The Council of Sens in 1141 and its aftermath

The trial against Peter Abelard in the light of contemporary history

- e-book containing 187 pages, written in German language, preliminary version Juli 2003 -

© Dr. Werner Robl, May 2003
 

Table of content

Dating the trial against Peter Abelard
  • Prologue: Early confusion about a heretic's trial
  • Documents: The papal bulls against Peter Abelard
  • Contact: Stephen of Praeneste and Bernard of Clairvaux
  • Idea: Took the Council of Sens place in 1138?
  • Miracle: The vision of St Eleutherius in Tournai
  • Tradition: The usual dating of the Council of Sens
  • Event: The translation of the relics of St Rictrude
  • Double-cross: Nicholas of Montiéramey and his mission
     
  • Conclusion

Pacing off Abelard's last years

  • Reaction: Abelard's departure from St Geneviève
  • Namesakes: Stephen of Garlande and Stephen of Senlis
  • Refuge: Abelard's chair at Saint-Hilaire
  • Connections: Peter Abelard and Gilbert de la Porrée
  • Enigma: The retirement of a bishop
  • Change of opinion: The final years of Stephen of Garlande
  • Reform: The end of free teaching on the mount Geneviève
  • Attack: Bernard of Clairvaux and the inquietude of the orthodox
  • Thunderstrom: Political crises in France
  • First strike: The council's day
  • Adjournment: Abelard's appellation to the Holy See
  • Intervention: Bernard's letters to the curia in Rome
  • Shield bearer: Arnold of Brescia
  • Exodus: Abelard at the crossroads
  • Stigma: The papal condemnation on July 16, 1141
  • Finale: Abelard's last days in Cluny
  • Aftermath: Bernard's sermon De conversione
  • Epilogue: Roman impressions

Revised chronology

 

Summary

For more than 800 years, historians have discussed the date of the Council of Sens and of the trial against Peter Abelard. Chroniclers as early as in the 12th century, as well as some famous ecclesiastical historians of the 16th and 17th century, disagreed about whether the council took place in 1140 or 1141. In the late 19th century, the German theologian S. M. Deutsch pleaded for 1141, giving some serious arguments, but some years later, his French colleague E. Vacandard, defending his reputation as leading expert on Bernard of Clairvaux, rejected Deutsch's arguments vehemently. The subsequent literary resonance of the 20th century preferred Vacandard's hypothesis: For more than a century, the great majority of biographers believed the date of the trial against Peter Abelard to have been in 1140. At the beginning of the new millennium, the Abelardian scholar C. Mews reconsidered the long-standing debate, alarmed by a recent finding of the Italian palaeographer R. Volpini. After having re-examined all the known sources, C. Mews published his surprising conclusions: The council's date must have been May 26, 1141, as Deutsch had once argued.

Starting from this crucial point, the following study seeks to re-examine the validity of the theories published so far as well as to add some new, hitherto neglected sources and to extend the discussion to further circumstances, e. g. the situation of the papacy. Thereby the reader should be enabled to make his own decision about the historical truth. For example, the trial against Peter Abelard is now retold from an, as it were, Italian perspective. Moreover, the lives of relevant French contemporaries like Stephen of Garlande, Stephen of Senlis, Nicholas of Montiéramey or Gilbert de la Porrée provide valuable criteria concerning how the offensive against Peter Abelard and his doctrine might have happened. These findings should help to redefine all the most important details of Abelard's last years.

The quintessence of these additional findings makes it possible to establish the following chronological order:

The incriminated writings and sentences of Peter Abelard were condemned at the Council of Sens, which beyond doubt must have taken place on Mai 25, 1141. Some weeks later, on July 16, Peter Abelard and his former disciple Arnold of Brescia were sentenced by Pope Innocent to live behind monastic walls, in eternal silence, separated from each other. The hearing and arbitration of this matter in Rome didn't last more than two or three weeks and must therefore be called - considering the grave accusation and the difficult theological impact - a summary trial. Berengar of Poitiers, another adherent of Peter Abelard, emphasises this superficial and somehow prejudiced procedure verbatim in his satirical apology, written against Bernard of Clairvaux. In summary, the key dates above are apparently in line with the former findings of S. M. Deutsch in 1880 and give now reason to re-examine and re-group the complete series of events which finally led to Abelard's decline.

From the huge amount of material, concerning the last years of Abelard and his conflict with French orthodoxy, the following items are worth singling out, as they provide new biographical aspects and change the traditional image of Abelard and his socio-cultural involvement:

The last chapter of this study tries to answer a hypothetical question: Which fact or which means would have helped to avoid Abelard's papal condemnation? But in this context, we must keep hold of the fact that neither Peter Abelard nor Bernard of Clairvaux have ever demonstrably tried to buy any advantageous position or accreditation. This candour is a highlight in their acrimonious quarrel about the epistemological foundations of 12th century Christendom.

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Picture book

 

 Documents: The papal bulls against Peter Abelard

The papal condemnation of Peter Abelard
Bull of Pope Innocent II from February 28, 1137
 Archives départementales Maine et Loire, 101 H1

Innocent's rival in South Italy
 King Roger II of Sicily
Mosaic

 

 Idea: Took the Council of Sens place in 1138?

