Gregory of Tours: LIBRI HISTORIARUM

Taedit me bellorum civilium diversitatis, que Francorum gentem et regnum valde proterunt, memorare; in quo, quod peius est, tempore illud quod Dominus de dolorum praedixit initium iam videmus: Consurgit pater in filium, filius in patrem, frater in fratrem, proximus in propinquum. Debebant enim eos exempla anteriorum regum terrere, qui, ut divisi, statim ab inimicis sunt interempti. Quotiens et ipsa urbs urbium et totius mundi capud ingens bella civilia diruit; quae cessante, rursum quasi ab humo surrexit.

It wearies me to recount the diversity of civil wars, which have greatly crushed the nation of the Franks and the kingdom; in which time, what is worse, we already see that which the Lord foretold about the beginning of sorrows: A father rises against a son, a son against a father, a brother against a brother, a neighbor against a kinsman. For the examples of earlier kings ought to have frightened them, who, once divided, were immediately slain by enemies. How often did mighty civil wars also tear down the very city of cities and the head of the whole world; which, the strife ceasing, again rose up as if from the ground.

Utinam et vos, o regis, in his proelia, in quibus parentes vestri desudaverunt, exercimini, ut gentes, vestra pace conterritae, vestris viribus praemirentur! Recordamini, quid capud victuriarum vestrarum Chlodovechus fecerit, qui adversos reges interficet, noxias gentes elisit, patrias subiugavit, quarum regnum vobis integrum inlesumque reliquit! Et cum hoc facerit, neque aurum neque argentum, sicut nunc est in thesauris vestris, habebat.

Would that you also, O kings, train yourselves in those battles in which your parents sweated, so that the peoples, terrified by your peace, might greatly marvel at your forces! Remember what, as the head of your victories, Chlodovechus did: he slew opposing kings, dashed the noxious nations, subjugated their fatherlands, and left to you their kingdom entire and unhurt! And when he did this, he had neither gold nor silver, as there now is in your treasuries.

Quid agetis? Quid quaeritis? Quid non habundatis?

What will you do? What do you seek? In what do you not abound?

In domibus dilitiae supercrescunt, in prumtuariis vinum, triticum oleumque redundat, in thesauris aurum atque argentum coacervatur. Unum vobis deest, quod, pacem non habentes, Dei gratiam indegetis. Cur unus tollit alteri suum?

In houses, delights superabound; in the promptuaries wine, wheat, and oil overflow; in the treasuries gold and silver are heaped up. One thing is lacking to you: because, not having peace, you are in need of God’s grace. Why does one take from another what is his?

Cur alter concupiscit alienum? Cavete illo, quaeso, apostoli: Si ab invicem mordetis et comeditis, vidite, ne ab invicem consummamini. Scrutamini diligenter veterum scripta, et videbitis, quid civilia bella parturiant.

Why does one covet what belongs to another? Beware of that, I beseech you, apostles: If you bite and devour one another, see to it lest you be consumed by one another. Search diligently the writings of the ancients, and you will see what civil wars bring forth.

Requirite, quod de Carthaginensibus scribat Orhosius, qui, cum post septingentos annos subversam dicat civitatem et regionem eorum, addidit: Quae res eam tamdiu servavit? Concordia. Quae res eam post tanta distruxit tempora?

Seek out what Orhosius writes about the Carthaginians, who, when he says that after seven hundred years their city and their region were overthrown, added: What thing preserved it for so long? Concord. What thing destroyed it after so great a span of time?

Discordias. Cavete discordiam, cavete bella civilia, quae vos populumque vestrum expugnant. Quid aliud sperandum erit, nisi cum exercitus vester caeciderit, vos sine solatio relicti atque a gentibus adversis oppressi protinus conruatis?

Discords. Beware discord, beware civil wars, which assail you and your people. What else will there be to hope, except that when your army has fallen, you, left without solace and oppressed by adverse nations, will straightway collapse?

Si tibi, o rex, bellum civili delectat, illut quod apostolus in hominem agi meminit exerce, ut spiritus concupiscat adversus carnem et vitia virtutibus caedant; et tu liber capite tuo, id est Christo, servias, qui quondam radicem malorum servieras conpeditus.

If, O king, a civil war delights you, exercise that which the Apostle remembers is waged in man: that the spirit may desire against the flesh and that vices be cut down by virtues; and do you, free, serve your Head, that is, Christ, you who once, manacled, had served the root of evils.

1. De Childeberthi iunioris regno et matre eius.

1. On the reign of Childebert the Younger and his mother.

Igitur interempto Sigybertho rege apud Victuriacum villam, Brunichildis regina cum filiis Parisius resedebat. Quod factum cum ad eam perlatum fuisset et, conturbata dolore ac lucto, quid ageret ignoraret, Gundovaldus dux adpraehensum Childeberthum, filium eius parvolum, furtim abstulit ereptumque ab immenente morte, collectisque gentibus super quas pater eius regnum tenuerat, regem instituit, vix lustro aetatis uno iam peracto. Qui die dominici natalis regnare coepit.

Therefore, with King Sigibert slain at the Victoriacum villa, Queen Brunichildis was residing at Paris with her sons. When this deed had been brought to her and, thrown into confusion with grief and mourning, she did not know what to do, Duke Gundovald, having seized Childebert, her little son, secretly carried him off, and, snatched from imminent death, with the peoples gathered over whom his father had held the kingdom, he established him as king, scarcely one lustrum of age now completed. He began to reign on the day of the Lord’s Nativity.

Anno igitur primo regni eius Chilpericus rex Parisius venit adpraehensamque Brunichildem apud Rodomaginsem civitatem in exilio trusit thesaurisque eius, quos Parisius detulerat, abstulit; filias vero eius Meledus urbe tenire praecipit. Tunc Roccolenus cum Cinomannicis Toronus venit et praedas egit et multa scelera fecit, quod in sequenti, qualiter a virtute beati Martini pro tantis malis quae gessit percussus interiit, memoramus.

Therefore, in the first year of his reign, King Chilperic came to Paris and, having seized Brunichild, thrust her into exile at the Rotomagensian city, and took away her treasures, which she had brought to Paris; but he ordered her daughters to be kept in the city of Meaux. Then Roccolenus came with the Cenomannians to Tours and carried off plunder and did many crimes, which in what follows we recount: how he was struck by the virtue of blessed Martin and perished for such great evils which he had done.

2. Quod Merovechus Brunechilde accepit.

2. How Merovech took Brunichild.

Chilpericus vero filium suum Merovechum cum exercitu Pectavus dirigit. At ille, relictam ordinationem patris, Toronus venit ibique et dies sanctos paschae tenuit. Multum enim regionem illam exercitus eius vastavit.

Chilperic, however, sent his son Merovech with an army to Poitiers. But he, leaving aside his father’s ordinance, came to Tours and there kept the holy days of Easter. For his army greatly devastated that region.

Ipsi vero simolans ad matrem suam ire velle, Rodomago petiit; et ibi Brunichilde reginae coniungitur, ea quoque sibi in matrimonio sociavit. Haec audiens Chilpericus, quod scilicet contra fas legemque canonicam uxorem patrui accepisset, valde amarus dicto citius ad supra memoratum oppidum dirigit. At ille, cum haec cognovissent, quod eosdem separare decernerit, ad basilicam sancti Martini, quae super murus civitatis ligneis tabulis fabrecata est, confugium faciunt.

He himself, however, pretending that he wished to go to his mother, made for Rotomagus; and there he is joined to Queen Brunichild, and he likewise associated her to himself in matrimony. Hearing this, Chilperic—because, namely, he had taken his paternal uncle’s wife against divine right and the canonical law—very bitter, sooner than said, heads to the above-mentioned town. But they, when they learned that he had determined to separate the same two, take refuge to the basilica of Saint Martin, which is fabricated above the wall of the city with wooden planks.

Rex vero adveniens, cum in multis ingeniis eos exinde auferre niteretur et illi, dolosae eum potantes facere, non crederent, iuravit eis, dicens: 'Si', inquid , 'voluntas Dei foret, ipse hos separare non conaretur'. Haec illi sacramenta accipientes, de basilica egressi sunt; exosculatisque et dignanter acceptis, epulavit cum eis. Post dies vero paucus adsumpto secum rex Merovecho Sessionas rediit.

But the king, upon arriving, when he was striving by many stratagems to remove them from there and they, thinking him to be acting deceitfully, did not believe, he swore to them, saying: 'If', he said , 'it were the will of God, he himself would not attempt to separate these.' They, receiving these oaths, went out from the basilica; and after kissing them and receiving them with dignity, he feasted with them. But after a few days, the king, having taken Merovech with him, returned to Soissons.

3. Bellum contra Chilpericum, et de malitia Rauchingi.

3. War against Chilperic, and on the malice of Rauching.

Cum autem ibidem commorarentur, collecti aliqui de Campania Sessionas urbe adgrediuntur, fugatamque ex ea Fredegundem regina atque Chlodovechum, filium Chilperici, volebant sibi subdere civitatem. Quod ut Chilpericus rex conperit, cum exercitu illuc dirigit, mittens nuntius, ne sibi iniuriam facerent et excidium de utroque eveniret exercitu. Illi autem haec neglegentes, praeparantur ad bellum; commissoque proelio, invaluit pars Chilperici atque fugavit partem sibi adversam, multus ex ea strenuos atque utilis viros prosternens; fugatusque reliquos, Sessionas ingreditur.

But while they were staying there, some gathered men from Champagne set upon the city of Soissons, and, with Queen Fredegund and Chlodovech, the son of Chilperic, driven out from it, they wished to subject the city to themselves. When King Chilperic learned this, he directed himself thither with an army, sending messengers that they should not do him injury and lest destruction befall either army. But they, disregarding these things, prepared for war; and when battle was joined, the side of Chilperic prevailed and put his adversaries to flight, cutting down many strong and useful men of them; and, the rest routed, he entered Soissons.

Quae postquam acta sunt, rex propter coniugatione Brunichildis suspectum habere coepit Merovechum, filium suum, dicens, hoc proelium eius nequitia surrexisse; spoliatumque ab armis, datis custodibus, libere custodire praecipit, tractans, quid de eo in posterum ordinaret. Godinus autem, qui a sorte Sigyberthi se ad Chilpericum transtulerat et multis ab eo muneribus locopletatus est, caput belli istius fuit; sed in campo victus, primus fuga dilabitur. Villas vero, quas ei rex a fisco in territurio Sessionico indulserat, abstulit et basilicae contulit beati Medardi.

After these things were done, the king, on account of the conjugal union with Brunichild, began to hold Merovech, his son, as suspect, saying that this battle had arisen from his wickedness; and, stripped of his arms and guards having been assigned, he ordered him to be kept under free custody, deliberating what he should ordain concerning him for the future. But Godin, who had transferred himself from the party of Sigibert to Chilperic and had been enriched by him with many gifts, was the head of this war; but, defeated in the field, he is the first to slip away in flight. The villas, however, which the king had granted him from the fisc in the territory of Soissons, he took away and bestowed upon the basilica of the blessed Medard.

Ipse quoque Godinus non post multum tempus repentina morte praeventus, interiit. Cuius coniugem Rauchingus accepit, viro omni vanitate repletus, superbia tumidus, elatione protervus, qui se ita cum subiectis agebat, ut non cognusceret in se aliquid humanitatis habere, sed ultra modum humanae malitiae atque stultitiae in suos deseviens, nefanda mala gerebat. Nam si ante eum, ut adsolet, convivio utenti puer cereum tenuisset, nudari eius tibias faciebat atque tamdiu in his cereum comprimi, donec lumine privaretur; iterum cum inluminatus fuisset, similiter faciebat, usque dum totae tibiae famuli tenentes exurirentur.

Godinus himself also, not after much time, overtaken by a sudden death, perished. His spouse Rauchingus took, a man filled with every vanity, swollen with pride, insolent with elation, who so dealt with his subjects that he did not recognize that he had anything of humanity in himself; but, raging against his own beyond the measure of human malice and stupidity, he committed unspeakable evils. For if before him, as is wont, when he was at a banquet, a boy had held a candle, he would have the boy’s shins stripped bare and have the candle pressed upon them until it was deprived of light; and again, when it had been illuminated, he would do likewise, until the whole shins of the servants holding it were burned up.

Quod si vocem emittere aut se de loco illo alia in parte movere conatus fuisset, nudus ilico gladius imminibat, fiebatque, ut, hoc flente, iste magna laetitia exultaret. Aiebant enim quidam, quod eo tempore duo de famulis eius, ut sepe contingit, mutuo se amore dilixisse, virum scilicet et puella. Cumque haec dilectio per duorum annorum aut eo amplius spatio traheretur, coniuncti pariter aeclesiam petierunt.

But if he had attempted to emit a voice or to move himself from that place into another part, a naked sword was immediately impending, and it came about that, while this one wept, that man exulted with great joy. For certain people said that at that time two of his servants, as often happens, had loved one another with mutual love—namely a man and a girl. And when this affection was prolonged through the space of two years or even more, joined together they sought the church.

Quod cum Rauchingus conperisset, accedit ad sacerdotem loci; rogat, sibi protinus reddi suos famulos excusatus. Tunc sacerdos ait ad eum: 'Nosti enim, quae veneratio debeat inpendi aeclesiis Dei; non enim poteris eos accepere, nisi ut fidem facias de permanente eorum coniunctione; similiter et ut de omni poena corporali liberi maneant repromittas'. At ille, cum diu ambiguus cogitatione siluisset, tandem conversus ad sacerdotem, posuit manus suas super altarium cum iuramento, dicens, quia: 'Numquam erunt a me separandi, sed potius ego faciam, ut in hac coniunctione permaneant, quia, quamquam mihi molestum fuerit, quod absque mei consilii coniventia ista sint gesta, illud tamen libens amplectur, quod nec hic ancillam alterius neque haec extranei servum acceperit'. Crededit sacerdus illi simpliciter promissionem hominis callidi reddeditque hominis excusatos. Quibus ille acceptis et gratias agens, abscessit ad domum suam.

When Rauchingus had learned this, he goes to the priest of the place; he asks, with an excuse offered, that his household servants be forthwith returned to him. Then the priest says to him: 'You know, indeed, what veneration ought to be paid to the churches of God; for you will not be able to receive them unless you give assurance concerning the permanence of their conjunction; likewise also that you promise they will remain free from all corporal penalty.' But he, after he had long kept silent in wavering thought, at length, turning to the priest, placed his hands upon the altar with an oath, saying that: 'They shall never be separated by me, but rather I will bring it about that they remain in this conjunction, because, although it was troublesome to me that these things were done without the connivance of my counsel, yet I willingly embrace this: that neither has this man taken another’s handmaid nor has this girl taken a stranger’s slave.' The priest simply trusted the promise of the crafty man and returned the persons, excused. He, having received them and giving thanks, departed to his house.

Et statim iussit elidere arborem truncatamque colomnam eius per capita cuneo scissam praecipit excavare; effossamque in altitudine trium aut quattuor pedum humum, deponi vas iubet in foveam. Ibique puellam ut mortuam conponens, puerum desuper iactare praecipit, positoque operturium, fossam humo replevit sepelivitque eos viventes, dicens, quia: 'Non frustravi iuramentum meum, ut non separarentur hi in sempiternum'. Qui cum sacerdote nuntiata fuissent, cucurrit velociter; et increpans hominem, vix obtenuit, ut detegerentur. Verumtamen puerum vivum extraxit, puellam vero repperit suffocatam.

And straightway he ordered a tree to be felled, and its trunk—its column split by a wedge at the top—to be hollowed out; and, the ground having been dug to a depth of three or four feet, he orders a vessel to be set down into the pit. And there, arranging the girl as if dead, he commands the boy to be thrown on top; and, the covering having been put in place, he filled the pit with earth and buried them living, saying: 'I have not frustrated my oath, that these should not be separated for eternity.' When these things had been reported to the priest, he ran swiftly; and, rebuking the man, he scarcely obtained that they be uncovered. Nevertheless he drew out the boy alive, but found the girl suffocated.

In talibus enim operibus valde nequissimus erat, nullam habens aliam potius utilitatem, nisi in caccinnis ac dolis omnibusque perversis rebus. Unde non inmerito taliter excessit a vita, qui talia gessit, cum frueretur hanc vitam; quod in posterum degesturi sumus. Siggo quoque referendarius, qui anolum regis Sigyberthi tenuerat et ab Chilperico rege ita provocatus erat, ut servitium, quod tempore fratris sui habuerat, obteneret, ad Childeberthum regem, Sigyberthi filium, relicto Chilperico, transivit resque eius, quas in Sessionico habuerat, Ansovaldus obtinuit.

For in such works he was very most-wicked, having no other utility except in cachinnations and deceits and all perverse things. Whence, not undeservedly, he departed thus from life, who did such things while he enjoyed this life; which we are going to set forth hereafter. Siggo too, the referendary, who had held King Sigyberth’s ring, and had been thus summoned by King Chilperic to obtain the service which he had had in the time of his brother, passed over to King Childeberth, the son of Sigyberth, leaving Chilperic; and Ansovaldus obtained his properties which he had had at Soissons.

Multi autem et alii de his, qui se de regno Sigyberthi ad Chilpericum tradiderant, recesserunt. Uxor quoque Siggonis non post multum temporis spatio obiit; sed ille aliam rursus accepit.

Many, moreover, even others among those who had delivered themselves from the realm of Sigybert to Chilperic, withdrew. The wife of Siggo likewise died not long after; but he again took another in marriage.

4. Quod Roccolenus Toronus venit.

4. That Roccolenus the Turonian came.

His diebus Roccolenus, ab Chilperico missus, Toronus advenit cum magna iactantia, et ultra Legerem castra ponens, nuntios ad nos dirixit, ut scilicit Gunthchramnum, qui tunc de morte Theudoberthi inpetebatur, a basilica sancta deberemus extrahere. Quod si non facerimus, et civitatem et omnia suburbana eius iuberet incendio concremare. Quo auditu, mittimus ad eum legationem, dicentes, haec ab antiquo facta non fuisse, quae hic fieri deposcebat, sed nec modo permitti posse, ut basilica sancta violaretur; quod si fierit, nec sibi fore prosperum nec rege, qui haec iussa mandasset; metueretque magis sanctitatem antestetis, cuius virtus hesterna die paralitica membra dirixisset.

In these days Roccolenus, sent by Chilperic, arrived at Tours with great vaunting, and, pitching camp beyond the Liger (Loire), sent messengers to us, namely that we ought to drag out Gunthchramn from the holy basilica, who at that time was being impeached over the death of Theudebert. But if we should not do this, he would order the city and all its suburban areas to be consumed by fire. On hearing this, we send an embassy to him, saying that these things had not been done from of old which he was demanding to be done here, nor could it now be permitted that the holy basilica be violated; and that if this should happen, it would be prosperous neither for himself nor for the king who had sent these commands; and that he should rather fear the sanctity of the bishop, whose virtue yesterday had straightened paralytic limbs.

Nihil his ille furmidans, cum in domo aeclesiae ultra Legerem resederet, domum ipsam, quae clavis adfixerat, dissecet. Ipsos quoque clavos Caenomannici, qui tunc cum eodem advenerant, inpletis follibus portant, annonas evertunt et cuncta devastant. Sed dum haec Roccolenus agit, a Deo percutitur, morboque regio croceus effectus, mandata aspera remittit, dicens: 'Nisi hodie proieceritis Gunthchramnum ducem de basilica, ita cuncta virentia quae sunt circa urbem atteram, ut dignus fiat aratro locus ille'. Interim advenit dies sanctus epifaniae; et hic magis ac magis torquere coepit.

Fearing nothing at these things, while he resided in the house of the church beyond the Leger, he cuts open that very house which he had fastened with keys. The Cenomanici too, who had then arrived with him, carry off the very nails in stuffed sacks, overturn the provisions (annonae), and devastate everything. But while Roccolenus does these things, he is smitten by God, and, made saffron‑yellow by the royal disease (jaundice), he sends back harsh mandates, saying: ‘Unless today you throw Duke Gunthchramn out of the basilica, thus I will wear down all the green things that are around the city, so that that place become worthy of the plow.’ Meanwhile the holy day of Epiphany arrives; and he began to be wracked more and more.

Tunc accepto a suis consilio, amne transacto, ad civitatem accedit. Denique cum psallentes de eclesiam egressi, ad sanctam basilicam properarent, hic post crucem, praecidentibus signis, aequo superpositus ferebatur. Verum ubi basilicam sanctam introit, mox furor minantis intepuit; regressusque ad eclesiam, nihil cibi ea die accipere potuit.

Then, having received counsel from his own men, with the river crossed, he approaches the city. Finally, when, singing psalms, they had gone out from the church and were hastening to the holy basilica, he, behind the cross, with the standards going before, was being borne set upon a horse. But when he entered the holy basilica, soon the fury of his threatening grew lukewarm; and, having returned to the church, he was able to take no food that day.

Exinde cum valde anillus esset, Pectavo abiit. Erant enim dies sanctae quadraginsimae, in qua fetus cunicolorum saepe comedit. Dispositis vero actionibus, quibus in Kalendas Martias cives Pectavus vel adfligeret vel damnaret, pridie animam reddedit; et sic superbia tumorque quievit.

Thereafter, since he was very aged, he went to Poitiers. For it was the days of the holy Quadragesima (Lent), in which he often ate the offspring of rabbits (conies). But with proceedings arranged by which on the Kalends of March (1 March) he would either afflict or condemn the citizens of Poitiers, the day before he gave up the ghost; and thus pride and swelling came to rest.

5. De episcopis Lingonicis.

5. On the bishops of the Lingones.

Eo tempore Felix Namneticae urbis episcopus litteras mihi scripsit plenas opprobriis, scribens etiam fratrem meum ob hoc interfectum, eo quod ipse cupidus episcopati episcopum interfecisset. Sed ut haec scriberet, villam ecclesiae concupivit. Quam cum dare nollem, evomit in me, ut dixi, plenus furore opprobria mille.

At that time Felix, bishop of the Namnetican city (Nantes), wrote letters to me full of opprobrium, also writing that my brother had been killed on this account, for the reason that he himself, eager for the episcopate, had killed a bishop. But the reason he wrote these things was that he coveted a villa of the church. When I was unwilling to give it, he, full of fury, as I said, vomited upon me a thousand opprobrious reproaches.

Cui aliquando ego respondi: 'Memento dicti prophetici: Vae his qui iungunt domum ad domum et agrum ad agrum copulant! Numquid soli inhabitabunt terram? O si te habuisset Massilia sacerdotem!

To whom I once replied: 'Remember the prophetic dictum: Woe to those who join house to house and couple field to field! Will they alone inhabit the earth? O if only Massilia had had you as priest!'

Numquam naves oleum aut reliquas species detulissent, nisi cartam tantum, quo maiorem oportunitatem scribendi ad bonos infamandos haberes. Sed paupertas cartae finem inponit verbositati'. Inmensae enim erat cupiditatis atque iactantiae. Sed ego ista postponens, ne illi similis appaream, illud explicabo, qualiter germanus meus ab hac luce migraverit, et quam velocem in percussorem eius Dominus praestiterit ultionem.

Ships would never have brought oil or the other commodities, unless only paper, so that you might have a greater opportunity of writing to defame the good. But the poverty of paper puts an end to verbosity'. For he was of immense cupidity and boasting. But I, setting these things aside, lest I appear like him, will explain this: how my own brother migrated from this light, and how swift a vengeance the Lord furnished upon his assassin.

Consenescente beato Tetrico ecclesiae Lingonicae sacerdote, cum Lampadio diacono, quem creditorem habuit, deicisset et frater meus, dum pauperibus, quos ille male spoliaverat, opitulare cupiens, consensisset in eius humiliatione, odium ex hoc incurrit. Interea beatus Tetricus a sanguine sauciatur. Cui cum nulla medicorum fomenta valerent, conturbati clerici et a pastore utpote destituti, Mundericum expetunt.

As the blessed Tetricus, priest of the church of the Lingones, was growing aged, he had cast down Lampadius the deacon, whom he had as a creditor; and my brother, while wishing to succor the poor whom he had wickedly despoiled, having agreed in his humiliation, incurred odium from this. Meanwhile the blessed Tetricus is wounded by a bleeding; and when none of the physicians’ fomentations availed him, the clerics, disturbed and as it were bereft of a pastor, seek out Munderic.

Qui a rege indultus ac tonsoratus, episcopus ordinatur, sub ea specie, ut, dum beatus Tetricus viveret, hic Ternoderinsim castrum ut archipresbiter regerit atque in eo commoraretur, migrante vero decessore, iste succederet. In quo castro dum habitaret, iram regis incurrit. Adserebatur enim contra eum, quod ipse Sigibertho regi adversus fratrem suum Guntchramnum venienti alimenta et munera praebuisset.

He, having received an indult from the king and being tonsured, is ordained bishop under this pretext: that, while the blessed Tetricus lived, he should govern the Ternoderinsis fortress as archpresbyter and dwell in it; but when the predecessor departed, he would succeed. While he was living in that fortress, he incurred the king’s wrath. For it was asserted against him that he had furnished provisions and gifts to King Sigibert when he was coming against his brother Guntchramn.

Igitur extractus a castro, in exilio super ripam Rhodani in turre quadam arta atque detecta retruditur; in qua per duos fere annos cum grandi exitu commoratus, obtinente beato Nicetio episcopo, Lugduno regreditur habitavitque cum eo per duos menses. Sed cum obtinere non posset a rege, ut in loco, unde eiectus fuerat, restitueretur, nocte per fugam lapsus, ad Sigiberti regnum pertransiit et apud Arisitensim vicum episcopus instituetur, habens sub se plus minus dioceses XV, quas primum quidem Gothi tenuerant, nunc vero Dalmatius Rutenensis episcopus iudicat. Quo abeunte, iterum Lingonici Silvestrum, propinquum vel nostrum vel beati Tetrici, episcopum expetunt.

Therefore, taken out from the castrum, he is thrust back in exile upon the bank of the Rhone into a certain narrow and uncovered tower; in which, having tarried for nearly two years with great hardship, with the blessed Nicetius the bishop obtaining (influence), he returns to Lyons and lived with him for two months. But when he could not obtain from the king that he be restored to the place whence he had been cast out, slipping away by flight at night, he crossed over to the kingdom of Sigibert and at the village of Arisitum he was instituted as bishop, having under him about 15 dioceses, which at first indeed the Goths had held, but now Dalmatias, bishop of Rodez, exercises jurisdiction. He having departed, again the people of Langres seek Silvester, a kinsman either of ours or of the blessed Tetricus, as bishop.

Sed ut eum peterent, fratris mei hoc instinctu fecerunt. Interea transeunte beato Tetrico, hic, tonso capite, presbiter ordinatur, accepta omni potestate de rebus ecclesiae. Qui vero, ut benedictionem episcopalem Lugduno accipiat, iter parat.

But, in order that they might seek him, they did this at my brother’s instigation. Meanwhile, as the blessed Tetricus was passing through, this man, with his head shorn, is ordained presbyter, after receiving full authority over the affairs of the church. And indeed, that he might receive the episcopal benediction at Lyon, he prepares a journey.

Quae dum aguntur, ipse, quia iam diu epilenticus erat, ab hoc morbo correptus, asperius ex sensu factus et per dies duos assiduae dans mugitum, tertia die spiritum exalavit. Quae peracta, Lampadius, ut superius dictum est, ab honore et facultate privatus, in odio Petri diaconi cum filio Silvestri coniungitur, machinans atque confirmans, patrem suum ab ipso fuisse maleficiis interfectum. At ille aetate iuvenis, sensu levis contra eum commovetur, ipsum inpetens publice parricidam.

While these things are being done, he himself, since he had long been epileptic, seized by this disease, becoming harsher and out of his senses, and for two days uttering incessant bellowing, on the third day breathed out his spirit. These things accomplished, Lampadius, as was said above, deprived of honor and means, is joined in hatred of Peter the deacon with the son of Silvester, machinating and affirming that his father had been slain by him through malefices. But he, young in age, light in judgment, is stirred against him, assailing him publicly as a parricide.

Porro ille haec audiens, facto placito in praesentia sancti Niceti episcopi, avunculi matris meae, Lugduno dirigitur; et ibi, Siagrio episcopo coram adstante vel aliis sacerdotibus multis cum saecularium principibus, se sacramento exuit, numquam se in morte Silvestri mixtum fuisse. Post duos vero annos instigatus iterum a Lampadio filius Silvestri, adsecutus in via Petrum diaconum, lancea sauciatum interfecit. Quod cum factum fuisset, de eo loco elevatus et ad Divionensim delatus castrum, secus sanctum Gregorium, proavum nostrum, sepelitur.

Moreover, he, hearing these things, with a placitum held in the presence of Saint Nicetius the bishop, my mother’s maternal uncle, is directed to Lyon; and there, with Bishop Siagrius standing by in person, and many other priests together with the secular princes, he exonerated himself by a sacrament (oath), that he had never been involved in the death of Silvester. But after two years, Silvester’s son, again instigated by Lampadius, having overtaken the deacon Peter on the road, killed him, having wounded him with a lance. When this had been done, lifted from that place and borne to the castle of Divio (Dijon), he is buried beside Saint Gregory, our great‑grandfather.

Iste vero fugam iniens, ad Chilpericum regem transiit, facultatibus suis fisco regis Guntchramni dimissis. Cumque per diversa vagaretur pro commisso scelere nec ei essit locus firmus ad commorandum, tandem, ut credo, contra eum sanguine insonte ad divinam potentiam proclamante, in quodam loco, dum iter ageret, innocentem hominem evaginato gladio interemit. Cuius parentes condolentes propinqui exitum, commota seditione, extractis gladiis, eum in frustra concidunt membratimque dispergunt.

But he, indeed, entering upon flight, crossed over to King Chilperic, his estates relinquished to the fisc of King Guntram. And as he wandered through diverse places for the crime he had committed, nor was there for him any secure place to abide, at length—as I believe, with innocent blood crying out against him to the divine power—in a certain place, while he was on a journey, he slew an innocent man with his sword unsheathed. Whose parents and kinsmen, grieving at his death, a sedition having been stirred and their swords drawn, cut him into pieces and scatter him limb by limb.

Tale iusto iudicio Dei exitum miser accepit, ut, qui propinquum innocentem interimerat, ipse nocens diutius non maneret. Nam tertio ei haec evenerunt anno. Denique Silvestri post transitum Lingonici iterum episcopum flagitantes, Pappolum, qui quondam archidiaconus Agustidunensis fuerat, accipiunt.

