History of the Franks 1 part 36/38

'It does not think of building, planting, cultivating a field; it does not think of gathering gold, silver, or the rest of the world's riches. For this thought has perished from the dead body, because there is no spirit in it. But why do you doubt of the resurrection, which the apostle Paul—in whom, as he says, Christ Himself was speaking—evidently expresses, saying: For we were buried with Christ through baptism into death: that just as He died and rose again, so we too should walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). And again: We shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed (1 Cor. 15:51). And again:'

'But one star differs from another star in brightness; so also is the resurrection of the dead (ibid. 15:41). Likewise there: It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption (ibid. 15:42), and the rest. Likewise there: We must all be presented before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). But to the Thessalonians he most evidently designates the future resurrection, saying: I would not have you ignorant concerning those who sleep, that you be not saddened, as also the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.'

For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not go before them who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with a commandment, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:12 and following). For there are very many testimonies concerning these matters which confirm this case. But I do not know why you are in doubt about the resurrection, which the saints await for their merit, and which sinners dread for their guilt.

For this resurrection even those elements which we behold demonstrate, that is, while the trees in summer are covered with leaves, when winter comes they are stripped bare; but when the spring season succeeds, as though rising again, they are clothed in that covering of leaves which they had before. The same thing is shown also by those seeds that are cast into the earth, which, when committed to the furrows, if they have died, rise again with manifold fruit, as the Apostle Paul says: 'Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die' (1 Cor. 15:36). All these things have been made manifest to the world for faith in the resurrection. For if there is to be no resurrection, what shall it profit the just to do well, what shall it harm sinners to do ill?

Let all men then fall away into their own desires, and let each do whatever pleases him, if there is to be no judgment to come. Or do you not fear, O wicked man, that which the Lord himself said to the blessed apostles: 'When the Son of man shall come,' he says, 'in the seat of his majesty, all nations shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides the lambs from the kids: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the kids on his left. And to these he shall say: Come, ye blessed, receive the kingdom; but to those: Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity' (Matt. 25:31 and following). And as Scripture itself teaches: 'These shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting' (Matt. 25:46).

Do you think there will be a resurrection of the dead, or a judgment of works, when the Lord shall do these things? Let the Apostle Paul therefore answer you, as he says to other unbelievers: 'If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also is vain' (1 Cor. 15:14). At these words the presbyter, made sorrowful, departing from our sight, promised to believe in the resurrection, according to the tenor of the holy Scriptures which we have recalled above. XIV. Now at that time there was Theodulf, a deacon of the city of Paris, who seemed to himself somewhat learned, and who often stirred up disputes about this matter.

Now this man, departing from the city of Paris, came to Angers, and submitted himself to bishop Audoveus, on account of an old friendship which they had had while dwelling together at Paris: whence also he was often excommunicated by Ragnemod, bishop of the city of Paris, because he delayed to return to his own church in which he had been ordained deacon. He had attached himself in such great familiarity with the aforesaid bishop of the city of Angers, that he could not shake himself free from his importunity, because the bishop was of good morals and of pious disposition.

Now it happened that the bishop built a balcony upon the walls of the city, and descending from it after he had finished a supper feast, he was supporting his hand upon the deacon, who was so intoxicated with wine that he could scarcely even plant his step; and being somehow provoked, he struck with his fist the neck of the boy who was going before with a light. By this blow, the boy, since he could not contain himself, was hurled headlong from the wall with that very impulse, snatching the bishop's napkin which hung from his belt, with which he would nearly have slipped down too, had not the abbot swiftly embraced the bishop's feet. Falling upon a stone, with his bones broken and the cage of his breast crushed, vomiting forth blood with his gall ruptured, he breathed out his spirit.

For he was both given to wine and dissolute in adultery. XV. Now when the scandal which, at the devil's sowing, had arisen in the monastery of Poitiers, daily rose into greater iniquity, and Chrodieldis, having gathered to herself, as we have said above, murderers, evildoers, adulterers, fugitives, and men guilty of other crimes, was sitting in readied sedition, she ordered them that, rushing into the monastery by night, they should drag the abbess outside. But she, perceiving the tumult of those coming, asked to be carried to the reliquary of the holy Cross: for she was burdened with the pain of a gouty humor, that she might at least be cherished by its help.

