ABSTRACT
Peter Abelard seldom refers to St Anselm. Points where they overlap in discussion ar difficult to identify. Some modern scholars have found in Abelard’s works evidence of a negative reaction against Anselm. But there are also grounds for suggesting that Anselm interested Abelard and that he contributed to give shape and direction to Abelard’s writing. In his Historia calamitatum Abelard says that his pupils demanded understanding of faith: they asked for reasons. However, they seemed to say that what is preached should be intelligible and that understanding must precede assent, that nothing can be believed unless it is first understood. Abelard appears, then, to introduce Anselm to his audience in a hostile manner. He goes on to criticize the analogy of the watercourse as a whole Abelard does this on the grounds that, whereas a spring of water becomes a stream and finally becomes a pool or a lake over the course of time.
