WEBVTT - Abelard and Heloise 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:15.040 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.520 I'm Tracy the Wilson and I'm Holly from today. We 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.480 have something that has been for request of listeners. It 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.320 was also something I planned to do, and that is 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:31.040 the story of Abelard and Heloise. So. Abelard was a poet, 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.680 of philosopher and a theologian, and he was born uh 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.760 in Brittany, which is in northwest France today, in ten 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.879 seventy nine. And in the words of the Stanford Encyclopedia 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.839 of Philosophy, he was quote the pre eminent philosopher and 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.280 theologian of the twelfth century. Helloise was one of his students, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.240 and she was born right around the turn of the 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.520 twelfth century, and she was a respected abbess of a 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.279 prominent community of nuns. So they sort of had their 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:01.680 own lives there. But they are best known today for 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:07.080 their very tragic love story. It's been commemorated in poems, songs, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.960 novels and films. If you've ever seen Being John Malkovich, 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.280 you may even remember the Avalarde and Hiloise puppet show 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.840 that features in that film. Um, this is a tragic 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.280 love story. It's one. I described the plot of it 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.880 to the boyfriend over the weekend, and every time I 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:25.640 would sort of get to a turning point, he would 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.120 go and then everyone's okay with that? Right? No, um, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:34.880 this is complete. That's so hopeful, you know, honey. They 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.920 were not okay with that. It's complete with lovers who 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.680 were forced to part, a secret marriage, a castration, and 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.600 repeated exhumations, which is why we're talking about it right 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.760 before Valentine's Day. What's more romantic than an exclamation? Really, 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.040 I know, Well, the exhumations actually are kind of romantic 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.560 in a way, So we will get to that towards 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.240 the end of the episode. I'm laughing that awkward silent 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.480 laugh are known always comes out. My face is just 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.760 frozen in this odd scowl. Yeah, as as is often 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:07.840 the case, we're talking about this story because I kind 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.320 of love it, but it is very sad and and 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:16.320 disturbing in many ways. So yes, so we'll kick it 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.600 off with sort of the background of the whole thing, 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.080 and we should say at the front, we don't really 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.200 know very much about Heloise's life before she met Abelard. 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.680 We do not even know the identity of her parents. 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.200 On the other hand, Abelard had really made a name 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.480 for himself before Heloise was even born, and he wrote 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:36.720 his life story down in a letter which is known 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.840 as Historia calamitatum, or the Story of My Misfortunes. So 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.359 Pierre Abillard, also known as Peter Abelard, was the son 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.360 of a knight and his family was on the lower 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.600 wrungs of the nobility. His father was an educated man 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:54.600 and took pains to make sure that all of his 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.560 children were educated too, But as the eldest son, Abillard 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.160 was really meant to follow in his father's knightly footsteps, 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.920 and in doing so he would also be receiving a 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:11.200 sizeable inheritance. However, what Abbillard really loved was letters and learning, 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.000 and he gave up all of this potential knighthood to 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.880 become a philosopher. And as he described it, quote, I 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.480 fled utterly from the court of Mars that I might 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.360 win learning in the bosom of Minerva, which is a 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.200 lovely sentiment. This quite lovely. There are many lovely sentiments 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.280 in this story to go with the parts that are horrifying. 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.600 Um he became an inherent of Aristotle, also known as 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:40.080 a peripatetic, and the peripatetics purportedly got their name from 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.800 Aristotle's habit of pacing around while he was teaching, but 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.600 it also came to just generally described people who moved 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.000 around a lot, which applied to Abelard as well. By 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.800 the time he met Heloise, he'd spent years studying and 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:59.120 teaching Aristotelian philosophy and large logic all over what is 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.240 now France, and he had developed his own philosophy of language, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.200 and along the way he studied in Paris under William 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.880 of Shampoo, who was another prominent theologian and logician at 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.920 the time, and it became the first of many conflicts 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:17.360 between Abelard and another public figure. Allard really picked apart 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.760 and debated William's teachings, and when he Abillard was judged 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.240 to be the winner, he was quite boastful about it 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.400 and unfortunately tried to shame and embarrass William. Not the 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.360 most noble behavior, uh and this simultaneously increased Abalard's reputation 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:36.080 and it caused him some understandable problems in the intellectual community. 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.480 It was kind of his standard way of relating to people. 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.080 He had a similar experience not long after with another 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.440 teacher and Salm of Leone, who he sought out to 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:51.520 learn from before later becoming his arrival. After leaving Leon, 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.120 Abillard went to Paris again and became scholar and residence 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.680 at Notre Dame. And that's when Heloise. His uncle Faubet, 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.159 sent Heloise to abb Lard for tutoring. Full Bear was 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.960 a cannon, which is a type of clergyman, so at 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.120 this point in the story, Abillard would have been about 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.640 thirty eight years old. Heloise's age is kind of subject 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.400 to debate because we don't know exactly when she was born. