[32] Abélard explicitly and very emphatically rebukes such pretension in the very books which Bernard is supposed to have read. The second report, which is signed by Archbishop Henry and his suffragans, and which may not have been drawn up by Bernard, is more free from diplomatic turnings, but also gravely unjust to the appellant. It gives the pope a lengthy account of the order of events since the receipt of the letter of William of St. Thierry. From it we have quoted the words in which the bishops themselves confess the secret conclave on the Sunday. The bishops were affronted, it says, by Abélard’s appeal, which was ‘hardly canonical,’ but they were content with an examination of his doctrines (consisting of Bernard’s vehement harangue) and found them to be ‘most manifestly heretical.’ They therefore ‘unanimously demand the condemnation of Abélard.’ To put the point quite explicitly, the pope is clearly to understand that the Church of France has already dealt with Abélard. It is not quite so insidious as the report which Bernard wrote, and to which—sad sign of the growing quality of the Church—even Geoffrey of Chartres lent his venerable name. Bernard’s official task seemed to be at an end with the despatch of the report. His profound and generous trust in the Holy Spirit would lead one to expect a complete withdrawal from the quarrel into which he had been so unwillingly forced. But Bernard’s conception of the activity of the Holy Spirit, though equal in theoretical altitude, was very different in practice from that of a Francis of Assisi. We have amongst his works no less than three epistles that he wrote at the time to Pope Innocent in his own name. One of them consists of a few prefatory remarks to the list of Abélard’s errors. The two others are of a much more personal and interesting character. It is difficult to say whether, and if so, why, the two letters were sent to the pope, but it is not necessary to determine this. Both were certainly written by Bernard for the purpose.