"The Letters of Abelard and Heloise"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the lives and times of the twelfth century lovers Abelard and Heloise, as revealed in the correspondence that has been preserved as "The Letters of Abelard and Heloise." The writer discusses how, in addition to autobiographical information, the forces reshaping European demographics and society during the twelfth century are evident within the pages of the text. The revolutionary new disputation technique in teaching, the emergence of the Cathedral schools, reforms within the Church, the controversial debate surrounding the universals, as well as the censorship of Abelard's work are all well represented within "The Letters of Abelard and Heloise."

From the Paper:

"The first-born son of a Breton knight, Abelard became so enamored with learning that he surrendered his right to primogeniture to his younger brothers in order to pursue his studies. He explains in his Historia calamitatum that he rejected the life of a soldier and "withdrew from the court of Mars in order to kneel at the feet of Minerva," choosing the "conflicts of disputation instead of the trophies of war" (58). He studied under noted scholars, among them Roscelin, Anselm of Laon, and William of Champeaux, and amassed an ever widening group of his own students, before eventually securing the chair of Notre Dame for himself."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Radice, Betty, trans. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. London: Penguin Books, 1974.

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• Book Review # 102499 : "Heloise and Abelard"

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