The love between Abelard, a 12th-century philosopher and teacher, and his pupil Heloise is regarded as one of the greatest love stories. With them, the meeting of their minds matched the intensity of the meeting of their bodies.

Abelard was already antagonising Church authority by espousing Aristotle’s logic, newly available in France, and the discovery that he had impregnated his young pupil led to charges of heresy and debauchery. His fiercest opponent was Abbot Bernard of Clairvoix. While his clerical enemy sought his excommunication, his secular ones took their revenge by castrating him.

Howard Brenton’s play combines the love story with religious debate but does not get the balance quite right in the first act. The debate is long and a tad tedious despite comic interjections, but the second half picks up the pace and entertains.

Brenton’s text switches easily between period language and modern idiom, with the latter providing light relief.

As expected with a production from The Globe Theatre, a fine cast has been assembled, led by David Sturzaker and Jo Herbert as the lovers. There is a particularly fine performance from Edward Peel as Heloise’s uncle. Sam Crane plays Bernard with a piety that cloaks his ruthlessness.