Heloise and Abelard, by Edmund Blair Leighton. 1882
The pursuit of truth — intrepid, fierce, endless. In the face of the greatest obstacles. In the face of a rising tide of ignorance, bigotry and anger. Abelard and Heloise epitomize the conjunction of the ideal pursuit of knowledge with the explosive complications of carnal love. I see them both, living in the 12th century, feeling completely out of step with their times, wanting to change them desperately. Abelard did. Heloise could have, if not for her station in life as a young woman in a segregated land.
But she changed him. He loved her mind and her body, the nexus, blood and spirit. He loved everything she was and said and knew. We, however, are denied the passion of her intellect as he saw it, outside those letters that came later, looking back. The Middle Ages would have forced her to hide the incandescence of her mind all too often, which impacted our ability to really know her now. Why did Abelard fight against his love for her later? Why did he allow his shame and guilt to overwhelm the truth?
Far from perfect. Far from always heroic. Though he went through something that would alter the core of any human being. He had the ultimate excuse. And we finally gain some compromise of sorts, some merger, some overall dynamic encompassing his love, his doubts, his shame and guilt, and her incredible support, forgiveness, resignations. Her incredible loyalty . . .
He was a rock star in his day, before all of that was shattered. Students crowded around him by the hundreds. He used his wit, logic, and great oratory skills to actually change philosophical discourse in the France of his time. In that world, it was possible to defeat someone so decisively in public contests of rhetoric that the effects were similar to our presidential contests. He did. He helped pave the way for the ascension of Aristotle in the next century. Europe would never be the same.
(For an excellent recent study on Aristotle’s impact on the Middle Ages, see Richard E. Rubenstein’s Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Ages.)
Too well known the consequences of his love for Heloise. Too well known her own reduced choices. The convent. The son, Astrolabe. The shift into piousness for him. Away from the intrepid search for truth at all costs.
Are we selfish beyond measure looking back, expecting this person and that person to never fail, to remain liberated, beyond chains, to never cave in to any pressures, any extreme, tragic event? Armchair judges. Scolds and nags, never satisfied with even the momentary appearance of great hearts and minds. As if we would have done more … As if we would have shaken the earth for longer, made more noise, shouted we … are … free until the end of our days!!!
Feet of clay. We all have them at times. The thing is to find enough moments wherein we walk with hard soles to fill a life, or two or three.
Doug (or whom it may concern if you didn’t write this one:)),I enjoy the article a great deal. The romance of Abelard and Heloise is one of my favorite (true)stories in the Occidental legendarium. You ask why Abelard fought against his love for her. Obviously it’s very difficult and indeed presumptuous to pretend to understand another’s motivation. (And I don’t, really.) But one thing not mentioned in the article is the fact that Abelard was battling a theological consensus which was also an authoritarian consensus. The magisterium weighed in heavily against him. So it was not simply a story of star-crossed lovers who could not get over their love for one another, but they stood in an ambivalent relationship to the entire authority/social matrix they lived in. Abelard, among other things, was an individual philosophical and theological virtuoso in an era when virtuosity was more problematic than it has since become. Heloise would have been considered to be the property of her family at that sad juncture in European history, and not a moral agent at all. A completely passive receptacle of honor or dishonor. So everything they were in their relationship shrieked defiance at the establishment. I’m certain that was no easier a burden to bear then than it is now, probably much more so. Just thoughts, but thanks again for a thought provoking and impassioned article…Tony
Tony, thanks.
Yes, all blogging under the cybernym of cuchulain is by me. Doug.
You add a great deal of important context. Do you have any suggestions for further reading? Tragic and fascinating times. Tragic and fascinating story within those times.
thanks, again —
… Doug
It is amazing to think about the obstacles in Abelard’s path. Speaking out about certain things could actually get you killed. The courage it took to do so anyway.
It’s difficult for us to put ourselves in his shoes. Or in Heloise’s, who had her own set of dangerous constraints.