History of the Franks 1 part 13/38

When Mummolus had learned of this, he set his army in motion, and rushing upon them he killed many thousands of them, and did not cease slaying until evening, until night put an end to it. For he had found the men unaware, and surmising nothing of the things that befell them. But when morning came, the Saxons drew up their army, preparing themselves for battle. But through messengers running back and forth they made peace, and gifts having been given to Mummolus, leaving behind all the plunder of the region together with the captives, they departed; first swearing that they would return into Gaul to the subjection of the kings and to the support of the Franks.

So the Saxons, having returned into Italy, taking with them their wives and little ones and all the furnishings of their substance, resolving to return into Gaul—namely, that being gathered in by King Sigibert, they might be settled in the place from which they had gone out. And they made of themselves, as they say, two columns; and one came by way of the city of Nice, the other by way of Embrun, holding indeed that same road which they had held the year before; and they were joined in the territory of Avignon. For it was then the time of harvest, and that place above all had the fruits of the earth under the open sky, nor had the inhabitants stored away any of these at home. Finally, coming onto the threshing-floors, they divide the standing grain among themselves;

and gathering and threshing them, they ate up the produce, leaving none of these to those who had labored. But after they had come, the fruits being consumed, to the bank of the river Rhône, that crossing the torrent they might betake themselves to the kingdom of King Sigibert, Mummolus met them, saying: "You shall not cross this torrent. Behold, you have laid waste the regions of my lord the king; you have gathered the crops, devastated the cattle, given houses over to flames, cut down olive-groves and vineyards. You shall not go up, unless you first make satisfaction to those few whom you have left.

Otherwise you shall not escape my hands, but I will lay the sword upon you, and upon your wives and your little ones, and will avenge the injury of my lord King Guntram." Then they, being greatly afraid, by giving many thousands of gold coins for their ransom, were permitted to cross; and thus they reached Auvergne. It was then springtime; there they were offering little ingots of cut bronze in place of gold, which whoever saw did not doubt to be anything other than that it was tested and assayed gold. For it had been so colored by some skill I know not what; whence not a few, deceived by this fraud, accepting bronze instead of gold, were made poor men. These, however, crossing over to King Sigibert, were settled in the place from which they had formerly gone out.

XLIV. Now in the kingdom of King Sigibert, Jovinus having been removed from the office of governor of the Province, Albinus was substituted in his place. This affair stirred up great enmity between them. So when ships from overseas came to the harbor of Marseilles, the men of Vigilius the archdeacon stole seventy vessels, which are commonly called orcae, of oil and fish-sauce, without the owner's knowledge. But the merchant, when he had learned that the thing had been carried off from him by theft, began diligently to inquire in what place the theft had been concealed. Inquiring into these things, he heard from a certain person that the men of Vigilius the archdeacon had perpetrated it.

These things reached the archdeacon, who, inquiring and finding them out, by no means made it public, but began to make excuses for his own men, saying: "Never has one gone out from my house who would dare to commit such a thing." While the archdeacon was thus excusing them, I say, the merchant went to Albinus: he sets forth the case, and accuses the archdeacon as implicated in the crime of this fraud. Now on the holy day of the Lord's Nativity, when the bishop was coming into the church, the archdeacon, clothed in his alb, was at hand, inviting the bishop, as is the custom, to proceed to the altar and to celebrate the solemnity of the holy day at the fitting time. Without delay, Albinus, springing up from his seat, seized the archdeacon, dragged him down, beat him with fists and kicks, and confined him in prison custody.

For him they were never able to obtain release—neither the bishop, nor the citizens, nor any elder, nor the very voice of the whole people clamoring—that, sureties being given, the archdeacon might be allowed to celebrate the holy day along with the rest, and that his accusation might be heard afterward; but not even out of regard for the most sacred solemnities themselves did he have such fear as not to dare to seize a minister of the Lord's altar on such a day. What more? He condemned the archdeacon to four thousand solidi; who, coming into the presence of King Sigibert, made amends with a fourfold satisfaction, Jovinus prosecuting him. XLV. After this, three dukes of the Lombards, namely Amo, Zaban, and Rhodanus, broke into Gaul.

And Amo, taking the road by Embrun as far as Machovilla in the territory of Avignon, which Mummolus had won by royal gift, came thither and there fixed his tents. Zaban, however, descending by the city of Die, came as far as Valence, and there pitched camp. Rhodanus, moreover, attacked the city of Grenoble, and there spread out his pavilions. And Amo also subdued the province of Arles, with the cities that lie around. And coming even to the very Stony Field which lies near the city of Marseilles, he stripped it both of cattle and of men; and he prepared a siege for the people of Aix, from whom, having received twenty-two pounds of silver, he withdrew.

