Godhead, power, wisdom, goodness, were stated to be the three Persons. The
Son of God was not incarnate to deliver us, but only to instruct us by His
discourses and example. Jesus Christ, God and Man, is not one of the
Persons in the Trinity, and a man is not properly called God. He did not
descend into hell. Such were some of the errors with which Abelard was
reproached. Whether they were actually contained in his writings, it is
not so evident. We have only fragments of Abelard's writings to judge
from, which have been collected by M. Cousin--_Ouvrages inedits
d'Abelard_--and therefore cannot speak with certain knowledge of his
opinions. At least they were judged to be blasphemous and heretical by the
Council of Soissons, when he was condemned to commit his books to the
flames and to retire to the Convent of St. Denys. Some years later, when
he had recovered from the horrible mutilation to which he had been
subjected by the uncle of Heloise, and his mind had acquired its usual
strength, we find him at Paris, again attracting crowds by his brilliant
lectures, and pouring forth books, and alas! another fatal one, _Sic et
Non_, [Footnote: Petri Abelardi _Sic et Non_ (Marburgi, Sumptibus
Librariae; Academy Elwertianae, 1851). The best edition of Abelard's
letters is _P. Abaelardi et Heloisae conjugis ejus Epistolae, ab erroribus
purgatae et cum codd. MSS. collatae cura Richardi Rawlinson, Londini,
1718, in-8_. There is also an edition published in Paris in 1616, 4to,
_Petri Abelardi et Heloisae conjugis ejus, opera cum praefatione
apologetica Franc. Antboesii, et Censura doctorum parisiensium; ex
editione Andreae Quercetani (Andre Duchesne)_.] which asked one hundred
and fifty-eight questions on all kinds of subjects. The famous champion of
orthodoxy, St. Bernard, examined the book, and at the Council of Sens in
1140 obtained a verdict against its author. He said that poor Abelard was
an infernal dragon who persecuted the Church, that Arius, Pelagius, and
Nestorius were not more dangerous, as Abelard united all these monsters in
his own person, and that he was a persecutor of the faith and the