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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 4, 31. Of the Strong Place of Tauredunum, and of Other Wonders

In Gaul a great prodigy occurred at the fortified place of Tauredunum, which was situated on high ground above the river Rhône. For more than sixty days this mountain gave forth a strange bellowing sound, and at length, rent and sundered from an adjoining mountain, it collapsed into the river, bearing men, churches, property, and houses down with it in its ruin; the river was blocked, and the water forced to flow backwards. This part of the river was shut in by hills upon both sides, leaving only a narrow gorge through which the rapid stream escaped. So that now the part above was flooded, and everything on the banks submerged and destroyed. The accumulated mass of water then burst for itself a passage down. Again it took the inhabitants unawares as it had done higher up, brought destruction on them, ruined their houses, killed their herds, and carried away and overwhelmed in its sudden and violent flood all that stood upon the banks the whole way down to the city of Geneva. It is commonly said that the volume of water was great enough to overflow the walls of this city; which is doubtless possible, since in this region, as I have said, the Rhône flows through mountainous defiles, and when its course was barred, there was no way of diverting it upon either side; when once it had burst over the fallen mountain, it laid waste everything.

After this had happened thirty monks visited the place whence the fortified place had fallen, and digging the ground, discovered bronze and iron. While they were thus occupied, they heard the bellowing of the mountain as it had sounded before. But their savage greed held them where they were till the part which had not yet collapsed fell on them and slew and covered them, so that they were never found again. In like manner, before the disaster in Auvergne mighty prodigies affrighted all that region. For often three or four great splendours appeared around the sun, which the country folk described as themselves suns, saying: ‘Behold, three or four suns in the sky!’ And once, on the kalends of October,¹ the sun appeared so darkened, that not a quarter part kept its light, but it was murky and discoloured, as sackcloth. Moreover, a star, by some styled comet, which had a projection like a sword, appeared over that region throughout a whole year, and the heavens seemed to burn. Many other portents were made manifest. In the church of Clermont, while matins were being celebrated at dawn on the occasion of some feast, the bird called the crested lark, which had flown in, put out with its wings all the lamps which were lit, so fast that you might have fancied them all collected in one man’s hand and suddenly plunged into water; it then passed into the sacristy beneath the door-hanging, and there, too, would have put out the lamp, but it was prevented by the doorkeepers and killed. In the church of the blessed Andrew, another bird did likewise to all the lamps that were alight. At the coming of the disaster itself, there was made such slaughter of the people through all that region, that the legions of men who fell there might not even be numbered.² When coffins and planks failed, ten dead or more were buried in a common pit. In the single church of Saint Peter there were counted on a certain Sunday three hundred corpses. For death came suddenly. There appeared in the groin or armpit a wound like that from a snakebite, and those who had it were swiftly destroyed by the poison, that on the second or third day they breathed their last: the strength of the poison robbed men of their senses. It was at this time that the priest Cato died.³ Many had fled from this pestilence; but he never left that place, burying the people, and courageously saying his masses. This priest was a man of great humanity and devoted to the poor; and if his character inclined somewhat to pride, this charity tempered it. Bishop Cautinus,⁴ after going from place to place in his fear of the pest, returned to the city and, taking the infection, died upon Good Friday, the very hour that Tetradius his cousin perished. Lyons, Bourges, Chalon, and Dijon lost much people through this sickness.

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