PHILOSOPHIC scn-:xc/-:s. 47 



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of Gerbert made such an impression upon the popular mind that he was 

 reputed to have sold himself to the 'devil. 



Towards the middle of the twelfth century there were some symptoms 

 of the change which was coming over men's minds, and which was destined 

 to profit both sacred study and secular science. 



A discussion took place as to the -dogma of the Eucharist. It was com- 

 menced by the Archdeacon Beranger, a native of Tours, who denied that in 

 the sacrament the bread and wine were transformed into the body and blood 

 of Christ. The doctrine of Bt 5 ranger was reproved by the whole Church ; 

 several councils condemned it, amongst the fiercest of its adversaries being 

 Lanfranc of Paris, Archbishop of Canterbury. 



Beranger had represented reason as having confidence in herself, and 

 being more disposed to follow, in the interpretation of the Christian mysteries, 

 her own lights than mere tradition. Faith docile, humble, and submissive, 

 but faith making an effort to arrive at an understanding of Divine truth was 

 represented by the pious and illustrious St. Anselm, the successor of Lanfranc 

 at Canterbury. Amongst other works, St. Anselm has bequeathed to us the 

 "Monologium" and the "Prologium," in which, without resorting to the scho- 

 lastic formulae, and without going back to Holy Writ for any important proofs, 

 he demonstrates the existence and the attributes of God by the very idea of 

 God, and the logical sequence of that idea. This is the argument which, 

 five hundred years afterwards, runs through the philosophy of Descartes. 

 The works of St. Anselm earned for him the title of the second St. Augustine. 



But at the same period there arose a controversy, wholly philosophical in 

 appearance, but which had a close affinity with theology, as to the nature of 

 general and universal ideas that is to say, of the ideas which can be applied 

 to several things ; as, for instance, the idea of humanity applies to all men. 

 Are general ideas merely convenient formulae for abridging mental effort and 

 assisting the memory? or is there, apart from special ideas, a distinct 

 essence, an unchangeable model of their common characteristics, and the 

 expression of which in the intelligence is an idea or notion of the same kind 

 that is to say, general ? The question was raised from the very earliest times, 

 and Plato had decided it in the sense of the reality of ideas : it was handed 

 down to the Middle Ages by the books of Aristotle, or rather by those of 

 Porphyrius, his interpreter; and, after having long been dormant in the 

 schools, solved now in one sense, now in another, it acquired, towards the 



