'but if they prevail against you, behold you will find the gates thrown open; enter, lest you perish.' These men, deceived by this trick, went out abroad and made ready for battle; but, overcome by the army of Celsus, they took to flight, and coming to the city, found the gates barred. And when the army was struck from behind with javelins, and was overwhelmed with stones by the townsfolk, they made for the river Rhône, and there, placed upon their shields, sought the farther bank. But the violence of the river snatched away and slew many of them, and the Rhône then did to the Auvergnats what the Simois is read to have once done to the Trojans: '...... Caught beneath the waves it rolls the shields of men, and helmets, and strong bodies. Here and there scattered swimmers appear in the vast whirlpool.' (Virgil, Aeneid bk.
I.) Who scarcely, as we have said, by the impulse of swimming, and aided by the support of their shields, were able to reach the level ground of the other shore. These men, stripped of their possessions, deprived of their horses, were restored to their homeland not without great disgrace. To Firminus, however, and to Audovar leave to depart was granted. Many men of the Auvergnats then, not only snatched away by the rush of the torrent, but also struck down by the blows of swords, were laid low. And so King Guntram, having recovered that city, according to his customary goodness, restored Avignon to the dominions of his brother. XXXI. Now in Gaul a great portent appeared concerning the fort of Tauredunum, which was set upon a mountain over the river Rhône.
When for more than sixty days it gave forth I know not what kind of bellowing, at last that mountain, split and separated from another mountain near to it, fell into the river with men, churches, riches, and houses; and the shore of that river being blocked off, the water sought backward. For that place was on either side shut in by mountains, between whose narrows the torrent flows down. Flooding therefore the upper part, which was set against the bank, it covered and destroyed it.
For the accumulated water, bursting downward and finding men unawares, just as it had done above, slew them, overturned houses, destroyed beasts of burden, and with a violent and sudden inundation swept away and overturned all that sat upon those banks, even as far as the city of Geneva. It is handed down by many that there was so great a mass of water there that it entered the aforesaid city over the walls. Which is not doubtful, since, as we have said, the Rhône flows down in those places between the narrows of mountains, and had no room at its side, when it was blocked off, whither it might turn itself: and the dislodged mountain which had descended burst back upon itself, and so destroyed all things.
When this had happened, thirty monks came to the place whence the fort had collapsed, and digging up that ground which had remained after the mountain's destruction, they found bronze or iron. While they were doing this, they heard the bellowing of the mountain, as it had been before. But while they were held back by their fierce greed, that part which had not yet collapsed fell upon them, covered and slew them, and they were found no more. Likewise also, before the disaster of the Auvergne, great portents terrified that region. For very often three or four great splendours appeared around the sun, which the country folk called suns, saying: 'Behold three or four suns in the sky.'
On one occasion, however, on the kalends of October, the sun appeared so darkened that not even a fourth part of it remained shining in it, but appearing foul and discoloured, it seemed like sackcloth. And also a star, which some call a comet, having a ray like a sword, appeared over that region for a whole year, and the sky seemed to burn, and many other signs appeared. But in the church of the Auvergne, while the matin vigils were being celebrated on a certain feast day, a lark, which we call 'alauda,' having entered, with wings laid over them extinguished all the lamps that were shining with such swiftness that you would think they had been plunged in water, placed in one man's hand:
and passing into the sanctuary under the veil, it wished to extinguish the small candle, but, prevented by the doorkeepers, it was killed. It did something similar also in the basilica of the blessed Andrew, with the lamps that were shining. Now indeed, as that very plague drew near, so great a slaughter of that people was wrought throughout that whole region that the number of legions that fell there cannot be reckoned. For when coffins or planks were lacking, ten or even more were buried in one pit dug in the ground. There were counted on a certain Sunday in the one basilica of the blessed Peter three hundred bodies of the dead: for that death too was sudden.
For with a sore arising in the groin or in the armpit in the manner of a serpent, those men were so infected by the poison that on the second or third day they breathed out their spirit. And that force of the poison took away the senses from a man. Then Cato the presbyter too died. For when many had fled from this pestilence, he nevertheless, burying the people and saying Masses man by man, never departed from that place. Now this presbyter was a man of great kindness, and a great lover of the poor: and, I believe, this was a remedy to him, if he had any pride. But Bishop Cautinus, when he had gone about various places, fearing this disaster, returned to the city, and falling into it, died on the Friday of the Lord's Passion.