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:19.320 It's cited as anywhere between seventeen and twenty five. And 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:24.200 here's how Abelard described Heloise in his Historia Calamitatum quote 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.800 of no mean beauty, she stood out above all by 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.320 reason of her abundant knowledge of letters. Now, this virtue 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.760 is rare among women, and for that very reason it 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.400 doubly graced the maiden and made her the most worthy 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.719 of renown in the entire kingdom. It was this young 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.760 girl whom I, after carefully considering all those qualities which 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.200 are wont to attract lovers, determined to unite with myself 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.839 in the bonds of love, and indeed the thing seemed 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.000 to me very easy to be done. Meanwhile, he described 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.280 himself as quote possessed of such advantages of youth and 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.520 comeliness that no matter what woman I might favor with 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:07.839 my love, I dreaded rejection of none. Not really uh 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.279 short on confidence. So the pair started out with a 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.400 written courtship, and eventually they wanted to have more face 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.080 to face conversations with one another. So Abillard convinced Heloise's 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.120 uncle to offer him lodgings in his house, which was 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.960 also near the school where he taught, and well, they're 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.839 basically gave Abelard free reign over Heloise's education. He wrote, quote, 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.680 the man's simplicity was nothing short of astounding to me. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.040 I should not have been more smitten with wonder if 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.520 he had entrusted a tender lamb to the care of 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:43.160 a ravenous wolf. So that, to me sounds a little alarming, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.120 but it's less romantic and more like, Yeah, he seems 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.120 a little creepy, But his description of their developing relationship 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.960 sounds a little bit less predatory because he says we 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.840 were united first in the dwelling that sheltered our love 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.200 and then in the hearts that burned with it, under 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.320 the pretext of study, we spent our hours and the 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.320 happiness of love. Heloise's point of view at the very 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.000 start of their relationship, really his, was not documented. Some 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.560 scholars argue that she was a willing participant, but others 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.080 point out passages from letters in which Abelard says that 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:23.200 he was sort of coercive and demanding, but in the 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:28.600 end she insisted that she loved him passionately and completely, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.840 and their time together became so consuming and so extensive 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.080 that Adelarde started to shirk his other duties, both of 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.280 her education and of the school where he was supposed 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.160 to be teaching. And Heloise's uncle seemed blind to all 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.440 of this. So even as people gossiped and dropped hints 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.320 to the to him that something was up with his 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.040 niece and her teacher, uh, he didn't seem to catch on, 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.880 and when he inevitably did wise up to it after 0:07:55.040 --> 0:08:00.200 several months, Heloise's uncle, as one would anticipate, separated them. 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.280 Abillard is quite poetic about this too. He says each 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.800 grieved most not for himself, but for the other. Each 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.840 thought to allay not his own sufferings but those of 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.320 the one he loved. The very sundering of our bodies 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.640 served but to link our souls closer together. The plenitude 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.400 of the love which was denied to us inflamed us 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.600 more than ever. Sometime after her uncle found them out, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.080 Heloise realized she was pregnant, and she told Abelard that 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.280 she was so. One night, while her uncle was away, 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.679 Abelard spirited her out of the house and sent her 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.320 to live with his sister in Brittany until the baby 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:44.480 was born. Halloiss Uncle, no surprise, was outraged. Abillard went 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.440 to him and begged for forgiveness, insisting that he and 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.000 Heloise truly loved one another. He offered to marry Heloise 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.439 in secret, and Filbert agreed, but neither one of them 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.280 really wanted to get married. They both sort of looked 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.800 at marriage as this morally weak way to get away 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:04.080 with having physical lust. Getting married would also have been 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.400 a huge blow to Avalard's reputation, and it would have 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.480 put a cap on how far he could advance in 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.080 the church, since the highest levels of the clergy couldn't 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.480 really marry, and since church was really the only path 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.400 for somebody who had Abelard's education at that point this 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.680 was a problem. If he married her, he was going 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:28.080 to be stalling his career permanently. But he was willing 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:29.960 to do it because it seemed like the only way 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:34.160 to appease her uncle's fury. Abillard went back to Brittany 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.120 to retrieve Heloise and to marry her, but she actually 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.319 refused him. She said that the plan was too dangerous, 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.800 that she was not willing to sacrifice his potential in 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.720 his reputation, and that there was no way her uncle 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.440 