法蘭克人史 第 1 章 第 34/38 段

To it, observing the apostolic pattern, both I and the sisters handed over by written deeds the earthly substance which we seemed to possess, reserving nothing of our own once placed in the monastery, for fear of Ananias and Sapphira. But since the moments and seasons of the human condition are uncertain, the world indeed hastening to its end, when some desire to serve their own will rather than the divine will, led by zeal for God I, still surviving and devoted, present this page of my entreaty to your apostolic office in the name of Christ.

And because I could not be present in person, as if cast down at your feet, I prostrate myself by the substitute of a letter, adjuring you by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and by the day of the dread Judgment, that no tyrant may assail you when thus represented, but a lawful king may crown you: so that if by chance after my death any person whatsoever, whether the bishop of that same place, or the power of a prince, or any other — which we do not believe will happen — should attempt to disturb the community, whether by malevolent persuasion or by judicial compulsion, or to break the rule, or to set up another abbess than my sister Agnes, whom the blessing of the most blessed Germanus consecrated in the presence of his brethren;

or if the community itself — which cannot be — should strive with murmuring to make a change; or if any person whatsoever, or the bishop of the place, should wish by some new privilege to claim certain lordships over the monastery or over the property of the monastery, beyond what the bishops my predecessors, or others while I yet lived, possessed; or if anyone should attempt thereafter to depart outside the rule; or concerning the goods which the most excellent lord Chlothar, or the most excellent lord kings his sons, conferred upon me —

which I, by the permission of his command, handed over to the monastery to possess, and which I obtained to be confirmed by the authorities of the most excellent lord kings Charibert, Guntram, Chilperic, and Sigibert, with the interposition of an oath and the subscriptions of their own hands; or concerning those things which others, for the remedy of their souls, or the sisters from their own property, contributed there — if any prince, or bishop, or man of power, or any person whatsoever should dare to diminish them from the sisters, or by a sacrilegious vow strive to claim them back to his own ownership: then let him incur, after God, the judgment of your holiness and of your successors, for my supplication and Christ's will.

So that, just as robbers and despoilers of the poor are held outside your grace, he may never be able to diminish or change anything of our rule or of the property of the monastery, you opposing him. This also I beseech: that when God shall will our aforesaid lady sister Agnes to depart from this world, in her place she shall be ordained abbess from our community who shall please God and Agnes herself, keeping the rule, and diminishing nothing of the holy purpose. For never let one's own will, or anyone's, hurry her into office.

But if — which God forbid — against the command of God and the authority of the kings, anyone should wish to act against any of the above conditions, beseechingly commended before the Lord and His saints, or to diminish either the person or the substance, or should attempt to inflict any troubles upon my aforementioned sister Agnes the abbess, let him incur the judgment of God, and of the holy Cross, and of blessed Mary, and let him have as his adversaries and persecutors the blessed confessors Hilary and Martin, to whom, after God, I have committed my sisters to be defended.

You also, blessed bishop, and your successors, whom I diligently take to myself as patrons in the cause of God — if (which God forbid) there should arise anyone who attempts anything against these things, let it not be irksome to you, for the repelling and confounding of this enemy of God, to hasten to the king whom that place shall at that time regard, or to the city of Poitiers, for the matter commended to you before the Lord, and to labor against the injustice of others as executors and defenders of justice; that a catholic king may in no way suffer such a crime to be admitted in his times, nor permit to be overthrown what has been established by the will of God, and mine, and the kings themselves.

At the same time also I adjure the princes whom God shall command to survive for the governance of the people after my decease, by the King whose kingdom shall have no end, and at whose nod kingdoms stand fast, who gave them very life and rule, that the monastery which I am seen to have built by the permission and support of the lord kings, their father or grandfather, and to have ordered according to rule and endowed, they may command to be governed under their protection and care, together with the abbess Agnes; and that they permit no one either to trouble or disquiet our oft-named abbess, or anything pertaining to our monastery, nor thereafter to diminish or change anything;

but rather, out of regard for God, together with the lord bishops, they themselves — at my supplication before the Redeemer of the nations, as I commend them — may command them to be defended and fortified, so that, in whose honor they protect the handmaids of God, they may be joined forever in the eternal kingdom with the Defender of the poor and the Bridegroom of virgins.

