History of the Franks

by Saint Bishop of Tours Gregory

28. King Chilperic ordered new and heavy impositions to be made in all his kingdom. For this reason many left these cities and abandoned their properties and fled to other kingdoms, thinking it better to be in exile elsewhere than to be subject to such danger. For it had been decreed that each landowner should pay a measure of wine per acre [aripennis].[CS] Moreover many other taxes were imposed both on the remaining lands and on the slaves, which could not be paid. When the people of Limoges saw that they were weighed down by such burdens they assembled on the first of March and wished to kill Marcus the referendary who had been ordered to collect these dues, and they would have done so, had not bishop Ferreolus freed him from the threatening danger. The assembled multitude seized the tax books and burned them. At this the king was greatly disturbed and sent officials from his court and fined the people huge sums and frightened them with tortures and put them to death. They say, too, that at that time abbots and priests were stretched on crosses and subjected to various tortures, the royal messengers accusing them falsely of having been accomplices in the burning of the books at the rising of the people. And henceforth they imposed more grievous taxes.

[29. Fighting between Bretons and Franks goes on. 30. Tiberius succeeds Justin as emperor. 31. The Bretons pillage the country about Nantes and Rennes.]

32. At Paris a certain woman fell under reproach, many charging that she had left her husband and was intimate with another. Then her husband’s kinsmen went to her father saying: “Either make your daughter behave properly or she shall surely die, lest her wantonness lay a disgrace on our family.” “I know,” said the father, “that my daughter is well-behaved and the word is not true that evil men speak of her. Still, to keep the reproach from going further, I will make her innocent by my oath.” And they replied: “If she is without guilt declare it on oath upon the tomb here of the blessed Denis the martyr.” “I will do so,” said the father. Then having made the agreement they met at the church of the holy martyr and the father raised his hands above the altar and swore that his daughter was not guilty. On the other hand, others on the part of the husband declared that he had committed perjury. They entered into a dispute, drew their swords and rushed on one another, and killed one another before the very altar. Now they were men advanced in years and leaders with king Chilperic. Many received sword wounds, the holy church was spattered with human blood, the doors were pierced with darts and swords and godless missiles raged as far as the very tomb. When the struggle had with difficulty been stopped, the church was put under an interdict until the whole matter should come under the king’s notice. They hastened to the presence of the prince but were not received with favor. They were sent back to the bishop of the place and the order was given that if they were not found guilty of this crime they might rightly be admitted to communion. Then they atoned for their evil conduct and were taken back to the communion of the church by Ragnemod, bishop of Paris. Not many days later the woman on being summoned to trial hanged herself.

[33. A long list of prodigies.]

34. A very grievous plague followed these prodigies. For while the kings were quarreling and again preparing for civil war, dysentery seized upon nearly the whole of the Gauls. The sufferers had a high fever with vomiting and excessive pain in the kidneys; the head and neck were heavy. Their expectorations were of a saffron color or at least green. It was asserted by many that it was a secret poison. The common people called it internal pimples and this is not incredible, seeing that when cupping glasses were placed on the shoulders or legs mattery places formed and broke and the corrupted blood ran out and many were cured. Moreover herbs that are used to cure poisons were drunk and helped a good many. This sickness began in the month of August and seized upon the little ones[CT] and laid them on their beds. We lost dear sweet children whom we nursed on our knees or carried in our arms and nourished with attentive care, feeding them with our own hand. But wiping away our tears we say with the blessed Job: “The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away; the Lord’s will has been done. Blessed be his name through the ages.”

