" Abelard's replies are
pious sermons and theological treatises; he thinks of the love of the
past only as _the cursed desires of the flesh_, the snare in which the
devil had caught them, and urges Heloise to thank God that henceforth
they are safe. "My love which entangled both of us in sin," he says in
one of his letters, "deserves not the name of love, for it was naught
but carnal lust. I sought in you the gratification of my sinful
desires," etc. He blessed the savage crime committed on him because it
saved him for ever from the sin of voluptuousness. What Heloise loved
and treasured as her sweetest memory, was to him hell and devil's work.
He wrote to her almost as if in mockery: "What splendid interest does
the talent of your wisdom bear to the Lord day after day! How many
spiritual daughters you have borne to Him! What a terrible loss it would
have been if you had abandoned yourself to the lust of the flesh, had
borne, with travail, a few earthly children, while now, with joy, you
bear a great number of daughters for the kingdom of Heaven.
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