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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 2, 25. Of Evarex the Persecutor
In Sidonius’s time also Euric,1 king of the Goths, passing the frontiers of Spain, began a grievous persecution of the Christians in Gaul. Everywhere he beheaded those who would not conform to his perverse doctrine; he cast priests into prison; some of the bishops he exiled, others he slew with the sword. The doors of the holy churches he ordered to be blocked with briers, that only a few might enter and the faith might pass into oblivion. It was chiefly the cities of Novempopulana and Aquitaine that were wasted by this storm; there is to-day extant a letter on this subject written by the noble Sidonius to Bishop Basilius, in which these facts are recorded. But not long afterwards, smitten by the divine vengeance, the persecutor himself perished.
Notes
- In the text, Evatrix.