Book 5

       [19. Tiberius Caesar, his alms to the poor, and the treasures miraculously discovered by him.]
       20. An uproar arose against the bishops Salunius and Sagittarius. They had been trained by the holy Nicetius, [note: Gregory's great-uncle] bishop of Lyons, and had attained the office of deacon; and in his time Salunius was made bishop of Embrun and Sagittarius of Gap. Having reached the office of bishop they became their own masters and in a mad way began to seize property, wound, kill, commit adultery, and various other crimes, and at one time when Victor, bishop of Saint­Paul Trois­Châteaux was celebrating his birthday, they sent a band of men to attack him with swords and arrows. They went and tore his robes, wounded his servants, and carried off the dishes and everything used at the dinner, leaving the bishop overwhelmed by abuse. When king Gunthram learned of it he ordered a synod to meet in Lyons. The bishops assembled with the patriarch, blessed Nicetius, and after examining the case found that they were absolutely convicted of the crimes charged to them, and they ordered that men guilty of such acts should be removed from the office of bishop. But since Salunius and Sagittarius knew, that the king was still favorable to them they went to him complaining that they were unjustly removed and asking for permission to go to the pope of the city of Rome. The king listened to their prayers and gave them letters and let them go. They went to John the pope and told that they had been removed without any good reason. And he sent letters to the king in which he directed that they should be restored to their places. This the king did without delay, first rebuking them at length. But, what is worse, no improvement followed. However they did ask pardon of bishop Victor and surrendered the men whom they had sent at the time of the disturbance. But he remembered the Lord's teaching that evil should not be repaid one's enemies for evil and did them no harm but allowed them to go free. For this he was afterward suspended from the communion, because after making a public accusation he had secretly pardoned his enemies without the advice of the brethren to whom he had made the charge. But by the king's favor he was again restored to communion. But these men daily engaged in greater crimes and, as we have stated before, they armed themselves like laymen, and killed many with their own hands in the battles which Mummolus fought with the Lombards. And among their fellow­citizens they were carried away by animosity and beat a number with clubs and let their fury carry them as far as the shedding of blood. Because of this the outcry of the people again reached the king. The king ordered them to be summoned. On their arrival he refused to let them come into his presence, thinking that their hearing should be held first and that if they were found good men they would deserve an audience with the king. But Sagittarius was transported with rage, taking the matter hard, and being light and vain and ready with thoughtless speech, he began to make many loud declarations about the king and to say that his sons cannot inherit the kingdom because their mother had been taken to the king's bed from among the slaves of Magnachar; not knowing that the families of the wives are now disregarded and they are called the sons of a king who have been begotten by a king. On hearing this the king was greatly aroused and took away from them horses, slaves and whatever they had, and ordered them to be taken and shut up in distant monasteries to do penance there, leaving not more than a single clerk to each, and giving terrible warnings to the judges of the places to guard them with armed men and leave no opportunity open for any one to visit them. Now the king's sons were living at this time, and the older of them began to be sick. And the king's friends went to him and said: "If the king would deign to hear favorably the words of his servants they would speak in his ears." .And he said; "Speak whatever you wish." And they said: "Beware lest perhaps these bishops be condemned to exile though innocent, and the king's sin be increased somewhat, and because of it the son of our master perish." And the king said; "Go with all speed and release them and beg them to pray for our little ones." They departed and the bishops were released and leaving the monasteries they met and kissed each other because they had not seen each other for a long time, and returned to their cities and were so penitent that they apparently never ceased from psalmsinging, fasting, almsgiving, reading the book of the songs of David through the day and spending the night in singing hymns and meditating on the readings. But this absolute piety did not last long and they fell a second time and generally spent the nights in feasting and drinking, so that when the clergy were singing the matins in the church these were calling for cups and drinking wine. There was no mention at all of God, no services were observed. When morning came they arose from dinner and covered themselves with soft coverings and buried in drunken sleep they would lie till the third hour of the day. And there were women with whom they polluted themselves. And then they would rise and bathe and lie down to eat; in the evening they arose and later they devoted themselves greedily to dinner until the dawn, as we have mentioned above. So they did every day until God's anger fell upon them, which we will tell of later.
       [21. Winnoc the Breton is made a priest. The miracle of the holy water from the tomb of St. Martin. 22. Death of Chilperic's young son. 23. List of prodigies. 24. Chilperic takes Poitiers from Childebert. 25. Duke Dracolen captures the deserter Dacco and takes him to Chilperic. He commits suicide. Dracolen then meets Gunthram Boso, fights him on horseback and is killed. Violent end of Gunthram's father­in­law. 26. Chilperic sends an army including " the people of Tours " against the Bretons. Later he orders fines to be paid by the poor and the younger clergy of the church because they had not served in the army" although there was no custom for these to perform any state service." 27. Salunius and Sagiitarius the bishops are degraded.]
       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, think ing 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]. 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 well­behaved 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 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 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]