Then the king, pronouncing him an enemy to himself and a betrayer of the region, appointed Ennodius, a former duke, to prosecute the case, whose first proposition was this: 'Tell me, O bishop, what seemed good to you, that, having abandoned the king in whose city you enjoyed the honor of the episcopate, you should subject yourself to the friendships of King Chilperic, who is proven always to have been an enemy to our lord the king, who killed his father, condemned his mother to exile, and overran his kingdom, and in those cities which, as we said, by the wicked order of his invasion he subjected to his dominion, you deserved estates of the fiscal possessions from him?' To these things he answered:
'That I was a friend of King Chilperic I cannot deny, yet this friendship did not sprout against the advantage of King Childebert. But the villas which you mention, I acquired through the charters of this king.' Then, when he brought forth these same charters in public, the king denied that he had granted them; and Otto, who had then been referendary, whose subscription premeditated was held there, being sought out, was present, and denied that he had subscribed: for his hand had been forged in the writing of this grant. In this case, therefore, the bishop was first found to be deceitful.
After these things letters were brought forth, in which were contained many things concerning the reproaches against Brunhild, which had been written to Chilperic, and likewise letters of Chilperic delivered to the bishop, in which among the rest was inserted: 'For if the root of any matter has not been cut, the stalk which has come forth from the earth will not wither.' Whence it is altogether manifest that these things were thus written, so that, Brunhild being overcome, her son might be crushed. The bishop denied that he had either sent these letters in his own name, or received them from a rescript of Chilperic. But his servant, a familiar, was present, who held these things comprised by the marks of notes through rolls of charters: whence there was no doubt to those sitting in judgment that these had been directed by the same man.
Then were produced certain pacts, drawn up as it were in the name of King Childebert and King Chilperic, in which it was held inscribed that, once King Guntram had been driven out, these two kings should divide his realm and cities between themselves. But the king denied that this had been done with his counsel, saying: 'What did you intend toward my uncles, that civil war should arise between them? From which it came about that the army, once stirred up, ground down and laid waste the city of Bourges, the district of Étampes, and the stronghold of Meaux; and in that war many were slain, whose souls, I think, will at the judgment of God be required from your hands!' This the bishop could not deny. For those writings were found together in the records of King Chilperic, in one of his chests.
And they had then come to him, at the time when, after Chilperic had been slain, his treasures were carried off from the villa of Chelles near the city of Paris and brought to that same man. And when the dispute over matters of this kind was being dragged out at length, there was present also Epiphanius, abbot of the basilica of Saint Remigius, declaring that he had received two thousand gold pieces and many valuables for the sake of preserving King Chilperic's friendship. There stood forward too the envoys who had been with that same man to the aforesaid king, saying: 'Because, after we were left aside, he conferred alone with that man for a long time; of which words we understood nothing, except that we recognized in them the carrying-out of the aforesaid downfall thereafter.'
When he denied this, the abbot, who had always been a sharer in those secret counsels, named the place and the man—where, and who it was that had delivered the gold pieces we have spoken of; and how the agreement had been made concerning the ruin of the region and of King Guntram, he related in order, as it had been done. And he too, being convicted of these things, thereafter confessed them. Hearing this, the bishops who had been summoned, and beholding that a priest of the Lord had been an accomplice in such great evils, sighed, and begged for a space of three days in which to deliberate—namely, that perhaps Egidius, coming to his senses, might be able to find some means by which he could excuse himself from the charges that were laid against him.
But when the third day dawned, gathering in the church, they asked the bishop whether he had any plea of excuse to make. But he, confounded, said: 'Do not delay in pronouncing sentence upon a guilty man. For I know myself to be liable to death for the crime of treason, since I have always acted against the welfare of this king and of his mother; and I know that through my counsel many conflicts have been waged, by which not a few places of Gaul have been laid waste.' Hearing this, the bishops, lamenting the disgrace of their brother, granted him his life, but, the canonical decrees having been read, removed him from the priestly order; and he was at once led to the city of Argentoratum, which they now call Strasbourg, and condemned to exile.
