Just as an aside, the "romance" was a bit darker than the above w/u. If you read Abelard's autobiography, you learn that he saw Heloise as another great conquest, only this one got him in trouble. He was reluctant to marry her, but did so because of their son Astrolabe. After he convinces her to become a nun, her never sees her again (despite the fact that she became an abbess at a religous colony he started, and the fact that she keeps inviting him), and his letters to her are very dry and unromantic--mostly telling her to not love him, to only love Christ, and to forget it ever happened. Heloise's letters, however, are humorous, passionate, and insightful, telling him how much she still loves him and would like to even be friends. He refuses, always telling her to remember her place as a woman, and forget that he is anything more than a brother in Christ.