History of the Franks 1 part 29/38

Now in these days there appeared at the city of Paris a woman who said to the inhabitants: Flee from the city, and know that it is to be consumed by fire. And when she was mocked by many, because she said this either from the foreboding of lots, or had dreamed some empty thing, or was certainly uttering these words at the instigation of the noonday demon (see Bk. IV on the Miracles of St. Martin, ch. 36), she answered: By no means is it as you say. For in truth I speak, because I saw in a dream a man illumined coming from the basilica of St. Vincent, holding a wax taper in his hand.

and setting fire one by one to the houses of the merchants. Finally, on the third night after this woman had spoken these things, at the onset of twilight, one of the citizens, having lit a light, entered into the storeroom, and having taken oil and the other things that were needed, departed, leaving the light beside the cask of oil. For this house was the first near the gate that opens an exit toward the south. From this light the house caught fire and was consumed, and from it others too began to be caught. Then, as the fire fell upon the prisoners of the jail, blessed Germanus appeared to them, and shattering the beam and the chains by which the bound men were held, with the prison door unbarred, he allowed the prisoners to depart unharmed.

They, having gone out, betook themselves to the basilica of St. Vincent, in which is held the tomb of the blessed Bishop. Therefore, as the flame was borne hither and thither throughout the whole city by the blowing wind, and the conflagration reigned with all its might, it began to approach another gate, near which was the oratory of blessed Martin: which had once been built for this reason, because there he had driven off the leprosy of a blotched man by a kiss. But the man who had erected it on high with interwoven wattles, trusting in the Lord and not despairing of the power of blessed Martin, surrounded himself and his goods within its walls, saying:

For I believe, and it is my faith, that he will repel the fire from this place, who has often given commands to fires, and in this place cleansed by a healing kiss the skin of a leprous man. For as the fire drew near there, mighty globes of flame were borne along, which, striking the wall of the oratory, straightway grew lukewarm. But the people cried out to the man and the woman: Flee, O wretched ones, that you may be able to escape. Behold, already the weight of the flames has crashed down upon you; behold, the embers of the fire with burning coals, like a mighty downpour, are stretching out even to you. Go out of the oratory, lest you be consumed together with the same fire. But they, pouring forth prayer, were never moved by these voices.

Nor did the woman ever move herself from the window, through which at times the flames entered; for she was fortified with most firm hope in the power of the blessed bishop. And so great was the power of the blessed pontiff, that he not only saved this oratory together with the house of his own foster-son, but did not even permit the flames, though they were master, to harm the other houses that were round about: and there the conflagration fell, which had begun to rage from one side of the bridge. But from the other side everything blazed up so violently that the river set a limit to it. Yet the churches were not burned together with their houses. For they said that this city had as it were been consecrated of old, so that neither fire might prevail there, nor serpent nor dormouse appear.

But recently, when the culvert of the bridge was being cleaned, and the mire with which it had been filled was being removed, they found a serpent and a dormouse of bronze. When these had been taken away, both dormice appeared there thereafter beyond number, and serpents; and afterward it began to suffer fires. XXXIV. And because the prince of darkness has a thousand arts of doing harm, I shall set forth what was lately done concerning the recluses and those devoted to God. Vennocus, a Briton, endowed with the honor of the priesthood, of whom I have made mention in another book, dedicated himself to such great abstinence that he used only a garment of skins, took his food of uncooked wild herbs; but he would put to his mouth only so much of a vessel of wine that he might be thought rather to sip with a kiss than to drink.

But when the generosity of the devout frequently presented to him vessels full of this liquor, he learned, what is worse, to drink beyond measure, and to be so dissolved by the drink that he was often seen drunk: whence it came about that, as drunkenness gained strength with the passing of time, he was seized by a demon and tormented by its violence, to such a degree that, having taken a knife, or whatever kind of weapon, or a stone, or a cudgel he could snatch up, he would run after men in mad fury; whence necessity compelled that he be kept bound with chains in a cell. In this condemnation also, raging for the space of two years, he breathed forth his spirit.

