The Letters of Abelard and Heloise depict a society in which the Catholic Church was

beginning to centralize its power and exert its influence in Western Europe by emphasizing
abstinence, sexual repression, and a fear of womens sexuality. By enforcing a policy of
abstinence among the high clergy and emphasizing abstinence as being favourable in the eyes of
God the Church was able to hold sway in the most personal part of peoples life. Part and parcel
with this was the Churchs portrayal of women as a temptress who will lure men away from a life
of god. All of this will show the extent to which the Church was able to establish a culture that
valued abstinence and as a result feared the power womens sexuality had over men.
In her introduction Betty Radice argues that because of his powerful personality he would
have been able to get away with being married and continuing to teach, but I feel that this is
incorrect, in fact I would say that the opposite would be true. Because of his fame and
opinionated personality Abelard was very unpopular among his peers and they looked for every
opportunity to hinder him, the Councils of Soissons and Sens being prime examples. With these
moments in mind, it is very hard to imagine Alberic of Rheims or Bernard of Clairvaux not
seizing an opportunity to use his marriage to Heloise as a way to ruin his career. Radice also says
that it is more than likely that Aberlard intended for his first letter to be widely circulated as a
way of setting the record straight. On this point I agree with her as it seems consistent with
Abelards personality that he would attempt to use his most powerful weapon, words, to clear his
name. One of the biggest limitations of the Letters is that because they were written so long ago
it is hard for us to fully understand the hardships they went through. While themes of star crossed
lovers and forbidden romance are universal, it is impossible for someone in todays time to truly
understand how difficult it would be for Heloise to transition into life in a convent or Abelards

castration at the hands of Fulbert as we never have, nor are we likely to ever experience any sort
of hardship on that level.
In the time of Abelard and Heloise the Church was starting to reform itself to a more
powerful, centralized hierarchy. Power was moving away from lay rulers and into the hands of
bishops and Rome. In these times the words of a pupil would be attributed to those of his master
as Abelard shows us when he writes that Anselm forbade him from lecturing on scripture
because any mistake which I might write down through lack of training in the subject would be
attributed to him.1 One can see how this would apply to the whole Church as anyone who heard
a priest give a sermon would assume that that would be the same message that the Church wants
to convey. Aberlard himself gives an example of this when he claims that the reason for his book
being burnt at the Council of Soissons was not that they were able to prove he had done anything
wrong, but that the Church would benefit from making an example out of him.2 We see in this
the Church trying to exert its power over one of its most famous followers as well as trying to
silence those whose work go against the teachings of the Church as it tries to present itself in a
unified manner with a single message. As everyone involved in education and higher learning
was associated with the Church they needed to make sure that all their scholars were giving the
same message in order to show to people that they were able to control their members.
With this new power the Church began to start exercising it in not just public affairs, but in
peoples private lives through their policies of abstinence and sexual repression. The Church had
long thought that refraining from carnal pleasures was the way to make God more likely to
1 Radice, Betty, M. T. Clanchy, Peter Abelard, and Heloise. The letters of Abelard and Heloise. (London,
England: Penguin Books, 1974), 8
2 Radice, 24

answer your prayers, Abelard reinforces this when he says The more God is pleased by the
abstinence and continence which women have dedicated to him, the more willing he will be to
grant their prayers.3 We see in this quote how the teachings of the Church supported the idea
that sex was somehow bad and that virginity was a virtue to be praised as a way of pleasing God.
Abelard and Heloise lived at a time when the Church was starting to enforce a policy of celibacy
among its upper clergy and this is shown in the letters as Heloise objects to their marriage in part
because she knew that it would irreparably damage Abelards reputation as he could not rise
through the ranks of the Church as a married man.4 This would have been done to set an example
for the common people as the Church had been criticized for its opulence and corruption which
we see when Abelard describes members of the Church attending mass decked out in precious
ornaments like those of the worldly men to whom they display them5. Not even sex after
marriage was considered safe. Though we hear from Abelard that a womans most important job
is to be good in bed Such a wife desires private, not public delights with her husband, and
would rather be experienced in bed than seen at a table6 he still feels guilty for having sex with
Heloise even when she was his wife.7 Even Heloise who seems utterly miserable with her station
in life believes that her crimes of passion were so great that her punishment was deserved saying
that The sequel is a fitting punishment for my former sins, and an evil beginning must be

3 Radice, 8
4 Radice, 13
5 Radice, 76
6 Radice, 75
7 Radice, 80

expected to come to a bad end.8 This shows how serious people in those days felt about
improper sex, believing that a life of misery in a convent was just punishment for what we today
would view as normal sexual relations between an unmarried couple. On top of this, the Church
even forbade marital sex on certain days such as during lent9, showing that even though sex in
marriage was sanctified by God, it was still considered something dirty and wrong. These kinds
of levels of abstinence were obviously very difficult for people to follow and this shows in
Heloise when she describes in her letters how she cannot stop her dreaming of her days of
passion with Abelard and even in mass she cannot stop thinking lustful thoughts.10
As a way of enforcing their goals of abstinence and sexual repression the Church painted women
as seductresses who would lead men away from God. Abelard shows this throughout the letters
quoting pieces of scripture such as Women make even the wise forsake their wives.11 Even
Heloise herself believes that women cause men to stray from the path of God. She quotes
Proverbs saying Her house is the way of hell, and leads down to the halls of death12 and then
continues by bringing up the stories of Samson, Job, and Solomon,13 three biblical figures who
were all betrayed by women. We see in this how scared people were of a womans sexuality as
they would have believed that if some of the greatest and wisest men of the bible could be
corrupted so easily, then it would surely destroy any normal man and turn him away from God.
8 Radice, 67
9 Radice, 81
10 Radice, 68
11 Radice, 83
12 Radice, 66
13 Radice, 67

This resulted in what would be seen as a necessary segregation of men and women as It is all
too easy for the souls of men and women to be destroyed if they live together in one place.14
This belief that women would corrupt men was so strong that Heloise even asks Abelard for
advice on what to do with having women all living together as Surely nothing is so conducive
to a womans seduction as womans flattery, nor does a woman pass on the foulness of a
corrupted mind so readily to any but another woman.15 The fact that a woman, even one so
intelligent and well educated as Heloise, could believe that the presence of other women would a
corrupting influence shows just how deep seated this fear of the corrupting influence of a
womans sexuality was.
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise show a society that is being pushed the Church in to
abstinence and sexual repression, creating a fear of sexuality in women. We see a Church
pushing the limits of its influence in peoples lives as it tries get ever more powerful. Along with
this we see a society that has begun to fear sexuality and fear the women they think will steer
them from God. While we may look at this and see nothing more than the extremism that comes
from an uneducated society which we have long since left behind, we need only look at the
American bible belt or Saudi Arabia to see the religious extremism of Abelard and Heloises
right on our doorstep. By studying these periods in history such as that of Abelard and Heloise
we can hope to find a way to avoid making the mistakes of past to ensure that our society is not
one of oppression and superstition but one of logic and equality.

14 Radice, 94
15 Radice, 95

Bibliography
Clanchy, M. T., In Todays Scholarship in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. London:
Penguin Books. 2003
Radice, Betty, M. T. Clanchy, Peter Abelard, and Heloise. The letters of Abelard and Heloise.
London, England: Penguin Books. 1974.
Radice, Betty. Introduction in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. London: Penguin Books.
1974

Abelard and Heloise: The Rising Church and Sexual

Repression in the Middle Ages
Dr. Lindeman
History 2DD3
October 9, 2015
By Angus Chalmers
1327799