For at that same hour his cousin Tetradius too died. Then also Lyon, Bourges, Chalon, and Dijon were greatly depopulated by this sickness. XXXII. There was at that time, at the monastery of Randan of the city of the Auvergne, a presbyter of renowned virtue, Julian by name, a man of great abstinence, who used neither wine nor any cooked food, wearing a hair shirt at all times under his tunic, first in the vigils, assiduous in prayer: for whom to cure the possessed, to enlighten the blind, or to drive away other infirmities through the invocation of the Lord's name and the sign of the holy cross, was easy.
When, from standing, he had his feet infected with moisture, and it was said to him why he always stood against the capacity of his body, he was accustomed to say with spiritual jest: 'They do my work, while life too is a companion, nor, the Lord commanding it, does the sustaining of them forsake me.' For we saw him on one occasion in the basilica of the blessed martyr Julian cure a possessed man by words alone: and to those suffering from quartan and other fevers he often conferred remedies through prayer. At about this time of the plague he, full of days and of virtues, was taken from this world into rest. XXXIII. There passed away then also the abbot of that same monastery, whom Sunniulf succeeded, a man of all simplicity and charity.
For he very often washed the feet of guests himself, and wiped them with his own hands; one thing only, that he governed the flock committed to him not by fear, but by entreaty. He too was accustomed to relate that he had been led in a vision to a certain fiery river, into which the peoples thronging from one part of the shore were plunged like bees to their hives: and some were up to the waist, others up to the armpits, some up to the chin, crying out with weeping that they were vehemently burned. For there was also a spring set above the river so narrow that it could scarcely receive the breadth of a single footstep. And there appeared also on the other part of the shore a great house, whitewashed on the outside. Then he asked those who were with him what these things might mean for him. And they said:
'For from this bridge shall be cast down whoever shall have been found slothful in disciplining the flock committed to him; but whoever shall have been diligent passes over without peril, and is led into that house which you behold beyond.' Hearing these things, he was shaken from sleep, thereafter appearing much more severe to the monks. XXXIV. I will also disclose what was done at a certain monastery at that time: but the monk's name, since he survives, I am unwilling to have named, lest, when these writings reach him, incurring vain glory, he grow base. A certain young man, coming to the monastery, commended himself to the abbot, that he might dwell in the service of God: to whom, when he objected many things, saying that the service of that place was hard,
and that he could not at all fulfil so much as was enjoined upon him, he promised that he would fulfil all things in the name of the Lord; and so he was received by the abbot. Now it came to pass after a few days, while he showed himself in humility and holiness in all things, that the monks, throwing out the grain from the granary, about three measures, set it out to dry in the sun, and ordered this man to guard them. But while the others were taking food, and he sat on guard of the grain, suddenly the sky became clouded, and behold a violent shower with the roar of wind was hastening upon the heap of grain: which the monk perceiving, knew not what to do, what to perform.
But considering that if he called the others, on account of the multitude they could not store this in the granaries, setting all else aside, he turned to prayer, beseeching the Lord that no drop of that rain might descend upon that wheat. And while, casting himself upon the ground, he was praying, the cloud was divided, and the rain was poured out very abundantly around the grain, wetting not a single grain of the wheat, if it is right to say so. And when the rest of the monks with the abbot, agreeing to this, had come quickly to gather in the grain, they beheld this miracle, and seeking the guardian, they found him not far off, cast down on the sand, praying. Seeing which the abbot prostrated himself behind him, and the rain having passed over, the prayer being finished, called him to rise.
And taking hold of him, he ordered him to be driven with stripes, saying: 'For it behoves you, my son, to grow humbly in the fear and service of God, not to glory in prodigies and miracles.' And shutting him up in a little cell for seven days, he ordered him to fast as one guilty, that he might turn away from him the vain glory, lest it should breed for him any hindrance. But now this same monk, as we have learned from faithful men, is so devoted in such great abstinence that during the days of Lent he takes no food of bread, save only that on the third day he drains a full cup of barley-water: whom may the Lord, at the prayers of those who pray, deign to preserve, that he may please Him, even to the consummation of life. XXXV.
