Meantime Abélard had succeeded in correcting, to some extent, the inspired prejudice of the townsfolk. Every day he spoke and disputed in the streets and churches, before the council sat, and he tells us that he seemed to make an impression on his hearers. Alberic, in fact, came one day with a number of his pupils for the purpose of modifying his rival’s success; though he hurriedly retreated when it was shown that his specially prepared difficulty had no force. Premising ‘a few polite phrases,’ he pointed out that Abélard had denied that God generated himself in the Trinity; for this statement, he carefully explained, he did not ask reasons, but an authority. Abélard promptly turned over the page, and pointed to a quotation from St. Augustine. It was a swift and complete victory. But Abélard must needs improve on it by accusing his accuser of heresy, and Alberic departed ‘like one demented with rage.’ Priests and people were now openly asking whether the council had discovered the error to lie with itself rather than with Abélard. They came to the last day of the council. Before the formal opening of the last session, the legate invited the chief actors in the comedy (except Abélard) to a private discussion of the situation. Conon’s position and attitude were purely political. He cared little about their dialectical subtleties; was, in fact, quite incompetent to decide questions of personality, modality, and all the rest. Still it was mainly a minor political situation he had to deal with, and he shows an eagerness to get through it with as little moral damage as possible. Ralph the Green, president of the council, knew no more than Conon about theology; he also regarded it as a political dilemma, and the prestige of his school would gain by the extinction of Abélard. Ralph had nine suffragan bishops, but only one of these is proved to have taken part in the ‘conventicle.’ It was Lisiard de Crespy, Bishop of Soissons, who would support his metropolitan. Joscelin, an earlier rival of Abélard, was teaching in Soissons at that time, and would most probably accompany his bishop. Abbot Adam of St. Denis was present; so were Alberic and Lotulphe. One man of a more worthy type sat with them, an awkward and embarrassing spokesman of truth and justice, Geoffroi, Bishop of Chartres, one of the most influential and most honourable members of the French episcopacy.