Secular Women Like Heloise Who Wished to Continue Their Education Beyond Convent School Could

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He is considered (alongside Augustine) to be the most significant forerunner of the modern self-reflective autobiographer.

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Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntosh
Public Historian
Brewminate

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Introduction

Peter Abelard (c.1079 – 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician.^[4]

In philosophy he is celebrated for his logical solution to the problem of universals via nominalism and conceptualism and his pioneering of intent in ethics.^[5] Often referred to as the "Descartes of the twelfth century", he is considered a forerunner of Rousseau, Kant, and Spinoza.^[6] He is sometimes credited as a chief forerunner of modern empiricism.^[7]

In history and popular culture, he is best known for his passionate and tragic love affair, and intense philosophical exchange, with his brilliant student and eventual wife, Héloïse d'Argenteuil. He was a defender of women and of their education. After having sent Héloïse to a convent in Brittany to protect her from her abusive uncle who did not want her to pursue this forbidden love, he was castrated by men sent by this uncle. Still considering herself as his spouse even though both retired to monasteries after this event, Héloïse publicly defended him when his doctrine was condemned by Pope Innocent II and Abelard was therefore considered, at that time, a heretic. Among these opinions, Abelard professed the innocence of a woman who commits a sin out of love.^[8]

In Catholic theology, he is best known for his development of the concept of limbo, and his introduction of the moral influence theory of atonement. He is considered (alongside Augustine) to be the most significant forerunner of the modern self-reflective autobiographer. He paved the way and set the tone for later epistolary novels and celebrity tell-alls with his publicly distributed letter,The History of My Calamities, and public correspondence.

In law, Abelard stressed that, because the subjective intention determines the moral value of human action, the legal consequence of an action is related to the person that commits it and not merely to the action. With this doctrine, Abelard created in the Middle Ages the idea of the individual subject central to modern law. This eventually gave to School of Notre-Dame de Paris (later the University of Paris) a recognition for its expertise in the area of Law (and later led to the creation of a faculty of law in Paris).

Life and Career

Youth

Page fromApologia contra Bernardum, Abelard's reply to Bernard of Clairvaux. / Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Abelard, originally called "Pierre le Pallet", was born c. 1079 in Le Pallet,^[9] about 10 miles (16 km) east of Nantes, in the Duchy of Brittany, the eldest son of a minor noble French family. As a boy, he learned quickly. His father, a knight called Berenger, encouraged Abelard to study the liberal arts, wherein he excelled at the art of dialectic (a branch of philosophy). Instead of entering a military career, as his father had done, Abelard became an academic.

During his early academic pursuits, Abelard wandered throughout France, debating and learning, so as (in his own words) "he became such a one as the Peripatetics."^[10] He first studied in the Loire area, where the nominalist Roscellinus of Compiègne, who had been accused of heresy by Anselm, was his teacher during this period.^[11]

Rise to Fame

Abelard Teachingby François Flameng, mural at the Sorbonne. / Photo by StarTigerJLN, Wikimedia Commons

Around 1100, Abelard's travels brought him to Paris. Around this time he changed his surname to Abelard, sometimes written Abailard or Abaelardus. The etymological root of Abelard could be the Middle Frenchabilite ('ability'), the Hebrew nameAbel/Habal (breath/vanity/figure in Genesis), the Englishapple or the Latinballare ('to dance'). The name is jokingly referenced as relating to lard, as in excessive ("fatty") learning, in a secondary anecdote referencing Adelard of Bath and Peter Abelard (and in which they are confused to be one person).^[12]

In the great cathedral school of Notre-Dame de Paris (before the construction of the current cathedral there), he studied under Paris archdeacon and Notre-Dame master William of Champeaux, later bishop of Chalons, a disciple of Anselm of Laon (not to be confused with Saint Anselm), a leading proponent of philosophical realism.^[11] Retrospectively, Abelard portrays William as having turned from approval to hostility when Abelard proved soon able to defeat his master in argument. This resulted in a long duel that eventually ended in the downfall of the theory of realism which was replaced by Abelard's theory of conceptualism / nominalism. While Abelard's thought was closer to William's thought than this account might suggest,^[13] William thought Abelard was too arrogant.^[14] It was during this time that Abelard would provoke quarrels with both William and Roscellinus.^[9]

Against opposition from the metropolitan teacher, Abelard set up his own school, first at Melun, a favoured royal residence, then, around 1102–4, for more direct competition, he moved to Corbeil, nearer Paris.^[10] His teaching was notably successful, but the stress taxed his constitution, leading to a nervous breakdown and a trip home to Brittany for several years of recovery.

