Heloise

by Hager, Mandy

  Honorius II (Pope) (1060–1130), born Lamberto Scannabecchi. Pope from 1124 to his death in 1130.

  Hrotsvit, also known as Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (c. 935–c. 1002), tenth-century German secular canoness, as well as a dramatist and poet who lived and worked at Gandersheim Abbey, Germany.

  Hugh of Auxerre, said by some to be cousin of Bernard of Clairvaux.

  Hyacinth Boboni (c. 1100–1198), supporter of Abelard and adviser to Cardinal Guy of Castello, subsequently Pope Celestine III 1191–1198.

  Innocent II (Pope), born Gregorio Papareschi. Pope from 1130 to his death in 1143.

  Ivo of Chartres (c. 1040–1115), Bishop of Chartres 1090–1115.

  Jerome (Saint) (c. 347–420), Catholic priest, confessor, theologian and historian, who also became a Doctor of the Church.

  Kalman of Rumigny, character based on Manegold of Alsace, who wrote commentaries on classical and scriptural texts as a wandering scholar in northern France 1070–90; reported to have had a wife and daughters so learned that they had students of their own, before becoming a canon regular at Lautenbach in Alsace.

  Lotulf of Novara, pupil of Anselm of Laon and master of the school at Rheims.

  Louis the Pious (778–20 June 840), King of Aquitaine from 781. Also King of the Franks and co-Emperor (as Louis I) with his father, Charlemagne, of the Holy Roman Empire from 813.

  Louis VI (Louis the Fat) (1081–1137), King of the Franks 1108–1137.

  Louis VII (1120–18 September 1180), King of the Franks 1137–1180.

  Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) (39 AD–65 AD), Roman poet, born in Corduba.

  Matilda of Carinthia (1105–1160) Countess of Blois and Champagne; wife of Thibaud II of Champagne, mother of ten children, including Adele of Champagne, Queen of France.

  Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC–17/18 AD), Roman poet during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace. Author of Heroides and The Metamorphoses (among other poems).

  Peter Abelard (1079–1142) French scholastic philosopher, theologian and pre-eminent logician. Also a composer. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as ‘the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century’.

  Peter the Venerable (c. 1092–1156), Abbott of Cluny 1122–1156. Protector of Abelard after his trial at Sens.

  Philip I (1052–1108), King of the Franks 1060–1108.

  Porchaire (c. 1081–1150), brother of Abelard.

  Porphyry (c. 234–c. 305 AD), Greek philosopher whose work included Isagoge, an introduction to logic and philosophy.

  Ramon Berenguer II (1053/1054–1082), Count of Barcelona 1076–1082.

  Raoul (c. 1080–1129), brother of Abelard.

  Rashi (1040–1105), a medieval French rabbi and author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud and commentary on the Tanakh or Torah.

  Robert of Arbrissel (c. 1045–1116), an itinerant preacher, and founder of the abbey of Fontevraud.

  Roland (died 778), Frankish military leader under Charlemagne, responsible for defending France’s frontier against the Bretons.

  Roscelin of Compiègne (c. 1050–c. 1125), philosopher and teacher said to be Abelard’s first master. Accused of treason at Soissons in 1092.

  Seneca Lucius Annaeus, Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC–65 AD), Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist and humourist.

  Sic et Non, an early scholastic text whose title translates as ‘Yes and No’, written by Peter Abelard.

  Stephen de Garlande (c. 1070–1147), patron of Peter Abelard. Cleric and soldier, at various times Canon of Notre-Dame, Bishop of Beauvais, Archdeacon of Notre-Dame, Chancellor, Dean of Sainte-Genevieve, Royal Seneschal, Dean of Orléans — his fate very up and down depending on whether he was currently in favour with king and Church.

  Stephen of Senlis (d. 6 May 1142), Archdeacon of Notre-Dame, Paris. Elected Bishop of Paris in 1123 and held the bishopric until his death.

  Terence or Publius Terentius Afer (c. 195/185 BC–c. 159 BC), playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent.

  Thibaud, Theobald the Great, Thibaut de Blois (1090–1152), Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV from 1102, and Count of Champagne and of Brie as Theobald II from 1125. In 1123, he married Matilda of Carinthia.

  William of Champeaux (c. 1070–1122), French philosopher and theologian; studied under Anselm of Laon and Roscelin; teacher and rival of Peter Abelard. In 1108, he resigned as archdeacon of Paris and Master of Notre-Dame, and retreated to the shrine of St Victor to form the abbey of St Victor.

