books as he could from the church-library in order to
persuade the council that his authorities were a match
for the bishop’s. The device, he thought, was an effective
one ; but John of Salisbury assures us that the feeling
of the council was all on Gilbert’s side, and that the impression made by the wide reading he shewed was carried
home by the eloquence of his language ; for he had a
grave dignity both in voice and gesture. Every circumstance lent force to the earnestness with which he repudiated opinions which had been wrung and wrested out of
his book. r He declared that, he was not to be called upon
to agree with other men s works but with his own. . . He was not a heretic nor would be, but was and had ever been
ready to acquiesce in the truth and to folio iv apostolical doctrine : for it is not ignorance of the truth that makes the
heretic, but a puffing up of the mind that breeds contumacy
and breaks out into the presumption of strife and schism.
The fourfold indictment which had been drawn up he
entirely disclaimed : a supplemental count which s charged
him with limiting the applicability of baptism, roused him
to indignation ; that document, he exclaimed, I anathematise with him who wrote it, and all the heresies therein recited.
Gilbert’s protest appeared to saint Bernard and his friends in the light of a mean piece of shuffling ; but the cardinals were satisfied that he had made out his innocence, and demanded the destruction of the bill setting forth the minor charges. The pope gave the order, which was at once carried out by a subdeacon of the curia. Then followed a lively scene of disorder among the crowd of laity present, who were unable to follow the proceedings of the council and supposed that Gilbert was already condemned; and the pope had to explain to them in French that it was not done to the injury of Gilbert, for that it was not his book, whereas he was found catholic in all respects and agreeable to the apostolical doctrine. The four principal accusations however still remained, and Gilbert’s energetic repudiation of them could not exclude