On his return, after 1108, he found William lecturing at the hermitage of Saint-Victor, just outside the Île de la Cité, and there they once again became rivals, with Abelard challenging William over his theory of universals. Abelard was once more victorious, and Abelard was almost able to attain the position of master at Notre Dame. For a short time, however, William was able to prevent Abelard from lecturing in Paris. Abelard accordingly was forced to resume his school at Melun, which he was then able to move, from c. 1110–12, to Paris itself, on the heights of Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, overlooking Notre-Dame.^[15]

From his success in dialectic, he next turned to theology and in 1113 moved to Laon to attend the lectures of Anselm on Biblical exegesis and Christian doctrine.^[9] Unimpressed by Anselm's teaching, Abelard began to offer his own lectures on the book of Ezekiel. Anselm forbade him to continue this teaching. Abelard returned to Paris where, in around 1115, he became master of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame and a canon of Sens (the cathedral of the archdiocese to which Paris belonged).^[10]

Héloïse

"Abaelardus and Heloïse surprised by Master Fulbert", by Romanticist painter Jean Vignaud (1819). / Photo courtesy Joslyn Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons

Héloïse d'Argenteuil lived within the precincts of Notre-Dame, under the care of her uncle, the secular canon Fulbert. She was famous as the most well-educated and intelligent woman in Paris,^[16] renowned for her knowledge of classical letters, including not only Latin but also Greek and Hebrew.

At the time Heloise met Abelard, he was surrounded by crowds — supposedly thousands of students — drawn from all countries by the fame of his teaching. Enriched by the offerings of his pupils, and entertained with universal admiration, he came to think of himself as the only undefeated philosopher in the world. But a change in his fortunes was at hand. In his devotion to science, he claimed to have lived a very straight and narrow life, enlivened only by philosophical debate: now, at the height of his fame, he encountered romance.

Upon deciding to pursue Héloïse, Abelard sought a place in Fulbert's house, and by in 1115 or 1116 began an affair. While in his autobiography he describes the relationship as a seduction, Heloise's letters contradict this and instead depict a relationship of equals kindled by mutual attraction. Abelard boasted of his conquest using example phrases in his teaching such as "Peter loves his girl" and writing popular poems and songs of his love that spread throughout the country. Once Fulbert found out, he separated them, but they continued to meet in secret. Héloïse became pregnant and was sent by Abelard to be looked after by his family in Brittany, where she gave birth to a son, whom she named Astrolabe, after the scientific instrument.^[9][10]

Tragic Events

Abelard, attacked and castrated. / Scan by StarTigerJLN, Wikimedia Commons

To appease Fulbert, Abelard proposed a marriage. Héloïse initially opposed marriage, but to appease her worries about Abelard's career prospects as a married philosopher, the couple were married in secret. (At this time, clerical celibacy was becoming the standard at higher levels in the church orders.) To avoid suspicion of involvement with Abelard, Heloise continued to stay at the house of her uncle. When Fulbert publicly disclosed the marriage, Héloïse vehemently denied it, arousing Fulbert's wrath and abuse. Abelard rescued her by sending her to the convent at Argenteuil, where she had been brought up, to protect her from her uncle. Héloïse dressed as a nun and shared the nun's life, though she was not consecrated.

Fulbert, infuriated that Heloise had been taken from his house and possibly believing that Abelard had disposed of her at Argenteuil in order to be rid of her, arranged for a band of men to break into Abelard's room one night and castrate him. In legal retribution for this vigilante attack, members of the band were punished, and Fulbert, scorned by the public, took temporary leave of his canon duties (he does not appear again in the Paris cartularies for several years).

In shame of his injuries, Abelard retired permanently as a Notre Dame canon, with any career as a priest or ambitions for higher office in the church shattered by his loss of manhood. He effectively hid himself as a monk at the monastery of St. Denis, near Paris, avoiding the questions of his horrified public. Roscellinus and Fulk of Deuil ridiculed and belittled Abelard for being castrated.^[17][18]

Upon joining the monastery at St. Denis, Abelard insisted that Héloïse take vows as a nun (she had few other options at the time^[19]). Héloïse protested her separation from Abelard, sending numerous letters re-initiating their friendship and demanding answers to theological questions concerning her new vocation.^[20]

Astrolabe, Son of Abelard and Heloise

Shortly after the birth of their child, Astrolabe, Heloise and Abelard were both cloistered. Their son was thus brought up by Abelard's sister (soror), Denise, at Abelard's childhood home in Le Pallet. His name derives from the astrolabe, a Persian astronomical instrument said to elegantly model the universe^[21] and which was popularized in France by Adelard of Bath. He is mentioned in Abelard's poem to his son, the Carmen Astralabium, and by Abelard's protector, Peter the Venerable of Cluny, who wrote to Héloise: "I will gladly do my best to obtain a prebend in one of the great churches for your Astrolabe, who is also ours for your sake".

'Petrus Astralabius' is recorded at the Cathedral of Nantes in 1150, and the same name appears again later at the Cistercian abbey at Hauterive in what is now Switzerland. Given the extreme eccentricity of the name, it is almost certain these references refer to the same person. Astrolabe is recorded as dying in the Paraclete necrology on 29 or 30 October, year unknown, appearing as "Petrus Astralabius magistri nostri Petri filius".^[22].

