Take such care of his own
eternal welfare, at the expense of that of his flock, whom no
successor could so well guide and guard from evil; but in the end
he took a reasonable view of the matter, and concluded that his
first duty was to secure his own spiritual position. Nothing short
of the top of a very uncomfortable mountain could do this, so he at
once resigned his bishopric and chose Monte Caprasio as on the
whole the most comfortable uncomfortable mountain he could find.
The latter part of the story will seem strange to Englishmen. We
can hardly fancy the Archbishop of Canterbury or York resigning his
diocese and settling down quietly on the top of Scafell or Cader
Idris to secure his eternal welfare. They would hardly do so even
on the top of Primrose Hill. But nine hundred years ago human
nature was not the same as nowadays.
The valley of Susa, then little else than marsh and forest, was
held by a marquis of the name of Arduin, a descendant of a French
or Norman adventurer Roger, who, with a brother, also named Arduin,
had come to seek his fortune in Italy at the beginning of the tenth
century.
