The letter of Bishop Pappolus of Chartres to the synod
Contents of the letter of petition
To all of the bishops and lords, always adorned with the apostolic dignity of their [rank], who have now gathered at the holy synod in Paris, Pappolus, bishop of the city of Chartres, your humble [servant].
The canonical decrees remind us, that, as often as some matters are brought forth in the Church, they should be presented at the synodal gathering. Indeed, most pious lords, by the content of this letter, we desire to refer to your pieties the acts which were committed against us. Therefore, when I had been elected a bishop some time ago unanimously by the will of the clerics and citizens of the city of Chartres, with the consent of my metropolitan, which has been done by the favour of God, after a few days a certain presbyter from the territory of the city of Chartres, by the name of Promotus, who has left his cell (cellola) without the letters [of recommendation, i.e. permission] from my predecessor, was seen seizing, with illicit audacity, my parish called Duno as if he was its bishop. In similar fashion, he seized, I do not know by whose authority, the property of the Church he considered himself the superior of, and everything that is located in this district. For that reason, as a pleader to your sanctity, and by the Holy Spirit that dwells in you, and by the future day of judgment, and by the remission of your sins, I plead and beseech my lords to command this [situation], which you would not want to occur in your [dioceses], to be remedied, since someone, by cunning audacity, could dare to perpetrate by tumour of pride something similar; and the hatred could conquer Churches devoted by you zealously and in an orderly way to Christ.
Responding with spiritual favour and in the canonical fashion to this petition, the holy synod wrote these [letters] opposing this recklessness.
In the subsequent letter to Bishop Aegidius of Reims, the synodal fathers call for the deposition of Promotus, since he was ordained contrary to canon law. Everybody asking or receiving a benediction from Promotus after this decree will be deemed excommunicated.
(trans. and summurised by J. Szafranowski)