John of Salisbury

John of Salisbury (late 1110s – 25 October 1180) was an English author, educator, diplomat and bishop of Chartres. He called himself Johannes Parvus, «John the Little». He belongs to the so-called medieval renaissance of the twelfth century, and he matters because his writings offer one of the most vivid pictures of the intellectual life of his age.

Little is known about his early years. He crossed to France around 1136 and studied in Paris under Peter Abelard, whose lectures he later described with real liveliness. He then went to Chartres, where he studied grammar and the Latin classics, and later took up theology under Gilbert de la Porrée. Around 1148 he was living in the diocese of Troyes, and soon afterwards he was introduced to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose secretary he became. In those years he wrote his two major works, the Policraticus and the Metalogicon, probably published in 1159. The first deals with court life, politics and the decline of royal manners; the second with the matter and form of scholastic education, in a polished, humanist style. After Theobald's death he served Thomas Becket in his quarrel with Henry II, which forced him into exile in France. He was at Canterbury when Becket was murdered. In 1176 he was made bishop of Chartres, where he spent the rest of his life.

His thought stands between the extremes of nominalism and realism. Against both he defended a practical common sense, supported by the moderate scepticism of Cicero, whom he admired and whose style he imitated. For him, education had to shape character above all, not only the intellect, and the capacity to reason was what set human beings apart from less rational creatures. Although he seems to have read little Greek at first hand, he possessed the whole Organon of Aristotle in Latin, making him one of the first important medieval writers known to have had all of it. His view of education links the monastic tradition with Renaissance humanism, and his image of later generations standing on the shoulders of giants, first set down in the Metalogicon, remains part of European culture.