learning

Learning of Love

We were united first in the dwelling that sheltered our love, and then in the hearts that burned with it.

There is no way to know what entreaties or wiles Abelard used to seduce his student. Heloise may very well have loved him from the moment they met. The force of his personality, his razor-sharp mind, and his handsome demeanor undoubtedly resulted in an irresistible combination for a young woman. Not yet twenty, she had no hint of how she and her uncle had been manipulated, and she was at just the right age to see Abelard's presence in her life as ordained by Fate -- or by God.

Moreover, rarely have two lovers been so suited to each other as Abelard and Heloise. Both attractive, both extremely intelligent, both enraptured with the arts of learning, they shared an intellectual energy that few couples of any age -- or era -- have been fortunate enough to know. Yet in these early days of intense desire, learning was secondary.

Under the pretext of study we spent our hours in the happiness of love, and learning held out to us the secret opportunities that our passion craved. Our speech was more of love than of the books which lay open before us; our kisses far outnumbered our reasoned words.

However base Abelard's original intentions had been, he was soon overwhelmed by his feelings for Heloise. Finding his once-beloved studies burdensome, his energy for learning flagged, he delivered uninspired lectures, and his poems now focused on love. It wasn't long before his students deduced what had come over him, and rumors swept Paris of the heated affair.

Only Canon Fulbert seemed unaware of the romance that was taking place under his own roof. His ignorance was fostered by his trust in the niece he loved and the scholar he admired. Whispers may have reached his ears, but if so they did not reach his heart.