Sic et Non

Last updated

Sic et Non, an early scholastic text whose title translates from Medieval Latin as "Yes and No", was written by Peter Abelard. In the work, Abelard juxtaposes apparently contradictory quotations from the Church Fathers on many of the traditional topics of Christian theology. In the Prologue, Abelard outlines rules for reconciling these contradictions, the most important of which is noting the multiple significations of a single word. However, Abelard does not himself apply these rules in the body of the Sic et Non, which has led scholars to conclude that the work was meant as an exercise book for students in applying dialectic (logic) to theology.

Contents

Content

In Sic et Non, Abelard presents 158 questions that present a theological assertion and allows its negation.

The first five questions are:

  1. Must human faith be completed by reason, or not?
  2. Does faith deal only with unseen things, or not?
  3. Is there any knowledge of things unseen, or not?
  4. May one believe only in God alone, or not?
  5. Is God a single unitary being, or not?

The prologue frames the text as a professor's guide, "Aristotle, the most clear-sighted of all the philosophers, was desirous above all things else to arouse this questioning spirit ...".

Recensions and dating of the Sic et non

There are eleven surviving full and partial manuscripts of the Sic et non. These are:

There is also one surviving manuscript containing solely q. 117:

An examination of these manuscripts demonstrates the existence of successive drafts of the Sic et non.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Adam of Saint Victor was a prolific poet and composer of Latin hymns and sequences. He has been called "...the most illustrious exponent of the revival of liturgical poetry which the twelfth century affords."

Froissarts <i>Chronicles</i> History of the Hundred Years War

Froissart's Chronicles are a prose history of the Hundred Years' War written in the 14th century by Jean Froissart. The Chronicles open with the events leading up to the deposition of Edward II in 1327, and cover the period up to 1400, recounting events in western Europe, mainly in England, France, Scotland, the Low Countries and the Iberian Peninsula, although at times also mentioning other countries and regions such as Italy, Germany, Ireland, the Balkans, Cyprus, Turkey and North Africa.

<i>Ascension of Isaiah</i> Pseudepigraphical Judeo-Christian text

The Ascension of Isaiah is a pseudepigraphical Judeo-Christian text. Scholarly estimates regarding the date of the Ascension of Isaiah range from 70 AD to 175 AD. Many scholars believe it to be a compilation of several texts completed by an unknown Christian scribe who claimed to be the Prophet Isaiah, while an increasing number of scholars in recent years have argued that the work is a unity by a single author that may have utilized multiple sources.

Summa and its diminutive summula was a medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin, born during the 12th century, and popularized in 13th century Europe. In its simplest sense, they might be considered texts that 'sum up' knowledge in a field, such as the compendiums of theology, philosophy and canon law. Their function during the Middle Ages was largely as manuals or handbooks of necessary knowledge used by individuals who would not advance their studies any further.

Petrus Comestor, also called Pierre le Mangeur, was a twelfth-century French theological writer and university teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris Psalter</span> Tenth-century illuminated manuscript

The Paris Psalter is a Byzantine illuminated manuscript, 38 x 26.5 cm in size, containing 449 folios and 14 full-page miniatures. The Paris Psalter is considered a key monument of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance, a 10th-century renewal of interest in classical art closely identified with the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (909-959) and his immediate successors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Mi'raj</span> Mythical beast

Al-Mi'raj or Almiraj is a mythical creature resembling a one-horned hare or rabbit, mentioned in medieval Arabic literature.

<i>Trouvère</i> Term for a medieval French poet-composer

Trouvère, sometimes spelled trouveur, is the Northern French form of the langue d'oc (Occitan) word trobador, the precursor of the modern French word troubadour. Trouvère refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the trobadors, both composing and performing lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages, but while the trobadors composed and performed in Old Occitan, the trouvères used the northern dialects of France. One of the first known trouvère was Chrétien de Troyes and the trouvères continued to flourish until about 1300. Some 2130 trouvère poems have survived; of these, at least two-thirds have melodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of Saint-Victor, Paris</span>

The Abbey of Saint Victor, Paris, also known as Royal Abbey and School of Saint Victor, was an abbey near Paris, France. Its origins are connected to the decision of William of Champeaux, the Archdeacon of Paris, to retire to a small hermitage near Paris in 1108. He took on the life, vocation and observances of the Canons Regular, and his new community followed the Augustinian Rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William of St-Thierry</span>

William of Saint-Thierry, O. Cist was a twelfth-century Benedictine, theologian and mystic from Liège who became abbot of Saint-Thierry in France, and later joined the Cistercian Order.

A tonary is a liturgical book in the Western Christian Church which lists by incipit various items of Gregorian chant according to the Gregorian mode (tonus) of their melodies within the eight-mode system. Tonaries often include Office antiphons, the mode of which determines the recitation formula for the accompanying text, but a tonary may also or instead list responsories or Mass chants not associated with formulaic recitation. Although some tonaries are stand-alone works, they were frequently used as an appendix to other liturgical books such as antiphonaries, graduals, tropers, and prosers, and are often included in collections of musical treatises.

Constant Mews, D.Phil (Oxon) is Professor of Medieval Thought and Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University, Melbourne. He is an authority on medieval religious thought, especially on the medieval philosopher and theologian, Peter Abelard, and on interfaith dialogue. He discovered and published what are possibly the original letters exchanged between Peter Abelard and his lover, Heloise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Abelard</span> French philosopher, logician and theologian (c. 1079–1142)

Peter Abelard was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician.

Robert of Cricklade was a medieval English writer and prior of St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. He was a native of Cricklade and taught before becoming a cleric. He wrote several theological works as well as a lost biography of Thomas Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury.

<i>Paenitentiale Ecgberhti</i>

The Paenitentiale Ecgberhti is an early medieval penitential handbook composed around 740, possibly by Archbishop Ecgberht of York.

<i>Paenitentiale Theodori</i>

The Paenitentiale Theodori is an early medieval penitential handbook based on the judgements of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. It exists in multiple versions, the fullest and historically most important of which is the U or Discipulus Umbrensium version, composed (probably) in Northumbria within approximately a decade or two after Theodore's death. Other early though far less popular versions are those known today as the Capitula Dacheriana, the Canones Gregorii, the Canones Basilienses, and the Canones Cottoniani, all of which were compiled before the Paenitentiale Umbrense probably in either Ireland and/or England during or shortly after Theodore's lifetime.

<i>Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis</i> Manuscript (1307)

The Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis is a Latin work by Marino Sanuto the Elder. It is one of the "recovery of the Holy Land" treatises intended to inspire a revival of the Crusades. It has also been named as Historia Hierosolymitana and Liber de expeditione Terrae Sanctae, and Opus Terrae Sanctae, the last being perhaps the proper title of the whole treatise as completed in three parts or "books".

<i>Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre ierosolimitane</i>

The Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre ierosolimitane is a short anonymous Latin treatise on the geography and ethnography of the Kingdom of Jerusalem written in the late 12th or early 13th century. It was an influential and widely used tract.

<i>Proverbia Grecorum</i> 7th-8th century Latin collection of proverbs

The Proverbia Grecorum is an anonymous Latin collection of proverbs compiled in the seventh or eighth century AD in the British Isles, probably in Ireland. Despite the name, it has no known Greek source. It was perhaps designed as a secular complement to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Proverbs.