No single name has ever exercised such power
over the Christian Church, and no one mind ever made so deep an
impression on Christian thought. In him scholastics and mystics,
popes and opponents of the papal supremacy, have seen their
champion. He was the fulcrum on which Luther rested the thoughts by
which be sought to lift the past of the Church out of the rut; yet
the judgment of Catholics still proclaims the ideals of Augustine
as the only sound basis of pbilosopby."
ABBEY OF ST. DENIS
The abbey of St. Denis was founded about 625 by Dagobert, son of
Lothair II, at some distance from the basilica which the clergy of
Paris had erected in the fifth century over the saint's tomb. Long
renowned as the place of burial for most of the kings of France,
the abbey of St. Denis had a particular importance in Abelard's day
by reason of its close association with the reigning monarch. The
abbot to whom Abelard refers so bitterly was Adam of St. Denis, who
began his rule of the monastery about 1094. In 1106 this same Adam
chose as his secretary one of the inmates of the monastery, Suger,
destined shortly to become the most influential man in France
through his position as advisor to Louis VI, and also the foremost
historian of his time.
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