Of the death of King Sigibert. THE FOURTH BOOK. I. Therefore Queen Chrotechildis, full of days and endowed with good works, died at the city of Tours, in the time of Bishop Injuriosus; and she was carried to Paris with great chanting of psalms, and buried in the sacristy of the basilica of Saint Peter, at the side of King Clovis, by her sons, Kings Childebert and Chlothar. For she herself had built that basilica, in which the most blessed Genovefa also is buried. II. At length King Chlothar had decreed that all the churches of his kingdom should pay over to the treasury a third part of their fruits.
And when all the bishops, albeit unwillingly, had consented to this and subscribed, the blessed Injuriosus, manfully rejecting it, disdained to subscribe, saying: 'If you wish to take away the things of God, the Lord will swiftly take away your kingdom; for it is iniquitous that the poor, whom you ought to nourish from your storehouse, should have their storehouses filled from their dole.' And, angered against the king, he departed without bidding farewell. Then the king, moved, and fearing also the power of the blessed Martin, sent after him with gifts, begging pardon, and condemning what he had done, and at the same time asking that he might entreat for him the power of the blessed prelate Martin. III.
King Chlothar himself then had seven sons by various women, that is: by Ingund, Gunthar, Childeric, Charibert, Guntram, Sigibert, and the daughter Chlotsind; by Aregund, the sister of Ingund, Chilperic; and by Chunsina he had Chramn. Let us tell what the reason was that he took his wife's sister. When he had already taken Ingund in marriage and loved her with a singular love, he received a suggestion from her, who said: 'My lord has done with his handmaid what was pleasing to him, and has taken me to his bed; now, to complete his bounty, let my lord the king hear what his servant suggests.
'I beg that you may deign to provide for my sister, your servant, a suitable husband who has means, so that I may not be humbled, but rather, being exalted, may be able to serve more faithfully.' When he heard this, since he was exceedingly given to lust, he was inflamed with love for Aregund, and went to the estate on which she was residing, and joined her to himself in marriage. Having taken her, returning, he said: 'I have arranged to fulfill that bounty which your sweetness sought of me. And seeking a rich and wise man whom I should join to your sister, I found nothing better than myself. Know therefore that I have taken her as my wife, which I do not believe displeases you.' But she said: 'Let my lord do what seems good in his eyes;
'only let your handmaid live in the king's favor.' But Gunthar, Chramn, and Childeric died while their father was living. The end of Chramn we will write of hereafter. Alboin too, king of the Lombards, took Chlotsind, the king's daughter. Now Injuriosus, bishop of the city of Tours, died in the seventeenth year of his bishopric; to whom Baudinus, formerly a domestic of King Chlothar, succeeded, the sixteenth after the death of the blessed Martin. IV. Chanao too, count of the Bretons, killed three of his brothers. Wishing to kill Macliavus also, he kept him, seized and laden with chains, in prison; and he was freed from death through Felix, bishop of Nantes.
After this he swore to his brother that he would be faithful to him; but by I know not what chance he wished to break the oath; which Chanao perceiving, again pursued him. But he, when he saw that he could not escape, fled to another count of that region, by name Chonomor. He, when he perceived his pursuers approaching, hid him under the ground in a coffin, fashioning over it a mound in the customary way, and reserving for him a little air-hole through which he could draw breath. And when his pursuers had arrived, they said: 'Behold, here lies Macliavus dead and buried.' Hearing this, and rejoicing, and drinking over that mound, they reported to his brother that he was dead.
Hearing this, that man received his whole kingdom; for the Bretons were always under the power of the Franks after the death of King Clovis, and were called counts, not kings. But Macliavus, rising up from under the ground, sought the city of Vannes, and there was tonsured and ordained bishop. But when Chanao died, this man apostatized, and, his hair let down, he took back the wife whom he had left after his entry into the clergy, together with his brother's kingdom; but he was excommunicated by the bishops. By what death he perished we will write hereafter (book V, chapter 16). Now Bishop Baudinus died in the sixth year of his bishopric; in whose place Gunthar the abbot was substituted, the seventeenth after the passing of Saint Martin. V.
