Abelard and Heloise, After the Fall

After the lives of Peter Abelard and Heloise d'Argenteuil took a catastrophic turn, they both entered cloistered settings.

Abelard retired as a monk at the Abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris, refusing to discuss his actions with the public that had revered him as a scholar and debater. He could not stay away from intellectual pursuits, however, and eventually left Saint-Denis and opened a school in a priory owned by the Abbey. He lectured more on theology and the spiritual, rather than Logic and Dialectic. He discovered what he considered many inconsistencies in church writings, and produced a work he called Sic et Non ("Yes and No") to explain them.

It was another work, the Theologia Summi Boni ("Theology of Supreme Good") that got him in trouble. His explanation of the Trinity differed from the accepted dogma, and he was charged with thinking there was only one person in the Trinity, not three separate entities working as one. His teaching was condemned at a synod in 1121, and he was forced to burn a copy of the Theologia himself. He was sentenced to remain always in a monastery not his own, but it must have been revoked because he quickly returned to Saint-Denis.

In 1122, the newly appointed Abbot Suger allowed Abelard to go live wherever he wished. Suger likely did not want the controversial figure under his roof. Besides, he was annoying his fellow monks with frivolous conjectures about the founding of the monastery. He went to a deserted area of Champagne, built a cabin of reeds, and created a rough oratory dedicated to the Trinity. When his presence became known, students flocked to him for learning. He began to teach again, and the revenue and donations that came as a result led to a building of wood and stone, the Oratory of the Paraclete. He founded a Benedictine monastery there, and taught there for five years

Meanwhile, Heloise was a nun. He had strongly urged Heloise to take vows; she did not have many options in 12th century France. She quickly rose in the ranks, becoming a prioress at Argenteuil, but it was seized by Abbot Suger in 1128 for his monks, offering nothing to the nuns resident there in exchange. Abelard offered her the Abbey of the Paraclete (illustrated above from a 19th century history of France), re-dedicating it as a nunnery, and he moved on to the Abbey at Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys in Brittany. Heloise remained Abbess of Paraclete for the rest of her life.

Saint-Gildas was in a rough area, full of lawlessness; the abbey itself was undisciplined. Abelard did not enjoy his time there, and started teaching again. He must have been back in Paris teaching by 1136, because John of Salisbury mentions listening to him there.

During all the time, he was writing. He revised the Theologia, and wrote other works that also proved to be controversial. Heloise also wrote, and the two wrote letters to each other that were so intellectually stimulating that they actually put them together for publication to educate theorists world about love and theology. I'll tell you more about them next time.