Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/151

Rh 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. 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. 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