At length, when the blessed Quintianus, as we said above, had departed from this world, Saint Gall, with the king's help, was put in his place upon his chair. In his time, when that plague which they call the inguinal raged through divers regions, and was then especially laying waste the province of Arles, Saint Gall was anxious not so much for himself as for his people. And when day and night he was beseeching the Lord that he might not, while living, behold his people laid waste, in a vision of the night there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, who bore both hair and garment white in the likeness of snow; and he said to him: 'You do well indeed, O priest, in thus supplicating the Lord for your people; for your prayer has been heard;
'and behold, you with your people shall be freed from this sickness, and no one shall perish in this region from this destruction while you live. Now then, do not fear; but after eight years, fear.' From this it was manifest that, when these years had passed, he would depart from the world. Awakened, and giving thanks to God for this consolation, in that He had deigned to comfort him through a heavenly messenger, he instituted those Rogations, that at mid-Lent they should come chanting psalms to the basilica of the blessed martyr Julian by a journey on foot. Now in this journey there are about three hundred and sixty stadia. Then too, in a sudden contemplation, the walls of both houses and churches were seen to be signed. Hence by the country folk this writing was called the Tau.
But while that plague, as we have said, was consuming other regions, by the interceding prayer of Saint Gall it did not touch the city of Auvergne. Wherefore I reckon it no small grace, that he merited this: that, set as a shepherd, he did not, under the Lord's protection, see his sheep devoured. But when he had departed from this world, and, having been washed, had been carried into the church, Cato the presbyter at once received from the clergy the acclamations for the bishopric, and brought every affair of the church under his own power, as though he were already bishop: he removes the ordainers, rejects the ministers, and arranges everything by himself. VI. Yet the bishops who had come to bury Saint Gall, after they had buried him, said to Cato the presbyter:
'We see that the greatest part of the people has chosen you: come, agree with us, and blessing you, let us consecrate you to the bishopric. The king is but a child, and if any fault is imputed to you, we, taking you under our protection, will treat with the nobles and chief men of the kingdom of King Theudebald, that no wrong may be stirred up against you; we too—believe so faithfully that we pledge ourselves on your behalf—will repay from our own resources whatever, even if some loss should befall, out of our own means.' But he, puffed up with the buskin of vain glory, said:
'You know indeed, as rumor runs, that from the beginning of my youth I have always lived devoutly, have given myself to fasts, have delighted in almsgivings, have very often kept continuous vigils, and have indeed persisted in the night station with frequent chanting of psalms. Nor does the Lord my God suffer me to be deprived of this ordination, to whom I have rendered so great service; for I have always obtained the very degrees of the clergy by canonical institution. I was a lector for ten years, I served five years in the office of subdeacon, I was given over to the diaconate for fifteen years, and now I enjoy the honor of the presbyterate for twenty years. What then now remains for me, but that I should receive the bishopric, which faithful service merits?'
'You therefore, return to your cities, and if anything befits your advantage, do it; for I am about to assume this honor canonically.' Hearing these things, and detesting the vain glory in him, the bishops departed. VII. Therefore, having been elected to the bishopric with the consent of the clergy, while, not yet ordained, he himself presided over all, he began to direct divers threats against Cautinus the archdeacon, saying: 'I will remove you, I will humble you, I will command that many deaths be inflicted upon you.' To whom he said: 'I desire to have your favor, most pious lord; and if I am worthy of it, I will grant you one benefit.
'For without any toil of yours, and without any deceit, I will go to the king and obtain the bishopric for you, asking nothing except that I may earn your favor.' But he, suspecting that he wished to mock him, despised these words greatly. This man, however, when he saw himself being humbled and subjected to slander, feigning illness, and going out of the city by night, sought King Theudebald, announcing the passing of Saint Gall. Hearing this, he and those who were with him, the priests having been summoned at the city of Metz, Cautinus the archdeacon was ordained bishop. But when the messengers of Cato the presbyter had come, this man was already bishop.
Then, by the king's command, the clergy were handed over to him, together with all that they had presented from the property of the church; and bishops were appointed who were to journey with him, along with chamberlains, and they directed him to the Arverni (Auvergne). Received gladly by the clergy and the citizens, he was given to the Arverni as their bishop. Afterward great enmities arose between him and the priest Cato, because no one was ever able to bend Cato to be subject to his bishop. For a division of the clergy even took place: some were subject to Bishop Cautinus, others to the priest Cato; which proved to be the greatest harm to them.
