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diff --git a/old/14268-8.txt b/old/14268-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..186fcae --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14268-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3273 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historia Calamitatum, by Peter Abelard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Historia Calamitatum + +Author: Peter Abelard + +Release Date: December 6, 2004 [EBook #14268] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIA CALAMITATUM *** + + + + +Produced by Nicole Apostola + + + + +HISTORIA CALAMITATUM + +THE STORY OF MY MISFORTUNES + +An Autobiography by Peter Abélard + +Translated by Henry Adams Bellows + +Introduction by Ralph Adams Cram + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The "Historia Calamitatum" of Peter Abélard is one of those human +documents, out of the very heart of the Middle Ages, that +illuminates by the glow of its ardour a shadowy period that has +been made even more dusky and incomprehensible by unsympathetic +commentators and the ill-digested matter of "source-books." Like +the "Confessions" of St. Augustine it is an authentic revelation of +personality and, like the latter, it seems to show how unchangeable +is man, how consistent unto himself whether he is of the sixth +century or the twelfth--or indeed of the twentieth century. +"Evolution" may change the flora and fauna of the world, or modify +its physical forms, but man is always the same and the unrolling of +the centuries affects him not at all. If we can assume the vivid +personality, the enormous intellectual power and the clear, keen +mentality of Abélard and his contemporaries and immediate +successors, there is no reason why "The Story of My Misfortunes" +should not have been written within the last decade. + +They are large assumptions, for this is not a period in world +history when the informing energy of life expresses itself through +such qualities, whereas the twelfth century was of precisely this +nature. The antecedent hundred years had seen the recovery from the +barbarism that engulfed Western Europe after the fall of Rome, and +the generation of those vital forces that for two centuries were to +infuse society with a vigour almost unexampled in its potency and +in the things it brought to pass. The parabolic curve that +describes the trajectory of Mediaevalism was then emergent out of +"chaos and old night" and Abélard and his opponent, St. Bernard, +rode high on the mounting force in its swift and almost violent +ascent. + +Pierre du Pallet, yclept Abélard, was born in 1079 and died in +1142, and his life precisely covers the period of the birth, +development and perfecting of that Gothic style of architecture +which is one of the great exemplars of the period. Actually, the +Norman development occupied the years from 1050 to 1125 while the +initiating and determining of Gothic consumed only fifteen years, +from Bury, begun in 1125, to Saint-Denis, the work of Abbot Suger, +the friend and partisan of Abélard, in 1140. It was the time of the +Crusades, of the founding and development of schools and +universities, of the invention or recovery of great arts, of the +growth of music, poetry and romance. It was the age of great kings +and knights and leaders of all kinds, but above all it was the +epoch of a new philosophy, refounded on the newly revealed corner +stones of Plato and Aristotle, but with a new content, a new +impulse and a new method inspired by Christianity. + +All these things, philosophy, art, personality, character, were the +product of the time, which, in its definiteness and consistency, +stands apart from all other epochs in history. The social system +was that of feudalism, a scheme of reciprocal duties, privileges +and obligations as between man and man that has never been excelled +by any other system that society has developed as its own method of +operation. As Dr. De Wulf has said in his illuminating book +"Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages" (a volume that +should be read by any one who wishes rightly to understand the +spirit and quality of Mediaevalism), "the feudal sentiment _par +excellence_ ... is the sentiment of the value and dignity of the +individual man. The feudal man lived as a free man; he was master +in his own house; he sought his end in himself; he was--and this is +a scholastic expression,--_propter seipsum existens_: all feudal +obligations were founded upon respect for personality and the given +word." + +Of course this admirable scheme of society with its guild system of +industry, its absence of usury in any form and its just sense of +comparative values, was shot through and through with religion both +in faith and practice. Catholicism was universally and implicitly +accepted. Monasticism had redeemed Europe from barbarism and Cluny +had freed the Church from the yoke of German imperialism. This +unity and immanence of religion gave a consistency to society +otherwise unobtainable, and poured its vitality into every form of +human thought and action. + +It was Catholicism and the spirit of feudalism that preserved men +from the dangers inherent in the immense individualism of the time. +With this powerful and penetrating coördinating force men were safe +to go about as far as they liked in the line of individuality, +whereas today, for example, the unifying force of a common and +vital religion being absent and nothing having been offered to take +its place, the result of a similar tendency is egotism and anarchy. +These things happened in the end in the case of Mediaevalism when +the power and the influence of religion once began to weaken, and +the Renaissance and Reformation dissolved the fabric of a unified +society. Thereafter it became necessary to bring some order out of +the spiritual, intellectual and physical chaos through the +application of arbitrary force, and so came absolutism in +government, the tyranny of the new intellectualism, the Catholic +Inquisition and the Puritan Theocracy. + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, however, the balance is +justly preserved, though it was but an unstable equilibrium, and +therefore during the time of Abélard we find the widest diversity +of speculation and freedom of thought which continue unhampered for +more than a hundred years. The mystical school of the Abbey of St. +Victor in Paris follows one line (perhaps the most nearly right of +all though it was submerged by the intellectual force and vivacity +of the Scholastics) with Hugh of St. Victor as its greatest +exponent. The Franciscans and Dominicans each possessed great +schools of philosophy and dogmatic theology, and in addition there +were a dozen individual line of speculation, each vitalized by some +one personality, daring, original, enthusiastic. This prodigious +mental and spiritual activity was largely fostered by the schools, +colleges and universities that had suddenly appeared all over +Europe. Never was such activity along educational lines. Almost +every cathedral had its school, and many of the abbeys as well, as +for example, in France alone, Cluny, Citeaux and Bec, St. Martin of +Tours, Laon, Chartres, Rheims and Paris. To these schools students +poured in from all over the world in numbers mounting to many +thousands for such as Paris for example, and the mutual rivalries +were intense and sometimes disorderly. Groups of students would +choose their own masters and follow them from place to place, even +subjecting them to discipline if in their opinion they did not live +up to the intellectual mark they had set as their standard. As +there was not only one religion and one social system, but one +universal language as well, this gathering from all the four +quarters of Europe was perfectly possible, and had much to do with +the maintenance of that unity which marked society for three centuries. + +At the time of Abélard the schools of Chartres and Paris were at +the height of their fame and power. Fulbert, Bernard and Thierry, +all of Chartres, had fixed its fame for a long period, and at Paris +Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and William of Champeaux were names +to conjure with, while Anselm of Laon, Adelard of Bath, Alan of +Lille, John of Salisbury, Peter Lombard, were all from time to time +students or teachers in one of the schools of the Cathedral, the +Abbey of St. Victor or Ste. Geneviève. + +Earlier in the Middle Ages the identity of theology and philosophy +had been proclaimed, following the Neo-Platonic and Augustinian +theory, and the latter (cf. Peter Damien and Duns Scotus Eriugena) +was even reduced to a position that made it no more than the +obedient handmaid of theology. In the eleventh century however, St. +Anselm had drawn a clear distinction between faith and reason, and +thereafter theology and philosophy were generally accepted as +individual but allied sciences, both serving as lines of approach +to truth but differing in their method. Truth was one and therefore +there could be no conflict between the conclusions reached after +different fashions. In the twelfth century Peter of Blois led a +certain group called "rigourists" who still looked askance at +philosophy, or rather at the intellectual methods by which it +proceeded, and they were inclined to condemn it as "the devil's +art," but they were on the losing side and John of Salisbury, Alan +of Lille, Gilbert de la Porrée and Hugh of St. Victor prevailed in +their contention that philosophers were "_humanae videlicet +sapientiae amatores_," while theologians were "_divinae scripturae +doctores." + +Cardinal Mercier, himself the greatest contemporary exponent of +Scholastic philosophy, defines philosophy as "the science of the +totality of things." The twelfth century was a time when men were +striving to see phenomena in this sense and established a great +rational synthesis that should yet be in full conformity with the +dogmatic theology of revealed religion. Abélard was one of the most +enthusiastic and daring of these Mediaeval thinkers, and it is not +surprising that he should have found himself at issue not only with +the duller type of theologians but with his philosophical peers +themselves. He was an intellectual force of the first magnitude and +a master of dialectic; he was also an egotist through and through, +and a man of strong passions. He would and did use his logical +faculty and his mastery of dialectic to justify his own desires, +whether these were for carnal satisfaction or the maintenance of an +original intellectual concept. It was precisely this danger that +aroused the fears of the "rigourists" and in the light of +succeeding events in the domain of intellectualism it is impossible +to deny that there was some justification for their gloomy +apprehensions. In St. Thomas Aquinas this intellectualizing process +marked its highest point and beyond there was no margin of safety. +He himself did not overstep the verge of danger, but after him this +limit was overpassed. The perfect balance between mind and spirit +was achieved by Hugh of St. Victor, but afterwards the severance +began and on the one side was the unwholesome hyper-spiritualization +of the Rhenish mystics, on the other the false intellectualism of +Descartes, Kant and the entire modern school of materialistic +philosophy. It was the clear prevision of this inevitable issue +that made of St. Bernard not only an implacable opponent of Abélard +but of the whole system of Scholasticism as well. For a time he was +victorious. Abélard was silenced and the mysticism of the +Victorines triumphed, only to be superseded fifty years later when +the two great orders, Dominican and Franciscan, produced their +triumphant protagonists of intellectualism, Alelander Halesand +Albertus Magnus, and finally the greatest pure intellect of all +time, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Bernard, St. Francis of Assisi, the +Victorines, maintained that after all, as Henri Bergson was to say, +seven hundred years later, "the mind of man by its very nature is +incapable of apprehending reality," and that therefore faith is +better than reason. Lord Bacon came to the same conclusion when he +wrote "Let men please themselves as they will in admiring and +almost adoring the human kind, this is certain; that, as an uneven +mirrour distorts the rays of objects according to its own figure +and section, so the mind ... cannot be trusted." And Hugh of St. +Victor himself, had written, even in the days of Abélard: "There +was a certain wisdom that seemed such to them that knew not the +true wisdom. The world found it and began to be puffed up, thinking +itself great in this. Confiding in its wisdom it became +presumptuous and boasted it would attain the highest wisdom. And it +made itself a ladder of the face of creation. ... Then those things +which were seen were known and there were other things which were +not known; and through those which were manifest they expected to +reach those that were hidden. And they stumbled and fell into the +falsehoods of their own imagining ... So God made foolish the +wisdom of this world, and He pointed out another wisdom, which +seemed foolishness and was not. For it preached Christ crucified, +in order that truth might be sought in humility. But the world +despised it, wishing to contemplate the works of God, which He had +made a source of wonder, and it did not wish to venerate what He +had set for imitation, neither did it look to its own disease, +seeking medicine in piety; but presuming on a false health, it gave +itself over with vain curiosity to the study of alien things." + +These considerations troubled Abélard not at all. He was conscious +of a mind of singular acuteness and a tongue of parts, both of +which would do whatever he willed. Beneath all the tumultuous talk +of Paris, when he first arrived there, lay the great and unsolved +problem of Universals and this he promptly made his own, rushing in +where others feared to tread. William of Champeaux had rested on a +Platonic basis, Abélard assumed that of Aristotle, and the clash +began. It is not a lucid subject, but the best abstract may be +found in Chapter XIV of Henry Adams' "Mont-Saint-Michel and +Chartres" while this and the two succeeding chapters give the most +luminous and vivacious account of the principles at issue in +this most vital of intellectual feuds. + +"According to the latest authorities, the doctrine of universals +which convulsed the schools of the twelfth century has never +received an adequate answer. What is a species: what is a genus or +a family or an order? More or less convenient terms of classification, +about which the twelfth century cared very little, while it cared +deeply about the essence of classes! Science has become too complex +to affirm the existence of universal truths, but it strives for +nothing else, and disputes the problem, within its own limits, +almost as earnestly as in the twelfth century, when the whole field +of human and superhuman activity was shut between these barriers +of substance, universals, and particulars. Little has changed except +the vocabulary and the method. The schools knew that their society +hung for life on the demonstration that God, the ultimate universal, +was a reality, out of which all other universal truths or realities +sprang. Truth was a real thing, outside of human experience. The +schools of Paris talked and thought of nothing else. John of Salisbury, +who attended Abélard's lectures about 1136, and became Bishop of +Chartres in 1176, seems to have been more surprised than we need be at +the intensity of the emotion. 'One never gets away from this question,' +he said. 'From whatever point a discussion starts, it is always led +back and attached to that. It is the madness of Rufus about Naevia; +"He thinks of nothing else; talks of nothing else, and if Naevia did +not exist, Rufus would be dumb."' + +... "In these scholastic tournaments the two champions started from +opposite points:--one from the ultimate substance, God,--the +universal, the ideal, the type;--the other from the individual, +Socrates, the concrete, the observed fact of experience, the object +of sensual perception. The first champion--William in this instance-- +assumed that the universal was a real thing; and for that reason he +was called a realist. His opponent--Abélard--held that the +universal was only nominally real; and on that account he was +called a nominalist. Truth, virtue, humanity, exist as units and +realities, said William. Truth, replied Abélard, is only the sum of +all possible facts that are true, as humanity is the sum of all +actual human beings. The ideal bed is a form, made by God, said +Plato. The ideal bed is a name, imagined by ourselves, said +Aristotle. 'I start from the universe,' said William. 'I start from +the atom,' said Abélard; and, once having started, they necessarily +came into collision at some point between the two." + +In this "Story of My Misfortunes" Abélard gives his own account of +the triumphant manner in which he confounded his master, William, +but as Henry Adams says, "We should be more credulous than +twelfth-century monks, if we believed, on Abélard's word in 1135, +that in 1110 he had driven out of the schools the most accomplished +dialectician of the age by an objection so familiar that no other +dialectician was ever silenced by it--whatever may have been the +case with theologians-and so obvious that it could not have troubled +a scholar of fifteen. William stated a selected doctrine as old as +Plato; Abélard interposed an objection as old as Aristotle. Probably +Plato and Aristotle had received the question and answer from +philosophers ten thousand years older than themselves. Certainly +the whole of philosophy has always been involved in this dispute." + +So began the battle of the schools with all its more than military +strategy and tactics, and in the end it was a drawn battle, in +spite of its marvels of intellectual heroism and dialectical +sublety. Says Henry Adams again:-- + +"In every age man has been apt to dream uneasily, rolling from side +to side, beating against imaginary bars, unless, tired out, he has +sunk into indifference or scepticism. Religious minds prefer +scepticism. The true saint is a profound sceptic; a total +disbeliever in human reason, who has more than once joined hands on +this ground with some who were at best sinners. Bernard was a total +disbeliever in Scholasticism; so was Voltaire. Bernard brought the +society of his time to share his scepticism, but could give the +society no other intellectual amusement to relieve its restlessness. +His crusade failed; his ascetic enthusiasm faded; God came no nearer. +If there was in all France, between 1140 and 1200, a more typical +Englishman of the future Church of England type than John of +Salisbury, he has left no trace; and John wrote a description of +his time which makes a picturesque contrast with the picture +painted by Abélard, his old master, of the century at its beginning. +John weighed Abélard and the schools against Bernard and the +cloister, and coolly concluded that the way to truth led rather +through Citeaux, which brought him to Chartres as Bishop in 1176, +and to a mild scepticism in faith. 'I prefer to doubt' he said, +'rather than rashly define what is hidden.' The battle with the +schools had then resulted only in creating three kinds of sceptics:-- +the disbelievers in human reason; the passive agnostics; and the +sceptics proper, who would have been atheists had they dared. The +first class was represented by the School of St. Victor; the second +by John of Salisbury himself; the third, by a class of schoolmen +whom he called Cornificii, as though they made a practice of +inventing horns of dilemma on which to fix their opponents; as, for +example, they asked whether a pig which was led to market was led +by the man or the cord. One asks instantly: What cord?--Whether +Grace, for instance, or Free Will? + +"Bishop John used the science he had learned in the school only to +reach the conclusion that, if philosophy were a science at all, its +best practical use was to teach charity--love. Even the early, +superficial debates of the schools, in 1100-50, had so exhausted +the subject that the most intelligent men saw how little was to be +gained by pursuing further those lines of thought. The twelfth +century had already reached the point where the seventeenth century +stood when Descartes renewed the attempt to give a solid, +philosophical basis for deism by his celebrated '_Cogito, ergo sum_.' +Although that ultimate fact seemed new to Europe when Descartes +revived it as the starting-point of his demonstration, it was as +old and familiar as St. Augustine to the twelfth century, and as +little conclusive as any other assumption of the Ego or the Non-Ego. +The schools argued, according to their tastes, from unity to +multiplicity, or from multiplicity to unity; but what they wanted +was to connect the two. They tried realism and found that it led to +pantheism. They tried nominalism and found that it ended in +materialism. They attempted a compromise in conceptualism which +begged the whole question. Then they lay down, exhausted. In the +seventeenth century--the same violent struggle broke out again, and +wrung from Pascal the famous outcry of despair in which the French +language rose, perhaps for the last time, to the grand style of the +twelfth century. To the twelfth century it belongs; to the century +of faith and simplicity; not to the mathematical certainties of +Descartes and Leibnitz and Newton, or to the mathematical +abstractions of Spinoza. Descartes had proclaimed his famous +conceptual proof of God: 'I am conscious of myself, and must exist; +I am conscious of God and He must exist.' Pascal wearily replied +that it was not God he doubted, but logic. He was tortured by the +impossibility of rejecting man's reason by reason; unconsciously +sceptical, he forced himself to disbelieve in himself rather than +admit a doubt of God. Man had tried to prove God, and had failed: +'The metaphysical proofs of God are so remote (_éloignées_) from the +reasoning of men, and so contradictory (_impliquées_, far fetched) +that they made little impression; and even if they served to +convince some people, it would only be during the instant that they +see the demonstration; an hour afterwards they fear to have +deceived themselves.'" + +Abélard was always, as he has been called, a scholastic adventurer, +a philosophical and theological freelance, and it was after the +Calamity that he followed those courses that resulted finally in +his silencing and his obscure death. It is almost impossible for us +of modern times to understand the violence of partisanship aroused +by his actions and published words that centre apparently around +the placing of the hermitage he had made for himself under the +patronage of the third Person of the Trinity, the Paraclete, the +Spirit of love and compassion and consolation, and the consequent +arguments by which he justified himself. To us it seems that he was +only trying to exalt the power of the Holy Spirit, a pious action +at the least but to the episcopal and monastic conservators of the +faith he seems to have been guilty of trying to rationalize an +unsolvable mystery, to find an intellectual solution forbidden to +man. In some obscure way the question seems to be involved in that +other of the function of the Blessed Virgin as the fount of mercy +and compassion, and at this time when the cult of the Mother of God +had reached its highest point of potency and poignancy anything of +the sort seemed intolerable. + +For a time the affairs of Abélard prospered: Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis +was his defender, and he enjoyed the favor of the Pope and the +King. He was made an abbot and his influence spread in every +direction. In 1137 the King died and conditions at Rome changed so +that St. Bernard became almost Pope and King in his own person. +Within a year he proceeded against Abélard; his "Theology" was +condemned at a council of Sens, this judgment was confirmed by the +Pope, and the penalty of silence was imposed on the author-- +probably the most severe punishment he could be called upon to +endure. As a matter of fact it was fatal to him. He started +forthwith for Rome but stopped at the Abbey of Cluny in the company +of its Abbot, Peter the Venerable, "the most amiable figure of the +twelfth century," and no very devoted admirer of St. Bernard, to +whom, as a matter of fact, he had once written, "You perform all +the difficult religious duties; you fast, you watch, you suffer; +but you will not endure the easy ones-you do not love." Here he +found two years of peace after his troubled life, dying in the full +communion of the Church on 21 April, 1142. + +The problems of philosophy and theology that were so vital in the +Middle Ages interest us no more, even when they are less obscure +than those so rife in the twelfth century, but the problem of human +love is always near and so it is not perhaps surprising that the +abiding interest concerns itself with Abélard's relationship with +Héloïse. So far as he is concerned it is not a very savoury matter. +He deliberately seduced a pupil, a beautiful girl entrusted to him +by her uncle, a simpleminded old canon of the Cathedral of Paris, +under whose roof he ensconced himself by false pretences and with +the full intention of gaining the niece for himself. Abélard seems +to have exercised an irresistible fascination for men and women +alike, and his plot succeeded to admiration. Stricken by a belated +remorse, he finally married Héloïse against her unselfish protests +and partly to legitimatize his unborn child, and shortly after he +was surprised and overpowered by emissaries of Canon Fulbert and +subjected to irreparable mutilation. He tells the story with +perfect frankness and with hardly more than formal expressions of +compunction, and thereafter follows the narrative of their +separation, he to a monastery, she to a convent, and of his care +for her during her conventual life, or at least for that part of it +that had passed before the "History" was written. Through the whole +story it is Héloise who shines brightly as a curiously beautiful +personality, unselfish, self sacrificing, and almost virginal in +her purity in spite of her fault. One has for her only sympathy and +affection whereas it is difficult to feel either for Abélard in +spite of his belated efforts at rectifying his own sin and his +life-long devotion to his solitary wife in her hidden cloister. + +The whole story was instantly known, Abélard's assailants were +punished in kind, .and he himself shortly resumed his work of +lecturing on philosophy and, a little later, on theology. +Apparently his reputation did not suffer in the least, nor did +hers; in fact her piety became almost a by-word and his name as a +great teacher increased by leaps and bounds: neither his offence +nor its punishment seemed to bring lasting discredit. This fact, +which seems strange to us, does not imply a lack of moral sense in +the community but rather the prevalence of standards alien to our +own. It is only since the advent of Puritanism that sexual sins +have been placed at the head of the whole category. During the +Middle Ages, as always under Christianity, the most deadly sins +were pride, covetousness, slander and anger. These implied inherent +moral depravity, but "illicit" love was love outside the law of +man, and did not of necessity and always involve moral guilt. +Christ was Himself very gentle and compassionate with the sins of +the flesh but relentless in the case of the greater sins of the +spirit. Puritanism overturned the balance of things, and by +concentrating its condemnation on sexual derelictions became blind +to the greater sins of pride, avarice and anger. We have inherited +the prejudice without acquiring the abstention, but the Middle Ages +had a clearer sense of comparative values and they could forgive, +or even ignore, the sin of Abélard and Héloïse when they could less +easily excuse the sin of spiritual pride or deliberate cruelty. +Moreover, these same Middle Ages believed very earnestly in the +Divine forgiveness of sins for which there had been real repentance +and honest effort at amendment. Abélard and Héloise had been +grievously punished, he himself had made every reparation that was +possible, his penitence was charitably assumed, and therefore it +was not for society to condemn what God would mercifully forgive. + +The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were not an age of moral +laxity; ideals and standards and conduct were immeasurably higher +than they had been for five hundred years, higher than they were to +be in the centuries that followed the crest of Mediaevalism. It was +however a time of enormous vitality, of throbbing energy that was +constantly bursting its bounds, and as well a time of personal +liberty and freedom of action that would seem strange indeed to us +in these days of endless legal restraint and inhibitions mitigated +by revolt. There were few formal laws but there was _Custom_ which +was a sovereign law in itself, and above all there was the moral +law of the Church, establishing its great fundamental principles +but leaving details to the working out of life itself. Behind the +sin of Abélard lay his intolerable spiritual pride, his selfishness +and his egotism, qualities that society at large did not recognize +because of their devotion to his engaging personality and their +admiration for his dazzling intellectual gifts. Their idol had +sinned, he had been savagely punished, he had repented; that was +all there was about it and the question was at an end. + +In reading the Historia Calamitatum there is one consideration that +suggests itself that is subject for serious thought. Written as it +was some years after the great tragedy of his life, it was a +portrait that somehow seems out of focus. We know that during his +early years in Paris Abélard was a bold and daring champion in the +lists of dialectic; brilliant, persuasive, masculine to a degree; +yet this self-portrait is of a man timid, suspicious, frightened of +realities, shadows, possibilities. He is in abject terror of +councils, hidden enemies, even of his life. The tone is querulous, +even peevish at times, and always the egotism and the pride +persist, while he seems driven by the whip of desire for +intellectual adventure into places where he shrinks from defending +himself, or is unable to do so. The antithesis is complete and one +is driven to believe that the terrible mutilation to which he had +been subjected had broken down his personality and left him in all +things less than man. His narrative is full of accusations against +all manner of people, but it is not necessary to take all these +literally, for it is evident that his natural egotism, overlaid by +the circumstances of his calamity, produced an almost pathological +condition wherein suspicions became to him realities and terrors +established facts. + +It is doubtful if Abélard should be ranked very high in the list of +Mediaeval philosophers. He was more a dialectician than a creative +force, and until the development of the episode with Héloïse he +seems to have cared primarily for the excitement of debate, with +small regard for the value or the subjects under discussion. As an +intellectualist he had much to do with the subsequent abandonment +of Plato in favour of Aristotle that was a mark of pure +scholasticism, while the brilliancy of his dialectical method +became a model for future generations. Afer the Calamity he turned +from philosophy to theology and ethics and here he reveals +qualities of nobility not evident before. Particularly does he +insist upon the fact that it is the subjective intention that +determines the moral value of human actions even if it does not +change their essential character. + +The story of this philosophical soldier of fortune is a romance +from beginning to end, a poignant human drama shot through with +passion, adventure, pathos and tragedy. In a sense it is an epitome +of the earlier Middle Ages and through it shines the bright light +of an era of fervid living, of exciting adventure, of phenomenal +intellectual force and of large and comprehensive liberty. As a +single episode of passion it is not particularly distinguished +except for the appealing personality of Héloïse; as a phase in the +development of Christian philosophy it is of only secondary value. +United in one, the two factors achieve a brilliant dramatic unity +that has made the story of Abélard and Héloïse immortal. + + + +HISTORIA CALAMITATUM + + + +FOREWORD + +Often the hearts of men and women are stirred, as likewise they are +soothed in their sorrows, more by example than by words. And +therefore, because I too have known some consolation from speech +had with one who was a witness thereof, am I now minded to write of +the sufferings which have sprung out of my misfortunes, for the +eyes of one who, though absent, is of himself ever a consoler. This +I do so that, in comparing your sorrows with mine, you may discover +that yours are in truth nought, or at the most but of small +account, and so shall you come to bear them more easily. + + + +CHAPTER I + +OF THE BIRTHPLACE OF PIERRE ABÉLARD AND OF HIS PARENTS + +Know, then, that I am come from a certain town which was built on +the way into lesser Brittany, distant some eight miles, as I think, +eastward from the city of Nantes, and in its own tongue called +Palets. Such is the nature of that country, or, it may be, of them +who dwell there--for in truth they are quick in fancy--that my mind +bent itself easily to the study of letters. Yet more, I had a +father who had won some smattering of letters before he had girded +on the soldier's belt. And so it came about that long afterwards +his love thereof was so strong that he saw to it that each son of +his should be taught in letters even earlier than in the management +of arms. Thus indeed did it come to pass. And because I was his +first born, and for that reason the more dear to him, he sought +with double diligence to have me wisely taught. For my part, the +more I went forward in the study of letters, and ever more easily, +the greater became the ardour of my devotion to them, until in +truth I was so enthralled by my passion for learning that, gladly +leaving to my brothers the pomp of glory in arms, the right of +heritage and all the honours that should have been mine as the +eldest born, I fled utterly from the court of Mars that I might win +learning in the bosom of Minerva. And since I found the armory of +logical reasoning more to my liking than the other forms of +philosophy, I exchanged all other weapons for these, and to the +prizes of victory in war I preferred the battle of minds in +disputation. Thenceforth, journeying through many provinces, and +debating as I went, going whithersoever I heard that the study of +my chosen art most flourished, I became such an one as the +Peripatetics. + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD FROM HIS MASTER WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX--OF +HIS ADVENTURES AT MELUN, AT CORBEIL AND AT PARIS--OF HIS WITHDRAWAL +FROM THE CITY OF THE PARISIANS TO MELUN, AND HIS RETURN TO MONT +STE. GENEVIÈVE--OF HIS JOURNEY TO HIS OLD HOME + +I came at length to Paris, where above all in those days the art of +dialectics was most flourishing, and there did I meet William of +Champeaux, my teacher, a man most distinguished in his science both +by his renown and by his true merit. With him I remained for some +time, at first indeed well liked of him; but later I brought him +great grief, because I undertook to refute certain of his opinions, +not infrequently attacking him in disputation, and now and then in +these debates I was adjudged victor. Now this, to those among my +fellow students who were ranked foremost, seemed all the more +insufferable because of my youth and the brief duration of my +studies. + +Out of this sprang the beginning of my misfortunes, which have +followed me even to the present day; the more widely my fame was +spread abroad, the more bitter was the envy that was kindled +against me. It was given out that I, presuming on my gifts far +beyond the warranty of my youth, was aspiring despite my tender, +years to the leadership of a school; nay, more, that I was making +read the very place in which I would undertake this task, the place +being none other than the castle of Melun, at that time a royal +seat. My teacher himself had some foreknowledge of this, and tried +to remove my school as far as possible from his own. Working in +secret, he sought in every way he could before I left his following +to bring to nought the school I had planned and the place I had +chosen for it. Since, however, in that very place he had many +rivals, and some of them men of influence among the great ones of +the land, relying on their aid I won to the fulfillment of my wish; +the support of many was secured for me by reason of his own +unconcealed envy. From this small inception of my school, my fame +in the art of dialectics began to spread abroad, so that little by +little the renown, not alone of those who had been my fellow +students, but of our very teacher himself, grew dim and was like to +die out altogether. Thus it came about that, still more confident +in myself, I moved my school as soon as I well might to the castle +of Corbeil, which is hard by the city of Paris, for there I knew +there would be given more frequent chance for my assaults in our +battle of disputation. + +No long time thereafter I was smitten with a grievous illness, +brought upon me by my immoderate zeal for study. This illness +forced me to turn homeward to my native province, and thus for some +years I was as if cut off from France. And yet, for that very +reason, I was sought out all the more eagerly by those whose hearts +were troubled by the lore of dialectics. But after a few years had +passed, and I was whole again from my sickness, I learned that my +teacher, that same William Archdeacon of Paris, had changed his +former garb and joined an order of the regular clergy. This he had +done, or so men said, in order that he might be deemed more deeply +religious, and so might be elevated to a loftier rank in the +prelacy, a thing which, in truth, very soon came to pass, for he +was made bishop of Châlons. Nevertheless, the garb he had donned by +reason of his conversion did nought to keep him away either from +the city of Paris or from his wonted study of philosophy; and in +the very monastery wherein he had shut himself up for the sake of +religion he straightway set to teaching again after the same +fashion as before. + +To him did I return, for I was eager to learn more of rhetoric from +his lips; and in the course of our many arguments on various +matters, I compelled him by most potent reasoning first to alter +his former opinion on the subject of the universals, and finally to +abandon it altogether. Now, the basis of this old concept of his +regarding the reality of universal ideas was that the same quality +formed the essence alike of the abstract whole and of the +individuals which were its parts: in other words, that there could +be no essential differences among these individuals, all being +alike save for such variety as might grow out of the many accidents +of existence. Thereafter, however, he corrected this opinion, no +longer maintaining that the same quality was the essence of all +things, but that, rather, it manifested itself in them through +diverse ways. This problem of universals is ever the most vexed one +among logicians, to such a degree, indeed, that even Porphyry, +writing in his "Isagoge" regarding universals, dared not attempt a +final pronouncement thereon, saying rather: "This is the deepest of +all problems of its kind." Wherefore it followed that when William +had first revised and then finally abandoned altogether his views +on this one subject, his lecturing sank into such a state of +negligent reasoning that it could scarce be called lecturing on the +science of dialectics at all; it was as if all his science had been +bound up in this one question of the nature of universals. + +Thus it came about that my teaching won such strength and authority +that even those who before had clung most vehemently to my former +master, and most bitterly attacked my doctrines, now flocked to my +school. The very man who had succeeded to my master's chair in the +Paris school offered me his post, in order that he might put +himself under my tutelage along with all the rest, and this in the +very place where of old his master and mine had reigned. And when, +in so short a time, my master saw me directing the study of +dialectics there, it is not easy to find words to tell with what +envy he was consumed or with what pain he was tormented. He could +not long, in truth, bear the anguish of what he felt to be his +wrongs, and shrewdly he attacked me that he might drive me forth. +And because there was nought in my conduct whereby he could come at +me openly, he tried to steal away the school by launching the +vilest calumnies against him who had yielded his post to me, and by +putting in his place a certain rival of mine. So then I returned to +Melun, and set up my school there as before; and the more openly +his envy pursued me, the greater was the authority it conferred +upon me. Even so held the poet: "Jealousy aims at the peaks; the +winds storm the loftiest summits." (Ovid: "Remedy for Love," I, 369.) + +Not long thereafter, when William became aware of the fact that +almost all his students were holding grave doubts as to his +religion, and were whispering earnestly among themselves about his +conversion, deeming that he had by no means abandoned this world, +he withdrew himself and his brotherhood, together with his +students, to a certain estate far distant from the city. Forthwith +I returned from Melun to Paris, hoping for peace from him in the +future. But since, as I have said, he had caused my place to be +occupied by a rival of mine, I pitched the camp, as it were, of my +school outside the city on Mont Ste. Geneviève. Thus I was as one +laying siege to him who had taken possession of my post. No sooner +had my master heard of this than he brazenly returned post haste to +the city, bringing back with him such students as he could, and +reinstating his brotherhood in their for mer monastery, much as if +he would free his soldiery, whom he had deserted, from my blockade. +In truth, though, if it was his purpose to bring them succour, he +did nought but hurt them. Before that time my rival had indeed had +a certain number of students, of one sort and another, chiefly by +reason of his lectures on Priscian, in which he was considered of +great authority. After our master had returned, however, he lost +nearly all of these followers, and thus was compelled to give up +the direction of the school. Not long thereafter, apparently +despairing further of worldly fame, he was converted to the +monastic life. + +Following the return of our master to the city, the combats in +disputation which my scholars waged both with him himself and with +his pupils, and the successes which fortune gave to us, and above +all to me, in these wars, you have long since learned of through +your own experience. The boast of Ajax, though I speak it more +temperately, I still am bold enough to make: + + "... if fain you would learn now + How victory crowned the battle, by him was + I never vanquished." + (Ovid, "Metamorphoses," XIII, 89.) + +But even were I to be silent, the fact proclaims itself, and its +outcome reveals the truth regarding it. + +While these things were happening, it became needful for me again +to repair to my old home, by reason of my dear mother, Lucia, for +after the conversion of my father, Berengarius, to the monastic +life, she so ordered her affairs as to do likewise. When all this +had been completed, I returned to France, above all in order that I +might study theology, since now my oft-mentioned teacher, William, +was active in the episcopate of Châlons. In this held of learning +Anselm of Laon, who was his teacher therein, had for long years +enjoyed the greatest renown. + + + +CHAPTER III + +OF HOW HE CAME TO LAON TO SEEK ANSELM AS TEACHER + +Sought out, therefore, this same venerable man, whose fame, in +truth, was more the result of long-established custom than of the +potency of his own talent or intellect. If any one came to him +impelled by doubt on any subject, he went away more doubtful still. +He was wonderful, indeed, in the eyes of these who only listened to +him, but those who asked him questions perforce held him as nought. +He had a miraculous flock of words, but they were contemptible in +meaning and quite void of reason. When he kindled a fire, he filled +his house with smoke and illumined it not at all. He was a tree +which seemed noble to those who gazed upon its leaves from afar, +but to those who came nearer and examined it more closely was +revealed its barrenness. When, therefore, I had come to this tree +that I might pluck the fruit thereof, I discovered that it was +indeed the fig tree which Our Lord cursed (Matthew xxi, 19; Mark +xi, 13), or that ancient oak to which Lucan likened Pompey, saying: + + "... he stands, the shade of a name once mighty, + Like to the towering oak in the midst of the fruitful field." + (Lucan, "Pharsalia," IV, 135.) + +It was not long before I made this discovery, and stretched myself +lazily in the shade of that same tree. I went to his lectures less +and less often, a thing which some among his eminent followers took +sorely to heart, because they interpreted it as a mark of contempt +for so illustrious a teacher. Thenceforth they secretly sought to +influence him against me, and by their vile insinuations made me +hated of him. It chanced, moreover, that one day, after the +exposition of certain texts, we scholars were jesting among +ourselves, and one of them, seeking to draw me out, asked me what I +thought of the lectures on the Books of Scripture. I, who had as +yet studied only the sciences, replied that following such lectures +seemed to me most useful in so far as the salvation of the soul was +concerned, but that it appeared quite extraordinary to me that +educated persons should not be able to understand the sacred books +simply by studying them themselves, together with the glosses +thereon, and without the aid of any teacher. Most of those who were +present mocked at me, and asked whether I myself could do as I had +said, or whether I would dare to undertake it. I answered that if +they wished, I was ready to try it. Forthwith they cried out and +jeered all the more. "Well and good," said they; "we agree to the +test. Pick out and give us an exposition of some doubtful passage +in the Scriptures, so that we can put this boast of yours to the +proof." And they all chose that most obscure prophecy of Ezekiel. + +I accepted the challenge, and invited them to attend a lecture on +the very next day. Whereupon they undertook to give me good advice, +saying that I should by no means make undue haste in so important a +matter, but that I ought to devote a much loner space to working +out my exposition and offsetting my inexperience by diligent toil. +To this I replied indignantly that it was my wont to win success, +not by routine, but by ability. I added that I would abandon the +test altogether unless they would agree not to put off their +attendance at my lecture. In truth at this first lecture of mine +only a few were present, for it seemed quite absurd to all of them +that I, hitherto so inexperienced in discussing the Scriptures, +should attempt the thing so hastily. However, this lecture gave +such satisfaction to all those who heard it that they spread its +praises abroad with notable enthusiasm, and thus compelled me to +continue my interpretation of the sacred text. When word of this +was bruited about, those who had stayed away from the first lecture +came eagerly, some to the second and more to the third, and all of +them were eager to write down the glosses which I had begun on the +first day, so as to have them from the very beginning. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD FROM HIS TEACHER ANSELM + +Now this venerable man of whom I have spoken was acutely smitten +with envy, and straightway incited, as I have already mentioned, by +the insinuations of sundry persons, began to persecute me for my +lecturing on the Scriptures no less bitterly than my former master, +William, had done for my work in philosophy. At that time there +were in this old man's school two who were considered far to excel +all the others: Alberic of Rheims and Lotulphe the Lombard. The +better opinion these two held of themselves, the more they were +incensed against me. Chiefly at their suggestion, as it afterwards +transpired, yonder venerable coward had the impudence to forbid me +to carry on any further in his school the work of preparing glosses +which I had thus begun. The pretext he alleged was that if by +chance in the course of this work I should write anything +containing blunders--as was likely enough in view of my lack of +training--the thing might be imputed to him. When this came to the +ears of his scholars, they were filled with indignation at so +undisguised a manifestation of spite, the like of which had never +been directed against any one before. The more obvious this rancour +became, the more it redounded to my honour, and his persecution did +nought save to make me more famous. + + + +CHAPTER V + +OF HOW HE RETURNED TO PARIS AND FINISHED THE GLOSSES WHICH HE HAD +BEGUN AT LAON + +And so, after a few days, I returned to Paris, and there for +several years I peacefully directed the school which formerly had +been destined for me, nay, even offered to me, but from which I had +been driven out. At the very outset of my work there, I set about +completing the glosses on Ezekiel which I had begun at Laon. These +proved so satisfactory to all who read them that they came to +believe me no less adept in lecturing on theology than I had proved +myself to be in the held of philosophy. Thus my school was notably +increased in size by reason of my lectures on subjects of both +these kinds, and the amount of financial profit as well as glory +which it brought me cannot be concealed from you, for the matter +was widely talked of. But prosperity always puffs up the foolish, +and worldly comfort enervates the soul, rendering it an easy prey +to carnal temptations. Thus I, who by this time had come to regard +myself as the only philosopher remaining in the whole world, and +had ceased to fear any further disturbance of my peace, began to +loosen the rein on my desires, although hitherto I had always lived +in the utmost continence. And the greater progress I made in my +lecturing on philosophy or theology, the more I departed alike from +the practice of the philosophers and the spirit of the divines in +the uncleanness of my life. For it is well known, methinks, that +philosophers, and still more those who have devoted their lives to +arousing the love of sacred study, have been strong above all else +in the beauty of chastity. + +Thus did it come to pass that while I was utterly absorbed in pride +and sensuality, divine grace, the cure for both diseases, was +forced upon me, even though I, forsooth, would fain have shunned +it. First was I punished for my sensuality, and then for my pride. +For my sensuality I lost those things whereby I practiced it; for +my pride, engendered in me by my knowledge of letters--and it is +even as the Apostle said: "Knowledge puffeth itself up" (I Cor. +viii, 1)--I knew the humiliation of seeing burned the very book in +which I most gloried. And now it is my desire that you should know +the stories of these two happenings, understanding them more truly +from learning the very facts than from hearing what is spoken of +them, and in the order in which they came about. Because I had ever +held in abhorrence the foulness of prostitutes, because I had +diligently kept myself from all excesses and from association with +the women of noble birth who attended the school, because I knew so +little of the common talk of ordinary people, perverse and subtly +flattering chance gave birth to an occasion for casting me lightly +down from the heights of my own exaltation. Nay, in such case not +even divine goodness could redeem one who, having been so proud, +was brought to such shame, were it not for the blessed gift of +grace. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OF HOW, BROUGHT LOW BY HIS LOVE FOR HÉLOISE, HE WAS WOUNDED IN BODY +AND SOUL + +Now there dwelt in that same city of Paris a certain young girl +named Héloïse, the niece of a canon who was called Fulbert. Her +uncle's love for her was equalled only by his desire that she +should have the best education which he could possibly procure for +her. Of no mean beauty, she stood out above all by reason of her +abundant knowledge of letters. Now this virtue is rare among women, +and for that very reason it doubly graced the maiden, and made her +the most worthy of renown in the entire kingdom. It was this young +girl whom I, after carefully considering all those qualities which +are wont to attract lovers, determined to unite with myself in the +bonds of love, and indeed the thing seemed to me very easy to be +done. So distinguished was my name, and I possessed such advantages +of youth and comeliness, that no matter what woman I might favour +with my love, I dreaded rejection of none. Then, too, I believed +that I could win the maiden's consent all the more easily by reason +of her knowledge of letters and her zeal therefor; so, even if we +were parted, we might yet be together in thought with the aid of +written messages. Perchance, too, we might be able to write more +boldly than we could speak, and thus at all times could we live in +joyous intimacy. + +Thus, utterly aflame with my passion for this maiden, I sought to +discover means whereby I might have daily and familiar speech with +her, thereby the more easily to win her consent. For this purpose I +persuaded the girl's uncle, with the aid of some of his friends, to +take me into his household--for he dwelt hard by my school--in +return for the payment of a small sum. My pretext for this was that +the care of my own household was a serious handicap to my studies, +and likewise burdened me with an expense far greater than I could +afford. Now, he was a man keen in avarice, and likewise he was most +desirous for his niece that her study of letters should ever go +forward, so, for these two reasons, I easily won his consent to the +fulfillment of my wish, for he was fairly agape for my money, and +at the same time believed that his niece would vastly benefit by my +teaching. More even than this, by his own earnest entreaties he +fell in with my desires beyond anything I had dared to hope, +opening the way for my love; for he entrusted her wholly to my +guidance, begging me to give her instruction whensoever I might be +free from the duties of my school, no matter whether by day or by +night, and to punish her sternly if ever I should find her +negligent of her tasks. In all this the man's simplicity was +nothing short of astounding to me; I should not have been more +smitten with wonder if he had entrusted a tender lamb to the care +of a ravenous wolf. When he had thus given her into my charge, not +alone to be taught but even to be disciplined, what had he done +save to give free scope to my desires, and to offer me every +opportunity, even if I had not sought it, to bend her to my will +with threats and blows if I failed to do so with caresses? There +were, however, two things which particularly served to allay any +foul suspicion: his own love for his niece, and my former +reputation for continence. + +Why should I say more: We were united first in the dwelling that +sheltered our love, and then in the hearts that burned with it. +Under the pretext of study we spent our hours in the happiness of +love, and learning held out to us the secret opportunities that our +passion craved. Our speech was more of love than of the book which +lay open before us; our kisses far outnumbered our reasoned words. +Our hands sought less the book than each other's bosoms; love drew +our eyes together far more than the lesson drew them to the pages +of our text. In order that there might be no suspicion, there were, +indeed, sometimes blows, but love gave them, not anger; they were +the marks, not of wrath, but of a tenderness surpassing the most +fragrant balm in sweetness. What followed? No degree in love's +progress was left untried by our passion, and if love itself could +imagine any wonder as yet unknown, we discovered it. And our +inexperience of such delights made us all the more ardent in our +pursuit of them, so that our thirst for one another was still +unquenched. + +In measure as this passionate rapture absorbed me more and more, I +devoted ever less time to philosophy and to the work of the school. +Indeed it became loathsome to me to go to the school or to linger +there; the labour, moreover, was very burdensome, since my nights +were vigils of love and my days of study. My lecturing became +utterly careless and lukewarm; I did nothing because of +inspiration, but everything merely as a matter of habit. I had +become nothing more than a reciter of my former discoveries, and +though I still wrote poems, they dealt with love, not with the +secrets of philosophy. Of these songs you yourself well know how +some have become widely known and have been sung in many lands, +chiefly, methinks, by those who delighted in the things of this +world. As for the sorrow, the groans, the lamentations of my +students when they perceived the preoccupation, nay, rather the +chaos, of my mind, it is hard even to imagine them. + +A thing so manifest could deceive only a few, no one, methinks, +save him whose shame it chiefly bespoke, the girl's uncle, Fulbert. +The truth was often enough hinted to him, and by many persons, but +he could not believe it, partly, as I have said, by reason of his +boundless love for his niece, and partly because of the well-known +continence of my previous life. Indeed we do not easily suspect +shame in those whom we most cherish, nor can there be the blot of +foul suspicion on devoted love. Of this St. Jerome in his epistle +to Sabinianus (Epist. 48) says: "We are wont to be the last to know +the evils of our own households, and to be ignorant of the sins of +our children and our wives, though our neighbours sing them aloud." +But no matter how slow a matter may be in disclosing itself, it is +sure to come forth at last, nor is it easy to hide from one what is +known to all. So, after the lapse of several months, did it happen +with us. Oh, how great was the uncle's grief when he learned the +truth, and how bitter was the sorrow of the lovers when we were +forced to part! With what shame was I overwhelmed, with what +contrition smitten because of the blow which had fallen on her I +loved, and what a tempest of misery burst over her by reason of my +disgrace! Each grieved most, not for himself, but for the other. +Each sought to allay, not his own sufferings, but those of the one +he loved. The very sundering of our bodies served but to link our +souls closer together; the plentitude of the love which was denied +to us inflamed us more than ever. Once the first wildness of shame +had passed, it left us more shameless than before, and as shame +died within us the cause of it seemed to us ever more desirable. +And so it chanced with us as, in the stories that the poets tell, +it once happened with Mars and Venus when they were caught together. + +It was not long after this that Héloïse found that she was +pregnant, and of this she wrote to me in the utmost exultation, +at the same time asking me to consider what had best be done. +Accordingly, on a night when her uncle was absent, we carried out +the plan we had determined on, and I stole her secretly away from +her uncle's house, sending her without delay to my own country. She +remained there with my sister until she gave birth to a son, whom +she named Astrolabe. Meanwhile her uncle, after his return, was +almost mad with grief; only one who had then seen him could rightly +guess the burning agony of his sorrow and the bitterness of his +shame. What steps to take against me, or what snares to set for me, +he did not know. If he should kill me or do me some bodily hurt, he +feared greatly lest his dear-loved niece should be made to suffer +for it among my kinsfolk. He had no power to seize me and imprison +me somewhere against my will, though I make no doubt he would have +done so quickly enough had he been able or dared, for I had taken +measures to guard against any such attempt. + +At length, however, in pity for his boundless grief, and bitterly +blaming myself for the suffering which my love had brought upon him +through the baseness of the deception I had practiced, I went to +him to entreat his forgiveness, promising to make any amends that +he himself might decree. I pointed out that what had happened could +not seem incredible to any one who had ever felt the power of love, +or who remembered how, from the very beginning of the human race, +women had cast down even the noblest men to utter ruin. And in +order to make amends even beyond his extremest hope, I offered to +marry her whom I had seduced, provided only the thing could be kept +secret, so that I might suffer no loss of reputation thereby. To +this he gladly assented, pledging his own faith and that of his +kindred, and sealing with kisses the pact which I had sought of +him--and all this that he might the more easily betray me. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF THE ARGUMENTS OF HÉLOÏSE AGAINST WEDLOCK--OF HOW NONE THE LESS +HE MADE HER HIS WIFE + +Forthwith I repaired to my own country, and brought back thence my +mistress, that I might make her my wife. She, however, most +violently disapproved of this, and for two chief reasons: the +danger thereof, and the disgrace which it would bring upon me. She +swore that her uncle would never be appeased by such satisfaction +as this, as, indeed, afterwards proved only too true. She asked how +she could ever glory in me if she should make me thus inglorious, +and should shame herself along with me. What penalties, she said, +would the world rightly demand of her if she should rob it of so +shining a light! What curses would follow such a loss to the +Church, what tears among the philosophers would result from such a +marriage! How unfitting, how lamentable it would be for me, whom +nature had made for the whole world, to devote myself to one woman +solely, and to subject myself to such humiliation! She vehemently +rejected this marriage, which she felt would be in every way +ignominious and burdensome to me. + +Besides dwelling thus on the disgrace to me, she reminded me of the +hardships of married life, to the avoidance of which the Apostle +exhorts us, saying: "Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. +But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, +she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the +flesh: but I spare you" (I Cor. vii, 27). And again: "But I would +have you to be free from cares" (I Cor. vii, 32). But if I would +heed neither the counsel of the Apostle nor the exhortations of the +saints regarding this heavy yoke of matrimony, she bade me at least +consider the advice of the philosophers, and weigh carefully what +had been written on this subject either by them or concerning their +lives. Even the saints themselves have often and earnestly spoken +on this subject for the purpose of warning us. Thus St. Jerome, +in his first book against Jovinianus, makes Theophrastus set forth +in great detail the intolerable annoyances and the endless +disturbances of married life, demonstrating with the most +convincing arguments that no wise man should ever have a wife, and +concluding his reasons for this philosophic exhortation with these +words: "Who among Christians would not be overwhelmed by such +arguments as these advanced by Theophrastus?" + +Again, in the same work, St. Jerome tells how Cicero, asked by +Hircius after his divorce of Terentia whether he would marry the +sister of Hircius, replied that he would do no such thing, saying +that he could not devote himself to a wife and to philosophy at the +same time. Cicero does not, indeed, precisely speak of "devoting +himself," but he does add that he did not wish to undertake +anything which might rival his study of philosophy in its demands +upon him. + +Then, turning from the consideration of such hindrances to the +study of philosophy, Héloïse bade me observe what were the +conditions of honourable wedlock. What possible concord could there +be between scholars and domestics, between authors and cradles, +between books or tablets and distaffs, between the stylus or the +pen and the spindle? What man, intent on his religious or +philosophical meditations, can possibly endure the whining of +children, the lullabies of the nurse seeking to quiet them, or the +noisy confusion of family life? Who can endure the continual +untidiness of children? The rich, you may reply, can do this, +because they have palaces or houses containing many rooms, and +because their wealth takes no thought of expense and protects them +from daily worries. But to this the answer is that the condition of +philosophers is by no means that of the wealthy, nor can those +whose minds are occupied with riches and worldly cares find time +for religious or philosophical study. For this reason the renowned +philosophers of old utterly despised the world, fleeing from its +perils rather than reluctantly giving them up, and denied +themselves all its delights in order that they might repose in the +embraces of philosophy alone. One of them, and the greatest of all, +Seneca, in his advice to Lucilius, says: "Philosophy is not a thing +to be studied only in hours of leisure; we must give up everything +else to devote ourselves to it, for no amount of time is really +sufficient thereto" (Epist. 73). + +It matters little, she pointed out, whether one abandons the study +of philosophy completely or merely interrupts it, for it can never +remain at the point where it was thus interrupted. All other +occupations must be resisted; it is vain to seek to adjust life to +include them, and they must simply be eliminated. This view is +maintained, for example, in the love of God by those among us who +are truly called monastics, and in the love of wisdom by all those +who have stood out among men as sincere philosophers. For in every +race, gentiles or Jews or Christians, there have always been a few +who excelled their fellows in faith or in the purity of their +lives, and who were set apart from the multitude by their +continence or by their abstinence from worldly pleasures. + +Among the Jews of old there were the Nazarites, who consecrated +themselves to the Lord, some of them the sons of the prophet Elias +and others the followers of Eliseus, the monks of whom, on the +authority of St. Jerome (Epist. 4 and 13), we read in the Old +Testament. More recently there were the three philosophical sects +which Josephus defines in his Book of Antiquities (xviii, 2), +calling them the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. In our +times, furthermore, there are the monks who imitate either the +communal life of the Apostles or the earlier and solitary life of +John. Among the gentiles there are, as has been said, the +philosophers. Did they not apply the name of wisdom or philosophy +as much to the religion of life as to the pursuit of learning, as +we find from the origin of the word itself, and likewise from the +testimony of the saints? + +There is a passage on this subject in the eighth book of St. +Augustine's "City of God," wherein he distinguishes between the +various schools of philosophy. "The Italian school," he says, "had +as its founder Pythagoras of Samos, who, it is said, originated the +very word 'philosophy.' Before his time those who were regarded as +conspicuous for the praiseworthiness of their lives were called +wise men, but he, on being asked of his profession, replied that he +was a philosopher, that is to say a student or a lover of wisdom, +because it seemed to him unduly boastful to call himself a wise +man." In this passage, therefore, when the phrase "conspicuous for +the praiseworthiness of their lives" is used, it is evident that +the wise, in other words the philosophers, were so called less +because of their erudition than by reason of their virtuous lives. +In what sobriety and continence these men lived it is not for me to +prove by illustration, lest I should seem to instruct Minerva +herself. + +Now, she added, if laymen and gentiles, bound by no profession of +religion, lived after this fashion, what ought you, a cleric and a +canon, to do in order not to prefer base voluptuousness to your +sacred duties, to prevent this Charybdis from sucking you down +headlong, and to save yourself from being plunged shamelessly and +irrevocably into such filth as this? If you care nothing for your +privileges as a cleric, at least uphold your dignity as a +philosopher. If you scorn the reverence due to God, let regard for +your reputation temper your shamelessness. Remember that Socrates +was chained to a wife, and by what a filthy accident he himself +paid for this blot on philosophy, in order that others thereafter +might be made more cautious by his example. Jerome thus mentions +this affair, writing about Socrates in his first book against +Jovinianus: "Once when he was withstanding a storm of reproaches +which Xantippe was hurling at him from an upper story, he was +suddenly drenched with foul slops; wiping his head, he said only, +'I knew there would be a shower after all that thunder.'" + +Her final argument was that it would be dangerous for me to take +her back to Paris, and that it would be far sweeter for her to be +called my mistress than to be known as my wife; nay, too, that +this would be more honourable for me as well. In such case, she +said, love alone would hold me to her, and the strength of the +marriage chain would not constrain us. Even if we should by chance +be parted from time to time, the joy of our meetings would be all +the sweeter by reason of its rarity. But when she found that she +could not convince me or dissuade me from my folly by these and +like arguments, and because she could not bear to offend me, with +grievous sighs and tears she made an end of her resistance, saying: +"Then there is no more left but this, that in our doom the sorrow +yet to come shall be no less than the love we two have already +known." Nor in this, as now the whole world knows, did she lack the +spirit of prophecy. + +So, after our little son was born, we left him in my sister's care, +and secretly returned to Paris. A few days later, in the early +morning, having kept our nocturnal vigil of prayer unknown to all +in a certain church, we were united there in the benediction of +wedlock, her uncle and a few friends of his and mine being present. +We departed forthwith stealthily and by separate ways, nor +thereafter did we see each other save rarely and in private, thus +striving our utmost to conceal what we had done. But her uncle and +those of his household, seeking solace for their disgrace, began to +divulge the story of our marriage, and thereby to violate the +pledge they had given me on this point. Héloïse, on the contrary, +denounced her own kin and swore that they were speaking the most +absolute lies. Her uncle, aroused to fury thereby, visited her +repeatedly with punishments. No sooner had I learned this than I +sent her to a convent of nuns at Argenteuil, not far from Paris, +where she herself had been brought up and educated as a young girl. +I had them make ready for her all the garments of a nun, suitable +for the life of a convent, excepting only the veil, and these I +bade her put on. + +When her uncle and his kinsmen heard of this, they were convinced +that now I had completely played them false and had rid myself +forever of Héloïse by forcing her to become a nun. Violently +incensed, they laid a plot against me, and one night, while I, all +unsuspecting, was asleep in a secret room in my lodgings, they +broke in with the help of one of my servants, whom they had bribed. +There they had vengeance on me with a most cruel and most shameful +punishment, such as astounded the whole world, for they cut off +those parts of my body with which I had done that which was the +cause of their sorrow. This done, straightway they fled, but two of +them were captured, and suffered the loss of their eyes and their +genital organs. One of these two was the aforesaid servant, who, +even while he was still in my service, had been led by his avarice +to betray me. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OF THE SUFFERING OF HIS BODY--OF HOW HE BECAME A MONK IN THE +MONASTERY OF ST. DENIS AND HÉLOISE A NUN AT ARGENTEUIL + +When morning came the whole city was assembled before my dwelling. +It is difficult, nay, impossible, for words of mine to describe the +amazement which bewildered them, the lamentations they uttered, the +uproar with which they harassed me, or the grief with which they +increased my own suffering. Chiefly the clerics, and above all my +scholars, tortured me with their intolerable lamentations and +outcries, so that I suffered more intensely from their compassion +than from the pain of my wound. In truth I felt the disgrace more +than the hurt to my body, and was more afflicted with shame than +with pain. My incessant thought was of the renown in which I had so +much delighted, now brought low, nay, utterly blotted out, so +swiftly by an evil chance. I saw, too, how justly God had punished +me in that very part of my body whereby I had sinned. I perceived +that there was indeed justice in my betrayal by him whom I had +myself already betrayed; and then I thought how eagerly my rivals +would seize upon this manifestation of justice, how this disgrace +would bring bitter and enduring grief to my kindred and my friends, +and how the tale of this amazing outrage would spread to the very +ends of the earth. + +What path lay open to me thereafter? How could I ever again hold up +my head among men, when every finger should be pointed at me in +scorn, every tongue speak my blistering shame, and when I should be +a monstrous spectacle to all eyes? I was overwhelmed by the +remembrance that, according to the dread letter of the law, God +holds eunuchs in such abomination that men thus maimed are +forbidden to enter a church, even as the unclean and filthy; nay, +even beasts in such plight were not acceptable as sacrifices. Thus +in Leviticus (xxii, 24) is it said: "Ye shall not offer unto the +Lord that which hath its stones bruised, or crushed, or broken, or +cut." And in Deuteronomy (xxiii, 1), "He that is wounded in the +stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the +congregation of the Lord." + +I must confess that in my misery it was the overwhelming sense of +my disgrace rather than any ardour for conversion to the religious +life that drove me to seek the seclusion of the monastic cloister. +Héloïse had already, at my bidding, taken the veil and entered a +convent. Thus it was that we both put on the sacred garb, I in the +abbey of St. Denis, and she in the convent of Argenteuil, of which +I have already spoken. She, I remember well, when her fond friends +sought vainly to deter her from submitting her fresh youth to the +heavy and almost intolerable yoke of monastic life, sobbing and +weeping replied in the words of Cornelia: + + "... O husband most noble, + Who ne'er shouldst have shared my couch! Has fortune such power +To smite so lofty a head? Why then was I wedded +Only to bring thee to woe? Receive now my sorrow, +The price I so gladly pay." + (Lucan, "Pharsalia," viii, 94.) + +With these words on her lips did she go forthwith to the altar, and +lifted therefrom the veil, which had been blessed by the bishop, +and before them all she took the vows of the religious life. For my +part, scarcely had I recovered from my wound when clerics sought me +in great numbers, endlessly beseeching both my abbot and me myself +that now, since I was done with learning for the sake of gain or +renown, I should turn to it for the sole love of God. They bade me +care diligently for the talent which God had committed to my +keeping (Matthew, xxv, 15), since surely He would demand it back +from me with interest. It was their plea that, inasmuch as of old I +had laboured chiefly in behalf of the rich, I should now devote +myself to the teaching of the poor. Therein above all should I +perceive how it was the hand of God that had touched me, when I +should devote my life to the study of letters in freedom from the +snares of the flesh and withdrawn from the tumultuous life of this +world. Thus, in truth, should I become a philosopher less of this +world than of God. + +The abbey, however, to which I had betaken myself was utterly +worldly and in its life quite scandalous. The abbot himself was as +far below his fellows in his way of living and in the foulness of +his reputation as he was above them in priestly rank. This +intolerable state of things I often and vehemently denounced, +sometimes in private talk and sometimes publicly, but the only +result was that I made myself detested of them all. They gladly +laid hold of the daily eagerness of my students to hear me as an +excuse whereby they might be rid of me; and finally, at the +insistent urging of the students themselves, and with the hearty +consent of the abbot and the rest of the brotherhood, I departed +thence to a certain hut, there to teach in my wonted way. To this +place such a throng of students flocked that the neighbourhood +could not afford shelter for them, nor the earth sufficient +sustenance. + +Here, as befitted my profession, I devoted myself chiefly to +lectures on theology, but I did not wholly abandon the teaching of +the secular arts, to which I was more accustomed, and which was +particularly demanded of me. I used the latter, however, as a hook, +luring my students by the bait of learning to the study of the true +philosophy, even as the Ecclesiastical History tells of Origen, the +greatest of all Christian philosophers. Since apparently the Lord +had gifted me with no less persuasiveness in expounding the +Scriptures than in lecturing on secular subjects, the number of my +students in these two courses began to increase greatly, and the +attendance at all the other schools was correspondingly diminished. +Thus I aroused the envy and hatred of the other teachers. Those who +sought to belittle me in every possible way took advantage of my +absence to bring two principal charges against me: first, that it +was contrary to the monastic profession to be concerned with the +study of secular books; and, second, that I had presumed to teach +theology without ever having been taught therein myself. This they +did in order that my teaching of every kind might be prohibited, +and to this end they continually stirred up bishops, archbishops, +abbots and whatever other dignitaries of the Church they could +reach. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF HIS BOOK ON THEOLOGY AND HIS PERSECUTION AT THE HANDS OF HIS +FELLOW STUDENTS--OF THE COUNCIL AGAINST HIM + +It so happened that at the outset I devoted myself to analyzing the +basis of our faith through illustrations based on human +understanding, and I wrote for my students a certain tract on the +unity and trinity of God. This I did because they were always +seeking for rational and philosophical explanations, asking rather +for reasons they could understand than for mere words, saying that +it was futile to utter words which the intellect could not possibly +follow, that nothing could be believed unless it could first be +understood, and that it was absurd for any one to preach to others +a thing which neither he himself nor those whom he sought to teach +could comprehend. Our Lord Himself maintained this same thing when +He said: "They are blind leaders of the blind" (Matthew, xv, 14). + +Now, a great many people saw and read this tract, and it became +exceedingly popular, its clearness appealing particularly to all +who sought information on this subject. And since the questions +involved are generally considered the most difficult of all, their +complexity is taken as the measure of the subtlety of him who +succeeds in answering them. As a result, my rivals became furiously +angry, and summoned a council to take action against me, the chief +instigators therein being my two intriguing enemies of former days, +Alberic and Lotulphe. These two, now that both William and Anselm, +our erstwhile teachers, were dead, were greedy to reign in their +stead, and, so to speak, to succeed them as heirs. While they were +directing the school at Rheims, they managed by repeated hints to +stir up their archbishop, Rodolphe, against me, for the purpose of +holding a meeting, or rather an ecclesiastical council, at +Soissons, provided they could secure the approval of Conon, Bishop +of Praeneste, at that time papal legate in France. Their plan was +to summon me to be present at this council, bringing with me the +famous book I had written regarding the Trinity. In all this, +indeed, they were successful, and the thing happened according to +their wishes. + +Before I reached Soissons, however, these two rivals of mine so +foully slandered me with both the clergy and the public that on the +day of my arrival the people came near to stoning me and the few +students of mine who had accompanied me thither. The cause of their +anger was that they had been led to believe that I had preached and +written to prove the existence of three gods. No sooner had I +reached the city, therefore, than I went forthwith to the legate; +to him I submitted my book for examination and judgment, declaring +that if I had written anything repugnant to the Catholic faith, I +was quite ready to correct it or otherwise to make satisfactory +amends. The legate directed me to refer my book to the archbishop +and to those same two rivals of mine, to the end that my accusers +might also be my judges. So in my case was fulfilled the saying: +"Even our enemies are our judges" (Deut. Xxxii, 31). + +These three, then, took my book and pawed it over and examined it +minutely, but could find nothing therein which they dared to use as +the basis for a public accusation against me. Accordingly they put +off the condemnation of the book until the close of the council, +despite their eagerness to bring it about. For my part, everyday +before the council convened I publicly discussed the Catholic faith +in the light of what I had written, and all who heard me were +enthusiastic in their approval alike of the frankness and the logic +of my words. When the public and the clergy had thus learned +something of the real character of my teaching, they began to say +to one another: "Behold, now he speaks openly, and no one brings +any charge against him. And this council, summoned, as we have +heard, chiefly to take action upon his case, is drawing toward its +end. Did the judges realize that the error might be theirs rather +than his?" + +As a result of all this, my rivals grew more angry day by day. On +one occasion Alberic, accompanied by some of his students, came to +me for the purpose of intimidating me, and, after a few bland +words, said that he was amazed at something he had found in my +book, to the effect that, although God had begotten God, I denied +that God had begotten Himself, since there was only one God. I +answered unhesitatingly: "I can give you an explanation of this if +you wish it." "Nay," he replied, "I care nothing for human +explanation or reasoning in such matters, but only for the words +of authority." "Very well." I said; "turn the pages of my book and +you will find the authority likewise." The book was at hand, for he +had brought it with him. I turned to the passage I had in mind, +which he had either not discovered or else passed over as +containing nothing injurious to me. And it was God's will that I +quickly found what I sought. This was the following sentence, under +the heading "Augustine, On the Trinity, Book I": "Whosoever +believes that it is within the power of God to beget Himself is +sorely in error; this power is not in God, neither is it in any +created thing, spiritual or corporeal. For there is nothing that +can give birth to itself." + +When those of his followers who were present heard this, they were +amazed and much embarrassed. He himself, in order to keep his +countenance, said: "Certainly, I understand all that." Then I +added: "What I have to say further on this subject is by no means +new, but apparently it has nothing to do with the case at issue, +since you have asked for the word of authority only, and not for +explanations. If, however, you care to consider logical +explanations, I am prepared to demonstrate that, according to +Augustine's statement, you have yourself fallen into a heresy in +believing that a father can possibly be his own son." When Alberic +heard this he was almost beside himself with rage, and straightway +resorted to threats, asserting that neither my explanations nor my +citations of authority would avail me aught in this case. With this +he left me. + +On the last day of the council, before the session convened, the +legate and the archbishop deliberated with my rivals and sundry +others as to what should be done about me and my book, this being +the chief reason for their having come together. And since they had +discovered nothing either in my speech or in what I had hitherto +written which would give them a case against me, they were all +reduced to silence, or at the most to maligning me in whispers. +Then Geoffroi, Bishop of Chartres, who excelled the other bishops +alike in the sincerity of his religion and in the importance of his +see, spoke thus: + +"You know, my lords, all who are gathered here, the doctrine of +this man, what it is, and his ability, which has brought him many +followers in every field to which he has devoted himself. You know +how greatly he has lessened the renown of other teachers, both his +masters and our own, and how he has spread as it were the offshoots +of his vine from sea to sea. Now, if you impose a lightly +considered judgment on him, as I cannot believe you will, you well +know that even if mayhap you are in the right there are many who +will be angered thereby, and that he will have no lack of +defenders. Remember above all that we have found nothing in this +book of his that lies before us whereon any open accusation can be +based. Indeed it is true, as Jerome says: 'Fortitude openly +displayed always creates rivals, and the lightning strikes the +highest peaks.' Have a care, then, lest by violent action you only +increase his fame, and lest we do more hurt to ourselves through +envy than to him through justice. A false report, as that same wise +man reminds us, is easily crushed, and a man's later life gives +testimony as to his earlier deeds. If, then, you are disposed to +take canonical action against him, his doctrine or his writings +must be brought forward as evidence, and he must have free +opportunity to answer his questioners. In that case, if he is found +guilty or if he confesses his error, his lips can be wholly sealed. +Consider the words of the blessed Nicodemus, who, desiring to free +Our Lord Himself, said: 'Doth our law judge any man before it hear +him and know what he doeth? '" (John, vii, 51). + +When my rivals heard this they cried out in protest, saying: "This +is wise counsel, forsooth, that we should strive against the +wordiness of this man, whose arguments, or rather, sophistries, the +whole world cannot resist!" And yet, methinks, it was far more +difficult to strive against Christ Himself, for Whom, nevertheless, +Nicodemus demanded a hearing in accordance with the dictates of the +law. When the bishop could not win their assent to his proposals, +he tried in another way to curb their hatred, saying that for the +discussion of such an important case the few who were present were +not enough, and that this matter required a more thorough +examination. His further suggestion was that my abbot, who was +there present, should take me back with him to our abbey, in other +words to the monastery of St. Denis, and that there a large +convocation of learned men should determine, on the basis of a +careful investigation, what ought to be done. To this last proposal +the legate consented, as did all the others. + +Then the legate arose to celebrate mass before entering the +council, and through the bishop sent me the permission which had +been determined on, authorizing me to return to my monastery and +there await such action as might be finally taken. But my rivals, +perceiving that they would accomplish nothing if the trial were to +be held outside of their own diocese, and in a place where they +could have little influence on the verdict, and in truth having +small wish that justice should be done, persuaded the archbishop +that it would be a grave insult to him to transfer this case to +another court, and that it would be dangerous for him if by chance +I should thus be acquitted. They likewise went to the legate, and +succeeded in so changing his opinion that finally they induced him +to frame a new sentence, whereby he agreed to condemn my book +without any further inquiry, to burn it forthwith in the sight of +all, and to confine me for a year in another monastery. The +argument they used was that it sufficed for the condemnation of my +book that I had presumed to read it in public without the approval +either of the Roman pontiff or of the Church, and that, +furthermore, I had given it to many to be transcribed. Methinks it +would be a notable blessing to the Christian faith if there were +more who displayed a like presumption. The legate, however, being +less skilled in law than he should have been, relied chiefly on the +advice of the archbishop, and he, in turn, on that of my rivals. +When the Bishop of Chartres got wind of this, he reported the whole +conspiracy to me, and strongly urged me to endure meekly the +manifest violence of their enmity. He bade me not to doubt that +this violence would in the end react upon them and prove a blessing +to me, and counseled me to have no fear of the confinement in a +monastery, knowing that within a few days the legate himself, who +was now acting under compulsion, would after his departure set me +free. And thus he consoled me as best he might, mingling his tears +with mine. + + + +CHAPTER X + +OF THE BURNING OF HIS BOOK--OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD AT THE HANDS +OF HIS ABBOT AND THE BRETHREN + +Straightway upon my summons I went to the council, and there, +without further examination or debate, did they compel me with my +own hand to cast that memorable book of mine into the flames. +Although my enemies appeared to have nothing to say while the book +was burning, one of them muttered something about having seen it +written therein that God the Father was alone omnipotent. This +reached the ears of the legate, who replied in astonishment that he +could not believe that even a child would make so absurd a blunder. +"Our common faith," he said, "holds and sets forth that the Three +are alike omnipotent." A certain Tirric, a schoolmaster, hearing +this, sarcastically added the Athanasian phrase, "And yet there are +not three omnipotent Persons, but only One." + +This man's bishop forthwith began to censure him, bidding him +desist from such treasonable talk, but he boldly stood his ground, +and said, as if quoting the words of Daniel: "'Are ye such fools, +ye sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the +truth ye have condemned a daughter of Israel? Return again to the +place of judgment,' (Daniel, xiii, 48--The History of Susanna) and +there give judgment on the judge himself. You have set up this +judge, forsooth, for the instruction of faith and the correction of +error, and yet, when he ought to give judgment, he condemns himself +out of his own mouth. Set free today, with the help of God's mercy, +one who is manifestly innocent, even as Susanna was freed of old +from her false accusers." + +Thereupon the archbishop arose and confirmed the legate's +statement, but changed the wording thereof, as indeed was most +fitting. "It is God's truth," he said, "that the Father is +omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. +And whosoever dissents from this is openly in error, and must not +be listened to. Nevertheless, if it be your pleasure, it would be +well that this our brother should publicly state before us all the +faith that is in him, to the end that, according to its deserts, it +may either be approved or else condemned and corrected." + +When, however, I fain would have arisen to profess and set forth my +faith, in order that I might express in my own words that which was +in my heart, my enemies declared that it was not needful for me to +do more than recite the Athanasian Symbol, a thing which any boy +might do as well as I. And lest I should allege ignorance, +pretending that I did not know the words by heart, they had a copy +of it set before me to read. And read it I did as best I could for +my groans and sighs and tears. Thereupon, as if I had been a +convicted criminal, I was handed over to the Abbot of St. Médard, +who was there present, and led to his monastery as to a prison. And +with this the council was immediately dissolved. + +The abbot and the monks of the aforesaid monastery, thinking that I +would remain long with them, received me with great exultation, and +diligently sought to console me, but all in vain. O God, who dost +judge justice itself, in what venom of the spirit, in what +bitterness of mind, did I blame even Thee for my shame, accusing +Thee in my madness! Full often did I repeat the lament of St. +Anthony: "Kindly Jesus, where wert Thou?" The sorrow that tortured +me, the shame that overwhelmed me, the desperation that wracked my +mind, all these I could then feel, but even now I can find no words +to express them. Comparing these new sufferings of my soul with +those I had formerly endured in my body, it seemed that I was in +very truth the most miserable among men. Indeed that earlier +betrayal had become a little thing in comparison with this later +evil, and I lamented the hurt to my fair name far more than the one +to my body. The latter, indeed, I had brought upon myself through +my own wrongdoing, but this other violence had come upon me solely +by reason of the honesty of my purpose and my love of our faith, +which had compelled me to write that which I believed. + +The very cruelty and heartlessness of my punishment, however, made +every one who heard the story vehement in censuring it, so that +those who had a hand therein were soon eager to disclaim all +responsibility, shouldering the blame on others. Nay, matters came +to such a pass that even my rivals denied that they had had +anything to do with the matter, and as for the legate, he publicly +denounced the malice with which the French had acted. Swayed by +repentance for his injustice, and feeling that he had yielded +enough to satisfy their rancour, he shortly freed me from the +monastery whither I had been taken, and sent me back to my own. +Here, however, I found almost as many enemies as I had in the +former days of which I have already spoken, for the vileness and +shamelessness of their way of living made them realize that they +would again have to endure my censure. + +After a few months had passed, chance gave them an opportunity by +which they sought to destroy me. It happened that one day, in the +course of my reading, I came upon a certain passage of Bede, in his +commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, wherein he asserts that +Dionysius the Areopagite was the bishop, not of Athens, but of +Corinth. Now, this was directly counter to the belief of the monks, +who were wont to boast that their Dionysius, or Denis, was not only +the Areopagite but was likewise proved by his acts to have been the +Bishop of Athens. Having thus found this testimony of Bede's in +contradiction of our own tradition, I showed it somewhat jestingly +to sundry of the monks who chanced to be near. Wrathfully they +declared that Bede was no better than a liar, and that they had a +far more trustworthy authority in the person of Hilduin, a former +abbot of theirs, who had travelled for a long time throughout +Greece for the purpose of investigating this very question. He, +they insisted, had by his writings removed all possible doubt on +the subject, and had securely established the truth of the +traditional belief. + +One of the monks went so far as to ask me brazenly which of the +two, Bede or Hilduin, I considered the better authority on this +point. I replied that the authority of Bede, whose writings are +held in high esteem by the whole Latin Church, appeared to me the +better. Thereupon in a great rage they began to cry out that at +last I had openly proved the hatred I had always felt for our +monastery, and that I was seeking to disgrace it in the eyes of the +whole kingdom, robbing it of the honour in which it had +particularly gloried, by thus denying that the Areopagite was their +patron saint. To this I answered that I had never denied the fact, +and that I did not much care whether their patron was the +Areopagite or some one else, provided only he had received his +crown from God. Thereupon they ran to the abbot and told him of the +misdemeanour with which they charged me. + +The abbot listened to their story with delight, rejoicing at having +found a chance to crush me, for the greater vileness of his life +made him fear me more even than the rest did. Accordingly he +summoned his council, and when the brethren had assembled he +violently threatened me, declaring that he would straightway send +me to the king, by him to be punished for having thus sullied his +crown and the glory of his royalty. And until he should hand me +over to the king, he ordered that I should be closely guarded. In +vain did I offer to submit to the customary discipline if I had in +any way been guilty. Then, horrified at their wickedness, which +seemed to crown the ill fortune I had so long endured, and in utter +despair at the apparent conspiracy of the whole world against me, I +fled secretly from the monastery by night, helped thereto by some +of the monks who took pity on me, and likewise aided by some of my +scholars. + +I made my way to a region where I had formerly dwelt, hard by the +lands of Count Theobald (of Champagne). He himself had some slight +acquaintance with me, and had compassion on me by reason of my +persecutions, of which the story had reached him. I found a home +there within the walls of Provins, in a priory of the monks of +Troyes, the prior of which had in former days known me well and +shown me much love. In his joy at my coming he cared for me with +all diligence. It chanced, however, that one day my abbot came to +Provins to see the count on certain matters of business. As soon as +I had learned of this, I went to the count, the prior accompanying +me, and besought him to intercede in my behalf with the abbot. I +asked no more than that the abbot should absolve me of the charge +against me, and give me permission to live the monastic life +wheresoever I could find a suitable place. The abbot, however, and +those who were with him took the matter under advisement, saying +that they would give the count an answer the day before they +departed. It appeared from their words that they thought I wished +to go to some other abbey, a thing which they regarded as an +immense disgrace to their own. They had, indeed, taken particular +pride in the fact that, upon my conversion, I had come to them, as +if scorning all other abbeys, and accordingly they considered that +it would bring great shame upon them if I should now desert their +abbey and seek another. For this reason they refused to listen +either to my own plea or to that of the count. Furthermore, they +threatened me with excommunication unless I should instantly +return; likewise they forbade the prior with whom I had taken +refuge to keep me longer, under pain of sharing my excommunication. +When we heard this both the prior and I were stricken with fear. +The abbot went away still obdurate, but a few days thereafter he +died. + +As soon as his successor had been named, I went to him, accompanied +by the Bishop of Meaux, to try if I might win from him the +permission I had vainly sought of his predecessor. At first he +would not give his assent, but finally, through the intervention of +certain friends of mine, I secured the right to appeal to the king +and his council, and in this way I at last obtained what I sought. +The royal seneschal, Stephen, having summoned the abbot and his +subordinates that they might state their case, asked them why they +wanted to keep me against my will. He pointed out that this might +easily bring them into evil repute, and certainly could do them no +good, seeing that their way of living was utterly incompatible with +mine. I knew it to be the opinion of the royal council that the +irregularities in the conduct of this abbey would tend to bring it +more and more under the control of the king, making it increasingly +useful and likewise profitable to him, and for this reason I had +good hope of easily winning the support of the king and those about +him. + +Thus, indeed, did it come to pass. But in order that the monastery +might not be shorn of any of the glory which it had enjoyed by +reason of my sojourn there, they granted me permission to betake +myself to any solitary place I might choose, provided only I did +not put myself under the rule of any other abbey. This was agreed +upon and confirmed on both sides in the presence of the king and +his councellors. Forthwith I sought out a lonely spot known to me +of old in the region of Troyes, and there, on a bit of land which +had been given to me, and with the approval of the bishop of the +district, I built with reeds and stalks my first oratory in the +name of the Holy Trinity. And there concealed, with but one +comrade, a certain cleric, I was able to sing over and over again +to the Lord: "Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the +wilderness" (Ps. IV, 7). + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OF HIS TEACHING IN THE WILDERNESS + +No sooner had scholars learned of my retreat than they began to +flock thither from all sides, leaving their towns and castles to +dwell in the wilderness. In place of their spacious houses they +built themselves huts; instead of dainty fare they lived on the +herbs of the field and coarse bread; their soft beds they exchanged +for heaps of straw and rushes, and their tables were piles of turf. +In very truth you may well believe that they were like those +philosophers of old of whom Jerome tells us in his second book +against Jovinianus. + +"Through the senses," says Jerome, "as through so many windows, do +vices win entrance to the soul. The metropolis and citadel of the +mind cannot be taken unless the army of the foe has first rushed in +through the gates. If any one delights in the games of the circus, +in the contests of athletes, in the versatility of actors, in the +beauty of women, in the glitter of gems and raiment, or in aught +else like to these, then the freedom of his soul is made captive +through the windows of his eyes, and thus is fulfilled the +prophecy: `For death is come up into our windows' (Jer. ix, 21). +And then, when the wedges of doubt have, as it were, been driven +into the citadels of our minds through these gateways, where will +be its liberty? where its fortitude? where its thought of God? Most +of all does the sense of touch paint for itself the pictures of +past raptures, compelling the soul to dwell fondly upon remembered +iniquities, and so to practice in imagination those things which +reality denies to it. + +"Heeding such counsel, therefore, many among the philosophers +forsook the thronging ways of the cities and the pleasant gardens +of the countryside, with their well-watered fields, their shady +trees, the song of birds, the mirror of the fountain, the murmur of +the stream, the many charms for eye and ear, fearing lest their +souls should grow soft amid luxury and abundance of riches, and +lest their virtue should thereby be defiled. For it is perilous to +turn your eyes often to those things whereby you may some day be +made captive, or to attempt the possession of that which it would +go hard with you to do without. Thus the Pythagoreans shunned all +companionship of this kind, and were wont to dwell in solitary and +desert places. Nay, Plato himself, although he was a rich man, let +Diogenes trample on his couch with muddy feet, and in order that he +might devote himself to philosophy established his academy in a +place remote from the city, and not only uninhabited but unhealthy +as well. This he did in order that the onslaughts of lust might be +broken by the fear and constant presence of disease, and that his +followers might find no pleasure save in the things they learned." + +Such a life, likewise, the sons of the prophets who were the +followers of Eliseus are reported to have led. Of these Jerome also +tells us, writing thus to the monk Rusticus as if describing the +monks of those ancient days: "The sons of the prophets, the monks +of whom we read in the Old Testament, built for themselves huts by +the waters of the Jordan, and forsaking the throngs and the cities, +lived on pottage and the herbs of the field" (Epist. iv). + +Even so did my followers build their huts above the waters of the +Arduzon, so that they seemed hermits rather than scholars. And as +their number grew ever greater, the hardships which they gladly +endured for the sake of my teaching seemed to my rivals to reflect +new glory on me, and to cast new shame on themselves. Nor was it +strange that they, who had done their utmost to hurt me, should +grieve to see how all things worked together for my good, even +though I was now, in the words of Jerome, afar from cities and the +market place, from controversies and the crowded ways of men. And +so, as Quintilian says, did envy seek me out even in my hiding +place. Secretly my rivals complained and lamented one to another, +saying: "Behold now, the whole world runs after him, and our +persecution of him has done nought save to increase his glory. We +strove to extinguish his fame, and we have but given it new +brightness. Lo, in the cities scholars have at hand everything they +may need, and yet, spurning the pleasures of the town, they seek +out the barrenness of the desert, and of their own free will they +accept wretchedness." + +The thing which at that time chiefly led me to undertake the +direction of a school was my intolerable poverty, for I had not +strength enough to dig, and shame kept me from begging. And so, +resorting once more to the art with which I was so familiar, I was +compelled to substitute the service of the tongue for the labour of +my hands. The students willingly provided me with whatsoever I +needed in the way of food and clothing, and likewise took charge of +the cultivation of the fields and paid for the erection of +buildings, in order that material cares might not keep me from my +studies. Since my oratory was no longer large enough to hold even a +small part of their number, they found it necessary to increase its +size, and in so doing they greatly improved it, building it of +stone and wood. Although this oratory had been founded in honour of +the Holy Trinity, and afterwards dedicated thereto, I now named it +the Paraclete, mindful of how I had come there a fugitive and in +despair, and had breathed into my soul something of the miracle of +divine consolation. + +Many of those who heard of this were greatly astonished, and some +violently assailed my action, declaring that it was not permissible +to dedicate a church exclusively to the Holy Spirit rather than to +God the Father. They held, according to an ancient tradition, that +it must be dedicated either to the Son alone or else to the entire +Trinity. The error which led them into this false accusation +resulted from their failure to perceive the identity of the +Paraclete with the Spirit Paraclete. Even as the whole Trinity, or +any Person in the Trinity, may rightly be called God or Helper, so +likewise may It be termed the Paraclete, that is to say the +Consoler. These are the words of the Apostle: "Blessed be God, even +the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the +God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation" +(2 Cor. i, 3). And likewise the word of truth says: "And he shall +give you another comforter" (Greek "another Paraclete," John, xiv, 16). + +Nay, since every church is consecrated equally in the name of the +Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, without any difference in +their possession thereof, why should not the house of God be +dedicated to the Father or to the Holy Spirit, even as it is to the +Son? Who would presume to erase from above the door the name of him +who is the master of the house? And since the Son offered Himself +as a sacrifice to the Father, and accordingly in the ceremonies of +the mass the prayers are offered particularly to the Father, and +the immolation of the Host is made to Him, why should the altar not +be held to be chiefly His to whom above all the supplication and +sacrifice are made? Is it not called more rightly the altar of Him +who receives than of Him who makes the sacrifice? Who would admit +that an altar is that of the Holy Cross, or of the Sepulchre, or of +St. Michael, or John, or Peter, or of any other saint, unless +either he himself was sacrificed there or else special sacrifices +and prayers are made there to him? Methinks the altars and temples +of certain ones among these saints are not held to be idolatrous +even though they are used for special sacrifices and prayers to +their patrons. + +Some, however, may perchance argue that churches are not built or +altars dedicated to the Father because there is no feast which is +solemnized especially for Him. But while this reasoning holds good +as regards the Trinity itself, it does not apply in the case of the +Holy Spirit. For this Spirit, from the day of Its advent, has had +Its special feast of the Pentecost, even as the Son has had since +His coming upon earth His feast of the Nativity. Even as the Son +was sent into this world, so did the Holy Spirit descend upon the +disciples, and thus does It claim Its special religious rites. Nay, +it seems more fitting to dedicate a temple to It than to either of +the other Persons of the Trinity, if we but carefully study the +apostolic authority, and consider the workings of this Spirit +Itself. To none of the three Persons did the apostle dedicate a +special temple save to the Holy Spirit alone. He does not speak of +a temple of the Father, or a temple of the Son, as he does of a +temple of the Holy Spirit, writing thus in his first epistle to the +Corinthians: "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." +(I Cor. vi, 17). And again: "What? know ye not that your body is +the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of +God, and ye are not your own?" (ib. 19). + +Who is there who does not know that the sacraments of God's +blessings pertaining to the Church are particularly ascribed to the +operation of divine grace, by which is meant the Holy Spirit? +Forsooth we are born again of water and of the Holy Spirit in +baptism, and thus from the very beginning is the body made, as it +were, a special temple of God. In the successive sacraments, +moreover, the seven-fold grace of the Spirit is added, whereby +this same temple of God is made beautiful and is consecrated. What +wonder is it, then, if to that Person to Whom the apostle assigned +a spiritual temple we should dedicate a material one? Or to what +Person can a church be more rightly said to belong than to Him to +Whom all the blessings which the church administers are +particularly ascribed? It was not, however, with the thought of +dedicating my oratory to one Person that I first called it the +Paraclete, but for the reason I have already told, that in this +spot I found consolation. 'None the less, even if I had done it for +the reason attributed to me, the departure from the usual custom +would have been in no way illogical. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OF THE PERSECUTION DIRECTED AGAINST HIM BY SUNDRY NEW ENEMIES OR, +AS IT WERE, APOSTLES + +And so I dwelt in this place, my body indeed hidden away, but my +fame spreading throughout the whole world, till its echo +reverberated mightily-echo, that fancy of the poet's, which has so +great a voice, and nought beside. My former rivals, seeing that +they themselves were now powerless to do me hurt, stirred up +against me certain new apostles in whom the world put great faith. +One of these (Norbert of Prémontré) took pride in his position as +canon of a regular order; the other (Bernard of Clairvaux) made it +his boast that he had revived the true monastic life. These two ran +hither and yon preaching and shamelessly slandering me in every way +they could, so that in time they succeeded in drawing down on my +head the scorn of many among those having authority, among both the +clergy and the laity. They spread abroad such sinister reports of +my faith as well as of my life that they turned even my best +friends against me, and those who still retained something of their +former regard for me were fain to disguise it in every possible way +by reason of their fear of these two men. + +God is my witness that whensoever I learned of the convening of a +new assemblage of the clergy, I believed that it was done for the +express purpose of my condemnation. Stunned by this fear like one +smitten with a thunderbolt, I daily expected to be dragged before +their councils or assemblies as a heretic or one guilty of impiety. +Though I seem to compare a flea with a lion, or an ant with an +elephant, in very truth my rivals persecuted me no less bitterly +than the heretics of old hounded St. Athanasius. Often, God knows, +I sank so deep in despair that I was ready to leave the world of +Christendom and go forth among the heathen, paying them a +stipulated tribute in order that I might live quietly a Christian +life among the enemies of Christ. It seemed to me that such people +might indeed be kindly disposed toward me, particularly as they +would doubtless suspect me of being no good Christian, imputing my +flight to some crime I had committed, and would therefore believe +that I might perhaps be won over to their form of worship. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OF THE ABBEY TO WHICH HE WAS CALLED AND OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD +FROM HIS SONS, THAT IS TO SAY THE MONKS, AND FROM THE LORD OF THE +LAND + +While I was thus afflicted with so great perturbation of the +spirit, and when the only way of escape seemed to be for me to seek +refuge with Christ among the enemies of Christ, there came a chance +whereby I thought I could for a while avoid the plottings of my +enemies. But thereby I fell among Christians and monks who were far +more savage than heathens and more evil of life. The thing came +about in this wise. There was in lesser Brittany, in the bishopric +of Vannes, a certain abbey of St. Gildas at Ruits, then mourning +the death of its shepherd. To this abbey the elective choice of the +brethren called me, with the approval of the prince of that land, +and I easily secured permission to accept the post from my own +abbot and brethren. Thus did the hatred of the French drive me +westward, even as that of the Romans drove Jerome toward the East. +Never, God knows, would I have agreed to this thing had it not been +for my longing for any possible means of escape from the sufferings +which I had borne so constantly. + +The land was barbarous and its speech was unknown to me; as for the +monks, their vile and untameable way of life was notorious almost +everywhere. The people of the region, too, were uncivilized and +lawless. Thus, like one who in terror of the sword that threatens +him dashes headlong over a precipice, and to shun one death for a +moment rushes to another, I knowingly sought this new danger in +order to escape from the former one. And there, amid the dreadful +roar of the waves of the sea, where the land's end left me no +further refuge in flight, often in my prayers did I repeat over and +over again: "From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when +my heart is overwhelmed" (Ps. lxi, 2). + +No one, methinks, could fail to understand how persistently that +undisciplined body of monks, the direction of which I had thus +undertaken, tortured my heart day and night, or how constantly I +was compelled to think of the danger alike to my body and to my +soul. I held it for certain that if I should try to force them to +live according to the principles they had themselves professed, I +should not survive. And yet, if I did not do this to the utmost of +my ability, I saw that my damnation was assured. Moreover, a +certain lord who was exceedingly powerful in that region had some +time previously brought the abbey under his control, taking +advantage of the state of disorder within the monastery to seize +all the lands adjacent thereto for his own use, and he ground down +the monks with taxes heavier than those which were extorted from +the Jews themselves. + +The monks pressed me to supply them with their daily necessities, +but they held no property in common which I might administer in +their behalf, and each one, with such resources as he possessed, +supported himself and his concubines, as well as his sons and +daughters. They took delight in harassing me on this matter, and +they stole and carried off whatsoever they could lay their hands +on, to the end that my failure to maintain order might make me +either give up trying to enforce discipline or else abandon my post +altogether. Since the entire region was equally savage, lawless and +disorganized, there was not a single man to whom I could turn for +aid, for the habits of all alike were foreign to me. Outside the +monastery the lord and his henchmen ceaselessly hounded me, and +within its walls the brethren were forever plotting against me, so +that it seemed as if the Apostle had had me and none other in mind +when he said: "Without were fightings, within were fears" (II Cor. vii, 5). + +I considered and lamented the uselessness and the wretchedness of +my existence, how fruitless my life now was, both to myself and to +others; how of old I had been of some service to the clerics whom I +had now abandoned for the sake of these monks, so that I was no +longer able to be of use to either; how incapable I had proved +myself in everything I had undertaken or attempted, so that above +all others I deserved the reproach, "This man began to build, and +was not able to finish" (Luke xiv, 30). My despair grew still +deeper when I compared the evils I had left behind with those to +which I had come, for my former sufferings now seemed to me as +nought. Full often did I groan: "Justly has this sorrow come upon +me because I deserted the Paraclete, which is to say the Consoler, +and thrust myself into sure desolation; seeking to shun threats I +fled to certain peril." + +The thing which tormented me most was the fact that, having +abandoned my oratory, I could make no suitable provision for the +celebration there of the divine office, for indeed the extreme +poverty of the place would scarcely provide the necessities of one +man. But the true Paraclete Himself brought me real consolation in +the midst of this sorrow of mine, and made all due provision for +His own oratory. For it chanced that in some manner or other, +laying claim to it as having legally belonged in earlier days to +his monastery, my abbot of St. Denis got possession of the abbey of +Argenteuil, of which I have previously spoken, wherein she who was +now my sister in Christ rather than my wife, Héloïse, had taken the +veil. From this abbey he expelled by force all the nuns who had +dwelt there, and of whom my former companion had become the +prioress. The exiles being thus dispersed in various places, I +perceived that this was an opportunity presented by God himself to +me whereby I could make provision anew for my oratory. And so, +returning thither, I bade her come to the oratory, together with +some others from the same convent who had clung to her. + +On their arrival there I made over to them the oratory, together +with everything pertaining thereto, and subsequently, through the +approval and assistance of the bishop of the district, Pope +Innocent II promulgated a decree confirming my gift in perpetuity +to them and their successors. And this refuge of divine mercy, +which they served so devotedly, soon brought them consolation, even +though at first their life there was one of want, and for a time of +utter destitution. But the place proved itself a true Paraclete to +them, making all those who dwelt round about feel pity and +kindliness for the sisterhood. So that, methinks, they prospered +more through gifts in a single year than I should have done if I +had stayed there a hundred. True it is that the weakness of +womankind makes their needs and sufferings appeal strongly to +people's feelings, as likewise it makes their virtue all the more +pleasing to God and man. And God granted such favour in the eyes of +all to her who was now my sister, and who was in authority over the +rest, that the bishops loved her as a daughter, the abbots as a +sister, and the laity as a mother. All alike marvelled at her +religious zeal, her good judgment and the sweetness of her +incomparable patience in all things. The less often she allowed +herself to be seen, shutting herself up in her cell to devote +herself to sacred meditations and prayers, the more eagerly did +those who dwelt without demand her presence and the spiritual +guidance of her words. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OF THE EVIL REPORT OF HIS INIQUITY + +Before long all those who dwelt thereabouts began to censure me +roundly, complaining that I paid far less attention to their needs +than I might and should have done, and that at least I could do +something for them through my preaching. As a result, I returned +thither frequently, to be of service to them in whatsoever way I +could. Regarding this there was no lack of hateful murmuring, and +the thing which sincere charity induced me to do was seized upon by +the wickedness of my detractors as the subject of shameless outcry. +They declared that I, who of old could scarcely endure to be parted +from her I loved, was still swayed by the delights of fleshly lust. +Many times I thought of the complaint of St. Jerome in his letter +to Asella regarding those women whom he was falsely accused of +loving, when he said (Epist. xcix): "I am charged with nothing save +the fact of my sex, and this charge is made only because Paula is +setting forth to Jerusalem." And again: "Before I became intimate +in the household of the saintly Paula, the whole city was loud in +my praise, and nearly every one deemed me deserving of the highest +honours of priesthood. But I know that my way to the kingdom of +Heaven lies through good and evil report alike." + +When I pondered over the injury which slander had done to so great +a man as this, I was not a little consoled thereby. If my rivals, I +told myself, could but find an equal cause for suspicion against +me, with what accusations would they persecute me! But how is it +possible for such suspicion to continue in my case, seeing that +divine mercy has freed me therefrom by depriving me of all power to +enact such baseness? How shameless is this latest accusation! In +truth that which had happened to me so completely removes all +suspicion of this iniquity among all men that those who wish to +have their women kept under close guard employ eunuchs for that +purpose, even as sacred history tells regarding Esther and the +other damsels of King Ahasuerus (Esther ii, 5). We read, too, of +that eunuch of great authority under Queen Candace who had charge +of all her treasure, him to whose conversion and baptism the +apostle Philip was directed by an angel (Acts viii, 27). Such men, +in truth, are enabled to have far more importance and intimacy +among modest and upright women by the fact that they are free from +any suspicion of lust. + +The sixth book of the Ecclesiastical History tells us that the +greatest of all Christian philosophers, Origen, inflicted a like +injury on himself with his own hand, in order that all suspicion of +this nature might be completely done away with in his instruction +of women in sacred doctrine. In this respect, I thought, God's +mercy had been kinder to me than to him, for it was judged that he +had acted most rashly and had exposed himself to no slight censure, +whereas the thing had been done to me through the crime of another, +thus preparing me for a task similar to his own. Moreover, it had +been accomplished with much less pain, being so quick and sudden, +for I was heavy with sleep when they laid hands on me, and felt +scarcely any pain at all. + +But alas, I thought, the less I then suffered from the wound, the +greater is my punishment now through slander, and I am tormented +far more by the loss of my reputation than I was by that of part of +my body. For thus is it written: "A good name is rather to be +chosen than great riches" (Prov. xxii, 1). And as St. Augustine +tells us in a sermon of his on the life and conduct of the clergy, +"He is cruel who, trusting in his conscience, neglects his +reputation." Again he says: "Let us provide those things that are +good, as the apostle bids us (Rom. xii, 17), not alone in the eyes +of God, but likewise in the eyes of men. Within himself each one's +conscience suffices, but for our own sakes our reputations ought +not to be tarnished, but to flourish. Conscience and reputation are +different matters: conscience is for yourself, reputation for your +neighbour." Methinks the spite of such men as these my enemies +would have accused the very Christ Himself, or those belonging to +Him, prophets and apostles, or the other holy fathers, if such +spite had existed in their time, seeing that they associated in +such familiar intercourse with women, and this though they were +whole of body. On this point St. Augustine, in his book on the duty +of monks, proves that women followed our Lord Jesus Christ and the +apostles as inseparable companions, even accompanying them when +they preached (Chap. 4). "Faithful women," he says, "who were +possessed of worldly wealth went with them, and ministered to them +out of their wealth, so that they might lack none of those things +which belong to the substance of life." And if any one does not +believe that the apostles thus permitted saintly women to go about +with them wheresoever they preached the Gospel, let him listen to +the Gospel itself, and learn therefrom that in so doing they +followed the example of the Lord. For in the Gospel it is written +thus: "And it came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every +city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the +kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him, and certain women, +which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called +Magdalene, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and +Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their +substance" (Luke viii, i-3). + +Leo the Ninth, furthermore, in his reply to the letter of +Parmenianus concerning monastic zeal, says: "We unequivocally +declare that it is not permissible for a bishop, priest, deacon or +subdeacon to cast off all responsibility for his own wife on the +grounds of religious duty, so that he no longer provides her with +food and clothing; albeit he may not have carnal intercourse with +her. We read that thus did the holy apostles act, for St. Paul +says: 'Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as +other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?' (I +Cor. ix, 5). Observe, foolish man, that he does not say: 'have we +not power to embrace a sister, a wife,' but he says 'to lead +about,' meaning thereby that such women may lawfully be supported +by them out of the wages of their preaching, but that there must be +no carnal bond between them." + +Certainly that Pharisee who spoke within himself of the Lord, +saying: "This man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and +what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a +sinner" (Luke vii, 39), might much more reasonably have suspected +baseness of the Lord, considering the matter from a purely human +standpoint, than my enemies could suspect it of me. One who had +seen the mother of Our Lord entrusted to the care of the young man +(John xix, 27), or who had beheld the prophets dwelling and +sojourning with widows (I Kings xvii, 10), would likewise have had +a far more logical ground for suspicion. And what would my +calumniators have said if they had but seen Malchus, that captive +monk of whom St. Jerome writes, living in the same but with his +wife? Doubtless they would have regarded it as criminal in the +famous scholar to have highly commended what he thus saw, saying +thereof: "There was a certain old man named Malchus, a native of +this region, and his wife with him in his hut. Both of them were +earnestly religious, and they so often passed the threshold of the +church that you might have thought them the Zacharias and Elisabeth +of the Gospel, saving only that John was not with them." + +Why, finally, do such men refrain from slandering the holy fathers, +of whom we frequently read, nay, and have even seen with our own +eyes, founding convents for women and making provision for their +maintenance, thereby following the example of the seven deacons +whom the apostles sent before them to secure food and take care of +the women? (Acts vi, 5). For the weaker sex needs the help of the +stronger one to such an extent that the apostle proclaimed that the +head of the woman is ever the man (I Cor. xi, 3), and in sign +thereof he bade her ever wear her head covered (ib. 5). For this +reason I marvel greatly at the customs which have crept into +monasteries, whereby, even as abbots are placed in charge of the +men, abbesses now are given authority over the women, and the women +bind themselves in their vows to accept the same rules as the men. +Yet in these rules there are many things which cannot possibly be +carried out by women, either as superiors or in the lower orders. +In many places we may even behold an inversion of the natural order +of things, whereby the abbesses and nuns have authority over the +clergy, and even over those who are themselves in charge of the +people. The more power such women exercise over men, the more +easily can they lead them into iniquitous desires, and in this way +can lay a very heavy yoke upon their shoulders. It was with such +things in mind that the satirist said: + + "There is nothing more intolerable than a rich woman." + (Juvenal, Sat. VI, v, 459). + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OF THE PERILS OF HIS ABBEY AND OF THE REASONS FOR THE WRITING OF +THIS HIS LETTER + +Reflecting often upon all these things, I determined to make +provision for those sisters and to undertake their care in every +way I could. Furthermore, in order that they might have the greater +reverence for me, I arranged to watch over them in person. And +since now the persecution carried on by my sons was greater and +more incessant than that which I formerly suffered at the hands of +my brethren, I returned frequently to the nuns, fleeing the rage of +the tempest as to a haven of peace. There, indeed, could I draw +breath for a little in quiet, and among them my labours were +fruitful, as they never were among the monks. All this was of the +utmost benefit to me in body and soul, and it was equally essential +for them by reason of their weakness. + +But now has Satan beset me to such an extent that I no longer know +where I may find rest, or even so much as live. I am driven hither +and yon, a fugitive and a vagabond, even as the accursed Cain (Gen. +iv, 14). I have already said that "without were fightings, within +were fears" (II Cor. vii, 5), and these torture me ceaselessly, the +fears being indeed without as well as within, and the fightings +wheresoever there are fears. Nay, the persecution carried on by my +sons rages against me more perilously and continuously than that of +my open enemies, for my sons I have always with me, and I am ever +exposed to their treacheries. The violence of my enemies I see in +the danger to my body if I leave the cloister; but within it I am +compelled incessantly to endure the crafty machinations as well as +the open violence of those monks who are called my sons, and who +are entrusted to me as their abbot, which is to say their father. + +Oh, how often have they tried to kill me with poison, even as the +monks sought to slay St. Benedict! Methinks the same reason which +led the saint to abandon his wicked sons might encourage me to +follow the example of so great a father, lest, in thus exposing +myself to certain peril, I might be deemed a rash tempter of God +rather than a lover of Him, nay, lest it might even be judged that +I had thereby taken my own life. When I had safeguarded myself to +the best of my ability, so far as my food and drink were concerned, +against their daily plottings, they sought to destroy me in the +very ceremony of the altar by putting poison in the chalice. One +day, when I had gone to Nantes to visit the count, who was then +sick, and while I was sojourning awhile in the house of one of my +brothers in the flesh, they arranged to poison me, with the +connivance of one of my attendants, believing that I would take no +precautions to escape such a plot. But divine providence so ordered +matters that I had no desire for the food which was set before me; +one of the monks whom I had brought with me ate thereof, not +knowing that which had been done, and straightway fell dead. As for +the attendant who had dared to undertake this crime, he fled in +terror alike of his own conscience and of the clear evidence of his +guilt. + +After this, as their wickedness was manifest to every one, I began +openly in every way I could to avoid the danger with which their +plots threatened me, even to the extent of leaving the abbey and +dwelling with a few others apart in little cells. If the monks knew +beforehand that I was going anywhere on a journey, they bribed +bandits to waylay me on the road and kill me. And while I was +struggling in the midst of these dangers, it chanced one day that +the hand of the Lord smote me a heavy blow, for I fell from my +horse, breaking a bone in my neck, the injury causing me greater +pain and weakness than my former wound. + +Using excommunication as my weapon to coerce the untamed +rebelliousness of the monks, I forced certain ones among them whom +I particularly feared to promise me publicly, pledging their faith +or swearing upon the sacrament, that they would thereafter depart +from the abbey and no longer trouble me in any way. Shamelessly and +openly did they violate the pledges they had given and their +sacramental oaths, but finally they were compelled to give this and +many other promises under oath, in the presence of the count and +the bishops, by the authority of the Pontiff of Rome, Innocent, who +sent his own legate for this special purpose. And yet even this did +not bring me peace. For when I returned to the abbey after the +expulsion of those whom I have just mentioned, and entrusted myself +to the remaining brethren, of whom I felt less suspicion, I found +them even worse than the others. I barely succeeded in escaping +them, with the aid of a certain nobleman of the district, for they +were planning, not to poison me indeed, but to cut my throat with a +sword. Even to the present time I stand face to face with this +danger, fearing the sword which threatens my neck so that I can +scarcely draw a free breath between one meal and the next. Even so +do we read of him who, reckoning the power and heaped-up wealth of +the tyrant Dionysius as a great blessing, beheld the sword secretly +hanging by a hair above his head, and so learned what kind of +happiness comes as the result of worldly power (Cicer. 5, Tusc.) +Thus did I too learn by constant experience, I who had been exalted +from the condition of a poor monk to the dignity of an abbot, that +my wretchedness increased with my wealth; and I would that the +ambition of those who voluntarily seek such power might be curbed +by my example. + +And now, most dear brother in Christ and comrade closest to me in +the intimacy of speech, it should suffice for your sorrows and the +hardships you have endured that I have written this story of my own +misfortunes, amid which I have toiled almost from the cradle. For +so, as I said in the beginning of this letter, shall you come to +regard your tribulation as nought, or at any rate as little, in +comparison with mine, and so shall you bear it more lightly in +measure as you regard it as less. Take comfort ever in the saying +of Our Lord, what he foretold for his followers at the hands of the +followers of the devil: "If they have persecuted me, they will also +persecute you (John xv, 20). If the world hate you, ye know that it +hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world +would love his own" (ib. 18-19). And the apostle says: "All that +will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim. +iii, 12). And elsewhere he says: "I do not seek to please men. For +if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" +(Galat. i, 10). And the Psalmist says: "They who have been pleasing +to men have been confounded, for that God hath despised them." + +Commenting on this, St. Jerome, whose heir methinks I am in the +endurance of foul slander, says in his letter to Nepotanius: "The +apostle says: 'If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of +Christ.' He no longer seeks to please men, and so is made Christ's +servant" (Epist. 2). And again, in his letter to Asella regarding +those whom he was falsely accused of loving: "I give thanks to my +God that I am worthy to be one whom the world hates" (Epist. 99). +And to the monk Heliodorus he writes: "You are wrong, brother, you +are wrong if you think there is ever a time when the Christian does +not suffer persecution. For our adversary goes about as a roaring +lion seeking what he may devour, and do you still think of peace? +Nay, he lieth in ambush among the rich." + +Inspired by those records and examples, we should endure our +persecutions all the more steadfastly the more bitterly they harm +us. We should not doubt that even if they are not according to our +deserts, at least they serve for the purifying of our soul. And +since all things are done in accordance with the divine ordering, +let every one of true faith console himself amid all his +afflictions with the thought that the great goodness of God permits +nothing to be done without reason, and brings to a good end +whatsoever may seem to happen wrongfully. Wherefore rightly do all +men say: "Thy will be done." And great is the consolation to all +lovers of God in the word of the Apostle when he says: "We know +that all things work together for good to them that love God" +(Rom. viii, 28). The wise man of old had this in mind when he said +in his Proverbs: "There shall no evil happen to the just" +(Prov. xii, 21). By this he clearly shows that whosoever grows +wrathful for any reason against his sufferings has therein departed +from the way of the just, because he may not doubt that these +things have happened to him by divine dispensation. Even such are +those who yield to their own rather than to the divine purpose, and +with hidden desires resist the spirit which echoes in the words, +"Thy will be done," thus placing their own will ahead of the will +of God. Farewell. + + + + +APPENDIX + +PIERRE ABÉLARD + +Petrus Abaelardus (or Abailardus) was born in the year 1079 at +Palets, a Breton town not far from Nantes. His father, Berengarius, +was a nobleman of some local importance; his mother, Lucia, was +likewise of noble family. The name "Abaelardus" is said to be a +corruption of "Habelardus," which, in turn, was substituted by +himself for the nickname "Bajolardus" given to him in his student +days. However the name may have arisen, the famous scholar +certainly adopted it very early in his career, and it went over +into the vernacular as "Abélard" or "Abailard," though with a +multiplicity of variations (in Villon's famous poem, for example, +it appears as "Esbaillart"). + +For the main facts of Abélard's life his own writings remain the +best authority, but through his frequent contact with many of the +foremost figures in the intellectual and clerical life of the early +twelfth century it has been possible to check his own account of +his career with considerable accuracy. The story told in the +"Historia Calamitatum" covers the events of his life from boyhood +to about 1132 or 1133,--in other words, up to approximately his +fifty-third or fifty-fourth year. That the account he gives of +himself is substantially correct cannot be doubted; making all due +allowance for the violence of his feelings, which certainly led him +to colour many incidents in a manner unfavourable to his enemies, +the main facts tally closely with all the external evidence now +available. + +A very brief summary of the events of the final years of his life +will serve to round out the story. The "Historia Calamitatum" was +written while Abélard was still abbot of the monastery of St. +Gildas, in Brittany. The terrors of his existence there are fully +dwelt on in his autobiographical letter, and finally, in 1134 or +1135, he fled, living for a short time in retirement. In 1136, +however, we find him once more lecturing, and apparently with much +of his former success, on Mont Ste. Genevieve. His old enemies were +still on his trail, and most of all Bernard of Clairvaux, to whose +fiery adherence to the faith Abélard's rationalism seemed a sheer +desecration. The unceasing activities of Bernard and others finally +brought Abélard before an ecclesiastical council at Sens in 1140, +where he was formally arraigned on charges of heresy. Had Abélard's +courage held good, he might have won his case, for Bernard was +frankly terrified at the prospect of meeting so formidable a +dialectitian, but Abélard, broken in spirit by the prolonged +persecution from which he had suffered, contented himself with +appealing to the Pope. The indefatigable Bernard at once proceeded +to secure a condemnation of Abélard from Rome, whither the accused +man set out to plead his case. On the way, however, he collapsed, +both physically and in spirit, and remained for a few months at the +abbey of Cluny, whence his friends removed him, a dying man, to the +priory of St. Marcel, near Châlons-sur-Saône. Here he died on April +21, 1142. + +A discussion of Abélard's position among the scholastic +philosophers would necessarily go far beyond the proper limits of a +mere historical note. He stands out less commandingly as a +constructive philosopher than as a master of dialectics. He was, as +even his enemies admitted, a brilliant teacher and an unconquerable +logician; he was, moreover, a voluminous writer. Works by him which +have been preserved include letters, sermons, philosophical and +religious treatises, commentaries on the Bible, on Aristotle and on +various other books, and a number of poems. + +Many of the misfortunes which the "Historia Calamitatum" relates +were the direct outcome of Abélard's uncompromising position as a +rationalist, and the document is above all interesting for the +picture it gives of the man himself, against the background of +early twelfth century France. A few dates will help the general +reader to connect the life surrounding Abélard with other and more +familiar facts. William the Conqueror had entered England thirteen +years before Abélard's birth. The boy was eight years old when the +Conqueror died near Rouen during his struggle with Philip of +France. He was seventeen when the First Crusade began, and twenty +when the crusaders captured Jerusalem. + +Two of the men who most profoundly influenced the times in which +Abélard lived were Hildebrand, famous as Pope Gregory VII, and +Louis VI (the Fat), king of France. It was to Hildebrand that the +Church owed much of that regeneration of the spirit which gave it +such vitality throughout the twelfth century. Hildebrand died, +indeed, when Abélard was only six years old, but he left the Church +such a force in the affairs of men as it had never been before. As +for Louis the Fat, who reigned from 1108 to 1137, it was he who +began to lift the royal power in France out of the shadow which the +slothfulness and incompetence of his immediate predecessors, Henry +I and Philip I, had cast over it. Discerning enough to see that the +chief enemies of the crown were the great nobles, and constantly +advised by a minister of exceptional wisdom, Suger, abbot of St. +Denis, Louis did his utmost to protect the towns and the churches, +and to bring that small part of France wherein his power was felt +out of the anarchy and chaos of the eleventh century. + +It was the France of Louis VI and Sager which formed the background +for the great battle between the realists and the nominalists, the +battle in which Abélard played no small part. His life was divided +between the towns wherein he taught and the Church which +alternately welcomed and denounced him. His fellow-disputants have +their places in the history of philosophy; the story of Abélard's +love for Héloïse has set him apart, so that he has lived for eight +centuries less as a fearless thinker and masterly logician than as +one of the glowingly romantic figures of the Middle Ages. + + +"A FRIEND" + +It is not known to whom Abélard's letter was addressed, but it may +be guessed that the writer intended it to reach the hands of +Héloïse. This actually happened, and the first and most famous +letter from Héloise to Abélard was substantially an answer to the +"Historia Calamitatum." + + +WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX + +William of Champeaux (Gulielmus Campellensis) was born about 1070 +at Champeaux, near Melun. He studied under Anselm of Laon and +Roscellinus, his training in philosophy thereby being influenced by +both realism and nominalism. His own inclination, however, was +strongly towards the former, and it was as a determined proponent +of realism that he began to teach in the school of the cathedral of +Notre Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103. In 1108 he withdrew +to the abbey of St. Victor, and subsequently became bishop of +Châlons-sur-Marne. He died in 1121. As a teacher his influence was +wide; he was a vigorous defender of orthodoxy and a passionate +adversary of the heterodox philosophy of his former master, +Roscellinus. That he and Abélard disagreed was only natural, but +Abélard's statement that he argued William into abandoning the +basic principles of his philosophy is certainly untrue. + + +"THE UNIVERSALS" + +It is not within the province of such a note as this to discuss in +detail the great controversy between the realists and the +nominalists which dominated the philosophical and, to some extent, +the religious thought of France during the first half of the +twelfth century. In brief, the realists maintained that the idea is +a reality distinct from and independent of the individuals +constituting it; their motto, _Universalia sunt realia_, was +readily capable of extension far beyond the Church, and William of +Champeaux himself carried it to the extent of arguing that nothing +is real but the universal. The nominalists, on the other hand, +argued that "universals" are mere notions of the mind, and that +individuals alone are real; their motto was _Universalia sunt +nomina_. Thus the central question in the long controversy +concerned the reality of abstract or incorporate ideas, and it is +to be observed that the realists held views diametrically opposite +to those which the word "realism" today implies. In upholding the +reality of the idea, they were what would now be called idealists, +whereas their opponents, denying the reality of abstractions and +insisting on that of the concrete individual or object, were +realists in the modern sense. + +The peculiar importance of this controversy lay in its effect on +the status of the Church. If nominalism should prevail, then the +Church would be shorn of much of its authority, for its greatest +power lay in the conception of it as an enduring reality outside of +and above all the individuals who shared in its work. It is not +strange, then, that the ardent realism of William of Champeaux +should have been outraged by the nominalistic logic of Abélard. +Abélard, indeed, never went to such extreme lengths as the +arch-nominalist, Roscellinus, who was duly condemned for heresy by +the Council of Soissons in 1092, but he went quite far enough to +win for himself the undying enmity of the leading realists, who +were followed by the great majority of the clergy. + + +PORPHYRY + +The Introduction ("Isagoge") to the Categories of Aristotle, +Written by the Greek scholar and neoplatonist Porphyry in the third +century A.D., was translated into Latin by Boetius, and in this +form was extensively used throughout the Middle Ages as a +compendium of Aristotelian logic. As a philosopher Porphyry was +chiefly important as the immediate successor of Plotinus in the +neoplatonic school at Rome, but his "Isagoge" had extraordinary +weight among the medieval logicians. + + +PRISCIAN + +The _Institutiones grammaticae_ of Priscian (Priscianus +Caesariensis) formed the standard grammatical and philological +textbook of the Middle Ages, its importance being fairly indicated +by the fact that today there exist about a thousand manuscript +copies of it. + + +ANSELM + +Anselm of Laon was born somewhere about 1040, and is said to have +studied under the famous St. Anselm, later archbishop of +Canterbury, at the monastery of Bec. About 1070 he began to teach +in Paris, where he was notably successful. Subsequently he returned +to Laon, where his school of theology and exegetics became the most +famous one in Europe. His most important work, an interlinear gloss +on the Scriptures, was regarded as authoritative throughout the +later Middle Ages. He died in 1117. That he was something of a +pedant is probable, but Abélard's picture of him is certainly very +far from doing him justice. + + +ALBERIC OF RHEIMS AND LOTULPHE THE LOMBARD + +Of these two not much is known beyond what Abélard himself tells +us. ALberic, indeed, won a considerable reputation, and was highly +recommended to Pope Honorius II by St. Bernard. In 1139 Alberic +seems to have become archbishop of Bourges, dying two years later. +Lotulphe the Lombard is referred to by another authority as +Leutaldus Novariensis. + + +ST. JEROME + +The enormous scholarship of St. Jerome, born about 340 and dying +September 30, 420, made him not only the foremost authority within +the Church itself throughout the Middle Ages, but also one of the +chief guides to secular scholarship. Abélard repeatedly quotes from +him, particularly from his denunciation of the revival of Gnostic +heresies by Jovinianus and from some of his voluminous epistles. He +also refers extensively to the charges brought against Jerome by +reason of his teaching of women at Rome in the house of Marcella. +One of his pupils, Paula, a wealthy widow, followed him on his +journey through Palestine, and built three nunneries at Bethlehem, +of which she remained the head up to the time of her death in 404. + + +ST. AUGUSTINE + +Regarding the position of St. Augustine (354-430) throughout the +Middle Ages, it is here sufficient to quote a few words of Gustav +Krüger: "The theological position and influence of Augustine may be +said to be unrivalled. No single name has ever exercised such power +over the Christian Church, and no one mind ever made so deep an +impression on Christian thought. In him scholastics and mystics, +popes and opponents of the papal supremacy, have seen their +champion. He was the fulcrum on which Luther rested the thoughts by +which be sought to lift the past of the Church out of the rut; yet +the judgment of Catholics still proclaims the ideals of Augustine +as the only sound basis of pbilosopby." + + +ABBEY OF ST. DENIS + +The abbey of St. Denis was founded about 625 by Dagobert, son of +Lothair II, at some distance from the basilica which the clergy of +Paris had erected in the fifth century over the saint's tomb. Long +renowned as the place of burial for most of the kings of France, +the abbey of St. Denis had a particular importance in Abélard's day +by reason of its close association with the reigning monarch. The +abbot to whom Abélard refers so bitterly was Adam of St. Denis, who +began his rule of the monastery about 1094. In 1106 this same Adam +chose as his secretary one of the inmates of the monastery, Suger, +destined shortly to become the most influential man in France +through his position as advisor to Louis VI, and also the foremost +historian of his time. Adam died in 1123, and his successor, +referred to by Abélard in Chapter X, was none other than Suger +himself. From 1127 to 1137 Suger devoted most of his time to the +reorganization and reform of the monastery of St. Denis. If we are +to believe Abélard, such reform was sorely needed, but other +contemporary evidence by no means fully sustains Abélard in his +condemnation of Adam and his fellow monks. + + +ORIGEN + +The ALexandrian theological writer Origen, who lived from about 185 +to 254, was the most distinguished and the most influential of all +the theologians of the ancient Church, with the single exception of +Augustine. His incredible industry resulted in such a mass of +Writings that Jerome himself asked in despair, "Which of us can +read all that he has written?" Origen's self-mutilation, referred +to by Abélard, was subsequently used by his enemies as an argument +for deposing him from his presbyterial status. + + +ATHANASIUS + +Abélard's tract regarding the power of God to create Himself was +one of the many distant echoes of the great Arian-Athanasian +controversy of the fourth century. St. Athanasius, bishop of +Alexandria, well deserved the title conferred on him by the Church +as "the father of orthodoxy," and it was by his name that the +doctrine of identity of substance ("the Son is of the same +substance with the Father") became known. Much of the life of +Athanasius was passed amid persecutions at the hands of his +enemies, and on several occasions he was driven into exile. + + +RODOLPHE, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS + +Rodolphe, or, as some authorities call him, Rudolph or Radulph, +became archbishop of Rheims in 1114, after having served as +treasurer of the cathedral. His importance among the French clergy +is attested by the many references to him in contemporary +documents. + + +CONON OF PRAENESTE + +Conon, bishop of Praeneste, whose real name may have been Conrad, +came to France as papal legate on at least two occasions. He +represented Paschal II in 1115 at ecclesiastical councils held in +Beauvais, Rheims and Châlons; in 1120 he represented Calixtus II at +Soissons on the occasion of Abélard's trial. + + +GEOFFROI OF CHARTRES + +Geoffroi, bishop of Chartres, the second of the name to hold that +post, was subsequently a warm friend of St. Bernard. Abélard's high +estimate of him is fully confirmed by other contemporary +authorities. + + +ABBOT OF ST. MÉDARD + +This abbot was probably, though not certainly, Anselm of Soissons, +who became a bishop in 1145. The chronology, however, is confusing. + + +DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE + +The confusion regarding the identity of Dionysius the Areopagite +persists to this day, at least to the extent that we do not know +the real name of the fourth or fifth century writer who, under this +pseudonym, exercised so profound an influence on medieval thought. +That he was not the bishop of either Athens or Corinth, nor yet the +Dionysius who became the patron saint of France, is clear enough. +Of the actual Dionysius the Areopagite we know practically nothing. +He is mentioned in Acts, xvii, 34, as one of those Athenians who +believed when they had heard Paul preach on Mars Hill. A century or +more later we learn from another Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, that +Dionysius the Areopagite was the first bishop of Athens, a +statement of doubtful value. In the fourth or fifth century a Greek +theological writer of extraordinary erudition assumed the name of +Dionysius the Areopagite, and as his works exerted an enormous +influence on later scholarship, it was quite natural that the +personal legend of the real Dionysius should have been extended +correspondingly. + +The Hilduin referred to by Abélard, who was abbot of St. Denis from +814 to 840, was directly responsible for the extreme phase of this +extension. Accepting, as most of his contemporaries unquestioningly +did, the identity of the theological writer with the Dionysius +mentioned in Acts and spoken of as bishop of Athens, Hilduin went +one step further, and demonstrated that this Dionysius was likewise +the Dionysius (Denis) who had been sent into Gaul and martyred at +Catulliacus, the modern St. Denis. There is no evidence to support +Hilduin's contention, and the chronology of Gregory of Tours is +quite sufficient to disprove it, but none the less it was +enthusiastically accepted in France, and above all by the monks of +St. Denis. + +There was, however, a persistent doubt as to the identity of the +Dionysius whose writings had become so famous. Bede, the authority +quoted by Abélard, was, of course, wrong in saying that he was the +bishop of Corinth, but anything which tended to shake the triple +identity, established by Hilduin, of the Dionysius of Athens who +listened to St. Paul, of the pseudo-Areopagite whose works were +known to every medieval scholar, and of the St. Denis who had +become the patron saint of France, was naturally anathematized by +the monks who bore the saint's name. Bede and Abélard were by no +means accurate, but Bede's inkling of the truth was quite enough to +get Abélard into serious trouble. + + +THEOBALD OF CHAMPAGNE + +Theobald II, Count of Blois, Meaux and Champagne, was one of the +most powerful nobles in France, and by the extent of his influence +fully deserved the title of "the Great" by which he was +subsequently known. His domain included the modern departments of +Ardennes, Marne, Aube and Haute-Marne, with part of Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, +Yonne and Meuse. Furthermore, his mother Adela, was the daughter of +William I of England, and his younger brother, Stephen, was King of +England from 1135 to 1154. Theobald became Count of Blois in 1102, +Count of Champagne in 1125, and Count of Troyes in 1128. Had he so +chosen, he might likewise have become Duke of Normandy after the +death of his uncle, Henry I of England, in 1135. He died in 1152. + + +STEPHEN THE SENESCHAL + +There is much doubt as to whether this Stephen was Stephen de +Garland, _dapifer_, or another Stephen, who was royal chancellor +under Louis the Fat. A charter of the year 1124 is signed by both +Stephen _dapifer_ and Stephen _cancellarius_. Probably, however, +the authority identifying Stephen _dapifer_ as Stephen de Garland, +seneschal of France, is trustworthy. + + +THE PARACLETE + +Among the terms which are characteristic of, or even peculiar to, +the Gospel of St. John is that of "the Paraclete," rendered in the +King games version "the Comforter." The Greek word of which +"Paraclete" is a reproduction literally means "advocate," one +called to aid; hence "intercessor." The doctrine of the Paraclete +appears chiefly in John, xiv and xv. For example: (xiv, 16-17) "And +I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter +(Paraclete) that be may abide with you for ever; even the spirit of +truth." Again: (xiv, 26) "But the Comforter (Paraclete), which is +the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall +teach you all things." With John's words as a basis, the Paraclete +came to be regarded as identical with the Third Person of the +Trinity, but always with the special attributes of consolation and +intercession. + + +NORBERT OF PRÉMONTRÉ + +In 1120 there was established at Prémontré, a desert place in the +diocese of Laon, a monastery of canons regular who followed the +so-called Rule of St. Augustine, but with supplementary statutes +which made the life one of exceptional severity. The head of this +monastery was Norbert, subsequently canonized. His order received +papal approbation in 1126, and thereafter it spread rapidly +throughout Europe; two hundred years later there were no less than +seventeen hundred Norbertine or Premonstratensian monasteries. +Norbert himself became archbishop of Magdeburg, and it was in +Germany that the most notable work of his order was accomplished. + + +BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX + +Regarding the illustrious St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, it is +needless here to say more than that his own age recognized in him +the embodiment of the highest ideal of medieval monasticism. +Intellectually inferior to Abélard and to some others of those over +whom he triumphed, he was their superior in moral strength, in +zeal, and above all in the power of making others share his own +enthusiasms. Born in 1090, he was renowned as one of the foremost +of French churchmen before he was thirty years old; his share in +the contest which followed the death of Pope Honorius II in 1130 +made him one of the most commanding figures in all Europe. It was +to him that the Cistercian order owed its extraordinary expansion +in the twelfth century. That Abélard should have fallen before so +redoubtable an adversary (see the note on Pierre Abélard) is in no +way surprising, but there can be no doubt that St. Bernard's +"persecution" of Abélard was inspired solely by high ideals and an +intense zeal for the truth as Bernard perceived it. + + +ABBEY OF ST. GILDAS + +Traditionally, at least, this abbey was the oldest one in Brittany. +According to the anonymous author of the Life and Deeds of St. +Gildas, it was founded during the reign of Childeric, the second of +the Merovingian kings, in the fifth century. Be that as it may, its +authentic history had been extensive before Abélard assumed the +direction of its affairs. His gruesome picture of the conditions +which prevailed there cannot, of course, be accepted as wholly +accurate, but even allowing for gross exaggeration, the life of the +monks must have been quite sufficiently scandalous. It was +apparently in the closing period of Abélard's sojourn at the abbey +of St. Gildas that he wrote the "Historia Calamitatum." He endured +the life there for nearly ten years; the date of his flight is not +certain, but it cannot have been far from 1134 or 1135. + + +LEO IX + +Leo IX, pope from 1049 to 1054, was a native of Upper Alsace. It +was at the Easter synod of 1049 that he enjoined anew the celibacy +of the clergy, in connection with which the letter quoted by +Abélard was written. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historia Calamitatum, by Peter Abelard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIA CALAMITATUM *** + +***** This file should be named 14268-8.txt or 14268-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/2/6/14268/ + +Produced by Nicole Apostola + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Historia Calamitatum + +Author: Peter Abelard + +Release Date: December 6, 2004 [EBook #14268] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIA CALAMITATUM *** + + + + +Produced by Nicole Apostola + + + + +HISTORIA CALAMITATUM + +THE STORY OF MY MISFORTUNES + +An Autobiography by Peter Abelard + +Translated by Henry Adams Bellows + +Introduction by Ralph Adams Cram + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The "Historia Calamitatum" of Peter Abelard is one of those human +documents, out of the very heart of the Middle Ages, that +illuminates by the glow of its ardour a shadowy period that has +been made even more dusky and incomprehensible by unsympathetic +commentators and the ill-digested matter of "source-books." Like +the "Confessions" of St. Augustine it is an authentic revelation of +personality and, like the latter, it seems to show how unchangeable +is man, how consistent unto himself whether he is of the sixth +century or the twelfth--or indeed of the twentieth century. +"Evolution" may change the flora and fauna of the world, or modify +its physical forms, but man is always the same and the unrolling of +the centuries affects him not at all. If we can assume the vivid +personality, the enormous intellectual power and the clear, keen +mentality of Abelard and his contemporaries and immediate +successors, there is no reason why "The Story of My Misfortunes" +should not have been written within the last decade. + +They are large assumptions, for this is not a period in world +history when the informing energy of life expresses itself through +such qualities, whereas the twelfth century was of precisely this +nature. The antecedent hundred years had seen the recovery from the +barbarism that engulfed Western Europe after the fall of Rome, and +the generation of those vital forces that for two centuries were to +infuse society with a vigour almost unexampled in its potency and +in the things it brought to pass. The parabolic curve that +describes the trajectory of Mediaevalism was then emergent out of +"chaos and old night" and Abelard and his opponent, St. Bernard, +rode high on the mounting force in its swift and almost violent +ascent. + +Pierre du Pallet, yclept Abelard, was born in 1079 and died in +1142, and his life precisely covers the period of the birth, +development and perfecting of that Gothic style of architecture +which is one of the great exemplars of the period. Actually, the +Norman development occupied the years from 1050 to 1125 while the +initiating and determining of Gothic consumed only fifteen years, +from Bury, begun in 1125, to Saint-Denis, the work of Abbot Suger, +the friend and partisan of Abelard, in 1140. It was the time of the +Crusades, of the founding and development of schools and +universities, of the invention or recovery of great arts, of the +growth of music, poetry and romance. It was the age of great kings +and knights and leaders of all kinds, but above all it was the +epoch of a new philosophy, refounded on the newly revealed corner +stones of Plato and Aristotle, but with a new content, a new +impulse and a new method inspired by Christianity. + +All these things, philosophy, art, personality, character, were the +product of the time, which, in its definiteness and consistency, +stands apart from all other epochs in history. The social system +was that of feudalism, a scheme of reciprocal duties, privileges +and obligations as between man and man that has never been excelled +by any other system that society has developed as its own method of +operation. As Dr. De Wulf has said in his illuminating book +"Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages" (a volume that +should be read by any one who wishes rightly to understand the +spirit and quality of Mediaevalism), "the feudal sentiment _par +excellence_ ... is the sentiment of the value and dignity of the +individual man. The feudal man lived as a free man; he was master +in his own house; he sought his end in himself; he was--and this is +a scholastic expression,--_propter seipsum existens_: all feudal +obligations were founded upon respect for personality and the given +word." + +Of course this admirable scheme of society with its guild system of +industry, its absence of usury in any form and its just sense of +comparative values, was shot through and through with religion both +in faith and practice. Catholicism was universally and implicitly +accepted. Monasticism had redeemed Europe from barbarism and Cluny +had freed the Church from the yoke of German imperialism. This +unity and immanence of religion gave a consistency to society +otherwise unobtainable, and poured its vitality into every form of +human thought and action. + +It was Catholicism and the spirit of feudalism that preserved men +from the dangers inherent in the immense individualism of the time. +With this powerful and penetrating cooerdinating force men were safe +to go about as far as they liked in the line of individuality, +whereas today, for example, the unifying force of a common and +vital religion being absent and nothing having been offered to take +its place, the result of a similar tendency is egotism and anarchy. +These things happened in the end in the case of Mediaevalism when +the power and the influence of religion once began to weaken, and +the Renaissance and Reformation dissolved the fabric of a unified +society. Thereafter it became necessary to bring some order out of +the spiritual, intellectual and physical chaos through the +application of arbitrary force, and so came absolutism in +government, the tyranny of the new intellectualism, the Catholic +Inquisition and the Puritan Theocracy. + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, however, the balance is +justly preserved, though it was but an unstable equilibrium, and +therefore during the time of Abelard we find the widest diversity +of speculation and freedom of thought which continue unhampered for +more than a hundred years. The mystical school of the Abbey of St. +Victor in Paris follows one line (perhaps the most nearly right of +all though it was submerged by the intellectual force and vivacity +of the Scholastics) with Hugh of St. Victor as its greatest +exponent. The Franciscans and Dominicans each possessed great +schools of philosophy and dogmatic theology, and in addition there +were a dozen individual line of speculation, each vitalized by some +one personality, daring, original, enthusiastic. This prodigious +mental and spiritual activity was largely fostered by the schools, +colleges and universities that had suddenly appeared all over +Europe. Never was such activity along educational lines. Almost +every cathedral had its school, and many of the abbeys as well, as +for example, in France alone, Cluny, Citeaux and Bec, St. Martin of +Tours, Laon, Chartres, Rheims and Paris. To these schools students +poured in from all over the world in numbers mounting to many +thousands for such as Paris for example, and the mutual rivalries +were intense and sometimes disorderly. Groups of students would +choose their own masters and follow them from place to place, even +subjecting them to discipline if in their opinion they did not live +up to the intellectual mark they had set as their standard. As +there was not only one religion and one social system, but one +universal language as well, this gathering from all the four +quarters of Europe was perfectly possible, and had much to do with +the maintenance of that unity which marked society for three centuries. + +At the time of Abelard the schools of Chartres and Paris were at +the height of their fame and power. Fulbert, Bernard and Thierry, +all of Chartres, had fixed its fame for a long period, and at Paris +Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and William of Champeaux were names +to conjure with, while Anselm of Laon, Adelard of Bath, Alan of +Lille, John of Salisbury, Peter Lombard, were all from time to time +students or teachers in one of the schools of the Cathedral, the +Abbey of St. Victor or Ste. Genevieve. + +Earlier in the Middle Ages the identity of theology and philosophy +had been proclaimed, following the Neo-Platonic and Augustinian +theory, and the latter (cf. Peter Damien and Duns Scotus Eriugena) +was even reduced to a position that made it no more than the +obedient handmaid of theology. In the eleventh century however, St. +Anselm had drawn a clear distinction between faith and reason, and +thereafter theology and philosophy were generally accepted as +individual but allied sciences, both serving as lines of approach +to truth but differing in their method. Truth was one and therefore +there could be no conflict between the conclusions reached after +different fashions. In the twelfth century Peter of Blois led a +certain group called "rigourists" who still looked askance at +philosophy, or rather at the intellectual methods by which it +proceeded, and they were inclined to condemn it as "the devil's +art," but they were on the losing side and John of Salisbury, Alan +of Lille, Gilbert de la Porree and Hugh of St. Victor prevailed in +their contention that philosophers were "_humanae videlicet +sapientiae amatores_," while theologians were "_divinae scripturae +doctores." + +Cardinal Mercier, himself the greatest contemporary exponent of +Scholastic philosophy, defines philosophy as "the science of the +totality of things." The twelfth century was a time when men were +striving to see phenomena in this sense and established a great +rational synthesis that should yet be in full conformity with the +dogmatic theology of revealed religion. Abelard was one of the most +enthusiastic and daring of these Mediaeval thinkers, and it is not +surprising that he should have found himself at issue not only with +the duller type of theologians but with his philosophical peers +themselves. He was an intellectual force of the first magnitude and +a master of dialectic; he was also an egotist through and through, +and a man of strong passions. He would and did use his logical +faculty and his mastery of dialectic to justify his own desires, +whether these were for carnal satisfaction or the maintenance of an +original intellectual concept. It was precisely this danger that +aroused the fears of the "rigourists" and in the light of +succeeding events in the domain of intellectualism it is impossible +to deny that there was some justification for their gloomy +apprehensions. In St. Thomas Aquinas this intellectualizing process +marked its highest point and beyond there was no margin of safety. +He himself did not overstep the verge of danger, but after him this +limit was overpassed. The perfect balance between mind and spirit +was achieved by Hugh of St. Victor, but afterwards the severance +began and on the one side was the unwholesome hyper-spiritualization +of the Rhenish mystics, on the other the false intellectualism of +Descartes, Kant and the entire modern school of materialistic +philosophy. It was the clear prevision of this inevitable issue +that made of St. Bernard not only an implacable opponent of Abelard +but of the whole system of Scholasticism as well. For a time he was +victorious. Abelard was silenced and the mysticism of the +Victorines triumphed, only to be superseded fifty years later when +the two great orders, Dominican and Franciscan, produced their +triumphant protagonists of intellectualism, Alelander Halesand +Albertus Magnus, and finally the greatest pure intellect of all +time, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Bernard, St. Francis of Assisi, the +Victorines, maintained that after all, as Henri Bergson was to say, +seven hundred years later, "the mind of man by its very nature is +incapable of apprehending reality," and that therefore faith is +better than reason. Lord Bacon came to the same conclusion when he +wrote "Let men please themselves as they will in admiring and +almost adoring the human kind, this is certain; that, as an uneven +mirrour distorts the rays of objects according to its own figure +and section, so the mind ... cannot be trusted." And Hugh of St. +Victor himself, had written, even in the days of Abelard: "There +was a certain wisdom that seemed such to them that knew not the +true wisdom. The world found it and began to be puffed up, thinking +itself great in this. Confiding in its wisdom it became +presumptuous and boasted it would attain the highest wisdom. And it +made itself a ladder of the face of creation. ... Then those things +which were seen were known and there were other things which were +not known; and through those which were manifest they expected to +reach those that were hidden. And they stumbled and fell into the +falsehoods of their own imagining ... So God made foolish the +wisdom of this world, and He pointed out another wisdom, which +seemed foolishness and was not. For it preached Christ crucified, +in order that truth might be sought in humility. But the world +despised it, wishing to contemplate the works of God, which He had +made a source of wonder, and it did not wish to venerate what He +had set for imitation, neither did it look to its own disease, +seeking medicine in piety; but presuming on a false health, it gave +itself over with vain curiosity to the study of alien things." + +These considerations troubled Abelard not at all. He was conscious +of a mind of singular acuteness and a tongue of parts, both of +which would do whatever he willed. Beneath all the tumultuous talk +of Paris, when he first arrived there, lay the great and unsolved +problem of Universals and this he promptly made his own, rushing in +where others feared to tread. William of Champeaux had rested on a +Platonic basis, Abelard assumed that of Aristotle, and the clash +began. It is not a lucid subject, but the best abstract may be +found in Chapter XIV of Henry Adams' "Mont-Saint-Michel and +Chartres" while this and the two succeeding chapters give the most +luminous and vivacious account of the principles at issue in +this most vital of intellectual feuds. + +"According to the latest authorities, the doctrine of universals +which convulsed the schools of the twelfth century has never +received an adequate answer. What is a species: what is a genus or +a family or an order? More or less convenient terms of classification, +about which the twelfth century cared very little, while it cared +deeply about the essence of classes! Science has become too complex +to affirm the existence of universal truths, but it strives for +nothing else, and disputes the problem, within its own limits, +almost as earnestly as in the twelfth century, when the whole field +of human and superhuman activity was shut between these barriers +of substance, universals, and particulars. Little has changed except +the vocabulary and the method. The schools knew that their society +hung for life on the demonstration that God, the ultimate universal, +was a reality, out of which all other universal truths or realities +sprang. Truth was a real thing, outside of human experience. The +schools of Paris talked and thought of nothing else. John of Salisbury, +who attended Abelard's lectures about 1136, and became Bishop of +Chartres in 1176, seems to have been more surprised than we need be at +the intensity of the emotion. 'One never gets away from this question,' +he said. 'From whatever point a discussion starts, it is always led +back and attached to that. It is the madness of Rufus about Naevia; +"He thinks of nothing else; talks of nothing else, and if Naevia did +not exist, Rufus would be dumb."' + +... "In these scholastic tournaments the two champions started from +opposite points:--one from the ultimate substance, God,--the +universal, the ideal, the type;--the other from the individual, +Socrates, the concrete, the observed fact of experience, the object +of sensual perception. The first champion--William in this instance-- +assumed that the universal was a real thing; and for that reason he +was called a realist. His opponent--Abelard--held that the +universal was only nominally real; and on that account he was +called a nominalist. Truth, virtue, humanity, exist as units and +realities, said William. Truth, replied Abelard, is only the sum of +all possible facts that are true, as humanity is the sum of all +actual human beings. The ideal bed is a form, made by God, said +Plato. The ideal bed is a name, imagined by ourselves, said +Aristotle. 'I start from the universe,' said William. 'I start from +the atom,' said Abelard; and, once having started, they necessarily +came into collision at some point between the two." + +In this "Story of My Misfortunes" Abelard gives his own account of +the triumphant manner in which he confounded his master, William, +but as Henry Adams says, "We should be more credulous than +twelfth-century monks, if we believed, on Abelard's word in 1135, +that in 1110 he had driven out of the schools the most accomplished +dialectician of the age by an objection so familiar that no other +dialectician was ever silenced by it--whatever may have been the +case with theologians-and so obvious that it could not have troubled +a scholar of fifteen. William stated a selected doctrine as old as +Plato; Abelard interposed an objection as old as Aristotle. Probably +Plato and Aristotle had received the question and answer from +philosophers ten thousand years older than themselves. Certainly +the whole of philosophy has always been involved in this dispute." + +So began the battle of the schools with all its more than military +strategy and tactics, and in the end it was a drawn battle, in +spite of its marvels of intellectual heroism and dialectical +sublety. Says Henry Adams again:-- + +"In every age man has been apt to dream uneasily, rolling from side +to side, beating against imaginary bars, unless, tired out, he has +sunk into indifference or scepticism. Religious minds prefer +scepticism. The true saint is a profound sceptic; a total +disbeliever in human reason, who has more than once joined hands on +this ground with some who were at best sinners. Bernard was a total +disbeliever in Scholasticism; so was Voltaire. Bernard brought the +society of his time to share his scepticism, but could give the +society no other intellectual amusement to relieve its restlessness. +His crusade failed; his ascetic enthusiasm faded; God came no nearer. +If there was in all France, between 1140 and 1200, a more typical +Englishman of the future Church of England type than John of +Salisbury, he has left no trace; and John wrote a description of +his time which makes a picturesque contrast with the picture +painted by Abelard, his old master, of the century at its beginning. +John weighed Abelard and the schools against Bernard and the +cloister, and coolly concluded that the way to truth led rather +through Citeaux, which brought him to Chartres as Bishop in 1176, +and to a mild scepticism in faith. 'I prefer to doubt' he said, +'rather than rashly define what is hidden.' The battle with the +schools had then resulted only in creating three kinds of sceptics:-- +the disbelievers in human reason; the passive agnostics; and the +sceptics proper, who would have been atheists had they dared. The +first class was represented by the School of St. Victor; the second +by John of Salisbury himself; the third, by a class of schoolmen +whom he called Cornificii, as though they made a practice of +inventing horns of dilemma on which to fix their opponents; as, for +example, they asked whether a pig which was led to market was led +by the man or the cord. One asks instantly: What cord?--Whether +Grace, for instance, or Free Will? + +"Bishop John used the science he had learned in the school only to +reach the conclusion that, if philosophy were a science at all, its +best practical use was to teach charity--love. Even the early, +superficial debates of the schools, in 1100-50, had so exhausted +the subject that the most intelligent men saw how little was to be +gained by pursuing further those lines of thought. The twelfth +century had already reached the point where the seventeenth century +stood when Descartes renewed the attempt to give a solid, +philosophical basis for deism by his celebrated '_Cogito, ergo sum_.' +Although that ultimate fact seemed new to Europe when Descartes +revived it as the starting-point of his demonstration, it was as +old and familiar as St. Augustine to the twelfth century, and as +little conclusive as any other assumption of the Ego or the Non-Ego. +The schools argued, according to their tastes, from unity to +multiplicity, or from multiplicity to unity; but what they wanted +was to connect the two. They tried realism and found that it led to +pantheism. They tried nominalism and found that it ended in +materialism. They attempted a compromise in conceptualism which +begged the whole question. Then they lay down, exhausted. In the +seventeenth century--the same violent struggle broke out again, and +wrung from Pascal the famous outcry of despair in which the French +language rose, perhaps for the last time, to the grand style of the +twelfth century. To the twelfth century it belongs; to the century +of faith and simplicity; not to the mathematical certainties of +Descartes and Leibnitz and Newton, or to the mathematical +abstractions of Spinoza. Descartes had proclaimed his famous +conceptual proof of God: 'I am conscious of myself, and must exist; +I am conscious of God and He must exist.' Pascal wearily replied +that it was not God he doubted, but logic. He was tortured by the +impossibility of rejecting man's reason by reason; unconsciously +sceptical, he forced himself to disbelieve in himself rather than +admit a doubt of God. Man had tried to prove God, and had failed: +'The metaphysical proofs of God are so remote (_eloignees_) from the +reasoning of men, and so contradictory (_impliquees_, far fetched) +that they made little impression; and even if they served to +convince some people, it would only be during the instant that they +see the demonstration; an hour afterwards they fear to have +deceived themselves.'" + +Abelard was always, as he has been called, a scholastic adventurer, +a philosophical and theological freelance, and it was after the +Calamity that he followed those courses that resulted finally in +his silencing and his obscure death. It is almost impossible for us +of modern times to understand the violence of partisanship aroused +by his actions and published words that centre apparently around +the placing of the hermitage he had made for himself under the +patronage of the third Person of the Trinity, the Paraclete, the +Spirit of love and compassion and consolation, and the consequent +arguments by which he justified himself. To us it seems that he was +only trying to exalt the power of the Holy Spirit, a pious action +at the least but to the episcopal and monastic conservators of the +faith he seems to have been guilty of trying to rationalize an +unsolvable mystery, to find an intellectual solution forbidden to +man. In some obscure way the question seems to be involved in that +other of the function of the Blessed Virgin as the fount of mercy +and compassion, and at this time when the cult of the Mother of God +had reached its highest point of potency and poignancy anything of +the sort seemed intolerable. + +For a time the affairs of Abelard prospered: Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis +was his defender, and he enjoyed the favor of the Pope and the +King. He was made an abbot and his influence spread in every +direction. In 1137 the King died and conditions at Rome changed so +that St. Bernard became almost Pope and King in his own person. +Within a year he proceeded against Abelard; his "Theology" was +condemned at a council of Sens, this judgment was confirmed by the +Pope, and the penalty of silence was imposed on the author-- +probably the most severe punishment he could be called upon to +endure. As a matter of fact it was fatal to him. He started +forthwith for Rome but stopped at the Abbey of Cluny in the company +of its Abbot, Peter the Venerable, "the most amiable figure of the +twelfth century," and no very devoted admirer of St. Bernard, to +whom, as a matter of fact, he had once written, "You perform all +the difficult religious duties; you fast, you watch, you suffer; +but you will not endure the easy ones-you do not love." Here he +found two years of peace after his troubled life, dying in the full +communion of the Church on 21 April, 1142. + +The problems of philosophy and theology that were so vital in the +Middle Ages interest us no more, even when they are less obscure +than those so rife in the twelfth century, but the problem of human +love is always near and so it is not perhaps surprising that the +abiding interest concerns itself with Abelard's relationship with +Heloise. So far as he is concerned it is not a very savoury matter. +He deliberately seduced a pupil, a beautiful girl entrusted to him +by her uncle, a simpleminded old canon of the Cathedral of Paris, +under whose roof he ensconced himself by false pretences and with +the full intention of gaining the niece for himself. Abelard seems +to have exercised an irresistible fascination for men and women +alike, and his plot succeeded to admiration. Stricken by a belated +remorse, he finally married Heloise against her unselfish protests +and partly to legitimatize his unborn child, and shortly after he +was surprised and overpowered by emissaries of Canon Fulbert and +subjected to irreparable mutilation. He tells the story with +perfect frankness and with hardly more than formal expressions of +compunction, and thereafter follows the narrative of their +separation, he to a monastery, she to a convent, and of his care +for her during her conventual life, or at least for that part of it +that had passed before the "History" was written. Through the whole +story it is Heloise who shines brightly as a curiously beautiful +personality, unselfish, self sacrificing, and almost virginal in +her purity in spite of her fault. One has for her only sympathy and +affection whereas it is difficult to feel either for Abelard in +spite of his belated efforts at rectifying his own sin and his +life-long devotion to his solitary wife in her hidden cloister. + +The whole story was instantly known, Abelard's assailants were +punished in kind, .and he himself shortly resumed his work of +lecturing on philosophy and, a little later, on theology. +Apparently his reputation did not suffer in the least, nor did +hers; in fact her piety became almost a by-word and his name as a +great teacher increased by leaps and bounds: neither his offence +nor its punishment seemed to bring lasting discredit. This fact, +which seems strange to us, does not imply a lack of moral sense in +the community but rather the prevalence of standards alien to our +own. It is only since the advent of Puritanism that sexual sins +have been placed at the head of the whole category. During the +Middle Ages, as always under Christianity, the most deadly sins +were pride, covetousness, slander and anger. These implied inherent +moral depravity, but "illicit" love was love outside the law of +man, and did not of necessity and always involve moral guilt. +Christ was Himself very gentle and compassionate with the sins of +the flesh but relentless in the case of the greater sins of the +spirit. Puritanism overturned the balance of things, and by +concentrating its condemnation on sexual derelictions became blind +to the greater sins of pride, avarice and anger. We have inherited +the prejudice without acquiring the abstention, but the Middle Ages +had a clearer sense of comparative values and they could forgive, +or even ignore, the sin of Abelard and Heloise when they could less +easily excuse the sin of spiritual pride or deliberate cruelty. +Moreover, these same Middle Ages believed very earnestly in the +Divine forgiveness of sins for which there had been real repentance +and honest effort at amendment. Abelard and Heloise had been +grievously punished, he himself had made every reparation that was +possible, his penitence was charitably assumed, and therefore it +was not for society to condemn what God would mercifully forgive. + +The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were not an age of moral +laxity; ideals and standards and conduct were immeasurably higher +than they had been for five hundred years, higher than they were to +be in the centuries that followed the crest of Mediaevalism. It was +however a time of enormous vitality, of throbbing energy that was +constantly bursting its bounds, and as well a time of personal +liberty and freedom of action that would seem strange indeed to us +in these days of endless legal restraint and inhibitions mitigated +by revolt. There were few formal laws but there was _Custom_ which +was a sovereign law in itself, and above all there was the moral +law of the Church, establishing its great fundamental principles +but leaving details to the working out of life itself. Behind the +sin of Abelard lay his intolerable spiritual pride, his selfishness +and his egotism, qualities that society at large did not recognize +because of their devotion to his engaging personality and their +admiration for his dazzling intellectual gifts. Their idol had +sinned, he had been savagely punished, he had repented; that was +all there was about it and the question was at an end. + +In reading the Historia Calamitatum there is one consideration that +suggests itself that is subject for serious thought. Written as it +was some years after the great tragedy of his life, it was a +portrait that somehow seems out of focus. We know that during his +early years in Paris Abelard was a bold and daring champion in the +lists of dialectic; brilliant, persuasive, masculine to a degree; +yet this self-portrait is of a man timid, suspicious, frightened of +realities, shadows, possibilities. He is in abject terror of +councils, hidden enemies, even of his life. The tone is querulous, +even peevish at times, and always the egotism and the pride +persist, while he seems driven by the whip of desire for +intellectual adventure into places where he shrinks from defending +himself, or is unable to do so. The antithesis is complete and one +is driven to believe that the terrible mutilation to which he had +been subjected had broken down his personality and left him in all +things less than man. His narrative is full of accusations against +all manner of people, but it is not necessary to take all these +literally, for it is evident that his natural egotism, overlaid by +the circumstances of his calamity, produced an almost pathological +condition wherein suspicions became to him realities and terrors +established facts. + +It is doubtful if Abelard should be ranked very high in the list of +Mediaeval philosophers. He was more a dialectician than a creative +force, and until the development of the episode with Heloise he +seems to have cared primarily for the excitement of debate, with +small regard for the value or the subjects under discussion. As an +intellectualist he had much to do with the subsequent abandonment +of Plato in favour of Aristotle that was a mark of pure +scholasticism, while the brilliancy of his dialectical method +became a model for future generations. Afer the Calamity he turned +from philosophy to theology and ethics and here he reveals +qualities of nobility not evident before. Particularly does he +insist upon the fact that it is the subjective intention that +determines the moral value of human actions even if it does not +change their essential character. + +The story of this philosophical soldier of fortune is a romance +from beginning to end, a poignant human drama shot through with +passion, adventure, pathos and tragedy. In a sense it is an epitome +of the earlier Middle Ages and through it shines the bright light +of an era of fervid living, of exciting adventure, of phenomenal +intellectual force and of large and comprehensive liberty. As a +single episode of passion it is not particularly distinguished +except for the appealing personality of Heloise; as a phase in the +development of Christian philosophy it is of only secondary value. +United in one, the two factors achieve a brilliant dramatic unity +that has made the story of Abelard and Heloise immortal. + + + +HISTORIA CALAMITATUM + + + +FOREWORD + +Often the hearts of men and women are stirred, as likewise they are +soothed in their sorrows, more by example than by words. And +therefore, because I too have known some consolation from speech +had with one who was a witness thereof, am I now minded to write of +the sufferings which have sprung out of my misfortunes, for the +eyes of one who, though absent, is of himself ever a consoler. This +I do so that, in comparing your sorrows with mine, you may discover +that yours are in truth nought, or at the most but of small +account, and so shall you come to bear them more easily. + + + +CHAPTER I + +OF THE BIRTHPLACE OF PIERRE ABELARD AND OF HIS PARENTS + +Know, then, that I am come from a certain town which was built on +the way into lesser Brittany, distant some eight miles, as I think, +eastward from the city of Nantes, and in its own tongue called +Palets. Such is the nature of that country, or, it may be, of them +who dwell there--for in truth they are quick in fancy--that my mind +bent itself easily to the study of letters. Yet more, I had a +father who had won some smattering of letters before he had girded +on the soldier's belt. And so it came about that long afterwards +his love thereof was so strong that he saw to it that each son of +his should be taught in letters even earlier than in the management +of arms. Thus indeed did it come to pass. And because I was his +first born, and for that reason the more dear to him, he sought +with double diligence to have me wisely taught. For my part, the +more I went forward in the study of letters, and ever more easily, +the greater became the ardour of my devotion to them, until in +truth I was so enthralled by my passion for learning that, gladly +leaving to my brothers the pomp of glory in arms, the right of +heritage and all the honours that should have been mine as the +eldest born, I fled utterly from the court of Mars that I might win +learning in the bosom of Minerva. And since I found the armory of +logical reasoning more to my liking than the other forms of +philosophy, I exchanged all other weapons for these, and to the +prizes of victory in war I preferred the battle of minds in +disputation. Thenceforth, journeying through many provinces, and +debating as I went, going whithersoever I heard that the study of +my chosen art most flourished, I became such an one as the +Peripatetics. + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD FROM HIS MASTER WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX--OF +HIS ADVENTURES AT MELUN, AT CORBEIL AND AT PARIS--OF HIS WITHDRAWAL +FROM THE CITY OF THE PARISIANS TO MELUN, AND HIS RETURN TO MONT +STE. GENEVIEVE--OF HIS JOURNEY TO HIS OLD HOME + +I came at length to Paris, where above all in those days the art of +dialectics was most flourishing, and there did I meet William of +Champeaux, my teacher, a man most distinguished in his science both +by his renown and by his true merit. With him I remained for some +time, at first indeed well liked of him; but later I brought him +great grief, because I undertook to refute certain of his opinions, +not infrequently attacking him in disputation, and now and then in +these debates I was adjudged victor. Now this, to those among my +fellow students who were ranked foremost, seemed all the more +insufferable because of my youth and the brief duration of my +studies. + +Out of this sprang the beginning of my misfortunes, which have +followed me even to the present day; the more widely my fame was +spread abroad, the more bitter was the envy that was kindled +against me. It was given out that I, presuming on my gifts far +beyond the warranty of my youth, was aspiring despite my tender, +years to the leadership of a school; nay, more, that I was making +read the very place in which I would undertake this task, the place +being none other than the castle of Melun, at that time a royal +seat. My teacher himself had some foreknowledge of this, and tried +to remove my school as far as possible from his own. Working in +secret, he sought in every way he could before I left his following +to bring to nought the school I had planned and the place I had +chosen for it. Since, however, in that very place he had many +rivals, and some of them men of influence among the great ones of +the land, relying on their aid I won to the fulfillment of my wish; +the support of many was secured for me by reason of his own +unconcealed envy. From this small inception of my school, my fame +in the art of dialectics began to spread abroad, so that little by +little the renown, not alone of those who had been my fellow +students, but of our very teacher himself, grew dim and was like to +die out altogether. Thus it came about that, still more confident +in myself, I moved my school as soon as I well might to the castle +of Corbeil, which is hard by the city of Paris, for there I knew +there would be given more frequent chance for my assaults in our +battle of disputation. + +No long time thereafter I was smitten with a grievous illness, +brought upon me by my immoderate zeal for study. This illness +forced me to turn homeward to my native province, and thus for some +years I was as if cut off from France. And yet, for that very +reason, I was sought out all the more eagerly by those whose hearts +were troubled by the lore of dialectics. But after a few years had +passed, and I was whole again from my sickness, I learned that my +teacher, that same William Archdeacon of Paris, had changed his +former garb and joined an order of the regular clergy. This he had +done, or so men said, in order that he might be deemed more deeply +religious, and so might be elevated to a loftier rank in the +prelacy, a thing which, in truth, very soon came to pass, for he +was made bishop of Chalons. Nevertheless, the garb he had donned by +reason of his conversion did nought to keep him away either from +the city of Paris or from his wonted study of philosophy; and in +the very monastery wherein he had shut himself up for the sake of +religion he straightway set to teaching again after the same +fashion as before. + +To him did I return, for I was eager to learn more of rhetoric from +his lips; and in the course of our many arguments on various +matters, I compelled him by most potent reasoning first to alter +his former opinion on the subject of the universals, and finally to +abandon it altogether. Now, the basis of this old concept of his +regarding the reality of universal ideas was that the same quality +formed the essence alike of the abstract whole and of the +individuals which were its parts: in other words, that there could +be no essential differences among these individuals, all being +alike save for such variety as might grow out of the many accidents +of existence. Thereafter, however, he corrected this opinion, no +longer maintaining that the same quality was the essence of all +things, but that, rather, it manifested itself in them through +diverse ways. This problem of universals is ever the most vexed one +among logicians, to such a degree, indeed, that even Porphyry, +writing in his "Isagoge" regarding universals, dared not attempt a +final pronouncement thereon, saying rather: "This is the deepest of +all problems of its kind." Wherefore it followed that when William +had first revised and then finally abandoned altogether his views +on this one subject, his lecturing sank into such a state of +negligent reasoning that it could scarce be called lecturing on the +science of dialectics at all; it was as if all his science had been +bound up in this one question of the nature of universals. + +Thus it came about that my teaching won such strength and authority +that even those who before had clung most vehemently to my former +master, and most bitterly attacked my doctrines, now flocked to my +school. The very man who had succeeded to my master's chair in the +Paris school offered me his post, in order that he might put +himself under my tutelage along with all the rest, and this in the +very place where of old his master and mine had reigned. And when, +in so short a time, my master saw me directing the study of +dialectics there, it is not easy to find words to tell with what +envy he was consumed or with what pain he was tormented. He could +not long, in truth, bear the anguish of what he felt to be his +wrongs, and shrewdly he attacked me that he might drive me forth. +And because there was nought in my conduct whereby he could come at +me openly, he tried to steal away the school by launching the +vilest calumnies against him who had yielded his post to me, and by +putting in his place a certain rival of mine. So then I returned to +Melun, and set up my school there as before; and the more openly +his envy pursued me, the greater was the authority it conferred +upon me. Even so held the poet: "Jealousy aims at the peaks; the +winds storm the loftiest summits." (Ovid: "Remedy for Love," I, 369.) + +Not long thereafter, when William became aware of the fact that +almost all his students were holding grave doubts as to his +religion, and were whispering earnestly among themselves about his +conversion, deeming that he had by no means abandoned this world, +he withdrew himself and his brotherhood, together with his +students, to a certain estate far distant from the city. Forthwith +I returned from Melun to Paris, hoping for peace from him in the +future. But since, as I have said, he had caused my place to be +occupied by a rival of mine, I pitched the camp, as it were, of my +school outside the city on Mont Ste. Genevieve. Thus I was as one +laying siege to him who had taken possession of my post. No sooner +had my master heard of this than he brazenly returned post haste to +the city, bringing back with him such students as he could, and +reinstating his brotherhood in their for mer monastery, much as if +he would free his soldiery, whom he had deserted, from my blockade. +In truth, though, if it was his purpose to bring them succour, he +did nought but hurt them. Before that time my rival had indeed had +a certain number of students, of one sort and another, chiefly by +reason of his lectures on Priscian, in which he was considered of +great authority. After our master had returned, however, he lost +nearly all of these followers, and thus was compelled to give up +the direction of the school. Not long thereafter, apparently +despairing further of worldly fame, he was converted to the +monastic life. + +Following the return of our master to the city, the combats in +disputation which my scholars waged both with him himself and with +his pupils, and the successes which fortune gave to us, and above +all to me, in these wars, you have long since learned of through +your own experience. The boast of Ajax, though I speak it more +temperately, I still am bold enough to make: + + "... if fain you would learn now + How victory crowned the battle, by him was + I never vanquished." + (Ovid, "Metamorphoses," XIII, 89.) + +But even were I to be silent, the fact proclaims itself, and its +outcome reveals the truth regarding it. + +While these things were happening, it became needful for me again +to repair to my old home, by reason of my dear mother, Lucia, for +after the conversion of my father, Berengarius, to the monastic +life, she so ordered her affairs as to do likewise. When all this +had been completed, I returned to France, above all in order that I +might study theology, since now my oft-mentioned teacher, William, +was active in the episcopate of Chalons. In this held of learning +Anselm of Laon, who was his teacher therein, had for long years +enjoyed the greatest renown. + + + +CHAPTER III + +OF HOW HE CAME TO LAON TO SEEK ANSELM AS TEACHER + +Sought out, therefore, this same venerable man, whose fame, in +truth, was more the result of long-established custom than of the +potency of his own talent or intellect. If any one came to him +impelled by doubt on any subject, he went away more doubtful still. +He was wonderful, indeed, in the eyes of these who only listened to +him, but those who asked him questions perforce held him as nought. +He had a miraculous flock of words, but they were contemptible in +meaning and quite void of reason. When he kindled a fire, he filled +his house with smoke and illumined it not at all. He was a tree +which seemed noble to those who gazed upon its leaves from afar, +but to those who came nearer and examined it more closely was +revealed its barrenness. When, therefore, I had come to this tree +that I might pluck the fruit thereof, I discovered that it was +indeed the fig tree which Our Lord cursed (Matthew xxi, 19; Mark +xi, 13), or that ancient oak to which Lucan likened Pompey, saying: + + "... he stands, the shade of a name once mighty, + Like to the towering oak in the midst of the fruitful field." + (Lucan, "Pharsalia," IV, 135.) + +It was not long before I made this discovery, and stretched myself +lazily in the shade of that same tree. I went to his lectures less +and less often, a thing which some among his eminent followers took +sorely to heart, because they interpreted it as a mark of contempt +for so illustrious a teacher. Thenceforth they secretly sought to +influence him against me, and by their vile insinuations made me +hated of him. It chanced, moreover, that one day, after the +exposition of certain texts, we scholars were jesting among +ourselves, and one of them, seeking to draw me out, asked me what I +thought of the lectures on the Books of Scripture. I, who had as +yet studied only the sciences, replied that following such lectures +seemed to me most useful in so far as the salvation of the soul was +concerned, but that it appeared quite extraordinary to me that +educated persons should not be able to understand the sacred books +simply by studying them themselves, together with the glosses +thereon, and without the aid of any teacher. Most of those who were +present mocked at me, and asked whether I myself could do as I had +said, or whether I would dare to undertake it. I answered that if +they wished, I was ready to try it. Forthwith they cried out and +jeered all the more. "Well and good," said they; "we agree to the +test. Pick out and give us an exposition of some doubtful passage +in the Scriptures, so that we can put this boast of yours to the +proof." And they all chose that most obscure prophecy of Ezekiel. + +I accepted the challenge, and invited them to attend a lecture on +the very next day. Whereupon they undertook to give me good advice, +saying that I should by no means make undue haste in so important a +matter, but that I ought to devote a much loner space to working +out my exposition and offsetting my inexperience by diligent toil. +To this I replied indignantly that it was my wont to win success, +not by routine, but by ability. I added that I would abandon the +test altogether unless they would agree not to put off their +attendance at my lecture. In truth at this first lecture of mine +only a few were present, for it seemed quite absurd to all of them +that I, hitherto so inexperienced in discussing the Scriptures, +should attempt the thing so hastily. However, this lecture gave +such satisfaction to all those who heard it that they spread its +praises abroad with notable enthusiasm, and thus compelled me to +continue my interpretation of the sacred text. When word of this +was bruited about, those who had stayed away from the first lecture +came eagerly, some to the second and more to the third, and all of +them were eager to write down the glosses which I had begun on the +first day, so as to have them from the very beginning. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD FROM HIS TEACHER ANSELM + +Now this venerable man of whom I have spoken was acutely smitten +with envy, and straightway incited, as I have already mentioned, by +the insinuations of sundry persons, began to persecute me for my +lecturing on the Scriptures no less bitterly than my former master, +William, had done for my work in philosophy. At that time there +were in this old man's school two who were considered far to excel +all the others: Alberic of Rheims and Lotulphe the Lombard. The +better opinion these two held of themselves, the more they were +incensed against me. Chiefly at their suggestion, as it afterwards +transpired, yonder venerable coward had the impudence to forbid me +to carry on any further in his school the work of preparing glosses +which I had thus begun. The pretext he alleged was that if by +chance in the course of this work I should write anything +containing blunders--as was likely enough in view of my lack of +training--the thing might be imputed to him. When this came to the +ears of his scholars, they were filled with indignation at so +undisguised a manifestation of spite, the like of which had never +been directed against any one before. The more obvious this rancour +became, the more it redounded to my honour, and his persecution did +nought save to make me more famous. + + + +CHAPTER V + +OF HOW HE RETURNED TO PARIS AND FINISHED THE GLOSSES WHICH HE HAD +BEGUN AT LAON + +And so, after a few days, I returned to Paris, and there for +several years I peacefully directed the school which formerly had +been destined for me, nay, even offered to me, but from which I had +been driven out. At the very outset of my work there, I set about +completing the glosses on Ezekiel which I had begun at Laon. These +proved so satisfactory to all who read them that they came to +believe me no less adept in lecturing on theology than I had proved +myself to be in the held of philosophy. Thus my school was notably +increased in size by reason of my lectures on subjects of both +these kinds, and the amount of financial profit as well as glory +which it brought me cannot be concealed from you, for the matter +was widely talked of. But prosperity always puffs up the foolish, +and worldly comfort enervates the soul, rendering it an easy prey +to carnal temptations. Thus I, who by this time had come to regard +myself as the only philosopher remaining in the whole world, and +had ceased to fear any further disturbance of my peace, began to +loosen the rein on my desires, although hitherto I had always lived +in the utmost continence. And the greater progress I made in my +lecturing on philosophy or theology, the more I departed alike from +the practice of the philosophers and the spirit of the divines in +the uncleanness of my life. For it is well known, methinks, that +philosophers, and still more those who have devoted their lives to +arousing the love of sacred study, have been strong above all else +in the beauty of chastity. + +Thus did it come to pass that while I was utterly absorbed in pride +and sensuality, divine grace, the cure for both diseases, was +forced upon me, even though I, forsooth, would fain have shunned +it. First was I punished for my sensuality, and then for my pride. +For my sensuality I lost those things whereby I practiced it; for +my pride, engendered in me by my knowledge of letters--and it is +even as the Apostle said: "Knowledge puffeth itself up" (I Cor. +viii, 1)--I knew the humiliation of seeing burned the very book in +which I most gloried. And now it is my desire that you should know +the stories of these two happenings, understanding them more truly +from learning the very facts than from hearing what is spoken of +them, and in the order in which they came about. Because I had ever +held in abhorrence the foulness of prostitutes, because I had +diligently kept myself from all excesses and from association with +the women of noble birth who attended the school, because I knew so +little of the common talk of ordinary people, perverse and subtly +flattering chance gave birth to an occasion for casting me lightly +down from the heights of my own exaltation. Nay, in such case not +even divine goodness could redeem one who, having been so proud, +was brought to such shame, were it not for the blessed gift of +grace. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OF HOW, BROUGHT LOW BY HIS LOVE FOR HELOISE, HE WAS WOUNDED IN BODY +AND SOUL + +Now there dwelt in that same city of Paris a certain young girl +named Heloise, the niece of a canon who was called Fulbert. Her +uncle's love for her was equalled only by his desire that she +should have the best education which he could possibly procure for +her. Of no mean beauty, she stood out above all by reason of her +abundant knowledge of letters. Now this virtue is rare among women, +and for that very reason it doubly graced the maiden, and made her +the most worthy of renown in the entire kingdom. It was this young +girl whom I, after carefully considering all those qualities which +are wont to attract lovers, determined to unite with myself in the +bonds of love, and indeed the thing seemed to me very easy to be +done. So distinguished was my name, and I possessed such advantages +of youth and comeliness, that no matter what woman I might favour +with my love, I dreaded rejection of none. Then, too, I believed +that I could win the maiden's consent all the more easily by reason +of her knowledge of letters and her zeal therefor; so, even if we +were parted, we might yet be together in thought with the aid of +written messages. Perchance, too, we might be able to write more +boldly than we could speak, and thus at all times could we live in +joyous intimacy. + +Thus, utterly aflame with my passion for this maiden, I sought to +discover means whereby I might have daily and familiar speech with +her, thereby the more easily to win her consent. For this purpose I +persuaded the girl's uncle, with the aid of some of his friends, to +take me into his household--for he dwelt hard by my school--in +return for the payment of a small sum. My pretext for this was that +the care of my own household was a serious handicap to my studies, +and likewise burdened me with an expense far greater than I could +afford. Now, he was a man keen in avarice, and likewise he was most +desirous for his niece that her study of letters should ever go +forward, so, for these two reasons, I easily won his consent to the +fulfillment of my wish, for he was fairly agape for my money, and +at the same time believed that his niece would vastly benefit by my +teaching. More even than this, by his own earnest entreaties he +fell in with my desires beyond anything I had dared to hope, +opening the way for my love; for he entrusted her wholly to my +guidance, begging me to give her instruction whensoever I might be +free from the duties of my school, no matter whether by day or by +night, and to punish her sternly if ever I should find her +negligent of her tasks. In all this the man's simplicity was +nothing short of astounding to me; I should not have been more +smitten with wonder if he had entrusted a tender lamb to the care +of a ravenous wolf. When he had thus given her into my charge, not +alone to be taught but even to be disciplined, what had he done +save to give free scope to my desires, and to offer me every +opportunity, even if I had not sought it, to bend her to my will +with threats and blows if I failed to do so with caresses? There +were, however, two things which particularly served to allay any +foul suspicion: his own love for his niece, and my former +reputation for continence. + +Why should I say more: We were united first in the dwelling that +sheltered our love, and then in the hearts that burned with it. +Under the pretext of study we spent our hours in the happiness of +love, and learning held out to us the secret opportunities that our +passion craved. Our speech was more of love than of the book which +lay open before us; our kisses far outnumbered our reasoned words. +Our hands sought less the book than each other's bosoms; love drew +our eyes together far more than the lesson drew them to the pages +of our text. In order that there might be no suspicion, there were, +indeed, sometimes blows, but love gave them, not anger; they were +the marks, not of wrath, but of a tenderness surpassing the most +fragrant balm in sweetness. What followed? No degree in love's +progress was left untried by our passion, and if love itself could +imagine any wonder as yet unknown, we discovered it. And our +inexperience of such delights made us all the more ardent in our +pursuit of them, so that our thirst for one another was still +unquenched. + +In measure as this passionate rapture absorbed me more and more, I +devoted ever less time to philosophy and to the work of the school. +Indeed it became loathsome to me to go to the school or to linger +there; the labour, moreover, was very burdensome, since my nights +were vigils of love and my days of study. My lecturing became +utterly careless and lukewarm; I did nothing because of +inspiration, but everything merely as a matter of habit. I had +become nothing more than a reciter of my former discoveries, and +though I still wrote poems, they dealt with love, not with the +secrets of philosophy. Of these songs you yourself well know how +some have become widely known and have been sung in many lands, +chiefly, methinks, by those who delighted in the things of this +world. As for the sorrow, the groans, the lamentations of my +students when they perceived the preoccupation, nay, rather the +chaos, of my mind, it is hard even to imagine them. + +A thing so manifest could deceive only a few, no one, methinks, +save him whose shame it chiefly bespoke, the girl's uncle, Fulbert. +The truth was often enough hinted to him, and by many persons, but +he could not believe it, partly, as I have said, by reason of his +boundless love for his niece, and partly because of the well-known +continence of my previous life. Indeed we do not easily suspect +shame in those whom we most cherish, nor can there be the blot of +foul suspicion on devoted love. Of this St. Jerome in his epistle +to Sabinianus (Epist. 48) says: "We are wont to be the last to know +the evils of our own households, and to be ignorant of the sins of +our children and our wives, though our neighbours sing them aloud." +But no matter how slow a matter may be in disclosing itself, it is +sure to come forth at last, nor is it easy to hide from one what is +known to all. So, after the lapse of several months, did it happen +with us. Oh, how great was the uncle's grief when he learned the +truth, and how bitter was the sorrow of the lovers when we were +forced to part! With what shame was I overwhelmed, with what +contrition smitten because of the blow which had fallen on her I +loved, and what a tempest of misery burst over her by reason of my +disgrace! Each grieved most, not for himself, but for the other. +Each sought to allay, not his own sufferings, but those of the one +he loved. The very sundering of our bodies served but to link our +souls closer together; the plentitude of the love which was denied +to us inflamed us more than ever. Once the first wildness of shame +had passed, it left us more shameless than before, and as shame +died within us the cause of it seemed to us ever more desirable. +And so it chanced with us as, in the stories that the poets tell, +it once happened with Mars and Venus when they were caught together. + +It was not long after this that Heloise found that she was +pregnant, and of this she wrote to me in the utmost exultation, +at the same time asking me to consider what had best be done. +Accordingly, on a night when her uncle was absent, we carried out +the plan we had determined on, and I stole her secretly away from +her uncle's house, sending her without delay to my own country. She +remained there with my sister until she gave birth to a son, whom +she named Astrolabe. Meanwhile her uncle, after his return, was +almost mad with grief; only one who had then seen him could rightly +guess the burning agony of his sorrow and the bitterness of his +shame. What steps to take against me, or what snares to set for me, +he did not know. If he should kill me or do me some bodily hurt, he +feared greatly lest his dear-loved niece should be made to suffer +for it among my kinsfolk. He had no power to seize me and imprison +me somewhere against my will, though I make no doubt he would have +done so quickly enough had he been able or dared, for I had taken +measures to guard against any such attempt. + +At length, however, in pity for his boundless grief, and bitterly +blaming myself for the suffering which my love had brought upon him +through the baseness of the deception I had practiced, I went to +him to entreat his forgiveness, promising to make any amends that +he himself might decree. I pointed out that what had happened could +not seem incredible to any one who had ever felt the power of love, +or who remembered how, from the very beginning of the human race, +women had cast down even the noblest men to utter ruin. And in +order to make amends even beyond his extremest hope, I offered to +marry her whom I had seduced, provided only the thing could be kept +secret, so that I might suffer no loss of reputation thereby. To +this he gladly assented, pledging his own faith and that of his +kindred, and sealing with kisses the pact which I had sought of +him--and all this that he might the more easily betray me. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF THE ARGUMENTS OF HELOISE AGAINST WEDLOCK--OF HOW NONE THE LESS +HE MADE HER HIS WIFE + +Forthwith I repaired to my own country, and brought back thence my +mistress, that I might make her my wife. She, however, most +violently disapproved of this, and for two chief reasons: the +danger thereof, and the disgrace which it would bring upon me. She +swore that her uncle would never be appeased by such satisfaction +as this, as, indeed, afterwards proved only too true. She asked how +she could ever glory in me if she should make me thus inglorious, +and should shame herself along with me. What penalties, she said, +would the world rightly demand of her if she should rob it of so +shining a light! What curses would follow such a loss to the +Church, what tears among the philosophers would result from such a +marriage! How unfitting, how lamentable it would be for me, whom +nature had made for the whole world, to devote myself to one woman +solely, and to subject myself to such humiliation! She vehemently +rejected this marriage, which she felt would be in every way +ignominious and burdensome to me. + +Besides dwelling thus on the disgrace to me, she reminded me of the +hardships of married life, to the avoidance of which the Apostle +exhorts us, saying: "Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. +But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, +she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the +flesh: but I spare you" (I Cor. vii, 27). And again: "But I would +have you to be free from cares" (I Cor. vii, 32). But if I would +heed neither the counsel of the Apostle nor the exhortations of the +saints regarding this heavy yoke of matrimony, she bade me at least +consider the advice of the philosophers, and weigh carefully what +had been written on this subject either by them or concerning their +lives. Even the saints themselves have often and earnestly spoken +on this subject for the purpose of warning us. Thus St. Jerome, +in his first book against Jovinianus, makes Theophrastus set forth +in great detail the intolerable annoyances and the endless +disturbances of married life, demonstrating with the most +convincing arguments that no wise man should ever have a wife, and +concluding his reasons for this philosophic exhortation with these +words: "Who among Christians would not be overwhelmed by such +arguments as these advanced by Theophrastus?" + +Again, in the same work, St. Jerome tells how Cicero, asked by +Hircius after his divorce of Terentia whether he would marry the +sister of Hircius, replied that he would do no such thing, saying +that he could not devote himself to a wife and to philosophy at the +same time. Cicero does not, indeed, precisely speak of "devoting +himself," but he does add that he did not wish to undertake +anything which might rival his study of philosophy in its demands +upon him. + +Then, turning from the consideration of such hindrances to the +study of philosophy, Heloise bade me observe what were the +conditions of honourable wedlock. What possible concord could there +be between scholars and domestics, between authors and cradles, +between books or tablets and distaffs, between the stylus or the +pen and the spindle? What man, intent on his religious or +philosophical meditations, can possibly endure the whining of +children, the lullabies of the nurse seeking to quiet them, or the +noisy confusion of family life? Who can endure the continual +untidiness of children? The rich, you may reply, can do this, +because they have palaces or houses containing many rooms, and +because their wealth takes no thought of expense and protects them +from daily worries. But to this the answer is that the condition of +philosophers is by no means that of the wealthy, nor can those +whose minds are occupied with riches and worldly cares find time +for religious or philosophical study. For this reason the renowned +philosophers of old utterly despised the world, fleeing from its +perils rather than reluctantly giving them up, and denied +themselves all its delights in order that they might repose in the +embraces of philosophy alone. One of them, and the greatest of all, +Seneca, in his advice to Lucilius, says: "Philosophy is not a thing +to be studied only in hours of leisure; we must give up everything +else to devote ourselves to it, for no amount of time is really +sufficient thereto" (Epist. 73). + +It matters little, she pointed out, whether one abandons the study +of philosophy completely or merely interrupts it, for it can never +remain at the point where it was thus interrupted. All other +occupations must be resisted; it is vain to seek to adjust life to +include them, and they must simply be eliminated. This view is +maintained, for example, in the love of God by those among us who +are truly called monastics, and in the love of wisdom by all those +who have stood out among men as sincere philosophers. For in every +race, gentiles or Jews or Christians, there have always been a few +who excelled their fellows in faith or in the purity of their +lives, and who were set apart from the multitude by their +continence or by their abstinence from worldly pleasures. + +Among the Jews of old there were the Nazarites, who consecrated +themselves to the Lord, some of them the sons of the prophet Elias +and others the followers of Eliseus, the monks of whom, on the +authority of St. Jerome (Epist. 4 and 13), we read in the Old +Testament. More recently there were the three philosophical sects +which Josephus defines in his Book of Antiquities (xviii, 2), +calling them the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. In our +times, furthermore, there are the monks who imitate either the +communal life of the Apostles or the earlier and solitary life of +John. Among the gentiles there are, as has been said, the +philosophers. Did they not apply the name of wisdom or philosophy +as much to the religion of life as to the pursuit of learning, as +we find from the origin of the word itself, and likewise from the +testimony of the saints? + +There is a passage on this subject in the eighth book of St. +Augustine's "City of God," wherein he distinguishes between the +various schools of philosophy. "The Italian school," he says, "had +as its founder Pythagoras of Samos, who, it is said, originated the +very word 'philosophy.' Before his time those who were regarded as +conspicuous for the praiseworthiness of their lives were called +wise men, but he, on being asked of his profession, replied that he +was a philosopher, that is to say a student or a lover of wisdom, +because it seemed to him unduly boastful to call himself a wise +man." In this passage, therefore, when the phrase "conspicuous for +the praiseworthiness of their lives" is used, it is evident that +the wise, in other words the philosophers, were so called less +because of their erudition than by reason of their virtuous lives. +In what sobriety and continence these men lived it is not for me to +prove by illustration, lest I should seem to instruct Minerva +herself. + +Now, she added, if laymen and gentiles, bound by no profession of +religion, lived after this fashion, what ought you, a cleric and a +canon, to do in order not to prefer base voluptuousness to your +sacred duties, to prevent this Charybdis from sucking you down +headlong, and to save yourself from being plunged shamelessly and +irrevocably into such filth as this? If you care nothing for your +privileges as a cleric, at least uphold your dignity as a +philosopher. If you scorn the reverence due to God, let regard for +your reputation temper your shamelessness. Remember that Socrates +was chained to a wife, and by what a filthy accident he himself +paid for this blot on philosophy, in order that others thereafter +might be made more cautious by his example. Jerome thus mentions +this affair, writing about Socrates in his first book against +Jovinianus: "Once when he was withstanding a storm of reproaches +which Xantippe was hurling at him from an upper story, he was +suddenly drenched with foul slops; wiping his head, he said only, +'I knew there would be a shower after all that thunder.'" + +Her final argument was that it would be dangerous for me to take +her back to Paris, and that it would be far sweeter for her to be +called my mistress than to be known as my wife; nay, too, that +this would be more honourable for me as well. In such case, she +said, love alone would hold me to her, and the strength of the +marriage chain would not constrain us. Even if we should by chance +be parted from time to time, the joy of our meetings would be all +the sweeter by reason of its rarity. But when she found that she +could not convince me or dissuade me from my folly by these and +like arguments, and because she could not bear to offend me, with +grievous sighs and tears she made an end of her resistance, saying: +"Then there is no more left but this, that in our doom the sorrow +yet to come shall be no less than the love we two have already +known." Nor in this, as now the whole world knows, did she lack the +spirit of prophecy. + +So, after our little son was born, we left him in my sister's care, +and secretly returned to Paris. A few days later, in the early +morning, having kept our nocturnal vigil of prayer unknown to all +in a certain church, we were united there in the benediction of +wedlock, her uncle and a few friends of his and mine being present. +We departed forthwith stealthily and by separate ways, nor +thereafter did we see each other save rarely and in private, thus +striving our utmost to conceal what we had done. But her uncle and +those of his household, seeking solace for their disgrace, began to +divulge the story of our marriage, and thereby to violate the +pledge they had given me on this point. Heloise, on the contrary, +denounced her own kin and swore that they were speaking the most +absolute lies. Her uncle, aroused to fury thereby, visited her +repeatedly with punishments. No sooner had I learned this than I +sent her to a convent of nuns at Argenteuil, not far from Paris, +where she herself had been brought up and educated as a young girl. +I had them make ready for her all the garments of a nun, suitable +for the life of a convent, excepting only the veil, and these I +bade her put on. + +When her uncle and his kinsmen heard of this, they were convinced +that now I had completely played them false and had rid myself +forever of Heloise by forcing her to become a nun. Violently +incensed, they laid a plot against me, and one night, while I, all +unsuspecting, was asleep in a secret room in my lodgings, they +broke in with the help of one of my servants, whom they had bribed. +There they had vengeance on me with a most cruel and most shameful +punishment, such as astounded the whole world, for they cut off +those parts of my body with which I had done that which was the +cause of their sorrow. This done, straightway they fled, but two of +them were captured, and suffered the loss of their eyes and their +genital organs. One of these two was the aforesaid servant, who, +even while he was still in my service, had been led by his avarice +to betray me. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OF THE SUFFERING OF HIS BODY--OF HOW HE BECAME A MONK IN THE +MONASTERY OF ST. DENIS AND HELOISE A NUN AT ARGENTEUIL + +When morning came the whole city was assembled before my dwelling. +It is difficult, nay, impossible, for words of mine to describe the +amazement which bewildered them, the lamentations they uttered, the +uproar with which they harassed me, or the grief with which they +increased my own suffering. Chiefly the clerics, and above all my +scholars, tortured me with their intolerable lamentations and +outcries, so that I suffered more intensely from their compassion +than from the pain of my wound. In truth I felt the disgrace more +than the hurt to my body, and was more afflicted with shame than +with pain. My incessant thought was of the renown in which I had so +much delighted, now brought low, nay, utterly blotted out, so +swiftly by an evil chance. I saw, too, how justly God had punished +me in that very part of my body whereby I had sinned. I perceived +that there was indeed justice in my betrayal by him whom I had +myself already betrayed; and then I thought how eagerly my rivals +would seize upon this manifestation of justice, how this disgrace +would bring bitter and enduring grief to my kindred and my friends, +and how the tale of this amazing outrage would spread to the very +ends of the earth. + +What path lay open to me thereafter? How could I ever again hold up +my head among men, when every finger should be pointed at me in +scorn, every tongue speak my blistering shame, and when I should be +a monstrous spectacle to all eyes? I was overwhelmed by the +remembrance that, according to the dread letter of the law, God +holds eunuchs in such abomination that men thus maimed are +forbidden to enter a church, even as the unclean and filthy; nay, +even beasts in such plight were not acceptable as sacrifices. Thus +in Leviticus (xxii, 24) is it said: "Ye shall not offer unto the +Lord that which hath its stones bruised, or crushed, or broken, or +cut." And in Deuteronomy (xxiii, 1), "He that is wounded in the +stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the +congregation of the Lord." + +I must confess that in my misery it was the overwhelming sense of +my disgrace rather than any ardour for conversion to the religious +life that drove me to seek the seclusion of the monastic cloister. +Heloise had already, at my bidding, taken the veil and entered a +convent. Thus it was that we both put on the sacred garb, I in the +abbey of St. Denis, and she in the convent of Argenteuil, of which +I have already spoken. She, I remember well, when her fond friends +sought vainly to deter her from submitting her fresh youth to the +heavy and almost intolerable yoke of monastic life, sobbing and +weeping replied in the words of Cornelia: + + "... O husband most noble, + Who ne'er shouldst have shared my couch! Has fortune such power +To smite so lofty a head? Why then was I wedded +Only to bring thee to woe? Receive now my sorrow, +The price I so gladly pay." + (Lucan, "Pharsalia," viii, 94.) + +With these words on her lips did she go forthwith to the altar, and +lifted therefrom the veil, which had been blessed by the bishop, +and before them all she took the vows of the religious life. For my +part, scarcely had I recovered from my wound when clerics sought me +in great numbers, endlessly beseeching both my abbot and me myself +that now, since I was done with learning for the sake of gain or +renown, I should turn to it for the sole love of God. They bade me +care diligently for the talent which God had committed to my +keeping (Matthew, xxv, 15), since surely He would demand it back +from me with interest. It was their plea that, inasmuch as of old I +had laboured chiefly in behalf of the rich, I should now devote +myself to the teaching of the poor. Therein above all should I +perceive how it was the hand of God that had touched me, when I +should devote my life to the study of letters in freedom from the +snares of the flesh and withdrawn from the tumultuous life of this +world. Thus, in truth, should I become a philosopher less of this +world than of God. + +The abbey, however, to which I had betaken myself was utterly +worldly and in its life quite scandalous. The abbot himself was as +far below his fellows in his way of living and in the foulness of +his reputation as he was above them in priestly rank. This +intolerable state of things I often and vehemently denounced, +sometimes in private talk and sometimes publicly, but the only +result was that I made myself detested of them all. They gladly +laid hold of the daily eagerness of my students to hear me as an +excuse whereby they might be rid of me; and finally, at the +insistent urging of the students themselves, and with the hearty +consent of the abbot and the rest of the brotherhood, I departed +thence to a certain hut, there to teach in my wonted way. To this +place such a throng of students flocked that the neighbourhood +could not afford shelter for them, nor the earth sufficient +sustenance. + +Here, as befitted my profession, I devoted myself chiefly to +lectures on theology, but I did not wholly abandon the teaching of +the secular arts, to which I was more accustomed, and which was +particularly demanded of me. I used the latter, however, as a hook, +luring my students by the bait of learning to the study of the true +philosophy, even as the Ecclesiastical History tells of Origen, the +greatest of all Christian philosophers. Since apparently the Lord +had gifted me with no less persuasiveness in expounding the +Scriptures than in lecturing on secular subjects, the number of my +students in these two courses began to increase greatly, and the +attendance at all the other schools was correspondingly diminished. +Thus I aroused the envy and hatred of the other teachers. Those who +sought to belittle me in every possible way took advantage of my +absence to bring two principal charges against me: first, that it +was contrary to the monastic profession to be concerned with the +study of secular books; and, second, that I had presumed to teach +theology without ever having been taught therein myself. This they +did in order that my teaching of every kind might be prohibited, +and to this end they continually stirred up bishops, archbishops, +abbots and whatever other dignitaries of the Church they could +reach. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF HIS BOOK ON THEOLOGY AND HIS PERSECUTION AT THE HANDS OF HIS +FELLOW STUDENTS--OF THE COUNCIL AGAINST HIM + +It so happened that at the outset I devoted myself to analyzing the +basis of our faith through illustrations based on human +understanding, and I wrote for my students a certain tract on the +unity and trinity of God. This I did because they were always +seeking for rational and philosophical explanations, asking rather +for reasons they could understand than for mere words, saying that +it was futile to utter words which the intellect could not possibly +follow, that nothing could be believed unless it could first be +understood, and that it was absurd for any one to preach to others +a thing which neither he himself nor those whom he sought to teach +could comprehend. Our Lord Himself maintained this same thing when +He said: "They are blind leaders of the blind" (Matthew, xv, 14). + +Now, a great many people saw and read this tract, and it became +exceedingly popular, its clearness appealing particularly to all +who sought information on this subject. And since the questions +involved are generally considered the most difficult of all, their +complexity is taken as the measure of the subtlety of him who +succeeds in answering them. As a result, my rivals became furiously +angry, and summoned a council to take action against me, the chief +instigators therein being my two intriguing enemies of former days, +Alberic and Lotulphe. These two, now that both William and Anselm, +our erstwhile teachers, were dead, were greedy to reign in their +stead, and, so to speak, to succeed them as heirs. While they were +directing the school at Rheims, they managed by repeated hints to +stir up their archbishop, Rodolphe, against me, for the purpose of +holding a meeting, or rather an ecclesiastical council, at +Soissons, provided they could secure the approval of Conon, Bishop +of Praeneste, at that time papal legate in France. Their plan was +to summon me to be present at this council, bringing with me the +famous book I had written regarding the Trinity. In all this, +indeed, they were successful, and the thing happened according to +their wishes. + +Before I reached Soissons, however, these two rivals of mine so +foully slandered me with both the clergy and the public that on the +day of my arrival the people came near to stoning me and the few +students of mine who had accompanied me thither. The cause of their +anger was that they had been led to believe that I had preached and +written to prove the existence of three gods. No sooner had I +reached the city, therefore, than I went forthwith to the legate; +to him I submitted my book for examination and judgment, declaring +that if I had written anything repugnant to the Catholic faith, I +was quite ready to correct it or otherwise to make satisfactory +amends. The legate directed me to refer my book to the archbishop +and to those same two rivals of mine, to the end that my accusers +might also be my judges. So in my case was fulfilled the saying: +"Even our enemies are our judges" (Deut. Xxxii, 31). + +These three, then, took my book and pawed it over and examined it +minutely, but could find nothing therein which they dared to use as +the basis for a public accusation against me. Accordingly they put +off the condemnation of the book until the close of the council, +despite their eagerness to bring it about. For my part, everyday +before the council convened I publicly discussed the Catholic faith +in the light of what I had written, and all who heard me were +enthusiastic in their approval alike of the frankness and the logic +of my words. When the public and the clergy had thus learned +something of the real character of my teaching, they began to say +to one another: "Behold, now he speaks openly, and no one brings +any charge against him. And this council, summoned, as we have +heard, chiefly to take action upon his case, is drawing toward its +end. Did the judges realize that the error might be theirs rather +than his?" + +As a result of all this, my rivals grew more angry day by day. On +one occasion Alberic, accompanied by some of his students, came to +me for the purpose of intimidating me, and, after a few bland +words, said that he was amazed at something he had found in my +book, to the effect that, although God had begotten God, I denied +that God had begotten Himself, since there was only one God. I +answered unhesitatingly: "I can give you an explanation of this if +you wish it." "Nay," he replied, "I care nothing for human +explanation or reasoning in such matters, but only for the words +of authority." "Very well." I said; "turn the pages of my book and +you will find the authority likewise." The book was at hand, for he +had brought it with him. I turned to the passage I had in mind, +which he had either not discovered or else passed over as +containing nothing injurious to me. And it was God's will that I +quickly found what I sought. This was the following sentence, under +the heading "Augustine, On the Trinity, Book I": "Whosoever +believes that it is within the power of God to beget Himself is +sorely in error; this power is not in God, neither is it in any +created thing, spiritual or corporeal. For there is nothing that +can give birth to itself." + +When those of his followers who were present heard this, they were +amazed and much embarrassed. He himself, in order to keep his +countenance, said: "Certainly, I understand all that." Then I +added: "What I have to say further on this subject is by no means +new, but apparently it has nothing to do with the case at issue, +since you have asked for the word of authority only, and not for +explanations. If, however, you care to consider logical +explanations, I am prepared to demonstrate that, according to +Augustine's statement, you have yourself fallen into a heresy in +believing that a father can possibly be his own son." When Alberic +heard this he was almost beside himself with rage, and straightway +resorted to threats, asserting that neither my explanations nor my +citations of authority would avail me aught in this case. With this +he left me. + +On the last day of the council, before the session convened, the +legate and the archbishop deliberated with my rivals and sundry +others as to what should be done about me and my book, this being +the chief reason for their having come together. And since they had +discovered nothing either in my speech or in what I had hitherto +written which would give them a case against me, they were all +reduced to silence, or at the most to maligning me in whispers. +Then Geoffroi, Bishop of Chartres, who excelled the other bishops +alike in the sincerity of his religion and in the importance of his +see, spoke thus: + +"You know, my lords, all who are gathered here, the doctrine of +this man, what it is, and his ability, which has brought him many +followers in every field to which he has devoted himself. You know +how greatly he has lessened the renown of other teachers, both his +masters and our own, and how he has spread as it were the offshoots +of his vine from sea to sea. Now, if you impose a lightly +considered judgment on him, as I cannot believe you will, you well +know that even if mayhap you are in the right there are many who +will be angered thereby, and that he will have no lack of +defenders. Remember above all that we have found nothing in this +book of his that lies before us whereon any open accusation can be +based. Indeed it is true, as Jerome says: 'Fortitude openly +displayed always creates rivals, and the lightning strikes the +highest peaks.' Have a care, then, lest by violent action you only +increase his fame, and lest we do more hurt to ourselves through +envy than to him through justice. A false report, as that same wise +man reminds us, is easily crushed, and a man's later life gives +testimony as to his earlier deeds. If, then, you are disposed to +take canonical action against him, his doctrine or his writings +must be brought forward as evidence, and he must have free +opportunity to answer his questioners. In that case, if he is found +guilty or if he confesses his error, his lips can be wholly sealed. +Consider the words of the blessed Nicodemus, who, desiring to free +Our Lord Himself, said: 'Doth our law judge any man before it hear +him and know what he doeth? '" (John, vii, 51). + +When my rivals heard this they cried out in protest, saying: "This +is wise counsel, forsooth, that we should strive against the +wordiness of this man, whose arguments, or rather, sophistries, the +whole world cannot resist!" And yet, methinks, it was far more +difficult to strive against Christ Himself, for Whom, nevertheless, +Nicodemus demanded a hearing in accordance with the dictates of the +law. When the bishop could not win their assent to his proposals, +he tried in another way to curb their hatred, saying that for the +discussion of such an important case the few who were present were +not enough, and that this matter required a more thorough +examination. His further suggestion was that my abbot, who was +there present, should take me back with him to our abbey, in other +words to the monastery of St. Denis, and that there a large +convocation of learned men should determine, on the basis of a +careful investigation, what ought to be done. To this last proposal +the legate consented, as did all the others. + +Then the legate arose to celebrate mass before entering the +council, and through the bishop sent me the permission which had +been determined on, authorizing me to return to my monastery and +there await such action as might be finally taken. But my rivals, +perceiving that they would accomplish nothing if the trial were to +be held outside of their own diocese, and in a place where they +could have little influence on the verdict, and in truth having +small wish that justice should be done, persuaded the archbishop +that it would be a grave insult to him to transfer this case to +another court, and that it would be dangerous for him if by chance +I should thus be acquitted. They likewise went to the legate, and +succeeded in so changing his opinion that finally they induced him +to frame a new sentence, whereby he agreed to condemn my book +without any further inquiry, to burn it forthwith in the sight of +all, and to confine me for a year in another monastery. The +argument they used was that it sufficed for the condemnation of my +book that I had presumed to read it in public without the approval +either of the Roman pontiff or of the Church, and that, +furthermore, I had given it to many to be transcribed. Methinks it +would be a notable blessing to the Christian faith if there were +more who displayed a like presumption. The legate, however, being +less skilled in law than he should have been, relied chiefly on the +advice of the archbishop, and he, in turn, on that of my rivals. +When the Bishop of Chartres got wind of this, he reported the whole +conspiracy to me, and strongly urged me to endure meekly the +manifest violence of their enmity. He bade me not to doubt that +this violence would in the end react upon them and prove a blessing +to me, and counseled me to have no fear of the confinement in a +monastery, knowing that within a few days the legate himself, who +was now acting under compulsion, would after his departure set me +free. And thus he consoled me as best he might, mingling his tears +with mine. + + + +CHAPTER X + +OF THE BURNING OF HIS BOOK--OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD AT THE HANDS +OF HIS ABBOT AND THE BRETHREN + +Straightway upon my summons I went to the council, and there, +without further examination or debate, did they compel me with my +own hand to cast that memorable book of mine into the flames. +Although my enemies appeared to have nothing to say while the book +was burning, one of them muttered something about having seen it +written therein that God the Father was alone omnipotent. This +reached the ears of the legate, who replied in astonishment that he +could not believe that even a child would make so absurd a blunder. +"Our common faith," he said, "holds and sets forth that the Three +are alike omnipotent." A certain Tirric, a schoolmaster, hearing +this, sarcastically added the Athanasian phrase, "And yet there are +not three omnipotent Persons, but only One." + +This man's bishop forthwith began to censure him, bidding him +desist from such treasonable talk, but he boldly stood his ground, +and said, as if quoting the words of Daniel: "'Are ye such fools, +ye sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the +truth ye have condemned a daughter of Israel? Return again to the +place of judgment,' (Daniel, xiii, 48--The History of Susanna) and +there give judgment on the judge himself. You have set up this +judge, forsooth, for the instruction of faith and the correction of +error, and yet, when he ought to give judgment, he condemns himself +out of his own mouth. Set free today, with the help of God's mercy, +one who is manifestly innocent, even as Susanna was freed of old +from her false accusers." + +Thereupon the archbishop arose and confirmed the legate's +statement, but changed the wording thereof, as indeed was most +fitting. "It is God's truth," he said, "that the Father is +omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. +And whosoever dissents from this is openly in error, and must not +be listened to. Nevertheless, if it be your pleasure, it would be +well that this our brother should publicly state before us all the +faith that is in him, to the end that, according to its deserts, it +may either be approved or else condemned and corrected." + +When, however, I fain would have arisen to profess and set forth my +faith, in order that I might express in my own words that which was +in my heart, my enemies declared that it was not needful for me to +do more than recite the Athanasian Symbol, a thing which any boy +might do as well as I. And lest I should allege ignorance, +pretending that I did not know the words by heart, they had a copy +of it set before me to read. And read it I did as best I could for +my groans and sighs and tears. Thereupon, as if I had been a +convicted criminal, I was handed over to the Abbot of St. Medard, +who was there present, and led to his monastery as to a prison. And +with this the council was immediately dissolved. + +The abbot and the monks of the aforesaid monastery, thinking that I +would remain long with them, received me with great exultation, and +diligently sought to console me, but all in vain. O God, who dost +judge justice itself, in what venom of the spirit, in what +bitterness of mind, did I blame even Thee for my shame, accusing +Thee in my madness! Full often did I repeat the lament of St. +Anthony: "Kindly Jesus, where wert Thou?" The sorrow that tortured +me, the shame that overwhelmed me, the desperation that wracked my +mind, all these I could then feel, but even now I can find no words +to express them. Comparing these new sufferings of my soul with +those I had formerly endured in my body, it seemed that I was in +very truth the most miserable among men. Indeed that earlier +betrayal had become a little thing in comparison with this later +evil, and I lamented the hurt to my fair name far more than the one +to my body. The latter, indeed, I had brought upon myself through +my own wrongdoing, but this other violence had come upon me solely +by reason of the honesty of my purpose and my love of our faith, +which had compelled me to write that which I believed. + +The very cruelty and heartlessness of my punishment, however, made +every one who heard the story vehement in censuring it, so that +those who had a hand therein were soon eager to disclaim all +responsibility, shouldering the blame on others. Nay, matters came +to such a pass that even my rivals denied that they had had +anything to do with the matter, and as for the legate, he publicly +denounced the malice with which the French had acted. Swayed by +repentance for his injustice, and feeling that he had yielded +enough to satisfy their rancour, he shortly freed me from the +monastery whither I had been taken, and sent me back to my own. +Here, however, I found almost as many enemies as I had in the +former days of which I have already spoken, for the vileness and +shamelessness of their way of living made them realize that they +would again have to endure my censure. + +After a few months had passed, chance gave them an opportunity by +which they sought to destroy me. It happened that one day, in the +course of my reading, I came upon a certain passage of Bede, in his +commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, wherein he asserts that +Dionysius the Areopagite was the bishop, not of Athens, but of +Corinth. Now, this was directly counter to the belief of the monks, +who were wont to boast that their Dionysius, or Denis, was not only +the Areopagite but was likewise proved by his acts to have been the +Bishop of Athens. Having thus found this testimony of Bede's in +contradiction of our own tradition, I showed it somewhat jestingly +to sundry of the monks who chanced to be near. Wrathfully they +declared that Bede was no better than a liar, and that they had a +far more trustworthy authority in the person of Hilduin, a former +abbot of theirs, who had travelled for a long time throughout +Greece for the purpose of investigating this very question. He, +they insisted, had by his writings removed all possible doubt on +the subject, and had securely established the truth of the +traditional belief. + +One of the monks went so far as to ask me brazenly which of the +two, Bede or Hilduin, I considered the better authority on this +point. I replied that the authority of Bede, whose writings are +held in high esteem by the whole Latin Church, appeared to me the +better. Thereupon in a great rage they began to cry out that at +last I had openly proved the hatred I had always felt for our +monastery, and that I was seeking to disgrace it in the eyes of the +whole kingdom, robbing it of the honour in which it had +particularly gloried, by thus denying that the Areopagite was their +patron saint. To this I answered that I had never denied the fact, +and that I did not much care whether their patron was the +Areopagite or some one else, provided only he had received his +crown from God. Thereupon they ran to the abbot and told him of the +misdemeanour with which they charged me. + +The abbot listened to their story with delight, rejoicing at having +found a chance to crush me, for the greater vileness of his life +made him fear me more even than the rest did. Accordingly he +summoned his council, and when the brethren had assembled he +violently threatened me, declaring that he would straightway send +me to the king, by him to be punished for having thus sullied his +crown and the glory of his royalty. And until he should hand me +over to the king, he ordered that I should be closely guarded. In +vain did I offer to submit to the customary discipline if I had in +any way been guilty. Then, horrified at their wickedness, which +seemed to crown the ill fortune I had so long endured, and in utter +despair at the apparent conspiracy of the whole world against me, I +fled secretly from the monastery by night, helped thereto by some +of the monks who took pity on me, and likewise aided by some of my +scholars. + +I made my way to a region where I had formerly dwelt, hard by the +lands of Count Theobald (of Champagne). He himself had some slight +acquaintance with me, and had compassion on me by reason of my +persecutions, of which the story had reached him. I found a home +there within the walls of Provins, in a priory of the monks of +Troyes, the prior of which had in former days known me well and +shown me much love. In his joy at my coming he cared for me with +all diligence. It chanced, however, that one day my abbot came to +Provins to see the count on certain matters of business. As soon as +I had learned of this, I went to the count, the prior accompanying +me, and besought him to intercede in my behalf with the abbot. I +asked no more than that the abbot should absolve me of the charge +against me, and give me permission to live the monastic life +wheresoever I could find a suitable place. The abbot, however, and +those who were with him took the matter under advisement, saying +that they would give the count an answer the day before they +departed. It appeared from their words that they thought I wished +to go to some other abbey, a thing which they regarded as an +immense disgrace to their own. They had, indeed, taken particular +pride in the fact that, upon my conversion, I had come to them, as +if scorning all other abbeys, and accordingly they considered that +it would bring great shame upon them if I should now desert their +abbey and seek another. For this reason they refused to listen +either to my own plea or to that of the count. Furthermore, they +threatened me with excommunication unless I should instantly +return; likewise they forbade the prior with whom I had taken +refuge to keep me longer, under pain of sharing my excommunication. +When we heard this both the prior and I were stricken with fear. +The abbot went away still obdurate, but a few days thereafter he +died. + +As soon as his successor had been named, I went to him, accompanied +by the Bishop of Meaux, to try if I might win from him the +permission I had vainly sought of his predecessor. At first he +would not give his assent, but finally, through the intervention of +certain friends of mine, I secured the right to appeal to the king +and his council, and in this way I at last obtained what I sought. +The royal seneschal, Stephen, having summoned the abbot and his +subordinates that they might state their case, asked them why they +wanted to keep me against my will. He pointed out that this might +easily bring them into evil repute, and certainly could do them no +good, seeing that their way of living was utterly incompatible with +mine. I knew it to be the opinion of the royal council that the +irregularities in the conduct of this abbey would tend to bring it +more and more under the control of the king, making it increasingly +useful and likewise profitable to him, and for this reason I had +good hope of easily winning the support of the king and those about +him. + +Thus, indeed, did it come to pass. But in order that the monastery +might not be shorn of any of the glory which it had enjoyed by +reason of my sojourn there, they granted me permission to betake +myself to any solitary place I might choose, provided only I did +not put myself under the rule of any other abbey. This was agreed +upon and confirmed on both sides in the presence of the king and +his councellors. Forthwith I sought out a lonely spot known to me +of old in the region of Troyes, and there, on a bit of land which +had been given to me, and with the approval of the bishop of the +district, I built with reeds and stalks my first oratory in the +name of the Holy Trinity. And there concealed, with but one +comrade, a certain cleric, I was able to sing over and over again +to the Lord: "Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the +wilderness" (Ps. IV, 7). + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OF HIS TEACHING IN THE WILDERNESS + +No sooner had scholars learned of my retreat than they began to +flock thither from all sides, leaving their towns and castles to +dwell in the wilderness. In place of their spacious houses they +built themselves huts; instead of dainty fare they lived on the +herbs of the field and coarse bread; their soft beds they exchanged +for heaps of straw and rushes, and their tables were piles of turf. +In very truth you may well believe that they were like those +philosophers of old of whom Jerome tells us in his second book +against Jovinianus. + +"Through the senses," says Jerome, "as through so many windows, do +vices win entrance to the soul. The metropolis and citadel of the +mind cannot be taken unless the army of the foe has first rushed in +through the gates. If any one delights in the games of the circus, +in the contests of athletes, in the versatility of actors, in the +beauty of women, in the glitter of gems and raiment, or in aught +else like to these, then the freedom of his soul is made captive +through the windows of his eyes, and thus is fulfilled the +prophecy: `For death is come up into our windows' (Jer. ix, 21). +And then, when the wedges of doubt have, as it were, been driven +into the citadels of our minds through these gateways, where will +be its liberty? where its fortitude? where its thought of God? Most +of all does the sense of touch paint for itself the pictures of +past raptures, compelling the soul to dwell fondly upon remembered +iniquities, and so to practice in imagination those things which +reality denies to it. + +"Heeding such counsel, therefore, many among the philosophers +forsook the thronging ways of the cities and the pleasant gardens +of the countryside, with their well-watered fields, their shady +trees, the song of birds, the mirror of the fountain, the murmur of +the stream, the many charms for eye and ear, fearing lest their +souls should grow soft amid luxury and abundance of riches, and +lest their virtue should thereby be defiled. For it is perilous to +turn your eyes often to those things whereby you may some day be +made captive, or to attempt the possession of that which it would +go hard with you to do without. Thus the Pythagoreans shunned all +companionship of this kind, and were wont to dwell in solitary and +desert places. Nay, Plato himself, although he was a rich man, let +Diogenes trample on his couch with muddy feet, and in order that he +might devote himself to philosophy established his academy in a +place remote from the city, and not only uninhabited but unhealthy +as well. This he did in order that the onslaughts of lust might be +broken by the fear and constant presence of disease, and that his +followers might find no pleasure save in the things they learned." + +Such a life, likewise, the sons of the prophets who were the +followers of Eliseus are reported to have led. Of these Jerome also +tells us, writing thus to the monk Rusticus as if describing the +monks of those ancient days: "The sons of the prophets, the monks +of whom we read in the Old Testament, built for themselves huts by +the waters of the Jordan, and forsaking the throngs and the cities, +lived on pottage and the herbs of the field" (Epist. iv). + +Even so did my followers build their huts above the waters of the +Arduzon, so that they seemed hermits rather than scholars. And as +their number grew ever greater, the hardships which they gladly +endured for the sake of my teaching seemed to my rivals to reflect +new glory on me, and to cast new shame on themselves. Nor was it +strange that they, who had done their utmost to hurt me, should +grieve to see how all things worked together for my good, even +though I was now, in the words of Jerome, afar from cities and the +market place, from controversies and the crowded ways of men. And +so, as Quintilian says, did envy seek me out even in my hiding +place. Secretly my rivals complained and lamented one to another, +saying: "Behold now, the whole world runs after him, and our +persecution of him has done nought save to increase his glory. We +strove to extinguish his fame, and we have but given it new +brightness. Lo, in the cities scholars have at hand everything they +may need, and yet, spurning the pleasures of the town, they seek +out the barrenness of the desert, and of their own free will they +accept wretchedness." + +The thing which at that time chiefly led me to undertake the +direction of a school was my intolerable poverty, for I had not +strength enough to dig, and shame kept me from begging. And so, +resorting once more to the art with which I was so familiar, I was +compelled to substitute the service of the tongue for the labour of +my hands. The students willingly provided me with whatsoever I +needed in the way of food and clothing, and likewise took charge of +the cultivation of the fields and paid for the erection of +buildings, in order that material cares might not keep me from my +studies. Since my oratory was no longer large enough to hold even a +small part of their number, they found it necessary to increase its +size, and in so doing they greatly improved it, building it of +stone and wood. Although this oratory had been founded in honour of +the Holy Trinity, and afterwards dedicated thereto, I now named it +the Paraclete, mindful of how I had come there a fugitive and in +despair, and had breathed into my soul something of the miracle of +divine consolation. + +Many of those who heard of this were greatly astonished, and some +violently assailed my action, declaring that it was not permissible +to dedicate a church exclusively to the Holy Spirit rather than to +God the Father. They held, according to an ancient tradition, that +it must be dedicated either to the Son alone or else to the entire +Trinity. The error which led them into this false accusation +resulted from their failure to perceive the identity of the +Paraclete with the Spirit Paraclete. Even as the whole Trinity, or +any Person in the Trinity, may rightly be called God or Helper, so +likewise may It be termed the Paraclete, that is to say the +Consoler. These are the words of the Apostle: "Blessed be God, even +the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the +God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation" +(2 Cor. i, 3). And likewise the word of truth says: "And he shall +give you another comforter" (Greek "another Paraclete," John, xiv, 16). + +Nay, since every church is consecrated equally in the name of the +Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, without any difference in +their possession thereof, why should not the house of God be +dedicated to the Father or to the Holy Spirit, even as it is to the +Son? Who would presume to erase from above the door the name of him +who is the master of the house? And since the Son offered Himself +as a sacrifice to the Father, and accordingly in the ceremonies of +the mass the prayers are offered particularly to the Father, and +the immolation of the Host is made to Him, why should the altar not +be held to be chiefly His to whom above all the supplication and +sacrifice are made? Is it not called more rightly the altar of Him +who receives than of Him who makes the sacrifice? Who would admit +that an altar is that of the Holy Cross, or of the Sepulchre, or of +St. Michael, or John, or Peter, or of any other saint, unless +either he himself was sacrificed there or else special sacrifices +and prayers are made there to him? Methinks the altars and temples +of certain ones among these saints are not held to be idolatrous +even though they are used for special sacrifices and prayers to +their patrons. + +Some, however, may perchance argue that churches are not built or +altars dedicated to the Father because there is no feast which is +solemnized especially for Him. But while this reasoning holds good +as regards the Trinity itself, it does not apply in the case of the +Holy Spirit. For this Spirit, from the day of Its advent, has had +Its special feast of the Pentecost, even as the Son has had since +His coming upon earth His feast of the Nativity. Even as the Son +was sent into this world, so did the Holy Spirit descend upon the +disciples, and thus does It claim Its special religious rites. Nay, +it seems more fitting to dedicate a temple to It than to either of +the other Persons of the Trinity, if we but carefully study the +apostolic authority, and consider the workings of this Spirit +Itself. To none of the three Persons did the apostle dedicate a +special temple save to the Holy Spirit alone. He does not speak of +a temple of the Father, or a temple of the Son, as he does of a +temple of the Holy Spirit, writing thus in his first epistle to the +Corinthians: "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." +(I Cor. vi, 17). And again: "What? know ye not that your body is +the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of +God, and ye are not your own?" (ib. 19). + +Who is there who does not know that the sacraments of God's +blessings pertaining to the Church are particularly ascribed to the +operation of divine grace, by which is meant the Holy Spirit? +Forsooth we are born again of water and of the Holy Spirit in +baptism, and thus from the very beginning is the body made, as it +were, a special temple of God. In the successive sacraments, +moreover, the seven-fold grace of the Spirit is added, whereby +this same temple of God is made beautiful and is consecrated. What +wonder is it, then, if to that Person to Whom the apostle assigned +a spiritual temple we should dedicate a material one? Or to what +Person can a church be more rightly said to belong than to Him to +Whom all the blessings which the church administers are +particularly ascribed? It was not, however, with the thought of +dedicating my oratory to one Person that I first called it the +Paraclete, but for the reason I have already told, that in this +spot I found consolation. 'None the less, even if I had done it for +the reason attributed to me, the departure from the usual custom +would have been in no way illogical. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OF THE PERSECUTION DIRECTED AGAINST HIM BY SUNDRY NEW ENEMIES OR, +AS IT WERE, APOSTLES + +And so I dwelt in this place, my body indeed hidden away, but my +fame spreading throughout the whole world, till its echo +reverberated mightily-echo, that fancy of the poet's, which has so +great a voice, and nought beside. My former rivals, seeing that +they themselves were now powerless to do me hurt, stirred up +against me certain new apostles in whom the world put great faith. +One of these (Norbert of Premontre) took pride in his position as +canon of a regular order; the other (Bernard of Clairvaux) made it +his boast that he had revived the true monastic life. These two ran +hither and yon preaching and shamelessly slandering me in every way +they could, so that in time they succeeded in drawing down on my +head the scorn of many among those having authority, among both the +clergy and the laity. They spread abroad such sinister reports of +my faith as well as of my life that they turned even my best +friends against me, and those who still retained something of their +former regard for me were fain to disguise it in every possible way +by reason of their fear of these two men. + +God is my witness that whensoever I learned of the convening of a +new assemblage of the clergy, I believed that it was done for the +express purpose of my condemnation. Stunned by this fear like one +smitten with a thunderbolt, I daily expected to be dragged before +their councils or assemblies as a heretic or one guilty of impiety. +Though I seem to compare a flea with a lion, or an ant with an +elephant, in very truth my rivals persecuted me no less bitterly +than the heretics of old hounded St. Athanasius. Often, God knows, +I sank so deep in despair that I was ready to leave the world of +Christendom and go forth among the heathen, paying them a +stipulated tribute in order that I might live quietly a Christian +life among the enemies of Christ. It seemed to me that such people +might indeed be kindly disposed toward me, particularly as they +would doubtless suspect me of being no good Christian, imputing my +flight to some crime I had committed, and would therefore believe +that I might perhaps be won over to their form of worship. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OF THE ABBEY TO WHICH HE WAS CALLED AND OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD +FROM HIS SONS, THAT IS TO SAY THE MONKS, AND FROM THE LORD OF THE +LAND + +While I was thus afflicted with so great perturbation of the +spirit, and when the only way of escape seemed to be for me to seek +refuge with Christ among the enemies of Christ, there came a chance +whereby I thought I could for a while avoid the plottings of my +enemies. But thereby I fell among Christians and monks who were far +more savage than heathens and more evil of life. The thing came +about in this wise. There was in lesser Brittany, in the bishopric +of Vannes, a certain abbey of St. Gildas at Ruits, then mourning +the death of its shepherd. To this abbey the elective choice of the +brethren called me, with the approval of the prince of that land, +and I easily secured permission to accept the post from my own +abbot and brethren. Thus did the hatred of the French drive me +westward, even as that of the Romans drove Jerome toward the East. +Never, God knows, would I have agreed to this thing had it not been +for my longing for any possible means of escape from the sufferings +which I had borne so constantly. + +The land was barbarous and its speech was unknown to me; as for the +monks, their vile and untameable way of life was notorious almost +everywhere. The people of the region, too, were uncivilized and +lawless. Thus, like one who in terror of the sword that threatens +him dashes headlong over a precipice, and to shun one death for a +moment rushes to another, I knowingly sought this new danger in +order to escape from the former one. And there, amid the dreadful +roar of the waves of the sea, where the land's end left me no +further refuge in flight, often in my prayers did I repeat over and +over again: "From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when +my heart is overwhelmed" (Ps. lxi, 2). + +No one, methinks, could fail to understand how persistently that +undisciplined body of monks, the direction of which I had thus +undertaken, tortured my heart day and night, or how constantly I +was compelled to think of the danger alike to my body and to my +soul. I held it for certain that if I should try to force them to +live according to the principles they had themselves professed, I +should not survive. And yet, if I did not do this to the utmost of +my ability, I saw that my damnation was assured. Moreover, a +certain lord who was exceedingly powerful in that region had some +time previously brought the abbey under his control, taking +advantage of the state of disorder within the monastery to seize +all the lands adjacent thereto for his own use, and he ground down +the monks with taxes heavier than those which were extorted from +the Jews themselves. + +The monks pressed me to supply them with their daily necessities, +but they held no property in common which I might administer in +their behalf, and each one, with such resources as he possessed, +supported himself and his concubines, as well as his sons and +daughters. They took delight in harassing me on this matter, and +they stole and carried off whatsoever they could lay their hands +on, to the end that my failure to maintain order might make me +either give up trying to enforce discipline or else abandon my post +altogether. Since the entire region was equally savage, lawless and +disorganized, there was not a single man to whom I could turn for +aid, for the habits of all alike were foreign to me. Outside the +monastery the lord and his henchmen ceaselessly hounded me, and +within its walls the brethren were forever plotting against me, so +that it seemed as if the Apostle had had me and none other in mind +when he said: "Without were fightings, within were fears" (II Cor. vii, 5). + +I considered and lamented the uselessness and the wretchedness of +my existence, how fruitless my life now was, both to myself and to +others; how of old I had been of some service to the clerics whom I +had now abandoned for the sake of these monks, so that I was no +longer able to be of use to either; how incapable I had proved +myself in everything I had undertaken or attempted, so that above +all others I deserved the reproach, "This man began to build, and +was not able to finish" (Luke xiv, 30). My despair grew still +deeper when I compared the evils I had left behind with those to +which I had come, for my former sufferings now seemed to me as +nought. Full often did I groan: "Justly has this sorrow come upon +me because I deserted the Paraclete, which is to say the Consoler, +and thrust myself into sure desolation; seeking to shun threats I +fled to certain peril." + +The thing which tormented me most was the fact that, having +abandoned my oratory, I could make no suitable provision for the +celebration there of the divine office, for indeed the extreme +poverty of the place would scarcely provide the necessities of one +man. But the true Paraclete Himself brought me real consolation in +the midst of this sorrow of mine, and made all due provision for +His own oratory. For it chanced that in some manner or other, +laying claim to it as having legally belonged in earlier days to +his monastery, my abbot of St. Denis got possession of the abbey of +Argenteuil, of which I have previously spoken, wherein she who was +now my sister in Christ rather than my wife, Heloise, had taken the +veil. From this abbey he expelled by force all the nuns who had +dwelt there, and of whom my former companion had become the +prioress. The exiles being thus dispersed in various places, I +perceived that this was an opportunity presented by God himself to +me whereby I could make provision anew for my oratory. And so, +returning thither, I bade her come to the oratory, together with +some others from the same convent who had clung to her. + +On their arrival there I made over to them the oratory, together +with everything pertaining thereto, and subsequently, through the +approval and assistance of the bishop of the district, Pope +Innocent II promulgated a decree confirming my gift in perpetuity +to them and their successors. And this refuge of divine mercy, +which they served so devotedly, soon brought them consolation, even +though at first their life there was one of want, and for a time of +utter destitution. But the place proved itself a true Paraclete to +them, making all those who dwelt round about feel pity and +kindliness for the sisterhood. So that, methinks, they prospered +more through gifts in a single year than I should have done if I +had stayed there a hundred. True it is that the weakness of +womankind makes their needs and sufferings appeal strongly to +people's feelings, as likewise it makes their virtue all the more +pleasing to God and man. And God granted such favour in the eyes of +all to her who was now my sister, and who was in authority over the +rest, that the bishops loved her as a daughter, the abbots as a +sister, and the laity as a mother. All alike marvelled at her +religious zeal, her good judgment and the sweetness of her +incomparable patience in all things. The less often she allowed +herself to be seen, shutting herself up in her cell to devote +herself to sacred meditations and prayers, the more eagerly did +those who dwelt without demand her presence and the spiritual +guidance of her words. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OF THE EVIL REPORT OF HIS INIQUITY + +Before long all those who dwelt thereabouts began to censure me +roundly, complaining that I paid far less attention to their needs +than I might and should have done, and that at least I could do +something for them through my preaching. As a result, I returned +thither frequently, to be of service to them in whatsoever way I +could. Regarding this there was no lack of hateful murmuring, and +the thing which sincere charity induced me to do was seized upon by +the wickedness of my detractors as the subject of shameless outcry. +They declared that I, who of old could scarcely endure to be parted +from her I loved, was still swayed by the delights of fleshly lust. +Many times I thought of the complaint of St. Jerome in his letter +to Asella regarding those women whom he was falsely accused of +loving, when he said (Epist. xcix): "I am charged with nothing save +the fact of my sex, and this charge is made only because Paula is +setting forth to Jerusalem." And again: "Before I became intimate +in the household of the saintly Paula, the whole city was loud in +my praise, and nearly every one deemed me deserving of the highest +honours of priesthood. But I know that my way to the kingdom of +Heaven lies through good and evil report alike." + +When I pondered over the injury which slander had done to so great +a man as this, I was not a little consoled thereby. If my rivals, I +told myself, could but find an equal cause for suspicion against +me, with what accusations would they persecute me! But how is it +possible for such suspicion to continue in my case, seeing that +divine mercy has freed me therefrom by depriving me of all power to +enact such baseness? How shameless is this latest accusation! In +truth that which had happened to me so completely removes all +suspicion of this iniquity among all men that those who wish to +have their women kept under close guard employ eunuchs for that +purpose, even as sacred history tells regarding Esther and the +other damsels of King Ahasuerus (Esther ii, 5). We read, too, of +that eunuch of great authority under Queen Candace who had charge +of all her treasure, him to whose conversion and baptism the +apostle Philip was directed by an angel (Acts viii, 27). Such men, +in truth, are enabled to have far more importance and intimacy +among modest and upright women by the fact that they are free from +any suspicion of lust. + +The sixth book of the Ecclesiastical History tells us that the +greatest of all Christian philosophers, Origen, inflicted a like +injury on himself with his own hand, in order that all suspicion of +this nature might be completely done away with in his instruction +of women in sacred doctrine. In this respect, I thought, God's +mercy had been kinder to me than to him, for it was judged that he +had acted most rashly and had exposed himself to no slight censure, +whereas the thing had been done to me through the crime of another, +thus preparing me for a task similar to his own. Moreover, it had +been accomplished with much less pain, being so quick and sudden, +for I was heavy with sleep when they laid hands on me, and felt +scarcely any pain at all. + +But alas, I thought, the less I then suffered from the wound, the +greater is my punishment now through slander, and I am tormented +far more by the loss of my reputation than I was by that of part of +my body. For thus is it written: "A good name is rather to be +chosen than great riches" (Prov. xxii, 1). And as St. Augustine +tells us in a sermon of his on the life and conduct of the clergy, +"He is cruel who, trusting in his conscience, neglects his +reputation." Again he says: "Let us provide those things that are +good, as the apostle bids us (Rom. xii, 17), not alone in the eyes +of God, but likewise in the eyes of men. Within himself each one's +conscience suffices, but for our own sakes our reputations ought +not to be tarnished, but to flourish. Conscience and reputation are +different matters: conscience is for yourself, reputation for your +neighbour." Methinks the spite of such men as these my enemies +would have accused the very Christ Himself, or those belonging to +Him, prophets and apostles, or the other holy fathers, if such +spite had existed in their time, seeing that they associated in +such familiar intercourse with women, and this though they were +whole of body. On this point St. Augustine, in his book on the duty +of monks, proves that women followed our Lord Jesus Christ and the +apostles as inseparable companions, even accompanying them when +they preached (Chap. 4). "Faithful women," he says, "who were +possessed of worldly wealth went with them, and ministered to them +out of their wealth, so that they might lack none of those things +which belong to the substance of life." And if any one does not +believe that the apostles thus permitted saintly women to go about +with them wheresoever they preached the Gospel, let him listen to +the Gospel itself, and learn therefrom that in so doing they +followed the example of the Lord. For in the Gospel it is written +thus: "And it came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every +city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the +kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him, and certain women, +which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called +Magdalene, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and +Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their +substance" (Luke viii, i-3). + +Leo the Ninth, furthermore, in his reply to the letter of +Parmenianus concerning monastic zeal, says: "We unequivocally +declare that it is not permissible for a bishop, priest, deacon or +subdeacon to cast off all responsibility for his own wife on the +grounds of religious duty, so that he no longer provides her with +food and clothing; albeit he may not have carnal intercourse with +her. We read that thus did the holy apostles act, for St. Paul +says: 'Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as +other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?' (I +Cor. ix, 5). Observe, foolish man, that he does not say: 'have we +not power to embrace a sister, a wife,' but he says 'to lead +about,' meaning thereby that such women may lawfully be supported +by them out of the wages of their preaching, but that there must be +no carnal bond between them." + +Certainly that Pharisee who spoke within himself of the Lord, +saying: "This man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and +what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a +sinner" (Luke vii, 39), might much more reasonably have suspected +baseness of the Lord, considering the matter from a purely human +standpoint, than my enemies could suspect it of me. One who had +seen the mother of Our Lord entrusted to the care of the young man +(John xix, 27), or who had beheld the prophets dwelling and +sojourning with widows (I Kings xvii, 10), would likewise have had +a far more logical ground for suspicion. And what would my +calumniators have said if they had but seen Malchus, that captive +monk of whom St. Jerome writes, living in the same but with his +wife? Doubtless they would have regarded it as criminal in the +famous scholar to have highly commended what he thus saw, saying +thereof: "There was a certain old man named Malchus, a native of +this region, and his wife with him in his hut. Both of them were +earnestly religious, and they so often passed the threshold of the +church that you might have thought them the Zacharias and Elisabeth +of the Gospel, saving only that John was not with them." + +Why, finally, do such men refrain from slandering the holy fathers, +of whom we frequently read, nay, and have even seen with our own +eyes, founding convents for women and making provision for their +maintenance, thereby following the example of the seven deacons +whom the apostles sent before them to secure food and take care of +the women? (Acts vi, 5). For the weaker sex needs the help of the +stronger one to such an extent that the apostle proclaimed that the +head of the woman is ever the man (I Cor. xi, 3), and in sign +thereof he bade her ever wear her head covered (ib. 5). For this +reason I marvel greatly at the customs which have crept into +monasteries, whereby, even as abbots are placed in charge of the +men, abbesses now are given authority over the women, and the women +bind themselves in their vows to accept the same rules as the men. +Yet in these rules there are many things which cannot possibly be +carried out by women, either as superiors or in the lower orders. +In many places we may even behold an inversion of the natural order +of things, whereby the abbesses and nuns have authority over the +clergy, and even over those who are themselves in charge of the +people. The more power such women exercise over men, the more +easily can they lead them into iniquitous desires, and in this way +can lay a very heavy yoke upon their shoulders. It was with such +things in mind that the satirist said: + + "There is nothing more intolerable than a rich woman." + (Juvenal, Sat. VI, v, 459). + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OF THE PERILS OF HIS ABBEY AND OF THE REASONS FOR THE WRITING OF +THIS HIS LETTER + +Reflecting often upon all these things, I determined to make +provision for those sisters and to undertake their care in every +way I could. Furthermore, in order that they might have the greater +reverence for me, I arranged to watch over them in person. And +since now the persecution carried on by my sons was greater and +more incessant than that which I formerly suffered at the hands of +my brethren, I returned frequently to the nuns, fleeing the rage of +the tempest as to a haven of peace. There, indeed, could I draw +breath for a little in quiet, and among them my labours were +fruitful, as they never were among the monks. All this was of the +utmost benefit to me in body and soul, and it was equally essential +for them by reason of their weakness. + +But now has Satan beset me to such an extent that I no longer know +where I may find rest, or even so much as live. I am driven hither +and yon, a fugitive and a vagabond, even as the accursed Cain (Gen. +iv, 14). I have already said that "without were fightings, within +were fears" (II Cor. vii, 5), and these torture me ceaselessly, the +fears being indeed without as well as within, and the fightings +wheresoever there are fears. Nay, the persecution carried on by my +sons rages against me more perilously and continuously than that of +my open enemies, for my sons I have always with me, and I am ever +exposed to their treacheries. The violence of my enemies I see in +the danger to my body if I leave the cloister; but within it I am +compelled incessantly to endure the crafty machinations as well as +the open violence of those monks who are called my sons, and who +are entrusted to me as their abbot, which is to say their father. + +Oh, how often have they tried to kill me with poison, even as the +monks sought to slay St. Benedict! Methinks the same reason which +led the saint to abandon his wicked sons might encourage me to +follow the example of so great a father, lest, in thus exposing +myself to certain peril, I might be deemed a rash tempter of God +rather than a lover of Him, nay, lest it might even be judged that +I had thereby taken my own life. When I had safeguarded myself to +the best of my ability, so far as my food and drink were concerned, +against their daily plottings, they sought to destroy me in the +very ceremony of the altar by putting poison in the chalice. One +day, when I had gone to Nantes to visit the count, who was then +sick, and while I was sojourning awhile in the house of one of my +brothers in the flesh, they arranged to poison me, with the +connivance of one of my attendants, believing that I would take no +precautions to escape such a plot. But divine providence so ordered +matters that I had no desire for the food which was set before me; +one of the monks whom I had brought with me ate thereof, not +knowing that which had been done, and straightway fell dead. As for +the attendant who had dared to undertake this crime, he fled in +terror alike of his own conscience and of the clear evidence of his +guilt. + +After this, as their wickedness was manifest to every one, I began +openly in every way I could to avoid the danger with which their +plots threatened me, even to the extent of leaving the abbey and +dwelling with a few others apart in little cells. If the monks knew +beforehand that I was going anywhere on a journey, they bribed +bandits to waylay me on the road and kill me. And while I was +struggling in the midst of these dangers, it chanced one day that +the hand of the Lord smote me a heavy blow, for I fell from my +horse, breaking a bone in my neck, the injury causing me greater +pain and weakness than my former wound. + +Using excommunication as my weapon to coerce the untamed +rebelliousness of the monks, I forced certain ones among them whom +I particularly feared to promise me publicly, pledging their faith +or swearing upon the sacrament, that they would thereafter depart +from the abbey and no longer trouble me in any way. Shamelessly and +openly did they violate the pledges they had given and their +sacramental oaths, but finally they were compelled to give this and +many other promises under oath, in the presence of the count and +the bishops, by the authority of the Pontiff of Rome, Innocent, who +sent his own legate for this special purpose. And yet even this did +not bring me peace. For when I returned to the abbey after the +expulsion of those whom I have just mentioned, and entrusted myself +to the remaining brethren, of whom I felt less suspicion, I found +them even worse than the others. I barely succeeded in escaping +them, with the aid of a certain nobleman of the district, for they +were planning, not to poison me indeed, but to cut my throat with a +sword. Even to the present time I stand face to face with this +danger, fearing the sword which threatens my neck so that I can +scarcely draw a free breath between one meal and the next. Even so +do we read of him who, reckoning the power and heaped-up wealth of +the tyrant Dionysius as a great blessing, beheld the sword secretly +hanging by a hair above his head, and so learned what kind of +happiness comes as the result of worldly power (Cicer. 5, Tusc.) +Thus did I too learn by constant experience, I who had been exalted +from the condition of a poor monk to the dignity of an abbot, that +my wretchedness increased with my wealth; and I would that the +ambition of those who voluntarily seek such power might be curbed +by my example. + +And now, most dear brother in Christ and comrade closest to me in +the intimacy of speech, it should suffice for your sorrows and the +hardships you have endured that I have written this story of my own +misfortunes, amid which I have toiled almost from the cradle. For +so, as I said in the beginning of this letter, shall you come to +regard your tribulation as nought, or at any rate as little, in +comparison with mine, and so shall you bear it more lightly in +measure as you regard it as less. Take comfort ever in the saying +of Our Lord, what he foretold for his followers at the hands of the +followers of the devil: "If they have persecuted me, they will also +persecute you (John xv, 20). If the world hate you, ye know that it +hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world +would love his own" (ib. 18-19). And the apostle says: "All that +will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim. +iii, 12). And elsewhere he says: "I do not seek to please men. For +if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" +(Galat. i, 10). And the Psalmist says: "They who have been pleasing +to men have been confounded, for that God hath despised them." + +Commenting on this, St. Jerome, whose heir methinks I am in the +endurance of foul slander, says in his letter to Nepotanius: "The +apostle says: 'If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of +Christ.' He no longer seeks to please men, and so is made Christ's +servant" (Epist. 2). And again, in his letter to Asella regarding +those whom he was falsely accused of loving: "I give thanks to my +God that I am worthy to be one whom the world hates" (Epist. 99). +And to the monk Heliodorus he writes: "You are wrong, brother, you +are wrong if you think there is ever a time when the Christian does +not suffer persecution. For our adversary goes about as a roaring +lion seeking what he may devour, and do you still think of peace? +Nay, he lieth in ambush among the rich." + +Inspired by those records and examples, we should endure our +persecutions all the more steadfastly the more bitterly they harm +us. We should not doubt that even if they are not according to our +deserts, at least they serve for the purifying of our soul. And +since all things are done in accordance with the divine ordering, +let every one of true faith console himself amid all his +afflictions with the thought that the great goodness of God permits +nothing to be done without reason, and brings to a good end +whatsoever may seem to happen wrongfully. Wherefore rightly do all +men say: "Thy will be done." And great is the consolation to all +lovers of God in the word of the Apostle when he says: "We know +that all things work together for good to them that love God" +(Rom. viii, 28). The wise man of old had this in mind when he said +in his Proverbs: "There shall no evil happen to the just" +(Prov. xii, 21). By this he clearly shows that whosoever grows +wrathful for any reason against his sufferings has therein departed +from the way of the just, because he may not doubt that these +things have happened to him by divine dispensation. Even such are +those who yield to their own rather than to the divine purpose, and +with hidden desires resist the spirit which echoes in the words, +"Thy will be done," thus placing their own will ahead of the will +of God. Farewell. + + + + +APPENDIX + +PIERRE ABELARD + +Petrus Abaelardus (or Abailardus) was born in the year 1079 at +Palets, a Breton town not far from Nantes. His father, Berengarius, +was a nobleman of some local importance; his mother, Lucia, was +likewise of noble family. The name "Abaelardus" is said to be a +corruption of "Habelardus," which, in turn, was substituted by +himself for the nickname "Bajolardus" given to him in his student +days. However the name may have arisen, the famous scholar +certainly adopted it very early in his career, and it went over +into the vernacular as "Abelard" or "Abailard," though with a +multiplicity of variations (in Villon's famous poem, for example, +it appears as "Esbaillart"). + +For the main facts of Abelard's life his own writings remain the +best authority, but through his frequent contact with many of the +foremost figures in the intellectual and clerical life of the early +twelfth century it has been possible to check his own account of +his career with considerable accuracy. The story told in the +"Historia Calamitatum" covers the events of his life from boyhood +to about 1132 or 1133,--in other words, up to approximately his +fifty-third or fifty-fourth year. That the account he gives of +himself is substantially correct cannot be doubted; making all due +allowance for the violence of his feelings, which certainly led him +to colour many incidents in a manner unfavourable to his enemies, +the main facts tally closely with all the external evidence now +available. + +A very brief summary of the events of the final years of his life +will serve to round out the story. The "Historia Calamitatum" was +written while Abelard was still abbot of the monastery of St. +Gildas, in Brittany. The terrors of his existence there are fully +dwelt on in his autobiographical letter, and finally, in 1134 or +1135, he fled, living for a short time in retirement. In 1136, +however, we find him once more lecturing, and apparently with much +of his former success, on Mont Ste. Genevieve. His old enemies were +still on his trail, and most of all Bernard of Clairvaux, to whose +fiery adherence to the faith Abelard's rationalism seemed a sheer +desecration. The unceasing activities of Bernard and others finally +brought Abelard before an ecclesiastical council at Sens in 1140, +where he was formally arraigned on charges of heresy. Had Abelard's +courage held good, he might have won his case, for Bernard was +frankly terrified at the prospect of meeting so formidable a +dialectitian, but Abelard, broken in spirit by the prolonged +persecution from which he had suffered, contented himself with +appealing to the Pope. The indefatigable Bernard at once proceeded +to secure a condemnation of Abelard from Rome, whither the accused +man set out to plead his case. On the way, however, he collapsed, +both physically and in spirit, and remained for a few months at the +abbey of Cluny, whence his friends removed him, a dying man, to the +priory of St. Marcel, near Chalons-sur-Saone. Here he died on April +21, 1142. + +A discussion of Abelard's position among the scholastic +philosophers would necessarily go far beyond the proper limits of a +mere historical note. He stands out less commandingly as a +constructive philosopher than as a master of dialectics. He was, as +even his enemies admitted, a brilliant teacher and an unconquerable +logician; he was, moreover, a voluminous writer. Works by him which +have been preserved include letters, sermons, philosophical and +religious treatises, commentaries on the Bible, on Aristotle and on +various other books, and a number of poems. + +Many of the misfortunes which the "Historia Calamitatum" relates +were the direct outcome of Abelard's uncompromising position as a +rationalist, and the document is above all interesting for the +picture it gives of the man himself, against the background of +early twelfth century France. A few dates will help the general +reader to connect the life surrounding Abelard with other and more +familiar facts. William the Conqueror had entered England thirteen +years before Abelard's birth. The boy was eight years old when the +Conqueror died near Rouen during his struggle with Philip of +France. He was seventeen when the First Crusade began, and twenty +when the crusaders captured Jerusalem. + +Two of the men who most profoundly influenced the times in which +Abelard lived were Hildebrand, famous as Pope Gregory VII, and +Louis VI (the Fat), king of France. It was to Hildebrand that the +Church owed much of that regeneration of the spirit which gave it +such vitality throughout the twelfth century. Hildebrand died, +indeed, when Abelard was only six years old, but he left the Church +such a force in the affairs of men as it had never been before. As +for Louis the Fat, who reigned from 1108 to 1137, it was he who +began to lift the royal power in France out of the shadow which the +slothfulness and incompetence of his immediate predecessors, Henry +I and Philip I, had cast over it. Discerning enough to see that the +chief enemies of the crown were the great nobles, and constantly +advised by a minister of exceptional wisdom, Suger, abbot of St. +Denis, Louis did his utmost to protect the towns and the churches, +and to bring that small part of France wherein his power was felt +out of the anarchy and chaos of the eleventh century. + +It was the France of Louis VI and Sager which formed the background +for the great battle between the realists and the nominalists, the +battle in which Abelard played no small part. His life was divided +between the towns wherein he taught and the Church which +alternately welcomed and denounced him. His fellow-disputants have +their places in the history of philosophy; the story of Abelard's +love for Heloise has set him apart, so that he has lived for eight +centuries less as a fearless thinker and masterly logician than as +one of the glowingly romantic figures of the Middle Ages. + + +"A FRIEND" + +It is not known to whom Abelard's letter was addressed, but it may +be guessed that the writer intended it to reach the hands of +Heloise. This actually happened, and the first and most famous +letter from Heloise to Abelard was substantially an answer to the +"Historia Calamitatum." + + +WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX + +William of Champeaux (Gulielmus Campellensis) was born about 1070 +at Champeaux, near Melun. He studied under Anselm of Laon and +Roscellinus, his training in philosophy thereby being influenced by +both realism and nominalism. His own inclination, however, was +strongly towards the former, and it was as a determined proponent +of realism that he began to teach in the school of the cathedral of +Notre Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103. In 1108 he withdrew +to the abbey of St. Victor, and subsequently became bishop of +Chalons-sur-Marne. He died in 1121. As a teacher his influence was +wide; he was a vigorous defender of orthodoxy and a passionate +adversary of the heterodox philosophy of his former master, +Roscellinus. That he and Abelard disagreed was only natural, but +Abelard's statement that he argued William into abandoning the +basic principles of his philosophy is certainly untrue. + + +"THE UNIVERSALS" + +It is not within the province of such a note as this to discuss in +detail the great controversy between the realists and the +nominalists which dominated the philosophical and, to some extent, +the religious thought of France during the first half of the +twelfth century. In brief, the realists maintained that the idea is +a reality distinct from and independent of the individuals +constituting it; their motto, _Universalia sunt realia_, was +readily capable of extension far beyond the Church, and William of +Champeaux himself carried it to the extent of arguing that nothing +is real but the universal. The nominalists, on the other hand, +argued that "universals" are mere notions of the mind, and that +individuals alone are real; their motto was _Universalia sunt +nomina_. Thus the central question in the long controversy +concerned the reality of abstract or incorporate ideas, and it is +to be observed that the realists held views diametrically opposite +to those which the word "realism" today implies. In upholding the +reality of the idea, they were what would now be called idealists, +whereas their opponents, denying the reality of abstractions and +insisting on that of the concrete individual or object, were +realists in the modern sense. + +The peculiar importance of this controversy lay in its effect on +the status of the Church. If nominalism should prevail, then the +Church would be shorn of much of its authority, for its greatest +power lay in the conception of it as an enduring reality outside of +and above all the individuals who shared in its work. It is not +strange, then, that the ardent realism of William of Champeaux +should have been outraged by the nominalistic logic of Abelard. +Abelard, indeed, never went to such extreme lengths as the +arch-nominalist, Roscellinus, who was duly condemned for heresy by +the Council of Soissons in 1092, but he went quite far enough to +win for himself the undying enmity of the leading realists, who +were followed by the great majority of the clergy. + + +PORPHYRY + +The Introduction ("Isagoge") to the Categories of Aristotle, +Written by the Greek scholar and neoplatonist Porphyry in the third +century A.D., was translated into Latin by Boetius, and in this +form was extensively used throughout the Middle Ages as a +compendium of Aristotelian logic. As a philosopher Porphyry was +chiefly important as the immediate successor of Plotinus in the +neoplatonic school at Rome, but his "Isagoge" had extraordinary +weight among the medieval logicians. + + +PRISCIAN + +The _Institutiones grammaticae_ of Priscian (Priscianus +Caesariensis) formed the standard grammatical and philological +textbook of the Middle Ages, its importance being fairly indicated +by the fact that today there exist about a thousand manuscript +copies of it. + + +ANSELM + +Anselm of Laon was born somewhere about 1040, and is said to have +studied under the famous St. Anselm, later archbishop of +Canterbury, at the monastery of Bec. About 1070 he began to teach +in Paris, where he was notably successful. Subsequently he returned +to Laon, where his school of theology and exegetics became the most +famous one in Europe. His most important work, an interlinear gloss +on the Scriptures, was regarded as authoritative throughout the +later Middle Ages. He died in 1117. That he was something of a +pedant is probable, but Abelard's picture of him is certainly very +far from doing him justice. + + +ALBERIC OF RHEIMS AND LOTULPHE THE LOMBARD + +Of these two not much is known beyond what Abelard himself tells +us. ALberic, indeed, won a considerable reputation, and was highly +recommended to Pope Honorius II by St. Bernard. In 1139 Alberic +seems to have become archbishop of Bourges, dying two years later. +Lotulphe the Lombard is referred to by another authority as +Leutaldus Novariensis. + + +ST. JEROME + +The enormous scholarship of St. Jerome, born about 340 and dying +September 30, 420, made him not only the foremost authority within +the Church itself throughout the Middle Ages, but also one of the +chief guides to secular scholarship. Abelard repeatedly quotes from +him, particularly from his denunciation of the revival of Gnostic +heresies by Jovinianus and from some of his voluminous epistles. He +also refers extensively to the charges brought against Jerome by +reason of his teaching of women at Rome in the house of Marcella. +One of his pupils, Paula, a wealthy widow, followed him on his +journey through Palestine, and built three nunneries at Bethlehem, +of which she remained the head up to the time of her death in 404. + + +ST. AUGUSTINE + +Regarding the position of St. Augustine (354-430) throughout the +Middle Ages, it is here sufficient to quote a few words of Gustav +Krueger: "The theological position and influence of Augustine may be +said to be unrivalled. No single name has ever exercised such power +over the Christian Church, and no one mind ever made so deep an +impression on Christian thought. In him scholastics and mystics, +popes and opponents of the papal supremacy, have seen their +champion. He was the fulcrum on which Luther rested the thoughts by +which be sought to lift the past of the Church out of the rut; yet +the judgment of Catholics still proclaims the ideals of Augustine +as the only sound basis of pbilosopby." + + +ABBEY OF ST. DENIS + +The abbey of St. Denis was founded about 625 by Dagobert, son of +Lothair II, at some distance from the basilica which the clergy of +Paris had erected in the fifth century over the saint's tomb. Long +renowned as the place of burial for most of the kings of France, +the abbey of St. Denis had a particular importance in Abelard's day +by reason of its close association with the reigning monarch. The +abbot to whom Abelard refers so bitterly was Adam of St. Denis, who +began his rule of the monastery about 1094. In 1106 this same Adam +chose as his secretary one of the inmates of the monastery, Suger, +destined shortly to become the most influential man in France +through his position as advisor to Louis VI, and also the foremost +historian of his time. Adam died in 1123, and his successor, +referred to by Abelard in Chapter X, was none other than Suger +himself. From 1127 to 1137 Suger devoted most of his time to the +reorganization and reform of the monastery of St. Denis. If we are +to believe Abelard, such reform was sorely needed, but other +contemporary evidence by no means fully sustains Abelard in his +condemnation of Adam and his fellow monks. + + +ORIGEN + +The ALexandrian theological writer Origen, who lived from about 185 +to 254, was the most distinguished and the most influential of all +the theologians of the ancient Church, with the single exception of +Augustine. His incredible industry resulted in such a mass of +Writings that Jerome himself asked in despair, "Which of us can +read all that he has written?" Origen's self-mutilation, referred +to by Abelard, was subsequently used by his enemies as an argument +for deposing him from his presbyterial status. + + +ATHANASIUS + +Abelard's tract regarding the power of God to create Himself was +one of the many distant echoes of the great Arian-Athanasian +controversy of the fourth century. St. Athanasius, bishop of +Alexandria, well deserved the title conferred on him by the Church +as "the father of orthodoxy," and it was by his name that the +doctrine of identity of substance ("the Son is of the same +substance with the Father") became known. Much of the life of +Athanasius was passed amid persecutions at the hands of his +enemies, and on several occasions he was driven into exile. + + +RODOLPHE, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS + +Rodolphe, or, as some authorities call him, Rudolph or Radulph, +became archbishop of Rheims in 1114, after having served as +treasurer of the cathedral. His importance among the French clergy +is attested by the many references to him in contemporary +documents. + + +CONON OF PRAENESTE + +Conon, bishop of Praeneste, whose real name may have been Conrad, +came to France as papal legate on at least two occasions. He +represented Paschal II in 1115 at ecclesiastical councils held in +Beauvais, Rheims and Chalons; in 1120 he represented Calixtus II at +Soissons on the occasion of Abelard's trial. + + +GEOFFROI OF CHARTRES + +Geoffroi, bishop of Chartres, the second of the name to hold that +post, was subsequently a warm friend of St. Bernard. Abelard's high +estimate of him is fully confirmed by other contemporary +authorities. + + +ABBOT OF ST. MEDARD + +This abbot was probably, though not certainly, Anselm of Soissons, +who became a bishop in 1145. The chronology, however, is confusing. + + +DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE + +The confusion regarding the identity of Dionysius the Areopagite +persists to this day, at least to the extent that we do not know +the real name of the fourth or fifth century writer who, under this +pseudonym, exercised so profound an influence on medieval thought. +That he was not the bishop of either Athens or Corinth, nor yet the +Dionysius who became the patron saint of France, is clear enough. +Of the actual Dionysius the Areopagite we know practically nothing. +He is mentioned in Acts, xvii, 34, as one of those Athenians who +believed when they had heard Paul preach on Mars Hill. A century or +more later we learn from another Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, that +Dionysius the Areopagite was the first bishop of Athens, a +statement of doubtful value. In the fourth or fifth century a Greek +theological writer of extraordinary erudition assumed the name of +Dionysius the Areopagite, and as his works exerted an enormous +influence on later scholarship, it was quite natural that the +personal legend of the real Dionysius should have been extended +correspondingly. + +The Hilduin referred to by Abelard, who was abbot of St. Denis from +814 to 840, was directly responsible for the extreme phase of this +extension. Accepting, as most of his contemporaries unquestioningly +did, the identity of the theological writer with the Dionysius +mentioned in Acts and spoken of as bishop of Athens, Hilduin went +one step further, and demonstrated that this Dionysius was likewise +the Dionysius (Denis) who had been sent into Gaul and martyred at +Catulliacus, the modern St. Denis. There is no evidence to support +Hilduin's contention, and the chronology of Gregory of Tours is +quite sufficient to disprove it, but none the less it was +enthusiastically accepted in France, and above all by the monks of +St. Denis. + +There was, however, a persistent doubt as to the identity of the +Dionysius whose writings had become so famous. Bede, the authority +quoted by Abelard, was, of course, wrong in saying that he was the +bishop of Corinth, but anything which tended to shake the triple +identity, established by Hilduin, of the Dionysius of Athens who +listened to St. Paul, of the pseudo-Areopagite whose works were +known to every medieval scholar, and of the St. Denis who had +become the patron saint of France, was naturally anathematized by +the monks who bore the saint's name. Bede and Abelard were by no +means accurate, but Bede's inkling of the truth was quite enough to +get Abelard into serious trouble. + + +THEOBALD OF CHAMPAGNE + +Theobald II, Count of Blois, Meaux and Champagne, was one of the +most powerful nobles in France, and by the extent of his influence +fully deserved the title of "the Great" by which he was +subsequently known. His domain included the modern departments of +Ardennes, Marne, Aube and Haute-Marne, with part of Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, +Yonne and Meuse. Furthermore, his mother Adela, was the daughter of +William I of England, and his younger brother, Stephen, was King of +England from 1135 to 1154. Theobald became Count of Blois in 1102, +Count of Champagne in 1125, and Count of Troyes in 1128. Had he so +chosen, he might likewise have become Duke of Normandy after the +death of his uncle, Henry I of England, in 1135. He died in 1152. + + +STEPHEN THE SENESCHAL + +There is much doubt as to whether this Stephen was Stephen de +Garland, _dapifer_, or another Stephen, who was royal chancellor +under Louis the Fat. A charter of the year 1124 is signed by both +Stephen _dapifer_ and Stephen _cancellarius_. Probably, however, +the authority identifying Stephen _dapifer_ as Stephen de Garland, +seneschal of France, is trustworthy. + + +THE PARACLETE + +Among the terms which are characteristic of, or even peculiar to, +the Gospel of St. John is that of "the Paraclete," rendered in the +King games version "the Comforter." The Greek word of which +"Paraclete" is a reproduction literally means "advocate," one +called to aid; hence "intercessor." The doctrine of the Paraclete +appears chiefly in John, xiv and xv. For example: (xiv, 16-17) "And +I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter +(Paraclete) that be may abide with you for ever; even the spirit of +truth." Again: (xiv, 26) "But the Comforter (Paraclete), which is +the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall +teach you all things." With John's words as a basis, the Paraclete +came to be regarded as identical with the Third Person of the +Trinity, but always with the special attributes of consolation and +intercession. + + +NORBERT OF PREMONTRE + +In 1120 there was established at Premontre, a desert place in the +diocese of Laon, a monastery of canons regular who followed the +so-called Rule of St. Augustine, but with supplementary statutes +which made the life one of exceptional severity. The head of this +monastery was Norbert, subsequently canonized. His order received +papal approbation in 1126, and thereafter it spread rapidly +throughout Europe; two hundred years later there were no less than +seventeen hundred Norbertine or Premonstratensian monasteries. +Norbert himself became archbishop of Magdeburg, and it was in +Germany that the most notable work of his order was accomplished. + + +BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX + +Regarding the illustrious St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, it is +needless here to say more than that his own age recognized in him +the embodiment of the highest ideal of medieval monasticism. +Intellectually inferior to Abelard and to some others of those over +whom he triumphed, he was their superior in moral strength, in +zeal, and above all in the power of making others share his own +enthusiasms. Born in 1090, he was renowned as one of the foremost +of French churchmen before he was thirty years old; his share in +the contest which followed the death of Pope Honorius II in 1130 +made him one of the most commanding figures in all Europe. It was +to him that the Cistercian order owed its extraordinary expansion +in the twelfth century. That Abelard should have fallen before so +redoubtable an adversary (see the note on Pierre Abelard) is in no +way surprising, but there can be no doubt that St. Bernard's +"persecution" of Abelard was inspired solely by high ideals and an +intense zeal for the truth as Bernard perceived it. + + +ABBEY OF ST. GILDAS + +Traditionally, at least, this abbey was the oldest one in Brittany. +According to the anonymous author of the Life and Deeds of St. +Gildas, it was founded during the reign of Childeric, the second of +the Merovingian kings, in the fifth century. Be that as it may, its +authentic history had been extensive before Abelard assumed the +direction of its affairs. His gruesome picture of the conditions +which prevailed there cannot, of course, be accepted as wholly +accurate, but even allowing for gross exaggeration, the life of the +monks must have been quite sufficiently scandalous. It was +apparently in the closing period of Abelard's sojourn at the abbey +of St. Gildas that he wrote the "Historia Calamitatum." He endured +the life there for nearly ten years; the date of his flight is not +certain, but it cannot have been far from 1134 or 1135. + + +LEO IX + +Leo IX, pope from 1049 to 1054, was a native of Upper Alsace. It +was at the Easter synod of 1049 that he enjoined anew the celibacy +of the clergy, in connection with which the letter quoted by +Abelard was written. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historia Calamitatum, by Peter Abelard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIA CALAMITATUM *** + +***** This file should be named 14268.txt or 14268.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/2/6/14268/ + +Produced by Nicole Apostola + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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