Later Life

In his early forties, Abelard sought to bury himself as a monk of the Abbey of Saint-Denis with his woes out of sight.^[23] Finding no respite in the cloister, and having gradually turned again to study, he gave in to urgent entreaties, and reopened his school at an unknown priory owned by the monastery. His lectures, now framed in a devotional spirit, and with lectures on theology as well as his previous lectures on logic, were once again heard by crowds of students, and his old influence seemed to have returned. Using his studies of the Bible and — in his view — inconsistent writings of the leaders of the church as his basis, he wroteSic et Non (Yes and No).^[9]

No sooner had he published his theological lectures (theTheologia Summi Boni) than his adversaries picked up on his rationalistic interpretation of the Trinitarian dogma. Two pupils of Anselm of Laon, Alberich of Reims and Lotulf of Lombardy, instigated proceedings against Abelard, charging him with the heresy of Sabellius in a provincial synod held at Soissons in 1121. Through irregular procedures, they obtained an official condemnation of his teaching, and Abelard was made to burn theTheologia himself. He was then sentenced to perpetual confinement in a monastery other than his own, but it seems to have been agreed in advance that this sentence would be revoked almost immediately, because after a few days in the convent of St. Medard at Soissons, Abelard returned to St. Denis.^[13]

Life in his own monastery proved no more congenial than before. For this Abelard himself was partly responsible. He took a sort of malicious pleasure in irritating the monks. As if for the sake of a joke, he cited Bede to prove that the believed founder of the monastery of St. Denis, Dionysius the Areopagite had been Bishop of Corinth, while the other monks relied upon the statement of the Abbot Hilduin that he had been Bishop of Athens. When this historical heresy led to the inevitable persecution, Abelard wrote a letter to the Abbot Adam in which he preferred to the authority of Bede that of Eusebius of Caesarea'sHistoria Ecclesiastica and St. Jerome, according to whom Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, was distinct from Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens and founder of the abbey; although, in deference to Bede, he suggested that the Areopagite might also have been bishop of Corinth. Adam accused him of insulting both the monastery and the Kingdom of France (which had Denis as its patron saint); life in the monastery grew intolerable for Abelard, and he was finally allowed to leave.^[24]

Abelard initially lodged at St. Ayoul of Provins, where the prior was a friend. Then, after the death of Abbot Adam in March 1122, Abelard was able to gain permission from the new abbot, Suger, to live "in whatever solitary place he wished". In a deserted place near Nogent-sur-Seine in Champagne, he built a cabin of stubble and reeds, created a simple oratory dedicated to the Trinity, and became a hermit. When his retreat became known, students flocked from Paris, and covered the wilderness around him with their tents and huts. He began to teach again there. The oratory was rebuilt in wood and stone and rededicated as the Oratory of the Paraclete.^[24]

Statue of Abelard at Louvre Palace in Paris by Jules Cavelier. / Photo by Jastrow, Wikimedia Commons

Abelard remained at the Paraclete for about five years. His combination of the teaching of secular arts with his profession as a monk was heavily criticized by other men of religion, and Abelard contemplated flight outside Christendom altogether.^[25] Abelard therefore decided to leave and find another refuge, accepting sometime between 1126 and 1128 an invitation to preside over the Abbey of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys on the far-off shore of Lower Brittany. The region was inhospitable, the domain a prey to outlaws, the house itself savage and disorderly.^[24] There, too, his relations with the community deteriorated.^[25]

Abelard receives Héloïse at the monastery of the Paraclete (1129). / Scan courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France, Wikimedia Commons

Lack of success at St. Gildas made Abelard decide to take up public teaching again (although he remained for a few more years, officially, Abbot of St. Gildas). It is not entirely certain what he then did, but given that John of Salisbury heard Abelard lecture on dialectic in 1136, it is presumed that he returned to Paris and resumed teaching on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. His lectures were dominated by logic, at least until 1136, when he produced further drafts of hisTheologia in which he analyzed the sources of belief in the Trinity and praised the pagan philosophers of classical antiquity for their virtues and for their discovery by the use of reason of many fundamental aspects of Christian revelation.^[25]

In 1128, Abbot Suger claimed that the convent at Argenteuil, where Héloïse was prioress, belonged to his abbey of St Denis. In 1129 he gained possession and he made no provision for the nuns. When Abelard heard, he transferred Paraclete and its lands to Héloïse and her remaining nuns, making her abbess.^[26] He provided the new community with a rule and with a justification of the nun's way of life; in this he emphasized the virtue of literary study. He also provided books of hymns he had composed, and in the early 1130s he and Héloïse composed a collection of their own love letters and religious correspondence^[25] containing, amongst other notable pieces, Abelard's most famous letter containing his autobiography,Historia Calamitatum (The History of My Calamities). This moved Héloïse to write her first Letter;^[27] the first being followed by the two other Letters, in which she finally accepted the part of resignation, which, now as a brother to a sister, Abelard commended to her. Sometime before 1140, Abelard published his masterpiece,Ethica orScito te ipsum (Know Thyself), where he analyzes the idea of sin and that actions are not what a man will be judged for but intentions.^[9] During this period, he also wroteDialogus inter Philosophum, Judaeum et Christianum (Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian), and alsoExpositio in Epistolam ad Romanos, a commentary on St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, where he expands on the meaning of Christ's life.^[9]

