'I ask you, O most valiant warriors, that you do not refuse to grant me at least this vessel (for he was speaking of the aforementioned pitcher) over and above my share.' At these words of the king, those whose mind was sounder said: 'Glorious king, all things which we behold are yours: but we ourselves also are subjected to your dominion. Now do whatever seems pleasing to you: for none is able to resist your power.' When they had thus spoken, a certain man, frivolous, envious, and rash, with a loud voice, raising his battle-axe, smote the pitcher, saying: 'You shall receive nothing from here, except what the true lot bestows upon you.' At
this, all being astounded, the king restrained his own injury with gentleness of patience, and, receiving the pitcher, gave it back to the ecclesiastical messenger, keeping the wound hidden within his breast. But when the year had passed, he ordered the whole phalanx to come with the array of their arms, to display the brightness of their weapons on the Field of Mars. And when he resolved to go round them all, he came to the smiter of the pitcher, to whom he said: 'No one has brought arms so unkempt as you: for neither your spear, nor your sword, nor your axe is serviceable'; and seizing his axe, he cast it to the ground. And when that one had bent down a little to gather it up, the king, raising his hands, fixed his own axe in the man's head. 'Thus,' said he, 'did you do at Soissons to that pitcher.'
When he had died, he ordered the survivors to withdraw, reckoning that from this matter great danger would arise for himself. He waged many wars and won many victories. For in the tenth year of his reign he made war on the Thuringians and subjected them to his dominion. XXVIII. There was also Gundioc, king of the Burgundians, of the line of King Athanaric the persecutor, whom we mentioned above. He had four sons: Gundobad, Godigisel, Chilperic, and Godomar. Now Gundobad slew his brother Chilperic with the sword, and drowned his wife in the water with a stone tied to her neck. His two daughters he condemned to exile: of these the elder, having changed her dress, was called Chrona, and the younger Clotild.
Now Clovis, while he was frequently sending an embassy into Burgundy, his envoys came upon the maiden Clotild. When they had seen that she was elegant and wise, and had learned that she was of royal stock, they reported these things to King Clovis. Without delay he directed an embassy to Gundobad, seeking her for himself in marriage; and Gundobad, fearing to refuse, handed her over to the men, and they, receiving the maiden, presented her swiftly to the king. When he saw her, the king, greatly rejoicing, united her to himself in wedlock, though he already had a son by a concubine, named Theuderic. XXIX. So then the king begot of Queen Clotild a firstborn son:
When his wife wished to consecrate him by baptism, she preached unceasingly to her husband, saying: 'The gods you worship are nothing; they can help neither themselves nor others, for they are carved out of stone, or wood, or some metal. The very names you have given them were the names of men, not of gods—such as Saturn, who is said to have fled by escape lest he be driven from his kingdom; or Jupiter himself, that foulest perpetrator of all manner of debauchery, defiler of men, mocker of his own kinswomen, who could not even keep from intercourse with his own sister, as she herself says: "To Jove I am both sister and consort" (Virgil, Aeneid, Book I). And what could Mars and Mercury do?
They are rather endowed with the magical arts than possessing the power of divine majesty. But He rather ought to be worshipped who, by His word, created out of things that did not exist the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; who made the sun to shine, and adorned the heaven with stars; who filled the waters with creeping things, the lands with living creatures, the air with birds; at whose nod the earth is decked with crops, the trees with fruits, the vines with grapes; by whose hand the human race was created; by whose bounty that whole creation itself serves man, whom He created, both in obedience and in benefit.' But though the queen said these things, the king's mind was in no way moved to belief, but he said: 'By the command of our gods all things are created and come forth;
but your God, it is manifest, can do nothing, and what is more, it is not even proved that He is of the race of the gods.' Meanwhile the faithful queen presented her son for baptism; she ordered the church to be adorned with hangings and curtains, so that the king, who could not be bent by preaching, might the more easily be moved to belief by this mystery. But the boy, who was baptized and named Ingomer, died in the very white robes in which he had been regenerated. On this account the king, stirred with gall, rebuked the queen sharply, saying: 'If the boy had been dedicated in the name of my gods, he would surely have lived; but now, because he was baptized in the name of your God, he could not live at all.' To this the queen replied:
