Hugh Metel, Heloise, and Peter Abelard: The Letters of an Augustinian Canon and the Challenge of Innovation in Twelfth-Century Lorraine

Abstract

"Hugh Metel, Heloise, and Peter Abelard: The Letters of an Augustinian Canon and the Challenge of Innovation in Twelfth-Century Lorraine." The fifty-five letters of Hugh Metel (ca. 1080-1150), an Augustinian canon of Toul, were edited by C. L. Hugo in 1731, but have attracted little scholarly attention, even though some of them are addressed to such famous personalities as Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Abelard, and Heloise. This paper questions simplistic attempts to describe Hugh as a traditionalist by showing that although he admired Bernard of Clairvaux, he was much more interested than Bernard in combining classical poetic allusions with scriptural imagery. Hugh was interested in innovative educational trends in the twelfth century, but became critical of negative tendencies, such as those embodied in Peter Abelard. At the same time his two letters to Heloise provide valuable evidence into the extent of her reputation as an innovative writer. Hugh's prose is compared to other contemporary letter collections, in particular the Epistolae duorum amantium, which, this article argues, records the early letters of Abelard and Heloise.