Bernard was defeated for the moment by the unexpected appeal from the verdict of the unjust judges. But he knew well that Abélard had avoided Scylla only to plunge into Charybdis. Abélard’s knowledge of the curia was restricted to a few days’ acquaintance with it in a holiday mood at Morigni. Arnold of Brescia probably urged his own acquaintance with it in vain. Moreover many years had elapsed since his name was inscribed by the side of that of Bernard in the chronicle of Morigni. Bernard, the secluded contemplative, knew the curia well. He hastened home, told his secretary to prepare for a journey across the Alps, and sat down to write a batch of extremely clever epistles. The battle was fought and won before Abélard had covered many leagues in the direction of Italy. The first document that Bernard seems to have written is the report upon the synod which was sent to Innocent II. in the name of the Archbishop of Rheims and his suffragans. Hausrath, who is the least restrained by considerations of Bernard’s official sanctity of all Abélard’s apologists, and others, hold that both the reports of the proceedings, that of Samson and that of Henry (for the two archbishops, with their respective suffragans, reported separately to the pope), were written by Bernard. It is at least clear that the Rheims report was drawn up by him. Mr. Poole says this is admitted even by Father Hefele. Bernard’s style is indeed unmistakable. In this official document, therefore, the pope is informed, not so much that a dispute about Abélard’s orthodoxy is referred to his court, as that ‘Peter Abélard is endeavouring to destroy the merit of faith, in that he professes himself able to comprehend by his human reason the whole being of God.’ From this gross calumny[32] the writer passes on to assure the pope that Abélard ‘is a great man in his own eyes, ever disputing about the faith to its undoing, walking in things that are far above him, a searcher into the divine majesty, a framer of heresies.’ He goes on to recount that Abélard’s book had been condemned and burnt once before, at Soissons, ‘because of the iniquity that was found in it’; whereas every scholar in France knew that it was condemned on the sole ground that it had been issued without authorisation. ‘Cursed be he who has rebuilt the walls of Jericho,’ fulminates the abbot of Clairvaux. Finally, he represents Abélard as boasting of his influence at Rome. ‘This is the boast of the man,’ he says, ‘that his book can find wherein to rest its head in the Roman curia. This gives strength and assurance to his frenzy.’ The sole object of his appeal is ‘to secure a longer immunity for his iniquity. You must needs apply a swift remedy to this source of contagion.’ And the monstrous epistle closes with a trust that Innocent will do his part, and that swiftly, as they had done theirs. Thus was the pope introduced, in a handwriting he had so many reasons to respect, to Abélard’s appeal for consideration.