or, in 1101, in his
missions in Brittany, particularly in his diocese of Rennes; whither
he seems to have invited him. Ermengarde, countess of Brittany, was
so moved by St. Robert's sermons, that she earnestly desired to
renounce the world, and retire to Fontevraud. The saint exhorted her
to continue in the world, and to sanctify her soul by her duties in
her public station, especially by patience and prayer: yet, some
years after, she took the veil at Fontevaud. See F. de la Mainferme,
in his three apologetic volumes in vindication of this patriarch of
his order, Natalis Alexander, saec. xii. diss. 6, and especially
Sorin's Apologetique du Saint. in 1702, a polite and spirited work.

ST. PRETEXTATUS, OR PRIX, M.

ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN.

HE was chosen archbishop of Rouen in 549, and in 557 assisted at the
third council of Paris held to abolish incestuous marriages, and remove
other crying abuses: also at the second council of Tours in 566. By his
zeal in reproving Fredegonda for her injustices and cruelties, he had
incurred her indignation. King Clotaire I., in 562, had left the French
monarchy {461} divided among his four sons. Charibert was king of Paris,
Gontran of Orleans and Burgundy, Sigebert I. of Austrasia, and Chilperic
I. of Soissons. Sigebert married Brunehault, younger daughter of
Athanagilde, king of the Visigoths in Spain, and Chilperic her elder
sister Galsvinda; but after her death he took to wife Fredegonda, who
had been his mistress, and was strongly suspected to have contrived the
death of the queen by poison. Hence Brunehault stirred up Sigebert
against her and her husband. But Fredegonda contrived the assassination
of king Sigebert in 575, and Chilperic secured Brunehault his wife, her
three daughters, and her son Childebert. This latter soon made his
escape, and fled to Metz, where he was received by his subjects, and
crowned king of Austrasia. The city of Paris, after the death of
Charibert in 566, by the agreement of the three surviving brothers,
remained common to them all, till Chilperic seized it. He sent Meroveus,
his son by his first wife, to reduce the country about Poitiers, which
belonged to the young prince Childebert. But Meroveus, at Ronen, fell in
love with his aunt Brunehault, then a prisoner in that city; and bishop
Prix, in order to prevent a grievous scandal, judging circumstances to
be sufficiently cogent to require a dispensation, married