Abelard returned to France in 1113—not to Paris, but to Laon, where he turned from studying dialectic to studying theology. At this time, Abelard was about 33 years old, and essentially, he was starting over again. Although it was often applied to interpretation of scripture, dialectic was essentially a secular discipline, while theology (divinitas, in Latin) was dedicated to understanding religion and could lead to a career in the higher clergy. Abelard began to hear the lectures of Anselm of Laon (ca. 1055-ca. 1117), who along with his brother Ralph was master at the cathedral school. Anselm was a powerful man. Because of his renown as a master (he had taught William of Champeaux), and because he was the dean and chancellor of the cathedral, important church offices gave him control of the cathedral’s business concerns. Once again, Abelard’s familiar pattern emerged; as he had with William of Champeaux, Abelard developed intense contempt for Master Anselm. The audacious Abelard disrespected the prestige of his master by skipping lectures and complaining that the master lacked active critical intelligence and could give students only practiced and memorized responses. In fact, Abelard anticipates the modern phrase “the lights are on, but nobody’s home” when insulting his teacher: he writes that the fire Anselm kindled filled his house with smoke, but shed no light.
The study of theology at the school of Anselm of Laon was undertaken in ways that were just beginning to become systematized. Anselm’s school pointed the way that eventually led to the systematization of the Glossa or-dinaria, a multivolume compilation of commentaries on the Bible produced at the end of the twelfth century. The Glossa ordinaria (Standard Gloss) was a compilation of excerpts from the church fathers and other authorities that were inserted in the lines between scriptural texts or in the margins. The Glossa served as a kind of condensed running commentary on scripture, especially the passages that were difficult to interpret. Anselm of Laon was especially dedicated to commenting—that is, glossing—on the Psalms and the Epistle to the Romans, which were copied and distributed throughout Europe as analytical tools for biblical study.
In schools like the one in Laon, students heard the master lecture while they took notes. Of course, medieval learning was based on manuscript sources, and the taking of adequate notes—or any notes at all—must have been challenging indeed. Students might employ a wax tablet and a stylus for this purpose. A wax tablet was made by hollowing out an indentation or trough in a wooden (or perhaps ivory, if one were wealthier than the average student) board and then filling it with wax. The wax was sufficiently soft so that a stylus could be used to scratch notes that were intended to be of a temporary nature, as opposed to the more permanent medium of parchment and ink. When the notes were no longer needed, the top layer of wax could be scraped away with the broad end of the stylus, leaving enough wax underneath to begin a new set of notes. Typically, two or more tablets were joined together to form a diptych, and students were generally said to carry a diptych in their belts. Despite the wide use of wax tablets, writing in classrooms must have been difficult; there were no facilities at the schools approaching the dedicated copying centers of the monasteries known as scriptoria.
Teaching methods at Laon can be discerned in Abelard’s description of his lecture on Ezekiel. Fed up with what he regarded as the pedestrian level of lecture provided by Anselm, Abelard allowed himself to be persuaded by other students to provide his own lectures on the ambiguous and complex prophecy of Ezekiel. Abelard writes that all who heard his first lecture and gloss acclaimed it, so much so that students appealed to him for two more lectures. Abelard writes in the Historia that students clamored to hear his lectures and to write notes on his insights into the difficult text, such was the pinnacle of his scholarship. Two of Anselm’s senior students, Alberic of Reims and Lotulf of Lombardy, were not impressed with Abelard’s erudition, however. They both would have successful careers of their own, but throughout their lives, they never had Abelard’s effrontery to lecture on theology without what they considered proper training. They would pursue Abelard throughout his life; Alberic was the prosecutor at Abelard’s condemnation in Soissons in 1121. However, in 1113, Alberic had to be content with simply convincing Anselm to expel Abelard from his school, which he did on the pretext that if Abelard, unschooled as he was in biblical exegesis, should err in his theological interpretation, then Anselm would be held responsible. Nonetheless, Abelard had demonstrated that he could deliver lectures on theology superior to those of Anselm, even though his specialized training was much more limited than the master’s was.
Although Abelard was once again at odds with a master whom he ridiculed through his arrogant self-confidence, his reputation as a master of exceptional abilities was now well established. Furthermore, his ambition to be placed in charge of the school at Notre Dame was within reach. William of Cham-peaux had taken up residence as the bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne in 1113; this was significant because as bishop of Chalons he became the patron and supporter of the reform-oriented Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux and its famous abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. No doubt Bernard had learned of Abelard’s fierce insubordination from William, and Bernard would become one of Abelard’s most intense and powerful critics. However, Bernard’s opposition was in the future. From about 1114 until about 1116, Abelard had realized his goal. He became a canon and chair of the faculty at the cathedral school at Notre Dame de Paris; as a teacher of logic, he was at the apex of his fame and renown. Yet, throughout his life, Abelard did not take care to protect his hard-won triumphs, and, through his own rash actions, he seemed to throw away his achievements. It was about this time that he met and fell in love with Heloise.
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