History of the Franks 1 part 3/38

«Yet if you will do this, that we may remain unstained in the world, I will grant you a share of the dowry which I have promised from my betrothed, my Lord Jesus Christ, to whom I have vowed myself both his handmaid and his bride.» Then he, armed with the standard of the cross, said: «I will do what you urge.» And having given their right hands to each other, they rested. For many years afterward, lying in one bed, they lived with praiseworthy chastity. This was afterward made plain in their passing. For when, the contest being completed, the girl passed over to Christ, the man, having performed the office of the funeral, as he was laying the girl in the tomb, said: «I give you thanks, eternal Lord our God, that just as I received this treasure as entrusted by you, so unstained I restore it to your loving-kindness.»

To this she, smiling, said: «Why do you speak of what you are not asked?» And not long after he himself followed her who had been buried. Now since the tomb of each had been placed against different walls, a new marvel appeared which made manifest their chastity. For when in the morning the people came to the place, they found the tombs side by side, which they had left far distant from one another, namely so that those whom heaven holds as companions, the monument of their buried bodies should not separate. To this day the inhabitants of the place have chosen to call them «The Two Lovers.» And we have made mention of them in the book of Miracles. XLIII.

Now in the second year of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, Saint Martin, bishop of Tours, full of virtues and holiness, bestowing many benefits upon the sick, in the eighty-first year of his age, and the twenty-sixth of his episcopate, at the village of Candes in his diocese, departing from this world, happily passed over to Christ. He passed away at midnight, which was reckoned the Lord's Day, when Atticus and Caesarius were consuls. For many at his passing heard the sound of singers in heaven, which we have set forth more fully in the first book of his miracles (chapters 4 and 5). For when the holy man of God had first begun to fall ill at Candes, as we have said, the people of Poitiers came to his passing just as did those of Tours.

When he had passed away, a great altercation arose between the two peoples. For the men of Poitiers said: «He is our monk; he was abbot to us; we claim back what was entrusted to us. Let it suffice for you that, while he was bishop in the world, you enjoyed his conversation, you shared his banquet, you were strengthened by his blessings, and moreover you were gladdened by his miracles. Let all these things therefore suffice for you: let it be permitted to us to carry away at least his lifeless corpse.» To this the men of Tours replied: «If you say that the deeds of his miracles suffice for you, know that, while placed among you, he wrought more than he did here. For, to pass over very many things, he raised two dead men for you, but for us only one;»

«and, as he himself often used to say, his power was greater before the episcopate than after the episcopate. Therefore it is necessary that what he did not fulfill among us while living, he should accomplish even when dead. For he was taken away from you, but given to us by God. Truly, if the custom established of old is preserved, in the city where he was ordained he shall, by God's command, have his tomb. Certainly, if you desire to claim him on account of the privilege of the monastery, know that his first monastery was with the people of Milan.» As these men were thus quarreling, with the sun setting the night closed in, and the body, placed in the midst, with the doors fastened by a bolt, was guarded by both peoples, intending that when morning came it should be carried off by violence by the men of Poitiers:

but God almighty was unwilling to deprive the city of Tours of its own patron. At length, at midnight the whole Poitevin host was overcome by sleep, and there remained no one out of all that multitude who kept watch. Therefore, when the men of Tours saw that they had fallen asleep, having taken hold of the clod of the most holy body, some threw it out through a window, others received it from outside, and having placed it in a boat they went down the river Vienne with all the people. And entering the channel of the Loire, they directed it toward the city of Tours with great praises and abundant psalm-singing. Roused by their voices, the men of Poitiers, having nothing of the treasure which they had guarded, returned to their own homes with great confusion.

But if anyone should ask why, after the passing of Bishop Gatianus, only one, namely Litorius, was bishop up to Saint Martin, let him know that, with the pagans opposing, the city of Tours was for a long time without priestly blessing. For those who were then considered Christians celebrated the divine office secretly and in hiding-places. For if any Christians were discovered by the pagans, they were either subjected to beatings or beheaded by the sword. From the Passion of the Lord, therefore, up to the passing of Saint Martin, 412 years are reckoned. Here ends the first book, containing 5546 years, which are reckoned from the beginning of the world up to the passing of Saint Martin the bishop. HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF THE SECOND BOOK. I.