That also I adjure you, holy bishops, and the most excellent lord kings, and all the Christian people, by the catholic faith in which you were baptized, and by the Churches which you preserve: that in the basilica which we began to build in honor of holy Mary, Mother of the Lord, where also many of our sisters lie at rest — whether the building be finished or unfinished — when God shall command me to depart from this light, my poor body should be buried there. But if anyone should wish otherwise, or attempt to have it done otherwise, by the prevailing of the Cross of Christ and blessed Mary, let him incur divine vengeance; and you interceding, may I deserve to obtain a place of burial in that same basilica with the community of sisters.

And that this my supplication, which I have subscribed with my own hand, may be preserved in the archive of the universal Church, I beseech with poured-out tears: that, if necessity should require it against certain wicked men, so that by your defense my sister Agnes the abbess, or her community, should ask to be succored, the pious consolation of your mercy may with pastoral solicitude furnish them aid; nor let them cry out that they have been left destitute by me — they for whom God has prepared the protection of your grace.

Recalling that before your eyes in all things, by Him who from the glorious Cross commended His Virgin Mother to the blessed Apostle John, so that just as the Lord's commandment was fulfilled by him, so may that which I, unworthy and humble, commend to my lords the Fathers of the Church and apostolic men be with you: that when you shall have worthily kept the deposit, sharers in the merits of him whose apostolic command you fulfill, you may worthily renew the example. XLIII.

After this, Bishop Maroveus, when he heard various reproaches from these women, sent Porcarius, abbot of the basilica of blessed Hilary, to Bishop Gundegisil and the rest of his fellow provincials, asking that, communion having been granted to the maidens, they would deign to grant them leave to come to a hearing; but he was by no means able to obtain it. King Childebert, however, since he was continually suffering troubles from both sides — that is, the monastery and the maidens who had gone out — sent the priest Theutharius to settle the quarrels that were being carried on between them. He, having summoned Chrodield with the rest of the maidens to a hearing, they said: 'We will not come, because we are suspended from communion.'

'If we are deemed worthy to be reconciled, then we will not delay to come to the hearing.' Hearing this, he went off to the bishops; and when he had spoken with them about this matter, he could obtain no result concerning their communion, and so he returned to the city of Poitiers. But the maidens, separated from one another, some returned to their kinsfolk, others to their own homes, some to the monasteries in which they had previously been; for, placed together, they could not endure the severe winter on account of the scarcity of firewood. A few, however, remained with Chrodield and Basina. For there was then also great discord among them, because the one desired to set herself above the other. XLIV.

In that year, after the close of Easter, there was such an immense rain with hail that within the space of two or three hours huge rivers were seen to run even through the smaller channels of the valleys; trees blossomed in autumn, and produced fruit as they had given before. In the ninth month roses appeared. The rivers indeed swelled beyond measure, so that, overflowing their banks, they covered places which they had never been wont to touch, bringing no small damage to the crops. I. Concerning Gregory, the Roman pope. The oration of St. Gregory to the people. II. Concerning the return of the envoy Grippo from the emperor Maurice. III. That the army of King Childebert went into Italy. IV.

That the emperor Maurice sent the slayers of his envoys into Gaul. V. That Cuppa burst into the territory of Tours. VI. Concerning the prisoners of Auvergne. VII. That in that same city King Childebert imposed a tribute that the clergy should pay. VIII. Concerning Eulalius and Tetradia, who was his wife. IX. Concerning the army of King Guntram, which went into Brittany. X. Concerning the death of Chundo his chamberlain. XI. Concerning the sickness of Chlothar the younger. XII. Concerning the wickedness of Berthegund. XIII. A debate about the resurrection. XIV. Concerning the death of the deacon Theodulf. XV. Concerning the scandal of the monastery of Poitiers. XVI. Concerning the judgment passed against Chrodield and Basina; a copy of the judgment. XVII. Concerning their excommunication. XVIII.

Concerning the assailants sent to King Childebert. XIX. Concerning the expulsion of Egidius, bishop of Reims. XX. Concerning the maidens above mentioned, reconciled in this synod. XXI. Concerning the death of the sons of Waddo. XXII. Concerning the death of Childeric the Saxon. XXIII. Concerning the signs, and the doubt about Easter. XXIV. Concerning the destruction of the city of Antioch. XXV. Concerning the death of him who called himself Christ. XXVI. Concerning the death of the bishops Ragnemod and Sulpicius. XXVII. Concerning those whom Fredegund ordered to be killed. XXVIII. Concerning the baptism of Chlothar her son. XXIX. Concerning the conversion and miracles, and the death, of Aredius, abbot of Limoges. XXX. Concerning the mildness of the present winter, and the celebration of the Lord's Day. XXXI. A recapitulation concerning the bishops of Tours. I.

