HELOWYS. Heloise, 1101-1164, was the niece of Fulbert, a canon at the cathedral of Paris. Abelard says that he deliberately sought to be her tutor that he might seduce her. They were secretly married, but Fulbert hired three ruffians to harm him. They entered Abelard's room while he slept and castrated him. Abelard persuaded Heloise to become a nun at Argenteuil, and he became a monk at the abbey of St. Denis (Historia calamitatum, VI; Epistolae [PL 178: 181-378]). Jean de Meun translated the letters of Heloise and Abelard c. 1280, and used her arguments against marriage in the diatribe of the Jealous Husband, RR 8759-8832.

The letters of Heloise form part of Jankyn's anthology, WBP 677, which Dame Alys makes him throw into the fire.

Helowys, the ME variant, appears in final rhyming position.