Again, in the _Historia Pontificalis_, attributed to John of Salisbury, there is an account of Bernard’s attempt to secure the condemnation of that other brilliant dialectician, Gilbert de la Porée, in 1148. It is expressly stated that Bernard called the chief personages together the night before the synod, and was leading them to pronounce on Gilbert’s ‘errors,’ when an archdeacon of Châlons spoiled his strategy. Further, the writer goes on to say that the cardinals—there were a number present for the synod—were greatly incensed with Bernard, and ‘said that Abbot Bernard had beaten Master Abélard by a similar stratagem.’ It is not unlikely that they learned the story from Hyacinth, the young Roman. The classical witness to this over-night conclave is Abélard’s pupil, Bérenger of Poitiers. Unfortunately, his narrative is marred by obvious exaggerations and a careless, heated temper. It occurs in an apology for Abélard, or an ‘open letter’ to Bernard, which he wrote some months afterwards. After reminding Bernard of some of the frivolities of his early youth, and much sarcastic comment on his actual reputation, he gives what purports to be a detailed description of the secret meeting. No one who reads it will take it literally. Yet when, in later years, he was run down, like Gilbert and Arnold, by the relentless sleuthhound, he made a partial retractation. What he has written as to the person of ‘the man of God’ must, he says, be taken as a joke. But a few lines previously he has appealed to this very narrative in justification of his abuse of Bernard: ‘Let the learned read my “Apology,” and they may justly censure me if I have unduly blamed him [Bernard].’ It is not impossible that Bérenger merely retracts such remarks as that about Bernard’s juvenile ‘cantiunculas.’ In any case, we may justly transcribe a portion of the narrative, after these qualifications.