'I give thanks,' she said, 'to God Almighty, the Creator of all things, who has not in every respect judged me unworthy, but has deigned to call into His kingdom one born of my womb. My soul is not touched with grief at this matter, because I know that those who are called away from this world in their white robes are to be nourished in the sight of God.' After this she bore another son, whom she named, when baptized, Chlodomer; and when he began to fall sick, the king said: 'It cannot turn out otherwise with him than as it did with his brother: being baptized in the name of your Christ, he too will straightway die.' But at the mother's prayer, and by the Lord's command, he recovered. XXX. The queen, however, did not cease to preach to the king, that he should acknowledge the true God and forsake idols;
but he could in no wise be moved to believe these things, until at length one time war was stirred up against the Alamanni; in which he was compelled by necessity to confess what before he had denied by his own will. And it came to pass that, when the two armies clashed, there was a violent slaughter, and the army of Clovis began heavily to rush toward annihilation. Seeing this, he lifted his eyes to heaven, was pricked in his heart, and moved to tears, and said: 'Jesus Christ, whom Clotild proclaims to be the Son of the living God, who art said to give aid to those in distress and to grant victory to those who hope in Thee, devoutly I implore the glory of Thy help:
that if Thou grant me victory over these enemies, and I experience that power which the people dedicated to Thy name profess to have proved concerning Thee, I will believe in Thee and be baptized in Thy name. For I called upon my gods, but, as I find by experience, they have withdrawn themselves from helping me; whence I believe that they are endowed with no power, who do not come to the aid of those who obey them. Now I call upon Thee, and I desire to believe in Thee; only let me be delivered from my adversaries.' And while he was saying these things, the Alamanni, turning their backs, began to slip into flight. And when they perceived that their king was slain, they submitted themselves to the dominion of Clovis, saying: 'Let not the people perish further, we beseech thee: now we are thine.'
But he, having stopped the war and gathered the people together, returned with them in peace, and related to the queen how through the invocation of the name of Christ he had merited to obtain the victory. XXXI. Then the queen ordered Saint Remigius, bishop of the city of Reims, to be summoned secretly, beseeching him to instill into the king the word of salvation. The priest, being summoned, began more privately to instill into him that he should believe in the true God, Maker of heaven and earth, and forsake idols, which could profit neither himself nor others. But the king said: 'Gladly will I hear thee, most holy father; but one thing remains, that the people who follow me will not suffer to abandon their gods; nevertheless I will go and speak to them according to thy word.'
But when he had met with his people, before he could speak, the power of God going before, the whole people cried out together: 'We cast away the mortal gods, O pious king, and are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius proclaims.' These things were announced to the bishop, who, filled with great joy, ordered the font to be prepared. The squares of the church were shaded with painted hangings, the church was adorned with white curtains, the baptistery was set in order, balsams were diffused, candles glittered fragrant with perfume, and the whole temple of the baptistery was sprinkled with a divine fragrance; and there God bestowed such grace upon those standing by, that they thought themselves placed amid the odors of paradise. So the king was the first to ask to be baptized by the pontiff.
A new Constantine advances to the font, to wash away the disease of the old leprosy, and to wipe away with the fresh water the sordid stains long since contracted. As he entered for baptism, the holy one of God thus spoke with eloquent mouth: 'Bow thy neck meekly, Sicambrian: adore what thou hast burned, burn what thou hast adored.' For Saint Remigius the bishop was a man of outstanding learning, deeply imbued above all with rhetorical studies; and likewise so preeminent in sanctity that he was equalled to the virtues of Saint Sylvester. For there is now a book of his Life which relates that he raised a dead man to life.
So then the king, having confessed Almighty God in the Trinity, was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and was anointed with the holy chrism with the sign of the Cross of Christ. And of his army more than three thousand were baptized. His sister Albofled was also baptized, who not long after departed to the Lord; and when the king was grieved on her account, Saint Remigius sent him a consoling letter, which began in this manner: 'It afflicts me, and greatly afflicts me, this strain of your sorrow, that your sister of good memory, Albofled, has passed away.
