14:28), know that He said this from the humility of the flesh He had assumed, so that you might recognize that you were redeemed not by power but by humility. For you who say, The Father is greater than I, ought to remember that elsewhere He says: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). For both the fear of death and the commending of His spirit are to be referred to the weakness of the body, so that He may be believed to be true God and also true man.' And he: 'Whosoever fulfils another's will, by that very fact is the lesser of him; the Son is always lesser than the Father, because He does the will of the Father, whereas the Father is not shown to do the Son's will.' To this I said: 'Understand that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, ever subsisting in one and the same Godhead.
For that you may know that the Father does the will of the Son—if the faith of the Gospel abides in you—hear how Jesus Himself, our God, when He came to raise up Lazarus, said: Father, I give Thee thanks, that Thou hast heard me; and I knew that Thou always hearest me. But because of the multitude that stands around, I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me (John 11:41-42). Moreover, when He came to His passion, He said: Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:5). To whom the Father answered from heaven: I have both glorified, and will glorify again (John 12:28). The Son is therefore equal in Godhead, not lesser, nor having anything less.
For if you confess Him to be God, you must needs confess Him whole and lacking in nothing; but if you deny that He is whole, you do not believe that He is God.' And he: 'It was from the manhood He assumed that the Son of God began to be called so; for there was a time when He was not.' And I: 'Hear David speaking in the person of the Father: From the womb before the daystar I begot Thee (Psalm 110:3). And John the Evangelist says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). This Word, then, was made flesh and dwelt among us, by whom all things were made (John 1:14, 3). But you, blinded by the venom of persuasion, perceive nothing worthy concerning God.' And he: 'Do you then call the Holy Spirit also God, or judge Him equal to the Father and the Son?' To whom I said:
'In the Three there is one will, one power, one operation: one God in Trinity, and threefold in unity. Three Persons, but one kingdom, one majesty, one power and omnipotence.' And he: 'The Holy Spirit,' said he, 'whom you proclaim equal to the Father and the Son, is received as lesser than both, since He is both promised by the Son and read to be sent by the Father. For no one promises save what is subject to his own dominion; and no one sends save one lesser than himself, as He Himself says in the Gospel: Unless I go, the Paraclete will not come; but if I go, I will send Him to you (John 16:7).' To this I answered:
'Rightly did the Son say, before His passion, that unless He returned to the Father as victor, and—the world being redeemed by His own blood—prepared a dwelling worthy of God out of man, the Holy Spirit, who is the same God, could not descend into a breast that is fanatical and stained with the blemish of original sin. For the Holy Spirit, says Solomon, will flee from the deceitful (Wisdom 1:5). But you, if you have any hope of resurrection, do not speak against the Holy Spirit; for, according to the sentence of the Lord, to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come (Matthew 12:32).' And he: 'It is God who sends; it is not God who is sent.' To this I asked whether he believed the doctrine of the apostles Peter and Paul.
And when he answered, 'I believe,' I added: 'When the apostle Peter reproved Ananias for his fraud, see what he says: Why has it seemed good to you to lie to the Holy Spirit? For you have not lied to men, but to God (Acts 5:3-4). And Paul, when he was distinguishing the degrees of spiritual graces, says: All these things one and the same Spirit works, dividing to every man severally as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11). For He who does whatsoever He wills is reduced to the power of none. But you, as I said above, perceive nothing rightly concerning the holy Trinity; and how unjust is the perversity of this sect, the very intent of its author—that is, of Arius—has made plain.' To this he answered: 'The law which you do not honour, do not blaspheme;
'but we, the things which you believe, even though we do not believe them, yet we do not blaspheme, since it is not counted a crime if both the one thing and the other be worshipped. For so we say in common speech: that it is not harmful if someone passing between the altars of the Gentiles and the church of God should venerate both.' Perceiving his folly, I said: 'As I see, you show yourself plainly to be both a defender of the Gentiles and an upholder of heretics, since you both stain the doctrines of the Church and proclaim that the filth of the pagans is to be adored. You would do better,' I said, 'if you were armed by that faith which Abraham saw at the oak, Isaac in the ram, Jacob in the stone, Moses in the bush; which Aaron bore on the breastplate, David exulted over with the timbrel, Solomon proclaimed in understanding;
'the faith which all the patriarchs and prophets, or the Law itself, either sang in oracles or prefigured in sacrifices; the faith which even now our present helper Martin either possessed in his breast or showed forth in his works—that you too, being converted, might believe in the inseparable Trinity, and, having received a blessing from us and your breast being purged of the venom of evil belief, your iniquities might be blotted out.' But he, moved with fury and gnashing I know not what like a madman, said: 'Sooner let my soul leap forth from the bonds of this body than I should receive a blessing from any priest of your religion.' And I:
'Nor let the Lord make our religion or faith grow so lukewarm that we should distribute His holy thing to dogs, or set out the sacred jewels of precious pearls to filthy swine.' At this, leaving off the dispute, he rose and went away. But afterwards, when he had returned to Spain, being weakened by an illness, he was converted to our religion under the compulsion of necessity. XLV. About the same time King Chilperic wrote an edict that the holy Trinity should be named God only, not in a distinction of persons—asserting that it was unworthy that God should be named a person, as a man of flesh is; affirming moreover that He Himself is the Father who is the Son; and that the same is the Holy Spirit, who is the Father and the Son.
