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Молчание Элоизы
The article is an examination of some of the circumstances of the origin and reception of the letters of
Peter Abelard and his (former) lover Heloise. Although these circumstances have long been studied, and the correspondence itself is among the most famous monuments of Latin of twelfth-century Latin literature, conflicting readings of it reveal the ambivalence of the texts and the relationships of the famous thinkers.
The appendix to this article contains the first Russian translation of Abelard's Fifth Letter to Heloise, where he reminds her of the sins of his youth, for which, as the author assures her, he was justly punished. This exhortation becomes for him an occasion to describe Heloise as her "sister in Christ", instead of lover, wife, mother of his son, the only role he seems to allow her in 1130-1140.