The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [1943]
[Footnote 5: She is known by the different names of Praxes, Eupraecia, Eufrasia, and Adelais; and was the daughter of a Russian prince, and the widow of a margrave of Brandenburgh. (Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae, p. 340.)]
[Footnote 6: Henricus odio eam coepit habere: ideo incarceravit eam, et concessit ut plerique vim ei inferrent; immo filium hortans ut eam subagitaret, (Dodechin, Continuat. Marian. Scot. apud Baron. A.D. 1093, No. 4.) In the synod of Constance, she is described by Bertholdus, rerum inspector: quae se tantas et tam inauditas fornicationum spur citias, et a tantis passam fuisse conquesta est, &c.; and again at Placentia: satis misericorditer suscepit, eo quod ipsam tantas spurcitias pertulisse pro certo cognoverit papa cum sancta synodo. Apud Baron. A.D. 1093, No. 4, 1094, No. 3. A rare subject for the infallible decision of a pope and council. These abominations are repugnant to every principle of human nature, which is not altered by a dispute about rings and crosiers. Yet it should seem, that the wretched woman was tempted by the priests to relate or subscribe some infamous stories of herself and her husband.]
[Footnote 7: See the narrative and acts of the synod of Placentia, Concil. tom. xii. p. 821, &c.]
[Footnote 8: Guibert, himself a Frenchman, praises the piety and valor of the French nation, the author and example of the crusades: Gens nobilis, prudens, bellicosa, dapsilis et nitida .... Quos enim Britones, Anglos, Ligures, si bonis eos moribus videamus, non illico Francos homines appellemus? (p. 478.) He owns, however, that the vivacity of the French degenerates into petulance among foreigners, (p. 488.) and vain loquaciousness, (p. 502.)]
[Footnote 9: Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rex Francorum aptari fecit usque C. P., (Gesta Francorum, p. 1. Robert. Monach. Hist. Hieros. l. i. p. 33, &c.]
[Footnote 10: John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was archbishop of Rheims, A.D. 773. After the year 1000, this romance was composed in his name, by a monk of the borders of France and Spain; and such was the idea of ecclesiastical merit, that he describes himself as a fighting and drinking priest! Yet the book of lies was pronounced authentic by Pope Calixtus II., (A.D. 1122,) and is respectfully quoted by the abbot Suger, in the great Chronicles of St. Denys, (Fabric Bibliot. Latin Medii Aevi, edit. Mansi, tom. iv. p. 161.)]
It may occasion some surprise that the Roman pontiff should erect, in the heart of France, the tribunal from whence he hurled his anathemas against the king; but our surprise will vanish so soon as we form a just estimate of a king of France of the eleventh century. ^11 Philip the First was the great-grandson of Hugh Capet, the founder of the present race, who, in the decline of Charlemagne's posterity, added the regal title to his patrimonial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow compass, he was possessed of wealth and jurisdiction; but in the rest of France, Hugh and his first descendants were no more than the feudal lords of about sixty dukes and counts, of independent and hereditary power, ^12 who disdained the control of laws and legal assemblies, and whose disregard of their sovereign was revenged by the disobedience of their inferior vassals. At Clermont, in the territories of the count of Auvergne, ^13 the pope might brave with impunity the resentment of Philip; and the council which he convened in that city was not less numerous or respectable than the synod of Placentia. ^14 Besides his court and council of Roman cardinals, he was supported by thirteen archbishops and two hundred and twenty-five bishops: the number of mitred prelates was computed at four hundred; and the fathers of the church were blessed by the saints and enlightened by the doctors of the age. From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train of lords and knights of power and renown attended the council, ^15 in high expectation of its resolves; and such was the ardor of zeal and curiosity, that the city was filled, and many thousands,