Letters of Heloise and Peter the Venerable
LETTERS OF HELOISE
AND
PETER THE VENERABLE
PETER TO HELOISE
To the abbess Heloise, his revered sister, most beloved in Christ From Peter, abbot of Cluny, her humble brother:
The salvation God has promised those who love Him.
I was pleased to have received the recent letter which you sent me through my son Theobald; I welcomed it with every warm feeling for its sender. I did want to write back right away and tell you what had been in my heart, but with the constant demands of urgent business—to which, I'm afraid, I must surrender most, if not all, of my time—it simply proved impossible. At last, though, I have a day that is relatively free and have set myself to do what I first intended.1
I wanted, first, to reciprocate at least in words the good will you have shown me both in your letter and earlier with your kind gifts, and to let you know the place of love in the Lord I keep for you in my heart. But, you know, I did not begin to love you only now; my love in fact goes back for many years. I remember I was very young—still too young to be considered a young man, but somewhere near the upper edge of adolescence—when I first began to hear your name, not yet, of course, in connection with your religious life but in connection with your admirable studies.2 People at the time would talk about a woman, who, while not yet disentangled from the bonds of 1 Peter was on an extended trip to Spain when Abelard died on April 21, 1142. The letter dates from after his return in 1143 and most probably from 1144. The letter of Heloise to which he refers does not survive. Theobald was a monk of Cluny, whom
Peter used as a messenger on at least one other occasion; see Constable 1967, vol. 2, 177.
2 Peter was born in 1092 or 1094; Heloise, evidently somewhat older, would have been born perhaps in 1090, perhaps a few years earlier. At the time Peter remembers—say, 1115 or a year or two before Heloise's affair with Abelard began—Peter would have been in his early twenties, Heloise in her mid-twenties at the youngest.
He was just beginning as prior at Vézelay in Burgundy, over 100 miles from Paris;
Heloise's fame must have been widespread, indeed.
THE LETTERS AND OTHER WRITINGS
the world, still devoted all her energies to literature and the pursuit of secular wisdom—something very rare, indeed—and none of the world's pleasures with its trifles and delights could distract her from her commitment to these good and useful arts. While nearly all the world is sunk in indifference to these studies, and wisdom can hardly find a place to stand—I will not say among women alone, who seem to have rejected it completely, but even among the hearts of men—you outstripped every women and surpassed nearly every man by holding to your studies, by persisting.
But soon you turned these studies in a far better direction, when, as the Apostle says, it pleased the Lord who separated you from your mother's womb to call you by His grace.3 Where there had been logic, now there was the Gospel; where there had been metaphysics, now there was Saint Paul. Plato you exchanged for Christ, the Academy for the cloister, now a woman of philosophy in the full and truest sense.4 You beat the enemy and robbed him of his spoils.
You left the treasure-house of Egypt behind and embarked on a pilgrimage through the wilderness, building a precious tabernacle to God in your own heart. You sang a song of praise with Miriam when Pharaoh was cast down, taking in your hands, as she once did, the timbrel of blessed mortification,5 and sending a new melody to the very ears of God, a skillful and a scholarly musician. By the beginning you have made, you set your heel on the head of the old serpent, who is always the enemy of women. By persisting now through the grace of the Almighty, you will crush him and so destroy him he will never again dare to hiss against you. You have made a mockery of the proud prince of the world, this "king over all the children of pride," in the words of God to Job,6 and you will do so in the future, forcing him to wail and groan, as you bind him for yourself and the handmaids of God who are with you.7 "The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he, the fir trees did not equal his top,"8 and yet the most wondrous thing of all, a wonder to be set above all wonders, is that he is beaten by the weaker sex, the mightiest archangel mastered by a fragile woman. Your battle brings
3 Cf. Gal. 1:15.
4 Peter speaks in very similar terms of Abelard in the epitaph he composed for him.
5 See Exod. 15:20–21.
6 Job 41:25.
7 Cf. Job 40:24.
8 Ezek. 31:8.
PETER TO HELOISE
great glory to God, deep disgrace to the Deceiver, whose arrogant hopes to equal God's sublimest majesty will now appear absurd, when he has failed in his brief fight with woman's weakness. And the victor in that struggle—her head awaits a jeweled crown from heaven's King, and rightly so for such a victory: for as weak in body as she was throughout the battle, she will only appear more glorious in her eternal reward.