Of the episcopate of Bricius. II. Of the Vandals and the persecution of Christians under them. III. Of Cyrola the bishop of the heretics, and of the holy Martyrs. IV. Of the persecution carried on under Athanaric. V. Of Aravatius the bishop and the Huns. VI. Of the basilica of Saint Stephen at the city of Metz. VII. Of the wife of Aetius. Of Attila. VIII. What the historians wrote concerning Aetius. IX. What the same say concerning the Franks. X. What the prophets of the Lord write concerning the idols of the nations. XI. Of the emperor Avitus. XII. Of King Childeric and Aegidius. XIII. Of the episcopate of Venerandus and Rusticus at the Arverni. XIV. Of the episcopate of Eustochius and Perpetuus of Tours; and of the basilica of Saint Martin. XV. Of the basilica of Saint Symphorian. XVI.

Of Bishop Namatius, and the church of the Arverni. XVII. Of his wife, and the basilica of Saint Stephen. XVIII. That Childeric came to Orléans, and Odoacer to Angers. XIX. The war between the Saxons and the Romans. XX. Of Victorius the duke. XXI. Of Bishop Eparchius. XXII. Of Bishop Sidonius. XXIII. Of the holiness of Bishop Sidonius, and of the injuries moderated by divine vengeance. XXIV. Of the famine of Burgundy, and of Ecdicius. XXV. Of Euric the persecutor. XXVI. Of the death of Saint Perpetuus, and the episcopate of Volusianus and Verus. XXVII. That Clovis received the kingdom. XXVIII. That Clovis received Clotild. XXIX. Of their first son, baptized and dying in his baptismal robes. XXX. The war against the Alamanni. XXXI.

Of the baptism of Clovis. XXXII. The war against Gundobad. XXXIII. Of the destruction of Godigisel. XXXIV. That Gundobad wished to be converted. XXXV. That Clovis and Alaric saw one another. XXXVI. Of Bishop Quintianus. XXXVII. The war against Alaric. XXXVIII. Of the patriciate of King Clovis. XXXIX. Of Bishop Licinius. XL. Of the destruction of Sigibert the elder and of his son. XLI. Of the destruction of Chararic and of his son. XLII. Of the destruction of Ragnachar and of his brothers. XLIII. Of the death of Clovis. THE SECOND BOOK. Prologue. Pursuing the order of the times, we relate, mingled and confusedly, both the virtues of the saints and the slaughters of the nations.

For I do not think it is received unreasonably, if we recall the happy life of the blessed amid the disasters of the wretched, since it is not the ease of the writer but the sequence of the times that brings this about. For the diligent reader, if he should inquire strenuously, will find amid those histories of the kings of Israel that under Samuel the just, Phinehas the sacrilegious perished; and under David, whom they call «strong of hand,» Goliath the Philistine fell. Let him remember also that in the time of Elijah the surpassing prophet, who took away the rains when he willed and poured them out upon the parched lands when it pleased him; who by prayer enriched the poverty of a widow; how great were the slaughters of peoples, how great the famines, or what drought oppressed the wretched earth.

What evils Jerusalem endured under the time of Hezekiah, to whom God added fifteen years of life. And also under the prophet Elisha, who restored the dead to life and worked many other miracles among the peoples, how great were the carnages, what miseries oppressed the very people of Israel. Thus also Eusebius, Severus, and Jerome in their Chronicles, and Orosius, wove together likewise both the wars of kings and the virtues of the martyrs. So we too have written in this way for this reason, that the order of the ages, or the reckoning of the years up to our own times, may be more easily found in its entirety. Coming therefore through the Histories of the aforesaid authors, we shall set forth, with the Lord's help, those things which were done afterward. I.

Therefore, after the departure of the blessed Martin, bishop of the city of Tours, a most high and incomparable man, of whose virtues great volumes are kept among us, Bricius succeeded to the episcopate. But this Bricius, while he was a youth of his earliest age, even while Saint Martin was yet living in the body, laid many snares against him, because he was very often rebuked by him for following frivolous pursuits. Now on a certain day, while a sick man was seeking healing from the blessed Martin, he met Bricius, still a deacon, in the street; to whom he said simply: «Behold, I am awaiting the blessed man, and I do not know where he is, or what work he is doing.» Bricius said to him: «If you are seeking that madman, look from afar:»

«behold, like a madman he gazes at the sky as usual.» And when that poor man, the encounter being returned, had obtained what he had sought, the blessed man addressed Bricius the deacon: «Look, Bricius, do I seem mad to you?» And when he, confounded on hearing this, denied that he had said it, the holy man said: «Were not my ears at your mouth, when you were speaking these things from afar? Amen I say to you, that I have obtained from God that after my passing you shall come to the honor of the pontificate: but you shall know that in the episcopate you will suffer many adversities.» Bricius, hearing these things, mocked, saying: «Did I not speak truly, that this man utters mad words?» And even when endowed with the honor of the presbyterate, he often assailed the blessed man with insults.

