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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 4, 43. Of the Archdeacon of Marseilles
In the kingdom of King Sigibert Jovinus, governor of Provence, was deprived of his dignity, and Albinus appointed in his place. This was the cause of great enmity between them. Now some ships from overseas having put into the harbour of Marseilles, the servants of the archdeacon Vigilius, unknown to their master, stole seventy vessels of oil and liquor, of the kind known as orcae. When the merchant discovered the theft of his goods, he began to make diligent search for the place where the stolen property was concealed, and in the course of it was told by some one that the servants of the archdeacon were the guilty persons. The matter came to the archdeacon’s ears, who made inquiry and found the property, but refused openly to admit it, and excused his servants, saying: ‘The man never issued from my house who would dare be guilty of such an action.’ The archdeacon, I say, making these excuses, the merchant went to Albinus, set forth his case, and accused the archdeacon of complicity in the fraud. On Christmas Day, when the bishop entered the church, the archdeacon, vested in an alb, invited him, in accordance with the use, to proceed to the altar and at the proper time celebrate the solemnity of the holy day. Then suddenly Albinus sprang up from his seat, seized the archdeacon, and dragged him along, striking him with his fists and kicking him; he then had him confined in a prison cell. Neither the bishop, nor the citizens, not even the most considerable, nor the voice of the whole people were able to obtain the concession that the archdeacon should be allowed to give surety and celebrate the feast with the rest, and that the charge should be deferred to another day. Albinus had no reverence for the holy rites, daring thus to arrest a minister of the Lord’s altar even on such a day. Enough said; he condemned the archdeacon to a fine of four thousand pieces of gold. But the matter coming before King Sigibert, Jovinus took part against him, and he was himself compelled to pay four times as much by way of composition.