2. Prefaces to the Three Books of The Paraclete Hymnal
prefaces to the three books of the paraclete hymnal Why should a few excerpts from a hymnal by Abelard be accommodated in this volume alongside letters of his? The answer is that Abelard presented many of his nonepistolary works with introductions that are either explicitly letters or else dedications that he and his contemporaries could have readily equated with letters. Although the preface to the second book of the hymnal labels that to the first book explicitly as a "preface," those two and the one to the third have epistolary qualities, and like most of Abelard's letters they are directed to Heloise or to the community of nuns that she headed.
Indeed, the preface to the first book goes so far as to quote portions of the note Heloise wrote to Abelard when requesting that he supply hymns to the nuns of the Paraclete, her convent. In other words, it is a reply to her letter.
The scenario is a familiar one. In Letter Three Abelard extended an invitation to Heloise that gave her nearly carte blanche to request writings from him on religious and theological topics. He encouraged her: "If . . . you feel that you have need of my instruction and writings in matters pertaining to God, write to me what you want, so that I may answer as God permits me."1 Subsequently, Abelard's opening sentences in Letters Seven and Eight both make explicit that they have been composed at Heloise's behest (in Letter Five),
1. Trans. Radice, 56.
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as do the dedication letter to The Commentary on the Six Days of Creation and the prologue/letter to Heloise that precedes The Sermons. All these texts are very fairly to be considered letters.2 The Problemata and "Confession of Faith to Heloise" are both built on the same premise, but in the first instance the text as we have it has been constructed in a question-and-response format, while the second borders on being a creed.
Regrettably, in this case Heloise's letter of request has not come down to us, beyond the quoted excerpts in Abelard's preface, but what survives suffices to document that she shared Abelard's commitment to authenticity in liturgical texts. Abelard's Letter Ten might foster the impression that he was the only or primary one of the two who fretted over establishing the texts most legitimate for use in worship, but Heloise's lengthy observations on hymns bear witness to a mind equal to his own in its bracing candor and lucidity in questioning and analyzing the liturgy.
The hymns belong to the many points in Abelard's writings where his intellectual, spiritual, and personal commitment (or possessiveness) toward Heloise and her direction of a convent intersects with his disagreement (or rivalry) with Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercian ideology Bernard promulgated. Abelard wrote the hymns to be sung in the performance of the divine office not just in any monastery whatsoever, but rather in the convent headed by Heloise. This was of course the Paraclete, upon which she had bestowed a grecizing name, devised by Abelard, as unusual as the one she had earlier inflicted on their son. And it was also obviously a foundation that took as its starting point the lands and buildings Abelard transferred to it.
Although the Paraclete was a Benedictine convent, it was in its way as unusual in its Benedictinism as was Peter Abelard himself; but the elements that made it peculiar differed greatly. Heloise's convent appears to have been influenced, at least after 1147, by some Cistercian reforms in its liturgy. At the same time, it owed much to the innovative contributions of Abelard, although despite the special
2. As does Marenbon, Philosophy of Peter Abelard, 72.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete reverence that was shown him and his works in the convent, his recommendations for their rule and liturgy were by no means accepted wholesale.3 In a sense the Paraclete as a convent and Heloise as its leader were pinioned between Cistercianism and Benedictinism or, from a more human perspective, between Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard.
When Bernard of Clairvaux discovered that the nuns of the Paraclete had adopted at Abelard's advice a form of the Lord's Prayer used nowhere else in the Church, Abelard pointed out with all the ferocity his logic could command how his version of the paternoster was truer to the texts in Holy Scripture than any other one. Letter Ten of this collection, in which Abelard unfolds these arguments
(in the strictest sense, his only extant letter to Bernard of Clairvaux), also includes prominently in a list of questionable Cistercian liturgical innovations the Cistercian hymnary, which he faults for being simultaneously too restrictive and too inclusive of idiosyncratic hymns.4
The hymnal is extant in its entirety in no single manuscript, but most of the hymns are present in two manuscripts. One (Brussels,
Bibliothèque Royale, MS 10147–10158, fol. 81r–96v), which dates from the last third of the thirteenth century, contains the three pref3. These conclusions have been reached in various studies by Chrysogonus Waddell, especially "Peter Abelard as Creator of Liturgical Texts," in Petrus Abaelardus,
267–86; "St. Bernard and the Cistercian Office at the Abbey of the Paraclete," in The Chimaera of His Age: Studies on Bernard of Clairvaux, ed. E. Rozanne Elder and John R.
Sommerfeldt, Studies in Medieval Cistercian History 5, Cistercian Studies Series 63
(Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1980), 76–121; "Cistercian Influence on the Abbey of the Paraclete? Plotting Data from the Paraclete Book of Burials, Customary, and Necrology," in Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude: Essays on Cistercians,
Art and Architecture in Honour of Peter Fergusson, ed. Terry N. Kinder, Medieval Church
Studies 11, Studia et Documenta 13 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2004), 329–40; and "Heloise and the Abbey of the Paraclete," in The Making of Christian Communities in Late
Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. Mark Williams (London: Anthem Press, 2005), 103–16.
