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Abelard and Héloise...is the Pope a Plagiarist ?

November 5th, 2009

United in death but not in life...Plus ça change...

Tonight is the equivalent of July 4th in England: "Guy Fawkes' Night" - I'll leave you to discover what that means by a Google search on your own. In any case it's the night when in England, at least, the fireworks will fly. With that as a lead in....during yesterday's Wednesday's audience Pope Benedict evoked the life of Peter Abelard. In passing he said this:

"Abelard, on the other hand, who is precisely the one who introduced the term "theology" in the sense in which we understand it today, places himself in a different perspective. Born in Brittany, in France, this famous teacher of the 12th century was gifted with a very acute intelligence and his vocation was study. He concerned himself first with philosophy, and then applied the results obtained in this discipline to theology, which he taught in Paris, the most cultured city of the time, and subsequently, in the monasteries in which he lived. He was a brilliant orator: His lessons were followed by true and proper masses of students.

Of a religious spirit but of a restless personality, his life was full of dramatics: He refuted his teachers, had a child with Eloise, an educated and intelligent woman. He was often in controversy with his theological colleagues. He also suffered ecclesiastical condemnations, though he died in full communion with the Church, to whose authority he submitted with a spirit of faith."

It was characteristically gracious of Pope Benedict to gloss over the story of Abelard's dealings with Héloise: ("He refuted his teachers, had a child with Eloise, an educated and intelligent woman."). In point of fact he was referencing one of the Mediaeval "scandals" of the day. Abelard had been engaged to teach a bright young girl 20 years his junior. A brilliant but erratic scholar himself, a noted teacher who fell foul of St. Bernard later in life, he succumbed to the charms of his charge. Despite his minor orders (which were required to pursue studies at the time - even in Anglicanism the celebrated author of the "Alice" books had received the Diaconate in order to study at Oxford in the 19th Century) Abelard and his young charge dallied and marriage became a necessity. Her uncle, a Canon of Notre-Dame de Paris insisted upon this course of action. 

Now I re-tell this tale not because of the scandal involved (it gets far worse as we shall see) but because of a couple of canonical niceties of which the lay-reader may be unaware: first, it is possible to celebrate a marriage in secret (called a clandestine marriage) which is what happened in this case.

Sometimes, for personal reasons, it is necessary to conceal the existence of a marriage because of possible harm that might accrue to the parties involved, physical, moral, financial. Indeed it was pecuniary motives that caused me to officiate at just such a wedding some years ago. When one of the parties passed away, most of her family were still unaware of the marriage !

Héloise was at first mighty reluctant to accept Abelard's hand in marriage because she wanted his career as a philosopher and theologian to prosper - a public marriage would have effectively ended his career. However, she finally consented. Eventually Héloise who had conceived was due for her confinement and in order to preserve the secrecy of the marriage, Abelard sent her to a convent until the child was safely delivered. Her Uncle, Canon Fulbert, thought that Héloise had been rejected by Abelard and arranged for a company of men to take Abelard one night and "surgically" arrange that Héloise would never conceive again. After this event, Abelard and Héloise retired into religious life; Héloise much against her will, Abelard to make amends.  Abelard would later resume his career, Héloise would eventually become an Abbess. There are extant two writings: Abelard's mea culpa - tell-all "Book of Calamities) and letters between Héloise and her legal and Sacramental husband. This is the stuff of which numerous poems, plays, operas etc. are made: the tragic tryst that went south with the Church as the culprit. It is alleged that they met briefly later in life but some dispute this event. Their bodies were transferred to Paris (Père Lachaise Cemetery) in the 19th Century and were entombed together at the monument pictured above. As with all stories that get inflated with time, it is now questioned whether Héloise is buried there at all.

The second canonical "nicety" that this story brings to mind is that not only may a marriage be celebrated clandestinely, it may even be celebrated without a canonical minister. Both the 1917 Code of Canon Law (can. 1098) and the 1983 version provide for this possibility. The relevant canon of the current law reads as follows:

Can. 1116 §1. If a person competent to assist according to the norm of law cannot be present or approached without grave inconvenience, those who intend to enter into a true marriage can contract it validly and licitly before witnesses only:

1/ in danger of death;

2/ outside the danger of death provided that it is prudently foreseen that the situation will continue for a month.

Indeed, the presence of witnesses is not that which constitutes the act of matrimony itself:

"In the same context, Pope Nicholas I made it clear that it is consent alone that brings marriage into existence. Even if all the ceremonies mentioned by him had been omitted, as long as matrimonial consent was present, there existed a marriage. Pope Hadrian II (867-872), successor of Nicholas I, in reply to a question proposed to him in the year 872, answered that, inasmuch as a marriage was entered into utriusque partis assensu, it must be considered a true marriage and was not to be dissolved.

It was for this reason that the Church had trouble with clandestine marriages. True, it was prescribed that marriages should take place publicly; still, if they were entered into secretly, they were considered as true marriages.

The priest is mentioned as taking part in the nuptials from the very beginning. His presence was prescribed either for confirmation of the agreement (marriage) already existing, or for the blessing of it. Despite the fact that his presence was assumed or even called for, nowhere was it prescribed for the validity of the marriage. In fact, marriages contracted apart from his presence were deemed valid as long as consent had been manifested."

The Extraordinary Form of Marriage According to Canon 1098, Rev. Anthony Fus, CUA, 1954 pp 13 & 14

I mention this because I once heard of a sede bishop advising this course of action to a Trad couple on the US east coast who had no access to a Trad priest. The things some Trads get up to ! Mentioning getting up to things; is the Pope a plagiarist ? In preparing for this column I read the article "Abelard" from the Catholic Encylopedia and was most surprised to see a passage from it that closely resembles yesterday's audience. Take a look:

As they say: "You be the judge" !

+TF

PS The fireworks are popping now !

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