way to release himself from the obligation of his monastic
vow, only to be free to exercise his own choice as to where
he should live. To obtain such permission it was necessary
to propitiate his religious superiors, whose irritation was
hard to avert. He explained in vain that he had discovered that the statement of Bede was outweighed by the superior authority of Eusebius and others.[1] At length the appointment of a new abbat of Saint Denis, the famous Suger, made matters easier, and Abailard was
dispensed from residence in the house. He withdrew to a solitude in the neighbourhood of Troyes, possibly the same retreat whither he had gone on the occasion of his
previous departures from Saint Denis.[2] There with a single companion he set up a hut of wattles arid thatch, an oratory in the name of the holy Trinity. But it would certainly be a mistake to think that he now purposed to lead the tranquil life of a hermit. Need, he says, forced him to teach; but it was not merely to supply his physical sustenance: his active brain must else have succumbed in the wild monotony of his new abode. No doubt he
- ↑ Dr. Deutsch, pp. 38 sq., satisfactorily excuses Abailard from the charge of sacrificing his own opinions to expediency; but it is possible that he had concealed the evidence of Eusebius in order to irritate the monks of Saint Denis.
- ↑ The first time 'ad cellam quandam recessi,' cap. viii. p. 17; the second ad terrain comitis Theobaldi proximam, ubi antea in cella moratus fucram, abcessi. 1 cap. x. p. 24. These two are therefore the same; and the latter notice is brought into connexion with Privignum (Provins). Abailard's third visit was 'ad solitudinem quamdam in Trecensi pago mihi antea cognitam,' ib., p. 25. It seems natural to infer that the places were in the same neighbourhood, and this is certainly the old tradition. William Godell, who wrote as early as about 1173, expressly says that Abailard established the Paraclete on a spot 'ubi legere solitus erat,' Chron., Bouquet 13. 675 b, c; and the statement was evidently widely circulated, be cause it occurs in substantially the same words in the Chrono- logia of Robert of Auxerre, Bou quet 12. 293 e, 294 a, and in the Chronicle of Saint Martin's at Tours, ibid., p. 472 c. Bayle's objection to this record, Dict., s. v. Paraclet, n. a, vol. 3. 592, that Abailard did not teach there until after he had built the oratory, is therefore removed by the identification with the seat of his previous teaching. I notice that William of Nangy in repeat ing the story, Chr., sub ann. 1141, changed legere into degere. So at least the text runs in the received edition, Bouquet 20. 731 d, 1840: André Duchesne however read legere here as well, note xlv. to the Hist, calam., Abael. Opp. 1. 63
