art, so that he has lived for eight
centuries less as a fearless thinker and masterly logician than as
one of the glowingly romantic figures of the Middle Ages.

"A FRIEND"

It is not known to whom Abelard's letter was addressed, but it may
be guessed that the writer intended it to reach the hands of
Heloise. This actually happened, and the first and most famous
letter from Heloise to Abelard was substantially an answer to the
"Historia Calamitatum."

WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX

William of Champeaux (Gulielmus Campellensis) was born about 1070
at Champeaux, near Melun. He studied under Anselm of Laon and
Roscellinus, his training in philosophy thereby being influenced by
both realism and nominalism. His own inclination, however, was
strongly towards the former, and it was as a determined proponent
of realism that he began to teach in the school of the cathedral of
Notre Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103. In 1108 he withdrew
to the abbey of St. Victor, and subsequently became bishop of
Chalons-sur-Marne. He died in 1121. As a teacher his influence was
wide; he was a vigorous defender of orthodoxy and a passionate
adversary of the heterodox philosophy of his former master,
Roscellinus. That he and Abelard disagreed was only natural, but
Abelard's statement that he argued William into abandoning the
basic principles of his philosophy is certainly untrue.

"THE UNIVERSALS"

It is not within the province of such a note as this to discuss in
detail the great controversy between the realists and the
nominalists which dominated the philosophical and, to some extent,
the religious thought of France during the first half of the
twelfth century. In brief, the realists maintained that the idea is
a reality distinct from and independent of the individuals
constituting it; their motto, _Universalia sunt realia_, was
readily capable of extension far beyond the Church, and William of
Champeaux himself carried it to the extent of arguing that nothing
is real but the universal. The nominalists, on the other hand,
argued that "universals" are mere notions of the mind, and that
individuals alone are real; their motto was _Universalia sunt
nomina_. Thus the central question in the long controversy
concerned the reality of abstract or incorporate ideas, and it is
to be observed that the realists held views diametrically opposite
to those which the word "realism" today implies. In upholding the
reality of the idea, they were