beyond all possible addition of units, and not a concept at all, but rather an animal that thinks, creates, devours, and destroys.  The attempt to bridge the chasm between multiplicity and unity is the oldest problem of philosophy, religion, and science, but the flimsiest bridge of all is the human concept, unless somewhere, within or beyond it, an energy not individual is hidden; and in that case the old question instantly reappears:  What is that energy?

Abelard would have done well to leave William alone, but Abelard was an adventurer, and William was a churchman.  To win a victory over a churchman is not very difficult for an adventurer, and is always a tempting amusement, because the ambition of churchmen to shine in worldly contests is disciplined and checked by the broader interests of the Church:  but the victory is usually sterile, and rarely harms the churchman.  The Church cares for its own.  Probably the bishops advised William not to insist on his doctrine, although every bishop may have held the same view.  William allowed himself to be silenced without a judgment, and in that respect stands almost if not quite alone among schoolmen.  The students divined that he had sold himself to the Church, and consequently deserted him.  Very soon he received his reward in the shape of the highest dignity open to private ambition—­a bishopric.  As Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne he made for himself a great reputation, which does not concern us, although it deeply concerned the unfortunate Abelard, for it happened, either by chance or design, that within a year or two after William established himself at Chalons, young Bernard of Citeaux chose a neighbouring diocese in which to establish a branch of the Cistercian Order, and Bishop William took so keen an interest in the success of Bernard as almost to claim equal credit for it.  Clairvaux was, in a manner, William’s creation, although not in his diocese, and yet, if there was a priest in all France who fervently despised the schools, it was young Bernard.  William of Champeaux, the chief of schoolmen, could never have gained Bernard’s affections.  Bishop William of Chalons must have drifted far from dialectics into mysticism in order to win the support of Clairvaux, and train up a new army of allies who were to mark Abelard for an easy prey.

Meanwhile Abelard pursued his course of triumph in the schools, and in due time turned from dialectics to theology, as every ambitious teacher could hardly fail to do.  His affair with Heloise and their marriage seem to have occupied his time in 1117 or 1118, for they both retired into religious orders in 1119, and he resumed his lectures in 1120.  With his passion for rule, he was fatally certain to attempt ruling the Church as he ruled the schools; and, as it was always enough for him that any point should be tender in order that he should press upon it, he instantly and instinctively seized on the most sensitive nerve of the Church system to wrench it into his service.  He became a sort of apostle of the Holy Ghost.