Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/338

320 interview. It is also a valuable specimen of the language which could be used about the saint by neither an insignificant nor an irreligious section of his contemporaries. But the addition to the preface, although partly agreeing closely with what John of Salisbury says about the 'new preface,' does not cover the whole ground which he describes. Either therefore the new preface itself is lost, or rather has been curtailed to its present dimensions, or else possibly John has mixed up with his account of it reminiscences of his conversations with Gilbert on the subject, reminiscences perhaps of his master's former lectures, or even his own independent vindication of Gilbert derived from a study of the Commentary on Boëthius.

 

, archdeacon of Arras, is named in the continuation of Henry of Ghent, just after Peter Lombard, as having written a commentary on the books of Boëthius On the Trinity, in which he argued against certain opinions of Gilbert of La Porrée, condemned Abailard, and favoured saint Bernard. In the Gallia Christiana he appears as holding the office of provost of the church of Arras in 1152 and 1153; and since his successor emerges in the year 1160, it is presumed that he died before that date. His com mentary should therefore offer valuable contemporary evidence in regard to the controversies spoken of in my m vol. 12. 445. sixth chapter; but the Histoire littéraire de la France says it is 'non imprimé et peut-être perdu.' It exists, however, among the manuscripts of Balliol college, Oxford, in the very same volume, cod. ccxcvi, which contains some of Abailard’s most treasured writings. 