His life was divided between the towns wherein he taught and the Church which alternately welcomed and denounced him.

His fellow-disputants have their places in the history of philosophy; the story of Abelard's love for Heloise has set him apart, so that he has lived for eight centuries less as a fearless thinker and masterly logician than as one of the glowingly romantic figures of the Middle Ages.
"A FRIEND" It is not known to whom Abelard's letter was addressed, but it may be guessed that the writer intended it to reach the hands of Heloise.

This actually happened, and the first and most famous letter from Heloise to Abelard was substantially an answer to the "Historia Calamitatum." WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX William of Champeaux (Gulielmus Campellensis) was born about 1070 at Champeaux, near Melun.

He studied under Anselm of Laon and Roscellinus, his training in philosophy thereby being influenced by both realism and nominalism.

His own inclination, however, was strongly towards the former, and it was as a determined proponent of realism that he began to teach in the school of the cathedral of Notre Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103.