Hi everyone,
In week 5 it's going to be another
bumper discussion! Lectures will be introducing us to the rise of two
important components of late medieval urban life: communes and
universities. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw the foundation of
some of the most famous universities in Europe, for example, these two,
which in some ways still look as though one might bump into a medieval
student around any given corner...
And in tutorials we will be discussing
universities and education in more detail. In particular, we'll use the
story of the two people pictured below
as a juicy entrée into issues related to education at the time. Think
about Abelard's
Historia Calamitatum in light of the questions in
the reading guide. What does his story tell us about intellectual and
philosophical life and thought in twelfth-century France (apart from
some pretty gory things about castration...)? If the extract whets your
appetite, or you just want to know
Heloise's side of the story (!), look for their letters which are published in various editions and
available in the library; or look for the works of Monash's own
Professor Constant Mews, who is a world expert on their correspondence.
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| Abelard & Heloise |
7 comments:
the reading was interesting, but I'm confused as to why Abelard and Heloise were so reluctant to be married. I think Abelard mentioned that it would be shameful, why is this?
Is someone able to explain the difference between Roman and Cannon law? Not sure if my understanding of it is actually right...
Otherwise... I thought from reading the first reading ( Edward Peters) that it was interesting that Abelard went from being the "most popular teacher in Francia" to getting himself stuck in a monastery. He doesn’t seem like the person who'd want to be forgotten about in some small monastery and with Benedictines Rule it seems like leaving a monastery would have been pretty difficult.
I found it incredibly fascinating how closely the monastic and classical philosophic life were linked in the eyes of Abelard. His advocacy of the rejection as opposed to the renouncement of a life outside the pursuit of knowledge was far more controversial than you would ever hear a devoted monk speak of but it really highlights the importance of devotion in order to truly appreciate knowledge. While the essence of the university provides the basis for modern scholarship this is a stark contrast to the more modern "jack of all trades" approach or the notion of the "renaissance man."
Some good points and queries in here, folks! *Notes them down for tomorrow...*
Why was Fulbert outraged at their secrecy of the marriage, wouldn't he have been happy the his niece being wed to such a prominent man and that he married her after she becoming pregnant? and the fact he was castrated was this a kinda normal punishment? i'm surprised he survived.
Tiff is having comment trouble... Apparently my trouble shooting hasn't fixed things. Doh!
Anyway... she'd like to say: 'Peters mentions in the beginning of the chapter that the 11th and 12th centuries were an 'age of spiritual unrest and reform'. Was this due to the transformation in learning at the time, such as the move from monastic learning and teaching to the study of logic? Did the development of the cathedral schools and private schools, and eventually universities, which introduced people to these other ways of thinking, cause monastic teaching to lose popularity, leading to the 'spiritual unrest and reform'? I also thought it was interesting how Anselm combined these two forms of learning and saw that logic could be used in conjunction with faith. This is something that's still thought about today with the whole science vs. religion debate!'
How reliable are Abelard's letters? Was it just me or did he seem like he was really full of himself. In the way he believes everyone is jealous of him. To me the letters seem a bit dodgy in that respect.
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