And thus, by your authority, he earned absolution.
Then laying his hand on the book of the holy Gospels, he took an oath, in the following terms, to renounce his guilty and unlawful marriage: 'Hearken, thou Lambert, bishop of Arras, who art here in place of the Apostolic Pontiff; and let the archbishops and bishops here present hearken unto me.

I, Philip, king of the French, do promise not to go back to my sin, and to break off wholly the criminal intercourse I have heretofore kept up with Bertrade.

I do promise that henceforth I will have with her no intercourse or companionship, save in the presence of persons beyond suspicion.

I will observe, faithfully and without turning aside, these promises, in the sense set forth in the letters of the Pope, and as ye understand.

So help me God and these holy Gospels!' Bertrade, at the moment of her release from excommunication, took in person the same oath on the holy Gospels." According to the statement of the learned Benedictines who studiously examined into this incident, it is doubtful whether Philip I.broke off all intercourse with Bertrade.