For a compact synthesis of Waddell's findings (apart from the most recent), see David Luscombe, "Pierre Abélard et l'abbaye du Paraclet," in Pierre Abélard. Colloque international de Nantes, 215–29.
4. Chrysogonus Waddell, ed., Hymn Collections from the Paraclete, 2 vols., Cistercian
Liturgy Series 8–9 (Trappist, Ky.: Gethsemani Abbey, 1987–1989), 1: 88–89.
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aces and is divided into three libelli, meaning "booklets" or "little books." In this manuscript, the text is missing its end, and the hymns are untitled and total ninety-three. The three prefaces divide the hymns into separate sections, the first being "feriales," hymns for days of the week to praise God in the Trinity and in his creation
(numbers 1–29); the second "de tempore," principally for feasts of the Lord; and the third hymns for the feasts of saints. This schema corresponds to the divisions of liturgical books. The breviary was the book containing the Psalms, hymns, lessons, prayers, and so forth that were recited in the office. The temporale was either a section of the breviary or a separate book that provided the parts of offices that varied during the liturgical year. The sanctorale was also either a section of the breviary or a freestanding book that supplied the offices particular to the festivals of given saints.
The other major witness to Abelard's hymns is a liturgical manuscript of the fifteenth century from the Paraclete (Chaumont, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 31, fol. 9–245). It lacks the three prefaces and contains forty hymns not found in the Brussels manuscript. In it the hymns are arranged to follow the progression of the ecclesiastical year. Two other manuscripts contain only the Marian hymns, while a half dozen codices, all Swiss in both provenance and present location, have the particularly well-known Saturday vespers hymn with the incipit "O quanta qualia" (number 29), in some cases with musical notation. For this one alone of Abelard's hymns has notation been preserved that has allowed a melody to be reconstructed and performed.5
When the hymns from the two principal manuscripts are united, they amount to a total of one hundred and thirty-three, a vast repository that Abelard sent to the convent in three consignments.
The first group of twenty-nine was accompanied by the first preface, a dedicatory letter to Heloise. At first glance the preface to the second book, of forty-seven hymns, unlike that to the first, betrays
5. For transcriptions, see Bruno Stäblein, Hymnen (I): Die mittelalterlichen Hymnenmelodien des Abendlandes, Monumenta monodica Medii Aevi 1 (Kassel, Germany: BärenreiterVerlag, 1956), 324–25, no. 590, and 592, no. 38, as well as Weinrich, "Peter Abaelard as Musician I," 302–4.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete no sign of being a response to a letter from Heloise. It is directed to the nuns of the Paraclete collectively. The same holds true for the preface to the third book, of fifty-seven hymns, which is addressed once again to the sisters of the community. The last two prefaces explain briefly the function of the hymns that Abelard has provided at their entreaty, and they request in return their prayers on his behalf.
But both the prefaces to the second and third books contain material that responds to the first preface, which is heavily Heloisan, and thus they too are in a way replies to the letter from her that Abelard quotes extensively (and maybe even in toto) in the first preface.
All three of the prefaces would have been composed between 1132 and 1135, the years in which Abelard wrote the Historia calamitatum; corresponded with Heloise in Letters Three, Five, Seven, and Eight; answered her Problemata; wrote Letter Nine to the nuns of the Paraclete; and wrote Letter Sixteen, the dedication to The Sermons. The preface to the first book is considerably more elaborate than either of the other two and may be outlined as follows:6
I. Heloise's Justification of the Need for New Hymns A. Then-current hymns were used on the basis of custom rather than authority B. Then-current hymns had texts that did not accord with their melodies C. Then-current hymns omitted various saints
D. Then-current hymns forced their singers to engage in a deception 1. Because they were sung at a time of day in conflict with their content 2. Because they described within their texts their singers as being in a state of sorrow that would render singing impossible
3. Because they made overstated claims about the saints they glorify 6. My schematization modifies only slightly one of Waddell, ed., Hymn Collections from the Paraclete, 1: ccxii.
