612 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
" the first of women." 1 This, the leading French woman of the Middle Ages, stands forth invested with a halo as of queenly dignity, while her seducer forfeits by his treatment of her the esteem of all who prefer manly strength and fidelity to gifts of mind, however brilliant.
Heloise was probably the daughter of a canon and had her home in Paris with her uncle, Fulbert, also a canon. When Abaulard came to know her, she was seventeen, attractive in person and richly endowed in mind. Abtelard prevailed upon Fulbert to admit him to his house as Heloise's teacher. Heloise had before been at the convent of Argenteuil. The meetings between pupil and tutor became meetings of lovers. Over open books, as Abselard wrote, more words of love were passed than of discussion and more kisses than instruc tion. The matter was whispered about in Paris. Fulbert was in rage. Abyelard removed Heloise to his sister's in Brittany, where she bore a son, called Astralabius.2 Abselard expressed readiness to have the nuptial ceremony performed, though in secret, in order to placate Fulbert. Open marriage was eschewed lest he should himself suffer loss to his fame, as he himself distinctly says.3
The Story of Misfortunes leaves no doubt that what he was willing to do proceeded from fear and that he was not actu ated by any sense of honor toward Heloise or proper view of woman or of marriage. What accord, he wrote, " has study with nurses, writing materials with cradles, books and desks with spinning wheels, reeds and ink with spindles ! Who, intent upon sacred and philosophical reflections could endure the squalling of children, the lullabies of nurses and the noisy crowd of men and women ! Who would stand the dis agreeable and constant dirt of little children! "
1 See his description, I. 47 sqq.
2 A letter is preserved written by Abselard to his son. It indicates affec tion. The father urges him to study the Scriptures. An Astralabius is mentioned as belonging to the chapter of Nantes in 1150. Hausrath, p. 173, conjectures he was Abaelard's son.
8 Ut amplius mitagarem, obtuli me ei satisfacere earn scilicet quam corruperam mihi matrimonio copulando, dummodo id secreto jieret, ne famoe detrimentmn incurrercm. Migne, p. 130.
§ 99. PETER AB^ELARD. 613
Abselard declared a secret marriage was performed in obedience to the demands of Heloise's relatives. At best it was a mock ceremony, for Heloise persisted in denying she was Abselard's wife. With mistaken but splendid devotion, she declined to marry him, believing that marriage would interrupt his career. In one of her letters to him she wrote : " If to you, the name of wife seems more proper, to me always was more dear the little word friend, or if you do not deem that name proper, then the name of concubine or harlot, concubina vel scortum. I invoke God as my witness that, if Augustus had wished to give me the rule over the whole world by asking me in marriage, I would rather be your mistress, meretrix, than his empress, imperatrix. Thy passion drew thee to me rather than thy friendship, and the heat of desire rather than love." l
Abselard removed Heloise to Argenteuil and she assumed the veil. He visited her in secret and now Fulbert took re venge. Entering into collusion with Abtelard's servant, he fell upon him at night and mutilated him. Thus humiliated, Abselard entered the convent of St. Denis, 1118, — not from any impulse of piety but from expediency.2 He became in different to Heloise.
New trials fell upon his chequered career — charges of heresy. He was arraigned for Sabellian views on the Trinity at Soissons, 1121, before the papal legate. Roscellinus, his old teacher, opened the accusations. Abselard complains that two enemies were responsible for the actual trial and its issue, Alberic and Lotulf, teachers at Rheims. He was obliged to commit his book to the flames 3 and to read pub licly a copy of the Athanasian Creed.
Again he got himself into difficulty by opposing the cur rent belief, based upon Bede's statement, that Dionysius or
1 Concupiscentia te mihi potius quam amicitia sociavit, libidinis ardor potius quam amor. Ep., II. ; Migne, p. 186.
2 Deutsch, p. 35. So war Abcelard Monch geworden, nicht von innerem Verlangen getrieben, etc. His relations with Heloise made freedom in his position as a public teacher in the open for the time impossible.
3 Introductio in theologiam. Abselard is our chief authority for the trial. Hist. Calam., Migne, pp. 141-150. See Otto of Freising.