In the fifteenth year of King Childebert, then, our deacon, coming from the city of Rome with relics of the saints, reported thus: that in the previous year, in the ninth month, the river Tiber overflowed the city of Rome with so great a flood that ancient buildings were demolished; the granaries also of the Church were overthrown, in which several thousand bushels of wheat perished. A multitude of serpents too, with a great dragon like a mighty beam, descended through the channel of this river into the sea; but the beasts, choked amid the salt waves of the troubled sea, were cast up upon the shore. Immediately there followed a plague which they call the inguinal.

For arriving in the middle of the eleventh month, first of all, according to that which is read in the prophet Ezekiel, 'Begin at My sanctuary' (Ezek. ix, 6), it struck down Pope Pelagius and without delay extinguished him; and when he was dead, a great slaughter of the people was made by this disease. But because the Church of God could not be without a ruler, all the people elected the deacon Gregory. For he, of the first senators, devoted to God from his youth, gathered together in his own estates six monasteries in Sicily; a seventh he established within the walls of the city of Rome; to these he assigned so great an abundance of lands as would suffice to furnish daily sustenance, and the rest he sold with all the household furnishings, and distributed to the poor;

and he who before, clad in silk and accustomed to proceed through the city in robes of state gleaming with jewels, now clad in cheap garment is consecrated to the ministry of the Lord's altar; and is taken on as seventh levite for the pope's aid. And so great was his abstinence in food, his vigilance in prayers, his strenuousness in fastings, that with his stomach weakened he could scarcely stand. In grammatical, dialectical, and rhetorical letters he was so trained that he was thought second to none in the city itself. Striving more earnestly to flee this high office, lest a certain boastfulness should again creep upon him in the world from the honor received — what he had before cast away —

hence it came about that he sent a letter to the emperor Maurice, whose son he had received from the holy font, adjuring him and beseeching with much prayer that he should never give consent to the people to exalt him with the glory of this honor. But Germanus, prefect of the city of Rome, intercepted his messenger, and seizing him, having torn up the letters, sent to the emperor the consent which the people had made. But he, giving thanks to God for the friendship of the deacon, because he had found a place for his honor, by an order commanded him to be installed in that very office. And when it remained only that he should be blessed, and the plague was devastating the people, he began a word to the people for the performing of penance in this manner. THE ORATION OF GREGORY TO THE PEOPLE.

'It behooves us, dearly beloved brethren, that the scourges of God which we ought to have feared as coming, we should at least fear now that they are present and experienced. Let sorrow open to us the entrance of conversion, and let the very punishment which we suffer dissolve the hardness of our heart: for as it was foretold by the prophet's testimony, The sword has reached even to the soul (Jer. iv, 10). Behold indeed all the people are struck by the sword-point of heavenly wrath, and one by one are laid waste by sudden slaughter; nor does sickness forestall death, but, as you see, death forestalls the delays of sickness. Each one when struck is snatched away before he be converted to the lamentations of penance. Consider therefore in what state he comes to the sight of the strict Judge, who has no leisure to weep for what he has done.'

'The inhabitants are not withdrawn in part, but fall together alike: houses are left empty, parents look upon the funerals of their children, and their heirs go before them to destruction. Let each one of us therefore flee to the lamentations of penance, while there is leisure to weep before the stroke. Let us recall before the eyes of the mind whatever we have committed in error, and let us punish by weeping what we have wickedly done. Let us anticipate His face in confession (Ps. xciv, 2), and, as the prophet admonishes, Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord (Lam. iii, 41). For to lift up our hearts with our hands to God is to raise the zeal of our prayer by the merit of good action.'

'He surely gives, He gives confidence to our trembling, who cries through the prophet: I will not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. xxxiii, 11). Let no one despair on account of the enormity of his iniquities: for a three-day penance wiped away the inveterate sins of the Ninevites (Jonah iii, 10); and the converted thief earned the rewards of life, even in the very sentence of his death (Luke xxiii, 43). Let us therefore change [or, lift up] our hearts, and let us presume that we have already received what we ask. The Judge is more quickly bent to prayer, if the petitioner is corrected from his depravity. Therefore, with the sword of so great a chastisement hanging over us, let us press on with importunate weeping.'

