From the Christian Martyrs in Ancient Rome to the suppression of Catharism in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Counter-Reformation and the 30 Years War that followed it, religious condemnation and persecution has been commonplace throughout European History, including the medieval era. Often, this persecution in fact benefitted the persecutors personally, rather than being a selfless act to ensure the faith remained ‘pure’. This was no less true during the 12th century Renaissance – the time of Abelard, Heloise, and Peter the Venerable – than it was for the rest of pre-modern Europe. Abelard was an important philosopher, and why he may have lacked political ambition, he was nevertheless a powerful man (at least, at times). He was persecuted
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T. Clanchy provide a detailed summary, analysis, and a historiographical overview of the text and the academic thought surrounding it. These writings raise several questions key to a thorough understanding of the correspondence between Abelard, Heloise, and Peter the Venerable, including their historical context, personality, and the zeitgeist-constrained writing style. Clanchy notes that the style of the letters between Abelard and Heloise very much conform to the standard of the day, and in their prose they are not exceptional. However, both of the writers use similar stock quotations and mechanics, and for this reason Clanchy argues that they were compiled by a single editor, likely Heloise. However, given the fact that Abelard taught Heloise, and she both respected and adored him, it seems likely that her writing style grew to mimic his, their use of the same quotations arising from their time studying together as well. While some Catholic scholars have attempted to remove the letters between Abelard and Heloise from the scholarship around them ― perhaps in order to preserve their image as dutiful and pious, as Clanchy argues ― the pair of lovers nevertheless represent a divergence from the traditional narrative of the middle ages as a time of repressed sexuality and stoic piety (though Abelard and Heloise certainly attempted to uphold that image in their philosophical rejection of marriage and sex, though they failed to reject either in their actions until after Abelard’s castration). Additionally, the first letter, Historia Calamitatum, was not intended as a private message to a former lover, as the unwary reader might infer, but instead as a likely embellished work that was potentially intended to be used to gain sympathy and support for Abelard, or even to be published in a collection. Going even further, the letter is not a strict autobiographical work, since no such genre existed at the time. Instead,
T. Clanchy provide a detailed summary, analysis, and a historiographical overview of the text and the academic thought surrounding it. These writings raise several questions key to a thorough understanding of the correspondence between Abelard, Heloise, and Peter the Venerable, including their historical context, personality, and the zeitgeist-constrained writing style. Clanchy notes that the style of the letters between Abelard and Heloise very much conform to the standard of the day, and in their prose they are not exceptional. However, both of the writers use similar stock quotations and mechanics, and for this reason Clanchy argues that they were compiled by a single editor, likely Heloise. However, given the fact that Abelard taught Heloise, and she both respected and adored him, it seems likely that her writing style grew to mimic his, their use of the same quotations arising from their time studying together as well. While some Catholic scholars have attempted to remove the letters between Abelard and Heloise from the scholarship around them ― perhaps in order to preserve their image as dutiful and pious, as Clanchy argues ― the pair of lovers nevertheless represent a divergence from the traditional narrative of the middle ages as a time of repressed sexuality and stoic piety (though Abelard and Heloise certainly attempted to uphold that image in their philosophical rejection of marriage and sex, though they failed to reject either in their actions until after Abelard’s castration). Additionally, the first letter, Historia Calamitatum, was not intended as a private message to a former lover, as the unwary reader might infer, but instead as a likely embellished work that was potentially intended to be used to gain sympathy and support for Abelard, or even to be published in a collection. Going even further, the letter is not a strict autobiographical work, since no such genre existed at the time. Instead,