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For those who are not familiar with the times of daily prayer as stipulated in the breviary, these are the canonical hours of prayer:
Matins (from matutinas, "pertaining to the morning"; known in earlier usage as vigiliae, "vigils"): prescribed for the eighth hour of the night in the Rule of Benedict Lauds (from laudes, "praises," the technical name for Psalms 148–50, always sung at the end of this office): joined to Matins and said overnight by anticipation, as the Night Office
Prime (from prima [hora], "the first hour"): the first of the "Little Hours" in the Rule of Benedict, said at the first hour
Terce (from tertia, "third"): the second of the "Little Hours," said at the third hour Sext (from sexta, "sixth"): the third of the "Little Hours," said at the sixth hour None (from nonas, "ninth"): the fourth and final of the "Little
Hours," said at the ninth hour Vespers (from vesperas, "evening"): the evening office, recited before dark Compline (related to completorium): the last of the day-hours, said before retiring
Taken together, the prefaces to The Paraclete Hymnal are interesting documents for enabling a deeper appreciation of the evolving relationship between Heloise and Abelard, for gaining insight into his views on poetry and music, and for delving into their thinking about the liturgy in general and hymns in particular. The first preface in particular, encompassing as it does quotations from Heloise, makes apparent that both she and Abelard had a critical perspective on the hymns then being used in the liturgical offices.7 The hymnal, including the prefaces, has been edited by Chrysogonus Waddell (vol. 2, pp. 5–9, 47–49, and 89–90), whose text is followed here. The closest
7. For the backdrop, see Chrysogonus Waddell, "St. Bernard and the Cistercian Office," 102–4.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete predecessor to his edition was that of Joseph Szövérffy. The hymnal has been translated in its entirety into English, and the prefaces once again by themselves.8
Preface to the First Book Owing to the insistence of your entreaties, my sister Heloise,9 once dear in the world and now most dear in Christ, I have composed what are called hymns in Greek and tehillim in Hebrew.10 Since in fact you as well as the women of holy calling who live with you very often pressed me to write them, I asked your purpose about this matter. Certainly I considered it redundant for me to draft new ones for you, seeing that you had a wealth of old ones; and it seemed almost blasphemous to promote new songs of sinners before old ones of saints or even to treat them as equal. But when
I received different responses from different people, you replied, among other things (as I remember), with this reasoning:11
8. For the whole hymn book, see Sister Jane Patricia, trans., The Hymns of Abelard in English Verse (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1986). For the prefaces alone, see Constant J. Mews, "Liturgy and Identity at the Paraclete: Heloise, Abelard and the Evolution of Cistercian Reform," in Poetic and Musical Legacy of Heloise and Abelard,
19–33, at 30–33.
9. Heloise is addressed as sister by Abelard in Letters One and Three, the dedication letter to The Commentary on the Six Days of Creation, and the "Confession of Faith to Heloise."
10. The manuscript reads tillim, a form that Abelard would have thought represented the Hebrew and that is attested in manuscripts of Jerome, "Praefatio in libro
Psalmorum" (Preface to the Book of Psalms), in Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam uersionem, ed. Robert Weber and Roger Gryson, 4th ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 768–69, at 768, line 15 (Thallim). I have expanded to tehillim not to emend the Latin, but rather to provide the modern transliteration of the Hebrew word as we know it now.
11. Here as in many other places in Abelard's writings it is impossible to gauge how accurately he represents Heloise's own expression or how much instead he conjures her up so as to ventriloquize through her his own ideas and words.
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We know (you said) that the Latin and especially the Gallican Church cling to custom rather than follow authority in Psalms as also in hymns.12
Indeed we still consider it uncertain who was the author of this translation of the psalter that our Church, that is, the Gallican, uses.13 If we want to judge by the statements of those who have revealed to us the variety of translations, the outcome will be greatly dissonant from all other interpretations, and it will not garner any esteem of authority, in my opinion. In this, indeed, the habit of a long-lived custom has prevailed now to such an extent that although in other things we adhere to the texts amended by blessed Jerome, in the psalter (which we use most) we follow noncanonical texts.14
To be truthful, there is such disorder in the hymns we now employ that none or only very few of the titles inscribed distinguish who is
12. The Latin Church is that part of the Catholic body that obeys the Latin patriarch, the pope. Within the Latin Church, the Church of what is now France followed the Gallican Rite, which prevailed in France in particular from the earliest times. Heloise's larger motive in invoking the Gallican Church is to criticize it for holding fast to custom in singing anonymous hymns rather than those with authority. In the Middle Ages the connection between auctor and auctoritas was fundamental.
Texts, including hymns, derived the qualities of being "authoritative" and (by a mistaken but pandemic etymology) "authentic" by dint of having known authors. See
Waddell, "St. Bernard and the Cistercian Office," 102.
13. Heloise refers to the well-known complication that this all-important book was found in three different Latin versions, all the work of Jerome (supposedly in the first case, definitely in the latter two). The one he produced earliest, which has conventionally been identified with the Roman Psalter, was a revision of the Latin version already in existence (the so-called Old Latin or Vetus Latina), which was based on the Greek of the Septuagint. Later (about 392) he composed afresh a new version on the basis of the Hexaplaric text of the Septuagint, which became known as the Gallican Psalter because eventually its circulation radiated out of Gaul, especially out of Frankish Gaul owing to the influence of Charlemagne. Finally (about 400), he made a translation from the Hebrew, which is known as the Hebrew Psalter. Only the first two were widely used.