In his place Romulf, son of Duke Lupus, already endowed with the honor of the priesthood, was substituted as bishop, while Epiphanius was removed from the office of abbot, which he had held over the basilica of Saint Remigius. For much weight of gold and silver was found in this bishop's records. And whatever of it was from that store of iniquity was brought into the royal treasury; but whatever was found to be from tributes or other reckoning belonging to the Church was left there. XX. In this synod Basina, daughter of King Chilperic—another from her whom we said above had been removed from communion along with Chrodield—prostrating herself on the ground before the bishops, begged for pardon, promising that she would enter the monastery in charity toward the abbess, and would transgress nothing of the rule.
But Chrodield protested that, so long as the abbess Leubovera dwelt in this monastery, she herself would never enter it there. Yet the king entreated that pardon be granted to both, and so, having been received into communion, they were ordered to return to Poitiers—namely, that Basina should return to the monastery, as we said before, but Chrodield should reside on the estate which had formerly belonged to Waddo mentioned above, granted to her by the king. XXI. But the sons of that same Waddo, roaming about Poitiers, were committing various crimes, murders and not a few thefts. For falling upon merchants before this time, under cover of the darkness of night they cut them down with the sword and made off with their goods.
But they also surrounded with treacheries a certain man of tribunician rank and killed him, plundering his possessions. When Count Marcus strove to repress this, they sought the king's presence. As the count was going to render the service due to the fisc, they too appeared before the king, offering a great belt adorned with gold and precious stones, and a wonderful sword whose hilt was set with Spanish gems and gold. And when the king had learned that these crimes which he had heard of had most plainly been perpetrated by them, he ordered them to be bound in chains and subjected to torments. While they were being tortured, they began to reveal the hidden treasures of their father, which their father had plundered from the goods of Gundovald mentioned above.
Without delay, men were sent to make inquiry, and they found an immense quantity of gold and silver, and of various valuables adorned with gold and gems, which they brought into the royal treasury. After this, having had the elder beheaded, they condemned the younger to exile. XXII. But Childeric the Saxon, after various crimes—murders, seditions, and many other wicked deeds which he had committed—withdrew to the city of Angers, in which was the property of his wife. And when the king, having heard of his wickedness, had ordered him to be killed, one night he became so drunk with wine that, suffocated by it, he was found dead in his bed.
For they asserted that, with regard to that aforementioned crime by which the priests of the Lord were slaughtered in the basilica of Saint Hilary through Chrodield, this man had been the standard-bearer; and God avenged—if it be so—the injury done to His servants. XXIII. In this year so great a brightness shone upon the lands in the nighttime that you would have thought it midday; and likewise fiery globes were seen often to run through the heavens during the hours of the night, and to illumine the world. There was doubt about Easter, because in his cycle Victorius wrote that Easter should be kept on the fifteenth moon. But lest Christians, like the Jews, should celebrate these solemnities under this moon, he added that the Latins do so on the twenty-second moon. On this account many in Gaul celebrated on the fifteenth moon.
But we kept it on the twenty-second. Yet we inquired diligently; and the springs of Spain, which are divinely filled, were filled up at our Easter. A great earthquake occurred on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of the fifth month, on the fourth day of the week, early in the morning, as the light was beginning to return. The sun suffered an eclipse in the middle of the eighth month, and so diminished its light that it scarcely had as much for shining as the horns of the fifth moon retain. There were heavy rains, severe thunderstorms in autumn, and the waters rose excessively. A grievous plague of the groin laid waste the cities of Viviers and Avignon. XXIV. In the sixteenth year, then, of Childebert, and the thirtieth of the reign of Guntram, a certain bishop from regions across the sea came to the city of Tours.
He came, Simon by name. He announced to us the overthrow of the city of Antioch, asserting that he had been taken captive in Persia, having come from Armenia. For the king of the Persians, having broken into the territory of the Armenians, took plunder and burned the churches with fire, and led away captive this priest along with his people, as we have said. Then too they attempted to set fire to the basilica of the forty-eight holy martyrs—of whom I have made mention in the Book of Miracles—who suffered in that region: heaping up a pile of wood, with pitch and swine-hides mingled in, and ardent torches placed beneath. But by no means did the fire catch the apparatus of the conflagration, and so, seeing the mighty works of God, they withdrew from it.
Now a certain bishop of this aforesaid priest, having heard of the priest's abduction, directed a ransom through his own men to the king of the Persians. When the latter had received it, he released this bishop from the bond of servitude. Departing therefore from those regions, he made his way to Gaul, that he might receive some consolation from the devout; and he it was who related these things to us, as we said above. There was in Antioch a man very devoted to almsgiving, who had a wife and children; nor in all his life had a day ever passed for him after he had first tasted anything.