Having therefore obtained, with the consent of the citizens, the office of the pontificate, he gave himself to prayer. For although he was proud and vain, yet he was held to be chaste in body. In the thirty-third year of his ordination, a lamentable cause arose against him on a charge. For a woman, to whom his chamberlains used to bring his garments to be washed, who under the appearance of religion had changed her dress, conceived and gave birth. On account of this, the whole people of Tours rose up in wrath, and they referred the entire crime upon the bishop, wishing with one accord to stone him. For they said: «For a long time the piety of the saint concealed your lust: nor does God any longer suffer us to be defiled by kissing your unworthy hands.»

But he, on the contrary, manfully denying these things, said: «Bring the infant to me.» And when the infant had been brought, being thirty days from its birth, Bishop Bricius said to it: «I adjure you by Jesus Christ the Son of God almighty, that, if I begot you, you declare it to all.» And it said: «You are not my father.» But when the people begged him to ask who the father was, the priest said: «This is not my concern. As to what pertained to me, I have been anxious: if any means avail you, seek through yourselves.» Then they, asserting that these things had been done by magic arts, rose up against him in one conspiracy. And dragging him they said: «No longer shall you lord it over us under the false name of pastor.»

But he, in order yet further to satisfy the people, placed burning coals in his cloak: and pressing them to himself, he proceeded together with the crowds of the people all the way to the tomb of the blessed Martin: and when the coals had been cast down before the tomb, his garment appeared unburned. He likewise continuing thus: «Just as you see this garment unharmed by these fires, so also my body is undefiled by the touch and intercourse of a woman.» But they, not believing, but contradicting, he is dragged, slandered, cast out, so that the word of the saint might be fulfilled: «You shall know that in the episcopate you will suffer many adversities.» For when he had been cast out, they set up Justinian in the episcopate. Then Bricius sought out the pope of the city of Rome, weeping and wailing, and saying:

«Deservedly do I suffer these things, because I sinned against the saint of God, and often called him mad and out of his senses; whose virtues, though I saw them, I did not believe.» After his departure, the men of Tours said to their priest: «Go after him, and pursue your business, for if you do not pursue him, you will be humbled to the contempt of us all.» But Justinian, having gone out from Tours, made for Vercelli, a city of Italy, and, struck by the judgment of God, died a pilgrim. The men of Tours, hearing of his death and persisting in their malice, set up Armentius in his place. But Bishop Bricius, coming to Rome, related to the pope all that he had suffered.

Residing at the apostolic see, very often celebrating the solemnities of Masses, there by weeping he washed away whatever he had offended against the saint of God. Therefore, returning in the seventh year from Rome, with the authority of that pope, he prepared to return to Tours: and coming to a village whose name is Laudiacum, at the sixth milestone from the city, he took up lodging. But Armentius is seized by a fever, and at midnight breathed out his spirit, which was at once revealed by a vision to Bishop Bricius, who said to his companions: «Rise more swiftly, that we may hasten to bury our brother the bishop of Tours.» And when they, coming, entered the gate of the city, behold, they were carrying out that man dead through another gate.

When he had been buried, Bricius returned to his own cathedra, living happily seven years thereafter. After his death in the forty-seventh year of his episcopate, Saint Eustochius succeeded him, a man of magnificent holiness. II. After these things the Vandals, having departed from their own place, with King Gunderic rushed into Gaul. When these had been greatly laid waste, they made for the Spains. The Suevi followed them, that is, the Alamanni, and seized Galicia. Nor long after did a scandal arise between the two peoples, since they were near neighbors to each other. And when they advanced armed for battle, and were now at the very point of being ready for conflict, the king of the Alamanni said: «How long is war stirred up over the whole people? Let not, I beg, the hosts of both peoples perish:»

«but let two of our men advance into the field with weapons of war, and let them fight between themselves. Then he whose lad shall have conquered will obtain the region without a contest.» To this the whole people consented, lest the entire multitude should fall by the edge of the sword. For in those days King Gunderic had died, in whose place Trasamund had obtained the kingdom. But when the lads fought, the side of the Vandals was overcome and gave way; and the lad being slain, Trasamund pledged the agreement of departing, namely that, the necessities of the journey being prepared, he would remove himself from the borders of Spain. But about that same time Trasamund carried on a persecution against the Christians, and compelled all Spain, by tortures and various deaths, to consent to the perfidy of the Arian sect.