14. Because the Psalms were so heavily used in the liturgy, the psalter (or book of Psalms) contained most of the divine office. In putting her finger upon the point of friction where authority, custom, and canonicity meet, Heloise (whom Abelard purports to be quoting here) manifests an interest in the very criteria for evaluating texts that he invokes in the Prologue to the Sic et non and elsewhere. By apocryphal Heloise
(or Abelard?) seems to presume a text that is anonymous and therefore not authoritative, in the sense of having an author.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete the author of which; and if some seem to have definite authors, among whom Hilary [about 315–368, saint, bishop of Poitiers] and Ambrose
[about 340–397, saint, bishop of Milan 374–397] are believed to have appeared first, then Prudentius [348–after 405] and very many others, the inequality in syllable count is often so great that the songs can hardly accommodate the melody;15 and without melody a hymn (the definition of which is "praise of God with song") can in no way exist.16 (You added that) also for very many feasts proper hymns are lacking, for example, those of the Innocents and evangelists or of those female saints who did not have the prominence of being virgins or martyrs.17
15. Heloise states that the early hymns, by being structured according to the quantitative principles of classical Latin poetry, failed to achieve the regularity of syllable count that was a prerequisite for the reuse of a melody from one verse or strophe to another. The chief reason for the disjunction in this case between prosody in the two forms of poetry is that in quantitative poetry elision (omission of a sound or syllable) or synaloepha (contraction of two syllables into one by omission of a vowel) was allowed or even required, under specific circumstances, while in rhythmic poetry the need for regularity in syllabic count mostly precluded it. For a definitive exposition of the differences between Medieval Latin quantitative and rhythmic poetry, see
Dag Norberg, An Introduction to the Study of Medieval Latin Versification, trans. Grant C. Roti and Jacqueline Skubly, ed. Jan M. Ziolkowski (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
16. This failure provides the motivation for having Abelard, who was a renowned poet, create a fresh repertoire, on new (rhythmic) principles, for the nuns of the Paraclete. The wording that Heloise and these earlier authors employ rings only a slight change upon the phraseology in Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 148.17, ed. Eligius
Dekkers and J. Fraipont, CCCL 40: 2177, lines 6–7: "Laus ergo Dei in cantico, hymnus dicitur." After Augustine it is found in Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive originum libri 6.19.17, ed. Lindsay, and De ecclesiasticis officiis 6.2, ed. Charles M. Lawson,
CCSL 113 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1989).
The specific wording for the definition of "psalm" that Heloise cites was conventional in Psalm commentaries—for example, it is found in Bede or Pseudo-Bede,
De titulis Psalmorum (also known as De Psalmorum libro exegesis), in PL 93: 477–1098, at 868C; Walahfrid Strabo, Liber Psalmorum, in PL 113: 483–1098, at 955D; and Haimo of Auxerre, In omnes Psalmos pia, brevis ac dilucida explanatio, in PL 116: 193–696, at 193D.
17. With the last category Heloise betrays an interest in female saints who were neither virgins nor martyrs. She could have had in mind married women, widows, or reformed prostitutes who had achieved sanctity. Those who believe that Heloise cherished a special attraction to Mary Magdalen may sense the presence of that saint in the shadows here; see Constant J. Mews, "Heloise, the Paraclete Liturgy and Mary
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Finally, (you contended that) there are some hymns, in which it is sometimes necessary that the people by whom they are sung engage in deception, evidently when owing to the need of the date or to the assertion of a falsehood.18 Of course, by some chance or by relaxation of a rule the faithful, obstructed in this way very often, either anticipate the fixed times of the canonical hours or will be anticipated by them, and they are forced, at least concerning the time itself, to engage in deception, seeing that (obviously) they sing either night hymns by day or daytime hymns by night. Of course it is resolved, in accord with the authority of the prophets and the institution of the Church, that not even the night itself be devoid of the Lord's praise, as has been written: "In the night I have remembered thy name, O Lord" [Psalm 118.55] and likewise, "I rose at midnight to acknowledge thee" [Psalm 118.62], that is, to praise you; nor are the other seven times of praise, about which the same prophet recalls: "Seven times a day I have given praise to thee" [Psalm
118.164], to be performed, if not during the day.19 The first of these, in fact, which are called "morning prayers" [matins] (about which it has been written in the same prophet: "I will meditate on thee, Lord, in the morning [Latin, in matutinis]" [Psalm 62.7], is to be presented at once in the very beginning of the day as dawn or the morning star first sheds light; this is also indicated in very many hymns. For when it says: "Rising by night, let us all keep vigil" and again, "We interrupt the night in singing," or "We rise to give praise and we break the pauses of night," and elsewhere "Dark night has covered the colors of all things on earth," or "For we rise up from bed in the quiet time of night," and again "As Magdalen," in Poetic and Musical Legacy of Heloise and Abelard, 100–112. Heloise's assertion about the Feast of the Innocents overlooks at least two widely used hymns, Sedulius's
"A solis ortus cardine" and Prudentius's "Saluete flores martyrum"; see Hymnarius
Paraclitensis, ed. Szövérffy, 1: 31.