Another also, Anatolius of Bordeaux, a boy, as they say, of twelve years, when he was the servant of a certain merchant, sought that leave be granted him for the reclusive life. But his master long resisting, thinking that he would grow lukewarm in this and would not be able at this age to fulfil what he strove to seek, at length, overcome by the servant's entreaties, granted him the means to fulfil what he demanded. Now there was there a crypt, set forth by the ancients with vaulted (in Gaulish, voûté) and elegant work, in a corner of which was a small cell enclosed of squared stones, into which scarcely one man standing could be received. Into this cell the boy enters;

abiding in it for eight years or more, content with scant food and drink, he gave himself to vigils and prayers. After this, having endured a violent terror, he began to cry out that he was being tortured within. Whence it came about that, with the soldiery of the diabolical party, as I believe, aiding him, the squared stones by which he was enclosed having been removed, he would dash the wall to the ground, beating his palms together, and crying out that he was being burned by the saints of God. And when he had been held a very long time in this madness, and more frequently confessed the name of St. Martin, and said that he was tormented by him rather than by the other saints, he was brought to Tours. But the evil spirit, I believe, restrained by the power and greatness of the saint, in no way mutilated the man.

For dwelling in that very place through the course of a year, since he suffered no evil, he returned: but again he fell into those things from which he had been free. XXXV. Envoys came from Spain to king Guntram with many gifts, seeking peace, but they received nothing certain in their answers. For in the past year, when the army had warred upon Septimania, the ships that had gone from Gaul into Galicia were laid waste by order of king Leuvigild, the property carried off, the men cut down and slain, and not a few taken and led away by force. Of these a few, having somehow been rescued in skiffs, announced to their fatherland the things that had been done. XXXVI. Therefore at king Childebert's court Magnovald was put to death by the king's order for hidden causes in this manner.

While the king was standing within the palace of the city of Metz, and watching the sport, how an animal surrounded by a pack of dogs was being worn out, Magnovald was summoned. He, coming and not knowing what was to be done, relaxed in laughter with the rest, began to gaze upon the beast. But he to whom it had been commissioned, when he saw him intent upon the spectacle, having balanced his axe, struck his head; and he fell and died, and being thrown through the window of the house, was buried by his men, and his goods were straightway plundered, and as much as was found was brought into the public treasury. Yet some surmised that, because after the death of his brother he had killed his wife, afflicted with diverse blows, and had taken his brother's wife to his bed, this was the cause for which he was slain. XXXVII.

After this a son was born to king Childebert, who, being received from the sacred font by Magneric, bishop of Trier, was named Theodebert: over whom king Guntram had such great joy that, immediately sending ambassadors, he transmitted to him many gifts, saying: For through this one God will deign, by the goodness of His own majesty, to raise up the kingdom of the Franks, if either the father shall live for him, or he himself for the father. XXXVIII. Finally, in the eleventh year of the reign of king Childebert, envoys came again from Spain, seeking peace: but obtaining nothing certain, they returned. And Reccared, son of Leuvigild, came as far as Narbonne, and within the bounds of the Gauls carried off plunder, and secretly returned. XXXIX.

In that year many of the bishops died. But Badegisil, bishop of Le Mans, a man very savage toward the people, taking away or unjustly plundering the property of divers persons: to whose bitter and harsh spirit there had come a wife yet more savage, who urged him on with the most wicked goads of counsel in committing crimes. Nor did a day pass, or any moment, in which he did not range about either in the spoils of the citizens or in diverse quarrels. Daily, too, he did not cease to discuss cases with judges, to exercise secular soldierings, to rage against some, to drive others to slaughter; he would even proceed to beat many with his own hands, and to say: Surely, because I have been made a cleric, I shall not therefore cease to be the avenger of my own wrongs?

But why should I tell of the rest, when he did not spare even his own brothers, but plundered them all the more? With whom they could never obtain justice concerning their paternal or maternal property. Now in the fifth year of his episcopate completed, while he was now entering the sixth, when he had prepared a feast for the citizens with immense gladness: seized by a fever, he straightway, with death threatening, ended the year he had begun. In whose place Bertchramnus, archdeacon of Paris, was substituted. Who is proved to have had many quarrels with the widow of that deceased man, because she retained as her own the property which had been given to the church in the time of bishop Badegisil, saying: This was my husband's soldiery, and though unwilling, yet he restored all things.

For he was of unspeakable malice; for he often cut off from men all their shameful parts together with the very skin of the belly, and burned with white-hot plates the more secret places of women's bodies, but he also did many other wicked things, which I thought it better to pass over. There died also Sabaudus, bishop of Arles, in whose place Licerius, referendary of king Guntram, was taken up. A grievous pestilence then ravaged that very province. There died also Evantius, bishop of Vienne, in whose see Virus, a priest of the senatorial class, was substituted by the king's choosing. And many of the priests in that year migrated from this world: which I wished to pass over, because each one in his own city has left memorials of himself. XL.

