Fulbert

Fulbert bishop of Chartres, one of the most eminent and learned prelates of the 11th century. The place of his birth is unknown. He was probably born about A.D. 950, in Italy, but educated in France. About A.D. 990 he commenced a school at Chartres, where he continued his instructions for some time, and with such renown that his fame for learning spread to the most distant parts of the kingdom. Many of the best scholars of those times were Fulbert's pupils, and he contributed largely to the revival of literature. Berengar of Tours was one of his pupils, and king Robert was his patron and friend. His pupils always spoke of him with affection and veneration. He was not "satisfied with imparting to his scholars all possible knowledge, but he regarded it of the greatest moment to take care for the welfare of their souls. One of Berengar's fellow-students at that time, named Adelmann, in a letter written at a later period, of which letter we shall have occasion to speak on a future page, reminded him of those hearty conversations which they had at eventide, while walking, solitarily with their preceptor in the garden, how he spoke to them of their heavenly country, and how sometimes, unmanned by his feelings, interrupting his words With tears, he adjured them by those tears to strive with all earnestness to reach that heavenly home, and for the sake of this to beware, above all things, of that Which might lead them from the way of truth handed down from the fathers" (Neander, Church Hist., Torrey's transl., 3:502, where Adelmanum's letter is cited). A.D. 1007 he was ordained bishop of Chartres, and died in 1029. It is said that he was the first who introduced the celebration of the festival of the Virgin's Nativity in France: it is certain that he was a zealous upholder of her honor, since he built the church of Chartres to her praise. His writings consist of 134 Epistolae: — Tractatus contra Judaeos: — Sermones: — Carmina, etc. According to bishop Cosin, his doctrine on the Eucharist was altogether conformable to that of the primitive Church; but his first epistle (the fifth in Migne) to Adeodatus teaches tranasubstantiation. Yet his language on the Eucharist is sufficiently indefinite to have probably led his pupil Baerengar (q.v.) to his more scriptural and spiritual views of that sacrament. His works were edited by Masson (Paris, 1585), by Villiers ("in bad faith," Mosheim, Par. 1608, 8vo), and in the Bib. Max. Potr. 18:1. They are given in most complete form in Migne, Patrol. Latina, t. 141, where also several biographies of Fulbert are collected. See Oudin, Script. Eccl. 2:519; Ceillier, Auteurs Sacres (Paris, 1863), 13:78; Dupin, Eccl. Writers, 9:1 sq.; Mosheim, Church Hist. cent. 11, part. 2, chapter 2, § 31, n. 65; Noander, Ch. Hist. 3:470, 502; Clarke, Succession of Sacred Literature.