But when the men had entered, with a candle lit, and with their armor were wandering hither and thither through the monastery seeking her, entering into the oratory, they found her lying upon the ground before the reliquary of the holy Cross. Then one more fierce than the rest, who had been engaged to perpetrate this crime, namely to cut down the abbess with his sword, was struck by another with a knife, by divine providence, as I believe, cooperating. And as his blood flowed forth, lying upon the ground, he did not fulfill the vow which he had conceived with a fickle mind. Meanwhile Justina the prioress, with the other sisters, covered the abbess with the altar-cloth which was before the Lord's Cross, the candle having been put out. But those who came with drawn swords—

with swords drawn and lances, the garment being torn, and with the hands of the nuns almost mangled, having seized the prioress for the abbess, because it was dark, with her linen cloths shaken off and her hair loosened from her head, dragged her away, and bore her among their hands as far as the basilica of Saint Hilary, to be consigned to custody. And as they drew near the basilica, the sky being a little white with dawn, when they recognized that she was not the abbess, they at once ordered the girl to return to the monastery; and returning, they seized the abbess, dragged her out, and thrust her into custody, near the basilica of Saint Hilary, in the place where Basina had her lodging, guards being set at the door, lest anyone should furnish any help to the captive.

From there, having attacked the monastery in the half-dark night, since they enjoyed no brightness of kindled light, having drawn from the storeroom a vat which had once been coated with pitch and remained dry, they cast in fire, and a great beacon being made from this conflagration, they plundered all the furnishings of the monastery, leaving only that which they could not carry. Now these things were done seven days before Easter. And when the bishop bore all these things grievously, and was not able to mitigate the diabolical sedition, he sent to Chrodieldis, saying: 'Release the abbess, that in these days she be not held in this prison: otherwise I will not celebrate the Lord's Easter, nor shall any catechumen obtain baptism in this city, unless the abbess be ordered to be loosed from the bond by which she is held.'

'But if even so you are unwilling that she be released, with the citizens gathered I will take her away.' As he was saying this, Chrodieldis at once appointed assassins, saying: 'If anyone tries to take her away by violence, strike her at once with the sword.' Now there was present in those days Flavianus, lately ordained 'domesticus,' by whose help the abbess, having entered the basilica of Saint Hilary, was hidden away. Meanwhile, at the tomb of Saint Radegund murders were perpetrated, and before the very reliquary of the blessed Cross certain men were cut down in the sedition.

And when this fury grew with the advancing day through the arrogance of Chrodieldis, and continual slaughters and the other plagues which we mentioned above were perpetrated by the seditious, and her boasting had so swelled that she despised her cousin Basina with a haughtier disdain, the latter began to do penance, saying: 'I have erred in following the arrogance of Chrodieldis; and behold, I am held in contempt by her, and I become defiant toward my abbess.' And being converted, she humbled herself before the abbess, seeking her peace; and the sword likewise with one mind and the same will. Finally, when the scandal had arisen, the boys who were with the abbess, while—

while they resisted the sedition which Chrodieldis's faction (that is, her band) had stirred up, struck Basina's boy, who fell and died. But those others fled after the abbess to the basilica of the confessor, and for this reason Basina, abandoned, departed from the abbess; but the boys having again slipped away by flight, they returned to the place where they had been before. Afterwards indeed many enmities arose between these factions. Who could ever in words explain such plagues and such carnage, or such great evils, where scarcely a day passed without a murder, an hour without a quarrel, or any moment without weeping! Now King Childebert, hearing these things,

sent a legation to King Guntram, namely that bishops joined from both kingdoms should amend by canonical sanction these things which were being done. For this cause King Childebert ordered our humble person to be present, together with Ebregisil of Cologne and with Maroveus himself, bishop of the city of Poitiers; but King Guntram ordered Gundegisil of Bordeaux with his provincials, because he himself was the metropolitan of this city. But we began to object, saying that we would not come to this place, unless the savage sedition, which arose through Chrodieldis, were repressed by the rigor of a judge.

