BERNARD OF CHARTRES (1080?-1167), surnamed Sylvestris, scholastic philosopher, described by John of Salisbury as
perfectissimus inter
Platonicos nostri saeculi. He and his brother Theodore were among
the chief members of the school of Chartres (France), founded in the
early part of the 11th century by Fulbert, the great disciple of
Gerbert. This school flourished at a time when medieval thought was
directed to the ancient philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and had
perversely come to regard Aristotle as merely the founder of abstract
logic and formal intellectualism, as opposed to Plato whose doctrine of
ideas seemed to tend in a naturalistic direction. Thus Bernard is a
Platonist and yet the representative of a "return to Nature" which
curiously anticipates the humanism of the early Renaissance. John of
Salisbury
(Metalogicus, iv. 35) attributes to him two treatises,
of which one contrasts the eternity of ideas with the finite nature of
things, and the other is an attempt to reconcile Plato and Aristotle.
The only extant fragments of Bernard's writings are from a treatise
Megacosmus and Microcosmus (edited by C. S. Barach at Innsbruck,
1876). The source of Bernard's inspiration was Plato's
Timaeus.
He maintained that ideas are really existent and are laid up for ever in
the mind of God. He further attempted to build up a symbolism of numbers
with the view of elaborating the doctrine of the Trinity, and explaining
the meaning of unity, plurality and likeness.
See Scholasticism; also V. Cousin, C uvres inedites of Abelard
(Paris, 1836); Haureau, Philosophie scolastique, i. 396 foil.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. It is in the
public domain and you may copy, download, print and distribute this work
as you see fit.
Every effort has been made to present this text accurately and
cleanly, but no guarantees are made against errors. Neither Melissa
Snell nor About may be held liable for any problems you experience with
the text version or with any electronic form of this document.
