Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the leading op ponent of the rationalistic school of Abelard, laid his doctrines before the Council of Sens in 1140, had them condemned by the Pope, and ob tained an order for his imprisonment. Abelard appealed to the Pope, publishing his defense, and went to Rome. Passing through Cluny he vis ited Peter the Venerable, who was abbot there. This humane and enlightened divine effected a reconciliation between him and his enemies, but Abelard resolved to end his days in retirement. The severe penances which he imposed upon himself, together with the grief which never left his heart, gradually consumed his strength, and he died, a pattern of monastic discipline, in 1142, at the abbey of St. Marcel, near Chalons sur-Saone. Heloise begged his body and had him buried in the Paraclete, of which she was at that time the abbess, with the view of repos ing in death by his side. Heloise died there 16 May 1164. In 1800 the ashes of both were carried to the Museum of French Monuments at Paris, and in November 1817 were deposited under a chapel within the precincts of the church of Monamy. The small chapel, in the form of a beautiful marble monument, in which the figures of the ill-fated pair are seen reposing side by side, is now one of the most interesting objects in the Parisian cemetery of Pere la Chaise.
Abelard was distinguished as a grammarian, orator, logician, poet, musician, philosopher, theologian, and mathematician. As a philoso pher he founded an eclectic system commonly but erroneously termed Conceptualism, which lay midway between the prevalent Realism, rep resented in its most advanced form by William of Champeaux, and extreme Nominalism, rep resented in the teaching of his other master, Roscellin, and largely approached the Aristote lian philosophy. In ethics Abelard placed much emphasis on the subjective intention, which he held to determine the moral value as well as the moral character of man's action. Along this line his work is notable, owing to the fact that his successors did little in connection with morals, for they did not regard the rules of human conduct as within the field of philosophic discussion. His love and his misfortunes have secured his name from oblivion ; and the man whom his own century admired as a profound dialectician is now celebrated as the martyr of love. Abelard's works were all written in Latin. They were first printed at Paris in
1616, are to be found in Migne, (Patrologia Latina' (Vol. CLXXVIII, Paris 1855). Other editions of special works are inedits d'Abelard,) edited by Victor Cousin (ib., 1836) ; (2 vols., 1849-59) ; et Non,' edited byz.E. L. T. Henke and G. L. Lindenkohl (Marburg 1851) ; Virginum Israel super filia jepne Galadim) edited by W. Meyer and W. Brambach (Munich 1886) ; (Tractatus de Unitate et Trinitate,' discovered, edited, and published by R. Stfilzle under the title, 1121 zu Soissons verurtheilter Trac tatus, etc.' (Freiburg-im-Breisgau 1891) ; narius Paraclitensius,) edited by G. M. Dreves (Paris 1891). The letters of Abelard and Heloise have been often published in the origi nal and translations. Pope's epistle (Eloisa to Abelard) is founded upon them. There is a complete English translation by J. Berington, with the Latin text, History of the Lives of Abeillard and Heloise' (Birmingham 1788), edited by H. Mills (London 1850). Consult also Wight, 0. W., 'Lives and Letters of Abelard and Heloise) (New York 1861) ; Morton, H., (Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise) 1901) ; Richardson, A. S., 'Abelard and Heloise' (ib. 1884). Consult also Compayre, G., (Abe lard and the Origin and Early History of Uni versities' (New York 1893) : Deutsch, S. M., Verurtheilung zu Sens, 1141, nach den Quellen kritisch dargesteilt' (Berlin 1880) ; id., (Peter Abalard, ein kritischer Theologe des zwolf ten Jahrhunderts' (Leipsic 1883) ; Haus rath, A., (Peter Abalard) (ib., 1893) ; Hoyd, H., 'Abalard und seine Lehre in Verhaltniss zur Kirche und ihrem Dogma' (Ratisbon 1863) ; McCabe, J., (Peter Abelard) (New York 1901) ; Poole, R. L., 'Illustrations of the History of Mediaeval Thought' (London 1884) ; Rash dall, in the Middle Ages' (Ox ford 1895) ; Remusat C. de, vie re Pierre Abelard) (Paris 1851, the standard biography of Abelard; id., (A elard,' a drama (Paris 1877) ; Sauerland, H. V., (Abalard und Heloise (Frankfort 1879) ; Thaner, F., und das canonische Recht> (Gratz 1900) ; Tiby, P., (Deux convens au moyen age, ou l'abbaye de Saint Gildas et le Paraclet au temps d'Abilard et d'Heloise) (Paris 1851) ; Vacandard, E., (Abelard, sa lutte avec Saint Bernard, sa doc trine, sa methode' (Paris 1881) ; Wilkens, C. A., (Peter Abelard' (Bremen 1851).