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 156 attacked party of such terms of combat. Prepossessed with a blind reliance on their elders as by far the majority of medieval churchmen were (and it was the church which in all cases claimed the power of deciding questions which might more strictly belong to the cognisance of philosophy), the result was nearly certain before the argument began. At the same time, as we have said, it by no means followed that the verdict of a council commanded general acceptance: private sentiments of prejudice or favour, a reluctance to assume nice points as irrevocably fixed, concerning which even the fathers were supposed to have allowed some latitude, and which few persons even pretended to understand,—all these motives, apart from the existence of personal attachment to the opinions condemned, cooperated to make such proceedings matters for criticism, a source of uneasiness to the faithful and a rock of offence to the hardier intellects among them. The trial of Gilbert of La Porrée furnishes a striking illustration of this, and it is the more deserving of close study since in it we have the rare advantage of three contemporary witnesses, of whom two speak to what they actually saw and all discourse at length on the general bearings of the transaction.

Gilbert of La Porrée, bishop of Poitiers, has already come before our notice as the most distinguished disciple of Bernard of Chartres; a man, it was considered, of universal learning, who in the true spirit of his school gathered together every detail of accessible knowledge to illustrate and perfect his work. But unlike Bernard his principal interest lay in applying his acquirements to the investigation of theological problems; with him religion was the first thing. His theological activity is represented by a weighty and extensive Commentary on the Books on the Trinity, by Boëthius, which were endued