And thus Rhodanus and Zaban also did in the places to which they had come. When these things had been reported to Mummolus, he set his army in motion and met Rhodanus, who was besieging the city of Grenoble. But when the army was laboriously crossing the river Isère, by the nod of God an animal entered the river and showed the ford; and thus the people came out onto the farther bank. Seeing this, the Lombards, without delay, with drawn swords assailed them, and battle being joined, they were cut down to such a degree that Rhodanus, wounded by a lance, fled to the heights of the mountains. Thence with five hundred men who remained to him, breaking out through the byways of the forests, he reached Zaban, who was then besieging the city of Valence; and he related to him all that had been done.

Then, giving everything alike over to plunder, they returned to the city of Embrun; and there Mummolus came face to face with them with an innumerable army, and battle being joined, the phalanxes of the Lombards were cut down to the point of utter destruction, and the dukes with a few men returned into Italy. And when they had been carried as far as the city of Susa, and the inhabitants of the place received them harshly—especially since Sisinnius, master of the soldiers on the emperor's side, resided in this city—a servant of Mummolus, in disguise, in the sight of Zaban, presented letters to Sisinnius and gave greeting in the name of Mummolus, saying: "Behold, he himself is close at hand." Hearing this, Zaban, departing from that very city at swift pace, passed by.

Hearing these things, Amo, with all the plunder collected, set out on the journey; but the snows resisting, he left the plunder behind and scarcely with a few men was able to break through. For they had been terrified by the prowess of Mummolus. XLVI. For Mummolus waged many wars in which he stood forth victor. For after the death of Charibert, when Chilperic had invaded Tours and Poitiers, which had come by treaty into the portion of King Sigibert, that king himself, joined with his brother Guntram, chose Mummolus, who should recall these cities to their lord. He, coming to Tours, and Chlodovech the son of Chilperic having been put to flight thence, and oaths having been exacted from the people for the side of King Sigibert, proceeded to Poitiers.

But Basilius and Sigharius, citizens of Poitiers, having gathered a multitude, wished to resist; these, surrounded on various sides, he crushed, overwhelmed, and slew; and thus coming to Poitiers, he exacted the oaths. Let these things said meanwhile concerning Mummolus suffice; the rest are to be set forth hereafter. XLVII. About to speak of the destruction of Andarchius, it pleases me first to begin with his stock and his fatherland. This man, then, as they assert, was the slave of the senator Felix, who, being appointed to the service of his master and placed with him at the study of letters, well instructed, shone forth. For he was fully educated in the works of Virgil, in the books of the Theodosian law, and in the art of calculation. Swollen therefore by this knowledge, he began to despise his masters;

and he commended himself to the patronage of Duke Lupus, when the latter came to the city of Marseilles by command of King Sigibert. Returning from there, Lupus ordered him to go away with him, and commended him diligently to King Sigibert, and handed him over to service; the king, directing him through various places, gave him an opportunity of military service. Held from this as a man of honor, he came to Auvergne; and there he forged a friendship with Ursus, a citizen of that city. Meanwhile, being of keen wit, desiring to betroth his daughter to himself, he hid a cuirass, as they say, in a chest in which papers were wont to be stowed, and said to the woman, Ursus' wife:

"I commit to you in this chest a great quantity of my gold pieces, more than sixteen thousand, stored away; which will be able to be yours, if you grant me your daughter to be betrothed." But—"To what do you not drive mortal hearts, O accursed hunger for gold?" (Virgil, Aeneid, Book III). The woman, simply believing these things, promised that, her husband being absent, the girl should be betrothed to this man. But he, having returned to the king, presented an order to the judge of the place, that he should join this girl to himself in marriage, saying: "For I have given the betrothal-pledge in her betrothal." But that man denied it, saying: "For I neither know you, whence you are, nor do I have anything of your goods."

This dispute sprouting up and growing more vehemently, Andarchius sought that Ursus be summoned to the king's presence. And when he had come to the villa of Berny, he looks for another man, Ursus by name, whom he secretly led to the altar and made to swear and to say: "By this holy place and the relics of the blessed martyrs, if I do not hand over my daughter to you in marriage, I shall not delay to satisfy you with sixteen thousand solidi." For witnesses were standing in the sacristy, secretly listening to the words of the speaker, but not at all seeing the person who spoke. Then Andarchius soothed Ursus with gentle words, and made him return to his fatherland without the king's presence.