18. The final observation refers first to hymns used for the wrong feast and then to those sung for the wrong saint. On this observation and what follows, see Joseph
Szövérffy, "'False' Use of 'Unfitting' Hymns: Some Ideas Shared by Peter the Venerable, Peter Abelard and Heloise," Revue bénédictine 89 (1979): 187–99; repr. in Joseph
Szövérffy, Psallat Chorus Caelestium, Religious Lyrics of the Middle Ages, Hymnological Studies and Collected Essays, Medieval Classics: Texts and Studies (Berliner Reihe) 15 (Berlin: Classical Folia Editions, 1983), 537–49.
19. The "seven times of praise" refers to the canonical hours, listed in the introduction above.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete all of us break the hours of the night by singing together," and other words of the same kind, these hymns in themselves give evidence that they are of the night.20
So too morning hymns or other hymns sometimes avow the disposition of the particular time in which they are to be pronounced, as for example when it is said "Behold, the shadow of night is already now lessened," and again, "Behold, the golden sun rises," or "Dawn now besprinkles the heavens," or "The dawn of day glows red," and elsewhere
"The bird, harbinger of day, foretells that day is near," or "The morning star, having risen, shines bright,"21 and if they are of this sort, the 20. Heloise's thrust here is that hymns intended for night use had come to be sung at other times, with consequent conflicts between the texts and their contexts.
The first quotation is the opening ("Nocte surgentes vigilemus omnes") of a night anthem (possibly early ninth century) for matins that was traditionally ascribed to Gregory the Great, in AH 51: 26, no. 24 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 10283). The second,
"Noctem canendo rumpimus," is the third line of a hymn (possibly early seventh century) attributed to Ambrose, 10.3 (incipit, "Consors paterni luminis"), in AH 51:
28, no. 26 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 2649). The third is from a hymn (possibly early seventh century), not for a long time ascribed to Ambrose, that has been used for matins of Wednesday (incipit "Rerum creator optime," strophe 2.3–4: "Ad confitendum surgimus / morasque noctis rumpimus"), in AH 51: 28, no. 27 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 14180). The fourth ("Nox atra rerum contegit / terrae colores omnium") is the opening of a hymn (possibly early seventh century) for Thursday matins, in AH
51: 29, no. 28 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 10621). The fifth ("Nam lectulo consurgimus / noctis quieto tempore") is from another hymn (possibly early seventh century) traditionally ascribed to Gregory the Great (incipit "Tu Trinitatis unus," 2.1–2), in AH
51: 29, no. 29 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 16594). The last ("Ut quique horas noctium / nunc concinendo rumpimus") is from an anonymous hymn (possibly early seventh century) for Saturday matins (incipit "Summae Deus clementiae," strophe 4.1–2), in AH 51: 30, no. 30 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 15810).
21. The first quotation is the opening two lines ("Ecce, iam noctis / tenuatur umbra") of a hymn (possibly early eighth century) for lauds on Sunday that has been traditionally connected with Gregory the Great, in AH 51: 31, no. 31 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 4156). The second is the incipit ("Lux, ecce, surgit aurea") of a hymn in the Roman breviary, to be sung at lauds on Thursday, that was formed by excerpting (with slight modification) lines from a hymn by Prudentius (Cathemerinon 2.25 and 93–108), in AH 50: 24, no. 24 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 9114); the opening line of the poem by Prudentius, before the changes, is "Nox et tenebrae et nubila" (Cathemerinon 2) in Prudentius, Carmina, ed. Maurice P. Cunningham, CCSL 126 (1966): 7 (Schaller/Könsgen, no.
10629). The third ("Aurora iam spargit polum") is the incipit of a hymn (possibly ear-
prefaces to the paraclete hymnal
hymns themselves instruct us as to the time when they are to be sung, so that, if we were not to observe their proper times for them, we would be proven false in the very delivery of them. Yet very often it is not so much that negligence takes away the proper observance as that some necessity or special circumstance prevents it; it is necessary that this happen daily, especially in parish churches or in lesser churches, on account of the occupations of the common people themselves, among whom all things are handled, and almost without cease, by day.22
Not only do the right times when not observed produce falsehood, but in addition the composers of certain hymns, either offering incongruous words because of their own soul's remorse or desiring with the zeal of an ill-advised devotion to elevate the saints, have gone so far beyond the measure in some hymns that in them we very often bring forth some of the words against our conscience, as they are in fact far removed from the truth.23 Indeed there are very few who, while weeping and wailly seventh century) for lauds on Saturday, in AH 51: 34, no. 33 (Schaller/Könsgen, no.
