Theology formed the chief subject of instruction in most
medieval universities. Nearly all the celebrated scholars of the age were
theologians. They sought to arrange the doctrines of the Church in systematic
and reasonable form, in order to answer those great questions concerning the
nature of God and of the soul which have always occupied the human mind. For
this purpose it was necessary to call in the aid of philosophy. The union of
theology and philosophy produced what is known as scholasticism. [23]
[23] The method of the school (Latin schola).
ABELARD AND FREEDOM OF THOUGHT
The scholastics were loyal children of the Church and did
not presume to question her teaching in matters of religion. They held that
faith precedes reason. "The Christian," it was said, "ought to
advance to knowledge through faith, not come to faith through knowledge."
The brilliant Abelard, with his keenly critical mind, found what he considered
a flaw in this position: on many subjects the authorities themselves disagreed.
To show this he wrote a little book called Sic et Non ("Yes and
No"), setting forth the conflicting opinions of the Church Fathers on one
hundred and fifty-eight points of theology. In such cases how could truth be
reached unless one reasoned it out for oneself? "Constant
questioning," he declared, "is the key to wisdom.... Through doubting
we come to inquiry and through inquiry we perceive the truth." But this
reliance on the unaided human reason as a means of obtaining knowledge did not
meet with approval, and Abelard's views were condemned as unsound. Abelard,
indeed, was a man in advance of his age. Freedom of thought had to wait many
centuries before its rights should be acknowledged.