Such an outcome by the just judgment of God the wretched man received, so that he who had slain his innocent kinsman did not himself, being guilty, remain longer. For in the third year these things befell him. Finally, after Silvester’s passing, the people of Langres, again demanding a bishop, receive Pappolus, who once had been archdeacon of Augustodunum (Autun).

Qui multa, ut asserunt, egit iniqua, quae a nobis praetermittuntur, ne detractores fratrum esse videamur. Tamen, quale habuerit exitum, non omittam. Anno octavo episcopatus sui, dum dioceses ac villas ecclesiae circuiret, quadam nocte dormienti apparuit beatus Tetricus vultu minaci.

He, as they assert, did many iniquitous things, which are passed over by us, lest we seem detractors of brothers. Yet I will not omit what sort of exit he had. In the eighth year of his episcopate, while he was going around the dioceses and the villas of the church, on a certain night, as he was sleeping, the blessed Tetricus appeared to him with a menacing countenance.

Cui ita: 'Quid tu', inquit, 'hic Pappole? Ut quid sedem meam polluis? Ut quid ecclesiam pervadis?

To whom thus: 'What are you,' he says, 'here, Pappole? Why do you pollute my see? Why do you pervade the church?

Ut quid oves mihi creditas sic dispergis? Cede loco, relinque sedem, abscede longius a regione'. Et haec dicens, virgam quam habebat in manu pectori eius cum ictu valido inpulit. In quo ille evigilans, dum cogitat, quid hoc esset, ficta in loco illo defigitur ac dolore maximo cruciatur.

'Why do you so disperse the sheep entrusted to me? Cede the place, relinquish the seat, withdraw farther from the region.' And saying these things, he thrust the rod which he had in his hand into his chest with a strong blow. At which, he, waking, while he considers what this might be, it becomes fixed in that very spot, and he is racked with the greatest pain.

Abhorret cibum potumque et mortem iam sibi proximam praestolatur. Quid plura? Tertia die, cum sanguinem ore proicerit, exspiravit; exinde elatus, Lingonas est sepultus.

He abhors food and drink and already awaits death as now nearest to himself. What more? On the third day, when he had cast forth blood from his mouth, he expired; thereafter, carried out, he was buried at the Lingones.

In cuius loco Mummolus abba, quem Bonum cognomento vocant, episcopus substituitur. Quem multi magnis laudibus prosecuntur: esse eum castum, sobrium, moderatum ac in omni bonitate promptissimum, amantem iustitiam, caritatem omni intentione diligentem. Qui, accepto episcopatu, cognoscens, quod Lampadius multum de rebus fraudasset ecclesiae ac de spoliis pauperum agros vineasque vel mancipia congregasset, eum ab omni re nudatum a praesentia sua iussit abigi.

In whose place Mummolus the abbot, whom they call by the cognomen “Bonus,” is appointed bishop. Many pursue him with great praises: that he is chaste, sober, moderate, and most prompt in all goodness, a lover of justice, diligently devoted to charity with every intention. He, having received the episcopate, recognizing that Lampadius had greatly defrauded the goods of the church and, from the spoils of the poor, had amassed fields and vineyards and even slaves, ordered that he, stripped of everything, be driven away from his presence.

Qui nunc in maxima paupertate degens, manibus propriis victum quaerit. Haec de his sufficiant.

Who now, living in the greatest poverty, seeks sustenance with his own hands. Let these things suffice concerning them.

6. De Leunaste archidiacono Bitorigo.

6. On Leunastus, archdeacon of Bourges.

Anno vero quo supra, id est quo, mortuo Sigybertho, Childeberthus, filius eius, regnare coepit, multae virtutes ad sepulchrum beati Martini apparuerunt, quas in illis libellis scripsi, quos de ipsis miraculis conponere temptavi. Et licet sermone rustico, tamen celare passus non sum, quae aut ipse vidi aut a fidelibus relata cognovi. Hic tantum, quid neglegentibus evenerit, qui post virtutem caelestem terrena medicamenta quaesierunt, exsolvam, quia, sicut per gratiam sanitatum, ita et in castigationem stultorum virtus eius ostenditur.

In the year indeed mentioned above, that is, in which, with Sigyberth dead, Childeberth, his son, began to reign, many powers appeared at the sepulcher of blessed Martin, which I wrote in those little books which I attempted to compose about those very miracles. And although in rustic speech, yet I did not allow to be concealed the things which either I myself saw or learned as reported by the faithful. Here only I will set forth what befell the negligent, who after a heavenly power sought earthly medicaments, because, just as through the grace of healings, so also for the chastisement of fools his power is shown.

Leonastis Biturigus archidiaconus, decedentibus cataractis, lumen caruit oculorum. Qui cum, per multos medicos ambulans, nihil omnino visionis recipere possit, accessit ad basilicam beati Martini; ubi per duos aut tres menses consistens et ieiunans assiduae, lumen ut reciperet flagitabat. Adveniente autem festivitate, clarificatis oculis cernere coepit; regressus quoque domum, vocato quodam Iudaeo, ventosas, quorum beneficio oculis lumen augeret, humeris superponit.

Leonastis, archdeacon of the Bituriges, with cataracts descending, was deprived of the light of his eyes. And when, going about to many physicians, he could receive nothing at all of vision, he approached the basilica of blessed Martin; where, abiding for two or three months and fasting assiduously, he kept urgently demanding that he might recover the light. However, with the festival arriving, his eyes made clear, he began to see; and, having returned home, after summoning a certain Jew, he placed cupping-glasses upon his shoulders, by whose benefit he might increase the light to his eyes.

Decedente quoque sanguine, rursus in redeviva caecitate redigitur. Quod cum factum fuisset, rursum ad sanctum templum regressus est. Ibique iterum longo spatio commoratus, lumen recipere non meruit.

With the blood also ebbing away, he is again reduced into revived blindness. When this had come to pass, he returned again to the holy temple. And there, having tarried again for a long span, he did not merit to receive the light.

Quod ei ob peccatum non praestitum reor iuxta illud dominicum oraculum: Qui habet, dabitur ei et habundavit; et qui non habet, ipsum quod habet aufertur ab eo; et illud: Ecce sanus factus es, iam noli peccare, ne quid tibi deterius eveniat. Nam perstiterat hic in sanitate, si Iudaeum non induxisset super divinam virtutem. Tales enim et monet et arguit apostulus, dicens: Nolite enim iugum ducere cum infidelibus.

I reckon that this was not granted to him on account of sin, according to that Lord’s oracle: He who has, it shall be given to him and he shall abound; and he who does not have, even what he has is taken away from him; and this: Behold, you have been made whole; now no longer sin, lest something worse befall you. For he would have persisted in health, if he had not introduced a Jew over the divine power. For the apostle both admonishes and reproves such as these, saying: Do not be yoked with unbelievers.

Quae enim participatio iustitiae cum iniquitate? Aut quae societas luci cum tenebris? Quae autem communicatio Christi cum Belial?

For what participation has justice with iniquity? Or what society has light with darkness? And what communication has Christ with Belial?

Aut quae pars fideli cum in fidele? Qui autem consensus templo Dei cum idolis? Vos estis enim templum Dei vivi.

Or what part has the faithful with the infidel? And what consensus has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.

Propterea exite de medio eorum et separamini ab his, ait Dominus. Ideo doceat unumquemque christianum haec causa, ut, quando caelestem accipere meruerit medicinam, terrena non requirat studia.

Therefore go out from their midst and be separated from them, says the Lord. Therefore let this cause teach each Christian, that, when he has merited to receive the celestial medicine, he should not seek earthly pursuits.

7. De Senoch reclauso.

7. On Senoch the recluse.

Sed et illud commemorare libet, qui vel quales viri hoc anno a Domino sunt vocati. Unde magnum eum et Deo acceptabilem ego censeo, qui tales de nostra terra suo paradiso collocavit. Nam benedictus Senoch presbiter, qui apud Turonus morabatur, sic migravit a saeculo.

But it also pleases me to commemorate this, who and what kind of men in this year have been called by the Lord. Whence I judge him great and acceptable to God, who has stationed such men from our land in his paradise. For the blessed Senoch, presbyter, who was dwelling at Tours, thus migrated from the world.

Fuit enim genere Theifalus, et in Turonico clericus factus, in cellulam, quam ipse inter parietes antiquos conposuerat, se removit, collectisque monachis, oratorium, quod multo tempore dirutum fuerat, reparavit. Idem super infirmos multas virtutes fecit, quas in libro vitae eius scripsimus.

For he was by race a Taifal, and, having become a cleric in the Touraine, he withdrew into a cell which he himself had constructed amid ancient walls; and, monks having been gathered, he repaired an oratory which had been in ruins for a long time. The same man performed many miracles over the infirm, which we have written in the book of his life.

8. De sancto Germano Parisiorum episcopo.

8. On Saint Germanus, bishop of Paris.

Eo anno et beatus Germanus Parisiorum episcopus transiit. In cuius exsequiis multis virtutibus, quas in corpore gesserat, hoc miraculum confirmationem fecit. Nam carcerarius adclamantibus, corpus in platea adgravatum est, solutisque eisdem, rursum sine labore levatur.

In that year too the blessed Germanus, bishop of the Parisians, passed away. At whose obsequies, for a confirmation of the many virtues which he had wrought in the body, this miracle took place: for, as the prisoners cried out, the body in the public square was made heavy; and when these same were released, again it is lifted without labor.

Ipsi quoque, qui soluti fuerant, in obsequium funeris usque basilicam, in qua sepultus est, liberi pervenerunt. Ad sepulchrum autem eius multas virtutes, Domino tribuente, credentes experiuntur, ita ut quisque iusta petierit velociter exoptata reportet. Quis tamen strenuus virtutes illius, quas in corpore fecit, sollicite vult inquirere, librum vitae illius, qui a Fortunato presbitero conpositus est, legens, cuncta repperiet.

Ips i too, who had been loosed, came free in attendance upon the funeral as far as the basilica in which he was buried. But at his sepulcher, believers, the Lord granting, experience many virtues (miracles), such that whoever has sought what is just swiftly carries back the things longed-for. Whoever, however, vigorous, wishes carefully to inquire into his virtues which he did in the body, by reading the book of his life, which was composed by Fortunatus the presbyter, will find all things.

9. De Caluppane reclauso.

9. On Caluppanus the recluse.

Eodem quoque anno et Caluppa reclausus obiit. Hic autem ab infantia sua semper religiosus fuit, et apud monasterium Melitensim termini Arverni conversus, in magna se humilitate fratribus praebuit, sicut in libro vitae eius scripsimus.

In the same year also Caluppa the recluse died. He, moreover, from his infancy was always religious, and at the Melitense monastery on the boundary of the Arverni, converted, he presented himself to the brothers in great humility, as we have written in the book of his life.

10. De Patroclo reclauso.

10. On Patroclus the recluse.

Fuit autem in Biturigo termino reclausus nomine Patroclus, presbiterii honore praeditus, mirae sanctitatis ac religionis, vir magnae abstinentiae, qui plerumque ab inaedia diversis incommodis vexabatur. Vinum, sicera vel omne quod inebriare potest non bibebat praeter aquam parumper melle linitam; sed nec pulmentum aliquod utebatur. Cuius victus erat panis in aqua infusus atque sale respersus.

There was moreover within the Biturigan territory a recluse by the name Patroclus, endowed with the honor of the presbyterate, of wondrous sanctity and religion, a man of great abstinence, who very often was harassed by various inconveniences from fasting. Wine, sicera, or anything that can inebriate he did not drink, except water a little smeared with honey; nor did he use any pottage or relish. His sustenance was bread soaked in water and sprinkled with salt.

Huius oculi numquam caligaverunt. Erat enim in oratione assiduus, quam si parumper praetermisisset, aut legebat aut scribebat. Frigoriticis, pustulis laborantibus vel reliquis morbis saepe per orationem remedia conferebat.

His eyes never grew dim. For he was assiduous in prayer, which, if he for a short while pretermitted, he either read or wrote. Upon those suffering from ague, from pustules, or from other diseases, he often through prayer conferred remedies.

Sed et alia signa multa fecit, quae per ordinem longum est enarrare. Cilicium semper puro adhibens corpori. Qui octogenaria aetate abscedens a saeculo, migravit ad Christum.

SYet he also wrought many other signs, which it is long to recount in order. Always applying a cilice to his bare body. He, departing from the world at eighty years of age, migrated to Christ.

Scripsimus et de huius vita libellum.

We have also written a little book about his life.

11. De Iudaeis conversis per Avitum episcopum.

11. On the Jews converted by Bishop Avitus.

Et quia semper Deus noster sacerdotes suos glorificare dignatur, quid Arverno de Iudaeis hoc anno contigerit pandam. Cum eosdem plerumque beatus Avitus episcopus commoneret, ut, relicto velamine legis Moysaicae, spiritaliter lecta intellegerent et Christum, filium viventis Dei, prophetica et legali auctoritate promissum, corde purissimo in sacris litteris contemplarent, manebat in pectoribus eorum, iam non dicam, velamen illud, quod facies Moysi obumbrabatur, sed paries. Sacerdos quoque orans, ut, conversi ad Dominum, velamen ab eis litterae rumperetur, quidam ex his ad sancta pascha ut baptizaretur expetiit, renatusque Deo per baptismi sacramentum, cum albatis reliquis in albis et ipse procedit.

And since our God always deigns to glorify his priests, let me unfold what befell at Arvernum concerning the Jews this year. Whereas the same men were very often admonished by the blessed Bishop Avitus to abandon the veil of the Mosaic law, to understand—read spiritually—and to contemplate in the sacred letters with a most pure heart Christ, the Son of the living God, promised by prophetic and legal authority, there remained in their breasts, I would not now say that veil by which the face of Moses was overshadowed, but a wall. The priest also praying that, turned to the Lord, the veil of the letter might be torn from them, one of these asked at holy Pascha to be baptized, and, reborn to God through the sacrament of baptism, with the others clad in white he too proceeds in whites.

Ingredientibus autem populis portam civitatis, unus Iudaeorum super capud conversi Iudaei oleum foetidum, diabulo instigante, diffudit. Quod cum cunctus aborrens populus voluissent eum urguere lapidibus, pontifex ut fieret non permisit. Die autem beato, quo Dominus ad caelos post redemptum hominem gloriosus ascendit, cum sacerdos de aeclesiam ad basilicam psallendo procederet, inruit super sinagogae Iudaeorum multitudo tota sequentium, distructamque a fundamentis, campi planitiae locus adsimilatur.

But as the peoples were entering the gate of the city, one of the Jews, the Devil instigating, poured fetid oil upon the head of the converted Jew. When the whole people, abhorring this, wished to stone him, the pontiff did not permit it to be done. On the blessed day on which the Lord, after man had been redeemed, gloriously ascended to the heavens, when the priest was proceeding from the church to the basilica chanting psalms, the whole multitude of those following rushed upon the synagogue of the Jews, and, torn down to the foundations, the place is made like to the flatness of a field.

Alia autem die sacerdos eis legatos mittit, dicens: 'Vi ego vos confiteri Dei Filium non inpello, sed tamen praedico et salem scientiae vestris pectoribus trado. Pastor sum enim dominicis ovibus superpositus; et de vobis ille verus Pastor, qui pro nobis passus est, dixit, habere se alias oves quae non sunt ex ovili suo, quas eum oporteat adducere, ut fiat unus grex et unus pastor. Ideoque si vultis credere ut ego, estote unus grex, costodi me posito; sin vero aliud, abscedite a loco'. Illi autem diu aestuantes atque dubitantes, tertia die, ut credo, obtentum pontificis coniuncti in unum, ad eum mandata remittunt, dicentes: 'Credimus Iesum, filium Dei vivi, nobis prophetarum vocibus repromissum; et ideo petimus, ut abluamur baptismum, ne in hoc delicto permaneamus'. Gavisus autem nuntio pontifex, noctem sanctam pentecosten vigilias caelebratas, ad baptistirio forasmoraneum egressus est; ibique omnis multitudo coram eo prostrata, baptismum flagitavit.

But on another day the priest sends legates to them, saying: 'By force I do not impel you to confess the Son of God, yet I do preach, and I hand over the salt of knowledge to your hearts. For I am a shepherd set over the Lord’s sheep; and concerning you that true Shepherd, who suffered for us, said that he has other sheep which are not of his fold, whom it is needful for him to bring, that there may be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore, if you wish to believe as I, be one flock, with me set as keeper; but if otherwise, depart from the place'. But they, long seething and doubting, on the third day, as I believe, won over by the pontiff and united into one, send back a message to him, saying: 'We believe Jesus, the Son of the living God, promised to us by the voices of the prophets; and therefore we ask to be washed in baptism, lest we remain in this offense'. Rejoicing at the message, the pontiff, the vigils of the holy night of Pentecost having been celebrated, went out to the extra-mural baptistery; and there the whole multitude, prostrate before him, demanded baptism.

At ille prae gaudio lacrimans, cunctos aqua abluens, crismate liniens, in sinu matris eclesiae congregavit. Flagrabant caerei, lampades refulgebant, albecabat tota civitas de grege candido, nec minor fuit urbi gaudium, quam quondam, Spiritu sancto discendente super apostulos, Hierusalem videre promeruit. Fuerunt autem qui baptizati sunt amplius quingenti.

But he, weeping for joy, washing all with water and anointing with chrism, gathered them into the bosom of Mother Church. The wax candles were blazing, the lamps shone resplendent, the whole city was whitening from the white flock, and the joy for the city was no less than that which Jerusalem once merited to behold, when the Holy Spirit was descending upon the Apostles. Moreover, those who were baptized were more than five hundred.

Hii vero qui baptismum noluerunt discedentes ab illa urbe, Massiliae redditi sunt.

However, those who were unwilling for baptism, departing from that city, were returned to Massilia.

12. De Brachione abbate.

12. On Abbot Brachio.

Transiit post haec et Brachio abba cellulae Manatensis. Fuit autem genere Thoringus, in servitio Sigivaldi quondam ducis venationern exercens, sicut alibi scripsimus.

After these things there likewise passed away Brachio, abbot of the Manatensian cell. He was, moreover, by race a Thuringian, in the service of Sigivald, once a duke, practicing venery, as we have written elsewhere.

13. Quod Mummolus Lemovicas vastavit.

13. That Mummolus devastated Limoges.

Ergo ut ad propositum revertamur, Chilpericus rex Chlodovechum filium suum Toronus transmisit. Qui, congregato exercitu, inter terminum Toronicum et Andecavum usque Sanctonas transiit eamque pervasit. Mummolus vero patricius Gunthchramni regis cum magno exercitu usque Lemovicinum transiit et contra Desiderium ducem Chilperici regis bellum gessit.

Therefore, to return to the proposed matter, King Chilperic sent his son Chlodovech to Tours. He, having gathered an army, passed between the boundary of Tours and Angers as far as the Santones, and he overran it. But Mummolus, patrician of King Gunthchramn, with a great army advanced as far as the Limousin and waged war against Desiderius, duke of King Chilperic.

In quo proelio ceciderunt de exercitu eius quinque milia, de Desiderii vero viginti quattuor milia. Ipse quoque Desiderius fugiens vix evasit. Mummolus vero patricius per Arvernum rediit eamque per loca exercitus eius devastavit.

In which battle there fell from his army five thousand, but of Desiderius’s twenty-four thousand. Desiderius himself too, fleeing, scarcely escaped. But Mummolus the patrician returned through Arvernum (Auvergne) and devastated it throughout the places of his army.

Et sic in Burgundiam peraccessit.

And so he made his way into Burgundy.

14. Quod Merovechus tunsoratus confugit.

14. That Merovech, tonsured, fled for refuge.

Quod Merovechus tunsoratus ad basilicam sancti Martini confugit.

That Merovech, having been tonsured, fled to the basilica of Saint Martin.

Post haec Merovechus, cum in custodia a patre reteneretur, tunsoratus est, mutataque veste, qua clericis uti mos est, presbiter ordenatur et ad monasterium Cinnomannicum qui vocatur Aninsola dirigitur, ut ibi sacerdotali eruderetur regula. Haec audiens Gunthchramnus Boso, qui tunc in basilica sancti Martini, ut diximus, resedebat, misit Riculfum subdiaconum, ut ei consilium occulte praeberet expetendi ad basilicam sancti Martini. Qui cum abisset, ab alia parte Gailenus puer eius advenit.

After these things Merovech, when he was being kept in custody by his father, was tonsured, and, his garment changed, such as it is customary for clerics to use, he is ordained presbyter and is directed to the Cenomannian monastery which is called Aninsola, that there he might be instructed in the sacerdotal rule. Hearing this, Gunthchramnus Boso, who then, as we said, was sitting in the basilica of Saint Martin, sent Riculf the subdeacon, that he might covertly offer him counsel to seek the basilica of Saint Martin. And when he had gone, from another side his boy Gailenus arrived.

Cumque parvum solatium qui eum ducebant haberent, ab ipso Gaileno in itenere excussus est, opertoque capite indutusque veste saeculari, beati Martini templum expetiit. Nobis autem missa caelebrantibus, in sanctam basilicam, aperta repperiens ostia, ingressus est. Post missa autem petiit, ut ei eulogias dare deberemus.

And since those who were leading him had a small solace (a scant escort), he was shaken free on the journey by Gailenus himself; and with his head covered and clad in secular dress, he sought the temple of blessed Martin. But while we were celebrating the Mass, into the holy basilica, finding the doors open, he entered. After the Mass, moreover, he requested that we ought to give him eulogies.

Erat autem tunc nobiscum Ragnemodus Parisiacae sedis episcopus, qui sancto Germano successerat. Quod cum refutaremus, ipse clamare coepit et dicere, quod non recte eum a communione sine fratrum conibentia suspenderemus. Illo autem haec dicente, cum consensu fratris qui praesens erat, contestatam causam canonicam, eulogias a nobis accepit.

Now at that time there was with us Ragnemodus, bishop of the Parisian see, who had succeeded Saint Germanus. When we refused this, he began to shout and to say that we were not acting rightly in suspending him from communion without the consent of the brethren. But while he was saying these things, with the consent of the brother who was present, the canonical cause having been attested, he received the eulogias from us.

Veritus autem sum, ne, dum unum a communione suspendebam, in multos existerem homicida. Minibatur enim aliquos de populo nostro interficere, si communionem nostram non meruisset. Multas tamen pro hac causa Toronica regio sustenuit clades.

However, I was afraid lest, while I was suspending one from communion, I might become a homicide of many. For he was threatening to kill some of our people, if he did not merit our communion. Nevertheless, for this cause the region of Tours sustained many disasters.

His diebus Necetius, vir neptis meae, propriam habens causam, ad Chilpericum regem abiit cum diacono nostro, qui regi fugam Merovechi narraret. Quibus visis, Fredegundis regina ait: 'Exploratores sunt et ad sciscitandum quid agat rex advenerunt, ut sciant, quid Merovecho renuntient'. Et statim expoliatis in exilio retrudi praecepit; de quo mense septimo relaxati sunt. Igitur Chilpericus nuntius ad nos direxit, dicens: 'Eiecite apostatam illam de basilicam; sin autem aliud, totam regionem illam igne succendam'. Cumque nos rescripsissemus, inpossibile esse, quod temporibus hereticorum non fuerat, christianis nunc temporibus fieri, ipsi exercitum commovit et illuc dirigit.

In these days Necetius, the husband of my granddaughter, having a matter of his own, went to King Chilperic with our deacon, who was to relate to the king the flight of Merovech. When they were seen, Queen Fredegund said: 'They are explorers, and they have come to inquire what the king is doing, so that they may know what they should report back to Merovech'. And immediately, with them stripped, she ordered them to be thrust back into exile; from which, in the seventh month, they were released. Therefore Chilperic sent a messenger to us, saying: 'Cast that apostate out of the basilica; but if otherwise, I will set that whole region ablaze with fire'. And when we wrote back that it was impossible that what had not been in the times of the heretics should now, in Christian times, be done, he himself set an army in motion and directed it thither.

Anno autem secundo Childeberthi regis, cum videret Merovechus patrem in hac deliberatione intentum, adsumpto secum Gunthchramnum ducem, ad Brunichildem pergere cogitat, dicens: 'Absit, ut propter meam personam basilica domni Martini violentiam perferat aut regio eius per me captivitate subdatur'. Et ingressus basilicam, dum vigilias ageret, res quas secum habebat ad sepulchrum beati Martini exhibuit, orans, ut sibi sanctus succurrerit atque ei concederit gratiam suam, ut regnum accepere possit. Leudastis tunc comis, cum multas ei in amore Fredegundis insidias tenderit, ad extremum pueros eius, qui in pago egressi fuerant, circumventus dolis gladio trucidavit, ipsumque interimere cupiens, si repperire loco oportuno potuisset. Sed illi consilio usus Gunthchramni et se ulcisci desiderans, redeunte Marileifo archietro de praesentia regis, conpraehendi praecepit; caesumque gravissime, ablato auro argentoque eius vel reliquis rebus, quas secum exhibebat, nudum reliquit; et interfecisset utique, si non inter manus caedentium elapsus eclesiam expetisset.

But in the second year of King Childebert, when Merovech saw his father intent on this deliberation, taking with him Duke Gunthchramn he considers going to Brunichild, saying: 'Far be it that on account of my person the basilica of lord Martin should endure violence, or that his region be subjected through me to captivity'. And entering the basilica, while he was keeping vigils, he presented the things which he had with him at the tomb of blessed Martin, praying that the Saint might succor him and grant to him his grace, that he might be able to receive the kingdom. Then Leudast, the count, since he had laid many snares for him in the love of Fredegund, at last, having trapped by wiles his servants who had gone out into the district, cut them down with the sword, and desired to slay him himself, if he could have found him in a suitable place. But he, employing the counsel of Gunthchramn and desiring to avenge himself, when Marileif the archiater was returning from the presence of the king, ordered him to be seized; and, beaten most grievously, with his gold and silver taken away and the remaining things which he had with him, he left him naked; and he would assuredly have killed him, if he had not, having slipped from the hands of those beating him, sought the church.

Quem nos postea indutum vestimentis, obtenta vita, Pectavo remisimus. Merovechus vero de patre atque novercam multa crimina loquebatur; quae cum ex parte vera essent, credo, acceptum non fuisse Deo, ut haec per filium vulgarentur, sicut in sequentibus cognovi. Quaedam enim die ad convivium eius accedi.

Whom we afterwards, clothed with garments, with life secured, sent back to Poitiers. Merovech, however, was speaking many crimes/accusations about his father and stepmother; which, although in part they were true, I believe it was not acceptable to God that these things should be made public through the son, as I learned in what followed. For on a certain day I came to his banquet.

Dum pariter sederemus, suppliciter petiit aliqua ad instructionem animae legi. Ego vero, reserato Salomonis libro, versiculum qui primus occurrit arripui, qui haec contenebat: Oculum, qui aversus aspexerit patrem, effodiant eum corvi de convallibus. Illo quoque non intellegente, consideravi hunc versiculum ad Dominum praeparatum.

While we were sitting together, he humbly asked that some things be read for the instruction of the soul. But I, the book of Solomon unsealed, seized upon the little verse which first occurred, which contained these things: “The eye which, averted, has looked upon his father, let the ravens from the valleys gouge it out.” As he also did not understand, I considered this little verse prepared with reference to the Lord.

Tunc direxit Gunthchramnus puerum ad mulierem quandam, sibi iam cognitam a tempori Chariberthi regis, habentem spiritum phitonis, ut ei quae erant eventura narrare. Asserebat praeterea, ipsam sibi ante hoc tempus non solum annum, sed et diem et horam, in qua rex Chariberthus obiret, denuntiasse. Quae haec ei per puerus mandata remisit: 'Futurum est enim, ut rex Chilpericus hoc anno deficiat et Merovechus, exclusis fratribus, omni capiat regnum.

Then Gunthchramnus sent a boy to a certain woman, already known to him from the time of King Chariberthus, having the spirit of Python, that she might tell him the things that were going to come to pass. He asserted moreover that she had before this time announced to him not only the year, but also the day and the hour in which King Chariberthus would die. She sent back to him these messages through the boy: ‘For it will be the case that King Chilpericus will fail (die) this year, and Merovechus, his brothers being excluded, will seize the whole kingdom.’

Tu vero ducatum totius regni eius annis quinque tenebis. Sexto vero anno in una civitatum, quae super Legeris alveum sita est, in dextera eius parte, favente populo, episcopatus gratiam adipiscis ac senes et plenus dierum ab hoc mundo migrabis'. Cumque haec pueri redeuntes domino nuntiassent, statim ille vanitate elatus, tamquam se iam in cathedram Toronice eclesiae resederet, ad me haec detulit verba. Cuius ego inridens stultitiam, dixi: 'A Deo haec poscenda sunt; nam credi non debent quae diabolus repromittit.

You indeed will hold the duchy of his whole kingdom for five years. But in the sixth year, in one of the cities which is set upon the channel of the Loire, on its right side, with the people favoring, you will obtain the grace of the episcopate, and, an old man and full of days, you will migrate from this world.' And when the boys, returning, had announced these things to their lord, immediately he, puffed up with vanity, as though he were already sitting down upon the cathedra of the church of Tours, brought these words to me. Mocking his folly, I said: 'These things are to be asked from God; for the things which the devil promises ought not to be believed.

Ille autem ab initio mendax est et in veritate numquam stetit'. Illo quoque cum confusione discedente, valde inridebam hominem, qui talia credi putabat. Denique quadam nocte vigilias in basilica sancti antestitis caelebratas, dum lectulo decubans obdormissem, vidi angelum per aera volantem. Cumque super sanctam basilicam praeteriret, voce magna ait: 'Heu heu!

But he is mendacious from the beginning and has never stood in the truth'. With him too departing in confusion, I was greatly mocking the man who thought such things ought to be believed. Finally, on a certain night, the vigils having been celebrated in the basilica of the holy bishop, while, lying on my little bed, I had fallen asleep, I saw an angel flying through the air. And when he was passing over the holy basilica, with a great voice he said: 'Alas, alas!