I do not say these things to flatter you, my dearest sister in the Lord, but to exhort you and encourage you to remember the great good in which you have persisted for some time and to become fiercer in your purpose to preserve it. Fire the hearts of your company of women with all the words and examples at your command; they serve the Lord with you by virtue of the grace you have received: now rouse them to fight in that same struggle. You are one of the living creatures of the prophet Ezekiel's vision, though as a woman you must burn and give off light, not like a coal of fire, but like a lamp.9 You are a student and disciple of the truth, to be sure, but to the women entrusted to your care, you are also a teacher and a master of humility—yes, a master of humility and all of heavenly learning, appointed so by God—and as such, must be responsible not only for yourself but for your flock. Your burden is that much greater, but so is your reward. The palm of victory belongs to you on their behalf since, as you know, all those who, under your command, have subdued the world and vanquished its proud prince will win you many triumphs, many glorious trophies in the eyes of the eternal Judge and King.
It is nothing new in human history for women to be commanders over women or even to take up arms and fight side by side with men. If indeed "it is right to learn even from an enemy,"10 we can read from among the pagans that Queen Penthesilea often led her
Amazons into battle at the time of the Trojan War, and the Amazons were women and not men.11 And among God's chosen people, the prophetess Deborah fired the heart of Barach, judge of Israel, against the gentiles.12 Then why should women of virtue and strength not be allowed to captain armies of the Lord, marching at 9 See Ezekiel 1:13: "And the appearance of the living creatures was like that of burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps."
10 Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.428.
11 For Penthesilea, see, e.g., Virgil, Aeneid 1.491 and 11.662.
12 See Judg. 4:9 ff.
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their head against a powerful armed foe, if the Amazon queen could fight the enemy hand to hand—and wasn't this unbecoming to a woman?—and our own Deborah stirred men to battle, put weapons in their hands, and fired their hearts for the fighting of God's war? And after, when King Jabin was defeated, his general
Sisara killed, and the entire godless army overpowered, she began to sing her song, her hymn of praise to God. But when you have won your victory over far more powerful foes, yours will be a far more glorious song, and you will sing with such rejoicing that you will never stop rejoicing and never stop singing your song. What
Deborah was for the people of Israel, you will be for the handmaids of God, your own army of heaven, and you will never cease the struggle that will bring such great rewards, no matter what may come, until you triumph.
You will be a second Deborah in another way as well, since, as you know, her name means "bee" in Hebrew, and that is what you will become, a bee; for you also will make honey, and not for yourself alone.13 All the good things you have gathered from the flowers of your reading you will render in the form of your example and your words and in every way you can both to your sisters at home and to others everywhere. For the short span of this mortal life, you will fill yourself with the private sweetness of the scriptures and your sisters with your public teaching, until that day when, in the prophet's words, "The mountains shall drop down eternal sweetness, and the hills shall flow with honey and with milk."14 I know that this was spoken about the time of grace, but nothing prevents us from taking it as about the time of glory. In fact, I think it is even sweeter so.
I myself would find it sweet to talk with you at greater length on such a subject. Your learning enchants me, your religious life even more, which I have heard so much about from many quarters. If only you lived here with us at Cluny, or at the joyous prison of Marcigny15 with the other handmaids of Christ who are awaiting their release into heavenly freedom. I would rather have had the riches of your knowledge and devotion than the greatest treasures of any king, and would rejoice to see that brilliant college of our sisters shine even brighter for your presence. And you would have derived
13 Cf. Anthologia Latina 257.2: "You bees do not make honey for yourselves."
14 Joel 3:18.
15 Site of a noted Cluniac convent about twenty-five miles southwest of Cluny.
PETER TO HELOISE
no little benefit from them. You would marvel, I know, to see the pomp and arrogance of the world trodden underfoot, every sort of luxury and excess transmuted to a marvelous austerity, and oncesoiled vessels of the devil become the purest shrines of the Holy
Spirit. You would watch young girls of God, stolen as it were from Satan and the world, erecting high walls of virtue on the bedrock of their innocence and raising to the very heights of heaven the rooftop of a blessed edifice. Your heart would smile to see them flower in angelic chastity in company with the most virtuous of widows, and all of them alike awaiting the glory of that great and blessed resurrection, their bodies enclosed so snugly in their houses as if already in a tomb of blessed hope. You may already have all this and more in the colleagues God has given you; there may be nothing we could add to help advance your sacred studies. I only know that our commonwealth here would be very much enhanced by the addition of all your gracious talents.
But God's providence ordains all things, and you have been denied us. We were allowed the presence, though, of someone dear to you—I mean the man whose name I must speak often and always with honor, Christ's servant and true philosopher, Master
Peter, whom providence brought to Cluny in the last years of his life and enriched it with his presence "far above gold and topaz."16
No brief account can do justice to the holiness, the humility, and the devotion of his life among us—all Cluny is its witness. I cannot remember ever seeing his like in the modesty of his dress or his demeanor—not even Germanus could have seemed more lowly or Martin himself more poor.17 At my insistence, he took on a higher rank in our community than his recent entry would normally have warranted, but he always looked the least of all our monks in the extreme simplicity of his clothing. I often wondered at this and, seeing him in our processions—where according to our custom he would walk with the others ahead of me—I found myself nearly speechless that a man of his enormous reputation could comport himself with so little self-importance, so little self-regard. There are some in our religious life, of course, who are more than eager to assume an undue opulence even in the religious garb they wear, but for this very reason, I suspect, he was absolutely spartan in his
16 Ps. 118:127.
17 Peter most likely has in mind St. Germanus of Paris (sixth century) and St. Martin of Tours (fourth century), both major figures in early French monasticism.
