And when Saint Gall had departed from this world and his body had been washed and carried to the church, Cato the priest immediately received the congratulations of the clergy on becoming bishop. And as if he were already bishop he took under his control all the church property, removed the superintendents and cast the lesser officials out and regulated everything himself.
[AX]6. The bishops who came to St. Gall’s funeral said to Cato the priest after the funeral: “We see that you are the choice of by far the largest part of the people; come then, join us, and we will bless and ordain you as bishop. The king is very young and if any fault is found with you, we will take you under our protection and deal with the leading men of Theodovald’s kingdom so that no wrong shall be done you. Trust us faithfully, since we promise that even if some loss shall come to you, we will make it all good from our own properties.” But he was puffed up with the pride of vainglory and said: “You know from widespread report that from the beginning of my life I have always lived religiously, that I have fasted, delighted in almsgiving, often kept watch without ceasing and have frequently continued the singing of psalms without a break the whole night through. The Lord God to whom I have paid such service will not allow me to be deprived of this office. For I attained all the grades of the clergy as directed in the canons. I was reader ten years, I performed the duties of sub-deacon five years, I have been priest now for twenty years. What more is left for me except to receive the office of bishop which my faithful service deserves. You then return to your cities and busy yourselves with whatever tends to your advantage. For I intend to gain this office in the manner prescribed by the canons.” The bishops heard this and departed cursing his empty boasting.
7. He was accordingly designated to be bishop by the choice of the clergy, and when he had taken charge of everything though he was not yet ordained, he began to make various threats against the archdeacon Cautinus, saying: “I will cast you out, I will degrade you, I will cause many sorts of violent death to threaten you.” And he answered: “I wish to have your favor, pious master; and if I win it, there is one kindness I can do. Without any trouble on your part and without any deceit I will go to the king and obtain the office of bishop for you, asking no reward except to win your favor.” But the other was suspicious that he meant to make a mock of him and rejected the offer with great disdain. And when Cautinus perceived that he was in disgrace and was the object of ill report he pretended sickness, and left the city by night, going to king Theodovald and reporting the death of Saint Gall. And when he and his court were informed of it they assembled the bishops at the city of Metz, and Cautinus the archdeacon was ordained bishop. And on the arrival of the messengers of the priest Cato he was already bishop. Then by the king’s order these clerks were delivered over to him and all that they had brought from the property of the church, and bishops and officials of the treasury were appointed to accompany him, and they sent him on his way to Clermont. And he was gladly received by the clergy and citizens and was thus made bishop of Clermont. But later enmity arose between him and Cato the priest because no one was ever able to influence Cato to submit to his bishop. A division of the clergy appeared and some followed the bishop Cautinus and others the priest Cato. This was a great drawback to them. And Cautinus saw that Cato could not be forced in any way to submit to him and took all church property from him and his friends and whoever took his part, and left them weak and empty. But whoever of them returned to him, again received what he had lost.
[8. King Agila of Spain loses cities to the emperor which his successor Athanagild recovers.]
9. When Theodovald[AY] had grown up he married Vuldetrada. This Theodovald, they say, had a bad disposition so that when he was angry with any one whom he suspected of taking his property he would make up a fable, saying: “A snake found a jar full of wine. He went in by its neck and greedily drained what was inside. But being puffed out by the wine he could not go out by the opening by which he had entered. And the owner of the wine came, and when the snake tried to get out but could not, he said to him: ‘First vomit out what you have swallowed and then you will be able to go free.’” This fable made him greatly feared and hated. Under him Buccelenus after bringing all Italy under the rule of the Franks was slain by Narses, and Italy was taken by the emperor’s party and there was no one to recover it later. In his time we saw grapes grow on the tree we call saucum [elder-tree] without having any vine on it, and the blossoms of the same trees, which as you know usually produce black seeds, yielded the seeds of grapes. At that time a star coming from the opposite direction was seen to enter the disk of the fifth moon. I suppose these signs announced the death of the king. He became very sick and could not move from the waist down. He gradually grew worse and died in the seventh year of his reign, and king Clothar took his kingdom, taking Vuldetrada his wife to his bed. But being rebuked by the bishops he left her, giving her to duke Garivald and sending his son Chramnus to Clermont.
