the road at Cluny; old age had suddenly come upon him, and he had no more strength to continue the journey. In the famous abbey he stayed, resigned and softened,—anxiously making his peace with Bernard, wearily repeating his protestation of innocence to the pope, who had lost no time in ratifying the sentence of Sens,[1]—until increasing weakness made it necessary to remove him to the more salubrious climate of Chalons on the Saône. There in the spring of 1142 his troubles ended. The violence of Bernard had rid the church of a spirit too high-minded and too sensitive to outlive the injury. Whether the saint was satisfied with his success we hardly know: but this at least is certain that, except to zealots of the circle of Clairvaux, the impression of the sentence of Sens was entirely effaced by the renown of Abailard's transcendent learning and of his pious merit as the founder of the Paraclete, now erected into an abbey and, under the rule of Heloiissa, preeminent in honour among the convents of France. To one who watched by him in his decline, to Peter the Venerable, abbat of Cluny, himself n no friend to new methods in learning, the memory of Abailard retained a sweet savour, pure from any stain of malice: he was ever to be named with honour, the servant of Christ and verily Christ's philosopher.
- ↑ The confirmation is printed among Bernard's epistles, nr. cxciv, vol. 1. 186 sq.; compare the postscript in Appendix, note 152 p. lxvi. How hard Bernard worked for this result and what scurrilities he thought proper to the occasion, may be learned from a budget of letters which he addressed to Rome, all written, I am persuaded, though Rémusat differs about some of them, after the council of Sens: Epistt. clxxxviii, cxcii (pace Mabillon's title), cxciii, cccxxxi-cccxxxvi (the 'abbat' addressed in this last epistle is surely a Roman), cccxxxviii. I am glad to find my view supported by Bishop Hefele, vol. 5. 404 sq., 409; with whom also I omit Ep. cccxxx (col. 304 E-305 E), accepting his hypothesis that it is a draught, of which Ep. clxxxix presents the final revision.
in condemning the proceedings at Soissons and materially qualify their approval of the acts at Sens: see Rémusat, 1. 96 n., 218 n. 1. Dom Mabillon wrote, 'Nolumus Abaëlardum haereticum: sufficit pro Bernardi causa eum fuisse in quibusdam errantem, quod Abaëlardus ipse non diffitetur;' Praef. in Bern. Opp. 1. § 5. p. lv: while Bernhard Pez, the pious librarian of Moelk, judged Mabillon too severe; Thes. Anecd. noviss. 3. dissert. isag. p. xxi; 1721.
