption of monasteries, 93, 125, 203, 216.
Cotter Morison on Abélard, 85, 101, 109, 116, 193, 267.
