Three medieval examples of “pure love”: The cathar heresy, Peter Abelard’s doctrine of the love of God and the “pure love” of Heloise

Abstract:

We focus on three medieval examples of pure love – the conception of love in the Cathar heresy, which is manifested in the legend of Tristan and Isolde, Peter Abelard’s doctrine of the love of God and the pure love of Heloise -, to show that there is a philosophical and theological conception of love. Allows us to draw a general conclusion: behind the myth of romantic love there is a secret that has to do with death. Since there is a close correlation between the way we understand human love and the way we understand man’s love for God, an error in the interpretation of the one inevitably leads to an erroneous interpretation of the other.

Key words:

Pure love, friendship, Catharism, Peter Abelard, Heloise, Thomas Aquinas.