A letter from Peter Abelard ()

Translated letter:

When I finished the little book of hymns and sequences which you asked me for, sister Heloise, to be venerated in Christ and loved, I hastened to write the little work of sermons beyond our custom which you had requested for yourself and your spiritual daughters in our oratory. Because I was more interested in the reading than in the speaking, I concentrated on plainness of exposition, not eloquence, on the literal sense, not the adornment of rhetoric. And perhaps the pure speech because it is clearer will be more suitable than the ornate for simple understandings. And for the quality of the hearers, that rusticity of speech will be the urbanity of adornment, and a tasty condiment for the easy understanding of young girls. As I wrote and arranged them, I kept the order of feastdays, from the beginning of our redemption. Fare well in the Lord, his handmaid, dear to me once in the world, now most dear in Christ, wife then in the flesh, now sister in spirit, and consort in the profession of sacred purpose.

Original letter:

Libello quodam hymnorum vel sequentiarum a me nuper precibus tuis consummato, veneranda in Christo et amanda soror Heloissa, nonnulla insuper opuscula sermonum, juxta petitionem tuam, tam tibi quam spiritalibus filiabus tuis in oratorio nostro congregatis, scribere praeter consuetudinem nostram utcunque maturavi. Plus quippe lectioni quam sermoni deditus, expositionis insisto planitiem, non eloquentiae compositionem : sensum litterae, non ornatum rhetoricae. Ac fortasse pura minus quam ornata locutio quanto planior fuerit, tanto simplicium intelligentiae commodior erit; et pro qualitate auditorum ipsa inculti sermonis rusticitas quaedam erit ornatus urbanitas, et quoddam condimentum saporis parvularum intelligentia facilis. In his autem scribendis seu disponendis ordinem festivitatum tenens, ab ipso nostrae redemptionis exordio sum exorsus. Vale in Domino, ejns ancilla, mihi quondam in seculo cara, nunc in Christo carissima : in carne tunc uxor, nunc in spiritu soror, atque in professione sacri propositi consors.

Historical context:

Heloise requested sermons for special occasions from Abelard and he addressed her in the preface to the sermons he sent her. The sermons themselves also emphasize the roles of women in the history of the faith.

Printed source:

Opera Petri Abaelardi ed. V. Cousin, 2v (Paris: A Durand, 1849, 1859), 1.350 and PL178 c.379-80