Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. According to Bernard, there are three categories of reality: God, matter, and idea. God is supreme reality. Matter was brought out of nothingness by God''s creative act and is the element which, in union with Ideas, constitutes the world of sensible things. Ideas are the prototypes by means of which the world was from all eternity present to the Divine Mind; they constitute the world of Providence, and are eternal but not coeternal with God. According to John of Salisbury, Bernard also taught that there exist native forms copies of the Ideas created with matter which are alone united with matter. It is difficult, however, to determine what was Bernard''s doctrine on this point. It is sufficient to note that he reproduced in his metaphysical doctrines many of the characteristic traits of Platonism and Neo-Platonism: the intellect as the habitat of Ideas, the world-soul, eternal matter, matter as the source of imperfection, etc.