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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Abelard say Heloise deserves?

2. Who was Abelard's second enemy in the university system?

3. Who does Heloise say commanded her to be a nun?

4. Whom does Abelard want to pray for him?

5. What does Heloise say she has sought out for Abelard?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Abelard say his sufferings came from?

2. Where did Abelard go after he went to St. Denis?

3. Why does Heloise say there should be different standards for women?

4. What does Abelard say is the purpose of monastic life?

5. What does Heloise say about virtue?

6. What caused the author of Letter 9to write the letter?

7. How did Abelard seduce Heloise?

8. What is Heloise's response to Peter the Venerable?

9. Why does the author of Letter 9 say Abelard retreated to Cluny?

10. What does Heloise ask Abelard at the end of Letter 2?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How would Abelard and Heloise answer Nietzsche's claim that Christian morality is slave morality that celebrates the weakness of the followers as against the master morality that celebrates the strength of the masters?

Essay Topic 2

What is the role of the outside world on the story of Abelard and Heloise? Where does it figure in their letters, and how does it affect their story? How does French monastic and political history appear to us through the lens of these letters?

Essay Topic 3

How would the letters of Abelard and Heloise be written today? How would modern communication technology change the emotional tenor of this correspondence? What parts would remain trenchant? What parts would be lost?

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