Peripateticus Palatinus (4)
Abelard was offered a post at Notre Dame, but was driven from Paris by
William's enmity, and set up his school again in Melun; but when William
moved his own school to a village outside Paris, Abelard returned and began
to teach on the Mont Ste-Geneviève. This is on the left bank of the Seine,
outside the bounds of the city, on the site of the present University of Paris.
He then returned to Brittany at the request of his mother Lucie. His
father Berengar had entered the monastic life and Lucie was preparing to
enter a convent; she needed some help to wind up her affairs. It was by no
means unusual at the time for elderly people to enter the religious life,
any more than it is now unusual for elderly people to enter nursing homes;
indeed religious houses to some extent fulfilled that function.
We need to remember as we consider the subsequent actions of Abelard
and Heloise that his mother and father by this time were a monk and a nun;
that entering the religious life would have seemed to him a perfectly viable
option when circumstances grew difficult; that he had performed a pious
duty in helping his mother move into a convent and may have thought his
father negligent in failing to make this provision for his wife before
entering a monastery himself (of course, we know nothing about Berengar's
health at the time he embraced the religious life; he may have been quite
gaga).
* * * * *
The Supple Doctor
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|