It wearies me to record the manifold civil wars which grievously waste the people and kingdom of the Franks: in which, what is worse, we already see that time which the Lord foretold as the beginning of sorrows. Father rises up against son, son against father, brother against brother, kinsman against kinsman (Matt. 10:21). For the examples of former kings ought to have terrified them, who, as soon as they were divided, were at once slain by their enemies. How often has the very City of cities, and the safe head of the whole world, undertaking civil wars, fallen! and when this ceased, it rose up again as it were from the soil. Would that you too, O kings, were trained in those battles in which your forefathers sweated, so that the nations, terrified by your peace, might be crushed by your forces.
Remember what Clovis, the head of your victories, did, who killed the opposing kings, crushed the harmful nations, subjugated foreign peoples: whose kingdom he left to you whole and unharmed. And when he did this, he had neither gold nor silver, such as is now in your treasuries. What are you doing? what are you seeking? in what do you not abound? In your houses delights overflow; in your storerooms wine, wheat, and oil run over; in your treasuries gold and silver are heaped up. One thing is lacking to you, that, not having peace, you are in want of the grace of God. Why does one take from another what is his? why does one covet another's? Beware, I beg, of that saying of the Apostle:
«If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one by another» (Gal. 5:15). Search diligently the writings of the ancients, and you will see what civil wars bring forth. Inquire what Orosius writes concerning the Carthaginians: who, when he says their city and region were overthrown after seven hundred years, adds: «What thing preserved it so long? Concord. What thing destroyed it after so great a span of time? Discord.» Beware of discord, beware of civil wars, which lay waste you and your people. What else is to be hoped for, but that, when your army has fallen, you, left without help and oppressed by hostile nations, will straightway collapse?
If civil war delights you, O king, exercise that which the Apostle (Gal. 5:17) recalls is waged within man, so that the spirit may lust against the flesh, and vices may yield to virtues; and you, free, may serve your head, that is, Christ, you who once, fettered, served the root of evils. 1. So then, King Sigibert having been slain at the estate of Vitry, Queen Brunhild with her sons was dwelling at Paris.
When this had been brought to her, and she, distraught with grief and mourning, knew not what to do, Duke Gundovald secretly carried off her little son Childebert, whom he had seized, and, having snatched him from imminent death, gathered the peoples over whom his father had held the kingdom, and made him king, when scarcely one lustrum of his age had now been completed: who began to reign on the day of the Lord's Nativity. In the first year, therefore, of his reign, King Chilperic came to Paris, and, seizing Brunhild at the city of Rouen, thrust her into exile, and took away her treasures which she had brought to Paris; but her daughters he ordered to be held at the city of Meaux. Then Roc-
colen came to Tours with men of Le Mans, and took plunder, and did many wicked deeds: which afterward, how he was struck and perished by the power of the blessed Martin for so great evils as he had done, we shall record. 2. But Chilperic sent his son Merovech with an army to Poitiers. He, however, forsaking his father's arrangement, came to Tours, and there kept the holy days of Easter. For his army greatly devastated that region. He himself, pretending that he wished to go to his mother, sought Rouen, and there was joined to Queen Brunhild, and united her to himself in marriage.
Hearing this, Chilperic—namely that against right and canon law he had taken his uncle's wife—being very embittered, quicker than the word he proceeded to the aforesaid town. But they, when they had learned this, that he had determined to separate them, took refuge at the basilica of Saint Martin, which is built upon the walls of the city of wooden planks. The king, however, arriving, when he strove by many devices to remove them thence, and they, thinking that he was acting deceitfully, did not believe him, he swore to them, saying: «If,» said he, «it be the will of God, I myself will not try to separate these two.» Hearing these oaths, they came out of the basilica, and, being kissed and graciously received, he feasted with them.
But after a few days, the king, taking Merovech with him, returned to Soissons. 3. While they were lingering there, some men gathered from Champagne and attacked the city of Soissons, and, having driven out from it Queen Fredegund and Chlodovech, son of Chilperic, they wished to subject the city to themselves. When King Chilperic learned this, he marched thither with an army, sending messengers that they should do him no injury, and that destruction might not come upon either army. But they, neglecting this, prepared for battle: and battle being joined, Chilperic's side prevailed and put to flight the side opposed to it, laying low many strenuous and useful men of it; and the rest being routed, he entered Soissons.
