18 ABELARD failing health compelled him for a time to re- tire to his native air ; but so soon as he had recruited his strength, he returned to the scene of his triumphs, and resumed his place as pupil at the feet of his old master. De Cham- peaux became a monk, but still continued his secular pursuits, and the fiery debates were renewed, in which Abelard again came off victor. De Champeaux was made bishop of Chalons, and his new power was exercised to crush his adversary with other weapons than those of argument. The canon Fulbert had a niece of whose intellectual and personal accomplishments he was justly proud. Ad- miring the talents and distinction of Abelard, he invited him to complete the education of his beautiful niece. Abelard boasted that he taught to Heloise the three languages neces- sary for the understanding of the Scriptures. The relation of master and pupil was not long preserved; a warmer sentiment than esteem seized their hearts, and the unlimited oppor- tunities of intercourse which were afforded them by the canon, who confided in Abelard's age (he was now almost 40) and in his public character, were fatal to the peace of both. The condition of Helolse was on the point of betraying their intimacy. They fled. Fulbert pursued, and Abelard having proposed mar- riage, the enraged uncle consented. On ac- count of Abelard's ecclesiastical ambition, this marriage was to be kept secret ; but Fulbert divulged the fact, which HeloKse, from a spirit of devotion to her lover, denied. Exasperated at his niece's perverseness, Fulbert punished her, and she then fled to Abelard, who placed her in the nunnery of Argenteuil. Fulbert now abandoned himself to a transport Oi" sav- age vindictiveness, and, watching his oppor- tunity, burst into Abelard's chamber with a band of ruffians, and gratified his revenge by inflicting on him an atrocious mutilation. Ful- bert was deprived of his benefice, his goods were confiscated, and his accomplices punished by undergoing the treatment they had inflicted on Abelard. In this affair, Abelard, in his memoirs, admits his own excessive culpability ; he states that he was under evil influence, that he abused the confiding trust of his friend Fulbert, and that he deliberately plotted the seduction of Helolse, who, on her part, was far less blamable than he. The unhappy man, on his recovery from the outrage, sought an asylum in the monastery of St. Denis, and be- came a monk. Heloise took the veil at Argen- teuil. But Abelard's spirit was not crushed ; he continued his public lectures. His great popularity soon drew a crowd of eager stu- dents from all parts, and this roused the mal- ice of his old opponents. He abandoned the field of profane philosophy, and addressed himself to theology. His writings on the Trinity, maintaining doctrines^ to which some of the tenets of the modern Unitarians bear a close resemblance, were made the point of at- tack. In 1121 he was accused of heresy, and a council being called at Soissons, in which he was not allowed to defend his doctrines, hi> works were adjudged heretical, and ordered to be burned. The monks of St. Denis, who were desirous of relieving themselves of a brother whose strict life was a rebuke to their own, now took offence at his opinion that Di- onysius the Areopagite was not the founder of their abbey. For this impiety they followed him up so fiercely that he was compelled to flee, and in a desert place between Nogent and Troyes he built himself a rude hermitage, after the fashion of an anchoret. Many of his pupils followed him into this retreat, and with their assistance he founded the Paraclete. He was now elected abbot of the monastery of St. Gildas de Ruys, in the see of Vannes, but this was a source of further trouble. The feudal lord of the monastery had deprived the monks of their territory for their irregular life, which Abelard himself was no less desirous of re- forming, and thereby ran the risk of assassi- nation within the walls, while, in his desire to. maintain the temporal rights of the convent, he was in little less danger without. He re- gretted the seclusion and independence of the Paraclete. Heloise had been elected abbess of Argenteuil. The demesne of the convent had been claimed by the monks of St. Denis, and the nunnery suppressed. Heloise and her nuns were without home or shelter. In this emergency Abelard offered them the Paraclete to found an institution, and went to assist per- sonally in their establishment there, which was confirmed by a bull of Innocent II. This reunion, after a separation of eleven years, was precious to both ; and he afterward made frequent visits to the Paraclete. His doctrines once more brought persecution upon him. This time St. Bernard was his opponent. Ab6- lard was charged with dogmatizing on the power and nature of the divine essence, there- by attempting to reduce to human comprehen- sion that which Bernard affirmed was, and ought to be, held incomprehensible by all Christians. In 1140 a council was held at Sens, in which Louis VII. in person presided. Abelard's opinions were again adjudged heret- ical, and he was sentenced to perpetual silence. To escape this decree, he appealed to the pope and set out for Rome, and on his road thither he was able to interest Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, in his case. This friend used his efforts on his behalf, and procured an ab- solution from the holy father. Abelard died at St. Marcel, near Chalon, whither he had gone from Cluny for his health. His body was delivered to HeloYse, and by her interred at the Paraclete, where she herself was afterward buried by his side. In 1792 the Paraclete was sold, and the remains of the two lovers were removed to the church of Nogent-sur-Seine. They were exhumed in 1800 and placed in the garden of the Musee Francais in Paris, and in 1817 were deposited beneath a mausoleum in the cemetery of P6re la Chaise. The position