  PERMISSION WAS GRANTED TO USE THE FOLLOWING EXCERPTS:

  Abelard and Heloise: Great Medieval Thinkers, Constant Mews, by permission of Oxford University Press, USA

  Heloise and Abelard: A new biography, Burge, J., San Francisco, HarperCollins, 2006

  Heloise, the Paraclete liturgy and Mary Magdalene, Constant Mews. Plainsong & Medieval Music 11.1 (Apr 2002): 25-35

  Medieval Latin Lyrics and Peter Abelard by Helen Waddell. Reproduced with the kind permission of Louise Anson, executor of Helen Waddell’s literary estate.

  Peter Abelard: Ethical Writings, trans Paul Vincent Spade and Abelard and Heloise: The Letters and Other Writings, trans William Levitan: Reprinted with permission from Hackett Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

  The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard, Constant Mews, published 2008, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan

  Cook, Brenda M, One Astralabe or two? The mystery of Abelard’s son, Paper dated June 1999.

  Cook, Brenda M, Abelard and Heloise. Some notes towards a family tree, Vol 26 No 6 Genealogists’ Magazine, June 1999.

  Drewyer, Susan, OSB, The Education of Heloise in Twelfth-Century France (2006) School of Theology, Seminary Graduate Papers/Thesis, Paper 15.

  Westley Bush, Paul, The Consolidation of Local Authority Through The Defense of The Church in The Royal Domain of France Under Louis VI (1101-1137), Master of Arts Thesis, Oklahoma State University 2007.

  MAIN REFERENCES

  Abélard, Peter, trans. H. A. Bellows, The Story of My Misfortunes: The Autobiography of Peter Abélard, New York, MacMillan Publishers, 1922.

  Abélard, Peter, trans. P. V. Spade, Ethical Writings: Ethics and dialogue between a philosopher, a Jew and a Christian, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, 1995.

  Abélard, Peter, Sic et Non, trans. W. J. Lewis (aided by the helpful comments and suggestions of S. Barney) from the Latin text in the critical edition of Sic et Non, edited by Blanche B. Boyer and Richard McKeon, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1976.

  Abélard, Peter and Héloïse d’Argentieul, Abelard and Heloise: The letters and other writings, trans. William Levitan, Stanley Lombardo and Barbara Thorburn, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.

  Anonymous translation, circa 1722 (though possibly John Hughes of London), The Letters of Abelard and Heloise.

  Arisotle, trans F.H. Peters (1881), The Nicomachean Ethics, London, C.K. Paul.

  Burge, James, Heloise and Abelard: A new biography, New York, HarperCollins, 2006 (I highly recommend this very readable biography).

  Byfield, Ted (ed), ‘Bernard of Clairvaux, more powerful than pope or prince’ in The Christians: A Glorious Disaster, Christian History Project, 2003.

  Chua, Sharon Jane Go, ‘Negotiations and Love Songs: Héloïse and the question of religious authenticity’, Master’s thesis, Georgetown University, Washington, July 2009.

  Clairvaux, Bernard of, tans. Samuel J. Eales, Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, John Hodges, 1904.

  Clanchy, M. T., Abelard: A medieval life, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1997.

  Cook, Brenda M., ‘One Astralabe or Two? The mystery of Abelard’s son’, paper dated June 1999.

  Cook, Brenda M., ‘Abelard and Heloise. Some notes towards a family tree’, Genealogists’ Magazine, 26(6), June 1999.

  Drewyer, Susan, OSB, The Education of Heloise in Twelfth-Century France, School of Theology,
Seminary Graduate Papers/Thesis, Paper 15, 2006.

  Euripides, trans. E.P. Coleridge (1910), The Medea, London, G. Bell and Sons.

  Gilson, Étienne, Héloïse and Abélard, Michigan, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1960.

  Hamilton, Elizabeth, Héloïse, New York, Doubleday and Co, 1967.

  Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (1715-20), The Iliad, Bernard Lintot.

  Lucan, trans. Sir Edward Riley (1896), Pharsalia, Longmans, Green and co.

  McCabe, Joseph, Peter Abélard, London, Gerald Duckworth and Co, 1901.

  McLeod, Enid, Héloïse: A biography, London, Chatto and Windus, 1971.

