These two
institutions,--Bologna and Paris,--were in turn the models for all other
mediaeval universities, not only in organization, but also so far as the
study of Law, Theology, and Philosophy was concerned. Hence, indirectly,
the influence of Abelard and Irnerius was widely diffused and long
continued.
The documents relating to Irnerius are scanty. For a discussion of his
influence on the teaching of Roman Law, see Rashdall, I, ch. iv, and
especially pages 121-127. Concerning Abelard the records are abundant.
Abelard, the eldest son of a noble family of Pallet (Palais), Brittany,
was in his day the most renowned teacher in France. Instead of becoming
the head of his family and adopting the career of a soldier, he
abandoned his birthright and the profession of arms for the life of the
scholar and the battlefields of debate. His early life as a student
wandering from school to school is thus described by himself:
The more fully and easily I advanced in the study of letters the
more ardently I clung to them, and I became so enamored of them
that, abandoning to my brothers the pomp of glory, together with
my inheritance and the rights of the eldest son, I resigned from
the Councils of War that I might be educated in the camp of
Minerva. And since among all the weapons of philosophy I
preferred the arms of logic, I exchanged accoutrements and
preferred the conflicts of debate to the trophies of war.
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