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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 1, 21. Of Joseph Who Buried Him
Joseph, who had embalmed the body with spices and laid it in his own tomb, was seized and imprisoned in a cell, where he was guarded by the high priests themselves. As is related in the Acts of Pilate sent to the emperor Tiberius, they showed in this a greater fierceness in their hate against him than against our Lord Himself, who was guarded only by soldiers, but he by the priests. But at the resurrection of the Lord the guards were terrified by the vision of the angel, when He was not found in the tomb; and by night the walls of the cell in which Joseph was confined were raised up on high; and an angel loosed him, setting him free from his imprisonment, while the walls were restored to their former place. And when the priests reproached the guards, and instantly required of them the sacred body, the soldiers said to them: ‘Do ye bring back Joseph and we will bring back Christ; but, to speak the truth, neither can ye restore God’s benefactor, nor we His Son.’ Thereat the priests were confounded; and on this plea the soldiers were suffered to go free.