Eglise Saint-Séverin

We have been to Padua, Salamanca and Paris. Each of these towns claims to have the oldest university in the western world. Each has a claim to that title. While students gathered first and hired their own professors in Padua, they had to rent rooms and lecture halls. Students in Salamanca had an informal arrangement with Jews and Muslims, returning from the Crusades. They paid the foreigners to teach them Hebrew, medicine and philosophy. The University of Paris claims to be the oldest because it was the first institution of higher learning to have a proper campus, that is, not only did the students pay the salaries for the teachers, they also bought property in which to hold classes. The campus of the University of Paris hardly looks like UNC at Chapel Hill. It is downtown with major streets with heavy traffic running through it. It looks more like NC State. Nevertheless, one can still find a few green spaces, some fountains and many statues and monuments to its graduates who changed the world.

The person who drew me to the university today was Peter Abelard (1079-1142), one of my favorite scholars. At a time when the church dominated society, Abelard had the courage, if not to flout the church’s authority, certainly to question it. The title of his book, “Sic et Non,” translates to “Yes and No.” In it he considers such Biblical themes as the seven-day creation of the world and the account of the great fish swallowing Jonah. Without directly refuting these stories, Abelard essentially says, “Yes the Bible says it, so we must not reject it. However, here are some problems with the stories that one may want to consider.” His position was radical when he wrote, but just short of heresy.

As a philosopher he provided a resolution to the conflict between nominalism and universalism, and did much to foster the idea of human individuality. This work eventually developed into the notion of individual rights and responsibilities, which later formed the basis for Western law.

He is also noted for the beautiful love letters and poetry exchanged between him and his lover, the brilliant Heloise of Argenteuil. When both were young adults they were secretly married. To punish Peter Abelard Heloise’s uncle and guardian castrated Peter, thus rendering him ineligible for ordination. Without being formally consecrated, Heloise lived the rest of her life as a nun. Yet they continued to share their forbidden love for the remainder of their lives in letters and poetry that survive to this day. Ultimately their bodies were exhumed and their remains were interred together in the same coffin in Pere Lachaise Cemetery on the east side of Paris.

So I got the opportunity to salute my hero today on the campus of the university he helped to make one of the leading colleges in the world. I have often wanted to go to the cemetery to see his grave, but somehow being where he taught, wrote and lectured while still living seems a better tribute.Read more