Caesarius' rule for nuns hasn't been designed specifically for women?
George Valsamis
Post-graduate student/University of Athens
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill East <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, April 01, 1998 9:26 AM
Subject: PERIPATETICUS PALATINUS (22)
>PERIPATETICUS PALATINUS (22)
>
>The Rule which Abelard supplied was the first designed specifically for
>women. A modern feminist (or indeed anyone with common sense) might well
>think that Heloise would have done better to write the rule herself than to
>ask her husband. Actually she does seem to have written her own rule for
>the use of the Paraclete and its dependent houses; it is printed with the
>works of Abelard in Patrologia Latina 178, columns 313-326. In this she
>directly contradicts a number of Abelard's provisions; for example the
nuns
>are to eat pure wheat bread, whereas Abelard had specified that coarse
>grains should be mixed with the wheat.
>
>Most significantly, in order to provide the priests and deacons necessary
>for the services, Abelard had envisaged a double monastery, ruled over by a
>male superior. In Heloise's rule, the abbess is in charge over the monks
>serving the convent. Heloise allows the nuns to go outside for necessary
>business; Abelard had kept them firmly within the cloister.
>
>One might get the impression from Heloise's first letter that the two had
>not met since their entry into the religious life. In fact, there had been
>frequent contacts. In 1129 Suger, Abbot of St Denis, had evicted Heloise
and
>her nuns from Argenteuil. Abelard had made available to them the house of
>the Paraclete, south east of Paris towards Troyes, where he himself had
>lived as a hermit. He had travelled there personally to see them
installed,
>and resolved to spend as much time there as possible to manage their
>affairs, the more especially as the monks of St Gildas were making his life
>a misery.
>
>He begged Heloise to have him buried at the Paraclete, 'where our
daughters,
>or rather, our sisters in Christ may see our tomb more often and thereby be
>encouraged to pour out their prayers more fully to the Lord on my behalf.
>There is no place, I think, so safe and salutary for a soul grieving for
its
>sins and desolated by its transgressions than that which is specially
>consecrated to the true Paraclete, the Comforter, and which is particularly
>designated by his name. Nor do I believe that there is any place more
>fitting for Christian burial among the faithful than one amongst women
>dedicated to Christ.'
>
>His rule for Heloise and her nuns gains a certain dimension if one realises
>that it contains a certain element of teasing. Abelard goes on for several
>pages about the evils of drink, throwing back at her exactly the same texts
>Heloise had used about the number of holes in women's bodies, but to quite
>the opposite effect. The import of his diatribe seems to be that the nuns
>should on no account ever take wine; but when he comes to the point, he
>merely stipulates that they should take a little water with it. He
likewise
>talks about the necessity for rough clothing: no silk or soft garments.
He
>seems to be hinting at horsehair, but eventually settles for lambswool. He
>inveighs against gluttony, and seems to be denying them meat altogether,
but
>eventually specifies a perfectly adequate diet.
>
>
>* * * * *
>Doctor Elasticus
>
>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|