But concerning this matter we can be consoled, because she has so departed from this world that she ought rather to be looked up to than mourned.' For another sister of his, Lantechild by name, was also converted, who had slipped into the heresy of the Arians; and having confessed the Son equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, she was anointed with chrism. XXXII. At that time the brothers Gundobad and Godigisel held the kingdom about the Rhône and the Saône together with the province of Marseille. Now both they themselves and their peoples were subject to the Arian sect. And when they were warring against one another, Godigisel, hearing of the victories of King Clovis, sent an embassy to him secretly, saying:
'If thou wilt furnish me with aid to pursue my brother, so that I may either kill him in war or drive him from the kingdom, I will pay thee each year whatever tribute thou thyself dost wish to impose.' He, gladly accepting this, promised him help wherever necessity should demand. And at the appointed time he moved his army against Gundobad. Hearing of this, Gundobad, ignorant of his brother's treachery, sent to him, saying: 'Come to my aid, because the Franks are stirring against us and are coming into our region to seize it; therefore let us be of one mind against the nation hostile to us, lest, separated from one another, we suffer what other nations have suffered.' And he said: 'I will come with my army and give thee aid.'
And these three moving their army at the same time—that is, Clovis against Gundobad, and Godigisel with all his apparatus of war—they came to a fortress called Dijon. And clashing on the river Ouche, Godigisel joined himself to Clovis, and both armies crushed the people of Gundobad. But he, perceiving the treachery of his brother, which he had not suspected, turned his back and took to flight; and running along the banks and marshes of the Rhône, he entered the city of Avignon. But Godigisel, having gained the victory and promised Clovis some part of his kingdom, departed in peace, and entered Vienne in triumph, as though he already possessed the whole kingdom.
Clovis, his forces still further increased, went after Gundobad, in order to drag him out of the city and slay him. Hearing this, the latter, terrified with dread, feared lest sudden death should overtake him. Yet he had with him an illustrious man, Aredius, vigorous and wise, whom, summoned to him, he addressed: 'Distresses hem me in on every side, and I know not what to do, because these barbarians have come upon us to destroy our whole region after slaying us.' To this Aredius replied: 'Thou must soothe the ferocity of this man, lest thou perish. Now therefore, if it please in thy eyes, I will pretend to flee from thee and to go over to him; and when I have reached him, I will see to it that he destroy neither thee nor this region.'
'Only see that thou strive to fulfill whatever I shall enjoin upon thee through my counsel, until the Lord in His mercy may deign to make thy cause prosperous.' And he said: 'I will do whatsoever thou shalt command.' When he had said this, Aredius, bidding farewell, departed, and going to King Clovis, said: 'Behold, I, thy humble servant, most pious king, come to thy power, leaving that most wretched Gundobad. And if thy mercy deign to regard me, both thou and thy posterity shall have in me a whole and faithful servant.' He, most readily welcoming him, kept him with him; for he was pleasant in conversation, vigorous in counsel, just in judgments, and faithful in what was committed to him.
At length, while Clovis with his whole army was encamped around the walls of the city, Aredius said: 'If thou wilt deign, O king, that the glory of thy highness receive a few words of my humility—though thou hast no need of counsel—yet with whole faith I will minister; and it will be fitting either for thee or for the cities through which thou hast resolved to pass. Why,' he said, 'dost thou hold thine army here, when thine enemy sits in a most strongly fortified place? Thou layest waste the fields, croppest the meadows, cuttest the vines, fellest the olive groves, and destroyest all the produce of the region; yet meanwhile thou art not able to harm him. Send rather an embassy, and impose a tribute which he shall pay thee each year; that the region may be safe, and thou mayest perpetually lord it over one who pays tribute:
but if he be unwilling, then thou shalt do whatsoever thou pleasest.' The king, having accepted this counsel, ordered the army to return home. Then, an embassy being sent to Gundobad, he commanded that Gundobad should render to him each year an imposed tribute. And he both paid it at present, and promised that he would pay it thenceforth. XXXIII. After this, having recovered his strength and now despising to pay the tribute promised to King Clovis, Gundobad moved his army against his brother Godigisel, and besieged him shut up in the city of Vienne. But when provisions began to fail the lesser people, Godigisel, fearing lest the famine should extend even to himself, ordered the lesser people to be driven out of the city.
When this was done, that craftsman who had charge of the aqueduct was driven out of the city among the rest. He, indignant that he had been cast out of the city with the others, went in a fury to Gundobad, disclosing how he might break into the city and exact vengeance on his brother. Then, under this man's guidance, the army being directed through the aqueduct, with many going before with iron bars—now there was a vent of it closed with a great stone—and when, by the craftsman's skill, this had been pushed back with those bars, they entered the city; and while the besieged shot arrows from the wall, these came up behind their backs. And when the trumpet sounded from the middle of the city, the besiegers seized the gates, and, with them opened together, they entered.