But Bishop Cautinus, seeing that he could by no means be bent to be subject to him, took away all the property of the church both from him and from his friends, or whoever sided with him, and left them empty and destitute. Yet whoever among them turned back to him received again what they had lost. — VIII. While Agila reigned in Spain and was crushing the people under the most grievous yoke of his domination, the army of the emperor entered the Spains and overran some cities. When Agila had been slain, Athanagild received the kingdom. He afterward waged many wars against that army and defeated it for the most part; and he took away in part from their power the cities which they had wrongfully overrun. IX.
But Theodebald, when he was already grown up, took Vuldetrada to wife. This Theodebald, men say, was of so fierce and evil a disposition that, being angry with a certain man whom he held suspect concerning his affairs, he invented a fable, saying: A serpent found a flask full of wine, and entering through its mouth greedily drank up what was within; but, swollen with the wine, it could not go out by the opening through which it had come in. Then the owner of the wine came, and when the serpent strove to get out and could not, he said to the serpent: First vomit up what you have swallowed, and then you will be able to depart free. This fable prepared great fear and hatred against him.
For under him too Buccelin, when he had brought all Italy under the rule of the Franks, was slain by Narses, and Italy was taken over to the emperor's side, nor was there anyone who might recover it thereafter. In his time we saw grapes grow on the tree which we call the elder, without the conjunction of any vine; and the blossoms of those trees, which, as you know, are wont to bring forth black berries, yielded clusters of grapes. Then too a fifth star was seen coming from the opposite direction into the circle of the moon. I believe these signs announced the death of that king.
But he, being grievously infirm, could not turn himself over from the waist downward. Failing little by little, he died in the seventh year of his reign, and King Chlothar received his kingdom, joining Vuldetrada his wife to his own bed. But, rebuked by the bishops, he gave her up, granting her to Duke Garibald, and sending his son Chramn to the Arverni. X. In that year, when the Saxons rebelled, King Chlothar, having stirred up an army against them, laid waste a very great part, because they had given aid to the Saxons. XI. When Gunthar, bishop of the city of Tours, died, the priest Cato was sought to govern the church of the city of Tours, at the instigation, as men report, of Bishop Cautinus.
Hence it came about that the clergy assembled, together with Leubastes the keeper of the martyr's shrine and abbot, and hastened to the Arverni with great pomp. And when they had made known the king's will to Cato, he held them off without an answer for a few days. But they, desiring to return, said: Disclose to us your will, that we may know what we ought to follow; otherwise we return to our own places. For it was not by our own will that we sought you out, but by the king's command. But he, being greedy of empty glory, gathered a throng of the poor and ordered a clamor to be raised in these words: Why do you forsake us, good father, the sons whom you have nurtured until now? Who will refresh us with food and drink if you depart? We beg you not to abandon us, whom you have been wont to feed.
Then he, turning to the clergy of Tours, said: You see now, dearest brethren, how greatly this multitude of the poor loves me; I cannot abandon them and go with you. Receiving this answer, they returned to Tours. But Cato had knit friendships with Chramn, receiving from him a promise that, if at that point of time it should befall King Chlothar to die, then, with Cautinus cast out from his bishopric, he should at once be set over the church. But he who held the chair of blessed Martin in contempt did not obtain what he wished; and there was fulfilled in him that which David sang, saying: He would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him (Psalm 108:18).
For he was puffed up on the buskin of vanity, thinking that none was held more excellent than himself in holiness. For on one occasion, having hired with money a woman to cry out in the church as if possessed, he made her confess him to be a great saint and dear to God, but Bishop Cautinus to be a criminal guilty of every wickedness and unworthy to have attained the priesthood. XII. At length Cautinus, having taken up the bishopric, rendered himself such that he was abhorred by all, being given over to wine beyond measure; for very often he was so filled with drink that after a banquet he could scarcely be carried by four men. Hence it came about that he afterward became epileptic, which was many times made manifest to the people.