For this cause a command was issued to Macco, at that time count, in which he was ordered to suppress this sedition by force, if they should resist. Daring this, Chrodieldis ordered those assassins to stand with their weapons before the door of the oratory, so that, resisting against the judge, if he should wish to bring force, they might likewise resist. Whence it was necessary for this count to proceed thither with arms, and to crush some struck down with bars, several pierced with darts, and those resisting more fiercely smitten with sword-blows. And when Chrodieldis perceived this, having taken the Cross of the Lord, whose power she had before despised, she went out to meet them, saying:

'Do not, I beseech you, bring force upon me, who am a queen, the daughter of a king, and cousin of another king; do not do it, lest there come a time when I take vengeance upon you.' But the crowd, esteeming as little what was said by her, rushing in, as we have said, upon these resisters, dragged them bound from the monastery, and stretched out upon stakes, most grievously beaten, some with their hair, some with their hands, several with their ears and noses cut off, the sedition being put down, grew quiet. Then, the priests who were present sitting upon the tribunal—

of the Church, Chrodieldis was present, hurling many reproaches with accusations against the abbess, asserting that she kept a man in the monastery who, clothed in women's garments, was held for a woman, although he was most manifestly proven to be a man, and that he constantly waited upon the abbess herself, pointing him out with her finger: 'There he is.' When he, in woman's dress, as we said, had stood before them all, he said that he could do no work of a man, and therefore had fitted this garment to himself; but that he knew the abbess only by name, and had never seen her, nor had he ever held conversation with her, he professed—especially since he dwelt more than forty miles from the city of Poitiers.

Therefore, not convicting the abbess of this crime, she added: 'For what sanctity dwells in this abbess, who makes men into eunuchs, and orders them to live with her by imperial command!' The abbess, being questioned, answered that she knew nothing of this matter. Meanwhile, when she had uttered the name of the eunuch boy, Reovalis the chief physician was present, saying: 'When this boy was small and was ailing in the thigh, he came to be despaired of; his mother also approached Saint Radegund, that she might order some care to be bestowed on him. And she, having called me, ordered that, if I could do anything, I should help.

Then I, just as I had once observed the physicians do in the city of Constantinople, having cut the testicles, restored the boy healthy to his grieving mother. For I have known the abbess to know nothing of this matter.' But since the abbess could not be found culpable in this matter either, Chrodieldis began to bring in other savage calumnies: the assertions and responses of which, because they are contained inserted in the judgment which was written against them, it has pleased me rather to insert copies of that very document for reading. COPY OF THE JUDGMENT CONCERNING THESE SAME WOMEN. XVI. 'To the lords, the most glorious kings, the bishops who were present. The divinity being favorable, to the pious and catholic princes given to the people, to whom royal authority has been granted, religion most rightly lays open its causes:

understanding, the most holy Spirit participating, that it is associated and established by the decree of those who rule. And because by the command of your power, when we convened at the city of Poitiers concerning the conditions of the monastery of Radegund of holy memory, that we should take cognizance of the altercations between the abbess of that same monastery and the nuns, which arose from that very flock by unwholesome deliberation, the parties being disputing. The parties being summoned, Chrodieldis and Basina were questioned, why so boldly, against their rule, with the doors of the monastery broken, they had departed, and on this occasion the gathered congregation was rent asunder.

Answering, they professed that they could no longer endure the peril of hunger, of nakedness, and moreover of beating; adding also that diverse ones of them bathed unbecomingly in the bath, that she played at the game-board, and that worldly persons feasted with the abbess, and that even betrothals were made in the monastery; that she rashly made garments for her niece out of a silken pall; that she inconsiderately took away the little gold leaves which had been around the rim of the pall and criminally hung them about the neck of her niece; that she superfluously made a fillet adorned with gold for the same niece; and that she celebrated 'barbatoriae' (beard-cuttings) within. Questioning the abbess what she would answer to these things, she said:

As to the hunger of which they complain, according to what the scarcity of the time permitted, they themselves never endured excessive want. But concerning the clothing she said: 'If anyone should search their little chests, they have more than necessity required.' But concerning the bath, which was objected, she related that this was done in the days of Lent, and on account of the bitterness of the lime, lest the newness of the building itself should harm those bathing, the lady Radegund had ordered that the servants of the monastery should publicly inspect it, until every harmful odor should depart. And this was in use for the servants from Lent until Pentecost. To this Chrodieldis answered: 'And afterwards likewise many bathed at various times.'

