Peter Abelard's Sic et Non

Timeline

1. c. 1121–1122Paris · Île-de-FranceAbelard compiled over a hundred pairs of opposing authoritative propositions into Sic et Non; its preface required first checking linguistic ambiguities, then examining context and the author's intent. This method of 'listing contradictions without rushing to judgment' brought dialectics into the theology classroom.
2. 1122–1142Paris · Île-de-FranceThe text was expanded and copied as Abelard repeatedly taught and was condemned. Opponents argued that exposing contradictions among the Church Fathers damaged their authority, while supporters saw it as a tool for training students in independent judgment. By around 1142 the work was already bound up with Abelard's scholarly controversies.
3. c. 1150Universities and cathedral schools of Western Europe · Western EuropeIn the later 12th century, the Sentences and university disputations inherited the question structure of 'first list objections, then render a ruling.' Sic et Non itself was no longer a curricular standard, but its method became a routine procedure of scholastic theology.