Monday, December 15, 2008

Divinely Romantic

another "guest post" from my friend the wannabe-Abelard

This is from a letter from the real Abelard to his love, Heloise.

Abelard to Heloise:

Nam et tuae Dominus non immemor salutis, immo plurimum tui memor, qui etiam sancto quodam nominis praesagio te praecipue suam fore praesignavit, cum te videlicet Heloissam, id est divinam, ex proprio nomine suo, quod est Elohim, insignivit.

For the Lord hath not been unmindful of thy wellbeing, either -- indeed, he hath been very mindful of thee, for he even pre-designated thee with a certain presaging of name, to especially be his -- when he called thee Heloise, that is, divine (אלוהית), after his own proper name, Elohim."

3 Comments:

Blogger Ariella's blog said...

Is the Abelard wanna-be aware of what happened to Abelard that prevented him both from rising as a priest and from marrying Heloise?

12/17/2008 1:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

(1) Abelard was not a priest at the time of his active relationship with Heloise. It was in the aftermath of that active relationship that he became a monk. Not all monks are priests. (Clanchy's biography of Abelard, p. 11, does refer to a time later in Abelard's life, "when Abelard was abbot of St Gildas and an ordained priest", but that was much later.)

(2) Abelard did marry Heloise, much to her regret.

12/17/2008 1:52 PM  
Blogger Aharonium said...

oh no! What happened to Heloise, Medieval Historian? (Is there a lesson here about not placing women on pedestals?)

12/17/2008 1:57 PM  

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