Percussit Deus Chilpericum et omnes filios eius, nec superavit de his qui processerunt ex lumbis eius qui regat regnum illius in aeternum.' Erant ei eodem tempore de diversis uxoribus filii quattuor, excepto filiabus. Cum autem haec in posterum inpleta fuissent, tunc a liquidum cognovi, falsa esse quae promiserant arioli. Igitur commorantibus his apud basilicam sancti Martini, misit ad Guntchramnum Bosonem Fredegundis regina, quaequae ei iam pro morte Theodoberthi patrocinabatur occulte, dicens: 'Si Merovechum eiecere potueris de basilica, ut interficiatur, magnum de me munus accipies'. At ille praesto putans esse interfectores, ait ad Merovechum: 'Ut quid hic quasi signes et timidi resedemus et ut hebetis circa basilicam occulimur?

‘God smote Chilperic and all his sons, nor did there survive among those who proceeded from his loins one to rule his kingdom forever.’ He had at that same time four sons by different wives, daughters excepted. But when these things were afterward fulfilled, then I clearly knew that what the soothsayers had promised was false. Therefore, while they were staying at the basilica of Saint Martin, Queen Fredegund sent to Guntram Boso—who already was secretly championing her in the matter of Theodoberth’s death—saying: ‘If you can drive Merovech out of the basilica, so that he may be killed, you will receive a great gift from me.’ But he, supposing the killers were at hand, said to Merovech: ‘Why are we sitting here as if sluggish and timid, and why, like dullards, are we hiding around the basilica?’

Veniant enim equi nostri, et acceptis accipitribus, cum canibus exerceamur venationem spectaculisque patulis iocundemur'. Hoc enim agebat callide, ut eum a sancta basilica separaret. Gunthchramnus vero alias sane bonus - nam in periuriis nimium praeparatus erat -, verumtamen nulli amicorum sacramentum dedit, quod non protinus omisisset. Egressi itaque, ut diximus, de basilica, ad Iocundiacensim domum civitate proximam progressi sunt; sed a nemine Merovechus nocetus est.

'Let our horses come, and, hawks having been taken up, with the dogs let us exercise the hunt and let us be gladdened by open-air spectacles'. For he was doing this craftily, in order to separate him from the holy basilica. Gunthchramnus indeed otherwise truly good - for in perjuries he was exceedingly prepared -, nevertheless he gave to none of his friends an oath which he did not straightway set aside. Having gone out therefore, as we said, from the basilica, they advanced to the Jocundiacensian house, close to the city; but by no one was Merovechus harmed.

Et quia inpetebatur tunc Gunthchramnus de interitu, ut diximus, Theodoberthi, misit Chilpericus rex epistulam scriptam ad sepulchrum sancti Martini, quae habebat insertum, ut ei beatus Martinus rescriberet, utrum liceret extrahi Gunthchramnum de basilica eius an non. Sed Baudegyselus diaconus, qui hanc epistulam exhibuit, cartam puram cum eadem quam detulerat ad sanctum tumolum misit. Cumque per triduum expectasset et nihil rescripti reciperet, redivit ad Chilpericum.

And because at that time Gunthchramn was being impeached, as we have said, for the demise of Theodobert, King Chilperic sent a written epistle to the sepulchre of Saint Martin, in which it was inserted that blessed Martin should write back to him whether it were permitted to extract Gunthchramn from his basilica or not. But Baudegyselus the deacon, who presented this epistle, sent a blank sheet along with the same one which he had brought to the holy tomb. And when he had waited for three days and received nothing written back, he returned to Chilperic.

Ille vero misit alios, qui Gunthchramno sacramenta exigerent, ut sine eius scientiam basilicam non relinqueret. Qui ambienter iurans, pallam altaris fideiussorem dedit, numquam se exinde sine iussione rege egressurum. Merovechus vero non credens phitonissae, tres libros super sancti sepulchrum posuit, id est psalterii, Regum, euangeliorum, et vigilans tota nocte, petiit, ut sibi beatus confessor quid eveniret ostenderet, et utrum possit regnum accepere an non, ut Domino indicante, cognuscerit.

He indeed sent others, who would exact oaths from Gunthchramnus, that he should not leave the basilica without his knowledge. He, swearing eagerly, gave the pall of the altar as surety, that he would never go out from there without the king’s command. Merovech, however, not believing the pythoness, placed three books upon the sepulcher of the saint, that is, of the Psalter, of Kings, and of the Gospels; and keeping vigil the whole night, he asked that the blessed confessor would show him what would befall, and whether he could receive the kingdom or not, so that, with the Lord indicating, he might come to know.

Post haec continuato triduo in ieiuniis, vigiliis atque orationibus, ad beatum tumolum iterum accedens, revolvit librum, qui erat Regum. Versus autem primus paginae, quem reseravit, hic erat: Pro eo quod dereliquistis dominum Deum vestrum et ambolastis post deos alienos nec fecistis rectum ante conspectum eius, ideo tradedit vos dominus Deus vester in manibus inimicorum vestrorum. Psalterii autem versus hic est inventus: Verum propter dolositatem posuisti eis mala; deiecisti eos, dum allevarentur.

After these things, with three days continuous in fasts, vigils, and prayers, approaching again to the blessed tomb, he unrolled the book which was of Kings. But the first verse of the page which he opened was this: “For the reason that you have forsaken the Lord your God and have walked after alien gods and have not done what is right before his sight, therefore the Lord your God has delivered you into the hands of your enemies.” But a verse of the Psalter was found thus: “Indeed, on account of guile you have set evils for them; you have cast them down while they were being exalted.”

Quomodo facti sunt in desolatione? Subito defecerunt, et perierunt propter iniquitates suas. In euangeliis autem hoc repertum: Scitis, quia post biduum pascha fiet, et Filius hominis traditur, ut crucifigatur.

How have they come to be in desolation? Suddenly they failed, and perished on account of their iniquities. In the Gospels, moreover, this was found: You know that after two days the Pasch will take place, and the Son of Man is delivered over, to be crucified.

In his responsibus ille confusus, flens diutissime ad sepulchrum beati antestetis, adsumpto secum Gunthchramno duce, cum quingentus aut eo amplius viris discessit. Egressus autem basilicam sanctam, cum iter ageret per Audisiodorensim territurium, ab Erpone duce Gunthchramni regis conpraehensus est. Cumque ab eo deteneretur, casu nescio quo dilapsus, basilica sancti Germani ingressus est.

At these responses, he, confounded, weeping for a very long time at the sepulcher of the blessed bishop, having taken with him Duke Gunthchramn, departed with five hundred or more men. But having gone out from the holy basilica, while he was making his journey through the territory of Auxerre, he was apprehended by Erpo, duke of King Gunthchramn. And when he was being detained by him, by some chance—I know not what—having slipped away, he entered the basilica of Saint Germanus.

Audiens haec Gunthchramnus rex, in ira commotus, Erponem septingentis aureis damnat et ab honorem removet, dicens: 'Retenuisti, ut ait frater meus, inimicum suum. Quodsi hoc facere cogitabas, ad me eum debuisti prius adducere; sin autem aliud, nec tangere debueras, quem tenere dissimulabas'. Exercitus autem Chilperici regis usque Toronus accedens, regionem illam in praedas mittit, succendit atque devastat nec rebus sancti Martini pepercit, sed quod manum tetigit, sine ullo Dei intuetu aut timorem deripuit. Merovechus prope duos menses ad antedictam basilicam resedens, fugam iniit et ad Brunichildem reginam usque pervenit; sed ab Austrasiis non est collectus.

Hearing these things, King Gunthchramnus, moved in ire, condemns Erpo to 700 aurei and removes him from honor, saying: 'You have detained, as my brother says, his enemy. But if you were thinking to do this, you ought to have brought him to me first; but if otherwise, you ought not even to have touched him, whom you were pretending to hold.' Moreover the army of King Chilperic, advancing as far as Tours, sends that region into plunder, sets it ablaze and devastates it, nor did it spare the goods of Saint Martin, but whatever the hand touched, without any regard or fear of God, they snatched away. Merovech, staying for nearly two months at the aforementioned basilica, took to flight and came as far as Queen Brunichild; but he was not received by the Austrasians.

Pater vero eius exercitum contra Campanensis commovit, putans, eum ibidem occultare. Sed nihil nocuit nec eum potuit repperire.

But his father indeed set the army in motion against the Campanians, thinking that he was hiding there. But it availed nothing, nor could he find him.

15. Bellum inter Saxonis et Suavos.

15. War between the Saxons and the Suevi.

Et quia tempore illo, quo Alboenus in Italia ingressus est, Chlothacharius et Sigyberthus Suavos et alias gentes in loco illo posuerunt, hi qui tempore Sigyberthi regressi sunt, id est qui cum Alboeno fuerant, contra hos consurgunt, volentes eos a regione illa extrudere ac delere. At illi obtulerunt eis tertiam partem terrae, dicentes: 'Simul vivere sine conlisione possumus'. Sed ille contra eos irati, eo quod ipse hoc antea tenuissent, nullatenus pacificare voluerunt. Dehinc obtulerunt eis iterum iste medietatem, post haec duas partes, sibi tertiam relinquentes.

And because at that time, when Alboin entered into Italy, Chlothacharius and Sigyberthus set the Suaves and other peoples in that place, those who during the time of Sigyberthus returned—that is, those who had been with Alboin—rose up against these, wishing to extrude them from that region and to wipe them out. But they offered them a third part of the land, saying: 'We can live together without collision.' But these, angry against them, because they themselves had held this earlier, were in no way willing to make peace. Thereafter they offered them again the half; after this, two parts, leaving a third to themselves.

Nolentibus autem illis, obtulerunt cum terra omnia pecora, tantum ut a bello cessarent. Sed nec hoc illi adquiescentis, certamen expetiunt. Et inter se ante certamen, qualiter uxores Suavorum deviderent et qui quam post eorum exitu acciperet, tractant, potantes, eos iam quasi interfectus habere.

But as they were unwilling, they offered along with the land all the herds, only that they should cease from war. But they, not acquiescing to this either, seek the contest. And among themselves before the contest, they discuss how they would divide the wives of the Suevi, and who would take which one after their death, drinking, and reckoning them already as if slain.

Sed Domini miseratio, quae iustitiam facit, in aliam partem voluntatem eorum retorsit. Nam confligentibus illis, erant enim XXVI milia Saxonum, ex quibus XX milia caeciderunt; Suavorum quoque VI milia, ex quibus quadringenti octuagenta tantum prostrati sunt, reliqui vero victuriam obtenuerunt. Illi quoque qui ex Saxonibus remanserant detestati sunt, nullus se eorum barbam neque capillos incisurum, nisi prius se de adversariis ulciscerent.

But the Lord’s compassion, which works righteousness, turned their will to another side. For as they clashed, there were 26 thousand Saxons, of whom 20 thousand fell; and 6 thousand of the Suavi, of whom only 480 were laid low, while the rest obtained the victory. Those also of the Saxons who had remained swore with an imprecation that none of them would cut his beard nor his hair, unless first they should avenge themselves upon their adversaries.

Quibus iterum decertantibus, in maiore excidio conruerunt; et sic a bello cessatum est.

While they were contending again, they collapsed into a greater destruction; and thus there was a cessation from war.

16. De interitum Macliavi.

16. On the death of Macliavus.

In Brittanis haec acta sunt. Macliavus quondam et Bodicus Brittanorum comites sacramentum inter se dederant, ut, quis ex eis superviveret, filius patris alterius tamquam proprius defensaret. Mortuus autem Bodicus reliquit filium Theudericum nomen.

In Brittany these things were done. Macliavus once and Bodicus, counts of the Britons, had given an oath between themselves, that whichever of them survived would defend the son of the other father as his own. But when Bodicus died, he left a son by the name Theuderic.

Quem Macliavus, oblitus sacramenti, expulsum a patria, regnum patris eius accipit. Hic vero multo tempore profugus vaguusque fuit. Cui tandem misertus Deus, collectis secum a Brittania viris, se super Macliavum obiecit eumque cum filio eius Iacob gladio interemet partemque regni, quam quondam pater eius tenuerat, in sua potestate restituit; partem vero aliam Warochus, Macliavi filius, vindicavit.

Whom Macliavus, forgetful of the sacrament, drove from his fatherland and took possession of his father’s kingdom. He, in truth, for a long time was a fugitive and a wanderer. On whom at length God, having taken pity, after gathering to himself men from Brittany, hurled himself against Macliavus and slew him, together with his son Jacob, by the sword; and he restored to his own power that part of the kingdom which his father had once held; but another part Warochus, the son of Macliavus, claimed.

17. De dubietate paschae.

17. On the uncertainty of Easter.

De dubietate paschae vel de aeclesia Cainoninse, et quod Guntchramnus rex filius Magnachari interfecit suosque perdidit atque cum Childebertho coniunctus est.

On the dubiety of the Pasch or on the church of Cainoninse, and that King Guntram, son of Magnachar, slew his own and lost his own, and was conjoined with Childebert.

Gunthchramnus vero rex duos Magnacharii quondam filios gladio interemit, pro eo quod in Austregildem reginam eiusque subolis multa detestabilia atque exsecranda proferrent, facultatesque eorum fisco suo redegit. Ipse quoque duos filios suos subito morbo oppressus perdedit; de quorum funere valde contristatus est, eo quod orbatus absque liberis remansisset. Eo anno dubietas paschae fuit.

But King Gunthchramnus slew by the sword the two sons of the late Magnacharius, on the ground that they were uttering many detestable and execrable things against Queen Austregildis and her offspring, and he reduced their possessions to his own fisc. He himself also lost two of his own sons, overtaken by a sudden sickness; and he was very much saddened at their funeral, because he had been left bereft, without children. In that year there was an uncertainty about Easter.

In Galliis vero nos cum multis civitatibus quarto decimo Kalendas Maias sanctum paschae celebravimus. Alii vero cum Spanis duodecimo Kalendas Aprilis solemnitatem hanc tenuerunt; tamen, ut ferunt, fontes illi, qui in Spaniis nutu Dei conplentur, in nostrum pascha repleti sunt. Cainone vero Toronicum vicum, dum ipso glorioso resurrectionis dominicae die missae caelebrarentur, eclesia contremuit, populusque conterritus a pavore, unam vocem dedit, dicens, quod eclesia caderet, cunctique ab ea, etiam effractis ostiis, per fugam lapsi sunt.

In the Gauls, indeed, we with many cities celebrated the holy Pasch on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of May. Others, however, together with the Spaniards, held this solemnity on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April; nevertheless, as they say, those springs which in Spain are filled at the nod of God were filled at our Pasch. At Caino, moreover, a Turonian village, while on the very day of the glorious resurrection of the Lord Masses were being celebrated, the church trembled, and the people, terrified with fear, raised one cry, saying that the church was collapsing, and all from it, even with the doors broken open, slipped away in flight.

Magna post haec lues populum devastavit. Post haec Gunthchramnus rex ad Childeberthum, nepotem suum, legatos mittit, pacem petens ac depraecans eum videre. Tunc ille cum proceribus suis ad eum venit; qui ad Pontem quem Petreum vocitant coniuncti sunt, cumsalutantes atque invicem osculantes se. Gunthchramnus rex ait: 'Evenit inpulso peccatorum meorum, ut absque liberis remanerem, et ideo peto, ut hic nepus meus mihi sit filius'. Et inponens eum super cathedram suam, cunctum ei regnum tradedit, dicens: 'Una nos parma protegat unaque asta defendat.

After these things a great plague devastated the people. After this King Gunthchramn sent legates to Childeberth, his nephew, seeking peace and beseeching to see him. Then he came to him with his nobles; and they were joined at the Bridge which they call the Stone Bridge, greeting and kissing one another in turn. King Gunthchramn said: 'It has come to pass, driven on by my sins, that I have been left without children, and therefore I ask that this nephew of mine be to me a son.' And setting him upon his own cathedra, he handed over to him the whole kingdom, saying: 'One shield may protect us, and one spear may defend us.'

Quod si filius habuero, te nihilhominus tamquam unum ex his reputabo, ut illa cum eis tecumque permaneat caretas, quam tibi hodie ego pollicior, teste Deo'. Proceris vero Childeberthi similiter pro eodem polliciti sunt. Et manducantes simul atque bibentes dignisque se muneribus honorantes, pacifici discesserunt, ad Chilpericum regem legationem mittentis, ut redderet, quod de eorum regno minuerat; quod si differret, campum praepararet ad bellum. Quod ille dispiciens, apud Sessionas atque Parisius circus aedificare praecepit, eosque populis spectaculum praebens.

'But if I shall have a son, I will nonetheless reckon you as one of these, so that that charity may remain with them and with you, which I today promise to you, God being witness.' Moreover, Childebert’s nobles likewise pledged for the same. And eating together and drinking and honoring one another with worthy gifts, they departed at peace, sending a legation to King Chilperic, that he should restore what he had diminished from their kingdom; but if he should defer it, let him prepare the field for war. Disdaining this, he ordered a circus to be built at Soissons and at Paris, providing the peoples with a spectacle.

18. De Praetextato episcopo et interitu Merovechi.

18. On Bishop Praetextatus and the demise of Merovech.

His ita gestis, audiens Chilpericus, quod Praetextatus Rothomagensis episcopus contra utilitatem suam populis munera daret, eum ad se arcessire praecepit. Quem discussum, repperit cum eodem res Brunichildis reginae conmendatas; ipsasque ablatas, eum in exilium usque sacerdotalem audientiam retenere praecepit. Coniuncto autem concilio, exhibitus est.

With these things thus transacted, Chilperic, hearing that Praetextatus, bishop of Rouen, was giving gifts to the peoples against his interest, ordered him to be summoned to himself. When he had been examined, he found with the same man effects of Queen Brunichild entrusted to him; and these themselves having been seized, he ordered him to be kept in exile until a sacerdotal hearing. However, when the council had been convened, he was produced.

Erant autem episcopi qui advenerant apud Parisius in basilica sancti Petri apostoli. Cui rex ait: 'Quid tibi visum est, o episcope, ut inimicum meum Merovechum, qui filius esse debuerat, cum amita sua, id est patrui sui uxore, coniungeres? An ignarus eras, quae pro hac causa canonum statuta sancsexissent?

There were, moreover, bishops who had come at Paris in the basilica of Saint Peter the Apostle. To whom the king said: 'What seemed right to you, O bishop, that you should conjoin my enemy Merovech, who ought to have been a son, with his aunt, that is, with his paternal uncle’s wife? Or were you ignorant what the statutes of the canons had sanctioned for this cause?'

Etiam non hic solum excessisse probaris, sed etiam cum illo egisti, datis muneribus, ut ego interficerer. Hostem autem filium patri fecisti, seduxisti paecuniam plebem, ut nullus mecum fidem habitam custodiret, voluistique regnum meum in manu alterius tradere'. Haec eo dicente, infremuit multitudo Francorum voluitque ostea basilicae rumpere, quasi ut extractum sacerdotem lapidibus urgueret; sed rex prohibuit fieri. Cumque Praetextatus episcopus ea quae rex dixerat facta negaret, advenerunt falsi testis, qui ostendebant species aliquas, dicentes: 'Haec et haec nobis dedisti, ut Merovechum fidem promittere deberimus'. Ad haec ille dicebat: 'Verum enim dicitis vos a me saepius muneratus; sed non haec causa extetit, ut rex eieceretur a regno.

'Not only here are you proved to have transgressed, but you also dealt with him, gifts having been given, that I might be killed. Moreover, you made a son an enemy to his father; you seduced the plebs with money, so that none would keep the faith held with me, and you wished to hand over my kingdom into the hand of another'. As he was saying these things, the multitude of the Franks growled and wished to break the doors of the basilica, as though to press the priest, once dragged out, with stones; but the king forbade it to be done. And when Bishop Praetextatus denied that the things which the king had said had been done, false witnesses arrived, who were showing certain articles, saying: 'This and that you gave to us, that we should promise fealty to Merovechus'. To this he said: 'True indeed is it that you say you have been often munerated by me; but it was not for this cause, that the king be cast out from the kingdom.'

Nam et cum vos mihi et equos optimos et res alias praeberetis, numquid poteram aliud facere, nisi et ego vos simile sorte remunerarem?' Recedente vero regem ad metatum suum, nos, collecti in unum, sedebamus in secretarium basilicae beati Petri. Confabulantibusque nobis, subito venit Aetius archaediaconus Parisiacae eclesiae, salutatisque nobis, ait: 'Audite me, o sacerdotes Domini, qui in unum collecti estis; aut enim hoc tempore exaltabitis nomen vestrum et bonae famae gratia refulgebitis, aut certe nullus vos amodo pro Dei sacerdotibus est habiturus, si personas vestras sagaciter non eregitis aut fratrem perire permittetis'. Haec eo dicente, nullus sacerdotum ei quicquam respondit. Timebant enim regine fururem, cuius instinctu haec agebantur.

'For indeed, when you provided me both the finest horses and other things besides, could I do anything else except that I in like sort should remunerate you?' But when the king withdrew to his quarters, we, gathered into one, were sitting in the secretarium of the basilica of blessed Peter. And as we were conversing together, suddenly Aetius, archdeacon of the Parisian church, came, and, after greeting us, said: 'Hear me, o priests of the Lord, who have been gathered together in one; for either at this time you will exalt your name and you will shine with the grace of good repute, or surely no one from now on will hold you as priests of God, if you do not wisely assert your persons or allow your brother to perish.' While he said these things, none of the priests replied anything to him. For they feared the queen’s fury, at whose instigation these things were being done.

Quibus intentis et ora digitis conpraementibus, ego aio: 'Adtenti estote, quaeso, sermonibus meis, o sanctissimi sacerdotes Dei, et praesertim vos, qui familiariores esse regi vidimini; adhibite ei consilium sanctum atque sacerdotalem, ne exardiscens in ministrum Dei pereat ab ira eius et regnum perdat et gloriam'. Haec me dicente, silebant omnes. Illis vero silentibus, adieci: 'Mementote, domini mi sacerdotes, verbi prophetici, quo ait: Si viderit speculatur iniquitatem hominis et non dixerit, reus erit animae pereuntes. Ergo nolite silere, sed praedicate et ponite ante oculos regis peccata eius, ne forte ei aliquid mali contingat et vos rei sitis pro anima eius.

As they were intent and pressing their mouths with their fingers, I say: 'Be attentive, I pray, to my words, O most holy priests of God, and especially you who seem to be more familiar to the king; apply to him holy and sacerdotal counsel, lest, blazing up against the minister of God, he perish by His wrath and lose both kingdom and glory.' As I was saying these things, all were silent. And while they were indeed silent, I added: 'Remember, my lords, priests, the prophetic word, wherein it says: If the watchman has seen the iniquity of a man and has not spoken, he will be guilty of the souls that perish. Therefore do not be silent, but preach and set before the eyes of the king his sins, lest perhaps some evil befall him and you be liable for his soul.'

An ignoratis, quid novum gestum fuerit tempore? Quomodo adpraehensum Sigymundum Chlodomeris retrusit in carcerem, dixitque ei Avitus Dei sacerdus: ìNe inicias manum in eo, et cum Burgundiam petieris, victuriam obtenebis". Ille vero abnuens quae ei a sacerdote dicta fuerant, abiit ipsumque cum uxore et filiis interemit petiitque Burgundiam, ibique obpraessus ab exercitu, interemptus est. Quid Maximus imperatur?

Or are you ignorant of what new thing was done at that time? How Chlodomer thrust the apprehended Sigismund into prison, and Avitus, priest of God, said to him: "Do not lay a hand upon him, and when you seek Burgundy, you will obtain victory." But he, refusing the things that had been said to him by the priest, went off and slew him with his wife and sons, and sought Burgundy, and there, overwhelmed by the army, he was slain. What of Maximus the Emperor?

Cum beatum Martinum conpulisset communicare cuidam homicide episcopo, et ille, quo facilius addictus morte liberaret, regi impio consensisset, prosequente Regis aeterni iudicio, ab imperio depulsus Maximus morte pessima condemnatus est'. Haec me dicente, non respondit ullus quicquam, sed erant omnes intenti stupentes. Duo tamen adolatores ex ipsis - quod de episcopis dici dolendum est - nuntiaverunt regi, dicentes, quia nullum maiorem inimicum suis causis quam me haberet. Ilico unus ex aulicis cursu rapitu ad me repraesentandum dirigitur.

When he had compelled blessed Martin to communicate to a certain murderer-bishop, and he, so that he might more easily free the one adjudged to death, had consented to the impious king, with the judgment of the Eternal King pursuing, Maximus, driven from power, was condemned to a most wretched death. As I was saying these things, no one answered anything, but all were intent, astonished. Two flatterers, however, from among them—which it is grievous to say of bishops—reported to the king, saying that he had no greater enemy to his causes than me. Immediately one of the courtiers is dispatched at a run and in haste to bring me in for presentation.

Cumque venissem, stabat rex iuxta tabernaculum ex ramis factum, et ad dexteram eius Berthchramnus episcopus, ad levam vero Ragnemodus stabat; et erat ante eos scamnum pane desuper plenum cum diversis fercolis. Visoque me, rex ait: 'O episcope, iustitiam cunctis largire debes: et ecce! ego iustitiam a te non accipio; sed, ut video, consentis iniquitati, et impletur in te proverbium illud, quod corvus oculum corvi non eruet.

And when I had come, the king was standing beside a tabernacle made from branches, and at his right was Bishop Berthchramnus, but at his left Ragnemodus was standing; and before them there was a bench, full on top with bread, together with various dishes. And when he saw me, the king said: 'O bishop, you ought to dispense justice to all: and behold! I do not receive justice from you; but, as I see it, you consent to iniquity, and that proverb is fulfilled in you, that a crow will not tear out the eye of a crow.'

Ad haec ego: 'Si quis de nobis, o rex, iustitiae tramitem transcendere voluerit, a te corrigi potest; si vero tu excesseris, quis te corripiet? Loquimur enim tibi; sed si volueris, audis; si autem nolueris, quis te condemnavit, nisi is qui se pronuntiavit esse iustitiam?' Ad haec ille, ut erat ab adolatoribus contra me accensus, ait: 'Cum omnibus enim inveni iustitiam et tecum invenire non possum. Sed scio, quid faciam, ut noteris in populis, et iniustum te esse in omnibus perpatiscat.

To this I said: 'If any one of us, O king, should wish to overstep the track of justice, he can be corrected by you; but if you yourself should exceed it, who will rebuke you? For we speak to you; but if you are willing, you listen; if, however, you are unwilling, who has condemned you, unless he who has declared himself to be Justice?' To this he, as he was inflamed against me by the flatterers, said: 'For with all I have found justice, and with you I cannot find it. But I know what I will do, that you may be noted among the peoples, and that it may be thoroughly noised abroad among all that you are unjust.

Convocabo enim populum Toronicum et dicam eis: ìVoceferamini contra Gregorium, quod sit iniustus et nulli hominum iustitiam praestit". Illis quoque haec clamantibus respondebo: ìEgo qui rex sum iustitiam cum eodem invenire non possum, et vos qui minores estis invenietis?"' Ad haec ego: 'Quod sim iniustus, tu nescis. Scit enim ille conscientia mea, cui occulta cordis sunt manifesta. Quod vero falso clamore populus, te insultante, vociferat, nihil est, quia sciunt omnes a te haec emissa.

For I will convoke the Toronian people and I will say to them: ìVociferate against Gregory, that he is unjust and renders justice to no man". And when they too shout these things, I will answer: ìI, who am king, cannot find justice with the same, and you who are the lesser will find it?"' To these things I: 'That I am unjust, you do not know. For He knows my conscience, to whom the hidden things of the heart are manifest. But what the people, with false clamor, vociferate, with you insulting, is nothing, because all know that these things have been sent forth by you.'

Ideoque non ego, sed potius tu in adclamatione notaberis. Sed quid plura? Habes legem et canones; haec te diligenter rimari oportet, et tunc quae praeciperint si non observaberis, noveris, tibi Dei iudicium imminere'. At illi quasi me demulcens, quod dolose faciens potabat me non intellegere, conversus ad iuscellum, quod coram eo erat positus, ait: 'Propter te haec iuscella paravi, in qua nihil aliud praeter volatilia et parumper ciceris continetur'. Ad haec ego, cognuscens adulationis eius, dixi: 'Noster cibus esse debet facere voluntatem Dei et non in his diliciis dilectare, ut ea quae praecipit nullo casu praetermittamus.

And so not I, but rather you will be marked in the acclamation. But why say more? You have the law and the canons; these you ought to scrutinize diligently, and then, if you do not observe what they command, know that the judgment of God is impending for you.' But he, as if soothing me—doing it guilefully, thinking I would not understand—turning to the little broth that had been set before him, said: 'On your account I have prepared this little broth, in which nothing else is contained except fowl and a small portion of chickpea.' To this I, recognizing his adulation, said: 'Our food ought to be to do the will of God and not to take delight in these delicacies, so that we may in no case omit the things which He commands.'

Tu vero, qui alios de iustitia culpas, pollicire prius, quod legem et canones non omittas; et tunc credimus, quod iustitiam prosequaris'. Ille vero, porrectam dexteram, iuravit per omnipotenti Deo, quod ea quae lex et canones edocebant nullu praetermitteret pactu. Post haec, accepto pane, hausto etiam vino, discessi. Ea vero nocte, decantatis nocturnalibus hymnis osteum, mansionis nostrae gravibus audio cogi verberibus; missoque puero, nuntius Fredegundis reginae adstare cognusco.

'But you, who blame others concerning justice, first promise that you will not omit the law and the canons; and then we will believe that you pursue justice.' He, indeed, with his right hand stretched out, swore by omnipotent God that the things which the law and the canons taught he would omit by no compact whatsoever. After these things, bread having been taken and wine also drunk, I departed. But that night, the nocturnal hymns having been chanted, I hear the door of our lodging being forced with heavy blows; and, a boy having been sent, I learn that a messenger of Queen Fredegund is standing by.

Quibus introductis, salutationem reginae suscipio. Deinde praecantur pueri, ut in eius causis contrarius non existam, simulque ducentas argenti promittunt libras, si Praetextatus, me inpugnante, obpraemeretur. Dicebant enim: 'Iam omnium episcoporum promissionem habemus; tantum tu adversus non incedas'. Quibus ego: 'Si mihi mille libras auri argentique donetis, num quid aliud facere posso, nisi quae Dominus agire praecipit?

