Note 563 — Chapter XII · THE LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY.[159] 1051–1066. (continued 2)

Fulbert, we are told (Vet. An. u. s.; see vol. i. p. 488), “tunc temporis sapientiâ et sanctitate inter Galliarum Episcopos, velut Lucifer inter cetera astra cœli, resplendebat.” Fulbert is to excommunicate him “auctoritate divinâ, nisi resipisceret.” Fulbert’s divine authority seems to have reached beyond his own diocese. He wrote a letter “sale satis conditam,” and afterwards sat in judgement in person between the Count and the Bishop in the city of Le Mans. Mabillon seems to identify the letter with the one which is printed in Duchèsne, iv. 173, denouncing the crimes of “Præcursor Antichristi Herbertus Comes Cenomanis” and denouncing excommunication against him. But this letter is addressed to Ebalus, who, in p. 181, appears as Archbishop, not, as one would have expected, of Tours, but of Rheims.