Now there was also in the city of Tours a certain Pelagius, practised in every malice, fearing no judge, because the keepers of the fiscal beasts of burden were under his power. On this account he did not cease to commit thefts, raids, invasions, slaughters, and diverse crimes, both on the rivers and on the land. For very often, having summoned him, with both threatening and gentle words, I wished to restrain him, that he might desist from this malice: but I received from him hatred rather than any fruit of justice, according to that proverb of Solomon's Wisdom: Reprove a fool, and he will add to hate you (Prov. ix, 8).

For the wretch had such great hatred against me that he often, having despoiled and cut down the men of the holy church, left them lifeless, seeking occasions by which he might inflict losses upon the church or the basilica of St. Martin. Whence it came about that on a certain occasion he beat and trampled our men who were coming and carrying sea urchins in vessels, and seized the vessels themselves. When I had learned of this deed, I suspended him from communion, not as the avenger of my own wrong, but that I might the more easily render him amended from this madness. But he came with twelve chosen men, to forswear this crime by oath.

But since I was unwilling to accept any oath, being compelled by him, or by our citizens, with the rest set aside, I accepted only his own oath, and ordered him to be received into communion. Now it was at that time the first month. But when the fifth month came, in which the meadows are wont to be cut, he invaded the meadow of the nuns, which adjoined the boundary of his own meadow. As soon as he had put the scythe into it, being seized by a fever, on the third day he breathed forth his spirit. For he had laid down for himself a tomb in the basilica of St. Martin of the village of Candes, which, chosen by him, they find broken into pieces and shattered. So afterward he was buried in the portico of that same basilica;

the vessels of the sea urchins also, concerning which he had perjured himself, were after his death brought from his storeroom. Thus was made manifest the power of blessed Mary, in whose basilica the wretch had uttered a lying oath. XLI. But when through the whole land that rumor ran, that bishop Praetextatus had been killed by Fredegund, she too, the more easily to be cleared of the crime, ordered a captured boy to be beaten violently, saying: You have brought this blasphemy upon me, that you should attack with the sword Praetextatus, bishop of the city of Rouen. And I handed him over to the nephew of that priest himself. And when he had put him to torture, he disclosed the whole matter plainly, and said:

From queen Fredegund I received a hundred solidi, that I should do this; from bishop Melantius, fifty; and from the archdeacon of the city, another fifty; moreover I had a promise that I should be made free, as also my wife. At this utterance of his, that man, having drawn his sword, cut the aforesaid culprit to pieces. But Fredegund established in the church Melantius, whom she had earlier set up as bishop. XLII. While duke Beppolen was being greatly harassed by Fredegund, and the honor due to his rank was not paid him, seeing himself despised, he went off to king Guntram. From whom, having received the authority of a dukedom over those cities which belonged to Chlothar, son of king Chilperic, he proceeds with great power;

but he was not received by the people of Rennes. Coming to Angers, he did many evils there, so that he laid waste the grain, hay, wine, and whatever he was able to find in the houses of the citizens to which he had come, not even waiting for the keys but with the doors broken; and he afflicted and crushed with slaughter many of the inhabitants of the place; he also struck terror into Domigisil, but was reconciled with him. Now coming to the city, while he was feasting with divers persons in the upper story, suddenly, the platform of the house having broken, he barely escaped half alive, with many crippled, yet persisting in those same evils which he had done before. Then Fredegund also overthrew much of his property in the kingdom of her son. He himself too, returning to the people of Rennes.

and desiring to subject them to king Guntram, he left his son in this place. Who, no long time intervening, when the people of Rennes rushed upon them, was slain together with many men of honor. In this year many signs appeared: for in the seventh month trees were seen to have blossomed, and many which had earlier borne fruit gave new fruit, which were held on those very trees until the time of the Lord's Nativity. A flash was seen to run through the sky in the manner of a serpent. XLIII. In the twelfth year also of king Childebert, Nicetius of the Auvergne was ordained governor of the province of Marseille and of the other cities which in those parts belonged to the kingdom of that same king.

