Note: There are few firm dates in the lives of Abelard and Heloise because they give no dates for any events in their own writings and chroniclers’ dates vary from one text to another.
1073–85 Pontificate of Pope Gregory VII, who aims to restore ecclesiastical authority and make the clergy celibate.
c. 1079 Birth of Peter Abelard at Le Pallet, near Nantes.
c. 1090 Possible date for the birth of Heloise, if she is assumed to be older than Peter the Venerable.
1092 or 1094 Birth of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny (1122–56).
1092 The logician Roscelin is condemned for heresy concerning the Trinity at the Council of Soissons.
1093–9 At some time in this period Abelard is taught by Roscelin.
c. 1100 Abelard comes to Paris, where he is taught by William of Champeaux.
1100 or 1101 Traditional date for the birth of Heloise.
c. 1102–c. 1105 Abelard is master of his own school at Melun and then at Corbeil, probably under the protection of the king’s minister, Stephen de Garlande.
c. 1105–c. 1108 Abelard ‘fell ill through overwork and was obliged to return home’ (Letter 1, p. 4).
c. 1108 Abelard returns to Paris and challenges William of Champeaux.
c. 1110–c. 1112 Abelard is master of his own school at the abbey of Mont-Sainte-Geneviève, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris.
c. 1112 Abelard again returns home, when his parents retire into monasteries.
1113 Abelard goes to Laon to study divinity with Anselm of Laon.
c. 1114 Abelard is established at Paris as master of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame.
c. 1115–c. 1117 Abelard seduces Heloise when he lodges at the house of Fulbert, her uncle. (It is not known how long Heloise had been living in Fulbert’s house; as a girl, she had been at the convent of Argenteuil near Paris.)
c. 1118 Heloise bears Abelard a son, whom she names Astralabe. Under pressure from Fulbert, Abelard and Heloise are secretly married in Paris. Because Fulbert wants to make the marriage public, Abelard removes Heloise to the convent of Argenteuil. Believing that Abelard has repudiated the marriage, Fulbert has him castrated. Heloise becomes a nun at Argenteuil and Abelard a monk at the abbey of St Denis near Paris.
c. 1120 Abelard reopens the debate about the Trinity by complaining to the bishop of Paris that Roscelin has accused him of heresy.
c. 1121 Abelard’s book on the Trinity, Theologia, is burned as heretical by the Council of Soissons. Abelard insults the abbey of St Denis and flees to the protection of Count Theobald of Champagne.
1122 With the permission of Suger, abbot of St Denis (1122–51), Abelard establishes a hermitage (dedicated to the Paraclete) near Troyes, where students join him.
c. 1123 Abelard publishes an enlarged edition of his book on the Trinity with the title Theologia Christiana (Christian Theology).
c. 1125–c. 1127 Allegedly because of the backbiting of St Bernard and St Norbert, Abelard abandons his hermitage and becomes abbot of St Gildas, on the west coast of Brittany.
1129 Heloise and her nuns are expelled from Argenteuil, when Suger wins possession of the convent for the abbey of St Denis.
1131 Abelard’s gift of the convent of the Paraclete to Heloise and her nuns is confirmed by Pope Innocent II.
c. 1132 Abelard writes Letter 1 (Historia calamitatum) ‘to a Friend’.
c. 1133 Abelard abandons the abbey of St Gildas and returns to Paris as a master.
c. 1133–c. 1138 Abelard and Heloise conduct the correspondence in Letters 2–8.
1140 or 1141 Abelard accused of heresy by St Bernard at the Council of Sens. He appeals to Rome. Pope Innocent II condemns him to perpetual silence. Berengar publishes Abelard’s ‘Confession of Faith’ (p. 211). Abelard is protected by Peter the Venerable.
1142 or 1144 Abelard dies at the Cluniac priory of St Marcel near Chalon-sur-Saône.
c. 1144 Peter the Venerable writes to Heloise and brings her Abelard’s body for burial at the convent of the Paraclete. Heloise asks him to obtain a prebend for Astralabe.
c. 1163 or c. 1164 Death of Heloise, abbess of the Paraclete.