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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 8, 7. Of Bishop Palladius; How He Said Mass
When Sunday came round, the king went to church to hear Mass. Our brethren and fellow bishops gave Palladius the honour of saying the office. He was beginning the Prophetia, when the king demanded who he was. When they told him that it was Bishop Palladius who had begun the service, the king was at once provoked to wrath, and cried: ‘What? Shall he who was ever faithless and perjured now pronounce the sacred word before me? I will go straightway forth from this church, that I may not hear mine enemy set forth the word.’ As he so said, he started to leave the church. Then the bishops, perturbed at the humiliation of their brother, said to the king: ‘We have seen him seated at thy board, and seen thee receive the benediction from his hand; and wherefore should the king spurn him now? For if we had known that he was hated of thee, our choice should have fallen upon another to perform this service. But let him now finish that which he hath begun; thereafter, if thou have aught against him, let it be decided by a judgement according to the canons.’ Meanwhile Bishop Palladius, deeply humiliated, had already withdrawn into the sacristy. The king now ordered him to be recalled, and he then completed the interrupted service. But when Palladius and Bertram were invited again to the royal board, they fell out, reproaching each other in turn with many adulteries and fornications, and with perjuries not a few. Many laughed; but others, swifter of understanding, lamented that the Devil’s tares should spring thus rankly among the bishops of the Lord. On leaving the king, they gave bond and surety that they would both attend the council on the tenth day of the kalends of the ninth month.1
Notes
- 23rd October.