Heloise, prelate nullius

Not the wife of Robert de Molines

Héloïse [c. 1100–01?[1] – 16 May 1163–64?), variously Héloïse d'Argenteuil or Héloïse du Paraclet, was a French nun, philosopher, writer, scholar and abbess.

Summary

"Heloise (c. 1100–1163) ." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Encyclopedia.com. 28 Mar. 2022 <link>

Highly educated French abbess of the 12th century who was the mistress and wife of the medieval philosopher Peter Abelard. Born around 1100; died on May 16, 1163 (some sources cite 1164); educated at convent of Argenteuil; tutored by Peter Abelard, around 1117, in Paris; married Peter Abelard, around 1118 (died 1142). Gave birth to her only child Astrolabe and subsequently married Peter Abelard (c. 1118); became a nun at Argenteuil (1118); installed as abbess of the Paraclete (1129); corresponded with Peter Abelard (early 1130s).

Heloise lived on after Abelard for another 21 years. In the death list of the Paraclete, her demise is noted on May 16 of either 1163 or 1164. …. Heloise was buried in her husband's tomb, and the grave is still visited and honored by many.

Biography

Heloise, extracted from English Wikipedia, 2 April 2022

Héloïse was a renowned "woman of letters" and philosopher of love and friendship, as well as an eventual high-ranking abbess in the Catholic Church. She achieved approximately the level and political power of a bishop in 1147 when she was granted the rank of prelate nullius.[4][5]

She is famous in history and popular culture for her love affair and correspondence with the leading medieval logician and theologian Peter Abelard, who became her colleague, collaborator and husband. She is known for exerting critical intellectual influence upon his work and posing many challenging questions to him such as those in the Problemata Heloissae.[6]

Family

Her family background is largely unknown. She was the ward of her maternal uncle (avunculus) Canon Fulbert of Notre Dame and the daughter of a woman named Hersinde, who is sometimes speculated to have been Hersint of Champagne (Lady of Montsoreau and founder of the Fontevraud Abbey) or possibly a lesser known nun called Hersinde at the convent of St. Eloi (from which the name "Heloise" would have been taken).[26][27]

Romantic liaison

In lieu of university studies, Canon Fulbert arranged for Heloise's private tutoring with Peter Abelard, who was then a leading philosopher in Western Europe and the most popular secular canon scholar (professor) of Notre Dame. Abelard was coincidentally looking for lodgings at this point. A deal was made—Abelard would teach and discipline Heloise in place of paying rent.

Abelard tells of their subsequent illicit relationship, which they continued until Héloïse became pregnant. Abelard moved Héloïse away from Fulbert and sent her to his own sister, Denise,[38] in Brittany, where Héloïse gave birth to a boy, whom she called Astrolabe (which is also the name of a navigational device that is used to determine a position on Earth by charting the position of the stars).[39]

Abelard agreed to marry Héloïse to appease Fulbert, although on the condition that the marriage should be kept secret so as not to damage Abélard's career. Heloise insisted on a secret marriage due to her fears of marriage injuring Abelard's career. Likely, Abelard had recently joined Religious Orders (something on which scholarly opinion is divided), and given that the church was beginning to forbid marriage to priests and the higher orders of clergy (to the point of a papal order re-affirming this idea in 1123),[40] public marriage would have been a potential bar to Abelard's advancement in the church. Héloïse was initially reluctant to agree to any marriage, but was eventually persuaded by Abelard.[41] Héloïse returned from Brittany, and the couple was secretly married in Paris. As part of the bargain, she continued to live in her uncle's house.

Tragic turn of events

Heloise takes the habit at Argenteuil

Fulbert immediately went back on his word and began to spread the news of the marriage. Héloïse attempted to deny this, arousing his wrath and abuse. Abelard rescued her by sending her to the convent at Argenteuil, where she had been brought up. Héloïse dressed as a nun and shared the life of the nuns, though she was not veiled. Fulbert, infuriated that Heloise had been taken from his house and possibly believing that Abelard had disposed of her at Argenteuil in order to be rid of her, arranged for a band of men to break into Abelard's room one night and castrate him. In legal retribution for this vigilante attack, members of the band were punished, and Fulbert, scorned by the public, took temporary leave of his canon duties (he does not appear again in the Paris cartularies for several years).[42]

After castration,[43] filled with shame at his situation, Abélard became a monk in the Abbey of St Denis in Paris. At the convent in Argenteuil, Héloïse took the veil. She quoted dramatically from Cornelia's speech in Lucan's Pharsalia: "Why did I marry you and bring about your fall? Now...see me gladly pay."[44]

It is commonly portrayed that Abelard forced Heloise into the convent due to jealousy. Yet, as her husband was entering the monastery, she had few other options at the time,[45] beyond perhaps returning to the care of her betrayer Fulbert, leaving Paris again to stay with Abelard's family in rural Brittany outside Nantes, or divorcing and remarrying (most likely to a non-intellectual, as canon scholars were increasingly expected to be celibate). Entering religious orders was a common career shift or retirement option in twelfth century France.[46] Her appointment as a nun, then prioress, and then abbess was her only opportunity for an academic career as a woman in 12th century France, her only hope to maintain cultural influence, and her only opportunity to stay in touch with or benefit Abelard. Examined in a societal context, her decision to follow Abelard into religion upon his direction, despite an initial lack of vocation, is less shocking.