THE LETTERS AND OTHER WRITINGS
dress, content with a simple garment of each kind, and wanting nothing more.
In food and drink and in all his physical needs, he was the same: a rebuke in words and mode of life to everything but the barest of necessities for both others and himself. He was constant in his reading, steadfast in his prayer, unbroken in his silence except when a private conference among the monks or a public address on divine matters to their assembly would force him to speak. And he was regularly present at the holy sacraments, offering the sacrifice of the immortal Lamb to God whenever he could, and after he was restored to apostolic favor through my labor and my letters, this became his normal practice.18 But why say more?
All his mind was devoted to meditation about God, all his speech to the teaching of philosophy, all his work to the affirmation of learning.
He lived with us like this for quite some time, an upright and straightforward man, fearing God and shunning evil, devoting his remaining days to God. When the disease of his skin became worse and he developed other ailments as well, I sent him for some rest to our priory near Chalons.19 The climate there is pleasant, perhaps the best in Burgundy, and I thought the place would suit him, being close to the town but on the opposite bank of the Saône. There he renewed his old studies, at least so far as his health would permit, always bending over his books, never letting a moment go by without "either praying or reading or writing or composing," as was said of Gregory the Great.20
And that is where the good angel came upon him, in the midst of his holy work; and he found him, not asleep, as are so many, but alert and wide awake. He found him truly wide awake, and he called him to the wedding feast that is eternal life as a wise, not a foolish, virgin, for he took with him a lamp full of oil, that is, a conscience filled with 18 Peter had written to Pope Innocent II, probably in July 1140, after Abelard's condemnation at the Council of Sens, requesting that Abelard be allowed to remain at Cluny under "the shield of apostolic protection"; see Letter 98 in the edition of Constable. No papal response survives, but Peter's words here indicate that his request was granted.
19 Peter speaks of sending him to "Cabilo," that is, the priory of St. Marcellus, about thirty miles north-northeast of Cluny.
20 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii, 1.8. None of Abelard's writings can be securely dated to this period, and Peter's comments here, as elsewhere in the letter, may be more gracious than exact.
PETER TO HELOISE
the testimony of his holy life.21 As he came to discharge the common debt of mortal beings, his sickness became worse and brought him quickly to the end. Then, how he made his profession of faith, and then his confession of sins, with piety, devotion, and a truly Catholic spirit; how he received with open heart and deep emotion the viaticum for his journey and the pledge of eternal life that is the body of our Lord and Redeemer; how he commended his body and soul to Him both now and forever in faith—to all of this his brothers in religion can bear witness, and the community of that monastery where the body of the martyr Saint Marcellus lies.
So did Master Peter end his days, renowned throughout the world for his teaching and his knowledge, and known everywhere as a student of Him who said, "Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart."22 For remaining meek and lowly of heart did he make his way to Him, as I believe. And so, my revered, my dearest sister in the Lord, this man, to whom you clung after your marriage in the flesh with the stronger, finer bonds of divine love, your partner and your guide throughout your long service to God, God now enfolds in His embrace in place of you, as another you, and He keeps him there for you until the coming of the Lord, and the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet blast that signals the descent of God from heaven, when through grace he will be restored to you again.
Remember him in the Lord, and, if you will, remember me. And commend to the prayers of your holy sisters all the brothers of our community and the sisters who, with all their might, serve the same
Lord as you throughout the world.
21 See the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, Matt. 25:1–13.
22 Matt. 11:29.
HELOISE TO PETER
To Peter, revered abbot of Cluny, her most venerable father and lord From Heloise, his own humble handmaid and God's:
The spirit of saving grace.
To us, the coming of your worthiness was the coming of God's mercy.
We are grateful, kindest father, and we glory that your greatness has descended upon us, for we are small; indeed, your coming would be cause for glory to anyone, however great.
Others know what good they may derive from the good of your high presence.
I myself do not have the words to say, or even the intellect to comprehend, all the good your visit brought to us, all the personal pleasure to me.
My abbot and my lord:
You celebrated Mass in our presence on the sixteenth of November of last year.1
You commended us to the Holy Spirit in that Mass.
You feasted us in our chapter with your preaching of God's word.
