“Fortitude is to hold the mind above the dread of danger, to fear
nothing save the base, and bravely bear adversity and prosperity.
Supported by this virtue, it is difficult to say how brave he was in
repelling the plots of enemies and how patient in enduring them. You
might observe in him this very privilege of patience; to those who
injured him, as another David he repaid the grace of benefit, and
toward those who hated him, he preserved a stronger benevolence.”
[Again the Christian turn of thought.]
“Temperance, last in the catalogue of the aforesaid virtues, according
to its definition maintains moderation and order in whatever is to be
said or done. Here he was so mighty as to hold to moderation and
observe propriety (_ordinem_) in all his actions and commands, and
show a wonderful discretion. Following the blessed Jerome, he tempered
fasting to the golden mean, according to the weakness or strength of
the body, thus avoiding fanaticism and preserving continency. Neither
elegance nor squalor was noticeable in his dress. He tempered gravity
of conduct with gaiety of countenance. He was severe in the correction
of vice as the occasion demanded, gracious in pardoning, in both
balancing an impartial scale.”[377]
III
A friend of Odilo was Gerbert’s pupil Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres from
1006 to 1028. His name is joined forever with that chief cathedral school
of early mediaeval France, which he so firmly and so broadly
re-established as to earn a founder’s fame. It will be interesting to
notice its range of studies. Chartres was an ancient home of letters.
Caesar[378] speaks of the land of the Carnuti as the centre of Druidism in
Gaul; and under the Empire, liberal studies quickly sprang up in the
Gallo-Roman city. They did not quite cease even in Merovingian times, and
revived with the Carolingian revival. Thenceforth they were pursued
continuously at the convent school of St. Peter, if not at the school
attached to the cathedral. For some years before he was made bishop, the
grave and kindly Fulbert had been the head of this cathedral school,
where he did not cease to teach until his death. As bishop, widely
esteemed and influential, he rebuilt the cathedral, aided by the kings of
France and Denmark, the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, the counts of
Champagne and Blois. His vast crypt still endures, a shadowy goal for
thousands of pilgrim knees, and an ample support for the great edifice
above it. Admiring tradition has ascribed to him even this glory of a
later time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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