1496). The fourth ("Aurora lucis rutilat") is the incipit of an anonymous Ambrosian hymn (fifth or sixth century), in AH 51: 89 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 1498) that has been divided into three separate hymns in the Roman breviary. The first sixteen lines constitute the hymn for lauds during one section of the liturgical year. The fifth is the opening pair of lines in the famous hymn for daybreak by Prudentius (Cathemerinon 1.1–2:
"Ales diei nuntius / lucem propinquam praecinit"), in AH 50: 22 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 532). The final ("Ortus refulget lucifer") is a line from within another anonymous
Ambrosian hymn (possibly early seventh century, incipit "Aeterna caeli gloria," strophe
3.1), which is used for Friday lauds, in AH 51: 32 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 410).
It has been pointed out that all fourteen hymns singled out by Heloise for criticism are present in the hymnal used at Montier-la-Celle in Troyes in the early twelfth century and that would have been followed in St. Ayoul in Provins, the priory where
Abelard may well have lodged after taking flight from St. Denis. See Mews, "Liturgy and Identity at the Paraclete," 29. Although this overlap might indicate that Abelard had instituted at the Paraclete liturgical practices followed at St. Ayoul, the hymns are all very well known ones that could have figured in the office at any number of monasteries.
22. In this observation Heloise reveals sensitivity to the practical realities of parish churches, where the necessities of manual labor meant that congregations could not honor the canonical hours.
23. Here Heloise inveighs against exaggerations in certain hymn texts, which if taken literally would render the hymns unperformable. See Waddell, "St. Bernard and the Cistercian Office," 103.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete ing in the intensity of their meditation or in the regret of their sins, can sing out in fitting style those words: "Groaning, we pour forth prayers; forgive us, that we have sinned," and again: "Accept with kindness, good
Lord, our weeping together with our songs," and other words of the sort, which are appropriate for the chosen, and that means, for the few.24 Let your discernment decide with what presumption we do not fear in each and every year to sing "Martin, equal of the apostles," or we say, glorifying to an excess individual confessors for their miracles, "Frequently at his sacred tomb the limbs of those ailing, in whatever way they have been oppressed, are brought back now to good health" (and so forth).25
With these and similar persuasions from your arguments, respect for your holiness has constrained my spirit to write hymns for the whole circuit of the year.26 And so, as you entreat me in this, brides and handmaids of Christ, we too in return entreat you to lift up with the hands of your prayers the burden you have placed on our shoulders, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may take joy in working together.27
24. The first two lines of verse ("Preces gementes fundimus, / dimitte, quod peccavimus") are drawn once again from the hymn "Rerum creator optime" (strophe 4.3–4), in AH 51: 28. The next two lines ("Nostros pius cum canticis / fletus benigne suscipe") are drawn from the famous hymn "Summae Deus clementiae" (strophe 2.1–2), in AH 51: 30, the incipit of which is quoted in Dante, Purgatorio, 25.123.
The thrust of this sentence, that true compunction belongs to the few, is discussed in Letter Four.
25. "Martine, par apostolis" is the incipit of a hymn for the morning lauds, by Odo of Cluny, in AH 50: 266–67 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 9331). The final lines that Heloise quotes come from a hymn (eighth or ninth century) with the incipit "Iste confessor Domini sacratus" (strophe 3.1–2), in AH 51: 134–35, no. 118 (Schaller/Könsgen, no. 8410): "Ad sacrum cuius tumulum frequenter / Membra languentum modo sanitati, / Quolibet modo fuerint gravati, / Restituuntur."
26. Literally, "the holiness of your reverence." The more natural translation, with its reversal of the nouns, was suggested by Waddell, Hymn Collections, 1: ccxiii.
27. The final nine words in the Latin reword slightly the second half of John 4:
36: "And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." Although Abelard has been castrated and no longer has semen (which means "seed" in Latin), on a spiritual plane he remains capable of sowing seeds in his relationship with Heloise and the other brides of Christ.
prefaces to the paraclete hymnal
Preface to the Second Book In the Epistle to the Ephesians the teacher of the nations [Paul the Apostle: 1 Timothy 2.7] organized the office of divine worship in three parts, saying: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord" [5.18–19]. And likewise he says to the Colossians [Epistle to the Colossians 3.16]: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God." Certainly the Psalms and canticles, seeing that they were made ready in ancient times on the basis of the canonical Scriptures, do not require attention from us or from anyone to be composed now.