'Thus,' he said, 'did He appear to the prophets and patriarchs, thus did the Law itself announce Him.' And when he had ordered these things to be recited to me, he said: 'Thus do I wish that you and the other teachers of the Churches should believe.' To him I answered: 'Abandon this belief, pious king; it behoves you to follow that which the other teachers of the Church have handed down to us after the apostles; which Hilary and Eusebius taught, and which you yourself confessed in baptism.' Then the king, angered, said: 'It is plain to me that in this matter Hilary and Eusebius are held to be powerful enemies.' To him I answered: 'It befits you to take heed to have neither God nor His saints offended. For know that in person the Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another.
'The Father did not assume flesh, nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son; so that He who was the Son of God should Himself, for the redemption of man, be held the son also of the Virgin. The Father did not suffer, nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son; so that He who had assumed flesh in the world should Himself be offered for the world. But as to what you say concerning the persons, it is to be understood not bodily but spiritually. In these three persons, then, there is one glory, one eternity, one power.' But he, moved, said: 'I will lay these matters open to those wiser than you, who will agree with me.' And I: 'He will never be wise but foolish, who shall be willing to follow these things which you propose.' At this he, gnashing his teeth, fell silent.
Not many days afterwards, when Salvius, bishop of Albi, had arrived, he ordered these things to be recounted to him, begging that he might become agreeable to him. But Salvius, on hearing them, so spurned them that, had he been able to lay hold of the parchment on which these things were written, he would have torn it to shreds. And so the king desisted from this purpose. The same king also wrote other books in verse, as though following Sedulius; but those little verses fit no metrical rule whatsoever. He also added certain letters to our alphabet, namely the omega such as the Greeks have, and se, the, uui, whose characters we have written below. These are: ω, ψ, z, Δ.
And he sent letters into all the cities of his kingdom, ordering that the children should be taught thus, and that books anciently written should be smoothed with pumice and rewritten. XLVI. Agricola, bishop of Chalon, died at this time; he was a man very elegant and prudent, of senatorial stock. He made many buildings in that city, arranged houses, built a church which he propped with pillars, variegated with marble, and adorned with mosaic. He was of great abstinence, for he never took a midday meal but only supper, at which he sat down so early in the day that he would rise from it while the sun yet stood. He was of small stature but of great eloquence. He died in the forty-eighth year of his episcopate, and the eighty-third of his life;
and Flavius, referendary of King Guntram, succeeded him. XLVII. At that time also Dalmatius, bishop of the city of Rodez, departed from the world, a man pre-eminent in all holiness, abstaining both from food and from the lusts of the flesh; very generous in almsgiving, kindly to all, very steadfast in prayer and vigils. He built a church, but since he often pulled it down for improvement, he left it unfinished. After his death many, as happens, sought the bishopric. The priest Transobadus, who had once been his archdeacon, was especially intent upon this, trusting in the fact that he had commended his son to Gogo, who was then the king's tutor.
Now the bishop had drawn up a will, in which he indicated the royal gift which the king should receive after his death, adjuring with terrible oaths that no stranger should be ordained in that church, none covetous, none bound by the bond of marriage, but one freed from all these, who lived solely in the praises of the Lord, should be appointed in his place. But the priest Transobadus prepared a banquet for the clergy in that very city. While they were seated, one of the priests began to blaspheme the said bishop with shameless words; and he broke out even to this point, that he called him crazed and foolish. As he was saying these things, the cupbearer came to offer the cup.