And when the people of the city were being slaughtered by both armies between these two battle-lines, Godigisel fled to the church of the heretics, and there was slain together with the Arian bishop. Finally the Franks who were with Godigisel gathered themselves into one tower. But Gundobad commanded that not even one of them should be harmed; rather, having seized them, he sent them into exile at Toulouse to King Alaric, having slain the senators and the Burgundians who had consented to Godigisel. He himself restored the whole region, which is now called Burgundy, to his own dominion. He established milder laws for the Burgundians, that they should not oppress the Romans. XXXIV.
But when he had learned, from Saint Avitus, bishop of Vienne, that the assertions of the heretics were nothing, having confessed Christ the Son of God and the Holy Spirit equal to the Father, he secretly sought to be anointed with chrism. To him the priest said: 'If thou truly believest what the Lord Himself taught us, thou oughtest to fulfill it. For He says: "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, I also will confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32, 33). Thus also to His own holy and beloved blessed apostles, when He was teaching them about the temptations of the persecution to come, He intimated, saying: "Beware of men."'
'For they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you, and you shall stand before kings and governors for My sake, for a testimony to them and to all nations' (Matthew 10:17). But thou, though thou art a king and fearest to be apprehended by none, dost dread a sedition of the people, lest thou confess in public the Creator of all. Forsake this folly, and what in thy heart thou sayest thou believest, declare with thy mouth among the people. For so also the blessed Apostle says: 'With the mouth one believeth unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation' (Romans 10:10). So too the Prophet says: 'I will confess to Thee, O Lord, in the great Church; among a mighty people I will praise Thee' (Psalm 34:18). And again:
'I will confess to Thee among the peoples, O Lord; I will sing a psalm to Thy name among the nations' (Psalm 56:10). For fearing the people, O king, dost thou not know that it is better that the people follow thy faith, than that thou shouldst favor the weakness of the populace? For thou art the head of the people, not the people the head of thee. For if thou settest out to war, thou goest before the bands of the enemy, and wherever thou hast gone they follow after. Whence it is better that, with thee going before, they should recognize the truth, than that, with thee perishing, they should remain in error. For God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7); nor indeed does He love him who, for the sake of an earthly kingdom, does not confess Him in the world.'
Confounded by this reasoning, he nevertheless persisted in this madness until the end of his life, and would not publicly confess the equality of the Trinity. Now the blessed Avitus was at that time of great eloquence: for when a heresy had arisen in the city of Constantinople—both that which Eutyches and that which Sabellius taught, that is, that our Lord Jesus Christ had nothing of divinity—at the request of King Gundobad, he himself wrote against them. There exist from that time among us admirable letters, which, as they then crushed the heresy, so now build up the Church of God. For he wrote one book of Homilies on the beginning of the world, and six books, composed in verse, on various other conditions of things;
and nine books of Letters, among which the aforesaid letters are contained. For he relates in a certain homily which he wrote concerning the Rogations, that these very Rogations, which we celebrate before the triumph of the Lord's Ascension, were instituted by Mamertus, bishop of that same city of Vienne, over which he himself also presided at that time, when that city was terrified by many prodigies. For it was frequently shaken by earthquakes; but also the savagery of stags and wolves, entering the gates, roamed through the whole city, as he wrote, fearing nothing.
And while these things were happening through the course of the year, when the days of the Paschal solemnity drew near, the whole people devoutly awaited the mercy of God, that at least this day of the great solemnity might put an end to this terror. But on the very vigil of the glorious night, while the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, suddenly the royal palace within the walls was kindled by divine fire, all being terrified with dread and going out of the church, believing that either by this fire the whole city would be consumed, or that surely the earth, bursting asunder, would yawn open. The holy priest, prostrate before the altar, with groaning and tears implored the mercy of the Lord. What more? The prayer of the illustrious pontiff penetrated the heights of heaven.
