This is the second of the three volumes comprising
Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe. Focusing on the period from c. 1090 to 1212, the volume explores the lives, resources and contributions of a wide sample of scholars and others who either took part in the creation of the scholastic system of thought or gave practical effect to it in public life.
At the beginning of the twelfth century a group of scholars, mostly centred on Paris and Bologna began an enterprise of unprecedented scope. Their intention was to produce a once-and-for-all body of knowledge that would be as perfect as humanity’s fallen state permits, and which would provide a view of God, nature, and human conduct, promoting order in this world and blessedness in the next. Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe reconsiders this enterprise, and its long-term effects on European history.
The first of the three volumes examines the origins of the intellectual enterprise from around 1060 AD. This second volume focuses on the period during which scholars developed the fully-fledged method of absorbing, elaborating, Christianizing and systematizing the whole intellectual deposit of the Greco-Roman past to produce a complete body of doctrine about both the natural and supernatural worlds which would be not only rationally unassailable and doctrinally coherent, but also capable of being given practical application in organizing and governing the whole of western Christendom.
The book discusses the contributions of individual masters involved in the intellectual project, tracing the progress of the enterprise from its scholastic origins under Anselm of Laon, to the main masters in the schools of Paris during the 1090s to c. 1160, including men such as Peter Lombard, Peter Abelard, John of Salisbury and the two Peters of Blois. These scholars created a crucial bond between the schools and organized life of European society. The men educated in the great schools during this time brought their scholastic learning to governmental aims and activities, extending the influence of the schools and their intellectual project to the wider world.
Elegantly written, enlivened with wit and vivid anecdote, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe will be a work of seminal importance for the understanding of the civilization of the Middle Ages, and of the evolution of modern European societies.
Preface.
Abbreviations and short titles.
PART THREE – THE STRUGGLES OF SCHOLARS IN THE SCHOOLS.
Introduction.
1 Rupert of Deutz: A Voice of the Past.
I The Two Worlds in Western Europe.
II Rupert’s Life, Work, and World.
III Rupert’s Conflicts with the Schools.
IV The Final Grandeur of Events.
V Ceremonies and Symbols versus Definitions and System.
2 Master Anselm of Laon: The Master of Future Masters.
I The Grounds of His Scholastic Fame.
II The Master, the City, and the School.
III The Development of His Teaching.
IV Master Anselm’s Contribution to the Study of the Bible: The Origin of the Glossa Ordinaria.
V The Completion of the Glossa by Master Anselm’s Successors.
3 Master Anselm and the Origins of Systematic Theology.
I The Scholastic Routine: From Glosses to sententiae.
II A Student’s Collection of sententiae.
III Master Anselm’s Questions and Answers.
IV The Bridge Between the Monastic Past. and the Scholastic Future.
V Summing Up.
4 Stumbling Towards System, c. 1100–1160.
I From sentences to System.
II Early Collections of sententiae.
III The Years Between 1130 and 1160.
5 Hugh of St. Victor: A Systematic Genius Before His Time.
I His Origin and Scholarly Beginnings.
II Towards a Systematic World-View.
III Master Hugh in His Classroom.
IV Hugh’s Projected Lectures on God in Human History.
V Hugh’s Ambiguous Position in Scholastic Development.
6 Scholars at the Frontiers of Knowledge: William of Conches and Thierry of Chartres.
I William of Conches.
II Thierry of Chartres.
III Conclusion.
7 Abelard at the Frontier of Logic and Theology.
I Introduction.
II Abelard’s New Beginning.
III Logic and the Holy Trinity.
IV An Unexpected Source of Opposition (Walter of Mortagne).
V The Enlargement of Theology.
8 The Decisive Battles of the 1140s.
I The Road to Conflict.
II The First. Battle: St. Bernard and Abelard.
III The Background to the First. Battle: William of St. Thierry and St. Bernard.
IV The Second Battle: St. Bernard and Gilbert De La Porrée.
V The Significance of 1148.
9 Peter Lombard: the Great Achiever.
I Introduction.
II The Continuing Problem of Organization.
III Peter Lombard Comes to Paris.
IV Peter Lombard’s Patron: Odo (Or Otto), Bishop of Lucca.
V Peter Lombard’s Career and Work in Paris, c. 1138-1160.
VI A Comparison Between His Work and That of Bishop Odo of Lucca.
VII Summing-Up.
PART FOUR – THE STRUGGLE OF THE SCHOLARS IN THE WORLD.
Introduction.
10 Master Vacarius: A Roman Lawyer in English Government, c. 1145 to c. 1200.
I The Legend and the Reality.
II Why, and When, Did Archbishop Theobald Bring Vacarius to England?
III The Liber pauperum.
IV Vacarius in the Archiepiscopal Province of York.
V Vacarius’ Later Writings.
11 John of Salisbury: A Scholar at Large in Government.
I The End of His School-Years.
II His Transference to the World of Government.
12 The Two Peters of Blois in the Schools and in Government.
I Introduction.
II Their Relationship and Personalities.
III The Two Peters of Blois in the Schools, c. 1140–1165.
IV The Younger Peter’s Search for Employment, 1165–1174.
V Stability then Uncertainty for the Younger Peter.
VI Peter and the Third Crusade.
VII Peter in the Service of Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1184–1190.
VIII Peter and the Call for a Crusade.
IX Peter Writes a Last Letter to His Namesake.
X The Two Peters of Blois as Poets.
XI The Letters and the World of Peter’s Old Age.
XII Epilogue: The Letter-Collection Marches On.
Index.