Page 917 - les-miserables

too long. On the day when the rhetorician Gymnastoras left
his prison, bearing in his body many dilemmas and numer-
ous syllogisms which had struck in, he halted in front of
the first tree which he came to, harangued it and made very
great efforts to convince it. The prioress, who was usually
subjected to the barrier of silence, and whose reservoir was
overfull, rose and exclaimed with the loquacity of a dam
which has broken away:—
‘I have on my right Benoit and on my left Bernard. Who
was Bernard? The first abbot of Clairvaux. Fontaines in Bur-
gundy is a country that is blest because it gave him birth. His
father was named Tecelin, and his mother Alethe. He began
at Citeaux, to end in Clairvaux; he was ordained abbot by
the bishop of Chalon-sur-Saone, Guillaume de Champeaux;
he had seven hundred novices, and founded a hundred and
sixty monasteries; he overthrew Abeilard at the council of
Sens in 1140, and Pierre de Bruys and Henry his disciple,
and another sort of erring spirits who were called the Apos-
tolics; he confounded Arnauld de Brescia, darted lightning
at the monk Raoul, the murderer of the Jews, dominated
the council of Reims in 1148, caused the condemnation of
Gilbert de Porea, Bishop of Poitiers, caused the condem-
nation of Eon de l’Etoile, arranged the disputes of princes,
enlightened King Louis the Young, advised Pope Eugene
III., regulated the Temple, preached the crusade, performed
two hundred and fifty miracles during his lifetime, and as
many as thirty-nine in one day. Who was Benoit? He was
the patriarch of Mont-Cassin; he was the second founder
of the Saintete Claustrale, he was the Basil of the West. His

917