[1] Since 889, the royal Abbey of Lobbes had been administered on behalf of the crown by the bishops of Liège, who held the office of abbot, although the monks continued to elect their own provost (praepositus) per the Rule of Saint Benedict.
[2] In 956, the provost was Blitard, while the lay abbacy was in the hands of Reginar III of Hainaut, who had received his appointment from his nephew, Bishop Balderic.
[2] Folcuin, in his Deeds of the Abbots of Lobbes,[a] says that Erluin was hated by the monks because he was considered a close friend of Count Reginar.
[1] On the night of 20 October 957, three young monks of Lobbes assaulted Erluin, ripping him from his bed and taking him outside the cloister, where they gouged out his eyes and cut out part of his tongue.
Although it was not unknown for monks to resort to violence to rid themselves of a hated abbot, contemporaries regarded the attack on Erluin as excessively brutal.