Abelard the Troll

Now, some of you may or may not be familiar with Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

Both his parents had entered monasticism, but he himself studied first and became a respected teacher and theologian in Paris. 

At this point, he falls in love with Heloise, niece of Canon Fulbert, and later when Peter writes and apologises for the events of his life he spares none of the details of the story and recounts all the circumstances of its tragic ending.

Canon Fulbert is rather unhappy to put it lightly with Abelard's interest and Heloise flees to Pallet, where their son, named Astrolabius, was born. I love the name for their son; it's the medieval equivalent of celebrity name as the astrolabe was the scientific insturment de jour as it allowed you to determine sunset/sunrise at any point in the year, tell the time, determine star signs....

It was the smart phone of the age and you can play around with a app version here:

http://java.com/en/download/windows_xpi.jsp

Anyway, Abelard and Heloise are secretly married and Aberlard is castrated by Fulbert (!). Heloise retires to the nunnery of Argenteuil, and he abandons his academic career and goes to St Denis Abbey. However, he seems to have been a difficult personality and various theological quarrels saw him sent to a priory instead, eventually becoming abbot of St Gildas Rhuys in Brittany (their abbot had died). 

Bad luck persued him however and the monks of St Gildas Rhuys tried to poison him (he was too strict appaerently) and he went back to paris. He later clashed with Bernard of Clairvaux and eventually came under the protective wing of Peter the Venerable and he spent the remainder of his days at Cluny. 

Now, what caught my attention was a passage from MS Paris Bibl. nat. Lat. 14443, fol. 438:

"It is said that Peter Abelard, wishing to see the order of the monks of Clairvaux, entered alone in cheap clothing and was very poorly received with the poor. The following day, however, having put on different clothing, he entered their chapter and at once exclaimed: 'For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?' [James 2.2]. 

And from then on they hated him."

Peter Aberlard was a difficult man it is clear, but this excerpt amused me as he was obviously so thick skinned that he had no qualms whatsoever in intentionally trying to find some way of criticising the Cistercians, and then pointing out their shortcomings to their faces using biblical scripture. 

Good trolling Abelard.