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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the logic behind Heloise's request to Abelard?
(a) The weak should be just as burdened as the strong.
(b) The weak should be able to bear the same burdens as the strong.
(c) The weak cannot bear the same burdens as the strong.
(d) The strong should try to strengthen the weak to bear more burdens.

2. What does Peter the Venerable say he is particularly impressed by?
(a) Heloise's graceful movements.
(b) Heloise's devotion to Abelard.
(c) Heloise's beauty.
(d) Heloise's learning.

3. What does Heloise say about her burden?
(a) She says burdens can be too heavy.
(b) She says the burden is a joy to bear.
(c) She says the only way to bear the burden is together with him.
(d) She says that the burden is more than she can bear.

4. Who was Innocent II?
(a) The pope.
(b) Abelard.
(c) Heloise.
(d) The Abbott of Cluny.

5. What was the sender of Letter 9 trying to offer Abelard?
(a) Power.
(b) Amnesty.
(c) Forgiveness.
(d) Sanctuary.

6. What should the practice of silence result in, according to Abelard?
(a) Emptying the mind.
(b) Concentrating the mind.
(c) Purifying the mind.
(d) Ascending to God.

7. What should people focus on, according to Abelard in Letter 8?
(a) Giving lay people an example.
(b) Purifying the race of its spiritual flaws.
(c) Submitting to God.
(d) Bringing the Messiah.

8. For what does Abelard ask Heloise at the end of Letter 7?
(a) Her prayers.
(b) Forgiveness.
(c) A sketch of the rule she requested from him.
(d) Details of her life in the convent.

9. What does the sender of Letter 9 say about Abelard?
(a) That he passed through.
(b) That he has just received a letter from him.
(c) That the monks at his monastery were trying to kill him.
(d) That he has just received a letter about him.

10. How does Abelard describe wisdom in his Rule?
(a) Knowing yourself.
(b) Keeping oneself pure.
(c) Knowing your place.
(d) Holding your tongue.

11. When was Abelard with Peter the Venerable?
(a) In Peter the Venerable's travels.
(b) In his pilgrimage through Abelard's monastery.
(c) In the last years of Abelard's life.
(d) In Abelard's travels.

12. What does Peter the Venerable say is his estimation of Abelard?
(a) A brilliant religious thinker.
(b) Truly a great man.
(c) A skilled manager.
(d) An effective bureaucrat.

13. What does Heloise say in Letter 6 that she cannot make herself do?
(a) Seek God.
(b) Pray.
(c) Obey Abelard.
(d) Beg for forgiveness.

14. What news about Abelard does the sender of Letter 9 relate?
(a) That he is accused of heresy.
(b) That he is becoming a popular leader.
(c) That he is instituting progressive reforms.
(d) That he has proposed an order for nuns.

15. What was the thing based on that Heloise asked Abelard to give her?
(a) The story of Mary Magdalene.
(b) The freedom she enjoyed before becoming a nun.
(c) The devout acts of Christ.
(d) The rule of St. Benedict.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did the sender of Letter 9 think that the action Abelard took was appropriate?

2. Who were monks and nuns imitating, according to Abelard?

3. What does Abelard rely on in providing a rule for the lives of the nuns at Paraclete?

4. Why aren't outward manifestations reliable in indicating devotion, according to Heloise?

5. What provision does Heloise ask Abelard to include in what he makes for her?

(see the answer keys)

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