For my
part, scarcely had I recovered from my wound when clerics sought me
in great numbers, endlessly beseeching both my abbot and me myself
that now, since I was done with learning for the sake of gain or
renown, I should turn to it for the sole love of God. They bade me
care diligently for the talent which God had committed to my
keeping (Matthew, xxv, 15), since surely He would demand it back
from me with interest. It was their plea that, inasmuch as of old I
had laboured chiefly in behalf of the rich, I should now devote
myself to the teaching of the poor. Therein above all should I
perceive how it was the hand of God that had touched me, when I
should devote my life to the study of letters in freedom from the
snares of the flesh and withdrawn from the tumultuous life of this
world. Thus, in truth, should I become a philosopher less of this
world than of God.
The abbey, however, to which I had betaken myself was utterly
worldly and in its life quite scandalous. The abbot himself was as
far below his fellows in his way of living and in the foulness of
his reputation as he was above them in priestly rank. This
intolerable state of things I often and vehemently denounced,
sometimes in private talk and sometimes publicly, but the only
result was that I made myself detested of them all.
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