In Carolingian times Alcuin had prefaced his Quaestiones in Genesim with the explanation that he had chosen to omit the more difficult questions and had concentrated for the most part on those to which brief answers could be given: the historical ones. This view of the literal or historical sense as the simple sense might seem to make it of comparatively little account, merely a stepping-stone to those higher senses which were so much more rewarding; but Hugh of St Victor gives it a more important place.

Always an advocate of the laying of sound foundations, he insists that his pupils put the historical or literal sense first. He draws for them an elaborate picture of the ‘house’ of exposition. The foundation is laid in the earth. Its stones are not carefully cut or polished, but chosen for their solidity. Upon the foundation is raised the superstructure, where all is made level.

In the same way there are many words and phrases in the Bible, if we take it literally, which fit together like rough stones, leaving cracks and unevennesses. But the spiritual interpretation contains no contradictions. It rests upon the literal sense in such a way that it is like a series of stones cut to fit into the foundation stones below and to form a level surface above. It follows that without its foundation the spiritual sense itself would not be ‘level’, that is, without anomalies and contradictions.