The following is an account of the penance performed by Fulk, surnamed
Greisegonnelle, about the year 1000. This Fulk, who was a very powerful
man in France, being the son of the great Seneschal of the kingdom, had
been a most bad and violent man in those times of feudal anarchy, when
force was almost the only law that existed, and when the nobles and
lords were rather heads of robbers than persons invested with any
precise dignity. Among the crimes the above Fulk had committed, he had
killed with his own hand Conan, Duke of Brittany. He had performed three
pilgrimages to the Holy Land and on the last, meaning to render his
penance complete, he caused himself to be drawn naked upon a hurdle with
a halter round his neck, through the streets of Jerusalem. Men who had
been directed so to do, lashed him by turns with scourges; and a person
appointed for that purpose cried at certain intervals, “Lord! have mercy
on the traitor and forswearer, Fulk.” He lived very devoutly afterwards,
and founded several monasteries. An account of this Fulk and his
penance, is to be found in Moreri’s Dictionary.