were scientifico-religious; it was to expound and propagate what they
regarded as the philosophy of Christianity, that masters and pupils made
bold use of the freedom of thought; they made but slight war upon the
existing practical abuses of the church; they differed from her in the
interpretation and comments contained in some of her dogmas; and they
considered themselves in a position to explain and confirm faith by
reason. The chiefs of the church, with St. Bernard at their head, were
not slow to descry, in these interpretations and comments based upon
science, danger to the simple and pure faith of the Christian; they saw
the apparition of dawning rationalism confronting orthodoxy. They were,
as all their contemporaries were, wholly strangers to the bare notion of
freedom of thought and conscience, and they began a zealous struggle
against the new teachers; but they did not push it to the last cruel
extremities. They had many a handle against Abelard: his private life,
the scandal of his connection with Heloise, the restless and haughty
fickleness of his character, laid him open to severe strictures; but his
stern adversaries did not take so much advantage of them as they might
have taken. They had his doctrines condemned at the councils of Soissons
and Sens; they prohibited him from public lecturing; and they imposed
upon him the seclusion of the cloister; but they did not even harbor the
notion of having him burned as a heretic, and science and glory were
respected in his person, even when his ideas were proscribed. Peter the
Venerable, Abbot of Cluni, one of the most highly considered and honored
prelates of the church, received him amongst his own monks, and treated
him with paternal kindness, taking care of his health, as well as of his
eternal welfare; and he who was the adversary of St. Bernard and the
teacher condemned by the councils of Soissons and Sens, died peacefully,
on the 21st of April, 1142, in the abbey of St. Marcellus, near
Chalon-sur-Saone, after having received the sacraments with much piety,
and in presence of all the brethren of the monastery. "Thus," wrote