Soulmates

    I strongly believe that, scattered throughout the world, there are special instances of love that transcends any definition or comparison.  Two people meet:  eyes, hands, and heart;  and the very fabric of the world is never again the same.  That is not to say that the rest of the couples in the world are not happily in love.  But these few, special couples share something completely indescribable by that word, something above and beyond the love that the rest of the world revels in.  This something cannot be hidden, and can only be wondered at and celebrated by those who witness it.  These special couples throughout history have been admired, at times envied,  and always celebrated by the world around them.  Here is a small collection of some such couples whose love is a shining light to this day.

Peter Abelard and Heloise

Peter Abelard (1079-1142)was a scholar and theologian in Paris, among the favorites in the cathedral schools of Notre Dame.  Abelard's thesis was that nothing should be accepted unless it could be proved.  This was a break from the current theologians, who, with the church, argued that religious faith should be first.  Abelard was a transitional figure, and was arguably the first modern thinker.  Likewise, his love affair with Heloise was one of the first modern love affairs because they enjoyed each other not only sexually but also intellectually.

Heloise (1101-1164) was a very well-educated woman for her day.  She came to Paris at the age of seventeen to live with her Uncle and continue her studies. Abelard was then thirty-eight.  He knew of her before they met, and respected her for her education and beauty.  He arranged to be her tutor, and thus the love affair between Heloise and the twenty-two year older Abelard began.  Abelard later wrote of their love in his autobiographical Historia Calamitatum, or The Story of My Misfortunes:

We were united first in the dwelling that sheltered our love, and then in the hearts that burned with it.   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.  Our hands sought less the book than each other's bosoms -- love drew our eyes together far more than the lesson drew them to the pages of our text.  No degree in love's progress was left untried by our passion, and if love itself could imagine any wonder as yet unknown, we discovered it.  And our inexperience of such delights made us all the more ardent in our pursuit of them, so that our thirst for one another was still unquenched.

Heloise became pregnant, and Abelard sent her to stay with his sister until the child was born, much to the dismay and anger of her uncle.  Heloise bore a son, and named him Astrolabe.   Abelard convinced Heloise to marry him, but she insisted that the marriage be kept a secret to protect him and his career.  Despite their love and secret marriage, Heloise's uncle was furious with Abelard for what he considered his poor treatment of Heloise. (and because he had been robbed of the dowry!)  As a result, the uncle sent hired thugs to attack and castrate Abelard.  With no other recourse, Abelard retired to a Benedictine monastary to live out the rest of his days unhappily as a monk.   Heloise likewise joined a convent, and lived a more successful life as a nun.   In 1132 they began writing their famous exchange of love letters, in which Heloise proved herself constant in her love for him until the end.

When Heloise finally died in 1164, her body was laid with Abelard, where he had been entombed twenty-two years before.  Legend has it that when they opened his grave to place her by his side, he opened his arms to receive her. . .

More Soulmates

Reset April 5, 1999