and eloquence which they severely felt: theyconfess with reluctance the specious purity ofhis morals; and his errors were recommendedto the public by a mixture of important andbeneficial truths. In his theological studies, hehad been the disciple of the famous and unfor-tunate Abelard, * who was likewise involved inthe suspicion of heresy: but the lover of Eloisa was of a soft and flexible nature; and his ecclesi-astic judges were edified and disarmed by thehumility of his repentance. From this master,Arnold most probably imbibed some metaphy-sical definitions of the trinity, repugnant to thetaste of the times: his ideas of baptism andthe eucharist are loosely censured; but a politi-cal heresy was the source of his fame and mis-fortunes. He presumed to quote the declara-tion of Christ, that his kingdom is not of thisworld: he boldly maintained, that the swordand the sceptre were entrusted to the civil ma-gistrate; that temporal honours and possessionswere lawfully vested in secular persons; that theabbots, the bishops, and the pope himself, mustrenounce either their state or their salvation; andthat after the loss of their revenues, the volun-tary tithes and oblations of the faithful wouldsuffice, not indeed for luxury and avarice, butfor a frugal life in the exercise of spiritual la-bours. During a short time, the preacher wasrevered as a patriot; and the discontent, or re-
k The wicked wit of Bayle was amused in composing, with muchlevity and learning, the articles of Abtlard, Foulques , Heloise , in hisDictionnaire Critique. The dispute of Abelard and St. Bernard, ofscholastic and positive divinity, is well understood by Mosheim (Insti*tut. Hist. Eccles. p. 4I2-415V.
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CHAP.
LXIX.