Abelard’s Description of the School of Laon: What Might it Tell us About Early Scholastic Teaching?

Peter Abelard, in criticizing his master, Anselm of Laon, c. 1114, describes how theology was taught at Anselm’s school, which was the most influential teaching institution in Latin Europe. Abelard provides information in particular about the commentaries or glosses — both oral and written — on the books of the Bible, which were Anselm’s speciality. These established themselves as the Ordinary Gloss, comprising a commentary on the whole Bible, which remained a standard work until the seventeenth century. Through biblical commentaries like Anselm’s, theological questioning was developed and students began to depend on the textbooks of their masters rather than on hearing them lecture and remembering their traditional wisdom. The conflict of Anselm and Abelard marks the beginnings of universities in France.