With them having been brought in, I receive the salutation of the queen. Then the pages beseech that I not exist as a contrarius in her causes, and at the same time they promise two hundred pounds of silver, if Praetextatus, with me impugning him, might be overborne. For they said: 'Already we have the promise of all the bishops; only do not you proceed as an adversary'. To whom I: 'If you were to grant me a thousand pounds of gold and silver, am I able to do anything else, except the things which the Lord commands to do?

Unum tantum pollicior, quod ea quae ceteri secundum canonum statuta consenserint sequar'. At illi, non intellegentes quae dicebam, gratias agentes, discesserunt. Mane autem facto, aliqui de episcopis ad me venerunt, simile mandato ferentes; quibus ego similia respondi. Convenientibus autem nobis in basilica sancti Petri, mane rex adfuit dixitque: 'Episcopus enim in furtis depraehensus ab episcopali officio ut avellatur, canonum auctoritas sancxit'. Nobis quoque respondentibus, quis ille sacerdus esset, cuius furti crimen inrogaretur, respondit rex: 'Vidistis enim species, quas nobis furtu abstulit'. Ostenderat enim nobis ante die tertia rex duo volucra, species et diversis ornamentis referta, quae praeciebantur amplius quam tria milia solidorum; sed et saccolum cum nummismati auri pondere, tenentem quasi duo milia.

I promise only one thing: that I will follow those things which the others shall have consented to according to the statutes of the canons'. But they, not understanding what I was saying, giving thanks, departed. And when morning had come, some of the bishops came to me, bearing a similar mandate; to whom I replied similar things. However, as we were convening in the basilica of Saint Peter, in the morning the king was present and said: 'For a bishop caught in thefts, that he be torn away from the episcopal office, the authority of the canons has sanctioned'. And we too responding, who that priest was upon whom the charge of theft was being imposed, the king replied: 'For you have seen the pieces which he stole from us by theft'. For the king had shown us three days before two bird‑shaped pieces, laden with diverse ornaments, which were appraised at more than 3,000 solidi; and also a little sack with coinage of gold by weight, holding about 2,000.

Haec enim dicebat rex sibi ab episcopo fuisse furata. Qui respondit: 'Recolere vos credo, discendente a Rothomaginse urbe Brunichilde regina, quod venerim ad vos, dixique vobis, quia res eius, id est quinque sarcinas, conmendatas haberem, et frequentius advenire puerus eius ad me, ut ea redderem, et nolui sine consilio vestro. Tu autem dixisti mihi, o rex: ìEiece haec a te, et revertantur ad mulierem res suae, ne inimicitia inter me et Childeberthum, nepotem meum, pro his rebus debeat pullulare". Reversus ego ad urbem, unum volucrum tradidi puerus; non enim valebant amplius ferre.

For the king said that these had been stolen from him by the bishop. He replied: 'I believe you recall, when Queen Brunichild was descending from the city of Rothomagus, that I came to you and said to you that I had her property, that is, five packs, entrusted to me, and that her pages kept coming to me more frequently, that I should return them, and I did not wish to do so without your counsel. But you said to me, O king: ìCast these away from you, and let the woman’s goods return to her, lest enmity between me and Childebert, my grandson, should sprout up on account of these things". Having returned to the city, I handed over one of the birds to the pages; for they were not able to carry more.

Reversi iterum requirebant alios. Iterum consiliatus sum magnificentiam vestram. Tu autem praecipisti, dicens: ìEiece, eiece haec a te, o sacerdos, ne faciat scandalum haec causam". Iterum tradidi eis duo ex his; duo autem alii remanserunt mecum.

Having returned, again they were demanding others. Again I took counsel with your Magnificence. But you ordered, saying: ìCast out, cast out these things from you, O priest, lest this cause make scandal". Again I handed over to them two of these; but two others remained with me.

Tu autem quid nunc calumniaris et me furti argues, cum haec causa non ad furtum, sed ad custodiam debeat deputare?' Ad haec rex: 'Si hoc depositum penes te habebatur ad custodiendum, cur solvisti unum ex his et lymbum aureis contextum filis in partibus desecasti et dedisti per virus, qui me a regno deiecerent?' Praetextatus episcopus respondit: 'Iam dixi tibi superius, quia munera eorum acciperam, ideoque haec, cum non haberem de praesenti quid darem, hinc praesumpsi et eis vicissitudinem munerum tribui. Proprium mihi esse videbatur, quod filio meo Merovecho erat, quem de lavacro regenerationis excipi'. Videns autem rex Chilpericus, quod eum his calumniis superare nequiret, adtonitus valde ac conscientia confusus, discessit a nobis vocavitque quosdam de adolatoribus suis et ait: 'Victum me verbis episcopi fateor et vera esse quod dicit scio; quid nunc faciam, ut reginae de eo voluntas adimpleatur?' Et ait: 'Ite, et accedentes ad eum, dicite, quasi consilium ex vobismet ipsis dantes: ìNosti, quod sit rex Chilpericus pius atque conpunctus et cito flectatur ad misericordiam; humiliare sub eo et dicito, ab eo obiecta a te perpetrata fuisse. Tunc nos prostrati omnes coram pedibus eius, dare tibi veniam inpetramus"'. His seductus Praetextatus episcopus, pollicitus est se ita facturum.

'But why now do you calumniate and arraign me of theft, when this case ought to be assigned not to theft, but to custody?' To this the king: 'If this deposit was held with you to be kept, why did you unseal one of these and cut off the lymbus woven with golden threads in pieces, and give it through men who would cast me down from the kingdom?' Bishop Praetextatus replied: 'I have already said to you above, that I had accepted their gifts, and therefore, since I did not have at present what I might give, from this I presumed and bestowed to them a vicissitude of gifts. It seemed proper to me what pertained to my son Merovech, whom I received from the laver of regeneration.' But King Chilperic, seeing that he could not overcome him with these calumnies, very astonished and confounded in conscience, departed from us and called some of his flatterers and said: 'I confess myself vanquished by the bishop’s words, and I know that what he says is true; what shall I do now, that the queen’s will concerning him be fulfilled?' And he said: 'Go, and approaching him, say, as if giving counsel from your own selves: ìYou know that King Chilperic is pious and compunct and is quickly bent to mercy; humble yourself under him and say that the things objected by him were perpetrated by you. Then we, all prostrate before his feet, obtain that pardon be given to you"'. Deceived by this, Bishop Praetextatus promised that he would do so.

Mane autem facto, convenimus ad consuetum locum; adveniensque et rex, ait ad episcopum: 'Si munera pro muneribus his hominibus es largitus, quur sacramenta postulasti, ut fidem Merovecho servarent?' Respondit episcopus: 'Petii, fateor, amicitias eorum habere cum eo, et non solum hominem, sed, si fas fuisset, angelum de caelo evocaveram, qui esset adiutor eius; filius enim mihi erat, ut saepe dixi, spiritalis ex lavacro'. Cumque haec altercatio altius tolleretur, Praetextatus episcopus, prostratus solo, ait: 'Peccavi in caelo et coram te, o rex misericordissime; ego sum homicida nefandus; ego te interficere volui et filio tuo in solio tuo eregere'. Haec eo dicente, prosternitur rex coram pedibus sacerdotum, dicens: 'Audite, o piissimi sacerdotes, reum crimen exsecrabile confitentem'. Cumque nos flentes regem elevassemus a solo, iussit eum basilicam egredi. Ipse vero ad metatum discessit, transmittens librum canonum, in quo erat quaternio novus adnixus, habens canones quasi apostolicus, continentes haec: Episcopus in homicidio, adulterio et periurio depraehensus, a sacerdotio divillatur. His ita lectis, cum Praetextatus staret stupens, Berthechramnus episcopus ait: 'Audi, o frater et coepiscope, quia regis gratiam non habes, ideoque nec nostram caritatem uti poteris, priusquam regis indulgentia merearis'. His ita gestis, petiit rex, ut aut tonicam eius scinderetur aut centisimus octavus psalmus, qui maledictionibus Scarioticas continet, super caput eius recitaretur aut certe iudicium contra eum scriberetur, ne in perpetuo communicaret.

But when morning had come, we assembled at the accustomed place; and the king too arriving, said to the bishop: 'If you were lavish of gifts for gifts to these men, why did you demand oaths, that they should keep faith with Merovech?' The bishop replied: 'I asked, I confess, to have their friendships with him; and not only a man, but, if it had been right, I would have summoned an angel from heaven, to be his helper; for he was my son, as I have often said, spiritual from the font.' And when this altercation was being raised higher, Bishop Praetextatus, prostrate on the ground, said: 'I have sinned against heaven and before you, O most merciful king; I am a nefarious murderer; I wished to kill you and to set up your son upon your throne.' As he said this, the king is prostrated before the priests’ feet, saying: 'Hear, O most pious priests, the guilty man confessing an execrable crime.' And when we, weeping, had raised the king from the ground, he ordered him to go out of the basilica. He himself withdrew to the quarters, sending a book of canons, in which a new quire had been appended, having canons as if apostolic, containing these: A bishop caught in homicide, adultery, and perjury is torn from the priesthood. When these had thus been read, while Praetextatus stood astonished, Bishop Berthechramnus said: 'Hear, O brother and fellow-bishop, that you do not have the king’s favor, and therefore you will not be able to use our charity either, until you merit the king’s indulgence.' With these things thus done, the king asked that either his tunic be torn, or the 108th psalm, which contains the Iscariot curses, be recited over his head, or at least that a judgment be written against him, that he might not communicate forever.

Quibus condicionibus ego restiti, iuxta promissum regis, ut nihil extra canones gereretur. Tunc Praetextatus a nostris raptus oculis, in custodia positus est. De qua fugire temptans nocte, gravissime caesus, in insola maris, quod adiacet civitati Constantinae, in exilio est detrusus.

On which conditions I stood fast, according to the king’s promise, that nothing should be carried on outside the canons. Then Praetextatus, snatched from our eyes, was placed in custody. From which, attempting to flee by night, and most grievously beaten, he was thrust into exile on an island of the sea which lies adjacent to the city of Constantina.

Post haec sonuit, quod Merovechus iterum basilica sancti Martini conaretur expetere. Chilpericus vero custodire basilicam iubet et omnes claudi aditus. Custodis autem unum osteum, per quod pauci clerici ad officium ingrederentur, relinquentes, reliqua ostea clausa tenebant; quod non sine taedio populis fuit.

After these things it was noised that Merovech was again trying to seek out the basilica of Saint Martin. But Chilperic orders the basilica to be guarded and all the approaches to be shut. As for the guard, leaving one door, through which a few clerics might ingress for the Office, they kept the remaining doors closed; which was not without tedium for the people.

Cum autem apud Parisius moraremur, signa in caelo apparuerunt, id est viginti radii a parte aquilonis, qui ab oriente surgentes, ad occidentem properabant; ex quibus unus prolixior et alius supereminens, ut est in sublime elevatus, mox defecit, et sic reliqui qui secuti fuerant evanuerunt. Credo, interitum Merovechi pronuntiassent. Merovechus vero, dum in Remensem campaniam latitaret nec palam se Austrasiis crederit, a Tarabannensibus circumventus est, dicentibus, quod, relicto patre eius Chilperico, ei se subiugarent, si ad eos accederit.

But when we were staying at Paris, signs appeared in the sky, that is, twenty rays from the quarter of the north, which, rising from the east, were hastening to the west; of these one was more prolonged and another supereminent, and, as it was lifted on high, it soon failed, and thus the rest who had followed vanished. I believe they had proclaimed the destruction of Merovech. Merovech, however, while he was lying hidden in the Reims countryside and did not openly entrust himself to the Austrasians, was surrounded by the Tarabannenses, who said that, his father Chilperic being left aside, they would subject themselves to him, if he should come to them.

Qui velociter, adsumptis secum viris fortissimis, ad eos venit. Hi praeparatus detegentes dolos, in villam eum quandam concludunt et, circumseptum cum armatis, nuntius patri dirigunt. Quod ille audiens, illuc properare distinat.

He, swiftly, having taken with him the bravest men, came to them. They, detecting the prepared deceits, confine him in a certain villa and, with him surrounded by armed men, dispatch a messenger to his father. Hearing this, he resolves to hasten there.

Sed hic cum in hospitiolo quodam reteneretur, timens, ne ad vindictam inimicorum multas lueret poenas, vocatum ad se Gailenum familiarem suum, ait: 'Una nobis usque nunc et anima et consilium fuit; rogo, ne patiaris me in manibus inimicorum tradi, sed, accepto gladio, inruas in me'. Quod ille nec dubitans, eum cultro confodit. Advenientem autem regem, mortuos est repertus. Extetirunt tunc qui adsererent, verba Merovechi, quae superius diximus, a regina fuisse conficta, Merovechum vero eius fuisse iussu clam interemptum.

But when he was being detained in a certain little hostel, fearing lest he should pay many penalties to the vengeance of his enemies, having called to him Gailenus, his intimate friend, he said: “Up to now both soul and counsel have been one for us; I beg you, do not allow me to be delivered into the hands of my enemies, but, taking up a sword, rush upon me.” He, not hesitating, stabbed him with a knife. And when the king arrived, he was found dead. Then there arose those who asserted that the words of Merovech, which we mentioned above, had been fabricated by the queen, but that Merovech had in fact been secretly slain by her order.

Gailenum vero adpraehensum, abscisis manibus et pedibus, auribus vel narium summitatibus et aliis multis cruciatibus adfectum, infiliciter negaverunt. Grindionem quoque intextum rotae in sublime sustulerunt; Ciucilonem, qui quondam comes palatii Sygiberthi regis fuerat, absciso capite, interficerunt. Sed et alios multos, qui cum eodem venerant, crudile nece diversis mortibus adficerunt.

But Gailenus, having been apprehended—his hands and feet cut off, the tips of his ears or nostrils, and afflicted with many other torments—they wretchedly slew. Grindio, too, entwined into the wheel, they hoisted on high; Ciucilo, who once had been count of the palace of King Sigibert, they killed, his head having been cut off. And many others besides, who had come with the same man, they afflicted with cruel death by diverse deaths.

Loquebantur etiam tunc homines, in hac circumventionem Egidium episcopum et Gunthchramnum Bosonem fuisse maximum caput, eo quod Gunthchramnus Fredegundis reginae occultas amicitias potiretur pro interfectione Theodoberthi; Egidius vero, quod ei iam longo tempore esset carus.

People were saying even then that, in this plot, Bishop Egidius and Gunthchramn Boso had been the chief ringleaders, because Gunthchramn was obtaining the secret favor of Queen Fredegund in return for the killing of Theodoberth; but Egidius, because he had for a long time been dear to her.

19. De aelimosinis Tiberii.

19. On the alms of Tiberius.

Cum autem Iustinus imperator, amisso sensu, amens effectus esset et per solam Sophiam augustam eius imperium regiretur, populi, ut in superiore libro iam diximus, Tiberium caesarem elegerunt utilem, strinuum atque sapientem, aelymosinarium inopumque optimum defensorem. Qui cum multa de thesauris, quos Iustinus adgregavit, pauperibus erogaret et augusta illa eum frequentius increparet, quod rem publicam redegisset in paupertate, diceritque: 'Quod ego multis annis congregavi, tu infra pauco tempus prodegi dispergis', agebat ille: 'Non deerit fisco nostro; tantum pauperis aelymosinam accipiant, aut captivi redimantur. Hoc est enim magnum thesaurum, dicente Domino: Thesaurizate vobis thesaurus in caelo, ubi neque erugo neque tinea corrumpit, et ubi fures non effodiunt nec furantur.

But when the emperor Justin, his sense lost, had become out of his mind, and his rule was being steered by Sophia Augusta alone, the people, as we have already said in the previous book, chose Tiberius as Caesar—useful, strenuous, and wise, an almsgiver and the best defender of the needy. And when he was disbursing much from the treasuries which Justin had amassed to the poor, and that Augusta frequently rebuked him, because he had reduced the commonwealth into poverty, and said: 'What I gathered over many years, you within a short time squander and scatter,' he would answer: 'It will not be lacking to our fisc; only let the poor receive alms, or captives be redeemed. For this is the great treasure, with the Lord saying: Treasure up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth corrupts, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal.

Ergo de quod Deus dedit, congregemus per pauperes in caelo, ut Dominus nobis augere dignetur in saeculo'. Et quia, ut diximus, magnus et verus christianus erat, dum hilare distributione pauperibus opem praestat, magis ac magis ei Dominus subministrat. Nam deambolans per palatium, vidit in pavimento domus tabolam marmoream, in qua crux dominica erat sculpta, et ait: 'Crucem tuam, Domine, frontem nostram munimus et pectora, et ecce crucem sub pedibus conculcamus!' Et dicto citius iussit eam auferre; defossamque tabulam atque erectam, inveniunt subter et aliam hoc signum habentem. Nuntiantesque, iussit et illam auferri.

Therefore, from that which God has given, let us congregate through the poor into heaven, so that the Lord may deign to augment for us in this age'. And because, as we said, he was a great and true Christian, while cheerfully by distribution he affords help to the poor, the Lord supplies to him more and more. For strolling through the palace, he saw on the pavement of the house a marble tablet, on which the Lord’s Cross was sculpted, and he said: 'Your Cross, O Lord, we fortify our forehead and our breasts with it, and behold we are trampling the Cross under our feet!' And, quicker than the word, he ordered it to be removed; and having dug out the tablet and set it upright, they find beneath also another bearing this sign. And reporting it, he ordered that one also to be removed.

Qua amota, repperiunt et tertiam; iussumque eius et haec aufertur. Qua ablata, inveniunt magnum thesaurum, habentem supra mille auri centinaria. Sublatumque aurum pauperibus adhuc habundantius, ut consueverat, subministrat; nec ei Dominus aliquid defecere faciet pro bona voluntate sua.

This being removed, they find a third as well; and by his order this too is taken away. When this was taken away, they discover a great treasure, containing over 1,000 centenaria of gold. And the gold, having been brought up, he supplies to the poor yet more abundantly, as he was accustomed; nor will the Lord allow anything to be lacking to him for his good will.

Quid ei in posterum Dominus transmiserit, non omittam. Narsis ille dux Italiae, cum in quadam civitate domum magnam haberet, Italiam cum multis thesauris egressus, ad supra memoratam urbem advenit ibique in domo sua occultae cisterna magna fodit, in qua multa milia centenariorum auri argentique reposuit idque, interfectis consciis, uno tantummodo seni per iuramentum condita conmendavit. Defuncto quoque Narsite, haec sub terra latebant.

I will not omit what the Lord transmitted to him thereafter. Narses, that leader of Italy, when he had a great house in a certain city, having departed Italy with many treasures, came to the above-mentioned city, and there in his own house he dug a great hidden cistern, in which he deposited many thousands of centenaria of gold and silver; and this, the accomplices having been slain, he entrusted—hidden away—by oath to only one old man. And with Narses also deceased, these things lay hidden under the earth.

Cumque supradictus senex huius aelymosinas assidue cerneret, pergit ad eum, dicens: 'Si', inquid, 'mihi aliquid prodest, magnam rem tib, caesar, edicam'. Cui ille: 'Dic', ait, 'quod volueris. Proderit enim tibi, si quiddam nobis profuturum esse narraveris'. 'Thesaurum' , inquid, 'Narsitis reconditum habeo, quod in extremum vitae positus caelare non possum'. Tunc caesar Tiberius gavisus, mittit usque ad locum pueros suos; praecedente vero sene, hi secuntur attoniti. Pervenientesque ad cesternam deopertamque ingrediuntur, in qua tantum aurum argentumque repperiunt, ut per multos dies vix evacuaretur a deportantibus.

And when the aforesaid old man continually observed his alms, he goes to him, saying: 'If,' he said, 'anything profits me, I will declare a great matter to you, Caesar.' To whom he: 'Speak,' he said, 'what you will. For it will benefit you, if you narrate something that will be profitable for us.' 'A treasure,' he said, 'of Narses I have hidden, which, set at the last extremity of life, I cannot conceal.' Then Caesar Tiberius, rejoicing, sends his attendants to the place; and with the old man going before, they follow astonished. And arriving at the cistern and uncovering it, they enter, in which so much gold and silver they find that for many days it was scarcely evacuated by the porters.

Et ex hoc ille amplius hilari erogatione dispensavit egenis.

And from this he dispensed more to the needy with cheerful liberality.

20. De Salunio et sagittario episcopis.

20. On Salunius and Sagittarius, bishops.

Igitur contra Salonium Sagittariumque episcopos tumultus exoritur. Hi enim a sancto Nicetio Lugdunensi episcopo educati, diaconatus officio sunt sortiti; huiusque tempore Salonius Ebredunensis urbis, Sagittarius autem Vappinsis ecclesiae sacerdotes statuuntur. Sed, adsumpto episcopatu in proprio relati arbitrio, coeperunt in pervasionibus, caedibus, homicidiis, adulteriis diversisque in sceleribus insano furore crassari, ita ut quodam tempore, celebrante Victore Tricassinorum episcopo sollemnitatem natalicii sui, emissa cohorte, cum gladiis et sagittis inruerent super eum.

Therefore, against the bishops Salonius and Sagittarius a tumult arises. For these, educated by Saint Nicetius, bishop of Lyon, were allotted the office of the diaconate; and in his time Salonius was appointed bishop of the city of Embrun, but Sagittarius of the church of Gap. But, once the episcopate had been assumed and they were remitted to their own discretion, they began to wax gross, with insane fury, in incursions, slayings, homicides, adulteries, and diverse crimes, so that at a certain time, while Victor, bishop of the Tricassini (Troyes), was celebrating the solemnity of his natal day, a cohort having been sent out, they rushed upon him with swords and arrows.

Venientesque sciderunt vestimenta eius, ministros ceciderunt, vasa vel omne apparatum prandii auferentes, relinquentes episcopum in grandi contumelia. Quod cum rex Guntchramnus comperisset, congregari synodum apud urbem Lugdunensim iussit. Coniunctique episcopi cum patriarcha Nicetio beato, discussis causis, invenerunt eos de his sceleribus quibus accusabantur valde convictos; praeceperuntque, ut qui talia commiserant episcopatus honore privarentur.

And coming up they tore his vestments, struck down the ministers, and, carrying off the vessels and all the apparatus of the luncheon, left the bishop in great contumely. When King Guntram learned this, he ordered a synod to be convened at the city of Lyons. And the bishops, assembled with the blessed patriarch Nicetius, after the causes were discussed, found them strongly convicted of the crimes of which they were accused; and they ordered that those who had committed such deeds be deprived of the honor of the episcopate.

At illi, cum adhuc propitium sibi regem esse nossent, ad eum accedunt, inplorantes se iniuste remotos, sibique tribui licentiam, ut ad papam urbis Romae accedere debeant. Rex vero annuens petitionibus eorum, datis epistolis, eos abire permisit. Qui accedentes coram papa Iohanne exponunt se nullius rationis existentibus causis dimotos.

But they, since they knew that the king was still propitious to them, approach him, imploring that they had been unjustly removed, and that license be granted to them to accede to the pope of the city of Rome. The king, assenting to their petitions, having given letters, permitted them to depart. And they, coming before Pope John, expounded that they had been dismissed with no reasonable causes existing.

Ille vero ad regem epistolas dirigit, in quibus locis suis eosdem restitui iubet. Quod rex sine mora, castigatos prius verbis multis, implevit. Sed nulla, quod peius est, fuit emendatio subsecuta.

But he, indeed, directs epistles to the king, in which he orders that the same men be restored to their own places. Which the king, without delay—first having chastised them with many words—fulfilled. But no emendation, which is worse, followed.

Tamen Victoris episcopi pacem petierunt, traditis hominibus quos in seditione direxerant. Sed ille recordatus praecepti dominici, non debere reddi inimicis mala pro malis, nihil his mali faciens, liberos abire permisit. Unde in posterum a communione suspensus est, pro eo quod, publice accusans, clam inimicis pepercisset absque consilio quibus accusaverat fratrum.

Nevertheless they sought the peace of Bishop Victor, with the men whom they had dispatched in the sedition handed over. But he, remembering the dominical precept that evils are not to be rendered to enemies for evils, doing nothing evil to them, allowed them to go free. Whence thereafter he was suspended from communion, on the ground that, while accusing publicly, he had secretly spared the enemies without the counsel of the brothers by whose counsel he had accused.

Sed per favorem regis iterum in communione revocatus est. Hi vero in maioribus sceleribus cotidie miscebantur; et in proeliis illis, sicut iam supra meminimus, quae Mummolus cum Langobardis gessit, tamquam unus ex laicis, accincti arma, plurimos propriis manibus interfecerunt. In civibus vero suis, nonnullos commoti felle verberantes fustibus, usque ad effusionem sanguinis saeviebant.

But through the favor of the king he was again recalled into communion. These men, however, were daily entangled in greater crimes; and in those battles, as we have already remembered above, which Mummolus waged with the Langobards, as if one of the laity, girt with arms, they slew very many with their own hands. But among their own citizens, stirred with gall, beating some with cudgels, they raged even to the outpouring of blood.

Unde factum est, ut clamor populi ad regem denuo procederet, eosdemque rex arcessiri praecepit. Quibus advenientibus, noluit suis obtutibus praesentari, scilicet ut, prius habita audientia, si idonei inveniebantur, sic regis praesentiam mererentur. Sed Sagittarius felle commotus, hanc rationem dure suscipiens, ut erat levis ac vanus et in sermonibus inrationabilibus profluus, declamare plurima de rege coepit ac dicere, quod filii eius regnum capere non possint, eo quod mater eorum ex familia Magnacharii quondam adscita regis torum adisset, ignorans, quod, praetermissis nunc generibus feminarum, regis vocitantur liberi, qui de regibus fuerant procreati.

Whence it came about that the clamor of the people went forth to the king anew, and the king ordered those same men to be summoned. Upon their arriving, he did not wish them to be presented to his gaze, namely that, an audience being held beforehand, if they were found suitable, thus they might merit the presence of the king. But Sagittarius, moved with gall, harshly receiving this plan—since he was light and vain and effusive in irrational speeches—began to declaim many things against the king and to say that his sons could not take the kingdom, because their mother, once taken up from the family of Magnacharius, had approached the king’s bed, not knowing that, the lines of the women being now passed over, those are called the king’s children who had been procreated from kings.

His auditis, rex commotus valde, tam equos quam pueros vel quaecumque habere poterant abstulit; ipsosque in monasteriis a se longiori accensu dimotos, in quibus paenitentiam agerent, includi praecepit, non amplius quam singulos eis clericos relinquens; iudices locorum terribiliter commonens, ut ipsos cum armatis custodire debeant, ne cui ad eos visitandos ullus pateat aditus. Superstes enim erant his diebus filii regis, ex quibus senior aegrotare coepit. Accedentes autem ad regem familiares eius, dixerunt: 'Si propitius audire dignaretur rex verba servorum suorum, loquerentur in auribus tuis'. Qui ait: 'Loquimini quae libet'. Dixeruntque: 'Ne forte innocentes hi episcopi exilio condemnati fuissent, et peccatum regis augeatur in aliquo, et ideo filius domini nostri pereat'. Qui ait: 'Ite quantocius et laxate eos, deprecantes, ut orent pro parvulis nostris'. Quibus abeuntibus, dimissi sunt.

On hearing these things, the king, greatly stirred, took away both their horses and their pages, and whatever else they could have; and he ordered them to be shut up in monasteries removed at a greater distance from himself, in which they should perform penance, leaving to them no more than single clerics each; terribly admonishing the judges of the places that they ought to guard them with armed men, so that no access be open to anyone to visit them. For the king’s sons were surviving in these days, of whom the elder began to fall ill. But his familiars, approaching the king, said: 'If the king would deign propitiously to hear the words of his servants, they would speak in your ears'. He said: 'Speak whatever you will'. And they said: 'Lest perchance these innocent bishops have been condemned to exile, and the king’s sin be augmented in some respect, and therefore our lord’s son perish'. He said: 'Go as quickly as possible and release them, beseeching that they pray for our little ones'. With them going away, they were released.

Egressi igitur de monasteriis, coniuncti sunt pariter, et se osculantes, eo quod olim a se visi non fuerant, ad civitates suas regressi sunt, et in tantum conpuncti sunt, ut viderentur numquam a psallentio cessare, celebrare ieiunia, aelemosinas exercere, librum Davitici carminis explere per diem noctesque in hymnis ac lectionibus meditando deducere. Sed non diu haec sanctitas inlibata permansit, conversique sunt iterum retrorsum; et ita plerumque noctes epulando atque bibendo ducebant, ut, clericis matutinas in eclesia celebrantibus, hi pocula poscerent et vina libarent. Nulla prorsus de Deo erat mentio, nullus omnino cursus memoriae habebatur.

Having gone out, therefore, from the monasteries, they were joined together, and, kissing one another—because they had not seen each other for a long time—they returned to their own cities; and to such a degree were they compunct, that they seemed never to cease from psalmody, to celebrate fasts, to exercise alms, to fulfill the book of Davidic song, and to lead day and night in hymns and readings, meditating. But this holiness did not long remain unsullied, and they were turned back again; and so for the most part they spent the nights feasting and drinking, such that, while the clerics were celebrating Matins in the church, they would ask for cups and pour out wines. There was absolutely no mention of God, no canonical cursus of remembrance at all was maintained.

Renitente aurora, surgentes a cena, mollibus se indumentis operientes, somno vinoque sepulti, usque ad horam diei tertiam dormiebant. Sed nec mulieres deerant, cum quibus polluerentur. Exsurgentes igitur, abluti balneis, ad convivium discumbebant; de quo vespere surgentes, caenae inhiabant usque ad illud lucis tempus, quo superius diximus.

With the dawn glimmering, rising from supper, covering themselves with soft raiment, buried in sleep and wine, they would sleep up to the third hour of the day. Nor were women lacking, with whom they were defiled. Therefore, getting up, washed in baths, they reclined at a convivial banquet; and from this, rising in the evening, they gaped for supper until that time of light which we mentioned above.

Sic faciebant singulis diebus, donec ira Dei diruit super eos; quod in posterum memoraturi sumus.

Thus they did every single day, until the wrath of God came crashing down upon them; which we shall recount hereafter.

21. De Winnoco Brittone.

21. On Winnoc the Briton.

Tunc Winnocus Britto in summa abstinentia a Brittaniis venit Toronus, Hierusolimis accedere cupiens, nullum alium vestimentum nisi de pellibus ovium lana privatis habens; quem nos, quo facilius teneremus, quia nobis relegiosus valde videbatur, presbiterii gratia honoravimus. Inghitrudis autem relegiosa consuetudinem habebat, aquam de sepulchrum sancti Martini collegere. Qua aqua deficiente, rogat, vas cum vino ad beati tumulum deportari.