Whence it came about that a certain religious maiden, exceedingly rich in possessions, and flourishing according to the dignity of the age in senatorial nobility, and—what is nobler than all these things—strong in the catholic faith and serving God almighty blamelessly, was brought to this examination. And when she had been presented before the king's sight, he began first to entice her by flattering words to be rebaptized. But when she repelled his venomous dart with the shield of faith, the king commanded her possessions to be taken away—she who already in mind possessed the kingdoms of paradise; then, being subjected to tortures, to be tormented without hope of the present life. What more?

After many examinations, after the treasures of earthly riches had been taken away, when she could not be broken into this, that she should rend asunder the blessed Trinity, she is led unwillingly to be rebaptized. And when she was being forced by violence to be immersed in that filthy laver, and cried out: «I believe the Father with the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to be of one substance and essence»; with a worthy unction she infected all the waters, that is, she sprinkled them with a flux of the belly. Thereupon, being led to the lawful examination, after the rack, after flames and iron claws, she is consecrated to Christ the Lord by the cutting off of her head. After this, with the Alamanni following them as far as Tarifa, the Vandals, having crossed the sea, were scattered throughout all Africa and Mauritania. III.

But since in their time persecution prevailed against the Christians, as mention was made above, it seems good also to record some of those things which they inflicted upon the Churches of God, or how they were driven out of their kingdom. When Trasamund had died, therefore, after the crimes which he committed against the saints of God, Huneric, crueler in mind, occupies the African kingdom, and by the choice of the Vandals is set over them. In whose time how many peoples of the Christians were slain for the most sacred name of Christ himself, cannot be comprehended by men. Yet Africa is witness, which sent them forth, and the right hand of Christ, which crowned them with unfading jewels.

Yet we have read the passions of certain of those very martyrs, of which some things must be repeated, that we may come to those things which we promised. Therefore Cyrola, falsely called a bishop, was then held to be the greatest champion of the heretics. And when the king sent through various places to persecute the Christians, the persecutor found Saint Eugenius the bishop, a man of unutterable holiness, who was then reputed to be of great prudence, in the suburb of his city: whom he so violently seized that he did not even permit him to go to exhort his Christ-worshiping flock. But he, when he saw himself being led away, sent a letter to the citizens for the keeping of the catholic faith in this manner: «To my dearest sons, and most sweet in the love of Christ,»

«and daughters of the Church committed to me by God, Eugenius the bishop. The royal authority has gone forth, and by an edict it has commanded us to come from Carthage for the carrying on of the catholic faith. And therefore, lest, departing from you, I should leave the Church of God in doubt, that is, in suspense, or, not being a true pastor, should abandon the sheep of Christ in silence, I have deemed it necessary to direct these letters to your holiness as my representatives in my stead:»

«in which not without tears I ask, exhort, admonish, and abundantly enough conjure you, by the majesty of God, and by the dreadful day of judgment, and by the terrible brightness of the coming of Christ, that you hold more firmly the catholic faith, affirming the Son to be equal to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to have the same deity with the Father and the Son. Keep therefore the grace of the one baptism, guarding the anointing of the chrism. Let no one, reborn from water, return after the water to the water. For by the nod of God salt is made from water; but if it be reduced to water, all its character is at once emptied out. Whence not without reason the Lord says in the Gospel: If the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted? (Matthew 5:13)»

«And surely this is to lose savor, to wish to be seasoned a second time, when once made suffices. Have you not heard Christ saying: He who has once been wholly washed has no need to wash again? (John 13:10) And therefore, brothers, and my sons and daughters in the Lord, let my absence not sadden you, because if you cleave to catholic discipline, I shall neither forget you through any length of distance, nor be torn from you by death. Know that wherever the contests shall have caused me to be parted, the palm is with me. If I go into exile, I have the example of blessed John the Evangelist; if to the exile of death, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). If I return, brothers, God will fulfill your desire.»