For he was so bent upon greed that, whenever the boundaries of any possession adjoined his border, he reckoned it his own ruin if he had not diminished something from it; and from the greater men he took it with mockery and scandal, but from the lesser he plundered it by violence. To whom and from whom, as our Sollius (Sidonius) says, 'he neither gave a price, scorning it, nor accepted documents, despairing of them.' For there was at that time a priest Anastasius, freeborn by descent, who by deeds of Queen Chrotechild of glorious memory possessed a certain property; whom the bishop, having often met with him, asked humbly and suppliantly to give him the charters of the said queen and to make over this possession to him.
But when he delayed to fulfill the will of his bishop, and the bishop now allured him with flatteries, now terrified him with threats, at last he ordered him to be brought into the city against his will and there to be held shamelessly; and unless he gave up the documents, he ordered him to be afflicted with injuries and killed by hunger. But he, resisting with a manly spirit, never handed over the documents, saying that it was better for him to waste away for a time by starvation than to leave his offspring wretched hereafter. Then by the bishop's command he was handed over to guards, that unless he gave up these little charters, he should be killed by hunger. For at the basilica of the holy martyr Cassius there was a most ancient and most hidden crypt;
where there was a great tomb of Parian marble, in which the body of a certain aged man seemed to be laid. In this tomb the living priest was buried over the buried man, and was covered with the stone with which the sarcophagus had previously been covered, guards being set before the door. But the guards, glad that he was pressed down by the stone, since it was winter, kindled a fire and, lulled to sleep by warm wine, fell asleep. But the priest, like a new Jonah, as from the belly of hell, so from the enclosure of the tomb begged the Lord's mercy. And because the sarcophagus was spacious, as we have said, although he could not turn himself over whole, yet he freely stretched out his hand in whatever part he wished.
For there flowed from the dead bones, as he himself was wont to relate, a deadly stench, which shook not only the outer parts but even the inward parts of the bowels. And when he barred the entrance of his nostrils with his cloak, as long as he could hold his breath he felt nothing too foul; but when he thought he was as it were being suffocated, having removed the cloak a little from his mouth, not only through the mouth or through the nose, but even, so to speak, through the very ears, he drew in the pestilential odor. What more? When, as I believe, the Divine pitied him, he stretched his right hand to the side of the sarcophagus and found a bar which, when the lid had slipped, had remained between it and the rim of the tomb. Moving it little by little, he felt, with the help of God cooperating, the stone being shifted.
But when it had been so far removed that the priest could put his head outside, he more freely opened a larger passage by which he might come out entirely. Meanwhile, as the night's darkness was covering the day, and it was not yet everywhere dispersed, he sought another door of the crypt; for it was barred with the strongest bolts and the firmest keys, yet it was not so smoothed but that a man could see between the boards. At this entrance the priest leaned his head and observed a man passing by on the road. Him he called, though with a faint voice. The man heard, and without delay, holding an axe in his hand, cut the wooden stakes by which the bolts were held, and opened the passage for the priest.
But he, rising up in the night, went to his house, earnestly entreating the man not to relate anything about him to anyone. Having entered his own house, then, and sought out the charters which the said queen had handed over to him, he carried them to King Chlothar, indicating how he had been delivered over to burial alive by his own bishop. And while all were astonished, and saying that not even Nero or Herod had committed such a crime as to shut up a living man in a tomb, Bishop Cautinus came to King Chlothar; but, the priest accusing him, he departed conquered and confounded. The priest, however, having received commands from the king, defended and held his property as he pleased, and left it to his posterity.
But in Cautinus there was nothing holy, nothing weighed with care: for of all the Scriptures, both ecclesiastical and secular, he was utterly devoid. He was very dear and subservient to the Jews, not for their salvation, as the care of a pastor ought to be anxious, but for the procuring of spices, which, when he fawned upon them and they most plainly showed themselves his flatterers, they sold at a greater price than they were worth. XIII. But Chramn in those days was residing among the Arverni. For many causes were then unreasonably conducted by him; and on this account his end was hastened from the world, for he was much cursed by the people. He loved no man from whom he might receive good and useful counsel;
but having gathered worthless persons, fickle in their youthful age, he loved only these, and listening to their counsel, he even ordered the daughters of senators to be dragged off by given commands, in the sight of those same senators. He drove away Firminus, grievously injured, from the countship of the city, and substituted Salustius the son of Evodius. But Firminus took refuge in the church with his mother-in-law. Now it was the days of Lent; and Bishop Cautinus had arranged to go to the diocese of Brioude singing psalms, according to the institution of Saint Gallus, as we wrote above. The bishop therefore went out from the city with great weeping, fearing lest he should suffer any adversity on the journey; for King Chramn directed threats against him too.