  Marebon, John, The Philosophy of Peter Abelard, Trinity College, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  Medieval Sourcebook: Guibert de Nogent Autobiography http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/guibert-vita.asp.

  Mews, C. J., Abélard and Héloïse: Great medieval thinkers, New York, Oxford University Press, 2005.

  Mews, C. J., ‘Heloise, the Paraclete Liturgy and Mary Magdalene’, Plainsong and Medieval Music 11(1) (April 2002): 25–35.

  Mews, C. J., The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard, New York, Palgrave, 1999.

  Ovid, trans. Henry T. Riley (1885), The Amores, London, G. Bell and Sons.

  Ovid, trans. Henry Cromwell (1709), The Amores.

  Ovid, trans. by Grant Showerman (1914), Heroides, http://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidHeroides1.html.

  Ovid, trans. Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden et al (1717), Metamorphoses, http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.html.

  Ovid, trans. Brookes More (1942), Metamorphoses, book 1, lines 488–513, http://home.ubalt.edu/ntygfit/ai_01_pursuing_fame/ai_01_tell/ovid_metamorphoses_.htm

  Radice, Betty (ed.), The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse, Middlesex, Penguin Books, 1974.

  St Augustine, trans. by H. Browne, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 3, edited by Philip Schaff, New York, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1312.htm

  Waddell, Helen, Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, London, Constable and Co Ltd, 1929.

  Waddell, Helen, Peter Abelard, London, Constable and Co Ltd, 1933.

  Ward, John O. and Neville Chiavaroli, ‘The Young Héloïse and Latin Rhetoric’ in Bonnie Wheeler (ed.), Listening to Héloïse: The voice of a twelfth-century woman, New York, St Martin’s Press, 2000.

  Wheeler, Bonnie (ed.), Listening to Héloïse: The voice of a twelfth-century woman, New York, St Martin’s Press, 2000.

  Westley Bush, Paul, ‘The Consolidation of Local Authority Through the Defense of the Church in the Royal Domain of France Under Louis VI (1101–1137)’, Master of Arts thesis, Oklahoma State University 2007.

  William IX Duke of Aquitaine (1071–1126), http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/guilhen_de_peiteu_09.php

  ENDNOTES

  CHAPTER 1

  ‘And the angel …’: Luke 1:28 King James Bible (KJV).

  CHAPTER 2

  ‘Let the woman …’: 1 Timothy 2:11-12 KJV.

  ‘By day mine …’: ‘Ms Beauvais’, in– Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, translated by Helen Waddell, p23: All the poems used from this collection are reproduced with the kind permission of Louise Anson, executor of Helen Waddell’s literary estate.

  ‘Awake, O north …’: Song of Solomon 4:16 KJV.

  ‘We want it …’: Bishop Galo of Paris, Charter concerning the Convent of St. Eloi, cited in Heloise and Abelard: A new biography, by James Burge.

  ‘Say unto wisdom …’: Proverbs 7:4 KJV.

  ‘Let not thine …’: Proverbs 7:25-26 KJV.

  ‘As for myself …’: Penelope to Ulysses from Ovid’s Heroides, translated by Grant Showerman.

  CHAPTER 3

  ‘Oh nightingale, be …’: Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, p227.

  details of Paris adapted from Peter Abélard, by Joseph McCabe.

  ‘learning is an ornament …’: Aristotle.

  ‘He immured the …’: Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.523-6, translated by Brookes More.

  CHAPTER 4

  ‘On all sides …’: Virgil’s Aeneid, translated by Theodore C. Williams.

  ‘going hither and …’: Laodamia to Protesilaus in Ovid’s Heroides, translated by Grant Showerman.

  Love is a …’: Ovid’s Heroides, translated by Grant Showerman.

  ‘my heart is …’: ibid.

  details of Abelard’s school adapted from Peter Abélard, p68-69.

  details of Abelard’s students, ibid, p66-67.

  ‘I do not …’: Abelard: A Medieval Life, M.T. Clanchy p 107, quoting Abelard, Theologia Summi Boni p123 lines 232-6 and 243-6.

  discussions on identity and existence, adapted from Heloise & Abelard: A new biography, p55.

  CHAPTER 5

  ‘Sudden is winter …’: ‘Benedictbeuern’, Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, p251.

  discussion of ‘intention’ taken from Ethical Writings, translated by Paul Vincent Spade, p23.

  ‘For he who …’: The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, translated by F. H. Peters (1893).

  ‘The boaster seems …’: ibid.

