pursuers were the judges, the Papal legate allowing his better reason to
be overruled by their passion. Abélard was condemned to burn his book in
public, and to read the Athanasian Creed as his confession of faith
(which he did in tears), and then to be confined permanently in the
monastery of St. Médard as a dangerous heretic.

His enemies seemed to have triumphed and to have silenced him forever.
Soon after, however, the Papal legate, ashamed of the part he had taken
in the transaction, restored him to liberty and allowed him to return to
his own monastery at St. Denis. Here once more his rationalistic,
critical spirit brought him into trouble with the bigoted, licentious
monks. Having maintained, on the authority of Beda, that Dionysius, the
patron saint of the monastery, was bishop of Corinth and not of Athens,
he raised such a storm that he was forced to flee, and took refuge on a
neighboring estate, whose proprietor, Count Thibauld, was friendly to
him. Here he was cordially received by the monks of Troyes, and allowed
to occupy a retreat belonging to them.

After some time, and with great difficulty, he obtained leave from the
abbot of St. Denis to live where he chose, on condition of not joining
any other order. Being now practically a free man, he retired to a
lonely spot near Nogent-sur-Seine, on the banks of the Ardusson. There,
having received a gift of a piece of land, he established himself along
with a friendly cleric, building a small oratory of clay and reeds to
the Holy Trinity. No sooner, however, was his place of retreat known
than he was followed into the wilderness by hosts of students of all
ranks, who lived in tents, slept on the ground, and underwent every kind
of hardship, in order to listen to him (1123). These supplied his wants,
and built a chapel, which he dedicated to the "Paraclete,"--a name at
which his enemies, furious over his success, were greatly scandalized,