But in fact, although nothing separate about hymns is contained in the above-mentioned scriptural passages (despite the fact that some Psalms have the name of "hymns" or "canticles" written down in their titles), hymns were written subsequently at different points by many people, especially in accord with the variety of appointed times and hours or of feast days, for each of which fitting hymns have been established, and these we now fittingly call hymns, although in ancient times some called without distinction hymns as well as Psalms any compositions with rhythm and meter in song of divine praise. For this reason Eusebius of Caesarea in Chapter 17 of the second book of his Ecclesiastic History, calling to mind the praises of the most learned Jew, Philo, for the Church of Alexandria under Mark, added, among other things:28
28. The quotation is from Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica 2.17.13, trans. Rufinus, in Eusebius Werke 2/1, ed. Theodor Mommsen, p. 149, lines 1–5. There has been uncertainty over whether to favor the reading subtilium (of discriminating men) or subtilius
(more discriminatingly); see Letter Seven and Hubert Silvestre, "A propos d'une édition récente de l'Hymnarius Paraclitensis d'Abélard," Scriptorium 23 (1978): 91–100, at 97.
Eusebius (about 263–339) was bishop of Caesarea in Palestine and is now some-
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete After a few other things he wrote also as follows about the fact that they compose new Psalms: "Thus they not only understand the hymns of discriminating men of old, but they themselves compose new hymns to God, singing them in all meters and tones in a quite beautiful and delightful structure."
Perhaps it is hardly inappropriate that all Psalms composed in the Hebrew style in meter or rhythm and constructed with the sweetness of melody are also called hymns, according (it is evident) to the very definition of hymns that we set forth in the first preface.29 But since Psalms already when translated from Hebrew into another language have been released from the law of rhythm or meter, the Apostle [Paul] in writing to the Ephesians [5.18–19], who are Greek, did well to distinguish hymns from Psalms and also from canticles.
Consequently, seeing that you, most beloved daughters of Christ, have often beseeched our paltry talent with many entreaties about these matters, and have supplied in addition the reasons for which it seems necessary to you, we have now obeyed your entreaties in part insofar as the Lord has granted.30 In fact, we include in the times styled the father of Church history. Philo of Alexandria (about 25 b.c.e.–after 41 c.e.), also known as Philo the Jew, wrote prolifically in Greek on exegesis, history, and philosophy. Eusebius's reference is to Philo, "On the Contemplative Life," 29, ed. and trans. F. H. Colson, in Philo, ed. and trans. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, 12 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1929–1962), 9 (1941): 103–69, at 128–31.
29. Compare in the Preface to the First Book Heloise's definition of hymn as "praise of God with song." The 'we' here may then refer collectively to Heloise and Abelard. The assertion of the definition that hymns may be metrical or rhythmic dates to Jerome, "Prologus in libro Iob" (Prologue to the Book of Job), in Biblia sacra, ed. Weber and Gryson, 731–32, at lines 24–36. Jerome was followed in turn by Cassiodorus, Expositio psalmorum, "Praefatio" 15, ed. Marc Adriaen, CCSL 97–98 (1958), vol.
97, p. 18, lines 28–30, and Psalm 66.1, vol. 97, p. 581, lines 5–7.
30. In this sentence Abelard resorts to a humility topos, a strategy common in medieval rhetoric whereby an author claims to be less competent than he really is. He makes use of it again in the Preface to the Third Book. For the broad currency of the expression "humility topos," thanks are due to Curtius, European Literature and the Latin
Middle Ages, 83–85 and 407–13.
prefaces to the paraclete hymnal
preceding book the daily hymns for ferias, which can be adequate for the whole week.31 You should know that these were composed in such a way that their song is of two types, as is also their rhythm; and there should be one melody common to all the nighttime ones and another for the daytime ones, and so too one rhythm.32 We also did not omit a hymn of thanks to be offered after meals, according to that which is written in the Gospel: "And a hymn being said, they went out" [Matthew 26.30].33
In fact, on the basis of this consideration we arranged the remaining hymns above, so that those which are nighttime should contain the works of their ferias, but the daytime ones should render the allegorical or moral explanation of their works.34 And it has been done in this way so that the obscurity of the literal may be kept for the night, whereas the light of explanation may be kept for the day.
For me to send along the little gift you have wished, it remains only that I be aided by your prayers.35
31. The word feria refers to days other than Saturdays and Sundays on which no feast falls. In a sense, the works of the ferias are the works of creation.
32. This statement proves that by possessing the melody for "O quanta qualia"
(if we assume that Abelard composed the music as well as the words), we have the melody that was used throughout the hour cycle for the entire day. Since no other melody for the hymns is extant, this circumstance lends a very special importance to this survival. See Waddell, Hymn Collections, 1: ccxxii.
To turn from music to prosody, the hymns for the weekly hours conform to only two types of strophes. The pattern for nighttime hymns is four verses, rhymed aabb, with two octosyllables followed by two hendecasyllables. The hendecasyllables have a caesura after the fourth syllable. The pattern for daytime hymns is also four verses, rhymed aabb, but all four are dodecasyllabic with a caesura after the sixth syllable.