«Nevertheless it suffices for now, that I have not been silent toward you: I have admonished, I have instructed, as I was able; and therefore I am free from the blood of all who perish; and I know that these letters will be read against them before the tribunal of Christ, when he shall come to render to each one according to his works. If I return, brothers, I shall see you in this life: if I do not return, I shall see you in the life to come. Yet I say to you, Farewell. Pray for us, and fast: for fasting and almsgiving have always turned the Lord to mercy. Remember that it is written in the Gospel: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul:»

«but rather fear him, who, after he has killed the body, has power to destroy both soul and body and to cast them into Gehenna (Matthew 10:28).» And so Saint Eugenius, having been led to the king, contended with that Arian bishop for the catholic faith. And when he had most powerfully overcome him concerning the mystery of the holy Trinity, and moreover Christ showed many miracles through him, that same bishop, with envy inflaming him, is kindled to a greater madness. For there were at that time, with Saint Eugenius, most prudent and most holy men, Vindemialis and Longinus, bishops, equal in rank, and not unequal in virtue. For Saint Vindemialis at that time was reported to have raised a dead man;

but Longinus bestowed health upon many sick. Eugenius too drove away not only the blindness of the visible eyes, but also that of minds. Perceiving this, that wicked bishop of the Arians, having summoned to himself a certain man, deceived by that error in which he himself lived, said: «I do not endure that these bishops display many signs among the people, and that all, neglecting me, follow them. Now consent to these things which I command, and having received fifty gold pieces, sit in the street through which there is a passage for us, and putting your hand over your closed eyes, as I pass by with the rest, cry out with great force, saying: You, most blessed Cyrola, prelate of our religion, I beseech,»

«that looking upon me you may manifest your glory and power, so that, opening my eyes, I may be worthy to see the light which I have lost.» He, fulfilling the commands, and sitting in the street, while the heretic was passing by with the saints of God, this man, who plotted to mock God, cries out with great force, saying: «Hear me, most blessed Cyrola; hear me, holy priest of God: look upon my blindness. Let me experience the medicines which the remaining blind men have often obtained from you, which the lepers have proven, which even the dead themselves have foretasted. I adjure you by that very power which you have, that you restore to me the longed-for light, for I am stricken with grievous blindness.» For, not knowing the truth, he spoke the truth:

for covetousness had blinded him, and he reckoned that he could mock the power of God almighty by means of money. Then the bishop of the heretics turned aside a little, as though about to triumph in power, lifted up by vanity and pride, placed his hand over the man's eyes, saying: «According to our faith, by which we rightly believe God, let your eyes be opened.» And as soon as this sacrilege burst forth, laughter is changed into wailing, and the deceit of the bishop is laid bare in public: for so great a pain invaded the eyes of that wretch, that he scarcely pressed them with his fingers, lest they should burst. At length the wretch began to cry out and to say: «Woe to me, wretched man, for I have been seduced by the enemy of the divine law.»

'Woe is me, because I wished to mock God for money, and I took fifty gold pieces to commit this crime.' But to the bishop he said: 'Behold your gold; give back my sight, which I lost through your deceit. And I beg you, most glorious Christians, do not despise a wretched man, but swiftly come to the aid of one who is perishing. For I have truly come to know that God is not mocked' (Gal. 6:7). Then the holy ones of God, moved with compassion, said: 'If you believe, all things are possible to him who believes' (Mark 9:23). But he cried out with a loud voice: 'Whoever does not believe that Christ, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit have a substance and divinity equal to that of God the Father, let him this day suffer what I am enduring.' And he added:

'I believe in God the Father Almighty; I believe in Christ Jesus the Son of God, equal to the Father; I believe in the Holy Spirit, consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son.' When they heard these things, vying with one another in mutual honour, a holy contest arose among them as to who should set the sign of the blessed cross upon his eyes. Now Vindemialis and Longinus pleaded for Eugenius, but he on the contrary begged them to lay their hands upon the blind man. When they had done so and were holding their hands over his head, Saint Eugenius, making the cross over the blind man's eyes, said: 'In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the true God, whom we confess to be three in one equality and omnipotence, may your eyes be opened.'

And at once, the pain being removed, he returned to his former health. By this man's blindness it was most clearly made manifest how the heretic bishop was veiling the eyes of the hearts of the wretched with the cloak of his own false teaching, so that none might be permitted to behold the true light with the eyes of faith. O wretched man, who, not having entered through the door—that is, through Christ, who is the true door—became rather a wolf to the flock than its guardian; and the peace of faith, which he ought to have kindled in the hearts of believers, he strove by the depravity of his own heart to extinguish. But the holy ones of God wrought many other signs among the people, and there was one voice of the people, saying:

'The Father is true God, the Son is true God, the Holy Spirit is true God, to be worshipped with one faith, to be feared with one fear, and to be venerated with the same honour. For what Cyrola asserts is manifestly false to all.' But King Honoric, seeing his own assertions thus stripped bare by the glorious faith of the saints, and that his sect of error was not being raised up but rather destroyed, and that the fraud of his bishop in this wicked deed had been exposed, commanded the holy ones of God to be slain—after many torments, after the rack, after the flames, after the iron claws.