Then Winnoc the Briton, in the highest abstinence, came from Britain to Tours, wishing to approach Jerusalem, having no other clothing except from the skins of sheep, deprived of wool; whom we, that we might more easily keep him, because he seemed to us very religious, honored with the grace of the presbyterate. But Inghitrudis, a religious woman, had the custom to collect water from the sepulcher of Saint Martin. When that water failed, she asks that a vessel with wine be carried to the tomb of the blessed one.

Transacta autem nocte, eum exinde hoc presbitero praesenti adsumi mandavit; et ad se delatum, ait presbitero: 'Aufer hinc vino et unam tantum guttam de aqua benedicta, unde parum superest, effunde'. Quod cum fecisset, mirum dictu, vasculum, quod semeplenum erat, ad unius guttae discensum impletum est. Idem bis aut tertio vacuatum, per unam tantum guttam est impletum; quod non ambigetur, et in hoc beati Martini fuisse virtutem.

After the night, moreover, she ordered that it be taken up from there by this presbyter present; and when it had been brought to her, she said to the presbyter: 'Take away the wine from here and pour only one drop of the blessed water, of which little remains.' When he had done this, wondrous to say, the little vessel, which was half-full, at the descent of the single drop was filled. The same, emptied twice or even a third time, was filled by only one drop; which will not be doubted, that in this too there was the virtue of the blessed Martin.

22. De obitu Samsonis, filii Chilperici.

22. On the death of Samson, son of Chilperic.

His ita gestis, Samson, filius Chilperici regis iunior, a desenteria et febre conpraehensus, a rebus humanis excessit. Hic vero, cum Chilpericus rex Tornacum a fratre obsederetur, natus est; quem mater ob metum mortis a se abiecit et perdere voluit. Sed cum non potuisset, obiurgata a rege, eum baptizare praecepit.

With these things thus done, Samson, the younger son of King Chilperic, seized by dysentery and fever, departed from human affairs. He in truth was born when King Chilperic was being besieged at Tournai by his brother; whom his mother, on account of fear of death, cast away from herself and wished to destroy. But when she could not, having been rebuked by the king, she ordered him to be baptized.

Qui baptizatus et ab ipso episcopo susceptus, lustro uno nec perfuncto, defunctus est. Nam et mater eius Fredegundis in his diebus graviter egrotavit, sed convaluit.

Who, having been baptized and received by the bishop himself, with not even one lustrum completed, died. For his mother Fredegund as well, in these days, was gravely ill, but recovered.

23. De prodigiis ostensis.

23. On the prodigies exhibited.

Post haec in nocte, quod erat tertio Idus Novembris, apparuit nobis beati Martini vigilias celebrantibus magnum prodigium; nam in medio lunae stilla fulgens visa est elucere, et super ac subter lunam aliae stillae propinquae apparuerunt. Sed et circolus ille, qui pluviam plerumque significat, circa eam apparuit. Sed quae haec figuraverint, ignoramus.

After these things in the night, which was on the third before the Ides of November, a great prodigy appeared to us as we were celebrating the vigils of blessed Martin; for in the middle of the moon a shining drop was seen to gleam, and above and below the moon other nearby drops appeared. But also that circle, which for the most part signifies rain, appeared around it. But what these may have prefigured, we do not know.

Nam et luna hoc anno sepe in nigridinem versam videmus, et ante natalem Domini gravia fuere tonitrua. Sed et splendores illi circa solem, sicut iam ante cladem Arvernam fuisse commemoravimus, quod rustici soles vocant, apparuerunt; et mare ultra modum egressum adserunt, et multa alia signa apparuerunt.

For indeed the moon we see often this year turned into blackness, and before the Nativity of the Lord there were heavy thunderclaps. And those splendors around the sun, as we have already commemorated to have been before the Arvernian calamity, which the rustics call “suns,” appeared; and they assert that the sea went out beyond measure, and many other signs appeared.

24. Chilpericus Pectavus invasit.

24. Chilperic invaded Poitiers.

Quod Guntchramnus Boso filias suas de basilica sancti Helari abstulit, et Chilpericus Pectavus invasit.

That Guntchramnus Boso removed his daughters from the basilica of Saint Hilary, and Chilperic invaded Poitiers.

Guntchramnus Boso Toronus cum paucis armatis veniens, filias suas, quas in basilica sancta reliquerat, vim abstulit et eas Pectavus civitatem, qui erat Childeberthi regis, perduxit. Chilpericus quoque rex Pectavum pervasit, atque nepotis sui hominis ab eius sunt hominibus effugati. Ennodium ex comitatu ad regis praesentiam perduxerunt.

Guntchramnus Boso, coming to Tours with a few armed men, forcibly took away his daughters, whom he had left in the holy basilica, and led them to the city of Poitiers, which was of King Childebert. King Chilperic likewise invaded Poitiers, and the men of his nephew were put to flight by his men. They led Ennodius from the comitatus to the presence of the king.

Quem exilio damnatum, facultates eius fisco subdiderunt. Sed post annum et patriae et facultatibus redditus est. Gunthchramnus Boso, relictis filiabus suis in basilica beati Hilari, ad Childebertum regem transiit.

Whom, condemned to exile, they subjected his assets to the fisc. But after a year he was restored both to his homeland and to his assets. Gunthchramnus Boso, his daughters left in the basilica of the blessed Hilary, crossed over to King Childebert.

25. De interitu Dacconis et Dracoleni.

25. On the death of Daccon and Dracolenus.

Anno quoque tertio Childeberthi regis, qui erat Chilperici et Gunthchramni septimus decimus annus, cum Dacco, Dagarici quondam filius, relicto regi Chilperico, huc illucque vagaretur, a Dracoleno duci; qui dicebatur Industrius, fraudolenter adpraehensus est. Quem vinctum ad Chilpericum regem Brannacum deduxit, data ei sacramenta, quod vitam illius cum rege obteniret. Sed oblitus sacramenti, egit cum principe, nefarias res adserens, ut moreretur.

Also in the third year of King Childebert, which was the seventeenth year of Chilperic and of Gunthchramn, when Dacco, son of the late Dagaric, having left King Chilperic, was wandering hither and thither, by the duke Dracolenus; who was called Industrius, he was fraudulently apprehended. He led him, bound, to King Chilperic at Brannacum, pledging him oaths that he would obtain his life with the king. But, forgetful of the oath, he dealt with the prince, asserting nefarious things, that he should die.

Ille quoque cum vinctus deteneretur et cernerit se paenitus non evasurum, a presbitero, rege nesciente, paenitentiam petiit. Qua accepta, interfectus est. Cum autem idem Dracolenus velociter reverteretur in patriam, his diebus Guntchramnus Boso filias suas Pectavo auferre conabatur.

He also, when he was being detained bound and had perceived that he would utterly not escape, sought penance from a presbyter, the king being unaware. When this had been received, he was slain. But when that same Dracolenus was swiftly returning into his homeland, in those days Guntchramnus Boso was trying to carry off his daughters from Poitiers.

Quod audiens Dracolenus, se super eum obiecit; sed illi, sicut erant parati, resistentes, se defensare nitebantur. Gunthchramnus vero misit unum de amicis suis ad eum, dicens: 'Vade et dic ei: ìScis enim, quod foedus inter nos initum habemus; rogo, ut te de meis removeas insidiis. Quantumvis de rebus tollere non prohibeo; tantum mihi, etsi nudo, liceat cum filiabus meis accedere, quo voluero"'. At ille, ut erat vanus ac levis: 'Ecce', inquid, 'funicolum in quo alii culpabiles legati ad regem me ducente directi sunt, in quo et hic hodie legandus illuc educitur vinctus'. Et haec cum dixisset, calcaneorum ictibus urguens equum, ad illum veloci cursu dirigit; et casso eum verberans ictu, astili divisum, ensis ad terram ruit.

Hearing this, Dracolenus threw himself upon him; but they, as they were prepared, resisting, were striving to defend themselves. Gunthchramnus, for his part, sent one of his friends to him, saying: ‘Go and say to him: ìYou know, in fact, that we have a treaty concluded between us; I beg you to remove yourself from my ambushes. However much of the goods to carry off I do not forbid; only let it be permitted to me, even if naked, to go with my daughters wherever I shall have wished’.’ But he, as he was vain and light: ‘Behold,’ he said, ‘the little cord on which other guilty envoys were sent to the king, with me leading them—on which this man too today, to be bound, is led out thither in chains.’ And when he had said these things, driving on his horse with blows of his heels, he directs it at him at a swift run; and striking him with a fruitless blow, with the shaft split, the blade falls to the ground.

Guntchramnus vero cum super se mortem cernerit inminere, invocato nomen Domini et virtutem magnam beati Martini elevatoque contu, Dracolenum artat in faucibus, suspensumque de equo sursum unus de amicis suis eum lancia latere verberatum finivit. Fugatisque sociis ipsumque spoliatum, Gunthchramnus cum filiabus liber abscessit. Post haec Severus, socer eius, a filiis apud regem graviter accusatur.

But Guntchramnus, when he saw death impending over him, having invoked the name of the Lord and the great virtue of blessed Martin, and with his pike raised, throttles Dracolenus at the throat; and, hoisted up from his horse, one of his friends finished him off, with him struck in the side by a lance. And with his associates put to flight and himself despoiled, Guntchramnus departed free with his daughters. After these things Severus, his father-in-law, is gravely accused by his sons before the king.

Haec ille audiens, cum magnis muneribus ad regem petiit. Qui in via adpraehensus et spoliatus atque in exilium deductus, morte pessima vitam finivit. Sed et duo filii eius Burgolenus et Dodo, ob crimen maiestatis lesi iudicium mortis susceptum, unus ab exercitu vi obpressus est, alius in fugam adpraehensus, truncatis manibus et pedibus, interiit; resque omnes tam eorum quam patris fisco conlatae sunt.

Hearing these things, he sought the king with great gifts. He, apprehended on the road and despoiled and led into exile, ended his life by a most wretched death. But also his two sons, Burgolenus and Dodo, on account of the crime of lèse-majesté, having incurred a judgment of death: the one was overborne by force by the army, the other, apprehended in flight, with his hands and feet cut off, perished; and all the property both of them and of their father was conveyed to the fisc.

Erant enim eis magni thesauri.

For they had great treasures.

26. Quod exercitus in Brittaniis abiit.

26. That the army departed in the Britains.

Dehinc Toronici, Pictavi, Baiocassini, Caenomannici et Andecavi cum aliis multis in Brittania ex iussu Chilperici regis abierunt et contra Varocum, filium quondam Macliavi, ad Vicinoniam fluvium resedent. Sed ille dolose per nocte super Saxones Baiocassinos ruens, maximam exinde partem interfecit. Post die autem tertia cum ducibus regis Chilperici pacem faciens et filium suum in obsedatum donans, sacramentum se constrinxit, quod fidelis regi Chilperico esse deberet.

Thereafter the Turonici, the Pictavi, the Baiocassini, the Caenomannici, and the Andecavi, with many others, departed into Brittany by the order of King Chilperic and took up position against Waroch, son of the late Macliau, at the Vicinonia river. But he, deceitfully, rushing by night upon the Baiocassan Saxons, killed thence the greater part. Then on the third day, making peace with King Chilperic’s dukes and giving his son as a hostage, he bound himself by an oath that he ought to be faithful to King Chilperic.

Venitus quoque civitatem refudit sub ea condicione, ut, se mereretur eam per iussionem regis regere, tributa vel omnia quae exinde debebantur annis singulis, nullo admonente, dissolverit. Quod cum factum fuisset, exercitus ab ea loca remotus est. Post haec Chilpericus rex de pauperibus et iunioribus eclesiae vel basilicae bannos iussit exigi, pro eo quod in exercitu non ambulassent.

Venitus also repaid the city under that condition, that, should he deserve to rule it by the king’s injunction, he would discharge the tributes, indeed all things that were owed from there, each year, with no one reminding. When this had been done, the army was removed from those places. After these things King Chilperic ordered ban-fines to be exacted from the poor and the juniors of the church or basilica, because they had not marched in the army.

Non enim erat consuetudo, ut hi ullam exsolverent publicam functionem. Post haec Varochus obliviscens promissionis suae, volens inrumpere quod fecerat, Eunium episcopum Veneticae urbis ad Chilpericum regem dirigit. At ille ira commotus, obiurgatum eum exilio damnare praecipit.

For it was not the custom that these discharge any public function. After these things Varochus, forgetting his promise and wishing to break what he had done, sends Eunius, bishop of the city of the Veneti, to King Chilperic. But he, moved with anger, orders him, after a rebuke, to be condemned to exile.

27. De eiectione Saloni et Sagittari.

27. On the expulsion of Salonius and Sagittarius.

Anno quoque quarto Childeberthi, qui fuit 18. Guntchramni et Chilperici regum, apud Cavellonum civitatem sinodus acta est ex iussu principis Guntchramni; discussisque diversis causis, contra Salonium et Sagittarium episcopos iteratur illa antiqua calamitas. Obiciuntur eis crimina, et non solum de adulterium, verum etiam de homicidiis accusantur. Sed haec per paenitentiam purgari censentis episcopi, illud est additum, quod essent rei maiestatis et patriae proditores.

In the 4th year also of Childebert, which was the 18. of the kings Guntram and Chilperic, a synod was held at the city of Cavellonum by the order of Prince Guntram; and, various causes having been discussed, that ancient calamity is renewed against the bishops Salonius and Sagittarius. Charges are brought against them, and they are accused not only of adultery but also of homicides. But, with the bishops judging that these things should be purged by penitence, this was added: that they were guilty of maiestas (treason) and traitors to the fatherland.

Qua de causa ab episcopato discincti, in basilica beati Marcelli sub custodia detruduntur. Ex qua per fugam lapsi, discesserunt per diversa vagantes, donec in civitatibus eorum alii subrogati sunt.

For this cause, stripped from the episcopate, they are thrust under guard in the basilica of blessed Marcellus. From which, having escaped by flight, they departed, wandering through diverse places, until in their cities others were subrogated in their stead.

28. De discriptionibus Chilperici.

28. On the tax assessments of Chilperic.

Chilpericus vero rex discriptiones novas et gravis in omne regno suo fieri iussit. Qua de causa multi relinquentes civitates illas vel possessiones proprias, alia regna petierunt, satius ducentes alibi peregrinare quam tali pericolo subiacere. Statutum enim fuerat, ut possessor de propria terra unam anforam vini per aripennem redderit.

But King Chilperic ordered new and heavy assessments to be made throughout his whole kingdom. For this cause many, leaving those cities or their own possessions, sought other kingdoms, deeming it better to peregrinate elsewhere than to be subject to such peril. For it had been decreed that a possessor should render from his own land one amphora of wine per arpent.

Sed et alii functionis infligebantur multi tam de reliquis terris quam de mancipiis; quod implere non poterat. Lemovicinus quoque populus, cum se cernerit tali fasci gravari, congregatus in Kalendas Martias Marcumque refrendarium, qui haec agere iussus fuerat, interficere voluit; et fecisset utique, nisi eum episcopus Ferreolus ab inminente discrimine liberasset. Areptis quoque libris discriptionum, incendio multitudo coniuncta cremavit.

But many others too were subjected to the imposition, both from the remaining lands and from the slaves; which could not be fulfilled. The Lemovician people also, when it saw itself weighed down by such a burden, gathered on the Kalends of March and wished to kill Mark the referendary, who had been ordered to do these things; and they would certainly have done it, if Bishop Ferreolus had not freed him from the impending peril. And having seized the books of the assessments, the crowd, united, burned them in a conflagration.

Unde multum molestus rex, dirigens de latere suo personas, inmensis damnis populum adflixit suppliciisque conteruit, morte multavit. Ferunt etiam, tunc abbatis atque presbiteros ad stipitis extensus diversis subiacuisse tormentis, calumniantibus regalibus missis, quod in siditione populi ad incendendus libros satellitis adfuissent, acerbiora quoque deinceps infligentes tributa.

Whence the king, greatly vexed, sending persons from his side, afflicted the people with immense losses, crushed them with tortures, and punished with death. They report also that then abbots and presbyters, stretched out to stakes, were subjected to diverse torments, the royal envoys calumniating that they had been present in the sedition of the people to set ablaze the books of the henchmen, and thereafter imposing more bitter tributes.

29. De vastatione Brittanorum.

29. On the devastation of the Britons.

Brittani quoque graviter regionem Redonicam vastaverunt incendio, praeda, captivitate. Qui usque Cornutium vicum debellando progressi sunt. Eunius vero episcopus de exilio reductus, Andecavo ad pascendum delegatur nec ad civitatem suam Veneticam redire permittitur.

The Britons also grievously devastated the Redonian region by fire, plunder, and captivity. They advanced, conquering in war, as far as the village Cornutium. But Bishop Eunius, brought back from exile, is delegated to shepherd at Andecavum, and he is not permitted to return to his own city of the Veneti.

Byppolenus vero dux contra Brittanus dirigitur et loca aliqua Brittaniae ferro incendioque obpraemit; quae res maiorem insaniam excitavit.

But Byppolenus the duke is directed against the Britons, and he oppresses certain places of Brittany by iron and by fire; which thing aroused greater insanity.

30. De imperio Tiberii.

30. On the reign of Tiberius.

Dum haec geruntur in Galliis, Iustinus, impleto imperii octavo decimo anno, amentiam quam incurrerat cum vita finivit. Quo sepulto, Tiberius caesar arripuit iam olim adgressum imperium. Sed cum eum secundum consuetudinem loci ad spectaculum circi prestularet populus processurum, parare ei cogitans pro parte Iustiniani insidias, qui tunc nepus Iustini habebatur, ille per loca sancta processit.

While these things were being done in Gaul, Justin, having completed the 18th year of his rule, ended the madness into which he had fallen along with his life. When he was buried, Tiberius Caesar seized the imperial power, which he had already long since undertaken to pursue. But when, according to the custom of the place, the people were awaiting him to come forth to the spectacle of the circus, thinking to prepare an ambush for him on behalf of the party of Justinian—who at that time was held to be Justin’s nephew—he proceeded through holy places.

Conpletaque oratione, vocatum ad se urbis papam, cum consolibus ac praefectis palatium est ingressus. Dehinc indutus purpora, diademate coronatus, throno imperiale inpositus, cum inmensis laudibus imperium confirmavit. Factionarii quoque operientes ad circum, cum cognovissent quae acta fuerant, pudore confusi, sine effectu regressi sunt, nihil homini, qui in Deo spem posuerat, adversare valentes.

And the oration having been completed, having called to himself the pope of the city, together with the consuls and prefects he entered the palace. Then, clad in purple, crowned with a diadem, set upon the imperial throne, he confirmed the imperium with immense praises. The factionaries also, waiting at the circus, when they had learned what had been done, confounded with shame, returned without effect, able to oppose nothing to the man who had placed his hope in God.

Transactis igitur paucis diebus, adveniens autem Iustinianus, pedibus se proicit imperatoris, quindecem ei centenaria auri deferens ob meritum gratiae. Quem ille secundum patientiae suae ritum collegens, in palatium iussit adsistere. Sophia vero augusta inmemor promissionis, quam quondam in Tiberium habuerat, insidias ei temptavit intendere.

Accordingly, after a few days had passed, Justinian arriving cast himself at the emperor’s feet, bringing him fifteen centenaria of gold in return for the favor. He, gathering him up according to the custom of his patience, ordered him to stand by in the palace. But Augusta Sophia, unmindful of the promise which once she had toward Tiberius, tried to lay plots against him.

Procedentem autem eum ad villam, ut iuxta ritum imperiale triginta diebus ad vindimiam iocundaretur, vocato clam Iustimniano, Sophia voluit eum erigere in imperio. Quod cumpertum, Tiberius cursu veloci ad Constantinopolitanam civitatem regreditur adpraehensamque augustam ab omnibus thesaurus spoliavit, solum ei victus cotidiani alimentum relinquens. Segregatos pueros eius ab ea, alios posuit de fidelibus suis, mandans prorsus, ut nullus de anterioribus ad eam haberet accessum.

But as he was proceeding to the villa, that, according to the imperial rite, he might make merry for thirty days at the vintage, Sophia, having secretly summoned Justinian, wished to raise him to the empire. When this was discovered, Tiberius, with swift course, returns to the Constantinopolitan city, and, having apprehended the Augusta, despoiled her of all the treasures, leaving to her only the nourishment of daily sustenance. Her boys having been separated from her, he set others from among his faithful men in their place, strictly ordering that none of the former attendants should have access to her.

Iustinianum vero obiurgatum tanto in posterum amore dilexit, ut filio eius filiam suam promitteret rursumque filio suo filiam suam expeteret; sed non est res sortita effectum. Exercitus eius Persas debellavit, victorque regressus, tantam mole praedae detulit, ut crederetur cupiditate humanae posse sufficire. Viginti elifanti capti ad imperatorem deducti sunt.

But Justinian, having been rebuked, he loved thereafter with so great an affection, that he would promise his own daughter to Justinian’s son, and in turn would seek Justinian’s daughter for his own son; but the matter did not attain its effect. His army vanquished the Persians, and, returning as victor, he brought such a mass of booty that it was believed it could suffice human cupidity. Twenty elephants, captured, were led to the emperor.

31. De insidiis Brittanorum.

31. On the ambushes of the Britons.

Brittani eo anno valde infesti circa urbem fuere Namneticam atque Redonicam. Qui inmensam auferentes praedam, agros pervadunt, vineas a fructibus vacuant et captivus adducunt. Ad quos cum Filex episcopus legationem misisset, emendare promittentes, nihil de promissis implire voluerunt.

That year the Britons were very hostile around the Namnetian and the Redonian city. Carrying off immense plunder, they overrun the fields, empty the vineyards of their fruits, and lead away captives. To them, when Bishop Felix had sent a legation, though they promised to amend, they were willing to fulfill nothing of what was promised.

32. De basilica sancti Dionisii iniuriata per mulierem.

32. On the basilica of Saint Dionysius injured by a woman.

Apud Parisius autem mulier quaedam ruit in crimine, adserentibus multis, quasi quod, relicto viro, cum alio misceretur. Igitur parentes illius accesserunt ad patrem, dicentes: 'Aut idoneam redde filiam tuam, aut certe moriatur, ne stuprum hoc generi nostro notam infligat'. 'Novi', inquit pater, 'ego filiam meam bene idoneam; nec est verum verbum hoc, quod mali homines proloquuntur. Tamen ne crimen consurgat ulterius, innocentem eam faciam sacramento'. Et illi: 'Si', inquiunt, 'est innoxia, super tumulum hoc beati Dionisi martyris sacramentis adfirma'. 'Faciam', inquit pater.

At Paris, however, a certain woman fell under a charge, many asserting, as if, that—her husband being left—she was mingling with another man. Therefore her kin approached her father, saying: 'Either render your daughter reputable, or surely let her die, lest this debauch inflict a mark upon our lineage.' 'I know,' said the father, 'my daughter to be well suitable; nor is this word true which evil men are uttering. Yet, lest the crime rise further, I will make her innocent by sacrament.' And they said: 'If she is guiltless, upon this tomb of the blessed martyr Dionysius, affirm it by sacraments.' 'I will do it,' said the father.

Tunc inito placito ad basilicam martyris sancti conveniunt; elevatisque pater manibus super altarium, iuravitque, filiam non esse culpabilem. E contrario vero periurasse eum, alii a parte viri pronuntiant. His ergo altercantibus, evaginatis gladiis in se invicem proruunt atque ante ipsum altarium se trucidantur.

Then, after a pact had been entered, they convene at the basilica of the holy martyr; and the father, with hands raised over the altar, swore that his daughter was not culpable. But, on the contrary, others from the husband’s side proclaim that he had perjured himself. Therefore, as they wrangled, with swords unsheathed they rush upon one another and, before the very altar, butcher each other.

Erant enim maiores natu et primi apud Chilpericum regem. Saucianturque multi gladiis, respergitur sancta humano cruore basilica, ostia iaculis fodiuntur et ensibus, atque usque ad ipsum sepulcrum tela iniqua desaeviunt. Quod dum vix mitigatur, locus officium perdidit, donec ista omnia ad regis notitiam pervenirent.

For they were elders and the foremost men with King Chilperic. And many are wounded by swords, and the holy basilica is spattered with human gore; the doors are pierced with javelins and with swords, and iniquitous missiles rage even up to the sepulcher itself. And while this is scarcely mitigated, the place lost its office, until all these things came to the king’s notice.

Hi vero properantes ad praesentiam principis, non recipiuntur in gratia; sed et ad episcopum loci illius remissi, iussum est, ut, si de hoc facinus culpabiles non inveniebantur, sociarentur communioni. Tunc ab episcopo Ragnimodo, qui Parisiacae ecclesiae praeerat, componentes quae male gesserant, in communione ecclesiastica sunt recepti. Mulier vero non post multis diebus, cum ad iudicium vocaretur, laqueo vitam finivit.

But these men, hastening to the presence of the prince, are not received into favor; rather, sent back to the bishop of that place, it was ordered that, if they were not found culpable of this crime, they should be associated to communion. Then by Bishop Ragnimodus, who presided over the Parisian church, making composition for the things they had ill done, they were received into ecclesiastical communion. The woman, however, not many days later, when she was being called to judgment, ended her life with a noose.

33. De prodigiis.

33. On prodigies.

Anno quinto Childeberthi regis Arvernorum regionem diluvia magna praessirunt, ita ut per dies 12 non cessaret a pluvia, tantaque inundatione Limane est infusum, ut multos, ne simentem iacerent, prohiberet. Flumina quoque Leger Flavarisque, quem Elacrem vocitant, vel reliqui torrentes decurrentes in eum ita intumuerunt, ut terminus, quos numquam excesserant, praeterirent. Quae grande de pecoribus excidium, de culturis detrimentum, de aedificiis fecere naufragium.

In the fifth year of King Childebert, the region of the Arverni was pressed by great deluges, so that for 12 days it did not cease from rain, and such an inundation was poured into the Limane that it prevented many from casting their sowing. The rivers also, the Leger and the Flavaris, which they call the Elacrus, as well as the remaining torrents running down into it, swelled so that they went beyond the boundaries which they had never exceeded. These things made a great destruction of flocks, a loss of cultivations, and wrought shipwreck upon buildings.

Pari modo Rhodanus cum Arare coniunctus, ripas excidens, grave damnum populis intulit, murus Lugdunensis civitatis aliqua ex parte subvertit. Quiescentibus vero pluviis, arbores denuo floruerunt; erat enim mensis Septembris. In Toronico vero eo anno mane, priusquam dies inlucescerit, fulgor per caelum cucurrisse visus est et ad orientis plagam caecidisse.

In a like manner the Rhodanus, joined with the Arar, cutting away the banks, brought grave damage upon the peoples, and it overthrew in part the wall of the Lugdunensian city. But with the rains becoming quiet, the trees blossomed anew; for it was the month of September. In Toronico indeed that year in the morning, before the day had grown light, a brilliance was seen to have run through the sky and to have fallen toward the region of the east.

Sed et sonitus tamquam diruentes arbores per totam terram illam auditus est; quod ideo non est de arbore aestimandum, quia in quinquaginta aut amplius milia est auditum. Ipso anno graviter urbis Burdegalensis a terrae motu concussa est, moeniaque civitatis in discrimine eversionis extetirunt; atque ita omnes populus metu mortis exterritus est, ut, si non fugiret, potaret se cum urbe dehiscere. Unde et multi ad civitatis alias transierunt.

But also a sound as if trees were being torn down was heard throughout that whole land; which therefore is not to be judged to have been from a tree, because it was heard at 50 or more miles. In that same year the city of Bordeaux was grievously shaken by an earthquake, and the city’s walls stood in peril of overthrow; and thus all the people were terror-struck with fear of death, so that, if they did not flee, they thought they would split open along with the city. Whence also many passed over to other cities.

Qui tremor ad vicinas civitatis porrectus est et usque Spaniam attigit, sed non tam valide. Tamen de Pirineis montibus inmense lapides sunt commoti, qui pecora hominisque prostraverunt. Nam et vicus Burdegalensis incendium divinitus ortum exussit, ita ut subito conpraehensi igni tam domus quam areae cum annonis incendio cremarentur, nullum paenitus incitamentum habens ignis alieni, forsitan iussione divina.

Which tremor was extended to the neighboring cities and reached even to Spain, but not so strongly. Nevertheless, from the Pyrenean mountains immense stones were set in motion, which prostrated herds and men. For a conflagration divinely arisen burned out a village of Bordeaux, such that, suddenly seized by the fire, both houses and threshing-floors with their food-supplies were consumed by the conflagration, having no incitement at all from any external fire, perhaps by divine command.

Nam et Aurilianensis civitas grave incendio conflagravit, in tantum ut ditioribus nihil paenitus remaneret; et si aliquis ab igne quicquam eripuit, ab insistentibus furibus est dereptum. Apud terminum Carnotenum verus de effracto pane sangues effluxit. Graviter tunc et Beturica civitas a grandine verberata est.

For even the Aurelianensian city was consumed by a severe conflagration, to such an extent that for the wealthier nothing at all remained; and if anyone snatched anything from the fire, it was torn away by persistent thieves. At the Carnotene boundary, true blood flowed from a broken bread. Then also the Biturican city was grievously beaten by hail.

34. De desenteriae morbo et filiis Chilperici mortuis.

34. On the disease of dysentery and the sons of Chilperic who died.

Sed haec prodigia gravissima lues est subsecuta. Nam et discordantibus reges et iterum bellum civile parantibus, desentericus morbus paene Gallias totas praeoccupavit. Erat enim his qui patiebantur valida cum vomitu febris renumque nimius dolor; caput grave vel cervix.

But these prodigies were followed by a most grievous pestilence. For while the kings were at odds and again preparing a civil war, a dysenteric disease almost overran all Gaul. For in those who suffered there was a strong fever with vomiting and an excessive pain of the kidneys; the head or the neck was heavy.

Ea vero quae ex ore proiciebantur colore croceo aut certe viridia erant. A multis autem adserebatur veninum occultum esse, - rusticiores vero coralis hoc pusulas nominabant - quod non est incredibile, quia missae in scapulis sive cruribus ventosae, procedentibus erumpentibusque visicis, decursa saniae, multi liberabantur. Sed et herbae, quae venenis medentur, potui sumptae, plerisque praesidia contulerunt.