33. Meant here is Hymn 14, "Deus qui corpora."
34. This sentence makes apparent that Abelard planned the nighttime hymns to deal with the historical level of interpretation, which is to say, what happened literally, while the daytime hymns interpret those events ecclesiologically at the allegorical level and in regard to the life experiences of the individual Christian at the moral or tropological level. For further particulars on these three levels, see Dedication Letter to The Commentary on the Six Days of Creation.
35. "The little gift" is the final installment of hymns, as Abelard confirms in the first paragraph of the Preface to the Third Book.
heloise and the nuns of the paraclete Preface to the Third Book In the two books above we put in order daily hymns for ferias as well as hymns befitting the solemn feasts of God. Now, in truth, for the glory of the heavenly king and for the general encouragement of the faithful it remains to extol too, insofar as we are able, the very court of the palace on high with the commendations of hymns that are its due. In this work, in fact, may the very ones especially aid me with their merits to whose glorious memory
I wish to offer little gifts of any praise whatsoever, in accord with what has been written: "The memory of the just is with praise"
[Proverbs 10.7] and likewise "Let us now praise men of renown"
[Ecclesiasticus 44.1] and so forth.
Sisters most dear and dedicated to Christ, I beseech you also, at whose entreaties especially I undertook this work: add the devotion of your prayers, remembering the most blessed lawgiver who was capable of more by praying than were the people by fighting.36
And in order that I may find your charity generous in the supply of prayers, consider attentively how extraordinary your praying may cause our capability to be. For while we endeavored to honor the praises of God's grace in accord with the measure of our small talent,37 we compensated for what is lacking in the rhetorical embellishment with the numerousness of the hymns,38 namely, in composing fitting hymns for the individual night offices of the individual feast days, since until now only one hymn preceded the night offices on feast days as well as on ferias. Consequently we decided upon four hymns for each feast day, so that the fitting
36. The lawgiver is of course Moses, with particular reference to his praying against the Amelikites in Exodus 17.8–16.
37. In the Latin text translated here as "in accord with the measure of our small talent" the Brussels manuscript has a lacuna, which has been filled by a variety of conjectures, of which modo (with the measure)—for which credit is due to Dreves and which has been followed by Pagani—has the appeal of elegant simplicity.
38. Here Abelard develops a more extensive humility topos than that seen above in the Preface to the Second Book.
prefaces to the paraclete hymnal
hymn might be sung in each one of the three night offices, and so that in addition a hymn would not be absent from the morning lauds.39 Of these four again we arranged that two should be joined together in place of one hymn at matins40 and in the same way that the remaining two should be read out at vespers on the feast day itself; or that they should be divided in groups of two at every single vespers, so that one may be sung with the two preceding Psalms and another with the two following ones.41 However, I recall, five hymns have been written about the cross, of which the first should be put before every one of the hours, inviting the deacon to lift the cross from the altar and to bring it into the middle of the choir and there to place it, as it were, to be worshiped and greeted, so that in its presence the service may be conducted in its whole solemnity throughout all the canonical hours.42
39. This provision for three hymns, together with the single lauds hymn, produces a quartet that Abelard explains can be broken into two sets of two, with one for first and the other for second vespers; for a chart, see Waddell, Hymn Collections, 1: ccxxv.
The entire arrangement represents a major departure from the traditional office; see
Waddell, "St. Bernard and the Cistercian Office," 103.
40. The Latin reads "in vigilia." Matins, which derived from the vigils of the early
Church, continued to be called vigiliae in the early Middle Ages.
41. Abelard offers two schemata for the use of four hymns; see Waddell, Hymn Collections from the Paraclete, 1: ccxxv. In the first scheme, vespers 1 would feature hymns
A and B, along with four psalms. Nocturns would have hymn A, with six psalms; hymn B, with six psalms; and hymn C, with three canticles. Lauds would have hymn
D, with psalmody. Vespers 2 would have hymns CD, with four psalms. In the second scheme, vespers 1 would have hymn A, with two psalms, and hymn B, with two psalms. Nocturns would have hymn A, with six psalms; hymn B, with six psalms; and hymn C, with three canticles. Lauds would have hymn D, with psalmody. Vespers 2 would have hymn C, with two psalms, and hymn D, with two psalms.
42. On hymns of the cross as a category unto themselves, see Joseph Szövérffy, Hymns of the Holy Cross: An Annotated Edition with Introduction, Medieval Classics 7 (Brookline, Mass.: Classical Folia Editions, 1976). In the existing editions of Abelard's Hymnarius Paraclitensis, the hymns for the cross are three in number, but the most recent two editions divide the first into three parts, which if counted separately as individual hymns could produce the total of five.