They gladly
laid hold of the daily eagerness of my students to hear me as an
excuse whereby they might be rid of me; and finally, at the
insistent urging of the students themselves, and with the hearty
consent of the abbot and the rest of the brotherhood, I departed
thence to a certain hut, there to teach in my wonted way. To this
place such a throng of students flocked that the neighbourhood
could not afford shelter for them, nor the earth sufficient
sustenance.
Here, as befitted my profession, I devoted myself chiefly to
lectures on theology, but I did not wholly abandon the teaching of
the secular arts, to which I was more accustomed, and which was
particularly demanded of me. I used the latter, however, as a hook,
luring my students by the bait of learning to the study of the true
philosophy, even as the Ecclesiastical History tells of Origen, the
greatest of all Christian philosophers. Since apparently the Lord
had gifted me with no less persuasiveness in expounding the
Scriptures than in lecturing on secular subjects, the number of my
students in these two courses began to increase greatly, and the
attendance at all the other schools was correspondingly diminished.
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