The Letters Of Abelard And Heloise

This letter is thought to have been written around 1132 C.E. Abelard writes autobiographically, recalling his misfortunes to a friend in need of consolation. He details his birth and early life in Brittany and how he chose to give up his inheritance and pursue an education, rather than go into the military. He writes that he, “[…] withdrew from the court of Mars in order to be educated in the lap of Minerva” (3). Abelard travels through the French provinces seeking an education, eventually settling in Paris with his first teacher, William of Champeaux. He argues with his teacher and fellow students over their studies and resolves to set up his own school and best his teacher in a public disputation. After succeeding in this, his reputation and prestige grow, and his student base expands. Abelard then turns to studying divinity with Anselm of Laon. He finds Anselm lacking and begins holding his own lectures on the subject. This brings him into conflict with his fellow students and Anselm, who forbids him from teaching. He then returns to Paris, in order to teach and grow his student base. 

This is where Abelard’s troubles begin, as he grows increasingly proud and yields to “the lusts of the flesh” (9). He refers to becoming acquainted with and resolving to seduce Heloise, a famously learned young woman, by taking her on as his student and living in the house of her uncle and guardian, Fulbert. Their affair becomes public knowledge and leads to Abelard neglecting his teaching. When Heloise becomes pregnant, he takes her to live with his sister until the birth of their son, Astralabe. The birth forces Abelard to come to an agreement with Fulbert, whom he admits to tricking and wronging, and to make amends by secretly marrying Heloise. Though Heloise is strongly opposed to the marriage, and though Fulbert is opposed to its secrecy, Abelard and Heloise return to Paris and wed. According to Abelard, Fulbert reneges on his promise of secrecy and begins to spread news of the marriage. Because this causes friction between niece and uncle, Abelard takes Heloise away to a convent. Fulbert and his kinsmen respond by castrating Abelard, believing him to have renounced the marriage.

Abelard recalls the horror, pain, and shame he feels after being castrated. He is particularly bothered by the crowds that gather outside of his apartment, many of them his pupils, to express their sorrow and sympathy. Despite the fact that “it was shame and confusion and misery rather than any devout wish for conversion” that brings him into the monastic life around 1118 C.E., he undergoes a genuine conversion and devotes himself to theology, first becoming a monk at the abbey of St Denis (18). He notes that Heloise agrees to obey his wishes. She also enters a convent.

Abelard’s fellow monks demand that he continue to teach among them, so he does just that. By continuing to study theology alongside philosophy, he begins to draw criticism from his old rivals, and old feuds reemerge. One of his treatises on the Holy Trinity, which he says students found useful and contained nothing “contrary to the Catholic faith,” draws especially heavy criticism (21). He is brought to trial by his former fellow students, Alberic of Rheims and Lotulf of Lombardy, and is forced to burn his book. Abelard expresses heavy humiliation, grief, and sorrow at having to destroy this treatise, of which he was immensely proud.

Because of various feuds with his fellow monks and the abbot of St Denis, in 1121 C.E., Abelard flees to the neighboring county and comes under the protection of Count Theobald of Champagne, whom he asks to intercede on his behalf with the abbot of St Denis, so that Abelard may receive pardon and permission to live a monastic life “wherever a suitable place could be found” (27). Abelard’s supporters secure this for him, and he is allowed to go into a sort of retirement by establishing his own oratory in Troyes and naming it the Paraclete. 

Abelard writes about the Paraclete as an escape and says that he has finally found refuge. He is able to bring in many students and to work on his theological studies. However, Abelard claims that his fame continued to spread and arouse jealousy in others and incite anxiety in himself. He was so fearful that he “never heard that an assembly of ecclesiastics had met without thinking this was convened to condemn [him]” (33). He even considers leaving Christendom and “going over to the heathen, there to live a quiet Christian life amongst the enemies of Christ” (33).

In order to escape these fears, in 1126 C.E., Abelard accepts the post of abbot of St. Gildas, a remote abbey in Brittany. He notes that “I fell among Christians and monks who were far more savage and wicked than the heathen” (33). He is unsuccessful in his attempts to reform these monks, and he begins to fear that they are plotting to kill him. It is in this desperate situation that Abelard and Heloise are brought back together. Around 1129-1131 C.E., Heloise and her nuns are expelled from their convent at Argenteuil. Abelard resolves to help by inviting them to the Paraclete and giving it to them as a gift. He now refers to Heloise as his “sister,” and not his wife. He reveals that he has returned to St Gildas with a special papal legate in order to force his monks to reform, but he has had no success and has received more threats on his life. He ends by ruminating on the folly of earthly power and how accepting the post and power of an abbot was a mistake, “a sword hanging over [his] head” (41).