T63 - A day at Pere Lachaise II
Nov 18, 2009 2:01:33 GMT
Post by traveler63 on Nov 18, 2009 2:01:33 GMT
A Day at Pere Lachaise Continued;
So, we continued on looking for other interesting areas while the leaves rustled down the pathways and streets, the wind blowing everything around. We listened to the windblown bushes and hedges. I lost all sense of time and space, wandering from place to place. We were falling in love with autumn in Paris and Pere Lachaise.
We found fluted ones:
round ones;
ones with columns
We visited friends of the furry kind:
We found castles;
ones on hills;
and ones on streets;
We even found star crossed lovers. This is the story of Heloise 1101-1164 and Peter Abelard 1079-1142. Peter Abelard an independent scholar dared to say"By questioning, we learn the truth". He was a brash combative person, very charismatic. He shocked Paris with his secular knowledge which the Church wasn't too happy about. He set up a school on the Left Bank now know as the University of Paris. Many people with curiosity converged on Paris, including Heloise the smart niece of the powerful canon of Notre Dame.
Abelard was hired to give private instruction to Heloise and yep, human nature being what it is intellectual curiosity became passion and the two fled Paris and married in secret. One year later Heloise gave birth to a son and the secret was out. Well, the uncle was not amused, he sent a volley of thugs to Abelard's bedroom in the middle of the night and well, didn't kill him but let's say, he wouldn't be fathering any more children. Disgraced he retired to a monastery, and her to a convent, never again to live together. For the next two decades they remained intimately connected by the postal service. Abelard came back with some of his most critical writings. He was forced to burn his Theologia in 1121 and was on trial for heresy when he died. Using logic to analyze church pronouncements he established this which later turned into "scholasticism" accepted by the Church a century later. Note the dog at his feet, symbolizing fidelity to each other.
When they died the two were buried together in Heloise's convent and were later laid to rest in Pere Lachaise. The canopy tomb today (1817) is made from stones from her convent and his monastery.
"Thou, O Lord, brought us together, and when it pleased Thee Thou has parted us" From a prayer of Heloise and Abelard.
The entire monument was covered with scaffolding so I hope the two pictures will give you an idea of the scope of this.
To Be Continued
So, we continued on looking for other interesting areas while the leaves rustled down the pathways and streets, the wind blowing everything around. We listened to the windblown bushes and hedges. I lost all sense of time and space, wandering from place to place. We were falling in love with autumn in Paris and Pere Lachaise.
We found fluted ones:
round ones;
ones with columns
We visited friends of the furry kind:
We found castles;
ones on hills;
and ones on streets;
We even found star crossed lovers. This is the story of Heloise 1101-1164 and Peter Abelard 1079-1142. Peter Abelard an independent scholar dared to say"By questioning, we learn the truth". He was a brash combative person, very charismatic. He shocked Paris with his secular knowledge which the Church wasn't too happy about. He set up a school on the Left Bank now know as the University of Paris. Many people with curiosity converged on Paris, including Heloise the smart niece of the powerful canon of Notre Dame.
Abelard was hired to give private instruction to Heloise and yep, human nature being what it is intellectual curiosity became passion and the two fled Paris and married in secret. One year later Heloise gave birth to a son and the secret was out. Well, the uncle was not amused, he sent a volley of thugs to Abelard's bedroom in the middle of the night and well, didn't kill him but let's say, he wouldn't be fathering any more children. Disgraced he retired to a monastery, and her to a convent, never again to live together. For the next two decades they remained intimately connected by the postal service. Abelard came back with some of his most critical writings. He was forced to burn his Theologia in 1121 and was on trial for heresy when he died. Using logic to analyze church pronouncements he established this which later turned into "scholasticism" accepted by the Church a century later. Note the dog at his feet, symbolizing fidelity to each other.
When they died the two were buried together in Heloise's convent and were later laid to rest in Pere Lachaise. The canopy tomb today (1817) is made from stones from her convent and his monastery.
"Thou, O Lord, brought us together, and when it pleased Thee Thou has parted us" From a prayer of Heloise and Abelard.
The entire monument was covered with scaffolding so I hope the two pictures will give you an idea of the scope of this.
To Be Continued