The monastery of Saint Gildas mirrored its wild habitat: the monks there were undisciplined and unruly; they did not live a communal celibate life as demanded by the Benedictine Rule, but instead openly supported concubines, fathered children, and neglected to protect the monastery’s property from the predations of an aggressive local magnate. No doubt monastic discipline had broken down long before Abelard arrived, and the monks were determined to maintain the status quo. Abelard struggled against the disorderly monks for ten years, apparently placing himself at risk of physical attack from the recalcitrant monks. In his Historia, he writes that by trying to reform the obstinate monks, he feared that he would not escape with his life; yet, if he ignored their undisciplined conduct, so obviously at odds with their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, he feared for his eternal soul. Indeed, the monks of Saint Gildas tried to murder their reform-minded abbot by poisoning the sacramental wine, and Abelard had to resort to threats of excommunication, which would compel the worst offenders to leave the monastery. He forced the worst of them to swear to leave the monastery, but when they tried to flout their oath, Abelard enforced it with the support of a council composed of the count Conan III, a papal legate, and bishops. Nonetheless, corruption in the monastery ran deep, troublemakers remained, and eventually Abelard was forced to live outside the monastery.
Abelard’s abbacy at Saint Gildas must have ranked among the one of the lowest points in his life. His enemies had seriously undermined his passion for the study of logic and theology, his pursuit of Heloise had disastrously ended in castration, and he found himself the target of hostile monks far from the intellectual center of France. Yet, while he was at Saint Gildas, Abelard’s life once again intersected with Heloise’s. At Argenteuil, Heloise’s considerable abilities had been directed toward the administration of the religious community as its prioress, and her reputation had grown as a result. In a bid to expand his own monastery’s holdings and secure a point of access to the Seine, Abelard’s formidable enemy, Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, aggressively attempted to oust the nuns from Argenteuil. In 1129, Suger produced a forged charter purporting that King Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, had given Argenteuil to Saint Denis some 300 years earlier. He also claimed that the nuns at Argenteuil were engaging in immoral sexual activity. Heloise and her nuns were expelled, and their convent was taken over by the monastery of Saint Denis (ironically, the monastery where Abelard first took monastic vows). Since no provisions were made for them, Abelard offered to the displaced nuns the Oratory at the Paraclete, where they established a new religious house with Heloise as the abbess. Pope Innocent II confirmed the donation in 1131.
World History
