Heloise

views updated

Heloise

Circa 1100-1164
Wife, Abbess

A Famous Love Affair. Heloise was no more than sixteen years old when she began her studies with the cleric Peter Abelard, the best-known philosopher of his day. She so excelled at her studies in Paris that Peter of Cluny later described her as having “surpassed all women and nearly all men.” Yet, Heloise is mostly remembered for her love of Abelard, who—as lover, husband, and correspondent—became the focus of Heloise’s life.

Heloise and Abelard. As a child, Heloise was educated at the convent school of Argenteuil in France, and then went to Paris to live with her uncle, the canon Fulbert. In 1116 her uncle accepted the thirty-seven-year-old Abelard into his house to serve as Heloise’s tutor. In his autobiographical Historia Calamitatum (Account of My Troubles), Abelard admitted that in lodging with Fulbert his intention had been not to teach, but to seduce, the young Heloise. For her part, Fulbert’s niece offered little resistance to the advances of her charismatic tutor. Their affair went undiscovered for several months before rumors finally reached Fulbert. Abelard was cast out of the house, but the two continued to meet in secret. When Heloise learned she was pregnant, Abelard encouraged her to flee her uncle’s house. She went to stay with Abelard’s family in Brittany, where she bore a son she named Astrolabe. Before the child was born, a conscience-stricken Abelard approached Fulbert with an offer to marry Heloise.

Secret Marriage. Marriage was the only way to appease Fulbert’s anger and preserve Heloise’s honor; nonetheless, Heloise protested vehemently. Her love for Abelard was complete and unselfish, and she wished only to save his reputation. Abelard was a philosopher, a teacher, and a cleric—the lowest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy—and though marriage was not forbidden to him by canon law, it would almost certainly have damaged his career. Celibacy and a complete devotion to study were expected of a man in his position, and Abelard understood this fact as well as Heloise. Despite her protests, he visited Fulbert with his proposal, but with the stipulation that the marriage be kept secret. The uncle agreed, and Heloise and Abelard were wed. Before long, however, Fulbert broke his vow and publicized the marriage. Heloise and her new husband denied the marriage and denounced Fulbert, who responded by venting his wrath on his niece. Finding this situation intolerable, Abelard sent Heloise to the convent at Argenteuil. Though Abelard never intended for her to become a nun there, Fulbert believed that Abelard was discarding his wife and set out to take revenge: hired assailants broke into Abelard’s lodgings at night and castrated him.

Monastic Life. Abelard fled his shame by retreating to a monastery and taking the vows of a monk. He instructed Heloise to do the same. She felt no calling to such a life, but, out of obedience to her husband and guilt for the suffering he had endured, she accepted the veil without hesitation, becoming a nun and later prioress at Argenteuil. In 1128, nine years after Heloise took religious vows, Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis laid claim to the convent where she was staying and expelled the nuns. Hearing of their misfortune, Abelard offered them the use of some lands he owned in Champagne. The sisters built a new convent there, around a chapel called the Paraclete, or “Comforter.” The community of the Paraclete received official recognition from the Pope in 1135, and three years later, under the papacy of Innocent II, Heloise was appointed abbess.

Letters to Abelard. In the early years of her life at the Paraclete, Heloise came across a copy of her husband’s recently written Historia Calamitatum. She is believed to have begun a correspondence with him soon afterward. In her letters she chided her husband for having so long neglected her; she made it clear that her love for him was as constant as ever; she accused herself of hypocrisy in her outward life of virtue, claiming that she held Abelard more dear than God; and she pleaded with him to write to her.

Death and Influence. In 1142, less than a year after their final correspondence, Abelard died. His body was taken to Heloise’s convent, where she saw to it that his tomb was well prepared and that prayers were said for him daily. During the last two decades of her life, Heloise was an admired and capable abbess, earning the regard of popes and fellow monastics. By the time of her death on 16 May 1164 she had overseen, in addition to the affairs of her own convent, the development of six daughter houses of the Paraclete. She was buried beside her beloved Abelard. In 1817 their remains were moved to the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise in Paris. The story of Heloise and Abelard, and especially of Heloise’s love, first became well known with its inclusion in the second part of the Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose, circa 1275), in which Jean de Meun concluded his description of Heloise with the couplet, “Upon my soul, I do not believe / another such woman has ever lived.”