confessed that they were sorceresses, and testified that they had caused many to fall by death, adding that which by no reasoning can I bring myself to believe: «We gave your son, O queen,» they said, «for the life of Mummolus the prefect.» Then the queen, the women being subjected to heavier torments, summoned some, gave others over to the fire, and bound others on wheels with their bones broken. And so she withdrew to the estate of Compiègne together with the king, and there revealed to the king all that she had heard about the prefect. The king, sending servants, ordered him to be summoned, and, having examined him, they load him with chains and subject him to torments. He is hung up with his hands bound behind his back, and there he is questioned what sorcery he knows. But he confesses nothing of the things we mentioned above.
This, however, he brought forth more than once: that he had received from these women anointings and potions which might gain him the favor of the king and queen. Therefore, taken down from his punishment, he calls to him the lictor, saying: «Announce to my lord the king that I feel nothing of evil from the things that have been inflicted.» Hearing this, the king said: «Is it true,» he said, «that this man is a sorcerer, if he is in no way harmed by these punishments?» Then, stretched on the pulleys, he was beaten with triple thongs so long, until the torturers themselves were wearied; after this they drive stakes under the nails of his hands and feet. And when the matter was being pressed to this point, that the sword should hang over his neck to cut it off, he obtained his life from the queen, but a humiliation no less than death followed.
For, placed on a cart, he is sent off to the city of Bordeaux, in which he had been born, all his property having been taken away; but on the way, struck with a flux of blood, he was scarcely able to reach the place where he had been ordered. And not long after he breathed out his spirit. After this, the queen, having seized the little boy's treasure, consumed by fire both the garments and the rest of the things, whether of silk or of whatever fleece she could find—which they say four carts carried; but the gold and silver, melted down in a furnace, she put away, lest anything remain whole that might recall to her memory the mourning for her son.
Aetherius, indeed, bishop of Lisieux, of whom we made mention above, was in this manner either expelled from his city or received back. There was a certain cleric from the city of Le Mans, exceedingly lascivious, a lover of women, and given over to gluttony and fornication and every kind of uncleanness. He, having often consorted with the harlot of a certain woman, shore the hair of her head, and, her manly attire being changed, led her with him into another city, that the suspicion of adultery might be removed, since he had come among strangers. For the woman was of free birth, and from honorable parents.
But after many days, her kinsfolk having learned what had been done, they hasten the more swiftly to avenge the dishonoring of their family, and, having found the little cleric, they consign him bound to custody; but the woman they consume by fire. And, as the accursed hunger for gold compels, they arrange that the cleric be sold for a price, on this condition, namely, that there should either be one to redeem him, or else he should be condemned and liable to death. When these things had been reported to Bishop Aetherius, moved by mercy, having given twenty gold pieces, he rescued him from the impending death. And so, after he had been granted his life, he gives himself out to be a teacher of letters, promising the bishop that, if he should entrust boys to him, he would render them accomplished in letters.
The bishop, glad at the hearing, gathered the boys of the city and entrusted them to him for teaching. Finally, when he was now being honored by the citizens, and the bishop had bestowed on him some land and vineyards, and he was invited through the houses of the parents of those whom he was instructing, returning to his vomit, he lusted, forgetful of his earlier injury, after the mother of one little boy. When the chaste woman had disclosed this to her husband, her kinsfolk, joining together, subjecting the cleric to the gravest torments, wished to do away with him. Him the bishop, again moved by mercy, having chastised him with gentle words, freed and restored to honor. But the perverse mind could never be inclined to goodness, but rather he became the enemy of the one by whom he had so often been ransomed from death.
For he joined himself with the archdeacon of the city, and, presenting himself as worthy of the episcopate, he contrives to kill the bishop. And, a cleric having been hired to strike him with an axe, they themselves run about everywhere, mutter, secretly bind friendships, offer rewards, so that if the bishop should die, he himself might succeed. But the mercy of the Lord forestalled their treachery, and repressed the cruelty of the wicked men with swift compassion. On the day, indeed, when the bishop had gathered laborers in the field for plowing, the aforesaid cleric follows the bishop with an axe, the bishop being utterly ignorant of these things. At length, perceiving this, the bishop said: «Why,» he said, «do you follow me so closely with this axe?» But he, terrified with fear, flings himself at the man's knees, saying:
«Be brave, priest of God. For know that I was sent by the archdeacon and your instructor, to strike you with the axe. And when I had often wished to do it, and was poising the blow with my right hand uplifted, my eyes were covered with darkness, and my ears were stopped, and my whole body was shaken with trembling; my hands too were without strength, and I could not by any means fulfill what I desired; but when I had let down my hand, I felt nothing of evil at all. For I knew that the Lord is with you, in that I could not do you any harm.» As he said these things, the priest wept, imposing silence on the cleric, and, returning home, reclined for supper. This finished, he rested on his couch, having around his bed many little beds of clerics.