After these things had been done, the king, on account of his marriage with Brunhild, began to hold his son Merovech suspect, saying that this battle had arisen through his wickedness: and, having stripped him of his arms and assigned guards, he ordered him to be kept under free custody, considering what he should determine concerning him in the future. Now Godin, who had transferred himself from Sigibert's portion to Chilperic, and had been enriched by him with many gifts, was the head of this war; but, defeated in the field, he was the first to slip away in flight: and the estates which the king had granted to him from the fisc in the Soissons territory, he took away, and bestowed them upon the basilica of the blessed Medard. This Godin too, not long after, overtaken by a sudden death, perished.
His wife Rauching took, a man filled with all vanity, swollen with pride, insolent in arrogance; who so conducted himself with his subjects that he did not recognize that he had anything of humanity in himself, but, raging against his own people beyond the measure of human malice and folly, he wrought abominable evils. For if before him, as is customary, a slave-boy held a lighted candle at a banquet, he would have his shins bared, and the candle pressed against them so long, until it was extinguished; and again, when it was relit, he would do likewise, until the slave's whole shins were burned through. And if he tried to utter a cry, or to move himself from that place to another part, a naked sword at once threatened him;
and it came about that, at this man's grief, he himself would exult with great joy. For some said that at that time two of his servants, as often happens, loved one another with mutual love—namely a man and a girl. And when this love had been drawn out over a span of two years or more, joined together they sought the church. When Rauching had learned this, he went to the priest of the place; he asked that his servants be at once given back to him, pardoned. Then the priest said to him: «You know what reverence ought to be paid to the churches of God. For you cannot receive them, unless you give a pledge concerning the permanence of their union; and likewise that you promise that they shall remain free from all bodily punishment.»
But he, when he had long been silent, ambiguous in thought, at last turning to the priest, placed his hands upon the altar with an oath, saying: «They shall never be separated by me, but rather I myself will bring it about that they remain in this union: for although it has been grievous to me that such things were done without the connivance of my counsel, yet I gladly embrace this, that neither has this man taken another's handmaid, nor this woman a stranger's servant.» That priest simply believed the promise of the crafty man, and gave the people back, pardoned. He, having received them and giving thanks, departed to his home;
and at once he ordered a tree to be felled, and its trunk, cut down and split apart at the ends with a wedge, he commanded to be hollowed out, and the earth being dug out to a depth of three or four feet, he ordered the vessel to be set down in the pit. And there, laying the girl in it as if dead, he commanded the boy to be cast upon her: and, the covering being placed over it, he filled the trench with earth, and buried them alive, saying: «Thus I have not made void my oath, that these two should not be separated forever.» When these things were announced to the priest, he ran thither swiftly, and, rebuking the man, scarcely obtained that they be uncovered. Nevertheless he drew out the boy alive, but found the girl suffocated.
For in such deeds he was exceedingly wicked, having no other satisfaction at all, except in cackling laughter and deceits, and in all perverse things. Whence not undeservedly did he so pass from life—he who did such things while he enjoyed this life—as we shall set forth hereafter (Book 9, ch. 9). Siggo too, the referendary, who had held the ring of King Sigibert, and had been provoked by King Chilperic to obtain the service which he had held in the time of his brother, went over, abandoning Chilperic, to King Childebert, son of Sigibert; and his property, which he had had in the Soissons territory, Ansoald obtained. Many others also, of those who had handed themselves over from Sigibert's kingdom to Chilperic, withdrew.
Siggo's wife too, not long afterward, died; but he again took another. 4. In these days Roccolen, sent by Chilperic, came to Tours with great boastfulness, and, pitching camp beyond the Loire, sent messengers to us, namely that we should drag out from the holy basilica Guntram, who was then being charged with the death of Theodobert. And if we did not do this, he would order both the city and all its suburbs to be burned with fire. Hearing which, we send an embassy to him, saying: that these things which he was here demanding to be done had not been done from of old; but neither could it now be permitted that the holy basilica be violated. And if this were done, it would be prosperous neither for himself, nor for the king who had commanded these things to be ordered;
and that he should rather fear the holiness of the bishop, whose power had on the previous day set straight a paralytic woman. He, fearing nothing of these things, while he was residing in the church's house beyond the Loire, tore down that very house, which was fastened with nails; and the people of Le Mans, who had then come thither with him, filling their bellows with those very nails, carry them off, overturn the grain-supplies, and devastate everything. But while Roccolen was doing these things, he was struck by God, and, made saffron-yellow with the royal disease (jaundice), he sent back harsh commands, saying: «Unless today you cast out Duke Guntram from the basilica, I will so burn off all the green things that are around the city, that the place may become fit for the plow.» Meanwhile the holy day of Epiphany arrived, and here he began to be tormented more and more.
