PeopleAbelard, Peter, 1079-1142Texts

Abelard, Peter b. at Pailais, in Brittany, 1079. Designed for the military profession, he followed those of philosophy and theology. His life was one of strange chances and changes, brought about mainly through his love for Heloise, the niece of one Fulbert, a Canon of the Cathedral of Paris, and by his rationalistic views. Although a priest, he married Heloise privately. He was condemned for heresy by the Council of Soissons, 1121, and again by that of Sens, 1140; d. at St. Marcel, near Chalons-sur-Saoae, April 21, 1142. For a long time, although his poetry had been referred to both by himself and by Heloise, little of any moment was known except the Advent hymn, Mittit ad Virginem, (q.v.). In 1838 Greith pub, in his Spicihgium Vaticanum, pp. 123-131, six poems which had been discovered in the Vatican. Later on, ninety-seven hymns were found in the Royal Library at Brussels, and pub. in the complete ed. of Abelard's works, by Cousin, Petri Abx-lardi Opp., Paris, 1849. In that work is one of his best-known hymns, Tuba Domini, Paule, maxima (q.v.). Trench in his Sac. Lat. Poetry, 1864, gives his Ornarunt terram germina (one of a series of poems on the successive days' work of the Creation), from Du Meril's Poesies Popul. Lat. du Moyen Age, 1847, p. 444.
-John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Hymn Texts by Peter Abelard	As
Alone thou goest forth, O Lord (14)	Peter Abelard
Alone you journey forth, O Lord	Peter Abelard
How great, how beautiful that Sabbath rest	Peter Abelard
O quanta qualia sunt illa sabbata (3)	Peter Abelard
O what shall be o when shall be (3)	Peter Abelard
O what the joy and the glory must be (5)	Peter Abelard, 1079-1142 (Author (ascr.))
O what their joy and their glory be (80)	Peter Abelard
O what their joy and their glory must be (2)	Peter Abelard
On earth a while mid suffering	Peter Abelard
With many a flower the earth	Peter Abelard