The Medieval Church · c. 1138–1139
Know Thyself
Scito Te Ipsum
Peter Abelard · 1079–1142
What it is
An argument that sin lies in consent rather than in the deed or even the desire, so that those who crucified Christ without knowing who he was did not sin in doing it.
Why it lasted
The first ethics of intention in the Christian tradition, and one of the propositions for which Abelard was condemned at Sens.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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