Those things indeed which were cast out from the mouth were croceous in color, or at any rate greenish. By many, moreover, it was asserted that an occult venom was present, — the more rustic folk called these little pustules “corales” — which is not unbelievable, because, when ventoses (cupping-glasses) were applied on the shoulders or the legs, as the vesicles advanced and burst, and the sanies had drained off, many were freed. But also herbs which remedy venoms, when taken as a drink, afforded protections to many.

Et quidem primum haec infirmetas a mense Augusto initiata, parvulus aduliscentes arripuit lectoque subegit. Perdedemus dulcis et caros nobis infantulos, quos aut gremiis fovimus aut ulnis baiolavimus aut propria manu, ministratis cibis, ipsos studio sagatiore nutrivimus. Sed, abstersis lacrimis, cum beato Iob dicimus: Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; quomodo Domino placuit, ita factum est.

And indeed, at the first, this infirmity, initiated from the month of August, seized the little adolescents and subjugated them to the bed. We lost the sweet and dear to us little infants, whom we either cherished in our laps or bore in our arms, or with our own hand—once the foods had been ministered—we ourselves nourished with more eager zeal. But, tears wiped away, with blessed Job we say: The Lord gave, the Lord took away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done.

Sit nomen eius benedictum in saecula. Igitur in his diebus Chilpericus rex graviter egrotavit. Quo convaliscente, filius eius iunior, necdum aqua et Spiritu sancto renatus, aegrotare coepit.

May his name be blessed unto the ages. Therefore in these days King Chilperic fell gravely ill. As he was recovering, his younger son, not yet reborn by water and the Holy Spirit, began to fall sick.

Quem in extremis videntis, baptismo abluerunt. Quo parumper melius agente, frater eius senior nomen Chlodoberthus ab hoc morbo correpitur; ipsumque in discrimine mortis Fredegundis mater cernens, sero penetens, ait ad regem: 'Diu nos male agentes pietas divina sustentat; nam sepe nos febribus et aliis malis corripuit, et emendatio non successit. Ecce!

Seeing him at the point of death, they washed him with baptism. When he, for a little while, was doing better, his elder brother, by name Chlodoberthus, is seized by this disease; and Fredegund, the mother, seeing him himself in the crisis of death, late repenting, says to the king: 'For a long time, while we act badly, divine piety sustains us; for often we have been seized by fevers and other evils, and emendation has not succeeded. Behold!'

iam perdimus filios. Ecce! iam eos lacrimae pauperum, lamenta viduarum, suspiria orfanorum interimunt, nec spes remanet cui aliquid congregemus.

We have now lost our sons. Behold! now the tears of paupers, the laments of widows, the sighs of orphans are slaying them, nor does any hope remain for whom we might amass anything.

Thesaurizamus, nescientes, cui congregemus ea. Ecce thesauri remanent a possessore vacui, rapinis ac maledictionibus pleni! Numquid non exundabant prumptuaria vino? Numquid non horrea replebantur frumento?

We hoard up treasures, not knowing for whom we gather them. Behold! the treasures remain empty of a possessor, full of rapine and maledictions! Were not the store-rooms overflowing with wine? Were not the granaries filled with grain?

Numquid non erant thesauri referti auro, argento, lapidibus praeciosis, monilibus vel reliquis imperialibus ornamentis? Ecce quod pulchrius habebamus perdimus! Nunc, si placet, venite; incendamus omnes discriptionis iniquas, sufficiatque fisco nostro, quod sufficit patri regique Chlothario'. Haec effata regina, pugnis verberans pectus, iussit libros exhibere, qui de civitatibus suis per Marcum venerant, proiectosque in igne, iterum ad rege conversa: 'Quid tu', inquid, 'moraris?

Were the treasuries not crammed with gold, silver, precious stones, necklaces, and the remaining imperial ornaments? Lo, what fairer things we had, we are losing! Now, if it pleases, come; let us burn all the unjust assessments, and let there suffice for our fisc what suffices for the father and King Chlothar." Having said these things, the queen, beating her breast with her fists, ordered the books to be produced which had come from her cities through Marcus; and, once they had been cast into the fire, turning again to the king, she said: "Why do you delay?"

Fac quod vidis a me fieri, ut, etsi dulces natos perdimus, vel poenam perpetuam evadamus'. Tunc rex, conpunctus corde, tradedit omnes libros discriptionum igne; conflagratusque, misit qui futuras prohiberent discriptionis. Post haec infantulus iunior, dum nimio labore tabescit, extinguetur. Quem cum maximo merore deducentes a villa Brinnaco Parisius, ad basilicam sancti Dionisi sepelire mandaverunt.

'Do what you have seen me do, so that, even if we lose our sweet sons, we may at least escape perpetual punishment.' Then the king, compunct in heart, handed over all the books of the assessments to the fire; and, once they had been burned up, he sent people to prohibit future assessments. After this the younger little child, while he was wasting away from excessive suffering, died. Conveying him with the greatest sorrow from the villa Brinnaco to Paris, they ordered him to be buried at the basilica of Saint Dionysius.

Chlodoberthum vero conponentes in feretro, Sessionas ad basilicam sancti Medardi duxerunt, proicientesque eo ad sanctum sepulchrum, voverunt vota pro eo; sed media nocte anilus iam et tenuis spiritum exalavit. Quem in basilica sanctorum Crispini atque Crispiniani martirum sepelierunt. Magnus quoque hic planctus omni populo fuit; nam viri lugentes mulieresque lucubribus vestimentis induti, ut solet in coniugum exsequiis fieri, ita hoc funus sunt prosecuti.

But arranging Chlodobert on a bier, they led him to Soissons, to the basilica of Saint Medard; and casting him there at the holy sepulchre, they vowed vows for him; but at midnight, now gasping and with a slight breath, he breathed out his spirit. They buried him in the basilica of the holy martyrs Crispin and Crispinian. There was also great lamentation among all the people; for the men mourning and the women clothed in lugubrious garments, as is wont to be done in the obsequies of spouses, thus accompanied this funeral.

Multa postea Chilpericus rex eclesiis sive basilicis vel pauperibus est largitus.

Many things afterward King Chilperic bestowed upon churches or basilicas, and upon the poor.

35. De Austrigilde regina.

35. On Queen Austrigild.

His diebus Austrigildis Guntchramni principis regina ab hoc morbo consumpta est; sed priusquam nequam spiritum exalaret, cernens, quod evadere non posset, alta trahens suspiria, voluit leti sui habire participes, agens, ut in exsequiis eius aliorum funera plangerentur. Fertur enim Herodiano more regem petisse, dicens: 'Adhuc spes vivendi fuerat, si non inter iniquorum medicorum manus interissem; nam potionis ab illis acceptae mihi vi abstulerunt vitam et fecerunt me hanc lucem velociter perdere. Et ideo, ne inulta mors mea praetereat, quaeso et cum sacramenti interpositione coniuro, ut cum ab hac luce discessero, statim ipse gladio trucidentur; ut, sicut ego amplius vivere non queo, ita nec ille post meum obitum glorientur, sed sit unus dolus nostris pariter ac eorum amicis'. Haec effata, infilicem animam tradidit.

In these days Austrigildis, queen of Prince Guntchramn, was consumed by this sickness; but before she breathed out her wretched spirit, seeing that she could not escape, drawing deep sighs, she wished to have participants in her death, contriving that at her exequies the funerals of others should be lamented. For it is reported that, in Herodian fashion, she petitioned the king, saying: 'There would still have been hope of living, if I had not perished in the hands of unjust physicians; for by the force of a potion received from them they took my life away and made me lose this light swiftly. And therefore, lest my death pass unavenged, I beg and, with the interposition of an oath, I adjure, that when I shall have departed from this light, immediately they themselves be slaughtered by the sword; that, just as I can no longer live, so neither may they glory after my decease, but let there be one grief for our friends and for theirs alike.' Having uttered these things, she handed over her unhappy soul.

Rex vero, peracto ex more iusticio, oppressus iniquae coniugis iuramento, implevit praeceptum iniquitatis. Nam duos medicos, qui ei studium adhibuerant, gladio ferire praecepit; quod non sine peccato facto fuisse, multorum censit prudentia.

But the king, the iustitium completed according to custom, overborne by the oath of his iniquitous consort, fulfilled the precept of iniquity. For he ordered the two physicians, who had applied their care to her, to be struck with the sword; which, as the prudence of many judges, was not done without sin.

36. De Eraclio episcopo et Nanthino comite.

36. Concerning Bishop Heraclius and Count Nanthinus.

Hac itaque aegritudine et Nanthinus Equolisinensis comes exinanitus interiit. Sed quae contra sacerdotes vel ecclesias Dei egerit, altius repetenda sunt. Denique Maracharius, avunculus eius, diu in ipsa urbe usus est comitatum.

Thus, by this sickness, even Nanthinus, count of Equolisinum, emptied out, perished. But the things which he did against priests and the churches of God must be taken up from higher up. Finally, Maracharius, his maternal uncle, for a long time exercised the countship in that very city.

Quo officio completo, ecclesiae sociatur, clericusque factus, ordinatur episcopus. Qui multum vigilanter vel ecclesias vel ecclesiae domos et erigens et componens, septimo sacerdotii anno, iniecto ab inimicis in capite piscis veneno, simpliciter accipiens, crudeliter enecatur. Sed non diu multam eius mortem pertulit divina clementia; nam Frontonius, cuius consilio hoc scelus est perpetratum, adsumto confestim episcopatu, uno in eo degens anno, praecurrente iudicio Dei, interiit.

With this office completed, he is associated with the church, and having been made a cleric, he is ordained bishop. He, very vigilantly both erecting and setting in order both churches and the houses of the church, in the seventh year of his priesthood, with poison cast by enemies into the head of a fish, naively receiving it, is cruelly done to death. But divine clemency did not long endure his death unavenged; for Frontonius, by whose counsel this crime was perpetrated, having straightway assumed the episcopate, spending one year in it, with the judgment of God going before, perished.

Cuius post obitum Heraclius Burdigalensis presbiter, qui quondam legatus Childeberti senioris fuerat, episcopus ordinatur. Nanthinus vero ob requirendam avunculi sui mortem comitatum in ipsa urbe expetiit. Quo accepto, multas episcopo iniurias inrogavit.

After whose death Heraclius, a Bordeaux presbyter, who once had been a legate of Childebert the Elder, is ordained bishop. But Nanthinus, to exact requital for his uncle’s death, sought the countship in the very city. Having obtained it, he inflicted many injuries upon the bishop.

Aiebat enim: 'Homicidas illos, qui avunculum meum interfecerunt, tecum retines; sed et presbiteros huic noxae admixtos ad convivium recipes. Deinde inimicitia increscente, paulatim coepit villas ecclesiae, quas Maracharius testamento scripto reliquerat, violenter invadere, adserens, non debere ecclesiam eius facultatem adipisci, a cuius clericis testator fuerat interfectus. Post ista vero, iam aliquibus ex laicis interfectis, addidit, ut adpraehensum presbiterum alligaret ac contu perfoderet.

He kept saying, indeed: 'You keep with you those murderers who killed my uncle; and you even welcome to a banquet the presbyters implicated in this guilt. Then, as enmity increased, little by little he began violently to invade the church’s estates, which Maracharius had left by a written testament, asserting that the church ought not to acquire his estate, by whose clerics the testator had been slain. After these things, moreover, with some of the laity already killed, he added that the apprehended presbyter be bound and pierced through with a pike.'

Cui adhuc viventi, retortis post tergum manibus, adpenso ad stipitem, elicere quaerebat, si in hac causa fuisset admixtus. Sed cum ille negaret, profluente cruore de vulnere, reddidit spiritum. Qua de causa commotus episcopus, iussit, eum ab ecclesiae foribus prohiberi.

From him, still living, with his hands twisted behind his back, suspended to a stake, he sought to elicit whether he had been admixed in this case. But when he denied it, with blood flowing from the wound, he gave up the ghost. For which cause, the bishop, moved, ordered that he be prohibited from the doors of the church.

Convenientibus autem apud civitatem Sanctonas sacerdotibus, deprecabatur Nanthinus, ut pacem episcopi mereretur, promittens se omnes ecclesiae res, quas sine ratione abstulerat, redditurum atque humilem exhibere se sacerdoti. At ille fratrum iussionibus obaudire procurans, cuncta quae petebantur indulsit; causam tamen presbiteri omnipotenti Deo commendans, comitem in caritate recepit. Qui post ista regressus urbem, domos illas quas male pervaserat spoliat, elidit ac dissicit, dicens: 'Etsi hoc ab ecclesia recipitur, vel desertum inveniatur'. Qua de causa iterum motus episcopus, eum a communione suspendit.

But when the priests had come together at the city of the Santones, Nanthinus was beseeching that he might merit the peace of the bishop, promising that he would restore all the church’s goods which he had taken without reason, and that he would show himself humble to the priest. But he, striving to obey the commands of the brethren, granted all that was being sought; nevertheless commending the cause of the presbyter to almighty God, he received the count in charity. Who, after these things, having returned to the city, plunders, dashes down, and demolishes those houses which he had wrongfully seized, saying: ‘Even if this be received back by the church, or be found deserted’. For which cause the bishop, moved again, suspended him from communion.

Quae dum aguntur, impletum beatus pontifex vitae cursum migravit ad Dominum. Nanthinus quoque ab aliquibus episcopis, intercedentibus praemiis atque adolationibus, communicatur. Post paucos vero menses a supradicto morbo corripitur; qui nimia exustus febre, clamabat, dicens: 'Heu, heu!

While these things are being transacted, the blessed pontiff, the course of life fulfilled, migrated to the Lord. Nanthinus also, by some bishops, with rewards and adulations interceding, was admitted to communion. But after a few months he was seized by the aforesaid disease; and, scorched by an excessive fever, he kept crying out, saying: ‘Alas, alas!’

Ab Eraclio antistiti exuror, ab illo crucior, ab illo ad iudicium vocor. Cognosco facinus; reminiscor, me iniuste iniurias intulisse pontifici; mortem deprecor, ne diutius crucier hoc tormento'. Haec cum maxima in febre clamaret, deficiente robore corporis, infelicem animam fudit, indubia relinquens vestigia, hoc ei ad ultionem beati antistitis evenisse. Nam exanime corpus ita nigredinem duxit, ut putares eum prunis superpositum fuisse combustum.

'By Eraclius the prelate I am burned up, by him I am tormented, by him I am called to judgment. I acknowledge the crime; I recall that I unjustly inflicted injuries upon the pontiff; I beseech death, lest I be tortured longer by this torment'. As he was shouting these things in the greatest fever, with the strength of his body failing, he poured out his unhappy soul, leaving indubitable traces that this befell him for the vengeance of the blessed prelate. For his exanimate body took on such blackness that you would have thought him burned, as if laid upon live embers.

Ergo omnes haec obstupescant, admirentur et metuant, ne inferant iniurias sacerdotibus! quia ultor est Dominus servorum suorum sperantibus in se.

Therefore let all be astounded at these things, admire, and fear, lest they inflict injuries upon the priests! for the Lord is the Avenger of His servants, of those who hope in Him.

37. De Martino Calliciense episcopo.

37. On Martin, the Callaecian bishop.

Hoc tempore et beatus Martinus Galliciensis episcopus obiit, magnum populo illi faciens planctum. Nam hic Pannoniae ortus fuit, et exinde ad visitanda loca sancta in Oriente properans, in tantum se litteris inbuit, ut nulli secundus suis temporibus haberetur. Exinde Gallitiam venit, ubi, cum beati Martini reliquiae portarentur, episcopus ordinatur.

At this time also the blessed Martin, the Galician bishop, died, causing a great lamentation for that people. For he was sprung from Pannonia, and thence, hastening to visit the holy places in the Orient, he so imbued himself with letters that he was held second to none in his times. Thence he came to Galicia, where, when the relics of the blessed Martin were being carried, he was ordained bishop.

In quo sacerdotio impletis plus minus triginta annis, plenus virtutibus migravit ad Dominum. Versiculos, qui super ostium sunt a parte meridiana in basilica sancti Martini, ipse composuit.

In which priesthood, with more or less thirty years completed, full of virtues he migrated to the Lord. The little verses, which are above the doorway on the meridional (southern) side in the basilica of Saint Martin, he himself composed.

38. De persecutione christianorum in Spaniis.

38. On the persecution of the Christians in the Spains.

Magna eo anno in Hispaniis christianis persecutio fuit, multique exiliis dati, facultatibus privati, fame decocti, carcere mancipati, verberibus adfecti ac diversis suppliciis trucidati sunt. Caput quoque huius sceleris Goisuintha fuit, quam post Athanachilde regis conubium rex Leuvichildus acceperat; sed quae Dei servis notam humilitatis inflixerat, prosequente ultione divina, ipsa quoque est omnibus populis facta notabilis. Nam unum oculum nubs alba contegens, lumen, quod mens non habebat, pepulit a palphebris.

That year in Spain there was a great persecution against the Christians, and many were given over to exiles, deprived of their means, reduced by famine, consigned to prison, afflicted with beatings, and slaughtered by diverse punishments. The head also of this wickedness was Goisuintha, whom King Leovigild had taken in marriage after King Athanagild; but she who had inflicted upon the servants of God the mark of humiliation, with divine vengeance pursuing, was herself likewise made notable among all peoples. For a white cloud, covering one eye, drove from her eyelids the light which her mind did not have.

Erant autem Leuvichildo regi ex alia uxore duo filii, quorum senior Sigyberthi, iunior Chilperici regis filiam disponsaverat. Sed Ingundis, Sigyberthi regis filiam, cum magno apparato in Hispaniis directa, ab avia Goisuintha cum gaudio magno suscepitur. Quam nec passa est in relegione catholica diu commorare; sed ut rebaptizaretur in Arriana herese, blandis coepit sermonibus inlecere.

Now, King Leuvichild had by another wife two sons, of whom the elder had betrothed the daughter of King Sigyberth, the younger the daughter of King Chilperic. But Ingundis, the daughter of King Sigyberth, sent into Spain with great apparatus, was received by her grandmother Goisuintha with great joy. Her she did not allow to remain long in the catholic religion; but began to entice her, with blandishing speeches, to be rebaptized into the Arian heresy.

Sed illa viriliter reluctans, coepit dicere: 'Sufficit satis me ab originale peccato baptismo salutare semel abluta fuisse et sanctam Trinitatem in una aequalitate esse confessam. Haec me credere ex corde toto confiteor nec umquam ab hac fide ibo retrorsum'. Haec illa audiens, iracundiae furore succensa, adpraehensam per comam capitis puellam in terram conlidit, et diu calcibus verberatam ac sanguine cruentatam iussit spoliari et piscinae inmergi; sed, ut adserunt multi, numquam animum suum a fide nostra reflexit. Leuvichildus autem dedit eis unam de civitatibus, in qua resedentes regnarent.

But she, manfully resisting, began to say: 'It is sufficient that I have once been washed from original sin by the saving baptism and have confessed the Holy Trinity to be in one equality. These things I confess that I believe from my whole heart, nor will I ever go backward from this faith'. Hearing these things, she, inflamed with the fury of irascibility, dashed the girl, seized by the hair of her head, to the ground, and, after she had been long beaten with kicks and stained with blood, ordered her to be stripped and plunged into the pool; but, as many assert, she never turned her mind from our faith. Leuvichildus moreover gave them one of the cities, in which, residing, they might reign.

Ad quam cum abissent, coepit Ingundis praedicare viro suo, ut, relicta heresis fallacia, catholicae legis veritatem agnuscerit. Quod ille diu refutans, tandem commotus ad eius praedicationem, conversus est ad legem catholicam ac, dum crismaretur, Iohannis est vocitatus. Quod cum Leuvichildus audisset, coepit causas querere, qualiter eum perderet.

When they had gone to that place, Ingundis began to preach to her husband that, the deceit of the heresy being left behind, he should recognize the truth of the Catholic law. He, long refuting it, was at length moved by her preaching and was converted to the Catholic law, and, while he was being chrismated, he was called John. When Leuvichild heard this, he began to seek pretexts by which he might destroy him.

Ille vero haec intellegens, ad partem se imperatoris iungit, legans cum praefectum eius amicitias, qui tunc Hispaniam inpugnabat. Leuvichildus autem dirixit ad eum nuntius, dicens: 'Veni ad me, quia extant causae, quas conferamus simul'. Et ille: 'Non ibo, quia infensus es mihi, pro eo quod sim catholicus'. At ille, datis praefecto imperatoris triginta milibus solidorum, ut se ab eius solacio revocaret, commotu exercitu, contra eum venit. Herminigildus vero, vocatis Grecis, contra patrem egreditur, relicta in urbe coniuge sua.

But he, truly understanding these things, joins himself to the emperor’s side, dispatching to his prefect legations of amity, he who was then assaulting Hispania. Leuvichildus, however, directed messengers to him, saying: ‘Come to me, because there are causes that we should confer upon together.’ And he: ‘I will not go, because you are hostile to me for the fact that I am Catholic.’ But he, having given to the emperor’s prefect thirty thousand solidi, so that he might recall him from his support, with the army set in motion, came against him. Hermenigild, for his part, having summoned the Greeks, goes out against his father, leaving his wife in the city.

Cumque Leuvichildus ex adverso veniret, relictus a solacio, cum viderit nihil se praevalere posse, eclesiam, qui erat propinquam, expetiit, dicens: 'Non veniat super me pater meus; nefas est enim, aut patrem a filio aut filium a patre interfici'. Haec audiens Leuvichildus, misit ad eum fratrem eius; qui, data sacramenta ne humiliaretur, ait: 'Tu ipse accede et prosternere pedibus patris nostri, et omnia indulget tibi'. At ille poposcit vocare patrem suum; quo ingrediente, prostravit se ad pedes illius. Ille vero adpraehensum osculavit eum et blandis sermonibus delinitum duxit ad castra, oblitusque sacramenti, innuit suis et adpraehensum spoliavit eum ab indumentis suis induitque illum veste vile; regressusque ad urbem Tolidum, ab latispueris eius, misit eum in exilio cum uno tantum puerolo.

And when Leuvichildus came from the opposite side, left without support, when he saw that he could prevail nothing, he sought out a church that was near, saying: 'Let not my father come upon me; for it is impious that either a father by a son or a son by a father be slain'. Hearing this, Leuvichildus sent to him his brother, who, oaths having been given that he would not be humiliated, said: 'Do you yourself come near and prostrate yourself at the feet of our father, and he will pardon everything to you'. But he asked to call his father; and when he entered, he prostrated himself at his feet. He, indeed, having laid hold of him, kissed him and, soothed with bland words, led him to the camp, and, forgetful of the oath, he signaled to his men and, having seized him, stripped him of his garments and clothed him with a vile garment; and, having returned to the city Toledo, with his boys taken away, he sent him into exile with only one very little boy.

39. De interitu Chlodovechi.

39. On the death of Chlodovech.

Igitur post mortem filiorum Chilpericus rex mense Octobrio in Cothiam silvam plenus luctu cum coniuge resedebat. Tunc Chlodovechum, filium suum, Brinnacum, faciente regina, transmisit, ut scilicet et ipse ab hoc interitu deperiret. Graviter ibi his diebus morbus ille, qui fratres interficerat, seviebat; sed nihil ibidem incommodi pertulit.

Therefore after the death of his sons King Chilperic in the month of October was sitting, full of grief, with his spouse, in the Cothian forest. Then, at the queen’s doing, he sent Chlodovech, his son, to Brinnacum, namely so that he too might perish from this same demise. In those days that malady which had slain the brothers was raging there grievously; but he suffered no inconvenience there.

Ipsi enim rex Calam Parisiacae civitatis villam advenit. Post paucus vero dies Chlodovechum ad se venire praecepit; cui qualis interitus fuerit, dicere non pigebit. Igitur cum in supradicta villam apud patrem habitaret, coepit inmaturae iactare vel dicere: 'Ecce, mortuos fratres meus, ad me restitit omne regnum; mihi universae Galliae subicientur, imperiumque universum mihi fata largita sunt!

For the king himself came to the villa Calam of the city of Paris. After a few days, indeed, he ordered Chlodovechus to come to him; and I shall not be loath to tell what sort of end he had. Therefore, while he was dwelling in the aforesaid villa with his father, he began immaturely to boast and to say: 'Behold, my brothers are dead; the whole kingdom has reverted to me; all Gaul will be subjected to me, and the Fates have bestowed the whole empire upon me!'

Ecce inimicis in manu positis inferam quaecumque placuerit!' Sed et de noverca sua Fredegunde regina non condecibilia detractabat. Quae illa audiens, pavore nimio terrebatur. Post dies vero aliquot adveniens quidam ait reginae: 'Ut urbata de filiis sedeas, dolum id Chlodovechi est operatum.

Behold, with the enemies put into my hand, I will bring upon them whatever shall have pleased!' But he also was speaking, by way of detraction, things not decorous about his stepmother, Queen Fredegund. She, hearing those things, was terrified with excessive fear. After a few days, however, a certain man arriving said to the queen: 'So that you may sit bereft of your sons, that stratagem of Chlodovech has been wrought.

Nam ipsi concupiscens unius ancillarum tuarum filia, maleficiis tuos per matrem eius filios interficit, ideoque moneo, ne speres de te melius, cum tibi spes per quam regnare debueras sit ablata' . Tunc regina timore perterrita, furore succensa, nova orbitate conpuncta, adpraehensam puellam, in qua oculus iniecerat Chlodovechus, graviter verberatam, incidi comam capitis eius iussit ac scisso sode inpositam defigi ante metatum praecipit Chlodovechi. Matrem quoque puellae relegatam et turmentis diu cruciatam, elicuit ab ea professione, quae hos sermones veros esse firmaret. Regi exim haec et alia huiuscemodi insinuans, vindictam de Chlodovechum poposcit.

For the daughter of one of your handmaids, desiring him, by malefices is killing your sons through her mother, and therefore I warn, do not hope better for yourself, since the hope by which you ought to have reigned has been taken from you' . Then the queen, terrified with fear, enflamed with fury, smitten by new bereavement, having seized the girl upon whom Chlodovechus had cast an eye, after she had been severely beaten, ordered the hair of her head to be cut, and, placed upon a split stake, bade it be fixed before the encampment of Chlodovechus. The girl’s mother also, relegated and long tortured with torments, she elicited from her a profession which would confirm that these words were true. Then insinuating these and other things of this sort to the king, she demanded vengeance against Chlodovechus.

Tunc rex in venatione directus, eum praecepit arcessire secretius. Quo adveniente, ex iussu regis adpraehensus in manicis a Desiderio atque Bobone ducibus, nudatur armis et vestibus, ac vili indumento contectus, reginae vinctus adducitur. Ad illa in custodia eum retinere praecepit, elecere ab eo cupiens, si haec ita ut audierat se haberent, vel cuius consilium usus fuerit, aut cuius haec instinctu fecisset, vel cum quibus maximae amicitias conlegasset.

Then the king, set out to the hunt, ordered that he be summoned more secretly. When he arrived, by order of the king he was apprehended in manacles by the dukes Desiderius and Bobbo, stripped of arms and garments, and, covered with a cheap raiment, was led bound to the queen. Thereupon she ordered him to be kept in custody, desiring to elicit from him whether these things were so as she had heard, or whose counsel he had employed, or at whose instigation he had done these things, or with whom he had contracted the greatest amities.

At ille reliqua denegans, amicitias multorum detexit. Denique post triduum regina vinctum iussit eum transire Matronam fluvium et in villa cui Nocito nomen est custodire. In qua custodia cultro percussus interiit ipsoque in loco sepultus est.

But he, denying the rest, disclosed the friendships of many. Finally, after three days, the queen ordered the bound man to cross the river Matrona and to be kept in a villa whose name is Nocito. In that custody, struck with a knife, he perished, and in that very place he was buried.

Interea advenerunt nuntii ad regem, qui dicerent, quod ipse se ictu proprio perfodisset, et adhuc ipsum cultrum, de quo se perculit, in loco stare vulneris adfirmabant. Quibus verbis rex Chilpericus inlusus, nec flevit, quem ipse, ut ita dicam, morte tradiderat instigante regina. Servientes quoque illius per diversa dispersi sunt.

Meanwhile messengers arrived to the king, who said that he had pierced himself with his own blow, and they affirmed that the very knife with which he had struck himself was still standing in the place of the wound. At these words King Chilperic, deluded, did not weep for him whom he himself, so to speak, had handed over to death at the instigation of the queen. His servants too were scattered in various directions.

Mater autem eius crudele morte negata; soror ipsius in monasterio delusa a pueris reginae transmittitur, in quo nunc, veste mutata, consistit; opesque eorum omnes reginae dilatae sunt. Mulier, quae super Chlodovechum locuta fuerat, diiudicatur incendio concremare. Quae cum duceretur, reclamare coepit misera, se mendacia protulisse; sed nihil proficientibus verbis, legatam ad stipitem, vivens exuritur flammis.

But his mother was spared a cruel death; his sister, deceived by the queen’s pages, is transferred into a monastery, in which now, with her garment changed, she resides; and all their wealth was transferred to the queen. The woman who had spoken concerning Chlodovechus is adjudged to be consumed by fire. And when she was being led, the wretch began to cry out in protest that she had put forth lies; but as her words profited nothing, bound to a stake, she is burned alive by the flames.

Thesaurarius Chlodovechi a Chuppani stabuli comite de Biturigo retractus, vinctus reginae transmissus est, diversis cruciatibus exponendus; sed eum regina et a suppliciis et a vinculis iussit absolvi liberumque, nobis obtenentibus [ad regi], abire permisit.

The treasurer of Chlodovechus, dragged back from Biturigo by Chuppanus, constable (comes stabuli), was sent bound to the queen, to be exposed to various torments; but the queen ordered him to be absolved both from punishments and from bonds, and, we prevailing [to the king], allowed him to depart free.

40. De Elafio et Eunio episcopis.

40. On Elafius and Eunius, bishops.

Post haec Elafius Catalaunensis episcopus propter causas Brunichildis reginae in Hispaniis in legatione directus, correptus a febre nimia, spiritum exalavit, et exinde delatus mortuus, ad civitatem suam sepultus est. Eonius quoque episcopus, quem ligatum Brittanorum supra meminimus, ad civitatem suam regredi non permissus, ut Andecavus pasceretur de publico, a rege praeceptum est. Qui Parisius adveniens, dum die dominica sacrosancta sollemnia celebraret, emissa cum hinnitu vocem, terrae conruit.

