Peripateticus Palatinus (5)
His duty performed, Abelard returned to France, with the special purpose,
as he tells us, of studying theology. We do not know what brought about
this change of direction in Abelard's intellectual life. It may be merely
coincidental that it followed on immediately from his spending time with his
mother, who had undergone at least a form of religious conversion. It may
be worth mentioning that unlike St Anselm or St Thomas Aquinas, Abelard so
far as we can tell enjoyed a good relationship with his parents and family.
He tells us, 'My father had acquired some knowledge of letters before he was
a soldier, and later on his passion for learning was such that he intended
all his sons to have instruction in letters before they were trained to
arms. His purpose was fulfilled. I was his first-born, and being specially
dear to him had the greatest care taken over my education.'
Abelard's decision to be a scholar rather than a soldier is thus presented
not as a rebellion against his father's manner of life, but rather as a
following in the footsteps of his role-model. It may be that Abelard was in
a curious way able to combine the two strings of his father's bow, the
military and the scholarly. It should be pointed out that Benengar was a
most unusual man. People were either knights or scholars, but not both.
Knights were usually good at knocking other knights off horses, but not
gifted with intellectual eminence, or scholarship sublime. Clerks, on the
other hand, did not commonly engage in warfare.
As we have seen, Abelard wandered about from school to school seeking
instruction wherever it was to be found, and ascribed this to his desire to
be a peripatetic philosopher. But Aristotle derived his nickname from his
habit of walking up and down as he taught, not from moving from place to
place. A philosopher does not usually move from place to place. A knight
errant moves from place to place, from tournament to tournament, shattering
lances with all who dare to oppose him. Abelard set about his scholarship
in this spirit. His attitude to his teachers was combative; his element
was the disputation, the debate.
* * * * *
The Supple Doctor.
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