You restored to us the body of our master 1 For all Heloise's precision here, the year of Peter's visit to the Paraclete is not known. In the period following Abelard's death, it could have been in 1144, 1146–
1149, or 1152–1154, and an earlier date is certainly more likely than a later; see Constable 1967, vol. 2, 210.
HELOISE TO PETER
and extended to us the kindness of Cluny.2
And to me, whom you in your high humility condescended to call your sister both in writing and in speech, though I am not even worthy of the name handmaid, you gave a singular token of sincerity and love, a trental of masses to be sung after my death by the entire community of Cluny.3
You indicated you would confirm this gift with a document marked with your seal.
What you granted to your sister— or, let me say, your handmaid— may you fulfill now as her brother— or, let me say, her lord.
May it please you to send me a second document, also marked with your seal, containing the absolution of our master in letters for all to read, to be displayed above his tomb.
May I also remind you, in the love you bear both God and me, about your Astralabe, that you would find a prebend for him either in Paris or another diocese.4
Farewell, and may the Lord keep you and someday grant us your presence once again.
2 In the Second Letter Abelard had expressed the wish to be buried at the Paraclete.
For Peter to have had the body exhumed from its grave at St. Marcellus and to have personally accompanied it to the Paraclete was surely an extraordinary thing. To do so, he took the body "in secret," as he admits in his absolution of Abelard; see the note to his following letter.
3 That is, a series of thirty commemorative Masses, indeed a high distinction.
4 Astralabe, son of Heloise and Abelard, would have been in his mid-twenties at the time of Abelard's death. By calling him "your Astralabe," Heloise seems simply to be commending his career to Peter's care; compare Peter's responding comment later.
PETER TO HELOISE
To Heloise, my revered and dearest sister, handmaid of God, and teacher and captain of the handmaids of God
From her humble brother Peter, abbot of Cluny:
The fullness of God's salvation and of my own love in Christ.
I am certainly delighted to discover from your letter that my visit to you was no transitory thing, that not only had I come to call but in fact I never left. My stay, I see, was not like the fleeting memory of a guest who spends a single night; I did not become "a stranger and sojourner among you"1 but "a fellow-citizen of saintly women and a member of the household of God."2 Your keen mind has held on to each detail. Everything I did or said on that whirlwind of a visit left an impression on your warm and generous heart—and I do not mean only what I said with careful consideration: not even what I might have said without giving it much thought has fallen to earth unnoticed. But you noticed it all and, with unbounded kindness, stored it away in your tenacious memory as if it were something great, something sent from heaven, something sacrosanct, like the words and deeds of Jesus Christ Himself. Possibly it struck you in this way because of what it says about guests in the monastic rule we both observe: "Let all who arrive be received like Christ."3 Or possibly because of what is written about the holders of high positions, "He that heareth you, also heareth me,"4 even though I hold no high position over you. I can only hope that I always remain in such high favor and that you remember me as faithfully in your prayers.
1 Gen. 23:4.
2 Eph. 2:19. Peter aptly feminizes the gender of the Vulgate's masculine "saints."
3 Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 53.
4 Luke 10:16.
PETER TO HELOISE
But because long before I saw you, and even more now that I've met you, I have kept a special place of "charity unfeigned"5 for you in the deepest recesses of my mind, I will reciprocate as I can. The gift of the trental of Masses which I gave you while I was present, I am sending you in my absence, as you wanted, signed and sealed. I am also sending the absolution of Master Peter in a document likewise signed and sealed, just as you ordered.6
About your Astralabe, who for your sake is now my Astralabe, I will happily try to find him a prebend in some distinguished church or other as soon as I have the chance. It is not an easy matter, though, since, as I've often found, bishops usually make themselves very difficult when it comes to offering prebends in their own churches. But for your sake, I will do what I can as soon as I can.7
5 2 Cor. 6:6.
6 The text of Peter's absolution survives:
I, Peter abbot of Cluny, who received Peter Abelard as a monk of Cluny, and who took his body in secret and brought it to the abbess Heloise and the nuns of the Paraclete, by the authority of almighty God and all the saints, and in virtue of my office, absolve him of all his sins.
Peter also contributed (possibly to an obituary roll which circulated among religious houses) a verse epitaph for Abelard, which is among the most famous of the many composed for him:
Socrates of Gaul, great Plato of the West, Our Aristotle, equal or superior in logic
To anyone who has ever lived, Prince of learning, known throughout the world, Wide-ranging in his genius, subtle and acute,
Mastering all things by reason and the art of speech— This was Abelard. But he came to greater mastery
When, having professed himself a monk of Cluny, He came to the true philosophy of Christ.
There he well completed the final tasks of his long life And, on the twenty-first day of April, gave hope
Of being numbered among the good philosophers.
7 Peter's actual efforts on behalf of Heloise's son are not known. Astralabe did, however, become a canon of the cathedral of Nantes.