His solid education, provided by Gerbert of Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II) in Reims, allowed him to deal with religious questions of which he quickly became the guarantor (he headed the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy in 991 and that of Chelles in 994).

"The essential means by which the early Capetians were seen to have kept the throne in their family was through the association of the eldest surviving son in the royalty during the father's lifetime," Andrew W. Lewis has observed, in tracing the phenomenon in this line of kings who lacked dynastic legitimacy.

It is believed that Gerbert of Aurillac (who was himself close to Borrell II, for a time his protector), would then have come to the aid of Hugh Capet to convince the Archbishop that the co-kinship was needed due to the purposed expedition to assist the Count of Barcelona, and to secure a stable transition of power.

In one of their diplomas, the two kings appear as intermediaries between the clerics and the people (mediatores et plebis) and, under the pen of Gerbert of Aurillac, the bishops insisted on this need for consilium: "...not wanting anything abuse the royal power, we decide all the affairs of the res publica by resorting to the advice and sentences of our faithful".

[25] Robert II already appeared in the eyes of his contemporaries as a pious sovereign (hence his nickname) and close to the Church for several reasons: he devoted himself to the liberal arts; he was present at the synods of bishops; Abbo of Fleury specially dedicated his canonical collection to him; he easily forgave his enemies; and the abbeys received many royal gifts.

[f] Concerned about his failure in Laon, Hugh Capet contacted several sovereigns to obtain their help (Pope John XV, Empress Theophanu, mother and Regent on behalf of Emperor Otto III), in vain.

[32] Immediately after associating his son with the throne, Hugh Capet wanted Robert II to marry a royal princess, but the prohibition against marriage within the third degree of consanguinity obliged him to seek a bride in the East.

The wedding, celebrated before 1 April 988, brought Robert II possession of the cities of Montreuil and Ponthieu and a possible guardianship over the County of Flanders, given the young age of Rozala's son Baldwin IV, for whom she had been acting as regent ever since her first husband's death.

According to French historian Michel Rouche, this alliance was purely political: to loosen the grip threatening the Capetian dynasty and its stronghold of Île-de-France, and probably according to the will of Robert II's mother, Queen Adelaide of Aquitaine; indeed, the territories of Odo I were Blois, Chartres, Melun and Meaux.

[52] After October 1002 and before August 1004, Robert II contracted his third and last marriage with the 17-year-old Constance (a distant princess, to avoid any close relationship), daughter of Count William I of Arles and Provence and his wife Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou.

[53] The new Queen's parents were prestigious in their own right: Count William I was nicknamed "the Liberator" (le Libérateur) thanks to his victories against the Saracens, and Countess Adelaide-Blanche's blood relations with the House of Ingelger allowed Robert II to restored his alliance with them.

Against the opinion of the royal councilors and the territorial princes, Robert II relented and thus, according to Rodulfus Glaber, 10-years-old Hugh was consecrated Junior King on Pentecost Day (9 June) 1017 in the church of the Abbey of Saint-Corneille in Compiègne.

[63] Although the association markedly favored the House of Anjou (and could put the sovereign's own life at risk), Robert II considered that this was the best way to consolidate the new Capetian dynasty and prevent another of the noble families from disputing the throne.

Rodulfus Glaber told the story of the peasant Leutard of Vertus from Champagne who, around 994, decided to dismiss his wife, to destroy the crucifix of his local church and to preach to the villagers the refusal to pay tithes with the pretext of reading the Holy Scriptures.

Another contemporary of the time is expressed: "They [the heretics] claimed that they had faith in the Trinity, in divine unity and in the Incarnation of the Son of God, but that was a lie because they were saying that the baptized cannot receive the Holy Spirit in the baptism and that after mortal sin no one can be forgiven in any way.

Some canons of the cathedral, close to the court, were supporters of those doctrines considered heretical: Théodat, Herbert (master of the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-le-Puellier), Foucher and, especially, Étienne (confessor of Queen Constance) and Lisoie (cantor of Sainte-Croix), among others.

These details are surely true; on the other hand, it is abusively obvious that Rodulfus Glaber and the other chroniclers demonized at will the meetings of the "circle of Orléans": they suspected them of practicing sexual orgies and of worshiping the Devil, among others ritual crimes.

A series of atrocities against the Jews followed, reported by Rodulfus Glaber and Adémar de Chabannes:[84] Spoliations, massacres and forced conversions were the tragic fate of Jewish communities in the Kingdom of France.

These abuses are corroborated by an anonymous Jewish chronicler,[85] who further reports that a notable Jew from Rouen, Ya'aqov ben Iéqoutiel, made a trip to Rome to appeal for the help of Pope John XVIII, who was already ill-disposed towards Robert II because of his marital history.

[95][96] Anxious to ensure their salvation and to repair their sins (incursions into Church land, murders, incestuous unions), kings, dukes and counts of the year 1000 attracted to them the most efficient monks and endowed them richly, such as the chronicle which Helgaud of Fleury wrote for Robert II.

[101] In the southern regions of the kingdom, Cluny and other establishments, peace movements were disseminated with the help of certain ecclesiastics who hoped for a strengthening of their power: Odilo, supported by his relatives, worked in close collaboration with the bishop of Puy to begin the Truce of God in Auvergne (ca.

Moreover, on the side of the bishops, there was no lack of criticism against the monks: thus they were accused of having an opulent life, of having unnatural sexual activities and of wearing luxury clothes (the example of the Abbot Mainard of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is detailed).

[s] The strength of Fleury and Cluny were their respective intellectual centers: the first retained in the 11th century more than 600 manuscripts from all walks of life, and Abbot Abbo himself wrote numerous treatises, the fruit of distant trips, notably to England, upon which he reflected (for example, on the role of the ideal prince); the second, through Rodulphus Glaber, was a place where history was written.

Hugh Capet and Robert II, solicited by the two parties (episcopal and monastic), received the complaint from Abbo who denounced the actions of a layman, Lord Arnoul of Yèvres, who would have erected a tower without royal authorization and above all would have submitted by force the peasant communities that belong to the Abbey of Fleury.

On the death of Robert II, the canons of Saint-Aignan asked a monk from Fleury who had worked with the sovereign and had access to the library of the Loire Abbey, to compose the biography of the second ruler of the Capetian dynasty.

Moreover, divine virtue conferred on this holy man such grace for the healing of bodies that by touching the sick with the place of their wounds with his pious hand, and imprinting thereon the sign of the cross, he removed all pain from the disease.

On the other hand, the lords as well as the clergy saw the interest in stimulating and benefiting from this economic expansion: they favored the clearing and the construction of new villages, and they invested in equipment increasing production capacities (mills, presses, ovens, plows, etc.)

From the time he was still associated with Hugh Capet, Robert II could write from Gerbert of Aurillac's pen: "Not wishing in any way to abuse the royal power, we decide all the affairs of the res publica by resorting to the advice and sentences of our faithful ones.

But the historian affirmed that, starting from Hugh Capet and even more under Robert II, the charters included more and more foreign subscriptions (signatures) than the traditional royal chancellery: thus the châtelains and even simple knights mingled with the counts and bishops until then predominant and outnumbered them at the end of the reign.

The present assembly, composed among others by Ebles I of Roucy, Odilo of Cluny, Dudon of Montier-en-Der, William V of Aquitaine and Odo II, unanimously decides to launch the anathema on the Lord of Joinville.