And so, when Bishop Cautinus had died, as we have said, in the Auvergne, very many were intent upon the episcopate, offering much, promising still more. For Eufrasius the presbyter, son of the former senator Ennodius, sent to the king through his kinsman Beregisil great wares received from the Jews, in order, namely, that what he could not obtain by merits he might obtain by bribes. He was indeed elegant in his manner of life, but he was not chaste in his deeds; and he very often made the barbarians drunk, but rarely refreshed the needy; and, I believe, this cause stood in his way, that he did not obtain it, because he wished to acquire these honours not through God but through men. But neither could that be changed which the Lord spoke through the mouth of the holy Quintianus:
'Because there shall not rise from the stock of Hortinsius one who shall govern the Church of God.' And so, when the archdeacon Avitus had gathered the clergy in the church of the Auvergne, he promised indeed nothing, yet nevertheless, the consent being received, he set out to the king; and Firminus, who had been placed as count in this city, wished then to hinder him: but he himself did not go. But his friends, who had been directed in this matter, kept asking the king that he would at least let one Sunday pass, that this man might not be consecrated: and that if it were divulged, they would give the king a thousand gold pieces; but the king did not assent to them.
And so it came to pass that, the citizens of the Auvergne being gathered into one, the blessed Avitus, who at that time, as we have said, was archdeacon, being chosen by clergy and people, received the chair of the pontificate; whom the king loved with so great honour that, passing over the canonical rigour for a little while, he ordered him to be consecrated in his own presence, saying: 'May I be worthy to receive a blessing from his hand.' For he did this in grace, that he might be consecrated at the city of Metz. The same man, having received the episcopate, showed himself great to men, dispensing justice to the peoples, help to the poor, comfort to widows, and the greatest assistance to orphans. Indeed, if a stranger came to him, he is so loved that in him he recognizes both a father and a homeland.
And since he flourishes with great virtues, and keeps with his whole heart all things that are pleasing to God, rooting out wicked wantonness in all things, he implants the just chastity of God. XXXVI. When, at Paris, after that synod which expelled Saffaracus, Sacerdos, bishop of Lyon, had died, the holy Nicetius, chosen by him, as we have written in the book of his Life, received the episcopate, a man eminent in all sanctity, of chaste manner of life. The charity indeed which the Apostle (Rom. 12:17) commanded to be observed with all men, if it were possible, this man so exercised in all things as far as was possible, that in his breast the Lord Himself, who is true charity, might be discerned.
For even if he was moved against anyone on account of negligence, he straightway received the man amended, as though he had not been offended. For he was a chastiser of offenders, and a forgiver of penitents, an almsgiver and vigorous in labour: to raise up churches, to put together houses, to sow fields, to plant vineyards, he most diligently strove. But these things did not disturb him from prayer. After ministering the priesthood for twenty-two years, he migrated to the Lord, who now grants great miracles to those who pray at his tomb.
For from the oil of the lamp that is daily kindled at his very tomb, he has restored light to the eyes of the blind; he drives demons from possessed bodies, gives back health to crippled limbs, and is held in this present age to be a great protection for all the sick. Now Priscus, the bishop who had succeeded him, together with his wife Susanna, began to persecute and to put to death many of those whom the man of God had counted among his intimates, though they were convicted of no fault, proved guilty of no crime, and caught in no theft; envy inflaming his malice, simply because they had been faithful to him.
He himself, along with his wife, uttered many blasphemies against the holy one of God; and although it had long been observed for many ages by the earlier bishops that no woman should enter the house of the church, she would go in even with her maidservants into the very cell in which the blessed man had reposed. But on account of these things the divine Majesty, being at length stirred, took vengeance upon the household of Bishop Priscus. For his wife, seized by a demon, was driven raving with loosened hair through the whole city, and confessing the holy one of God, whom in her health she had denied, to be the friend of Christ, she cried out that he should spare her. That bishop, struck down by the form of a quartan fever, fell into a trembling; for when that fever withdrew, he was ever after held to be trembling and dazed.
