Famous Affinities of History | Page 8

were great schools of theology, but the students who attended them
fought and slashed one another. If a man's life was threatened he must
protect it by his own strength or by gathering about him a band of
friends. No one was safe. No one was tolerant. Very few were free
from the grosser vices. Even in some of the religious houses the
brothers would meet at night for unseemly revels, splashing the stone
floors with wine and shrieking in a delirium of drunkenness. The rules
of the Church enjoined temperance, continence, and celibacy; but the
decrees of Leo IX. and Nicholas II. and Alexander II. and Gregory
were only partially observed.
In fact, Europe was in a state of chaos--political and moral and social.
Only very slowly was order emerging from sheer anarchy. We must
remember this when we recall some facts which meet us in the story of
Abelard and Heloise.
The jealousy of Champeaux drove Abelard for a time from Paris. He
taught and lectured at several other centers of learning, always admired,
and yet at the same time denounced by many for his advocacy of reason
as against blind faith. During the years of his wandering he came to
have a wide knowledge of the world and of human nature. If we try to
imagine him as he was in his thirty- fifth year we shall find in him a
remarkable combination of attractive qualities.
It must be remembered that though, in a sense, he was an ecclesiastic,
he had not yet been ordained to the priesthood, but was rather a
canon--a person who did not belong to any religious order, though he
was supposed to live according to a definite set of religious rules and as
a member of a religious community. Abelard, however, made rather
light of his churchly associations. He was at once an accomplished man
of the world and a profound scholar. There was nothing of the recluse
about him. He mingled with his fellow men, whom he dominated by
the charm of his personality. He was eloquent, ardent, and persuasive.
He could turn a delicate compliment as skilfully as he could elaborate a
syllogism. His rich voice had in it a seductive quality which was never
without its effect.

Handsome and well formed, he possessed as much vigor of body as of
mind. Nor were his accomplishments entirely those of the scholar. He
wrote dainty verses, which he also set to music, and which he sang
himself with a rare skill. Some have called him "the first of the
troubadours," and many who cared nothing for his skill in logic
admired him for his gifts as a musician and a poet. Altogether, he was
one to attract attention wherever he went, for none could fail to
recognize his power.
It was soon after his thirty-fifth year that he returned to Paris, where he
was welcomed by thousands. With much tact he reconciled himself to
his enemies, so that his life now seemed to be full of promise and of
sunshine.
It was at this time that he became acquainted with a very beautiful
young girl named Heloise. She was only eighteen years of age, yet
already she possessed not only beauty, but many accomplishments
which were then quite rare in women, since she both wrote and spoke a
number of languages, and, like Abelard, was a lover of music and
poetry. Heloise was the illegitimate daughter of a canon of patrician
blood; so that she is said to have been a worthy representative of the
noble house of the Montmorencys-- famous throughout French history
for chivalry and charm.
Up to this time we do not know precisely what sort of life Abelard had
lived in private. His enemies declared that he had squandered his
substance in vicious ways. His friends denied this, and represented him
as strict and chaste. The truth probably lies between these two
assertions. He was naturally a pleasure-loving man of the world, who
may very possibly have relieved his severer studies by occasional
revelry and light love. It is not at all likely that he was addicted to gross
passions and low practices.
But such as he was, when he first saw Heloise he conceived for her a
violent attachment. Carefully guarded in the house of her uncle, Fulbert,
it was difficult at first for Abelard to meet her save in the most casual
way; yet every time that he heard her exquisite voice and watched her
graceful manners he became more and more infatuated. His studies

suddenly seemed tame and colorless beside the fierce scarlet flame
which blazed up in his heart.
Nevertheless, it was because of these studies and of his great reputation
as a scholar that he managed to obtain access to Heloise. He flattered
her