And after the oath was thus made, he presented to the king a written record of the oaths, the other man having departed, saying: "Thus and so has Ursus written for me; and therefore I beseech the order of your glory, that he hand over his daughter to me in marriage. Otherwise, let it be permitted to me to possess his goods, until, having received the sixteen thousand solidi, I withdraw myself from this case." Then, having obtained the orders, he returned to Auvergne; he showed the king's command to the judge. But Ursus betook himself into the territory of Velay. And when his goods were being consigned to this man, this man too went into Velay. And entering one of Ursus' houses, he ordered a supper to be prepared for himself, and commanded the waters in which he might wash to be heated.

But when the servants of the house would by no means obey their rude master, he beat some with cudgels, others with rods, and striking the heads of several drew blood. The household therefore being thrown into confusion, the supper is prepared, he is washed with the hot waters, gets drunk with wine, and lays himself down upon the bed. Now there were with him only seven servants. And when, buried no less by sleep than by wine, they had fallen deeply asleep, Ursus, having gathered his household, closes the doors of the house, which was constructed of wooden boards; and the keys being taken, he forces in the sheer mass of grain that was at hand; heaping up these piles of grain, which was then in sheaves, around the house and above the house, so that the house seemed altogether covered by them.

Then, fire being thrown in from various sides, when the material of the building, burned up, was now collapsing upon these unhappy men, they are roused, they send forth cries; but there was none who would hear, until, the whole house being consumed, the fire likewise swallowed them up. But Ursus, being afraid, sought the basilica of holy Julian, and gifts having been given to the king, he received his goods back in full. XLVIII. But Chlodovech the son of Chilperic, ejected from the Touraine, went off to Bordeaux. Finally, when he was residing at the city of Bordeaux with no one whatsoever disturbing him, a certain Sigulf, on Sigibert's side, set himself against him; and as he fled, Sigulf, hunting him with trumpets and horns as though chasing a fleeing stag, pursued him, who scarcely had free access to return to his father.

Nevertheless, returning by way of Angers, he came back to him. But when a dispute was being carried on between the kings Guntram and Sigibert, King Guntram gathered at Paris all the bishops of his kingdom, that they might declare which of the two had the truth. But that the civil war might grow with greater destructiveness, our sins bringing it about, they put off hearing them. King Chilperic, however, moved with anger, through Theodebert his elder son—who, having once been taken by Sigibert, had given an oath to be faithful to him—invaded his cities, namely Tours and Poitiers, and the rest situated on this side of the Loire. Coming to Poitiers, he fought against Duke Gundobald.

But when the army on Gundobald's side turned its back, he made great slaughter there of that people; and he also burned the greater part of the Touraine region, and had they not for the time submitted, he would have utterly subdued the whole at once. But the army being set in motion, he invades, lays waste, and overturns the Limousin, the Quercy, and the rest of their provinces; he burns churches, carries off the sacred vessels, kills clergy, casts down the monasteries of men, defiles those of maidens, and devastates everything: and there was in that time a worse groaning in the churches than in the time of the persecution of Diocletian. XLIX. And still we are stupefied and amazed, why such great plagues had rushed upon them:

but let us go back to that which their forefathers did, and what these now perpetrate. Those, after the preaching of the priests, were converted from the heathen temples to the churches; these daily snatch plunder from the churches. Those venerated and obeyed the priests of the Lord with their whole heart; these not only do not obey, but even persecute them. Those enriched monasteries and churches; these tear them down and overthrow them. What shall I relate of the monastery of Latte, in which the relics of blessed Martin are kept? When one column of the enemy was coming toward it, and was making ready to cross the river which is nearby, in order to despoil the monastery, the monks cried out, saying: "Do not, O barbarians, do not cross over here:"

For this is the monastery of the blessed Martin. Hearing these things, many of them, pricked with the fear of God, turned back. Yet twenty of them, who did not fear God nor honored the blessed confessor, boarding a ship crossed over to that place; and, the enemy goading them on, they cut down the monks, overthrew the monastery, and plundered its goods, of which they made bundles and loaded them onto the ship. And having entered the river, at once, the keel rocking, they were carried this way and that.

And when, having lost the help of their oars, they tried to make their way back by fixing the shafts of their lances into the bottom of the riverbed, the ship gaped open beneath their feet, and each man's iron, which he was holding against himself, was driven into his breast, and all of them, pierced through by their own weapons, perished. Only one of them remained unharmed—the one who had rebuked them, that they should not commit these crimes. But if anyone judges that this happened by chance, let him observe that one innocent man escaped from among many guilty ones. When these had been killed, the monks, drawing both them and their goods out of the riverbed, buried the dead and restored their property to its house. [Chapter 49.] While these things were being done, King Sigibert stirred up those peoples who dwell beyond the Rhine.