Finally, these men, having lost confidence in the cleric, and thinking to accomplish the wickedness by themselves, devise new schemes, by which they might either do away with him by force, or at least impose a crime by which he might be torn from the priesthood. Meanwhile, all being at rest, about the middle of the night they burst into the bishop's bedchamber, crying out with a loud voice, and saying that they had seen a woman going out from the bedchamber, and that she on this account had been let go, while they hastened to the bishop. And surely this part too was a counsel of the devil, that they might impose a crime upon the bishop at such an age—he being nearly seventy years old.
Without delay, when that same cleric was again joined with him, the priest was bound in chains by the very hands of the man from whose neck he had so often shaken loose the fetters, and he was consigned to harsh custody by the very one whom he had time and again set free from squalid prisons. But he, perceiving that his enemies had grown mightily strong against him, bound in chains, with tears entreated the mercy of the Lord. Soon the guards were overpowered by sleep, and his bonds being loosed by divine power, he came forth from confinement unharmed, he who had most frequently been the liberator of the guilty. Then, slipping away, he passed over into the kingdom of King Guntram.
When he had departed, Innocentius' followers, now joined together, hastened to King Chilperic to seek the bishopric, and they brought forward many charges against the bishop, adding these words: 'In this, most glorious king, you may know that what we say is true: that, fearing death for his crimes, he has fled into your brother's kingdom.' But Chilperic, not believing them, ordered these men to return to the city. While these things were going on, the citizens, grieved at the absence of their shepherd, learned that all that had been done against him had been perpetrated through envy and greed; so they seized the archdeacon together with his accomplice, subjected them to insult, and petitioned the king that they might have their priest back. And the king sent envoys to his brother, declaring that he had found no crime in the bishop.
Then King Guntram, being kind and abounding in compassion, bestowed many gifts upon him, and also gave letters to all the bishops of his kingdom, that for God's sake they should comfort the stranger in some way. Then, going round the cities, so much was conferred upon him by the priests of God, both in garments and in gold, that it could scarcely be carried to the city which he had merited; and that was fulfilled which the Apostle says: 'For to those who love God all things work together for good' (Rom. VIII, 28). For to this man his pilgrimage brought riches, and his exile brought in great wealth. Afterward, returning, he was received by the citizens with such honor that for joy they wept and blessed God, who had at last restored so great a priest to the church.
XXXII. Now Lupentius, abbot of the basilica of the holy martyr Privatus in the city of Gabalum, having been summoned by Queen Brunhild, arrived. For he had been accused, as they say, by Innocentius, count of the aforesaid city, of having uttered something profane about the queen. But when the matters had been examined, and he was found guilty of nothing in the charge of treason, he was ordered to depart. But when he had begun to take to the road, he was again seized by the aforesaid count and led to the villa of Ponticon, and afflicted with many torments; and being released again so that he might return, when he had pitched his tent above the river Aisne, his enemy once more rushed upon him. Overpowered by his violence, he placed the severed head in a sack laden with stones and cast it into the river;
and the rest of the body, bound to a rock, he sank into the whirlpool. But after a few days it appeared to certain shepherds, and so, drawn out from the river, it was committed to burial. But while the necessities of the funeral were being prepared, and it was not known among the people who he was, especially since the head of the slain man could not be found, suddenly an eagle came and lifted the sack from the bottom of the river and set it down on the bank. And those present, marveling, took hold of the sack and, while they anxiously searched out what it contained, found the head of the slain man, and so it was buried with the rest of his limbs. For they say that now also a light from on high divinely appears there; and if a sick person prays faithfully at this tomb, he departs having received health. XXXVIII.