Conflicts with Bernard of Clairvaux

After 1136, it is not clear whether Abelard had stopped teaching, or whether he perhaps continued with all except his lectures on logic until as late as 1141. Whatever the exact timing, a process was instigated by William of St-Thierry, who discovered what he considered to be heresies in some of Abelard's teaching. In spring 1140 he wrote to the Bishop of Chartres and to Bernard of Clairvaux, denouncing them. Another, less distinguished, theologian, Thomas of Morigny, also produced at the same time a list of Abelard's supposed heresies, perhaps at Bernard's instigation. Bernard's complaint mainly was that Abelard had applied logic where it is not applicable, and that is illogical.^[28]

Amid pressure from Bernard, Abelard challenged Bernard either to withdraw his accusations, or to make them publicly at the important church council at Sens planned for 2 June 1141. In so doing, Abelard put himself into the position of the wronged party and forced Bernard to defend himself from the accusation of slander. Bernard avoided this trap, however: on the eve of the council, he called a private meeting of the assembled bishops and persuaded them to condemn, one by one, each of the heretical propositions he attributed to Abelard. When Abelard appeared at the council the next day, he was presented with a list of condemned propositions imputed to him.^[29]

Unable to answer to these propositions, Abelard left the assembly, appealed to the Pope, and set off for Rome, hoping that the Pope would be more supportive. However, this hope was unfounded. On 16 July 1141, Pope Innocent II issued a bull excommunicating Abelard and his followers and imposing perpetual silence on him, and in a second document, he ordered Abelard to be confined in a monastery and his books to be burned. Abelard was saved from this sentence, however, by Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny. Abelard had stopped there, on his way to Rome, before the papal condemnation had reached France. Peter persuaded Abelard, already old, to give up his journey and stay at the monastery. Peter managed to arrange a reconciliation with Bernard, to have the sentence of excommunication lifted, and to persuade Innocent that it was enough if Abelard remained under the aegis of Cluny.

Abelard spent his final months at the priory of St. Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saône, before he died on 21 April 1142.^[29] He is said to have uttered the last words "I don't know", before expiring.^[30] He died from a fever while suffering from a skin disorder, possibly mange or scurvy.^[31] Heloise and Peter of Cluny arranged with the Pope, after Abelard's death, to clear his name of heresy charges.

Disputed Resting Place/Lovers' Pilgrimage

Dedicatory panel in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. / Photo by DoNNNald, Wikimedia Commons

Abelard was first buried at St. Marcel, but his remains were soon carried off secretly to the Paraclete, and given over to the loving care of Héloïse, who in time came herself to rest beside them in 1163.

The bones of the pair were moved more than once afterwards, but they were preserved even through the vicissitudes of the French Revolution, and now are presumed to lie in the well-known tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery in eastern Paris.^[32] The transfer of their remains there in 1817 is considered to have considerably contributed to the popularity of that cemetery, at the time still far outside the built-up area of Paris. By tradition, lovers or lovelorn singles leave letters at the crypt, in tribute to the couple or in hope of finding true love.

This second burial remains disputed. The Oratory of the Paraclete claims Abelard and Héloïse are buried there and that what exists in Père-Lachaise is merely a monument, or cenotaph. According to Père-Lachaise, the remains of both lovers were transferred from the Oratory in the early 19th century and reburied in the famous crypt on their grounds.^[33] Others believe that while Abelard is buried in the tomb at Père-Lachaise, Heloïse's remains are elsewhere.

Health Issues

Abelard suffered at least two nervous collapses, the first around 1104–5, cited as due to the stresses of too much study. In his words: "Not long afterward, though, my health broke down under the strain of too much study and I had to return home to Brittany. I was away from France for several years, bitterly missed…"^[34] His second documented collapse took place in 1141 at the Council of Sens, where he was accused of heresy and was unable to speak in reply. In the words of Geoffrey of Auxerre: his "memory became very confused, his reason blacked out and his interior sense forsook him."^[35][36]

Medieval understanding of mental health precedes development of modern psychiatric diagnosis. No diagnosis besides "ill health" was applied to Abelard at the time. His tendencies towards self-acclaim, grandiosity,^[37] paranoia^[38] and shame^[39] are suggestive of possible latent narcissism^[40] (despite his great talents and fame), or – recently conjectured – in keeping with his breakdowns, overwork, loquaciousness and belligerence – mood-related mental health issues^[41] such as mania related to bipolar disorder.^{[42][43][44][45]}

At the time, some of these characteristics were attributed disparagingly to his Breton heritage,^[46] his difficult "indomitable" personality^[47] and overwork.^[48]

Philosophical Thought and Achievements

Philosophy

Abelard and Héloïse in a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (14th century). / Photo courtesy Condé Museum, Wikimedia Commons

Abelard is considered one of the founders of the secular university and pre-Renaissance secular philosophical thought.^[49]

Abelard argued for conceptualism in the theory of universals. (A universal is a quality or property which every individual member of a class of things must possess if the same word is to apply to all the things in that class. Blueness, for example, is an universal property possessed by all blue objects.) According to Abelard scholar David Luscombe, "Abelard logically elaborated an independent philosophy of language…[in which] he stressed that language itself is not able to demonstrate the truth of things (res) that lie in the domain of physics."^[50]

Writing with the influence of his wife Heloise, he stressed that subjective intention determines the moral value of human action. With Heloise, he is the first significant philosopher of the Middle Ages to push for intentionalist ethics before Thomas Aquinas.

