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
There was in these days a man of praiseworthy holiness, the abbot
Maxentius, who had become a recluse in his own monastery in Poitou
because of his fear of God. We have not put the name of the monastery
in this account because the place is called to the present day
_Cellula sancti Maxentii_. And when his monks saw a division of the
host approaching the monastery, they prayed to the abbot to come
forth from his cell to consult with them. And as he stayed, they were
panic-stricken and opened the door and dragged him from his cell. And
he hastened boldly to meet the enemy to ask for peace. And one of
them drew out his sword to launch a stroke at his head, and when he
had raised his hand to his ear it became rigid and the sword fell.
And he threw himself at the feet of the blessed man, asking pardon.
And the rest of them seeing this returned in great fear to the army,
afraid that they should all perish together. The man’s arm the holy
confessor rubbed with consecrated oil, and made over it the sign of
the cross and restored it to soundness. And owing to his protection
the monastery remained uninjured. He worked many other miracles also,
and if any one diligently seeks for them he will find them all in
reading the book of his Life. In the twenty-fifth year of Clovis.
Meantime king Clovis met with Alaric, king of the Goths, in the plain
of Vouillé[AC] at the tenth mile-stone from Poitiers, and while the
one army was for fighting at a distance the other tried to come to
close combat. And when the Goths had fled as was their custom, king
Clovis won the victory by God’s aid. He had to help him the son of
Sigibert the lame, named Chloderic. This Sigibert was lame from a
wound in the leg, received in a battle with the Alemanni near the
town of Zülpich. Now when the king had put the Goths to flight and
slain king Alaric, two of the enemy suddenly appeared and struck
at him with their lances, one on each side. But he was saved from
death by the help of his coat of mail, as well as by his fast horse.
At that time there perished a very great number of the people of
Auvergne, who had come with Apollinaris and the leading senators.
From this battle Amalaric, son of Alaric, fled to Spain and wisely
seized his father’s kingdom. Clovis sent his son Theodoric to
Clermont by way of Albi and Rodez. He went, and brought under his
father’s dominion the cities from the boundaries of the Goths to
the limit of the Burgundians. Alaric reigned twenty-two years. When
Clovis had spent the winter in Bordeaux and taken all the treasures
of Alaric at Toulouse, he went to Angoulême. And the Lord gave him
such grace that the walls fell down of their own accord when he gazed
at them. Then he drove the Goths out and brought the city under his
own dominion. Thereupon after completing his victory he returned to
Tours, bringing many gifts to the holy church of the blessed Martin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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