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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 4, 24. Of the Patriciate of Celsus
When Guntram, like his brothers, had obtained his part of the kingdom, he dismissed the patrician Agricola, and gave the dignity to Celsus. This was a man tall of stature, broad of shoulder, strong of arm, haughty in converse, ready in retort, learned in the law, but grown in course of time so grasping that he would often seize church property to increase his own possessions. On one occasion he heard read in church the passage from the prophet Isaiah: ‘Woe to those who join house to house and field to field till there be no place more’;1 whereat he is said to have exclaimed, ‘It ill agreeth to say: Woe to me and to my sons!’ But he left a son who, dying childless, bequeathed the greater part of his wealth to the churches which his father had despoiled.
Notes
- Isa. v. 8. The general sense is that of the Vulgate, but there is not exact agreement in the words.