In studying the history of dialectics and rhetoric, as, indeed, of grammar, it is unavoidable that one adopts the point of view of one of these arts; and the history of the trivium [dialectics, rhetoric, grammar] is largely a history of the rivalry among them or of ascendancy. Ancient grammar was at odds with the dialectics of Plato and, especially, of Aristotle, as the art of interpreting phenomena. As the method of patristic theology, grammar enjoyed uninterrupted ascendancy until the revival of dialectics by Gerbert, Roscellinus, and Abelard in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.