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St Gregory the Dialogist, tr. P. W., 1608

Book 2, How the Dissimulation of King Totila Was Discovered and Found Out by Venerable…

¹ GREGORY. You must, good Peter, for a little while be silent, that you may know matters yet far more important. For in the time of the Goths, when Totila, their king, understood that the holy man had the spirit of prophecy, as he was going towards his monastery, he remained in a place somewhat far off, and beforehand sent the father word of his coming: to whom answer was returned, that he might come at his pleasure. The king, as he was a man wickedly disposed, thought he would try whether the man of God were a prophet, as it was reported, or no. A certain man of his guard he had, called Riggo, upon whom he caused his own shoes to be put, and to be apparelled with his other princely robes, commanding him to go as it were himself to the man of God; and to give the better colour to this device, he sent three to attend upon him, who especially were always about the king: to wit, Vultericus, Rudericus, and Blindinus; charging them that in the presence of the servant of God, they should be next about him, and behave themselves in such sort as though he had been king Totila indeed: and that diligently they should do unto him all other services, to the end that both by such dutiful kind of behaviour, as also by his purple robes, he might verily be taken for the king himself. Riggo, furnished with that brave apparel, and accompanied with many courtiers, came unto the Abbey: at which time the man of God sat a little way off, and when Riggo was come so near that he might well understand what the man of God said, then, in the hearing of them all, he spake thus: “Put off, my good son, put off that apparel, for that which thou hast on, is none of thine.” Riggo, hearing this, fell straightways down to the ground, and was very much afraid, for presuming to go about to mock so worthy a man, and all his attendants and servitors fell down likewise to the earth, and after they were up again, they durst not approach any nearer to his presence: but returned back to their king, telling him with fear, how quickly they were discovered.

Notes

Chapters XIV. and XV. pp. 73-75. Totila (Baduila) became king of the Ostrogoths in Italy in 541, when Belisarius had won back for Justinian and the Empire all the peninsula south of the Po. His interview with St. Benedict took place probably in the following year, 542. Of his four Gothic attendants here mentioned—Riggo, Vult, Ruderic, and Bleda—the last two are also known in history as having been sent by the king to besiege Florence in this same year. (Cf. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, II. p. 433). Totila reconquered almost all Italy, except Ravenna and Ancona; he captured Rome twice (546 and 549), and overran Sicily; but in 552 was defeated by Narses and killed in the rout of his army. It was naturally impossible for St. Gregory to take an impartial view of the Goths, and modern historians depict Totila in far more favourable colours. According to Dr. Hodgkin, he was “upon the whole one of the best types of the still future age of chivalry that the Downfall of the Empire can exhibit.”