He helped establish the philosophical authority of Aristotle, which became firmly established in the half-century after his death. It was at this time that Aristotle'sOrganon first became available, and gradually all of Aristotle's other surviving works. Before this, the works of Plato formed the basis of support for philosophical realism.

Theology

Abelard is considered one of the greatest twelfth-century Catholic philosophers, arguing that God and the universe can and should be known via logic as well as via the emotions. He coined the term "theology" for the religious branch of philosophical tradition. He should not be read as a heretic, as his charges of heresy were dropped and rescinded by the Church after his death, but rather as a cutting-edge philosopher who pushed theology and philosophy to their limits. He is described as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th century"^[11] and as the greatest logician of the Middle Ages. "His genius was evident in all he did"; as the first to use 'theology' in its modern sense, he championed "reason in matters of faith", and "seemed larger than life to his contemporaries: his quick wit, sharp tongue, perfect memory, and boundless arrogance made him unbeatable in debate"–"the force of his personality impressed itself vividly on all with whom he came into contact."^[51]

Regarding the unbaptized who die in infancy, Abelard — inCommentaria in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos — emphasized the goodness of God and interpreted Augustine's "mildest punishment" as the pain of loss at being denied the beatific vision (carentia visionis Dei), without hope of obtaining it, but with no additional punishments. His thought contributed to the forming of Limbo of Infants theory in the 12th–13th centuries.^[52]

Psychology

Jean-Baptiste Goyet, Héloïse et Abailard, oil on copper, c. 1829. / Photo by Stevensaylor, Wikimedia Commons

Abelard was concerned with the concept of intent and inner life, developing an elementary theory of cognition in hisTractabus De Intellectibus,^[53] and later developing the concept that human beings "speak to God with their thoughts".^[54] He was one of the developers of the insanity defense, writing inScito te ipsum, "Of this [sin], small children and of course insane people are untouched…lack[ing] reason….nothing is counted as sin for them".^[55] He spearheaded the idea that mental illness was a natural condition and "debunked the idea that the devil caused insanity", a point of view which Thomas F. Graham argues Abelard was unable to separate himself from objectively to argue more subtly "because of his own mental health."^[56]

Law

Abelard stressed that subjective intention determines the moral value of human action and therefore that the legal consequence of an action is related to the person that commits it and not merely to the action. With this doctrine, Abelard created in the Middle Ages the idea of the individual subject central to modern law. This gave to School of Notre-Dame de Paris (later the University of Paris) a recognition for its expertise in the area of Law, even before the faculty of law existed and the school even recognized as an "universitas" and even if Abelard was a logician and a theologian.

The Letters of Abelard and Héloïse

Heloise and Abelard, Achille Devaria, 19th c. engraving. / Photo via Wikimedia Commons

The story of Abelard and Héloïse has proved immensely popular in modern European culture. This story is known almost entirely from a few sources: first, theHistoria Calamitatum;secondly, the seven letters between Abelard and Héloïse which survive (three written by Abelard, and four by Héloïse), and always follow theHistoria Calamitatum in the manuscript tradition; thirdly, four letters between Peter the Venerable and Héloïse (three by Peter, one by Héloïse).^[57] They are, in modern times, the best known and most widely translated parts of Abelard's work.

It is unclear quite how the letters of Abelard and Héloïse came to be preserved. There are brief and factual references to their relationship by 12th-century writers including William Godel and Walter Map. While the letters were most likely exchanged by horseman in a public (open letter) fashion readable by others at stops along the way (and thus explaining Heloise's interception of the Historia), it seems unlikely that the letters were widely known outside of their original travel range during the period. Rather, the earliest manuscripts of the letters are dated to the late 13th century. It therefore seems likely that the letters sent between Abelard and Héloïse were kept by Héloïse at the Paraclete along with the 'Letters of Direction', and that more than a century after her death they were brought to Paris and copied.^[58]

Shortly after the deaths of Abelard and Heloise, Chrétien de Troyes appears influenced by Heloise's letters and Abelard's castration in his depiction of the fisher king in his grail tales.^[59] In the fourteenth century, the story of their love affair was summarised by Jean de Meun in theLe Roman de la Rose. Chaucer makes a brief reference in the Wife of Bath's Prologue (lines 677–8) and may base his character of the wife partially on Heloise. Petrarch owned an early 14th-century manuscript of the couple's letters (and wrote detailed approving notes in the margins).

The first Latin publication of the letters was in Paris in 1616, simultaneously in two editions. These editions gave rise to numerous translations of the letters into European languages – and consequent 18th- and 19th-century interest in the story of the medieval lovers.^[60] In the 18th century, the couple were revered as tragic lovers, who endured adversity in life but were united in death. With this reputation, they were the only individuals from the pre-Revolutionary period whose remains were given a place of honour at the newly founded cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris. At this time, they were effectively revered as romantic saints; for some, they were forerunners of modernity, at odds with the ecclesiastical and monastic structures of their day and to be celebrated more for rejecting the traditions of the past than for any particular intellectual achievement.^[61]

TheHistoria was first published in 1841 by John Caspar Orelli of Turici. Then, in 1849, Victor Cousin publishedPetri Abaelardi opera, in part based on the two Paris editions of 1616 but also based on the reading of four manuscripts; this became the standard edition of the letters.^[62] Soon after, in 1855, Migne printed an expanded version of the 1616 edition under the titleOpera Petri Abaelardi, without the name of Héloïse on the title page.