And as he was making his journey, the king sent Imnachar and Scapthar, the foremost of his retinue, saying: Go and forcibly drag Firminus and Caesaria his mother-in-law out of the church. Now while the bishop was departing with the psalm-singing, as we mentioned above, these men who had been sent by Chramn entered the church and began to soothe Firminus and Caesaria with various deceits of conversation. But when, walking about through the church for a very long time, they conversed of one thing after another, and those who had taken refuge were earnestly attending to what was being said, they drew near to the royal doors of the holy place, which had then been unbarred. Then Imnachar seized Firminus, and Scapthar seized Caesaria, and cast them out of the church between their arms, with boys ready prepared to receive them;
and they at once sent them into exile. But on the next day, when the guards were sunk in sleep, they themselves, feeling themselves free, took refuge at the basilica of blessed Julian, and so were freed from exile; their property, however, was confiscated to the treasury. But Bishop Cautinus, since he was suspect that he too might be wronged, and, treading the said road, had a horse saddled, saw behind his back men coming with horses who were coming to meet him, and said: Woe is me, for these are those whom Chramn has sent to seize me. And mounting his horse, leaving behind the psalm-singing, alone he ran almost lifeless as far as the porch of the basilica of Saint Julian, urging on his swift-footed steed with both heels.
But we, in narrating these things, recall the saying of Sallust which he uttered against the detractors of historians; for he says: 'It seems an arduous thing to write of deeds done: first, because deeds must be matched by words; then, because most men think that the faults which you have reproved are spoken from malevolence and envy.' But let us follow the things we have begun. XIV. So Chlothar, after the death of Theodebald, when he had taken up the kingdom of France and was going about it, heard from his men that, with renewed madness, the Saxons were seething and were rebellious to him, and that they scorned to render the tributes which year by year they had been accustomed to furnish.
Incited by these words, he directed himself against them. And when he was already near their borders, the Saxons sent envoys to him, saying: We are not despisers of you, and what we have been accustomed to render to your brothers and nephews we do not deny, and we will render even more, if you seek it. One thing only we beg, that there may be peace, that your army and our people may not clash. Hearing this, King Chlothar said to his men: These men speak well; let us not march upon them, lest perchance we sin against God. But they said: We know that they are liars, and will by no means fulfill what they have promised. Let us go upon them. Again the Saxons offered half of their substance, seeking peace. And King Chlothar said to his men:
Cease, I pray, from these men, lest the wrath of God be stirred up against us. But they did not consent. Again the Saxons offered garments, cattle, and the whole substance of their property, saying: Take all these things with half of our land; only leave free our wives and little ones, and let no war be joined between us. But the Franks would not consent even to this. To whom King Chlothar said: Cease, I pray, cease from this purpose. For we have not a just cause; do not go to war, in which you will be destroyed. Yet if you wish to go there of your own free will, I will not follow.
Then they, moved with anger against King Chlothar, rushed upon him, and tearing his tent, and provoking him too with insults and dragging him by force, they wished to kill him if he delayed to go with them. Seeing this, Chlothar went with them against his will. But they, joining battle, were cut down with the greatest slaughter by their adversaries; and so great a multitude fell from both armies that it could not at all be estimated or numbered. Then Chlothar, much confounded, sought peace, saying that he had not come against them of his own will. This being obtained, he returned to his own land. XV.
But the people of Tours, hearing that the king had returned from the slaughter of the Saxons, having reached a consensus upon the priest Eufronius, went to him; and when the suggestion had been given, the king answered: I had ordered that the priest Cato be ordained there; and why has our command been spurned? They answered him: We did seek him out, but he would not come. While they were saying this, the priest Cato suddenly arrived, beseeching the king that, with Cautinus cast out, he himself should be commanded to be installed at the Arverni. When the king laughed at this, he asked again that he be ordained at Tours, which he had before despised. To him the king said: I first commanded that they consecrate you to the bishopric at Tours; but, as far as I hear, you held that church in contempt; and therefore you shall be removed far from its lordship.