One day, when he had gone about the city until evening and had been unable to find a poor man with whom he might take his food, he went out beyond the gate, and as night was coming on, he found a man in a white garment standing with two others. Looking upon him, terrified as if he were that Lot of old recorded in history, he said: 'And perhaps my lord is a pilgrim; let him deign to come to the house of his servant; and having taken food, rest upon the couch, and in the morning set out on whatever road you wish.' To him the one who was the elder, holding a cloth in his hand, said: 'Could you not, O man of God, together with your Simeon, save this circle of the world, that it might not be overthrown?'
And raising his hand, he shook out the cloth that he held over half the city, and at once all the buildings collapsed, and whatever had been built there; and there the old men together with the infants, the men with the women, were crushed, and every age perished. Seeing this, struck dumb both by the person of the man and by the sound of the ruin, he fell to the earth and became as one dead. And that man, raising his hand again with the cloth, as if over the other half of the city, was seized by the two companions who were with him, and entreated with awful oaths to spare the half of the city, lest it should fall; and his fury being assuaged, he held back his hand, and lifting up the man who had collapsed to the earth, he said:
'Go to your house, do not fear; for your sons together with your wife and all your household are safe, and not one of them has perished. For your constant prayer and the alms which you daily bestow upon the poor have guarded you.' And saying this, they departed from his eyes, nor did they appear to him any longer. But he, returning into the city, found half the city laid low and overthrown together with men and beasts, of whom some were afterwards dragged out dead from the ruins, while a few were found alive, though maimed. Yet that thing was not made void which had been declared to this man by the very one who was, so to speak, an angel of the Lord.
For coming, he found his whole house unharmed; only the funerals of his kinsfolk, which had occurred in other houses, did he lament; and the right hand of the Lord protected him in the midst of the wicked, together with his house, and he was saved from the perils of death, just like that Lot mentioned of old in Sodom (Gen. 19). XXV. But in Gaul that oft-named disease invaded the province of Marseille; a severe famine oppressed the people of Angers, Nantes, and Le Mans. For these are the beginnings of sorrows, according to that which the Lord says in the Gospel: 'There shall be pestilences and famines, and earthquakes in places' (Matt. 24:7); 'and there shall arise false christs and false prophets' (ibid. 24:11);
'and they shall give signs and wonders in heaven, so as to lead even the elect into error' (Mark 13:22). As has come to pass in the present time. For a certain man from the territory of Bourges, as he himself afterwards professed, while he had entered the woodland glades and was cutting wood to supply the need of some task, a swarm of flies settled around him, on which account he was held out of his mind for two years; from which it may be understood that it was the wickedness of a diabolical sending. After this, having passed through neighboring cities, he came to the province of Arles, and there, clothed in skins, prayed as if he were a religious man; and to mock him, the adverse party granted him the faculty of divining.
From this, that he might advance to a greater crime, being moved from that place and leaving the aforesaid province, he entered the territory of the region of Gabali, declaring himself to be great, and not fearing to profess himself Christ, having taken with him a certain woman as his sister, whom he caused to be called Mary. There flowed to him a multitude of people, presenting the sick, whom by his touch he restored to health. For they who came to him brought him gold and silver and garments. These, that he might the more easily seduce, he distributed to the poor, prostrating himself on the ground, pouring out prayer with the aforesaid woman, and rising again, he ordered himself to be adored by the bystanders.
For he foretold things to come, announcing to some that diseases, to others that losses would befall them, and to a few that salvation would come. But all these things he did by diabolical arts and by I know not what trickeries. And an immense multitude of people was led astray through him, and not only the more rustic sort, but even ecclesiastical priests. There followed him more than three thousand people. Meanwhile he began to despoil and plunder certain men whom he found on the road; yet to those who had nothing he gave largesse. He held out threats of death to bishops and citizens, because he was scorned by them and not adored. And entering the territory of the city of Le Velay, he approached the place which they call Le Puy;
and he halted at the basilicas nearby with his whole army, drawing up his battle line, in such a way as to wage war upon Aurelius, the bishop then residing there, sending also before him messengers—men with bared bodies, leaping and sporting—who should announce his coming. Astonished at this, the bishop directed to him vigorous men, inquiring what they meant by these things which they were doing. But one of them who was the elder, when he had bowed himself as if to kiss his knees and to feel out his path, ordered him to be seized and stripped; and without delay, with drawn sword he cut him to pieces, and that Christ fell—who rather ought to be called Antichrist—and died, and all who were with him were scattered.