Then, taking counsel from his men, having crossed the river, he approached the city. At length, when the psalm-singers, having come out from the church, were hastening to the holy basilica, this man, behind the cross, with the standards going before, was carried along, set upon a horse. But as soon as he entered the holy basilica, the fury of the threatener at once cooled; and, returning from the church, he was able to take no food that day. Thereafter, since he was utterly out of breath, he went off to Poitiers. For they were the holy days of Lent, in which he often ate the young of rabbits. But, having disposed the proceedings by which on the kalends of March he might either afflict or condemn the citizens of Poitiers, on the day before he gave up his soul: and thus pride and swelling subsided. 5.
At that time Felix, bishop of the city of Nantes, wrote me letters full of reproaches, writing also that my brother had been killed for this reason, because he himself, being greedy of the episcopate, had killed a bishop. But in order to write these things, he coveted an estate of the church. When I refused to give it, he vomited reproaches upon me, as I said, full of fury, a thousand of them. To which I once replied: «Remember the prophetic saying: Woe to those who join house to house, and couple field to field. Shall they alone dwell upon the earth? (Isa. 5:8). O if Marseilles had had you as priest! never would ships have brought oil, or the remaining wares, but only so much paper, that you might have the greater opportunity of writing to defame good men.»
But the poverty of paper sets an end to wordiness.» For he was of immense greed and boastfulness. But I, setting these things aside, lest I appear like him, will explain how my own brother departed from this light, and how swift a vengeance the Lord rendered upon his slayer. When the blessed Tetricus, priest of the church of Langres, was growing old, and had cast down the deacon Lampadius, whom he had as his steward, and my brother—desiring to aid the poor whom Lampadius had wickedly despoiled—had consented to his humiliation, from this he incurred hatred. Meanwhile the blessed Tetricus was wounded by a stroke (of apoplexy):
for whom, when no remedies of the physicians availed, the clergy, troubled, and as it were left destitute by their shepherd, sought out Mondericus: who, being granted leave by the king and tonsured, was ordained bishop, under this condition indeed, that while the blessed Tetricus lived, this man should govern the fort of Tonnerre as archpriest and dwell in it; but, the predecessor passing away, this man should succeed. While he dwelt in that fort, he incurred the king's wrath. For it was asserted against him that he himself had furnished provisions and gifts to King Sigibert, when he was coming against his brother Guntram. Therefore, being dragged out from the fort, he is thrust into exile upon the bank of the Rhone in a certain tower, narrow and roofless:
in which for nearly two years he remained with great torment. By the intervention of the blessed bishop Nicetius, he returns to Lyon, and dwelt with him for two months. But when he could not obtain from the king that he be restored to the place from which he had been cast out, slipping away by night in flight, he crossed over to King Sigibert, and is installed as bishop at the village of Arisitum, having under him more or less fifteen dioceses, which certain Goths had first held, but which now Dalmatius, bishop of Rodez, was claiming. He departing, the people of Langres again sought out Silvester, our kinsman, and the kinsman of the blessed Tetricus, as bishop. But yet, that they sought him, they did this at the instigation of my brother.
Meanwhile, the blessed Tetricus passing away, Silvester, with his head freshly tonsured, is ordained presbyter, having received all power over the goods of the church: he then prepares for a journey, that he might receive the episcopal blessing at Lyon. While these things are being done, he himself, since he had now long been an epileptic, was seized by this disease, and, made too violently out of his senses, and for two days continuously giving out a bellowing, on the third day breathed out his spirit. These things being completed, Lampadius, as we said above, deprived of his honor and means, out of hatred of the deacon Peter joins himself with the son of Silvester, contriving and affirming that his father had been killed by Peter through sorceries. But he, young in age, light in sense, is stirred up against him, publicly accusing him of being a parricide.