  ‘Speak out, hide …’: The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, translated by H.R. James.

  ‘Let me kiss …’: Song of Solomon 1:2 KJV.

  ‘Let the day …’: Job 3.3 KJV.

  ‘Woe is me …’: Jeremiah 15 KJV.

  discussion of stories taken from ‘First Letter (Heloise to Abelard)’, anonymous translation possibly by John Hughes.

  ‘How shall he …’: Mediaeval Latin Lyrics.

  ‘Thus gently sang …’: Boethius ‘On Consolation’.

  ‘And here no …’: Petronius Arbiter, Mediaeval Latin Lyrics.

  CHAPTER 6

  ‘May the Bestower …’: ‘Letter 5’ The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard, translated by Constant J. Mews.

  ‘Today a cock …’: adapted from Peter Abélard.

  ‘Of all things …’: The Medea of Euripides, translated by E.P. Coleridge.

  ‘I saw the …’: Amos 9 KLV.

  ‘Love suffers long …’: I Corinthians 13:4 NKJV.

  discussion of being ignorant of Christ adapted from Peter Abélard’s Ethical Writings, pp23-24.

  ‘Father, forgive them …’: Luke 23:34 KJV.

  ‘I will give …’: Acontius to Cydippe Ovid’s Heroides.

  ‘What was the …’: ibid.

  ‘Is this the …’: Cydippe to Acontius, ibid.

  ‘I met with …’: ibid.

  ‘If I wrong …’: Acontius to Cydippe, ibid.

  ‘To his brightest …’: ‘Letter 6’, The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘Your presence is …’: ‘Letter 21’, ibid.

  ‘What of today’s …’: Guibert de Nogent, Autobiography, Medieval Sourcebook

  ‘Her name reflects …’: ‘Dull is the Star’, in Abelard and Heloise: The letters and other writings, translated by William Levitan, Stanley Lombardo and Barbara Thorburn, p279.

  ‘I rue the …’: ibid.

  Abelard’s statement on philosophers and chastity, taken from The Story of My Misfortunes: The Autobiography of Peter Abelard, translated by Henry Adams Bellows, p15.

  ‘For not everyone …’: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 3, translated by H. Browne.

  ‘Between believing and …’: ibid.

  CHAPTER 7

  ‘To his beloved …’: ‘Letter 28’, The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘I have missed …’: ‘Letter. 77’, ibid.

  ‘Through the thick …’: Homer, The Iliad, Book 22, translated by Alexander Pope.

  ‘To the singular …’: ‘Letter 2’, The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘may the first time …’: ‘Letter 8’ ibid .

  ‘Flee fornication. Every …’: 1 Corinthians 6:18 KJV.

  ‘Let me speak …’: ‘Letter 25’, The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘Socrates is a �
��’: From Abelard and Héloïse: Great Medieval Thinkers by Constant J Mews.

  ‘Dagobert is human …’: adapted from Heloise & Abelard: A new biography.

  ‘This is the …’: adapted from Abelard and Héloïse: Great Medieval Thinkers, footnote 5.

  ‘The lamb leaps …’: Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 1, lines 488-513, translated by Brookes More.

  ‘Ah God, ah …’: ‘Petronius Arbiter’, Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, p21.

  ‘When heavy sleep …’: Ovid: The Loves: Book III Elegy V: A Dream, translated by Henry Cromwell.

  CHAPTER 8

  ‘No man can …’: Matthew 6:24 KJV.

  ‘All you can …’: the essence of Robert of Arbrissel’s final words adapted from his letter to Ermengarde of Anjou, translated by Bruce L. Venarde and Joan Ferrante and others.

  ‘Life is short …’: combination of quotes from St. Jerome.

  CHAPTER 9

  ‘To his only …’: from ‘Letters 37 and 38c’, The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘Just as the …’: from ‘Letter 45’, ibid.

  ‘Without you I …’: from ‘Letter 50’, ibid.

  ‘I rue the …’: ‘Dull is the Star’, Abelard and Heloise: The letters and other writings.

  ‘And the daughter …’: Leviticus 21 KJV.

  ‘To his most …’: ‘Letter 93’, The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘I am paying …’: ‘Letter 106’, ibid.

  ‘Ever since we …’: ‘Letter 84’, ibid.

  ‘The thing that …’: Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV.

  ‘I am carried …’: ‘Letter 112’ The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard.

  ‘My colour had …’: Ovid’s Heroides.