His son too, and the whole household, appeared discolored and stupefied, so that no one could doubt that they had been smitten by the power of the holy man. For Bishop Priscus and his household were ever barking against the holy one of God with wicked words, declaring that man to be their friend, whoever had vomited out insults against him. For at the beginning of his episcopate he had ordered the building of the church-house to be raised up; and a deacon, whom the holy one of God, while he was yet in the body, had often not only removed from communion but had also frequently ordered to be flogged on account of the crime of adultery, and whom he had never been able to bring to amendment, climbed up onto the roof of that house, and when he had begun to uncover it, he said:
"I give you thanks, Jesus Christ, that after the death of the most wicked Nicetius I have been found worthy to tread upon this roof." The words were still hanging in his mouth when, his feet being snatched from under him, the timber on which he stood gave way, fell to the ground, and he crashed down and died. But when the bishop and his wife were doing many things contrary to reason, the holy one appeared to a certain man in a dream, saying: "Go, and tell Priscus to amend himself from his evil works, and let his works become good. To Martin the priest also you shall say: Because you consent to these works, you shall be chastised; and if you will not amend your perversity, you shall die." And he, waking up, spoke to a certain deacon, saying:
"Go, I beg you, since you are a friend in the bishop's house, and speak these things either to the bishop or to Martin the priest." The deacon promised that he would speak; but having thought better of it, he was unwilling to utter them. But in the night, when he had given himself to sleep, the holy one appeared to him, saying: "Why did you not tell what the abbot said to you?" and with closed fists he began to strike his throat. When morning came, with his throat swollen and in great pain, he went to the men and made known to them all that he had heard. But they, making little of what they had heard, said it was the fantasy of dreams. Martin the priest, however, at once falling sick of a fever, recovered;
yet because he always conversed with the bishop, whom he venerated, and consented to the evil deeds and blasphemies which they spewed out against the holy one, he was again brought down by a fever and breathed out his spirit. XXXVII. The holy Friardus likewise, in this same period, at the time when holy Nicetius died full of days, was a man eminent in sanctity, exalted in action, noble in life; concerning whose miracles we have recorded certain things in the book which we wrote about his Life. At his passing, when Bishop Felix arrived, the whole cell trembled, whence I do not doubt that something angelic was there present, since that place so quaked at his passing; and the bishop, washing him and wrapping him in worthy garments, committed him to burial. XXXVIII.
Therefore, to return to our history, after King Athanagild had died in Spain, Leuva received the kingdom together with his brother Leuvigild. So when Leuva had died, his brother Leuvigild took possession of the whole kingdom in safety. He, his wife having died, took to wife Goiswintha, the mother of Queen Brunhild, having two sons by his first wife, of whom one was betrothed to the daughter of Sigibert, the other to the daughter of Chilperic. He also divided the kingdom equally between them, killing off all those who had been accustomed to slay kings, leaving none of them that pisseth against a wall. XXXIX.
So when the Emperor Justinian had died at the city of Constantinople, Justin reached out for the empire, a man given over to excessive avarice, a despiser of the poor, a despoiler of senators; whose greed was so great that he ordered iron chests to be made, into which he heaped up talents of gold coin; they say too that he slipped into the Pelagian heresy. For not long afterward, becoming senseless, he took Tiberius Caesar to himself to defend his provinces, a just man, charitable, fair, discerning, and victorious; and, what surpasses all good qualities, also a most true Christian.
Finally King Sigibert sent envoys to the Emperor Justin, seeking peace, namely Warnerius the Frank and Firminus of Auvergne. They, going by ship, entered the city of Constantinople, and having spoken with the emperor, obtained what they sought. In the following year, however, they returned to Gaul. After this, Antioch of Egypt and Apamea of Syria, very great cities, were captured by the Persians, and the people led away captive. Then the basilica of the holy Julian, the martyr of Antioch, was consumed by a grievous fire.
To the Emperor Justin there came the Persian Armenians with a great quantity of woven silk, seeking his friendship, and relating that they were hostile to the emperor of the Persians. For his envoys had come to them, saying: "The imperial concern inquires whether you keep inviolate the treaty entered into with him." When they answered that all the things promised by them were preserved unbroken, the envoys said: "In this it will appear that you keep his friendship, if you also venerate fire, as he venerates it." When the people answered that they would by no means do this, the bishop who was present said: "What deity is there in fire, that it should be able to be venerated?
a thing which God created for the uses of men, which is kindled by tinder, quenched by water, when applied burns, when neglected grows tepid?" As the bishop pursued these and similar arguments, the envoys, kindled with rage, beat the man with sticks amid insults. But the people, seeing their priest stained with blood, rushed upon the envoys, laid hands on them, and killed them; and, as we have said, they sought the friendship of this emperor. XL. Now Palladius, son of Britianus, once a count, and of Caesaria, obtained the countship in the city of Javols, King Sigibert granting it; but a dispute arose between him and Bishop Parthenius which greatly set the people at odds.
