ason to believe that he
himself had privately adopted the doctrines thus condemned.

[Sidenote: Peter Abelard among the insurgents.] But it is in Peter
Abelard that we find the representative of the insurgent spirit of those
times. The love of Heloisa seems in our eyes to be justified by his
extraordinary intellectual power. In his Oratory, "The Paraclete," the
doctrines of faith and the mysteries of religion were without any
restraint discussed. No subject was too profound or too sacred for his
contemplation. [Sidenote: St. Bernard attacks him.] By the powerful and
orthodox influence of St. Bernard, "a morigerous and mortified monk,"
the opinions of Abelard were brought under the rebuke of the
authorities. In vain he appealed from the Council of Sens to Rome; the
power of St. Bernard at Rome was paramount. "He makes void the whole
Christian faith by attempting to comprehend the nature of God through
human reason. He ascends up into Heaven; he goes down into hell. Nothing
can elude him, either in the height above or in the nethermost depths.
His branches spread over the whole earth. He boasts that he has
disciples in Rome itself, even in the College of Cardinals. He draws the
whole earth after him. It is time, therefore, to silence him by
apostolic authority." Such was the report of the Council of Sens to
Rome, A.D. 1140.

Perhaps it was not so much the public accusation that Abelard denied the
doctrine of the Trinity, as his assertion of the supremacy of
reason--which clearly betrayed his intention of breaking the thraldom of
authority--that insured his condemnation. It was impossible to restrict
the rising discussions within their proper sphere, or to keep them from
the perilous ground of ecclesiastical history. [Sidenote: The book "Sic
et Non."] Abelard in his work entitled "Sic et Non," sets forth the
contradictory opinions of the fathers, and exhibits their discord and
strifes on great doctrinal points, thereby insinuating how little of
unity there was in the Church. It was a work suggesting a great deal
more than it actually stated, and was inevitably calculated to draw down
upon its author the indignation of those whose interests it touched.

[Sidenote: Scholastic philosophy, rise of.] Out of the discussions
attending these events sprang the celebrated doctrines of Nominalism and
Realism, though the terms themselves seem not to have been introduced
till the end of the twelfth century. The Realists thought that