Theodosius, bishop of the Ruteni, who had succeeded Saint Dalmatius, died. In that church intrigues and scandals over the bishopric grew so strong that it was almost stripped of the sacred vessels of the ministry and of all its better property. Nevertheless the presbyter Transobadus was rejected, and Innocentius, count of the Gabalitani, was chosen for the bishopric, with Queen Brunhild's support. But, having taken up the bishopric, he at once began to harass Ursicinus, bishop of the city of Cahors, saying that he was withholding dioceses owed to the church of the Ruteni.
Whence it came about that, as the long-standing dispute kept swelling, after some years the metropolitan, together with his provincial bishops, sitting in session at the city of Arvernum, issued a judgment: namely, that he should recover those parishes which it was not remembered the other church had ever held; and so it was done. XXXIX. Remigius, bishop of the Bituriges, died; and after his passing, the greater part of the city was consumed by a grievous fire, and there perished those things which had survived the enemy's ravaging. Afterward Sulpicius was chosen in advance for the priesthood in that same city, with the favor of King Guntram. For when many were offering gifts, this king is reported to have answered those who sought the bishopric:
'It is not the custom of our princely rule to sell the priesthood for a price, nor for you to procure it with bribes, lest both we be branded with the disgrace of base gain, and you be likened to Simon Magus. But according to God's foreknowledge, Sulpicius shall be your bishop.' And so, being led to the clerical order, he received the bishopric of the aforesaid church. For he is a man of very noble birth, and from among the first senators of the Gauls, well versed in rhetorical letters, and in the metrical arts second to none. He it was who reminded this synod, which we mentioned above, concerning the parishes of Cahors. XL. Now a legate named Oppila came from the Spains, bringing many gifts to King Chilperic. For the king of the Spaniards feared lest Childebert should stir up his army
to avenge the wrong done to his sister; for Leuvigild, having seized his own son Hermenegild, who had married Childebert's sister, had thrust him into custody, while the woman herself was left with the Greeks. Now when this legate came to Tours on the holy day of Easter, we inquired whether he was of our religion. He answered that he himself believed what the Catholics believe. Then, proceeding with us to the church, he attended the solemnities of the Mass; but he neither made peace with our people, nor communicated in the sacraments. And it was recognized to be a lie that he had said he was a Catholic. Nonetheless, being invited, he was present at the banquet. And when I, anxious, asked what he believed, he answered:
'I believe the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be of one power.' To him I replied: 'If you believe these things, as you assert, what cause has stood in the way of your communicating in the sacrifices which we offer to God?' And he said: 'Because you do not render the Glory rightly; for according to the Apostle Paul we say: Glory be to God the Father through the Son; but you say: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; whereas the doctors of the churches teach that the Father was announced in the world through the Son, just as Paul himself says: Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Tim. I, 17). And I replied:
'That the Father was announced through the Son, I deem to be unknown to no Catholic; but He so proclaimed the Father in the world that He also showed Himself to be God by His mighty works. Now for God the Father there was this necessity of sending the Son to the earth, namely to show God: that because the world had not believed the patriarchs, nor the prophets, nor even the very giver of the law, it might at least believe the Son. And therefore it is necessary that glory be given to God under the designation of the persons. We say therefore: Glory to God the Father, who sent the Son; glory to God the Son, who redeemed the world by His own blood; glory to God the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies man already redeemed. For you, who say Glory to the Father through the Son, take away glory from the Son,
as though He Himself were not glorious together with the Father, on the ground that He announced Him in the world. The Son announced the Father in the world, as we have said, but many did not believe, as John the Evangelist says: He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name (John I, 11, 12). Now you, who disparage the Apostle Paul and do not understand his meaning, perceive how cautiously he speaks, and how, according as one is able to receive it, he preaches among the unbelieving nations so as to impose no heavy burden on anyone, just as he says to certain ones: I gave you milk to drink, and not meat;
for hitherto you were not able to bear it, nor indeed are you now able' (1 Cor. III, 2). 'For solid food is for the perfect' (Heb. V, 14). But to others he says: I determined to know nothing among you save Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. II, 2). Now what is it you mean, O you heretic, that because Paul preached only Christ crucified, you therefore doubt that He rose again? Rather, mark his caution, and behold his discretion, what he says to others whom he saw to be stronger in the faith: We, he says, have known Christ crucified, but now we know Him so no longer (2 Cor. V, 16). Deny then, you accuser of Paul, if such madness has gripped your mind, that He was even crucified. But, I pray you, leave these things and hear a better counsel:
Apply eye-salve to your bleary eyes, and receive the light of the apostolic preaching. For Paul spoke after the manner of men, more humbly, in order to lift them up to the heights of a loftier faith, just as he says elsewhere: I am made all things to all men, that I might gain all (1 Cor. IX, 22). Will a mortal man not give glory to the Son, whom the Father Himself glorified from heaven not once, but a second and a third time? Listen to what He speaks from the heavens, when the same Son was being baptized under John's hand, the Holy Spirit descending. This is, He said, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. XVII, 5).
