Pierre Abelard (born 1079, Le Palais, near Nantes - died April 21, 1142, Saint-Marseille Abbey, near Chalon-sur-Saone, Burgundy) - French thinker, scholastic philosopher, theologian, theologian, poet, musician, writer, one of the founders of conceptualism and rationalism in the philosophy of Western Europe in the early Middle Ages.
The life of Pierre Abelard, a medieval French theologian, philosopher and writer, remained in the memory of mankind as a bizarre chain of vicissitudes of fate - for the edification of descendants, as an example of the perniciousness of human passions, and as a romantic love story that has excited the imagination of people for almost a thousand years.
Theologian career
Pierre Abelard was born in Brittany into a noble and wealthy family. In his youth, having discovered the talent of a thinker, Pierre abandons a military career and a rich inheritance in order to devote himself entirely to scientific activity. In the Middle Ages, religious philosophy became the queen of sciences, its representatives aroused unconscious awe among the uninitiated. What was the basis of Abelard's choice of theological path - an endless love of science or a vanity heavily seasoned with pride? Hard to say. Perhaps both. The parents did not give their blessing to Abelard, as if they had a presentiment that his path in this field would be tragic.
The break with his family, which did not accept the choice of his son, deprived Pierre of the usual comfort, prosperity and support of his loved ones. Ahead of the rebel were years of wandering and the half-starved, almost beggarly, existence of a wandering philosopher. But the young adventurer, who despised material goods for the sake of the discoveries of the spirit, did not lose heart, devoting himself with all his passion to the study of the wisdom of medieval treatises. He eagerly listens to the lectures of the recognized leading figures of scientific thought: Roscellinus, the founder of nominalism, and Guillaume de Champeau, the mystic and researcher of realism. Both philosophers become mentors and teachers of the young sage. Two essentially opposite systems - nominalism and realism - lead the young researcher to the need to develop something completely new. Soon Pierre surpasses the famous teachers, substantiating the system of conceptualism. The new doctrine contains both conflicting concepts. The wise principle of the “golden mean” and the dialectic that revived the scholasticism of medieval theories, gave Abelard's system an amazing lightness, freshness and dynamic persuasiveness. Abelard's genius became apparent. No one could compare with him in the art of eloquence and theosophical debate. His verbal battles were excellent both in content and in form, and at times were like virtuoso fencing. Students and audiences, as if hypnotized, listened to the young speaker. While the auditoriums of Abelard's teachers were emptied, the audience at the lectures of the young philosopher grew more and more. If Roscellin took the success of the student for granted, then Professor Guillaume de Champeau treated Pierre's discoveries as his own defeat. Envy, irritation and jealousy of the popularity of the rising "star" poisoned the life of the Parisian luminary so much that the relationship between Champeau and Abelard took on a difficult and hostile character.
Meanwhile, Abelard's fame grew. The young thinker teaches philosophy and theology in several educational institutions - in Melun, Corbeul, then in Paris, at the school of St. Genevieve. In 1113 he was appointed head of the teachers of one of the best schools at the legendary Cathedral of Our Lady of the Notre (Notre Dame) in Paris. Students and colleagues from all lands of Western Europe flock to listen to the amazing lectures of the famous scientist. Parishioners of local churches have deep reverence for a handsome young man who has such a high scholarly authority and nobility of manners. A clear mind, graceful speech, amazing intelligence and erudition of Pierre Abelard draws to his personality the close attention of everyone who encounters him with life. Abelard is living temptation. Among the people who were worried about his bright personality were not only admirers, but also envious people who did not forgive him for obvious superiority, lost competition and strength that gave the young talent undeniable spiritual power over the minds of his contemporaries.
Love victory
Abelard's personality became more and more weighty, more famous. It was considered very prestigious to study with such a famous philosopher. Once Abelard is invited to the house of Canon Fulbert. Soon Fulbert and Abelard agreed that the philosopher would rent a room in the canon's spacious house. Fulbert offers the philosopher fabulous conditions: permanent shelter and full board, a luxurious library and patronage, in exchange for the scientist to become Elöise's mentor and teacher. Very intelligent and gifted, the beautiful Eloise aroused a completely natural, irresistible male interest in Abelard. A mixture of coarse lust and romantic love takes possession of the theology professor. His thoughts are only about his chosen one, passionate nights of love are replaced by days filled with boring morality and sciences. The double life is exhausting for both. Feelings overwhelming Pierre are poured into graceful poems and songs in the medieval spirit, in Latin. Religious asceticism and gentle romance of feelings are mixed in them. At the same time, in his biography, Abelard left frank, even cynical, records where the beginning of a relationship with Heloise is presented to him as a slightly vulgar story about a fatal seducer who corrupted an innocent virgin. By the way, the age difference between Eloise and Pierre was 20 years.
