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
32. Valerian and Gallienus received the Roman imperial power in the
twenty-seventh place, and set on foot a cruel persecution of the
Christians. At that time Cornelius brought fame to Rome by his happy
death, and Cyprian to Carthage. In their time also Chrocus the famous
king of the Alemanni raised an army and overran the Gauls. This
Chrocus is said to have been very arrogant. And when he had committed
a great many crimes he gathered the tribe of the Alemanni, as we
have stated,--by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother,--and
overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations
all the temples which had been built in ancient times. And coming
to Clermont he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine[J]
which they call Vasso Galatæ in the Gallic tongue. It had been built
and made strong with wonderful skill. And its wall was double, for on
the inside it was built of small stone and on the outside of squared
blocks. The wall had a thickness of thirty feet. It was adorned on
the inside with marble and mosaics. The pavement of the temple was
also of marble and its roof above was of lead.
[33. Martyrs of Clermont. 34. The bishop of Gévaudan is maltreated by
the Alemanni.]
35. Under Diocletian, who was emperor of Rome in the thirty-third
place, a cruel persecution of the Christians was kept up for four
years, at one time in the course of which great numbers of Christians
were put to death, on the sacred day of Easter, for worshiping the
true God. At that time Quirinus, bishop of the church of Sissek,[46]
endured glorious martyrdom in Christ’s name. The cruel pagans cast
him into a river with a millstone tied to his neck, and when he had
fallen into the waters he was long supported on the surface by a
divine miracle, and the waters did not suck him down since the weight
of crime did not press upon him. And a multitude of people standing
around wondered at the thing, and despising the rage of the heathen
they hastened to free the bishop. He saw this and did not permit
himself to be deprived of martyrdom, and raising his eyes to heaven
he said: “Jesus lord, who sittest in glory at the right hand of the
Father, suffer me not to be taken from this course, but receive my
soul and deign to unite me with thy martyrs in eternal peace.” With
these words he gave up the ghost, and his body was taken up by the
Christians and reverently buried.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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