Some dates for Guibert, Abelard, Heloise, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux

1055 Guibert of Nogent born

1067-1104 Guibert a monk at Saint-Germer, where is ordained a priest

1079 Birth of Abelard. He was the eldest son of a castellan who held the castle of La Pallet in Brittany (20km SE of Nantes)

c.1090 Birth of Bernard of Clairvaux. He was the younger son of a Burgundian noble family

c.1095 Heloise is born into prominent Parisian family (uncle is a canon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame)

c.1100 Abelard goes to the Cathedral school of Notre Dame, Paris to study dialectic (philosophy) and rhetoric with Master William of Champeaux.

1102 Abelard falls out with William of Champeaux over the question of ‘universals.’ Abelard defeated William, an extreme Realist, in a public disputation. (William contended that categories of things, e.g. Man, Dog, exist as things in themselves. Abelard argued that when we call Socrates a ‘man,’ we are mentally abstracting features from him held in common with all other men.) Abelard then set up his own school of philosophy at Melun, which he subsequently moved to Corbeil to be nearer Paris, and then to Paris itself in the so-called Latin Quarter

1104 Guibert is elected Abbot of Nogent

1105 Abelard returns home to La Pallet due to ‘exhaustion’

1107 Guibert argues for confirmation of Bishop Gaudry at Langres before Pope Paschal II

1108 Abelard returns to Paris to study again at the cathedral school. Bests William of Champeaux again in disputation.

1112 Abelard establishes his own school at Mont St. Genevieve, outside of Old Paris city walls on the south bank of the Seine. He subsequently returns home to La Pallet for family business

Revolt of the people of Laon against taxation and oppression by nobility and Bishop Gaudry

1113 St. Bernard becomes a Cistercian monk (enters the monastery of Citeaux with about thirty relatives and friends). Abelard goes to Laon to study theology with Master Anselm. Shows up Anselm in public disputation, making enemies of Anselm’s other students. Abelard becomes determined to apply the methods of logic (dialectic) to the study of theology.

1114 Abelard returns once again to Paris to teach.

1115 St. Bernard becomes abbot of a new Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux.

Guibert writes his Monodiae (Memoirs)

1117-8/9 Abelard teaches in Paris; tutors, seduces, impregnates, and marries Heloise

1118/9 Abelard castrated by hirelings of Heloise’s uncle Canon Fulbert; becomes a monk at St. Denis, the royal monastery near Paris; Heloise enters a convent at Argenteuil, also near Paris. They give their son Astrolabe into the care of relatives.

1121 Abelard is kicked out of St. Denis after quarreling with monks; has his

theological writings condemned at the Council of Soissons ‘unjustly’ because of the efforts of students of Anselm of Laon, out to avenge Abelard’s public humiliation of their master. Returns to St. Denis but is expelled again when he proves that the founder of the monastery was not the famous Dionysius the Areopagite as claimed by the monks.

1122 Abelard founds a hermitage which he calls the ‘Paraclete’ (‘Holy Spirit’)

in Champage near Troyes on land given to him by the local bishop. This

hermitage becomes a school as students flock to study with him. Probably

writes Sic et Non.

1125 Guibert dies.

1125-35 Abelard accepts position of abbot of St Gildas in his native Brittany.

Immediately he fights with his monks over their lack of discipline. Claiming that the monks tried to poison his food (and even the sacramental wine), Abelard obtains permission to leave the monastery, though he retains the title of abbot.

1129 Abelard give ‘The Paraclete’ to Heloise and her nuns, who had been

driven out of their convent at Argentuil by the monks of St. Denis, claiming the land as belonging to their monastery. Abelard organizes the convent and advises Heloise and the nuns.

1132 Abelard writes “The History of my Calamities.” Heloise responds with her

first letter to Abelard. Abelard writes his treatise on Ethics in which he argues that moral value depends upon inner intent

1132-8 St Bernard travels through France, Italy, and Germany preaching on behalf

of Pope Innocent II against the claims of the ‘anti-pope’Anacletus II, who was then in possession of the city of Rome.

1139 St. Bernard is made aware of Abelard’s theological writings on the Trinity

by his student, William of St. Thierry, and begins to denounce Abelard’s ideas as heretical

1140 St. Bernard manipulates a Council at Sens to condemn Abelard’s ‘errors.’

Abelard, believing that this was to be a disputation rather than a defense in a heresy trial, refuses to answer the charges and appeals to the pope.

1141 Pope Innocent II responds to a letter from St. Bernard by condemning

Abelard’s teachings as heretical, excommunicating his followers, ordreing his books burnt and Abelard himself to be confined to a monastery under a vow of silence. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, offers Abelard refuge and intercedes on his behalf with the pope and with St. Bernard. St Bernard and Abelard meet and are reconciled.

1142 Abelard dies at Cluny. Pope Innocent II dies and the next pople, Eugene II, a former student of St. Bernard, is driven out of Rome by a communal revolt led by a former student of Abelard, Arnold of Brescia.

1146 St. Bernard preaches the Second Crusade

1153 Death of St. Bernard

1156/7 Death of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny

1163/4 Death of Heloise.