Gospel Animar Options

[RC James]

I

Insight hummed
in Abelard’s classrooms;
logic was seduction’s offshoot.
Virgin thoughts bounded beside him
on sodden or sunny streets.
Devoted to Trinity renewed,
he undid the tacky syllabus
grown musty.

Heloise, niece of Lord Fulbert,
whispered to her classmates,
voicing change.
She released will o’ the wisp
from papers of antiquated hubris,
and looked for a guide, a teacher,
who espoused possibility in all.
In his lecture room, she saw
the half of herself she thought
she’d never find, fast in his eyes.

Clarity spoke to both; beyond breath,
they forsook all to sigh's effusion,
love streamed agua pura freshets
lucid as words that hold their own rain.

II

They embraced, Fulbert blind to it.
Abelard’s lessons bounced
with classics and brimful hearts.
Fulbert caught them flagrante;
the affair, to his knowledge, ended

Heloise sought refuge at his sister’s.
Abelard pleaded the force of love
at her pregnancy, infuriating Fulbert more.
Put off by “sweet chains,”
sure of his imminent boredom,
the prison of marriage unappealing,
she left for a convent.

Abelard’s staff betrayed him
to Fulbert’s thugs; knives flashing in the dark,
they castrated him, his screams alerting neighbors.
Scholars howled misfortune, women nearby
showed him profound tenderness.

Shame, not conviction, turned Abelard
to the monastery; he taught again.
Heloise became first abbess
of the Paraclete Abbey,
child, sister, mother to the world.
Letters show regular contact.

Years later, at a brief reunion in Paris,
they realized their love as the holy key.

Theological snipers plagued Abelard
up to his last retirement,
where he encountered great kindness,
no jealousy, for his learning.

1142 he was gone.

Heloise studied for twenty years more.


History:
Heloise was a gifted student in 12th Century Paris, neice of Notre Dame’s Canon Fulbert. Twenty years her senior, Abelard, a philosopher/teacher, was intrigued by her wit and intelligence, on an intelectual par with him. They became romantically entwined, though such a relationship was forbidden at the time. Heloise became pregnant, and they fled Paris. They were plagued and harrassed by the uncle’s interference in their lives. Heloise escaped to a convent in Argenteuil. Fulbert set his hired assassins on Abelard. Their love endures in countless letters.

[JustDaniel]

Quite a touching historical piece, RC. I feel somewhat more educated beyond my scope.

deLighting in your sharing, Daniel