and the power of his flowing tears extinguished the fire of the house. And while these things were being done, with the Ascension of the Lord's majesty drawing near, as we have already said, he proclaimed a fast to the people, instituted a manner of praying, an order of eating, and a cheerful dispensation of almsgiving. The terrors thereupon ceasing, and the fame of the deed being spread abroad through all the provinces, he exhorted all the priests to imitate what this priest had done out of faith; which is to this day celebrated in the name of Christ through all the Churches in compunction of heart and contrition of spirit. XXXV. Then Alaric, king of the Goths, when he saw King Clovis continually subduing nations, sent envoys to him, saying:
'If my brother be willing, it has been settled in my mind that, God being favorable, we should see one another together.' Clovis, not refusing this, came to him. And being joined together on an island of the Loire, which was near the village of Amboise in the territory of the city of Tours, having spoken together, eating and drinking alike, with friendship promised to one another, they departed in peace. XXXVI. Already at that time many in the Gauls desired with the utmost longing to have the Franks as their lords. Whence it came to pass that Quintianus, bishop of the Ruthenians, through this was driven out of the city by hatred. For they said to him: 'Because it is thy desire that the dominion of the Franks should possess this land.'
But a few days after, a quarrel having arisen between him and the citizens, suspicion fell upon the Goths who were dwelling in this city, the citizens reproaching him that he wished to subject himself to the dominion of the Franks; and taking counsel, they plotted to run him through with the sword. When this had been announced to the man of God, rising up by night with his most faithful ministers, going out from the city of Rodez, he came to the Arverni. And there he was kindly received by Saint Eufrasius the bishop, who had once succeeded Aprunculus of Dijon, and who, bestowing on him houses as well as fields and vineyards, kept him with himself, saying: 'The means of this Church suffice to sustain both: only let the charity which the blessed Apostle preaches abide among the priests of God.'
And the bishop of Lyons also bestowed on him some possession of his church which he had in Auvergne. But the rest concerning Saint Quintianus—both the snares which he endured and those things which the Lord deigned to work through him—are written in the book of his Life. XXXVII. So then King Clovis said to his men: 'I take it very ill that these Arians hold a part of the Gauls. Let us go with God's help, and having overcome them, let us bring the land into our dominion.' And when this speech had pleased all, having set his army in motion, he directed it to Poitiers; for there at that time Alaric was staying.
But since part of the enemy's force was passing through the territory of Tours, out of reverence for the blessed Martin he issued an edict that no one from that region should take anything other than fodder of grass and water. But a certain man of the army, having found a poor man's hay, said: 'Did not the king order that only grass be taken, and nothing else? And this,' he said, 'is grass. We shall not be transgressors of his command if we take it.' And when, doing violence to the poor man, he had carried off the hay by force, the deed came to the king. He, the man being slain by the sword more swiftly than the word was spoken, said: 'And where will be the hope of victory, if blessed Martin is offended?' And it was enough for the army to take nothing further from that region.
The king himself, however, directed messengers to the blessed one's basilica, saying: 'Go, and perhaps you will receive some omen of victory from the holy shrine.' Then, gifts being given which they were to present at the holy place, he said: 'If Thou, O Lord, art my helper, and hast determined to deliver into my hands this unbelieving nation, ever hostile to Thee, deign graciously to reveal it at the entrance of the basilica of Saint Martin, that I may know that Thou wilt deign to be favorable to Thy servant.' Now as the boys were hastening and approaching the place according to the king's command, while they were entering the holy basilica, the precentor who was present, unexpectedly intoned this antiphon: 'Thou hast girded me, O Lord, with strength unto battle;
Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me, and the backs of my enemies Thou hast given me, and them that hated me Thou hast destroyed' (Psalm 17:40, 41). Hearing this from those who were chanting, and giving thanks to the Lord, and making vows to the confessor for the battle, they joyfully announced it to the king. Moreover, when he had come with his army to the river Vienne, he was utterly ignorant in what place he should cross it: for it had swollen from the inundation of the rains. And when he had besought the Lord that night, that He would deign to show him a ford by which he could cross, in the morning a hind of marvelous size, by the nod of God's majesty, entered before them, and as it forded across, the people recognized where they could cross. But when the king came to Poitiers,
while he tarried at a distance in his tents, a fiery beacon going forth from the basilica of Saint Hilary was seen by him to come as it were over him—namely, that, aided by the light of the blessed confessor Hilary, he might the more freely make war on the heretical ranks, against which that same priest had often striven for the faith. And he charged his whole army that neither there nor on the way should they despoil anyone or plunder anyone's goods. Now in those days there was a man of praiseworthy holiness, Maxentius the abbot, enclosed in his monastery out of the fear of God within the boundary of Poitiers. The name of his monastery we have not set down for our reading, since that place is to this day called the Cell of Saint Maxentius.