hy, I exchanged all other weapons for these, and to the
prizes of victory in war I preferred the battle of minds in
disputation. Thenceforth, journeying through many provinces, and
debating as I went, going whithersoever I heard that the study of
my chosen art most flourished, I became such an one as the
Peripatetics.

CHAPTER II

OF THE PERSECUTION HE HAD FROM HIS MASTER WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX--OF
HIS ADVENTURES AT MELUN, AT CORBEIL AND AT PARIS--OF HIS WITHDRAWAL
FROM THE CITY OF THE PARISIANS TO MELUN, AND HIS RETURN TO MONT
STE. GENEVIEVE--OF HIS JOURNEY TO HIS OLD HOME

I came at length to Paris, where above all in those days the art of
dialectics was most flourishing, and there did I meet William of
Champeaux, my teacher, a man most distinguished in his science both
by his renown and by his true merit. With him I remained for some
time, at first indeed well liked of him; but later I brought him
great grief, because I undertook to refute certain of his opinions,
not infrequently attacking him in disputation, and now and then in
these debates I was adjudged victor. Now this, to those among my
fellow students who were ranked foremost, seemed all the more
insufferable because of my youth and the brief duration of my
studies.

Out of this sprang the beginning of my misfortunes, which have
followed me even to the present day; the more widely my fame was
spread abroad, the more bitter was the envy that was kindled
against me. It was given out that I, presuming on my gifts far
beyond the warranty of my youth, was aspiring despite my tender,
years to the leadership of a school; nay, more, that I was making
read the very place in which I would undertake this task, the place
being none other than the castle of Melun, at that time a royal
seat. My teacher himself had some foreknowledge of this, and tried
to remove my school as far as possible from his own. Working in
secret, he sought in every way he could before I left his following
to bring to nought the school I had planned and the place I had
chosen for it. Since, however, in that very place he had many
rivals, and some of them men of influence among the great ones of
the land, relying on their aid I won to the fulfillment of my wish;
the support of many was secured for me by reason of his own
unconcealed envy. From this small inception of my school, my fame
in the art of dialectics began to spread abroad, so that little by
little the renown, not alone of those w