But Antestius was dispatched by king Guntram into Anjou, afflicting there with many injuries those who had been mixed up in the death of Domnola, wife of Nectarius: and reducing into the treasury the property of Beppolen, because he had been the chief of this crime, he came to Nantes, and began to harass bishop Nonnichius, saying: Because your son was implicated in this misdeed, justice demands that he pay worthy penalties for his commissions. But the boy, terrified by his accusing conscience, fled to Chlothar, son of Chilperic. And Antestius, having received sureties from the bishop that he would be present before the king, came to Saintes.

Now a rumor had gone forth in those days, that Fredegund was sending secret messengers into Spain, and that the same had been clandestinely received by Palladius, bishop of the city of Saintes, and forwarded onward. Now at that time it was the days of holy Lent, and the bishop had withdrawn to an island of the sea for the sake of prayer. But according to custom, while he was returning to his own church for the feast of the Lord's Supper, with the people awaiting him, he was waylaid on the road by Antestius. Who, without even the truth of the matter being examined, said: You shall not enter the city, but you shall be condemned to exile, because you received messengers of the enemy of our lord the king. But he replied: I know not, he said, what you are saying.

Yet because the holy days are at hand, let us approach the city, and when the festivals of the holy solemnities have been gone through, afterward bring forward whatever you will, and you shall receive an account from me: for what you reckon is nothing. But he said: By no means, but you shall not touch the threshold of your church, because you have shown yourself faithless to our lord the king. What more? The bishop is held on the road, the houses of the church are inventoried, and the property is plundered. The citizens with the man cannot obtain that the matter be examined at least after the celebration of the Paschal solemnity. And as these were supplicating, and he resisting, at last he lays bare the wound that lay hidden in his breast.

If, he said, the house which he is known to have within the boundary of the territory of Bourges he will subject to my dominion by making a sale, I do what you demand: otherwise he shall not escape my hands, unless he be thrust into exile. The bishop was afraid to refuse: he wrote, and subscribed, and handed over the estate; and so, sureties having been given concerning his presence before the king, he was permitted to enter the city. Therefore, when the holy days had passed, he goes to the king: Antestius too was present, but he could prove nothing of those things which he laid to the bishop's charge. But the bishop is ordered to return to the city, and the matter is deferred until a future synod, if perhaps any of those things which were charged might be more evidently ascertained.

Bishop Nonnichius too was present, who, having given many gifts, departed. XLIV. But Fredegund, as if in the name of her son, sends envoys to king Guntram. Who, the petition having been opened and an answer received, bidding farewell, depart; but for some causes I know not, they lingered a little while at their lodging. Now when morning came, as the king was going forth to matins, and a taper going before him, a man was seen, as if drunk, dozing in a corner of the oratory, girded with a sword, whose spear was propped against the wall. Seeing this, the king cried out, saying that it was not a simple matter, that a man should rest under this dread of night in such a place. And being seized and bound with thongs, he was questioned what these things meant which he was doing.

Without delay, being put to torture, he says that he had been sent by the envoys who had come, that the king ought to be killed. Thereupon Fredegund's envoys were apprehended, and confess nothing of those things about which they were questioned, saying: We were sent for nothing other than that we should deliver the embassy which we set forth. Then he ordered that man, afflicted with diverse blows and committed to prison, and the envoys to be condemned to exile through divers places. For it was most manifestly clear that they had been dispatched by Fredegund under this deceit, that they ought to kill the king. Which the mercy of the Lord did not permit: among whom Daddo was held as elder. XLV.

But when envoys from Spain came frequently to king Guntram, and could obtain the favor of no peace, but rather enmity sprouted up, king Guntram restored the city of Albi to his nephew Childebert. Seeing which, duke Desiderius, who had especially founded the better part of his fortune in the territory of that same city;

fearing lest vengeance should be sought from him on account of the ancient enmity, because he had once in that same city grievously afflicted the army of king Sigibert of glorious memory, together with Tetradia his wife, whom he had taken away from Eulalius, then count of the Auvergne, passing into the boundary of Toulouse with all his goods, he stirs up an army, and arranges to go off against the Goths, having first, as they say, divided his goods between his sons and his wife: and having taken with him count Austrovald, he sought Carcassonne. For the citizens of that city, hearing this, had prepared themselves, as if wishing to resist: but they had heard of these things beforehand. Finally, war being joined, the Goths began to flee, and Desiderius with Austrovald to cut down the enemy from the rear.

