Note 603 — Chapter XII · THE LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY.[159] 1051–1066. (continued 3)

He was a native of Vendôme, who had been a knight (“miles quidam primùm”), then a monk of Marmoutiers. He became Prior, and was “Prior bonus, ædificator nimis.” Geoffrey Martel then removed him to Angers, and made him Abbot of Saint Sergius and Bacchus, a decaying monastery, which he restored (“destructum valdéque redactum ad nihilum, magnum ex novo constituit”). None of his work remains there. He was then chosen Bishop of Le Mans by the clergy and people under a congé d’elire and letter missive from Count Geoffrey (“Gaufridus ... congregavit populum terræ suæ et omnem clerum, ut Cenomannensi ecclesiæ eligerent Episcopum.” Vet. An. iii. *311). It will be remembered that the Count of Anjou had stepped into the position of the King with regard to the Bishoprick. See above, p. 193.