After these things, Elafius, bishop of the Catalauni, on account of the causes of Queen Brunichild, sent on an embassy into the Spains, seized by excessive fever, breathed out his spirit; and thence, carried dead, he was buried in his city. Eonius also, the bishop, whom we have mentioned above as bound by the Britons (Bretons), not permitted to return to his city, it was ordered by the king that the Andecavian be fed at the public expense. He, arriving at Paris, while on the Lord’s Day he was celebrating the most holy solemnities, having emitted a voice with a whinny, collapsed to the earth.

Erumpente vero ab ore eius et naribus sanguinem, inter manus deportatus est, sed convaluit. Nimio enim vino deditus erat et plerumque ita deformiter inebriabatur, ut gressum facere non valeret.

But with blood erupting from his mouth and nostrils, he was borne off in their hands, but he convalesced. For he was given over to excessive wine, and for the most part was so disgracefully inebriated that he was not able to make a step.

41. De legatis Calliciensibus ac prodigiis.

41. On the Callician legates and prodigies.

Mirus rex Galliciensis legatos ad Guntchramnum regem dirixit. Cumque per Pectavum terminum praeterirent, quod tunc Chilpericus rex tenebat, nuntiata sunt ei. At ille sub custodia sibi eos exhibere praecepit et Parisius custodire. Eo tempore apud Pectavensem civitatem lopus ex silvis veniens, per portam ingressus est; clausisque portis, infra murus ipsius urbis obpressus, occisus est.

Mirus, king of the Gallaecians, directed legates to King Guntram. And when they were passing through the Pictavian border, which King Chilperic then held, it was reported to him. But he ordered that they be presented to him under guard and kept at Paris. At that time, near the Pictavian city, a wolf coming out of the woods entered through the gate; and when the gates were closed, pressed down within the walls of the city itself, he was slain.

Adserebant enim quidam et caelum ardentem se vidisse. Leger fluvius maior ab anno superiore fuit, postquam ei Cares torrens adiunxit. Ventus auster nimium violente cucurrit, ita ut silvas prosterneret, domus erueret, saepes efferret ipsosque hominis ad internitionem usque volutaret.

For certain men asserted that they had even seen the sky burning. The Loire river was greater than in the preceding year, after the torrent Cares had joined it. The south wind ran with excessive violence, such that it laid low forests, tore up houses, carried off hedges, and even rolled men themselves to the very point of extermination.

Erat enim spatium eius in latitudine quasi iugera septem, longitudo autem non potuit aestimare. Nam et galli plauso cantu in initio noctis saepe dederunt. Luna cumtenebricata est, et comitis stilla apparuit.

For its expanse in breadth was about seven iugera, but the length he could not estimate. For even the cocks, with a clapping chant, often gave their song at the beginning of the night. The moon was darkened, and a comet’s star appeared.

Gravis autem lues in populo subsecuta est. Legati autem Sueborum post annum demissi, ad propria redierunt.

A grievous plague followed among the people. But the legates of the Suebi, dismissed after a year, returned to their own homes.

42. De Maurilione Cadurcorum episcopo.

42. On Maurilion, bishop of the Cadurci (Cahors).

Maurilio Cadurcensis urbis episcopus graviter aegrotabat ab humore podagrico; sed super hos dolores, quos ipse humor commovit, magnos sibi cruciatus addebat; nam saepe candentem ferrum tibiis ac pedibus defigebat, quo facilius cruciatum sibi amplius adderit. Sed cum episcopatum eius multi expeterent, ipse Ursicinum, qui quondam referendarius Ultrogotho reginae fuerat, elegit; quem, dum adhuc viveret, benedici deprecans, migravit a saeculo. Fuit autem valde elemosinarius, in scripturis ecclesiasticis valde instructus, ita ut seriem diversarum generationum, quae in libris Veteris Testamenti describitur, quod a multis difficile retinetur, hic plerumque memoriter recensiret.

Maurilius, bishop of the city of Cahors, was gravely sick from a podagric humor; but beyond those pains which the humor itself stirred up, he added great torments to himself; for he would often drive red-hot iron into his shins and feet, in order the more easily to add further torment to himself. And when many were seeking his bishopric, he himself chose Ursicinus, who had once been referendary to Queen Ultrogotha; and, beseeching that he be blessed while he was still living, he departed from the world. He was, moreover, very eleemosynary, very well-instructed in ecclesiastical scriptures, so that the series of the various generations which is described in the books of the Old Testament—something hard for many to retain—he for the most part would recount by heart.

Fuit etiam et in iudiciis iustus ac defendens pauperes ecclesiae suae de manu malorum iudicum iuxta illud Iob: Conservavi egenum de manu potentis, et inopi, cui non erat adiutor, auxiliatus sum. Os viduae benedixit me, cum essem oculus caecorum, pes clodorum et invalidorum pater.

He was also just in judgments and defended the poor of his church from the hand of evil judges, according to that of Job: “I preserved the needy from the hand of the potent, and I aided the poor man to whom there was no helper. The mouth of the widow blessed me, when I was the eye of the blind, the foot of the lame, and the father of invalids.”

43. De altercatione cum heretico.

43. On the altercation with a heretic.

Leuvichildus vero rex Agilanem legatum ad Chilpericum mittit, virum nulli ingenii aut dispositiones ratione conperitum, sed tantum voluntatem in catholica lege perversum. Quem cum via Toronus detulisset, lacessire nos de fide et inpugnare eclesiastica dogmata coepit. 'Iniqua', inquid, 'fuit antiquorum episcoporum lata sententia, quae aequalem adseruit Filium Patri; vel qualiter', inquid, 'poterit esse Patri aequalis in potestate, qui ait: Pater maior me est?

King Leuvichildus, indeed, sends Agilanus as legate to Chilperic, a man skilled in no talent or rational disposition, but only with a will perverted in the catholic law. When the road had brought him to Tours, he began to challenge us concerning the faith and to impugn ecclesiastical dogmata. 'Unjust', he said, 'was the sentence delivered by the bishops of old, which asserted the Son equal to the Father; or how', he said, 'will he be able to be equal to the Father in power, who says: The Father is greater than I?

Non est ergo aequum, ut ei similis estimetur, cui se minorem dicit, cui tristitia mortis ingemit, cui postremo moriens spiritum, quasi nulla praeditus potestate, commendat. Unde patet, eum et aetate et potestate paterna minorem'. Ad haec ego interrogo, si crederit, Iesum Christum filium Dei esse, si eundemque esse Dei sapientiam, si lumen, si veritatem, si vitam, si iustitiam fateretur. Qui ait: 'Credo, haec omnia esse filium Dei'. Et ego: 'Dic ergo mihi, quando Pater sine sapientia, quando sine lumine, quando sine vita, quando sine veritatem, quando sine iustitia fuerit.

'It is therefore not equitable that he be estimated similar to him, to whom he says he is lesser, to whom he groans with the sadness of death, to whom at last, as he is dying, he commends his spirit, as if endowed with no power. Whence it is evident that he is lesser both in age and in paternal power.' To these things I ask whether he believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whether he would confess that the same is the Wisdom of God, the Light, the Truth, the Life, the Justice. He said: 'I believe that the Son of God is all these things.' And I: 'Tell me, then, when was the Father without wisdom, when without light, when without life, when without truth, when without justice?'

Sicut enim Pater sine istis esse non potuit, ita et sine Filio esse non potuit. Quae maximae ad dominice nominis mistirium coaptantur. Sed nec Pater esset utique, si filium non haberet.

For just as the Father could not be without these, so neither could he be without the Son. These are most especially adapted to the mystery of the Lord’s name. But neither would he indeed be Father, if he did not have a son.

Quod autem eum dixisse ais: Pater maior me est, scias, eum hoc ex adsumptae carnis humilitate dixisse, ut cognuscas, non potestate, sed humilitate fuisse redemptum. Nam tu qui dicis: Pater maior me est, oportit te meminere, quod alibi ait: Ego et Pater unum sumus. Nam et mortis timor et commendatio spiritus ad infirmitatem corporis est referenda, ut, sicut verus Deus, ita et verus homo credatur'. Et ille: 'Cuius quis implet voluntatem, eius et iunior est; semper filius minor est patri, quia ille facit voluntatem patris, nec pater illius voluntatem facere non probatur'. Ad haec ego: 'Intellegi, quia Pater in Filio et Filius in Patre in una semper Deitate subsistit.

But as to that which you say he said: ‘The Father is greater than I,’ know that he said this out of the humility of the assumed flesh, so that you may know that it was by humility, not by power, that redemption was effected. For you who say: ‘The Father is greater than I,’ it behooves you to remember that elsewhere he says: ‘I and the Father are one.’ For both the fear of death and the commendation of the spirit are to be referred to the infirmity of the body, so that, just as he is true God, so too he may be believed true man’. And he: ‘Whose will a man fulfills, of him he is also the junior; always the son is lesser than the father, because he does the will of the father, nor is the father proved not to do his will’. To this I: ‘It is understood that the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father subsists always in one Deity.

Nam ut cognuscas, Patrem Fili facere voluntatem, si in te fides euangelica manet, audi, quid ipse Iesus deus noster, cum ad resuscitandum venit Lazarum, ait: Pater, gratias ago tibi, quoniam audisti me. Et ego sciebam, quia semper me audis; sed propter turbam, qui circumstat, dixi, ut credant, quia tu me misisti. Sed et cum ad passionem venit, ait: Pater, clarifica me claritatem quam habui apud temet ipsum, priusquam mundus fierit. Cui Pater de caelo respondit: Et clarificavi et iterum clarificabo.

For so that you may know that the Father does the will of the Son, if the evangelical faith remains in you, listen to what Jesus himself, our God, said when he came to resuscitate Lazarus: Father, I give thanks to you, because you have heard me. And I knew that you always hear me; but on account of the crowd that stands around, I said it, that they may believe that you sent me. But also when he came to the passion, he said: Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with your very self before the world was made. To this the Father from heaven replied: I have glorified, and I will glorify again.

Aequalis est ergo Filius in Deitati, non minor; sed neque aliquid minus habens. Nam si Deum confiteris, necesse est, integrum fatiares et nihil egentem; si verum integrum esse negas, Deum esse non credis'. Et ille: 'Ex adsumptum hominem coepit Dei filius vocitari; nam erat quando non erat'. Et ego: 'Audi David dicentem ex persona Patris: Ex utero ante lucifero genui te. Et Iohannis euangelista ait: In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc ergo Verbum caro factum est et habitabit in nobis, per quem facta sunt omnia.

Therefore the Son is equal in Deity, not lesser; nor having anything less. For if you confess him to be God, it is necessary that you confess him entire and needing nothing; but if you deny him to be truly entire, you do not believe him to be God.' And he: 'From the assumed man the Son of God began to be called; for there was when he was not.' And I: 'Hear David speaking in the person of the Father: From the womb, before the Morning Star, I have begotten you. And the Evangelist John says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This Word, therefore, was made flesh and will dwell in us, through whom all things were made.

Nam vos caecati veneno persuasionis, nihil dignum de Deo sentitis'. Et ille: 'Numquid et Spiritum sanctum Deum dicitis aut aequalem Patri Filioque decernitis?' Cui ego: 'Una in tribus est voluntas, potestas, operatio; unus Deus in trinitate et trinus in unitate. Tres personae, sed unum regnum, una maiestas, una potentia omnipotentiaque' . Et ille: 'Spiritum sanctum, quem aequalem Patri profertis ac Filio, utrisque minor accipitur, quia et a Filio promissus et a Patre legitur missus. Nemo enim promittit, nisi quod suae dominationis subsistit, et nemo mittit nisi inferiorem sibi, sicut ipse ait in euangelio: Nisi ego abiero, Paraclitus ille non veniet; si autem abiero, mittam illum ad vos'. Ad haec ego respondi: 'Bene Filius ante passionem ait, quia, nisi ille ad Patrem victor remeaverit ac proprio sanguine redempto mundo dignum Deo ex homine praeparet habitaculum, non potest Spiritus sanctus, idem Deus, in pectore fanatico et originalis criminis labi infectum discendere.

For you, blinded by the venom of persuasion, think nothing worthy about God'. And he: 'Do you also call the Holy Spirit God, or do you decree him equal to the Father and the Son?' To whom I: 'One will, power, operation in the three; one God in the Trinity and threefold in unity. Three persons, but one kingdom, one majesty, one potency and omnipotence' . And he: 'The Holy Spirit, whom you put forth as equal to the Father and the Son, is received as lesser than both, because he was both promised by the Son and is read as sent by the Father. For no one promises except what subsists under his own dominion, and no one sends except one inferior to himself, just as he himself says in the Gospel: Unless I shall have gone away, that Paraclete will not come; but if I shall have gone away, I will send him to you'. To these things I replied: 'Well did the Son, before the Passion, say that, because unless he should return to the Father as victor and, the world redeemed by his own blood, prepare out of man a dwelling worthy of God, the Holy Spirit, the same God, cannot descend into a fanatical breast and one stained with the taint of original crime.

Spiritus enim sanctus, ait Salomon, fugiet fictum. Tu autem, si spem aliquam resurrectionis habis, noli loqui adversus Spiritum sanctum, quia iuxta sententia Domini: In Spiritu sancto blasphemante non remittitur neque in hoc saeculo neque in futuro'. Et ille: 'Deus est qui mittit, non est Deus qui mittitur'. Ad haec ego interrogo, si crediderit doctrinam Petri Paulique apostolorum. Respondentem autem eo: 'Credo', adiaci: 'Cum arguerit Petrus apostolus Annaniam pro fraude fundi, vide, quid dicat: Quid tibi visum est mentire Spiritui sancto?

For the Holy Spirit, says Solomon, will flee what is feigned. But you, if you have any hope of resurrection, do not speak against the Holy Spirit, because, according to the sentence of the Lord: ‘Blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is not remitted, neither in this age nor in the future’. And he: ‘It is God who sends; he is not God who is sent’. To this I ask whether he believes the doctrine of the apostles Peter and Paul. And when he responded: ‘I believe’, I added: ‘When the apostle Peter arraigned Ananias for the fraud of the estate, see what he says: Why has it seemed good to you to lie to the Holy Spirit?’

Non es enim mentitus hominibus, sed Deo. Et Paulus, cum gratiarum spiritalium distinguerit gradus: Haec omnia, inquid, operatur unus adque idem Spiritus, dividens unicuique prout vult. Qui enim quod voluerit facit, in nullius redegitur potestate.

For you have not lied to men, but to God. And Paul, when he had distinguished the degrees of spiritual graces: These all, he says, the one and the same Spirit operates, distributing to each as he wills. For he who does what he has willed is brought under the power of no one.

Nam vos, ut superius dixi, nihil recte de Trinitate sancta sentitis, et quam iniqua sit huius sectae perversitas, ipsius auctoris vestri, id est Arrii, expraessit interitus'. Ad haec ille respondit: 'Legem, quam non colis, blasphemare noli; nos vero quae creditis etsi non credimus, non tamen blasphemamus, quia non deputatur crimine, si et illa et illa colantur. Sic enim vulgato sermone dicimus, non esse noxium, si inter gentilium aras et Dei eclesiam quis transiens utraque veneretur'. Cuius ego stultitiam cernens, aio: 'Ut video, et gentilium defensorem et hereticorum adsertorem te esse manifestas, cum et eclesiastica dogmata maculas et paganorum spurcitias praedicas adorari. Satius', inquio, 'faciebas, si ea te armaret fides, quam Abraham ad ilicem, Isac in ariete, Iacob in lapide, Moyses vidit in sente; quam Aaron portavit in logio, David exultavit in timphano, Salomon praedicavit in intellectu; quam omnes patriarchae, prophetae sive lex ipsa vel oraculis caecinit vel sacrificiis figuravit; quam et nunc praesens suffragatur Martinus noster vel possidit in pectore vel ostendit in opere, ut et tu conversus credens inseparabilem Trinitatem, et acceptam a nobis benedictionem purgatoque a malae credulitatis veneno pectore, delerentur iniquitatis tuae'. At ille furore commotus et nescio quid quasi insanus frendens, ait: 'Ante anima ab huius corporis vinculis emicet, quam ab ullo relegionis vestrae sacerdote benedictione accipiam'. Et ego: 'Nec nostram Dominus relegionem sive fidem ita tepiscere faciat, ut distribuamus sanctum eius canibus ac praetiosarum margaritarum sacra porcis squalentibus exponamus'. Ad haec ille, relicta altercatione, surrexit et abiit.

For you, as I said above, think nothing rightly about the holy Trinity, and how iniquitous is the perversity of this sect, the destruction of your very author, that is, Arius, expressed.' To this he replied: 'Do not blaspheme the Law, which you do not cultivate; we indeed, though we do not believe the things which you believe, nevertheless do not blaspheme, because it is not reckoned as a crime if both this and that be worshiped. For so in common parlance we say that it is not harmful if, while one passes between the altars of the Gentiles and the church of God, he should venerate both.' Perceiving his folly, I say: 'As I see, you manifest yourself both a defender of the Gentiles and an asserter of heretics, since you proclaim that both ecclesiastical dogmas with their stains and the filths of pagans are to be adored. You would do better,' I say, 'if that faith armed you which armed Abraham at the oak, Isaac in the ram, Jacob in the stone, which Moses saw in the thorn-bush; which Aaron carried in the logion, David exulted on the tympanum, Solomon proclaimed in understanding; which all the patriarchs and prophets, and even the Law itself, either sang in oracles or prefigured in sacrifices; which also now our Martin, being present, supports—either he possesses it in his breast or shows it in his work—so that you too, converted, believing the inseparable Trinity, and, the blessing received from us and your breast cleansed from the poison of evil credulity, the things of your iniquity might be blotted out.' But he, stirred by fury and, like a madman, gnashing something or other, said: 'Let my soul dart forth from the bonds of this body before I receive a blessing from any priest of your religion.' And I: 'Nor may the Lord suffer our religion or faith to grow so tepid that we should distribute his holy thing to dogs and expose the sacred things of precious pearls to squalid swine.' At this, leaving off the altercation, he rose and departed.

Sed post haec, cum in Hispaniis reversus fuisset, in infirmitate debilitatus, ad nostram relegionem, necessitate cogente, conversus est.

But after these things, when he had returned in Spain, weakened in infirmity, he was converted to our religion, necessity compelling.

44. De his quae Chilpericus scripsit.

44. On the things which Chilperic wrote.

Per idem tempus Chilpericus rex scripsit indicolum, ut sancta Trinitas non in personarum distinctione, sed tantum Deus nominaretur, adserens indignum esse, ut Deus persona sicut homo carneus nominetur; adfirmans etiam, ipsum esse Patrem, qui est Filius, idemque ipsum esse Spiritum sanctum, qui Pater et Filius. 'Sic', inquid, 'prophetis ac patriarchis apparuit, sic eum ipsa lex nuntiavit'. Cumque haec mihi recitare iussisset, ait: 'Sic', inquid, 'volo, ut tu vel reliqui doctores eclesiarum credatis'. Cui ego respondi: 'Hac credulitate relicta, pie rex, hoc te oportit sequi, quod nobis post apostolus alii doctores eclesiae reliquerunt, quod Elarius Eusebiusque docuerunt, quod et in baptismo es confessus'. Tunc iratus rex ait: 'Manifestum est mihi in hac causa Elarium Eusebiumque validos inimicos habere'. Cui ego respondi: 'Observare te convenit, neque Deum neque sanctos eius habere offensos. Nam scias, quia in persona aliter Pater, aliter Filius, aliter Spiritus sanctus.

At the same time King Chilperic wrote a little memorandum, that the Holy Trinity should be named not in a distinction of persons, but only “God,” asserting that it was unworthy that God be called a “person” as a carnal man is; affirming also that he himself is the Father who is the Son, and that the same he himself is the Holy Spirit, who is Father and Son. ‘Thus,’ he said, ‘he appeared to the prophets and patriarchs, thus the Law itself announced him.’ And when he had ordered me to recite these things, he said: ‘Thus,’ he said, ‘I wish that you and the rest of the doctors of the churches should believe.’ To whom I replied: ‘With this credulity set aside, pious king, this you ought to follow: what other doctors of the Church after the apostles have left to us, what Elarius and Eusebius taught, what also you confessed in baptism.’ Then the king, angered, said: ‘It is clear to me that in this cause Elarius and Eusebius have powerful enemies.’ To whom I replied: ‘It befits you to take heed, and to have neither God nor his saints offended. For know that in person the Father is otherwise, the Son otherwise, the Holy Spirit otherwise.

Non Pater adsumpsit carnem neque Spiritus sanctus, sed Filius, ut, qui erat Dei filius, ipse ad redemptionem hominis filius haberetur et virginis. Non Pater passus neque Spiritus sanctus, sed Filius, ut, qui carnem adsumpserat in mundo, ipse offerritur pro mundo. De personis vero quod ais non corporaliter, sed spiritaliter sentiendum est.

Not the Father assumed flesh nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son, so that he who was the Son of God might himself, for the redemption of man, be accounted the son of man and of the Virgin. Not the Father suffered nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son, so that he who had assumed flesh in the world might himself be offered for the world. But as to the persons, what you say is to be understood not corporeally, but spiritually.

In his ergo tribus personis una gloria, una aeternitas, una potestas'. At ille commotus ait: 'Sapientioribus a te haec pandam, qui mihi consentiant'. Et ego: 'Numquam erit sapiens, sed stultus, qui haec quae proponis sequi voluerit'. Ad haec ille frendens siluit. Non post multos vero dies adveniente Salvio Albigense episcopo, haec ei praecepit recensire, depraecans, ut sibi consentaneus fieret. Quod ille audiens, ita respuit, ut, si cartam, in qua haec scripta tenebantur, potuisset attingere, in frustra discerperit.

'In these, therefore, three persons: one glory, one eternity, one power.' But he, moved, said: 'I will lay these things open to men wiser than you, who agree with me.' And I: 'Never will he be wise, but foolish, who will have wished to follow the things which you propose.' At this he, gnashing his teeth, fell silent. Yet not many days later, with Salvius, the Albigensian bishop, arriving, he ordered him to review these things, beseeching that he might become in agreement with him. Hearing this, he so rejected it that, if he had been able to reach the paper on which these things were written, he would have torn it into shreds.

Et sic rex ab hac intentione quievit. Scripsit alios libros idem rex versibus, quasi Sedulium secutus; sed versiculi illi nulla paenitus metricae conveniunt ratione. Addit autem et litteras litteris nostris, id est w, sicut Graeci habent, ae, the, uui, quarum caracteres hi sunt: Et misit epistulas in universis civitatibus regni sui, ut sic pueri docerentur ac libri antiquitus scripti, planati pomice, rescriberentur.

And thus the king rested from this intention. The same king wrote other books in verses, as if following Sedulius; but those little verses agree in no way whatsoever with the law of metrics. Moreover, he also adds letters to our letters, that is, w, just as the Greeks have, ae, the, uui, whose characters are these: And he sent epistles into all the cities of his kingdom, that thus boys might be taught, and the books written of old, planed with pumice, might be rewritten.

45. De obitu Agroeculae episcopi.

45. On the death of Bishop Agroecula.

Agroecula enim Cabillonnensis episcopus hoc obiit tempore; fuitque homo valde elegans ac prudens, genere senaturio. Multa in civitate illa aedificia fecit, domus composuit, ecclesiam fabricavit, quam colomnis fulcivit, variavit marmore, mosevo depixit. Magnae autem abstinentiae fuit; nam numquam prandium usus est, nisi tantum cenam, ad quam sic temporive resedebat, ut sole stante consurgeret.

For Agroecula, the bishop of Cabillonum, died at this time; and he was a man very elegant and prudent, of senatorial lineage. Many buildings in that city he made, houses he set in order, a church he built, which he supported with columns, variegated with marble, depicted in mosaic. He was, moreover, of great abstinence; for he never used a lunch, but only a supper, at which he sat down so timely that he would rise with the sun still standing.

Humanitatis exiguae, facundiae vero magnae erat. Obiit autem episcopatus anno quadragisimo octavo, evi autem octogisimo tertio. Cui Flavus, referendarius Gunthramni regis, successit.

He was of scant humanity, but indeed of great eloquence. He died in the 48th year of his episcopate, and in the 83rd of his age. Flavus, referendary of King Gunthramn, succeeded him.

46. De obitu Dalmatii episcopi.

46. On the death of Bishop Dalmatius.

Eo tempore et Dalmatius Rutenae civitatis episcopus migravit a saeculo, vir in omni sanctitate praecelsus, abstinens vel a cibis vel a concupiscentiis carnis, valde elymosinarius et cunctis humanus, in oratione et vigiliis satis stabilis. Ecclesiam construxit, sed dum eam ad emendationem saepius distruit, inconpositam dereliquit. Post cuius obitum multi, ut fit, episcopatum petibant.

At that time also Dalmatius, bishop of the city of Rutena, departed from this world, a man preeminent in all sanctity, abstinent both from foods and from the concupiscences of the flesh, very eleemosynary and humane to all, quite steadfast in prayer and vigils. He constructed a church, but while he more than once demolished it for emendation, he left it uncomposed. After whose death many, as happens, were seeking the episcopate.

Transobadus vero presbiter, qui quondam archidiaconus eius fuerat, maxime in hoc intendibat, fidus, quod filium suum cum Gogone, qui tunc regis erat nutricius, commendaverat. Condidirat autem episcopus testamentum, in quo regis exenium quid post eius obitum accepiret indecabat, adiurans terribilibus sacramentis, ut in ecclesia illa non ordinaritur extraneus, non cupidus, non coniugali vinculo nexus, sed ab his omnibus expeditus, qui in solis tantum dominicis laudibus degebat, substitueritur. Transobadus autem presbiter epulum in ipsa urbe clericis praeparat.

Transobadus, however, a presbyter, who once had been his archdeacon, was especially intent on this, confident because he had commended his son to Gogo, who at that time was the king’s fosterer. Moreover, the bishop had drawn up a testament, in which he indicated what royal donative he should receive after his death, adjuring with terrible oaths that in that church there should not be ordained a stranger, nor a greedy man, nor one bound by the conjugal bond, but one freed from all these things, who lived only in the Lord’s praises, should be appointed. Meanwhile the presbyter Transobadus prepares a banquet for the clerics in that very city.

Resedentibus autem illis, unus praesbiterorum coepit antestitem memoratum inpudicis blasphemare sermonibus et usque ad hoc erupit, ut eum delerum et fatuum nominaret. Haec eo dicente, pincerna poculum oblaturus advenit. At ille acceptum dum ori proximat, tremire coepit, laxatumque de manu calicem, super alium, qui sibi erat proximus, caput reclinans, reddidit spiritum, ablatusque ab opulo ad sepulchrum, humo contectus est.

But as they were sitting, one of the presbyters began to blaspheme the aforementioned prelate with shameless speeches, and broke out even to this point, that he called him delirious and a fool. As he was saying these things, the cupbearer arrived to offer a cup. But he, having received it, as he brought it near to his mouth, began to tremble, and, the chalice loosened from his hand, leaning his head upon another who was nearest to him, gave up the spirit; and, carried from the banquet to the tomb, he was covered with earth.

Post haec relicto testamento antestitis in praesentia Childeberthi regis ac procerum eius, Theodosius, qui tunc archediaconatum urbis illius potiebatur, episcopus ordinatus est.

After these things, the testament of the prelate having been presented in the presence of King Childebert and his nobles, Theodosius, who at that time held the archdeaconate of that city, was ordained bishop.

47. De comitatu Eunomii.

47. On the retinue of Eunomius.

Audiens autem Chilpericus omnia mala, quae faciebat Leudastis ecclesiis Toronicis vel omni populo, Ansovaldum illuc dirigit. Qui veniens ad festivitatem sancti Martini, data nobis populo optionem, Eunomius in comitatum erigitur. Denique Leudastis cernens se remotum, ad Chilpericum dirigit, dicens: 'Usque nunc, o piissime rex, custodivi civitatem Turonicam; nunc autem, me ab actione remoto, vide, qualiter custodiatur.

Hearing, moreover, all the evils that Leudast was doing to the churches of Tours and to all the people, Chilperic dispatches Ansovald thither. He, coming to the festivity of Saint Martin, after giving to us, the people, the option, Eunomius is elevated to the comital office. Finally, Leudast, seeing himself removed, goes to Chilperic, saying: 'Up to now, O most pious king, I have guarded the city of Tours; now, however, with me removed from administration, see how it is guarded.'

Nam noveris, quia Gregorius episcopus eam ad filium Sygiberthi tradere distinat'. Quod audiens rex, ait: 'Nequaquam, sed quia remotus es, ideo haec adponis'. Et ille: 'Maiora', inquit, 'de te ait episcopus; dicit enim, reginam tuam in adulterio cum episcopo Berthramno misceri'. Tunc iratus rex, caesum pugnis et calcibus, oneratum ferro recludi praecepit in carcere.

'Know, that Bishop Gregory is destined to deliver it to the son of Sigebert.' Hearing this, the king said: 'By no means; but because you are removed, for that reason you add these things.' And he: 'Greater things,' he says, 'the bishop says about you; for he says that your queen is mixed in adultery with Bishop Bertram.' Then the king, enraged, ordered him—beaten with fists and kicks, and burdened with iron—to be incarcerated.

48. De malitia Leudastis.

48. On the malice of Leudastis.

Sed quia liber finem postulat, narrare aliquid de eius actionibus libet; sed prius videtur genus ac patriam moresque ordiri. Gracina Pictavensis insula vocitatur, in qua a fiscalis vinitoris servo Leuchadio nomine nascitur. Exinde ad servitium arcessitus, culinae regiae deputatur.

But since the book demands an end, it pleases to narrate something of his actions; but first it seems right to begin with his lineage and fatherland and mores. Gracina, a Pictavian island, is so called, in which he is born of Leuchadius, a slave of the fiscal vinedresser. Thence, summoned to service, he is deputed to the royal kitchen.

Sed quia lippis erat in adolescentia oculis, quibus fumi acerbitas non congruebat, amotus a pistillo, promovitur ad cophinum. Sed dum inter firmentatas massas se delectari consimulat, servitium fugam iniens dereliquit. Cumque bis aut tertio reductus a fugae lapsu teneri non possit, auris unius incisione multatur.

