Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/34

20 Quibus expletis, astante ibidem sacrosancto corpore beati Bertini, cum aliis reliquiis, decretum est et exclamatum, ut, quicumque supramemoratam conventionem aliquando violare presumeret, eterno anathemati subjaceret, nisi digna penitencia reconciliatus, a tanto errato cito resipisceret. Fiat, fiat.

Arnulf and Gerbodo named in this charter were doubtless the sons of Gerbodo earl of Chester and of Ada his wife, the original grantors of the third part of the vill of Audreselles, and the fact of their becoming the men of the abbot is a strong proof of the truth of their father's history as told by Oderic Vitalis, which had resulted in the loss of his title of avoué of the abbey of St. Bertin. Authentic evidences, thus proving the high rank of this family in Flanders, accord with the inference suggested by the text of an excellent historian, that Matilda, the daughter, of Baldwin comte of Flanders, had Gerbodo, the avoué of St. Bertin, for her first husband, and that the issue of this marriage were Gerbodo, earl of Chester, Frederic, and Gundrada wife of William de Warren. The second marriage of Matilda with William duke of Normandy, was in contemplation prior to the close of the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1049, during which a council was held at Rheims for reforming the discipline of the Church and for the regulation of morals, under the presidency of Pope Leo the Ninth, commencing on the third day of October; for in a record of the acts of the third day of its sitting, the following passage occurs descriptive of what was done on that occasion by the Pope.

Excommunicavit etiam comites Engelrannum et Eustachium propter incestum et Hugonem de Braina, quia legitimam uxorem dimiserat et aliam sibi in matrimonio sociaverat. Interdixit et Balduino comiti Flandrensi ne filiam suam Willelmo Nortmanno nuptui daret; et illi ne eam acceperat, Vocavit etiam comitem Tetbaldum, quoniam suam dimiserat uxorem.

Such was the solemn prohibition promulgated at this council against this intended union, and which was so far effectual that until the imprisonment of this Pope, in 1053, by the Normans of Naples, none took place. In that year, according to the Chronicle of Tours, William duke of Normandy married Matilda, the divorced wife of Gerbodo, the mother of the children named above. The charter of William Warren, in the reign of William Rufus, who had created him earl of