But that Mary, given over to tortures, disclosed all his phantasms. They who were to be believed to have been deluded by diabolical deception never returned to a sound mind, but always professed this man to be as it were Christ, and that Mary to possess a portion of divinity. But throughout all Gaul there emerged very many who, by these trickeries attaching to themselves certain little women, who in their frenzy confessed them to be holy men, set themselves up as great among the people; of whom we ourselves have seen very many, whom we strove by rebuke to recall from their error. XXVI. Ragnemod also, bishop of the city of Paris, died.
And when his brother Faramod, a priest, was contending for the episcopate, a certain Eusebius, a merchant by trade and a Syrian by race, having given many gifts, was substituted in his place; and he, having received the episcopate, casting out the whole household staff of his predecessor, established Syrians of his own race as ministers of the ecclesiastical house. Sulpicius, pontiff of the city of Bourges, also died, and Eustasius, a deacon of Autun, obtained his chair. XXVII. Among the Franks of Tournai too no small quarrel arose, for the reason that the son of one man kept upbraiding in anger the son of another—who had taken his sister in marriage—why, having abandoned his wife, he resorted to a harlot;
and this anger, since the amendment of the fault did not follow, was carried so far that the young man, rushing upon his kinsman, killed him together with his men, and was himself struck down by those with whom that other had come; nor did any one of either party remain, except one only, for whom an assailant was lacking. From this the kinsfolk of both parties, raging against one another, were repeatedly admonished by Queen Fredegund that, setting aside their enmity, they should become reconciled, lest by the stubbornness of the strife it should be carried up into a greater scandal. But when she could not appease them with gentle words, she restrained both parties with the axe. For having invited many to a banquet, she made these three sit on one bench;
and when in this the meal had been prolonged to such a length of time that night had overwhelmed the world, the table being taken away, as is the custom of the Franks, they were sitting on their benches as they had been placed. Their serving-boys, sodden with drink, were falling asleep through the corners of the house, wherever each had collapsed. Then men appointed by the woman, with three axes, stood behind these three; and as they were conversing, in one, so to speak, onset the hands of the boys were poised, and the men being struck down, there was a departure from the banquet. The names of the men too: Chariuald, Leoduald, and Waldin. When this was reported to their kinsfolk, they began to guard Fredegund more strictly, sending messengers to King Childebert that she might be apprehended and put to death.
But the people of Champagne, stirred up over this matter, while they were weaving delays, she, snatched from their aid, hastened to another place. XXVIII. After this, however, she sends envoys to King Guntram, saying: 'Let my lord the king set out as far as Paris, and having summoned my son his nephew, let him order him to be consecrated with the grace of baptism, and, receiving him from the holy font, deign to have him as his own foster-son.' Hearing this, the king, having stirred up the bishops—that is, Aetherius of Lyons, Syagrius of Autun, and Flavius of Chalon, and the rest whom he wished—orders them to come to Paris, indicating that he himself would follow afterwards.
There were also at this assembly many from his realm, both household officials and counts, to prepare the necessities of the royal expense. But the king, after deliberation taken that he ought to go to these things, was hindered by pain in his feet. After he had recovered, however, he came to Paris; thence, hastening to the estate of Rueil belonging to that same city, the boy being summoned, he ordered a baptistery to be prepared in the village of Nanterre. While these things were being done, the envoys of King Childebert came to him, saying: 'Did you not lately promise this to your nephew Childebert, that you would not bind yourself in friendships with his enemies? But, so far as we perceive, you keep nothing of your promise, but rather you pass over the things you had promised:
and you set this boy up as king in the chair of the city of Paris. For God will judge, because you do not remember what you of your own accord promised.' When they had said these things, the king replied: 'The promise which I have established toward my nephew King Childebert, I do not abandon. For he ought not to be scandalized if I receive from the holy font the son of my brother, his cousin's child: because no Christian ought to refuse this request. And this I desire to do, as God most plainly knows, not by any craftiness, but in the simplicity of a pure heart, because I dread to incur the offense of the Godhead. For it is no abasement to our race, if this one be received by me.
