Even Geoffrey has to confess that though few were for the doctrine, very many were for the man, and did all they could to excuse and extenuate even opinions which they did not hold. Bernard's party accordingly judged it prudent to organise their attack and to prepare for possible contingencies by a rehearsal, as it were, of the trial. At this secret meeting were present the archbishops Theobald of Canterbury, Geoffrey of Bordeaux, and Henry of York, the influential abbat Suger of Saint Denis, and two future English primates, Thomas Becket and Roger of York. The fact transpired when the council met, and with it another fact not less unfavourable to the confederates, namely that the issue had broadened from a case as between Gilbert and the catholic church, to one as between the pope and the cardinals on the one side and the prelates of France and England on the other. There was a risk of a schism. In effect it was not Gilbert, but the influence of Bernard himself, that was at trial; and it was openly rumoured that the council was arranged with the object of forcing the apostolic see to follow Bernard under a threat of withdrawing from the Roman communion.[1] All the cardinals but one united in resisting him: these, they said, were the arts by which he had assaulted Abailard, and they would have nothing to do with them. Bernard sought to win over the pope, for he was a man, says John, mighty in work and speech before God, as it is believed, and as is well-known, before men: but although usually successful, he was impeded in the present instance by the opposing unanimity of the cardinals.
Gilbert therefore approached the struggle with confidence. He brought not only the book on which he claimed to be judged, but his clerks followed with great tomes, presumably of the fathers, noted to support his arguments. He had evidently an advantage over his enemies who had only a sheet of selected extracts to go upon; and Geoffrey was reduced to fetching as many
- ↑ See John of Salisbury's words, 'Dicebant ad hoc esse convocatos, ut apostolica sedes metuschismatis cogeretur abbatem sequi:' cap. ix.