But because in his adolescence his eyes were bleary, to which the acridity of fumes did not agree, removed from the pestle, he was promoted to the basket. But while he pretended to take delight among the leavened masses, entering upon flight he abandoned the servitude. And when, though twice or even a third time brought back from a lapse into flight, he could not be held, he was mulcted by the incision of one ear.

Dehinc cum notam inflictam corpori occulere nulla auctoritate valeret, ad Marcoveifam reginam, quam Chariberthus rex nimium diligens in loco sororis toro adsciverat, fugit. Quae libenter eum colligens, provocat equorumque meliorum deputat esse custodem. Hinc iam obsessus vanitate ac superbiae deditus, comitatum ambit stabulorum; quo accepto, cunctos despicit ac postponit, inflatur vanitate, luxuria dissolvitur, cupiditate succenditur et in causis patronae alumnus proprius huc illucque defertur.

Thereafter, since he was not able by any authority to conceal the mark inflicted upon his body, he fled to Queen Marcoveifa, whom King Charibert, being excessively fond, had admitted to the couch in the place of his sister. She, gladly gathering him in, promotes him and appoints him to be the custodian of the better horses. From here, now beset by vainglory and given over to superbia, he canvasses for the countship of the stables; and having obtained it, he despises and postpones all, is inflated by vanity, is dissolved by luxury, is kindled by cupidity, and, in the causes of his patroness, as her very own alumnus, is carried hither and thither.

Cuius post obitum refertus praedis, locum ipsum cum rege Charibertho, oblatis muneribus, tenere coepit. Post haec, peccatis populi ingruentibus, comes Turonus destinatur ibique se amplius honoris gloriosi supercilio iactitat, ibique se exhibet rapacem praedis, turgidum rixis, adulteriis lutulentum. Ubi seminando discordias et inferendo calumnias non modicos thesauros adgregavit.

After whose death, crammed with spoils, he began to hold that very place from King Charibert, with gifts proffered. After this, as the sins of the people were pressing in, he is appointed Count of Tours, and there he vaunts himself yet more with the superciliousness of glorious honor; and there he shows himself rapacious for spoils, swollen with quarrels, befouled with adulteries. There, by sowing discords and bringing in calumnies, he aggregated no mean treasures.

Post obitum vero Chariberthi, cum in Sigiberthi sorte civitas illa venisset, transeunte eo ad Chilpericum, omnia quae inique adgregaverat a fidelibus nominati regis direpta sunt. Pervadente igitur Chilperico rege per Theodobertum, filium suum, urbem Turonicam, cum iam ego Turonus advenissem, mihi a Theodobertho strenue commendatur, ut scilicet comitatum, quem prius habuerat, potiretur. Multum se nobis humilem subditumque reddebat, iurans saepius super sepulchrum sancti antistitis, numquam se contra rationis ordinem esse venturum seque mihi tam in causis propriis quam in ecclesiae necessitatibus in omnibus esse fidelem.

But after the death of Charibert, when that city had come by lot into Sigibert’s share, as he crossed over to Chilperic, all that he had unjustly aggregated was plundered by the faithful of the aforesaid king. Therefore, with King Chilperic, through Theodobert his son, taking possession of the city of Tours, since I had already arrived at Tours, he is earnestly commended to me by Theodobert, namely that he might get possession of the county which he had previously held. He made himself very humble and submissive toward us, often swearing upon the tomb of the holy bishop that he would never come against the order of reason, and that to me, as much in his own causes as in the necessities of the church, he would in all things be faithful.

Timebat enim, quod postea evenit, ne urbem illam iterum rex Sigiberthus in suo dominio revocaret. Quo defuncto, succedente iterum Chilperico in regno, iste in comitatum accedit. Adveniente autem Turonus Merovecho, omnes res eius usquequaque diripuit.

For he was afraid, of what afterward came to pass, lest King Sigibert recall that city again into his dominion. When he had died, with Chilperic again succeeding to the kingdom, this man acceded to the countship. But with Merovech arriving at Tours, he plundered all his goods everywhere.

Sed hic, dum Sigiberthus duos annos Turonus tenuit, hic in Brittaniis latuit. Qui, adsumpto, ut diximus, comitatu, in tali levitate elatus est, ut in domo ecclesiae cum toracibus atque loricis, praecinctus pharetra et contum manu gerens, capite galeato ingrederetur, de nullo securus, quia omnibus erat adversus. Iam si in iudicio cum senioribus vel laicis vel clericis resedisset et vidisset hominem iustitiam prosequentem, protinus agebatur in furias, ructabat convicia in civibus; presbiteros manicis iubebat extrahi, milites fustibus verberari, tantamque utebatur crudelitatem, ut vix referri possit.

But this man, while Sigeberth held Tours for two years, lay hidden in Brittany. He who, having assumed, as we have said, the county (comitatus), was lifted up into such levity that he would enter the house of the church with cuirasses and corselets, girded with a quiver and bearing a pike in his hand, his head helmeted—secure of no one, since he was an adversary to all. And if he had sat in judgment with the elders, whether laics or clerics, and had seen a man pursuing justice, straightway he was driven into furies, belching insults against the citizens; he ordered presbyters to be dragged out in manacles, soldiers to be beaten with clubs, and he used such cruelty as can scarcely be recounted.

Discedente autem Merovecho, qui res eius diripuerat, nobis calumniator existit, adserens fallaciter Merovechum nostro usum consilio, ut res eius auferret. Sed post inlata damna iterat iterum sacramenta pallamque sepulchri beati Martini fideiussorem donat, se nobis numquam adversaturum.

However, with Merovech departing, who had plundered his goods, a calumniator arises against us, fallaciously asserting that Merovech used our counsel to carry off his property. But after the damages had been inflicted, he reiterates the oaths again and grants the pall of the sepulcher of blessed Martin as fidejussor (surety), that he will never oppose us.

49. De insidiis, quas nobis fecit.

49. On the ambushes which he made against us.

De insidiis, quas nobis fecit, et qualiter ipse humiliatus est.

On the ambushes which he made against us, and how he himself was humiliated.

Sed quia longum est per ordinem prosequi periurias vel reliqua mala eius, veniamus ad illud, qualiter me voluit iniquis ac nefariis calumniis supplantare, vel qualiter in eum ultio divina descendit, ut illud adimpleretur: Omnis subplantans subplantabitur; et iterum: Qui fodit foveam, incidit in ea. Igitur post multa mala quae in me meisque intulit, post multas direptiones rerum ecclesiasticarum, adiuncto sibi Riculfo presbitero simili malitia perverso, ad hoc erupit, ut diceret, me crimen in Fredegundem reginam dixisse; adserens, si archidiaconus meus Plato aut Galienus amicus noster subdirentur poenae, convincerent me utique haec locutum. Tunc rex iratus, ut supra diximus, iussit eum pugnis calcibusque caesum oneratumque catenis recludi in carcerem. Nam Riculfum clericum se habere dicebat, per quem haec locutus fuisset.

But since it is long to pursue in order his perjuries or his remaining evils, let us come to this, how he wished to supplant me with unjust and nefarious calumnies, or how upon him divine vengeance descended, so that this might be fulfilled: Every supplanter shall be supplanted; and again: He who digs a pit falls into it. Therefore, after many evils which he brought upon me and mine, after many depredations of ecclesiastical goods, with the presbyter Riculf joined to himself, perverted by similar malice, he burst forth to this point, to say that I had spoken a charge against Queen Fredegund; asserting that, if my archdeacon Plato or Galienus our friend were subjected to punishment, they would certainly convict me of having spoken these things. Then the king, enraged, as we said above, ordered him, beaten with fists and kicks and burdened with chains, to be shut up in prison. For he said that he had Riculf as a cleric, through whom he had spoken these things.

Hic vero Riculfus subdiaconus, simili levitate perfacilis, ante hoc anno consilio cum Leudaste de hac causa habito, causas offensionis requirit, quibus scilicet me offenso ad Leudastem transiret; nanctisque tandem, ipsum adivit, ac per menses quattuor dolos omnes ac muscipulas praeparatas, ad me cum ipso Leudaste revertitur, deprecans, ut eum debeam recipere excusatum. Feci, fateor, et occultum hostem publice in domo suscepi. Discedente vero Leudaste, ipse se pedibus meis sternit, dicens: 'Nisi succurras velociter, periturus sum.

But here Riculfus the subdeacon, of similar levity, very facile, having, a year before this, held counsel with Leudast about this matter, seeks out causes of offense, by which, with me offended, he might pass over to Leudast; and having at last gotten them, he approached him, and for four months, with all deceits and mousetraps prepared, he returns to me with Leudast himself, deprecating that I ought to receive him as excused. I did so, I confess, and I publicly welcomed into my house a hidden enemy. But with Leudast departing, he himself lays himself at my feet, saying: 'Unless you succor me quickly, I shall perish.

Ecce, instigante Leudaste, locutus sum quod loqui non debui! Nunc vero aliis me regnis emitte; quod nisi feceris, a regalibus conprehensus, mortales poenas sum lueturus'. Cui ego aio: 'Si quid incongruum rationi effatus es, sermo tuus in caput tuum erit; nam ego altero te regno non mittam, ne suspectus habear coram rege'. Post ista Leudastis extitit accusator eius, dicens, se sermones iam dictos a Riculfo audisse subdiacono. At ille iterum vinctus, relaxato Leudaste, custodiae deputatur, dicens, Galienum eadem die et Platonem archidiaconem fuisse praesentes, cum haec est episcopus elocutus.

‘Behold, with Leudast instigating, I have spoken what I ought not to have spoken! Now indeed send me to other kingdoms; and unless you do this, seized by the royal officials, I am going to pay mortal penalties.’ To whom I say: ‘If you have uttered anything incongruous to reason, your word will be upon your own head; for I will not send you into another kingdom, lest I be held suspect before the king.’ After these things Leudast stood forth as his accuser, saying that he had heard the speeches already mentioned from Riculf the subdeacon. But he, again bound, Leudast being released, is assigned to custody, saying that Galienus on the same day and Plato the archdeacon were present when the bishop uttered these things.

Sed Riculfus presbiter, qui iam promissionem de episcopatu a Leudaste habebat, in tantum elatus fuerat, ut magi Simonis superbia aequaretur. Qui tertio aut eo amplius mihi sacramentum super sepulchrum sancti Martini dederat, in die sexta paschae in tantum me conviciis et sputis egit, ut vix manibus temperaret, fidus scilicet doli quem praeparaverat. In crastina autem die, id est sabbati in ipsa pascha, venit Leudastis in urbe Turonica, adsimilansque aliud negotii agere, adprehensis Platonem archidiaconem et Galienum in vincla conectit, catenatosque ac exutos veste iubet eos ad reginam deduci.

But Riculfus the presbyter, who already had a promise of the episcopate from Leudast, had been so puffed up that he matched the pride of the magician Simon. He, a third time or even more, had given me an oath over the tomb of Saint Martin; on the sixth day of Pascha he so drove at me with insults and spittle that he scarcely restrained his hands—faithful, namely, to the trick he had prepared. But on the morrow, that is, on the Sabbath within Pascha itself, Leudast came into the city of Tours, and, pretending to transact another business, having apprehended Plato the archdeacon and Galienus, he put them in chains, and, chained and stripped of their clothing, he orders them to be conducted to the queen.

Haec ego audiens, dum in domo ecclesiae residerem, mestus turbatusque ingressus oratorium, Davitici carminis sumo librum, ut scilicet apertus aliquem consolationis versiculum daret. In quo ita repertum est: Eduxit eos in spe, et non timuerunt; et inimicos eorum operuit mare. Interea ingressi in fluvium super pontem, qui duabus lintribus tenebatur, navis illa, quae Leudastem vehebat, dimergitur, et nisi natandi fuisset adminiculo liberatus, cum sociis forsitan interisset.

Hearing these things, while I was sitting in the house of the church, sad and disturbed, I entered the oratory, and I take up the book of the Davidic song, so that, when opened, it might give some verse of consolation. In which thus it was found: “He led them out in hope, and they did not fear; and the sea covered their enemies.” Meanwhile, as they entered the river upon a bridge which was held by two skiffs, that boat which was conveying Leudast is submerged; and, unless he had been freed by the aid of swimming, he would perhaps have perished with his companions.

Navis vero alia quae huic innexa erat, quae et vinctos vehebat, super aquas Dei auxilio elevatur. Igitur deducti ad regem qui vincti fuerant, incusantur instanter, ut capitali sententia finirentur. Sed rex recogitans, absolutos a vinculo libera custodia reservat inlaesos.

But another ship which was annexed to this one, which also was conveying the bound men, is lifted upon the waters by God’s aid. Therefore, led to the king, those who had been bound are accused urgently, that they might be ended by a capital sentence. But the king, reconsidering, keeps them, absolved from the bond, unharmed in free custody.

Ad civitatem vero Turonus Berulfus dux cum Eunomio comite fabulam fingit, quod Gunthramnus rex capere vellet Turonicam civitatem, et idcirco, ne aliqua neglegentia accederet, oportere, ait, urbem custodia consignari. Ponunt portis dolose custodes, qui civitatem tueri adsimilantes, me utique custodirent. Mittunt etiam qui mihi consilium ministrarent, ut ad occultum, adsumptis melioribus rebus ecclesiae, Arverno fuga secederem; sed non acquievi.

But at the city of Tours Duke Berulfus, together with Count Eunomius, fabricates a tale that King Guntram wished to seize the Turonian city, and therefore, lest any negligence should creep in, he says it is proper that the city be consigned to custody. They deceitfully set guards at the gates, who, simulating the defense of the city, would in fact keep me under watch. They also send men to minister counsel to me, that, into concealment, after taking up the choicer goods of the church, I should withdraw in flight to Auvergne; but I did not acquiesce.

Igitur rex, arcessitis regni sui episcopis, causam diligenter iussit exquiri. Cumque Riculfus clericus saepius discuteretur occulte et contra me vel meos multas fallacias promulgaret, Modestus quidam faber lignarius ait ad eum: 'O infelix, qui contra episcopum tuum tam contumaciter ista meditaris! Satius tibi erat silere, et, petita venia episcopi, gratiam inpetraris'. Ad haec ille clamare coepit voce magna ac dicere: 'En ipse, qui mihi silentium indicit, ne prosequar veritatem!

Therefore the king, the bishops of his realm having been summoned, ordered the cause to be diligently inquired into. And when Riculfus the cleric was repeatedly examined in secret and would promulgate many fallacies against me and mine, a certain Modestus, a carpenter, said to him: 'O wretch, you who so contumaciously contrive these things against your bishop! It were better for you to keep silence, and, the bishop’s pardon having been sought, you would obtain grace.' At this he began to shout with a loud voice and to say: 'Behold, he himself who enjoins silence upon me, lest I prosecute the truth!'

En reginae inimicum, qui causam criminis eius non sinet inquiri!' Nuntiantur protinus haec reginae. Adprehenditur Modestus, torquetur, flagellatur, et in vincla compactus, custodiae deputatur. Cumque inter duos custodes catenis et cippo teneretur vinctus, media nocte, dormientibus custodibus, orationem fudit ad Dominum, ut dignaretur eius potentia miserum visitare, et qui innocens conligatus fuerat, visitatione Martini praesulis ac Medardi absolveretur.

Behold the queen’s enemy, who will not allow the case of her crime to be inquired into!' These things are forthwith announced to the queen. Modestus is apprehended, tortured, flagellated, and, fastened in chains, is deputed to custody. And when, between two guards, he was held bound with chains and the stocks, at midnight, the guards sleeping, he poured forth a prayer to the Lord, that by His power He might deign to visit the wretch, and that he who had been bound though innocent might be absolved by the visitation of Martin the prelate and of Medard.

Mox, disruptis vinculis, confracto cippo, reserato ostio, sancti Medardi basilicam, nocte nobis vigilantibus, introiit. Congregati igitur apud Brinnacum villam episcopi, in unam domum resedere iussi sunt. Dehinc adveniente rege, data omnibus salutatione ac benedictione accepta, resedit.

Soon, with the bonds burst, the stock broken, the door unbarred, he entered the basilica of Saint Medardus, at night while we were keeping vigil. Therefore the bishops, assembled at the villa Brinnacum, were ordered to sit down in one house. Then, when the king arrived, after giving a salutation to all and having received a blessing, he sat down.

Tunc Berthramnus Burdegalensis civitatis episcopus, cui hoc cum regina crimen inpactum fuerat, causam proponit meque interpellat, dicens, a me sibi ac reginae crimen obiectum. Negavi ego in veritate haec locutum, et audisse quidem haec alios, nam non excogitasse. Nam foris domum rumor in populo magnus erat, dicentium: 'Cur haec super sacerdotem Dei obiciuntur?

Then Berthramnus, bishop of the city of Bordeaux, upon whom this charge with the queen had been fastened, sets forth the case and interpellates me, saying that by me a charge had been alleged against himself and the queen. I denied in truth that I had spoken these things, and that others indeed had heard these things, for I had not devised them. For outside the house there was a great rumor among the people, of those saying: 'Why are these things being imputed against the priest of God?'

Cur talia rex prosequitur? Numquid potuit episcopus talia dicere vel de servo? Heu, heu, domine Deus, largire auxilium servo tuo!' Rex autem dicebat: 'Crimen uxoris meae meum habetur obprobrium.

'Why does the king pursue such things? Could a bishop have said such things even about a slave? Alas, alas, Lord God, grant help to your servant!' But the king was saying: 'The crime of my wife is held to be my opprobrium.'

Si ergo censitis, ut super episcopum testes adhibeantur, ecce adsunt! Certe, si videtur, ut haec non fiant et in fidem episcopi committantur, dicite; libenter audiam quae iubetis'. Mirati sunt omnes regis vel prudentiam vel patientiam simul. Tunc cunctis dicentibus: 'Non potest persona inferior super sacerdotem credi', restitit ad hoc causa, ut, dictis missis in tribus altaribus, me de his verbis exuerem sacramento.

If therefore you judge that witnesses should be brought against the bishop, behold, they are present! Certainly, if it seems good that these things not be done and that they be entrusted to the bishop’s good faith, say so; I will gladly hear what you command'. All were amazed at the king’s prudence as well as his patience at once. Then, when all were saying: 'An inferior person cannot be believed over a priest', the matter stood thus, that, with Masses said at three altars, I should purge myself of these words by an oath.

Et licet canonibus essent contraria, pro causa tamen regis impleta sunt. Sed nec hoc sileo, quod Rigunthis regina, condolens doloribus meis, ieiunium cum omni domo sua celebravit, quousque puer nuntiaret, me omnia sic implesse, ut fuerant instituta. Igitur regressi sacerdotes ad regem aiunt: 'Impleta sunt omnia ab episcopo quae imperata sunt.

And although they were contrary to the canons, nevertheless they were fulfilled for the king’s cause. Nor do I keep silence about this, that Queen Rigunthis, condoling with my pains, celebrated a fast with her whole household, until a boy should announce that I had fulfilled all things thus as they had been instituted. Therefore the priests, having returned to the king, say: 'All things that were commanded have been fulfilled by the bishop.'

O rex, quid nunc ad te, nisi ut cum Berthramno accusatore fratris communione priveris?' Et ille: 'Non', inquid, 'ego nisi audita narravi'. Quaerentibus illis, quis hoc dixerit, respondit, se haec a Leudaste audisse. Ille autem secundum infirmitatem vel consilii vel propositionis suae iam fugam inierat. Tunc placuit omnibus sacerdotibus, ut sator scandali, infitiator reginae, accusator episcopi, ab omnibus arceretur ecclesiis, eo quod se ab audientia subtraxisset.

'O king, what now remains for you, except that you deprive Bertram, the accuser of the brother, of communion?' And he said: 'No,' he says, 'I only narrated things heard.' When they asked who had said this, he replied that he had heard these things from Leudast. But he, according to the infirmity either of his counsel or of his proposition, had already entered upon flight. Then it pleased all the priests that the sower of scandal, the denier of the queen, the accuser of the bishop, be barred from all churches, for that he had withdrawn himself from the audience.

Unde et epistolam subscriptam aliis episcopis qui non adfuerant transmiserunt. Et sic unusquisque in loco suo regressus est. Leudastis vero haec audiens, basilicam sancti Petri Parisius expetiit.

Whence also they transmitted the underwritten epistle to the other bishops who had not been present. And so each man returned to his own place. But Leudastis, hearing these things, made for the basilica of Saint Peter at Paris.

Sed cum audisset edictum regis, ut in suo regno a nullo colligeretur, et praesertim quod filius eius, quem domi reliquerat, obisset, Turonus occulte veniens, quae melius habuit in Biturigo transposuit. Prosequentibus vero regalibus pueris, ipse per fugam labitur. Capta quoque uxore eius, in pago Tornacensi exilio recluditur.

But when he had heard the king’s edict, that in his realm he should be taken in by no one, and especially that his son, whom he had left at home, had died, coming secretly to Tours he transposed what better belongings he had into Bourges. But with the royal pages pursuing, he slips away by flight. His wife also having been seized, he is shut up in exile in the district of Tournai.

At Riculfus clericus ad interficiendum deputatur. Pro cuius vita vix obtinui, tamen de tormentis excusare non potui. Nam nulla res, nullum metallum tanta verbera potuit sustinere, sicut hic miserrimus.

But Riculfus the cleric is deputed for killing. For whose life I scarcely prevailed; yet I could not excuse him from torments. For no thing, no metal, could sustain such blows as this most wretched man.

Nam ab hora tertia diei, revinctis postergum manibus, suspensus ad arborem dependebat; ad horam vero nonam depositus, extensus ad trocleas, caedebatur fustibus, virgis ac loris duplicibus, et non ab uno vel duobus, sed quanti accedere circa miseros potuerunt artus, toti caesores erant. Cum autem iam in discrimine esset, tunc aperuit veritatem et archana doli publice patefecit. Dicebat enim ob hoc reginae crimen obiectum, ut, eiecta de regno, interfectis fratribus et patre, Chlodovechus regnum acciperet, Leudastis ducatum, Riculfus vero presbiter, qui iam a tempore beati Eufronii episcopi amicus erat Chlodovechi, episcopatum Turonicum ambiret, huic Riculfo clerico archidiaconatu promisso.

For from the third hour of the day, with his hands bound behind his back, he hung suspended from a tree; but at the ninth hour, taken down, stretched out on the pulleys, he was beaten with cudgels, rods, and double thongs, and not by one or two, but as many as were able to come near the wretch’s limbs—so many were the beaters. But when he was now in extremity, then he opened the truth and publicly laid bare the arcana of the deceit. For he said that on this account a charge had been brought against the queen: that, she being cast out from the realm, and her brothers and father slain, Chlodovechus would receive the kingdom, Leudastis the dukedom, but Riculfus the presbyter—who already from the time of the blessed bishop Eufronius had been a friend of Chlodovechus—would aspire to the bishopric of Tours, the archdeaconate having been promised to this cleric Riculfus.

Nos vero cum Dei gratia Turonus reversi, invenimus ecclesiam conturbatam per Riculfum presbiterum. Nam hic sub Eufronio episcopo de pauperibus provocatus, archidiaconus ordinatus est. Exinde ad presbiterium admotus, recessit ad propria.

But we, by God’s grace, having returned to Tours, found the church thrown into turmoil by Riculfus the presbyter. For he, under Bishop Euphronius, having been called forth from among the poor, was ordained archdeacon. Thereafter, advanced to the presbyterate, he withdrew to his own.

Semper elatus, inflatus, praesumptiosus; nam, me adhuc commorante cum rege, hic, quasi iam esset episcopus, in domo ecclesiae ingreditur impudenter, argentum describit ecclesiae reliquasque res sub sua redegit potestate. Maiores clericos muneribus ditat, largitur vineas, prata distribuit; minoribus vero fustibus plagisque multis etiam manu propria adfecit, dicens: 'Recognoscite dominum vestrum, qui victoriam de inimicis obtinuit, cuius ingenium Turonicam urbem ab Arvernis populis emundavit'; ignorans miser, quod praeter quinque episcopos reliqui omnes, qui sacerdotium Turonicum susceperunt, parentum nostrorum prosapiae sunt coniuncti. Illud saepe suis familiaribus dicere erat solitus, hominem prudentem non aliter nisi in periuriis quis decipere possit.

Always exalted, inflated, presumptuous; for, while I was still staying with the king, he, as if he were already a bishop, impudently enters the house of the church, registers the church’s silver and brought the remaining things under his own power. He enriches the greater clerics with gifts, lavishes vineyards, distributes meadows; but the lesser he afflicted with clubs and many blows, even with his own hand, saying: 'Recognize your lord, who obtained victory over enemies, whose ingenuity cleansed the Turonian city from the Arvernian peoples'; the wretch not knowing that, except for five bishops, all the rest who have undertaken the Turonian priesthood are joined to the lineage of our forebears. He was accustomed often to say to his familiars that a prudent man could not be deceived otherwise than by perjuries.

Sed cum me reverso adhuc despiceret nec ad salutationem meam, sicut reliqui cives fecerant, adveniret, sed magis me interficere minitaret, cum consilio provincialium eum in monasterio removeri praecipio. Cumque ibidem artius distringeretur, intercedentibus Felicis episcopi missis, qui memoratae causae fautor extiterat, circumventum periuriis abbatem, fuga labitur et usque ad Felicem accedit episcopum, eumque ille ambienter collegit, quem execrare debuerat. Leudastis vero in Biturigo pergens, omnes thesauros quos de spoliis pauperum detraxerat secum tulit.

But when, with me returned, he still looked down on me and did not come to my salutation, as the remaining citizens had done, but rather threatened to kill me, with the counsel of the provincials I order him to be removed into a monastery. And when he was being more tightly constrained there, with the envoys of Bishop Felix interceding—who had stood forth as a favorer of the aforesaid cause—having circumvented the abbot by perjuries, he slips away in flight and comes as far as Felix the bishop; and he eagerly gathered him in, whom he ought to have execrated. Leudastis, moreover, proceeding to Biturigo, took with him all the treasures which he had drawn off from the spoils of the poor.

Nec multo post, inruentibus Biturigis cum iudice loci super eum, omne aurum argentumque vel quod secum detulerat abstulerunt, nihilque ei nisi quod super se habuit relinquentes; ipsamque abstulissent vitam, nisi fuga fuisset elapsus. Resumptis dehinc viribus, cum aliquibus Turonicis iterum inruit super praedones suos, interfectoque uno, aliqua de rebus ipsis recepit et in Turonico revertitur. Audiens haec Berulfus dux, misit pueros suos cum armorum apparatu, ut apprehenderent eum.

Not long after, when the Bituriges with the judge of the place rushed upon him, they carried off all the gold and silver and whatever he had brought with him, leaving him nothing except what he had on his person; and they would have taken away his very life, had he not slipped away in flight. Then, his forces resumed, with some men of Tours he again rushed upon his plunderers, and, one having been killed, he recovered some of those very goods and returns into the territory of Tours. Hearing these things, Duke Berulf sent his retainers with an apparatus of arms, to apprehend him.

Ille vero cernens, se iam iamque capi, relictis rebus, basilicam sancti Hilarii Pictavensis expetiit. Berulfus vero dux res captas regi transmisit. Leudastis enim egrediebatur de basilica, et inruens in domibus diversorum, praedas publice exercebat.

But he, indeed, seeing himself now at any moment to be seized, with his goods left behind, made for the basilica of Saint Hilary of Poitiers. Berulf, however, the duke, sent the captured goods to the king. For Leudastis was going out from the basilica, and, rushing into the houses of various people, was exercising plunder publicly.

Sed et in adulteriis saepe in ipsam sanctam porticum deprehensus est. Commota autem regina, quod scilicet locus Deo sacratus taliter pollueretur, iussit eum a basilica sancta eici. Qui eiectus, ad hospites suos iterum in Biturigo expetiit, deprecans, se occuli ab eis.

But also in adulteries he was often caught in the very holy portico. But the queen, moved that, to wit, the place consecrated to God was being polluted in such a manner, ordered him to be cast out from the holy basilica. Who, cast out, made again for his hosts in Bituriges, begging to be hidden by them.

50. Quae beatus Salvius de Chilperico praedixit.

50. What blessed Salvius foretold about Chilperic.

Et licet de beati Salvii episcopi conlocutione superius memorare debueram, sed quia mentem excessit, esse sacrilegum non arbitror, si in posterum scribatur. Igitur cum, vale post sinodum memoratam regi iam dicta, ad propria redire vellimus, non ante discidere placuit, nisi hunc virum, libatis osculis, linquerimus. Quem quesitum in atrio Brinnacinsis domus repperi.

And although I ought to have recounted above the colloquy of the blessed bishop Salvius, yet because it escaped my mind, I do not deem it sacrilegious if it be written hereafter. Therefore, when, the farewell after the aforementioned synod already spoken to the king, we wished to return to our own, it did not please us to depart before we had left this man, kisses having been offered. Him, having been sought, I found in the atrium of the Brinnacinsis house.

Cui dixi, quia iam eram ad propriam rediturus. Tunc remoti paululum, dum hinc inde sermocinaremur, ait mihi: 'Videsne super hoc tectum quae ego suspicio?' Cui ego: 'Video enim supertegulum, quod nuper rex poni praecepit'. Et illi: 'Aliud', inquid, 'non aspicis?' Cui ego: 'Nihil aliud video'. Suspicabar enim, quod aliquid ioculariter loqueretur. Et adiaci: 'Si tu aliquid magis cernis, enarra'. At ille, alta trahens suspiria, ait: 'Video ego evaginatum irae divinae gladio super domum hanc dependentem'. Verumtamen non fefellit dictio sacerdotem; nam post dies viginti duo filii regis, quos superius mortuos scripsimus, obierunt.

I said to him that I was now about to return to my own place. Then, having withdrawn a little, while we were conversing hither and thither, he said to me: 'Do you see above this roof what I suspect?' To which I: 'For I see the roof-tiling which the king lately ordered to be set up.' And he: 'Do you not descry something else?' To which I: 'I see nothing else.' For I was suspecting that he was speaking something jocularly. And I added: 'If you discern something further, relate it.' But he, drawing deep sighs, said: 'I see the unsheathed sword of divine wrath hanging over this house.' Nevertheless the saying did not deceive the priest; for after twenty days the king’s two sons, whom we have written above as dead, died.

Explicit liber quintus, finitus in anno quinto childeberti regis.

The fifth book ends, finished in the fifth year of King Childebert.