Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/190

172 cause a council was assembled, whereat he was present, and many things which were accused against him he steadily repelled, and very many he convincingly proved not to be his, which his opponents averred were his and said by him; yea, and at length he repudiated all heresy, and confessed and declared that he would be the son of the catholic church, and thereafter in the peace of brotherhood finished his life. He proceeds to relate the foundation of the Paraclete in the same terms as those upon which we have commented in Robert of Auxerre. The testimony, it may doubtless be objected, is that of a partisan, although written a generation after the events to which it refers: but it is at least remarkable that, except among his own biographers, Bernard has to wait a good half-century more before his case is admitted into history-books. The Cistercian Helinand, who died in 1227, is apparently the first to do this, in respect both to Abailard and to Gilbert of La Porrée; and those who follow him, Alberic of Trois Fontaines (as he is commonly known), towards the middle of the century, Vincent of Beauvais, like Helinand a Cistercian, and others, all expressly rely upon