Clive Donner, based on the novel by feminist author Marion Meade , I thought it was a good opportunity to get back to the Middle Ages with perhaps the most famous love-story to emerge from medieval history. In the 12 th century the most important centers of European intellectual activity were a small number of schools attached to cathedrals. Of these schools, the cathedral school at Paris was arguably the most important.
The cathedral issued teaching licenses to scholars, who were thereby empowered to charge a fee to teach any students who wished to study under them.
In the early 12 th century, the most noteworthy of these teaching masters was Peter Abelard, a brilliant logician who attracted enormous attention and large numbers of students by his bold new approach.
Having demonstrated that the Bible apparently contradicts itself on the issue, Abelard then proceeds to reconcile the contradiction with logic, showing how the Bible in fact presents a consistent answer if one reads the texts carefully. In doing this, Abelard laid the foundation for the Scholastic Method that was to dominate medieval universities for the next several centuries; Sic et Non became a basic textbook for university students.
And, in fact, the Cathedral School at Paris would, by the end of the 12 th century, evolve into the University of Paris. Abelard was a rather arrogant man, making enemies of other scholars by poking holes in their ideas. In particular, he humiliated his former teacher, William of Champeaux in an intellectual debate.