was really going to forgive Abelard anyway, just because he 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.319 married her. According to Avlard, after going on just at 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.080 length about how damaging marriage and children were to the 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:01.400 study of philosophy, Eloise said this, if layman and gentiles 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.640 bound by no profession of religion lived after this fashion, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.439 what ought you a cleric and a cannon do, in 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.800 order not to prefer base voluptuousness to your sacred duties, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.600 to prevent this charibdis from sucking you down headlong, and 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:22.360 to save yourself from being plunged shamelessly and irrevocably into 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:28.320 such filth as this not a favorite of the idea 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.480 of marriage at all? Yeah, what a pity, She went 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.640 on to say how much sweeter and romantic it would 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.120 be for her to be his mistress rather than his wife, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:39.920 because love would be a stronger bond between them than 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.040 marriage could ever be, And in doing this, Heloise was 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:47.000 basically saying she would sacrifice herself entirely for Avalard's sake 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.839 to allow him to have her without standing in the 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.560 way of his life and career, while she would endure 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:57.000 basically all the consequences. Avalard could not be convinced, though, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.560 and she finally gave up, saying, then there is no 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.280 more left but this, that in our doom, the sorrow 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:06.960 yet to come, shall be no less than the love 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:13.640 we two have already known, which is some foreshadowing. When 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.920 the baby was born, she named it Astrolabe, and they 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.880 left him with Abalard's sister and returned to Paris to 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.760 be married in secret very early one morning, in the 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:27.319 presence of Heloise's uncle and some of Abillard's friends, and Heloise, 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:31.439 being an intelligent woman, was definitely right about her uncle. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.800 Even though their marriage was supposed to be a secret, 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.000 Fulbert told other people that they had gotten married, so 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.920 Heloise publicly insisted that her uncle was lying, which infuriated him, 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.720 and fearing for her safety, Abillard sent her to the 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.480 convent where she had been educated when she was younger, 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.960 a place outside of Paris called Argentoya. They continued to 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.760 see one another. There's a passage in one of Heloise's 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.720 letters and which she talks about making love in a 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.480 corner of the convent itself. But Helloy's his uncle, interpreted 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.199 her entry into the convent as a ploy by Abillard 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.040 to get rid of her. So he bribed the servants 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.200 in the house where Abelard was staying so they could 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.120 get access to his rooms, and he sent his own 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.520 servants to break into Abelard's room in the middle of 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:24.119 the night, where they actually castrated him. So, according to Abelard, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.679 the next morning there was an enormous crowd who came out. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.880 It reads as though he's saying that they were mourning 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:35.760 the loss of his man parts. Probably it was, this 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.559 is the mark of the translation, that it was really 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:43.880 that people were extremely upset at the uh the physical 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.840 disfigurement he had undergone. And it's not so much just 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:51.640 the loss of physical sexual prowess. Right, So he says, 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.240 it is difficult, nay impossible for words of mine to 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.880 describe the amazement which bewildered them, the lamentations they uttered, 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.320 the uproar with which they harassed me, or the grief 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:09.120 with which they increased my own suffering. He simultaneously bemoaned 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.320 his fate and saw it as a fitting punishment, since 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.520 it had removed from him the part of his body 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.440 with which he had sinned. Abelard retreated to the monastery 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.560 at sun Denis. At first, this was more to hide 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.520 from what had happened to him than out of any 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.720 newfound religious devotion. He became a monk, and Heloise, who 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.480 at this point was already sheltering at a convent, took 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:36.080 vows and became a Benedictine nun. While at Sandoni, Abillard 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.000 tried to continue with his life of study and teaching, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.960 but to turn his attention to faith instead of philosophy. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.760 But the monastery at Sandony was, in Abalard's were words 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:52.400 quote utterly worldly, and its abbot was corrupt. Abalard became 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.920 popular as a teacher, even as he criticized the monastery 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.920 and tried very hard to reform it. His constant and 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.240 criticism na trually drew the ire of the other teachers 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.000 and monks at the monastery who all rallied against him 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.080 and complained about him to bishops, archbishops, and any other 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.839 church official who would listen. He also, while he was there, 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.960 wrote books that were deemed to be heretical, and his 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.760 previous feuds with other philosophical and religious thinkers, which we 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.440 referenced at the beginning of the podcast, kind of came 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.880 back to haunt him. Abillard fled to Champagne and became 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.960 a hermit. Students of philosophy continued to seek him out 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.240 to try to get him to return to teaching, but 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.640 he did, but he was constantly criticized and scrutinized for 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.520 applying logic to matters of faith, and that was a 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.760 practice that was viewed as very threatening to the medieval church. 