Then he, hearing these things, a pleading having been set in the presence of the holy bishop Nicetius, my mother's maternal uncle, is conducted to Lyon; and there, in the presence of Bishop Syagrius and many other priests, together with the princes of the secular men, he cleared himself by oath, that he had never been mixed up in the death of Silvester. But after two years, the son of Silvester, again instigated by Lampadius, having overtaken the deacon Peter on the road, killed him, wounded by a lance. When this had been done, lifted up from that place and carried to the fort of Dijon, he is buried beside Saint Gregory, our great-grandfather. But this homicide, taking to flight, crossed over to King Chilperic, his property being forfeited to the fisc of King Guntram.
And when he wandered through various places on account of the crime committed, nor was there for him any secure place to dwell; at length, as I believe, the innocent blood crying out against him to the divine power, in a certain place, while he was making a journey, he slew an innocent man with a drawn sword. The kinsmen of this man, grieving over the death of their kinsman, a riot being stirred up, with swords drawn, cut him to pieces, and scatter him limb from limb. Such an end did the wretch receive by the just judgment of God, that he who had slain an innocent kinsman should not himself, guilty, remain longer alive: for in the third year these things befell him. At length, after the passing of Silvester, the people of Langres, again demanding a bishop, receive Pappolus, who had once been archdeacon of Autun.
He who, as many affirm, did much that was wicked — things which we pass over, lest we seem to be slanderers of the brethren — yet what an end he had I shall not omit. In the eighth year of his episcopate, while he was making the rounds of the dioceses and estates of the Church, on a certain night, as he slept, blessed Tetricus appeared to him with a threatening countenance, and spoke to him thus: 'What are you doing here, Pappolus? Why do you defile my see? Why do you usurp my church? Why do you so scatter the sheep entrusted to me? Yield the place, give up the see, depart far from this region.' And saying this, he struck the staff which he held in his hand against his breast with a mighty blow. At this the man awoke, and while he was pondering what this might be, he was fixed fast to that spot and tormented with the greatest pain.
Remaining therefore in this anguish, he shrank from food and drink, and now awaited death close at hand. Why say more? On the third day, vomiting blood from his mouth, he expired; thereupon he was carried to Langres and buried. In his place Mummolus the abbot, whom they call by the surname Bonus (the Good), was appointed bishop — a man whom many praised with great commendation, saying that he was chaste, sober, temperate, and most ready in all goodness, loving justice, and cherishing charity with all earnestness. When he had received the episcopate, learning that Lampadius had defrauded the church of much, and from the spoils of the poor had amassed fields, vineyards, and slaves, he ordered him, stripped of everything, to be driven from his presence.
He now lives in the greatest poverty, seeking his sustenance with his own hands. Let this suffice concerning these matters. VI. In the very year mentioned above — that is, the year in which, upon the death of Sigibert, his son Childebert began to reign — many wonders appeared at the tomb of blessed Martin, which I have written in those little books that I undertook to compose concerning his miracles. And although in a rustic style, yet I did not suffer to conceal those things which I myself either saw or learned as related by the faithful. Here I will only set forth what befell the negligent, who after a heavenly cure sought earthly remedies; for just as his power is shown through the grace of healings, so also through the chastisement of fools.
Leonastes, archdeacon of Bourges, lost the light of his eyes when cataracts came over them. When, after going about to many physicians, he could in no way recover any sight, he came to the basilica of blessed Martin; where, abiding for two or three months and fasting continually, he kept imploring that he might recover his sight. And when the feast day came, his eyes were made clear and he began to see; but on returning home, he summoned a certain Jew and placed upon his shoulders cupping-glasses, by whose benefit he hoped to increase the light of his eyes. But as the blood flowed out, he was reduced again to a relapse into blindness. When this had happened, he returned once more to the holy temple. And there, lingering again for a long while, he did not deserve to recover his sight.
I judge that this was not granted to him on account of his sin, according to the Lord's oracle: 'To him who has, it shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away from him' (Matt. XIII, 12). And that other word: 'Behold, you are made whole; sin no more, lest something worse befall you' (John V, 14). For he would have remained in health here, had he not introduced a Jew over against the divine power. For such men the Apostle admonishes and reproves, saying: 'Do not bear the yoke together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the believer with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.'