The defeat near Mignano
Cardinals and monks imprisoned
Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris, 14th c.

Roman refuge
Trastevere
Urbis Romae descriptio, detail city map from 18th c.

Pope Innocent II fosters the church
Santa Maria in Trastevere
Mosaic from the12th century

 

 Miracle: The vision of St Eleutherius in Tournai

The miracle of St Eleutherius in Tournai
St Eleutherius renewing the bishopric of Tournai
Mosaic from the 19th c.

Alienor and Louis VII
The king and his young wife on praying.
Grandes Chroniques de France, 14th c.

King Louis VII combatting count Theobald of the Champagne
Campaign of King Louis VII.
Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris, 14th c.

 

 Event: The translation of the relics of St Rictrude

The relics of St Rictrude
Church St Rictrude in Ronchin near Lille
Feast of St Rictrude

The convent of Marchiennes
Abbey of Marchiennes, late 16th century
Detail from the albums of Duc Charles De Croy from 1603

 

 Double-cross: Nicholas of Montiéramey and his mission

The gift of Hatto of Troyes
Churches near Sézanne-en-Brie
Map detail  J.G.A. Jaeger, Carte topographique, 18th c.

Nicholas of Montiéramay as falsifier
The seal of St Bernard

The schism in Rome
The schism between Anaclet II und Innocent II.
Grandes chroniques de France, Paris 14th c.

Pilgerpfad über den Mont-Cenis

The courier to the Holy See
Medieval footpath over the Mont-Cenis

 

 Reaction: Abelard's departure from St Geneviève

Bernard works on  the Canticle 
St Bernard and his Studium orationis

 

 Namesakes: Stephen of Garlande and Stephen of Senlis

Dispute: the king and the bishops of the royal domain
 King Louis VII on discussing with the prelates
Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris, 14th c.

 

 Refuge: Abelard's chair at Saint-Hilaire
 

Abelard's chair at St Hilaire
Saint-Hilaire-du-Mont
Detail city map of 1618

St Hilaire and Ste Geneviève
Late medieval situation of St Hilaire
Cadaster map from the 18th c.

 

 Connections: Peter Abelard and Gilbert de la Porrée

 
<<< Complete map of Paris:
Double-click an the image!

 

The collegiate church of  Saint-Marcel
The Burgus Sancti Marcelli
Map of Paris from 1725

Peter Abelard and Gilbert de la Porrée
 Bishop Gilbert of Poitiers is teaching.
Illumination

 

 Enigma: The retirement of a bishop

Stephen of Senlis and St Victor
Abbey St Victor
Detail city map from 1618

The seals of the Parisian bishop
The seals of Stephen of Senlis
Cartulaire Générale de Paris

 

 Reform: The end of free teaching on the mount Geneviève

The end of free teaching
St Geneviève near Paris
Detail engraving from 1618

 

 Attack: Bernard of Clairvaux and the inquietude of the orthodox
 

The opening of the trial
Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St Thierry
B-initial, illumination

The defense
 Abelard on teaching
Engraving,  A. Guilleminot, 1844

 

 Thunderstrom: Political crises in France


The turmoils in the French cities
Abelard enters Paris
 Painting, Épinal, 1840

The Aquitanian campaign
King Louis VII and his knights
Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris, 14th c.

 

 First strike: The council's day of Sens
 

The Council of Sens
Cathedral St Stephen, Sens
 

The relics of Sens
The Sainte Coupe, cathedral St Stephen, Sens
 

 

 Adjournment: Abelard's appellation to the Holy See
 

The dispute between Abelard and Bernard
The tribunal of Sens
Life scenes of St Bernard, stained glass  windows
in the Cistercian nunnery of Wurmsbach/Germany

Prejudicing Peter Abelard
Banquet scene
Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris, 14th c.

Bernard as accuser
Bernard and the convent of Sens
Film scene from Stealing Heaven

 

 Intervention: Bernard's letters to the curia in Rome
 

Bernards letters to the Pope and the cardinals
The Pope and his consistory
Wall painting, Lateran palace

 

 Shield bearer: Arnold of Brescia
 

Peter Abelard and Arnold of Brescia
The devils tantalise the Holy Church.
 Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris, 14th c.

 

 Stigma: The papal condemnation on July 16, 1141
 

Abelard's trial at the Holy See
 Pope and cardinals on consultation
Grandes Chroniques de France, Paris , 14th c.

The supremacy of Pope Innocent II
Sedes stercorata in the Lateran palace
Cloister, Lateran palace

 

 Finale: Abelard's last days in Cluny
 

Abelard's last days in Cluny
Cluny III, 12th century

Abelard's deathbed
The death of a Benedictine monk

 

 Aftermath: Bernard's sermon De conversione
 

Bernard on preaching
Bernard preaches at Vézelay

Bernard and the scriptorium
Scibe at work

Lagny, Ausschnitt Karte 17. Jhd.

The Council of Lagny
Lagny sur Marne
Topographic detail  from J.G.A. Jaeger, Carte topographique, 18th c.

Bernard's breakdown at St Aignan
Chapel Saint-Aignan
Drawing from the 19th century

 

 Epilogue: Roman impressions

Bribery at the curia
Chapel St Nicholas V, Vatican
Fresko Beato Angelico

 


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