Note 836 — Chapter VIII · THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.[497] A.D. 1028–1051. (continued 2)

Fulk founded a monastery near Loches, in honour of the Cherubim and Seraphim, and applied to Hugh, Archbishop of Tours, to consecrate the church. The Primate refused, unless Fulk restored some alienated possessions of his see. Fulk then went to Rome with well stored moneybags, by the help of which he persuaded Pope John—which of all the Johns contemporary with Fulk we are not told—to send a Cardinal to consecrate it. The Bishops of Gaul were horrified at this invasion of their rights, and divine vengeance showed itself by the church being blown down on the night following its consecration. R. Glaber, ii. 4, copied in the Gesta Consulum, 251. Rudolf takes this opportunity to set forth his theory of the Papal authority, which is well worth studying, and which breathes in its fulness the spirit of the later Gallican liberties. The Bishop of Rome is the first of Bishops, but he may not interfere with the diocesan jurisdiction of any of his brethren.