'Wherefore come out from among them, and be separated from them, says the Lord' (II Cor. VI, 14-17). Therefore let this case teach every Christian that, when he has been counted worthy to receive the heavenly medicine, he should not seek out earthly arts. VII. But it also pleases me to record who and what manner of men were called by the Lord in this year. Whence I reckon him great and acceptable to God who, being such, is set from our land into His own paradise. For the blessed presbyter Senoch, who dwelt among the people of Tours, thus departed from the world. He was a Theiphalian by race, and having been made a cleric in the territory of Tours, he withdrew himself into a little cell which he himself had built within ancient walls:
and having gathered monks together, he repaired an oratory which had long been in ruins. The same man also performed many wonders upon the sick, which we have written in the book of his Life. VIII. In that year too blessed Germanus, bishop of Paris, passed away; and at his funeral, besides the many wonders which he had wrought while in the body, this miracle gave confirmation. For while prisoners cried out, his body became heavy in the public square, and when these same men had been freed, it was lifted again without effort; and those very men who had been released came free, in attendance upon the funeral, all the way to the basilica in which he was buried. And at his tomb believers experience many wonders, the Lord granting them:
so that everyone, if he asks for just things, speedily carries back what he longed for. Yet if anyone diligently wishes to inquire into the wonders which he performed while in the body, by reading the book of his Life, which was composed by the presbyter Fortunatus, he will find them all. IX. In the same year too Calluppa the recluse died. From his infancy he had always been religious, and having entered the religious life at the monastery of Méallet in the territory of the Arverni (Auvergne), he showed himself in great humility, as we have written in his Life. X. There was also in the territory of Bourges a recluse named Patroclus, endowed with the honor of the presbyterate, of marvelous holiness and devotion, a man of great abstinence, who was very often afflicted with various ailments from fasting.
Wine, strong drink, or anything that can intoxicate, he never drank, except water lightly sweetened with a little honey; nor did he use any cooked dish. His food was bread soaked in water and sprinkled with salt; his eyes never grew dim. He was assiduous in prayer; and if he had omitted it for a little while, he would either read something or write. To those laboring with fevers, pustules, or other diseases, he often conferred remedies through prayer. He performed also many other signs, which it would be long to recount in order. He always wore a hair-shirt against his bare body. Departing from the world at the age of eighty, he passed over to Christ. We have also written a little book about his Life. XI.
And because our God always deigns to glorify His priests, I will disclose what happened concerning the Jews at Clermont in this year. When the blessed bishop Avitus had often admonished these same Jews to lay aside the veil of the Mosaic Law and to understand spiritually what they read, and to contemplate with the purest heart, in the sacred Scriptures, Christ the Son of the living God, promised by prophetic and royal authority;
there remained in their breasts — I will no longer call it that veil with which the face of Moses was overshadowed, but rather a wall. While the bishop prayed that, being turned to the Lord, the veil of the letter might be broken from them, a certain one of them, at holy Easter, sought to be baptized; and being reborn unto God through the sacrament of baptism, he too went forth in white robes among the rest of the newly baptized clothed in white. But as the people were entering the gate of the city, one of the Jews, at the devil's instigation, poured stinking oil upon the head of the converted Jew. And when all the people, in horror, wished to press him with stones, the bishop did not permit it to be done.
But on the blessed day on which the Lord ascended gloriously into the heavens after redeeming mankind, when the bishop went forth from the church to the basilica chanting psalms, the whole multitude of those following rushed upon the synagogue of the Jews, and having destroyed it from its foundations, made it level with the plain of the ground. On another day the bishop sent envoys to them, saying: 'I do not compel you to confess the Son of God, but nevertheless I preach Him, and I impart the salt of knowledge to your breasts. For I am a shepherd set over the Lord's sheep, and concerning you that true Shepherd, who suffered for us, said that He had other sheep which are not of His fold, which, since they must be brought, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd' (John X, 16).
'Therefore, if you are willing to believe as I do, be one flock with me set as your guardian; but if otherwise, depart from this place.' But they, long wavering and doubting, on the third day — as I believe, through the bishop's mediation — joined together in one, sent back their answer to him, saying: 'We believe in Jesus, the Son of the living God, promised to us by the voices of the prophets; and therefore we ask to be washed by baptism, lest we remain in this offense.' The bishop, rejoicing at the message, on the holy night of Pentecost, the vigils having been celebrated, went forth to the baptistery outside the walls; and there the whole multitude, prostrate before him, begged for baptism. And he, weeping for joy, washing them all with water, anointing them with chrism, gathered them into the bosom of Mother Church.