While they too were in flight, he reached the city with only a few men, for the horsemen of his companions had grown weary. Then, as he approached the gate of the city, he was hemmed in by the citizens who were within the walls and was slain, together with all those who had followed him, so that scarcely a few somehow escaped from there to report the affair as it had happened. But Austrovald, hearing that Desiderius was dead, turned back from his road and went on to the king, who soon was appointed duke in his stead. 46. After this Leuvigild, king of the Spaniards, began to fall ill; but, as some assert, doing penance for his heretical error and adjuring that no one should be found to consent to this heresy, he passed over into the catholic faith;

and continuing for seven days in weeping for the things he had wickedly contrived against God, he breathed forth his spirit; and Reccared his son reigned in his place. 1. Of Reccared and his envoys. 2. Of the death of blessed Radegund. 3. Of the man who came with a knife to King Guntram. 4. That another son was born to Childebert. 5. Of prodigies. 6. Of seducers and soothsayers. 7. Of the removal of Duke Ennodius, and of the Gascons. 8. Of the appearance of Guntram Boso. 9. Of the death of Rauching. 10. Of the death of Guntram Boso. 11. That the kings saw one another. 12. Of the death of Ursio and Berthefred. 13. Of Baddo, who, going on an embassy, was detained and afterwards released;

and of the dysenteric disease. 14. Of the peace between Bishop Egidius and Duke Lupus. 15. Of the conversion of Reccared. 16. Of his embassy to our kings. 17. Of the scarcity of this year, that is, Of the barrenness of the year and the dearness of grain. 18. Of the Bretons, and the death of Bishop Namatius. 19. Of the death of Sicharius, a citizen of Tours. 20. Of how we were sent on an embassy to King Guntram to safeguard the peace. — A copy of the Treaty at Andelot. 21. Of the alms and goodness of that king. 22. Of the plague of the city of Marseilles. 23. Of the death of Bishop Agericus, and of his successor. 24. Of the episcopate of Fronimius. 25. That the army of Childebert went into Italy. 26. Of the death of Queen Ingoberga. 27.

Of the death of Amalo. 28. Of the spices which Queen Brunhild sent. 29. That the Lombards sought peace with King Childebert. 30. Of the assessors of the cities of Poitiers and Tours. 31. That King Guntram sent an army into Septimania. 32. Of the enmities between Childebert and Guntram. 33. That Ingeltrude the religious went to Childebert to make accusations against her daughter. 34. Of the enmities of Fredegund with her daughter. 35. Of the death of Waddo. 36. That King Childebert sent his son Theodobert to Soissons. 37. Of Bishop Droctigisil. 38. Of how certain men wished to act against Queen Brunhild. 39.

Of the scandal that arose in the monastery of Poitiers through Chrodield and Basina. — A letter of the bishops to St Radegund. 40. Of the first kindling of the scandal. 41. Of the slaying in the basilica of St Hilary. — The bishops' rescript. 42. Copies of the letter which holy Radegund sent to the bishops. 43. That the priest Theutarius came to allay this scandal. 44. Of the inclemency of the year. 1. Therefore, after the death of Leuvigild, king of the Spaniards, his son Reccared made a treaty with Goiswintha, his father's widow, and received her as a mother. For she was the mother of Queen Brunhild, mother of Childebert the younger. But Reccared was the son of Leuvigild by another wife.

Finally, having taken counsel with his stepmother, he sent envoys to King Guntram and to Childebert, saying: 'Keep peace with us, and let us enter into a treaty, so that, supported by your aid when necessity demands, we may by like terms, with charity intervening, fortify one another.' But the envoys who had been sent to King Guntram, when they arrived, were ordered to lodge at the town of Mâcon; and there, after the men had been conveyed, the king learned their business, yet he refused to receive their words. Hence such enmity afterwards sprang up between them that the cities of Septimania would allow no one to pass through his realm. But those who came to King Childebert were received with charity;

and after gifts had been given and peace accepted, they returned with gifts. 2. In that year the most blessed Radegund departed from this world. She left behind a great lamentation in the monastery she had founded. And I myself was present at her burial. She died in the sixth month, on the thirteenth day of the month, and was buried after three days. But what miracles appeared there on that very day, and how she was given burial, I have taken care to write more fully in the Book of Miracles. 3. Meanwhile there came the feast of Saint Marcellus, which is celebrated at the city of Chalon in the seventh month, and King Guntram was present. But when, the solemnities being completed, he had approached the most holy altar in order to receive communion, there came a certain man as though about to make some suggestion.