Peter Abelard

Abelard was born in 1079 in Le Pallet, the eldest son of a minor noble family, and gave up his inheritance to pursue learning.

Abelard studied logic at the cathedral school of Notre-Dame under William of Champeaux, whom he soon challenged in debate.

Abelard set up rival schools outside Paris, attracting students through his skill in dialectic.

Abelard rose to head the school of Notre-Dame, becoming the most famous teacher of philosophy in Europe.

Abelard became the tutor and lover of Héloïse, who bore their son Astrolabe; the couple married in secret, and Abelard was later castrated by men hired by her uncle Fulbert.

After his castration, Abelard withdrew to the royal abbey of Saint-Denis while Héloïse took the veil at Argenteuil.

Abelard's treatise on the Trinity was condemned as heretical and he was compelled to burn the book himself.

Abelard established a hermitage near Nogent-sur-Seine that grew into the oratory of the Paraclete, later given to Héloïse and her nuns.

Abelard taught again on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, producing works including his Theologia, Ethica, and the autobiographical Historia Calamitatum.

Bernard of Clairvaux secured the condemnation of Abelard's teachings, a sentence confirmed by the pope; Abelard found refuge at Cluny under Peter the Venerable.

Abelard died in 1142 at a Cluniac priory; his remains were eventually laid beside those of Héloïse, now traditionally at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.