Heloise

Heloise was a French scholar, nun and abbess, famed in her own time for her learning and remembered for her relationship with her teacher Peter Abelard. After their secret marriage and Abelard's castration she entered religious life and later became abbess of the Paraclete. Her letters to Abelard argue, with philosophical precision, that love should be freely given rather than bound by the interests of marriage, and that inner intention, not outward conduct, makes a person good. They also press Abelard for a rule of life suited to women. She is now read as a philosopher in her own right.

Key ideas

• True love is disinterested: it seeks the beloved, not wealth, rank or security.
• Marriage entered for advantage corrupts love; she wrote that she would rather be Abelard's mistress than an emperor's wife.
• What counts morally is the intention of the heart, so outward religious observance without inner conversion is empty.
• Monastic rules written for men should be adapted to the bodies and circumstances of women.

Major works

• The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (c. 1132–1135)
• Problemata Heloissae (1130s)

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