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 I The Culture of the Middle Ages 449 belard replied that he believed that any one who could Abelard read ought to be able to understand the writings of the lectures on Ezekiel saints without a long course under a master.] Those who without heard laughed and asked if I would presume to interpret the preparation. Scriptures myself. I said that if they wished to try me I was ready. They then exclaimed, amid renewed laughter, that they gladly assented. [They agreed upon a very obscure passage in Ezekiel. Abelard insisted upon the students coming on the morrow, although they advised him to take more time to think over the passage.] I said indignantly that it was not my custom to reach my goal by long practice but by my wits. I added that they should either let me off altogether or come to my lecture when I wished them to come. At my first lecture few were present, since it seemed absurd to them all that I, hitherto almost wholly inexperienced in the Scriptures, should undertake the task so suddenly. How- ever, all who came were so pleased that, one and all, they praised my words and urged me to proceed with my comments according to my interpretation. As the affair became known, those who had not been present at the first lecture began to come in great numbers to the second and third. All were, moreover, eager to make notes from the very begin- ning, upon the explanation which I had given the first day. [Not unnaturally Anselm was very much irritated and made the audacious and self-complacent lecturer a great deal of trouble later.] Enough has been given from Abelard's famous biogra- phy to show something of his character. The reasons, too, are clear why he had many enemies. He has well been called the enfant terrible cf the schools of his day. In order to justify and promote a free discussion of the theological questions in which he was much interested, Abelard prepared his famous book, Yea and Nay. A brief summary of the introduction is given below.