Though at first derided by his fellow-students, he succeeded so well as to draw a crowd of them to hear him, and so excited the envy of Anselm that the latter forbade him to teach in Laon.  Abelard accordingly returned once more to Paris, convinced that he was fit to shine as a lecturer, not only on dialectic, but also on theology.  And his audiences thought so also; for his lectures on Ezekiel were very popular and drew crowds.  He was now at the height of his fame (1118).

The result of all these triumphs over dialecticians and theologians was unfortunate.  He not only felt himself the intellectual superior of any living man, which he probably was, but he also began to look down upon the current thought of his time as obsolete and unworthy, and to set at naught even current opinion.  He was now on the verge of forty, and his life had so far been one of spotless purity; but now, under the influence of vanity, this too gave way.  Having no further conquests to make in the intellectual world, he began to consider whether, with his great personal beauty, manly bearing, and confident address, he might not make conquests in the social world, and arrived at the conclusion that no woman could reject him or refuse him her favor.

It was just at this unfortunate juncture that he went to live in the house of a certain Canon Fulbert, of the cathedral, whose brilliant niece, Heloise, had at the age of seventeen just returned from a convent at Argenteuil, where she had been at school.  Fulbert, who was proud of her talents, and glad to get the price of Abelard’s board, took the latter into his house and intrusted him with the full care of Heloise’s further education, telling him even to chastise her if necessary.  So complete was Fulbert’s confidence in Abelard, that no restriction was put upon the companionship of teacher and pupil.  The result was that Abelard and Heloise, both equally inexperienced in matters of the heart, soon conceived for each other an overwhelming passion, comparable only to that of Faust and Gretchen.  And the result in both cases was the same.  Abelard, as a great scholar, could not think of marriage; and if he had, Heloise would have refused to ruin his career by marrying him.  So it came to pass that when their secret, never very carefully guarded, became no longer a secret, and threatened the safety of Heloise, the only thing that her lover could do for her was to carry her off secretly to his home in Palais, and place her in charge of his sister.  Here she remained until the birth of her child, which received the name of Astralabius, Abelard meanwhile continuing his work in Paris.  And here all the nobility of his character comes out.  Though Fulbert and his friends were, naturally enough, furious at what they regarded as his utter treachery, and though they tried to murder him, he protected himself, and as soon as Heloise was fit to travel, hastened to Palais, and insisted upon removing her to Paris and making her his lawful wife.  Heloise