Book 4

       14. Now when Clothar after Theodovald's death had received the kingdom of Francia and was making a progress through it, he heard from his people that the Saxons were engaged in a second mad outburst and were rebelling against him and contemptuously refusing to pay the tribute which they had been accustomed to pay every year. Aroused by the reports he hastened toward their country, and when he was near their boundary the Saxons sent legates to him saying: "We are not treating you contemptuously, and we do not refuse to pay what we have usually paid to your brothers and nephews, and we will grant even more if you ask for it. We ask for only one thing, that there be peace so that your army and our people shall not come into conflict." King Clothar heard this and said to his followers: "These men speak well. Let : us not go against them for fear that we sin against God." But .they said: "We know that they are deceitful and will not do at all what they have promised. Let us go against them." Again the Saxons offered half of their property in their desire for peace. And Clothar said to his men: "Give over, I beg you, from these men, lest the anger of God be kindled against us." But they wotld not agree to it. Again the Saxons brought garments, cattle and every kind of property, saying: "Take all this together with half of our land, only let our wives and little ones remain free and let war not arise between us." But the Franks were unwilling to agree even to this. And king Clothar said to them: "Give over, I beseech you, give over from this purpose; for we have not the right word; do not go to war in which we may be destroyed. If you decide to go of your own will I will not follow." Then they were enraged at king Clothar and rushed upon him and tore his tent in pieces and overwhelmed him with abuse and dragged him about violently and wished to kill him if he would not go with them. Upon this Clothar went with them though unwillingly. And they began the battle and were slaughtered in great numbers by their adversaries and so great a multitude from both armies perished that it was impossible to estimate or count them. Then Clothar in great confusion asked for peace, saying that it was not of his own will that he had come against them. And having obtained peace he returned home.
       15. The people of Tours heard that the king had returned from the battle with the Saxons and making choice of the priest Eufronius they hastened to him. When their suggestion had been made the king replied: "I had given directions for Cato the priest to be ordained there; why has my command been slighted ? " They answered "We invited him but he refused to come." And while they were speaking Cato the priest suddenly appeared to request the king to expel Cautinus and command that he himself be appointed in Clermont. When the king laughed at him he made a second request, that he should be ordained at Tours which he had contemptuously refused before. And the king said to him: "I at first gave directions that they should ordain you bishop of Tours, but as I hear, you looked down on that church; therefore you shall be kept from becoming master of it." And so he went off in confusion. When the king asked about the holy Eufronius they told him that he was grandson of the blessed Gregory, whom I have mentioned before. The king answered: " It is a great and leading family Let the will of God and the blessed Martin be done; let the choice be confirmed." And according to his command the holy Eufronius was ordained bishop, the eighteenth after the blessed Martin.
       [16. Chramnus, king Clothar's son, opposes bishop Cautinus at Clermont. He goes to Poitiers and enters into an agreement with his uncle Childebert against Clothar. He assumes authority over part of Clothar's realm and Clothar sends two other sons, Charibert and Gunthram, against him. When they are ready to fight Chramnus causes a report of Clothar's death to be circulated and Charibert and Gunthram hasten off; Chramnus marches to Dijon where he consults the Bible as to his future. King Clothar u meanwhile fights the Saxons. 17. Chramnus joins Childebert in ;t Paris. Childebert ravages Clothar's territory as far as Rheims. 18. Duke Austrapius takes refuge in St. Martin's church in fear of Chramnus. Chramnus orders him to be starved in the church. But he obtains drink miraculously and is saved. He later become a priest. 19. Medard bishop of Soissons dies.]
       20. King Childebert fell ill and after being bedridden for a long time died at Paris. He was buried in the church of the blessed Vincent which he had built. King Clothar took his kingdom and : treasures and sent into exile Vulthrogotha and her two daughters. Chramnus presented himself before his father, but later he proved disloyal. And when he saw he could not escape punishment he fled to Brittany and there with his wife and daughters lived in concealment with Chonoober count of the Bretons. And Wilichar, his father­in­law, fled to the church of Saint Martin. Then because of Wilichar and his wife the holy church was burned for the sins of the people and the mockeries which occurred in it. This we relate not without a heavy sigh. Moreover the city of Tours had been burned the year before and all the churches built in it were deserted. Then by order of king Clothar the church of the blessed Martin was roofed with tin and restored in its former beauty. Then two hosts of locusts appeared which passed through Auvergne and Limousin and, they say, came to the plain of Romagnac where a battle took place between them and there was great destruction. Now king Clothar was raging against Chramnus and marched with army into Brittany against him. Nor was Chramnus afraid to come out against his father. And when both armies were gathered and encamped on the same plain and Chramnus with the Bretons had marshaled his line against his father, night fell and they refrained from fighting. During the night Chonoober, count of the Bretons, said to Chramnus: "I think it wrong for you to fight against your father; allow me tonight to rush upon him and destroy him with all his army." But Chramnus would not allow this to be done, being held back I think by the power of God. When morning came they set their armies in motion and hastened to the conflict. And king Clothar was marching like a new David to fight against Absalom his son crying aloud and saying: "Look down Lord, from heaven and judge my cause since I suffer wicked outrage from my son; look down, Lord, and judge justly, and give that judgment that thou once gavest between Absalom and his father. ' When they were fighting on equal terms the count of the Bretons fled and was slain. Then Chramnus started in flight, having ships in readiness at the shore; but in his wish to take his wife and daughters he was overwhelmed by his father's soldiers and was captured and bound fast. This news was taken to king Clothar and he gave orders to burn Chramnus with fire together with his wife and daughters. They were shut up in a hut belonging to a poor man and Chramnus was stretched on a bench and strangled with a towel; and later the hut was burned over them and he perished with his wife and daughters.
       21. In the fifty-first year of his reign king Clothar set out for the door of the blessed Martin with many gifts and coming to the tomb of the bishop just mentioned at Tours, and repeating all the deeds he had perhaps done heedlessly, and praying with loud groaning that the blessed confessor of God would obtain God's forgiveness for his faults and by his intercession blot out what he had done contrary to reason, he then returned, and in the fifty-first year of his reign, while hunting in the forest of Cuise, he was seized with a fever and returned thence to a villa in Compiègne There he was painfully harassed by the fever and said: "Alas! What do you think the king of heaven is like when he kills such great kings in this way? " Laboring under this pain he breathed his last, and his four sons carried him with great honor to Soissons and buried him in the church of St. Medard. He died the next day in the revolving year after Chramnus had been slain.
       [22. The four sons of Clothar make "a lawful division" of his kingdom To Charibert is assigned Paris for his capital, to Gunthram, Orleans, to Chilperic, Soissons, to Sigibert, Rheims. 23. The Huns attack Sigibert and Chilperic takes the opportunity to seize some of his cities. Sigibert recovers them.]
       24. When king Gunthram had taken his part of the realm like his brothers, he removed the patrician Agricola and gave the office of patrician to Celsus, a man of tall stature, strong shoulders, strong arms and boastful words, ready in retort and skilled in the law. And then such a greed for possessing came upon him that he often took the property of the churches and made it his own. Once when he heard a passage from the prophet Isaiah being read in the church, which says: "Woe to those who join house to house and unite field to field even to the boundaries of the place," he is said to have exclaimed: " It is out of place to say; woe to me and my sons." But he left a son who died without children and left the greater part of his property to the churches which his father had plundered.