Critical editions of theHistoria Calamitatum and the letters were subsequently published in the 1950s and 1960s. The most well-established documents, and correspondingly those whose authenticity has been disputed the longest, are the series of letters that begin with the Historia Calamitatum (counted as letter 1) and encompass four "personal letters" (numbered 2–5) and "letters of direction" (numbers 6–8).

Most scholars today accept these works as having been written by Héloïse and Abelard themselves. John Benton is the most prominent modern skeptic of these documents. Etienne Gilson, Peter Dronke, Constant Mews, and Mary Ellen Waithe maintain the mainstream view that the letters are genuine, arguing that the skeptical viewpoint is fueled in large part by its advocates' pre-conceived notions.^[63]

More recently, it has been argued that an anonymous series of letters, theEpistolae Duorum Amantium,^[64] were in fact written by Héloïse and Abelard during their initial romance (and, thus, before the later and more broadly known series of letters). This argument has been advanced by Constant J. Mews, based on earlier work by Ewad Könsgen. If genuine, these letters represent a significant expansion to the corpus of surviving writing by Héloïse, and thus open several new directions for further scholarship. However, because the attribution "is of necessity based on circumstantial rather than on absolute evidence," it is not accepted by all scholars.^[65]

Commentary Theology

Benedict XVI in 2007. / Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Novelist and Abelard scholar George Moore referred to Abelard as the "first protestant" prior to Martin Luther.^[66] While Abelard conflicted with the Church to point of (later cleared) heresy charges, he never denied his Catholic faith.

During his general audience on 4 November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI talked about Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard to illustrate differences in the monastic and scholastic approaches to theology in the 12th century. The Pope recalled that theology is the search for a rational understanding (if possible) of the mysteries of Christian revelation, which is believed through faith — faith that seeks intelligibility (fides quaerens intellectum). But St. Bernard, a representative of monastic theology, emphasized "faith" whereas Abelard, who is a scholastic, stressed "understanding through reason".^[67]

For Bernard of Clairvaux, faith is based on the testimony of Scripture and on the teaching of the Fathers of the Church. Thus, Bernard found it difficult to agree with Abelard and, in a more general way, with those who would subject the truths of faith to the critical examination of reason — an examination which, in his opinion, posed a grave danger: intellectualism, the relativizing of truth, and the questioning of the truths of faith themselves. Theology for Bernard could be nourished only in contemplative prayer, by the affective union of the heart and mind with God, with only one purpose: to promote the living, intimate experience of God; an aid to loving God ever more and ever better.^[67]

According to Pope Benedict XVI, an excessive use of philosophy rendered Abelard's doctrine of the Trinity fragile and, thus, his idea of God. In the field of morals, his teaching was vague, as he insisted on considering the intention of the subject as the only basis for describing the goodness or evil of moral acts, thereby ignoring the objective meaning and moral value of the acts, resulting in a dangerous subjectivism. But the Pope recognized the great achievements of Abelard, who made a decisive contribution to the development of scholastic theology, which eventually expressed itself in a more mature and fruitful way during the following century. And some of Abelard's insights should not be underestimated, for example, his affirmation that non-Christian religious traditions already contain some form of preparation for welcoming Christ.^[67]

Pope Benedict XVI concluded that Bernard's "theology of the heart" and Abelard's "theology of reason" represent the importance of healthy theological discussion and humble obedience to the authority of the Church, especially when the questions being debated have not been defined by the magisterium. St. Bernard, and even Abelard himself, always recognized without any hesitation the authority of the magisterium. Abelard showed humility in acknowledging his errors, and Bernard exercised great benevolence. The Pope emphasized, in the field of theology, there should be a balance between architectonic principles, which are given through Revelation and which always maintain their primary importance, and the interpretative principles proposed by philosophy (that is, by reason), which have an important function, but only as a tool. When the balance breaks down, theological reflection runs the risk of becoming marred by error; it is then up to the magisterium to exercise the needed service to truth, for which it is responsible.^[67]

Poetry and Music

Abelard was also long known as an important poet and composer. He composed some celebrated love songs for Héloïse that are now lost, and which have not been identified in the anonymous repertoire. (One known romantic poem / possible lyric remains, "Dull is the Star".)^[68] Héloïse praised these songs in a letter: "The great charm and sweetness in language and music, and a soft attractiveness of the melody obliged even the unlettered".^[69] His education in music was based in his childhood learning of the traditional quadrivium studied at the time by almost all aspiring medieval scholars.

