The Letters of Abelard and Heloise

A collection of Latin letters from the 1130s, opened by Abelard's autobiographical letter, the Story of My Misfortunes (Historia calamitatum). There he recounts his rise as a logician in Paris, his quarrels with his teachers, his affair with his pupil Heloise, the birth of their son, their secret marriage, his castration by men sent by her uncle Fulbert, and the condemnation of his book on the Trinity. Heloise, by then head of the convent of the Paraclete, came across the letter and wrote to him. Her letters are the philosophical heart of the collection: she argues that love should be freely given rather than bound by marriage, says she would rather be called his mistress than an emperor's wife, and refuses to pretend to a repentance she does not feel. Abelard replies by urging her towards God. The later letters turn to the history of religious women and a rule for her community. Their authenticity was once questioned but is now widely accepted.

Heloise's letters are among the most searching medieval writing on love, desire and sincerity, and the exchange shows two philosophers testing their ideas against their own lives.