[10. King Clothar destroys the greater part of the rebellious Saxons and lays Thuringia waste.]
11. Bishop Gunthar died at Tours, and at a suggestion, it is said, of bishop Cautinus the priest Cato was requested to undertake the government of the church at Tours. And the clergy accompanied by Leubastes, keeper of the relics and abbot, went in great state to Clermont. And when they had declared the king’s will to Cato he would not answer them for a few days. But they wished to return and said: “Declare your will to us so that we may know what we ought to do; otherwise we will return home. For it was not of our own will that we came to you but at the command of the king.” And Cato in his greed for vainglory got together a crowd of poor men and instructed them to shout as follows: “Good father, why do you abandon us your children, whom you taught until now? Who will strengthen us with food and drink if you go away? We beg you not to leave us whom you are wont to support.” Then he turned to the clergy of Tours and said: “You see now, beloved brothers, how this multitude of the poor loves me; I cannot leave them to go with you.” They received this answer and returned to Tours. Now Cato had made friends with Chramnus and got a promise from him that if king Clothar should die at that time, Cautinus was to be cast out at once from the bishop’s office and Cato was to be given control of the church. But he who despised the chair of the blessed Martin did not get what he desired, and in this was fulfilled that which David sang, saying: “He refused the blessing and it shall be kept far from him.” He was puffed up with vanity thinking that no one was superior to him in holiness. Once he hired a woman to cry aloud in the church as if possessed and say that he was holy and great and beloved by God, but Cautinus the bishop was guilty of every crime and unworthy to hold the office of bishop.
12. Now Cautinus on taking up the duties of bishop became greatly addicted to wine, and proved to be of such a character that he was loathed by all. He was often so befuddled by drink that four men could hardly take him away after dinner. Because of this habit he became an epileptic later on—a disease which frequently showed itself in public. He was also so avaricious that if he could not get some part of the possessions of those whose boundaries touched him he thought it was ruin for him. He took from the stronger with quarrels and abuse, and violently plundered the weaker. And as our Sollius[54] says, he would not pay the price because he despised doing so, and would not accept deeds because he thought them useless.
There was at that time a priest Anastasius, of free birth, who held some property secured by deeds of queen Clotilda of glorious memory. Usually when he met him the bishop would entreat him to give him the deeds of the queen mentioned above, and place the property under his charge. And when Anastasius postponed complying with the will of his bishop, the latter would try now to coax him with kind words and now to terrify him with threats. When he continued unwilling to the end, he ordered him to be brought to the city and there shamelessly detained, and unless he surrendered the deeds, he was to be loaded with insults and starved to death. But the other made a spirited resistance and never surrendered the deeds, saying it was better for him to waste away with hunger for a time than to leave his children in misery. Then by the bishop’s command he was given over to the guards with instructions to starve him to death if he did not surrender these documents. Now there was in the church of St. Cassius the martyr a very old and remote crypt, in which was a great tomb of Parian marble wherein it seems the body of a certain man of long ago had been placed. In this tomb upon the dead body the living priest was placed and the tomb was covered with the stone with which it had been covered before, and guards were placed at the entrance. But the faithful guards seeing that he was shut in by a stone as it was winter lit a fire and under the influence of hot wine fell asleep. But the priest like a new Jonah prayed insistently to the Lord to pity him from the interior of the tomb as from the belly of hell, and the tomb being large, as we have said, he was able to extend his hands freely wherever he wished although he could not turn his whole body. There came from the bones of the dead, as he used to relate, a killing stench, which made him shudder not only outwardly but in his inward parts as well. While he held his robe tightly against his nose and could hold his breath his feelings were not the worst, but when he thought that he was suffocating and held the robe a little away from his face he drank in the deadly smell not merely through mouth and nose but even, so to speak, through his very ears. Why make too long a story! When he had suffered, as I suppose, like the Divine Nature, he