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Rh over the temporalities of bishops and abbots. If the papal theory had triumphed, all the ecclesiastical baronies of the kingdom, the most constant support of the monarchy, would have been withdrawn from the royal control. Philip fiercely defended what he could not but consider his right.

The question, besides, became further complicated when in 1092 he carried off Bertrada of Montfort, wife of the Count of Anjou, Fulk Rechin, and succeeded in finding a complaisant bishop to solemnise the adulterous marriage. The Pope, Urban II, did not hesitate to excommunicate the king even in his own kingdom, when he presided at the great Council held at Clermont in 1095. The position in which he found himself was too common for Philip to attach any very special importance to it. For the rest, in spite of the reiterated excommunications which Urban II, and later on his successor Paschal II, launched against him, Philip found prelates favourable to him among his clergy. Some were even seen, in the year 1100, who were not afraid openly to oppose the rigorous policy of the Holy See by performing, according to a custom then fairly frequent, a solemn coronation of the king on Whitsunday.

In reality the question of the marriage with Bertrada, that of simony, and the higher question of ecclesiastical elections and investiture were all inter-connected. To avoid a complete rupture, perhaps even a schism, Paschal II saw that it would be more prudent to yield. On the morrow of the Council held at Poitiers in November 1100, at which the Pope's legate had renewed before a large assembly the excommunication pronounced against Philip, the relations between the Pope and the king became somewhat less tense. On both sides something was conceded; in the matter of an episcopal election to the see of Beauvais the king and the Pope sought for common ground; the royal candidate, Stephen of Garlande, whom Manasse, Archbishop of Rheims, had not hesitated to maintain in the face of every comer, was to be consecrated Bishop of Beauvais, while the candidate of the reforming party, Galo, formerly Abbot of St-Quentin of Beauvais, was to obtain the episcopal see of Paris, just then vacant. Philip was to be "reconciled" on condition that he pledged himself to separate from Bertrada. On these bases the negotiations took place. Ivo, the illustrious Bishop of Chartres, who represented in France the moderate party, equally opposed to the abuses of the older clergy and to the exaggerations of the uncompromising reformers, pleaded with Paschal for conciliatory measures. Nor did the Pope remain deaf to his exhortations; on 30 July 1104 the king's case was submitted to a council assembled at Beaugency by Richard, Bishop of Albano, the Pope's legate. The council, unable to agree, came to no decision, but a fresh assembly immediately met at Paris, and Philip having engaged "to have no further intercourse with Bertrada, and never more to speak a word to her unless before witnesses" was solemnly absolved.