Rhinoceros Bound"The rhinoceros, that is, any powerful man, is bound with a thong so that he may crush the clods of the valleys, that is, the oppressors of the humble."Odo of Cluny, Vita Geraldi i. 8 To the second abbot of the great monastery at Cluny, Saint Odo, tenth century Europe was a world filled with violent men oppressing at whim the poor and the powerless. As royal authority waned, local magnates, unrestrained by any authority, divine or human, seized the