The abbess replied that she could neither prove what they said, nor did she know whether it was done. But still blaming them, that if they themselves had seen it, why did they not report it to the abbess. But concerning the game-board she answered: 'Even if she had played while the lady Radegund was living, she regarded it as less of a fault; nevertheless it is forbidden in no rule by writing, nor did she relate it among the canons, but at the command of the bishops she promised, with her neck bent in penance, to fulfill whatever should be ordered.' Concerning the banquets also she said that she had made no new custom, except as was done under the lady Radegund; that she had offered blessed bread to faithful Christians, but that it could not be proved against her that she had ever feasted with them in any way.

Concerning the betrothals also she said that, in the presence of the pontiff, clergy, or elders, she had received the betrothal-pledges on behalf of her orphaned little niece: and yet if this were a fault, she professed to seek pardon before all; nevertheless not even then did she make a banquet in the monastery. Concerning the pall which they imputed, she brought forth that a noble nun, who had brought from her parents a silk veil, had granted it to her as a gift, and from it she had cut off a part, whence she might do and make what she wished; but of the rest, as much as was suitable, she had fittingly made into a pall for the adornment of the altar; and from that off-cutting which remained over from the pall, she had put purple on a tunic for her niece, which she said she had given there, which profited the monastery, all of which the donor Didimia confirmed.

Concerning the little gold leaves and the fillet adorned with gold, she brought forward Macco, your servant, as a present witness, because through his hand she had received twenty solidi from the betrothed of the aforesaid girl, her niece, whence she had publicly done this, nor was anything of the monastery's property mixed in there. Chrodieldis, being questioned with Basina, whether perhaps they imputed anything to the abbess—which God forbid—of adultery, or whether she had committed any murder or evildoing, or a capital crime for which she should be struck, they should declare it: answering, they brought forth that they had nothing, except that through these things which they had said they proclaimed she had done these against the rule.

At the last, since on account of sins the enclosures were broken and it was permitted to the wretched ones to commit what they wished without the discipline of their abbess for so many months' space, those nuns whom we believed innocent they brought forth to us as pregnant. These matters being examined in order, and no crime being found which would cast down the abbess, we admonished them by paternal warning concerning the lighter causes, that she should by no means henceforth repeat these for reproach. Then, as we inquired into the cause of the adverse party, who had committed the greater crimes—that is, who despised the preaching of their priest, whether within the monastery or going outside, the pontiff being trodden underfoot, and left in the highest contempt in the monastery, with the bolts—

and doors, having made it of no effect, they departed, and others, drawn to their own sin, transgressed; and moreover Gundegisil the pontiff—

with his provincials, having been admonished concerning that very cause, when by the command of the kings they had come to Poitiers, and summoned them to a hearing at the monastery, the admonition being despised, when they came to those women as they ran to meet them at the basilica of the blessed confessor Hilary, where they themselves were dwelling, that they might warn them as becomes the solicitude of pastors—while they were being admonished, a sedition being made, they assailed both the pontiffs and their ministers with cudgels, and within the basilica they shed the blood of the levites. Thereupon, by the command of the lord princes, when the venerable man Theutharius the presbyter had been directed in the case, and it had been appointed when the judgment should take place, the appointed time not being awaited, they most seditiously, vats being kindled in the courtyard, the back doors broken with bars and axes, fire being set, within the enclosures, with nuns beaten and wounded in the very oratories, the monastery being despoiled, the abbess stripped and torn by the hair, grievously dragged to mockery—

led and dragged through the crossroads, and thrust into a place, even if not bound, yet not free: with the festival of Easter day coming on in the world, the pontiff offering a price on behalf of the condemned woman, that she might at least witness the baptism, nor had the voice of the suppliants obtained this by any persuasion, and Chrodieldis answering that they had neither known nor commanded such a deed, and Chrodieldis still asserting that she had obtained, as a token of safety, that the abbess should not be killed by her own people: whence it is certain to be considered what is to be understood from this, which is added to the cruelty, that they killed a servant of their own monastery fleeing to the tomb of the blessed Radegund, and as the wickedness grew, they healed nothing by asking pardon;