Surely, if you have stopped-up ears, so that you do not hear these things, believe the apostles as to what they heard on the mountain, when Jesus, transfigured in glory, was speaking with Moses and Elijah. For truly out of the bright cloud the Father said: This is My most beloved Son, hear ye Him (2 Pet. I, 17). To this the heretic replied: 'In these testimonies the Father speaks nothing concerning the glory of the Son, but only points out the Son Himself.' And I said: 'If indeed you take these things thus, I will bring forward to you another testimony, in which the Father rendered the Son glorious. For when the Lord was coming to His passion, when He said: Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee (John XVII, 1), what did the Father answer Him from heaven? Did He not say:
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again (John XII, 28)? Behold then, the Father glorifies Him with His own voice, and do you try to take glory from Him? You show indeed your will, but no power is at hand. For you who set yourself up as the accuser of the Apostle Paul, hear him, nay rather Christ speaking in him: Every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Phil. II, 11). But if the glory is now common with the Father, and He dwells in that very glory in which the Father now is, how do you dishonor Him as though inglorious? Or why should glory not be rendered to Him among men, who reigns in equal glory with the Father in the heavens? We confess therefore Christ the Son of God to be true God.
And therefore, because the Godhead is one, the glory also shall be one.' After this, silence having fallen, the dispute was brought to an end. He too, going to King Chilperic and presenting the gifts which the king of the Spaniards had sent, returned into Spain. XLI. Now when King Chilperic learned that his brother Guntram had made peace with his nephew Childebert, and that they wished together to take from him the cities which he had violently invaded, he departed with all his treasures into the city of Cambrai, and carried off with him all the best things he could have.
And he sent messengers to the dukes and counts of the cities, that they should put the walls of the towns in order, and shut up their goods together with their wives and children within the fortifications of the walls, and that they themselves, if necessity should require, should fight back manfully, lest the opposing party should harm them, adding this: 'And if you lose anything, when we take vengeance on the enemy, you will acquire more'—not knowing that the accomplishing of victories rests in the hand of God. Then he often stirred up the army, and again ordered it to rest within the borders. In these days a son was born to him, whom he commanded to be reared in the villa of Vitry, saying: 'Lest perhaps, while he is seen in public, he should incur some evil and die.' XLII. But King Childebert went off into Italy.
And when the Lombards heard this, fearing lest they should be cut down by his army, they submitted themselves to his dominion, giving him many gifts and promising to be faithful and subject to his party; and when all that the king wished had been accomplished with them, he returned into the Gauls, and ordered the army to be set in motion, which he commanded to be directed into Spain—but it came to rest. Now from the Emperor Maurice, some years before, he had received fifty thousand solidi, that he might drive the Lombards out of Italy. But when the emperor heard that he had joined with them in peace, he demanded the money back; yet he, relying on his own resources, would not even give an answer concerning this matter. XLIII. In Galicia also new things were done,
which will be related further below. Now since Hermenegild, as we said above, was hostile to his father, and was residing in a certain city of Spain with his wife, relying on the support of the emperor and of Miro, king of Galicia, he learned that his father was coming against him with an army, and took counsel how he might either repel or slay him as he came—the wretched man not knowing that the divine judgment hung over him, who plotted such things against his begetter, however heretical. So, after deliberation, out of many thousands of men he chose three hundred armed men, and shut them up within the fortress of Osser, in whose church the founts are filled by divine power:
namely, so that the father, terrified and wearied by these at the first assault, might more easily be overcome by the lower force, which was very large. But when King Leuvigild had perceived these wiles, he was wearied with the greatest deliberation. 'If,' he said, 'I go thither with my whole army, the army crowded together into one will be most cruelly wounded by the enemies' darts. But if I go with few, I cannot overcome a band of brave men; nevertheless I will go with all.' And coming to the place, he laid the men low and burned the fortress, as has already been mentioned above. The victory accomplished, he learned that King Miro was encamped against him with an army. Having surrounded him, he exacted oaths that he would be faithful to him in the future.
