It has often been remarked that the twelfth century was an age of
intellectual ferment. The observation is certainly true of the study of
theology which, under the impulse of teachers such as Anselm of
Canterbury, Anselm of Laon, Peter Abelard, Hugh of St. Victor, Gilbert
Porreta. Peter Lombard and many others, made greater progress in fifty
years than it had in the whole period since the death of St. Augustine.
Among the early scholastic theologians the first English name of note is
that of Robert Pullen, who taught at Oxford and Paris and was the first
Englishman to became a Cardinal. In the following account of Pullen's
theology the author has made use chiefly of his most important
theological work, the Libri Sententiarum VIII, but have also, where it
appeared relevant, appealed to the unpublished sermons, and de contemptu
Mundi.