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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 5, 4. How Roccolen Came to Tours
In these days Roccolen,1 dispatched by Chilperic, came to Tours, boasting of all that he would do; he pitched his camp beyond the Loire, and sent me messengers, bidding me remove from the holy church Guntram, then accused of the death of Theudebert. If I did not according to his will, he would lay in ashes the city and all its suburbs. On hearing the message, I sent to tell him that what he demanded had never been done from the most ancient times till now, and that he could not be suffered to violate the holy church. But if such a thing should happen he should have no good of it, and likewise the king who had sent such commands. Let him rather fear the holiness of Martin the bishop, whose power but the day before had made crippled limbs straight. But he, wholly unaffrighted, took to pieces the church-house beyond the Loire, in which he had his quarters; it was put together by means of nails, which the men of Maine in his following placed in leather bags and carried off, destroying the crops and devastating everything as they went. But while Roccolen was at this work, he was smitten by God and yellowed with the jaundice. None the less he repeated his harsh demand and said: ‘If ye cast not forth Duke Guntram from the church, I will so trample every green thing about the city, that the site of it shall be meet for nothing but the plough.’ In the meantime came round the holy day of the Epiphany, and he was tormented with even greater pain. He then hearkened to the advice of those about him, crossed the river, and came to the city. And when the procession issued, with chanting, from the great church on its way to the holy basilica, he rode upon his horse behind the cross, preceded by his banners. But as soon as he entered the church of the saint, his fury and his threatenings abated; and after returning from the cathedral he could take no food for the rest of the day. Afterwards, when he was worn to nothing, he set out for Poitiers. It was now the holy period of Lent, yet he ate frequently of young rabbit. For the Kalends of March he had prepared measures to oppress and mulct the citizens of Poitiers; but on the day before he gave up the ghost. Thus were his pride and insolence stayed.
Notes
- Cf. ch. 1, above.