and common clothes. Sometimes the king, seeing him thus divested of
his rich clothing, would take off his own cloak and girdle and give
them to him, saying: 'It is not suitable that those who dwell for
the world should be richly clad, and that those who despoil
themselves for Christ should be without glory.'"

Among the numerous virtues of St. Eloi was that of a consistent
carrying out of his real beliefs and theories, whether men might
consider him quixotic or not. He was strongly opposed to the institution
of slavery. In those days it would have been futile to preach actual
emancipation. The times were not ripe. But St. Eloi did all that he
could for the cause of freedom by investing most of his money in
slaves, and then setting them at liberty. Sometimes he would "corner"
a whole slave market, buying as many as thirty to a hundred at a
time. Some of these manumitted persons became his own faithful
followers: some entered the religious life, and others devoted their
talents to their benefactor, and worked in his studios for the
furthering of art in the Church.

He once played a trick upon the king. He requested the gift of
a town, in order, as he explained, that he might there build a
ladder by which they might both reach heaven. The king, in the
rather credulous fashion of the times, granted his request, and
waited to see the ladder. St. Eloi promptly built a monastery.
If the monarch did not choose to avail himself of this species of
ladder,--surely it was no fault of the builder!

St. Quen and St. Eloi were consecrated bishops on the same day,
May 14, St. Quen to the Bishopric of Rouen, and Eloi to the See of
Noyon. He made a great hunt for the body of St. Quentin, which had