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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the sender of Letter 9 trying to offer Abelard?
(a) Sanctuary.
(b) Power.
(c) Forgiveness.
(d) Amnesty.

2. What promise does Peter the Venerable make to Heloise in the last letter?
(a) He will celebrate Heloise in print and song.
(b) He will personally convey Abelard's remains to Heloise's convent.
(c) He will make a contribution to the church in Abelard's name.
(d) He will find a good position for Astralabe.

3. How does Abelard say errors should be corrected?
(a) Reciprocally.
(b) Compassionately.
(c) Leniently.
(d) Vigorously.

4. What request of Heloise's does Abelard fail to fulfill in Letter 7?
(a) Her request for a rule.
(b) Her request for a reason to keep suffering.
(c) Her request for an end to his sufferings.
(d) Her request for a history of his experience.

5. Why aren't outward manifestations reliable in indicating devotion, according to Heloise?
(a) People can learn them from each other.
(b) They vary from person to person.
(c) They are not reliable.
(d) They can be feigned.

6. What is it that ultimately pleases God, according to Heloise?
(a) Virtue.
(b) Acts.
(c) Prayer.
(d) Devotion.

7. What does Abelard say he is correcting with the life of silence?
(a) Dependency on the world.
(b) Guilt.
(c) Excess of sin.
(d) Excess of words.

8. In Letter 6, what does Heloise ask Abelard to do for her?
(a) Lay out acts of devotion for her to perform.
(b) Proscribe rules for her convent.
(c) Write down the history of her misfortunes.
(d) Free her from the convent.

9. What does Abelard say life becomes in poverty?
(a) A community.
(b) A common store.
(c) A resource.
(d) A firm law.

10. What is the tone of the last part of Letter 9?
(a) Imposing.
(b) Narrative.
(c) Even-handed.
(d) Beseeching.

11. How does Heloise say that the thing that pleases God is manifested?
(a) Differently in different people.
(b) In each according to his weakness.
(c) In each according to his talents.
(d) The same in everyone.

12. What should nuns primarily think about, according to Abelard?
(a) The nature of God.
(b) The inner life.
(c) God's relationship to man.
(d) The history of God and the church.

13. What does Peter the Venerable say Abelard's last days with him were devoted to?
(a) God.
(b) Praying.
(c) Writing.
(d) Service.

14. For what does Abelard ask Heloise at the end of Letter 7?
(a) Details of her life in the convent.
(b) Her prayers.
(c) Forgiveness.
(d) A sketch of the rule she requested from him.

15. What else does Heloise ask Abelard in Letter 6?
(a) To describe his devotional practice.
(b) To declare his love for her.
(c) To describe the people at his monastery.
(d) To describe the authority due to one in her position.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is weakness taken into account, according to Heloise?

2. In Letter 8, what does Abelard say women tend to stray toward?

3. What was Heloise's response to Peter the Venerable's letter?

4. How does Abelard say women acted in the early church?

5. What is the logic behind Heloise's request to Abelard?

(see the answer keys)

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