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.120 After a while, he and his students created this community 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.200 of teaching and learning that they called law Paraclete. Eventually, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.360 he handed law Paraclete over to Helloise and the nuns 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.520 from the convent where she'd been staying because their convent 0:14:55.600 --> 0:15:00.480 had been disbanded after some internal church feuding. She became 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:05.320 the abbess at La Periclet, and Heloise became highly respected 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:07.920 in her own right. At this point. Being an abbess 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.560 required skill in both administrative and religious work, and she 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:16.040 drew praise from Peter the Venerable and other prominent religious figures. 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.560 She was also fluent in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.080 she taught these languages to the other nuns as well. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.400 Avelarne continued to teach and to serve as an abbot, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.200 although his skeptical manner of approaching religious thought continued to 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.280 draw fire. Eventually he wound up because of this, being 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.320 accused of heresy, and he was condemned at a council 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.960 at Fants in eleven forty. His sentence was lifted only 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:46.920 after Peter the Venerable intervened. Avelard's health started to really fail, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.840 and he died in eleven forty two. Peter the Venerable 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.920 built a tomb for him in Saint Marcel, but Heloise 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.600 had him moved and reburied at La Periclete so that 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.440 she could watch over him. She lived another twenty years 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:05.160 before dying sometime in eleven sixty three or eleven sixty four. 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:10.240 La Periclet also became a highly respected convent under under 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:14.240 her leadership, with six daughter houses as well, and there's 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.200 a story that she was actually buried in Abalard's grave, 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.320 but there's no substantiation of that in the record. She 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.920 was buried next to him, and their burial place was 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:29.000 moved to a drier location in four In sixteen sixteen, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.640 the letters that she and Abelard had exchanged between each 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.680 other were published for the first time, and in sixteen 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.880 twenty one the nuns at La Periclet moved their bodies 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.880 to a new and more impressive tomb to satisfy curious visitors. 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.720 They repeated this whole exhumation and reburial a few more 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.160 times in conjunction, most of the time with new translations 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.840 of the letters coming out and sort of influx of 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:58.920 Abelard and Heloise letter tourists to constantly u upgrade the 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.000 setting for the addition crowds. I presume yes. In the 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.800 early nineteenth century, Avalard and Helloy's removed to the cemetery 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.120 Pearl Chase in Paris, where they are today. They lie 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.920 together in a stone sarcophagus carved with both of their resemblances, 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.840 and it's under a roof supported by pillars and arches. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.240 The tomb in pear Le Chaise was designed by Alexandra 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.080 Marie Lenoire, who was the director of the Muse de 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:28.960 monument Francaise between seventeen ninety and eighteen sixteen. Lenoir actually 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.159 obtained their remains from La Paraclete in eighteen hundred and 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.080 then created this tomb that had sort of a faux 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.640 medieval look and feel, and he incorporated some pieces from 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.720 what was reported to be some of the earlier tombs 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.359 that had existed at La Peraclet. The tomb itself is 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.440 more about being evocative of their lives and their love 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.720 story than authentic to the art and architecture of the 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.840 period in which they lived. We believe that the real 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.960 remains are probably buried there becaus they were measured and 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:05.560 authenticated when Ludwar acquired them. So anytime bodies get moved 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:07.679 that many times there's always a question markup. Is that 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.080 really who we think it is? They were verified, especially 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:16.359 since the remains started out in the twelfth century. UM. 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.359 Before we talk about these letters that they exchanged with 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.920 each other and their other writings, let's take another moment 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.320 and talk about our sponsor. Fantastic Lenda dot com offers 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.680 thousands of engaging, easy to follow video tutorials taught by 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.160 industry experts to help you learn all kinds of skills. 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.879 Membership starts at twenty a month and provides unlimited seven 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:42.720 access to all kinds of tutorials and comprehensive courses. You 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:46.880 can learn all kinds of stuff like web design, programming, photography, business. 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.040 New courses are added every week and the course library 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.800 keep space with today's fast changing technical and software skills. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.120 So you can watch Lenda dot com on ago from 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.440 your computer, tablet or mobile of ice. You can try 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.439 Linda dot com for free for seven days by visiting 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.480 Linda dot com slash history stuff and that is l 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.639 y n d A dot com. And now to return 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:17.160 to Abelard and Heloise. They both wrote extensively. Heloise's writings 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.440 primarily included letters to abial Ard and to other religious figures, 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:25.680 and then Abelard's writings also include works on theology, metaphysics, logic, 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.280 the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. He 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.080 also wrote poetry and songs, and some of these were 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:36.400 about Heloise. He never explicitly credited her, but modern scholars 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:40.000 contend that Heloise really was quite influential when it came 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.320 to Abalard's thoughts in the area of ethics. This is 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.000 a reversal of older scholarship which claimed that Heloise's thoughts 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.720 were borrowed in their entirety from abial Art. Yeah has 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.119 to do with how focused she was on the idea 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.240 of hypocrisy and how the life you're living outwardly should 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.240 match up with the life that you're living inwardly, which 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.919 she herself was very distressed by that idea, given the 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.040 fact that she had got into a convent for reasons 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:12.520 other than a spiritual devotion. So they're in addition to 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.120 all this. They are the letters that Abilard and Heloise 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.520 wrote to each other after their relationship had ended. The 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.800 first one was to Abillard from Heloise after she had 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.119 read his Historia Calamitatum. He wrote this about fifteen years 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.280 after their relationship had ended, and when Heloise got it 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.560 and read it, she was deeply distressed and very worried 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.640 by what she read there about his mental state and 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:39.520 how they had depicted their relationship, and like she was 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.600 also quite angry that in twelve years he had not 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.160 once expressed concern or gratitude for her joining the convent, 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:48.919 which she had not really wanted to do. And she 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:51.879 had done entirely as like a sacrifice for his sake. 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:57.520 Her personal letters are very passionate and very pained. She 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.560 wrote of how upset she is that, as we referenced 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.080 a moment ago, she took thous and because she loved Abalard, 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.480 not because she loved God. She also wrote of how 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.240 much she loved Ablard, saying things like my heart was 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.280 not in me but with you, and now even more, 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.360 if it is not with you, it is nowhere. Truly 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.560 without you, it cannot exist. She also wrote of her 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.960 sexual frustration, quote, even during the celebration of Mass, when 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.320 our prayers should be purer, lewed, visions of these pleasures 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.159 take such a hold upon my unhappy soul that my 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.120 thoughts are on their wantonness instead of on our prayers. 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:38.960 I should be groaning over the sins I have committed, 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.280 but I can only sigh for what I have lost. 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.280 At one point in her letters, she accused Abillard of 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.119 feeling only lust for her and not love, and in 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.159 a reply he agreed with her, that's not what you 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.240 want to hear back. Abilard's letters are reserved, they're a 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:59.800 bit luxury, and they're really lacking in romance. So some 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:05.399 people framed this as Abalard being rational while Heloise is emotional. 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.280 But a lot of Abalard's writing really is quite emotional too, 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.600 It's just that all of his emotion is directed toward 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.560 religious matters and his sort of personal torment uh and 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.320 what his life has become, while Heloise's emotion is all 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:26.560 directed at Abalarde. And they also exchange letters of direction 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.119 about how to establish a rule for her community of nuns, 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:33.399 and they discussed matters of faith in scripture, So not 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:35.800 all of their correspondence was just I loved you, I 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:37.320 loved you, I loved you so much, and you kind 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:43.760 of dropped the ball and him. Most of the time, 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.359 when you find collections of them, they're they're divided into 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.240 like the more personal letters and the more spiritual letters, 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:56.400 where they address questions about scriptures and how laperic Let 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.040 should operate and that kind of thing. There is some 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.320 debate about the authenticity of these letters. You know, their 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:07.600 relationship happened during the eleven eleven hundreds, but the oldest 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.439 copies of these letters are from the thirteen hundreds, so 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.440 naturally this has led to speculation about whether they each 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:18.000 really wrote everything that was attributed to them, and the 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:21.200 three schools of thoughts are that they're exactly what they're 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.199 said to be that and then there's another that is 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.560 that Abelard in fact wrote all of the letters, and 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:31.280 then there's another that some other unrelated person wrote them 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:36.560 later on as a bit of medieval fanfic. Uh. The 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:40.200 overall but you know, definitely not a hundred percent unanimous 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:42.520 consensus is that they are what they say they are, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:47.000 that their letters from Abillard to Helloween's and vice versa. 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:49.600 Because they are so old, you can read many of 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:57.440 them on the internet for free, should you be so inclined. Yes, 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:07.280 Happy Valentine found they castration And we don't really or 0:24:07.280 --> 0:24:09.959 at least I couldn't find what happened to baby Asterlabe, 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:11.960 like we know that. Yeah, I don't remember ever hearing 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.879 about that. Yeah, baby aster Labe stayed in Brittany with 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:20.280 Abelard's sister. But otherwise, like, don't really have any sense 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:23.560 of that. Yeah, and it's interesting to me that they 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:30.320 have been uh buried many times together when it seems like, 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:35.760 at least from romantic point of view, things had kind 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:40.400