Tuesday, May 5, 2009

It's a love story, baby just say yes

The story of Peter Abelard and Heloise began in France in about the year 1115. Peter was a brilliant theologian, scholastic and philosopher. Heloise was an abbess and known for her knowledge of not only Latin, but also Greek and Hebrew. She was living within the walls of the Cathedral of Notre Dame under the care of her uncle, Fulbert, who was the canon. Peter was a chair at the Cathedral and soon learned of Heloise's beauty and intelligence. He stayed with Heloise and her uncle under the guise of educating her further. The two quickly fell in love, but the relationship interfered with Peter's career and Peter was no longer secretive about their love. Fulbert found then out and insisted that they separated. However, they still met in secret. Then Heloise discovered that she was pregnant and Peter sent her to live in Brittany with his sister. She named their son Astrolabe, after the scientific instrument. Peter proposed a secret marriage to Heloise to appease Fulbert to prevent from marring his career. She initially opposed it, but they did marry. Fulbert disclosed the marriage and Heloise denied it. Peter sent her to become a nun. Fulbert believed that Peter did that because he wanted to be rid of her so he castrated Peter, ending his career. The two wrote letters to each other forming the set of 113 anonymous love letters found in a fifteenth century manuscript represent the correspondence exchanged by Héloïse and Abelard during the earlier phase of their affair.

No comments: