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The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
He moved on to theology. She wrote back: I became a nun for you, not for God, and I still miss you. Heloise was the most honest woman of the 12th century.
Who it's for
Heloise's letters are among the most emotionally frank documents of the Middle Ages: years after the affair ended in scandal and violence, and now an abbess, she tells Abelard plainly that she became a nun at his command rather than out of devotion, and that s.
Feelings it meets
What it is
This collection of medieval Latin letters opens with Peter Abelard's autobiographical 'Historia Calamitatum' and continues with personal letters between him and Heloise, followed by letters of direction about monastic life. Abelard tells how he became tutor to Heloise while lodging with her uncle Fulbert, a canon of Notre Dame.
Where to find it
Older translations are public domain: Henry Adams Bellows's 1922 translation of the 'Historia Calamitatum' is free online (Internet Medieval Sourcebook, LibriVox audio), and C. K. Scott Moncrieff's 19.
Before you start
Heads up: Sexual coercion and a violent castration.
Age: Ages 16+
Things do not change; we change.Henry David Thoreau, Walden, “Conclusion”
