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Life
He wrote the first comprehensive work of medieval political philosophy, and saw his closest friend murdered at an altar.
The sharpest logician in Paris and the most famous lover. His mind cut through every argument. His heart cost him everything.
Connection
Peter Abelard student in Paris John of Salisbury — John studied under Abelard on Mont Sainte-Genevieve and left the warmest surviving portrait of him as a teacher, alongside a clear-eyed account of what the Paris schools were actually like.
Ideas
Words
“Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single difference: the prince obeys the law, and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself their servant.”
“We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants: we see more and farther than they, not because our sight is sharper, but because we are lifted by their stature.”
“The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.”
Key Moments
1136 CE
Twelve years in the Paris schools
c. 1147 CE
Secretary at Canterbury
1170 CE
Witness to Becket's murder
c. 1108 CE
Teaching in Paris
c. 1117 CE
The Affair with Heloise
c. 1120 CE
Writes Sic et Non
1142 CE
Death at Saint-Marcel
Works
Policraticus
Sic et Non