'For that very importunity which is wont to be displeasing to men, pleases the judgment of Truth: because the loving and merciful God wills that pardon be sought from Him by prayers, who does not will to be angry as much as we deserve; for this He says through the psalmist: Call upon Me in the day of your tribulation, and I will deliver you; and you shall magnify Me (Ps. xlix, 15). He therefore is Himself His own witness that He desires to have mercy on those who call upon Him, who admonishes that He be called upon. Therefore, most beloved brethren, with contrite heart and corrected works, from the first dawn of the fourth day let us come with a mind devoted to tears to the sevenfold Litany, according to the distribution designated below.'

'So that when the strict Judge considers punishing us for our faults, He Himself may spare us from the sentence of the proposed condemnation. Let the clergy therefore go forth from the church of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, with the priests of the sixth region. Let all the abbots with their monks go forth from the church of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, with the priests of the fourth region. Let all the abbesses with their communities go forth from the church of the holy martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, with the priests of the first region. Let all the children go forth from the church of the holy martyrs John and Paul, with the priests of the second region. And all the laymen,'

'from the church of the holy protomartyr Stephen, with the priests of the seventh region. Let all widowed women go forth from the church of holy Euphemia, with the priests of the fifth region. And let all married women go forth from the church of the holy martyr Clement, with the priests of the third region. That, going out from the several churches with prayers and tears, we may be gathered together at the basilica of blessed Mary, ever-virgin Mother of the Lord our God Jesus Christ, so that there, supplicating the Lord for a longer time with weeping and groaning, we may be able to merit pardon for our sins.' When he had said this, the bands of clergy being gathered, he commanded them to sing psalms for three days, and to entreat the mercy of the Lord.

From the third hour also both choirs of psalm-singers came to the church, crying out through the streets of the city, 'Kyrie eleison.' And our deacon who was present asserted that in the space of one hour, while the people sent forth the voices of supplication to the Lord, eighty men fell to the ground and breathed out their spirit. But the priest did not cease to preach to the people, that they should not cease from prayer. From this man too our deacon took relics of the saints, as we have said, while he yet abode in the diaconate. And when he was preparing hiding-places for flight, he was seized, dragged, and led to the basilica of the blessed apostle Peter, and there, consecrated to the office of the pontifical grace, was given as pope to the city.

But our deacon did not depart until he returned to the bishopric at Porto, and beheld with his own present contemplation how he had been ordained. II. Grippo, however, returning from the emperor Maurice, reported these things: that in the previous year, when, having obtained a ship, he had reached the African coast with his companions, they entered great Carthage. While they tarried there, awaiting the order of the prefect who was present, as to how they ought to approach the emperor's presence, one of the servants — of Evantius, namely, who had gone with the same — carried off a stolen article from the hand of a certain merchant to the lodging. The man whose property it was, pursuing him, demanded that his own property be returned to him;

but as the servant put it off, when from day to day this quarrel was spread into something greater, on a certain day the merchant found that servant in the public square, and seizing his garment, began to hold him, saying: 'Because you will not be let go by me, until you restore to my power the things you violently snatched away.' But he, trying to shake himself out of his hands, did not hesitate to draw a sword and slay the man, and at once returned to the lodging, nor did he disclose to his companions what had been done. For there were then there, as we have said, the envoys: Bodegisil son of Mummolenus of Soissons, and Evantius son of Dynamius of Arles, and this Grippo, a Frank by birth, who, rising from the meal, gave themselves to sleep for rest.

Wherefore, when it had been reported to the elder of the city what the servant of these men had done, gathering soldiers, indeed surrounding all the people with arms, he directed them to their lodging. But they, unsuspecting, awakened, were stupefied, beholding the things that were being done. Then he who was foremost cried out, saying: 'Lay down your arms, and come out to us, that we may know peaceably how the homicide was done.' Hearing these things, they, terrified with fear, still ignorant of what had been done, sought a pledge that they might come out secure without arms. Those men swore an oath, which their impatience did not permit them to keep. But as soon as Bodegisil came out, they struck him with a sword, and likewise Evantius.

