interpretation of the passage in dispute, by a comparison
of John of Salisbury’s different references to William of
Conches and Richard l’Évêque, and before I had entered
upon the examination of William’s own writings. It may
be doubted whether the common view which I combat
would ever have been suggested, far less accepted, had
the historians of medieval literature taken the trouble
to acquaint themselves personally with the books they
describe.
VIII. Note on Abailard’s Masters.
The manuscript of Saint Emmeram’s, Ratisbon (now at Munich), from which Fez printed Abailard’s Scito te ipsum and Rheinwald more recently the same writer s m Sententiae contains a notice of his biography which, it seems to me, is worthy of attention. The character of the works in the volume is such as to mark it as proceeding from the inner circle of Abailard s disciples ; for the Scito teipsum had the reputation at least of being peculiarly esoteric, in fact, like the Sic et non, of shunning the light.[1] The presumption therefore is that the biographical record which accompanies these pieces is based upon special sources of information. Unfortunately a part of it is so evidently apocryphal that it has discredited the remainder. It runs as follows :
Petrus, qui Abelardus, a plerisque Baiolardus, dicitur, natione Anglicus, primum grammaticae et dialecticae, hinc divinitati operani dedit. Sed cum esset inaestimandae subtilitatis, inauditae memoriae, capacitatis supra humanum modum, auditor aliquando magistri Roscii, coepit eum cum exfestucatione quadam sensuum illius audire. Attamen im-
- ↑ Sunt autcm, ut audio, adhuc alia eius opuscula quorum nomina sunt, Sic et non, Scito te ipsum, et alia quaedam, de quibus timeo ne, sicut monstruosi sunt nominis, sic etiam sint monstruosi dogmatis : sed, sicut dicunt, oderunt lucem nee etiam quaesita inveniuntur : Epist. Guill. de S. Theod. ad Gaufr. et Bern., (Bern. Opp. 1. 303 B, ep. cccxxvi. 4, ed. Ma billon). The Sententiae are coupled with the Scito te ipsum by Bernard, Ep. clxxxviii. 2, p, 181 E.
