[532] Gregor. VII. Epp., l. ix. ep. 22. Fulk’s violence to the archbishop of Tours had also something to do with his excommunication; see _ib._ ep. 23; Chron. Turon. Magn. a. 1081 (Salmon, _Chron. Touraine_, vol. i. p. 126), and _Narratio Controversiæ_ in _Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. xii. p. 459. So too had his imprisonment of his brother; _Rer. Gall. Scriptt._ as above, p. 664, note. [533] Chron. Turon. Magn. a. 1093 (as above, p. 128). By that time Maine was again in revolt. The leader of the rising was young Elias of La Flèche, a son of John and Paula; but his place was soon taken by the veteran Geoffrey of Mayenne, whose treasons seem to have been forgiven and forgotten, and who now once more installed Hugh of Este as count at Le Mans. Hugh proved however utterly unfit for his honourable but dangerous position, and gladly sold his claims to his cousin Elias.[534] For nearly six years the Cenomannians were free to rejoice in a ruler of their own blood and their own spirit. We must go to the historian of his enemies if we would hear his praises sung;[535] his own people had no need to praise him in words; for them he was simply the incarnation of Cenomannian freedom; his bright, warm-hearted, impulsive nature spoke for itself. The strength as well as the charm of his character lay in its perfect sincerity; its faults were as undisguised as its virtues. In the gloomy tale of public wrong and private vice which makes up the history of the time--the time of Fulk Rechin, Philip I. and William Rufus--the only figure which shines out bright against the darkness, except the figure of S. Anselm himself, is that of Count Elias of Maine. [534] _Acta Pontif. Cenoman._ c. 34 (Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._), pp. 310–312. Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), pp. 683, 684. [535] Ord. Vit. (as above), pp. 768, 769.