When these had been laid low before the door of the lodging, Grippo, snatching up arms with the servants who were with him, advanced toward them, saying: 'We are not ignorant of what has been done, and behold, the companions of my journey, who had been sent to the emperor, are laid low by the sword. God will judge our injury, and the death of those men by your destruction, because you thus slaughter us who are innocent and come in peace: nor shall there henceforth be peace between our kings and your emperor. For we came for peace, and to render aid to the commonwealth. I call God as witness this day, that your guilt has stirred it up, so that the peace promised between princes is not kept.'

While Grippo was uttering these and suchlike words, the array of the Carthaginian battle being disbanded, each one returned to his own. But the prefect, coming to Grippo, began to soothe his feelings concerning the things that had been done, arranging how he should come to the emperor's presence. Coming there, after relating the embassy for which he had been sent, he set forth the destruction of his companions. On account of which the emperor, much troubled, promised to avenge their death, until that which the judgment of King Childebert should pronounce. Then, rewarded by the emperor, he returned in peace. III.

These things having been reported by Grippo to King Childebert, he immediately commanded an army to be set in motion into Italy, and dispatched twenty dukes to make war upon the nation of the Lombards. Their names I have not thought it necessary to insert in order into the reading. But Duke Audoald, with Vinthrio having stirred up the people of Champagne, when he had approached the city of Metz, which lay on his route, perpetrated such plunderings and such homicides and slaughters that he was thought to be bringing an enemy upon his own region. But the other dukes too did likewise with their bands, so that they afflicted their own region or the people dwelling there before they accomplished anything of victory over the enemy nation.

Approaching the border of Italy, however, Audoald with six dukes sought the right hand, and came to the city of Milan, and there pitched camp at a distance on the plains. But Duke Olo, importunately approaching the fortress of Bellinzona belonging to this city, situated in the fields of Canino, was wounded by a javelin below the breast, fell, and died. These men, however, when they had gone out to plunder, that they might acquire some provisions, were laid low by the Lombards rushing upon them here and there throughout the places. There was a certain lake in the territory of the city of Milan itself, which they call Coresius, out of which a certain small but deep river flows; above the shore of this lake they had heard that the Lombards were stationed.

When they had approached it, before they crossed the river of which we spoke, from that shore one of the Lombards, standing protected by corselet and helmet, bearing a pike in his hand, gave a shout against the army of the Franks, saying: 'Today it will appear to whom the Divinity grants the victory to obtain.' Whence it is given to understand that the Lombards had prepared this as a sign for themselves. Then a few, crossing over, contending against this Lombard, laid him low; and behold, the whole army of the Lombards, turned to flight, passed away. These too, crossing the river, found none of them, but only, recognizing the apparatus of the camps where they had had their fires or fixed their tents.

And when they had caught none of them, they returned to their own camp, and there the envoys of the emperor came to them, announcing that an army was at hand for their support, and saying: 'After three days we will come with the same, and this shall be a sign to you: When you see the houses of this village, which is situated on the mountain, consumed by fire, and the smoke of the fire raised up to the heavens, know that we are at hand with the army which we promise.' But waiting according to the agreement for six days, they perceived that none of them had come. Cedinus, however, entering the left of Italy with thirteen dukes, took five fortresses, from which he also exacted oaths.

The disease of dysentery also gravely afflicted the army, because the airs were uncongenial and unaccustomed to these men, from which very many perished. But when the wind was stirred up and rain given, when the air began to cool a little, it brought health amid the sickness. What more? Roaming through Italy for nearly three months, when they accomplished nothing, nor could avenge themselves on the enemy, because these had fortified themselves in the strongest places; nor capture the king, on whom vengeance might be taken, who had fortified himself within the walls of Pavia; the army, weakened, as we have said, by the intemperance of the airs, and worn down by famine, determined to return to its own land.

He added moreover this: that, having received pledges, they took from the king's dominions what his father had formerly held, and from those places they carried off both captives and other plunder. And so, as they returned, they were so wasted by hunger that they sold even their arms and their garments to buy food before they reached their native land. But Authari, king of the Lombards, sent an embassy to King Guntram with words of this kind: 'We, most pious king, are subject and faithful to you and to your nation, as we were to your fathers, and so we desire to be; nor do we depart from the oath which our predecessors swore to your predecessors.'