For if lords receive their own servants from the sacred font, why should it not be permitted to me also to receive a near kinsman, and to make him a spiritual son through the grace of baptism? Depart now, and announce to your lord: I desire to keep inviolate the pact which I made with you, which, unless the fault of your own condition shall have abandoned it, can by no means be abandoned by me.' And saying this, as the envoys departed, the king, approaching the holy font, offered the boy for baptism. Receiving him, he wished him to be called Chlothar, saying: 'Let the boy grow, and let him be the executor of this name, and let him be strong with such power as that one of old whose name he has obtained.' This mystery being celebrated, having been invited to the banquet,
loaded the little one with many gifts. Likewise the king too, invited by the same, departed laden with many presents, and resolved to return to the city of Chalon. XXIX. Aredius also, in this year leaving the lands behind, at the Lord's call passed over to heaven. He was an inhabitant of the city of Limoges, sprung from no mean parents of his region, but very nobly born. He, having been handed over to King Theudebert, was attached to the palace courtiers. For there was at that time at the city of Trier a man of exceptional sanctity, Bishop Nicetius, who was held among the people to be admirable not only for the wondrous eloquence of his preaching, but also most renowned for his good and marvelous works.
He, beholding the boy in the king's palace, discerning I know not what divine in his countenance, commanded him to follow him. And he, leaving the king's palace, followed him. And when they had entered the little cell and were conversing about those things which pertain to God, the young man begged of the blessed priest to be corrected by him, to be taught by him, to be imbued by him, and to be exercised by him in the divine volumes. And while he dwelt in the ardor of this study with the aforementioned prelate, his head being already tonsured, on a certain day, as the clerics were singing psalms in the church, a dove descended from the ceiling, which, lightly flying about him, settled upon his head—indicating, as I think, that he was already filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
When he, not without shame, attempted to drive it away, it, circling about a little, again settled upon his head, or upon his shoulder; and not only there, but even when he entered the bishop's cell, it continually accompanied him with him. This, having happened over very many days, the bishop observed not without wonder. Thereupon the man of God, filled, as we have said, with the Holy Spirit, returns to his homeland, his father and brother being dead, to console his mother Pelagia, who, except for this offspring, beheld a bereaved kinship. Then, that he might give himself to fastings and prayers, he entreated her that all care of the household—that is, both the discipline of the family, and the cultivation of the fields, and the tending of the vineyards—should look to her;
lest any hindrance should befall this man, by which he might cease from prayer; claiming for himself one privilege only, that he himself should preside over the building of churches. What more? He constructed temples to God in honor of the saints, and sought out their relics, and from his own household established tonsured monks, and founded a monastery, in which not only the rules of Cassian, but also of Basil and of the rest of the abbots who instituted the monastic life are observed, the blessed woman ministering food and clothing to each one. Nor any the less, though hindered by this burden, did she resound in the praises of God; but assiduously, even if she were performing some work, she always offered prayer to the Lord, as it were an odor of acceptable incense.
Meanwhile the sick began to flock to Saint Aredius, whom, laying his hand upon each with the standard of the cross, he restored to health; of whom, if I should wish to write their names one by one, I could neither run through their number nor record their appellations: yet this one thing I know, that whoever came to him sick, departed sound. Of his greater miracles too we set forth a few. On a certain occasion, when he was journeying with his mother and was hastening to the basilica of the holy martyr Julian, they came in the evening to a certain place. Now that place was dry and barren, without flowing waters. And his mother said to him: 'Son, we have no water, and how shall we be able to rest here in the present night?'
But he, prostrate in prayer, poured out prayers to the Lord for a very long time, and rising up he fixed in the earth the rod which he bore in his hand, and when he had turned it round and round with these or those motions, he joyfully drew it out toward himself: and at once a wave of water followed, so abundant that it furnished drink amply not only to themselves at present, but thereafter to the cattle as well. But most recently, while taking a journey, a cloud of rain began to come upon him: seeing it, he, bending his head a little over the horse on which he sat, stretched out his hands to the Lord. And the prayer being completed, the cloud was divided into two parts, and round about them an immense rain came down; yet upon them not a drop descended, if it be lawful so to say.