XXVII.

EPISTLE OF ABELARD TO HELOISE.

To the Spouse of Christ, the Servant of the same.

TO HELOISE ABELARD.

YOUR last letter, I remember, is summed up in four points, into which you have disposed the vivid expression of your complaints. At first, indeed, you complain that, contrary to the custom in letters, even contrary to the natural order of things, my letter directed to you placed you before me in the salutation. In the second place, you complain that I increased your desolation, when I ought to have offered consolation, and that I excited the tears which it was my duty to wipe away, by saying: "If the Lord should deliver me into the hands of my enemies, and they prevailing over me should put me to death," etc. In the third place, comes up again that old and perpetual complaint of yours against Providence, about the mode of our conversion to God, and the cruelty of the treachery practised against me. Finally, you accuse

yourself, in opposition to my praise, and earnestly supplicate me to address you no more in that manner.

I have determined to answer your objections singly, not so much for my own justification as for your instruction and encouragement; that you may assent to my commands the more freely, when you shall learn that they are reasonable; that you may listen so much the more attentively in regard to things which pertain to you, as you shall find me the less reprehensible in regard to things which pertain to myself; and that you may fear so much the more to contemn me, as you shall find me the less worthy of reprehension.

In regard to the preposterous order of my salutation, as you call it, you will recognize, by giving diligent attention to it, that I have acted in accordance with your own sentiment. For, what all can see, you have yourself said, that when we write to superiors their names must come first. You know that you became my superior, and that you began to be my mistress* from the time when you were made the spouse of my master, according to the words of St. Jerome, writing to Eustochia: "This is the reason why I write, my mistress Eustochia. Surely I ought to call the spouse of my master my mistress." It is a happy nuptial exchange, that you, at first the wife of

* Domina mea esse cœpisti. It is hardly necessary to say that the word mistress is used in its highest sense.

a wretched human creature, should be elevated to the couch of the highest king. Neither is the privilege of this honor extended to your former husband alone, but to all other servants of the same king. Be not astonished, therefore, if I commend myself to you as, living or dead, the subject of your prayers; for it is every where admitted that the intercession of a spouse with her lord is more powerful than that of a servant, and that the voice of a mistress has more authority than that of a slave.

As the model of these, the queen and spouse of the Sovereign King is described with care in these words of the Psalmist: "Upon thy right hand did stand the queen, in gold of Ophir." In other words, she remains familiarly by her spouse, and walks side by side with him, whilst all others keep far away, or follow at a respectful distance. Filled with the sentiment of her glory and her prerogative, the spouse in Canticles exultingly says: "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem." And again: "Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me."

It is true that these words describe in general the contemplative soul, which is specially named the spouse of Christ, yet they pertain still more expressly to you, as the habit which you wear proves.

Surely the exterior garment of black, or coarser material, like the mourning habit of good widows, who

bewail their deceased husbands whom they loved, shows that you, according to the Apostle, are truly widowed and desolate in this world, and ought to be supported from the revenues of the church. The grief of those widows, on account of the death of their Lord, is commemorated in the Scripture, where they are described as sitting by the sepulchre and weeping.

The Ethiopian is black, and so far as the exterior is concerned, appears to other women deformed; nevertheless, she does not yield to them in interior beauties, but in most respects is more beautiful and whiter.*

* Habet autem Æthiopissa exteriorem in carne nigredinem, et quantum ad exteriora pertinet, cæteris apparet feminis deformior; cùm non sit tamen in interioribus dispar, sed in plerisque etiam formosior, atque candidior, sicut in ossibus seu dentibus. Quorum videlicet dentium candor in ipso etiam commendatur sponso, cùm dicitur: "Et dentes ejus lacte candidores."

Nigra itaque in exterioribus, sed formosa in interioribus est; quia in hàc vitâ crebris adversitatum tribulationibus corporaliter afflicta quasi in carne nigrescit exteriùs, juxtà illud Apostoli: "Omnes qui volunt piè vivere in Christo tribulationem patientur." Sicut enim candido prosperum, ità non incongruè nigro designatur adversum. Intùs autem, quasi in ossibus, candet, quia in virtutibus ejus anima pollet, sicut scriptum est: "Omnis gloria ejus filiæ regis ab intùs." Ossa quippè, quæ interiora sunt, exteriori carne circumdata, et ipsius carnis, quam gerunt, vel sustentant, robur ac fortitudo sunt, benè animam exprimunt, quæ carnem ipsam, cui inest, vivificat, sustentat, movet, atque regit, atque ei omnem valetudinem ministrat. Cujus quidem est candor, sive decor, ipsæ, quibus adornatur, virtutes. Nigra quoque est in exte

Indeed this blackness, the effect of corporeal tribulations, easily detaches the minds of the faithful from the love of mundane things, and elevates them

rioribus, quia dùm in hâc perigrinatione adhuc exulat, vilem et abjectam se tenet in hâc vitâ; ut in illâ sublimentur, quæ est abscondita cum Christo in Deo, patriam jàm adepta. Sic verò eam sol verus decolorat, quia cœlestis amor sponsi eam sic humiliat, vel tribulationibus cruciat; ne eam scilicet prosperitas extollat. Decolorat eam sic, id est dissimilem eam à cæteris facit, quæ terrenis inhiant, et sæculi quærunt gloriam; ut sic ipsa verè lilium convallium per humilitatem efficiatur: non lilium quidem montium, sicut illæ videlicèt fatuæ virgines, quæ de munditiâ carnis, vel abstinentiâ exteriore, apud se intumescentes, æstu tentationum aruerunt. Benè autem filias Hierusalem, id est, imperfectiores alloquens fideles, qui filiarum potiùs, quàm filiorum nomine digni sunt, dicit: "Nolite me considerare quòd fusca sim, quia decoloravit me sol." Ac si apertius dicat: Quòd sic me humilio, vel tàm viriliter adversitates sustineo, non est meæ virtutis, sed ejus gratiæ cui deservio.

Aliter solent hæretici, vel hypocritæ, quantùm ad faciem hominum spectat, spe terrenæ gloriæ sese vehementer humiliare, vel multa inutiliter tolerare. De quorum hujusmodi abjectione, vel tribulatione, quam sustinent, vehementer mirandum est; cùm sint omnibus miserabiliores hominibus, qui nec præsentis vitæ bonis, nec futuræ fruuntur. Hoc itaque sponsa diligenter considerans dicit: "Nolite mirari cur id faciam." Sed de illis mirandum est, qui inutiliter terrenæ laudis desiderio æstuantes terrenis se privant commodis, tàm hîc quàm in futuro miseri. Qualis quidem fatuarum virginum continentia est, quæ à januâ sunt exclusæ.

Bené etiam, quia nigra est, ut diximus, et formosa, dilectam, et introductam se dicit in cubiculum regis, id est, in secretum vel quietem contemplationis, et lectulum illum, de