Abelard composed a hymnbook for the religious community that Héloïse joined. This hymnbook, written after 1130, differed from contemporary hymnals, such as that of Bernard of Clairvaux, in that Abelard used completely new and homogeneous material. The songs were grouped by metre, which meant that it was possible to use comparatively few melodies. Only one melody from this hymnal survives,O quanta qualia.^[69]

Abelard also wrote six biblicalplanctus (laments):

• Planctus Dinae filiae Iacob; inc.: Abrahae proles Israel nata (Planctus I)
• Planctus Iacob super filios suos; inc.: Infelices filii, patri nati misero (Planctus II)
• Planctus virginum Israel super filia Jepte Galadite; inc.: Ad festas choreas celibes (Planctus III)
• Planctus Israel super Samson; inc.: Abissus vere multa (Planctus IV)
• Planctus David super Abner, filio Neronis, quem Ioab occidit; inc.: Abner fidelissime (Planctus V)
• Planctus David super Saul et Jonatha; inc.: Dolorum solatium (Planctus VI).

In surviving manuscripts, these pieces have been notated in diastematic neumes which resist reliable transcription. Only Planctus VI was fixed in square notation. Planctus as genre influenced the subsequent development of the lai, a song form that flourished in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Melodies that have survived have been praised as "flexible, expressive melodies [that] show an elegance and technical adroitness that are very similar to the qualities that have been long admired in Abelard's poetry."^[70]

