Brionne is known in ecclesiastical history as the place where the council of the church was held, by which the tenets of Berengarius were finally condemned.  It appears that the archdeacon of Angers, after some fruitless attempts to make converts among the Norman monks, took the bold resolution of stating his doctrines to the duke in person; and that the prince, though scarcely arrived at years of manhood, acted with so much prudence on the occasion, as to withhold any decisive answer, till he had collected the clergy of the duchy.  They assembled at Brionne, as a central spot; and here the question was argued at great length, till Berengarius himself, and a convert, whom he had brought with him, trusting in his eloquence, were so overpowered by the arguments of their adversaries, that they were obliged to renounce their errors.  The doctrine of the real presence in the sacrament, was thus incontrovertibly established; and it has from that time remained an undisputed article of faith in the Roman Catholic church.

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FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 54:  Vol.  III. p. 187.—­The engraving in the Antiquarian Repertory was made from a drawing in the possession of the late Sir William Burrell, Bart.]

[Footnote 55:  The word Turold, in the tapestry, stands immediately over the head of a dwarf, who is holding a couple of horses; and it has therefore been inferred by Montfaucon, (Monumens de la Monarchie Francaise, I. p. 378.) that he is the person thus denominated.  But M. Lancelot, in the Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, VI. p. 753, supposes Turold to be the ambassador who is in the act of speaking; and this seems the more probable conjecture.  The same opinion is still more decidedly maintained by Father Du Plessis, in his Histoire de la Haute Normandie, II. p. 342.—­“Sur une ancienne tapisserie de l’Eglise de Baieux, que l’on croit avoir ete faite par ordre de la Reine Mathilde femme du Conquerant, pour representer les circonstances principales de cette memorable expedition, on lit distinctement le mot Turold a cote d’un des Ambassadeurs, que Guillaume avoit envoiez au Comte de Ponthieu; et je ne doute nullement que ce Turold ne soit le meme que le Connetable.  Le scavant Auteur des Antiquitez de notre Monarchie croit cependant que ce mot doit se rapporter a un Nain qui tient deux chevaux en bride derriere les Ambassadeurs; et il ajoute que ce Nain devoit etre fort connu a la Conr du Duc de Normandie.  On avoue que si c’est lui en effet qui doit s’appeller Turold, il devoit tenir aussi a la Cour de son Prince un rang distingue; sans quoi on n’auroit pas pris la peine de le designer par son nom dans la tapisserie.  On avoue encore que le nom de Turold est place la de maniere qu’on peut a la rigueur le donner au Nain aussi bien qu’a l’un des deux Ambassadeurs; et comme le Nain est applique a tenir