And beginning a civil war, he determined to march against his brother Chilperic. Hearing this, Chilperic sent envoys to his brother Guntram. Joining together, they made a treaty, that neither should allow his brother to perish. But when Sigibert had come, leading those peoples, and Chilperic was stationed on the other side with his army, King Sigibert, about to march against his brother, where he would cross the river Seine, sent a message to his brother Guntram, saying: «Unless you allow me to cross this river through your portion, I will come against you with my whole army.» Fearing this, Guntram made a treaty with him and permitted him to cross.

At length Chilperic, perceiving that Guntram had—namely—abandoned him and gone over to Sigibert, struck camp and went as far as Avallocium, a village in the Chartres district. Sigibert, pursuing him, asked that a field be prepared for him. But Chilperic, fearing that, if both armies clashed, even their kingdom might collapse, sued for peace, and gave back those cities of Sigibert's which Theodobert had wickedly overrun; begging that the inhabitants of those cities, whom Theodobert had unjustly oppressed with fire and sword and acquired, should in no way be blamed. The villages too around Paris fire then largely consumed; and both houses and the remaining property were plundered by the foe, so that even captives were led away. For the king kept entreating that these things should not be done:

but he could not overcome the fury of the peoples who had come from the farther side of the river Rhine; yet he bore all things patiently until he could return to his homeland. Then certain of those heathen murmured against him, asking why he had withdrawn from the battle. But he, fearless as he was, mounting his horse, rode toward them and quieted them with gentle words, afterward ordering many of them to be overwhelmed with stones. But it is not doubted that even this was by the power of the blessed Martin, that these men were pacified without war. For on the very day on which they made peace, three paralytics were brought to the basilica of the blessed Martin, which in the following books, with the Lord's help, we shall recount. [Chapter 50.] For it brings grief to the soul to relate these civil wars.

For after a year Chilperic again sent envoys to his brother Guntram, saying: «Let my brother come to me, and let us see one another, and, being reconciled, let us pursue Sigibert our enemy.» When this had been done, and they had seen one another and honored each other with gifts, Chilperic, setting his army in motion, advanced as far as Reims, burning and warring upon everything. Hearing this, Sigibert, again summoning those peoples of whom we made mention above, came to Paris and prepared to march against his brother, sending messengers to the men of Tours and Châteaudun, that they should march against Theodobert. But they, ignoring this, the king sent the dukes Godegisel and Guntram at the head.

They, setting their army in motion, marched against him. But he, abandoned by his own men, remained with a few; yet he did not hesitate to go out to battle. Joining battle, however, Theodobert was conquered and laid low on the field, and his lifeless body—which it is grievous to say—was stripped by the enemy. Then he was gathered up by a certain Arnulf, washed, and clothed in worthy garments, and buried at the city of Angoulême. But Chilperic, learning that Guntram had again made peace with Sigibert, fortified himself within the walls of Tournai with his wife and sons. [Chapter 51.] In that year a flash of light was seen to run across the sky, just as we saw happen once before, prior to the death of Chlothar.

But Sigibert, having taken those cities situated on this side of Paris, advanced as far as the city of Rouen, wishing to yield those same cities to the enemy. He was prevented by his own men from doing so. Returning thence, he entered Paris; and there Brunhild came to him with her sons. Then the Franks, who had once looked to the elder Childebert, sent an embassy to Sigibert, that he should come to them and, abandoning Chilperic, establish himself as king over them. But he, hearing this, sent men to besiege his brother in the aforesaid city, intending himself to hasten thither. To him the holy bishop Germanus said: «If you go, and are unwilling to kill your brother, you will return alive and victorious:

but if you intend otherwise, you will die,» warning him. For thus the Lord spoke through Solomon: «The pit which you prepare for your brother, into it you shall fall» (Prov. 26:27). But he, through the working of his sins, neglected to heed this. As he was coming to the estate whose name is Vitry, the whole army gathered to him, and, lifting him upon a shield, they made him king. Then two boys with strong knives, which the common folk call scramasaxes, smeared with poison, suborned by Queen Fredegund—while they pretended to be conducting some other business—struck him on both sides. But he, crying out and collapsing, breathed out his spirit not long after; and there too his chamberlain Charegisel fell;

there too Sigila, who had once come from Gothia, was greatly mangled, and afterward, being seized by King Chilperic, with all his joints branded by glowing irons and his limbs severed one by one, ended his life cruelly. Now this Charegisel was as frivolous in deed as he was grievous in greed; rising up from the lowliest beginnings, he became great with the king through flatteries; a plunderer of others' goods, and a breaker of wills; whose end of life was such that he did not deserve, with death looming, to fulfill his own will—he who had so often destroyed the wills of others.

