made
him tremble at the sight of the dangers of forfeiting his grace, with
which he was surrounded, and of the disorders which reigned in the
world. Lest he should be engaged to entangle his conscience, by seeming
to approve of things which he thought would endanger his salvation, he
determined to forsake at once both the court and the world. His
sacrifice was the more perfect and edifying, as he was endowed with the
greatest personal accomplishments of mind and body for the world, and in
the flower of his age; for he was only twenty years old, when, in 773,
he took the monastic habit at Corbie in Picardy, a monastery that had
been founded by queen Bathildes, in 662. After he had passed a year in
the fervent exercises of his novitiate, he made his vows; the first
employment assigned him in the monastery was that of gardener, in which,
while his hands were employed in the business of his calling, his
thoughts were on God and heavenly things. Out of humility, and a desire
of closer retirement, he obtained leave to be removed to mount Cassino,
where he hoped he should be concealed from the world; but his eminent
qualifications, and the great example of his virtue, betrayed and
defeated all the projects of his humility, and did not suffer him to
live long unknown; he was brought back to Corbie, and some years after
chosen abbot. Being obliged by Charlemagne often to attend at court, he
appeared there as the first among the king's counsellors, as he is
styled by Hincmar,[2] who had seen him there in 796. He was compelled by
Charlemagne {078} entirely to quit his monastery, and take upon him the
charge of chief minister to that prince's eldest son Pepin, who, at his
death at Milan in 810, appointed the saint tutor to his son Bernard,
then but twelve years of age. In this exalted and distracting station,
Adalard appeared even in council recollected and attentive to God, and
from his employments would hasten to his chamber, or the chapel, there
to plunge his heart in the centre of its happiness. During the time of
his prayers, tears usually flowed from his eyes in great abundance,
especially on considering his own miseries, and his distance from God.
The emperor recalled him from Milan, and deputed him to pope Leo III. to
assist at the discussion of certain difficulties started relating to the
clause inserted in the creed, concerning the procession of the Holy
Ghost from the Father and the Son. Charlemagne died in 814, on the 28t