Abelard and Heloise. Between the lines

The tormenting love story of Abelard and Heloise that took place in France during the High Middle Ages still arouses and provokes strong feelings and contrasting reactions, causing an array of emotions, from deep compassion to manifest outrage and from human understanding to outright condemnation. Nobody will ever remain indifferent and untouched by reading those poignant letters full of vibrant humanity, crisscrossed with indomitable and ever-reemerging passion. The strong spirits of Abelard and Heloise proclaim loud and clear to the four corners of the earth an imperishable love that does not accept human constraints and can barely tolerate Divine dictates. It is a strange love that in order to survive takes up religious vows and hides beneath the habits of a monk and of a nun, and behind the walls of a monastery and a convent.