The Cloister
Page 40
Sister Célestine pressed her beloved mentor’s arm. She turned to the table, and from the steaming bowl took a cloth and squeezed it free of warm water. She applied the cloth to the brow of the Abbess, who lay back, eyes closed—soothed. Yes, her promise to the Abbot Primate, long ago, was kept. Her promise to Peter. His thought preserved until new thinkers could join him in it.
More absently now, as if entranced, Mother Héloïse said, “I just read of ‘happiness,’ a word that once came glibly from my pen. Happiness for me now consists of two gifts, both coming from you. The first is that protection of his work of which I just spoke. The victory of the wicked will be reversed when men sing of Peter Abelard, who, in the Church of darkness, pointed to the way of light. Men will curse our age for the devils it set loose—a stampede of devils against which Peter Abelard stood alone.”
“Not alone, Mother,” Sister Célestine ventured, but quietly.
“Protect his writings, sister, so that the future can redeem this past.”
“Yes, Mother. You have my vow. I understand.”
“Peter Abelard…” The voice of Héloïse faltered. “…will yet help…Mother Church…to recover herself.”
“But you said two gifts for happiness, Mother. What is the second?”
“Master Peter’s marker.”
“Mother?”
“The marble disc in the pavement.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Side by side with the letter ‘A,’ have the mason carve the letter ‘H.’ ”
Sister Célestine said nothing to this.
Héloïse continued with mustered strength, “Open Peter’s grave. Have it ready. When my Requiem concludes, have each sister approach the bier and bless me with a kiss. Then carry me to Peter.” Héloïse stopped. She clutched the edge of her bed gown and pulled it aside, baring her breast. Her fingers went to the gold ring, nestled in the hollow of her throat. “Take this ring from its cord. Place it on my finger. Remove my habit. Unclothe me fully. Place me naked in the grave with him, to his left side. You will find that he is laid out with his feet to the east. Align my feet likewise, so that when the Lord Christ comes on the Last Day, Peter and I will be together for the universal Resurrection, our mortal bodies made immortal, lifted up as one body—in the Lord.”
Sister Célestine’s ear by now was near the mouth of Mother Abbess—so softly had she been speaking. The silence that came over Héloïse then was absolute.
Acknowledgments
Among the many authors on whose work I drew for this book, the following deserve special acknowledgment: Kevin Madigan, Medieval Christianity: A New History; Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity; Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries; Étienne Gilson, Heloise and Abelard; James Ramsay McCallum, Abelard’s Christian Theology; M. T. Clanchy, Abelard: A Medieval Life; Constant J. Mews, Abelard and Heloise and The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard; Jeffrey E. Brower and Kevin Guilfoy (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Abelard; Eileen C. Sweeney, “Abelard and the Jews,” in Babette S. Hellemans (ed.), Rethinking Abelard; Jeremy Cohen, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity; Norman F. Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages; Philippe Wolff, The Awakening of Europe; Robert Chazan, In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews and From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism; Margaret Collins Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance; Ronald C. Rosbottom, When Paris Went Dark; Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews. The conclusions I draw from these authors, including any erroneous ones, belong to me alone.
My first readers were Alexandra Marshall and William D. Phillips, whose early insights were a crucial help in my finding the way. Others who generously read the work in progress and made important suggestions were Bernard Avishai, Rachel Jacoff, Kevin Madigan, and Milton Gatch. I gratefully acknowledge the help of Barbara Drake Boehm, senior curator for The Met Cloisters, and all of the Cloisters staff. I did research for this book as an Associate of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University. Special thanks to the Center’s director, Homi K. Bhabha, and its administrator, Mary Halpenny-Killip.
I have been more than fortunate to have as my editor Nan A. Talese, to whom I am profoundly grateful. Thanks also to the editors and staff of Nan A. Talese / Doubleday who helped this book at every turn. Tina Bennett, my agent, was the first to encourage this project, and her support never flagged. My gratitude to her is larger than I can say.
I am sustained by my family. Thanks to our son, Patrick; our daughter, Lizzy; her husband, James; and their children, Annie and Julia. This book, like every book I have published across more than forty years, owes its existence to the support I receive every day from my wife, the writer Alexandra Marshall. Thank you, Lexa.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Carroll is the author of twelve novels and eight works of nonfiction. He lives in Boston with his wife, the writer Alexandra Marshall.
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