History of the FranksGregory, Bishop of Tours, Saint
History
History of the Franks
Gregory, Bishop of Tours, Saint
France -- Church history -- To 987; France -- History -- To 987; Franks -- History -- To 768
In these days I saw a vision which I told him in the holy church,
saying: “I thought that I was celebrating mass in this holy church
and when the altar with the offerings was now covered with a silk
cloth, I suddenly saw king Gunthram entering and he said in a loud
voice, ‘Drag out the enemy of my family, tear the murderer away from
God’s sacred altar.’ And when I heard him I turned to you and said:
‘Wretch, take hold of the altar-cloth with which the holy gifts are
covered, lest you be cast out of here.’ And although you laid hold of
it you held it with a loose hand and not manfully. But I stretched
out my hands and opposed my breast against the king’s breast, saying:
‘Do not cast this man out of the holy church lest you incur danger
to your life, lest the holy bishop destroy you by his power. Do not
kill yourself with your own weapon because if you do this you will
lose the present life and the eternal one.’ But when the king opposed
me you let go the cloth and came behind me. And I was very much
annoyed at you. And when you returned to the altar you took hold of
the cloth, but again let go. And while you held it without spirit and
I manfully resisted the king I woke up in terror, not knowing what
the dream meant.” Now when I had told it to him he said: “It is a
true dream that you saw because it strongly agrees with my purpose.”
And I said to him: “And what is your purpose?” He replied: “I have
determined that if the king orders me to be dragged from this place
I will hold to the altar-cloth with one hand and with the other draw
my sword and first kill you and then as many clerks as I can reach.
And after this it would not be a misfortune for me to die, if I first
took vengeance on this saint’s clerks.” I heard this and was amazed,
and wondered why it was that the devil spoke by his mouth. For he
never had any fear of God. For while he was at liberty his horses and
flocks were let go among the crops and vineyards of the poor. And if
they were driven away by the men whose labor they were destroying
these were at once beaten by his men. In this trouble in which he was
he often told how many of the blessed bishop’s possessions he had
taken unjustly. In fact the year before he had urged on a certain
foolish citizen and caused him to summon the bailiffs of the church.
Then, without regard for justice, he had taken property which the
church formerly possessed under pretense of having bought it, giving
the man the gold ornament on his belt. Moreover he acted perversely
in many other things to the end of his life, which we shall tell of
later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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