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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 9, 40. Concerning the Origin of the Scandal

They also spoke in disparagement of their bishop,¹ saying that it was through his deceit that they had been driven to forsake the monastery. But it will be well to set forth somewhat more fully the causes of this scandal.

In the time of King Lothar, when the blessed Radegund founded the monastery,² she and her community were always submissive and obedient to the earlier bishops. In the time of Sigibert, when Maroveus had obtained the see, the blessed Radegund, moved by her faith and devotion, sent clerics into the East to procure wood of the True Cross, and relics of the holy apostles and the other martyrs; they took with them letters from King Sigibert. They set forth, and duly returned with the relics. Upon the delivery of these, the queen requested the bishop himself to deposit them in the convent with chanting of psalms and all due honour. But he disregarded her proposal, mounting his horse, and going off to a country estate. The queen then sent a fresh message to King Sigibert, begging him to command one of the bishops to place the relics in the convent with all the honour due to them, and in compliance with her vow. The king then enjoined the blessed Eufronius, bishop of Tours, to perform this task; who, coming with his clergy to Poitiers, in the absence of the bishop of that city, brought the holy relics to the monastery with much chanting of psalms, with pomp of gleaming tapers and incense. After this event Radegund on many occasions sought the good grace of the bishop of Poitiers; but she failed, and was forced to go to Arles with the abbess whom she had appointed. There they received the Rule of the holy Caesarius and the blessed Caesaria, and on their return put themselves under the protection of the king, because they could find no care for their security in the man who should have been their pastor. The time for the passing of the blessed Radegund came when this cause of offence was still spreading from day to day. After her death the abbess once more begged her own bishop to take the monastery under his care. At first he was inclined to refuse, but afterwards, on the advice of those about him, he promised to become the father of the nuns, as it was meet that he should, and whenever need was, to take up their defence. He therefore went to King Childebert and obtained a diploma granting him the regular control of this convent, such as he had over the rest of his diocese. But I believe that there remained in his heart some resentment which contributed, as the nuns declared, to cause the trouble in the monastery.

Since they now proposed, as I have written, to obtain audience of the king, we gave them this advice: ‘What ye propose is against reason; it is impossible for you so to order matters as to escape reproach. But if, as I say, ye ignore reason and will not hearken to wholesome counsel, at least get this into your minds, that it is best to let this wintry season pass which hath fallen upon us in the spring-time; then, with the coming of softer airs, ye shall be better able to travel whithersoever your purpose may lead you.’ They saw the sense of this advice, and when the summer came on, Clotild quitted Tours, commending the other nuns to the care of her cousin,³ and proceeded to King Guntram. Having been received by him and honoured with gifts, she returned to Tours, leaving Constantina, daughter of Burgolen,⁴ in the monastery of Autun. She now awaited the bishops whom the king had commanded to visit the city and investigate the matters in dispute between the nuns and the abbess. But before she had returned from this mission many of the nuns had been enticed by evil men, and entered the bonds of wedlock. The nuns kept awaiting the arrival of the bishops; but seeing that none came, they retraced their steps to Poitiers, and put themselves in safety in the church of the holy Hilary. There they prepared themselves for resistance, gathering about them a gang of thieves, slayers of men, adulterers, and criminals of all kinds, for they said: ‘We are of blood royal, and we will not pass the threshold of our monastery unless the abbess be expelled.’

At the time there was in the nunnery an anchoress who a few years earlier had dropped from the walls and taken refuge in the church of the holy Hilary, pouring forth many charges against the abbess, all of which we discovered to be false. But later she had herself drawn up by ropes into the monastery at the very spot from which she had got down, and asked permission to shut herself up in a secret cell, saying: ‘Greatly have I sinned against the Lord and against my lady Radegund ’ (for the queen was alive at that time), ‘and therefore am I fain to withdraw from all intercourse with the community, and to do penance for my sins. For I know that the Lord is merciful and forgiveth those who make confession of their sins.’ She then entered the cell. But when this disturbance arose, and Clotild had returned from King Guntram, she broke down her cell door in the night, and escaping from the monastery, made her way to Clotild, venting accusations against the abbess, as she had done before.

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