It will be proper to observe here, that Eloisa, a sensible, beautiful, and noble French lady, was in her youth in love with, and beloved by Abelard, to such an excess, that their love broke through all the fences of honour. Historians relate a very singular circumstance of this woman, which is, that Abelard being desirous of marrying her, she, notwithstanding her prodigious fondness for him, rejected the proposal, and chose rather to continue his concubine than be his wife, alledging as her motive for this conduct, that she would not, by her marriage, deprive the church of the great lustre that might be reflected on it by the sublime genius of Abelard, although in the end, she, by the importunities and threats of her friends and relations, was prevailed on to espouse him. She afterwards took the veil, and became an exemplary religious. She always maintained a very tender and affectionate correspondence with Abelard, but at the same time in very chaste terms, and such as were conformable to the rules of virtue and decorum. As soon as she was informed of Abelard’s death, she begged of St. Peter the Venerable, that he would let her have his body, that she might bury it in the convent where she was prelate; and the pious abbot granted her request. It appears by the epistles of Abelard, that Eloisa was universally beloved and respected for her virtue and discretion. He says, the bishops loved her as a daughter, the abbesses as a sister, and the seculars a mother.
The effect which this generous benignity of St. Peter the Venerable had upon Abelard, was admirable. He not only became a monk, but a most exemplary one, and a shining pattern of all kinds of virtues, of which St. Peter the Venerable gives irrefragable testimony in his letter to Eloisa on the occasion of his death, which letter is filled with the highest eulogiums on the virtues of Abelard. He says in one part of it, that he does not remember to have seen a man so humble as him; and in another, that it was matter of admiration, to observe a person so famous and of so great a name, have so lowly an opinion of himself. In another, he says, his understanding, his tongue, and his works, were always employed on celestial objects. And in another, he compares him to the great Gregory in the following words: Nec (sicut de magno Gregorio legitur) momentum aliquod præterire sinebat, quin semper aut oraret, aut legeret, aut scriberet, aut dictaret. These eulogiums are confirmed, and if possible exceeded, in the Chronicle of the Monastery of Cluny, which says, that, from the time of his taking the habit of a monk, his thoughts, words, and actions, were always divine: Et deinde mens ejus, lingua ejus, opus ejus, semper divina fuere.
XLIV. So that this man, who could not be made to bend to the most learned men of France, who were engaged in continual controversies with him; nor to the force of the civil power, exerted against him various times at the instance of his enemies; nor to the ecclesiastical prelates, nor to the authority of a council, nor to the zeal and learning of a St. Bernard: This man, I say, on whom all these exertions had no influence, submitted to the gentle, compassionate, and benevolent spirit of St. Peter the Venerable. The estimation and tenderness, with which this saint always regarded Abelard after his conversion, was very great, as is evident from two epitaphs he wrote to grace his tomb. I shall insert a part of each of them here, by which may be seen the high opinion he entertained of the learning and wisdom of this eminent man.
First Epitaph.
Gallorum Socrates, Plato maximus Hesperiarum,
Noster Aristoteles, Logicis, quicumque fuerunt,
Aut par, aut melior, studiorum cognitus orbi
Princeps, ingenio varius, subtilis, & acer.
Second Epitaph.
Petrus in hac petra latitat, quem mundus Homerum