Abailard dwelt at Saint Gildas, though it is difficult to
understand how he could have lived there at all. Never
before had he suffered such hardship, such unrelieved
misery. He had now no longer any teaching to take
his thoughts away from external cares. He was in the
hands of violent men, unlettered, unruly, of unbridled
passions and degraded lusts, robbers, would-be murderers :
such were the monks of Saint Gildas. Abailard had no
command over them ; it was enough if he could preserve
his personal safety. A single incident consoled him in
this terrible period of his career. The convent of Argenteuil, where Heloissa lived as prioress, had ceased to exist.
The abbat of Saint Denis had asserted on behalf of his
house a legal claim upon it : he established his suit, and
in 1128 the nuns were dispersed. The news no sooner
reached Abailard than he resolved to place his wife in
possession of the deserted buildings of his oratory of the
Paraclete. The grant was approved by the bishop of
Troyes and i confirmed by pope Innocent the Second in
1131. From that day Abailard had a new interest to
assuage his gloom. He visited the Paraclete frequently;
he helped to remove the difficulties, even of the means
of sustenance, that encompassed the infant nunnery;
became the counsellor, the father, of the house. Each
return to Saint Gildas made the tyranny of his own sons
more unendurable : m he sought every means of escape
but was arrested by bandits hired by them. He engaged
the aid of superior powers and had a number of the
brethren expelled ; but the act only exasperated the rest,
flight became a necessity. At length he made good his
escape ; but not yet to security : n he long trembled lest
his refuge should be discovered, and he fall a victim to
the vengeance of the monks he had deserted.
It is in this pitiable situation that the History of his Misfortunes, which has been our principal guide in the preceding narrative, was written : we do not know how long the crisis was protracted, but in the end he appears to have received permission to live free of the monastery
