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
The bishop of the Arian sect there at the time was Athalocus
who caused such trouble to God’s churches by his vain doctrines and
false interpretations of the Scriptures that he was believed to be
the very Arius who, as the historian Eusebius relates,[ER] lost his
entrails in a privy. But when he did not allow the people of his sect
to believe these things and only a few flattered him by agreeing
with him he was transported with spite and went to his cell and laid
his head on the bed and breathed out his worthless soul. And thus
the heretics in the province confessed the inseparable Trinity and
departed from error.
[16. King Richared sends an embassy to Gunthram and Childebert. It
is not received by Gunthram. 17. An unusually cold spring. 18. The
Bretons ravage the territory of Nantes.]
19. The feud among the citizens of Tours which, as we have stated
above, was ended, burst out again with renewed fury. After slaying
Chramsind’s kinsmen Sichar had become very friendly with him, and
they loved one another so dearly that they often ate together and
slept together in one bed. Once Chramsind made ready a dinner towards
night and invited Sichar. He came and they sat down together to
dinner. And Sichar became drunk with wine and made many boasts to
Chramsind, and he is reported to have said at last: “Dearest brother,
you owe me great gratitude for killing your kinsmen since you got
payment for them and you have much gold and silver in your house,
and if that payment had not given you a start you would now be naked
and in need.” But Chramsind heard Sichar’s word with a bitter heart
and said within himself: “Unless I avenge my kinsmen’s death I ought
to lose the name of man and be called a weak woman.” And at once
he extinguished the lights and plunged his dagger into Sichar’s
head. Sichar made a little cry and immediately fell and died. The
attendants who had come with him rushed away. Chramsind stripped
the garments from his lifeless body and hung it on a picket[ES] of
the fence and mounted his horse and went to the king. He entered the
church and threw himself at the king’s feet and said: “I beg for my
life, O glorious king, because I have killed men who slew my kinsmen
secretly and plundered all their property.” But when the case was
gone into in detail queen Brunhilda was displeased that Sichar, who
was under her protection, had been killed in such a way, and she
became angry at Chramsind. When he saw that she was against him he
went to Bouges, a village in the territory of Bourges where his
kinsmen lived, because it was in Gunthram’s kingdom. And Tranquilla,
Sichar’s wife, left her sons and her husband’s property in Tours
and Poitiers and went to her kinsmen at Pont-sur-Seine and there
married again. Sichar was twenty years old when he died. He was in
his lifetime a fickle, drunken, murderous person, who offered insults
to many when he was drunk. Later Chramsind returned to the king and
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