However, the document had a sufficient air of retractation about it to allow Bernard to withdraw. In substance and spirit it was, as its name indicated, an apology, not a retractation. In fact Bernard’s zealous secretary and an unknown abbot attacked the apology, but Abélard made no reply, and the discussion slowly died away. Bernard had won a political triumph, and he showed a becoming willingness to rest content with empty assurances. Abélard’s personal force was dead; little eagerness was shown to pursue the seminal truths he had left behind, and which were once thought so abhorrent and pernicious. Later Benedictines virtually admit the justice of this. Mabillon says: ‘We do not regard Abélard as a heretic; it is sufficient for the defence of Bernard to admit that he erred in certain things.’ And the historian Noël Alexandre also says, ‘He must not be regarded as a heretic.’ Indeed, Bernard was strongly condemned at the time by English and German writers. Otto of Freising reproves his action in the cases of both Abélard and Gilbert, and attributes it to defects of character. John of Salisbury severely criticises him in the _Historia Pontificalis_; and Walter Map, another English writer, voices the same widespread feeling. Another document that Abélard sent out from Cluny forms the last page of his intercourse with Heloise. If he had wearily turned away from the strange drama of life, his affection for her survives the disillusion in all its force. There is a welcome tenderness in his thought of her amidst the crushing desolation that has fallen upon him. _She_ shall not be hurt by any unwilling impression of persistent calumny. He writes to her a most affectionate letter, and in the sanctuary of their love makes a solemn profession of the purity of his faith. ‘My sister Heloise, once dear to me in the world, and now most dear in Christ, logic has brought the enmity of men upon me. For there are certain perverse calumniators, whose wisdom leads to perdition, that say I take pre-eminence in logic but fail egregiously in the interpretation of Paul; commending my ability, they would deny me the purity of Christian faith.... I would not rank as a philosopher if it implied any error in faith; I would not be an Aristotle if it kept me away from Christ. For no other name is given to me under heaven in which I may find salvation. I adore Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father.’ Then follows a brief confession of faith on the chief points of Christian belief—the Trinity, the Incarnation, baptism, penance, and the resurrection. ‘And that all anxiety and doubt may be excluded from thy heart,’ he concludes, ‘do thou hold this concerning me, I have grounded my conscience on that rock on which Christ has built His Church.’