inually stirred up bishops, archbishops,
abbots and whatever other dignitaries of the Church they could
reach.

CHAPTER IX

OF HIS BOOK ON THEOLOGY AND HIS PERSECUTION AT THE HANDS OF HIS
FELLOW STUDENTS--OF THE COUNCIL AGAINST HIM

It so happened that at the outset I devoted myself to analyzing the
basis of our faith through illustrations based on human
understanding, and I wrote for my students a certain tract on the
unity and trinity of God. This I did because they were always
seeking for rational and philosophical explanations, asking rather
for reasons they could understand than for mere words, saying that
it was futile to utter words which the intellect could not possibly
follow, that nothing could be believed unless it could first be
understood, and that it was absurd for any one to preach to others
a thing which neither he himself nor those whom he sought to teach
could comprehend. Our Lord Himself maintained this same thing when
He said: "They are blind leaders of the blind" (Matthew, xv, 14).

Now, a great many people saw and read this tract, and it became
exceedingly popular, its clearness appealing particularly to all
who sought information on this subject. And since the questions
involved are generally considered the most difficult of all, their
complexity is taken as the measure of the subtlety of him who
succeeds in answering them. As a result, my rivals became furiously
angry, and summoned a council to take action against me, the chief
instigators therein being my two intriguing enemies of former days,
Alberic and Lotulphe. These two, now that both William and Anselm,
our erstwhile teachers, were dead, were greedy to reign in their
stead, and, so to speak, to succeed them as heirs. While they were
directing the school at Rheims, they managed by repeated hints to
stir up their archbishop, Rodolphe, against me, for the purpose of
holding a meeting, or rather an ecclesiastical council, at
Soissons, provided they could secure the approval of Conon, Bishop
of Praeneste, at that time papal legate in France. Their plan was
to summon me to be present at this council, bringing with me the
famous book I had written regarding the Trinity. In all this,
indeed, they were successful, and the thing happened according to
their wishes.

Before I reached Soissons, however, these two rivals of mine so
foully slandered me with both the clergy and the public that on the
day of my arrival the people came near to s