Library › St Gregory of Tours › History of the Franks

History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 20. Of Bishops Salonius and Sagittarius

Now the people rose against the bishops Salonius and Sagittarius.¹ These brothers had been brought up by the holy Nicetius, bishop of Lyons;² under him they received the rank of deacon, and in his lifetime both were made bishops, Salonius of Embrun, Sagittarius of Gap. But the episcopal dignity once theirs, they were carried away by the joy of doing as they pleased, and began abandoning themselves to a very fury of mad wickedness, robbing, wounding, slaying, committing adulteries and all manner of crimes, to such a point that one day when Victor, bishop of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, was celebrating his birthday, they fell upon him with a troop armed with swords and arrows. They came and rent his garments, beat his attendants, carried off all the vessels and furnishings of the feast, and left him thus grossly outraged. When news of this reached King Guntram, he commanded a council to assemble at Lyons. The bishops met, together with their patriarch, the blessed Nicetius, and after investigating the affair and finding the accused plainly convicted of the crimes laid to their charge, ordered that men who had committed such acts should be deprived of the episcopal dignity. But the two, aware that the king still regarded them with favour, sought his presence, urging that the deprivation was unjust, and asking his permission to go before the pope of Rome. The king granted their petition, gave them a letter, and his permission to depart. When they came before the pope John³ they set forth to him that they had been deprived without reasonable cause assigned, and he addressed a letter to the king, directing that they should be restored to their former rank. The king straightway did as he desired, not without first reprimanding them at great length. But the worst of the matter was that no amendment followed, though they sought to make their peace with Bishop Victor by handing over to him the men whom they had sent to do him that outrage. But Victor, remembering the Lord’s commandment not to render to our enemies evil for evil, did the men no hurt, and suffered them to depart in freedom. For this he was afterwards suspended from communion on the ground that, privily and without consulting his brethren, he had spared the enemies whom he had publicly accused before them; but by royal favour he was received into communion again. But the two bishops daily involved themselves in greater crimes; and, as I have already related,⁴ in the battles between Mummolus and the Lombards they armed themselves like laymen, and slew many adversaries with their own hands. When they were for some cause enraged with certain inhabitants of their cities, they assailed them savagely, beating them with clubs till the blood flowed. Whence it befell that once more the outcries of the people came to the king’s ears, and he ordered these bishops to be summoned before him. But when they came, he would not have them brought before his eyes, unless they were first examined and found innocent; only then might they be admitted into the royal presence. Sagittarius was wroth and took this procedure ill; he was of a light and idle nature, and a babbler of thoughtless talk; he now began declaiming freely against the king, saying that his sons could not succeed to the kingdom, because their mother⁵ had been taken to the king’s bed from among the servants of Magnachar. He overlooked the fact that, irrespective of their mothers’ birth, all male children begotten by kings are called king’s sons. When he heard this, the king was filled with wrath, and took from them their horses and their servants with everything they had. And he ordered them to be shut up in two monasteries far removed from each other, that there they might repent them of their deeds; only a single cleric was to be left to attend upon each, and stern warning was given to the judges⁶ of both regions to keep them under an armed guard, and to close to visitors every means of access.

At that time the king’s sons were still alive, though the elder had already begun to ail. Now the king’s familiar friends approached him, saying: ‘If the king deign to receive with favour the words of his servants, they are fain now to speak in his presence.’ The king said: ‘Speak your mind as ye will.’ Then they said: ‘What if these bishops were unjustly banished, whereby the king’s sin were increased, and therefore our lord’s son should die?’ He answered: ‘Go straightway and set them free and entreat them to pray for my young sons.’ They went forthwith, and the bishops were released. They therefore left their several monasteries and met with mutual embraces, because it was long since they had seen each other; they then returned each to his own city. And now they were so filled with remorse that it seemed they should never cease from chanting, fasting, and doing charity; they read through the Psalms of David in the day, and passed the night singing hymns and meditating on passages of Holy Writ. But this devoutness was not long unimpaired and once more they fell away. Again they passed most of their nights in feasting and drinking, so that while the clergy were celebrating matins in the cathedral church, they were calling for fresh cups and keeping up their libations. No word was there of God upon their lips, nor did they remember the order of the services. Not till the return of dawn did they rise up from the banquet; then they put on soft garments, and all bedrowsed and sunk in wine, slept on until the third hour of the day; nor did there fail them women with whom to be defiled. When they rose, they took a bath, and lay down to feast anew; leaving the table at evening, they were soon greedy for their supper again, which lasted, as I have said, until the morning light. Thus they did day after day, until the wrath of God fell upon them after such wise as I shall afterwards relate.⁷

Previous · Contents · Next