Sic et Non

The body of the work is a list of questions, each followed by quotations from Scripture and the Fathers for and against, with no solution given. The prologue, which is all that is cited here, explains what the collection is for and lays down rules for reading authorities: allow for unfamiliar usage, corrupt copies, wrongly attributed works and opinions an author later withdrew, and where two authorities still conflict prefer the weightier.

It is Peter Abelard’s own statement of a method that he practised in the schools of Paris. He excepts the canonical Scriptures: there, he says with Augustine, a difficulty must be put down to the copyist, the translator or the reader, never to the author.