In Paris, it was the cultivation of Logic, but chiefly the new
method in Theology, ... developed in various ways especially by
Abelard and other teachers, and extended by his contemporaries
and their disciples ... which caused the revolution in the
schools of that city.[16]

(_b_) The new method of Abelard established a new form of exposition,
and consequently a new mode of teaching, in Canon Law and in Theology.
The earliest university text-book in Canon Law--the "Decretum" of
Gratian--adopted this method, with some modifications. It was followed
in portions of the chief text-book in Theology,--the "Sentences" of
Peter Lombard. Variously modified, it became the method used in all
subsequent scholastic philosophy and theology. It was widely used in
connection with other university studies. In general, it was to
mediaeval education what the method of experiment is to the study and
teaching of modern natural science. A good illustration of its recent
use is Thomas Harper's "Metaphysic of the School."

(_c_) The scholastic method became the basis of one of the most
important university exercises,--the disputation or debate, which was
employed in every field of study.[17]


3. THE NEW STUDIES

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the intellectual life of
western Europe was enriched by the addition of a group of books, old and
new, which were destined to influence profoundly the growth of the
universities, as well as the whole course of mediaeval life and thought.
Without some such addition to the stock of learning higher education