stretched out his right hand to the side of the sarcophagus and found a crowbar which had been left between the cover and the edge of the tomb when the cover sank into place. Moving this by degrees he found that with God’s help the stone could be moved, and when it had been moved so far that the priest could get his head out he made a larger opening with greater ease and so came out bodily. Meanwhile the darkness of night was overspreading the day though it had not spread everywhere as yet. So he hastened to another entrance to the crypt. This was closed with the strongest bars and bolts, but was not so smoothly fitted that a man could not see between the planks. The priest placed his head close to this entrance and saw a man go by. He called to him in a low voice. The other heard, and having an ax in his hand he at once cut the wooden pieces by which the bars were held and opened the way for the priest. And he went off in the darkness and hastened home after vigorously urging the man to say nothing of the matter to any one. He entered his home and finding the deeds which the queen mentioned before had given him took them to king Clothar, informing him at the same time how he had been committed to a living burial by his own bishop. All were amazed and said that never had Nero or Herod done such a deed as to place a live man in the grave. Then bishop Cautinus appeared before king Clothar but upon the priest’s accusation he retreated in defeat and confusion. The priest, according to directions received from the king, maintained his property as he pleased and kept possession of it and left it to his children. In Cautinus[AZ] there was no holiness, no quality to be esteemed. He was absolutely without knowledge of letters both ecclesiastical and secular. He was a great friend of the Jews and subservient to them, not for their salvation, as ought to be the anxious care of a shepherd, but in order to purchase their wares which they sold to him at a higher price than they were worth, since he tried to please them and they very plainly flattered him.
[BA]13. At this time Chramnus lived at Clermont.[BB] He did many things contrary to reason and for this his departure from the world was hastened; and he was bitterly reviled by the people. He made friends with no one from whom he could get good and useful counsel, but he gathered together young men of low character and no stability and made friends of them only, listening to their advice and at their suggestion he even directed them to carry off daughters of senators by force. He offered serious insults to Firmin and drove him out of his office as count of the city, and placed Salust son of Euvodius in his place. Firmin with his mother-in-law took refuge in the church. It was Lent and bishop Cautinus had made preparations to go in procession singing psalms to the parish of Brioude, according to the custom established by St. Gall as we described above. And so the bishop went forth from the city with loud weeping, afraid that he would meet some danger on the way. For king[BC] Chramnus had been uttering threats against him. And while he was on the way the king sent Innachar and Scaphthar his chief adherents, saying: “Go and drag Firmin and Cæsaria his mother-in-law away from the church by force.” So when the bishop had departed with psalm singing, as I have said before, the men sent by Chramnus entered the church and strove to calm the suspicions of Firmin and Cæsaria with many deceitful words. And when they had talked over one thing after another for a long time, walking to and fro in the church, and the fugitives had their attention fixed on what was being said, they drew near to the doors of the sacred temple which were then open. Then Innachar seized Firmin in his arms and Scaphthar Cæsaria, and cast them out from the church, where their slaves were ready to lay hold of them. And they sent them into exile at once. But on the second day their guards were overcome with sleep and they saw that they were free and hastened to the church of the blessed Julian, and so escaped from exile. However their property was confiscated. Now Cautinus had suspected that he himself would be subjected to outrage, and as he walked along on the journey I have told of, he kept near by a saddled horse, and looking back he saw men coming on horseback to overtake him and he cried: “Woe is me, for here are the men sent by Chramnus to seize me.” And he mounted his horse and gave up his psalm singing and plying his steed with both heels arrived all alone and half dead at the entrance of Saint Julian’s church. As I tell this tale I am reminded of Sallust’s[BD] saying which he uttered with reference to the critics of historians. He says: “It seems difficult to write history; first because deeds must be exactly represented in words and second because most men think that the condemnation of wrong-doing is due to ill will and envy.” However let us continue.