but afterwards entering the monastery by themselves they seized it, and being unwilling to acquiesce to the command of the lords, that they should present those seditious ones in public, and rather held arms against the commands of the kings, and indignantly raised themselves with arrows and lances against the count and the people. Hence again going out to the public hearing, they secretly drew out the holy and most sacred Cross, and to its injury, indecently, to their fault, which afterwards they were compelled to restore in the church. These so many capital crimes being recognized, and not being restrained but rather the offenses being continually increased, when we said to these same women that they should seek pardon for the abbess for their fault, or amend what had been wrongly directed:

and being unwilling to do this, but rather plotting concerning her killing, which they publicly professed; the canons being unsealed and reviewed by us, it seemed most just that they, until they should perform worthy penance, be deprived of communion, and that the abbess, to remain in her own place, be restored. These things, by your command, in what pertained to the ecclesiastical order, the canons being carefully considered, without any acceptance of persons, we suggest that we have carried out.

As for the rest, concerning that which has been stolen from the place out of the monastery's property, or the charter-instruments of the lord kings, your parents, which they professed to have, but, being disobedient to us, will by no means voluntarily restore—in order that the eternal reward of you, or of the former princes, may remain, it belongs to your piety and power, by royal authority, to compel that they be reformed for the restoration of the place; and do not grant or permit those women to return to the place which they so impiously and most profanely destroyed, lest worse things ensue, nor again to aspire to it: so that, these things being restored in full, with the Lord granting it, under catholic kings the whole may be gained for God, and religion lose nothing:

that the state preserved, both of the fathers and of the canons, may avail us for worship, and may be propagated for you unto fruit. May Christ the Lord nourish and rule you, granting your kingdom more amply, and conferring a blessed life.' XVII. After these things, when, the judgment being issued, they had been suspended from communion, and the abbess also restored to the monastery, these women appealed to King Childebert, adding evil upon evil, namely denouncing to the king certain persons who not only practiced adulteries with the abbess herself, but even daily carried messages to her enemy Fredegund. Hearing which, the king sent men to bring them bound: but when, being examined, no crime was found in them, they were ordered to depart. XVIII.

Now before these days, when the king was entering the oratory of the house of Marlenheim, his servants saw an unknown man standing at a distance, and said to him: 'Who are you, and whence do you come, or what is your business? for you are not recognized by us.' He too answering: 'Because I am of your number,' was, quicker than a word, cast out of the oratory and questioned. And without delay he confessed, saying that he had been sent by Queen Fredegund to kill the king, and he said: 'We are twelve men sent by her; six of us have come here, but the other six remained at Soissons to deceive the king's son. And I, awaiting the opportunity, that I might strike King Childebert in the oratory as I had determined, struck through with fear, did not resolve to fulfill what I wished.'

When he had said these things, being immediately given over to savage tortures, he named his various accomplices; and these being sought out in each place, some they committed to prisons, others they left with their hands cut off, and several, with their ears and noses amputated, they released to mockery. Yet very many of them, fearing the kinds of tortures, pierced themselves with their own blades from their bonds; some too failed amid the tortures, that the king's vengeance might be accomplished. XIX. Sunnigisil indeed was again subjected to torments, and daily was beaten with rods and thongs; and his wounds putrefying, when at first, the pus running off, those very wounds had begun to close, they were again renewed unto punishment.

In these torments he confessed that he had committed not only concerning the death of King Chilperic, but also diverse crimes: among which confessions he added also that Egidius, bishop of Reims, had been an accomplice in that counsel of Rauching, Ursio, and Berthefred to kill King Childebert. Without delay the bishop was seized, and brought to the city of Metz, although he was greatly worn out from a long-standing illness; and there, living under custody, the king ordered the bishops to be summoned for his examination, namely that at the beginning of the eighth month they should be present at the city of Verdun.

Then, being rebuked by the other priests, why he had ordered a man to be seized from the city without a hearing and thrust into custody, he permitted him to return to his own city, sending letters, as we said above, to all the pontiffs of his kingdom, that in the middle of the ninth month they should be present at the aforesaid city for the examination. Now there were heavy rains, immense waters, intolerable cold, the roads dissolved into mud, the rivers exceeding their banks: but they could not resist the royal command. Finally, convening, they were dragged as far as the city of Metz: and there too the aforesaid Egidius was present.