For he very often overwhelmed the bishop with insults, with various reproaches and accusations, invading the property of the church and despoiling its men. Hence it came about that, this dispute growing, when they had hastened to the presence of the aforesaid prince and were hurling various charges at one another, Palladius repeatedly called the bishop soft and effeminate: "Where are your husbands, with whom you live in lewdness and shame?" But these words uttered against the priest the divine vengeance, immediately following, blotted out.
For in the following year, Palladius, removed from the countship, returned to Auvergne; while Romanus obtained the countship. Now it happened that one day in the city of Auvergne both were brought together, and as they wrangled with one another over this matter of the countship, Palladius heard that he was to be killed by King Sigibert; but these things were found to be false and chiefly put about by Romanus. Then he, terrified with fear, was so reduced to grievous anguish that he threatened to slay himself with his own right hand;
and though he was being intently watched by his mother and by his kinsman Firminus, lest he carry out what he had conceived in his bitter mind, slipping away at intervals from his mother's sight, he entered his bedchamber; and taking advantage of the solitude, with sword drawn and treading the cross-guards of the blade beneath his feet, he set the point against his breast, and pressing down upon it, the sword, entering by one nipple, came out at the shoulder-blade of his back; and rising up again, pierced likewise through the other nipple, he fell and died: a crime which we marveled was accomplished not without the working of the devil. For the first blow could have killed him, had not the devil furnished support by which he might carry through these abominable deeds.
His mother runs up half-dead, and bereaved she collapses over the little corpse of her son, and the whole household sends up cries of lamentation. Nevertheless, carried to the monastery of Cournon, he is committed to burial; but he was not laid among the bodies of Christians, nor did he merit the solemnities of the Masses. That this befell him for no other cause than for the injury done to the bishop is proven. XLI. Now Alboin, king of the Lombards, who had to wife Chlothsinda, daughter of King Chlothar, leaving his own region, made for Italy with that whole nation of the Lombards. For having set the army in motion, with their wives and children they departed, resolving to dwell there.
Having entered that region, ranging far and wide especially for seven years, with churches plundered and priests slain, they reduce it under their own power. Now Chlothsinda, Alboin's wife, having died, he took another woman to wife, whose father he had killed a short time before. For which reason the woman, ever holding her husband in hatred, watched for an occasion in which she might avenge her father's wrongs. Hence it came about that, conceiving a passion for one of the servants, she killed her husband by poison; and when he was dead, she went off with the servant; but being caught, they were put to death together. The Lombards thereafter set another king over themselves. XLII. Eunius too, surnamed Mummolus, obtained the patriciate from King Guntram;
concerning the origin of whose military career I have thought certain things ought to be traced from further back. For this man, born of his father Peonius, was an inhabitant of the city of Auxerre. Now his father governed the countship of that municipality. And when, to renew his term of office, he sent gifts to the king through his son, the son, having given over his father's goods, sought the father's countship for himself, and supplanted his begetter, whom he ought to have raised up. From this point, advancing step by step, he was carried up to a greater height. So when the Lombards burst into Gaul, the patrician Amatus, who had lately become the successor of Celsus, went out against them, and joining battle he turned his back and fell there. And the Lombards are said to have made such great slaughter then
of the Burgundians, that the number of the slain could not be reckoned; and laden with booty they departed again into Italy. When these had departed, Eunius, who was also called Mummolus, summoned by the king, won the height of the patriciate. When the Lombards again rushed into Gaul and advanced as far as Mustias-Calmes, which lies near the city of Embrun, Mummolus set his army in motion and proceeded thither with the Burgundians. And having surrounded the Lombards with his army, and made also barricades, he burst upon them through the byways of the forests: he killed many, took some captive, and sent them to the king. These the king ordered to be kept guarded, scattered through various places, only a few somehow escaping by flight, who might report the news to their homeland. XLIII.
And in this battle there were Salonius and Sagittarius, brothers and bishops, who, not fortified with the heavenly cross but armed with worldly helmet and breastplate, are reported to have slain many with their own hands, which is worse. This was Mummolus' first victory in combat. After this the Saxons, who had come with the Lombards into Italy, again burst into Gaul, and within the territory of Riez, that is at the villa of Estoublon, they pitched camp, ranging through the villas of the neighboring cities, snatching plunder, leading off captives, and even laying waste everything.