Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert's appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him.”
The other means of control, a special glove designed by AnthroTronix, another Maryland firm, can sense the wearer's hand movements and direct the BEAR accordingly.
They weren't living a life of austerity, a life without possessions His superiors tried to suppress him, and so he and his followers went into hiding, given refuge by the commander lazy monks.