But he, when he had received it and was bringing it to his mouth, began to tremble, and letting the cup slip from his hand, reclining his head upon the one who was next to him, he gave up his spirit, and being carried away from the banquet to the tomb, he was covered with earth. After this, the bishop's will having been read again in the presence of King Childebert and his nobles, Theodosius, who then held the archdeaconry of that city, was ordained bishop. XLVIII. Now Chilperic, hearing of all the evils that Leudast was doing to the churches of Tours and to all the people, sent Ansoald thither; who, coming to the festival of Saint Martin, and giving the choice to us and to the people, Eunomius was raised to the countship.
At length Leudast, perceiving himself removed, betook himself to Chilperic, saying: 'Until now, O most pious king, I have guarded the city of Tours; but now, with me removed from office, see how it will be guarded. For know that Bishop Gregory is resolved to hand it over to the son of Sigibert.' Hearing this, the king said: 'By no means; rather, because you have been removed, you allege these things.' And he: 'Greater things,' said he, 'does the bishop say of you. For he says that your queen consorts in adultery with Bishop Bertram.' Then the king, angered, ordered him, beaten with fists and kicks and loaded with iron, to be shut up in prison. XLIX. But since the book demands its end, it pleases me to relate some things about his deeds; but first it seems good to set out his lineage and homeland and character.
There is an island in Poitou called Gracina, in which he was born of a slave belonging to a fiscal vinedresser, named Leocadius. Thence, being summoned to service, he was assigned to the royal kitchen. But because in his youth he had bleary eyes, to which the sharpness of the smoke was unsuited, being removed from the pestle he was promoted to the bread-basket. But while he pretended to delight himself among the leavened loaves, abandoning his service he took to flight. And when, brought back two or three times, he could not be held from his slippery flights, he was punished by the cutting off of one ear. Thereafter, since by no authority could he conceal the brand inflicted on his body, he fled to Queen Marcovefa, whom King Charibert, loving her exceedingly, had taken to his bed in the place of a sister.
She, gladly taking him in, advanced him, and appointed him to be keeper of the better horses. Henceforth, already beset by vanity and given over to pride, he aspired to the office of count of the stables. Having obtained this, he despised and set at naught everyone; he was puffed up with vanity, dissolved in luxury, inflamed with greed, and as his patroness's foster-child he was carried hither and thither in her affairs. After her death, being stuffed with plunder, he began to hold that very place with King Charibert by offering him gifts. After this, with the sins of the people pressing on, he was appointed count of Tours, and there he vaunted himself the more with the haughty brow of glorious honour; there he showed himself rapacious in plunder, swollen with quarrels, befouled with adulteries:
there, by sowing discords and bringing false accusations, he gathered no small treasures. But after the death of Charibert, when that city had come into the lot of Sigibert, while it passed over to Chilperic, all the things he had unjustly amassed were plundered by the faithful men of the said king. Therefore, when King Chilperic was overrunning the city of Tours through his son Theodebert, since I had now come to Tours, he was strenuously commended to me by Theodebert, namely that he might obtain the countship which he had held before.
He rendered himself very humble and submissive to us, swearing often over the tomb of the holy bishop that he would never act contrary to the order of reason, and that he would be faithful to me in all things, both in his own affairs and in the necessities of the Church. For he feared—what afterwards came to pass—lest King Sigibert should recall that city again into his own dominion. When Sigibert was dead, and Chilperic again succeeded to the kingdom, this man came into the countship. But when Merovech came to Tours, he plundered all his possessions on every side. Yet while Sigibert held Tours for two years, this man lay hid in Brittany. He, having taken up arms, as we have said,
was lifted up in such levity that he would enter the house of the church, in his countship, girded with breastplates and corselets, equipped with a quiver and bearing a pike in his hand, his head helmeted, secure of no one, because he was hostile to all. Now if he had sat in judgement with the elders, whether laymen or clerics, and had seen a man pursuing justice, he was straightway driven into furies, belched out abuse against the citizens; he ordered priests dragged off in manacles, soldiers beaten with cudgels; and he used such cruelty that it can scarcely be told. But when Merovech, who had plundered his possessions, departed, he became a slanderer against us, falsely asserting that Merovech had used our counsel in carrying off his goods.