And so, gifts being given to one another in turn, each one returned to his own. But Miro, after he had returned to his homeland, not many days later took to his bed and died: for he had been weakened by the bad waters of Spain and by the harsh, unwholesome climate. When he was dead, his son Eurich sought the friendship of King Leuvigild; and, an oath being given as his father had done, he received the kingdom of Galicia. But in this same year his kinsman Audeca, who had Eurich's sister betrothed to him, came with an army, seized him, made him a cleric, and ordered the honor of the diaconate or priesthood to be imposed upon him; while he himself, taking his father-in-law's wife, obtained the kingdom of Galicia.
But Leuvigild seized his own son Hermenegild and led him with himself as far as Toledo, condemning him to exile; yet he could not snatch his wife from the Greeks. XLIV. Locusts also, from the province of Carpetania, which they had laid waste for five years, in this year advanced, and holding the public road, betook themselves to another province which was neighboring to this one. Wherefore their length extended for a hundred and fifty miles; but their breadth was bounded at a hundred miles. In this year many portents appeared in the Gauls, and there were many devastations among the people. For in the month of January roses were seen;
around the sun also a great ring appeared, mingled with diverse colors, such as is wont to be shown in it when the heavenly rainbow is displayed as the rain departs. The frost grievously scorched the vines; a tempest also following laid waste the vines and crops in very many places, and what remained of the hail an immense drought consumed. And scanty fruit was seen on some vines, but none at all on others, so that men, enraged against God, threw open the entrances of their vineyards and let in their cattle and beasts of burden, mingling for themselves harmful and wretched prayers, and saying: 'May a shoot never again be born in the vines forever.' And the trees which in the month of July had brought forth fruit, in the month of September yielded another fruit.
A renewed murrain among the cattle grew so strong that scarcely anything remained. XLV. Meanwhile, as the Kalends of September drew near, a great embassy of the Goths came to King Chilperic. He himself, now having returned to Paris, ordered many households to be carried off from the fiscal estates and loaded onto wagons; he also ordered many, weeping and unwilling to go, to be thrust into custody, that he might the more easily send them along with his daughter. For they say that many, out of this bitterness, wrung the life from themselves with a noose, while they feared to be taken away from their own kindred. Now son was being parted from father, mother from daughter, and they departed with grievous groaning and curses;
and so great was the lamentation in the city of Paris that it might be compared to the Egyptian lamentation. But many of the better-born, who were being compelled by force to depart, drew up their wills, assigning their property to the churches, and asking that, as soon as the girl had entered Spain, those wills should at once be opened, just as if they were already buried. Meanwhile the envoys of King Childebert came to Paris, protesting to King Chilperic that he should take away nothing from the cities which he held from his father's kingdom, nor present his daughter with anything of his treasures, and that he should not dare to touch slaves, nor horsemen, nor yokes of oxen, nor anything of this kind from these.
Of these envoys they say one was secretly slain, but it is not known by whom. Suspicion, however, was turned toward the king. But King Chilperic, promising that he would touch nothing of these things, summoned the better Franks and the rest of the faithful, and celebrated the wedding of his daughter. And when she had been handed over to the envoys of the Goths, he gave her great treasures; but her mother also brought forth an immense weight of gold and silver, as well as of garments, so that the king, seeing these things, thought that nothing remained to himself. The queen, perceiving him to be troubled, turned to the Franks and spoke thus: 'Do not suppose, O men, that anything here is held from the treasures of the former kings. For all that you behold has been offered from my own property, since the most glorious king has bestowed much upon me.
And I myself have gathered not a little by my own labor, and from the estates granted to me, both from their produce and from their tributes; I have amassed very much. And you too have often enriched me with your gifts, from which are these things that you now behold before you; for here nothing is held from the public treasures.' And so the king's mind was deceived. For so great was the multitude of things that gold and silver, and the rest of the ornaments, would load fifty wagons. The Franks indeed offered many gifts: some gold, some silver, some horses, very many garments, and each one gave a present according as he was able.