It seems, however, a superfluous task to point out the acceptance of Abélard’s spirit, method, and results by theology in general. The more interesting and important question is the acceptance of his ideas by the Church of Rome. That we have abundantly established, and we may now proceed to inquire whether, and to what extent, Abélard had a direct influence in the abandonment of the mystic attitude and the adoption of one which may be fairly entitled ‘rationalistic.’
Here we have a much more difficult problem to deal with. It may at once be frankly avowed that there is little evidence of a direct transition of Abélard’s ideas into the accepted scheme of theology. Some of the most careful and patient biographers of Abélard, as a theologian, say that we cannot claim for him any direct influence on the course of theological development. Deutsch points out that his works must have become rare, and the few copies secretly preserved, after their condemnation by the pope; certainly few manuscripts of them have survived. He had formed no theological school (as distinct from philosophical), or the beginning of one must have been crushed at Sens. His Roman pupils and admirers were probably not men who would cultivate loyalty under unfavourable circumstances. The schoolmen of the following century only know Abélard from passages in Hugh of St. Victor and others of his enemies. The first to reproduce what Deutsch takes to be the characteristic spirit or method of Abélard is Roger Bacon; it is extremely doubtful if he had any acquaintance whatever with Abélard. The world was prepared to receive the ideas of Abélard with some respect in the thirteenth century, but it had then a task which was too absorbing to allow a search for the manuscripts of ‘a certain Abélard,’ as one later theologian put it. The Arabians and Jews had reintroduced Aristotle into Europe. He had come to stay; and the schoolmen were engrossed in the work of fitting him with garments of Christian theology.
On the other hand there are historians, such as Reuter, who grant Abélard a large measure of direct influence on the development of theology. It is pointed out that a very large proportion of the masters of the next generation had studied under Abélard. Reuter instances Bernard Sylvester of Chartres and William of Conches, as well as Gilbert de la Porée. Clearer instances of direct influence are found in the case of Master Roland of Bologna (afterwards to ascend the papal throne under the name of Alexander III.) and Master Omnebene of the same city. It is, in any case, quite clear that Abélard was pre-eminently a teacher of teachers. On the other hand it would be incorrect to lay too much stress on the condemnation by Pope Innocent. All the world knew that Bernard had prudently kept the unexecuted Bull in his pocket, and that Abélard was teaching theology at Cluny, with the pope’s approval, a few months after the condemnation.