Arnulf was the nephew of
Ermentheus, the previous bishop, succeeding to the see on his death in 970. He was known as a strong supporter of
Hugh Capet, who took over as ruler of
West Francia.[3] Abbo, who became
abbot of Fleury in 988, offended Arnulf by his vigorous advocacy of the rights of monasteries.[4] Their power struggle is documented from Abbo's side in his works.[5] Arnulf's only surviving work, De cartillagine (On cartilage), is a response to Abbo's Apologeticus and was written in the aftermath of a riot that broke up the council of
Saint-Denis in 993.[6]
At the
Synod of Saint-Basle de Verzy in 991 Arnulf resisted papal interference, with very aggressive rhetoric.[7] His speech there, O lugenda Roma, was passed down in a text composed by
Gerbert d'Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II at the end of the decade.[8] Gerbert's version took remarks by Arnulf, and put them into connected form. It also emphasised the attack on the pope of the time,
John XV, over the destructive remarks about the institution of the papacy.[9] The business of the meeting was to deal with
Arnulf, Archbishop of Reims, as a rebel, part of the aftermath of Hugh Capet's assumption of power from the
Carolingians.[10] The speech attributed to Arnulf as prolocutor, and in particular his characterisation of the
Pope as Antichrist, was quoted subsequently, for example, by the
Magdeburg Centuriators[11] and by
James I of England.[12]