334 Héloïse
properties and created several priories. Between 1130 and
1135, Abélard and Héloïse resumed regular contact. In
their supposed correspondence appear three letters by
her in which she recalled the substance and memory of
their passion. She mingled that with regret, reproach, and
protestations of love. Concerned about her own salva-
tion, she ended it by acceding to the encouragement of
Abélard to dedicate herself to her duties as abbess. After
1136, Héloïse and Abélard seem to have finally separated.
At Abélard’s death in 1142, she had him buried at the
Paraclete. She died May 16, 1164, and she too was buried
at the Paraclete. They were reburied in 1817 in the Père
Lachaise Cemetary in Paris.
Further reading:Betty Radice, trans., The Letters of
Abelard and Heloise(New York: Penguin Books, 1974);
Peter Dronke, ed., “Heloise,” in Women Writers of the Mid-
dle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua († 203) to
Marguerite Porete († 1310)(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1984); Étienne Gilson, Heloise and Abelard
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972); Peggy
Kamuf, Fictions of Feminine Desire: Disclosures of Heloise
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982); BonnieHell and the Last Judgment, fresco by Giotto di Bondone in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy(Scala / Art Resource)