But after the losses he had inflicted, he again repeated his oaths, and gave a pall from the tomb of blessed Martin as a pledge that he would never act against us. L. But since it would be tedious to go through his perjuries or his other evils in order, let us come to this: how he wished to supplant me by unjust and wicked slanders, and how the divine vengeance came down upon him, so that this might be fulfilled: Every supplanter shall be supplanted (Jeremiah 9:4); and again, He who digs a pit shall fall into it (Proverbs 26:27). Therefore, after the many evils which he brought upon me and mine, after many
plunderings of ecclesiastical property, having joined to himself the priest Riculf, perverse with a like malice, he broke out so far as to say that I had spoken a charge against Queen Fredegund: asserting that, if my archdeacon Plato, or our friend Gallienus, were subjected to torture, they would surely convict me of having said these things. Then the king, angered, as we said above (ch. 48), ordered him, beaten with fists and kicks and loaded with chains, to be shut up in prison. For he said that he had a cleric Riculf through whom these things had been spoken. Now this Riculf the subdeacon, of like frivolity and most easily swayed, having a year before this taken counsel with Leudast about this matter, sought occasions of offence by which, having been offended by me, he might go over to Leudast;
and having at last got hold of him, he approached him, and for four months, all his deceits and snares being made ready, he returned to me together with that same Leudast, begging that I ought to receive him as one excused. I did so, I confess, and publicly received the hidden enemy into my house. But when Leudast had departed, he himself cast himself at my feet, saying: 'Unless you come quickly to my aid, I shall perish. Behold, at Leudast's instigation, I have spoken what I ought not to have spoken. Now then, send me away into other kingdoms; and unless you do this, being seized by the royal officers I shall suffer mortal penalties.' To him I said: 'If you have uttered anything contrary to reason, your word shall 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 came forth as his accuser, saying that he had heard the words already spoken from Riculf the subdeacon. But he, again bound, while Leudast was released, was assigned to custody, saying that Gallienus and the archdeacon Plato had been present on that same day, when the bishop had uttered these things. But the priest Riculf, who already had a promise of the bishopric from Leudast, was lifted up into such pride that he might be matched with the haughtiness of Simon Magus.
He, who had given me an oath over the tomb of Saint Martin three times or more, on the sixth day of Easter assailed me so with insults and spittings that he scarcely restrained his hands, trusting indeed in the guile which he had prepared. But on the morrow, that is the Saturday of Easter itself, Leudast came into the city of Tours, and pretending to be doing other business, he seized the archdeacon Plato and Gallienus and bound them in chains; and chained and stripped of their garments, he ordered them to be led to the queen. Hearing this, while I sat sorrowful in the house of the church, troubled, I entered the oratory and took up the book of David's song, that being opened it might give me some little verse of consolation. In it there was found thus:
He led them out in hope, and they did not fear: and the sea covered their enemies (Psalm 78:53). Meanwhile, as they entered upon the river, over the bridge which was held up by two boats, that boat which was carrying Leudast was sunk, and unless he had been saved by the aid of swimming, he would perhaps have perished with his companions. But the other boat, which was joined to this one and which carried the bound men, was lifted up above the waters by the help of God. Therefore those who had been bound, being led to the king, were urgently accused, that they should be ended by capital sentence. But the king, reconsidering, loosed from their bonds, kept them unharmed in free custody.
But to the city of Tours, Duke Berulf, together with Count Eunomius, invented a tale, that King Guntram wished to take the city of Tours; and therefore, lest any negligence should creep in, 'It behoves us,' he said, 'that the city be assigned a guard.' They craftily set guards at the gates, who, pretending to protect the city, were in fact to keep watch over me. They also sent men to furnish me counsel that, secretly taking the better goods of the church, I should withdraw in flight to Auvergne; but I did not consent. Therefore the king, having summoned the bishops of his kingdom, ordered the case to be carefully investigated. And when the cleric Riculf was repeatedly examined in secret, and was publishing many falsehoods against me and mine, a certain Modestus, a carpenter, said to him:
'O unhappy man, who so obstinately devise these things against your own bishop! It were better for you to be silent, and, having begged pardon, to obtain the favour of the bishop.' At this he began to cry out with a loud voice, and to say: 'Behold the very man who bids me be silent, that I should not pursue the truth; behold the enemy of the queen, who does not allow the matter of her crime to be investigated!' These things were straightway reported to the queen. Modestus was seized, tortured, scourged; and thrust into chains he was assigned to custody. And while he was held bound between two guards in chains and in the stocks, in the middle of the night, the guards being asleep, he poured out a prayer to the Lord, that He might deign by His power to visit the wretched man;
and that he, who had been bound though innocent, might be loosed by the visitation of the bishop Martin and of Medard. Soon, his bonds being burst, the stocks broken, the door unbarred, he entered the basilica of Saint Medard, while we were keeping vigil there by night. The bishops, therefore, being gathered at the villa of Berny, were ordered to take their seats in one house. Then, the king arriving, having given to all a greeting and received a blessing, sat down. Then Bertram, bishop of the city of Bordeaux, upon whom this charge had been laid together with the queen, set forth the case, and challenged me, saying that the charge had been brought by me against himself and the queen. I denied in truth that I had spoken these things; and indeed that others had heard them, but that I had not devised them.
