[31]
(d) _Theology_
As above noted, one of the two great contributions of the
twelfth-century revival of learning to the field of university studies
was scholastic theology. The number of books written on this subject was
enormous. The ponderous tomes, loaded with comments, make a long array
on the shelves of our great libraries, but they are memorials of a
battlefield of the mind now for the most part deserted. The importance
of the subject in the scheme of mediaeval education has been much
exaggerated; it was the pursuit of a very small minority of students. It
has a certain interest to the historian of education, however, as an
illustration of the way in which a method struck out by a single
original thinker may influence the work of scholars and universities for
generations. The method of scholastic theology is mainly due to Abelard.
The roots of the nobly developed systems of the thirteenth
century theology lie in the twelfth century; and all Sums of
Theology, of which there was a considerable number, not only
before Alexander of Hales [thirteenth century] but also before
and at the time of Peter Lombard, may be traced back directly or
indirectly to Paris.[32]
In this mass of theological writings one book stands out as the
contribution which for three centuries most influenced university
instruction in theology. This is the "Sentences" _(Sententiae)_ of Peter
Lombard (c.
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