Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/333

Rh peravit sibi ut per annum lectionibus ipsius interesset. Mox ergo socios habere, et Parisius palam dialecticae atque divini- tatis lectiones dare coepit; et facile omnes Franciae magistros in brevi supervenit. Qui cum de Quadruvio nihil audisset, clam magistro Tirrico in quasdam mathematicas lectiones aures dabat, in quibus supra quam aestimaret obtentu diffi- cultatis intellectus resiliebat audientis. Cui semel afflicto et indignanti per iocum magister Tirricus ait, ''Quid canis plenus nisi lardum baiare consuevit? Baiare autem lingere est. Exinde Baiolardus'' appellari coepit. Quod nomen tanquam ex defectu quodam sibi impositum cum abdicaret, sub littera- tura non dissimili Habelardum se nominari fecit, quasi qui haberet artium apud se summam et adipem.

Taking these statements in order, we remark—

1. That the natione Anglicus, Britannus having been obviously changed into an apparent synonym, gives the impression of the writer being but remotely acquainted with Abailard's history.

2. On the other hand, the order of his studies is correctly given. We have, it is true, no information about the time when Abailard learned grammar and it must be presumed that the writer merely conjectured that Abailard followed what was after all the natural and customary curriculum.

3. But the mention of Roscius (though the corrupt form in which the name is given may be considered to tell both ways) is of distinct importance. For a long time this passage was the only one, besides the notice of Otto of Freising, that spoke of Abailard's personal relations with Roscelin; and Otto's testimony was commonly discredited, especially because Abailard in his Historia Calamitatum altogether ignored the fact. So soon however as Abailard's Dialectic was printed, it was found that he was in all probability the person referred to under the abbreviated style of magistri nostri Ros. The discovery in a Munich manuscript of a letter unquestionably addressed by Roscelin to his former pupil (though here the names are indicated only by initials), has finally decided the matter, and to this