Stefan Schütz

“Jesus crucified by the pope”. The ecclesiastical dogma has perverted its original idea. The resistance of the church scholar Abaelard to the doctrine of his church reaches its climax in Abaelard’s love for Heloisa. According to the will of her father, he should finish her training in the immaculate love of dogma. But Abaelard frees her (and in doing so, himself) into bodily love. With this, he rebels against the self-denial demanded by the church.
The oppressors of human nature fear the rebellion of a consciousness that has been broken free by a freed body and mind. So the bloated monks incite Heloisa’s father against the lovers. He, obedient to the point of insanity, rages furiously against the lovers, castrates the man and banishes the daughter. Finally, he himself is blinded by the church and learns to see first when he is blind. The council, meanwhile, finishes the work on Abaelard.
Abaelard cannot stay true to his word. Alone, intimidated by the sadistic monks’ visions of martyrdom, he rescinds. He renounces the free spirit and searches for new conviction within churchly dogma. Broken, he meets Heloisa, who carries their child dead in her arms. In vain, she tries to revive the spirit of revolution in him.