According to the moral rules of that time, a spiritual dignitary did not have the right to marry. Marriage would require giving up a spiritual career. But Eloise became pregnant, Pierre secretly married his beloved. The ardor of love, unexpectedly for Pierre himself, did not fade away, love flared up, affection grew stronger. Eloise adored her husband, the sincerity of the young woman's feelings could not remain unanswered. The seducer lost his head from love, which turned out to be mutual. “Hands more often reached for the body than for books, and the eyes more often reflected love than followed what was written,” writes Pierre in his famous book “The History of My Disasters”. Filled with passion and eroticism, poems and songs quickly became popular, they were passed from mouth to mouth, learned by heart both by commoners and noble townspeople. It was not possible to hide the authorship; they started talking about Abelard's songs everywhere. Soon Héloise's uncle, Fulbert, realized that the beautiful love writings were Abelard’s passionate confessions to Héloise. The secret intimate relationship between a brilliant thirty-seven-year-old teacher and a young student could not go unnoticed and unpunished. Uncle begins to track down the lovers, and one day he finds them naked in the bedroom. There is no point in unlocking. Fulber kicks out the teacher from home, and wants to marry off the guilty niece and send her away, where no one has heard of the family scandal.
At this moment, Abelard decides on a desperate act, which subsequently turned his whole life upside down. He kidnaps Elöise and takes her to Brittany. There Eloise gives birth to a son. The lovers are secretly married, Abelard goes to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and the young mother goes to the monastery in Argente. Abelard is trying to keep his career, but more than anything, he is afraid of losing his beloved. The baby is given into the wrong hands, hoping that this is temporary. However, life develops in such a way that parents will never see their child again.
Life disaster
Six months later, Abelard comes to Eloise's uncle to apologize for everything that happened. He asks for only one thing: that the secret of the marriage of Eloise and Pierre should not be divulged. It seemed that the story should have ended well. But Fulbert, possessing a naturally vengeful disposition, decides on a terrible atrocity. One night he sent people to the philosopher's house who committed a savage, even for those times, reprisals against the unfortunate: they castrated him. The case was made public, and only a strong Christian faith kept Pierre Abelard from voluntarily leaving this life. After a while, having barely recovered from the blow and shame, crippled morally and physically, Abelard, at the request of numerous students, returns to lecturing. He becomes abbot of the monastery of Saint-Denis, and the nineteen-year-old wife, shocked by the misfortune that has occurred, takes monastic vows. The spouses constantly exchange letters in which they throw out all the pain, tenderness and love they have experienced for each other.
Longtime envious and enemies among the clergy of the Abbey of Saint-Denis and scholastic philosophers attack the scientist, accusing him of heresy. At that time, an accusation of this kind could turn into a court of the Inquisition and a death sentence. In 1121 at Soissons, at a council presided over by the papal legate, Abelard's Introduction to Theology was condemned and sentenced to be burned. They wanted to imprison the philosopher in one of the distant monasteries. But the clergy, consisting of former students of Abelard, stood up for the philosopher. Broken, crushed morally, he returned to the monastery of Saint-Denis, but soon, unable to withstand the hostile attitude, he left the monastery for a desolate hermitage near the Seine. As a sign of love for the teacher, hundreds of disciples devoted to Abelard followed him, who built a small village of light huts next to the teacher's dwelling and a small chapel founded and dedicated by Abelard Paraclete. In this place, the monastery of Paraclete, the Comforter, was built by the community that arose around Abelard. This saint was venerated by Abelard. A little later, Eloise will become the abbess of this monastery, settling in these places with her sisters in Christ, according to the will of her beloved husband.
Meanwhile, attacks on the philosopher continued. Abelard's accusers sought out the slightest inconsistencies with generally accepted dogmas in his bold, intellectual and independent thoughts, philosophical works. As a result of clerical intrigues, the matter took a serious turn: Abelard was declared a heretic. He was obliged to leave lectures at St. Genevieve. The success of his lectures for years haunted his envious colleagues, and Abelard's inexplicable power over human minds and souls deprived his enemies of peace. Circumstances were the worst for Abelard, a sad fate awaited him - imprisonment in a monastery. Unable to withstand the persecution and pressure from the church authorities, Abelard fell ill and soon on April 21, 1142, at the age of sixty-two, he died in the monastery of St. Markella, not far from Chalon. On his deathbed, he allowed his wife to transfer his body to her in the monastery of Paraclete. Eloise, who until the end of her life kept sincere love for her husband, looked after his grave and prayed for his soul until her death. She died at the age of 63, after the monastery of the Paraclete was destroyed, the remains of the spouses were transferred to Paris and buried in one common grave for the Abelards spouses in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. By a strange arrival of fate, the spouses, intended for each other, but having spent their entire lives apart, were reunited after death.
The story of the life and love of one of the greatest thinkers of the early Middle Ages has not lost its drama even today. In the life of Pierre Abelard, the words "God is Love" were not just a Christian dogma, but determined his fate for centuries to come. At the grave of Pierre and Héloise, superstitious lovers make wishes, dreaming of happiness. In the treatises of the philosopher today restless living thought beats, giving food to the mind and soul of modern man. Pierre Abelard has long become one of the eternal images of human civilizational culture. A lot of poems, literary works, research are devoted to him. The filmmakers also paid attention to the tragic life of the thinker. Based on his autobiographical treatise, one of the most touching and tragic films of the 20th century was shot - Paradise Stolen (1988, directed by Clive Donner)