Endnotes

1. Weaver, J. Denny (2001),The Nonviolent Atonement, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
2. Beilby, James K.; Eddy, Paul R. (2009),The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, InterVarsity Press
3. Guilfoy, Kevin, "John of Salisbury", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
4. Peter King, Andrew Arlig (2018). "Peter Abelard".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University. Retrieved 10 October 2019. This source has a detailed description of his philosophical work.
5. Marenbon, John. The Philosophy of Peter Abelard. 1999. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLeahWCX8BkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Philosophy+of+Peter+Abelard&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiq1seRutHuAhWbLc0KHaE5B58Q6AEwAHoECAUQAg
6. Menasse, Robert (22 March 2018). "Enlightenment as a Harmonious Strategy".Versopolis.
7. Gans, Eric. Abelard and Heloise. http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw13/
8. E. Gilson, La morale de l'amour pur, in Abélard et Héloïse, éd. E. Bouyé, Correspondance, p. 30–31, Folio Gallimard, Paris.
9. Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abelard, Peter".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. pp. 25–26.
10. Abelard, Peter.Historia Calamitatum.
11. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, p. 3; Marenbon 2004, p. 14.
12. Mews, Constant J. (1988). "In Search of a Name and Its Significance: A Twelfth-Century Anecdote about Thierry and Peter Abaelard".Traditio.44: 171–200.
13. Marenbon 2004, p. 15.
14. Edward Cletus Sellner (2008).Finding the Monk Within: Great Monastic Values for Today. Paulist Press. pp. 238–.
15. Robertson & Shotwell 1911, p. 40.
16. Letter from Peter the Venerable to Heloise. https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/190.html
17. Russell, Bertrand.The History of Western Philosophy. Simon & Schuster, 1945, p. 436.
18. Fulk, Prior of Deuil, Letter to Peter Abelard. Internet History Sourcebooks Projects. Fordham University. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/fulk-abelard.asp
19. Bovey, Alixe. Women in Medieval Society, 2015. https://www.bl.uk/the-middle-ages/articles/women-in-medieval-society#:~:text=Once%20widowed%2C%20such%20women%20had,veil'%20and%20become%20a%20nun.
20. Wheeler, Bonnie and Mary McLaughlin. The Letters of Heloise and Abelard. Palgrave. 2009.
21. Williams, Harold. The Universe in Your Hand: Teaching Astronomy Using an Astrolabe. 1994. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1996ASPC…89..292W
22. Necrology of the Paraclete, in Enid McLeod,Héloise, London: Chatto & Windus, 2nd edn., 1971, pp. 253, 283-84
23. Kevin Guilfoy, Jeffrey E. Brower (2004).The Cambridge Companion To Abelard. Abelard and monastic reform: Cambridge University Press. p. 25.
24. Robertson & Shotwell 1911, p. 41.
25. David Edward Luscombe. "Peter Abelard". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
26. King, Peter (1992). "Peter Abelard" (PDF).The Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 115. p. 13.
27. Wheeler, Bonnie (2000).Listening to Héloïse: the voice of a twelfth-century woman. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 150–151.
28. John R. Sommerfeldt (2004).Bernard of Clairvaux on the Life of the Mind. Paulist Press. p. 134.
29. Marenbon 2004, p. 17.
30. Davies, Norman (1996).Europe: A history. Oxford University Press. p. 687.
31. Donaldson, Norman and Betty (1980).How Did They Die?. Greenwich House.
32. Burge 2006, p. 276.
33. Burge 2006, pp. 276–277.
34. Levitan, William.Abelard and Heloise: The Letters and Other Writings. 2007. Page 3
35. Geoffrey of Auxerres. Qtd in: Clanchy, MT. A Medieval Life, 1999.
36. Geoffrey of Auxerres. Qtd in: Burge, James.Heloise and Abelard: A New Biography, 2003.
37. The Historia Calamitatum
38. Madigan, Kevin.Medieval Christianity: A New History, 2015, page 165
39. Phillips, Matthew,The Shame of Abelard, 2019. https://wp.cune.edu/matthewphillips/2019/05/20/the-shame-of-peter-abelard/
40. Pies, Ronald (2011). "How To Eliminate Narcissism Overnight".Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience.8 (2): 23–27.
41. Graham, Thomas F. Medieval Minds: Mental health in the Middle Ages, Taylor & Francis, 2019
42. Janega, Eleanor.Kanye West is the Modern Day Peter Abelard (Academic Blog of Medievalist Dr. Eleanor Janega). https://going-medieval.com/2017/05/26/first-blog-post/
43. Krueger, Zachary. Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&contex.t=jur , p. 90
44. Flaver, Christopher.Construction of Feminine Identity in the Catholic Tradition. Lexington Books, 2020.
45. Hager, Mandy. Introducing Heloise (Discussion of published work: Hager, Mandy. Heloise. 2017.). https://mandyhager.com/2017/04/05/introducing-heloise-2/
46. "Abelard."The National Repository, Volume 7, 1880
47. Clanchy, Michael T. Abelard: A Medieval Life, Blackwell, 1999
48. TheHistoria Calamitatum
49. Compayre, Gabriel. Abelard and the Early History of Universities. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Abelard_and_the_Origin_and_Early_History
50. Luscombe, David. Peter Abelard: French Logician and Poet. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Abelard/
51. King, Peter and Andrew Arlig, "Peter Abelard", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/abelard/
52. International Theological Commission, the Vatican. "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised".
53. Marenbon, John. The Philosophy of Peter Abelard, 1999
54. Kramer, Susan R. (2000). "'We Speak to God with our Thoughts': Abelard and the Implications of Private Communication with God".Church History.69 (1): 18–40.
55. Turner, Wendy Joe. Madness in Medieval Law and Custom. 2010.
56. Thomas F. Graham, Medieval Minds: Mental Health in the Middle Ages, 2019.
57. In the Latin categorising of Abelard's work, these are numberedEpistolae 2-8, because theHistoria calamitatum (which takes the form of a letter) is termedEpistolae1.
58. Radice 1947, p. 47.
59. Heloise: a source for Chretien de Troves?' Studi Med. 3a serie, XXVII (1986). 123-46. 12 Letter 1, ed. Muckle, Med.
60. Radice 1947, p. 49.
61. Constant J Mews,Abelard and Héloïse, (Oxford: OUP, 2005), p4
62. Radice 1947, p. 50.
63. Wulstan, David (2002-05-07). "Novi modulaminis melos: the music of Heloise and Abelard".Plainsong and Medieval Music.11 (1): 1–23.Retrieved 2022-06-05.
    For what the Epistolae project at Columbia University calls "a sensible discussion of the problem," see Newman, Barbara (1992). "Authority, authenticity, and the repression of Heloise".Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies.22: 121–157. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
64. Ewald Könsgen:Epistolae duorum amantium: Briefe Abaelards und Heloises? (Mittellateinische Studien und Texte, viii.) Pp. xxxiii + 137. Leiden: Brill, 1974. Cloth, fl. 64
65. "Heloise, abbess of the Paraclete," InEpistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters, ed. Joan M. Ferrante (Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning), published online
66. O'Brien, Peggy. Heloise and Abelard. Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/heloise-and-abelard-the-more-the-story-is-retold-the-deeper-their-grave-in-paris-grows-1.3855724
67. "St. Bernard and Peter Abelard". National Catholic Register – EWTN News, Inc.
68. "Dull is the Star", translated by Stanley Lombardo, in Levitan, William, Abelard and Heloise.
69. Weinrich, Lorenz (2001). "Peter Abelard". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.).The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan.
70. Oliver, Michael (1995). "Review: a CD of Abelard's music".Gramophone.
71. Latin text in L. M. De Rijk, ed,Petrus Abaelardus: Dialectica, 2nd edn, (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1970)
72. English translation in Peter King,Peter Abailard and the Problem of Universals in the Twelfth Century, (Princeton, 1982)
73. The Latin text is printed in Blanche Boyer and Richard McKeon, eds,Peter Abailard: Sic et Non. A Critical Edition, (University of Chicago Press 1977).
74. Latin text in Eligius M. Buytaert and Constant Mews, eds,Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. CCCM13, (Brepols: Turnholt, 1987).
75. Latin text in Eligius M. Buytaert, ed,Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. CCCM12, (Brepols: Turnholt 1969). Substantial portions are translated into English in James Ramsay McCallum,Abelard's Christian Theology, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1948).
76. English translations in Pierre Payer,Peter Abelard: A Dialogue of a Philosopher with aJew and a Christian, (Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Publications, 1979), and Paul Spade,Peter Abelard: Ethical Writings, (Indianapolis: HackettPublishing Company, 1995).
77. English translations in David Luscombe,Ethics, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), and in Paul Spade,Peter Abelard: Ethical Writings, (Indianapolis: HackettPublishing Company, 1995).
78. "Press Release Comedy July 2006″ (PDF).

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