In these days king Chilperic was very sick. When he got well his younger son, who was not yet reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, fell ill, and when they saw he was in danger they baptized him. He was doing a little better when his older brother named Clodobert was attacked by the same disease. Their mother Fredegunda saw they were in danger of death and she repented too late, and said to the king: “The divine goodness has long borne with our bad actions; it has often rebuked us with fevers and other evils but repentance did not follow and now we are losing our sons. It is the tears of the poor, the outcries of widows and the sighs of orphans that are destroying them. We have no hope left now in gathering wealth. We get riches and we do not know for whom. Our treasures will be left without an owner, full of violence and curses. Our storehouses are full of wine and our barns of grain, and our treasuries are full of gold, silver, precious stones, necklaces, and all the wealth of rulers. But we are losing what we held more dear. Come, please, let us burn all the wicked tax lists and let what sufficed for your father king Clothar, suffice for your treasury.” So the queen spoke, beating her breast with her fists, and she ordered the books to be brought out that had been brought from her cities by Marcus, and when she had thrown them in the fire she said to the king: “Why do you delay; do what you see me do, so that if we have lost our dear children we may at least escape eternal punishment.” Then the king repented and burned all the tax books and when they were burned he sent men to stop future taxes. After this the younger child wasted away in great pain and died. They carried him with great grief from Braine to Paris and buried him in the church of St. Denis. Clodobert they placed on a litter and took him to St. Medard’s church in Soissons, and threw themselves down at the holy tomb and made vows for him, but being already breathless and weak he died at midnight. They buried him in the holy church of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian. There was much lamenting among all the people; for men and women followed this funeral sadly wearing the mourning clothes that are customary when a husband or wife dies. After this king Chilperic was generous to cathedrals and churches and the poor.

35. In these days Austrechild, wife of prince Gunthram, succumbed to this disease, but before she breathed out her worthless life, seeing she could not escape, she drew deep sighs and wished to have partners in her death, intending that at her funeral there should be mourning for others. It is said that she made a request of the king in Herodian fashion saying: “I would still have had hopes of life if I had not fallen into the hands of wicked physicians; for the draughts they gave me have taken my life away perforce and have caused me swiftly to lose the light of day. And therefore I beg you let my death not go unavenged, and I conjure you with an oath to have them slain by the sword as soon as I depart from the light; so that, just as I cannot live longer, so they too shall not boast after my death, and the grief of our friends and of theirs shall be one and the same.” So speaking she gave up her unhappy soul. And the king after the customary period of public mourning fulfilled her wicked order, forced by the oath to his cruel wife. He ordered the two physicians who had attended her to be slain[CU] with the sword, and the wisdom of many believes that this was not done without sin.

[36. Nanthinus, count of Angoulême, dies of the plague. He had been a bitter enemy of the bishops. 37. Death of Martin, bishop of Galicia. 38. The Arian queen of Spain, Gaisuenta, is enraged at her Catholic daughter-in-law. “She seizes the girl by the hair of her head, dashes her on the ground, kicks her for a long time and covers her with blood and orders her to be stripped and ducked in the fish-pond.” The girl however converts her husband but he is sent into exile. 39. Fredegunda brings about the death of Clovis, Chilperic’s son. 40. Elafius, bishop of Châlons, and Eonius, exiled bishop of Vannes, die. 41. Chilperic seizes legates sent by the king of Galicia to king Gunthram. List of prodigies including a destructive wind of which Gregory says; “Its space was about seven acres in width but one could not estimate its length.”]

42. Maurilio, bishop of the city of Cahors, was seriously ill of gout, but in addition to the pain which the humor caused, he subjected himself to added tortures. For he often put white-hot iron against his feet and legs in order to make his pain greater. While many were candidates for his office he himself preferred Ursicinus who had once been referendary to queen Vulthrogotha and he begged that Ursicinus be ordained before his death, and then passed away from the world. He was a very liberal almsgiver, very learned in the church writings, so much so that he often repeated from memory the succession of generations given in the books of the Old Testament which many find it difficult to remember. He was also just in judgments, and he defended the poor of his church from the hand of the wicked according to the judgment of Job: “I delivered the poor from the hand of the mighty and I helped the needy who had no helper. The mouth of the widow blessed me, for I was an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, and a father to the weak.”

[43. Debate over the Trinity between Gregory and a Spanish legate.]