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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 3, 36. Of the Deaths of Theudebert and of Parthenius

After these events King Theudebert fell ill. The physicians lavished all their care upon him; but nothing availed, for the Lord bade him be summoned. And so after a very long illness, failing for very feebleness, he gave up the ghost.¹

Now the Franks bore deep hatred against Parthenius because he had laid the burden of taxes upon them in the time of the late king; they now went after him. But perceiving his danger, he fled the city, and earnestly besought two bishops to escort him to Trèves, and quell by their exhortations the riot of the enraged people. Upon the journey, while he was in bed one night, he called out loudly in his dreams, crying: ‘Help, help! O ye there! succour me, for I am like to perish!’ Those within call were roused by his clamour, and asked what was the matter. He answered: ‘Ausanius, my friend and my wife Papianilla, whom I put to death, were summoning me to judgement, saying: “Come and make answer, for thou must plead thy cause against us before the Lord.” ’ For some years before, in a fit of jealousy, he had slain his innocent wife and his friend. On their coming to Trèves, the bishops, unable to withstand the rebellious uproar of the people, endeavoured to conceal him in the church, by putting him in a chest, and laying over him ecclesiastical vestments. The people rushed in and searched every corner of the building, but found nothing, and were going off in a frenzy, when suspicion struck one man, who cried: ‘Look at that chest there; we have not yet searched it for our enemy.’ The guardians declared that it contained nothing but church ornaments;² but the people demanded the key, threatening to break in the chest themselves unless it were immediately opened. So it was unlocked, and there, when they had removed certain linen cloths, they found him, and dragged him out with hurrahs, crying: ‘The Lord hath delivered our enemy into our hands.’ Then they struck him with their fists and spat upon him; after that they tied his hands behind his back, bound him to a column, and stoned him. He was a voracious glutton, taking aloes to quicken digestion and recover appetite sooner, and venting his wind without any regard for those who might hear him. Such was the manner of his end.

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