Hildebert of Lavardin

[2] He had to face the hostility of a section of his clergy and also of the English king, William II, who captured Le Mans and carried the bishop with him to England for about a year.

[3] In 1125 Hildebert was translated unwillingly to the archbishopric of Tours, where he came into conflict with the French king Louis VI about the rights of ecclesiastical patronage, and with the bishop of Dol about the authority of his see in Brittany.

An edition of his works prepared by the Maurist, Antoine Beaugendre, and entitled Venerabilis Hildeberti, prima Cenomanensis episcopi, deinde Turonensis archiepiscopi, opera tam edita quam inedita, was published in Paris in 1708 and was reprinted with additions by J-J Bourassé in 1854.

They include two letters concerning the struggle between the emperor Henry V and Pope Paschal II, which were edited by Ernst Sackur and printed in the Monumenta Germaniae historica.

Hildebert attained celebrity also as a preacher both in French and Latin, but only a few of his genuine sermons exist, most of the 144 his editors attributed to him being the work of Peter Lombard and others.

Hildebert was an excellent Latin scholar, being acquainted with Cicero, Ovid and other authors, and his spirit is rather that of a pagan than of a Christian writer.