Heloise & Abelard
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The letters of Heloise and Abelard reveal the profound love and romance of two medieval individuals, the former a daughter of an important church official and eventually a nun and the latter a priest and eventually a monk. Their letters are significant from both of their perspectives. This is because Abelard argued against prevailing church doctrine inspired by Anselm and St. Augustine by arguing that Christ was not sacrificed for man’s sins, but by teaching and example he inspired men to love, conciliation and forgiveness. He also argued for a personal or individualist perspective on sexual ethics as opposed to the conventional legal or juridical interpretation. Heloise also believed in free love and her viewpoint on marriage is significant because she finds it an impediment to free love, a legal binding that can add no significance whatsoever to real love except to imprison free physical love. We will see that while these viewpoints caused the vilification of Abelard and were responsible for driving Heloise to a nunnery in the medieval era, today these views are more tolerated within the Roman Catholic Church.In the letters of Heloise to Abelard, we discover a self-view of a female who exists solely to fulfill the wishes and desires of her lover. We see in Abelard a lover who Heloise loves selflessly without regard for her own needs. We also see a woman who would rather be a mistress or a whore than enter into a marriage-bond.
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s to Heloise also demonstrate a leaning toward the personal as opposed to the legal viewpoint of Christian doctrine when looking at sexual ethics. In letter number four we see him repeat a reminder from St. Augustine “The Lord said ‘I am the truth’ not ‘I am the custom’” (Radice 142). In other words, it is the sexual customs of the Church which he feels are not the truth, particularly with regard to sexual ethics. Yet, we see Abelard berate Heloise in this letter because she expressed sentiments that are beneath the depths of love Abelard believes the pair shares. Done logically and with evidence like a true philosopher should, Abelard thanks Heloise for her prayers but then reminds her of a complaint she lodged against him. She accused Abelard of “making” her “share” his anxieties and fears. Before launching into the unworthiness of this sentiment, he rewrites a passage from an earlier letter in which she asked him to share his sorrows with her to make them easier to bare. Then he explains his position:
Why then do you accuse me of making you share my anxiety when I was forced to do so at your own behest? When I am suffering in despair of my life, would it be fitting for you to be joyous? Would you want to be partners
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Approximate Word count = 1513
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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