Cathédrale de Chartres; Civilization, Medieval; Mont-Saint-Michel (Abbey : France)
This explanation is hardly reasonable, for no prelate who was not
also a temporal lord would have dared throw off his official duties
without permission from his superiors. In Abelard's case the only
superior to whom he could apply, as Abbot of Saint-Gildas in
Brittany, was probably the Pope himself. In the year 1135 the moment
was exceedingly favourable for asking privileges. Innocent, driven
from Rome a second time, had summoned a council at Pisa for May 30
to help him. Louis-le-Gros and his minister Suger gave at first no
support to this council, and were overruled by Bernard of Clairvaux
who in a manner drove them into giving the French clergy permission
to attend. The principal archbishops, a number of bishops, and
sixteen abbots went to Pisa in May, 1135, and some one of them
certainly asked Innocent for favours on behalf of Abelard, which the
Pope granted.
The proof is a papal bull, dated in 1136, in favour of Heloise,
giving her the rank and title of Abbess, accompanied by another
giving to the Oratory of the Holy Trinity the rank and name of
Monastery of the Paraclete, a novelty in Church tradition so
extraordinary or so shocking that it still astounds churchmen. With
this excessive mark of favour Innocent could have felt little
difficulty in giving Abelard the permission to absent himself from
his abbey, and with this permission in his hands Abelard might have
lectured on dialectics to John of Salisbury in the summer or autumn
of 1136. He did not, as far as known, resume lectures on theology.
Such success might have turned heads much better balanced than that
of Abelard. With the support of the Pope and at least one of the
most prominent cardinals, and with relations at court with the
ministers of Louis-le-Gros, Abelard seemed to himself as strong as
Bernard of Clairvaux, and a more popular champion of reform. The
year 1137, which has marked a date for so many great points in our
travels, marked also the moment of Abelard's greatest vogue. The
victory of Aristotle and the pointed arch seemed assured when Suger
effected the marriage of the young Prince Louis to the heiress
Eleanor of Guienne. The exact moment was stamped on the facade of
his exquisite creation, the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, finished in
1140 and still in part erect. From Saint-Denis to Saint-Sulpice was
but a step. Louis-le-Grand seems to stand close in succession to
Louis-le-Gros.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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