the Areopagite but was likewise proved by his acts to have been the
Bishop of Athens. Having thus found this testimony of Bede's in
contradiction of our own tradition, I showed it somewhat jestingly
to sundry of the monks who chanced to be near. Wrathfully they
declared that Bede was no better than a liar, and that they had a
far more trustworthy authority in the person of Hilduin, a former
abbot of theirs, who had travelled for a long time throughout
Greece for the purpose of investigating this very question. He,
they insisted, had by his writings removed all possible doubt on
the subject, and had securely established the truth of the
traditional belief.

One of the monks went so far as to ask me brazenly which of the
two, Bede or Hilduin, I considered the better authority on this
point. I replied that the authority of Bede, whose writings are
held in high esteem by the whole Latin Church, appeared to me the
better. Thereupon in a great rage they began to cry out that at
last I had openly proved the hatred I had always felt for our
monastery, and that I was seeking to disgrace it in the eyes of the
whole kingdom, robbing it of the honour in which it had
particularly gloried, by thus denying that the Areopagite was their
patron saint. To this I answered that I had never denied the fact,
and that I did not much care whether their patron was the
Areopagite or some one else, provided only he had received his
crown from God. Thereupon they ran to the abbot and told him of the
misdemeanour with which they charged me.

The abbot listened to their story with delight, rejoicing at having
found a chance to crush me, for the greater vileness of his life
made him fear me more even than the rest did. Accordingly he