But Chilperic, fixed in a doubtful plight, held it in doubt whether he should escape or perish, until messengers came to him announcing his brother's death. Then, going out from Tournai with his wife and sons, he buried him, clothed, at the village of Lambres. Whence afterward, being translated to Soissons in the basilica of Saint Medard, which he himself had built, he was buried beside his father Chlothar. Now he died in the fourteenth year of his reign, at the age of forty. From the passing of the elder Theodebert, then, to the death of Sigibert, twenty-nine years are reckoned. But between the death of Sigibert and that of his nephew Theodobert, there were eighteen days.

Now Sigibert being dead, his son Childebert reigned in his stead. From the beginning to the Flood, two thousand two hundred and forty-two years. From the Flood to Abraham, nine hundred and forty-two years. From Abraham to the going-out of the children of Israel from Egypt, four hundred and sixty-two years. From the going-out of the children of Israel from Egypt to the building of Solomon's temple, four hundred and eighty years. From the building of the temple, then, to its desolation and the migration into Babylon, three hundred and ninety years. From the migration, therefore, to the Passion of the Lord, six hundred and sixty-eight years.

From the Passion of the Lord to the passing of Saint Martin, four hundred and twelve years. From the passing of Saint Martin to the passing of King Clovis, one hundred and twelve years. From the passing of King Clovis to the passing of Theodebert, thirty-seven years. From the passing of Theodebert to the death of Sigibert, twenty-nine years. Which together are five thousand seven hundred and seventy-four years. HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTER-HEADINGS OF THE FIFTH BOOK. 1. Of the reign of Childebert the younger, and of his mother. 2. That Merovech took Brunhild to wife. 3. The war against Chilperic, and of the wickedness of Rauching. 4. That Roccolen came to Tours. 5. Of the bishops of Langres and Nantes. 6.

Of Leonastes, archdeacon of Bourges. 7. Of Senoch the recluse. 8. Of Saint Germanus, bishop of Paris. 9. Of Gatuppa the recluse. 10. Of Patroclus the recluse. 11. Of the Jews converted through Bishop Avitus. 12. Of Abbot Brachio. 13. That Mummolus laid waste Limoges. 14. That Merovech, having been tonsured, fled to the basilica of Saint Martin. 15. The war between the Saxons and the Suevi. 16. Of the death of Maclavus. 17. That King Guntram killed the sons of Magnachar, and lost his own; and of the uncertainty of Easter. 18. Of the church of Chinon; and that King Guntram was joined with Childebert. 19. Of Bishop Praetextatus; and the death of Merovech. 20. Of the almsgivings of Tiberius. 21.

Of the bishops Salonius and Sagittarius. 22. Of Winnoc the Breton. 23. Of the death of Samson, son of Chilperic. 24. Of the prodigies that were shown. 25. That Guntram Boso took his daughters out of the basilica of Saint Martin, and that Chilperic invaded Poitiers. 26. Of the death of Dacco and Dracolen (Corbie Codex: of Duke Dacolen and Dratglen). 27. That an army went into Brittany. 28. Of the expulsion of Salonius and Sagittarius. 29. Of the tax-assessments imposed by Chilperic. 30. Of the devastation of the Bretons. 31. Of the rule of Tiberius. 32. Of the ambushes of the Bretons. 33. Of the basilica of Saint Dionysius outraged by a woman. 34. Of prodigies. 35. Of the dysentery and the death of Chilperic's sons. 36.

Of Queen Austrechild. 37. Of Bishop Heraclius and Count Nantinus. 38. Of Martin, bishop of Galicia. 39. Of the persecution of Christians in Spain. 40. Of the death of Chlodovech. 41. Of the bishops Etherius and Eunius. 42. Of the Galician envoys, and prodigies. 43. Of Maurilio, bishop of Cahors. 44. Of the dispute with a heretic. 45. Of the things which Chilperic wrote. 46. Of the death of Bishop Agricola. 48. Of the office of Eunomius. 49. Of the wickedness of Leudast. 50. Of the snares which he laid for us, and how he himself was humbled. 51. What the blessed Salvius foretold concerning Chilperic. THE FIFTH BOOK. Prologue.