Astrolabe, son of Abelard and Heloise

Shortly after the birth of their child, Astrolabe, Heloise and Abelard were both cloistered. Their son was thus brought up by Abelard's sister (soror), Denise, at Abelard's childhood home in Le Pallet. His name derives from the astrolabe, a Persian astronomical instrument said to elegantly model the universe[47] and which was popularized in France by Adelard. He is mentioned in Abelard's poem to his son, the Carmen Astralabium, and by Abelard's protector, Peter the Venerable of Cluny, who wrote to Héloise: "I will gladly do my best to obtain a prebend in one of the great churches for your Astrolabe, who is also ours for your sake".

'Petrus Astralabius' is recorded at the Cathedral of Nantes in 1150, and the same name appears again later at the Cistercian abbey at Hauterive in what is now Switzerland. Given the extreme eccentricity of the name, it is almost certain these references refer to the same person. Astrolabe is recorded as dying in the Paraclete necrology on 29 or 30 October, year unknown, appearing as "Petrus Astralabius magistri nostri Petri filius" (Peter Astrolabe, son of our magister [master] Peter).[48]

Later life

Heloise rose in the church, first achieving the level of prioress of Argenteuil. At the disbandment of Argenteuil and seizure by the monks of St Dennis under Abbot Suger, Heloise was transferred to the Paraclete, where Abelard had stationed himself during a period of hermitage. (He had dedicated his chapel to the Paraclete, the holy spirit, because he "had come there as a fugitive and, in the depths of my despair, was granted some comfort by the grace of God".[49]%29 They now rededicated it as a convent, and Abelard moved on to St. Gildas in Brittany where he became abbot. Heloise became prioress and then abbess of the Paraclete, finally achieving the level of prelate nullius (roughly equivalent to bishop). Her properties and daughter-houses (including the convents of Sainte-Madeleine-de-Traîne (c. 1142), La Pommeray (c. 1147-51?), Laval (ca. 1153), Noëfort (before 1157), Sainte-Flavit (before 1157), Boran / Sainte-Martin-aux-Nonnettes (by 1163)[50]) extended across France, and she was known as a formidable businesswoman.

Influence on literature

Héloïse is accorded an important place in French literary history and in the development of feminist representation. While few of her letters survive, those that do have been considered a foundational "monument" of French literature from the late thirteenth century onwards. Her correspondence, more erudite than it is erotic, is the Latin basis for the Bildungsroman and a model of the classical epistolary genre, and which influenced writers as diverse as Chretien de Troyes, Madame de Lafayette, Choderlos de Laclos, Rousseau and Dominique Aury.

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heloise
• "Heloise (c. 1100–1163) ." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Encyclopedia.com. 28 Mar. 2022 <link> cites:
  • Muckle, J.T., trans. The Story of Abelard's Adversities: A Translation with notes of the Historia Calamitatum. Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1964.
  • Radice, Betty, trans. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. NY: Penguin Books, 1974.
  • Dronke, Peter. Abelard and Heloise in Medieval Testimonies. W.P. Ker Lecture no. 26, University of Glasgow Press, 1976.
  • ——. Women Writers of the Middle Ages. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
  • Gilson, Etienne. Heloise and Abelard. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1960.
  • Shahar, Shulamith. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages. London: Routledge, 1983.
  • Southern, R.W. Medieval Humanism and Other Studies. NY: Harper Torchbacks, 1970.
• http://historicaldilettante.blogspot.com/2012/05/portrait-of-absent...
• https://thevampireswife.com/blogs/stuff/heloise-abelard-love-hurts
• Death of a Medieval Lover, Peter Abelard, lover of Heloise, died on 21 April 1142. Mathew Lyons | Published in History Today Volume 71 Issue 4 April 2021. < link >
• Lombardi, Esther. "Abelard and Heloise." ThoughtCo, Jul. 29, 2021, http://thoughtco.com/abelard-and-heloise-735128.
• “Abelard and Heloise at Père Lachaise in Paris.” Medieval Histories NATURE HISTORY HERITAGE. 29/12/2016. < link >
• B. M. Cook, Abelard and Heloise: some notes towards a family tree archive, Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 26, no 6, p. 208, London, June 1999.
• Paraclete Abbey, French Wikipedia. The Paraclete Abbey, usually called Le Paraclet or Paraclete de Nogent, is a prestigious Benedictine female abbey1 founded by Abelard and Héloïse in the 12th century in Champagne away from Quincey, a village now attached to the municipality of Ferreux-Quincey, in the diocese of Troyes, department of Dawn. Head of the specifically female first order, the Paraclete illustrated a monastic model based on scholarship, scholarly vocal music and the small number of professed as well as subsidiaries, thus foreshadowing Saint-Cyr. … List of abbesses of the Paraclet note 21. 1: 1135-1164: Heloise
• “Heloise & Abelard.” Bill’s Blog. (31 May 2016) < link >