For outside the house there was a great rumour among the people, who said: 'Why are these things laid against a priest of God? Why does the king pursue such things? Could a bishop possibly say such things even of a slave? Alas, alas! O Lord God, grant aid to Thy servant!' But Bertram kept saying: 'The crime of my wife is reckoned my reproach. If, therefore, you judge that witnesses be brought against the bishop, behold, they are at hand. Surely, if it seem good that these things be not done, and that they be committed to the bishop's faith, say so: gladly will I hear what you command.' All marvelled at the king's prudence and patience together. Then, when all said:
'A lesser person cannot be believed against a priest,' the case came to rest on this, that after Masses had been said, at three altars I should clear myself of these words by an oath. And although it was contrary to the canons, yet for the king's sake it was carried out. Nor do I keep silent about this, that Queen Rigunth, grieving for my sorrows, kept a fast with all her household, until a boy should announce that I had fulfilled everything just as it had been appointed. Therefore the priests, returning to the king, said: 'Everything has been fulfilled by the bishop that was commanded, O king. What now remains for you, but that you be deprived of communion with Bertram, the accuser of his brother?' And he said: 'No, I only related what I had heard.' When they asked who had said these things,
he answered that he had heard these things from Leudast. But he, according to the weakness either of his counsel or of his purpose, had already taken to flight. Then it pleased all the priests that the sower of scandal, the slanderer of the queen, the accuser of the bishop, should be barred from all churches, because he had withdrawn himself from the hearing. Hence they also transmitted a subscribed letter to the other bishops who had not been present. And so each one returned to his own place. But Leudast, hearing these things, sought the basilica of Saint Peter at Paris. But when he had heard the king's edict that in his own kingdom he should be coerced by no one; and especially because his son, whom he had left at home, had died, coming secretly to Tours, the best things he had he transferred to Bourges.
But as the royal servants pursued him, he himself slipped away by flight. His wife, too, being captured, was thrust into exile in the district of Tournai. But the cleric Riculf was assigned to be put to death, for whose life I scarcely obtained a reprieve: yet I could not excuse him from torments. For no substance, no metal, could endure such blows as this most wretched man did. From the third hour of the day, his hands bound behind his back, he hung suspended from a tree; but at the ninth hour, taken down and stretched on the pulleys, he was beaten with cudgels, rods, and double thongs—and that not by one or two, but as many as could come near the wretched man's limbs, so many were the floggers.
But when he was now in mortal peril, he revealed the truth and openly disclosed the secrets of the plot. For he said that the charge had been brought against the queen for this purpose: that, once she had been cast out of the kingdom and the brothers had been killed, Chlodovech might receive the kingdom from his father, Leudast the dukedom, while Riculf the priest—who had already, since the time of the blessed bishop Eufronius, been a friend of Chlodovech—might gain the bishopric of Tours, the archdeaconate having here been promised to Riculf the cleric. As for us, when by the grace of God we had returned to Tours, we found the church thrown into confusion by Riculf the priest; for this man, under Bishop Eufronius, having been advanced from among the poor, had been ordained archdeacon. Thereafter, raised to the priesthood, he withdrew to...
...proud, ever haughty and puffed up, presumptuous; for while I was still residing with the king, this man, as though he were already bishop, impudently enters the church's house, makes an inventory of the church's silver, and brings the rest of its goods under his own power. He enriches the senior clergy with gifts, bestows vineyards, and distributes meadows; but the lesser ones he afflicts with cudgels and many blows, even with his own hand, saying: 'Acknowledge your lord, who has won the victory over his enemies, whose ingenuity has purged the city of Tours of the Arvernian people' — the wretch not knowing that, apart from five bishops, all the rest who have received the priesthood of Tours are joined to the lineage of our forebears.