Quae Maternae Immemor Naturae: The Rhetorical Struggle Over the Meaning of Motherhood in the Writings of Heloise and Abelard

Abstract

It has long been thought that the issue of Heloise’s motherhood in general and her mothering of her son, Astrolabe, in particular were not issues of great importance to Heloise and Abelard. Scholars point to Abelard’s mention of Astrolabe in his Historia calamitatum, his later verses of advice to his son, and Heloise’s entreaty to Peter the Venerable regarding Astrolabe’s future as representing the sum total of their interest in the subject.¹ Nothing could be further from the truth. As I intend to show, the issue of Heloise’s status and practice as mother was a topic of great contention between Heloise and Abelard throughout their monastic careers.

Heloise and Abelard contend over the meaning and practice of motherhood using biblical quotations and allusions. Heloise’s persistently personalizing rhetorical practices, which focus on the experience of mothering, compel Abelard to a reconsideration of his position and an examination of his own fatherhood.