The
correspondence between Peter Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil, though initially
a set of private letters, was eventually published and widely circulated
throughout Europe in the years following Heloise’s death. Here, I have attempted a modern (albeit
truncated) recreation of their discussions concerning their relationship. The
conversation is posited as being carried out over Twitter, so as to mimic the
public nature of the actual Letters.
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard: I haven’t heard from you in a while. It’s been pretty lonely here at the
Paraclete.
@PeterAbelard:
I’m grateful to you for setting up this monastery and allowing myself and the
other sisters from Argenteuil to resettle here.
@PeterAbelard:
But do you think you might be able to go online a bit more often? There’s a lot that I want to discuss with
you.
PeterAbelard
@AbbessHeloise: My dear sister in Christ! It’s so good to
hear from you. Things have been quite
hectic lately.
@AbbessHeloise:
People are starting to turn against me for what they call my “heretical”
ideas.
@AbbessHeloise:
Please pray for me. You know how in the
Bible, the greatest of miracles (raising the dead) were performed by
women.
@AbbessHeloise:
So, since we are now united in Christ if not in the flesh, please look after my
soul as best as you are able.
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard: You know, you are sounding really
self-absorbed. Out of love for you, I
agreed to wed you after our affair became known.
@PeterAbelard:
Out of love for you, I agreed to take the veil and devote myself to the service
of Christ. And yet you have withdrawn
from me now. You never tweet me and you never visit.
@PeterAbelard: Whether you like to admit it or not, “you are
bound to me by a greater debt, obliged to me by the sacrament of marriage.”
@PeterAbelard:
For “I have always held you in my heart with a love that has no measure.”
PeterAbelard
@AbbessHeloise: I didn’t realize you were so upset. I wasn’t actively avoiding you; I just
thought that you were at a point in your life where you didn’t feel such a
strong need for me anymore.
@AbbessHeloise:
As for us being married, while we were once living as man and wife, you are now
wedded to the Lord.
@AbbessHeloise: Whatever I now feel towards you is merely as
your brother in Christ, and you too should turn your intense love and devotion
towards Him.
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard: How can you say such things? You know that I’m still a young woman and as
such my desires for you still burn most ardently.
@PeterAbelard: How can I claim to be a woman of God, when
even during the Holy Mass “unholy fantasies of pleasure so enslave my wretched
soul.”
@PeterAbelard:
I think of you always, and not as a brother in Christ, but as a husband and a
lover.
@PeterAbelard:
Please don’t shut me out. I gave up my
entire life for you, and as my husband you are obligated to console and support
me just as I have supported your plans.
PeterAbelard
@AbbessHeloise: Don’t say such scandalous things over
Twitter! You are an abbess! What will
the bishop think?
@AbbessHeloise: It is time for you to leave behind these
silly notions of love and desire which you so cherish. Such thoughts are not
fitting to your vocation, nor will they have any effect on me.
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard: It may be easy for you to make such claims,
but “it remains the hardest thing of all to wrench the heart away from its
desires for the greatest pleasure it has ever known.”
PeterAbelard
@AbbessHeloise: But don’t you see, AbbessHeloise? That is
exactly why God willed that I should suffer such a terrible punishment for my
indiscretions.
@AbbessHeloise:
For it is true that “I was welded to you by desire so hot that I set those low
and degenerate pleasures…ahead of both God and myself.”
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard:
How can you say that God has been merciful in punishing you so, when your
punishment was levied not against an adulterer, but against a married man?
PeterAbelard
@AbbessHeloise: Heloise, are you still so immature that you
cannot grasp this concept? “I was
purged, not deprived of those organs…and the grace of God did nothing else but
rid me of corruption to leave me purified and clean.”
@AbbessHeloise:
Even so, do not doubt that you are truly my inseparable companion, and that you
have managed, as so few do, to turn “the curse of Eve into the blessing of
Mary.”
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard: I feel like I can’t argue with you anymore, PeterAbelard. It’s clear that you will only ever think of
our relationship in terms of your own religiosity.
@PeterAbelard: I hope you know that “where you owed some
comfort you have brought only sorrow.” I
didn’t need a theological lecture! I’m not you student but your wife!
@PeterAbelard: But you obviously have no intention of ever fulfilling
the obligations you’ve incurred to me as my husband.
@PeterAbelard:
At least make yourself useful and come up with an outline for my monastic order
and send it to me via email when it’s done: AbbessHeloise@gmail.com.
PeterAbelard
@AbbessHeloise: Now that is a request which I would be more
than happy to fulfill!
AbbessHeloise
@PeterAbelard:
You have been blocked from following this account at the request of the
user.
All direct quotations are taken from: Levitan,
William, trans. Abelard and Heloise: The Letters and Other Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company,
Inc., 2007.
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